Ren'Py - AIRevolution [v0.3.5] [Akaime]

0.3.2 review
Story is mid so far, renders are pretty good, Interesting characters. Pacing feels a bit slow and game is empty but it is an early version. However the english In this game isn't great it's a second language at best. It is a bug laden mess currently and needs a lot of polish to get anywhere above 2 stars. Not sure who wrote all the 5 star reviews with bugs that can set you back to the beginning and or yelling to characters that aren't even there.

It could become good just needs a lot of work to get there, I'll update the review when new versions come out if it improves.

I want to like this game, the characters are fun, the renders are fine, heck even the choices for the MC are nicely varied, but the sandbox (as of v0.3.2) sucks all the joy out of you.

Once again, as with almost any other sandbox, there are these problems, again...:

• A lot of empty locations.
• You have no idea about where, who and when unless you constantly open the character cards, which btw throws an error about a missing image whenever you open it.
• Locations clearly made for the late game already available from the start - Mansion, maybe some others as well?
• Almost every location has "Speak with her" button that just says "Sup bitch"... wtf???
• Annoying navigation

And to rub a salt into the wound, there are boatload of bugs. One even prevents you from continuing the story. When you want to talk to Yuriko, upon clicking the button, you are returned to the main menu...

I wish the dev good luck, I would like to see the game get better and if the issues above get fixed, I will gladly try it again and update my review accordingly. But for now, I advise to avoid playing as it is in this current state and come back later after a few updates.

I like it, obviously its very anime and a bit ridiculous. But the models are great, the scenes so far are great, sandbox is at this point a bit primitive but I believe the dev will improve it. Now I would like to give it a 5 star rating but I really only give 5 stars for completed games and since its quite short at the moment I keep it at 4 stars.
A lot of people have been complaining about grammar but really its not that bad I think. To be fair I usually skip a lot playing VNs like these, so maybe I would've noticed it if I actually sat down to read every single sentence.
Overall a very fun experience to be honest.

Pros:
Great visual character designs.
Interesting enough setting.
Writing can be genuinely funny and erotic at times, also presenting a good array of dialogue choices for the MC.

Cons:
Story pacing is slow so far, not much happened. Writing can also be bland and generic akin to most slice-of-life stuff.
Bloom was way too high in some renders, like god damn is this the new "I got transported to another world and now all my waifus are lightbulbs!?" isekai?

This game's biggest pros are the somewhat original concept and the unique design of the LIs, but that's where the good things end.

Despite having an original concept, the plot sticks as close as possible to anime tropes and conventions. If you're an anime fan maybe you can think of this as a good thing, but I can't honestly say that considering how predictable it is.

Just like the anime plot, the MC is an anime protagonist. However, his characterization is badly made. He's supposed to be this sad loner and that's only true for the first 5 minutes of the game, after that, he turns into the typical anime perverted protagonist.

The same can be said for the LIs, they are two-dimensional characters with clear archetypes that do things and react but don't feel like real people (or real, sentient AIs, in this case).

Even with all of that, I could just take it for what it is and enjoy without minding it too much, but this game's biggest sin is the typical useless sandbox. It's not a sandbox in the sense that you have freedom, in reality, it's just a kinetic visual novel with extra steps.

Instead of having everything served to you image by image, you are required to click back and forth so that you can experience the pretty much linear plot. You get some choices here and there, but they exist merely for the sake of having choices. When it comes to major decisions, you have no agency and you cannot influence the plot in any way. There's even one choice when you're given an option to decline this girl who wants to help you do something stupid, which I did because the MC's decision was completely insane, but even after declining, another LI accepts it and you're forced to go along with it.

TL;DR: A nice concept with good character design, but an awfully boring and predictable plot with flat characters and a major lack of freedom and agency. Considering the heavy lack of content, I do not recommend playing this game. It's not satisfactory and feels more like a chore.

