VN - Ren'Py - Completed - A Promise Best Left Unkept [Bonus Scenes S2 7-8] [Hangover Cat Purrroduction]

I like some of the other works by this game Dev, I thought I would actually enjoy this but I simply cant relate to harry, he is an idiot the choices simply dont matter. I don't usually comment or review, but Choices need to matter, until they do I will make the simple Choice to give it a 1 star.

The only reason I'm giving this 2 stars is because of the art even though the dev doesn't make it himself and instead commissions 3 different artists to make it for him. I tried to give this VN a chance, I really did but at this point it's safe to say that I'm over it.

TL/DR: If you are looking for mindless fapping with nice art but a mediocre story then this is for you. If you're looking for a good branching story with ntr elements where your choices actually matter then don't waste your time.

IN-DEPTH REVIEW

I'm have played this game since the day it been released so let I make this straight. This is a visual novel game so I care more about the VISUAL and the STORY. Beside the fantastic visual, it's disappointed.

At the begining and the middle of the story, they gave us a glimpse of hope that we can actually do SOMETHINGS. And that is the main reason why I chose to play it because almost NTR games neither give no fucking shit about your choices and lead the story to NTR route nor they let you play as a nice guy then end the game (basically forcing you to play the NTR route which lead to the previous statement).

The game (at the first and the middle of the game) let us acknowledge the cheating but still gave us ways to make things right. But then we slowly realise that we aren't. Your choices will be meaningless by the end. Every choices you had made will lead to shitty outcomes.

I know there are 1 route, 1 FUCKING route can be consider a GOOD ENDING, but i don't thing make your partner's life miserable and go ape shit with the big dick guy is a FUCKING GOOD ENDING.

I hate the game for giving me the glimpse of hope, hope that we can change the outcome, that we can have a happy ending and then throw them out the window.

The worse part is if you focus in the story, you know that we can hardly have a good ending in future updates.

In the end, i'm disappointed because this game has the potential to be different from there kinds, and it was if you play it from the first release. Now this a game is about a woman deprave herself into sex. It don't let you save her or anythings so just download a gallery unlock to fap. It have FANTASTIC art though. (sorry about my gramma, english is not my mother language)

And i'm still DISAPPOINTED for being trick :<

The inconsistent art style and predictable plot is one thing, but the main reason I'm giving it three stars is because its the classic case of a protagonist I cannot respect. Once the game is completed it'll be easier to stomach as I can glide past cringe moments but seriously; Protag must be braindead or something. The writing takes things so seriously even though the setup is such a cliche. I don't begrudge the people who like this, but its simply not my cup of tea.

It's at the moment the best overall game I've played here.
The art is awesome, expressions, animations, I like everything.
The story is perfect for me (yep, NTR enjoyer), all of the routes are very interesting and different, can't wait for new ones.
The sound can end up repetitive, but it's so good I don't mind at all.
It's a VN with few choices, in some games I care about choices, here tbh I don't, it's a bit random how the story develops with a couple different phrases but again, it's a VN, it's normal.
Top notch overall, this is a must for NTR enjoyers

One of the best in his category. That's what NTR actually is.

The visuals are great, the story is super well written, the characters are well developed. Everything is there for the perfect immersion.

I can't wait to try again once it's finished.

The art in this game is just amazing! Great captivating story with interesting plot points. I suggest playing the game from the MC's perspective if its your first time playing. Its really exciting with the mystery and the MC not knowing whats going on. I feel bad for the MC though since he's the victim.

Review of version 0.6.6. Very good if you like classic NTR story and kinetic novels, not so good otherwise.

Although I was hesitant to download this short story for a long time (just because I don't like short stories), but once I did, I didn't regret it.
And I recommend you to pay attention to it. Even if you don't like the NTR tag, this novella is worthy of a story that could have happened in life, characters that are well written and believable and a lot of both text and visual content with great drawing.

A Promise Best Left Unkept has some good ideas for the plot and so on, but also some bad ones that end up making the story too plain and boring. Obviously its NTR which I like but there is no game to it, it's a kinetic novel. Then the story advances and sets up an interesting relation in which the FMC is strong and hard to break and the blonde girl becomes part of the problem... and then it doesn't matter, seeing as the other side can't break the FMC it resorts to random blackmail and that's done. And since the MC is an idiot, no other way to go about it, the result is that it all loses interest quickly.

