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

I started playing this game with no expectetions whatsoever. I was surprised by the ability author can turn a sentence. The way the story is written is absolutely awesome. The game is very NTR heavy, but the reasoning isn't off. Girlfriend isn't bimbo, MC is not a retard. The corruption is involuntary and the girl succumbs every now and then - a little more.
Lastly this game is not meant to be played for graphic content. It's the story and slowburn behind that.

Playing v0.2.5

I have to say that I'm not the biggest fan of cheating/NTR stories. They really have to hit the right beats for me to even get into them in the first place, and too often they descend into the girl falling so fast that I can't even believe she wasn't already dating the antagonist to begin with. With this in mind, I did not expect to like this story as much as I have.

To start off, I HIGHLY recommend that you start the game off by reading through Harry's story first. It builds suspense and a hint of mystery before you play though the "everyone's POV' playthrough, where the payoff and scenes really come into stride. This shouldn't take too long with the lenth of the current build, maybe about an hour or two depending on how fast you read. But as the story length increases I can see this being less feasible/interesting for some players. Ideally I think the idea of playing though chapters of the game, and then replaying those chapters over with the new perspectives would be a cool idea that keeps the suspense and payyoff, but I leave that up for the developers consideration.

First of all, one detail that really made me fall in love with this game is the This really made the corruption elements of the story plain to see, and that was my ticket in.

There have been some complaints about the art style slightly switching during scenes, but it wasn't drastic enough for me to note/care about it, so your mileage may vary on that particular detail. What did stand out to me was the writing. Maybe I've just been playing too many shitty MTL-translated RPGM games lately, but the dialogue and scenarios were well written and believable, at least enough that I could buy that a gullible guy like Harry would believe it. This is the second feature that made me go hard for this game. The story options have been hinting at a multiple route structure, one where you can choose who ends up with who. I hope this continues to be the case, that way everyone can have an ending that suits their tastes, regardless of whether they want the heroines to fall to Lucas's whiles, or if they want Harry to succeed at keeping Laura as his alone. (And maybe have the blonde chick too? I think he deserves it after the crap he went through as a kid, but that's just me lol)

Overall, I'd say if you're a fan of NTR in general, or like well-written smut with a hint of mystery, this story is shaping out to be good! I hope it continues on that route, and I wish HangoverCat the best of luck in making this project come to life!

Is it worth the download? At the point in time of me writing this review (0.2.0), this game IS worth the read. Keep in mind though, it isn't all that long, that meaning it won't take you longer than 2 hours if you were to read it and not "pause", but it has a decent amount of content for the download to be worth it. If you're interested in my reasoning then keep reading this review.

Positives

• The drawing quality is really good, I love the sprites and I love the CG's on their own (will elaborate on Cons).
• The NTR situation for the current scenes is really good, it's what you would expect from NTR but it isn't just a copypaste of the usual dialogue or flavor text you usually see in the genre. It drags on with enticing dialogue and mental reasoning for the female protagonist (Laura) and she doesn't fall to corruption in the usual cycle you're probably accustomed to seeing.
• To further elaborate on the scenes and their CG's, this novel makes REALLY GOOD use of their CG's by moving the camera along with the dialogue making the scenes feel much more dynamic than they actually are, they are your usual to be expected CG's but the clever use of close-ups and camera movements that happen along with the dialogue highly upgrades the experience, and I believe that if this isn't the first 2DCG VN that does this, then it's probably the one that made the better use of it, these scenes are really good and have me excited for what's to come in future updates.
• Blackmail might be something really burnt out at this point but it actually mentions all workarounds that the protagonist could have taken to fight back like a normal person would, if only Luca (the antagonist) was just another average joegly bastard like in common NTR, but he isn't and makes it painfully clear why he can pull off this almost too cleanly.

Negatives

• The art, while it is really good and the dev makes crazy good use of it on the sexual scenes. Let's address the elephant in the room. They're very inconsistent. As I said on the first positive point, I don't dislike neither of the artstyles, far from it, they're really good on their own, but it's such a heavy contrast looking the normal and clean anime sprites and next dialogue BOOM, suddenly the artstyle changed to a way more detailed one with different eyes. Again, it looks really good, I love it, but sometimes it feels like I'm looking at 2 different characters who are also the same, kind of like Mario and Paper Mario.
• The category of this novel was so short of becoming a kinetic novel had there not been the only 2 choices in the entire read (maybe 3, memory is foggy from having played ita week ago and just writing the review now). And one of the choices is unavailable as of this version, so if you're downloading now, don't expect a branching story or important decisions for now.

