VN Ren'Py A Couple's Duet of Love & Lust [v0.12.7] [King B]

[Brokebacker]

Huh? As 1 or 2 mentioned prior in this thread, I feel like nat has Too much agency relative to ethan. As the player, it seems like you can always "double check" things as nat, not so with ethan. Seems like the earlier releases actually did better at this - if you look at the walkthrough or the game's first few days, there's much emphasis put on nat and ethan being on the same page; and only 1 of them being game pretty much defines the reluctance path variants - though this goes off the rails later when it just turns into a BBCslutEMup model 3000, as these games tend to do. If anyone thinks that's too harsh of an indictment, look at the descrepency between walkthrough and in-game cuck path at swinger party with tavon.

I disagree, even in the supposedly "sub-cuck route" Nat still seems to be entirely ruled by Ethans wishes, with the exception of a few small choices I think. So even the Sub-cuck route and the normal cuck route are mostly the same so far, and like I said before, Ethan did initially start the cuckold discussion so it would make sense for him to like most of it.
But I think in terms of character development if it doesn't affect Nat at all, meaning she doesn't start having thoughts to expand her horizons or push Ethan into some scenarios, then it still only feels like it's Ethans ball-game. Basically all ideas and feelings are mostly from Ethans side which is driving the ship completely, like I said with a few minor exceptions.

And even if Nat gives in and embrace her lust, it's still Ethans road they are driving on until SHE starts pushing some ideas of this cuckold life-style that they have. It's mostly Ethan telling Nat what he likes, and she goes "Ahh smirk" and indulges him. It's never the other way around, so again, yes she lacks agency and her thoughts are rarely engaged. Everything is for Ethan.

 

[dian091]

I hope Riya steals Ethan from a smug Nat.

I'm not sure I'd say stolen, however, I would if Riya was Ethan's second chance. If there is a lesson in spouse sharing and cuckoldry that when you risk a very good marriage, it fails. After winning Riya, he has a chance to lose her also so he leaves that lifestyle and lives happily ever after with Riya. I'm okay with Nat either marrying Darrel or Peter or someone else and either staying a slut or getting out of the lifestyle too. I guess I am more of a romantic than I thought, at least subconsciously. Between now and the end, I want to see Nat screw virtually everyone.

 

[Big Rooster]

excellent game generally especially ntr I approached the game many times but i was rejecting through the outlines of the
character models why replace such good models (NAT) with some lines but i played it and it's great
although I still think that if the lines were reduced or eliminated the game would benefit

I think the outlines were overdone at first, in the later scenes, they have almost gone. Thanfully

 

[Pr0GamerJohnny]

I disagree, even in the supposedly "sub-cuck route" Nat still seems to be entirely ruled by Ethans wishes, with the exception of a few small choices I think. So even the Sub-cuck route and the normal cuck route are mostly the same so far, and like I said before, Ethan did initially start the cuckold discussion so it would make sense for him to like most of it.
But I think in terms of character development if it doesn't affect Nat at all, meaning she doesn't start having thoughts to expand her horizons or push Ethan into some scenarios, then it still only feels like it's Ethans ball-game. Basically all ideas and feelings are mostly from Ethans side which is driving the ship completely, like I said with a few minor exceptions.

And even if Nat gives in and embrace her lust, it's still Ethans road they are driving on until SHE starts pushing some ideas of this cuckold life-style that they have. It's mostly Ethan telling Nat what he likes, and she goes "Ahh smirk" and indulges him. It's never the other way around, so again, yes she lacks agency and her thoughts are rarely engaged. Everything is for Ethan.

huh? The whole second hotel scene is a joint direction. Ethans "I love you" or not determines path, then his pull away or not, then nat's "make him cum" or not - these 3 junctions determine rest of scene.

I think the outlines were overdone at first, in the later scenes, they have almost gone. Thanfully

I didn't have as much a problem with the outlines as the expressions. I kept trying to get into game, and I finally realized what was making me hate it so easily was darrell's stock expressions. Go look at the expressions icon folder yourself, the dev could have saved himself some time by making a renpy layeredimage setup like:

layeredimage darrel:

group sneer auto
attribute happy
attribute mean
attribute angry


To unpack this if its unclear:

In nearly every expression he's drawn with sharply slanted eyebrows close to the eyes. This would generally encompass angry/cocky/confident/serious moods- but there's no other brows. In-game, when his expressions have a normal smile, he looks fine, but the majority of the smiles are slightly lobsided, giving this sneer/smirk appearance to everything. Some may like that, but it was just obnoxious to constantly see for me, though once I changed the expressions to more of the normal smiles I found the game more enjoyable.

 

[packard1928]

Where do you think it will go on the vanella route where it end with Nat riding Ethan lap. And she is excited watching the others ??? Then there is where she goes to the bed with the others..... it ends.