Very good game, I love everything so far. Characters, tone, amount of time between the lewd scenes so you can have some buildup, this is seriously so good for a 0.3 version. It had enough content for me to edge for a couple of hours, but I also was reading the text for once because I liked the characters. Other games fail in winning my interest and I just skip the dialog entirely because it's copy paste generic dialog. I'm not saying the dialog here is some masterpiece level, but it does the job at making you interested in the characters.

So taking into account all of this, I can say:

Pros
1. Characters 5/5
2. Pacing 5/5
3. Story 2.5/5 (I've seen this story before many times, it's ok)
4. Lewd scenes 5/5 (Original take in many of them, not just skip text and fuck with no context)

Cons
1. Not much content so far
2. Sandbox doesn't really do much because the game doesn't have a mini game or a lot of content so far to make use of it
3. The world feels empty, but that's due to the game being early in development, the many locations are just placeholders and don't do anything so far, there should be at least some random npc to give flavor to the locations.

Overall: 5/5

Thank you man, one of the few koikatsu games where the characters look this hot. Please let us paint Naoko nude.

Reviewing v0.3

AIRevolution is a game that is still in its early stages, but is showing great promise in what it could be. I don't like to fill my reviews with useless information, so here is what you need to know as a potential player who thinks this looks interesting:
- The variety in girls is phenomenal. Due to the nature of the plot, the main girls in the story are varied in morphology, color, height, personality, and everything you could want. It's very refreshing to see someone really make full use of the character creation in Koikatsu.
- The H-scenes are a bit limited (for now), but are unique. The dev is clearly still working on improving the H-scenes in this game - the ones I saw only had 1-2 animations, but weren't the standard ones you get in Koikatsu. I have no doubt that these will improve with time, as I can already see tangible difference between v0.2 and v0.3
- It is a sandbox game. Make of that what you will. I actually like these, but I know not everyone feels the same way
- The english is a bit rough - however the dev is committed to improving it. The dev's discord channel has a place where people are posting corrections, and the dev is very active in the community at replying to such posts and incorporating new fixes into the dialogue.

Overall rating: 3.5/5
I hold high hopes for this game mostly due to the dev's attitude and their willingness to engage with the community. It seems like they really want to improve and are trying to make each update better. In a year i'm sure this game will also be very popular.

It's average but has potential. If done right it could be a very good AVN but it really needs some polish.

First of all, the English isn't good. It really needs a proofreader or someone else to help with that because it's quite clear it's not the developer's native language and can be distracting at times. Sure it's possible to understand what's written but it's nowhere near ideal.

The story. Well, it's interesting but has some way too dumb moments for the sake of plot progression. Like kidnapping MC to tell him they (the VAI faction or whatever) plan on dominating the human race goes beyond overconfidence to the point of ridiculous as to why they would even do that or how he almost died and right after just witnessed murder but doesn't do or even reflect on it for more than 5 seconds. Another point is how the MC just decides to steal a PC from a super enterprise just because the redhead AI girl wants a PC to play games with him. Like seriously, that's not even dumb at this point, it's borderline insane.

The characters are pretty good for the most part. Akaime is way too bitchy and I wish it could be toned down and MC is, I guess the best word that could be used for him is "frustrating". It's frustrating how he behaves to anyone and just mopes by himself. It's also frustrating how he mopes in his own loneliness and lets others walk over him, including Akaime herself even on the first day she arrives at his house.

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Editing this as of version 0.3.4, upgrading it from 3* to 4*.

It still has some dumb moments for the sake of plot progression that really can't be taken too seriously.

Now something that's actually incredible is the quality of the lewd animations as they're top notch and the renders in general continue to impress. Just improve the writing a bit and this could be an awesome AVN.

