VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Alexandra [v1.0] [PTOLEMY]

Your focus is story telling, delightful characters that feels real, lovely and natural interactions and something to enjoy and have all kinds of feelings throughout the game? This game is one of the few that are capable of doing this. Enjoy of you time ^_^

i have read the reviews and i have little more to add. this is the best slow-burner adult visual novel i have ever played. story, writing, characters, renders, everything is top-notch here. coming from the creator of "dreaming of dana" this may not be a surprise, but still he has clearly outdone himself with this one. i'll be waiting patiently for the juicier parts to arrive in the coming months.

This is good, really good. The art, production quality and renders are first rate but like all these VN 'games' its really all about the story. Thats one thing a lot of Dev's don't get ... Its Always About the Story and here we have a great story. There is a ton of content and the writing is so good you will read it all. Yes like many have already stated its a tease, a serious tease ... but have patience grasshoppa _ all in good time and you will not be disappointed.

Absolutely fantastic VN with gorgeous renders and artwork, and a story that is masterfully crafted.
The characters are genuine and believable, with nice dynamics across several of the lead characters and with the MC. The dialogue is engaging and smart, adding to the fun of the VN as well as to the overall feel and flavor of the game. I like the tension in the slower build up to the fun bits, and this game is delivering nicely there. You don't feel like you are waiting forever for the fun parts, so don't misunderstand, but you aren't already in the sack by scene five either.

My Re-review of Alexandra

Alexandra was one of the first games I've ever played since joining F95zone. Prior to this VN I haven't really played too many others before it, I didn't even know what a VN or Rpgm was.

From 2018 up into now, I still have nothing but high praise for this game.

Good story
Great renders
Decent sex scenes
Great characters

I don't get the hate for this game. I didn't understand it back then and even now. Maybe because it doesn't cater to the typical cliche genres. Incest, NTR etc.

Maybe because the MC isn't a douche bag with obnoxiously witty banter, I don't know but it works for me. I love the crime/mafia setting as well as the romantic vibe. So far the story has been engaging which is all I ask.

The sex scenes could be better, sometimes they appear too dry and basic for me but that's really my only gripe. Still one of my favorites.

4 out 5 stars.

Haha, i'm sorry, but i dont'know who will die first because of blue balls: The MC or I

The good things:
-Decent/Good CGs
-Interesting setting and story
-No bugs, flaws or something else

The bad things:
-No sex, no real teasing. You just see a pair of pussies and some kissing. That's all.
-Although overall good CG's, the girls are not that hot that you will get an instant boner. Except for Alexandra. She is one of a kind, but honestly not enough for a porn game.
-Not enough content:
You just click through everything, make a handful of choices and that's it. For a game that is nearly one year out and has reached version 0.10, this is just not enough.


Conlusion:
The game has potential. I really like the story and Alex.
But even for a teasing game, this is just not enough content.

Don't get me wrong. I like some nice teasing and a realtiv slow build up. But this is way too slow.
I mean this should still be a porn game. So just seeing some naked pussies doesn#t get the deal done.
In a 0.10 i except at least some muff diving or a handjob/blowjob.

So hopefully the Dev will get things going in future updates.

After they dropped the rpg-like grind and now focus on the story, this game blossoms up and becomes a really fine round product. The writing is good and the story unfolds in a pleasing speed and is good for more than a few chuckles.

The 2 "main" girls, but also alot of the "side-chicks" are charming and lovable That's what makes the different between good and great games. To have nice looking and technically good rendered girls is just one part and there are way more games out there that achieve that - but to give these pictures some personality, thats the real deal.

For me its just a bit to linear and I would prefer more choices, and the feeling that they have a more significant impact.

