Flower Knight Girl

When it comes to video games, hentai-style ones, in particular, we often think that they come from a few places. Clearly, a lot of these titles are produced by American, Canadian, and Japanese studios, with a few coming out of Australia and western Europe.

But in the last decade, I’ve noticed that there are new gaming studios cropping up all over the globe. I find this to be great since not only this means new media, but different perspectives on how to make adult content.

SuperHippo went public in 2013 and is based out of Romania. From what I can tell, they have been aggressively expanding and have offices all over Europe. Over the years, they’ve made several NSFW games, one of which is a unique take on the JRPG genre: Flower Knight Girl.

So, What Is This Whole Game About?

When it comes to plot a lot of adult games, there is not too much thought put into the story. Come to think of it, many mainstream games tend to focus on mechanics and graphics at the expense of the plot.

Just think of the increasingly short and poorly crafted campaigns in the COD series, for instance.

As with all rules and trends, there is always a least a few exceptions. In the case of Flower Knight Girl, this game is one. Now it’s not too original by any stretch, but enough effort was put into the story to drive the gamer to play more.

To give you all a rundown, a millennium prior to the events of FKG, the Harbinger of Doom (dun-dun-dun!), attacked the world of Spring Garden. The Flower Knights train and adventure through the land to prevent this evil from returning.

Now, if only there were an explanation for why all of the Knights are nubile anime girls. lulz

Some of the Mechanics Are a Little Bit Different

Most RPGs tend to use the same battle formula: melee attacks, an element-based magic system, and item usage. I think there’s nothing wrong with that, but it is always nice to see something new.

While the plot isn’t all that original, the game mechanics certainly are. Keeping with the romantic flower theme the Knights can, in a sense, be romanced by the player. By buying them gifts, their levels of affection rise and so they’ll fight better for you.

Instead of punching in commands in the heat of battle, the game requires you to thoroughly prep before you go questing. In fact, with a few exceptions, nearly every part of an encounter is automated. The Knights will kick ass (or constantly fail) all on their own, so make sure you get them the right equipment and attention beforehand.

I should point out that you can turn the tide of an encounter using the Blast mechanic once it’s charged, but that’s about it.

On the other hand, the several ways you can customize characters between quests is hella maximalist. You will probably want to invest at least a good ten minutes to learn out all the ways you can improve your parties.

And yes, that’s parties, plural. As you advance, you can build several parties to specialize in different campaigns.

That’s the short version of the major gameplay features, but there is even more than that. You can participate in non-story related battles, forage for extra items and bonuses, and ‘reminisce’ with already unlocked audio clips.

This Game Looks Like a Mix of Mario World and FFIII

When it comes to the level progression, I could not help but feel as if this game was clearly inspired by Super Mario III. The reason being the way that the map looks like – you see significant stages in a point-by-point manner with cool icons.

The encounters include a series of playable characters that are significantly smaller than enemy types. If you want a specific illustration, imagine seeing the gaming version of ancient Egyptian art in reverse.

By that, I mean that the villain characters are enormous, and your party members are tiny. Sure, this might remind some of the old fashioned JRPGs like the first few Final Fantasy games. But in my opinion, this look doesn’t really do it for me.

After all, we’re a couple of decades into the 21st century, not stuck in 1988. Shouldn’t it be that we can have better-looking games using modern technology?

The Looks Are a Decent Enough, But Are They Sexy?

When it comes to the rhetorical question asked by that header, I’ll leave that up to you.

And there are a number of reasons for that.

While they look acceptable, the character design is a bit quirky, to say the least. Officially, Flower Knight Girl has been inspired by mainstream anime when it comes to title and menu screens. Yet, the characters you play as are all clearly done in an extreme chibi style.

Not only do they have unusually large eyes, but their heads are freakishly large relative to the body on some screens.

The backgrounds on battle pages, while not eyesores, aren’t too much to look at either. The various item elements and art on the menu pages are finely conceptualized and presented.

The Music and Sound Effects Are Pretty Cool

Audio has always been hit-or-miss in video games, going back to the eighties. Sure, most quality AAA titles and a good number of indie games tend to have a beautiful soundtrack, though not all do.

When it comes to FKG, I am glad to say that the music is incredible, and the sound effects aren’t too shabby either. For all of you who understand Japanese, there is some cute and sexy voice-acted clips throughout the game, too.

There Is A Massive Fan Base On Social Media, Too

If you get into this game or want to swap campaign strategies with other FKG enthusiasts, there are a few different social sites to check out.

The best page to go would be to look up the Facebook page. I can’t make any guarantees, but if you retweet and comment on posts, you can probably hook up with other fans on the @FKG_Nutaku Twitter page, too.

