VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Life Changes for Keeley [v1.0] [Tora Productions]

Good compelling story, reliable and grounded characters. The only part i didn't like, following the husband route to the good ending, that after everything went well, you can't avoid reconciling with the wife. I would have loved something like "thank you, but no, i'm done with you too.".

In general i really hate unavoidable sex scenes in this game. Being unable to decide kills my immersion.

Especially when the unavoidable intercourse is with the (lame, gross, unlickable) (step)mother of the protagonist. Which is not the case of this game, of course.

When I heard that Tlaero retired, I didn't pay much attention to Tora Productions. Someone else pointed out that she unretired and found some life balance and as a result wrote this game. Obviously, I was intrigued and excited as I've been a big fan of her work.

Very few game authors write games with characters that feel real, that have heart, and have stories with stakes involved. Tlaero is one of them. I could gush more but I can say that my wife will play any game Tlaero writes for this very reason.

As for the review: James and Keeley are married but separated because James cheated on Keeley. At the beginning of the game you have a choice...to play as James (trying to win Keeley back or sleeping with everyone you can) or Claryce, a lesbian smitten with Keeley and trying to seduce her. Each path can give you a variety of endings.

The renders are beautiful as you'd expect, the animations are very good...but it's still the story and the choices that matter here. The "seduction and love" endings are my preferences in this game.

If I have a small quibble, it has more to do with every female character being afflicted with BTS (Big Tits Syndrome). Normally, I find it distracting but with the great writing I can overlook it.

Overall, this is a great game that I'd highly recommend. Like other games written by Tlaero, your significant other will enjoy (I started my wife on Redemption for Jessika).

There's a cameo at the end worth playing through.

Graphics - 10/10
Animations - 10/10
Story -10/10
Characters - 1010
Fun - 10/10

Five stars from me. There are some lovely reviews here that I agree with, and are much more eloquent than I can achieve. For example ChainZero and Avaron1974. I struggled to get the Booty Call ending and had to look for help, but when the scene played out …. oh yes tell that jerk what you think! Lovely lovely game thank you.

The game is incredibly short. I only played the male protagonist and everything that happens is separated into short scenes that are not connected in any way shape or form. There is no coherent story other than what already know, that he cheated on his wife.

There are no real choices to be made except whether the protagonist sleeps with random women or not, and that's it. It felt more like a bad kinetic novel rather than a visual novel.

Frankly, I do not get why this "game" is seemingly popular.

As a Tlaero and Mortze production you know there's going to be a certain quality to the story and characters. I have enjoyed the ports to Ren'Py a ton over the previous works they've done.

The synopsis tells you all you need to know to jump into the game, so not like you have to play previous games. I would say that the story in each branch is quite shallow, but combining all the routes in both POVs really rounds out the depth and gives you insight into both sides. Decisions matter in the outcome and you'll probably replay a few times to see how your decisions change the outcome.

I always associate a Tlaero/Mortze collaboration with telling a great love story and this is no exception, although you might be the odd one out in the male POV storyline. That still leads to a great story to read, though.

In terms of visuals, I feel like it's always getting better with Mortze's art, this game is visually impressive and a step up from previous works. You won't be disappointed with this and it matches the story.

This is a really quick game to play through and it's very rewarding given the amount of time you'd invest. It's probably one of the best decisions you'll make today if you decide to invest an hour or so into it.

Loved this quick playthrough two worthwhile paths to go down. Artwork was just gorgeous in this game - the models were superbly done. Writing was also quite top-notch. Definitely a must play in my book.

Fantastic game, especially with Claryce's route. Good enough that I've immediately started going through Tora Production's back catalog and really enjoying that as well.

Great renders, fantastic characters, genuine story (although the James route is more of a short sex romp as intended).

Tora production has been one the best and they were the ones responsible for making me interested in this genre. This game is continuation of their old Keeley series and builds up on that story. Story and graphics are top notch, which is to be expected from them. Loved it, as always.

