Ren'Py Abandoned Reincarnotica [v0.05] [Polyrotix]

[Felicityskye]

I let the dev do what he wants. I don´t go to his house with a gun to make him do what he doesn't want. But I can say what I like in this game and what I dislike.
About that virtual reality stuff, if you read the comments and reviews of V1, that is about that stuff, there wasn't a huge enthusiasms about it. Even the dev recognizes that in his first comments here and says he's going to add a button to skip all the intro and start in the hospital with Prii and Fiona.
People started to like this game after V2, when Prii and Fiona came to the game and the story was about getting to know them and their relation with Leon and his amnesia. With Leon, not with a random old man that, for some strange reason related with virtual reality, is reincarnated into the body of a young man. The MC is Leon. All V2 update is about him with Fiona and all V3 update is about his story with Prii when the were kids and his relationship with her now. That old man is not even a real character righ now, and that virtual reality stuff righ now is something accessory. And I don't care about it.

Of course you're allowed to have your own opinion, but people are allowed to criticize your opinion as well.

You're completely ignoring the comments who actually like the intro and want to see more about that story. You also completely missed the point why the dev added a skip button for the intro. And just because you don't care about it, doesn't mean it is "bad news."

 

[Alfius]

This game is great because of the feminine characters, not because that story of "virtual reality" and change of bodies.

I disagree. The game is great because the dev is writing an amazing game. Nothing else.

The intro feels overly long because as a percentage of the game, it is an substantial chunk of the game after three updates, but once the game is completed, it will be a proper introduction. It's like criticising a book LOTR after reading an introduction and 1 chapter. The introduction at that stage will be a disproportionate percentage of the book.

Once the game is done, it will fit.

 

[ElBandarra]

I disagree. The game is great because the dev is writing an amazing game. Nothing else.

The intro feels overly long because as a percentage of the game, it is an substantial chunk of the game after three updates, but once the game is completed, it will be a proper introduction. It's like criticising a book LOTR after reading an introduction and 1 chapter. The introduction at that stage will be a disproportionate percentage of the book.

Once the game is done, it will fit.

First page, 3er comment:
- someone says to the dev:
"Man, the redheads are sweet. :FeelsGoodMan:
But the fucken beginning with the whole mmo thing almost made me drop it :'(."
- the dev says:
"Yeah, that's what the others said about the intro too, maybe I'll add a skip intro for it on the next update?"
- Another comment, first page:
"No option to skip, meant I had to sit though that painful MMO scene at the start... and then there was more (this is when I cried)!
The pixel font of Quanto is obnoxious, break the flow of reading, and is just more overkill.

I couldn't sit through the game for very long, not even the promise of a cute, freckled redhead (which was very inciting) was enough make me keep playing."
- the dev says:
"Thanks for the feedback! You can skip the dialogue by holding the "Space Bar". This is the very first episode and I appreciate the feedback even if its harsh as it'll still help me improve the game in the future. "

So, the dev himself recognizes that the intro "with the whole mmo thing" is so long that can make people drop the game, thanks the feedback to people who says that, says the intro can be omitted (so, can't be really important for the game)... No further questions, your honor.

 

[Alfius]

First page, 3er comment:
- someone says to the dev:
"Man, the redheads are sweet. :FeelsGoodMan:
But the fucken beginning with the whole mmo thing almost made me drop it :'(."
- the dev says:
"Yeah, that's what the others said about the intro too, maybe I'll add a skip intro for it on the next update?"
- Another comment, first page:
"No option to skip, meant I had to sit though that painful MMO scene at the start... and then there was more (this is when I cried)!
The pixel font of Quanto is obnoxious, break the flow of reading, and is just more overkill.

I couldn't sit through the game for very long, not even the promise of a cute, freckled redhead (which was very inciting) was enough make me keep playing."
- the dev says:
"Thanks for the feedback! You can skip the dialogue by holding the "Space Bar". This is the very first episode and I appreciate the feedback even if its harsh as it'll still help me improve the game in the future. "

So, the dev himself recognizes that the intro "with the whole mmo thing" is so long that can make people drop the game, thanks the feedback to people who says that, says the intro can be omitted (so, can't be really important for the game)... No further questions, your honor.

