Ren'Py - Another Chance [v1.40] [TimeWizardStudios]

There's a lot to like here. Good art, interesting characters, engaging-enough story.

If there's something bad to be said about it it's that the gameplay loop is way too hint-dependent in order to make progress.

(Version Reviewed: v1.29)

Another Chance has the fun premise of a man who has wasted his life getting a second chance to improve it. The story follows him trying to right the wrongs of the past and turn himself from an unlikable loser to a respectable dude. The music is irritating cus there is only one song played on a loop. The art may be one of the best among 2D games. Hand drawn and all the LIs look uniquely good. There aren't many lewds, but it is somewhat of a good thing as it allowed to flesh out the relationship between our MC and all the LIs.

Overall - 8/10 is a fair rating. The devs release an update every month with branching paths that can be played without starting a new save. The game is pretty player friendly due to that. I would recommend this game.

WARNING Before you spend/waste time on this game, this game cannot give you enough sexual arousal for masturbation)


Evaluation based on non-pornographic games would be 4 stars, but the promotional images of this game almost exhaust all its pornographic scenes. If this is not a pornographic game, then it is deceptive.

++Great art.
++Well-designed characters with detailed characterization.
++the main character has the greatest way to make money in renpy games. A lot of games that don't have an important economic system should learn from this one, instead of putting boring grind time skipping jobs.
+Engaging plot and well-written text.

-UI design has minor issues, with unnecessary animations for sliding options. Two exploration modes are redundant.
-While the writing is good, there is too much unnecessary chatter. Idle talk is like an appetizer and should be used sparingly.
-Too few images for the pornographic scenes. The game tries to use language to describe different actions in pornographic scenes, which is not a good idea.(since the art is only 32%, this might be improved during future updates)
-Too few pornographic scenes. As mentioned before, a good pornographic game combines many pornographic scenes with an engaging plot, like cookies with water. This game has too many cookies and too little water.
-Sandbox design and quest system are poorly executed. In a game with a lack of gameplay itself, the branching quest system often leads to repetitive time-wasting for players who do not follow guides, which is very boring. Why not utilize the ability to time travel and allow players to switch choices for a completed quest without wasting time on repetitive actions?


Overall evaluation: A waste of excellent writing and character development. The initially enjoyable detailed writing becomes quickly tedious due to a lack of meaningful rewards. Many quests do not provide motivation for players. I am not sure how those who view it purely as a visual novel would react, but as someone who saw the promotion and expected a pornographic game, I am disappointed. Its like a fancy chocolate box without chocolate. It should be version 0.12, not 1.29

I want to give it 5 stars, but the dialogue honestly just makes me feel like a neckbeard. The girls are great in both character and design, but there's something odd about it that I can't put my finger on that keeps it from being top tier.
Edit: It's probably the way the main character views the girls. The dialogue just makes him seem like a neckbeard, to the extent you can understand how he ruined his previous life by being an unlikeable loser. It'd be one thing if it was just one-offs, but literally every sex scene has him musing about how girls are secretly sluts and all these other thoughts that are honestly somewhat uncomfortable.

Really good art, and decently well-written but that could be depending on the path you choose.

The gameplay is pretty bad though, in a way that gets in the way of enjoying the art. Also I don't think some of these issues can be fixed easily.

The puzzles in this game are like... mid 90's CGI point-and-click level arcane, so you'll *need* to have a walkthrough open. And even then there's a high chance you'll miss out on content from stat checks. Not to mention the game is divided into two major "paths" which essentially halves the content you get.

Also development of this game is pretty glacial, and feels even slower because if the update didn't give content to the path you chose, you just don't get anything new.

TLDR: Download the game, play the path you want, and have cheats at the ready and the gallery unlock mod. It'll be enjoyable but I don't think the game should get full points for that.

Kate is awesome, great start of a hard femdom path. Big hopes for more scenes including MC as sub. There's also Jo and Jacklyn for all femdom lovers. I really like the art style and game mechanics. It's not just skipping the dialogue untill the scenes, you have to actually do something, find some items, connect or exchange them.

TL;DR: If the art was worse this would be a 1 star game.

When I first saw this game pop up some years back I was genuinely excited. Fantastic art, likeable characters (sans the MC) and some good sandbox fun; all I really want from a game like this nowadays. And yet the game has somehow devolved into an absolute slogfest of a game that feels more like a non-ero VN with a fanmade h-patch than an actual erotic game.

Quests that lock you out of other quests with no warning or indication that such would happen for no discernible reason, an esoteric questing system that gives basically 0 real indication on what you're meant to do next and basically requires having a guide open if you want to progress, and approximately way too much story in-between the scenes that are the reason you play the game in the first place.