I really, REALLY, wanted to like this game being a fan of Tlaero since day one, but I found it to be subpar to previous games. Mortze nails it with the artwork and renders and it is a beautiful game. However, especially in James' route, there is little substance. He basically fucks his way through everything with little to no effort. Even Keisha, who is miraculously single again, approaches her best friend's ex-husband is like, "Let's fuck!" making a statement that Keeley's feelings don't mean shit to her.

Overall, I expected better writing from Tlaero. Maybe she phoned it in on James' story and spent much more time on Claryce's. Or...she doesn't understand men well. Where's the seduction? Where's the romance? Where's the relationship building and flirtation? And that's probably why the game felt empty.

As always Tlaero and Mortze are delivering a short but enjoyable game
This game stand out not necessary as the greatest but for daring to take a different way.


Storyline:
This is a bit of a weak spot. From the beginning it is mentioned that there are two ways to go:
- James get a change to win her back. A lot of sex involved
- Claryce try to win her over. Much more of a story here

- The endings are logical but to be sincere, I would have like to see a bit more context. The story is great and there were aspects that could have been better developed

- Something that stands out here is the involvement of the creator in the game as a character that share his story, his/her reason. Like that you can get what is behind. what was the creator thinking about

- Usually a woman protagonist in others game is just a weak minded person, looking for sex, getting in bed with anyone. Here, on the other hand we have Claryce, a well developed character, with doubts and emotions interested only in Keisha and willing to take the time to develop a relationship with her

- While James can go on being a jerk, I enjoyed the route where he is actually sorry for what happened and try to make things better.

Characters:
- the characters are nice rendered, and I enjoyed the presence of all of them. The attention to details is something they really focused on.
- some were complaining about the bush, but to be sincere I did not have an issue with that. It is a personal mark of the creators. It is not the first time, not the last time when it will be like this
- Keisha in particular is smoking hot.


Gameplay:
- I believe that the game console is one of the most professional out there. It works well, the transition toward saving/loading is smooth and the transparency won me over.

The art is beautiful. The story is wonderful. One regret, the lesbian path is less detailed but more focused on feelings. I would like to know better Clatryce. Maybe next time in another story?
I will surely play it again. I love the new look of Keisha. Will we see her again?
I keep it in my Tlaero's files

Oh boy... at a time when I have become all but jaded with the genre, a game like this comes along and reminds me why it has drawn me in in the first place.

The writing is dedicated, empathic and just outright beautiful, especially the gay arc. The art compliments it so naturally and perfectly. Tora games were always great, but you have come a long way.

This is a story about people first and foremost, exactly how it should be.

It is obvious that this is a labor of love. Thank you for sharing it with us.

As usual, a Tora Productions game is a easy 5/5 stars for me, but it'd be pretty hollow if I didn't explain why.

I am a hopeless romantic and Life Changes for Keeley delivers an incredible experience from start to finish, particularly in Claryce's path, who is one of the characters you can play as. The other being Keeley's estranged husband, James.

If I'm correct, Life Changes for Keeley is the first of Tlaero's games to focus on a homosexual relationship, but she doesn't miss a beat here. If anything, it feels 10x more passionate watching Claryce be patient and tread carefully with Keeley while she comes to terms with her new sexuality.

Claryce is amazing. I liked her brief cameo in CtGWC and she easily wins me over within the first few minutes of her route. I do play as female protagonists, but since I am a guy, I could never put myself in their shoes. Most female protagonist games are simple minded corruption games where the sole purpose is to fuck as much as possible, teens, adults, drug lords, black guys, old guys, etc, which is fine and serves it's purpose, but this was such a breathe of fresh air because Claryce, while she is a girl and she is gay, is a person I had zero problems slipping into as an artist with the same insecurities she shares when it comes to the lack of creativity in her art, calling herself a camera, not an artist. I empathize with that and like her, found comfort and confidence in Keeley's support. Loved every minute of it. Out of every story thus far, just with Claryce's character alone, it might be the one I resonate with the most. I'm not a girl, I'm not homosexual, I don't have tatts, piercings or colorful hair, but I still saw myself in Claryce.

