VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Alternative Family [v0.5] [Giant Dwarf]

After reading several reviews, I wanted to give it a try, and I really tried to get to like this VN, but no matter how much I wanted to ignore or overlook its issues I just couldn't get to like nearly anything of it.

The only good enough thing about it (agreeing with other reviews) is the renders/models. While not exactly top-quality, they are good enough and I appreciate that, unlike several other games they are not over-exaggerated on sizes/proportions.

But that's the only thing I got to like.

The story is very loose in its development. It could use good proofreading as in tons of dialogs the MC is actually addressed as "MC" instead of the name, as well as several dialogs that make no sense with the previous scenes.

Initially, I also liked that while the dev included content that it's not of my liking (such as trap/sissy) it seemed to be skippable (not avoidable), so I didn't have to see these scenes. But it was just on one occasion, as later on the scenes go whether the player likes them or not.

The characters are quite plain. No real development and that includes MC, which goes from apparently being a good guy to being the villain and then going back to being the good guy. While I think it's possible to get this effect on a character, it requires a story and character development that MC just doesn't have.

The same goes for nearly all the LIs. MC's secretary, who seems to be his lover/friend/second in command goes from having a love & attraction relationship with him to basically stating that she is just whoring herself to him to keep the job in the moment a new LI (which is not interested in MC) appears on the scene.

In addition to the lack of development, the whole argument feels rushed, lacking story development elements, and it gets to be quite boring several times since it fails to make enough sense to be interesting.

Many scenes jump from one to another with no transition, as if they were teleported and you arrived just mid-discussion, making some scenes confusing or hard to follow.

Overall, I think the premise while not exactly unique, has a good base to create a very good story, and if the characters had the elements and evolution they need to make this story deep, this VN would be a good hit.

I hope there's a revisit or rework on the first chapters/versions to fix these issues, but for the time being, it's really not worth the time to read.

Sorry but the renders are horrible, they got noise on almost all the renders. I couldn't play the game because it looked so bad. The heading picture is so frigging misleading. Like made one perfect render out of the hundreds that look like crap.

Couldn't really tell if there was story I was being blinded by static all over the images. Not even Steam would approved this.

Vers. 0.3: Couple of mislabeling and spelling mistakes, nothing that a beta tester could not pick up.
Game wise, Sex with milf BJ from the hermaphrodite and some light lesbian action. LOTS of potential for more. Can't want to see what comes next, lots of ways it can go and maybe should go for the MC. Hope we get an update soon

I really wanted to like this game as I thought it was a hot premise. Then I got into the game.... the renders are very low quality and look blurry most of the time. The writing is not the best and that's being generous. After the third update hardly anything has happened still except for more long winded clunky dialogue, some creeping, and a Bj. Even if the VN gets more sex and hotter situations it won't save it from having bad quality renders and poor writing. I'd say give it a miss.

I'm enjoying it so far, the text and images still a bit rough in places but the story is compelling and I like the characters.
A couple of sex scenes and 1 choice but a fair amount of text and images. I look forwards to seeing where it goes.

The story is nothing to talk about. Dialogs are clumsy and long-winded.

Models are not attractive. Renders quality is less than stellar.

In general I'd say this game is not interesting at all.

[v0.2]

I don't mind the low quality of the models but the protagonist looks awful he seems to have crossed eyes or something
His facial expressions and reactions are terrible, dialogs and thoughts are weird and out of place. Mr hotshot secret agent is thinking and talking like a 14 years old.

The dialog and scenes in general seem rushed and poor.

I'd change the protagonist and choose a better model, fix the pacing and dialog quality to make it more "normal"? since they say and think the weirdest things in the weirdest situations like it's written by AI

Hope it gets better tho, I want to believe in this one

Didn't like the premise of using refugees as a basis for the story but that's just my personal taste.

Visual Novel. Something that conveys a story with visual reference.

Visuals: 1/5
Rendering can be tough if you are new but there are plenty of tutorials and guidance on both DAZ and YouTube to help you along. You need to check these out and learn lighting and quality rendering. The renders, most of them, are awful in my opinion. Under rendered and the posing is very generic. Often the eyes of the character and expression is just blank.

Novel: 2/5
While the dev attempts to take a shot at something somewhat original in an over crowded sea of incest based content the writing is just not there. The incest genre is crowded and has a lot of competition from much better storytellers. If writing isn't your thing I'd avoid that space if you can and practice more. Literotica is a good place to write erotica and get feedback/help on becoming a better writer. Nifty is also another resource.

Story: 2/5
While I give credit on the dev trying something somewhat unique the delivery was lack luster and forgettable. A more in-depth backstory and foundation for the events would do more to set this apart.

Good Luck to the Dev. There's work to be done to fix this and it could be fixed and improved to something better than what it is. Until then though this is a poor VN at best.

v0.1 8/9/2022
Here I'm again writing a mostly negative review again
Good:
75 Mb download size 155 after extracting
Not good:
so 2 things that stood out to me are
1. the dialogue sounds very robotic
example from the game: "Oh my god, this is very hot, it makes me very horny, oh ****baby you make me want to fuck you right now, I need to get that pussy as soon as possible..." there are his thoughts after catching someone riding a dildo
2. renders appear flat
for NSFW scenes, there were 2 blowjobs, one girl riding a dildo, and a dress-up scene.

I hope the dialogue is fixed since I find it makes the game unplayable