My Magical Demon Lover Review (Yaoi Visual Novel)

Yaoi VNs, and yaoi media in general, are something I know quite a bit about “in theory” – even beyond the discussions in the VN community, you can’t get far into fan studies academic literature without seeing substantial mentions of both Western slash fan-fiction and Japanese yaoi doujin in every other article. Still, in practice, BL VNs were something I was always hesitant to pick up, not really because of being “scared” of male gay romance, but simply because of it having lower appeal to me than both traditional het romance, and, especially, yuri. When I can choose between similarly high-quality games from various genres (and my backlog is full of those), yaoi simply doesn’t have many appeal-points to climb at the top of my to-read list.

            Thankfully, where my straight male sensibilities didn’t lead me, Steam Curator Connect came into action, in the form of Y Press Games sending me their debut visual novel My Magical Demon Lover. Released in May 2018, this little BL game promises a pretty interesting formula – a highly-comedic erotic VN, borderline nukige when it goes to the amount of sexual content, but kept in a strictly softcore formula (with no genitals visible in any of the scenes). Being a much bigger fan of softcore porn than I am of normal hentai, this already made me much less reluctant to explore this game, but still left me definitely outside of its target audience. Thankfully, porn wasn’t the only thing it had on offer...

Softcore eroticism sets MMDL on the cuter/gentler side of the Yaoi formula, even if there is an abundance of sexual content in it

 

The game establishes its porny and slightly parodistic climate from the very beginning and maintains it in a highly unapologetic manner. It starts with the protagonist, Tristan, masturbating in his bed and being interrupted by a magical letter crashing through his window. The message is from his great-grandfather, Percival – an immortal mage and protector of Tristan's village for the past century. After making his way to Percival’s tower on the back of a magical beast, the protagonist learns of his ancestor's request – as Percival wants to escape his duties and make an extended trip to the Pleasure Realm, he wants to make Tristan into a mage who would be able to relieve him. The process involves finding a demon patron – one that will share both his knowledge and his magical power, in exchange for sexual services. Tristan can select from three incubuses interested in teaching him, all with different expectations and perks, but he can choose only one and the deeper the bond he creates with his mentor, the more powerful of a mage he’ll become.

            The premise is simple, but actually pretty appealing and well-presented. The humour in opening segments is genuinely funny, while the options offered to the protagonist quite interesting. He’s not gay (although the demons' seducing aura makes that fact fairly insignificant), so he’s reluctant to fully accept the price of becoming a mage, but the demon that would be most demanding in respect of sexual services, Karn, would also grant him the most power. Another one, Soren, might not want sex at all, but require other, unspecified favours, while the last one, Harse, is dominant and will force Tristan into the position of an uke, but is also kind and (relatively) gentle. All option create very different dynamics in the relationships and effect in very distinct sets of sex scenes (and those are, admittedly, both very diverse and rather cute, thanks to the protagonist’s boyish design and bashful attitude). The game is full of choices, including many placed during the sex scenes, which will decide whether protagonist will get in-tune with his mentor and fulfil his ambitions, or fail in various degrees (including the possibility of making the demon leave him, with some genuinely tragic consequences).

The themes of all three demons and their personalities are quite fun, but the repetitiveness of the routes makes every new approach significantly less fun
 

Where the game’s problems start, however, is its repetitiveness between the routes – while the sex scenes, as mentioned above, are vastly different in each scenario, the general outline of the story stays the same between all of them, making each subsequent playthrough more predictable and samey, and by extension less fun. Also, considering the amount of sexual content in the game, it’s actual plot is mostly relayed in relatively short segments between the porn, making it inevitably rushed and shallow. Both the protagonist and the demons receive some backstories (in the case of the incubi heavily interconnected ones, which is a nice detail that adds a bit of believability to the setting), which briefly explain their dominant features and attitudes, but those 5-minute portions expository dialogue are the most involved pieces of storytelling you’re going to get – in this respect, it definitely feels like a nukige, even if it’s a decently-written one.

            MMDL’s visuals are solid, with good character designs and art that is generally nice to look at, even if not especially detailed (a few backgrounds could be even considered overly simplified). Like every self-respecting nukige (heh…), it offers tons of erotic CGs, including a few really creative and amusing ones. Thanks to the softcore formulas, none of it is overly vulgar and if BL was my thing, I would probably be really satisfied with that content. The music was rather basic, but overall, the game had a sort of low-budget charm that I personally enjoy – it’s undeniably well-crafted and serves it’s purpose well, even if when it goes to production values, it can’t compare with the professional-quality, Japanese games. And with its $5 price tag, it should be a worthwhile pick for any BL fan, especially how few games in this formula we have available in English – it’s far from being perfect, but definitely worth giving a try.

Final Score: 2,5/5

Pros:
+ Decent art
+ A lot of variety in (softcore) sex scenes
+ Reasonably appealing heroes
 
Cons:
- Highly formulaic/repetitive routes
- Shallow, rushed story

VNDB Page
Buy My Magical Demon Lover on Steam