VN - Ren'Py - Being a DIK [v0.10.1] [Dr PinkCake]

Wow ... what a game.

Aside from the renders that are awesome, the music and sound which is brilliant and the lewd scenes which are fantastic, I want to focus in my review on three things that stand out the most for me.

First is the minigames and the free roam events. This is a upside as much as a downside for the game at the same time. If you like free roam events and minigames then this game offers you exactly what you want. BUT if you don't like minigames then you miss out on some great features. Yes, you can deactivate the minigames and play the game but IMO you will be missing out on a big feature of the game. In regard to free roam events, there is no way around them.

Second, the characters. Dr. PinkCake really outdid himself when it comes to creating these characters. They are different from each other, they are not one dimensional and they are the main reason (at least for me) to continue to play the game. Not the next lewd scene, not the next conquer but to see what will happen next with the character. This is not only about the main characters but all of them, even the side characters that only get little 'screen time'.

With these characters then also comes the part of the game that stands out the most for me. The emotions. If you are looking for a game where you turn down the volume and that you play in secret because you don't want anyone to know that you play this game, then stay away from this. This game will make you laugh so loud that your neighbors will hear you laugh. It will cause you to have such a lump in your throat that the people around you will ask you if you are okay and it will make you grin and smile at times that the people around you think that you are on drugs.
It's fantastic.

Thank you for such a fantastic game Dr. PinkCake, I am looking forward to every single update. And until then, I will play it again for the 90th time, doing just a tiny thing different and then experience how the game develops a little differently.

This game stands out as possibly the finest adult visual novel ever created. Dr. PinkCake (DPC) dedicates months of full-time effort to each episode, evident in the exceptional quality across the board. The narrative captivates, the characters are richly developed, and the renders and animations are of the highest caliber.

What sets this game apart is its ability to excel without resorting to controversial themes like loli, incest, or other borderline-illegal fetishes. It's a refreshing change to see an adult game thrive solely on its merits.

Moreover, the game offers extensive replay value. Your early choices shape the course of the story, leading to diverse sexual encounters and potential relationships with various love interests.

According to DPC, the full story requires a substantial number of episodes, possibly 12 to 16 or more, to unfold completely.

Still the gold standard on this website. Other games might have slightly better graphics now but this outshines them in many other areas.

Its strong points are pacing and variety of girls with well developed personalities. The story flows well it maybe towards the slice of life category which is a good or bad thing depending on your likes. Has a large amount of content now for all the main girls. Only real weakness could be the free roam areas which can drag a bit sometimes.

Story 4/5, Originality 3.5/5, Renders 4.5/5 Playability 5, Animations 4/5, Amount of content 5/5

When it comes to visual novels, this one hits the mark perfectly. It's simply flawless. But let me elaborate a bit more to meet the character limit.

Each storyline is meticulously crafted (I'm particularly fond of the Sage route). It's incredibly relatable, unlike anything else I've experienced besides maybe corporate culture. The writing feels authentic and genuine, drawing you in completely. And let's not forget the stunning graphics and captivating characters.

Honestly, the topics explored are so well-executed that if you stripped away most of the sex scenes and pitched it to Netflix, I'm certain it would become a top-ranking show worldwide. The characters, the unique frat house setting, the developments, the relationships—it's all just perfection.

I first began playing this game during the pandemic of 2022 after putting it off for a long time before that. From the tittle I’d assumed it’d be about playing as a prick or an asshole and that wasn’t my cup of tea. So first I played DPC’s first game Acting lessons which surprised (and scarred) me greatly, right then I knew I had to play his new game, which was getting praised left and right and to my surprise my preconceived notions were (thankfully) all wrong. Instead of being a dick I was being a dik, a frat boy with a good heart, a sad backstory and ready to conquer college and have the time of my life. Now as I mentioned earlier, I started playing this game toward the end of the pandemic but while lockdown was still in effect and in my last year of college. My dorms allowed us to either isolate in our rooms or head home. I chose the former, for days on end I was in my tiny room, only going outside to pick up my takeout or go for a little walk. I believe all of those circumstances come together at the perfect time for me to love the game as much as I did. While isolated I connected with the quite frankly pretty well written characters. I got to relieve some of the awesome parties we’ve had along with some other things . Got to relieve some of the drama, romance and the dumb shit we got up to as college students.

