Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home is a lewd first-person shooter about a man, four ladies and their ongoing mission to protect what remains of humanity from one who conspires to undo what remains.
Adult Content?
(FxM) Sexual content.
Censorship?
Mosaic’d genitalia.
Hours of Gameplay?
Ten to twelve hours.
Patch Available?
From Eroge Japan.
Foreword: published September 3rd, 2021
I received a free copy of this game for review purposes — thanks ErogeJapan! For the purposes of this review, I will only discuss the patched version of the game. Steam moderators banished my review into the shadow realm: fortunately, they have no power here.
Gameplay: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
Standing between the end of each level (or “act”) are waves and waves of enemies. Taking your time is not an option; powerful “mutants” spawn infinitely, ambushing your squad every few minutes. If you’re unlucky, you may be ambushed by an army instead! You have no choice but to press on and complete the mission as quickly as possible! Though each level is totally linear, you’re encouraged to poke around in search of “items”. There are four types of items; “material” items are used to upgrade your base with new (cosmetic) functionality; “gift” items are used to increase your “affection” with your team; “consume” items typically provide temporary buffs; and “permanent” items offer cosmetic changes for your team. The effectiveness of each item is determined by “rarity”, which is increased as you reach the end of the game. While your party gains some experience by completing acts, gifts are the most efficient route to bolstering their weapons and survivability. As enemies become stronger, it’s important to stockpile gifts and discover everybody’s preferences. To increase your own stats, you must grind for money and experience to purchase “perks”.
I wish there was more guns and less ammo. Weapons are generally supplemented with “ammo crates”, which completely stock your ammo as many times as your heart desires. Not all weapons are created equal; some guns are better than the next, providing bigger magazines, enhanced damage and faster reloads. Some weapons are better against specific enemies; for example, shotguns are an effective way to put down powerful mutants, and machine guns are able to cope with crowds of enemies at once. However, the availability of ammunition prevents the need to improvise, and the reward that’s acquiring power-weapons. There are a few acts in the game where ammunition isn’t readily available, forcing you to pick-up whatever you can find — if only to afford a few extra shots, or uncertainty on when’s the next ammunition box. It was during these moments I had the most fun shooting Z’s. Come the next Z rush, I had to make do with whatever I could muster (and make every magazine count). I feel as though the ammo crates are detrimental to the game. They’d make perfect sense before a boss fight or scripted rushes, but for the most part they encourage reckless shooting and reduce the frequency of “upgrades”. Whenever I began an act with a top-tier weapon, there was no need to switch gear until the next mission. If there were more weapons and less ammo, gameplay would remain fresh from start to finish.
On another topic, cosmetics for your team are among the rarest (and priciest) items in the game (when they should be relatively common). Purchasing cosmetics costs nearly as much money as the total earnings of an act! By the time I beat the game, I acquired four cosmetics — three of which only usable during sex-scenes (and barely noticeable). Watching my favorite girl (Kirara) strut around red lingerie dramatically improved my experience! But I’m not willing to replay the game and hope to find sexy gear for the rest of my team. The character customization menu should be something that players regularly visit, not some elusive screen most people will probably never see. A lot of players enjoy playing “dress-up”, and I’m no exception. I would have loved to experiment with assorted cosmetics between missions! It would interesting if they offered “bonuses” (perhaps with similar functionality to player perks).
Sexual Content: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
Enemies will routinely grapple and rape members of your party, pulling them out of combat and dealing damage over time. Nobody rapes your team by you — by playing a timed sexual minigame teammates, you’re able to share health regeneration and temporary buffs. Enemies have a tendency to show-up when it’s least convenient, so it’s important to time your button presses and cum as soon as possible! Each level (or “act”) has a special animated “game-over” screen for each character. Each game-over screen features a minute or two of violent rape and extreme gore. Orifices are torn apart, and limbs are ripped from their bodies! The animations could be better, but the models and effects are the most lacking. There aren’t any gruesome bits and pieces of blood and gore to revel in — just bloody decals and fuzzy, low poly 3D models. If you’re a fan of sex and gore (or “guru”), you may get a kick out of the game-over screens. However, they are completely devoid of interactivity. Outside of missions, there are interactive sex-scenes tied to each character’s “affection”. By offering your teammates the correct gifts, you’ll unlock special dialogue and sexual content. Each sex-scene is comprised of one or more animations with variations for undress, progression and climax. You’re free to move the camera about and cycle through animations. There’s also a handful sexual minigames centered on voyeurism. By upgrading your base (using “materials”), you’ll gain access the bathroom, shower and spa — all of which offering candid nudity (as long as you don’t get caught!)
