VN - Ren'Py - Completed - A Promise Best Left Unkept [Bonus S2 Ep 9-11] [Hangover Cat]

Started out great, basically deconstructing the genre in a very creative way by having a strong-willed main girl and realistic dialogue. There was some NTR logic here and there, but it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief.

The tension slowly builds up as we reach the middle of the story, and then...

Words can't describe how shockingly abrupt and nonsensical Aya's corruption was. Both her and Laura were written very well, but Aya specifically felt different. She had this strong determination and will to fight that made her character feel very realistic—maybe too realistic.

NTR logic is one thing, but straight up butchering a character like this is just shameful. The author realized too late that they wrote Aya too good, so the only way to NTR her was to come up with the most moronic and baffling contrivances the human brain can possibly conceive, immediately turning Aya's character from a 10 to a 0 in the span of ONE SCENE.

Spoilers, I don't care. Aya gets raped. And no, it's not the cutesy rapey rapey we see in Japanese VNs. It's just actual rape, dark and cruel, in a setting so charged with negativity that I forgot I was playing a game meant to arouse. Somehow, however, she ends up cumming, and we all know that that's always the point of no return in NTR. She fights back and threatens to call the police, but NTR logic prevents her from doing anything.

And that's what sucks. This game pulls you in by being different from other NTRs, only to become just another NTR by commiting a crime against good writing. Maybe I'll revisit this game one day and get all the endings just to confirm if the choices even matter at all, but I'm done for now. Got a bad taste in my mouth.

And now they're making a second game focused on Aya, because butchering her once wasn't enough =D

But at the end of the day, if you have low standards and don't care about suspension of disbelief, you'll probably like this. Have fun.

This is the game made me like NTR genre. PPl already said so much about its great features already so i will skip it.

The later choices of the author made me hate this game. Im already not a fan of VN type of games. In my opinion, they lack gameplay elements. But this game was on another level for me storywise so i overlooked it. Even though it pained me to drown into the unending text. I saw the opportunity and bright future of this game in the early stages of its development.

But, but, but... It failed me. Even though there is a lot of different routs, we've never been granted the option to get back to the antogonist. Im not gonna argue about generic NTR genre logic here. I know both author and this community is in love with the genre. But it doesnt make a truely realistic story and a genunine choice to the player. Choose this rout, ur gonna get cocked; choose another, ur gonna get cocked in a different way etc. Illogical, uncapptable. Both protoganists are not that stupid. Their feelings to each other is very strong. There had to be a way to overcome the bad guy. I dont know, dont give us the hints for that route, cut it so short, make it so scenewise very limited. This is a great turn off for me so this game lost its precious place in library and became my most hated game of all time. Even though it has got great animations, story. Illisounary choices were downside of this game imo.

Im sad. Im very sad im giving this game a negative rewiev. This game had very special place in my heart but shouldnt end this way.

Farewell, HangoverCat. Never wanna play your games again.

I finally decided to give this a try, and if you're an NTR lover, you'll probably be satisfied. It definitely delivers what you would expect from an NTR game. I've played a lot of NTR, like A LOT, but this game was honestly frustrating for me to read. I didn't even feel that attached to the main heroine, but the betrayal really set something off in me. I think it's because the author encapsulated the cheating parts very well, especially with all the face-to-face lying. That lying to the MC's face felt so realistic. It legitimately made me think about when my ex cheated on me several years ago. There are *good* endings for the MC, but they aren't that good. The bad endings made me utterly miserable. I'm giving this 4 stars because this game was actually able to make me angry. Kudos to the author for evoking emotion inside of me in an adult game, and stay away from this if you don't wanna be traumatized or feel depressed.

TLDR: Sex scenes are hot, but story made me too angry/depressed to jerk.

There's NTR and there's trauma porn.

The story and visuals are fantastic, but very little about this game is satisfying to play. I completed several of the endings and they were either ambiguous or objectively awful for our supposed protagonist Harry.

Writing: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Art: 10/10

This VN traumatized me, seriously, whoever wrote this is insanely talented in the NTR genre. Try this only if you are willing to live with a scar with the rest of your life.

