VN - Ren'Py - Completed - A Moment of Bliss [v5.0.1 Final] [Lockheart]

This just to resay what been said countless times, but I feel deserves less then the "3" (oddly many seem to give 4 even when they say they giving it more a 3 or not really worth a 4...) so can be skipped from reading.

But ya after absolute high tier Petals, then this l becoming more the typical from the needless waisted philosophy - downgraded choices - trying to force a weird sci fi narrative thing etc... for their special relationships (which absolute destroys all the philosophy and teachings and feelings of Petals... which is large part why its -1 from a 3) I just can't with this one there far too many other VNs, but Petals was terrific.

A Moment of Bliss is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. It definitely isn't average, but a full 4 stars is too strong of an endorsement.

As the second game in the trilogy, I found AMB to be weaker than its predecessor A Pedal Among Thorns (APAT). Just like APAT, A Moment of Bliss starts off strong and gradually gets weaker. The attempt at telling a convincing story begins to feel like a real drag, and the introduction of sentient AIs really put the game over the edge. While I do appreciate a good story in my games, and I'm not looking for a mindless fuck-fest, AMB suffered at times from a ponderous plot. Scenes drag, and the constant need to explain the nature of AI and of the family's sexual attraction I think took away from the game. At times it felt gross to see the hoops that were jumped through to explain story elements. I think the story would have been stronger if such a focus wasn't placed on this, and instead the game's story were focused on the MC's job and writing.

I also felt like there were too many side characters that the MC could get involved with. I'm in favor of branching a game out, and when all the characters are LIs and there's only three of them I think games can get pretty stale. But characters like Sin felt superfluous and as a LI totally unnecessary. These were the times where the game really fell into a bad rut of over explaining everything while also being a fuck-fest.

And when the end comes...it comes FAST. The final chapter felt really fast to me, and was pretty abrupt. It wasn't bad, but it also didn't feel very satisfying. Obviously that's partly because there's a third game on the horizon, but I still wasn't in love with it.

All that said; there's a lot to like. The game is gorgeous, it's well made, a ton of effort went into the writing, and it was completed! I can have some complaints around the edges, and the game wasn't for me, but when compared to the rest of the industry, A Moment of Bliss is easily above average.

A great second game in the trilogy and I can't wait for the third one. LH always does incredibly well with writing and rendering, unique story and pieced together wonderfully. Can't wait to see how the story with Moon goes and where the harem ends up in the final game of the trilogy

tl;dr: kinetic novel with pretty models, some D/s flavor and a optional backstory about AI/transhumanism/robots.

Pros:

• Pretty models with realistic measurements, no giant tits or asses here, which is much appreciated by this player. Nixie is a goddess. Rose is very pretty. Moon is fine as well, Petal and Bliss look a bit more bland in my opinion.
• Sex scenes are better than average in renders, text and animations. Dirty talk and cumshots are nice, but I would have liked to lean much more into the D/s stuff and have more variations in positions and content of dirty talk.
• MC's wish to have a more fulfilling sex life and his feelings of guilt over wanting better sex or being a demanding dom are very relatable for me and constitue a believable reason for the changes in his life.

Cons:

• There is no mechanism to change the names of LIs, and I am not a fan of the names Bliss or Petal. I changed them using Unren and Notepad++, but I would not advise any dev to use hardcoded names unless they have a very good reason. The names of the games and a few puns are not a very good reason.
• While I do think the background story about AIs and transhumanism is better than the usual AVN background story, being somewhat knowledgeable about software engineering and human behaviour, I did not agree with most of the points being made. I actually got quite annoyed, sighing and facepalming every few seconds at my desk. The AI in the game is almost omniscient, being able to access every digital device connected to the web. She is controlled by a private company who keeps her secret and at the same time she, the AI, is already circumventing restrictions imposed on her. Neither MC nor the game seems to be troubled about that. The AI tells us it isn't malevolent, and we're naively taking her by her word and also believe that she is correct in her plans to bring "future prosperity for humankind". I could go on and on how much of the stuff presented here is illogical or just plain wrong.
• MC is ignorant. He doesn't know about basic sex stuff and needs his adolescent virgin daughter to educate him. This could have been a sexy dynamic if she was just helping him fulfill his desires. The way it is now, it feels implausible that Bliss would see MC as this larger than life man, her hero, the man she adores, when in reality she has to educate this man 19 years her senior about basic stuff. Apart from that, MC also doesn't know shit about computers and how a microwave works is magic for him.
• Spoiler

