VN - Ren'Py - Completed - AlwaysFan [v1.0] [AtemX Games]

  1. 5.00 star(s)

    SlapE

    So, I wanna start this out by saying I've played two separate paths, and even had a 3rd branching save for the romance path, main save without Lea and other with her as girlfriend. Mainly because Lea is a buzzkill when it comes to her sister. My main save and favorite path was by far the romance harem, followed closely by the solo Emilie path (Which I only followed for the last update, didn't fully play through it).

    I will briefly delve into the sharing path, however I wasn't a big fun of the storyline and approach that the path takes. I only followed this path for the sex scenes and only that reason, and only the "good guy" sharing path where you don't continue to whore her to Roberts men.

    Onto the review...

    So I played the romance path from start to finish, mainly the harem path with the exception of doing a Emilie solo save for the final update just to see how that path plays out at the end (I hate fully playing through games twice back to back, so wasn't going to play it in full). And I've got to say, it was one of the best visual novel experiences I've had thus far in my time playing them.


    Now, it's not in my top 5 games by any stretch of the imagination, because it does have some glaring flaws, but it excels in certain areas so much that I can forgive its flaws and I appreciate and enjoy the game for what it does right. Speaking of what the game does right, lets delve into that a bit.

    The Good

    The Characters: The cast of characters in this game is awesome. They aren't the most in-depth characters ever, but I found myself really liking all of them with one exception being Lea who I thought was just okay. They all have distinct personalities and traits, sure they share some similarities as well, but they are for the most part around the same age, so it makes sense.


    My favorite characters have to be Emilie, Cassandra, and Abby. Emilie and Cass have great chemistry and are both very lovely and caring girls. I love that Emilie is so in love with the MC that she is always afraid she is doing something wrong, but then the MC is there to reassure her and make sure she knows that she's done nothing wrong and that he loves her. The dynamic between the two star characters is a definite strong point in AF.

    Cassandra is dynamite all around, she's sexy, outgoing, cute when she wants to be, and fiery when she needs to be. Seeing her be vulnerable after leaving Jason after realizing how much of a shit-bag he was, really shows that underneath her fiery and outgoing personality, that she has a soft and sweet side that must be protected from creeps like her ex.

    I could keep going on about things I like about the rest of the cast, but I just wanted to paint a picture of a couple of the main cast to give an idea of what to expect. All the characters for the most part are fun and good people, who lean on the MC and at times he leans back on. It's a well oiled machine and Emilie is the glue that keeps it together.

    On a side-note, Emilie is a total cuckquean, and I love it. :D


    The World-building: Although the setting in this game isn't massive, it's solely contained within the city that the main characters reside, the game goes a good job of showing just how expansive the city is and how much is going on inside of it. It doesn't feel like an empty city that's a hub for fictional characters to fuck. Rather, it feels like a big important city rooted in corruption via lots of illegal and shady practices.

    The Story: The story isn't the strongest suit, but for AVN standards it's pretty good. It basically boils down to: the MC and his old high school friend Emilie, whom has always had a crush on him, are both struggling finically and bump into each other on a chance day that forever changes their lives. After talking about how their struggling with one another, they agree to live each other so they can help each other out so they don't end up homeless, and they decide to do so but starting an AlwaysFan account (basically OnlyFans) so that they can make ends meet and survive.

    After opening the only fans account they soon discover some corruption that runs deep, and in particular, it's corruption that is spreading through the man who owns the company who owns AlwaysFan, and some of his buddies. These men are doing things like: Kidnapping, drug dealing, raping, prostitution/trafficking, and even murdering. The MC throughout the story uncovers more of the corruption happening around him, particularly with the man who owns the site that him and Emilie are using to make a living.

    After a failed kidnapping attempt, where Marcus' men try to take Emilie, the MC now takes all this corruption more personally, and makes it his mission to not only protect Emilie and his other friends/girlfriends, but to also take down Marcus and his entire operation. You can probably guess what kind of story to expect from there, I don't want to spoil everything.


    The Okay

    The Sex Scenes and Animations: I will just lump these two together, since for the most part the only animation is used during sex scenes, with a few exceptions.

