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

Overall, I was incredibly happy with this on my first run through it. Turning off the hints and just organically working my way through the choices was a real joy - picking what just made sense as the story unfolded.

I felt the storyline was solid, a couple curveballs (the whole Leah thing needed a bit of foreshadowing, it felt a bit deus ex machina honestly), and I actually gave a damn about the main 5 characters (MC, Megan, Melissa, Liam, and Rena). The rest of the cast was fleshed out enough, with the exception of Leah.

Subsequent playthroughs, trying to find alternate endings, were not nearly as satisfying. If you decide that you don't want Megan/Melissa to be your go-to-girl, the game still pushes that and forces you to be a real asshole about it. You come away feeling bad, rather than enjoying the experience.

The girls don't all have insanely huge boobs, and look like real women. That was very refreshing, and helped them be seen as real people rather than just a walking pair of tits. The animations were a bit janky in a few places, but overall the art style was quite nice.

The beginning starts off well, but it suffers from the same writing blunders as their DIK project: they don't know how to end anything. While the beginning does well in establishing the characters/love interests, the middle shows the author didn't have a clue about what to actually do after establishing them and their individual motives.

It certainly doesn't help that the author has decided that all of them have to be intrinsically connected, and even makes the endings far worse. Then the moronic third act comes around, and there's just this MASSIVE change out of nowhere, that makes absolutely NO sense. I mean way to jump the shark dude, no wonder DIK suffers from the same moronic faltering of stories and fizzling of character development. However, as I've stated previously, the ending isn't the CAUSE of the writing failure (as some reviews may have you believe), but the culmination of every previous error.

The sudden villainous reveal at the end? Incompetence in divvying equivalent time to each character. The sudden shift at the end (aka the 'jumping the shark')? The dev not having an actual overarching story, yet still wanting to have an emotional ending. The dull and random middle that peters out? Essentially every character having incredibly simple motivations.

The dev certainly got better in their next project, but the exact same issues linger. At least in that game there are so many different characters that it doesn't really matter, but still, it's so shit. Doesn't help that in this VN, the sex scenes are also pretty middling. The fact this game is consistently getting 5 stars is shocking to me, the people on this site have absolutely no taste.

With most porn games, if you took away the porn, there wouldn't be much left to call a game. Acting Lesson story is so excellently written, you could take out the porn and still have one hell of a visual novel.

The beginning looked promising, but the direction the game took towards the end was not to my taste.

Megan and Melissa were well developed characthers, as well as Liam, but the others were kind of blend. The art style could be a little more refined, but I appreciate the creator's effort.

Honestly there is nothing i can say about this AVN that u can't see in any of the other reviews so ill keep it simple play this its a beautiful love story mixed with some painful decisions just trust me and don't be a man whore and just enjoy the wonderful story laid out before you

Having played Being a Dik first, it's nice to see how far the author has come. You can already spot some nice renders, the caring with every character, and the story cohesion.

However, I can't say this is a "must play" personally, but definetely worth checking it out. The main reason being that I couldn't help but to feel that the game were always trying to corner the player in more ways than others, -as if it were tayloring you towards an obvious route -thus breaking some imersion, plus the use of heavy themes felt "cheap" assuming they were "required" for the emotional tone to be sat.

Moreover the game is in general very fast paced (to the point you kinda lose the sense of time sometimes) and other times, not enough for the emotions to sink in. There are a few bubbles of fillers during the actual "acting lessons". For the rest, you can expect the pedigree from DrPink.

7/10 for me.

This AVN is not your usual VN, its a truly memorable experience you´ll surely remember.

Story: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
Dont get deceived when you see everyone recommending this, the "Adult"tag on this Adult Visual Novel is on the spot, you´ll get what you were looking for, and much more...Maybe more of what you ever asked for.
Usually VNs are not novels at all, but this proves some Devs do this for passion more than for pure profit.
The story has a good rythm, just like a cult classic you´ll re-visit from time to time.
Here´s a free advice for you: Keep the paper tissues close, you´ll need them, I mean it.

If an actual Dev gets to read this rating, please, dont stop doing things with passion, you are a beacon of hope on this art deprived world we live in, and never let mediocrity gets the best of you.

Characters: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
Renders look good, girls look real, there´s no over use of makeup that make them look plastic.
Female characters are people too, which is always welcome on a good story, and their struggles feel relatable.
Main character is not a super hero, doesnt pack a Tsar bomb between his legs...This works really well with the theme of the VN.
Sidekick on this one deserves a reward, best friend ever written.

Mechanics: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
In the average VN, actual gaming elements like minigames are not a real necessity for it to be succesful, and they are not on this one *chef kiss*.
This is very good, reading without interruptions a story such as this one is very appreciated.

Content: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
Animations are good, scenes are abundant, its hard to find something to actually critique on this department.
Decisions matter, but not like the trivial ones that shouldnt have impact on the endings or what else, I mean things like being a wingman with someone who deserves it or prosecuting a certain love interest while sleeping around, things that can end friendships or destroy families in real life have an impact here too.

Ending: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
Theres multiple endings here, 22 variations being exact, so enjoy the multibranching.
They are rewarding, as characters get to develop and grow (or not), but remember, just as in real life, not everyone might get the fairytale ending.

Acting Lessons is truly a memorable piece of art, so if you are too young or just skip the story, you´ll might be missing the whole point of this VN.
Dev should be proud of his work here, people will recommend each other "Acting Lessons" for literally generations to come.

To be honest, this moved me at some moments and it's rare for an adult game.
Some characters are endearing.
So if you are in a depression right now, I don't recommand you this game.
The gameplay is good, no bugs noticed.
Graphics and animations are correct.
The storyline is very good with an incredible epilogue.
Worth playing !

