Others Lustbound Valkyries [v0.1.0] [Minami Chan]
- Thread starter minami chan
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Ha ha, good eyes. No they are not Valkyries, please play the game to find out. You can also see in a picture that Thyra (the one in a low cut dress) is a bard. In my story, you will meet the first Valkyrie in the third village. But Valkyries in my game are not the traditional one in Vahalla, the game takes place in Hel anyway.
For demo, consider giving us 3-5 harem points so we can see how they function. Konami code it.
Are sensitive spots random? Influenced by devotion skill?
Consider skills learned on cutscene branches?
Maybe slow heal in green aura zones?
Elegance: is only tied to ambush mechanics and stealing items?
Resolve: hp/defense/attack?
Nurture: does it heal you or just boost healing items?
Finesse: unlock chests/doors, maybe some influence on interatctable items?
Vigor: move faster? maybe shortcuts like tight ropes or jumpable areas, like Pokemon machbike.arrow bike?
Empathy: talking options/outcomes?
Allure:Bigger party size, merchant discounts?
Perception: Anti trap/stealth mechanics?
Are sensitive spots random? Influenced by devotion skill?
Consider skills learned on cutscene branches?
Maybe slow heal in green aura zones?
Elegance: is only tied to ambush mechanics and stealing items?
Resolve: hp/defense/attack?
Nurture: does it heal you or just boost healing items?
Finesse: unlock chests/doors, maybe some influence on interatctable items?
Vigor: move faster? maybe shortcuts like tight ropes or jumpable areas, like Pokemon machbike.arrow bike?
Empathy: talking options/outcomes?
Allure:Bigger party size, merchant discounts?
Perception: Anti trap/stealth mechanics?
Thanks so much for investing time in the game and sharing your thoughts! I really appreciate it, and I hope you're enjoying the demo so far.
About your suggestions:
Regarding harem points — since the demo's save will carry into the full game, I decided not to give extra points. That way, early choices feel meaningful and balanced when the full game drops.
For sensitive spots during ritual dialogs: they appear randomly at each step, and their position is also random each time — so no two rituals play out the same. The Devotion stat helps increase the chance of spotting them. In the full game, Devotion will also be an important stat check during romance scenes and dialogues.
As for skills — yep, they’re tied to the cutscene branches during the rituals. Each girl learns her core identity-defining skill along the main path, but other skills are unlocked based on how you interact with her during the dialogue scenes. So your choices really matter there.
The green aura zones are mostly for mood and atmosphere — they're just firefly zones. If you stand in them, the fireflies will scatter, but there's no gameplay mechanic tied to them.
Now about the perks:
- Elegance boosts stealth. It upgrades a surprise attack into a dominate attack, letting you isolate enemy in combat. It also lets you pickpocket NPCs (hint: try it on Thyra before rescuing her). Higher skill = better success chance.
- Resolve boosts card power (the upper left number in the cards). It’ll also come up in a few side quests later in the game.
- Nurture improves healing drinks effects and will be important for certain supportive side quests down the line.
- Finesse lets you lockpick doors and chests, and unlocks alternate routes in quests.
- Vigor mostly affects world map travel (not in the demo). It gives you a better chance to trigger or avoid random encounters, and helps you find rare events. About travel speed on the world map, there's a fun quest involving a half-giant girl later on. And yes, do can have some lewd scenes with the giantess.
- Empathy plays a big role in dialogue. Small spoiler: if you add 1 point into this in the demo, you’ll unlock a rare item in a conversation.
- Allure is exactly what you guessed — affects party size and merchant discounts. So if you want a group of girls running around with you, it's this perk.
- Perception is for spotting traps. Disarming them gives EXP, and it also helps with some side quest paths.
Let me know if you want to dive deeper into any of this! Always happy to chat about the mechanics.
Hey, so my game got hardstuck after the second fight where my girl got a lvl up. It showed "lvl up" next to my char and after that i couldnt do anything in the game anymore. Will try later on if it happens again.
Hey, thanks for the report! I tried to reproduce the bug on my end but couldn’t get it to happen after the second fight or during the level-up. If it happens again, could you send me your save file from just before the second fight? That would really help me figure out what’s going on.
Ironic that you're concerned about people stealing your game when the dungeon map you're using is ripped from another game with some AI modifications.
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You're right—I did use a modified version of an old map to help push the demo out faster. It was a shortcut to get the atmosphere right while testing the gameplay systems and overall flow.
I'm currently working on the next area, and for that I’m creating the maps myself from scratch. The next major update should be out around mid-April, and I hope you’ll check it out and enjoy the improvements.
