Probably gonna get roasted for playing a porn game but but but I genuinely think this has some of the best conversation mechanics in games. Every conversation is a tight-rope walk where you have to juggle various interests (including potentially porn-y ones!) to get the result you want and this is maybe the only game I've ever played that has properly validated rude and catty dialogue options, never mind made them fun. Moment-to-moment this is Love's best, funniest, most well-observed writing (though admittedly I should probably replay Analogue, and I never played Hate Plus).

And in the interest of not making it seem like i'm reading playboy for the articles, the sex parts are also pretty good, i dunno what to tell ya.

Much as I deeply respect Christine Love, this game is so Messy (in the neutral sense) and filled with complex intertwining social situations that are just too much for my almost certainly autistic ass to keep straight that at some point I was more or less just reading for the sex scenes. I think that by choosing the most willing and subby options at every opportunity (a real shocker, if you know me), I dodged most of the things that get people riled up and engaging in extremely emotionally charged debate, so I have very little to add to any of that except that I respect things that choose to be queer and lefty and still messy, and that we generally ought to give those things the benefit of the doubt to see what we can squeeze out.

I leave this with a neutral rating simply because between all the bits I enjoyed, there was a ton of being thrown in situations that were simply too much for me. And a lot of scenes with alcohol :<

A quality visual novel with some interesting things to say about power and consent, as explored through dominance, submission, and other complex topics. I think the framing device and endings don’t quite live up to the conversations within the game’s main story. That said, I enjoyed how those conversations were designed to be flexible without necessarily being predictable. Ladykiller pushes back on player choice depending on the situation, which is wholly appropriate to its themes. If the frame held up to how well the rest of the game considers power, it would be a sure winner.

An erotic VN about social games and what breaks them down, Ladykiller in a Bind does an excellent job of handling both kink and the absurdity of teenage drama. It demonstrates that it understands that while consent and proper emotional communication are critical, few live up to it in the heat of a moment, especially when tensions are high and experience is low. The dynamics involved are messy, chaotic, inconsiderate, and tense, and the game refuses to paint any character in a perfect light; nobody is reasonable, nobody is perfect, and everyone is ultimately, to some degree, caught up in a moment.

In my mind, this is queer representation at its finest; understanding exactly what makes queer relationships and group dynamics work and, more importantly, what makes them fail. It shows that, no matter your intentions, no matter your demographics, it is still possible to be a bad person while trying to be a good one, and it is always possible to fuck it up. For that alone, it is worth a playthrough.

That said, the ending is... as endearing as the backing story is, and as smart the framing device is for giving players the sense of not knowing what is going on without fully abandoning them, the final conclusion of the narrative arc is... it is presented nearly separate from the rest of the game, with a focus almost completely disconnected from what the main portion of the game was exploring.