Ren'Py - Completed - After the Inferno [v1.0] [Classy Lemon]

Good story in a medieval fantasy setting. Graphics were good, cut-scenes very well done, sex-scenes even better.

Voice acting added a lot and was really well made. Plot al little to short for me.

Overall would recommend.

I figured out how to review games for this one.
Probably spoilers ahead.

So, some people are more critical of this game, and they're not wrong at all. Completely valid things are brought up, things like writing complexity, tone shift, thematic headscratchers like the idea of the noble mercenary, clashes between world building and writing style.

But I ain't here to play through a game written by the greatest writers in the world, I'm here to NUT

So going by the criteria of I'm playing this 18+ Adult visual novel game for the purposes of 18+ adult reasons, this fantasy adventure VN is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I can only imagine the developers wanted to do a specific thing here, and in my mind they have achieved it extremely well.

The game lured me in, like most games on F95, with the promise of adult content, and the fantasy medieval theme. And then I got hooked on the worldbuilding, as it slowly introduced more and more aspects of the world and it's political sphere, and where our protagonist and his company fit into it.

Sure, it's no GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire, but I bring up my original criteria, I'm here to NUT, not to read a thousand pages of historically accurate political scheming and warfare. I got my nut and then more, and the game never forgets why I'm playing an adult visual novel in the first place. I give it a lot of credit for that, for slipping in aspects of worldbuilding in while not forgetting why we're all here in the first place.

So , from the standpoint of a very simple, does it satisfy?
It does satisfy, it has incredible animations, light hearted writing that won't keep you up at night, moments of seriousness just enough to give the scenes gravity, a varied cast of characters and body types. A paragon aligned protagonist that can bring out the best in the people around him, someone who isn't stupid or blind.

I know I said simplicity comes first in this review, but the protagonist is someone who's sticking with me, someone who is a mercenary, he knows the world is a rough place, but he trusts and is kind anyways. He could very easily be a brooding, edgy mercenary commander, who only seeks out money and glory. But no, he doesn't. He has the skill to, the people strong enough to, but he doesn't lead them down that path. In a world where the overwhelmingly powerful rule, why doesn't he seek to be among their number? I'm reminded of the film EEAAO, how Waymond says his kindness is how he fights. Strategic, and necessary. And just like Paragon Shepard in Mass Effect, it's not the strength of our MC's sword arm or the thickness of his armor that is his true power. It's his kindness, willingness to trust others, his capacity to slow down and help others, that earns him the loyalty of his companions, and thus adding their strength to his. In this world where the strong and wealthy clearly do the best, our MC fights back not with righteous crusade or brutal rampage, but by being a nexus. By binding others to him, with some chatting and then sex, because this game doesn't forget it's here to fuck, he's binding others to each other, through him. Without him, the city would have never succeeded against the challenges presented against it, because everyone would have stood alone. For a game that has sex as a major selling point, I think it certainly does a good job at a bunch of other stuff too.

And I'd really like to see a sequel to this, our lad still has adventures to go on, and I'd like to see them. Our MC in this game is a great Paragon protagonist, actually refreshing to be with. And he is an adherent follower of that anonymous Japanese 4chan poster, the one that said, "Through dick, unity." Unlike most Male Protag games in the sphere of adult gaming, the protagonist in this was actually a highlight for me.

If you want a pretty lighthearted romp through a fantasy world, this is one of the best. And it has an ENDING. My god, there's so many games where it wants you to dump some crazy amount of time like 50 hours in order to get anywhere, and sure some people are into that but not here, this VN doesn't meander about. It has a story to tell and goes and does it, and if you've liked it like I did, it leaves you wanting more.

tldr my probably incoherent review
Liked it a lot. Straightforward fantasy VN. Strong paragon protag makes me feel good.

Fun little adventure, avoids most of the pit falls of the uncanny Valley with some nice scenes.

The world building clearly had a lot of time and effort put in it although the story is generic whit a few flashes of potential, overall it doesn't overstate its welcome and its serves its propose.

Had a good nut, would recommend.

Bit of a love & hate relationship with this game.

PROS
- Animations are well made. Much more fluid and longer than what you're used to with 3-4 second loops on other titles. Most definitely this game's strong suit.
- I don't normally like voice acting in adult games as its usually pretty corny and very amateurish. Twitter porn VAs would either robotically read the script or they would overact by overemphasizing words/phrases in a exaggerated manner. Admittedly, its been well handled here and VAs actually sound true to their ingame roles.

