Silk and Secrets: Rites of Pleasure

The smut is top notch - A+, no notes. But ultimately, while things start strong and full of potential, I personally found it all steadily slipped away until only disappointment remained. The protagonist isn't portrayed so much as a history student hungry for knowledge as an utterly mercenary reporter willing to do anything for a scoop, and it's bewildering. Why is she so focused on gaining knowledge of the current members and running of the Court of Pleasures, rather than it's HISTORY? She is a HISTORY student, and the Society would likely be far more open to sharing old historical records that would in no way impact those currently involved or even hint at the Society still existing. And there's no escaping this bizarre choice, because the entire game revolves around it, no matter what choices you make. Choices - the backbone of a game of this sort - are often ignored or even nonexistent. Your initiation HAS to be performed by Marcus. You HAVE to dig into the modern Society rather than snoop for historical facts and evidence. You WILL declare that you were initially using your chosen lover for the sake of your paper, even if you in fact were thinking nothing of the sort at any p…

Well, to start i definitely agree with the other review here - the smut is great, if anything i wish more HCs committed to it the way this game does. The spice is not the issue here, everything else is. The game does its best to create the illusion of choice : from the 3-4 dialogue options per page to the 8 disposition stats that should reflect mc (and we get a good range that in theory can allow for a lot of rp, calculated opportunist vs wild party girl being the 2 extremes). Problem is that's all inconsequential. Fake choices. Minimal branching. Whatever option you pick at worst you get a stat increase at best you get one/two flavour lines. You decide who your lover is, you decide if you sleep with them or not, you decide where you do it.. That's.. about it really. The rest the game decides for you. It'll even decide who mc is and how she acts. Despite my very specific playstyle of constantly prioritizing mc's goal of publishing her work no matter the cost; despite constantly calling everyone a tool and a means to an end; despite constantly lying and sneaking around and not getting caught - mc still, STILL on her own decides to override all that to confess everything she did t…

Quick spicy read for those who love smut.