It's like having to solve a rubik's cube to see content and your reward is a 2 CG blowjob.

Three years in.

Overall, if you're looking for a fun, laid-back sandbox in the vein of Summertime Saga, keep looking.

If you're looking to have 2 different walkthroughs open while constantly reloading saves because you accidentally skipped one of this game's already limited scenes unknowingly or didn't grind a certain stat high enough before going for a scene, this is the game for you. Also, get help.

easily my favourite game on this whole site , the dialogue is amazing and the characters' personalities are loveable and interesting. however a notable downside is the fast pacing of the story with some of the main characters, a slow burn would allow a further development of the relationships you have with the characters that would make the game become so unbearably filled with temptation that EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE GAME is treasured awaiting any intimate scenes, but other than that, this game in my opinion is the best game on this site, this is mainly because of 2 things: the artwork, which i would argue is the best on this site in how the artist knows how to articulate the characters' anatomical structural positionings, and especially the legs, this artist has literally perfected drawing womens legs, the calf, the thighs and especially the feet, the best example to see this is when the MCs roommate is sitting in the kitchen with her underwear. and the 2nd thing is the dialogue, if you actually give time to read the narration its almost poetry adjacent, and the character' dialogue are so defined in creating such memorable personalities that stick with you. i definitely recommend this game over any other game on this site

I really appreciate the effort they put in to create all these beautiful hand drawn girls, all with unique outfits and designs.

That being said I think the gameplay aspect of this game is messy to say the least. Here's my personal experience:

Right after the introduction part I was given a bunch of quests to follow despite I am only starting to know some of the girls. Half an hour in I am already lost and cannot see which quest I should complete first because apparently some path/choice is locked if you didn't complete a prior quest or didn't have enough stats to unlock certain dialogue option. Then one quest lead me to a H-scene but with dialogues that don't make sense to me because I miss out a quest that is prequel to this one. The quests are part of the story but when you need to do them without any idea of the order then even the story will be ruined for you.

Thus I would suggest the dev make the quest more linear or at least revise the guiding system so that the story-telling is more consistent and player can have more immersive experience. I feel like a game with such high quality visuals and original idea should not be ruined by unthoughtful quest systems.

Impossible to play without a walkthrough and lots of saves. So easy to be locked out of someone and there is no way of knowing where to go. Art is good though and some of the characters are good, needs better direction.

Nice artwork and interesting story. My only gripe would be that there are almost too many choices in the story that can lock you out of paths without you knowing. Wish there were more scenes with the mom!

TLDR: Solid game but not really animated and it has way too much story compared to porn content.

Game could've been a 5/5 but the developers, TimeWizardStudios, are too focused on the story. Also, let me state this game only has 1 animation. Everything else is just CG with 2-3 frames. I wouldn't consider it animated. (BJ pose with mouth on entrance then 2nd frame is a deepthroat). If this game was animated as expected, it'd be a top 3 in the site for me.

The characters and story itself is great but the game is so story-driven that it's excessive. Everything has dialogue which detracts from the player experience and makes interactions or snippets of story content from items feel insignificant or worth missing since you skip everything else.

Ideally, players shouldn't need the in-game walkthrough. Things should be intuitively guided but the game design here is a bit weak. Nonetheless, the in-game guide is a really good system and quite convenient. Too much clicking to get around the map and content.

The game is well-coded and the art is great. Beginning is a slog to get through. Even though you can jump quests and set game/route-changing decisions via the menu, it's still quite annoying knowing that your current run may exclude you from some routes.

v1.27

4.5* - gameplay is alright (fast mode is a must), good ingame quest guide, the art is great and H-scenes are pretty hot, not a lot of them though. Written well too, conversations feel real and are entertaining.

I'm sure for those who followed the development the game feels different, but this was my first playthrough, so here you go.

What actually pushed me to write the review is the setting and overarching narrative about "another chance". I sincerelly hope that the dev no longer feels the way he projected it on the protagonist about his "loser" self. Especially now that he has this project going on. Such way of thinking is just depressing to consider at any age, let alone in mid-twenties, where the protagonist supposedly reached a dead end. Don't wanna go existential here on the forum for fun stuff, but if somebody who's reading relates to that - talk to people who are willing to listen. Or to a therapist, if you're a fancy one. Just dig a bit deeper and get an outside look

This game has been in development for 3 years now, but you'd never tell by the amount of H content, and half of it that's there isn't repeatable in-game, you have to view in the gallery if want to repeat (this is a huge negative imo in sandbox games, having in-game repeatable scenes is a good way to feel like you've made progress). The lack of H content makes the game feels like a very pretty get/fetch simulator with no reward.

