Written by Rastafoo69, edited by Otaku Apologist
Blush Blush, a free dating sim / idle game developed by Sad Panda Studios. Released April 4, 2019. Download for free on Nutaku. For Windows PC, Mac OS, Linux. Full English voice acting. Available in 9 different languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and more!
You accidentally give people magic water instead of regular water! Now a bunch of sexy men have turned into animals! They will only return to normal if you conquer their hearts!
This review is being written after 20 hours of active play. No micro-transactions were used in preparation for this review with the exception of the $2.00 voice patch.
STORY
There are 16 guys in total. At the start of the game, they are all animals that need to be romanced to be returned to normal. Only 12 guys are unlocked by progressing your stats. Others like Sven require you purchase their bundle.
These Man-imals have three forms. First they are a pure animal. Then they are a human with animal features. Lastly, they are cured and become your normal boyfriend. While at first they are aloof and friend-zone you, over time they become more passionate and romantic towards you.
This game is based off of Crush Crush: Moist and Uncensored, which released some time in 2016. That game had many more pop culture references and included a yandere character by default. In Blush Blush, the yandere must be purchased in a bundle. Which is really sad, because Cole is my favorite character in the whole game! From the dialogue to the voice acting, he’s above and beyond the others!
The games are in the same canon universe. For example Dmitri from Blush Blush has a sister named Lotus, who is a phone fling in Crush Crush. Although the games take place in the same fictional world, they do not feature direct character cross-overs. They can be played and enjoyed independently of one another.
While Crush Crush had a large sweeping epic story, this game is a simple dating sim. While Crush Crush was heavily inspired by anime and the supernatural, Blush Blush is more down to earth and focused on believable characters. Crush Crush has over 45 unique characters, so it offers a greater variety than Blush Blush. However, the appeal of Blush Blush is a true boyfriend experience, rather than buying bikini outfits for all your waifus.
GAMEPLAY
Blush Blush is an idle clicker title. You only make so much money per second, so progress is limited. This game is designed for you to check in on at the start and end of every real-world day. Even after a month of play, I have not 100% completed the game.
The focus of the gameplay is on how you allocate your “time blocks”. Working basic labor pays very little, but it only costs 2 time blocks. Working as a politician costs 20 time blocks, but it pays crazy high!
When you start the game, you will be unable to perform high-paying jobs. This is because you lack the skills and the time blocks. You earn blocks by romancing guys. You gain skills by allocating time blocks to hobbies. So instead of working at two jobs, you would work at one job and read a book on the side. That’s how real people rise in social classes, not through work but dedicated self-improvement.
The game can be learned and mastered in under ten minutes, so the reason players come back is because of the guys. Spend currency buying them gifts or taking them on dates in order to raise their affection. This will unlock new dialogue and reward you with diamonds. Diamonds are used to purchase special outfits or boost your productivity.
Once a guy is maxed out, you’ll be able to dress him in different outfits and watch his sex scene. Log in daily to earn free diamonds, new artworks, job skips, and more!
As of early 2022, this game is significantly more grindy than Crush Crush. I highly recommend purchasing the character “Sven” to unlock his speed dating ability. This allows you to auto-gift and progress, assuming you have enough currency and time blocks. It will save a lot of time.
While the game is well paced at first, it slows down significantly around the sixth boy, Dmitri. Many of his relationship advancements are locked behind soft-resetting the game multiple times. His first upgrade requires a 15 times boost. His next requires a 100 times boost. And if you want to become his lover, you’ll need a 250 times boost. But with so few men to work with, it’s hard to raise your booster that high.
Altogether, after about a week of play, you’ll feel the pace significantly slow. Since you need to wait for your skills to get high, and then wait for a good amount of earnings, so you can romance the guys, you’ll only be able to reset every two days.
GRAPHICS
SadPanda Studios employs a small team of artists working together to create the game. This is especially necessary because Blush Blush is so heavy on character variations. Many scenes are drawn and redrawn to fit your progress through the game. Is Nihm a bunny rabbit, a human with bunny features, or a full-on human? All dates in the game had to be redrawn for each variation, for all 16 guys. As you can imagine, its an enormous amount of art.
