Is LIPS supposed to just be random in her actions? Worst ive seen her do to me was strip my character then kiss her once. After that she just wanders off, usually sooner than that. Anyone else actually have her stick around for a bit?
Is there somewhere specific to report bugs? My save manages to game over while i still have a sheathe and self if i have one of each. Ill have to test next time whether it's specifically one of each that doesn't match.
If I could make a suggestion -- please consider tweaking the UI to not require a mouse. I doubt I'm the only person who prefers to play RPG-style games kicked back with a controller rather than hovering over the keyboard & mouse. Arbitrary keyboard keys are fine (controllers are remappable), but there doesn't seem to be much point in needing to mouse-click items for selections of Ingredients, Sheaths, etc. when a simple cursor or menu could do just as well.
I use a controller too, just add the game to steam and have it read my inputs as mouse and KB profile. Right thumb stick is read as the mouse and I have each button setup to match the game’s buttons.
I was sold on this the moment you announced it in Discord and I am not disappointed at all. Very unique and creative. I do miss some elements of OoG but there's a lot of fun secrets to find even just in the demo and lots of fun transformy things.
I do seem to have fully lost Luna's Sheath though. I think I lost it to the boss on floor 8 but I've not seen it show up anywhere since. I'd really like a little hint or reminder when entering a floor that has something you can rescue present, largely just so I can figure out if it's bugged or I'm just bad at spotting them. The colored lights tend to help but does not seem to be working here.
Spellcasting feels pretty bad without upgrades but maybe I'm just missing something. I did most the game with Synthesis spam.
It's a bit of a shame you don't get to see people get transformed in a lot of cases. You do get to see them when you make your way back but that is after the fact, and it's not quite as much fun. That being said considering they are already transformed when you start I'm not sure how much it could show.
It would also be nice to have something to pass turn or surrender so you can see what happens in some places even after you've bought all the upgrades.
Either way I'll be buying it when it's full released.
There is a chance for a pillar to spawn in some rooms; hasn't worked for me in the 1st room, but in most other rooms (library probs wont spawn since it's kinda rigged), you have to clear out enemies, then you use a chip for mechanical tentacle thingy, and then u can go back to pub/bar and buy more chips to use; they usually give you a run buff with the bonus of a lewd scene; the tf isn't permanent, but the maid one is probably the best so far in terms of actual tfs in the game.
I very much liking what I'm seeing so far. The combat mechanics with items and spell components are a fun deviation from your standard "level up, learn spell" RPG progression. The procedural generation of the floors adds to the sense of exploration. At first I was worried that the floor progression was going to just be "kill/loot everything, then jump in hole". But by the 3rd floor there were already additional elements showing up to keep things interesting. The movement seems a bit buggy but for a demo it's not a deal breaker. Unfortunately the game froze after beating the nurse and I lost a bunch of progress due to the game's restrictive save limitations, so that's as far as I'm going to take it for now. Considering you're previous work, and the potential on show here, I'm excited to see where this goes!
Edit: additional bugs found:
the hearty meal does nothing when consumed (at least with eve in the glutton sheath)
the pods that sometimes show up to give you different things after one of four different cut scenes seems to frequently have a higher "threat level" then the number of enemies on the map.
I can't seem to get the download to work. The INSTALL button at the bottom brings up a window that says there's "no compatible downloads were found". And the link above just launches the same installer in Itch. Is something broken or what am I missing?
Since it's just a pure .rar file, the Itch desktop app is too stupid to install it autonomously, or to allow you to download and unpack it yourself. You'll have to visit the game page in a web browser and download the old-fashioned way.
It's sad it's not a sequel to your first game, but this game shows promise. However, I haven't figured out everything yet. Everything is just trial and error. I just wish there were a sequel to the first game. But this works fine. I wonder when the full game will come out...
Two minor annoyances: First is that the follow-up skills appear a screen length or more below the other skills, which is hard to notice if you don’t know about it. Second is that the ‘go to pub’ option needs to be more prominent, I reached the end of current content before I noticed the thing.
Interesting concept! Always a sucker for bite-sized roguelike games. One question though, what are the fetishes planned (both in game and in future builds)? I know Odyssey of Gianna was as big as an ocean but as shallow as a puddle so I'm wondering how big the game will be regarding content like that.