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• The game doesn't have any choices, and yet you are sometimes forced to klick on an arrow to get to the next screen. Why?? This adds absolutely nothing, it just makes you click on a specific region instead of just click anywhere. WHY???
• MC's dick would be slightly above average in the real world, in the porn world he's rather small. Personally, I prefer big cocks in porn, especially if the girls keep refering to how big it is, which just sounds ridiculous here.
• As noted on the pro list, I do like the quality of what is there in the sex scenes, but there are quite some things I'm missing. In general, the scenes are much too short, they end when I start getting into them. I'd say they should have double the length they have now. I'm not really happy with the text either - the dirty talk is servicable, and either way highly subjective. But when real humans have sex, there's usually a lot of moaning, grunts, a lot of "Yes!", "Oh god...!", "Fuck!" and so on. This is almost completely missing here, instead the characters narrate their feelings in a way that feels very clinical und dispassionate. In most of the scenes there's no indication that the girls came, but afterwards they will exclaim "Wow, that was so hot, I came like what, three or four times?!?". They also describe MC cumming as being filled up with the force of a firehose, until they're full and the cum is forced out around the cock. I actually love stuff like this, but here it does not fit at all to the tone of the game, which makes it immersion-breaking. Again, MC does not have a monster cock or magical cock by any definition, but the girls act like he does, which just feels dishonest.
• If, like me, you haven't played A Petal Amongst Thorns, you're left guessing about the relationships at the start of the game.
• Too much time spent on the story MC is writing in the game (Madds something, a cheap comic version of Medusa). It's too little to make you care about that story or its characters, but so much that you are bored to death.
• Out of dozens of puns and attempts at humour, there were two I found amusing, the rest was cringe. This might be on me though, I find most attempts at humour in AVNs atrocious.
• "Feel the wrath of my cum-dragon!" "Your potent man-snake penetrates not just my pussy, but my soul!" Those are actual quotes out of sex scenes.
• Non-optional lesbian content.
• Very minor: I've only played around in Daz for a few minutes, so I do not know if there's a reason for this, because I have seen it in several games: The scaling of the models is not consistent. Bliss is supposed to be much more petite and shorter than Petal, and most renders show this, but then there's at least one render where they're standing right next to each other and they're the same height.

Just finished the completed game, and was a great ride! Characters were fun and believable without being too over the top. The scenes at the pool were superbly done, and anyone who's ever played the "how far will this situation go" type game like that may have some pleasant memories recalled. I know I did.

Bliss was a great catalyst for the group dynamic, and really was sorely needed to step in and puch things where everyone really wanted them to go but stopped themselves prematurely. The sex scenes were well done and the only 'complaint' was that story ended right when the almost full group dynamic finally was true to itself. Here's hoping we see Nixie (good lord she was hot AF) and how she joined the family (if she did) in the last installment of the game set. Really can't wait to see Rose, Nixie, Bliss and Petal interacting.. That would be so much heat it would melt the renders, lol.

Some may complain that the story included *any* non-family members, but they added a nice dynamic and weren't too unbelievable. Some may scoff about the daughters 'sudden;y' being bi-curious, but really, they are already down for 'family' antics due to the story, so why would that suddenly exclude them being attracted to other women?? Same with the 'seperation' for the main couple, in seperations it's usually one or both former partners seeing if there is enough left to maybe start over or move on, that's how seperation works. It's not meant to be some sort of exclusionary "we're still really together just messing around" because frankly, more people split after seperation than reconnect, that's just how it goes.

Overall tremendoubly enjoyed the game, having not played the first one. It was well written enough to keep my up overnight when work called the next morning. Very tired but the missing sleep was for a great cause! Absolutely loved Suzi, can't wait to see how that plays out. Really makes me wish there were an AI like that, because I think many people would prefer that over some poor human options.