I liked the game, and I can see how much care you've put into from the visual polish -- how the smoky-ink effect during sex scenes, the X-ray vision, the smart use of cropping, the small animations, etc. However, I do have some comments.
Quality of Life
Please let us overwrite saves instead of making new ones each time we save.
Tool tips for icons, cards, stats, etc. I'm not entirely sure what teardrop, twin-tailed head, and a few others mean. I think the lips are affection, but I'm not sure on that either.
Card Game
It's a little too simple. Right now it's something Pokemon meets card battler, where a girl's deck is the moves she knows. I think it has potential, but nothing in the demo hinted toward where this might be going. For example, Thyra's buff cards could be used with a Baton Pass (switch out a pokemon and transfer its stat boosts to the new one) card so that Astrid could hit even harder with her double arouse card.
Right now, I just memorized which enemies were weak to which attack type (Chest or Groin), and used Astrid for Chest attacks and Thyra for Groin attacks.
I realize it's a demo, but I would like to see more deck building for each girl along with some kind of typing system. The bones for that might be there with the classes, and possibly the races in the game. Seems like a girl's initial deck is determined by the player's choices during her sex scene. That's fine, but part of the fun of team building games is setting up their moves, etc.
Writing and Story
It got me interested. The Einherjar, Astrid, and Thyra were likeable.
Monetization
I looked at your patreon, and it read like this to me:
Free -- Bare bones game.
$5 tier -- A part of the game.
$10 tier -- More of the game.
$20 tier --The full game.
That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I support a few different developers, but that setup dissuades me from even joining. I'd rather wait for a full release on a store front.
Quality of Life
Please let us overwrite saves instead of making new ones each time we save.
Tool tips for icons, cards, stats, etc. I'm not entirely sure what teardrop, twin-tailed head, and a few others mean. I think the lips are affection, but I'm not sure on that either.
Card Game
It's a little too simple. Right now it's something Pokemon meets card battler, where a girl's deck is the moves she knows. I think it has potential, but nothing in the demo hinted toward where this might be going. For example, Thyra's buff cards could be used with a Baton Pass (switch out a pokemon and transfer its stat boosts to the new one) card so that Astrid could hit even harder with her double arouse card.
Right now, I just memorized which enemies were weak to which attack type (Chest or Groin), and used Astrid for Chest attacks and Thyra for Groin attacks.
I realize it's a demo, but I would like to see more deck building for each girl along with some kind of typing system. The bones for that might be there with the classes, and possibly the races in the game. Seems like a girl's initial deck is determined by the player's choices during her sex scene. That's fine, but part of the fun of team building games is setting up their moves, etc.
Writing and Story
It got me interested. The Einherjar, Astrid, and Thyra were likeable.
Monetization
I looked at your patreon, and it read like this to me:
Free -- Bare bones game.
$5 tier -- A part of the game.
$10 tier -- More of the game.
$20 tier --The full game.
That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I support a few different developers, but that setup dissuades me from even joining. I'd rather wait for a full release on a store front.
- Aug 12, 2016
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The game was designed at a native resolution of 1920×1080, so if you're playing at a lower resolution or on an unusual aspect ratio, the UI might not scale properly yet.
Could you let me know what resolution you were running the game at when the issue happened? That'll help me track down the problem and make sure it's fixed. Appreciate it!
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. You clearly took the time to play, explore, and think about the system, and as a solo dev, that means a lot to me. I’m really glad you enjoyed the tone, visuals, and characters, and I definitely welcome your thoughts.
Save System
The overwrite save issue is already on my list and will be fixed in the next update.
Tooltips & Icons
Good point! The stat and icon meanings (like the teardrop, lips, twin-tailed head, etc.) are explained in a hint called Ritual Battle 2, which appears just before the boss fight. I held off showing it earlier to avoid overwhelming players during the first battles—but you can access it at any time from the Log > Hints menu (the book icon in the play scene UI, then the ? icon).
That said, I’ll work on making the icons more intuitive and adjust the hints so they’re easier to find and absorb earlier on. The twin-head icon, for example, means the girl will learn a Mind card. I’ll make that clearer.
Card Game Design
I’m really glad you brought this up—it’s encouraging to see someone thinking about mechanics this deeply. I already have plans for cards that affect the whole team, like reducing damage taken or boosting resistance, and your "Baton Pass"-style synergy idea is very inspiring. I hadn’t planned for direct card-to-card combos yet, but I may explore that after tightening up class/race balance.