EDIT: After playing a bit and reaching the end of the demo, definitely intrigued and excited for what's to come. Also plenty of secrets and things to discover in such a small demo too. With everything said, here are my 2 cents (and a tad of bugs):
- More mind control! More possession! More kinky hypnosis scenarios! I'm a sucker for those, and the Mesmergast fills that role perfectly. Wish it didn't end the same though, like maybe having the sheath become a hypnotist or thrall or something of the like, compared to the envious and spiteful spirits of the same nature. Regarding the Mesmergasts too, the one process where they're standing at attention always ends with a non sequitur followup of a haigure textbox that, IMO, doesn't correlate as well. Dunno if intentional or meant to be temporary, just something I figured to mention.
- Have the pub more visible or make it so the main characters mention it. Did not even use it once and still reached the end only to notice it at the top. The fact that you have to both select a Sheath and a Self also further obfuscates it.
- Had this happen only once at the cafeteria where the exit was blocked by a huge crate (not the ones you can find items with), and on top of that, it spawned in a block inside of a table, making the table and the exit unreachable. I wasn't using Luna, but I figured you can't jump on tables, nor move those huge crates, so I was bound to retreat and lose either a Sheath or a Self. Maybe have a way to restore both at the cost of Lost Mana? Or offer it as a service in the pub? Would alleviate some of the backtracking or hunting for said elements.
In short, just my thoughts overall, but this project is promising! Keep up the good work!
Honestly i really liked this so far and i hope for more mind control/hypnosis/brainwash to be added with the full release.For sure will look forward to play the full game
entering and leaving the pub fixes it. If I save the game after doing that, it stays fixed when I load the file. Updating to 1.02 also prevents the bug from appearing.
my god I can't even finish the demo before making a review.. I could never imagine seeing another masterpiece from the same artist right after Gianna! I hope you never stop making games!!
The first kinky moment I got was haigure and it caught me off guard as I haven't seen your beautiful content for almost a year! Can't wait to see what else lies in the demo!
I love what you did with the characters. Being able to control only one at a time feels smooth for me. And when I found out that half a character is left behind when you retreat, I just had to make a review. I love the encouraged use of different characters while keeping the focus on the individual you choose to play.
I've never seen this kind of combat before and it definitely makes things a lot of fun. With these kind of games where I wanna lose (but not on purpose), I need new gameplay mechanics to learn or challenges. Otherwise it's traps, bad luck and surprises that works for me. I've seen so many regular rpg combat systems that I hardly ever lose unless I take off my gear to handicap myself, especially when exp is involved.
I'm a FOMO kind of person, so it is upsetting when I don't get to genuinely lose to every type of enemy to experience all of your amazingly made endings. I've always wanted to see something done in any game that somehow pushes any unseen defeats to be encountered. It's probably just me but I also have a terrible habit of double checking every dialogue and interacting with every rubble on the ground on the 0.0001% chance that I'd see a mere message.
One problem I had was the shift button. I used third party software to rebind it to my side mouse buttons and I've been loving that. Being able to rebind, or at least having a mouse button alternative for shift would be awesome!
When this releases I'm gonna pay double, just as I did with Gianna. Thanks so much! Waiting for the full game is gonna be so hard to endure!
But I want to say that after a while, the game slows down when you are not in battle untill it freezes or crashes, I dont know if it will help you, thanks for your awesome games btw ;D
So, here are my thoughts/critiques on the Demo: (as of June 13, 2025)
As an avid Rougelike enjoyer, this game is definitely good at that. From what I've played and seen, I can definitely tell I will enjoy the full release. The game is definitely nothing like Odyssey of Giana, and that's not a bad thing. I love the originality behind Blackhold.
Unfortunately, and it was to be expected, there are some bugs that do need to be hashed out, like missing images (these have been reported in the discord, to my knowledge)
Unfortunately as well, there are a couple of things I'm not a big fan of and I do hope to see them changed in the full release:
1: I'm not a fan of the forced mouse only mechanics. I do hope keyboard/Keyboard and mouse gets added in the final release
2: the hub needs to be more noticeable or there needs to be dialog or a tutorial showing you that there's a hub. The button, as it is in the demo, felt kinda obscured.