Only negatives, and they are minor.. As with most of these games, the ages of the older characters and overall story timeline. So MC was 39, assume Rose was approx too, married for 20 years. So married at 19, having kids one after another, and then the 'situation' popped up from 29-39? Not sure of the story from the first game, but assume no one went to college? In the US at least most people aren't getting married that young, much less having lkids. A more realistic age for the older characters would probably be 42-45, assuming they were in the middle of or just finished college when they got hitched and had kids. That might play hell on the physical part tho because it's harder to look early 30's (*cough* Rose) when you're 10-15 years older than that. It can be done with good diet, exercise and taking care of yourserlf, just not as common as some would portray.

In any event, overall a solid A game. If you're going into this expecting a "let me have my 50,000 choices and finely tune the game to my tastes" experience, you won't get that. You will get a pretty good story, as far as AVN's go, with the typical "male MC has women dropping panties for him when he walks in the room" but these are all fantasies, so it's par for the course in a good way. Well worth the time, and looking forward to seeing how things go in the last chapter.

I really wanted to get through this VN without having to turn on the skip unseen text but at some point the dialogue becomes so insufferably banal it becomes a chore to read through. All the girls lack any real sense of individual personality, all of them act the same. If the writer could focus more attention on giving the girls individual personalities this could otherwise be a really good writing. The author could also get rid of so many needless clicking.

This a great prolog. I had fell of the train for a while but when I saw the Completed pop-up I knew i had to come back.

It's a great VN. The story makes sense and the girls are all sexy and just normal. Not all characters need huge balloons or wide hips. I applaud the consistency when the design was made.

Some times there might be more dialog than most VN's but it does not retract from the experience. Some people get mad because of this but I feel it was good. If you just want to see the sex scenes finish the game once and then enjoy. But don't try to come and ask for the story to be cut into pieces because you cannot read for a little longer without interesting scenes.

Renders are gorgeous and the girls are all 11's. I cannot wait for the continuation and I do recommend you read this VN. It was fun and just outright sexy.

Congrats to the devs on a job well done, keep the good work now.

Relative to Petal Among Thorns, this one's a bit of a downgrade. Don't get me wrong, overall the game is still quite good, but the dialog in this game ramps up the Mary Sue complex to 11, and it stays there. If you can get past the fact that Bliss regurgitates whatever psychology article the author was reading that week, it's still a solid 3/5.

Bliss consistently behaves nothing like a human, often dumping philosophy dissertations in the middle of feeling up the MC. It's decidedly dissociating, as I don't really care to get into the moral implications of hedonism while having a wank. In addition to her PhD in Philosophy she also has a Masters in Psychology, and situations are contrived to allow her to rationalize the MC's relationships through her diatribe, which is again unsettling and unnecessarily clinical. Moreover, she's a freakish sexpot and basically jumps on MC's dick the moment he walks through the door, despite familial relations. At no point is she ever unsure of what she's doing, and basically acts as a Brothel Madame, ushering women into MC's life and encouraging them to bang it out, or openly groping them in front of her own father. The ease at which women are "corrupted" in MOB is very jarring. Where PAT saw Petal and MC slowly come to terms with their father/daughter relationship, Bliss (and honestly other female love interests) are just far too eager to engage and in Bliss' case, also too quick to explain her own actions away. In sum, her dialog constantly suspends the disbelief that I'm reading (watching?) a novel, which is annoying because I really enjoyed PAT. By contrast, MOB reads like a cheap Harlequin romance.

The larger plot arcs are still serviceable though, and the characters are well-written despite having the aforementioned terrible dialog at times.

Lockheart continues to be one of my favorite devs and hits another home run with this super sexy, fun and enjoyable romp. Obviously the models have a different look so if you're not into that then this might not be the one for you but personally I like the look that Lockheart uses in his games.

And just to show I'm not a total fan boy I will definitely say that the dialog can get wayyyy too flowerly at certain points but I just can't take away a star for that considering how happy I am after playing anything from Lockheart.