I myself commented on the long intro, about a year or so ago. But I stand by my comment. The payoff for the long intro will be later in the game. The reason why it feels so long currently, is that it makes the game feels unbalanced. Currently it's now 33% of the game witch is excessive for an intro. After 10 updates, it will be 10% of the game: Much better.

I do feel it's important to the story, otherwise what is the point? Him returning to that aspect of the game shows it's important to the story. Giving the ability to skip it, is like giving someone the ability to skip the prologue of a novel or book you are starting to read. It just means you are missing out on the story.

Conclusion: Is the handling of the Intro perfect? No, Especially since the way updates are released it feels unbalanced when there are only two subsequent updates after the intro and it does potentially scare of players. I said so myself. I would personally have like the intro to be a bit shorter, with more info being dropped during normal game play.

Having said that. Once the game is past halfway after another 4 or 5 updates, the intro would fit better and not be distracting at all. Also the other negative about the intro is that there is no payoff yet. The players sat through the intro with no reward/payoff linked to the intro. Once the intro comes into play, it will start adding value to the actual story instead of the stand alone chunk of unrelated events, that it currently is.

For instance

Spoiler

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[PrimeX]

I get that the deep, poetic, and philosophical but vague in-game walkthrough/guide has its uniqueness to it but, you know, it would be more helpful if it was more on-point and specific. And I'm not talking about where to find the watering can or whatnot, those are easy to figure out, it's where to trigger the scenes that confused me more than a few times. Other than that, I've no complaints.Maybe animation in the future? But these redheaded beauts are more than enough eyecandy for me Man, I'm so glad this game is back!

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

So, the dev himself recognizes that the intro "with the whole mmo thing" is so long that can make people drop the game, thanks the feedback to people who says that, says the intro can be omitted (so, can't be really important for the game)... No further questions, your honor.

It's been said time and time again that the dev is aware of how heavy the prologue section is. But it was world-building. He did the fat info dump as a v0.01 as a kind of statement of intent for the overarching story. It's the entire premise.
The issue with it is that it's too much exposition and delivered at an unruly pace, and that's what Poly is hoping to fix and what he has said he hoped to fix for a long time. This latest news isn't really new it's just we now know where it sits on his todo list.
The fact that it could be skipped was entirely for people that didn't want the story yet and wanted to test the gameplay and meet the girls, not because the story isn't important. It just isn't as important for anyone demoing the content.
I for one am very interested in finding out more about the MC's former workplace and whatever shady goings-on has been going on, and more about the game. I paid attention to the prologue and I think it's safe to assume what happened was no accident.
If you remove all that's original about this game it becomes almost a carbon copy of every other dude living with a landlady and roommate game just with a coat of red. It's not that I don't like those games, but staying with that formula isn't going to help with standing out as memorable.

 

[chuckypetya]

It is absolutely amazing!
I have some questions guys.. after the Fiona scene at night, the game says, Fiona route is over, and I finished Prii route earlier. But the 0.3 release says it has Prii content, and I didnt see episode 3 pic.. so is it over, or not after Fiona's night scene?

 

[cariadult]

Story Wise, should i finish Fiona Route first before proceed to Pri Route? I found it strange that Fiona suddenly aggressive on the beach before our lovely dovey night after her reunion.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

I am not into Prii, I want to do the Fiona route but I don't know how to.

Need a WT for this!

 

[ElBandarra]

I myself commented on the long intro, about a year or so ago. But I stand by my comment. The payoff for the long intro will be later in the game. The reason why it feels so long currently, is that it makes the game feels unbalanced. Currently it's now 33% of the game witch is excessive for an intro. After 10 updates, it will be 10% of the game: Much better.

