Rather than wow with gameplay, visual novels strive to let players have a quiet moment to live out a fantasy scenario. If that fantasy includes courting cute animated monster men, well, all the better.
Man-Eater Games recently launched an Indiegogo campaign for their newest boys’ love visual novel, Monstrous Lovers. The player takes on the role of Christopher Wells, a plucky human who transfers to a predominately monster inhabited city to work for the local Office of Integration.
Christopher meets a cast of four suitors whom he can pursue relations with based on player choice. This is absolutely a niche title, but if Hatoful Boyfriend has taught me anything it’s that there is definitely an audience for unconventional dating sims. Seeking a modest goal of $11,500, Monstrous Lovers has a playable demo. The demo is cute, but really short and doesn’t show anything particularly enticing. The demo also doesn’t feature any of the voice acting planned for the final release and while competent, the story is extremely simplistic.
Backer rewards range from digital wallpaper to double-sided character pillowcases. I think it will be hard to sell backers on shelling out extra money for merchandise featuring characters they aren’t already familiar with, even with the nice artwork.
I’m personally leaning towards the werewolf guy, but the other characters could easily win me over once I, uh I mean Christopher, breaks down their tough-guy exteriors a bit. With just a month to reach their goal on Indiegogo, Man-Eater Games will need to sell their audience on this campaign fast, so the Monstrous Lovers can get a release.
