Leon Wants YOU for the Black Arme Vapula
Venus Blood -HOLLOW- is part of a multi-work series created by Ninetail that combines adult Visual Novel and Strategy RPG mechanics. Initially released exclusively in Japanese in 2014 under the title Venus Blood -Hypno-, it is the second of its kind to be remastered and localized for International players, following Venus Blood -Frontier-. The official international release (via localizer JAST's official website) was November 25, 2021, though the Tamer and Chaster Steam version was delayed until January 6, 2022.
The game's narrative is centered around a sibling pair — the protagonist Leonhardt and his cousin, Anora — as they fight to regain their freedom, something that was stripped away from them by the largest nation in the world, the Varganian Empire.
Leonhardt has been tasked with taking over the three surrounding nations for the sake of his master, Empress Karvia. However, underneath his subservient façade, he resents the empress who placed shackles upon him and seeks retribution for the humiliation of forced servitude, seeking to destroy the empire that she rules and take over as the leader of a new nation. In a twist of fate, he crosses path with Sylvia, who is none other than the White Princess of the Empire. Despite being the younger sister of the Empress Karvia, she is a kindhearted soul who is well loved by the citizens of the empire. Sylvia sees the tyranny of her elder sister and the suffering of the citizens, and wishes to put an end to all the corruption and change things for the better.
He, who wishes for the destruction of the empire so that he may rule in its place... And she, who wishes for revolution, as well as peace and stability for the world... What awaits them at the end of their journey...?
This game includes the following Tropes:
- Amazon Brigade: "Men" and "Women" are considered races by the Race Limited Mode, which means you can restrict yourself to an all-woman army.
- Ascended Extra: Thanks to stretch goals in the Localization Project campaign, some "side characters" received new personal episodes, with the lucky extras decided by a backer-exclusive vote. The official update
revealed that the characters in question are Dorothy, Nazuna, and Kaya, the latter being particularly noteworthy as she lacked a personal episode in the original Hypno release. - Cast from Lifespan: Anora's power to "Morph" the souls of others comes at this cost.
- Cast of Snowflakes: There are a total of 360 different unit types to form squads with and take into battle, each of which has a unique design (although there is a bit of overlap in units with similar function such as cavalry), in addition to the main cast of five protagonists, five Dark Lords each with their own unique attendants, and the unaligned factions impeding or aiding Leonhardt's conquest.
- Cat Girl: Ayame, the Prime Minister of Rakshasa and "The Eastern Number One Onmyouji", is a Nekomata that has a pair of large cat ears.
- Challenge Run: As seen in this picture from a public Kickstarter update, Hollow includes not only an Inheritance mode, but also various Custom Game modes, including one in which the player is limited to recruiting units from one of the game's 21 different races.
- Co-Dragons: Celias "the Wraith Knight" and Chancellor Hamud have gained a reputation as Varganian's Warrior Guardians, serving directly under Empress Karvia. Protagonist Leonhardt has his own, in the form of his cousin Anora "the Black Maiden" and Noel, sub-commanders of his personal military unit "Black Arme Vapula".
- The Corrupter: One of the staples of the Venus Blood series, but also one of the games where it's completely optional. Use of corruption will turn the Dark Lords of the world's nations, including both Karvia and Sylvia of the Empire, into your loyal servants at the cost of their mental stability, some of Anora's power, and access to other special endings.
- Defector from Decadence: Sylvia, sister of the tyrannical Empress Karvia, leaves the Empire and sides with Leonhardt after realizing how corrupt its rule had become.
- Dragon Rider: The Principality of Archlond, led by Dark Lord Julia von Archlond, is the home of dragons as well as the world's strongest air force, consisting of these (in both Dragon Knight and Death Dragoon variants), sentient dragons (such as Captain Mason), and other flying classes.
- The Empire: The Varganian Empire, so dreaded by the other three nations that mere reports that the Empress is engaging in "suspicious activity" caused them to simultaneously break their non-aggression pact to wage war against it.
- Floating Continent: The "Holy Land" of Helvetia, which floats over the cursed land of Ishta. It was once protected by the goddess Elnath, but was conquered by Ishta's demons and is now the capital of the Varganian Empire.
- Fusion Dance: Anora was forcibly converted into a Wraith by the Empire, which allows her to manipulate souls at the cost of some life, to the point of merging a Dark Lord with their main assistant if they become sufficiently corrupted. However, while the Dark Lord will take on the assistant's physical and mental traits, the assistant character will still remain as a separate unit.
- Guest Fighter: Thanks to stretch goals in the Localization Project campaign, sixteen characters from other Venus Blood games appear in Hollow. They are just battle units with no event scenes, but a character with multiple forms in their game of origin has them all included as one character slot. A list of the characters is as follows:
- Two forms of Demon Princess Lucina, from Venus Blood -Abyss-.