The game’s strongest side is without a doubt the atmosphere and characters. Everything feels like it’s straight from a 2000s college/coming of age movie, but one of the better ones.

The characters, even the minor ones, are written well, each with their own voice and motivation. Now sometimes the authors voice bleeds through which is more noticeable in the later episodes, but by then they have close to enough screen time and backstory to where it doesn’t matter as much. The LI’s are varied, unique and fun in their own way. And most importantly the interactions with non-romancable characters are given just as much care and attention which goes a long way in lifting the quality of the game. The roster of LI’s is already impressive enough but we get even more options toward the end of season 2 and start of season 3 – namely more Quinn, Riona and Nora, Nicole and Lily content, which DPC does in my opinion a good job in establishing them as viable LI’s considering the other ones who have had way more screen time.

The music choices are done tastefully, picked to suit each scene rather than the generic lo-fi and simple guitar strumming tracks we can hear in other tittles. The music here serves a purpose in reinforcing the atmosphere and all the different artists and genres flow well together in the context of the game. Truly one of the highlights of the game.

Those were my initial impressions of the game and a lot of my opinions still hold, now it’s 2 years later, 2 more updates and I’m not looking at the game from pandemic tinted glasses. Objectively the quality has dropped, even if a little bit, and some of the story choices are questionable to say the least. Realism and even basic logic have to be suspended for twists and swerves we can already see coming from a mile away. (something something Mc’s last name, something something minigames, something something dead horse – which I won’t beat!!) And I feel like I have to mention those things, but personally it does not bother me that much, considering the foundations this game is built upon. My biggest gripe is the pace of the story itself, never mind the quality or storytelling choices, has moved at a snail’s pace. We’re 9 episodes in, 5 years dev time, the dev cycle time has reached one year and we’re what? 4-5 months in story time? I understand BaDIK is a one-person endeavor, and what the author has been able to achieve is impressive, but come on man.

And finally, my two cents on the free roams, which I am now beating the dead horse mentioned earlier, are fucking bad. That’s all – they’re just bad. There are some instances where they are almost done well, mostly episode 9 and that’s it, almost done well. The rest of the free roam event are just bad (what? You didn’t think to click a random ass pillow to find a whiskey bottle?) Playing all the paths is a chore with all the free roams, which unfortunately can’t be turned off like the minigames.

I love this game, but some of DPC’s questionable story-telling and game design choices stand out that much more considering the foundations BaDIK is built upon. For me where this title shines the brightest is the dialogue, character interactions and soundtrack, which unfortunately are given less attention these days. There was a time this game was easily the king, but since then other developers have come on to the scene and delivered more, better and in less time.

80/100

Sandbox ruined this for me; glitches galore. The renders were okay, and without all the clicking frustrations, it might have made a 4-star. But lord, the time it took to click every which way, again and again past renders of people having their party fun while the MC runs himself ragged trying to achieve...what? Wasn't even sure about that. And by the time I'd scavenged what I needed, needlessly, I'd decided that no amount of "hot chix" were worth this boondoggle of a game.

An amazing game with a fantastic story. So many hours have gone into makeing this, and it shows! There is such a diverse cast of characters, each with their own quirks and secrets
So many super hot animations and renders - a true masterpiece.

Looking forward to Season 3!

Idk why people crying about mini-games or anything other, game has sandbox and puzzle tags... + you can switch off mini-games whenever you want...

So, whoever read this review should now: You have to play this game at least once! At least once go through the whole game with choices from your heart and enjoy this masterpiece!!! Perfect story, perfect renders, everything's done really good.