Join that with a low number of different images for the characters and poor sex scenes and you get a problem. Sound doesn't improve the equation either with just some sound effects and boring music.

So, in the end, I decided to dump the game and move on to others that may be more interesting.

If u are looking for NTR, this is the right place. The rules function is really kinky too where both parties challenge each other and add rules for their own benefits, it can get really hot, props to the author for implementing it.

4.5/5

Great VN so far.
The previous work Edge Of was solid but imo suffered from the characters being a bit unlikeable and one-dimensional.
In Promise, the characters have been improved on and have me actually feeling sorry for the MC, something that doesn't happen very often.
In addition, the art is great and the writing of the scenes is superb.

VERSION 0.9.3

I heard a lot of good things about this game so I was excited to play it. But sadly I cannot really see why this game is so well rated.

Pros
+ The art is decent
+ The sex scenes are really hot
+ Multiple paths

Cons
- generic and mediocre NTR story
- walls of text
- barely any real choices
- MC is unlikeable (completely clueless, naive dumbass)
- Antagonist is obnoxious
- The girlfriend is corrupted to the absurd level

Overall, not very enjoyable experience. 2/5

VERSION 0.6.0

I really wanted to give this game 5 stars...
But it's just disappointment after disappointment for me.

On the cover, we see two chicks and a guy. It seems that these two girls will have an important place in the game.

Well, after 11 releases, this is still not the case. Only the first one (Laura) has scenes and it looks like she is the only heroine in the game (the other one, Aya, is really in Laura's shadow). I thought Laura's endings were supposed to be reached after 8 months? Is it a mistake on my part?

Anyway, here are my pros and cons of this game:

PROS:

+The best art I've ever seen in an adult game. It is truly breathtaking. Hats off to the artists

+Really hot scenes and sexy heroines.

+The "rules" are a good idea and we can see them in the user interface.

+Lots of corruption and lots of fantasies explored.

+Animated scenes.

+The developer does not hesitate to invest in his game.

+Quick updates (1/month) and the amount of content is quite good.

CONS:

-The artists are always hidden by this developer. I think it's really unfair for them. They deserve to be known for their incredible work.

-This is the biggest drawback for me, it literally ruins the game, which is sad (I would have given this game 5 stars if it was not for this peculiar thing):

It was supposed to be a game with two heroines, and it feels like there is only one actually.
It's really frustrating.

-I feel like the story is missing something. The story is not bad, but not that good either. I'm not so "surprised" by the way things are going.

This game novel flopped for me for two big reasons.

First reason, I dislike three characters out of four, and the forth one, I don't care about. APBLU offered me a little epiphany about what I don't like about these setups. In essence, it's a violation of "show, don't tell" rule. The story tells me that Laura and Harry are a couple, yadda yadda. And I don't buy it, I just can't. If I don't get to see the story how their romance grew, I fail to see the chemistry between them and care about the relationship that's going to be ruined in this story. On top of that I really did not like the introductory scene. So I don't like brain-dead protag Harry, Aya is a little annoying shit, Luca is a stereotypical shit, and Laura is meh at best. Eight Deadly Words (I don't care what happens to these people) apply here pretty well.

Second reason, the game offers me extremely little choice, and only when the situation is way beyond salvaging (and the very first choice has the second answer disabled because it's not implemented yet, another slap in the face). It really knocks any impact out of the choices. Yeah, I get that's what unavoidable in unavoidable NTR stands for. Well, I don't like unavoidable things in games. Why would you want lack of interactivity in an interactive medium?

Oh, and about those Rules that everyone's talking about. It's not a mechanic, it's a story element. Difference being, a mechanic is something a player controls or directly interacts with (spoiler alert, these rules are exactly not that). It's a fun —but hardly unique in dom-sub setups— story element, and its almost sole function is to drive the logic, flow, and sometimes kinks of porn scenes. On the flipside Laura is absolutely dogshit at using rules to her advantage which means what? She's either dumb, or is not really trying to win; either way, this makes it really hard to care about her.