I needed to change my rating, due to a very disappointing ending.
I still stand by my original review from early in the game's development, but this ending really takes away from the story.
The supernatural/psychological plot is just explained away in a dream, several female characters seem to just have been completely forgotten, great ones like Alice and Narysa feel short-shafted.
Nothing ever comes out of Alex and Izzy being half-sisters (probably, almost certainly). It did feel as if Ptolemy just wanted to wrap this up for a few updates now, but I would have expected a bit more.
That's sad, because I really liked this VN, it actually deserved a better ending.
It feels rushed, and I wish more time was spent actually developing the other girls, not just Alex and Izzy and that Russian Mobster storyline.
That took centre stage for so long, but it just never was good enough to carry the VN without giving the porn and relationship part the same attention.
That's why my overall rating goes down from 3 to 5-stars.
Animations were horrible as well, I'd rather not have them at all, than have them like this.
"I was always a big Dana fan, but even though they all were hot, the other three girls were just too extreme in their lifestyle/characters.
Not that I disliked them, but even Andrea had this phase where I almost expected her to wear diapers.
Now, with Alexandra, I don't have that problem I like almost all the girls, right now Izzie even has almost surpassed Alexandra and Alice isn't far behind the two of them, but like I wrote I also like all others.
The only minor problem with Dana was the long repetition to get to new content at times, which got better later on, but still... Now since Alexandra become a regular VN there's no grind at all, and I can fully appreciate Ptolemy's renders and that mixture of romance and porn that seems to be made almost especially for my tastes.

Highest recommendation for fans of games like Where the heart Is. Sisterly Lust, Triangle, basically all games that have great visuals, romance and good porn."

Zippity has about the same view points as me but i'll add my on little thought. I loved the start of the game since i prefer that style over the open world map style that it latter becomes. All the other stuff is on point and the game is still in the early stages so we need to wait and see.

Art 8.5/10
Story 9.5/10
Characters 9/10
Sex 0/10 not much yet.

New updated review after final version of game.
Only thing i need to add is the ending was lackluster.
Still a 4/5 rating.

Art 8.5/10
Story 8.5/10
Characters 9/10
Sex 8/10 not much yet.

From the look of things plotwise it stands strong, like most of Ptolemy's works. Beast and the little Princess, the Beast and his love, The beast and his lover, Beast's lover, Lover of a Beast, Monster in humans skin, Black Sheep of Society etc. Those are titles I can think of at the moment.

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...

(01/27/2018 - Original Review - Proof of Concept)

For being just a proof of concept it feels a lot more like a introduction to a visual novel/game...

The visuals of the characters are pretty good, and they seem like normal people (for an erotic themed VN)... The backdrops look mostly unique and creative...

The script is pretty spot on as I saw very few if any spelling/grammar errors... The plot, for the moment, revolves around a male protagonist, with a past, who seems to go into some sort of uncontrollable rage (seeming almost supernatural in nature) when angered or in fight/flight response... But then he meets his new bosses daughter, and she brings out of him a whole different side... Almost like he's fallen in love at first sight... From there he ends up rescuing her, killing some baddies, and getting into the good graces of her rich, crime boss, father... It ends from there...

Overall, this POC/Introduction seem really well put together, but I can see lots of opportunities for there to be a lot of melodrama, if it develops futher... Which I'm not always a fan of, as it becomes a bit over mixed with too many confronting emotions, especially with erotic visual novels... Mixing pleasure with pain, struggle, fear, loss, etc., gets to be exhausting after it goes on for too long...

If it's handled right it isn't so bad, but I tend to find a lot of the drama/melodrama placed into this style of VN/game tend to be a little over the top at times and cumbersome to the overall theme in general... Either too much sex is added to over compensate for the drama, or too much drama to over compensate the sex, or not enough normal every day story to balance it all out...

Plus it's a story theme I've seen before in movies i've seen and books I've read... A man with anger issues and a past, meets a woman of high status and falls in love with her, but yet the rich overbearing father is an obstacle to overcome in their ever growing love affair... Will love win the day? Will the father ever allow it? Is their future to be fraught with struggle as they hide this secret from him? What will happen if he ever finds out? Will he be understanding or will he be cold and ruthless? Will the struggle of being in love, with a world of high crime all around, mean obstacles will be constantly in their way as they try to make their love affair work?