    The sex scenes aren't bad, but they aren't great either. At first I really liked all the sex scenes on the romance path, but they do get kind of stale after a while. Also, cosplay isn't enough to spice it up. There are some exceptions where they have sex that isn't really vanilla, and those are fun, but those are the exceptions. Also, there isn't much interactivity within the sex scenes, just one choice prompts to continue to a different position. However there aren't really choices or any interactivity within the scenes, which I admit is a little disappointing.

    The animations are well... HS2, and pretty standard as far as HS2 animations go, though you can see some subtle slight improvements as the game progresses. Don't expect Ripples or Eternum quality HS2 animation and scenes. It is above average for HS2 though (at least later on), I've seen worse HS2 sex scenes and animation. I don't really play HS2 games for amazing animation though, when a HS2 game does have amazing animation and visuals, to me that's a plus, but with good enough characters and writing isn't a requirement for me to enjoy the game.

    I will say, on the sharing path, not the animation, but the sex scenes themselves were AMAZING. As someone who likes both romance/harem and swinging games, I can definitely say that the sharing scenes in this game didn't get quite as stale as the romance sex scenes. Now I enjoyed the story and characters more on the romance path. However, the sex scenes overall across the whole game, were stronger on the sharing path imo. I never felt the sharing scenes get stale, and were always adding new elements and flavors to spice them up almost every scene.


    The Bad


    The first thing I'll just quickly gloss over is the flashing during the MC's climaxes in sex scenes. This one isn't a big deal but something that annoyed me for quite a while. I don't like it when devs do this, never have. If it happens once I can handle it, but when it does it multiple times in a row, every time, my eyes start to not like it. After a while it can get so irritating that I have to look away. This doesn't take away really from my overall enjoyment, but worth mentioning anyway.

    The Sharing Path: While I REALLY enjoyed the sex scenes on this path, I will say that there is a lot that I didn't enjoy about the path, especially in the beginning with how it was approached and setup to begin with. Instead of talking with Emilie about being a prostitute and how she would feel about it as a way they could make more money to help with their struggles, instead he takes advantage of her desperate situation and her obsession with him, in order to push her into doing something she doesn't want to do without at all considering her feelings.

    Then later on this branches into two separate sharing paths, both involving prostitution, but one where you continue to be an asshole and prostituting her to the very scum of the city mentioned earlier or one where you apologize and start being nicer to her, and then register her on a much safer, legit escorting site to continue making more money from her selling herself.

    Now the latter is much better than the former, but the path to me was already ruined with how it began, not to mention that besides getting to decide what clients she accepts and doesn't accept, and deciding if the MC is just doing it for the money, or if he enjoys her doing it, you don't get to decide much else. They set their own basic set of rules at the start when registering to the website, but it's not really flexible for the most part (with a few exceptions like letting the cosplay nerdy client do anal or not, or sending cass/jenna with Emilie on a couple of select jobs), and it definitely could have been more in-depth and fleshed out as a prostitution storyline.
    The scenes were hot AF though.


    Final Verdict:

    The game is a tale of struggle, redemption, corruption, love, and sacrifice, with a cast of lovable characters and many cute and wholesome antics, or dark and disturbing, depending on which path you go down. It has a fun setting that is nicely introduced throughout the game, and some antagonists that the game does a great job of making you hate, making their eventual downfall all the more sweet.

    It's not the pinnacle of visuals, and it's not the best AVN story out there, but it definitely meets the standard and quality that AVN's now-a-days should be meeting, and in terms of the writing and characters and their development, it excels at. With the exception of me not being a big fan of the sharing path, and the annoying flashing screen during the climaxes of sex scenes, I can't say anything else negative about this game. Everything else about it I enjoyed. Even the romance path sex scenes that eventually got stale were still varied enough to not make me bored, they weren't as exciting as some of the sharing path sex scenes in the later stages, but not bad either.

    Probably the strongest thing this game has going for it, is the relationships, most notably the relationship between the two stars of this game, the MC and Emilie. I didn't really touch on the solo Emilie path much, but the ending on that path was super cute and wholesome, and it really ties together the story nicely and shows just how far the pair have come after overcoming their struggles together.

