Written by Rastafoo69, edited by Otaku Apologist
Himeko Maid, a lesbian visual novel developed by Toffer Team. Released February 28, 2020. Download on Nutaku.net for $5.00. For Windows PC, Mac OS, Linux, and Android. Partial voice acting. Uncensored genitals.
You’ve recently been hired to tutor and train a maid at the Tachibana estate. Spend time with her, praise her efforts, and turn her into a woman in full bloom by teaching her the art of lovemaking!
STORY
Your name is Suzaka, an average girl looking for a new job. Lucky for you, the Tachibana estate is hiring someone to train their maids! Pick a maid, decide how to train her, and secure your new job!
The game was advertised as having four unique girls to romance, but that’s not accurate. You actually play as one of those girls and romance your chosen maid. This leads to a unique ending where you settle down with your girl or enjoy a harem of all three. The harem ending was super easy to achieve, and I got it without even trying.
There is no overarching plot. Every day in the game is a slice of life experience in cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks. When something goes wrong, like a vase breaks, you can decide to react aggressively or kindly.
As a yuri experience, the focus is heavily on dialogue and character building. Rather than focusing on sex, the writer places emphasis on building trust between the characters so they feel comfortable exploring each other’s bodies.
Frankly, the writing is rather forgettable. For a simple and quick erotic experience, it’s good.
GAMEPLAY
Himeko Maid is a visual novel. You click the screen to advance the story. The game presents you with many choices, all of which have the potential to earn love points or change the direction of the story. It’s a very linear play and simple to understand. You can save your progress at any point into multiple save slots.
As a Renpy title, scrolling can advance or rewind dialogue. The middle mouse button will hide the text box. Remember that there are multiple endings, so you may want to rethink your choices if you miss the ending you wanted.
GRAPHICS
The art is modern anime style. Two of the girls have long hair and two have short. Two of the girls wear a maid outfit. The visuals are slightly repetitive.
There are 8 scenes in total, just like in the developer’s previous game. As a Renpy visual novel, the user interface is standard. The few changes made were not for the better. For example, the text font is sometimes hard to read, and cannot be changed.
Most of the in-game choices affect visuals. Will the main character show off her cleavage? Which maid do you want to work with? And once you choose, how skimpy will her clothing be? Remember to save game to see them all!
The erotic scenes are drawn beautifully. Body proportions and facial expressions are well done and mesh well with the sprite artworks. All images can be viewed from the gallery once they’re unlocked.
Background images change with the time of day and location of the character. Most places are revisited often so you can see sunset or daylight variations. These visuals are high quality and gorgeous, I only wish there were more!
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
Himeko Maid has partial voice acting. The four girls are voiced for short lines, shrugs, grunts, and other miscellaneous moments. The voice quality is lower than previous titles of the developer. In particular, Saoko and Alice have very similar voices.
The voice acting for Alice is of lower quality than Suzuka’s. While Suzuka has a pristine voice, you can hear the microphone in the performance of Alice’s actress. This is most likely because a sultry voice required closer proximity to the microphone.
Sometimes the music gets in the way of the voice acting. Most games lower the music volume automatically when characters speak. This game doesn’t really do that, so I recommend you manually lower the music to hear the voices better.
The quality level of the audio is inconsistent. For instance, the heartbeat sound played even after I toggled the main menu. The developer let the track play in full, rather than cutting it short when you leave the scene. In other words, he didn’t polish his work.
However, the sound design is not all doom and gloom! You can pretty much avoid the character of Alice entirely for a much better experience. And sometimes, the sound effects are hilarious like when a squeaky toy sound played for a boob squeeze! There’s a lot more good than bad, but when the sound design has a hiccup, it stands out.
MUSIC
There are three basic tracks that play through the majority of the game. The first is the song that plays on the main menu, it relies on harp-like instruments, creating a soft and relaxed beat. It reminded me of toddler TV shows like Nick Jr. This track played far too often and got a bit repetitive, but it never got too bad.
The second song is an electric piano track that plays in the gallery room, it creates sexy anticipation. In the third song, a slow electric guitar conjures a soft rock track that hypes up the more exciting moments. None of these songs are very memorable, but they’re unique, which makes for a great experience for first-time players.
HENTAI
The hentai content is fully uncensored and vanilla. You can only get around half of total scenes in a single playthrough. This is because the game starts with you choosing a sexy maid to fall in love with. Remember to save game before that choice!
This game was written for a lesbian audience, so there is a heavy emphasis on anticipation, getting to know your partner, and building a connection. While other games make you decide between crazy fetishes, this game is much more pure. Will you undress yourself? Or let your maid do it for you? These are lower stakes, but lend themselves to a more immersive and meaningful experience.
Fingering, oral, and scissoring are the most common activities in this game. There is one optional dildo scene. Erotic dialogue allows for tons of interactivity with dialogue choices mid-scene. Will you praise your partner, or ask for something new?
CONCLUDING WORDS
Himeko Maid is a fun hentai visual novel from Toffer Team. The artwork is gorgeous, and the addition of choices during sex scenes makes the sex more immersive. With four sexy babes to explore, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to bust a fat nut!
Download Himeko Maid. If you love this developer and want more, check out our review for Hikari Love Potion!
Overall
- Graphics
- Gameplay
- Story
- Music
- SFX
- Hentai
