The Menagerie Review (NSFW)

WARNING! The following game features a futanari (intersex) protagonist. The review also contains NSFW imagery. Viewer discretion is advised.

Having enjoyed  The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 – Prelude I was most intrigued when I heard about Lupiesoft’s next project. This being the studio’s second released game and first “full release” also helped spark my interest. This is Lupiesoft‘s The Menagerie or its full title: In the City of Alabast; The Menagerie.

Genres: Eroge, Futanari, Yuri, Fantasy

Themes: Monster Girls, Elves

Length: Short (2-8 hours)

G-Rating: Good

Plot Summary: In the desert city of Alabast, there exists a massive structure referred to as ‘The Sail’, which separates the nobles from the lowly commoners. In this ivory tower however, there are secrets the nobles keep even from each other. Deep below The Sail, there exists a collection of sorts called ‘The Menagerie’. Obsessed by novelty, the elves of Alabast even go as far as to collect exotic artifacts, creatures and even other peoples from across the world. Here there is nothing and no one on display without a price.

The Menagerie is a new visual novel from Lupiesoft and features multiple character routes, adult content, monster girls and more!

As mentioned in the intro and genres page, this is an uncensored eroge starring a futanari dragon-ish woman named Rao Ji as “plreaders” (playing readers) follow the story from her perspective encountering the other denizens of the Menagerie consisting of brown elf nobles and the monster girls who…work there.

I normally do not check out demos so my initial expectation was a pretty looking monster girl eroge with lots of “futa X girl” scenes and while there are several of those scenes the overall story is actually more than that. The writing is commendable as it shows that the main six ladies and some of the side characters are more than just cute and pretty faces catering to different fetishes. They all have their own stories to tell and personalities, some with depth while others a bit lacking. Also depending on which of the three routes the player follows, more about Rao-Ji is explored but for the most part the focus is on the other ladies and Rao-Ji’s perception of them. Having said that this is a mainly character driven story as little is revealed about The Menagerie itself as an establishment or its inner workings. Sometimes the story also makes strange transitions that unless the player completed a previous route it feels like some scenes were missing. As mentioned there are three main routes and some “dead ends”.

Most of the game takes place inside The Menagerie and that is not a problem as the different sections of the establishment are all pleasant to look at just like the ladies. The soundtrack has what I can only describe as an Arabian/Middle Eastern feel and I dig it. Let me put it this way, players who enjoy the music in desert themed levels in platformers and action games will like the music here.

As mentioned above the sex CGs contain futa x female yuri. There are some regular yuri scenes but most of the yuri is described and the futa scenes get top billing so again for readers who did not heed my initial warning I was not joking. One of the routes also explores BDSM ala Sunstone. Other than that and Asumamiya up there’s tentacle hair the sex is softcore. As far as sex appeal goes my personal favs are Asumamiya (hotter than Suu) and Sabei.

Now this review was written a week after the game’s release, meaning before Lupiesoft announced they would be releasing a patch that would fix certain issues like missing backgrounds, missing scenes and no end credits. Basically while the game does not have any game crashing bugs it did come out with a few mistakes. Nothing a good patch cannot fix thankfully.

Overall The Menagerie is a pretty good read. The visuals and soundtrack are both pleasant and the writing is solid with some minor hiccups here and there. Being that this is the second completed product Lupiesoft launched into the market the flaws can be forgiven as the company has shown it has the potential to write decent to pretty good stories. I am now a fan of this studio and look forward to the eventual completion of Dizzy Hearts, Reject Demon Toko and other future projects.

The interested can purchase the game on Mangagamer.

One image was taken from this review.