    Pros+ Cons- Neutral+-
    + Characters and Character development are top notch
    + World building was nicely done and the setting was enjoyable
    + The relationships and character writing were great
    + Overall good storyline with a satisfying conclusion
    - Flashing screen during sex scene climaxes (For a large portion of game)
    - Sharing path could have been more a bit more fleshed out and it didn't have the most enjoyable start.
    +- The sex scenes were really good for the most part, but did become quite routine and stale after a while on the romance path. (With a few exceptions)
    +- Animations were pretty standard for a HS2 game, and the sex scenes could have had more interactivity and depth.


    Overall, I really enjoyed this game, and if I didn't love the cast so much and also really enjoyed large portions of the storyline and world building, I probably would have only given it 4 stars. However, I definitely think it deserves the five stars. It might not be in my top 5 or even top 10 games, but it definitely deserves its high rating and praise.
  2. 5.00 star(s)

    prawnstar700

    Enjoyed this more than I had expected because albino is a really niche fetish. Well done on a semi coherent plot and pace, with real multiple endings and branches! Will look out for more from this dev.

    Maybe the only suggestion would be to keep climax of plot to end of story, then epilogue immediately follows?
    Likes: AtemX
  3. 3.00 star(s)

    botc76

    This is the rare case of a game that I did enjoy, but can't really rate higher than three stars, because it does have a lot of flaws.

    But let me start with the positives.
    The girls are mostly great, pretty two-dimensional but sweet and often funny, with a lot of different body types and looks.
    Emilie is partcicularly cute and sweet.
    The game has a lot of content, lots of sex scenes and definitely a complete story.
    That was the good, now for what is fine, but not great:
    The graphics and animations. It's Honey Select and definitely not the higher end of it. Though I do think the quality does improve a bit over the course of the game.
    The story is alright, it definitely stretches, but it works basically.

    Now for the reasons why I can't give more than three stars.

    There are a lot of sexscenes, but since they are all pretty standard HoneySelect stuff, it becomes repetitive very fast..
    The story really does drag on. Not only is there a lot, A LOT of filler, the story also just moves really slow and it definitely overstays it's welcome.
    After the main story arc ends, the game just goes on and on for what is basically just the epilogue. And for that it is just too long. I love that the game is complete and offers satisfying endings, but at some point it is enough.

    The Harem is boring. All the girls just fall for the protagonist pretty fast, no hard work in conquering them, no decisions where you have to either let go of one girl or work really hard to keep her.
    I love Harems, but IMO the harem needs to be earned to be interesting and in this case the game fails.
    All girls are fine with sharing without any serious problems, they don't argue with each other constantly, there are no significant conflicts that aren't cleared up almost instantly.

    And one major annoyance for me personally was the insane amount of single option "choices:"
    Again and again devs insist on doing this, despite a lot of people hating it and the rest just tolerating it. I don't think there is a single person who actually LIKES that shit. Devs! Stop doing that!
    When there is no choice, there is no reason to make me click an icon, I am not a trained monkey, I don't need that shit.



    All in all, I liked the game and had a good time playing through it, but with the caveat that I started to speed through more and more content, just watching the renders and stopping here and there to catch up on the story.
  4. 4.00 star(s)

    liebunny

    A pretty solid harem VN with some important choices and routes involved. The reason it's 4 stars is mostly because there's no guide - it's often not clear what the consequences of choices are, for example it seems like you have to be sort of a jerk to the main LI in the beginning of the game to get her on a harem route. The author also hints that you can look at the achievements to figure out other routes, but you can only see their names and not the unlock conditions, which is almost useless. I would recommend that hitting some sort of major route ending should unless all the achievement descriptions at least.

    Some other small quibbles:

    - The "minigames" were somewhat obnoxious overall and added nothing to the experience.
    - Inconsistent art styles were used in a somewhat glaring way... the VR world ironically has a set of higher-res models used than the base game, and the AlwaysFan site itself has a variety of AI CG photosets that I guess are nice but clash with everything else.
  5. 5.00 star(s)

    gtpman

    One of the best games I've ever played. Recommend it hands down! I think that 5/5 is unfair for this game, compared to other games that I have given 5/5... I mean I would have given it 6/5 if I could! :p
  6. 5.00 star(s)

    ₩on

    A 10/10 game recommendation to those who want a great story to enjoy that can be extremely wholesome, depending on the choices you make.