 

[Big Rooster]

huh? The whole second hotel scene is a joint direction. Ethans "I love you" or not determines path, then his pull away or not, then nat's "make him cum" or not - these 3 junctions determine rest of scene.


I didn't have as much a problem with the outlines as the expressions. I kept trying to get into game, and I finally realized what was making me hate it so easily was darrell's stock expressions. Go look at the expressions icon folder yourself, the dev could have saved himself some time by making a renpy layeredimage setup like:

layeredimage darrel:

group sneer auto
attribute happy
attribute mean
attribute angry


To unpack this if its unclear:

In nearly every expression he's drawn with sharply slanted eyebrows close to the eyes. This would generally encompass angry/cocky/confident/serious moods- but there's no other brows. In-game, when his expressions have a normal smile, he looks fine, but the majority of the smiles are slightly lobsided, giving this sneer/smirk appearance to everything. Some may like that, but it was just obnoxious to constantly see for me, though once I changed the expressions to more of the normal smiles I found the game more enjoyable.

The ol scary eyebrows! Agree, his eyebrow expressions are obnoxious!

 

[Big Rooster]

Where do you think it will go on the vanella route where it end with Nat riding Ethan lap. And she is excited watching the others ??? Then there is where she goes to the bed with the others..... it ends.

Haven't got there yet...

 

[Mommysbuttslut]

Where do you think it will go on the vanella route where it end with Nat riding Ethan lap. And she is excited watching the others ??? Then there is where she goes to the bed with the others..... it ends.

It'll go with Ethan thinking "holy shit this is hot" pumping it up into her for about 2 more lines, and then prematurely ejaculating in front of the entire party. This is Ethan's make or break moment, either he pleases his wife for the first time in his entire life, or he outs himself as an incompetent lover in the presence of multiple bulls at a swingers party while his wife is horny as fuck.

 

[Big Rooster]

It'll go with Ethan thinking "holy shit this is hot" pumping it up into her for about 2 more lines, and then prematurely ejaculating in front of the entire party. This is Ethan's make or break moment, either he pleases his wife for the first time in his entire life, or he outs himself as an incompetent lover in the presence of multiple bulls at a swingers party while his wife is horny as fuck.

And here I thought I was bad
Or he gets a bad case of performance anxiety, with all these bulls and their huge cocks f*cking the sh>t out of the girls, can't get it up at all!

 

[Vrykolakas36]

The whole ANAL discussion just goes to emphasize the point I was trying to make about this game. Not everyone feels the same way about a situation. Not even every cuckold. The protagonist of the game needs to be one you can relate too (Either Ethan or Nat or both). So it should be the players choice whether or not Nat looses her Anal virginity to Ethan or to a Bull and it should be the players choice on how Ethan feels about it and how Nat treats him. Obviously you can't do that if you have 11 different routes because you loose a lot of subtlety and nuance in each individual route trying to keep track of all the branches. This game would be better with fewer routes and the player being able to make more personal choices inside each route about what they want to happen and how they feel about it.

As a personal anecdote. I used to want to have an open relationship with my ex. When we first had Anal sex we talked about if we ever did have an open relationship that only I would get to fuck her in the ass. Later on in my relationship I changed my mind and decided it wasn't a big deal. I would love to have seen another guy fuck her in the ass. Alas we never did have an open relationship and she just ended up cheating on me behind my back.

If I was Ethan I would want my wife's first anal experience to be with me then after that she could fuck whoever she wants in the ASS. She could even roleplay that I never get to fuck her ass again but after the Bull is done and I get to reclaim her that is no longer the case. But I really struggle to relate to Ethan the way this story is written because he lets Nat disrespect him so often even in the loving cuckold path.

 

[Big Rooster]

The whole ANAL discussion just goes to emphasize the point I was trying to make about this game. Not everyone feels the same way about a situation. Not even every cuckold. The protagonist of the game needs to be one you can relate too (Either Ethan or Nat or both). So it should be the players choice whether or not Nat looses her Anal virginity to Ethan or to a Bull and it should be the players choice on how Ethan feels about it and how Nat treats him. Obviously you can't do that if you have 11 different routes because you loose a lot of subtlety and nuance in each individual route trying to keep track of all the branches. This game would be better with fewer routes and the player being able to make more personal choices inside each route about what they want to happen and how they feel about it.

As a personal anecdote. I used to want to have an open relationship with my ex. When we first had Anal sex we talked about if we ever did have an open relationship that only I would get to fuck her in the ass. Later on in my relationship I changed my mind and decided it wasn't a big deal. I would love to have seen another guy fuck her in the ass. Alas we never did have an open relationship and she just ended up cheating on me behind my back.

If I was Ethan I would want my wife's first anal experience to be with me then after that she could fuck whoever she wants in the ASS. She could even roleplay that I never get to fuck her ass again but after the Bull is done and I get to reclaim her that is no longer the case. But I really struggle to relate to Ethan the way this story is written because he lets Nat disrespect him so often even in the loving cuckold path.

