Welcome to Negligee, the exquisite lingerie shop, the very best in town, if not in the whole country. The underwear one can buy or gift for that special someone range from high class attire to just plain sexyness. Developed and published by Dharker Studio, Negligee is their ninth game, delivering a captivating full-on Yuri Visual Novel, that turns out to be extremely charming and sexy.
We play as Hannah, a young woman who has been working at Negligee since she was 18 years old. One day, her life changes completely, at the exact moment her boss calls and give her life changing news; The manager of Negligee quit and it’s up to Hannah to take over the position and manage the store. Such a burden all of the sudden, but work is work, and so Hannah must endure and start interviewing possible candidates to work at the store. Now that she is a full time manager, someone must help the customers and cloths stocks. Who would be the right decision for such place?
Players can answer that question by just making their own choices in Negligee, as it’s one of the main objectives in this Interactive Visual Novel. Choices matter in pretty much everything that will define your very last decision. Through Hannah, we’ll be having different female candidates working at the store for a few days, but will the new manager resist their charm? Or will she remain professional, ignoring all the attractive girls surrounding her?
Negligee is a smart game, it won’t do your homework or dinner obviously, but its narrative is sharp and intelligently entwined with the dialogues, making it one of the best written in the catalogue of Dharker Studio titles at this point in time. Each character has a specific personality, but that’s always the case, however, this time they almost feel real through the way they express and how conversations are combined among events surrounding them. The humor factor is again one of the strongest lines being mixed with erotism, alongside characters being playfully with each other, and teasing in a competitive spirit for the job position. It’s tough to know if one should laugh or feel aroused by all the cuties dressed in fancy lingerie.
With six major different endings, in 2 hour long routes, Negligee offers a total of 11 different outcomes and finals, mixing your choices and preferences. There are three total characters players can interact romantically with. Jasmin - an ex dancer in an exotic club, who wants to change her life. She is the oldest of the girls, and although she looks wild, she’s the opposite. Sophie - this 19 year old got the job interview by her parents contacts, she’s determined to succeed, but will her strong personality get in the way? The third and last girl is Charlotte, a 18 year old who’s trying to get over a tough break-up. Will she be able to move on, or find a new love?
The plot may be simple enough, but it’s the presentation that counts, and Negligee hits all the right spots of the dialogue to keep players reading with a vast smile across their face. Another major improvement is the design style, as this time Dharker Studio went with a much more anime-like art choice, almost changing the whole direction of the artistic approach we came to enjoy. Renders look fantastic in 4K TV’s proving it upscales amazing for high resolutions. 1440p it’s also a fantastic option, of course, and such good results are due to the simple fact Negligee uses a native resolution of 1920x1080, changing the old and awful habits of low resolutions in Visual Novels.
Render lines are smoother and portray beautiful characters that simulate 3D effects with shadows and light works, doing a fantastic job. Renders look amazing in lingerie, and the cartoonish style we’ve seen in other games was replaced by very realistic underwear tissue and fabric, giving a whole new feeling to the art design. It is without a doubt, the best looking renders Dharker Studio has ever produced, and one of the best in the market up to this point in time, late 2016! The backgrounds look just amazing and they all fit perfectly well within the game’s spirit, never having a feeling of displacement, which is the most important aspect with backgrounds. Their design is simple but accurate and delivers a really nice vibe.
A Director's Cut Adult Uncensored Patch is available through Dharker Studio official website, to extend the game to extend the game to its original form with nudity and sexual content. This further extends the game considerably. There is a huge improvement in the game renders that we simply couldn’t pass on, and it’s the live movement animations displayed in specific moments. It works like a GIF would, perpetuating the same movement in a loop, but it’s still framed animation, therefore it looks like the characters are moving, and in a way, they are since it’s an animation. This is the first time Dharker Studio implants such method, and hopefully it’s something they will keep doing more frequently!
Sam L Jones is back as the composer of the official soundtrack available for purchase as a DLC. The price is suitable, and the Tracklist is made of the total 15 tracks one hears through the game. Smooth tunes across minimal melodies makes the appropriate assemblage with gameplay, and although it’s not as upbeating as in some previous titles, it’s far more atmospheric.
Negligee has its share amount of DLC available, for all sorts of fans out there. Wallpapers DLC delivers 24 high quality wallpapers with all the girls having a good time in the most varied situations. Continuing with artistic content, there’s also an Artbook DLC with a 36 page digital book, containing early designs, and some that never got to be released. Avatar DLC gives you 14 500x500 avatars of the girls, either head or body, perfect to be used in Steam or any other social media. Once again fans can enjoy Dakimakuras as a DLC, with 4 different ones at a high resolution of 2338x3509. A walkthrough is also available for purchase, for anyone who wants to jump straight into all the correct choices, and this time we also have a Mature Content Free DLC that extends the game's adult themed narrative, dialogues and adds animated scenes. It’s free, therefore it’s practically part of the main game.
Negligee was, as many other Visual Novels, developed with the famous Ren'py engine, and Dharker Studio's approaches in animated scenes aren’t random, as a remake of this game is prepared for Christmas of this year, using Unity as the engine. However, if you can’t wait till then, I guess Negligee: Love Stories is your next game to look up, as it’s a prequel that every fan will surely love.
Negligee is the perfect example of how good things can improve, without compromising the quality flow. An interesting, spicy Yuri romantic/erotic Visual Novel, with plenty of funny moments and cute characters wearing nice lingerie. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a mix between well written games and solid design works.