Review for v0.2

I'd say AIRevoltion is focusing on trying to be fun before anything else. Most of the game feels very surface level in terms of writing. If you thought this may delve into the intricacies of a world where sentient AI is commonplace among humans and all the gray areas with it, you are wrong. You're given a lot of basic/almost nonsensical background info that you're kind of forced to suspend belief about if you want to buy into it, simply because the game doesn't go into detail. Honestly it kind of feels like the dev had a bunch of ideas they thought were cool, but instead of trying to tie everything together into something coherent, it's all sort of being stitched together like patchwork as an analogy. The main plot point becomes evil AI queen wants to make humans servants, so we gotta create a syndicate to stop her. Why? Because she's evil and I have to! And because syndicates are cool I guess.

All the prologue really established for me is that I really dislike the MC. We play as the very generic school loner. Whatever, maybe he has some redeemable qualities? Not really. I just love watching him mope and complain about being lonely and playing videogames all day. Am I supposed to feel bad for him after watching him judge a girl for being "weird' while she trys to talk to him? Or how he begs his "best friend" to let him hang out with her other friends? Or when he calls his new indentured servant AI "bitch" for the 4th time? He's just your very generic perv anime protagonist otherwise, and I think that sucks.

What probably saves this game is the girls. Going the AI android route leaves a lot more room for creative freedom in terms of character design, and I think the dev does well in that department. They all look pretty good. Personality wise they're a bit tropey but pretty cute/endearing as well. I didn't play long enough to get to any real lewd scene, but there was one where a girl lets us touch her boobs. Instead of showing that though, we just get some text describing the MC doing it while they bounce a bit.

Now I should mention I only played the prologue. I got to the sandbox, seen it has an awful UI, and said I'm not dealing with all that. The game didn't capture me enough to want to click through 30 different rooms/locations across different time periods in hopes of finding a girl, because the game sure doesn't tell you where to go or what to do to make it easier.

Also going to mention the translation is rough. Is it understandable? Yes, but far from ideal.

Truthfully I don't think the game is without potential, and I think it's totally fine to take a fun approach where you're not worried about having the plot of the century. However, there feels like a lack of organization maybe is the word that makes this feel kinda messy more than anything. I'd probably give this 4 stars if the protagonist wasn't so ass honestly, but I find it hard to like him and obviously that's a big issue for me.

This is what peak perfomance looks like, the story is gold, my tip is to wait 1 year for more content, because you will want more. all the girls looks gorgeous and have interesting dialogues, there is a good world building but mosty is mysterious because its too early only 0.2.

An interesting and entertaining beginning, I was even left wanting more, characters, quality and quality story, I expect much more from this game. If he stays that way, he will have a great future.
You have my respects stark, personally currently the best VN koikatsu

It's a good game, from what is shown, interesting story about AI and the machine revolution and other shit. It has text and perverted scenes that are completely balanced, and it reminded me a lot of a game I played on this forum, androidlife, except that there the mc is supposed to be an android prostitute in a totally matriarchal society.

Anyway, there are some points about this game that I must highlight, Akaime seems cool physically but mentally, in her personality she is completely annoying, unfortunately she is not my type as she has a tsundere vibe. that other girl, katsue is another one who isn't my type, I've never been a cat girl fan, so that's it. In relation to MC, I hope he grows and develops his personality, going from a beta boy to Chad, of course he doesn't need to be a "don Juan of AI", but he also doesn't need to be an wimpy in front of them or other people.

Character models are excellent by koitatsu standards, but one of them needs to be reduced in sharpness, it is so aggressive that you can see the character's features.

Anyway, I'm going to follow this game and expect a lot of cool things from it, keep up the hard work dev!

Love the game different from other harem games. choices seem to matter in the game. this game is funny the characters are cool and interesting. I also actually care about the story. I wish the creator the best and success. You should give this game a try

Love the work! 100% Different from other Harem games, not a instant "Yes I want to fuck the MC, I love the MC" You gotta build up the Story with different kind of Storytelling and such! I just can recommend it once you want some sort of fun "Grinding and reading the Story" with some Comedy in it!