The more routes, the broader the potential audience. from a developer's perspective, it's a win-win, but with a lot more work on writing.
I like that the game has a lot of choices, it makes so that every replay I can choose a different path.

 

[Vrykolakas36]

The more routes, the broader the potential audience. from a developer's perspective, it's a win-win, but with a lot more work on writing.
I like that the game has a lot of choices, it makes so that every replay I can choose a different path.

Agreed. But you don't need to create so much complexity that you can no longer write a coherent story. You can also have a lot of choices inside each route instead of having a whole bunch of different routes.

 

[Big Rooster]

Agreed. But you don't need to create so much complexity that you can no longer write a coherent story. You can also have a lot of choices inside each route instead of having a whole bunch of different routes.

hmm... with each choice, you are choosing to take a different route, soo...

 

[Pr0GamerJohnny]

Agreed. But you don't need to create so much complexity that you can no longer write a coherent story. You can also have a lot of choices inside each route instead of having a whole bunch of different routes.

I think the dev has done himself a disservice in the way it's currently written.

If you look through the scripts, he basically makes each path an entirely different label section, when 50-90% of it might be the exact same text (sure one can copy-paste but the size makes fine tuning unwieldy).

The more traditional way would be on a line by line or scene by scene basis you have things like

if ethancuckpath == 1:
et "Wow that's hot!"
elif ethanvanillapath == 1:
et "I suppose we could do that
elif ethanntrpath == 1:
blah blah

etc.

If you've never looked at the script I'd suggest it - it's interesting the way he does it, never seen a game laid out like that before.

 

[Yog-Sloth]

does this game have a gallery?

 

[johnsmith066]

does this game have a gallery?

no, it doesn't have one.

 

[King B]

I think the dev has done himself a disservice in the way it's currently written.

If you look through the scripts, he basically makes each path an entirely different label section, when 50-90% of it might be the exact same text (sure one can copy-paste but the size makes fine tuning unwieldy).

The more traditional way would be on a line by line or scene by scene basis you have things like

if ethancuckpath == 1:
et "Wow that's hot!"
elif ethanvanillapath == 1:
et "I suppose we could do that
elif ethanntrpath == 1:
blah blah

etc.

If you've never looked at the script I'd suggest it - it's interesting the way he does it, never seen a game laid out like that before.

I tried that at the beginning. Becomes a hot mess as the story gets complex and almost impossible to trace back for bugs and references. I still do that for minor variations within specific paths, but the separated main paths keep the code organized and give me less headache when writing and coding.

 

[Brokebacker]

huh? The whole second hotel scene is a joint direction. Ethans "I love you" or not determines path, then his pull away or not, then nat's "make him cum" or not - these 3 junctions determine rest of scene.

You don't get it, it's always Ethan making a decision and then Nat acting based on what Ethan decides. She never makes a decision or have a thought unless Ethan was the instigator of said action or thought. Literally every thought she has is based on Ethans desires, every step forward is based on Ethans decisions. Sometimes it's not obvious because Ethans decision might have been made way back, and not in the specific scene.

She never spawns her own decision based on her own thoughts and feelings, it's always based on what Ethan chooses.
Basically this is Ethans cuckold relationship, and Nat is just along for the journey. Until she makes a decision or have a conversation with him about her own thoughts and desires moving forward, it will still feel like it's Ethan driving this relationship. Again im talking about the mutual cuckold path here, where ethan is the instigator of said relationship.

 

[Pr0GamerJohnny]

You don't get it, it's always Ethan making a decision and then Nat acting based on what Ethan decides. She never makes a decision or have a thought unless Ethan was the instigator of said action or thought. Literally every thought she has is based on Ethans desires, every step forward is based on Ethans decisions. Sometimes it's not obvious because Ethans decision might have been made way back, and not in the specific scene.

She never spawns her own decision based on her own thoughts and feelings, it's always based on what Ethan chooses.
Basically this is Ethans cuckold relationship, and Nat is just along for the journey. Until she makes a decision or have a conversation with him about her own thoughts and desires moving forward, it will still feel like it's Ethan driving this relationship. Again im talking about the mutual cuckold path here, where ethan is the instigator of said relationship.

Well yeah, I'd agree with that overall, but that's because this is a male protagonist game. It seems like you're proposing a mixed protagonist..... which is fine.

Furthermore, doesn't that dynamic more accurately capture real-world cuckold relationship dynamics? Seems like if it was a less asymmetrical relationship, it'd be more of a swinger setup.

 

[Big Rooster]

She never spawns her own decision based on her own thoughts and feelings, it's always based on what Ethan chooses.

Except she does, her decision made here>>> <<<determines the trajectory of the whole rest of the game.