The game does a lot of things well but at some point I got tired of playing debug simulator for the dev. I like the art style and some of the characters are alright, but the gameplay is just mind boggling.

Great art, good setting and interesting characters/dialogue. There is potential for a great game in there, the dev clearly has talent.

Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is horrendous. As others have stated, it really makes no sense, way too many lockouts and lack of direction, no real ability to pick a girl and do a route because you're just forced to do fetch/time sink quests to get drips of actual content---and even there years into the project there really isn't much.

This game reminds me of late 80s/early 90s adventure games that would require strategy guides/walkthroughs, lots of different saves, and many playthroughs to get through. Except those were at least complete games, and obviously didn't have the benefit of modern QOL options. There's really no reason for the gameplay to be so poor in this.

Ordinarily I'm against remakes for active projects, but in this case, the art is good and the ideas for the characters and setting are good, so dev might want to consider utilizing ren'py for a proper VN style game. There's not that much content to begin with so it probably won't take long to just remove the timesinks, add actual progression and quest tracking, and start adding lewd scenes and expanded the sexual content, which let's be honest, that's why people play these games.

The routes need to be independent rather than forcing the player to go through everything as well. Maybe cut down the LIs if the dev doesn't think that's feasible, and focus on 3-4 of them, with their own personalities and styles. There is already a hint of that, just need to lean into it.

A 2 star rating is low, but I don't mean it to be harsh, it's just the current state is not as good as I think the dev is capable of. Seems like a first project and learning as they go along though, so I think it can be improved. Good luck!

Another Chance is a mixed bag of a game. The art is great and getting original 2DCG in a porn game is always nice. There are a few issues with the game overall though.

The good points of the game are definitely the art and the writing. I love the western-style hand drawn characters. A great feature that I love in Another Chance is the x-ray ability. Being able to see the women nude in different poses based on the location they're at is very hot. Plus, the sex scenes are very well drawn. The writing is also very good. Every character has their own personality and I believe everyone who plays will find at least a couple of them to be very interesting.

The biggest negative I would attribute to the game is the lack of sexual content versus the amount of quests you have to do. Most of the quests in the game lead to zero sexual content. It also locks you out of some content/choices if you don't do things in the correct order. I think half of the girls in the header on F95 have no sex scenes for them outside of dream sequences or simple teasing.

Another Chance definitely has potential. However, it has been in development for three years and right now there just isn't enough in the game for me to give it anything higher than a three star rating. There's hope that it has just been a slow burn to this point and the next year or two of updates will contain a lot more sexual content, but as a porn game it right now doesn't have enough porn to justify the amount of time you have to sink to get through all the quests.

Another Chance [v1.27] review

Genre:
Branching story sandbox comedy dating sim

WARNING:
PLAY THIS GAME WITH A WALKTHROUGH OPEN AT ALL TIMES or suffer the consequences.
The game's design is absolutely off-the-walls idiotic and you'll lock yourself out of content if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Spare yourself the unbelievable frustration of trying to play this game blind and just use the walkthrough. Trust me on this. I suffered so you don't have to.

When I first tried this game I was 100 % sure I was going to rate this game 5/5 because I was just absolutely floored by the writing.
This game features perhaps the strongest writing I've ever encountered in the lewd gaming genre. It's intelligent, funny, heart-warming, realistic and multi-layered.
The game is filled with clever comments about the things you observe and interact with which makes clicking on stuff an actual fun experience. (When observing vending machine: "This is a machine that lets you exchange money for food - a food whore". I'm dying )
The different characters feel like real people and have unique speech patterns and personalities.
I love how some of them like it when you're being kinda mean to them and teasing them and will lose respect for you if you're trying too hard to be nice to them for no reason, while others who maybe aren't as used to attention will melt if you're just being nice to them.
They'll get jealous, fight with each other and react in believable ways to the things you say and what's happening around them.
Whoever wrote this has a deep understanding of the feminine psyche and brings all aspect of it to life in a believable way. And then tops it off with humor that ranges all the way from sublte to hysterical and absurd.
It's absolutely brilliant and I had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

But then I started to noticing the game design. And boy was it downhill from there.

There's branching choices but there's absolutely no way of knowing when you've made a banching choice or what the consequences of said choices are.
The triggers/unlocks for certain events are hidden in very non-intuitive ways and you won't find them in a blind playthrough. You'll only get taunted by "There would be some cool shit here if only you did X first"-indicators. But what X actually is, is only vaguely hinted at (A greyed out picture or missing stat points). And by the time you're receiving this indication it's too late to go back. Or you'll have to find an earlier save and try things in a different order. Possibly losing hours of gameplay.
I've taken huge shits on games in the review section before for being "linear sandboxes" but this kind of game design is arguably worse. No, it's definitely way way worse. It's giving you impossible tasks and then taunts you when you fail them. Example: If you invite Jacklyn on a date when you first get the opportunity, it's too soon because you're missing the lust points for a sex scene with her and this scene will then forever be locked.