AND we even get a little bit of Penny in this one.. she's just so much fun

I love this Virtual Novel. I do hope there will be a lot more coming because i don't want it to end
This story has so much to offer and the graphics are great and the characters are cure and fun. You just have to try this if you didn't already!

play v3.0.1 with french trad (which explains my poor written English, sorry)

story: 3/5 The story is well written, we don't feel any unnecessary lengths, and I'm totally a fan of the humor present.
On the other hand, 2 things bother me, the least serious is the constant reference to the game before, it's quite annoying when you haven't played it.
But above all, what really bothered me was that we can, at the beginning, define our relationships (who is what for us) but despite that the game will always remind us that they are our daughters,
Without too much spoiler, incest is a big part of the story!
I like the game, but I don't like being reminded all the time: hey, your sight, that's your daughter!

characters: 5/5 The characters are very well written, and we all get attached to them.

sex scene: 6/5 Among the best I've seen, their duration is exceptional, the eroticism of the scenes is really pushed to the limit, it's a superb success

renders: 4/5 They are very good most of the time, a few times the proportions are not very good, but I quibble

animation: 4/5 They are quite good, I would like more (but I almost always want more ^^), on the other hand I'm not too fond of fake animations (I call that the passages where there is a fade between 2 picture)

sound: perfect

gameplay: 4/5 0 choices, at some rare moment, you just have to click or we are told. However, the game completely succeeds in making us forget that, we get so into the story that we forget that we have no impact

Very nice VN with a solid story and scenes.
Nice renders and models, better eyes compared to the prequel (I read it was a fix, I didn't mind either versions but like the "fixed" ones better)
The lewd audio/sound is subtle enough to be enjoyable and fitting (esp. oral scenes)

While missing choices (kinks etc), it is still very enjoyable and straight forward storytelling. Way less "stalling" (aka building up excitement and desire) and earlier lewd scenes than the Petal prequel. A bite more enjoyable because of this.

Subscribed on patreon, the dev(s) really deserve more!
(especially compared to some money-milking devs who barely deliver anything after a few months)

Lockheart hasn't made a V/N that I haven't liked. Personally I like his writing style and characters personalities and looks. Petal is adorable and Bliss is hot. I always appreciate it when the girls don't all have over inflated boobs. The story line has cute moments, romantic ones and some outright sexy moments,

I look forward to seeing it continue with Moon. Also more of Penny, she is killer.

This game is fun, it won't have hyper mega deep characters and maybe the taboo won't be treated in a dramatic and realistic way, and the dialogue can be a bit silly at times, but still, it's fun, I really like the "comfy" vibes it gives me this game and I enjoy it a lot as well as I enjoyed the previous game, and if I had to say something that I don't like that would be a bit the looks of the mc but that's still not a big thing, so whatever, if what you are looking for it is a light hearted story i really recommend this game

Holy fuck, the dialogue here. Too much. The dev needs to remember that this is a visual novel and that some element of "show, don't tell" needs to remain in play here. Every H-scene is packed to the gills with over-the-top dollar store romance novel dialogue. I get the vibe the dev is going for, but man, we don't need a 4000-word missive every time the MC gets tugged off.

Add in all the extra shit with the AI (which I'm aware can be turned off), and the other characters that your virgin sex guru daughter is attempting to corrupt, and it's just a game that's trying to be too many things that it's not. A disappointment coming from Petal Among Thorns.

Poor guy, I feel for him, I really do. Man just wants to mooch about like every other VN MC around here, slowly corrupting his daughters (no pretending here) while they help to swat away the flies of conscience with dirty talk straight out of an over-read horny teenager's wet dream. And just as he thinks he's getting somewhere, he finds he's the linchpin of a philosophical debate about the ethical and technological limits of AI, complete with a flimsily disguised Elon dicking about the place (not literally, it's OK). No denying, the hot scenes are hot, pictures are great, sub-dom dialogue hits the spot. But you have to chew on your Clarke and Kurzweil in between times.

Petal Without Thorns was great. Was hoping for more of the same, but sadly let down.

The relationship with Bliss doesn't even get a change to develop, it just happens. It's just on. It's unearned and doesn't have that build up that PWT did. She's very aggressive, and when Nixie comes into the picture, she immediately just becomes her dom? Again, there is no burn with Nixie. As soon as Bliss meets her, it's on. I don't like their dynamic, so as I read an earlier review I was at least glad I could shut her down mainly to try to save what was going on with Bliss (because I really don't like the dynamic she has with Nixie). But, turns out they got rid of that.

