The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty
零创游戏(ZerocreationGame) · 2024 · Visual Novel, Historical, Cooking, Multiple Endings, Interactive Fiction
PC
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About The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty
✦ AI summary
Play as hardened bandit Liang in this dark narrative adventure set during the Ming Dynasty's collapse, where an escort mission unravels into a revenge plot against a thousand-year-old demon consuming children. Navigate 160,000 words of branching choices across 9 endings with full voice acting, period-authentic visuals, and morally complex characters whose hidden truths challenge everything you believe.
Story Background
The year is 1632. The Ming Dynasty faces its final days amid internal strife and foreign threats. Years of disasters and harsh policies have triggered famine and rebellion across the land. A bandit named "Liang" accepts a job escorting four young girls from Huazhou to Luoyang. He assumes they'll be sold as daughters, but a girl named "Sui" reveals the truth: the buyer is a thousand-year-old Swine Demon who devours children annually. Sui's sister was already killed. Sui begs Liang to abandon the mission and help her kill the Demon for revenge. But Liang discovers Sui hides darker secrets...Features
- A Dark Tale of Redemption —— A story of hope flickering amid famine, trafficking, revenge, and cannibalism in a brutal world.
- Multiple Choices & Endings —— 160,000 words across 9 different endings where every choice matters.
- Authentic Visuals —— Realistic art style with researched Ming period clothing, architecture, and environments.
- Premium Voice Acting —— Full Chinese/Japanese voice acting with renowned actors like Rie Kugimiya and Hanser, plus original music for movie-like experience.
Characters
Play as Liang, the main character and protagonist. His family has run a successful business for years, but Liang never saw himself as his father’s successor. Instead, he would rather travel the world as a hero and visit as many new locations as possible. The day of the Great Tianqi Explosion in 1626, was the day Liang lost everything. After becoming a refugee with nothing left to his name, he turned to a life of crime. Liang became a bandit and makes a living by killing others for loot.
Sui, a nine-year-old mute born in Luoyang. Her sister was killed by the swine demon that also dwells in Luoyang. To avenge her sister’s death, she intentionally let her self-become abducted to get close to the demon and assassinate him. Some, or all of the above statement is false, part of Sui’s untrustworthy nature.
Liang’s partner Tongue, the silver-tongued devil who is motivated by greed. When they work jobs together, Liang executes their target's lives while Tongue works on securing loot.
A girl from an authoritative family that was abducted by human traffickers. It is said to be a distant relative of governor general Yuan.
One of the two sisters from Northern Shannxi who was sold by her parents in a year of turmoil. She is full of vigor and an honest person, who cares deeply about her sister.
One of the two sisters from Northern Shannxi, also sold by her parents. She is charming, pure of heart, and is also very dependent on her older sister.
An old friend of Liang, who owns an inn outside of Haizhou city. In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1633), a rebel leader came to Jin from Shan and called himself the "Dashing King".The swine demon disguised as a wealthy lord that devours young girls on his birthday for thousands of years, according to Sui. He is also the one who has commissioned Liang to escort the four girls to the city of Luoyang.
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What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
I have 20 hours on file (a lot of it because of the bad habit of leaving a game to run while I walk away for a little while), and to be honest I'm ashamed of how far I let myself get through it. Because all the other elements were so good, I kept trying to look past the red flags and give the game the benefit of the doubt, hoping the narrative integrity would win out. But! I finally had to completely walk away because the game aggressively undermines its own serious themes to pander to a creepy niche. The game sells itself as a gritty, serious historical tragedy about human suffering, starvation, and child trafficking during the Ming Dynasty. The main character is explicitly written as a NINE year old girl yet the visual framing repeatedly sexualizes her for the PLAYER'S eye. This is different than trying to be historically accurate. This is plain predatory. They only get away with it because of the subtlety While there isn't blatant, explicit nudity, the intent is clear. Massive red flags like the voyeuristic bathtub scene and the forced "sexual tension" make it impossible to ignore. It completely shattered the immersion and made me feel just...gross. It is frustrating to watch…27 found this helpful
[b] A short but meaningful story, please give it a chance. [/b] This novel got more than one topic that could scare or angry anyone. For me, the "Hunger" topic is what excels the story. I like the way mystery is reveal with as story goes on. [spoiler]Mate, i do want to rant about how hungry is a important topic that this novel portraits as i think it is, merciless and cruel, i fall a tear every time the topic gets to my mind thinking about how close is hunger from us, and how it can devasted human morale turning everything upsidedown, never forget the clamors of those in dire[/spoiler]2 found this helpful
A great visual novel. Much more linear than the studio's previous entry "lay a beauty to rest", as the focus this time is to tell a serious and very graphic story about the horrors of famine and starvation. The majority of the branching choices either lead to an early death or affects the relationship between the protagonist and the mute girl, with differing relationship levels opening up different final endings. With that in mind, it is still a fantastic (if grim) read, with excellent voice over. Both True Endings feel fitting and satisfying.1 found this helpful
A slightly dark VN that tells an interesting story Pros: -I love morally grey characters hell yeah -Different endings with very different impressions -I love that the focus is mostly on the characters rather than overcomplicating the story -The voice acting is really good Cons: - A lot of the main plot is set in stone, decisions mainly affect the ending. -The description and reviews say it's really dark, because of this I was expecting a lot more, a really heavy story or a horror, it's only a bit dark at times. -It's a bit obvious who is a main character and who is a side character by how cliché they are. -Some questionable descriptions, possibly a translation issue (gave me the impression the protagonist really likes feet and going to the bathroom, which is not what they were going for)
My first Chinese VN and I'm hungry for your another historical one! Superb bg musics, voice actings and the choice matter
Game made me hungry after 8 hour of continuous reading.
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