I do feel it's important to the story, otherwise what is the point? Him returning to that aspect of the game shows it's important to the story. Giving the ability to skip it, is like giving someone the ability to skip the prologue of a novel or book you are starting to read. It just means you are missing out on the story.

Conclusion: Is the handling of the Intro perfect? No, Especially since the way updates are released it feels unbalanced when there are only two subsequent updates after the intro and it does potentially scare of players. I said so myself. I would personally have like the intro to be a bit shorter, with more info being dropped during normal game play.

Having said that. Once the game is past halfway after another 4 or 5 updates, the intro would fit better and not be distracting at all. Also the other negative about the intro is that there is no payoff yet. The players sat through the intro with no reward/payoff linked to the intro. Once the intro comes into play, it will start adding value to the actual story instead of the stand alone chunk of unrelated events, that it currently is.

For instance

Spoiler

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Intro is boring, and even the dev recognizes that implicitly when he makes it avoidable. As simple as that.

But that's not the problem. The problem is it introduces a bad initial premise that ballast the game, the one of the MC being actually a random old guy that nobody cares about that ends up in the body of a young man because of some technological voodoo. I could care about the young man and his previous story with the girls, and definitely I care about the girls, but I don't care about that random old man and about his "technological reincarnation". And that's what happen with most of the people, since this game started to be popular and having enthusiast opinions after V.2. Comments about V.1 are "mixed opinions" at best.

 

[Hordragg]

Intro is boring, and even the dev recognizes that implicitly when he makes it avoidable. As simple as that.

But it really isn't 'as simple as that', as is readily apparent by people having widely differing opinions about it. Polyrotix also doesn't recognize it being 'boring' but is catering to the vocal part of their target audience which sadly can't be bothered to enjoy world building and story telling as those rarely go hand in hand with fondling ones genitals. But I feel ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ put it best, so may want to reread their post.

 

[ElBandarra]

But it really isn't 'as simple as that', as is readily apparent by people having widely differing opinions about it. Polyrotix also doesn't recognize it being 'boring' but is catering to the vocal part of their target audience which sadly can't be bothered to enjoy world building and story telling as those rarely go hand in hand with fondling ones genitals. But I feel ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ put it best, so may want to reread their post.

It is as simple as that. Most of the people is here for the redheads and the hindu doctor, and can't care less for the random old guy and his shoehorn story about "technological reincarnation". That's why the dev makes the intro and all the story or the old guy avoidable. Because he recognizes is going to make a lot of people drop the game the first 15 minutes, the most important ones in all kind of games (even AAA ones), because are the ones people decides if are going to continue playing the game, or not.

 

[MrFriendly]

Okay, as a redhead enthusiast or connoisseur I have to say something regarding the whole "intro sucks" complaint.

The issue I had with the intro and why it took so long for me to play completely through this game is the length of the "MMORPG" beginning. The "in game" storyline went on too long and has very little to do with the rest of the game (so far). It felt like the Developer wanted to use some cool assets but it felt a bit overlong (but no I don't think people should skip it). The "fat old man living alone" component was better, we got more into the meat of the mystery of the game. But it still didn't do well in bringing the divergent ideas (the sci-fi dystopian "escape reality into a game" and "sweet summer of learning to care for friends again") together. The main part of the game where the useless old man is learning about the MC's life again is basically a standard "guy with coma" story.

The problem I have with the story, right now, is that I feel the MC doesn't act with any real urgency, personally I'd wonder what happened to the original mind of the kid that was taken over. Is his personality still in his own head? Or was it transferred to the useless fat man's body and melted with the old man's brain? The old man doesn't really think about that, he doesn't spend any time trying to discover what happened in the game after the incident (which was months ago), he instead spends the entire time trying to perv out on the two redheads he just met. The main character doesn't spend more than a few seconds trying to discover WTF happened. Instead it's all "fetch me that pitcher" and go find younger cute redhead when she runs away (oh and almost fuck her).