    Gameplay : Every single choice matters in someway or another, which make everything that much more interesting. Some paths and secrets are harder to achieve, so always check the achievement with spoilers turned on to see what path you want.

    Story : Many different paths that all have their own unique storyline, and harem included so say less! I have so far counted around 3-4 different main paths depending on how much love points or hate points you get for treating different characters. There are parts where the story can be extremely wholesome, straight out a romantic novel, degrading where you lend out these female characters to others for your own gain, dominant paths where you treat girls as your own slave in a way, and much more.

    Visuals : Very very good visuals considering it is a Ren'Py game with 3D models. It not super anime-ish but at the same time, has a hint closer to realness.

    Scenes : Scenes are amazing just like the visual quality. Not only are there sound effects, but also voiced parts too not just clapping if you know what i mean. The scenes don't feel too artificial, has a good balance.

    Customer Support : Funny enough, I couldn't actually find certain paths no matter that choices I made, or so I thought. I went on the D server to request help, lone and behold I received a reply from the creator in less than a day, who introduced me to the achievement feature in the game, where you can kind of use it as a guide. This made the gameplay much easier to find specific paths I haven't unlocked yet.

    Overall, a great game to try that could easily last you days worth of content, that isn't boring. You can play through same paths but alter small choices that could potentially end up with many different outcomes.
  7. 3.00 star(s)

    Machete

    I just barely started to play this game and i've already delated it so my review won't be too relevant.
    Yet, this game is really weird, There is this phisically deformend hobo who is the main character who is a broke useless lazy ass who can't get or keep a job. One day he suddenly have a femal individual that clearly doesn't belong to the human specie (and no, it not the albinism, that is the most normal thing about her) who moves in his apartment. At this point he persuades her to make money with adult content online, and for some reason, in change of literally no service, he's entitled to a share of the profit. I guess the game goes on about MC building a pimping empire or something.

    Tags were very promising but the little i could se about the delivery is just atrocious, plotwise, dialogwise and the models are just absolutely atrocious.

    Can't say if it gets better going on but i'm not optimistic.

    I gave 3 stars because having basically not played the game giving fewer would have been unfair.
  8. 5.00 star(s)

    dewrules

    Ok, the game is absolutely amazing.
    Game-play - usual but there's a replay value as choices matter.
    Visuals - very good
    Story - interesting and has branching paths.
    Scenes- very good, but anal animations are almost none existent. You will see it from the side or faraway, but no animations of actual penetration (as if it is an afterthought).

    I would highly recommend this game.
    PS: Emily has an unusual look and is almost unappealing, but I can't have enough of her. She is odd but beautiful looking.
  9. 5.00 star(s)

    Nadira

    AlwaysFan [v1.0] [AtemX Games]

    If you like good harem games with cute girls then this is for you.

    I played the love/harem path exclusively and it didn't disappoint.
    The game has cute girls, the animations are good too and the story is engaging. The music is decent too.

    A must play for every harem fan.
  10. 5.00 star(s)

    jamdan

    The Good:

    - The LI's are all good. Emilie , the main LI, is excellent.
    - This is one of the few games that successfully balance NTR content with non-NTR content. The branching in general is well done but not so complicated that you cannot get on routes you want.
    - The endings are some of the most in depth endings I've played through.
    - The story itself is interesting as well.

    The Decent
    - There are a few mini-games, but they are easy to get through.

    The Bad
    - Not much of anything outside of a few spelling errors, but every game has those.

    Overall 4.75, rounded up to 5.
  11. 5.00 star(s)

    Paslicivi

    For those who want a short review, I can say that it was one of the best games I have played.