I've played a lot of NTR VNs and RPGs and this is probably the best one out of all I've played. The art is super good and there are multiple really good artists that make cg for the game. Most sex scenes are animated and the voice acting/ sex sfx are top notch. It's not your simple generic boring nice guy gets his girl stolen by a chad with a big dick which is a really nice change from what most NTRs are. The main heroine Laura has her own issues and the MC Harry has his own issues and the bull of the story just takes advantage of both of their issues in a really satisfying way that is more than just Laura falling for his big dick. All in all, great story, great scenes, great characters. And there is another version of the game in development right now that focuses on the other girl, Aya and that's shaping up to be just as good if not better.

Reviewed Version: Steam 1.0.0 - With the restauration patch applied. So no kick-able mini-dogs in what I read.

The first thing anyone needs to know about this VN, if they didn't read the description already, is the fact that it's a NTR focused VN. This means we have the nice guy, a certain Harry. His girlfriend, Laura. Then the guy that wants to take said girlfriend, Luca. On top of that, there's also a second girl who has feelings for Harry, Aya, who makes things more complicated.

Because it's a NTR VN, you can expect some of the usual tropes. Luca has a massive dick that's bigger than Harry's. Harry can't please his woman anywhere near as well. There's plot holes you can drive a truck through to enable an unrealistic blackmail scheme that steadily leads Laura into the depths of depravity.... You know, the usual stuff...

If that kind of stuff bothers you, and if you REALLY don't like NTR, you should obviously avoid this VN... Maybe.

What makes this VN interesting from other NTR silliness out there is that the dev actually tried to give some good reasons for the situations the characters get into. Harry had a willful ignorance problem since he was young that only got worse due to Luca's bullying. Luca's a mafia kid with issues. Laura has family issues because of her mother and ego problems. Aya's has issues of her own.

Before moving on, I will say that this a pure VN, with only some choices in it. Because of that, there is NO gameplay to review and the experience is all about the story and the art. Because of that, objective rating for it pretty much impossible, aside from the massively good point to it that it has an ending guide included to let anyone get all the endings easily if they want too. How long that'll take will obviously depend on reading speed and on how much re-reading anyone wants to do, if they want to do any for any of the scenes when going back for different choices and different routes/endings.

-----------------From this point forward, there WILL be spoilers-------------------

It's the characters' issues that allow the events of the VN to happen without us readers needing to completely work out our suspension of disbelief into exhaustion to ignore how ridiculous it all is. Harry's issues are what make it possible for him to ignore enough of the warning signs of what's happening with Laura. Laura's issues are what allow Luca to to get in her head as much as his dick gets in her cunt. Luca's issues are what cause him to be a douche and to target Harry and Laura in the first place. Aya's issues... well... that's a whole other kettle of fish all of its own...

Point is, while it's unlikely to find people like these, and so many of them in one place at that... it's not entirely impossible that such a group of people wouldn't degenerate into the perfect storm of lewd events presented in the VN.

More importantly, the VN also goes the extra mile to show at least to some extent what can happen if various characters actually overcome their issues to some degree or another. Well. Except Luca. Harry gets one route where he's able to win Laura back. Laura gets one route where she kills Luca for trying to make Harry suffer...

Aya gets to own everyone, ever, repeatedly.... >.>" Seriously. It's to the extreme where it seems like the Dev REALLY likes Aya more than any other character in the game. It's kind of weird actually... Just.... Play the thing if you want to know. This review will get way too long if I get into the madness that is Aya.

The only utterly major plot-hole that I have problems with, personally, is how the blackmail happened in the first place. Mainly because poor security like what's described in the company that Laura and Harry worked with didn't exist in minuscule companies 10 years ago in post-communist shit-holes. Aka the country I live in. It's literally impossible that a tech company would be THAT bad and exist for longer than two weeks... I've seen friggin' super-markets with better security. Ten years ago. Ugh.

That's the one major bad point of the writing. Aside from that, it's pretty ok given the usual NTR shenanigans.

Moving on.

Another problematic point with the VN, in some-ways... is the art. By that, I don't mean to say that all of the art is bad. However, there were several artists working on the characters, the scenes, so on and so forth, to the point where how a character looks in any given scene can vary pretty wildly in terms of style. Personally, I enjoyed most of the artwork with a couple of exceptions... but the inconsistency could potentially be grating.

I will add this. Personally, NTR isn't really a kink for me. I dive into these games and VNs for two reasons. One, they often get awesome art. Two, they do one thing pretty well... and that's show the descent of a girl from some form of normality into complete sexual insanity. This VN does both of those things pretty damn well. There's a ridiculous amount of eye-candy, and Laura's fall is slow, methodical and makes sense. It takes a whole month for her to break, and even then, she only completely does so when Harry himself (and in one case her mother) fucks up.