The story doesn't really have any choices. They added a mechanic where you have to interact with the scene, but why? Because you took out any other choice available so you have to give us some semblance of choice?

I think the follow-up to PWT is a bit of a let down, comparatively. It's not really "more of the same", it's less. I'd like to give it 3 stars for the novel itself; the renders and nice, the animations are nice, but it's just too much of a let-down over the previous title in the series.

Maybe I'll change my rating one day. I might try this again after a few updates, if it stays on the path its on (no choices, aggressive dommy Bliss) then it's unlikely to change.

v2.2.1

tl;dr Boring af - Just dine and dash without saying hello or bye

The first game (first part of the story) had just a few choices but even that seems to be to much for dev since they chose to make the second part of the story (this game) only a kinetic novel...

Well it would be ok, if the story would be interesting enough to just read through the game BUT since Petal (Girl form Part 1) is a cock hungry nympho, there is a lready an abundance of sex right from the start and if this would be enough, the character of Bliss has the depth of a sexdoll...

The first encounter with after a year goes like this "oh hi, good to see you, ima outa here playing soccer... see you later!" Right on the next day she starts to undess infront of MC, rubs his cock and starts to corrupt MCs coworker which als is so damn easy to get her into MCs pants...

Why the hell bother with making a kinetic novel when its so straight forward and without any buildup or believable characters at all?!

Great game. Just one minor suggestion for Lockhart in case he reads this thread... (spoilers ahead)


I'm still enjoying the heck out of it and I'm still giving it 5 stars.

A Moment Of Bliss is the sequel to "A Petal Among Thorns". In that game the MC got close to his daughter Petal while away on vacation in a cabin and that trip eventually culminated in sex.
A Moment Of Bliss begins where A Petal Among Thorns ends, with the MC and Petal returning home to the estranged wife Rose and daughter Bliss. The third daughter, Moon, is absent for most of the current build and she's apparently meant to be the central character in the sequel to A Moment Of Bliss, once that game reaches its conclusion.

So what is it all about? Well, A Moment Of Bliss is more or less your typical family themed game. Everyone is super horny for the MC, Petal was revealed to be like that in the prequel, Bliss is no different though. And yep, the MC is also super hot for his other daughter. Has been ever since he jerked off to her in the prequel when Petal showed him a sexy photo of her on the phone. And Petal also encouraged the father to go after Bliss in the prequel...

Bliss in this game becomes somewhat of a sex therapist for the MC, giving him relationship and sex advice that is meant to help him reconnect with his wife, Rose. Who is also mostly absent in the current build.
So a 19-year-old virgin gives her adult father sex advice. Yup. Makes sense.

For some completely unknown reason the game also introduces a virtual assistant, Apple's Siri dialed up all the way to 11. Via VR glasses the MC can even directly interact with her (as in, he can see her in 3D in the environment). This sci fi McGuffin feels entirely out of place and I really wonder why it's included here. To me it feels very off and weird and entirely unneeded. And you get many scenes with her. At one point the MC can even "sleep" with her in the same bed. I just found that completely bizarre.

The game is mostly a kinetic novel. I encountered one major actual choice in the current build.

You see, both Petal (deflowered ca 24 hours prior of the beginning of the game) and Bliss (a virgin) are apparently also for no particular reason super bi-curious. And the MC is working on some animated series with a very pretty woman named Nixie and both girls would looooooove for dad to include her in his harem, so they can also play with her and have sex with her.

I found that so utterly obnoxious and bizarre that I was happy the game (kinetic novel actually) allowed me to reject Nixie. Even though she is very pretty and a lot more attractive, in my opinion, than any of the daughters. If there had been a way to ditch both crazy daughters and go for Nixie... I would have taken it here.

But when Bliss, the super sex expert who never had sex, tells the MC that Nixie is probably a super submissive personality etc all my alarm bells rang. I dislike this dynamic (either sub or dom) with a passion.
Petal Among Thorns already had zero choices when it came to the sex scenes, Petal was handcuffed, blindfolded, she pretended to be a little dog... all things which I thoroughly dislike. It's of course ok to include that... but please, make that stuff optional and provide different routes for sexual encounters.