Speaking of Twitter, there is some excellent, not to mention arousing, FKG official art added all of the time.

Need Some Help Playing? Check Out The Fan-made Wiki

On the note of fandom, it’s always a good sign when the creators of a form of entertainment create a separate website. I know myself, there are dozens of uncreative fuckers who have attempted to steal my style to make money for themselves.

Besides the social media pages, there is an extensively well-designed page which you can see at the FlowerKight.Fandom.com/wiki.

I’ve brought up places to find tutorials for other games on the web. Most of them are halfway decent, I tend to find. However, it tends to be hard to find games that have a committed fanbase who have created a (nearly) complete wiki with instructions.

In this case, FKG has an impressive Fandom-made wiki page which answers just about every question you can think of. And I don’t just mean a basic rundown on troubleshooting and a simple FAQ.

There are dozens of pages on the different ways to power up your characters, descriptions of locations, item usage, and more.

Further, since this is an online game, there are new campaigns being added all of the time. This site has updates on the latest additions along with a description of the rewards for completing these new quests.

As Long as You Have a Modern Machine and Browser You’re Good to Go

It seems like many of the games I review, this developer seems to have a love-hate relationship when it comes to making games compatible on different platforms and machines. I find it especially odd considering the fact it is standard practice for porn sites to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices.

Technically speaking, this game is available for Android via Google Play and the DMM Store, and you can get an iOS-friendly version on the Apple App Store as well. Here’s the weird thing: each version may or may not have the same content compared to others.

To give you some specifics which are vital for this review, if you download this game onto your Android or play it on your desktop via FANZA, you’ll see all of the sexy goodness. Apple users, on the other hand, along with those who may play through some sites using their home machine, are out of luck.

I have no idea the reason for this, but apparently, the folks at SuperHippo seem to be apart fo the PC Master Race. That or they might have some grudge against Steve Wozniak for some reason.

If you want to focus on the gameplay exclusively, I should be a bit forgiving and add that the system requirements aren’t going to tax any modern machine. If you prefer using a PC, a simple Windows 7 operating system can run this game along with an updated Mac OS 10 or something more recent.

For all of you who prefer desktops specifically, any update version of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer will work. You will need to make sure that your Adobe Flash Player is up-to-date.

I Find a Lot to Love Except for One Thing

So far, my coverage of FKG has been fairly positive and, in my opinion, quite fair. However, it’s severely lacking in one key area.

Where’s the goddamn nudity? When I was recommended this game, I thought that I’d be treated to some excellent hentai-inspired stills or maybe even a few cutscenes. Instead, all I saw were weirdly designed chibi chicks rendered with decent artistic skill.

As I brought up earlier, not all the same content can be seen on a different device. It was still nonetheless frustrating when switching between machines to find there are somewhere you are not going to find anything particularly erotically exciting.

At best, you might unlock bikini armor, which is barely visible on a disproportionately small cartoon body if you play long enough. But other than that, if you’re expecting something more intense, I’m afraid you’re going to be out of luck.

You Can Find A Few Reliable Places to Download FKG

Since there are so many ways to play, you might think that you can find this game all over the web. Since you can find FKG on the Google Play, DMM, and App Store, but there are a few more places you can get this game.

The best place I would recommend would where this game first originated, the key spot to find other hentai games, Nutaku. I’d stick to that page, though there are a few others which I’ve mentioned before.

The nice thing about playing this game through Nutaku is that, as long as you have an account and an internet connection, you can play for free.

But the Final Question Remains, Do I Think You Should Get a Copy?

Given my final paragraphs of my always opinionated reviews, you might get the feeling that I either love or hate this game. And to be as open about it as a $20 an hour bisexual hooker’s coochie, I’m swinging both ways.

On the one hand, there has certainly been a lot of effort put into the interact-able icons, weapons, and armor graphics. The sound effects and voice acting are effective, especially if you understand Japanese and have an appreciation for JRPGs.

The promotional and menu renderings of the characters look great. Still, I have to say that I really don’t like the absurdly overly chibi look of the playable characters in battle sequences.

Then there is the issue of what I look at exclusively on the site: the harmonization of gameplay and adult content. To be sure, there is that in this experience, but it depends on where you get this game or what machine you are playing on.

And so now I think, what would the reader think?

If you’ve got an Android, you might want to give this game a four, maybe even four and a half rating. Then there is the issue if you’ve got an iPhone or iPad. You might enjoy the gameplay, but you’ll probably rate the sensual element this game as being a zero.

With this inexplicable inconsistency, my hand is forced to give Flower Knight Girl a two and a half rating.