This game has no joke the worst implementation of sandbox and mini games in avn history. A narrative that was okeish for its time now has collapsed under the dev misplaced ambition.
Renders are outdated, character has lost any semblace of a cohesive narrative.

I'd highly recommend this game, but I can only give it 4 out of 5 because what was the best game here for a long time, now feels like it's slowly slipping into a vanity project for the developer.

Initially this was a tight, engaging, extremely fun game; the writing was a joy to read, the renders were cool, the music was perfect, the characters were alive. But it's now littered with unnecessary features that detract from the story, and after an entire episode (that takes close to a year to develop now), the often story feels like it has only marginally progressed.

The first several episodes are a delight, whereas the last few have almost become a chore (almost). And the free roams have gotten to the point where the game almost needs a sandbox tag!

I don't expect the developer to ever go back to the initial style of the first few episodes, just like so many Hollywood sequels, each release is trying to be bigger and better than the one before, while forgetting what it was that made the first one so good.

It's still better than most of the games on this site, but it's just not the best anymore.

What can I say? this game is on a whole another level, perhaps one of the best currently. The story is really interesting, the characters feel alive, the LI are loveable. Funny thing is, even though this is an adult game with many lewd scenes, I find myself spent so much time on the mini games, those are simply so fun to play!
I hope the update will come soon, there is just so few adult games with this quality

I just want to feel emotions. To be sad, happy, to laugh, to empathize with girls, to help them with their problems. But sandbox ruins it. It prevents me from playing again and again.


I'm giving 3 stars for the beautiful renders.

Character models and story are great but no matter how good they are its not going to make up for how annoying sandbox parts of the game are, don't deserver more that 4 star for that.(Mostly in early episodes)

Best storylines, best characters, best emotional intensity, best romance, best jokes, best animations incl. position choices , best side games, best environment, best content overall...nothing else to add as there is no bad side from my pespective. Always looking forward to the next update

To be honest, I heard about this game/AVN a long time ago. It never interested me. Based on the title, I assumed it must be a shallow "be a bully/jerk at college and sleep with tons of ditzy, vapid girls" story.

I was SO wrong.

When I finally took the plunge and tried it, I was blown away from the start. I fell in love with every female character. Doing multiple playthroughs to get the different paths was hard because I hated the thought of disappointing any of them. I deliberately avoided romance opportunities with Jill and Bella because I couldn't bear to reject either of them. In fact, when I did my Jill playthrough and made the call to Bella to break things off, the scene where she's sitting alone at her dining room table was so devastating that I went back and restarted to specifically avoid triggering her romance.

The official walkthroughs made the minigames a breeze so I could focus on the story without worrying about running out of money. The music was perfectly chosen. I've never encountered an AVN this diverse and rich.

On the one hand, I'm glad I waited this long, because it meant I got to enjoy even more content before reaching episode 10! On the other hand, I kind of wish I'd discovered this a year or so from now, so I could get the next episode immediately. That cliffhanger for episode 10 was brutal, especially for those of us who fell in love with Rio!

Most likely the best of the "college theme" games ever made. Lots to see and do! I am just starting S3 so hoping the standard is maintained or even improved! Plenty of variety in the models and decisions will reflect what paths and scenes you get so also some replayability if you want to see it all.

So firstly, this is my first time making a review so just read on what you get. So i charged in this game blindly Knowing absolutely nothing and giving me absolutely everything to the characters with good humor and the story so far as to being comedic. I invested hours upon hours to this game just to have my balls hit with a hammer. First off there are minor issues here and i just ignored it cause they were you know "minor" and those were the characters, you know majority of them are either hookers or cheaters. But you can easily ignore them yeah cause i mean they're not important at all. Now moving on to the major issue... The Throuple thing you know with you and maya and josy " a thing " this turns me off so much and it turned me off more when I invested hours upon hours on maya just to see the outcome of her rejecting me . And i mean yeah that sucks but what can i do when the devs are the ones who pull the strings. Eventually started to forget them with all the shit happening on this game. (spoiler alert = I didn't forget them) Why oh nothing the devs just really want the Mc and those two cheaters engaging like some hamster on a wheel running and running just to see no end whatsoever. The story is just ok for me I've seen better just like eternum's story and i kid you not 1st on my personal favorites. Point is this is just too overrated on my taste and i mean overrated as in the story just get overshadowed for all the hype this is getting.