LASTLY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Don't let these negatives deter you from Watching this thread or supporting HangoverCat (the Dev), the first one isn't that much of an issue, it's just weird getting used to it, and the second one will obviously be solved by the time the novel is finished or close to finished, it's just a matter of time. I just felt like it was necessary to mention everything regarding this novel because this might be one of the best NTR VN on f95.

5/5

The start is promising but sometimes evolves into cheap setups or transitions and, eventually, plot. Along the way, the visual style inappropriately changes occasionally and some design desicions seem ridiculous, for example the cool rules system being overblown by thousand rules so it lacks any tension or fun mindgames. The conquering would be alright if most setups 'n dialogs dealing with the dynamic between blackmail and inner slut were less repetitive or more creative. I remember having wished for more setups like business events or little hidden plays behind Harry's back in the bureau, just way more variety.

I also personally don't understand why one would go through the struggle of implementing choices: If MC gravitates towards another woman, why should we care, too? But even if you walk on the road of trust, the plot rather cares about just some scenes and a quick end that might reward it but isn't erotic, since it suddenly ignores character development by design for the rest of the time.

Really great story and art. And I love the concept of mystery NTR (although I played both perspectives from the start). Promising start to the game. Looking forward to future updates, one of my favourites on the site.

Story is great, different perspective implementation is also very good. I wish I played the game with GF perspective after the game completed but none of us have that patience I guess. Game art is also very good.

At the time of review, the game is less than 30% complete (maybe 15-20% idk) but so far- I'd say it has the best writing of any NTR game I've ever played.
The art is great too, but the writing is where it shines. I can tell it's going to be a great story of corruption.

Been watching this game since v0.1, ever since I was scrolling through the most recently updated NTR stories and saw this new game. And it just so happened to be made by the same guy who made The Edge Of, which I had just recently played and enjoyed the art of immensely (story... less so).

I played both v01.0 and v0.1.5 from getting it off of this site, and saw that on his patreon, v0.2.0 was getting released shortly. And I knew I had to get in early from it, because I thought it wouldn't keep getting posted here.

This is easily probably the best NTR game still in development, and it's not really even that close. The characters are organic, the rules system is fresh and adds so much to the experience, and oh my lord, if this isn't up there as some of the best art, I don't know what is. I don't really see writing concerns, and if there's a typo, it's so small and insignificant that it might as well not be there.

And it doesn't even fall into what I think is one of the worst failings a corruption NTR story can have, and that's a lack of pacing. In this game, helped out by the rules system, we can track just how far the relationship has gone, and the story benefits greatly from it. This is clear to see that the pacing of this corruption and inevitable falling of our heroine is going to be perfectly nailed on the head.

As a valid point, I will make note of the lack of choices to be made here, but well, I also remember that I'm here for a porn game and am doing this to jack off. It doesn't need many choices, because it's an NTR game right from the word 'go', and besides, it's currently in development. The man himself has said that there will be more choices added, and weighty ones too. We ain't even halfway done in the first route of two, give the man some time.

That all being said, this is 100% a recommendation to anyone that is interested in NTR. Keep up the amazing work, Hangover Cat!

By what Hangover Cat has shown us so far I think it's safe to say that A Promisse Best Left Unkept is a classic in the making.

He takes the old cliche of the girlfriend being corrupted by the bully and adds his rules system which when combined with the characters personalities turns this game into one of the most exciting NTRs out there.

The game's main screen let us know how the story is going to end, but I can't help but keep getting excited with each new scene to know how the rules are going to change, and that never fails to get me hyped for the next update.

Easily 5/5 and probably the best NTR game in development right now, can't wait to know how the story is going to progress.

Really enjoying this so far despite having only mixed feelings about The Edge Of. The writing is overall excellent despite a few typos and awkward phrasings here and there and the 'rules' mechanic is both clever and very hot.

I am really enjoying both the maledom elements of the story and that the female protagonist comes across as strong willed and competent. It's definitely all the sweeter when a strong and proud woman ends up succumbing. A competent and intelligent antagonist is also a plus

I really like this mystery ntr game, this game really suits me, For art I think it's also good for the scene where Laura and Luca are having sex. 10/10 I really like the art, and for the developer @HangoverCat I hope that in this game at least one character has pubic hair, for example Aya I hope she has pubic hair either thin or thick because she is Asian so I hope you will consider it because I am one of those people who like pubic hair, and yes I am enjoy for the game and I really like it

It's very short and I don't recommand right now to try it.
Story it's good with build-up characters one complain I have on graphic part.

