HuniePop 2: Double Date

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This game is a step backwards in nearly every aspect. The music is one of the games few highlights. They tried to mix up the gameplay with the double date system. It ultimately is more of a nuisance than a fresh advent. Sadly, due to censorship the GOG version is the inferior one. Granted it only takes a drag and drop file to fix the problem but people typically buy from GOG FOR freedom, not restrictions. The voice acting is weaker this time. With some girls clearly sharing the same actress. They often are poorly acted caricatures like how Lil is a goth Valley girl and Brooke is a typical "rich snob" type. Then there is Polly. Polly should not exist. The dev was aware of peoples reaction back in 2018 and supposedly came up with a work around that you could have either or. You cant. Even if you turn it off, the narrative of the characters story is repeatedly hinted at reminding people its there. So dev clearly ignored negative reaction and pushed it through anyway. So instead of having one or the other you are left with Pre or post. You dont have the option to avoid S/H/IT. Unacceptable. It also abandoned some fetishes along the way in favor of other, unwanted ones. Whats more, they seemingly went out of their way to appeal to the fringes of SJW demographics yet at the same time have borderline racist and other content that will trigger that demographic to try and "cancel" this along with everything else. Theres also not as much "unlockable" content this time around. Everything seems to be main quest then some after main quest point unlocks. Nothing to figure out except for one mystery that has not been figured out yet and is likely to be something to be patched in later for one last scene to be added later. Its not quite up to the bar of the first, but if you already exhausted the first at least its a little more. Just not enough to merit full price tag imho.

TLDR: match-3 games are more interesting. Talking with the girls is less rewarding and therefore less interesting to put effort in it. Classic match 3 but they added some elements making the match-3 even more interesting and challenging than in Huniepop 1. Play Huniepop 1 first tho. It's more interesting if you already know some characters from the first game. U can still buy the girls gifts which will boost the overall points you get per match which is really necesarry to win the dates, as they will get harder when you progress. However in Huniepop 1 you had to talk to them to get to know them in order to score points to buy gifts. The actual date is more rewarding (more currency gained) so after a while you just feel like skipping the chatting which is a shame. It's also a bit annoying that when 2 girls meet and you get the feeling they're totally not compatible that apparantly they are. Even tho one of the girls just sounded annoyed or uncomfortable. The actual getting to know each other part is rushed and could have easily taken a couple more dates. Overall fun and funny game

Great game, the double date and gift mechanics refreshed on the already good matching mechanics. Recommended purchase!

Alright, so this all assumes you've played the first game. See below if you haven't. The second game cranks the gameplay up a few more notches, far increasing the complexity but also the depth of the initially simple match-3: * You have two girls with distinct preferences and separate gifts. You can freely aim matches at either of them. * That is, mostly. On top of the move limitation of the first game each girl has her own stamina meter that depletes while you throw matches at her and replenishes when you throw matches at the other. You can match for Stamina (the silver pentagons) but you still need to eventually swap back and forth. * On top of that each girl also has "baggage". Various negative rule changing elements per girl of which one is randomly selected (but you can see beforehand which it'll be) for each date. These can be things such as "Extra stamina loss on big matches", "Move loss on repeated matches" or "passive effect gifts sometimes get lost". I can readily recommend this. Sure, mostly it's more of the same, but the extras are really well done and nicely follow from the end of the first game, mechanically. If you're new, HuniePop 1 and 2 are naughty match-3 games that despite what the theme might suggest have some of *the* deepest (pun intended) gameplay around. But, importantly, you should not start with this one. Get the older one first. This one assumes you've finished that and then want more mechanics on top. Oh and the uncensor patch can be found linked on the forum here, or on the official webpage. 👍