Ren'Py - Completed - Olivine Lights [v1.6] [Writefuck]

In the end I, as an entitled gamer, was promised by the game that there will be a fight between Cynthia and Red. However, the VN ended just before this was supposed to happen. Because of this obviously gigantic flaw, I rate this a 0/10. Also, many of the choices didn't really matter, or they did but only superficially. And last thing, Cynthia looking different in the sex scenes compared to how she looked during the story was just... weird. I understand why, but still...

Those are the reasons, why I rate this only 4/5. That, and more importantly the fact that I don't really care about Pokemon all that much anymore. If you are a Pokemon fan, add +1 star to my rating. Overall, it was a great experience, that made me laugh and it made me even sad. I don't get emotional all that often. But this did it for me. So thank you, whoever made this VN. Thank you very much.

And a last thought to add to this rant: imagine Writefuck working with the developers of Palworld on a campaign/story mode. Nintendo would go bankrupt.

Pros

• Short, sweet, concise. It tells a cohesive, decently-structured story.
• Reasonably understandable even if you've never played the game, if anything, it really emphasizes the idea of someone who has only heard of pokes loosely by making your own character mostly unaware of things.
• Good choice of main heroine to act as mentor/explainer.
• Characters are well-written, with some small human twists to bolster identity while grounding them more with reality.
• Does bring up the gritty possibilities of the world, but is mostly as context.
• Choices are meaningful and lead to unique outcomes and endings.
• Cohesive plot with only a handful of overlapping continuity issues.
• Lore canon events are written as context, rather than mirrored for reality, giving the characters speaking about them even more of a human-like feeling. The ability to view events in different lights from varying (mostly Cynth's) perspectives adds a lot.
• Music sets mood.

Cons(?)

• The choices, while deliberately meaningful, are also mostly rather black and white, in contrast to the characters being written with more grounded depth. Same applies to the endings, though there are some neutral ones. (it does help with clarity, though!)
• There's a bit of overlap with the info given by events. It takes away from the immersion just a tad bit by making the characters confirm superfluous information when they eventually obtain the sama data later on. (not a big deal, but characters being able to investigate, think and deduce with more thought than a kid's show feels a bit wasted if you spoonfeed parts of it like the aforementioned kid's show.)
• Some of the other characters could've used more options (and scenes for their routes, though I have no plans to obtain them anyway)

Others

• A lot of dialogue is meant to be references to canon events or the possibility of them, meaning you won't really get it if you're not that into the series, even though that's what your character is meant to be. (this isn't strictly a bad thing in many of them, anyone who doesn't know can feel immersed while listening to interesting lore, while experienced peeps may get a small chuckle from the perspective)
• For a porn game, the lewd scenes are mild and few. Given how short the game is, this isn't that bad. They're still well thought out and cute.

Summary
A fun, short experience. Well-constructed adventure with neat lore bits and interesting character writing. A good demonstration of what 'show, don't tell' looks like. Characters all speak with just enough awareness (and lack of it) to demonstrate how actual (but still cartoon quirky) people might behave.
Looking forward to more of this adventure (or other stuff) by the writer.

Games like this are so weird to rate. There's obviously a huge market for "pokemon games made for people who aren't 10 years old" while increasingly older former-10 year olds play the games, and current 10 year olds couldn't tell you what a pokemon was. They say hunger is the best spice, and we are starving, so how good is this game, really?

Well, it's actually pretty good and there's really nothing to complain about. I'll think of something by the end, or die trying.

You are John Everyman, Office Worker at Silph Co. A terrorist attack (no causalities) happens and you are deputized to figure out who is responsible before a terrorist attack (causalities) happens. That's basically the plot. A lot of VNs are books, this is a movie. Super early 90's VNs from Japan were kind of like this; short, lots of choices, lots of endings. It happens in the pokemon world, which means we get cameos, microcrumbs of worldbuilding in the most underutilized IP mankind has ever created.

So is the shortness the problem? Nah, it tells a story, it's fun, and there's a lot of replayability. The lewds? I mean they're fine? They're not the nukige kind, they're the "John Everyman gets the Girl" kind. You'll see them in movies. They tend to have less nudity.

I think the only real problem I have is...........the endings don't have names. Oh! And when you get to the end, you're given a screen of how well you did, but you have to go to the main menu from the menu. Yup. Had to dig real deep into this one.

There is an achievement screen that has unlocks for subsequent playthroughs (super cool) but no way of tracking what endings you got. Games like this typically have a 'true' ending. Something you should go for. I guess there's some aimlessness there? I couldn't tell you if I got the best ending or not my first time- and I realize now that my second time will make me still unsure.

So yeah, that's it. I made a promise and kept it. No ending names, no way of tracking what endings you've gotten so the replays that you're certainly going to do are more aimless than they should be. 0/5 would only thoroughly enjoy the first time.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to play this game again.

Story 10/10 not far to the story but it has
Been great so far

Art 10/10 has my favorite franchise pokemon
art and is faithful so a 10


Writing 9/10 not bad for a one person team

Content 10/10 has pokemon battles and
not manysex scenes but I was addicted to
gameplay so a 10

I hope this dev makes games because he/she
has talent
Thanks for game and peace