VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Acting Lessons [v1.0.2] [DrPinkCake]

Wow. This game is something else. It's hard for me to even put it all together.

I have never laughed so hard playing adult game, and I have never cried or teared so many times.

Characters are so good and well written. This is the first time that I really feel like I have a friend in game. Liam is awesome on every level and dialogues between him and MC are freakin hillarious.

This is also the first time that I care so much about one character (Megan) that I won't start a new game playing differently as I'd feel like I'm cheating on her. Right now I can't imagine seeing her sad face as I'm rejecting her to see this story differently. That would break my heart. This is so freakin weird to feel this way as it's only a game, but this dev actually achieved it and also made me want to reject all other women focusing on just the one.

Also this game made me realize that I want to play games like this, games that are something more, games that give you all sorts of emotions, not just brainless fuckfest like some games.

There's so much I wanted to write about AL and forgot, but this game is just a pure gem and if you like meaningful VNs, don't hesitate to play it. 10/10

Here's my review of the game. Obviously spoilers.

The characters aren't some two dimensional set piece in the game. Each character we met had personality and their own set of circumstances. We start liking them; empathize with them; we become emotionally invested in them.

Killing off one of the girls is a cheap way to get a response from the reader, like a jump scare from a movie. Once you calm down you'd think 'why the fuck was that even there?'.

The developer made this whole game filled with characters we like then completely tore it down and kicked us in the balls. If Liam died we wouldn't be surprised. We knew early on he had cancer, we were prepared for it to happen and we were expecting it. Liam dying would actually make me feel sad but instead the ending just made me angry.

90% of the game was about us liking these characters and the last 10% completely fucking shit on the carpet. Killing one of your main characters without warning doesn't automatically make the game a tear-jerker game.

Then lets talk about Leah. She has a major role in the ending but because of how bad the ending was her character suffered for it. We hardly see Leah throughout the game (I rejected her very early in the game), and when we do see her we don't see anything that would even hint with anything being wrong with her. If she was clingy then us readers would have had time to guess that something might be wrong with her.

I know what a red herring is, but the developer could have just made a random stranger the bad guy and it would still have made a lot of sense.

The only instance we see that something might be up with Leah is the end where Rena dragged a different nurse to hook up Liam instead of Leah. The chemo starts working and we can assume that Leah was killing Liam. This is the kind of subtle hint I would like to see but we get nothing. We don't see Leah acting creepy or clingy at all. Nothing.

Overall I enjoyed the game at the beginning and I had hoped that it would continue to be better for subsequent chapters but it fell off a fucking cliff towards the end. The characters had life in them and they were unique in thier own way. What I did not like was how the developer tried to make this into a cut-rate tear-jerker game towards the end.

If I were to give it a score out of 5 I would give it a 3/5.

Minor flaws, but overall an incredibly high quality game with a lot of care and effort put into and how rare is it to actually play a fully finished quality game like this? Some emotional pandering tweaked me down a bit, but I cared about the characters and liked their uniqueness and personalities and it immersed me enough to care about what happened, a good sign of storytelling.

Amazing game. Choices definitely carry over. Animations aren't the tip of the iceberg, but the characters (those of which can be romanced) are all very lovable and endearing.

Liam is also the best best friend character in a VN. Period. Truly a homie for life.

Definitely an overrated game.
The animations are not that good. And the game relies too heavily in story elements and the old and dated VN style, without real mechanics to keep the player entertained.

But the models look great and it has a good amount of content.

OMG!! I CANT BELIEVE THIS ONE!!
Let's be honest, most of ppl here download this kind of game to beat their meat, BUT THIS GAME IS UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL!! Theres a lotta path to go trough and its actually made a difference and it can be HUGE! this game is able to make me laugh my ass off and cry.. I really don't want this to end.. Guys please.. if you have mney to spare, PRETTY PLEASE DONATE TO DR. PINK CAKE!! they deserve it soooo much!
last word, i wanna say sorry to the other girl but renna is just for me.. i'm very sorry

The game begins so good for me. But suddenly seems like the developer ran out of ideas and tries to enlarge the game to get more money.
When we are ending the game we think that at least we can have an endgame with both Melissa and Megan, but suddenly you have to choose, making some decisions from the beginning of the game a totally waaste of time.
Being cautious trying to keep both of them but at the end you know that half of thee time you had put on the game is worthless.
In addition, i prefer not darker themes like a friend having cancer and falling into death because it remainds me of some bad situatiionsi had to live in the past but i respect that some people like it as a way to add some realism to the game. But in my oppinion, if u want to see sad things u have the real live for it and i like this kind of games to be free of this, it´s ok in other kind of games but not in this one (for me).

