And lastly, this game has an insanely robust CG library for a 5-hour-long $10 visual novel. There are 25 unique CGs with 71 variations. And what’s more, they’re good CGS, with nice posing, solid anatomy, and lots of nudity, because that’s a selling point for this game, I guess. To conclude this roundabout and petty review, Chromo XY is. Here are the best visual novels of all time, available for you to download on PC and steam. Best Visual Novels on PC and Steam Umineko (When They Cry) – Umineko is a visual novel in the truest. Available from JAST USA in both Digital Download and Package Edition versions. The Limited Edition includes:. Full game on two dual-layer DVDs. Download Version activation key. Mousepad with new art by Junji Gotoh. Full-color Artbook of the Days series. Large Japan-style game box. Buy Now on JAST USA.

The Return of Dharkness!

Dharker Studios is a somewhat infamous developer and publisher known for releasing a plethora of middling, underdeveloped, and explicitly sexual visual novels after Steam opened up the floodgates back in 2015. They’re by no means the only company operating under this business model, but they are one I have some familiarity with, as I covered their makeshift trilogy of TG/TSF/gender bender titles back in 2019.

This included Highschool Possession, a visual novel extensively about a young man possessing his classmates written by somebody who clearly did not understand the appeal of a possession story. Highschool Romance, a decent crossdressing romance story that was completely fine, aside from the fact that the programmer forgot to code in character expressions after the prologue. And Highschool Romance: Magi Trials, a pretty decent TSF visual novel that, at least somewhat, implied that Dharker Studio’s library was getting better as time went on.

I assumed that this was the end of TSF offerings from this publisher and that they had accepted their fate as providers of more broadly appealing erotic visual novels. But then Nigma Box reader Mikachu so kindly informed me that Dharker made yet another TSF visual novel by the name of Chromo XY.

Chromo XY Review
Platform: PC
Developer/Publisher: Dharker Studios Ltd.

Chromo XY follows Shaun, your standard laid back and generally untalented relatable protagonist as he goes about his doldrum days of avoiding work, sleeping in, and hating math. Only for his life to become extraordinary after his roommate and experiment-loving childhood friend, Rebecca, volunteers Shaun as the first human test subject for an immortality drug she’s been testing. Things, naturally, don’t go as planned, and through the magic power of science, the drug instead winds up turning Shaun into a woman, complete with a bombshell body and waist-length hair.

From this initial starting point, the remainder of the game follows Shaun as he deals with this transformation, either embracing or fighting against it while dealing with workplace shenanigans, alternate personas, experiencing life as the other sex, and making life-altering decisions from this unprecedented transformation. Much like the premise itself, the story is very much a by-the-books TG story with little in the way of deviation from what anybody well versed in the genre would imagine.

Including a shopping trip where the MTF protagonist is forced to put on a fashion show for their now dominant female friend. A burgeoning romantic relationship between the protagonist and their sole male friend. Branching lesbian and heterosexual relationships for the player to explore. And scenes where the player can choose to have a protagonist that decries these changes as unwanted, or goes with the flow of the transformation and takes it in stride, learning to embrace their new identity.

As somebody who’s deeply entrenched in this sort of stuff, Chromo XY doesn’t offer anything particularly new, but originality is never the be-all and end-all for me. What I typically want to see from more premium experiences like this is good ideas done right and while Chromo XY did ultimately exceed my low porn-game-quality expectations going in, the end result is a bit more… mixed.

Starting with the positives, the writer from the other Dharker Studios games I covered, Kayzda, reprises her role as the sole writer yet again. And while her work has ranged wildly in quality from what I’ve seen, Chromo XY is definitely among her better scripts. Dialogue is quirky, jokey, and puts the characters’ clashing personalities front and center. The story knows when to shift from fluffy shenanigans to something more serious or emotional. The sex scenes are implemented organically and make sense in the context of the overall story. And the cast of characters, despite their simplicity, they’re well defined and surprisingly likable.

Shaun is something of a hapless dork, and while he does not give the best impression during his lackadaisical actions during day 1 of the story, he steadily grew on me throughout my playthroughs. He is never annoyingly stupid or inept, shows enough competence to feel like a real person, and remains an endearing protagonist throughout the story. Rebecca is a dominant hoot who gleefully veers the story into more interesting directions as she subjects Shaun to some especially creative “experiments,” but despite her eccentricities and silly demeanor, she ultimately looks out for her friend’s best interest, and cleanly avoids coming off as a sociopath… Not that there would be anything wrong with that.

Meanwhile, the third main character, Greg, is your archetypal male best friend of the transformed protagonist who muddles through mixed feelings of masculine kinship and sexual attraction as he tries to adjust his relationship with his best friend. In the context of the story, however, he can be presented in multiple ways. He can be brushed aside by not keying him in on Shaun’s secret, hardline friend zoned by denying a sexual encounter, or be given the opportunity to force himself against Shaun. Which the game refreshingly acknowledges as being outlandishly wrong before giving the player the opportunity to veer the two’s relationship from there. Overall, I admire how versatile he is in the game, and find him to be a pleasant enough ‘regular dude’ type when he does crop up in the story.

So the writing’s good and the characters are solid, but as for the actual story… It has some pretty significant issues. Mostly with regards to its structure and the TSF content itself.

After my first two playthroughs of Chromo XY, I was a bit confused as to how the game’s structure ultimately worked. So I did what I always do when I’m stumped by the inner workings of a Ren’py visual novel. UnRen to unarchive the game’s files, Un.rpyc to decompile the script, and draw.io to create a flowchart for the title, which you can find at the end of this review.

In doing so, I learned that while the game has a plethora of choices during a run, most of them are character scenes that don’t affect the game’s story or characters significantly until the very end, when the game funnels the player into a conclusion based on a check of unseen variables. I understand what the developers were doing here, focusing on a single core route with small temporary branches, rather than creating completely unique paths based on player decisions.

It’s an economical approach that saves on development resources and allows the team to focus on one core route, instead of a sprawling web of choices. However, by having the route close in on itself so regularly and by only focusing on a few variables to determine the ending, certain character developments are overwritten by later events of choices, and there are some continuity issues.

For example, you could have Shaun speak highly of the transformation and find it to be an insightful and positive change in his life, to the point where he has doubts about ever wanting to turn back. But you can still wind up with the bad end where Shaun comments on how he needs to go back to being a guy, needs to be himself, and cannot stand to spend the rest of his life as a woman. Conversely, if instead of choosing the neutral ending option and choosing the Rebecca option, it is possible for Shaun to turn back to his original male self and for him to enter a romantic relationship with Rebecca. Same playthrough, same situation, the choice Shaun makes should have no bearing on the results of the transformation capsule, but it does!

Even beyond these issues, this lack of

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