It's not JUST the fact that Luca's a manly stud with a huge cock.

On top of that, Harry isn't just a generic nice-guy. His dick is consistently described as over-average in size, and the VN shows that if he gets the experience for it, he can a good lover himself while still keeping all the good character traits that make him superior to Luca as a person.

Hilariously, in a sense, there are endings where he basically gets NTRed away from Laura as the real prize, by Aya.

This is probably the first VN... or game in general tbh, where the GUY actually gets taken away from the girl and the girl is made to suffer. I honestly never saw that before... but then again, as I said, NTR is not really much of a kink for me, so I don't especially seek it out unless something draws my attention to it for some reason or another. (Like metric tons of good reviews and a nearly 300 pages long thread.)

All in all, I definitely recommend this VN for NTR lovers, but also for people that like moral degeneration, cheating sex, and just all around good hot art and hot scenes.

Just, unless you're genuinely a NTR fan, don't play Harry's perspective more than once, not only will you miss out on most of the scenes... but you might want to facepalm too much because of the cringe... because boy does that guy have some moments where he makes you think that he absolutely deserves to be cucked...

That's pretty much all so I'll leave with...

Ye gads I hate this fucking tiny review window. Site Admins. Please improve this!

Really good art and nice voice acting in the scenes. Brain dead MC I just tuned him out I fail to believe someone can be this pathetic all around. The endings were different enough and The FMC was super hot all throughout, Aya was ok she was kinda just there most of the time but it seems like she will get her own route later which is cool. I kinda wish the story had a better MC with more choices available bc the "good" ending was lack luster imo. Either way the scenes, art, and VA carried more than enough(a bit more variety in the VAs lines and moans would have been elite).

a promise best left unkept version 1.0

this is easily one of the best netorare focused game i have come across.
this game has 5 routes and 12 different endings.
you can play the game from male mc perspective only (for mysety focus) or play from mc perspective+heroines
i think the choices in the game are very impactful and logically alter the characters thoughts and actions, since the male mc is the only one making the choices, the heroines are the ones who are mostly affected
this game is part 1 of apblu where the main heroine is laura, she is the main focus of the corrupion.
there is another main heroine-aya, she is very involved but does not have as much focus as laura since there will be more content for her in part 2(in development)
there are good endings, tragic endings and something in between.

this game has a lot of content, dialogue, scenes, a lot of them are animated
there is moaning in this game but no voice acting.
the art is really great, but since this game has multiple artists it might be con for most
the story starts as a classic ntr, douche blackmails the heroine but from there the choices determine how will it continue, since this game has an option to jump to the part where each routes start, it's very convenient continue playing for different endings.
because there are also good endings and a capturing story i think even people who don't like netorare can enjoy.

i think hangovercat purrduction has done a great job, i also highly recommend his other games

A satisfying NTR drama that lets you steer towards a desired outcome.

Too many NTR games throw suspense out the window by grinding towards a seemingly inexorable conclusion. Not only does the game feature multiple endings ranging from relatively happy to full-on despair-inducing; there's multiple independent arcs that illustrate the consequences of your choices. A huge plus is that these aren't clear "I want to be NTR'd" choices; they are ambiguous and set a relationship dynamic that is reflected in each route, seamlessly merging into the narrative.

Another mistake that NTR games often make is focusing on a single heroine and antagonist, limiting the relationship complexity and range of possible interactions. This game has a main heroine (Laura) and a secondary heroine (Aya), and their competition drives the story as much as that of the protagonist and antagonist. The result is a dramatic love quadrilateral not unlike School Days's.

The art is a mixed bag, ranging from enchanting (Aya's bar scene) to downright awful (mainly the crude 3D). There's a ton of sex (including some animated scenes) for those who are into that, but for the best experience I recommend choosing "protagonist viewpoint only" at the start, which maximizes suspense and skips most of the gratuitous NTR sex. The English is competent, but the script is peppered here and there with word choice errors--as if spell-check was used with no human supervision.

Overall this game is a real gem-in-the-rough in a sea of mechanical cuck-simulators. I can't wait to see what this dev has in the pipeline next.

P.S. Aya is best girl.

Depending what route you take, you can have different endings on the good and bad spectrum.
I prefer the ending with a pinch of salt to the dish that tastes like sweet revenge.

I solely give my rating because of the ending after witnessing and corrupting my mind with NTR which I seriously need a break from and look myself in the mirror for.

