Ren'Py - Acardia Afterdark: Thrones of Desire [v0.17] [Unknown White Raven]

The story is poorly written and offers nothing new. The start itself is atrocious: Isekai slop. A very over-done, cheap genre. Then you get to make decisions that don't matter at all, introduced to uninteresting and bland characters, and are thrown in an AI slop world map. Oh yeah, most of this game's CG is AI slop. There's also uninspired, poorly balanced, disjointed turn-based combat detached from the overarching game.

But these are all this game's merits (or lack thereof) as a game. How does it fare as porn?

Honestly, not that bad. Apart from the sex scene with the succubus coming out of fucking nowhere and not initially being connected to the story in any way, it's pretty good. The only reason I gave this game has two stars instead of one.

My advice to the dev: Stick to the porn. Video game design and writing are clearly not your strong suits.

It's pretty good! Hate to review on potential alone, but it's a refreshing combination of things that's very novel- and I'm giving the benefit of the doubt on a lot of stuff here.

For instance, the VN parts are heavily inspired by Disco Elysium- but it doesn't REALLY use them. Disco Elysium is one of those weird games where a single ego passing a check could radically change so much, giving it more replay-ability than you'd think a murder mystery would have. And it had stacks on stacks of these checks, making combinations very unique. Here it's more...present? For instance, you can talk to a statue that tells you that there will always be a blue eyed, silver haired swordsman in a certain family, and if you pass THAT check, you never get ANOTHER check to notice that this girl that you're talking to has blue eyes, silver hair and is a swordswoman. Then you act surprised when it turns out she's a member of that family. No shit?

But I think trying to do that is trying too hard. Disco Elysium was a game where there was so much writing packed into a tiny space that it didn't care if you didn't read everything. Here, it feels more like a gimmick. It DOES make it much more entertaining when your character is thinking to himself, but that's kinda...it?

The other half is an equipment based slay the spire thingy. You equip gear, the gear adds to your deck. The egos can proc more cards to your hand. It's all fun, and is probably the best executed part of the game. Definitely can't wait to have more of this.

But I do think there's a little bit lost in the translation of games here. StS rewarded you for not taking damage because you had more floors. I can't imagine similarly long trecks in this game's future, so your HP is more of a patience resource than anything else. The one combat we did have made actually trying to beat the fight without taking damage even more jarring, because the story will act the same as if you took any amount of damage, including zero. Which is frustrating, but only because I enjoyed the game enough to even bother trying.

So it's still kinda too early for everything, but it's fun enough for what it is. I do hope it gets elaborated and more fleshed out- but on sheer creativity of game design this is worth a look. It's like a bite sized snack of two flavors you don't think would go as well together as they did.

I might not be stingy with my stars or my recomendations but I'm not a man who will give 5 star to a new game without anythink to show for.

So why did I give this game 5 star?
It has some good promise and start. If this game comes to fruitation; it could be like Divine Dawn and soar to the skies. The Alter Ego System might be a rip off from some other game that I don't know but I love it and I want to see more of it.

Developer who might read this: I know that one of the worst aspect to making games is not getting approval and not having feedback. That could demotive you and make you abandon this game. I'm here so that you don't lose focus and believe that someone, somewhere out there believe in you and value what you did. Never stop and don't be greedy. Respect and you shall get one in return.



Oh, and add Pregnancy as a system&mechanic. Not ending. Pregnancy endings sucks.