Description
Do you like anime girls, large breasts and cuteness? You probably do if you're watching this video. Do you like Tower Defense games? What about Roguelites? Mini-games?? Shooters??? Well, if you like any of those things, you might be interested in this lewd ecchi title from the popular creator, "Chowbie", a solo Korean (?) digital artist and game developer known just as much for their detailed art as they are gothic games, anime-inspired characters, and figures. Released at the beginning of the month, it continues the tradition of Chowbie's previous works of barely SFW content held up by surprisingly solid gameplay systems and punches above its weight in terms of sheer value for the money. While prior releases have been more in the action / roguelike camp and with a darker atmosphere, "Antivirus Girl" is a more whimsical title with slightly more restrained rogue elements and a heavy focus on Tower Defense and strategy.
The game's story centers around a rookie Admin of cyberspace named Reta who is the latest leader working for a group known as Sentinel, a cutting-edge anti-malware system. Her role and the role of her female team is to thwart threats invisible to people on the outside, whom they deem their masters, and protect their privacy and peace as cybersecurity. There's a little bit of drama as the game progresses, but it's generally lighthearted as a whole. While not actively shown, you also learn more about the "master" that the girls serve, who is rather interested in lewd things himself to the point that you have to safeguard his precious R-18 material from forces that will do it harm. The characters range from Reta who is well-to-do, Kiana who is cool and capable, Lina the foul-mouthed but strong troublemaker, Lyzar who is shy and socially awkward (and also frequently gets in trouble due to her obsession with malware and viruses) and the "Manager" who oversees numerous groups in Sentinel (she is cold due to past experiences but cares about her team's performance).
Going more into the gameplay, if you've played both Tower Defense and Roguelites, you have about an 80% understanding of what the game offers, but I'll take it from the top. The player controls Reta across 24 main levels that each contain at least one "core" that has to be defended against malware across multiple waves. At the start of each wave, the player has a preparation portion where they can set up tower modules, collector modules and position Kiana and Lina. There are clear lines across the level that show the routes of the different malware, how many you can expect to spawn from each location, as well as the general travel path of any incoming enemies that don't follow the standard rules. Kiana and Lina are essentially additional towers but they're special as you can upgrade their abilities back at the central hub, they don't cost any energy to place and they allow you to use special moves specific to them. Kiana specializes in "scanning" while Lina attacks any malware directly.
Scanning is an important component of the game which is an added spin from most other TD games; packets come down the assembly lines and the player and towers must first deal a certain amount of "scan" damage before they can attack malware directly. Not all packets have malware, but all packets must be scanned nonetheless to verify they're safe before they reach the core(s). Some towers specialize in scanning, some in malware destruction, and some are balanced. Before you can use any towers though, you need to expend and accumulate "memory". Memory is mostly gained from collector modules, but it can also be gained from add-on modules you gain from the Manager as well as through random upgrades granted to you by Lyzar as you collect malware data (basically experience points like you would get in a "survivors" game). Speaking of Lyzar, she will grant you a lot of additional weaponry and options in the same capacity as you collect malware samples. All improvements (add-ons-weapons, allies, etc.) costs power cells gained by gaining performance stars from levels.
The last main thing to discuss is bosses; they're giant malwares that can be hit directly, but they must be hacked after being injured which involves completing mini-games like Space Invaders, Flappy Birds, etc. It's a cool twist that requires a bit of dexterity. There are added challenges as you progress, optional modes as you clear the game and if a challenge is too hard to get full stars, you can clear future levels and revisit them when you're stronger. The art is naturally very good as can be expected of Chowbie but the rest of the graphics are neat too, and the music, while lacking in variety, is also nice. The game is $8 normally which is fair, but you can wait for a discount if it seems a tad steep. This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4156370/Antivirus_Girl/
Enjoy.
ADDITION -
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