So, whereas I don't mind the beginning as much as some people seem to, I find it frustrating that the MC is not trying to move forward with figuring out what happened. I love the redheads but the game isn't as slow burn as I expected it to be when it comes to getting sexual with them (considering the previous relationships that the "body" had with the two I was surprised at how quickly they got to lewdness). And I expected to see more time spent investigating WTF happened in the intervening months. The MC has a computer in his room and it might as well be a paperweight when it comes to investigating the incident.

 

[ElBandarra]

Okay, as a redhead enthusiast or connoisseur I have to say something regarding the whole "intro sucks" complaint.

The issue I had with the intro and why it took so long for me to play completely through this game is the length of the "MMORPG" beginning. The "in game" storyline went on too long and has very little to do with the rest of the game (so far). It felt like the Developer wanted to use some cool assets but it felt a bit overlong (but no I don't think people should skip it). The "fat old man living alone" component was better, we got more into the meat of the mystery of the game. But it still didn't do well in bringing the divergent ideas (the sci-fi dystopian "escape reality into a game" and "sweet summer of learning to care for friends again") together. The main part of the game where the useless old man is learning about the MC's life again is basically a standard "guy with coma" story.

The problem I have with the story, right now, is that I feel the MC doesn't act with any real urgency, personally I'd wonder what happened to the original mind of the kid that was taken over. Is his personality still in his own head? Or was it transferred to the useless fat man's body and melted with the old man's brain? The old man doesn't really think about that, he doesn't spend any time trying to discover what happened in the game after the incident (which was months ago), he instead spends the entire time trying to perv out on the two redheads he just met. The main character doesn't spend more than a few seconds trying to discover WTF happened. Instead it's all "fetch me that pitcher" and go find younger cute redhead when she runs away (oh and almost fuck her).

So, whereas I don't mind the beginning as much as some people seem to, I find it frustrating that the MC is not trying to move forward with figuring out what happened. I love the redheads but the game isn't as slow burn as I expected it to be when it comes to getting sexual with them (considering the previous relationships that the "body" had with the two I was surprised at how quickly they got to lewdness). And I expected to see more time spent investigating WTF happened in the intervening months. The MC has a computer in his room and it might as well be a paperweight when it comes to investigating the incident.

Yes, you get it right.
This game right now is the classic "guy with coma/amnesia/returns to the army-university-long trip-younameit that has a second chance to reconnect with his family-friends (hot girls and women, mostly) and learn to care about them again". There are a hundred of games with that premise, and most of them are awful, BUT this one is pretty good, actually. This simple premise suits the style of writing, characters, visuals, etc.
Righ now the MC doesn't behave like an old man into a young body, doesn't care about what happened to him, about the young guy whose body "inhabits"... just behaves as the classic "guy with coma/amnesia... etc", and the game works just fine. The story of the old guy and his "technological reincarnation" doesn´t add something to the game, is like a leftover.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

Intro is boring, and even the dev recognizes that implicitly when he makes it avoidable. As simple as that.

But that's not the problem. The problem is it introduces a bad initial premise that ballast the game, the one of the MC being actually a random old guy that nobody cares about that ends up in the body of a young man because of some technological voodoo. I could care about the young man and his previous story with the girls, and definitely I care about the girls, but I don't care about that random old man and about his "technological reincarnation". And that's what happen with most of the people, since this game started to be popular and having enthusiast opinions after V.2. Comments about V.1 are "mixed opinions" at best.

Dude, he's not an old man. He's middle-aged.

And he's not random. His father created technology crucial to the story, including that badass AI, which I am inclined to believe is a Chekov's gun.

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

I feel like Tanca2 didn't read MrFriendly's post at all but jumped straight to thinking he agrees lol. It read to me more like the complaints were the opposite.