Overall, the demo is a solid 8/10 to me. Minus my couple of issues, it has me excited for the full release for sure. Keep up the good work, Vhiel.
Alright full impressions after testing around for a few hours. Good foundation, needs some polish with the mechanics.
The set gameplay loop, for a rougelike. Is very well done, the system in place with the selves and the sheaths is very creative and I like it! It allows for a lot of interesting gameplay combinations. The setting is interesting and the few TFs there are, are relatively hot. Though I am not a fan of ghouls.
I will say the Core Combat is rough and needs work. Its very punishing and cumbersome. Its very easy to accidentally run into battles that you are automatically set to lose. The crafting and the spell system feels half baked. Its almost beneficial to just ignore all fights completely and run away. Especially because I couldn't find any point to the Currency you receive as it were.
Hopefully the gameplay is refined and given more point in the next demo/final game
Quite a good demo there is a bit of a bug with jumping where you can jump out of bounds I was able to jump back though.
I do hope you can expend on making the runs more unique for example adding more random encounters or ways to change up the playstyle per runs to not make thing feel the same, Being able to play as more then one characters can make some cool puzzles like the book puzzle or maybe sacrifice a opportunity from I run to make the next run more powerful.
Loved Odyssey of Gianna and I will be looking forward to the complete version of Blackhold
Off to a fascinating start! It's a definite change from OoG, but once I got used to the mechanics, things felt interesting enough to make me want more! I'm very excited to see where this goes, and I'll be exploring this demo in full!
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Any estimates on when the store page will be on Steam?
Am I banned in Discord?
Is LIPS supposed to just be random in her actions? Worst ive seen her do to me was strip my character then kiss her once. After that she just wanders off, usually sooner than that. Anyone else actually have her stick around for a bit?
Is there somewhere specific to report bugs? My save manages to game over while i still have a sheathe and self if i have one of each. Ill have to test next time whether it's specifically one of each that doesn't match.
Discord server
If I could make a suggestion -- please consider tweaking the UI to not require a mouse. I doubt I'm the only person who prefers to play RPG-style games kicked back with a controller rather than hovering over the keyboard & mouse. Arbitrary keyboard keys are fine (controllers are remappable), but there doesn't seem to be much point in needing to mouse-click items for selections of Ingredients, Sheaths, etc. when a simple cursor or menu could do just as well.
I use a controller too, just add the game to steam and have it read my inputs as mouse and KB profile. Right thumb stick is read as the mouse and I have each button setup to match the game’s buttons.
this game is amazing. i think the only thing it could do with is endings
WHAT THE HELL IS "LIPS"
I was sold on this the moment you announced it in Discord and I am not disappointed at all. Very unique and creative. I do miss some elements of OoG but there's a lot of fun secrets to find even just in the demo and lots of fun transformy things.
I do seem to have fully lost Luna's Sheath though. I think I lost it to the boss on floor 8 but I've not seen it show up anywhere since. I'd really like a little hint or reminder when entering a floor that has something you can rescue present, largely just so I can figure out if it's bugged or I'm just bad at spotting them. The colored lights tend to help but does not seem to be working here.
Spellcasting feels pretty bad without upgrades but maybe I'm just missing something. I did most the game with Synthesis spam.
It's a bit of a shame you don't get to see people get transformed in a lot of cases. You do get to see them when you make your way back but that is after the fact, and it's not quite as much fun. That being said considering they are already transformed when you start I'm not sure how much it could show.
It would also be nice to have something to pass turn or surrender so you can see what happens in some places even after you've bought all the upgrades.
Either way I'll be buying it when it's full released.
how do you get the maid tf, and what does SM mean?
There is a chance for a pillar to spawn in some rooms; hasn't worked for me in the 1st room, but in most other rooms (library probs wont spawn since it's kinda rigged), you have to clear out enemies, then you use a chip for mechanical tentacle thingy, and then u can go back to pub/bar and buy more chips to use; they usually give you a run buff with the bonus of a lewd scene; the tf isn't permanent, but the maid one is probably the best so far in terms of actual tfs in the game.