CONS
- Writing is very subpar. Characters feel empty, just fall onto the MC's lap, and there generally isn't good enough context or backstory or sufficient character development to really care about them. The writing would transition awkwardly from goofy jokes to abrupt lore dumping to suddenly getting serious cause some lady we don't care about apparently died? This game's plot just has an identity crisis and, as consequence, is all over the place.
- Endings are not what you'd expect from an adult VN where the MC selects his chosen waifu and they ride off to the sunset. There are just 2 endings, largely concerning the plot only (he saves the city or doesn't save the city) and then you get a bunch of fanservice sex scenes in the tavern with the characters. That's it. The fate of MC and the LIs are kinda forgotten. Pretty underwhelming.
- What's the point of the free roam mechanic besides extending gameplay time? Adds nothing to the game.

Well crafted game. Especially Voice and Animations are very well done.

The Story is a bit frontloaded and did not catch me that much, for the short development and good technical crafting it still gets a 4 from me for visibility reasons on this site, otherwise probably more like 3-ish. I was very short not to play to the end but i did and i am glad i did. Start really needs some polish and rework, which it probably will never receive ^^

Especially, the story and writing was a bit lacking at the start, is got better but not enough to give a 5. Also it would have been more interesting if the sidequest could not be rushed through, but to mix them up a bit, so they are not getting monotonous. Also the the sandbox added not that much (only at the start, afterwards its just clicking at the same houses and go to sleep over and over again). But technically everything was well crafted. Also some choices feel a bit dull, most of the time it is really easy to see where the intended good path is, and there is no good reason to pick different from that.

Fair warning: the scenes are quite a bit vanilla - as you can see expect from the the tags. So no big surprises there, but they still feel reasonable different from each other.

Normally I rate games based on things they do best, so I often give 5 stars to those with both great sparking points and obvious flaws. Yet to this game, I can't, because this game failed to deliver a good job done at its major focus: the story.

I don't mind a bad story, but I very much mind one when it's part of a completely narrative-driven game heavily focusing on serious storytelling and not much else. The writing shows very poor, immature understanding of a lot of concepts the story is primarily based on, including wars, mercenaries, robbers, and lives and mindsets of common folks during medieval times. If it's a light-hearted funny story, this would be acceptable; but apparently the author is trying so hard to make this extremely serious and to put a weight on a reader's soul, the failure of which resulted in an underwhelming overall experience.
Let me provide one detailed example, out of countless of them. The MC is a merc, a sellsword who gets paid for killing strangers. Somehow he thinks his job is a noble cause and frowns upon his childhood friend robbing wealthy people at night. Yes you can choose to let her keep doing it, but mechanically, approving robbery counts towards that character's bad ending, while stopping her from being a mugger and getting her an honest job at the market is apparently a better option, mechanically. Not to mention that said character is fully capable of throwing fireballs at people. I cringed so freaking hard when I'm reading this.
The best word I can use to describe the plot is, again, immature. A merc for life feels uncomfortable with robbery. A fire mage struggles in extreme poverty after being rejected by a magic college. A fire mage who apparently has been robbing people at night for quite some time is somehow extremely introverted, cowardly and has self-esteem as low as a nine-year-old bullied in school. Everyone is acting awfully out of character. Everyone reads like a nine-year-old.

Other than the story itself, however, the game is actually very good. The cinematics, especially those animated and voice-acted non-sexual scenes are undoubtedly amazing, definitely of the best quality level among other games on this site. I'd give it a 5-star without hesitation even if the game just kept on joking around and not trying to deliver a serious story.

This is a very good game. I have a few complaints about the lack of sex scenes (there are a few good angles but not a lot of change in positions) and only ONE!!! anal scene, but this is a good game.
Well written, funny, and overall entertaining. This thing has battle animations that are cool!!! The characters are beautiful and interesting I wish I could revisit them for fun times and try more positions but sadly after you are done you could only see them in gallery mode (there is an ending bonus but without anal, it feels more of the same).

Great story. Graphics were good, cut-scenes very well done.

Voice acting added a lot. The sandbox was well executed.

Some may feel the sex scenes were lacking but I thought most were appropriate to the plot and character development.

A+ VN.

I don't know I really wanted to like this, the setting is unique, the beginning was nice and the models look good, but something about the game feels empty. It feels very linear and it takes itself too seriously sometimes and then other times it's really goofy. Don't get me wrong the comedy in the game is quite good overall but the drama is just so self-serious and boring; very little happens, and you feel like you have such little control over anything. Its definitely better than most visual novels here, and there's clearly effort and ambition here which I respect but it just doesn't feel fun to play or read which I think is mainly do to a lack of motivating force. Like the first LI, why should I care about her? I barely know the MC, let alone this random girl. I almost wish the game had just cut to the chase faster or at least indulged in itself a bit less.

This is one of the excellent games ever in f95zone. The story, the set up, the ending, the character, and the animation is really good. Very recommended to be downloaded.