- Four forms of Loki, two from Venus Blood -Frontier- (Normal and Hvedrung), and two from Venus Blood -Ragnarok- (Young and Adult).
- Two forms of male protagonist Theofrad, two forms of Vanilla, and one form of Titie, from Venus Blood -Gaia-note .
- Three forms of War Goddess Fana, three forms of Idol Goddess Ullr, and three forms of Chief Goddess Nanna, from Venus Blood -Ragnarok-.
- Two forms of male protagonist Hain, and one form each of Hain's maid Sheila, the main heroine Leona, reborn goddess Chibi Yilan, princess Elemia, and Alarune Queen Youki, from Venus Blood -Brave-.
- Two forms of main heroine Tia Elysis, and one form of Ice Princess Revia, from Venus Blood -Lagoon-.
- Horned Humanoid: All Oni (like Tsubaki) and Draconic Humanoids (like Orga), as well as some demons (like Leonhardt), have horns protruding from their heads.
- An Ice Person: Judecca has the power to manipulate ice crystals, which she often channels into her blade. If she and Sylvia perform a Morph, Sylvia gains this technique, though she chooses to use it differently.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The main difficulty levels go from "Very Easy" to "Very Hard", but the hardest difficulty is listed as "Thanatos" (the god of Death).
- I Owe You My Life: Sylvia's bodyguard Judecca Rosequartz, who first pledged her fealty after Sylvia saved her life.
- Kissing Cousins: Anora, Leonhardt's cousin, is one of the potential love interests.
- Little Bit Beastly: Noel is a Lupold, which means she has dog ears and a tail, but otherwise looks like an ordinary person. There are also other beastly girls that play more minor roles in the campaign.
- Mad Scientist: Eleanore de Victorique, the Dark Lord of the nation of Necrograd, specializes in "the science of ascension and death". She invented Tetra, and if corrupted, further augments her body after the initial Fusion Dance with Tetra to become "the Fullmetal Woman".
- Multiple Endings: How you interact with the Dark Lords and make your choices within Order Versus Chaos decisions will affect the conclusion, with special endings featuring both a Lord and their main servant (instead of having to choose between them) available under the right conditions.
- Naughty Tentacles: Another staple of the franchise, with this game specifically being designated as a "Dark Lord Degradation Tentacle Turn-based Adventure Strategy RPG".
- Order Versus Chaos: Other than how you interact with the other characters, there are also these types of choices you can make in event cutscenes between Peace (Order) and Conquest (Chaos) that affect the ending.
- Porn with Plot: The original Hypno version of the game had an enormous amount of sex scenes — and also an intriguing storyline that changed depending on the decisions you made, as well as surprisingly deep strategy-based gameplay. The all-ages version removes the porn entirely, while still keeping the story and gameplay. And the Hollow version includes even more sex scenes, focusing on women chosen by fans that contributed to the Kickstarter for funding international localization.
- Robot Girl: Tetra, "the Android Weapon", is a combat golem created by Eleanore, the Dark Lord of Necrograd.
- Secret Final Campaign: Clearing the game with at least one "Order" and one "Chaos" ending unlocks a secret route.
- Self-Censored Release: The Updated Re-release exorcises all the pornographic scenes from the game by default, though the developers also offer an optional patch to add it back in.
- Shock and Awe: If Tsubaki is Morphed with Ayame, she gains control of thunder and lightning using the latter's weather manipulation techniques, and gains the moniker "Bluebolt Yakshini".
- Story Difficulty Setting: On "Easy" difficulty, the player has the option to skip battles, and on "Very Easy", they can skip all of the War phases entirely.
- Tamer and Chaster: The Steam version, excluding any supplemental patching, removes optional explicit content and edits plot-relevant scenes to fit within the distributor's guidelines.
- Uncle Sam Wants You: Promotional imagery for the -Hollow- re-release features main protagonists Leon and Anora wanting YOU for their personal military unit, the "Black Arme Vapula".
- Unperson: Leonhardt and his Black Arme Vapula were instrumental in defeating Elnath and conquering Helvetia, but he was since stricken from history and shrouded in darkness so he could be used as the Empire's secret weapon.
- Wham Line: One bad ending has Leonhardt imprisoned by Karvia. While he cannot leave his room and Karvia regularly comes in to "use" him, the suite is luxurious and he has servants to handle all of his needs and clean up after his messes, giving the impression that he got off okay for a protagonist in a bad ending. Then Karvia predicts that with all of the comfort surrounding him, soon he will no longer even miss his arms and legs.
