Kwumpus Hunt by MechMage

 

Fan cover made by Clavietika

Absurd, surreal, and goofy. Based on a text adventure game from the 70s, Kwumpus Hunt offers a fantastic comedy wrapped up in puzzle-like gameplay that any Student Transfer fan should check at least once if they want to try out something different and refreshing.

The plot centers around Mel and her quest for the Kwumpus, an evil entity that has taken over the school changing everything and everybody to his liking. With the help of her friend and guide Flavia, Mel will have to find out what is happening and strike in the right moment to free the school of its perdition.

The gameplay is nonlinear and even randomized. Now, before you flip up about randomizer use, I have to say that this is randomizer use done right. There are several characters that appear in different rooms every time, the location of the villain is also randomized so you will never know where to actually attack. The rooms without characters offer to the player the possibility to watch pieces of the past to collect clues about the evil Kwumpus to make sense out of the situation.

The rooms with characters will not let you get any clues from that room, so, to get all clues, you will need to replay the scenario several times; even then, the scenario lets you get the right ending with a single playthrough. Replaying the game is very enjoyable anyway thanks to the 7 different endings you can get in total (9 countings some small variations according to Mech, but I didn't see them anywhere, to be honest).

Each room gives you a limited selection of other rooms to go to, if you find end up walking to a room with the wrong character, you will get a bad ending; you have to learn how to go through the right combination of rooms to navigate through the school without being found by the villain or one of the mind-controlled people before time. 

One thing I found a bit annoying is that the rooms do not follow a certain pattern, naturally. Being in the stairway doesn't give you the option to go to the roof, and being on the gate doesn't necessarily let you go to the courtyard, you have to go through several rooms until you find one that lets you access the room you are looking for. While some people might find this a small inconvenience that could increase gameplay without adding any actual content, I found it to be just a small nitpick in the otherwise interesting random mechanics of the game. Because yes, that's right, this is not just a visual novel, this is an actual puzzle game where you have to press the right buttons at the right time.

A lot of the TF events like gender-bending, possession, and twinning are used either just in small amounts or are relegated for comedic gags, so overall I would classify this as a Mind Control focused scenario since it is after all the main threat destroying the school.

While I would not recommend it to people who want a thought through serious TF narrative or to lewd and sex-oriented TF fans, I think Kwumpus Hunt is a great choice for anybody who is looking for come comedy-oriented TF content. It is not just very interactive but also very funny and one of its kind.

A New Life by BuggsB

 

Fan cover made by me

Probably the most recommendable Power Trip scenario. Now, what is Power Trip? When playing and reviewing scenarios, you usually find certain patterns or certain criteria that repeats in some releases, so naturally, for me, the idea of giving that pattern a tag becomes a necessity so these scenarios that share certain characteristic can be grouped together and recommended together. (Classification is just such a beautiful thing <3).

The term "Power Trip"  was coined by Student Transfer Developer Narg when we were discussing a way to classify this kind of scenario in TF fiction, and is a term a lot of people agreed with. What does Power Trip mean? A scenario in which the protagonist abuses power with impunity without negative repercussions, often so the reader can vicariously experience being powerful. In Power Trip scenarios, the ethics beyond the limit of the protagonist's powers are often ignored, letting the player experience the story without mental repercussions or remorse.

In this way, we can group scenarios like Harem, The Tale of the Loser, Body Switchers, and even new ones like John Sudden Lifechange. Now, the idea behind the Power Trip tag is having the protagonist being the one who has the power to change things, if another character has the power to change everything and the protagonist is part of the victims, that would fall into the label of masochism. Even then some people could argue that the obscure Takeover route of Student Transfer has a character that could be a way to achieve power for the writer even when the events are told from John's perspective. I accept that the tag is still a bit wonky and the concept is a work in progress, but by now I propose it to you to group certain scenarios that follow this format.

While Power Trip might be infamous among people who like TF due to the psychological implications and the possibilities of creating conflict around the struggle of an identity change, it is true that Power Trip has its own appeal, normally between people who like TF for lewd reasons more than for any psychological or dramatic reasons. I would define it as some sort of dark, freeform Wish Fulfillment that doesn't take care of real-world ethics.

Going back to A New Life, the scenario offers a new take of Claus, the most respected person in school due to his grades and his intelligence. Once a new student arrives, Michelle, Claus loses his spot as the number one student and looks for a ghost trying to make a wish so he can get revenge. The spirit, Faith, tricks him and steals his body, making Claus a ghost unattached to the shrine that needs to have a body to exist. If he stays without a body for too long, he will end up disappearing.

The scenario at the moment goes through a big amount of decisions and flairs but offers overall two main routes (with a big new Sandra route coming soon) and it has something that makes it stand over a lot of other scenarios, detailed animations all over the story to enhance the experience. For the most part, there is all sorts of boob bouncing, boob bouncing with dresses, with sports shirts, boob bouncing with all kinds of poses, if you love lewd content you will certainly enjoy all these animations that really make you submerge more into the story.

The main route starts when Claus possess Allison and due to her assets, decides to stay as her for the time being, Irene discovers the truth and after some time Claus discovers how to mind control her as well as Allison, making them both praise him and obey him as their master, Claus also concedes Cornelia her wish of being her friend Sayaka instead in exchange of having Irene take her place in her body so they all can live in her mansion. What the story points out now is that Claus is presenting his new self to school and is planning how to get to the top again and avenge Michelle, but Buggs writes the story as he imagines it so things are pretty much unpredictable, really.

The characters are very one-note, Allison is treated as some sort of dumb airhead that only knows about her boobs, Claus is very much a Mary-Sue with incredibly high levels of intelligence and no regards for the feelings of others, and Irene is treated as the tough girl of the group, but I have to admit she is the one that feels most natural of the tree so far.

Overall, what else you can ask for? It's an over-the-top, bizarre story where you as a protagonist have no limits, there is also (some sort of) plot, which makes it different from previous Power Trip scenarios where things just keep happening without reason. The descriptions about Allison's body and breasts are very detailed and that added to the superb animations Buggs has carefully crafted all over make this route a favorite for me and a solid recommendation for any Lewd scenario fans.

The other route focuses on a male-to-male possession where Claus enters the body of Stevie and some days after confronts Mel who is picking up on Stevie. Things happen, and Mel and Claus start to get closer to each other more and more while he is in Stevie's body. While it is interesting to see Mel feel intrigued and confused by this new Stevie as if she develops her feelings for him, I found it ironic that the whole route is based on fixing the relationship of these two while Mel is just talking with somebody that has possessed Stevie, not the real him. Claus overall acts the same as he does in the whole scenario, trying to show his superiority and being apathetic to her advances even when externally giving up to them until they have sex. If Claus stays in Stevie's body, he is probably going to get somebody to reach for, but Claus overall I felt he was the same until the placeholder, with little to no character growth, he wins them all, and he always has the reason.

This route is overall a mixed bag, it is one of the few or probably the only one with Male to Male possession in the Student Transfer scenario catalog, and thanks to Stevie's huge penis, it is probably a good option for guys who want some variety and want to feel who it is to be a more "gifted" person :P. But the thing is that Stevie overall looks too young and that might be a deal-breaker for some (the initial release had to be deleted since Stevie was described as underage). Buggs says that he can't really write about a boy who isn't girly enough since if he isn't then it isn't really different enough to Claus and therefore not interesting to write, which is a fair point as a writer, but still something I would mention to people who want to check the route out, Stevie is basically a girly boy with a really huge penis, which plays in the irony of his appearance.

Even when I do not usually enjoy lewd scenarios, I found the Allison route quite enjoyable and recommendable, all things considered, and I am waiting for an update soon.