After the Inferno takes in medieval setting with some fantasy magic thingy. We as the main character have mission to complete in the town.
This game is the best on the animation, i really surprised how good and beautiful the animation. Not to mention that the story has really goood build up and the end i really justified

Great game. Basically, what this type of games should be. I got tired of MC's that spy their mom when she showers.
This game brings something different. Narrated intro, great cutscenes when needed, funny jokes, the writing was good. I also liked the fact that you are not thrown into sex head on, you can feel the passion and romance building up. I feel like a lot of games don't have this... It is nice to see the MC cuddle with the LI, and the characters feel alive and like they have personality (at least as far as I have gotten). They don't feel like they are there to just tell 3 jokes and fuck them after spying on them 3 times. I am only at Cressa's story, so there is that, but I was very impressed with what I saw so far. Cressa was very cute . I really liked how they made her and going on "dates" with her to try and find her a job and support her was nice and brought a nice feeling to me. I hope more games will add some sort of romantic buildup instead of straight pounding like most games do now.
Really felt the chemistry between Cressa and MC and it was also a bit cute how stubborn she was.

To add my voice to the cacophony, I think this is a really solid game. Its pacing is great, I think the cast are all individually pretty damn solid, and the story is enjoyable. I poked around a bit in the Codex as well and its one of the games I have generally enjoyed reading up on the lore for. Generally just well written, well designed and well executed.
It is a bit weird that only some characters have anime eyes, but in a spoiler bit the main character basically does too.
I'd say this is well worth the time put into it.

Except for alil weird eyes, the whole thing is great. Story is good, sandbox is just selections and not a grinder.
The elves are coolest models I've seen in a while.
It has far better and more content than older low-effort games.
Looking forward to the next one!

What can I say after playing After the Inferno v1.0? Well, it is a great game! I got the good ending and it definitely is a good story even if a bit short for my liking. Renders, audio and animations are well made. Sex scenes are short, but the story really got me coming back for more.

The writing to this game was very simple and not in a good way.

The first "quest line" or "love interest's" story was boring, bland, uninspired.
I should have named my MC Jackhammer - because that describes pretty much all the sex scenes. Probably to match up with the cadence of whatever canned audio was used to accompany each sex scene: the same cadence and tempo each scene, leaving them all repetitive, boring, bland.

The MC is not believable as the leader of a medieval mercenary band. Anyone who makes a living killing people isn't going to be as whiny and emotional as this fella. You don't have to be a sociopath, but you didn't choose to be a baker. You're a hired killer.

The story logic falls down frequently. See above in spoilers as just one (of many) examples.

The "sandbox" is completely unnecessary. It adds nothing to the world and wastes one's time with extra clicks of the mouse.

The artwork and character design aren't poor but they're not above average either.

Plenty of reviews and fame on this one so just a quicke.

Unique mechanic and Interesting Cutscenes are a huge +

Many the conversations are basic and border unfortunate repetition and lore dumping *
*(for something that I feel does not exist elsewhere and personally find those hea though there is very very little here so not big deal).
And some the sex is fast for something trying to be more serious and the sex itself outside the well made constantly done cumming which is certainty unique is not huge but serviceable enough.

I've tried this game after I saw high note and reviews but it was a waste of time imo.

One of reviews:
"Wow. I stumbled upon this game thanks to someone's signature and I truly enjoyed it.
Great story, world building and characters. The writing is really strong. "


Great story - which part? Its just girls stories (You start one after another) without any consistency to main story.
world building and characters - srsly? There is no deep story behind characters. Even if it starts deep and interesting... its destroyed by some dumb shiet like "i bought a cake, wanna share? Coool, lets fuck (never fucked before). Second example that made me decide to drop that title: "I've never kissed a man. Cool, lets fuck to distract guard and escape dungeon"

It started nice but sex scenes are a joke - cool but short animations without any forplay or actual story that leads to scenes.

Big plus for cutscenes with voice but overal its 2/5.

I would say the MC is the most handsome one I saw in those games. And the sound effect and the graphic both excellent. Also, it provide the background information that can easily to catch the plot of the game. I am looking forward to see more new game form the developer.

This game is EPIC!!! Love the grand story of the underdogs battling against the tyranny of the empire. The characters are well developed and the game play mechanics just work.

The animations are smooth and sexy with great cut scene content as well. The art is atypical of my usual choices as I generally prefer characters that are as realistic as possible. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this game from start to finish, even with all the females having overly large eyes. That part comes across a little too cartoonish for my taste. Yet, this was not sufficient cause to hamper my enjoyment in any way.

In fact, I loved After the Inferno so much that I just took a DL of Projekt: Passion. The character renders are more like my usual preference so if the story is anywhere near as good as Inferno's, Classy Lemon has ANOTHER hit, IMHO!!!

Huzzah for Classy Lemon! Adventure ever on my friends, Phat