On the technical side of things, the game is nicely animated and directed (by which I mean the use of camera movements, transitions, and character sprite movements). Unfortunately, art quality is quite inconsistent. Some of the commissioned artists are good, and some don't know the basics of human anatomy (watch some porn, for the reference ffs). Worse, sometimes art doesn't match the text. Which is especially egregious when it doesn't match the rules gimmick. So you've just introduced a rule about raising arms on demand —and even had a long fierce argument to underscore its importance— and then you show a CG with arms not raised? Come on.

TL;DR. Art quality is inconsistent. I failed to like and therefore sympathize with most characters of this story. The "mystery" POV has very little porn and doesn't offer enough choices to make it worth. The "omniscient" POV has decent porn, but offers no extra choices while probably tripling word count, and therefore feels almost like a kinetic novel. Let me watch this from Laura-centric perspective, and you have a chance to get 3 stars, a rating I normally give to a good kinetic novel.

I did not really want to rate this before a good time of play, but, after some time playing, I just deleted this game.

I cannot really say it's bad in story. Just some average setting, a little weird with the timepoint of mc-gurls relation, but okay I guess.

I cannot say it's bad about graphics/scenes. Saw 2 so far, they were nice (though nothing our of ordinary). They just also a little off focus, funtime is filled with a lot of chit-chat which gets you off the mood a little.

And so on.

So, I cannot say I have some shapely certain complaints about this game. It just feels strangely off, like on paper it has all you need to enjoy this kind of game, but on field you just don't get into the right mood to play, Maybe it's non-stop story/chit-chat which fills the game more than needed, maybe it's an unpleasant point of story start where you'd rather play from the side of that criminal antagonist since it feels like the gurls which are with you are to be corrupted by him and that does not make it enjoyable.

So I'd say this game is worth trying, just be aware that this game may be giving you not what you expect from this type of games, even if it looks pretty well on the cover.

3*, for pretty solid but average everything, and not working it as a whole for me to increase the opinion to rate higher.

It looks great.
I like the story.
I also liked the previous game "The Edge of" by Hangover Cat.
Although this game has some choices, it is mostly a kinetic novel.
That being said, the story is well paced, and as a kinetic novel, the story is simple and straight-forward.

Rated 4.5/5

Already a ntr classic!
As of 0.5.5 with one route (of many to come) and the dedicated ending to it this already charts within the top ranks of the ntr genre.
There is nothing to wish for honestly, because the dev is very possibly already working on it now or at some point.
This is yet my 2nd consideration to support a dev financially so keep it up!

[v.0.5.0]
This is a very strong work, a vast improvement over The Edge Of and so far the best NTR game I've played. It manages to be very innovative and keeps a solid and believable setting while respecting the tropes and beats of a "standard" NTR story, this is no simple feat. I held off on playing it until there was an ending as The Edge Of was already very promising and I wanted to read a fully coherent story to give the game a fair assessment and it didn't betray my expectations. [I played with all POVs from the start]

The plot is good, Laura is a very well written character, as are Harry and Luca. I have reservations about blackmail but the setting made it palatable, and the rules were a stroke of genius. The artworks are gorgeous and small illustrated panels add a lot of vitality, the music choices and the usage of music in general are great, sound effects are satisfactory, the rules tab is excellent, and full text screens usage has improved from The Edge Of. The amount of text itself is also carefully pondered, it never felt wordy when it didn't have to be.

I have some remarks from my first impression playing the game, and additional remarks that came to me as I was thinking back on it. Here go the first impressions :