Story: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
A virus has divided humanity into “survivors” and “zombies” (or “Z’s” for short). Since the pandemic, a vaccine has been issued to prevent new Z’s from forming — but it doesn’t work on those already transformed. Narrowly escaping a swarm of zombies, the player character is accepted into a refugee camp called “HomeTown”. He is introduced to his new home (and new obligations) by the “managers” of HomeTown, Hikari, Aya and Kirara. Their conversation is cut short when they receive a distress call from “Central Intelligence”. The player character volunteers as the forth member of their expedition. The Z’s have been unusually active — and intelligent — prompting an investigation before they nullify one of humanity’s last advantages against their overwhelming numbers. It doesn’t take long for the player character to prove his worth is battle, but his real strength lies in how he improves team cohesion!
The main antagonist is the most interesting character in the game. His life is a tragedy, his mind corrupted by his own selflessness. Maybe I missed something from the first entry in the series (which I haven’t played), but his execution is poor. His descent into madness could have produced a wonderful campaign, but storytelling doesn’t seem to be one of TeamKRAMA‘s strong points. There were a few genuinely touching moments in the story, but the mood was ruined with bad English and poorly placed sound effects. It’s not hard to read along the story, but it’s obvious English was not the writers’ native language. I found the writing to be unbelievable, which is unfortunate considering how much dialogue is in the game. There’s tons of exposition dumps, and each character offers several “dates” (corresponding to levels of “affection”). The least TeamKRAMA could have done was hire a native English proof reader!
Sound: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
The music is kind of rockin’, but it periodically went silent. I don’t mind playing games without music (actually I prefer it), but considering the fast-paced gameplay it seemed inappropriate. Silence works for horror games, but this game isn’t remotely spooky. I loved the ongoing commentary your party provides; whether they’re kicking ass or reloading, it makes destroying Z’s shoulder-to-shoulder more satisfying. On the other hand, the Z’s themselves offered hit-or-miss audio. In some cases, they sounded outright derpy. Guns sound great, but Kirara’s gun seemed strangely quiet — it’s funny how the biggest gun in the game is also the quietist.
Visuals: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
The title-screen is solid; it features an attractive spread of the main protagonists and a functional main-menu. The difficulty setting can be adjusted from the main-menu. From “Option”, you may adjust a wide variety of audio, display and graphical preferences. Language preferences can be toggled whenever the application is booted. The user-interface looks great, but the English could be better. At first glance, Seed of the Dead looks like a “AAA” game, but the opening cutscene alone reveals graphical issues that set the tone for what’s to come. The main characters are out of place; their cutesy, anime-style heads clash with every other character in the game. Barring Hikari, Aya and Kirara, the world is rendered using realistic textures and proportions. They stick out like a sore thumb! The animations are stiff, and clipping is a rampant problem throughout the game. Low-poly surfaces and low-resolution textures make it difficult to stay immersed in the game. I found the main protagonists to be somewhat uncanny. I hated the player character — his covered face and dead silence make him the lamest character in the game. I suspect he was intended to serve as a sort of “self insert”, but I wish he was designed an independent, interesting character. The only character I liked seeing was Kirara.
Verdict: published September 3rd, 2021 (3/5★)
Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home is a mediocre first-person shooter that isn’t worth full-price. It’s fun blasting through hordes of zombies, but it gets old after a few hours. Each level introduces a new enemy, which helps to keep gameplay fresh — but spongier foes only take gameplay so far. Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home asks that you replay the same “acts” again and again to accumulate cosmetics, upgrades and romantic dialogue. Levels are linear, insuring each replay is increasingly stale. I beat the game in roughly eight hours, but unlocking all content would require at least one additional playthrough. I think Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home did a great job normalizing sexual content in-game — it’s an interesting (and somewhat comedic) mechanic to be forced to have sex under pressure, performing “quickies” to before your party is surrounded by foes. The game-over screens are delightfully violent, and the sexual scenes are kind of hot (as long as you can get past the dumb-looking protagonist). Unfortunately, the mosaic censorship is particularly buzzkill in this game. It’s as if TeamKRAMA opted for the most obvious possible censorship (short of big black bars). I enjoyed the creative sexual content, but the interactivity leaves a lot to be desired. Generally, you’re only allowed to watch. If you can grab this game for half-off, I think you’ll have a great time. Otherwise, I suggest that you wait for balancing and content updates.
