Written by Rastafoo69, edited by Otaku Apologist and Mistress Valentine
Pleasure Climb, a pixel-animated porn game developed by Phracassado of The Deep. Released May 17, 2021. Download on Steam for $4.00. For Windows PC. No voice acting.
The young mage Koharu, a prodigy at magic, has left her magic academy to climb Erection Tower! Whoever reaches the top is destined to have their deepest desires fulfilled!
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STORY
Koharu attempts to conquer Erection Tower alone! While she originally thought she had to kill every monster, the dwarf on the first floor actually clarifies things. In order to reach the next floor of Erection Tower, she must sexually please the guardian of the current floor! Which means, Dwarf blowjob time!
As she travels up the tower, Koharu meets a wide variety of friendly creatures that help her on her path. The fairy awakens her magic power, the knight shows her how to defeat shielded enemies, and the rogue explains the danger of false-openings in battle. There is no deep plot. Just fight monsters, fuck bosses, and make your way to the top!
GAMEPLAY
Pleasure Climb was made in the Unity game engine. There is no text log or ability to hide text boxes. The entire game is operated with a mouse.
The core of the gameplay is simple enough. A marker moves from left to right and you must click when the marker is in the green zone. Later on, the green zone will move. Even later, you’ll have to hit the green zone twice to land a hit. And in the late game, there will be false green-zones.
Just like their previous title, Succubus Hunt for a Meal, Pleasure Climb starts out fine but goes downhill later on as you progress. Succubus Hunt’s issues issues were due to annoying randomness. In this game, the overall game design deserves a slap.
Suppose there are two green zones and you need to land a hit. If you take too long, the enemy will kill you. The only way to identify the correct spot to target is by a handful of white pixels in the top left corner of a green bar. This can only be seen if your face is an inch away from the screen. Which means, you either stop the game on floor 18 or look for three white pixels on the screen. For me, this really ruined the late-game experience.
So, you’re looking for a tiny shine in the corner of the green box. If you miss, you’re likely to get killed since your character has such a tiny health bar. Even if you fully level up, you’re still liable to get massacred if you aren’t careful. And if you retry the level, you may have to endure unavoidable dialogue time after time after time.
After 30 levels, the game is over. If you’re struggling before floor 18, I recommend replaying old levels for gold. The currency in this game can be spent on new spells. Most spells are disabled before the boss battle though.
A fundamental problem with this game is that players have no control over their attack speeds. Sometimes, at no fault of your own, the green bar to strike is too far away, so it’s impossible to hit an enemy in time. In boss battles, if you don’t strike first, you automatically lose. This means you’re likely to have to replay levels multiple times.
Another key issue is the use of 30 levels for the 20 animations. The gameplay loop is so repetitive and the animations so short, you’ll be bored by level 15. Making the game harder is not a new mechanic, so the difficulty spikes only increase the likelihood you’ll turn away. Reading the discussion on f95zone, I found not a single person who actually completed the game. That’s how bad it is!
GRAPHICS
Although the game advertises 40 animations, there are actually only 20. If you count the cum pixels as a separate animation, then you can count 40 total.
This game is filled with recycled animations from the developer’s other works. These include the giant muscular knight, the goblin doggystyle sex, and the suspended congress scene. If we’re counting actual unique animations, we’re looking at 15 rather than 40.
Even with these new animations, the quality has declined. Skeletons have giant blue dicks now. A trap chest sticks a red tongue in your ass, except it looks more like a carpet. Rather than drawing closed eyes, Koharu’s eyes become black ovals to indicate she isn’t looking. Worst of all, during the cowgirl position scene, the upper body of the male isn’t even drawn!
I liked the more detailed pixel art during the prologue. I love the fact that the tower is shaped like a penis, it’s hilarious! I prefer Koharu’s character design and wish we gotten some standing art for her in-game. That doesn’t change the fact that the core animations of this game are recycled and subpar. No actual animations occur during battles. It’s just Koharu standing, staring down an enemy. This developer truly disappointed me with all the corners he cut. If you’re going to cut corners, you cannot overdo it. You can’t go this far!
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
Pleasure Climb has no voice acting.
The sound effects are limited but enjoyable. The 8-bit chimes to indicate magic being cast is very fitting, but the lack of actual swords and weapons means that the audio cues are limited to general thumps and bumps.
MUSIC
The prologue of the game makes a great first impression with its reliance on tracks that remind you of early 2000s Gameboy Advance titles. However, you have to remember the game is 2-4 hours long. Since the battle track and boss track is identical in every level, you’ll hear them at least 30 times. As good as a track is, anything on a 4-hour loop is doomed to get irritating eventually.
HENTAI
There are 20 animations in total. The problem is they only play during boss battles or during the gallery. Defeating bosses unlocks more animations in the gallery. This means that sex scenes are not smoothly distributed throughout the experience. How can I watch the boss fucking me when I need to focus on the battle taking place?
Since most enemies are monsters, there’s not a single shred of erotic dialogue throughout play! The most we get is “I’ll have to take care of that”, but that’s it! The animations are nice, sure, but I’d rather have 10 well-crafted scenes than 20 random animations.
CONCLUDING WORDS
Pleasure Climb is one of the weaker titles from this developer, mainly because of the lack of fresh animated content and strange design choices. The story is basic and the gameplay is predictable, but for fans of erotic pixel animations, this can an experience worth exploring, especially for its meager asking price.
Download Pleasure Climb. If you liked this game but want a game with a greater variety of visuals, then check out our review of Sea of Whores!
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