• the initial artwork for the game made me think Aya and Laura were equal love interests, and the very first dialogue with Aya ticked me off enough that I closed the game and I only came back to it way later (something I may not have done if I didn't know the writer from The Edge Of)... Obviously my perception changed but it was a very rocky start. Using a cover artwork conveying that Laura is the main love interest could alleviate that ?
• the business trip section felt underused as it came very early in the story, there was pretty much no threat to anyone involved (this may change once the Aya section is written ?), and it is very short so there's no change of setting. The only thing it brings seems to be the Aya choice and the return back train scene. I was expecting another business trip later to make up for it / introduce assymmetry but it never came (and it didn't even introduce all that much for there to be something to compare to on a return).
• the music during the blowjob in the stalls section didn't change when Luca first hints that he understands Laura... Because the music is set to stop when someone enters the bathroom. To me Laura finding that someone instinctively understands his relationship to her mother is just as pivotal as the entrance of Harry so a "3-part musical section" (initial -> change -> stop) would have been a better fit. I understand how ridiculous this critic is for a work whose quality is far beyond the expectations on porn games but eh, first impressions are first impressions.
• the double date at the movies didn't make use of its setting in regards to the Laura Luca relationship, it's just another sex in the bathroom stalls with a phone call. It may not grow old for the protagonists but it's not nearly as effective for the reader. I suppose this scene is written in preparation for Aya work, but still. Since the game works with cosmetic changes and movies often are in malls, there was a lot that could be done here, even disregarding the staples movies porn scenes (esp. since we're incentivized to look closer - and there's nothing to look that much closer at).
• I found very hard to suspend my disbelief for the remote call scene. With nothing to constantly redirect the protagonist attention like the karaoke scene, and with how uncomfortable the setting sounded for Luca and Laura, it... didn't work for me ? I understand that the scene builds on Luca and Laura using rules to have "lover games" inscrutable to onlookers (something well handled all throughout) but that's not what bothered me. The yoga ball trick had already been used but what can work in a call doesn't make sense when you have a 60fps 1080p vision of the person you're talking to, there's nothing that indicates that the quality of the reception is bad pre-ejaculation as the images in the laptop have the same high quality as everywhere else. Also Luca is placing himself behind Laura in a split second while Aya speaks then aims perfectly at the camera (from behind her ? Or did he move again in front of the camera in a split second before teleporting back to his previous position ? Idk the logistics don't make sense to me, I (obviously) don't mind a clueless protagonist but the scene felt like it was missing some legwork.

To cap it off on my first impressions I didn't unlock the ending(s) on my initial playthrough, notably as I didn't realize the first choice (did Harry hear or not) was a matter of trust towards Laura - I thought it controlled Harry's perceptiveness. Linking perception to trust felt a little bit like a remnant of The Edge Of logic. It doesn't matter all that much to me as I'm more interested in the process of the NTR than in the endings anyway and obviously this isn't a finished work yet.

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As a second part of sort I also have some ramblings from thinking about the game, that I feel are not necessarily as valuable for NTR games as they rely more on the initial magic and not on what you see behind the curtains once it has faded :