I very much liking what I'm seeing so far. The combat mechanics with items and spell components are a fun deviation from your standard "level up, learn spell" RPG progression. The procedural generation of the floors adds to the sense of exploration. At first I was worried that the floor progression was going to just be "kill/loot everything, then jump in hole". But by the 3rd floor there were already additional elements showing up to keep things interesting. The movement seems a bit buggy but for a demo it's not a deal breaker. Unfortunately the game froze after beating the nurse and I lost a bunch of progress due to the game's restrictive save limitations, so that's as far as I'm going to take it for now. Considering you're previous work, and the potential on show here, I'm excited to see where this goes!
Edit: additional bugs found:
the hearty meal does nothing when consumed (at least with eve in the glutton sheath)
the pods that sometimes show up to give you different things after one of four different cut scenes seems to frequently have a higher "threat level" then the number of enemies on the map.
I can't seem to get the download to work. The INSTALL button at the bottom brings up a window that says there's "no compatible downloads were found". And the link above just launches the same installer in Itch. Is something broken or what am I missing?
Since it's just a pure .rar file, the Itch desktop app is too stupid to install it autonomously, or to allow you to download and unpack it yourself. You'll have to visit the game page in a web browser and download the old-fashioned way.
Ahh yes. You know, I think I've had to do this before and forgot about it. Success! Thank you very much.
It's sad it's not a sequel to your first game, but this game shows promise. However, I haven't figured out everything yet. Everything is just trial and error. I just wish there were a sequel to the first game. But this works fine. I wonder when the full game will come out...
your nw.dll and note.dll give warnings in totalvirus indicating its a virus
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/4a3f39e9476288d109dbfe0b0c245f032ebf920c5142...
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/8d31c14a59cccb093ad1264c43e4d032a9cfcefeaa0d45b6862a5776c44fff37
1/71 detections is a false positive
Looking very promising.
Two minor annoyances: First is that the follow-up skills appear a screen length or more below the other skills, which is hard to notice if you don’t know about it. Second is that the ‘go to pub’ option needs to be more prominent, I reached the end of current content before I noticed the thing.
Interesting concept! Always a sucker for bite-sized roguelike games. One question though, what are the fetishes planned (both in game and in future builds)? I know Odyssey of Gianna was as big as an ocean but as shallow as a puddle so I'm wondering how big the game will be regarding content like that.
EDIT: After playing a bit and reaching the end of the demo, definitely intrigued and excited for what's to come. Also plenty of secrets and things to discover in such a small demo too. With everything said, here are my 2 cents (and a tad of bugs):
- More mind control! More possession! More kinky hypnosis scenarios! I'm a sucker for those, and the Mesmergast fills that role perfectly. Wish it didn't end the same though, like maybe having the sheath become a hypnotist or thrall or something of the like, compared to the envious and spiteful spirits of the same nature. Regarding the Mesmergasts too, the one process where they're standing at attention always ends with a non sequitur followup of a haigure textbox that, IMO, doesn't correlate as well. Dunno if intentional or meant to be temporary, just something I figured to mention.
- Have the pub more visible or make it so the main characters mention it. Did not even use it once and still reached the end only to notice it at the top. The fact that you have to both select a Sheath and a Self also further obfuscates it.
- Had this happen only once at the cafeteria where the exit was blocked by a huge crate (not the ones you can find items with), and on top of that, it spawned in a block inside of a table, making the table and the exit unreachable. I wasn't using Luna, but I figured you can't jump on tables, nor move those huge crates, so I was bound to retreat and lose either a Sheath or a Self. Maybe have a way to restore both at the cost of Lost Mana? Or offer it as a service in the pub? Would alleviate some of the backtracking or hunting for said elements.
In short, just my thoughts overall, but this project is promising! Keep up the good work!
Not sure if this is an error or not, but I lost Eve's sheath on floor 8 and can't rescue it.
Honestly i really liked this so far and i hope for more mind control/hypnosis/brainwash to be added with the full release.For sure will look forward to play the full game
Encountered this error when trying to start a run using Luna Self and Eve Sheath
entering and leaving the pub fixes it. If I save the game after doing that, it stays fixed when I load the file.
Updating to 1.02 also prevents the bug from appearing.
my god I can't even finish the demo before making a review.. I could never imagine seeing another masterpiece from the same artist right after Gianna! I hope you never stop making games!!