I understand MrFriendly's complaints regarding the lack of urgency with the MC, they're pretty fair. But as a counterpoint, I do feel like the Fiona and Prii stuff we've been given so far will likely be something that can be approached at our leisure when the game has more meat. It mostly falls into the MC learning about the host body's past rather than the accident. I would guess that when the investigation of the accident part of the game begins to be added we could potentially jump straight to that before doing a lot of stuff with either of the girls.
In short, I expect it'll be approached in a sandbox way and we've been given the pretty girls quickly because they're a hook.

Back to the point of the prologue and whether it should be ditched, I get the feeling that some people don't understand how these games come together. How planning and writing work.
Poly is of course not going to spill the beans in regards to where everything is headed because of spoilers, but I can pretty much guarantee that he's not making this shit up as he goes. He can't just chop out chunks and then roll with the punches if they were at the core of the story.
Sure, the prologue needs some editing and I'm hoping to see some of it shifted to later flashback moments during events that are related, but it's important to the writing that's been laid down in the latter part of the game so far. Being able to see the memories/pasts of others is an ability that has been all but confirmed to be a result of the accident. It's an ability that has proven to not only be a vehicle for exposition but has also helped the MC out such as knowing exactly what to say to Ranger Roger.
The world-building in place is important and half of what would be left if the scenario that was presented by the prologue was completely omitted would need rewriting. The brain TV's and the mind control element that was hinted will probably come into play later need an origin and the current explanation is one of the less flimsy sci-fi powerbase origins I've read in one of these kinds of games.
Almost everything that's here feeds into other things that are already here or we've been teased are in store in the future. Two future female characters from the MC's life before the accident were introduced to us early on (Margaux and Madeleine) and a third whose role has been left a mystery* (Eunha). No takebacks!

Just let Poly write his story and move on if it's not for you. The sci-fi stuff is presumably the main thing he wants to write about since it all kicked off with that and, given how busy he is and how slowly this is progressing as a result, if you ask him to remove the element he's built his idea around then you might as well just suggest he quit the development completely and focus 110% on his studies and/or day job. Not that I expect he'd listen and do that, he's gonna do what he wants to do.
Because why would anyone bother with the hassle of struggling to make time for something they're not all that interested in?

I'll say it again, despite agreeing that the prologue needs editing down and the exposition it delivers could do with some shuffling, the premise has me on the hook. I'm excited to find out about the company the MC worked at and I'm excited to see if the mystery surrounding the accident can provide any surprises.
I'm also excited to enjoy taking over the host body's life and seeing what's in store for us when we get back to school.


*I'm currently of the mind to speculate that Eunha is another player of the game. That MC knew her in the game but not in real life. I have no real basis for this speculation other than reading too far into the wording of the character description we were given when she was teased.

 

[MrFriendly]

I feel like Tanca2 didn't read MrFriendly's post at all but jumped straight to thinking he agrees lol. It read to me more like the complaints were the opposite.

I understand MrFriendly's complaints regarding the lack of urgency with the MC, they're pretty fair. But as a counterpoint, I do feel like the Fiona and Prii stuff we've been given so far will likely be something that can be approached at our leisure when the game has more meat. It mostly falls into the MC learning about the host body's past rather than the accident. I would guess that when the investigation of the accident part of the game begins to be added we could potentially jump straight to that before doing a lot of stuff with either of the girls.
In short, I expect it'll be approached in a sandbox way and we've been given the pretty girls quickly because they're a hook.

Back to the point of the prologue and whether it should be ditched, I get the feeling that some people don't understand how these games come together. How planning and writing work.
Poly is of course not going to spill the beans in regards to where everything is headed because of spoilers, but I can pretty much guarantee that he's not making this shit up as he goes. He can't just chop out chunks and then roll with the punches if they were at the core of the story.
Sure, the prologue needs some editing and I'm hoping to see some of it shifted to later flashback moments during events that are related, but it's important to the writing that's been laid down in the latter part of the game so far. Being able to see the memories/pasts of others is an ability that has been all but confirmed to be a result of the accident. It's an ability that has proven to not only be a vehicle for exposition but has also helped the MC out such as knowing exactly what to say to Ranger Roger.
The world-building in place is important and half of what would be left if the scenario that was presented by the prologue was completely omitted would need rewriting. The brain TV's and the mind control element that was hinted will probably come into play later need an origin and the current explanation is one of the less flimsy sci-fi powerbase origins I've read in one of these kinds of games.
Almost everything that's here feeds into other things that are already here or we've been teased are in store in the future. Two future female characters from the MC's life before the accident were introduced to us early on (Margaux and Madeleine) and a third whose role has been left a mystery* (Eunha). No takebacks!