Right now, each girl's class determines how certain moves affect her or the enemy. For example, Astrid’s double-hit signature card is stronger against Warrior-type enemies (sword icon), but less effective against Soulmistress enemies (stylized skull icon). I’m still refining class matchups and may add an advanced tactics hint once that system’s fully balanced.
As for race, it’s more about cultural flavor, fetishes, and personality than raw combat stats—but I’m trying to make each girl’s background matter beyond appearance.
Story & Themes
Thank you for showing interest in the narrative. The story will definitely evolve into darker, more mature territory—with morally complex arcs, heavy decisions, and occasional bittersweet or lighthearted moments to balance it out.
Patreon & Monetization
This is my first time building a game around Patreon support. My past projects were traditional releases on Steam, so I’m still learning how to offer meaningful rewards without making it feel unfair. My intent was to keep the $5 tier as the full game, and let the higher tiers unlock extra companions, scenes, and bonus content—almost like “premium DLC” in the old days.
But I hear your concerns. If you have examples of Patreons you support or a model you prefer, I’d genuinely love to hear them. I want to make this sustainable and satisfying for the players who support me.
Thanks again for your time and honesty, it really helps shape the game. The next update (mid-April) will add the world map, the first town, and more combat/quest mechanics. I hope you’ll stick around to see how things grow.
Cards, Characters, and Typing
Ah, so there was a type system involved. It feels strange saying this, but take a look at what Pokemon has done with that. Both attacks and pokemon have types, and players can mix and match them. A suggestion for this might be letting each girl have 1 or 2 classes (their types) while their cards have one themselves. Chest and Groin can then be like Physical and Magical attacks. An example, Astrid's signature card could be a [Warrior] [Chest] Attack while Thyra's could be [Bard] [Groin].
Other ideas from Pokemon could be giving each girl a unique ability and/or accessory. You could also consider letting the Einherjar have some number of Slay the Spire-like relics that trigger based on what's happening in the battle.
You have the basis for what could be a deep and engaging battle system. One that could eventually be the main draw as players go through the game over and over again to try out different strategies (especially combined with the perk system). Similar to how people play through Souls games or Final Fantasy Tactics over and over just to explore the game systems.
Patreon
So, one way to think of it, is that someone who signs up at $5 and supports you for a year, is spending $60 on the game. That's more than what many AA indie games like Against the Storm, the Last Spell, etc. charge for the main game and DLC. Even a game like Battle Brothers only gets there with the base game and 3 big DLCs.
What I've seen other Patreon devs use is a delay release system where patrons receive monthly updates as they're ready while free players have to wait longer. Usually they're one month/update behind, but can be longer. The tiers are usually like this:
$1 -- Access to dev diaries/patreon posts, Discord access/benefits, if the game is delayed by more than 1 month, then this tier gets 1 month sooner than the public.
$5 -- Full game updates as they happen, plus the above.
$10 -- Everything above, but with extras like cheats, more say in voting power for content/what to do next, and additional game modes.
Past $10, it sort of depends. I've never supported more than $5 a month, but cheats tend to be popular. One thing that Accidental Woman did that I liked was adding in other scenarios or game modes. For Lustbound Valkyries that could be a chaos mode where the typing/cards of each character is swapped around randomly, for example, Astrid could have Thyra's cards, but another character's type. However, I don't know how appealing that would be for whales.
One thing I'd recommend that you don't do is let people pay to add their characters in without heavy stipulations. The odds of someone wanting to add their donut steel OC and mucking up your game are high. It's one thing to let them be a generic townsfolk with minimal dialogue and story/game impact. It's another when they're a narrative or gameplay element. I would be very careful with it.
Your idea about a relic-style system like in Slay the Spire is really interesting. I love the potential for giving each run more build variety and strategy depth. I’ll definitely look into how I could integrate something like that into the battle system later on. Maybe if you complete all side quests of a girl, you get the relic related to that girl.
Thanks again for taking the time to play the demo and share such detailed feedback—it really means a lot, especially as a solo dev.
I’ll also be refining the Patreon tiers soon to make sure they feel fair and rewarding for supporters. Your perspective helped me better understand what players expect, and it’s already influencing how I restructure things.
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Thanks a lot for the thoughtful review! It’s incredibly encouraging to hear that even at this early stage, the game left a good impression. I'm especially glad the writing and art landed well for you.
I’m currently working on the next part of the game, which includes the world map and the first town. There’ll be more choices, more characters to meet (and lewd). I’m experimenting with some ideas to make world map travelling more fun.
Hoping to have something new to show soon, thanks again for the support, and I really appreciate you keeping an eye on the project!
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