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The Heart of Darkness
Explore the Sanctuary of Darkness, a mysterious dungeon beneath the Kingdom of Haillard. Obtain the soul of the Cursed Saintess waiting in its depths and unravel the truth of this strange world in this sinister turn-based RPG.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-14.
What reviewers agree on
14 of the 46 reviews raise this.
“While waiting for Black Souls 3, this is a good game to get your I AM GOING TO ALICE fix. As you might have guessed, i played Black Souls. But this ain't black souls. If you like GOING TO ALICE, then temper your…”
“Maidenless? Not anymore I have played a good chunk of high-fantasy H-Games, but this is the first one I play that has such a bleak setting it feels like you're playing a hentai version of Dark Souls. I gave the game a…”
“The Heart of Darkness is much more than just a Souls parody game. It without a doubt stands on its own as a top tier HRPG game with its fantastic writing, fun game play, and plentiful H content. The games basic premise…”
13 of the 46 reviews raise this.
“Played this game from start to finish on 1 class + finishing all the scenes and side quest. the premise is cool and very much inspired by Dark Souls and story-wise it's not bad”
“Maidenless? Not anymore I have played a good chunk of high-fantasy H-Games, but this is the first one I play that has such a bleak setting it feels like you're playing a hentai version of Dark Souls. I gave the game a…”
“The Heart of Darkness is much more than just a Souls parody game. It without a doubt stands on its own as a top tier HRPG game with its fantastic writing, fun game play, and plentiful H content. The games basic premise…”
7 of the 46 reviews raise this.
“Maidenless? Not anymore I have played a good chunk of high-fantasy H-Games, but this is the first one I play that has such a bleak setting it feels like you're playing a hentai version of Dark Souls. I gave the game a…”
“This game is GARBAGE!!!!!! black bars block the text on the side of the screen the game does not even tell you where you are supposed to go however, the pixel art looks really good I cannot recommend this game do not…”
“It's basically an RPGmaker Dark Souls de-make. Peppered with a bunch of references to other games in the soulsborne series. I checked it out for the memes, but was surprised to find that the game is actually quite good.…”
6 of the 46 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game is GARBAGE!!!!!! black bars block the text on the side of the screen the game does not even tell you where you are supposed to go however, the pixel art looks really good I cannot recommend this game do not…”
“The preview images and video were massively misleading. Once the game is open half of the content is missing, and it was definitely not worth the price tag.”
“The short version Performance: no crashes, or performance drops, just found like 2 or 3 "out of bounds" tiles Lore: 9/10 Story: 8/10 Gameplay: 6.5/10 Setting: 7/10 Overall visuals: 6.5/10 H patch CGs: 5.5/10 My rating:…”
5 of the 46 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Maidenless? Not anymore I have played a good chunk of high-fantasy H-Games, but this is the first one I play that has such a bleak setting it feels like you're playing a hentai version of Dark Souls. I gave the game a…”
“honestly i liked the gameplay and the story more then the art lol”
“The atmosphere is heavily inspired by Dark Souls and Bloodborne but this is not the best HRPG which try to do that in my opinion. Kagura Games, please release Black Souls I and II.”
4 of the 46 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Great game, like a love-letter to the souls games with good quality lewd content. Even ignoring the lewd content, it's well written and paced with interesting characters and stories. Could be harder, but hard to…”
“Excellent game with a tremendous sense of identity, albeit one that is highly referential of FROM software's fantasy games. Combat is enjoyable but a bit on the easy side, the real appeal of this game is the atmosphere…”
“This really is a very special, great RPG-maker game. It's grim, dark and sad with an engaging story. Characters are written great, there are big gloomy areals to explore and lots of sidequests to discover. The artstlye…”
3 of the 46 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Despite all the jokes about Dark Souls RPGM, this really does have the look and feel of a Soulsborne game. The plot, themes, questline, world, and characters all feel rather Soulsborne-like - exploring the world feels…”
3 of the 46 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“The short version Performance: no crashes, or performance drops, just found like 2 or 3 "out of bounds" tiles Lore: 9/10 Story: 8/10 Gameplay: 6.5/10 Setting: 7/10 Overall visuals: 6.5/10 H patch CGs: 5.5/10 My rating:…”
“This really is a very special, great RPG-maker game. It's grim, dark and sad with an engaging story. Characters are written great, there are big gloomy areals to explore and lots of sidequests to discover. The artstlye…”
“Despite all the jokes about Dark Souls RPGM, this really does have the look and feel of a Soulsborne game. The plot, themes, questline, world, and characters all feel rather Soulsborne-like - exploring the world feels…”
Counted across 46 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 85.7% positive rating · as of 2026-05-14
“DISCLAIMER! Make sure you download the uncensored patch from Kagura Games website before you start playing!!! Any saves made previous to installing of the patch will be unusable! Before the patch, parts of the game will seem incomplete and character art and cutscenes will be…”
— a player, Steam review · 16 hrs played“QRD: It's an okay game. An average experience, to be blunt. There's nothing truly memorable about it, but simultaneously it's 'good enough' to warrant a positive review. I'll preface by saying that I don't care about Souls games in general. This means that I might be lacking…”
— a player, Steam review · 20 hrs played“Long story short: Did I like the game? Yes, I did. In fact, after I’d played it two times for a total of maybe five hours I proceeded to finishing it by playing from somewhere around 7 PM until 9:30 AM. It is the first hentai ("H") game I've played. I wasn't sure what to expect,…”
— a player, Steam review · 19 hrs playedPrice tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-12. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-28). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
The Imperial Gatekeeper by Tengsten
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32398519/199f0630bd359a0a0735472ac9caeb8d3a0b23d1.png We're delighted to reveal that we will be releasing The Imperial Gatekee
Magical Girl Celesphonia Slated for May 7!
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32398519/c99467a8cb9f01e9e1b677e2dab90c1e47adb014.jpg We're thrilled to reveal that we will be releasing Magical Girl Celespho
The Heart of Darkness Trading Cards and More!
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32398519/72b6149ffabb30ff209645980c11139a2fa0878b.jpg We're excited to announce that we have enabled Steam Community Items for
Castaway of the Ardusta Sea by baron sengia
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32398519/dfbfa97848b3ce2e60fd4446d7f5f7c91b9949e5.png We're ecstatic to reveal that we will be releasing Castaway of the Ardus
The Heart of Darkness Is Now Available!
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32398519/f19bedc92a539395bf02a9173c339fec0890e4c4.png We're thrilled to reveal that The Heart of Darkness by BigWednesday is n
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-14.
| Genres | Adventure, Indie, RPG |
| Player tags | RPG · Singleplayer · Indie · Anime · JRPG · RPGMaker · Souls-like · Dark Fantasy · Memes · Psychological Horror · Combat · Adventure (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese |
| Official site | https://www.kaguragames.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows® 7/8/8.1/10 Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or better Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 9/OpenGL 4.1 capable GPU DirectX: Version 9.0 Storage: 4 GB available space Additional Notes: 1280x768 or better Display. Lag may occur from loading menus or maps. Turn off other programs before running the game.