Theory of Fear

I liked it /but/ I was specifically warned that this was a dark game. I bought that game on it's premise, and I felt how it did satisfied me. The plot isn't very deep but I like the variety of love interests. However, I didn't like how the character reacted at many times. I'm not talking about the choices you made but more so what the character made NO MATTER what you chose. Unless you're ready to accept you may enter a bad ending quickly then you might find yourself frustrated and upset often. There is many times the consequences of action didn't entirely make sense.

TL;DR - if you want a dark romance play this or you'll be disturbed and frustrated with it.

This game definitely isn't for everyone because it has some pretty intense and potentially triggering content. Honestly, it could use more explicit trigger warnings since there's a lot of non-consensual stuff going on. If you're into manga or webtoons with yandere male characters aimed at adult women, you might like this game.

On the upside, the voice acting is top-notch, the CGs are beautifully drawn, and the story is really interesting, even if it's a bit short. The heroine is pretty strong-willed, though some of her choices, especially in the latter half of the game, are a bit baffling. It's one of the very few adult games aimed at women, and I really hope the developers release the second part on Steam soon.

Not gonna lie this game is pretty good. it gives otome games a new meaning, usually the otome guys are always the good guys who end saving the girl. In this girl it's more realistic the guys are more sexual more cruel more distant. i defiantly recommend this game

it's like a horror VN but the hot guys replaces the monsters, I was just fighting them off all the time. On the other hand, the dudes had a bad past, which explains how they became this broken. I can't deny that it was fun, however, it might not be your cup of tea cuz the guys touchy touchy with the protagonist. It is a story, catch the boy lier!


P.s., screw Yuki and Hideki, I hate themmm

This game has an heir of beautiful sadness. The MC goes through a lot of trauma and faces hopelessness at each turn but maintains a fighting spirit. I loved the different endings and found myself rooting for Isanami to find happiness. One of the cons would be that it seemed more effort was put into the bad endings than the good endings. I would enjoy seeing more thought put into Isanami's joy rather than her horror in the sequel. There is creativity at work here and lore that can be unlocked in the Secret Room. Reading the character's background stories and lore on reapers, Nephilim, and vampires made the second playthrough enriching and worth the effort. I do feel like Isanami reacts in a realistic manner based on her circumstances which makes her relatable.

I would love to see Isanami have a true ending that's positive when her story comes to an end. Maybe her powers as a Nephilim can grow so she's not such an easy target and forces the supernatural beings that want her to work harder. I think it would send an empowering message for Isanami to battle through such horrors and come out as a victor.

It is hard to find Otome games like Theory of Fear and I definitely bought it initially for the hot scenes (which are pretty damn steamy). I didn't expect to grow to love the characters as quickly as I did. I disagree with the reviews that state this game lacks creativity because the creators clearly put effort into making the love interests unique and they took time to create backgrounds that fit in seamlessly with the game. The music is nice, the characters are awesome, and I can't wait for Theory of Fear 2. WORTH EVERY PENNY!

It's like a... trashy otome. I don't know how else to explain it. But hey, at least the protag this time has some pride/guts a couple times (it's not much but considering other otomes... that's a huge jump ahead in one area ha...) Well, I'm happy with the neutral ending? That's an acceptable way to handle things... heh

I tend to give a lot of games a chance, but this is one of the few games I would pass. There isn't a solid storyline. It is mostly a weak storyline with a lot of sexual abuse, torture and rape thrown in. The good endings are pretty mediocre and the bad endings make even less sense than the good endings. The only positive thing about the game is the voice acting. There isn't much to be said about this game that leaves a good taste in my mouth.

I saw that this game has mixed reviews and that's why I need to write something about it.

I definitely recommend this game to people that likes a dark turn on a "love story". This game is NOT for you if you don't have at least a little bit of a masochistic or a sadistic side. This is not your typical fairy tale......that's why I like it ;-)

The CG in the game is beautiful. Especially the sex scenes (pervy smile).

I can definitely see why people have mixed reviews on this game. This game is for people like me, who enjoy fantasizing about being raped/cut/mistreated. Each character has a "good" ending where they genuinely fall in love with the MC and a "bad" ending where they abuse her, sometimes until she kills herself (although there are no graphics of her killing herself, just text). This is erotic, but you will only see breasts. Even the descriptions of what the MC is experiencing are short and to the point. This work focuses more on the story, and it does tease and titilate, but doesn't do enough to really drive you sex crazy, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for. I like it when a thing can be really sexy while still having a good plot, but artists always seem to either want to write a story or write porn, and don't like to mix the two. This one chose to lean towards story. I thought what this game did best was make it to where all the characters can simultaneously either fall in love with the MC or hate her and only use her for sex, and the logic behind both choices is believable for each character, especially once you read their motivations in the secret room.

