Ever since I finally joined Steam last year I have fallen into the habit of periodically just browsing the Visual Novel tag in the store as well as yaoi and LGBTQ+ tags to see if anything peaks my interest. It was while perusing the Steam store recently that I stumbled upon a short yaoi visual novel that was for free called Blood and Lust. At first I was hesitant because well something good can’t be free right? But then I remembered well Doki Doki Literature Club is free and that has a pretty big following, and though you won’t get a story as deep and open to countless fan theories like Doki Doki, Blood and Lust is a game that did not disappoint me.
The first thing you will notice when you boot up the game is that it will give you the option to play with or without the yaoi elements of the story, so you have the option to play a safe for work or not safe for work version of the story. I found overall this did not effect the story line but if you are coming to this game wanting some yaoi you will very much enjoy the NSFW elements this game has, I mean what self respecting fujoshi or fudanshi does not like the idea of some hot and steaming time between some well built, sweaty roman gladiators?
But I am getting ahead of myself because that fun part comes a little later in the game…pun intended in this case I guess. In the game you play as a young gladiator whose master has promised that tomorrow he will be a free man and he will no longer have to be a gladiator, but then his master is found dead and you have to try and find out who murdered your master. The murder mystery unfortunately is one of the weakest parts of the story because it becomes very obvious early on the who and the why, but the game makes up for this with some really interesting and fun character writing especially when it comes to your rival / love interest in a fellow gladiator.
The game is split between basic turn based gladiator fights in the arena and the free time which you will use to investigate what happened to your master. One element of the game that really surprised me was the soundtrack because all the music tracks in the game are really good and do a perfect job of setting the mood throughout the game.
If you are looking for a short yaoi visual novel to play that you can get through in a quiet afternoon, I can not recommend this game enough especially since as I stated at the beginning of this review it is free on Steam!
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