Although having animal versions of each husbando is neat, it does come with some consequences. The most obvious is that each guy has fewer outfits than their Crush Crush counterpart. While Crush Crush girls had 6+ outfits, the men in this game tend to average 4-6. While that is still a good variety, some players may be left disappointed.
Reaching the lover stage unlocks two artworks for your chosen guy. The first is his nude body enveloped in magic, but during a NSFW playthrough his dick is visible. The second is the guy laying on the couch. In the SFW version he’s in boxers, but in the NSFW version, he is completely nude and you get some dialogue and descriptions of his leaking cock.
The cocks are surprisingly well drawn. Maybe it’s due to all the censorship I’ve endured playing Japanese games, but seeing a well drawn, realistic, believable cock was a nice change of pace. From the pelvis to the face, everything on the body matches well. I like how the artists did not take the easy way out and make foot long dicks. Rather, the artist made them a believable length and emphasized the sexiness by the curves of the shaft and the shape of the balls. This is one of the few adult games that actually draws the balls with respect!
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
It’s a question as old as time! If a character has a non-human appearance, how should you do their voice? In Crush Crush, characters like the bear named Bearverly were voiced with general shouting, which was funny enough. In Blush Blush however, no creative methods like that were used. Whether it’s a dragon, a wolf, a chicken, or even a warthog! Regardless of their appearance, every character is given a standard human voice.
When the men look like animals, this can be jarring. The intense and scary dragon has the voice of a 19 year old boy! But once they regain their human form, the voice becomes a lot more fitting. Especially the yandere named Cole, his voice is my favorite. It’s deep, but not too deep. It feels like a “full” voice, like there’s a lot of depth to it. And yet, the delivery is full of personality and various inflections. I could listen to Cole talking all day.
My primary complaint is less to do with the voice acting and more to do with the writing. Each husbando in the game is 19-21 years old. Some are a bit older, most are guys that single ladies could imagine dating. Naturally, the voice acting is always walking a knife’s edge between youthful and high-pitched. A lot of these guys have voices that are borderline effeminate.
The sound effects in this game are limited, obviously, because it’s an idle clicker! You get a notification for level-ups and stuff like that, but the game keeps the main focus on the dialogue and the voice acting. Less is more! We don’t need intrusive sound effects! The voice acting is varied and I’m glad it remained the focus.
MUSIC
There is one track for the entire game. It seems to have been inspired by the main track for Crush Crush, “Sugar Kiss”, just with a slower pace and softer notes. Remember, this is an idle clicker game, so there really isn’t a need for a variety of tracks. Especially because most players will only be checking in for 5 minutes in the morning and afternoon. It’s generic digitally synthesized background music.
HENTAI
The writing of the game intentionally makes the player’s gender androgynous. This is supposedly so players can better mentally insert themselves in the shoes of the protagonist. There are no penis or dildo insertions in any of the scenes. There isn’t even a POV scene of the naked man on top of you!
If you prefer to play this game on Steam, note that the NSFW content patch costs $7.00 on Steam and must be toggled in the options menu. This content is naturally enabled on the Nutaku version. The patch adds the nudity outfit and nudity during the lover scenes. Some dialogue throughout the game is changed to be more sexually explicit, including some lewd audio. Also, many of the pinup artworks are changed to be NSFW.
In my personal opinion, I think older men are hotter than young guys. But since most of the guys in this game are 19 years old, it wasn’t a good fit for me. On top of that, they aren’t really “thirsty” or sexually aggressive. I love games where the guy is overwhelmed with lust and can’t control himself. In this game, they’re all a bunch of college-age white knights.
CONCLUDING WORDS
Blush Blush features 16 unique husbandos with an emphasis on “Man-imals”. Furry fetish lovers will be overjoyed! Women looking for a normal NFSW game may just love this! But this reviewer will not be impressed until they make the handsome yandere dude free for all players! The gameplay itself is engaging little fun, the hot-guy angle is just the cherry on top. Try Blush Blush today!
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