    Now let's get into the long review.
    *I can say that the best part of the game, apart from the existence of a main story, is that most of the characters have their own different stories and we can determine the fate of the main character and influence the others as well.
    *You can be a bad person if you want. You can be a good person if you want. And either way, you can follow a different path for each character.
    *It was quite fun that there was no Sandbox in the game and the feeling of changing the course of the game by giving us a lot of choice in the ongoing story.
    *It is a great success that the game has more than one ending and that the content of the ending is adapted without being forced.
    *I congratulate the developer for this success. It also deserves appreciation for the fact that each update had a lot of content and he doesn't milk the patrons.
    *If I could give it a score out of 10, I would give it a score of 8.5 or 9 but it definitely deserves a 5 rating out of 5.
    *He definitely deserves support. I'm looking forward to your future projects.
  12. 5.00 star(s)

    Gilber_bestram@176

    It's a few completed game that I few deserve 5/5 rating. The story is finished, all of the characters are fleshed out with tons of content for both side to enjoy. Given that it's completed in 2-3 years I say the dev had done a very good job. Look forward to his next
  13. 5.00 star(s)

    bigdaddymaks

    I oVery liked the game, I hope there will be a sequel or maybe something similar by genres, tags and so on.
    It's a cool story, great animations, and all the characters are well written. It was interesting to follow the story.
    Thanks for the game! Good luck in the future!
  14. 4.00 star(s)

    .Iru.

    quite a good game,
    I only skipped trough most of the dialogue and it took a few hours on a single play,
    considering what god unlocked theres a whole lot more to come.

    still not full points,
    graphics and text isn't designed to work well with each other in this one,
    White text, in bright Renders is a pain to read. same for the menu choices.
    options for a textbox and/or outlines will help with it and is easily implemented without breaking anything.

    lots of content, interesting kinks/tags, cute girls and the graphics are decent.

    just need to read trough the story, but that has to wait till i adjusted the text readability.
  15. 5.00 star(s)

    yeetermcgee123

    4* quality game, bumping to 5 due to ton of content relative to time in development.

    Unique plot, the characters are decently written with unique voices, and there is a good amount of player choice that does impact the story/plot substantially (although you are stuck with the cover character no matter what)

    For downsides, it is way to easy for the MC to get laid with any of the characters. There are also some spelling mistakes, but its by no means an engrish game.
  16. 5.00 star(s)

    Wicks99

    A surprisingly good experience despite not having an intriguing plot, fantastic graphics, BGMs or fanciful sex scenes. Alwaysfan is a good example of what a developer can do as long as he stays focused, engaged and deliver updates with passion even if the “hardware” is average.

    Story
    The story starts off with nothing fancy - a down and out MC with his classmate facing money issues and unable to pay rent. They then setup an Onlyfans account to make money. What follows is an everyday story about their relationship and their interactions with the people they meet along the way.

    There are two main story branches - one which is light hearted and romance driven and a darker one which appeals more to players with corruption kinks. Towards the end there’s a little conspiratorial plot, but it does not form the bulk of the game.

    Game Mechanics
    Standard AVN with choices which roughly leads to two branching story directions. This might not sound much, but the two stories are very distinct and you will get to enjoy two completely different experiences depending on the path you choose.

    Background / Character Renders
    The art renders are as typical as you can get for Illusion created games. The main LI, Emily, though is an albino which I believe no AVN has done before.

    The rest of the LIs and background CGs are basically all stock assets with minor modifications. Credit must be given that there are a lot of different outfits presented for each LI during their photoshoots for Alwaysfan, so lots of eye candy if you are into that.

    Character Development
    Very nicely done. No matter which of the two paths you choose, Emily’s relationship development and/or corruption is convincingly portrayed without coming across as cringey.

    The rest of the LIs like all AVNs will eventually offer themselves to the MC, but it's a natural result of interactions rather than them being yandere / tsundere with the MC. There are also a lot of other side characters as fellow Alwaysfan creators whom the MC and Emily will interact with even though not all will lead to sex.

    Sex Scenes
    Typical IIlusion templates with many animations from stock assets. I would say the quantity is plentiful while quality is average as expected.

    BGM and Sound Effects
    Generic music with many commonly found in other AVNs as well, but they match the story and mood nicely so I guess they compliment well.

    Conclusion
    Alwaysfan is a game that scores B- to B+ across different areas and on their own this would have been a mediocre game, but through a tight control on story pacing, lots of updates and engagement with fans, a sprinkling of creativity with utilization of tight resources and having all the different pieces synergize well with each other allows it to punch above its weight.

