Quite the chunky comment here. Seems you've plenty of thoughts and plenty of experience with these kinds of games. Well... I might not touch on everything, but here's my response as co-creator.
I definitely know about games with seduction mechanics. But, to be honest, a lot of them boil down to just coin-flips or a simple calculation of charisma/charm/whatever-seduction-state against an enemy's... desire or resistance or whatnot. They certainly work, and they can get the point across that you are playing some sort of seducer... but I don't think they're often all that mechanically interesting and tend to resolve into a seducer playstyle just being mindlessly repeating 'tease' over and over. They can largely invalidate a more involved and thoughtful combat system.
That's what we've gone for with the grapple system in Grove. You can chose to present yourself to an enemy, lure them in close, and... either carefully manage your TP and enemy grapple turns to try and defeat 'em, or y'know, just have fun laying back and letting them do their thing. I might be biased towards my own game, but I think the resource management and turn-monitoring of 'grapple combat' is an ideal SUPPLEMENT to a combat mechanic, vs. a seduction mechanic that serves as a complete alternative. No it's not QUITE a seduction mechanic in that you can't just charm an enemy into a dazed stupor and then have your way with them... but given these early enemies are either corrupt monsters or nefarious bandits, and what we're doing with the story, it just wouldn't make sense for them to give you up after some lovemaking... and definitely doesn't make sense for them to be overwhelmed by YOUR sexual output.
But hey, that isn't to say that there might be enemies in the future that react differently. Some more sentient enemies. Some more shy enemies. We have plans to spice up the formula a little bit... so don't worry, we're not entirely ignoring this.
Now then, your thoughts on Game Overs. I'll start by saying that you're not the first person who has expressed a desire to see expanded scenes that happen post-defeat. We have some thoughts on this matter too, about 'failing forward' as some people like to call it. I can't say too much without spoiling future content, but... we are considering some more scenarios where maybe you'll have a chance to continue despite a defeat, or maybe end up in some kind of 'extended game over' where the game continues a little and you can enjoy a little more time with a certain fail state.
Maybe you were just put off by the way the bandits handle it, but I feel like what happens in that scenario is already a simple showcase of this kind of thing. You can get captured or defeated in combat, you end up imprisoned... and you can either enjoy the situation, let it unfold and culminate... or you can shake off your bonds and fight through the humiliation, reclaim your gear and keep going. I recognise that it's not particularly deep at this stage, but I also ask you to recognise the game is still very much in it's infancy, little more than a demo right now, a 'foundational' build.
And just to wrap things up with your thoughts on Game Overs in general... I'll be honest and say that I disagree with you. Starting with your thoughts on them being a limitation of creativity... whilst they don't go too far right now, the Game Overs in GROVE actually allow us to serve up small story hints at the nature of enemies and the corruption and the story of the world. Fail to the green slimes and you'll get an early look at the Slime Dragons and how people are being converted. Fail to the Bandit Leader and you'll get a glimpse that he's playing with dark powers that might be a little beyond his comprehension if not his control. Fail to the wriggly orange invaders in cyberspace, and you'll get a look at the corruptive latex and the conditioning that a certain purple eye is trying to impose on Grove. Yes, we could go further with these scenarios, but to go too far would be to spoil the reason to keep playing normally... it's our desire for the Game Overs to not only be sexy, but also tempt you into seeing what else might come along when you try again and defeat your foe.
So... whilst you are not the first person who's wanted to see extended scenarios instead of immediate failure and restarts, and that's something we do want to explore a little bit as devs... Game Overs aren't going away, because I do honestly believe they still serve both a narrative and a gameplay purpose. They raise the skill floor and ask you to rise to the challenge, they help us tell the story we want to tell with GROVE instead of derailing it completely, and... whilst maybe not for you personally, there's PLENTY of folks out there who enjoy a 'bad ending' and get sexual gratification from such a thing.
Now then, to address some of your smaller points. You talked about getting buffs or experience from having sex. I don't think we'll be doing anything different for enemies, as our grapple combat still serves as a means to defeat them. Buuuuuut... there might be some more scenarios where getting into sexual escapades gives you a reward, such as the corrupted underwear getting you early access to Fire Bolt, or perhaps nice little boons from NPCs you form sexual relationships with.
Corruption right now is very bare bones, I'll readily admit that. As for what we plan to do with it... you can consider it a metric that affects how Grove might react in scenarios and situations, instead of his more quiet and tame natural reaction. I can't say much more without spoiling it though.
And yes, we've already got a solution to making enemies disappear from the screen whilst they're grappling you, so it doesn't appear as though they're duplicating. We'll be implementing that in the next update.
Finally, to tackle your suggestions. Feral snakes? Uh... do you mean the orange 'invaders' in the cyberspace scene? If that's what you meant, I can say we'll be revisiting those guys and that whole digital scenario, don't worry.
You're not the first person who's wanted spider enemies, or more ferals in general. I can say that your suggestions are very much heard... and I ask you to look forward to what we're doing with v0.2 when it drops, in regards to this kind of stuff.
And yes, the monstrous tentacle enemy you fight in the first dream. Of course we'll be revisiting them and that whole scenario. I know it was 'barely used' but you gotta remember this is still VERY early on in the game.
And as for corrupting other NPCs and friends and partners... again, don't want to spoil things, but you're also not the first person to suggest such a thing, and it's something that we are looking at and considering. How exactly we'll implement it... you'll have to wait and see.
OK, I think that's everything. Thanks for taking the time to type up your big comment. I appreciate that our game could stir up such thoughts in you and you would chose to share such an impassioned response.
Hopefully my own can give some insight into the future of the game, and my stance as a creative.