James' route is a bit less layered than Claryce's, but not at all boring. While Claryce's path isn't short on sexual content in my opinion, the bulk of the spice is in James' route, which essentially is a series of sexual fantasies that he can either experience for himself or hear about or see from others. Fast, hot, to the point, but doesn't lack passion. I suppose this route would have been made ideal if there was an option to pursue one of these sexual adventures a little more romantically, but if her name isn't Keeley, you won't find that here.

Life Changes for Keeley is a game with a perfect duality. One route whose protagonist has the chance to develop a long lasting romantic relationship with slow (but not annoyingly so) sexual buildup while the other features a protagonist who might not develop a long lasting relationship but can live out or engage in the thought of multiple sexual fantasies.

Anything one route doesn't do, the other makes up for. I suppose the only way you'd walk away from this game upset is if you want one of these routes to do what the other route did, but I'm more than satisfied with what I got out of this game. 5/5, 10/10, take it all!

I am a soppy tart and I love romantic stories. It's always been a weakness but seeing love blossom, even in fiction, has always give me the warm and fuzzies.

I will admit I have wondered for some time what a lesbian romance would be like coming from Tlaero and Mortze. I have followed their work for some time and while they have shown some girl on girl stuff in the past it wasn't on this scale.

So now we have a character from Tlaero's earlier works coming back to get an ending she deserves, especially after the goings on at the end of their last game left Keeley's future uncertain.

You get the option of playing Keeley's husband who she recently separated from due to him cheating or Claryce who is an aspiring artist working in a book store to make ends meet, she also happens to be a lesbian.

James has a redemption path to get him back with his wife or sleep with various women along the way while Claryce has either a lovers path with Keeley or friendship.

As of right now I played both the lovers and friendship routes and both of them are heartwarming.

In the lovers route you get to watch 2 people build something special and have fun doing or the friendship route where you can encourage her to give her estranged husband another try. There are more options but, as I said, i'm a romantic so wanted to see romance blossom. It was a nice touch that Claryce also found love on the friendship route.

I thoroughly enjoyed what I read and while I stil have more paths to read I am marking for the ones I specifically wanted to see in the game which is Claryce and Keeley.

Claryce was such a great character to play as I have no problems recommending this to anyone. My only criticism, if it can be called that, is it left me wanting to know more about her, see more of her life and how she got to where she is when she met Keeley. I really did enjoy her as a main character.

I am actually surprisingly amazed by this short story, it's concise yet complete, very good paths, very good dialogues, at least for me, very good graphics and coherent endings. I really liked this one. Thanks and congratulations to the developer team.

Tlaero is back from retirement and not the worse for wear. With her talent (she can actually make you care about characters in a porn game) together with Mortzes insanely hot renders (he makes the pictures so realistic in their composition, body physics and facial expressions, you forget you are playing a smut game) I can only hope they can keep giving us these gems for years to come.

Great game. Very appealing images and engaging story. Having multiple perspectives on same/similar events can be very interesting when it is done well, as it is here. Each of the 4 main paths (2 characters x 2 approaches) is worth seeing.

Claryce in particular is a very well developed character given the comparatively short story. I have not played the previous games involving James and Keeley so I may be missing out on some of their depth.

Overall highly recommended.

- The great story.
- Could be with a pure lesbian relationship if you play as a female. (I appreciate it).
- Good graphic without censorship.
- And enough novel duration.
My personal mark is 5 from 5.

Another masterpiece from Tlaero and Mortze! In my opinion, this was the most anticipated story Tlaero has written in either the Keeley-verse or Elsa-verse games. Like Mortze, I became obsessed with Keisha and the quality of her figure exceeded my overly high expectations. Same obviously goes with all of the other characters in the game with even Mortze making a surprise cameo ;p. Can't wait to replay the game again and again!

I only played Claryce & Keeley's love route (there are two main characters, James is the other).

It was a really nice love story between Claryce, a struggling artist/painter, and Keeley, a married woman with a cheating spouse. Their relationship develops like one of those short romantic tales one may find in books. It goes from their first meeting to their happy ending.

Game also has some of the best looking models and the graphic quality of the renders is great. They make for some visually stunning sex scenes.

The only thing missing may be some music and ambient sounds. Still this is definitely a recommended game.