Loooong time fan of Pyksies work. Really excited to see Mercanoid on TFGameSite. Her writing is incredibly erotic and the game play is top-notch. If you liked Trials in Tainted Space or Corruption of Champions this is a must-play. Also check out her Hazard Heroines games - the first released this (2024) Halloween!
An excellent visual novel disugised quite cunningly as a pretty fully featured RPG. Combat is straightforward but well designed and the writing is top notch; I feel there's enough shout-outs to a previous title but also in such a way that it doesn't go over a new player's head. The only time I felt I needed to refer to the lore-codex was to understand that "Magic" is absolutely a thing despite the sci-fi setting, yet slots in quite well. There's ample ways to customise your playthrough for different builds and objectives and from what I can tell, there's no penalty for emphasising one stat / skill over another and that's fantastic.
Not all flagged TFs apply to the protagonist, but at the same time Mio is a lot of fun to play as and experience the world from. Her personality shines and the story is compelling enough to see me through to the end in an afternoon / evening. Also the sheer polish is impressive.
If you enjoyed Trials in Tainted Space (especially for the worldbuilding), or just really like space tentacles give MERCANOID a try!
Pretty good as a game - I like the overall UI(even if it is just glammed-up Sugarcube), difficulty has multiple settings but I found "normal" to be on the easy side(not a problem in my book), combats go quickly but aren't totally braindead, and the game itself is complete and of a short but decent length. On the downside, there's a few mechanics that are useable enough but could have been streamlined more - crafting is a big culprit here, since there's not much point in crafting most consumables & getting mats involves a lot of clicks for no apparent reason(the drops you turn into mats have no other use than selling).
As porn, this game is of the "most of the erotic content is for losing" type. This means you're not likely to "enjoy" much just playing the game normally, but that's less of an annoyance than is usually is with these games since beating an enemy unlocks their loss scenes in the Fantasize gallery. The scenes are varied, well-written, and based around a variety of tentacle/slime content.
I like the overall idea. I just wish that the framework worked better on Android. Right now, playing on a PC is a must.