So when both Petal and Bliss say they'd love to fool around with Nixie, a potentially super submissive woman, with the MC maybe watching them... I simply had to refuse her.
So at least you get a choice to keep things between the MC and his two daughters (and wife eventually).
Bliss is not yet aware that the father has sex with Petal but of course she will be super ok with it. She's also a bit disappointed when you reject Nixie... but at least she seems to accept it and the game also informs you that Nixie's path is closed when you reject her. Too bad... I would have liked Nixie... other than for the fact that she's a sub... and the potential wannabe lesbian sex partner for the daughters. Nope!

To make things short... if you are ok with a game that is almost entirely a kinetic novel, if you are ok with the inclusion of random 3D AI assistants that give advice all the time, if you don't find it bizarre that 19-year-old virgins give sex advice to the adult father, if you don't find it bizarre that both daughters are equally horny for the MC and are both wannabe bi-curious... then A Moment Of Bliss certainly can be entertaining.
But if you want a story that makes sense, if you find it weird that random SciFi elements are included in a game like this, if you think 19-year-old virgins giving sex and relationship advice to their dad is silly... then chances are you will not enjoy this game too much. It's not terrible... but just like A Petal Among Thorns extremely average.

I originally didn't want to check out A Moment Of Bliss after ending the prequel, which I found extremely average and the lack of choices really disappointed me. But I had some time today, the game is still very short and thus I decided to give it a try. And it's basically the same thing as in the prequel. Little choice. Characters are bizarre and I really don't like either Petal nor Bliss. They look cute, they are pretty, but their behaviour really discourages me from pursuing them.

But if you really enjoyed A Petal Among Thorns you will abosolutely like this as well! This is more of the same!

As things are now I like it even less than the prequel. Things are just too implausible, it's silly how blasé Bliss is about finding out the father wants to have sex with her (Petal was like that in the prequel as well), how super bi-curious everyone is, how the taboo aspect of the relationships does not matter, because everyone is super ok with everything. And of course it's revealed that Bliss has been lusting after the MC for six years or so, since she was 13.

I will probably not check out future updates. I wish I could like this game more, but at least for me the story and the characters are just too bizarre. I am not saying everything needs to be super real. But some credibility does not hurt here and there.

A few last words about the technical aspect... renders are ok, animations are ok (nothing breathtaking, but fluid), but just like in the previous game the sex has little build-up, no kissing, caressing, still no oral sex for the girl(s) which is weird (both daughters pleasure the MC of course), in Petal Among Thorns it already was very one-sided.
One major change here is that the game now uses a third person perspective, which does help with camera angles and compositions. If you prefer POV you need to be aware that the MC's face is seen many times in this game.

And that's it... if you liked the prequel you will like this. If not... then you won't like the sequel either.
And if you haven't checked out the prequel yet... play that first, it's not super required but it will provide some backstory. But you can also jump in blind here. All that you really need to know is that Petal is super horny for her dad, likes pet play (she's a little doggie... urgh), is a bit submissive and would love for her dad to eventually bang the entire family. She's your average teenage harem enabler VN girl.

Too bad that Bliss is more or less a carbon copy of Petal. Only she's less submissive. Yet one of the daughters still feels very redundant here.

If I had some advice for the dev then this... ditch the AI assistant at the first opportunity. It adds nothing to the story. And it would have helped if Bliss is not so similar to Petal. Petal is already on the fast track, she's already a sex partner, so you can have action with her ... Bliss could have been more of a slow burn character, less of a wannabe bi-curious teen like Petal, and it would have been nice if Bliss needed convincing instead of giving the dad the green light to just go ahead and do anything with her right out of the gate...
But maybe third daughter Moon is supposed to be more of slow burn... no idea. But Petal and Bliss at least are interchangable, there is almost the same dynamic (sans the somewhat submissive undertones) with each of them, and thus it just feels like more of the same.

I'd rather give this 2.5 stars... but you also have to appreciate the effort put into this. So 3 stars it is. Average. Not terrible... not great. But chances are that people will really like this. As with everything it entirely depends on your personal preferences. If super easy super fast wannabe lesbian daughters are something you love... you will have fun here!