ADULT GAME REVIEWED:

REVIEWED BY: NoxAeternae

Before I start talking about the game, I’ll be honest with you: Rise of the White Flower is one of my favorite adult games ever and I’m not even going to pretend to be objective. Instead, I’ll try my best to convince as many of you as possible to try it out.

n the adult game industry where a majority of games are created by small amateur teams, there are very few games as polished as Rise of the White Flower. The team behind the game, Necro Bunny studios say on their Patreon page that they have experience in the gaming industry, and I think that experience and knowledge really show in their passion project of a game.

The simple and clean UI, great artwork and even font choice deserve high praise. What makes the game great though, is of course its characters. Through the course of the game, you meet a variety of characters ranging from a sadistic noble obsessed with putting the protagonist in her place to a murder-happy elf assassin. From the core cast to the minor characters, the developers have done an incredibly job making every character unique and interesting. In an industry filled with games along the lines “Hey brother (or is it roommate?) I’m stuck”, it’s difficult to find games with even the slightest bit of character growth. So, imagine how impressed I was when I saw carefully thought-out character development not only for our protagonist but even for some of the minor characters! And to top it off, the chemistry between the main cast is amazing. It’s so much fun watching them hang out, bicker and flirt with each other.

Now that I’ve gotten my praises out of the way, let’s get into the details. You play as the titular White Flower Catherine, the best student in an academy for mages. Unfortunately for her, she’s a commoner and had to take a big loan to pay for the academy (wait, that sounds familiar), and unless she pays her considerable debt she’s going to be sold into slavery. Now, if you’ve played a lot of adult games, especially with the corruption tag, you might find this set-up familiar. A young, morally upright girl has to do increasingly lewd things to pay off her debt. But the game is called Rise of the White Flower, and you help Catherine rise up instead of watching her fall. And she is anything but your typical naïve and shy protagonist.

 I can’t stress enough how much I love this simple subversion. Not because it’s mind-blowing but simply because it’s rare. A vast majority of female protagonists in adult games are either unrealistically slutty or they exist solely for the player to watch them fall into depravity and I think that’s a shame. Don’t get me wrong, corruption is probably my favorite tag and why are we playing adult games if not to satisfy our fantasies? But I believe, no I know that’s not all there is that adult games can offer. Games like Rise of the White Flower are proof that this industry can do more than that. Great adult games can make the player get immersed in their story and care for their characters just as much as non-adult games can, without ever sacrificing the sex appeal that is oh-so-crucial.

That’s exactly what this game does, and that’s why Catherine is the perfect protagonist they could have created. From the first moment you meet her, Catherine is confident, intelligent, resourceful, and extremely sexual. She doesn’t need some contrived plot reasons or slimy blackmailing characters to force her into sexual situations, instead she actively creates those situations by going after who or what she wants. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that this is much more empowering than cheap all-female remakes of popular IPs.

But the care and effort the developers have put into this game doesn’t stop with Catherine. They’ve created and interesting world full of wonder and conflict, and each brilliantly written character allows the player to explore more of the world and its conflicts. I especially loved the portrayal of racism through Eleanor. She is probably the sweetest of all the characters and having grown up on the border of the conflict with the elves she has legitimate reasons to feel the way she does. And she doesn’t magically have an epiphany, suddenly realizing racism is bad. Instead, she realizes bit by bit that the world and its inhabitants are not black and white through spending time with a particular elf that is as lovely as she is crazy. And it is interactions such as this one that make the game world feel intimate and real.

We’re almost at the end of our review and yet I still haven’t talked about the negatives. It’s not just because I’ve dropped all pretense of objectivity but rather because there is very little to actually criticize. One thing I need to mention however, is that the game is very text heavy. I personally don’t think that’s a bad thing, I’d rather read page after page of great writing than even a single paragraph of garbage. But I know not everyone feels the same way. Another small complaint of mine is that the vast majority of scenes are female on female. If that is your thing, you’ll get plenty of that in Rise of the White Flower. But I’d like more opportunities for Catherine and the rest of the cast to get frisky with the boys as well.

So, what’s the final verdict? I don’t think it’s even necessary for me to say, I’ve done everything I can to express how much I LOVE this game. Unless you absolutely hate reading, this is a %100 recommendation from me. I can’t claim to know what the developers intended for this game, but if I had to guess I’d say they set out to create an experience that is MORE than what almost every other game offers. And with the consistent quality of every single chapter they’ve released so far, I think it’s fair to say they are on their way to accomplish that goal.

DEVELOPED BY: