FlashCycling Side.S is buggy but a lot of fun.

If you are looking for an exhibitionism game with a bit of a twist, the FlashCycling series combines flashing with bike riding and Internet streaming. Overall, it's a good concept. In particular, Side.S is my personal favorite in that series, and also probably one of my favorite RPG Maker eroges, too! That said, I think there's a few things you should know before you dive in.

For one, Side.S is one of the buggiest RPGM games I have ever played, and it's not close. There is definitely something foundationally wrong here in the code, and the longer a play session, the greater the chance you encounter a bug that effectively softlocks or crashes the game. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these bugs occur while you're flashing, something you'll be doing a lot, and the activity you probably least want to be interrupted while doing. You have got to save very, very often to avoid losing progress.

Another thing that is a bit awkward is the overall game progression. While you do unlock moves that you can use to flash at any time in the game world, and NPCs and your streaming audience react accordingly in real time, to move the main and side plots forward and to unlock new moves, you have to hunt for little event squares in the game world and go and interact with them, which is a very old-school and linear RPGM eroge design that feels odd and out of place in this otherwise dynamic and non-linear game. It's so out of place and at odds with the base game design that the game just straight up lists the events and where and when you can access them in the game menu because most players would probably be unable to figure out how to progress otherwise. Progression also isn't particularly smooth, with fits and starts throughout. It takes a long time for you to get from flashing your bra to flashing your panties, for example, but once you flash your panties, you move on to being able to take off your bra and flash your bare breasts right afterward.

There are a number of attempts at real-time minigames and interactions here too, which I think are fascinating, but never quite land. For example, while sitting on a park bench or in the subway, you can hit keys to expose certain parts of your body while an indicator onscreen warns you if someone is approaching. If you're caught, you receive what I call "the traditional eroge loss scenario" (if you know you know). However, because these interactions are constructed in RPGM's cutscene mode, the tick rate is like 5 FPS. This isn't really a performance issue, it's just that the updates to the UI and visuals are incredibly sparse by design, and so the dev using this as an interactive real-time game mode is wonky and feels off. I think it's a neat idea, though. It kind of reminds me of the sort of thing I'd do, too, so I can't rag on the dev too much for it. But it is not ideal...

Overall, the core game loop is pretty fun, and even with the uneven progression, you unlock new abilities and milestones pretty regularly. It is a bit of a slow-burn corruption game, though, so it's not suitable as quick fap-material the way, say, Manaka and Seleka are. Just remember to save often so you don't end up having to repeat any of that slow-burn! I give Side.S a recommendation to anyone who thinks they can stomach the bugs, if you can I think you'll find a solid exhibitionism and corruption experience!

I wanted to expand my repertoire of game reviews a little bit. I think RPGM games in particular are a good target for this, since they are of extremely varied quality, so maybe I can help you all find the some of the diamonds in the rough, since if you're a member here, you probably have somewhat similar taste to me!