Recent reviews by Charles Hampton Indigo

I'll admit and acknowledge here that I am a kinkster; BDSM is my jam. It is for this reason I was drawn to this game. The first thing I'll say about Ladykiller in a Bind is the BDSM is healthy and organic as ♥♥♥♥. Both the game and the characters give you, the player, several ways to back out of kink-stuff or skip if you're uncomfortable.

The writing is snappy, funny, and self-aware (as are the achievements, a la, "I only play them for the story"). Because the narrative is consistently told in a past-tense, first-person debriefing style to another character, it avoids much of the stilted writing I've seen in some of the other visual novels I've played. The shout outs to other media don't overstay their welcome, and mostly they serve to futher characterize.

Speaking of characters:
They feel often quite believable. Their motivations line up well with their actions and reactions; only a couple character developments surprised me and that surprise faded quickly when explained. Of course there are a couple of times that the author leans into tropes and stereotypes, but not overly much.

As mentioned, I think it's very healthy. It gave me several ideas, no lie. Everything is written from the female perspective, and it is very engaging.

To that end the dialogue is well-constructed...

The resources of votes and suspicion are tied to the dialogue. The meta/minigame is wrapped into the core loop, and I've never felt like I was switching between game genres. The consequences of your actions are almost always well-telegraphed. I've only in one or two choices felt uninformed beforehand. Because it is integrated well, and the writing is so good, I was often enticed to knowingly make less mechanically rewarding choices in pursuit of more interesting development.

As the description mentions, dialogue options disappear as they become irrelevant, which is also telegraphed by dimming the button. That feeds into the feeling of believability in characters; only a handful of times have they waited patiently on my word. Something I've appreciated is how much it feels like a roleplaying game, in the sense that you are not just making choices that you like, but you are playing a character who is themselves playing a role.

I'm not as much of a weeb as several of my friends are, and that's a big barrier to playing many visual novels; I find BESM stuff to be obnoxious. Ladykiller in a Bind has only very mild anime-stylings going on, but it is not obnoxious. If what I've seen is representative of the rest of the content, then everything is consistently tasteful. Certainly, everything is pleasing to look at.

Get you a game that can warm the cockles of your heart, and break it just as easily.

Fantastic stealth. Harkens back to Thief, especially in sound propogation. Smoother play with a controller.