While I may have given this game a thumbs up, I just want to be clear when I say I would probably not recommend this game to the average otome fan. If you didn't already realize from the other reviews and the screenshots, this game is pretty damn intense. Themes of dub/non-con, abuse, violence, angst, and some slight gore are rampant. The protagonist will suffer, and she will suffer a lot, especially if you decide to look at the bad endings. Every one of these guys is ready to force themselves onto Isanami and generally make her life a living hell so you should turn back now if you're under 18 or sensitive to mature content. It really does get dark.

But aside from that, Theory of Fear is way too good of a deal for its price. It's fully voice acted in Russian, and the voice acting sounded pretty good in my opinion, especially the female lead had a very nice voice. I got more or less 9 hours of playtime from it with every ending achieved. The music is appropriate and there are a lot more CG's than I expected, which is always a plus, even if the art is a little on the unprofessional side. Also, the opening was fantastic, I liked it a lot. There's also extra content that you can buy with points you get in the game from progressing, which is a really nice touch. Best boy for me had to be Hideki as basic as that is, lol. His character kinda seemed the least cruel to me anyway, but that'll be up for you to decide. I enjoyed this otome and I would actually like to see more like it, ones that aren't afraid to explore the darker and more psychological plots while still giving us the romance and adult content we crave. Definitely buy it at full price, it's more than worth it. I'm glad I didn't overlook this one!

This visual novel is more aimed for female audience who likes sadistic and possessive/yandere love interests so it's not everyone's cup of tea, if you don't like Frequent Violence or Gore i wouldnt recomment for you to buy this game. Personally i enjoyed this game but Yuki's bad ending was way too cruel for me😭 art is amazing and russian voice acting was very good, i can't wait for second game for this.

The story on this game is kind of short, but it's definitely worth your time. The artwork is beautiful too. It gives the option to turn the sexual stuff off or on so if you don't like that kind of stuff- the story is still really good. There are a couple of forced acts in the game, however you need to keep in mind that you are dealing with demons.

I love visual novels, especially ones with deep lore and fantasy worlds and guys with dark secrets. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Except this game... it was just too much. It tried too hard. And I can't think of any pros besides maybe the artwork. There are quite a few CGs, which is a nice touch... but everything else about the game is just. Not good.

So, let me list the cons.

~ Biggest problem I have with the game: 90% of the suitors try to rape the MC at some point. And not even in a dubious-consent, will-they-won't-they sort of way. They outright say they're going to rape her. And then you're supposed to choose one of them to romance despite this... it's disgusting.
~ Poorly written. There's not much in terms of plot to the game, just a bunch of guys vying over who gets to take MC's virginity. And there are so many grammatical errors that it's hard to understand what's going on at times. The game could really benefit from a proofread, and some major edits.
~ The music. There's a bit of music throughout the game and it's nice, but the title theme is rough and grating and obnoxiously loud. It definitely didn't start the game off on the right foot.
~ The dialogue is difficult to distinguish from the narration, which really distrupts the flow of the game. I got used to it after a while, but it definitely made reading everything more work than it needed to be, because you're constantly trying to decipher what's spoken and what's in MC's head.

I just can't in good conscience recommend this game. It's not worth the time or the money.

I really -really- wanted to like this game. But I just can't. There's definitely an underserved market for Otome games with flawed/abusive protagonists. But the premise of this one just makes it difficult to stay invested.

Concessions are made throughout the story to make things fit with each other (Like Vampires have demon blood? Alright?) but the ramifications are never addressed. Nor is the mystery about the character's mother ever satisfied in a meaningful way.

Good content, decent writing. But the premise just wasn't for me.

I brought this game going into it with an opn mind, but EXTREMELY quick into it I was put off by the elements of sexual abuse and abuse in general.

Not to mention that while the voice acting was okay, yes, the game itself and the characters were incredibly two dementional with no good qualities. The men all had flat, generic, boring and predictable personalities; and the heroine was the same.

Boiling the datable characters down gives you a character that seems generally normal at first, and then turns out to be some scary, edgy, abusive and horrible man that wants nothing but the heroine's body or to have her all to himself away from anyone. Doing the same to the heroine, she's just the generic anime girl that is there to be abused and eventually succumb to stockholm syndrome and "live happily ever after" with her abuser that has for some reason decided to actually love her and stop hurting her.

I just... Hm. I was expecting a lot more than the flat, predictable, and not very thought out world I was given through this game. :/

I enjoyed this.
I played it without sound, only just read it has voice acting, guess i have to play it again xD

It frequently freezes between save points. The storyline is boring, the characters are two dimensional, the controls are not intuitive or fluid, the art is okay, but not good enough for me to overlook everything else. What really steams my cheese is that none of the choices feel significant. It didn't feel like a visual novel, it felt like I was clicking through something I had no influence on.

