Innocence Or Money: Adult Visual Novel Game Review
It’s refreshing to play as a female protagonist, something which is rarely explored within the adult visual novel game genre. Whilst erotica is primarily read by women, adult VNs do tend to be enjoyed more by males due to the visual nature of the pornographic gameplay.
Usually adult VNs start with a young male moving to a new city or starting college, and Innocence Or Money is the same except it’s a young lady. Jennifer is a young twenty-something who leaves her small town to pursue her lifelong dream of living it large, with ambitions of jewelry, fashion and holidays. However, she’s not exactly slutty – this girl seems completely innocent and oblivious.
It’s not just the female-first gimmick that makes Innocence Or Money special. This game, whilst made with the generic Visual Novel engine Ren’Py, is more of a life simulator with enjoyable game mechanics. You interact with Jennifer to structure every part of her day, telling her where and how to earn money, whether she should go to the gym or not, along with fulfilling needs such as food and hygiene. You also need to ensure she has enough money to pay her rent, buy items such as her phone, and pay to enter the gym (necessary for her to work in certain jobs). This adds an extra layer of realism and control to the game, making it stand above others in the genre like College Bound.
Jennifer quickly realises that earning $15 a day cleaning a house or even $50 a day at the local coffee shop will not be enough to get her the life she dreamed of, especially with her outgoings. She starts getting temptations where she can earn more money, but in doing so gradually loses her innocence. From stealing money to letting employers feel her up, to pursuing more lucrative but morally questionable careers… you have the control to decide how much you are willing to corrupt Jennifer to enable her to fulfil her desires.
Will you keep Jennifer sweet and innocent, or will she do anything for money and go down a road of self-destruction? Only you can decide.
There’s plenty of adult visual novels on the market, and the graphics are generally the same, so the real way to rank them is through the writing and storytelling. The games which stand out in this genre are the ones which spark extreme emotions from the player. For example, some players said they “came for the boobs, stayed for the plot” and even “I cummed and cried” after playing Acting Lessons.
Playing as a female character and therefore putting yourself in their shoes drives some interesting reactions from players. Looking at reviews, one player said “I felt bad for playing as a girl; it felt awful that you’re just an object for pleasure and almost everybody wants to use you for their purposes” and another said “Morally I feel terrible making her do some of the [sex acts]“. Whilst this may be a huge turn-off for some people, others thoroughly enjoy the depth this brings to the AVN game.
Episodes 1-3 are free on Steam and it takes roughly 2.3 hours to playthrough, assuming you take Jennifer down the dark path rather than innocently hustling for minimum wage. Further paid DLCs are available to continue to the story, in which the scenes become significantly more graphic.
Whilst the free version of the game is pretty tame in regards to the content (there’s a significant absence of boobs), it is a brilliant gateway into the storyline and allows you to make the informed decision on whether you should pay to continue or not. I actually really enjoyed the game and would absolutely recommend it.