• while I don't like Aya as a character all that much I really appreciate how she serves to setup the game in a "porny universe" (with caveats as mentioned by my first impression). The Edge Of's initial setting, with its serious tone, was harder to identify, but here is established from the get-go that we're not in "real world" cheating writing but a "somewhat silly porn" derivative world. It's one of the thing that's harder to do for non-RPGM games (since that support makes it obvious by itself) and it was handled in a clear manner - although as said before I didn't like how early it was made, when the game had not yet earned my trust.
• I felt the game should have had a clearer stance on drugs. Once Laura realizes that she's not better at sex than the guy with 3 "world's best sex haver" trophies in his room, and before she starts disguising <losing choices> as <conveniently misguided pride/ego>, I feel there ought to be a lull where she earnestly tries to win (not just gain control) and drugs affecting sex drive would be an obvious solution. I fully understand this could bring a "chemical arms race" to the story which may not go with the desired tone (and the decision to omit "magical" aphrodisiacs in a NTR game is one I respect) but there could be a justification as to why the initially ruthless Laura wouldn't resort to it (I may have missed it).
• Laura is very well written yet I still feel she has the same issue as the female protag in The Edge Of had : the plot partially hinges on Laura choosing to fail - Luca is smarter than the average fuckboi but is still a recognizable, identified quantity (as immediately understood by both female chars) and Laura could beat/see through him (after an initial setback) but chooses not to. This makes Laura a difficult character to depict : (1) she's smart enough to win, but plays (2) stupidly enough to leave openings to Luca yet (3) well enough to maintain the illusion she's trying her best. However, the reader doesn't get the receipts, (1) isn't proved to us : I didn't feel at any point in the story that Laura would be able to take the appropriate measures, preparation and care (she gets days to prepare) to beat Luca. Once one weakness of her is exposed, she doesn't plan to counteract it : that guy can make me come at will, this is fine ; during our marathon, I used rules for stupid things (no pinching/biting), oh well ; my very obvious attempt to restrict one day at a time misfired, wow I'm facing such a dastardly cunning opponent. Some could say the game isn't about a Death Notey's L vs Light duel of smarts in porn world but it... very much is ? Am I misunderstanding and we are to believe that, in fact, she just never was smart enough to win against Luca in the first place ?
• This affects the perception of time in the game. Despite whole days and weeks passing, it doesn't feel like characters exist or think by themself when they're not interacting with one another. There's no "preparation time" per se, there's instead, just like the train handjob, actions taken as a result of an undisclosed preparation time that obviously misfire immediately because it was "preparation" in a very tenuous sense of the word.
• It's all the more strange that the game at one point takes a very "numerical" approach, with open counting, dividing and prime numbers somehow. Unless this appeals to a specific fetish I'm unaware of, it seems the scene is about Laura being unable to maintain her concentration under dick-shaped duress. But this feels very artificial. Why not... Give Laura a winning strategy ? Since marathon sessions allow her to accumulate a number or rules before using them, she could very well have a strat like : accumulate, say, 6 rules, pass a rule allowing to pass a number of rules in a row without interruption or modification (and if that doesn't work another formulation of the same, etc), setup protections ensuring she can't lose again, then as last rule putting up protection against withdrawal of the newly introduced ? And just like the counting becomes gradually more complex, an issue in her plan could gradually add more constraints on what to keep track of before her attempt (need a reasonable ratio / balance to his number of undisclosed rules, need to keep X rules unused at any time in preparation for counterattacks...) . This gives her an actual sensible reason to count, shows her as a smart char, and leaves opportunities to reiterate themes of the story - maybe at some point she has the necessary number of points but decides against it for ego or pretexting ego, maybe as she fails Luca gives her another winning strat and she decides against it, etc. This may sound nerdy but it's less nerdy than having sex while shouting prime numbers.

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Again, I'm not sure feedback written once the magic has worn off is valuable for that kind of work. Thanks for the incredible quality of your game so far, and hopeful for those to follow.

[v0.5]
This is probably the best western NTR game by far. Compared to the author's previous work, the writing in this work has greatly improved. APBLU is undeniably one of the best NTR work done in terms of capturing the elements to make a great NTR plot, however it still does have its flaws.

[Positives]

• Plot is the best element here, and without a doubt HC nailed it in this regard. Character personality, plot buildup and slow burn corruption is done and presented well.
• Mystery and rule mechanic. Mysteries such as playing from Harry's perspective, trying to figure out whether Aya is on the other side of the room forces the reader to make assumptions about the plot. Meanwhile, the rule mechanic is something new that adds a lot of motive and depth to a NTR plot.
• Presentation. Ranging from camera shakes to voiced background, APBLU applies a variety of known VN practices to improve scene quality. One underrated aspect is how APBLU handles marathon scenes, it applies varied voyeur-POV/wide-angle CGs of the scene. I find this to be very amusing, and presents the situation way better than static close-up CGs.

[Neutral]

• Artstyle is inconsistent, but context is more important.

[Negatives]

• Not a fan of the quick 180 hairstyle and personality change at the end. In my opinion, it was by no means bad, but I think subtle external changes (e.g. clothing) has more impact and feels more realistic than straight up turning into a different character.
• The plot feels somewhat realistic riiiiight up till the end too. Laura was fully corrupted, but instead of divorcing Harry, she continued with the marriage. Throwing away all common sense and social responsibilities is a common trope in NTR, but honestly everytime when this genre tried to execute this, it never felt right, and it certainly didn't make sense to me in APBLU either.

[Suggestions to HC]
Other than plot negatives above, the game was great, and I hope you would continue to apply rules and wide-angle CGs to Aya's route as well.

One concern that I have is resource dilution due to side characters. In my opinion, side characters should stay side characters in NTR games, meaning they should not be draining resources (CG/scene) during development, as it could end up lowering the quality for the main routes (Laura/Aya). Do consider to separate them into DLC content in IF scenarios later after the development is completed.