Did I just play an AVN or a trauma simulator?

Really solid game, you can tell going from this game what DPC chose to learn/lean into with Being a DIK; plus the "foreshadowing" was super fun to see. Quality game with and even higher quality story. Rena is my one true love.

To preface this, I played this after seeing it very highly recommended almost everywhere, so I had very high expectations. Sadly, for me, they weren't met.

It's a decent VN and I can totally see why it's very popular, the art is good (although something about the eyes of one or two of the characters was a little off-putting) and the story was nowhere near as formulaic as many in this genre. The characters themselves were mostly well done (Liam is likeable and his dialogue did make me chuckle a few times) and the main girls didn't seem completely one dimensional (though I feel they could've been fleshed out better).

I think for me, part of the issue was the length of the story, the last couple of chapters seemed very brief, almost rushed in fact. However, I think the biggest issue I had was that as I've played some incredibly well written games in this genre (and yes, for me and some others, the descriptive writing makes or breaks a game), the actual writing was pretty average. Scenes, especially the H ones, weren't especially well described and considering the very basic animations (I honestly would have much preferred still images, as the models themselves were attractive and for me, some of those animations were a detriment to the scene).

All in all, especially considering how relatively short it is, it's worth a play but in my honest opinion, I sadly believe this to be an above average VN, that has been massively over-hyped and for me at least, that huge hype set extremely high expectations that just weren't met.

I looked at this page several times. Its not my kind of story, but I thought what the hell. Hours later I was stunned. What did I just play? I laughed so many times, I had tears in my eyes so many time (sssshhhh don't tell anyone). Amazing characters and great story. READ THIS VN.

MUST PLAY, TRUST ME YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. Plot is very nice and the novel is not too long (3-4 hrs tops) but the amount of story building and character development done in such sort piece is astounding. Plot twists are crazy but don't let that put you off from reading it. I initially hesitated because of that but the twist didn't affect me much as my eyes were set on a different prize. ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE BRO LIAM hope other games implement such stuff as well. One last thing: this was DPCs first VN but oh boy the amount it has is crazy. I played this after BaDIK so i can cut him some slack when it comes to renders and animations cuz he has immensely improved but the PLOT and MUSIC are BANGERS (on par and even surpass BaDIK at times). Great game must try.

I rarely review games on this site, but "Acting Lessons" totally deserves his 5 stars.

A really interesting story with actual fleshed-out characters and fucking plot-twists that hit me right in the feels.

Such a beautiful bittersweet VN that's sure to left his mark on me, just. go. read. it.

The renders were pretty nice too, specially Melissa and Rena !

Once more, kudos to the writer !

The very game, that started my F95 journey. I played a bunch of tittles through my 3-4 years journey and yet, this one is always be in my top 5. We can argue about pretty much every aspect of this masterpieace, but we can not argue about one thing, this game has a soul! It's silly, sometimes it's stupid and yet it's charming.

A rough diamond, but shines nonetheless. LI's are hit or miss but when they hit for you (character itself or just optics) they are to die for. Animations for H scenes are very rough, underdeveloped, jarring and generally took away from the game more than they added. Romance scenes were - due to writing - top notch, even though I felt the pacing quite a bit too fast. I wished the game took more time between each major story step to further the relationships between characters.

As I read there are multiple vastly different branches the story can take but my experience stems from only one playthrough with the paths I organically took. What I got was a heart punching story that was as funny as it was beautiful.

10/10 for the best wingman in VNs ever

Don't play this for wanking, kids! Otherwise if masturbating while crying is your kink, or you just like good emotional stories, absolutely recommend.

This is one of all time favorites on the site. The models were absolutely gorgeous, the story was excellent and I played it straight through! I wasn't completely in love with the ending (no spoilers) but that's really the only negative thing I can say about this one. One of the sites masterpieces!

It's a fabulous game with a lot of emotions and well a lot of girls.

Overall Rating 5/5:
Animations 4/5
Story 6/5
Sex scenes 5/5
Girls 5/5
Characters 6/5

In short, this is an excellent game. One of the endings is very sad so good luck with the heart break.

-SPOILERS ALERT-

What an emotional Rollercoaster. Imma be honest, the girls were decent to say the least, Megan and Melissa were the aspiring actress and the girl from a shitty household looking for comfort, which were my main points, Rena and co. were just kinda...there. Ana was just a dumb girl who didn't realize just how good she had it before she destroyed something good. But the main star? Liam. What a fucking brother. Holy shit. He's one of those guys I would go through every thick and thin with. I'm fucking glad that he managed to get through the shittiest points in his life. And he's someone I would undoubtedly go bros before hoes in every single capacity. One of the best buds in fiction imo.

Writing was well done, the game is somewhat short but doesn't overstay its welcome, but I'm going to be honest, Liam was the selling point. My man is a brother through and through, and I'll do anything and everything to ensure he lives in every playthrough.

If you want to read a VN with a good bromance? This is it. The sex scenes were kinda mid and mechanical, but I don't hold it against the creator in the least bit. Liam was the greatest damn treasure of this shit. I would go through thick and thin with a brother like that.

Absolutely fantastic game.
Great story and superb design.
I was not expecting to be so emotionally attached to characters in a game of this genre.
One of, if not, the best games I've played from this site.

One of the saddest, yet funniest and most heart-warming games I have ever played. This is a prime example of how Visual novels as a medium can be used for amazing storytelling and artistry, providing a much more emotional experience than reading a book or watching a movie.