I would like to see the heroines Laura&aya some change like sweat on her skin, bruise on her body, dripping sperm from her skirt I want to feel that corruption to be real, and I don't want you to rushHangoverCat on this part I want a slow and good corruption to be worth to say this is it.

So far I love where the game go, on the future I would like to see pregnant both heroines and some humiliation for our poor mc hahahaha.
Discreet sex or phone call also is a idea that would be great to see in your game.

A Promise Best Left Unkept [v0.1.5] - Review -
Starting of with positives the writing is one of the best among NTR games that I have played and the story corrupting female protagonist is good . But all the art and H scenes are still images which becomes boring after sometime . And there is no choices at the moment , only that it will be implemented in the future, I don't know why it isn't tagged as kinetic novel . In the end apart from excellent writing and amazing story the lack of visual part with still pictures and art is a huge letdown and boring . I hope that the still art and animations improve in the future updates .

Woah, what a gem. So far I have not seen any other game around here dealing with different perspectives so well. Without spoilering the game, I'll just say that each perspective is quite unique and that there are events that are shared between them, but the writing is so good you might miss clues of the different perspective if you just stick to the main character.

Art an animations are among the best between 2D games here. Really a great find and one I'm looking forward to playing more.

As of now, i'm giving this 4/5 stars. This is my Brief spoiler free review.

The story has a pretty engaging storyline, even though many of the elements in it are Cliche at times. It's refreshing to have a Main Female lead have a bit of backbone.

The Main art is amazing, and I really wish that was repeated throughout the game, as the CG art is in my opinion the weakest element of the game. (it really looks like someone threw something together in MS paint compared to the title art).

Besides the Cliche at times story and Lackluster CG art, it's a great game and i look forward to seeing more updates.

As of 0.1.0, this looks like it's shaping up to be one of the best novels in the NTR genre, I was on the verge of dismissing it when it was going for the predictable "lose to big dick and blackmail approach" but the premise and characters are somewhat believable, and also really engaged me when the rules system was introduced. That looks like it might give it an edge over other VNs by having more meaningful choices outside of "choose this for the good end/bad end" and maybe have some nuance.

The FMC will (obviously) lose some of her rules, but maybe you can manage to keep one throughout like the no kissing or condom only one, and have it be reflected in dialogue later. I'm cautiously hopeful the dev will build on this system, but I realize it would take a lot more work for a branching story like that, and western games notoriously get abandoned mid-development because of over-ambition.

Great work on the art and story, I will keep a close watch on this project and hope the dev realizes his vision.

Really interesting start to the game and a lengthy introduction. Lots of positives so far and an MC that is much more tolerable than previous entries

Pros:

• Believable Blackmailing Scenario (Something so rare for NTR. So glad it is not a "got a picture of myself forcing you to kiss me so now we fuck or I send it to your SO" rendition
• Strong Female Lead - Still need to see more from this one but the best NTR is when the woman is headstrong and hard to break but is broken none the less
• Cleared up that a lot of the tropes of NTR will not be visited
• Mystery NTR is the best and I love playing through the Main POV before having another run with all of them included
• Rules are going to be a really interesting mechanic if implemented correctly and give the author lots of possibilities
• The no PDA between main characters is begging to be exploited

Cons:

• Not tons of content to tell us how well the NTR will progress. It needs to be slow enough to be believable but needs some content
• Actual CGs are not too high right now. Not letting this affect my rating though as this is what you sign up for with a 0.1 release and there is much content for a prologue

The setup of this game is really well thought out. Laura is very intelligent and capable and i am looking very much forward to updates. I hope she can hold her ground for quite some time (depending on players choices. really need meaningful choices here). Having a game within the game is a unique concept. Keep up the good writing and this will turn into a real gem.

The art is not the best, but i like the style. I definitely prefer this to some uncanny valley 3D gobbo stuff so please don't think that it's bad. Art is okay here but the writing really makes this game shine.

Content is ok for a first release. Hope the author takes their time and doesn't rush this. There's a lot of potential here.

The game is well-written, it has a simple premise, and it executes it very well, really, it's one of the best games of its genre out there and the art is fine, even if a bit inconsistent (and I'm really not a fan of the liquify animations). It's just a shame that the latter half of the game turns into a generic fuckfest after it tries so hard to make the plot and interactions between characters believable.

Excellent build-up, characters are cute and organic and cgs aren't as cute as the drawings but excellent nonethless. It has been a long time since such a good "amateur" "non-koikatsu/honeyselect/ai NTR-focused game was posted here in my opinion, REALLY looking forward to this game