This is fourth of fifteen essays contained within the fourth issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, a collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. If you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!
Written By: MxMorganic
For years, I grappled with the fascinating paradox inherent to NTR games: games are inherently defined by the player’s agency over what happens, and NTR is inherently defined by denying a cuck agency over what happens. Therefore, anyone intending to make meaningful progress through an NTR game where they play as a cuck must exercise their agency so they, through the protagonist, can lose their own agency. How the hell do we reconcile that?
Last year, reading Leo G.’s article in the previous Adult Analysis Anthology, I got the answer I was looking for: “a cuck chooses, a bull obeys.” Those six words and the breakdown that follow finally helped me make sense of my question, and if you haven’t read their article, you absolutely should.
But later in that same paragraph, Leo G. writes, “the player-as-cuck gets to choose if the NTRing happens. There’s almost always an alternate way forward where the relationship is saved.” True as that is, immediately I thought of my favorite NTR game, a game I adore precisely because of how thoroughly it rejects that idea: UROOM’s Dark Hero Party.
Continue reading “You Choose, You Lose: The Illusion Of Agency In Dark Hero Party”