The Intoxicating Flavor

There have been books, movies and even games that have seen the player stranded on a desert island with no means of escape. Some see you fight against the inhabitants of the land, whereas others will depict someone simply fighting to maintain their own sanity. It’s a tale as old as time. However, we would wager that there are very few saucy visual novels that try this angle and even fewer that take the concept and offer a well written and deep, nuanced narrative. Well, that is exactly what The Intoxicating Flavour is about and before you ask, no, the flavor nothing to do with the island’s stock of coconuts.

This game plays like other visual novels of this nature such as Stranded Deep, The Forest, Getaway Island and Island Diary. This game aims to tangle you up in one of the most unlikely yet compelling plots your could ever imagine. However, do you give in to this tight embrace, or will you wiggle free and pass on playing this one? We find out in our review of The Intoxicating Flavor.

Islands in the Stream

Firstly, let’s take a look at the story here. In this game, you play the role of a castaway that finds themselves trapped on a tropical island with no means of leaving. However, you aren’t alone for long as a stranger arrives on the island to offer some company. However, as the story unfolds you find out that this woman is no stranger and the plot thickens. We don’t want to give more away than that but we can say that the story is easily the best asset of this game. It is well written, offering branching paths and outcomes that will shock and please the player in equal measure.

Then moving onto the visuals for this game. We aren’t going to shower the game in praise for the graphics on show here. They went with the realistic 3D model here and as a result, the animation and textures have to be near perfect to offer immersion and authenticity. Well, the textures are rubbery and shiny, the assets are a generation behind where they need to be and the setting seems rather empty and underdeveloped, so this is rather weak.

Then as for the gameplay, you get what you pay for. Just to clarify, you pay nothing and in terms of gameplay, that’s what you get. You’ll have text boxes all the way through and though its not the most interactive thing to work through, it is what it is. We don’t enjoy the one choice prompts but aside from that it does exactly what it says on the tin so to speak.

The Verdict

Overall, The Intoxicating Flavor is a good attempt at making a deep and meaningful visual novel. The story is surprisingly complex, the visuals are suitable and the characters on offer are multi-faceted. Plus, they are hot and get up to naughty stuff, which is why we are all here.

Pros

• A deep, nuanced story
• Relatable characters
• Contextually fitting and hot XXX scenes.

Cons

• Visuals are a little underwhelming
• One choice prompts are annoying