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is Complete...

I actually played this VN/Game about a month ago, and although it has a few quirky characters, I really enjoyed it, and even played it through several different times to check out the various endings...

The visuals in this VN/Game are fairy decent for the most part... The characters mostly looked unique, with only a couple of them feeling plastic or a tid bit exaggerated... The backdrops were a mixture of unique and a couple familiar ones I may have seen before... The cut scenes and rehearsal scenes were a nice touch and went along well with the nature of the story...

The script was written rather well, with only the tiniest of grammar mistakes, and you could follow the story with ease... The plot revolves around a male protagonist who is doing alright for himself financially, and is basically retired at a young age... He has an extremely oddball best friend, who is, in essence, the comic relief in the story... That character may be slightly over the top, but he made me chuckle now and then, and played out well, as basically a childhood friend who never really grew up... But in his defense, he is extremely loyal to the protagonist, and also a bit protective (kind of like a brother to the protagonist)… The plot gets really rolling after the protagonist receives a head injury during a corner store robbery where he first meets the main heroine, who is a young woman aspiring to become an actress... He sort of instantly falls for her and circumstances sort of allow for the protagonist to offer her to stay at his place for a while... From there the story branches out with various female characters coming into his life...

This is where this VN/Game shines the most, because it is full of choices that have a lasting effect on how the plot evolves... Your choices actually begin to matter after a certain point... The main love interest sort of stays the main love interest, but your choices will eventually effect if you stay with her, or if you end up with someone else in your life, in the end... There are even choices that lead to a couple scenes of violence, against threats to the protagonist, depending on your choices... I don't want to give away too much, because there are some surprises that just need to be experienced, in order to see just how well thought out this whole VN/Game was by the developers... You just don't see a whole lot of these visual novel story driven games with branching effects based on choices, in western market style VN/Games, all that often... Besides the satire and plenty of erotic scenes, there is more depth to how the story plays out and how some characters eventually interact with one another, as well as the protagonist... There are plenty of romantic moments, farcical antics, a bit of intrigue, a tid bit of tragedy, a very tiny bit of violence, and plenty of fun moments...

I tried several paths, never using a walkthrough at all, trying to focus on one particular love interest or another to see what sort of changes I could experience and endings I could experience... Some were a bit sad while still feeling joyous and fulfilling, while others were very romantic and fun, etc... Of course I have my favorites, but it's best you experience them for yourself...

Overall, even though this VN/Game is not always perfect, I really enjoyed the multiple play throughs of this VN/Game... I love having choices make a difference in how the story ends... The romance and surprises you run into, as the story plays out, made me feel the emotions the authors intended, and at times it didn't always take itself too seriously... The comedy (in the way of the best friend) added some light heartedness to the story as it played out... You really just need to read/play this one to get a better sense of what I've been trying to describe, without giving too much away... And if you are not one of those folks who stays in the theater as the credits roll, you really should stick around till the very end, no matter which ending you go for, just to see the short stints at the very end... Absolutely priceless... Bravo to the developers on this one...

excellent storytelling with a heartwarming message. Yes it has flaws in its execution & pacing and it could very well be written smoother. But it doesn't need to be flawless to be an excellent adventure. One I wont be forgetting anytime soon.

just i finish second time this game in couple of days.. it is the best and have a great story, i wish in that moment when i must to choose about what girl to save to find a option to save both and all 3 be happy in L.A

- outstanding CGI's, animation's
- you need to replay this game few times to get all ending's, you wont get bored, each playthrough is different
- best title i have encountered here, it's just wow

10/10. Who knew an adult game could be so... powerful? Emotional rollercoaster but a masterpiece of art. Sure, there's some great lewd scenes, but I was jus taken on a journey that hits you deep in the core... damn.

I have a love-hate relationship with DrPinkCake and this game is the reason! Genuinely interesting characters, well written throughout, and a finale that leaves me extremely conflicted. Bravo!

The art is well done, nothing obviously 'janky' except where done for obvious comedic value. From memory all the characters and sets looked to be new, rather than just re-using the same purchased assets which is always a pleasant bonus.

I'm not much of a 'sound' person, so as long as nothing stands out as either particularly bad or good, I don't tend to notice. Here everything 'just worked'.

The storyline(s) were written well, handled several situations that were partially or entirely unexpected in this genre of game, and handled them well.

Of particular note is the prominent male character of this story, who manages to be highly memorable in a positive way and doesn't fall into the usual trap of being nothing more than a simple 'rival' for the player to challenge and then ignore.

