Adult BL Gacha game review – NU: carnival

February 2022 has been a pretty blessed month for BL game enthusiasts with Slow Damage preview, UuultraC release date announcement and Tokyo Onmyoji release, but the one that has given the greatest shock (the pleasant kind) so far has been NU: carnival, an NSFW Husbando Collector BL gacha game! It’s made by a pretty new Taiwanese developer and available for mobile platforms only (I’m playing it using Bluestacks emulator though, it’s running perfectly smooth) with some browser access (only Safari). The game opened for preregistration in December 2021 and was simultaneously released in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean language with Japanese voice acting on February 24, 2022. While the game isn’t 100% voiced (sex scenes are fully voiced with animated movements and uncensored xxxx which I’ve never seen in a BL game), the voice cast is surprisingly professional and one of the big reasons I was drawn to the game.

The mc is voiced by my favorite voice actor Netoru whom you probably have heard in my Paradise posts as Azuma, the man is so freaking talented <333 As soon as I saw him in the cast, I was really hoping that we’d get a reversible protagonist but trying not to be too hopeful because Japanese games always seem to prefer fixed roles, but BASED TAIWAN DEVS WENT AND DID IT! Eiden (fixed protagonist name in English, the in-game characters call him “Eito” which I suppose is his name in jp) is a gay man who is very flexible and open-minded in regards to sex, you will experience zero “no homo” situations in this game from his side 🥰🥰🥰

The full cast (voice preview vid here)

• Eiden (Protagonist): Irakusa Netoru
• Yakumo: Sawa Manaka
• Edmond: Muru Nimaigai
• Olivine: One Night Love
• Quincy: Oshima Tetsu
• Kuya: Yotsuya Cider
• Garu: Kuroi Isamu
• Aster: Kashiro Futo
• Morvay: Natsumeda Yuto
• Blade: Hokki Nimaigai

NU: carnival is a basic generic portrait combat RPG as far as the gameplay and affection raising mechanic goes, but everything is made as lewd as possible (characters losing clothing as they take damage in battle or as you poke their portraits in the gallery to give them gifts 🤣🤣🤣). I salute the developers for not compromising on the level of NSFW content and putting the game on their website without hosting it on android or apple app store. It was hilarious when I started up the game and ran into a sex scene almost immediately, fully visible dicks and all😂

The right pic greeted me within 30 seconds of the left

This was followed by a flashback about how exactly things progressed to this point as well as a tutorial which makes you engage in some easy RPG fights that aren’t exactly related to the plot (majority of the gacha game fights tend not to be). The game seems pretty friendly to free players so far. Currently the only other gacha game I’m playing is Tears of Themis otome game which actually is even more friendly in that regard, but NU: carnival is still better than some other gacha that won’t let you advance past the prologue unless you cough up money. I’m in chapter 4 at this moment and haven’t paid a single time. The one thing I think they can improve is the general interface of the gacha related sections, some of the important buttons are hidden behind multiple clicks so new people may be a little confused.

1) Eiden being horny 2) Eiden being serious 3) Eiden being serious about horny matters

As for the “romance”…. If you’re looking for something sweet and proper with literary prose that you can show your non-BL lover friends then NU:carnival absolutely isn’t it, but I love how the game is self-aware and unapologetically lewd with a horny protagonist whose whole character isn’t around being horny. He’s a pretty chill and witty dude that is just going around doing his own thing while flirting with and consensually banging cute/handsome guys whenever the opportunity arises (and they do rise a lot due to some magical reasons XD). I’ve encountered H-scenes with 3 dudes in the common route and there are more unlockable ones you can get by giving gifts and raising affection. True to the gacha element of the game, you will need to summon units often and hope for SSR cards as you can only see Hscenes of guys of you have SSRs of during the main story, otherwise you just see them talking afterwards. You can come back later and watch the scene when you have the card, though, so it shouldn’t be a big issue. Patience is vital~ There are also side stories for most cards that can be unlocked by raising affection, though only SSR and SR side stories have sex scenes.

Eiden saying fun stuff

The prose is nice, it’s light hearted with many funny moments but not too much. There are a few typos here and there but nothing big enough to ruin my enjoyment. The sex scenes are a little raunchy (some friends called the prose fanfic like lol) but I found them sexy and didn’t cringe which is already a win 👍(I’m looking at you, young adult romance novels and BL games like absolute obedience). I also have been enjoying the plot even though it’s not super unique, it’s your standard isekai’d dude is actually special stuff but they seem to be actually putting some effort into the worldbuilding and the happenings in the background which is a pleasant surprise?

One more thing, while the protagonist is a “Seke” (reversible), some of the guys are tops and some are bottoms with a variety of personality types available, so everyone should be able to find a husbando who will satisfy you 😉

My favorite is Yakumo, isn’t he precious?

You can download the app from the official website from the below link. Do check it out if you’re over 18 years old and have a taste for light hearted nonapologetically porny stories with gacha elements 😉 Since the app stores don’t allow explicit content, you will need to go to the below download link. The you can install the game by –

• for android phones/Bluestacks emulator: downloading the game’s .apk file through clicking “android”
• for apple phones: following some specific steps that are shown when you click “iOS” (alternative method 1 if sideloadely doesn’t work, alt. method 2 if even method 1 fails)
• for browser (iOS users only): visiting the download link through Safari browser and clicking “play game”, demo here

Game Download link

Official Website with character and plot info

Brief tips for people people completely new to the game:

1. For the love of god USE HEADPHONES!!! Also don’t let others see your screen unless you want to flash people with uncensored dicks 🤣🤣🤣
2. If you preregistered you can get extra items by going to the top right button with 3 lines–>settings->other->redeem code.
3. Frequently check the deeds section for more bonuses.
4. You will get a lot of energy points in the beginning, don’t let them sit still and go to the Journey section to advance through the chapters.
5. You’ll gain player levels pretty quickly in the beginning, don’t forget to periodically visit the Allies section to level up your units, they don’t auto level like some other gacha games. You may also want to increase their potential in addition to the level.
6. You summon units from the Contract section, the various types of gacha are a little confusing but basically the friendship points gacha are more affordable but can only give you up to SR, whereas the other gacha like clan contract ones need contracts/spirit gems but can give you SSR (the probability is rather low though, you only have slightly higher odds of getting SSRs in the beginning (it’s not mentioned but most of my fellow players got 1-2 SSR within the first 20 pulls and hardly any later).
7. Once you get stuck in the chapters because of too many monsters, repeat the daily quests from the the Journey section instead and level yourself further. The holy water and coin options are better for this purpose than the gift items ones.
8. The items in the daily and special sections of the shop can be bought with in-game currency and are important if you’re a f2p player like me. The mystery section may have items that are on sale, at the time of writing this post (25/2/2022) there are contracts on sale which are a better deal compared to using the blue spirit gems directly for summoning (10 pull is 4800 gems instead of 6000).
9. Player info can be accessed by clicking the level button on the top left, you can access the friends section from there as well. Please note that the UID is what you give others so they can friend you using it, invite code is something that a new player uses only once when starting the game to get some extra gifts.

EDIT: A better, more thorough guide can be found here. I’d recommend you check out the reddit MEGA THREAD for even more useful resources.

If you wanna add me as a friend here’s my info 🥺 Come join me ❤

UID: 774311422

Invite code: RCHPHK