    The end product is a mini marvel of an experience assembled from mostly generic resources available to all developers, yet very few can reach its height.
  17. 5.00 star(s)

    Raoddik

    I think it's the one of most underappreciated game I played here. Also the dev doing regular updates that gives a lot of content (compared to some other "popular" games :p).

    Main girl is sweetheart, and the main romance route is overall really cute and when you are on it, it's really just pure romance (optionally with nice harem) without ntr and other things.
    There are others route as well since choices matter, the swinging route doesn't start the best way but it can get good depending of your choices (that's really my only problem).

    The background story is pretty dark thought and it's worth to keep it in mind, bad things may happen to some characters depending of your choices since it's still a game and not kinetic novel.

    But yea overall I would call it a hidden gem.
  18. 5.00 star(s)

    Demnor

    I have played the last two iterations of this AVN (this review is based on version 0.6.1) and I am hooked.

    The setup is well made and the story progresses at a decent pace. The models are good and even if the artwork quality isn't amongst the best games it delivers a decent graphical quality with sexy girls.

    But what the real USP of this game is the story and the interactions between our MC and the girls. The choices you make and how they impact the story.

    A great game, and if you like the kinks featured I truly recommend that you try it out.
  19. 3.00 star(s)

    trutru

    I want to like this game, I want to give it at least a 4*-rating. I had quite a few hours of fun with it; that said, these hours were also quite a source of frustration.
    I tried a few of the different routes (love, dom, NTR) , so first of all I must give credit for having actually different routes and not making our choices moot immediately. The lewd scenes were decent albeit a bit generic.
    However, I was very frustrated by some elements of the writing. The main LI, Emilie, takes over quite a lot of the decision power in our relationship, even if I insist that we are just sexmates. Alas, many secondary LIs will defer to her while not asking for the MC's consent in the slightest. For instance, you will share Emilie with the secondary LI Cassandra (the redhead) and you will be happy, no questions asked. You are made into a sort of powerless figurehead of your own harem.
    Also, there are the antagonists. From a story point of view, I like them, they are decently well-written and I loved to hate them. From a lewd point of view however, there absolutely is unavoidable NTR, as well as avoidable but the choices are not explicit.
    To conclude, I really enjoyed part of this game and think it had the material to be enjoyed wholly, which makes me even sadder when some of these opportunities are missed.
  20. 2.00 star(s)

    chaosbox24

    This game is extremely dissapointing for a few major reasons. The first one being that the core concept of the game is quite good. You get an albino girlfriend who you can influence, even though she looks like an escaped lab specimen. However, once you play you realize the major faults this game has, and the first one is that the optional sharing or NTR is a lie. To begin with, your girlfriend is gonna sell lewds on the internet to random strangers whether you like it or not. Whether or not they are nudes is up to you but the fact that you are forced to have your albino gf and even other harem girls upload lewds is unavoidable. Some of them will also upload nudes and that is also unavoidable. The NTR gets even worse later on because with one of the girls who goes to rescue her sister, because I picked ONE wrong choice, which was not even obvious as it was between yes i support you going to this creepy rape hotel to find your sister no matter what or maybe you should rethink going to the creepy rape hotel to find your sister. Well, I chose for her to rethink it and guess what happens, she gets kidnapped, drugged, and gangraped as well as her sister. My save was too late to undo this as I didn't even realize that the choice I made directly led to this as usually there is some type of red text signifying that there is a sharing or NTR scene so you can avoid it. Real nice. This is exactly why I filter out NTR tags and do not give games that tout it as "optional" a chance, because they 99% of the time lie of deceive.

    Aside from the NTR bullshit and lies, there are more problems that tank the game over time as well. These are: having to do a whole bunch of fucking trivia questions for all sorts of different topics, getting sent into a VR video game that has the classic rock paper scissors "mechanics" that are unavoidable/unskippable and a bunch of repeatable sex scenes that use stock honey select animations and positions. To solidify this dog turd, the dev also confirms that he will not make a walkthrough for this game, so all of these god awful features are going to be unskippable. It's a damn shame because like I said, the core features here would be amazing if it wasn't absolutely nuked by this dumb shit. Overall, a huge dissapointment and waste of potential.