The first kinky moment I got was haigure and it caught me off guard as I haven't seen your beautiful content for almost a year! Can't wait to see what else lies in the demo!
I love what you did with the characters. Being able to control only one at a time feels smooth for me. And when I found out that half a character is left behind when you retreat, I just had to make a review. I love the encouraged use of different characters while keeping the focus on the individual you choose to play.
I've never seen this kind of combat before and it definitely makes things a lot of fun. With these kind of games where I wanna lose (but not on purpose), I need new gameplay mechanics to learn or challenges. Otherwise it's traps, bad luck and surprises that works for me. I've seen so many regular rpg combat systems that I hardly ever lose unless I take off my gear to handicap myself, especially when exp is involved.
I'm a FOMO kind of person, so it is upsetting when I don't get to genuinely lose to every type of enemy to experience all of your amazingly made endings. I've always wanted to see something done in any game that somehow pushes any unseen defeats to be encountered. It's probably just me but I also have a terrible habit of double checking every dialogue and interacting with every rubble on the ground on the 0.0001% chance that I'd see a mere message.
One problem I had was the shift button. I used third party software to rebind it to my side mouse buttons and I've been loving that. Being able to rebind, or at least having a mouse button alternative for shift would be awesome!
When this releases I'm gonna pay double, just as I did with Gianna. Thanks so much! Waiting for the full game is gonna be so hard to endure!
Nice to see you working on more stuff.
I'm loving your game as far as I played ;)
But I want to say that after a while, the game slows down when you are not in battle untill it freezes or crashes, I dont know if it will help you, thanks for your awesome games btw ;D
i love this demo, my one and only critique is i wish there were more ways to get items on the later floors
So, here are my thoughts/critiques on the Demo: (as of June 13, 2025)
As an avid Rougelike enjoyer, this game is definitely good at that. From what I've played and seen, I can definitely tell I will enjoy the full release. The game is definitely nothing like Odyssey of Giana, and that's not a bad thing. I love the originality behind Blackhold.
Unfortunately, and it was to be expected, there are some bugs that do need to be hashed out, like missing images (these have been reported in the discord, to my knowledge)
Unfortunately as well, there are a couple of things I'm not a big fan of and I do hope to see them changed in the full release:
1: I'm not a fan of the forced mouse only mechanics. I do hope keyboard/Keyboard and mouse gets added in the final release
2: the hub needs to be more noticeable or there needs to be dialog or a tutorial showing you that there's a hub. The button, as it is in the demo, felt kinda obscured.
Overall, the demo is a solid 8/10 to me. Minus my couple of issues, it has me excited for the full release for sure. Keep up the good work, Vhiel.
Not to be contrary, because arrow keys definately are not full keyboard, but arrow keys and enter do work if you can't use a mouse.
Not on the self/sheath selection screen, or for combining elements no
Alright full impressions after testing around for a few hours. Good foundation, needs some polish with the mechanics.
The set gameplay loop, for a rougelike. Is very well done, the system in place with the selves and the sheaths is very creative and I like it! It allows for a lot of interesting gameplay combinations. The setting is interesting and the few TFs there are, are relatively hot. Though I am not a fan of ghouls.
I will say the Core Combat is rough and needs work. Its very punishing and cumbersome. Its very easy to accidentally run into battles that you are automatically set to lose. The crafting and the spell system feels half baked. Its almost beneficial to just ignore all fights completely and run away. Especially because I couldn't find any point to the Currency you receive as it were.
Hopefully the gameplay is refined and given more point in the next demo/final game
Quite a good demo there is a bit of a bug with jumping where you can jump out of bounds I was able to jump back though.
I do hope you can expend on making the runs more unique for example adding more random encounters or ways to change up the playstyle per runs to not make thing feel the same, Being able to play as more then one characters can make some cool puzzles like the book puzzle or maybe sacrifice a opportunity from I run to make the next run more powerful.
Loved Odyssey of Gianna and I will be looking forward to the complete version of Blackhold
Will there be/are there transformations?
Off to a fascinating start! It's a definite change from OoG, but once I got used to the mechanics, things felt interesting enough to make me want more! I'm very excited to see where this goes, and I'll be exploring this demo in full!