Just let Poly write his story and move on if it's not for you. The sci-fi stuff is presumably the main thing he wants to write about since it all kicked off with that and, given how busy he is and how slowly this is progressing as a result, if you ask him to remove the element he's built his idea around then you might as well just suggest he quit the development completely and focus 110% on his studies and/or day job. Not that I expect he'd listen and do that, he's gonna do what he wants to do.
Because why would anyone bother with the hassle of struggling to make time for something they're not all that interested in?

I'll say it again, despite agreeing that the prologue needs editing down and the exposition it delivers could do with some shuffling, the premise has me on the hook. I'm excited to find out about the company the MC worked at and I'm excited to see if the mystery surrounding the accident can provide any surprises.
I'm also excited to enjoy taking over the host body's life and seeing what's in store for us when we get back to school.


*I'm currently of the mind to speculate that Eunha is another player of the game. That MC knew her in the game but not in real life. I have no real basis for this speculation other than reading too far into the wording of the character description we were given when she was teased.

Yeah, I don’t want the game to be completely changed. However, I feel the prologue is a large infodump and the MMORPG portion doesn’t add significantly to the rest of the game yet. In addition the MC may be learning more about the new people in his life but there’s no urgency to figure out how the incident happened. Also feel the lewd bits are happening too quickly, especially with Fiona, as she’s viewed the body as an annoying a-hole for most of the body’s life. That said, I do agree the prologue is necessary and the knowledge that the MC can see people’s memories now is important. I just think the overall pacing is off.
As for the introduction of other characters that may be potential love interests (especially people the MC new as a fat old man) I am completely unenthusiastic. The current setup feels like the MC could develop deep relationships with Prii and Fiona, adding in more LI will dilute the amount of time that the MC will be able to spend with any of the LI. But I’m certainly willing to wait and see how it goes.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

Yeah, I don’t want the game to be completely changed. However, I feel the prologue is a large infodump and the MMORPG portion doesn’t add significantly to the rest of the game yet. In addition the MC may be learning more about the new people in his life but there’s no urgency to figure out how the incident happened. Also feel the lewd bits are happening too quickly, especially with Fiona, as she’s viewed the body as an annoying a-hole for most of the body’s life. That said, I do agree the prologue is necessary and the knowledge that the MC can see people’s memories now is important. I just think the overall pacing is off.
As for the introduction of other characters that may be potential love interests (especially people the MC new as a fat old man) I am completely unenthusiastic. The current setup feels like the MC could develop deep relationships with Prii and Fiona, adding in more LI will dilute the amount of time that the MC will be able to spend with any of the LI. But I’m certainly willing to wait and see how it goes.

It's tricky because the intro is the prelude to waking in the hospital in a "new" body.

As a writer, I am thinking about how it could have been done differently, and it's not obvious to me.

 

[quinfax]

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Hello there!

I hope you all had a nice weekend! This is just a quick update regarding the status of the development, particularly me redoing some of the old renders to bring it up to quality with my new ones. The stark difference of the quality really popped to me as I was referencing the old ones. I'm a little proud of that evolution.
Anyways, most of the re-renders on this scene are done, also added new additional locations, and some new side characters. The last couple of weeks was really productive for me and I hope the rest of August will be, too.

Cheers,
Polyrotix

 

[Raker1180]

I hope this game has good animation!
because the game with beautiful and sexy characters but without animation it will reduce the fun !!