STORY
Honestly, Feeder Simulator is in a weird place. Here's the origin story for your main character: "You've just moved into a new town, you don't know anybody here." That's it. There's no default name and no expectation of what you are expected to do, outside of the game's name. With many options to pick from at the first menu, it's quite a rough start.
Here's a little introduction instead: You're an unknown feeder who wants nothing more than to see the women around him/her grow into balloons. You love their squishy bits and increasingly so, they will come to love it themselves eventually. To do so, you need money and contacts. You work at a bar until you have the money to feed women. Then you have to meet women to feed and persuade them to eat while you're there.
Thankfully, each of the women presented have their own origin story. Origins range from international student, to simply a bookworm or fitness trainer. It's extremely stereotypical and at times definitely feels inspired by that other feeder game I reviewed earlier. The hard part is that those stories work out a little better, while characters like Helena and Rita had me feeling 'detached' from their story.
My guess would be that the developer did not want to assume a gender for the main character, as noticeable by the 'they' pronoun the MC gets. This proves challenges for the presentation as well, but also doesn't allow the storywriting to get particularly deep. There are story bits that work, as Pippa seems particularly engaged with the MC despite bonding over just water. It's just never to a point where the game actually touches your emotions. Then again, for most players it will just be a subtle backstory to the feeding, and it works great for that.
One saving factor in the storyline is Spira, who comes to visit one night and opens up a new world of possibilities to the MC. I'm deliberately keeping this vague because I sense more fetish content will happen thanks to Spira. Another story help is Ash, who lets you pick whether she should become a feeder or a feedee. So while stories are there, they're fragmented and for my taste, far too little in between to help push the game forward effectively. Even though the storytelling does get increasingly better near the end of the update.
In short, don't play this expecting to be moved by the story. It's not that deep, and the story is often just decent placeholder for making the women do silly things and letting you farm points to the next stage.
PRESENTATION
Feeder Sim is on the cartoon doll end of the graphics spectrum. In some situations, the models look like underexposed basic renders while they look good in others. It's a mixed bag, but works well to convey the idea of girls going big. The environments all look pretty good and believable, from the pools to the library. Most important part of the simulator is of course the Diner, which actually feels like one of those 80's American movie diners.
On his game profile, developer TheGrowState expressed his desire to add more women to the game in later stages. The roster currently scales to 11, but already I'm overly noticing repetitive patterns in how scenes (and especially the feeding ones) are portrayed. For something that's a key stimuli in this game, the feeding should look and feel like the most enticing part of the game. More variation in shot choice and scene buildup would add to that.
The lineup of women is the game's strongest suit. You have a broad selection: blondes, a redhead, brunettes, a girl of color, a fit girl and a total glutton. The developer seems to know what works for his girls and honestly, the women look attractive in their bigger stages. As the women grow, they do start to act more confident and sultry, which feels weird on a story level - but works for the visuals. All the way until you get to bed with a girl.
I'll be honest, I don't know if you should play this game for the intimacy scenes. The sexy scenes are devoid of the protagonist (a deliberate choice), but also show the girls often in closeups or cutoffs. It's kind of works, but scenes are so short that there's no emotional attachment to any of it. At this point, TheGrowState might just as well have chosen to have the women pleasing themselves. That way we would at least have seen the action.
If the idea of intimacy is more important than actually seeing things for you though, this is your game. You will get the sensation of feeding a cute woman until she barely fits through the door and she will love you for it, all while you can look at her various jiggly bits. And those jiggly bits look tasty.
GAMEPLAY
Feeder simulator is a grind. One that has you repeating content often, searching for new storybits while grinding money and ingredients. The fact the game often doesn't tell you what it wants you do to, might confuse players who aren't keeping track of their characters. Some places like the pool, have a random encounter chance, which means you will just grind encounters until the right girl comes along. The novelty of a surprise wears off fast and in the end, you will skip dialog to just get to a new scene.
Each day is broken down into four parts of time, with each part allowing you to do a different action. You can always work at the bar, but you can only visit the pool during daytime. You can always go to the gym, but having women over is harder to plan. You can sense there's a method to the timing, but in creating an actual time schedule I haven't been able to find that method. You absolutely want to use a guide for this game to find what little to hold on there is.
The game is a sandbox simulator, meaning you will have locations to pick from a menu where you can interact. Often times, you will find at least one of the girls there, and if you have met the right requirements, a new piece of interaction might open. Each woman has size stages, detailed in a specific overview screen where you can read dimensions and all other kinds of nifty metrics. You carry the women through these size stages, and then meet them in various situations before upgrading to a new size.
That gameplay loop is actually the strongest suit the game has going for it, but because it can be hard to figure out where to look, it sometimes feels like a chore. Instead of slowly unwrapping parts of a gift that keeps giving, which are some stories in the game, others will have you wondering 'where the fuck is that bitch?'. There are multiple mechanics in this game and none of them are explained properly, which will require you to figure out how they work. The guide linked above will help you with that.
Choices do matter in this game, and a couple of choices have a lasting imprint. Picking whether Ash will be feedee or feeder, what Cat's style should be are going to last you through the game. Be mindful when you pick and always make sure you're positively reinforcing the women. That way, you will be the best feeder a girl can wish for and make it all the way to the big leagues.
OVERALL
Feeder Simulator is a niche game - you have to love obese women and to make them grow. If that's your kink, you can overlook the grindy nature and shallow storytelling the game offers. With more women and kinks being added on the horizon, this could very well become the game of your dreams. But I'm afraid most regular players would never make it to the stage where dreams are being activated.
Rating: 7/0
Developer: TheGrowState
Tags: Sandbox, Feeding, Corruption
In case you're just looking for the guide:
Feeder Simulator Guide 0.4