Edit• my first playthrough had a bad run. Subsequent runs I selected the 'skip all text options' and selected Ending option routes with after reading their guide in the and avoiding

A Deeply Flawed Masterpiece.

Pluses:

-Characters.
One of the best character work on this site.
They are interesting from the moment you meet them (have immediate internal contrast).
Then they actually change through the game - have their own character arcs, imagine that.
But on top of that they also have interesting history, that opens up the more you play - and change their arc accordingly. Influencing their character development in the new circumstances.
So both girl-characters have 3 pillars - interesting present, future and the past.
Guys don’t really get meaningful development outside of joke endings as far as I saw, but they both still have interesting past and present.
Also antagonist is very good. You could tell by the amount of people in the thread that want him to fucking die - even though the guy didn't actually do anything criminal outside of simple blackmail.
So yeah. Characters. Best on the site.
10/10.

-Sex scenes.
Specifically dialogues during sex. Again - one of the best on this site. Deep, meaningful, crisp and emotionally charged banter definitely makes this game stand out among its peers.
Most of the aforementioned character development also happens during these sex-talks, which makes it an actual porn-game plot, instead of A plot with porn elements in it. Many authors could learn a thing or two from Cat on this one.
10/10. Definitely.

Flaws:
-Characters.
Turn-tables on yer head, m~yes.
The biggest flaw of the game - in my opinion - is that in several instances character's development works AGAINST the purpose of the plot.
It’s hard to go into details without the spoilers, but Laura - with all the incredible work that went into her character - the more you play, the LESS sexy she becomes.
I already talked about it in the thread, if you are not afraid of spoilers, here:
https://f95zone.to/threads/a-promis...angover-cat-purrroduction.98719/post-11888657
https://f95zone.to/threads/a-promis...angover-cat-purrroduction.98719/post-11889348

That is the biggest problem of the game by far and I hope the author will be able to avoid it in, undoubtingly, highly anticipated DLC.

Everything else good. Bye.

I've decided to settle on a 4/5, why? The first half of the game was well made, artwork was very beautiful, plot was good enough and overall I felt it had a lot of potential. H scenes were good and that rule system was different. Despite the high praise I think somewhere past the midway point, a lot of the things that brought me into this dropped substantially. The art quality dropped, and the writing wasn't the same. I know you have to turn your brain off for NTRs especially, but this felt sort of dragged out the way things ended.

Overall had a very strong start, but started to decline. It's still good overall, I'd say just temper your expectations after the beginning.

The later part of the story kinda felt like a forced narrative. I wouldn't have minded if the story was dumb throughout but considering how cleverly luca played in the early game kinda had me hoping and the updates post 0.8.0 are disappointments.

Lame and idiotic Main Character, same old generic and over used big dick mega chad villian (?), FMC that is just a human fleshlight with no human thinking, values and feelings. Add to it all that your actions dont seem to matter.
Yeah i know its NTR, its just like any other- only much more lazy and dumb.
The only plus side is the good art, but for just that you can always watch shallow hentai.

Let me start by saying that I really like the art in this game, and I like the "rules" system and how it works. I think it was a clever way to show the progression of the "relationship" between the (let's call him 'Bully') Bully and Laura. But that's about as much praise as I have for this game.

Aya recognized IMMEDIATELY that this guy was an asshole, yet she still helps him in his plan knowing full well what it meant going forward? I understand that she's 19, but her whole goal at the beginning was to keep him away from senpai so that bully didn't hurt him, yet she helped him fuck senpai's girl, basically? OK. Fastest 180 ever. Plus, it's so unrealistic for why Laura got into her predicament in the first place, and it's even more far-fetched that her boyfriend would be blatantly blind to everything that is LITERALLY happening in front of him. He doesn't recognize his own girl's voice by now, when they've been dating for at least a year? She literally screamed her head off having sex in a bathroom AND her office within his earshot, and he's just like "Hmmmm must be some random teenagers" or "That's weird that Bully and Laura are locked in her office together working" C'mon man.
And the fact that Laura almost immediately turns on her boyfriend and starts treating him like shit while also cheating on him, and basically begging him to stick with her while she picks up the pieces is downright laughable.