I usually don't read these kind of things, but after like a couple of seconds of holding the skip button, I read some of the stuff and it was pretty good. After reading through, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was both fun and nice. It felt like decisions really did matter, and the major characters had depth to them. Thanks!

This game is dank AF. Was expecting a generic lewd game with not much to it, and ended up crying with my dick out. Actually one of the best visual novels I have ever had the pleasure to play. Plenty of sex, plenty of story, good humor and really one of the best games I have played, and this includes normal games.

Story, Story, Story.

This game succeeds on the Characters and their development through the game and the overall story. It is nice to see a heroic MC that can be flawed vs the myriad douchey brother clones out there now, as well as a supporting cast that isn't lifeless sex dolls. Yes the MC is a babe magnet as this is a Fab game after all, but every major character is relatable, "real" and develops as the game progresses.

The stills are good with the animations being inconsistent, sometimes they are good sometimes they are rather weak, which can be over looked because the game succeed in so many other areas. Each girl has a different personality so bedding them sometimes is quick other times it takes longer. Also you meet characters at different times within the story so each episode has more than one opportunity to get laid, in most cases.

The game uses a hidden relationship meter that doesn't feel overly rigid, meaning it doesn't require perfect scores to unlock content. While choices do gate content the choices are straight forward, you never feel like content is hidden by a series of unrelated choices.

There is NO grinding what so ever, meaning you never feel like the dev wasting your time to pad for lack of content. Also this game is FINISHED! yes you get a complete game with a beginning, middle and ending. Also the ending feels like an actual ending, as well as multiple endings of which all the ones I have experienced feel like an ending based on the consequences of my choices. Just to be clear i have not tried all the endings nor played out all the major choices. I know for myself this game has replay ability even though it is heavily story and character driven. To put this in context i am NOT a completionist, so I want to replay the game for its ownsake.

The story was really well written. There were a lot of unexpected twists that could not be avoided. It would have been interesting to see if a twist (at certain parts) could be affected by the decisions made. Characters 10/10

this game is a fucking magnum opus, despite I disagree with some parts of how the story twisted its really well written, the characters do develop in a succesful way, theres no simple meet and fuck and the player really feels like driving the story to whatever the end of the course is.

this is a fucking 10/10, Liam is without doubt, the best character, a fucking man with a heart of gold.

I started playing Acting Lessons with a lot of hype.

Indeed, being still quite new to this world, freshly unconditionally converted to it by another incredible game after almost giving up on it due to starting with random bad ones, I expected nothing but an awesome, rewarding journey out of one of the most praised VNs, that basically everyone loves.

Well, let's get thit straight, I wasn't disappointed. It was all I hoped for, and even more - being different from what I expected, yet fulfilling everything.

While said previous game filled me with joy and incredibly good feelings all the way through it, leaving me full of happiness and eager to get back to it everytime I had to turn it off because, well, life... Acting Lessons had moments that did the same, and others that threw me into deep distress. Basically it had the same effect, I couldn't stay away from it for very long, but for very different reasons. Some moments in AL are so heavy, triggering mixed feelings everywhere, leaving me confused, sad, lost... But still wanting to fight to make it right.

Being able to get me this deep into it is no small feat... One moment in the game I was almost devastated, and another one I actually lost it, was close to crying so I turned off the game and got back to it after a few minutes. Some choices I made were so hard to make that I spent a long time just staring at the screen, not knowing what to do. And some choices I made came back to bite my ass long after I thought their consequences were done.

If anything, the most incontestable proof that this game is something else, for me, is that I played it twice in a row - just to try and follow a path I was sad to left aside. That's very, very rare for me - I almost never come back to something I already know. AL ditched this habit like it was nothing.

On to characters now. Character development is astonishing in the game. Megan got me easily - obviously she's made for it. But Melissa, for example - I don't like her style, originally, and yet I felt deep feelings for her as well as the game was progressing. Liam won me over as the game progressed, being that friend everyone wants. I laughed out loud a few times thanks to his misplaced reactions. Even the other characters I didn't really like, such as Rena, were very well built.

Pacing of the game is very good also. No rush, you take the time to know the characters, to get close to them, and yet it's full of events. Sex scenes are awesome - and happens very logically, at the right moments, expanding as the relation between characters does. Really nice !

To summarize, I see AL as a masterpiece. A real piece of art. AL is deep and dark - yet leaving you with an incredibly rewarding feeling at the time. If I had only one complain to make... It's too short ! But well, for this quality of product, it will always be...

A must play, and a must enjoy. Will remain forever one of my favorites, for sure.

This is the best game I've ever played in the topic. This is the first time I've ever played a game like this over and over again. All the characters are real, and they're great compared to all the fake blackcovers that jump into our arms.