VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - A Second Chance [v0.4] [Radondy]

Your writing is impressive thus far, devoid of the typical need to decipher words to understand the message, unlike some AVNs. The artwork strikes a balance between anime aesthetics and realistic character models, creating an engaging combination. The storyline appears promising, leaving one intrigued to witness what unfolds in the future.

Overall, a great, romantic harem game so far (5 to 4 stars)

Pros:
Graphics (Pretty good for HS)
Story (basic but entertaining)
Characters (unique models and different personalities)
Can turn lesbian on and off

Cons:
Some of the choices to get the most points are sometimes stupid/weird
Some of the characters (redhead) act different than when you first meet them (in the case of the redhead, she does from timid to slut).
MC is an asshole. He cheats on his virgin girlfriend with his GF's slutty BF and his GF's sister's slutty BF.

Review for v0.3

I don't necessarily think this game is bad, but there's a lot of elements I think could be done a lot better.

My biggest issue is that a lot of stuff gets off-screened early on. After the first day of moving into the house, there are these weird time skips with a couple lines basically saying "I'm starting to get along with everyone"
Why not just show this? So now instead of actually seeing relationships develop with these people we just met, they all of a sudden exist without us seeing it. So the protagonist feels connection to these characters, but me as a player doesn't. We go from just having met one of the daughters to kissing her and becoming her "boyfriend" instantly, because everything leading up to that was basically skipped. It goes that way with the other people you're living with as well. I feel no investment in these characters because of that. My guess is that it was done to get to lewd stuff quicker? But the game suffers for it imo.

I also feel like a lot of the dialogue is just kind of bland. The MC immediately has all the right answers and feels like a standard nice guy. No real personality or anything. He doesn't feel interesting to play as. It seems like everyone just falls for him instantly because he says some nice words. Just a general lack of good character development.

I also found it really strange that the MC, who is experiencing these weird flashes and fainting, has a girl tell him she experiences the same thing and then he just refuses to believe her and assumes she's crazy? It felt weirdly forced. Especially when a few scenes later he says to himself that it's probably a normal thing other people do experience. It's like everybody has it out for that character for no real reason.

I can appreciate when a game tries to do something different and has a focus on story. I think there could be something good here, but I confess I didn't have a lot of drive to keep playing by the end of it. The character models and sex scenes were good enough, but that isn't enough for me as a whole.

Still, I'll probably check this out again when it gets some more updates to see if it gets better. I don't completely hate it or anything. I'll update my review should that happen.

reviewing 0.3 version

renders: 4/5 - hs2 renders have many shortcomings, but this guy makes a good job on it.

characters 5/5 - they are really cute and interesting

writing 4/5 - The main plot is good, and well writen.

Overall: 4.333/5

Great writing so far, non of the usual 'having to put the correct word in to understand what was being said' like some AVNs.. artwork is a good combo between the more anime styles and real character models.. story seems sound and interesting to see what comes in the future

[Reviewed: v0.2]

A good start on a VN.

The characters are Honey Select, but done with nice renderings, although I found the hands to be a bit odd, as if they're a size smaller than the rest of the models. There are some oversights in the renderings such as having the hair of swimmers look the same -- dry, styled -- immediately after exiting a pool. The mother in the household looks more like a sister of her girls than old enough to be the mother, but that's certainly not unusual for these games. And, also unsurprisingly, the protagonist's penis is too large. (I really don't understand why developers feel that this is the best choice. I'm not suggesting having a "microdick", just one that allows a male gamer not to be taken out of one's immersion in the story.)

The story is fine so far. We have a protagonist that's able to interact with the household women and those in school without being either too awkward or too macho. The game makes it clear -- in brief pop-up messages -- whether a choice has an immediate gain or loss of a character's opinion/love/friendship regarding the protagonist. There are a few choices that need to be made that subsequently lead to potential gains/losses for which there aren't any pop-ups. The story has a mystery that's only just being explored by the end of this episode, and ends on a cliff hanger, so there's something there to keep us eager for the next.

Pedantically, I found that semicolons generally were inappropriately used in the game's text, where there should have been a colon or an m-dash.

The ambient noises and music used here are also fine: neither distracting nor inappropriate.

I'd make a couple of suggestions:

• The text style used for thoughts and whispers would be improved by having thoughts using italics instead of being in blue, and have whispers be shown as reduced font size. The latter also can be used to scale the whisper level, such has by having the size reduce more to represent lines being said as the speaker walks away.
• There are points where it's unclear whether a forced pause is happening, or more clicks/key presses are expected. Similarly it's not always clear whether there is a sequence of images to sit through. Maybe always have some visible text present when a click/press is expected?

So, my rating is 4 stars for a good start and having a story that is good enough to look forward to the next installment.