- Wandering Reviewer

P.s didn't get to finish this so I'll leave it to 2 stars... Nah everybody saying it gets worse every year so I'll be leaving as i recently put it. Bad mouth me all you want im just stating my experience.

[Edit]
I mean we do have different opinions and shite I can't believe I'm one of those poeple who didn't follow through this game since this has been one of the best AVN out there... i just cant contain my dissapointment when it started off as a rollercoaster going up and up again and again just to see the most dissapointing drop.

The gold standard of AVNs. What could I possibly say about it that hasn't already been said? If you haven't played this yet, you need to try it.
- Choices matter and the story plays out differently depending what you do.
- No harem. Each girl has a path to follow making future playthroughs interesting.
- Each girl is worth playing through again for.
- MC is not a wet paper towel but also not superhuman amazing. He's just a good dude.
- The frat brothers, especially the best friend, are great. One of the few AVNs where I cared about the male friendships.
- Music and overall vibe reminds me of 2000's era college movies which is very much up my alley.

Story - 4/5, well-written story with interesting characters although some characters feel one-dimensional or typical cardboard characters.

Graphics - 4/5, above average render but not the best.

Music - 5/5, there are nice original songs in the game.

Lewd - 3.5/5, this is weakest aspect of the vn in my opinion. I don't find the lewd scenes great but they're pretty decent. Thankfully the game has good story and well-written dialogues compensating for the weak sex scenes.

Overall, BaDiK is worth your time, it's not the best but the dev clearly put his efforts to make this game good.

Being a DIK [v0.10.1]

Pros:
+ The GOLD standard for visual novels
+ It feels more like an actual GAME than most visual novels
+ Mini-games are actually fun and engaging (can be skipped for those who don't like)
+ The game has a lot of depth in content, gameplay and story as it progresses
+ Huge variety of characters you can get with
+ Multiple paths that offer unique experiences
+ Choices feel like they matter a lot
+ Character models are all gorgeous
+ Animations are pretty great
+ Very high quality and production value
+ Memorable music, sound effects
+ Great user interface and game structure

Cons:
- Restrictive paths may not be for everyone, choices feel final but so are choices in life, I suppose
- Since the game is so long, it's hard to do multiple paths in a timely manner
(Sandbox free exploration parts makes it annoying to redo)



I first played this game years ago, before there was even a season 2. It was my first real experience with a non-Japanese visual novel, and honestly I got through most of it but was turned off by some story elements and ended up quitting. At the time, it had felt kind of generic in story and setting.

Throughout the years, I had felt it was just overrated, as many others often express. However, I decided to give it another chance. More than 4 years later, I've picked up the game again and played through from the start again all the way through the most recent Episode 10.

I was blown away by the depth of how far the story continued on from what I had first perceived to be shallow into something much darker and deeper.

On top of that, the gameplay elements improved and became more engaging as the chapters progressed. The tests, all of the mini-games, the management aspects, puzzles, everything. It may not be for everyone and there is an option to skip through them, but I actually enjoyed all of it throughout the chapters and how they kept adding new modes and new puzzles and management-type mini-games.

These mini-games kept the game very engaging and made it feel more like a GAME than most visual novels out there, which I felt was great and broke up the monotony of just reading for hours on end, especially with how much content the game has right now story-wise.

The game to me is the gold standard for adult visual novels. It might not be at the top of everyone's radar, but I feel it has potentially a little bit of something for everyone. There's so much content and the fact that it feels like more of a game than most others out there is a big turn on for me, with choices mattering quite a lot for the story and relationship progression.

Worth checking out if you're looking for something new, or coming back from long ago like myself.

Overall Rating: 10/10