I have been abstaining from writing a review for Monstrous Love expressly out of fear any writ I make would not be good enough.

But, Steam recommends games based on positive reviews, and after the joy and arguably healing that Ana Pepper, the mad lass, and Time Galleon have brought me, I have to say something, anything, to get the word out: if you want a sex game for the soul, the heart, and the mind as well as the body, then GET THIS GAME.

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Monstrous Love is a visual novel, pure and simple, mixed with a few hidden object & point-and-click bits. The speech choices, unlike most VN's, are out of the way so you can heed the leading lady, her non-human beau, and the world they live in - which is worth it, as this art is great.

For my need to do this tonight, I don't get to tell you how. BEAUTIFUL. the art is. I for one didn't hear no bell for my childhood, and the idea of finding a way to reconcile my yearning for a fromsuch book-like world with my new, adult-like yearnings is a dream that I buried in my guilty soul years ago. This game digs up that dead dream, picks it up with mild hands, washes it under warm water, wraps it in a fluffy blanket, and rubs its chest until, miraculously, a heartbeat starts again.

Everything, from the leading gals themselves, to the monster-men, to foliage, to the ground, to the water, to the SKY is a work of art, drawn and painted in a way truly breathing the heart of childhood picture books, yet all Ana's own. This stays smoothly through the bareness and sex, not in irreverent slandering of childhood innocence but rather in soulful reconciliation of childhood's wonder and joy with adult wants and needs, truly making it one of a kind and standing it on its own winner's pedestal of feel-good, yet mood-versatile art.

All six of the talefolk in here are so very likable! Each of the male monsters looks cool & appeals to my own hobby for unhuman feohrbuilds. Each woman is SO sexy, with great bodies & good use of the aforesaid art into a tool for sex appeal. But what *really* gets me hot and, for the first time in a smut game, UN-bothered is each talefolk's self. The soulselves of all six broadcast rich personalities, fewfold each, yet nuanced. It makes the women not just pretty but goshdarn heart-throbbing *knockouts*, and it makes the male monsters onlookly.

The tales are short, beautiful, quality-over-quantity fares that stand alone on heor own worth. Each one has low-stakes plot mixing good writing, believable meeting, befriending - yes, true *befriending*, not "we both got buckets o' chicken, ya wanna do it?"-type stuff - talking to each other, naughtiness that comes about smoothly, and of course some XXX itself- but, like a skilled bread baker or pastry chef can make several different kinds of loaves or cakes with the same ingredients in different proportions and with different mixing methods, so too do each of these tales stand asunder. That includes the nature of the talks they have, the antics they get into, and the XXX.

For me, these tales of mind, mingling, and soul are the roaring highlight of Monstrous Love. But the XXX's we came for, are here, and they earn onlooking. Each of these fun, engaging, and heartfelt fares nigh-seamlessly inlead to a XXX mini-game.

Whereas for most of the story we act as these wonderful women making choices in speech and whether to stay near the monster, for the XXX's we play as the male monster- and this is when I get something I never knew I could dare to hope for. We at last get to do hands-on foreplay. For those of us cisgender straight men desperately wanting to actually make a woman *feel good*, even in make-believe, yet starving in a desert filled with rape fantasy swill, let me shoot a flare into the sky to let my likeminded wannabe-gentlemen know, our prayers have been answered here, and the Malach to thank is Ana Pepper.

These mini-games give a great balance of choice and direction. Each woman has some visible erogenous zones, helpfully highlighted, and each of the male monsters has several sundry inlays of his feohrly bybe to brook to her. When the mini-game starts out, you can choose any sunder of yours and set it to any of the spots on your lover's body. You want to lick her shoulder? Go for it. You want to massage her backside cheek lovingly? Squeeze, my dude.

Eventually, the leading lady asks or for an act, and if you do as she asks it boosts the mood. If like me your kinks include touching a woman the way she asks to be touched, you're covered here.

Best of all, after you've done as she's asked once or twice, you get to go right back to mixing it up as you like until she asks again.

Soon, stretch 2 starts, and your choicepool grows.

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These XXX's are awesome- the best available on Steam right now. That being said, there are a few ways that they could have made copper into sterling.

First, as oft for vn's, the tzurim awend slowly. This means any lewd doing you choose to take is there for several seconds at a time before you get to please her again.

This is great for when the fare is starting out, because it feeds into the idea of it being a really slow, soft inlead. However, as the fare heats up, and I'm getting close, myself (cut that out, we all know why we're here), this slowness really gets in the way of the mood and of the angle the sex is getting more intense.

Then, it seems there are some options never brooked. For Flower, your kit inholds a choice to bring Paula into your mouth and tongue her all over, but in all my time playing, the young anarchist herself never once asks for it. This appealing sex act being an easter egg at most isn't enough to take the wind out of the sails, but it is a -1.

Next, the way Cid's male parts are drawn are... off. Whereas the women's nude bodies and Flower's male parts are seamlessly embodied with the children's-book-meets-grown-up-artist artstyle, the way this guy's male business end is drawn looks crude and out of place. Jack's is a little better.

The actual ingoing and hamelock takes control away from us and is exclusively a cutsight. Not so bad in itself; what is downletting is we don't get to see the couple climaxing together. This game has us falling in love with these sexy, likable women, building them to a crescendo and loving each girl for it, but we don't get to see her reach that height.

Yet, afterward, there's a heartfelt sight where the two relax together and implications of their future relationship are hinted at- a big save.

What's more, depending on the choices you make, you can unlock gallery content. Nothing new for VN's, sure, but unlike in most VN's, these are special pictures only in the art gallery, rewarding replay and slightly outfleshing the world. My favorite is a last one tying the three tales together; it seals that these all happened in the same world.

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Small gripes aside, Monstrous Love has won my heart, and I look forward to coming back to it. Ana Pepper, Team Point, and Time Galleon, you knocked it out of the park with this one. Thank you.