I downloaded this to play a dark visual novel, but what I was delivered was a kinky, kind of smutty(only kind of) shoujo manga with a main character who personally annoys me and forgettable background characters(every romance option). I play these types of games as often as possible and this is easily one of the worse ones, but at least the others were free. In all honesty I feel scammed. I would have had a better experience with haphazard wattpad fanfiction. If this is what you want, read a tumblr fanfic or visit archive of our own, or find a manga. If you want a dark or gritty visual novel try "Cupid" or "Who is Mike". This was a waste of time and money. If you're determined to try it, then at least get it free or something. You'd have to pay me to play this again.

I played 1 good, 1 bad and the neutral ending so far, and I really liked them all. The artwork and music is good. The english translation could be a bit better, but its still okay. The russian voices - although i could not understand a word - sound really nice, but you can mute it if you like. I like the story and all of the characters, I know they are supposed to be, well, not nice, but I cannot help it. I have to admit the game is kinda weird, and you really really should be into kinky stuff. Probably kinky is not enough - there will be some serious violent stuff and if you are not okay with that, please do not play it, for it would be quite disturbing. For me, I even found loads of romance, too, but I would not compare it with usual Otomes at all... Just be warned and do not complain afterwards.

I've played plenty of otome games. I have most of steam in my library. This one definately stands out from all the rest. This game might be a trigger for some people, so be aware. There is sadism and aggro dom type behaviors from a couple of the guys. The game can be dark, but thats something that sets it apart from the others. A lot of otomes have the same underlieng process and the same types of guys. The eldest, the flirt, the smartie, the youngest, the angsty one. And you pick one and blah blah blah.

I personally enjoyed this game a lot. I have to say my favorite is Sadao! Everything he does seems like hes just fucking with you but really, he's doing it to help you. He tries to make you overcome your fears and get stronger. Anyway, that just might be my mental spin on this. I'm also in the kink community :P , so my perspective might be different than the average conservative.

If you try this game, Yes. There are rapey type bits, so be wary if it's a trigger. If youre into kink, I think you'll love the game. :D

<3

As a fan of seedy, trashy-ass otome games with rapey, abusive characters (sue me) this still really isn't what I'm looking for when it comes to adult content VNs on Steam. Spoilers ahead.

The characters are pretty bland and their motivations for pursuing the MC are a bit nonsensical--she's a nephilim, and they want to take her power, but this is dropped pretty early on in favor of them just wanting to bang her. All of them are one dimensional and poorly realized, especially when their only schtick is abusing her until she has to reach some final penultimate decision of who she loves, for... some reason. Even the porny bits are disappointing; the game teases the entire time, MC never comes around and starts to enjoy whats happening to her, and you only get a scene that is so tame it is practically fade to black in the good endings. Bad endings, you just straight up get raped until murdered. And not in an interesting, "oh shit, that's so sick!" kind of way, because there's no opportunity to fall in love with the milquetoast MC.

Even if you are just looking for porn, give this one a hard pass. You'd be better off even with something super vanilla, like Cute Demon Crashers.

I'll admit the only reason I first decided to buy this game was because the russian voice acting. I never played a VN with russian voice acting before and WOW I never knew how damn beautiful and sexy the russian language is! Even the MC has a voice actor (which is a big plus in my book) and her voice is gorgeous!
When I first started reading the story it seemed all over the place and I thought to myself "who the heck would be interested in these guys they are complete a**holes!" As the story goes on though things come together and it makes sense why the characters act/are certain ways (I mean they ARE evil creatures/demons so im not sure what else I expected of them lol!) The MC thankfully wasn't completely pathetic like some MC's can be. She doesn't "always" just go along with everything they do to her and she realizes when she's being manipulated and abused. Despite how they try to control her and use force/powers against her she does her best to fight back or voice out when something is wrong and I thought that was great and very realistic.
I really loved the art and there's plenty of beautiful CGs and sexy scenes.
They have a secret room section in the main menu and as you play you can open up for more info on characters/backstories/game info with points you get as you play the game This encourages you to finish every route so you can get all the points to open everything in the secret room.
There's not many translated 18+ otome out there and this was a delight to read! It's an awesome, dark, sexy story with hot supernatural men to play out dark sadistic/masochist/(or even vanilla fantasies) with. I really ended up loving the guys routes and their backstories and I can't wait till the the Theory of Fear 2 comes out! Thanks for translating this story to english I really enjoyed it a lot! :) <3

***Sidenote***
People should be aware this game does contain rape and violence and decide for themselves if that is something they would like to be subject to reading.This is a game for adults and people have all sorts of fantasies. Visual novels and stories are a safe place to enjoy those fantasies. It does not mean a woman or anyone wishes to be raped or victimized in real life. There is a huge difference between fantasy and real life/consent.