In all reality, it is probably too early to know exactly how this visual novel/game will play out, if it continues to develop... But with all that I've seen so far, I can pretty well predict several possible paths it could take... As there are trends with erotic visual novels to go overboard sometimes with the drama, in order to give more depth to the overall story, rather then giving the love/romance stuff more priority over the drama... I'm not saying this VN/Game might do that, but there are lots of hints made with this POC/Intro that do seem to point towards a more drama/melodrama driven story, over a monogamous love affair/romance story... Only time will tell...

Will I revisit this one if it actually goes beyond the proof of concept stages, and into a full development? Perhaps, but it will really depend on what direction/s the authors take it... It does show some promise...

(03/11/2018 - Review Update - v0.1 Bugfix)

Well, it looks as though this visual novel/game has decided to go into full development with a name change as well to "Alexandra"... The introduction sequences are pretty much the same although they look a little crisper to me... After the introduction sequence you get into the meat of what this VN/Game is actually going to be about...

The visuals for the characters and backdrops in the grind game look on par with the introduction visuals... The only character I found an issue with was the Personal Trainer at the gym, as she looks like she had a field day at the Botox clinic or perhaps just had too much filler injected into her lips... They look fake and weird... The navigation map looks good and is easy to use... The info in the upper left corner of the user interface is not easy to see with most backdrops... It's color is too muted with the backdrops, especially the navigation map... It may need recoloring, or perhaps having a background color to make it stick out more, one of the two...

The plot after the introduction has the male protagonist starting as a low level thug money collector for the boss who's daughter he saved... This involves your basic grind game of training up certain stats, doing collections missions, and paying a minimum of $2000.00 but up to 10% (which ever is higher) to your criminal contact each Sunday... I did not notice any actual content that opens up from maxing out the stats... But the stats do effect how successful you will be at performing the money collection missions...

You have 3 possible outcomes, during collection missions, you either succeed in convincing them to turn over the money without violence, or with violence, or fail all together to get any money... Violent success increases Notoriety, which increases the chances of getting caught by the police, which you do not want... And that stat can only be lowered by 5 points per $500.00 paid to a corrupt cop...

There are several issues I ran into... During the tutorial for the grind stuff, there were a lot of misspelled words in the text, and even a missing word... Training the Gun Skill only works for Handgun training, while the other two do not raise the Gun Skill at all... Doing the Personal Trainer at the Boxing Club, ends in the Library rather then back at the Boxing Club... And since it was not clear during the tutorial if the min payment was due on Saturday or Sunday, I tried it on Saturday and he took the money, even though trying it any other day tells you to wait till Sunday... That's a lot of easy to see bugs and proofreading mistakes, which I'm surprised were not caught before posting this version release...

Overall, now that I've seen that this will be a grind based game, rather then a normal Visual Novel type game play, I do have some fear on just how the story aspects of this game will play out... We're teased about the focus of the story being Alexandra (just look at the title), and yet with her position as the Boss's daughter, and the protagonist being very low on the totem pole in the crime organization, how much involvement will there be with the Alexandra character at these early stages? In Dreaming of Dana, the main heroine is there from the beginning thru till the end... With the protagonist being a low level criminal, we'll have to see how and if this heroine will play any sort of role in the protagonists story, at least early on... Dana was more like a love/romance story from the start, where as in this game, Alexandra only exists (currently) in the introduction as a 'possible' love interest...

At the moment this VN/Game feels more like a crime simulator with eventual story elements... Crime stories usually tend to thrive on melodrama (something I'm not a big fan of) and lots of violence... For the moment, it is still very early into production, with just the basic grind elements being put into place, and that part isn't even complete yet... So I guess we'll need to wait and see how this one plays out, once it gets actual content added to the grind play in future updates... Will this be a love/romance story, or mostly a path of sex & violence eventually leading to a happy/unhappy ending? Only time will tell... I'll check back on this one probably after it gets some content under it's belt...