I must confess I'm not much of a fan of NTR even though there are some that I really enjoy. This one, however, was hard to watch lol. I feel like NTR tropes are boring, and a lot of these games add nothing new; it's always the same old same: MC (or whichever character is the 'boyfriend') is always a tentative, self-doubting beta male cuck that is bad at pleasing his girl, while his rival/bully is always a super-handsome, alpha asshole with a huge dick and perfect sex prowess and stamina that QUICKLY turns the girlfriend against him using sex as a weapon, all the while corrupting her and turning her into a depraved slut that only wants to bang the bully for eternity. And the cuck-boyfriend never has a clue that his boo-thing is fucking his worst enemy until the end, if he even ever finds out.

I mean, this guy was sending him pics and videos of his girl and he didn't recognize her one time. Fucked her in the office, got a handy on the plane, fucked her in front of him on a business trip, fucked her in the apartment next to his and she's screaming and yelling, and still no registration in this guys's mind.

And as the person playing the game you can't even start to pursue Aya when you want to, after you want to say "Laura is a bitch! Fuck her!"
I tend to insert into the MC for most games, but this ain't it (so I'm at least glad you can't change names) because of shit like this. And I can't insert into the bully either because he's just too much of a huge asshole.

I don't know what a good NTR storyline looks like, but it's not this. I'm all for people enjoying the kinks and the fetishes they enjoy, but what's the point of playing a sex game if the person you are supposed to be doesn't have any sex? I played another game like that recently where your "rival" fucked everyone in your house, and your crush, and the only content you got was if you peeped on them, and masturbated.

So while my criticisms may be harsh, I really did like the animations and the rules being added and subtracted based on who had how many orgasms. That actually made me laugh when Laura kept losing. And I'm not knocking anybody's cup of tea. If you like it, I love it. But the unoriginal tropes I can't get past. The 3 stars were for the animation.

This game unironically got me over my NTR phase. That truly says it all for me.

The standard/'good' ending (Aya Route) is simply ChefsKiss. It was the route I naturally arrived at/went through and is likely the route most will go through, but there is quite a bit of routes for u extra weirdies. Do not let the 'good' modality descriptor fool u- it's a fucking rollercoaster. Just like all bona fide love wars, nobody comes away without serious character development/disfigurement.

Story 5/5
Originality 3/5
Renders 4/5
Sound 4/5
Playability 5/5
Performance 5/5
Bugs (Lack Thereof) 5/5
Animations 4/5
Amount of content 5/5

thx HangoverCat and team. Truly stellar job.

This game had a lot of promise early in development that has sadly been left unfulfilled. Some art is gorgeous, some is ugly, and the inconsistencies with regards of animations vs still images leaves a lot to be desired. The story is equally as inconsistent and the routes are the same minus the ending.

I really enjoy playing this game, starting from the characters and the art is also good especially with the animation really the best game and I like the backsound music in this game and yes I also like the character Aya, hopefully in the future I can see Aya's big ass CG

Not bad. Visuals are good, great actually. Lots of content as of 0.9.

A few endings have been added played through them all, decent length and story.

I always feel you have to explain the context of any NTR in a game as it is such a broad subject with different perspectives, plus the descriptions usually don't fully explain things, thus NTR dislikers run away, etc. So..

This game CAN put you into numerous perspectives (which I opted for) I figured the main MC was gonna get cucked so I opted for all characters viewpoint. So yes you see the MC (who is cheated on, humiliated, and cucked,,by pretty much everyone in all the current gameplays and endings.

In the other perspectives, the girlfriend, and female co-worker, you are playing from the perspective of them so you are doing the cheating, insulting him and having lots of sex with the male co-worker.

When I play these games I don't want to identify with a cucked MC, playing the slutty girlfiend is cool. So I always wonder how connected a player gets when playing these games, some you do, some you don't.

This games perspective had me not really connecting with the male MC. It was distant and there was deeper reflection with the female MC (girlfriend).

So for a non NTR fan that was fine, it was an simple and enjoyable game, but only barely. Thus 3 stars.

It seems to be coming to an end as the Dev is adding endings now. I am interested in what endings get added. Having a redemption ending for Harry (male MC) or some positive endings for him doesn't seem to be the style the Dev is going for, but I would love to see that added.

Additionally, having the option to JUST play as the female MC (Girlfriend) would be a very good idea. Nothing worse for a player to bounce between a slutty girlfriend and then a minute later you are playing a humiliation path cuck, pervert brain freeze. The Dev gives the option to just play as the male MC, having the option to just play her would be good. Plus it adds a new range of players/supporters that don't want to play as a cuck MC.