Visual Novel with many ways/ options & endings to find.

Good for Achievement Hunters (buy with 50 % or higher discount)

The Barbarian and the Subterranean Caves is a choose your own adventure visual novel with adult NSFW content by NLB project. It features an adventurer Ragnar who wanders into a city in the desert to look for work as a mercenary, and decides to take up on a bounty offer to hunt down a beast hiding in an underground cave that has been terrorizing the city folk who go to the cave to fetch water.

As a choose your own adventure visual novel, the protagonist starts with three qualities the player can choose which will slightly alter the storyline, and there are plenty of decision points, plot branches and endings. There are some unexpected surprises at certain points in the story and a few comical situations with a funny ending scene. I like the dinosaur more than the noblewoman or the secret girl, can we have an ending with the dinosaur? xD

Among the cons, some parts of the story are repeated and there are a few achievements such as Magic Amulet and Shine of a coin which involve giving a similar response to the same character in a different plot branch in the story. In addition, the short gameplay time where it takes around a couple of hours to play and read through all the text in this game, get all achievements and reach the secret romance ending that was added in an earlier update means it might be more worthwhile to wait until the game is discounted to a couple of dollars or less to match the gameplay time.

Overall, The Barbarian and the Subterranean Caves is a short choose your own adventure visual novel without any sound effects or animation. The game relies on illustrations and text to tell a story that has an interesting storyline, comical illustrations and easy achievements. There are published Steam community guides to help players in reaching the parts that are harder to find and get all achievements in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6WVCpIvbOQ
+ The writing and dialogue is surprisingly pretty good.
+ Multiple paths based on your choices thorughout the game.

- The trailer, and the graphics seem a bit misleading as some may think this is an adventure game. It seems like they took screenshots of fully rendered 3D game assets, and then decided to put text under and call it a game.
- Honestly, the game feels a bit lazily developed. You would think having fully rendered graphics they could have at least included some animations or perhaps some gameplay. In a way,
- Each story arc is very short with abrupt endings.

https://youtu.be/URv6GcfEkkg

The developers were honest in the title, large sections of this visual novel take place inside of caves where the protagonist searches in winding tunnels for clues. The story does provide players a fair number of choices and some light character creation to select a hand full of perks that impact the story in a few places.

It's obvious where corners were cut when making this game and the missteps outweigh any good elements.

Far superior sequel to previous VN by these dudes "wild island". You can tell they are actually trying, but severly defficent in resources and training/experience. Not worth five bucks but def worth more then .50 cents, I'd say 3.00.

Once again, like previous title I enjoyed the game. I went in expecting MSTK3000 comedy but actually really enjoyed the story for serious this time. The plot had several unexpected twists which were cool, the changes in story based on decisions were impressive. There was a decent ratio of art to text. Game is designed more like choose your own adventure then a VN, designed for multiple playthroughs.

There is no voice work, the music is meh and too loud in relation to sound effects, the sound effects are very few and suck. The menu is pretty bad. no animations. There were still some lolworthy faces but I actually like these. The sex scene was surprisingly taseful and not just wank material, that booty thicc though.

the tavern minigame sucked and was confusing but I guess it was nice of them to try including something intresting. Translation was much better this time, though I enjoyed laughing at last games failure, nice for people that want serious.

I liked the game but its rough, low budget, and very european , keep in mind before you buy. Needs better sound effects, more varied and better music, better use of rpg mechanics, more freedom of movement and less linear choose your own adventure style of play.

Visual novel game with a generic story about an adventurer who finds himself in a foreign town and eventually is enticed to hunt a monster in a cave in the outskirts of town.

The overall story is very short and rushed, lasting about 10-15 minutes of reading, and there is little character development, but what is there is decently well written and hashed together.

There are tons of different choices, including character attributes at the beginning of the story, and multiple endings to boot.

Achievements are tied to different plot checkpoints, and given the fast paced nature of the game are rather easy and fast to get. Do not forget to save often at each decision branch.

The 3D artwork is passable, not the best but it does a good enough job to convey the point. Character expressions and the lack of blood in the more violent scenes are a case in point, often being on the "so bad is good" side.

There are a couple of erotic scenes that can be turned off, probably the most well set and designed in the story.

The generic music chosen fits well with the game, not memorable by any means but pleasurable enough to listen to nonetheless.

Overall a decent visual novel, though not one for those that are looking for long drawn out stories. In the expensive side given how short it is so I do recommend getting it on sale. 6/10

Much in the same vein as this dev's The Adventurous Four. A 65/100 effort.

The good

As with most of these games, amusing outcomes to your choices
The romance is pretty well done
The digital graphics are pretty good
Easy to get a perfect game, if that's your thing.

The bad

Short
Minimal replay value once you've taken every path

I learned this the hard way, streaming this game may result in a suspension on some streaming platforms, so please be aware of that. Outside of that issue, this game was a great experience as a visual novel. The story paths are short so it gives you room to replay and try out different directions for the story and explore(or get lost in) various parts of the cave. The graphics are what sold me and they did not disappoint: great character designs, excessive but fun textures everywhere, and a bright and exciting color palette. The only real disappointment was that I went into this game thinking it would be animated but unfortunately it is still image based.

I am 32 years old.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.

Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.

With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.

After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.

Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.

Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.

Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.

Thank you.

If you hope for many H-scenes then this game is not for you, but if you want some decent VN game that has many choices for you to explore within few hours so this is the good one.