FlipWitch - Forbidden Sex Hex (2023)

I played some of this last night. I don't know if I can honestly say that it's surprisingly decent, since reviews have been saying that for a while, so I shouldn't be surprised. The gameplay is neat and the characters and little character plotlines are cute. Combat and traversal are simple but work. The jump feels a bit off, since the character doesn't really animate to jump, they just launch instantly into the air, but other animations look lovely and fluid.

Something that did surprise me was the music. It's super good! The game's got some bopping tracks!

The game's got a bit too much of metriodvania backtrackig for my liking, though. The more egregios example was when I got a costume that enabled me to do a quest which required me to go back to the place I got the costume. Why not give me the quest before so I can do it organically as I explore the level for the first time?

Anyway, as @DucksOnQuack mentioned in his review, the game misses the mark in terms of playing with the gender-swapping mechanic in interesting ways. Story-wise, a few characters have different dialogue options and only give quests to a particular gender (sometimes only if they're wearing a particular costume) that end in an erotic scene. But every scene is very much straight-coded and male-gaze centric. The game would've been much better if it leaned more into the sheer queerness of being able to change genders on a whim.

The moment I realised that was when I first got the gender-bender power. See, the female character design is this hypersexualised bimbo with big bouncy boobies barely contained by her revealing outfit. You would expect that the male version would also share the same vibe; maybe a hypermasculine lump of muscles with a floppy dick? Nah; he's just the most boring-looking male design you can think of dressed with a burlap sack.

And even from a male perspective, the character designs are also kind of boring. They all look more or less the same with no body diversity.

Gameplay-wise, both versions of the character attack and move the same. There are a few barriers that only let a particular gender pass and blocks that activate depending on the gender which are not super interesting. A handful of boss attacks that are gender specific so you can avoid them by swapping at the correct moment. None of this amounts to more than a colour-matching mechanic; that is to say, it's just fine.

So, yeah, the game is surprisingly good in some aspects and paradoxically disappointing in others. Still, I think it's good enough to deserve to be played, just not expect it to crack any eggs.

This one will be short like "it". And by "it. Let's just say my peanits.

First things first, yes, this is a porn game. I did play it and I did every quest, meaning I saw every sex scene. I didn't want this in my Steam library so I pirated it. If you're under 18. Stop reading.

and no. I did not goon to this.

I played this game because of 2 reasons. 1. Todd and Aaron did their annual awards show and mentioned Flipwitch. There were comments rewacting positively to Flipwitch being mentioned, saying that it is a good game. 2. I had a Metroidvania itch after Nine Sols gave me a bittersweet taste after beating it. It being a Metroidvania and how good people are saying it is at aroumd the same time got me to play this in spite of it being a porn game.

The main concept outside of its porn is that you play as a Flipwitch who can change their gender. Basic core premise that they don't do much with mechanically. Kind of like the on & off switches from a Mario game. There are queer notions within that premise like with Ranma 1/2, but my main issue is that Flipwitch doesn't go all out. Now I am a male. Personally, I don't swing sexually towards other men. Moreso romantically. But even I am disappointed by the lack of gay sex. Just a few woman on woman scenes and the majority of sex scenes are hetero. Now I don't want gay sex in every porn game, but if there was a game to have it, Flipwitch should have been it based on the queer notions of its main idea. I feel more could be explored with ideas of sex like kinks and stuff. But it moreso wants to show a variety of monsters and creatures to have sex with than it does explore kinks. An example being an NPC who wants to take over the world unless you dominate him. To do this you have to talk to him while wearing a dominatrix outfit. What scene do you get as your reward? Cowgirl. Now I get cowgirl, but no dominatrix type BDSM kind of shit with the costume I'm wearing? No whipping and nae naeing? Nothing crazy? It feels like it pulls its punches with kinks and just pays lipservice to them. The closest and most creative the game gets with its theme of sex is that the angel boss is a switch who heals when you deal damage to her in her submissive state and takes damage when in her dominant state. Her animations are great with how she gets tied up, her nips get electrocuted. Nothing ever really comes close to her in terms of theming for sex other than, the bosses' boobs are big and they are there, they are big. The devs tend to update so the main thing I want out of this game is that let there be a sex moment for every enemy that kills you, depending on the gender you die as. Ambitious, I know, a lot of time would go into making animations, but it'd be more cohesive, and there'd be more to explore.

Through all of its basic porn cliches comes a basic, yet competent Metroidvania so I don't have much to say about playing it unlike its theme. If you want to play it just because it is a Metroidvania, this one will do fine. Looks good visually and is animated well, but I wish that there were more female designs other than moeified anime looking girls while the male designs were more varied in design and were beyond that anime face look. All in all, I just wish Flipwitch just blew its full load.