In my mind, the purpose of a sandbox is to enable a player to explore the characters or locations in the order they want, but this is not how this game works at all. In fact, the game actively punishes you for trying this kind of gameplay. There are multiple interdependencies along the branches that means you'll get suboptimal results in branch A if you havent advanced enough in branch B first. A character you haven't met will sometimes be mentioned because the game expected you to finish some other questline first.
And then there's the timeslots. I assume this mechanic is there to give some extra realism to the things happening, like it would be realistic that having a conversation with someone would take up some time. But when looking at a picture, or picking up a candy wrapper or looking at, but not using the vending machine also consumes the exact same time it just becomes absurd and self-defeating.

And next up: Quests. The game is trying to leverage some kind of Monkey Island style of mix-and-match gameplay where you combine items in clever ways to solve problems but the problem here is that there's a million items and 8 trillion ways to combine items with other items and locations, making trial-and-error in no way a feasible approach. You'll need to use the quest guide. But then what's the point of it all? I'm just doing the chores that the quest guide tells me to. Go to location X, use item Y on interactible Z. Is it fun? No. It's just an artificial hurdle there for no reason.

It's not often I say this, but this game would be vastly improved by just being a linear VN. The writing alone would carry this game if it wasn't being undercut by absolute trash game design.

And then there's the pacing. It's very very slow. You know those funny comments you receive when observing things that mentioned earlier? You're going to want to turn those off if you ever want to see a sex scene, or see where the story goes. This game is very time consuming, for seemingly no reason.

Branching choices and sandboxes rarely mesh well and this game really highlights why. All the funny and clever writing goes from being a positive experience to a boring chore when I'm forced to repeat it again and again in order to explore the different branches. This isn't "replay value" it's replay suffering.

All in all, this is like going to a resturant, being presented with a plate of Russian caviar, some A5 wagyu beef, a nice Champange and then watching the chef throw everything in a blender and then boiling it for 3 hours. It's got all the necessary components for something truly great, but the chef (game designer) is an incompetent moron with the cooking skills of a toddler. It just makes me want to scream and cry. This is truly the flagship of unnecessarily wasted potential.

Despite this game being perhaps the most frustrating experience I've come across here on f95 I'm still going to rate it 4/5 solely out of appreciation for one of the best writers in the business. This game is not average in any way, it's absolutely fucking brilliant but also absolutely fucking rage inducing trash and bullshit at the same time.

So is it worth the download? If you appreciate great writing and have a tolerance for slow-paced bullshit game design then sure, absolutely. But if not? I'm not so sure.

Just, weird. There's a bunch of scenes that are hot, and other's not so much, character arcs that stop suddenly, but the grind, man the grind. Protip, grab dollars whenever you see them, do not ignore them. Even so if you do that, you're still grinding on quest that take multiple days to complete, so i guess if you keep yourself real busy the scene pace isn't bad.

It's just that no new player is gonna know that. It's just a weird game, if you love reading and aren't the quick fap type then i can see how this is a 10 out of 10, for us other guys its tedious and uneventful, with all the clicking and searching, and time passing right before you can do the thing you want so you have to wait for the next day.

Hello, here are my suggestions to improve the gameplay . First, some "quick" changes :
- Fast mode should be the default
- Players shouldn't be able to start a quest that breaks another quest if done before (for example, the one that breaks the water dispenser or the one where we clean the bedroom)
- There should be an option between Hints and the Quest Guide with more precise instructions, to help players if they're stuck, without infantilizing them. Also maybe an option to show the objective of the current quest on the screen without having to open your phone constantly

But I think, on the long run, I would prefer the game to become similar to Being a DIK or Summer Heat where the gameplay would switch between VN style and free roam events and mini games. But with these last two staying confined within a few rooms for small and secondary quests and only, MAYBE, being partially or fully open world for big events/quests (and by that I mean not having to constantly go back and forth between the classroom, your bedroom, the kitchen, the computer room, the music room and the river just to collect a USB key). But also have a clear "quests" order, direction and distinct paths/routes.

Outside of this, I really enjoyed the game, the story, the art, the characters. Sorry for focusing so much on the negative but the gameplay totally ruined the game for me. I really hope you fix this because otherwise I think it's a great game. Thank you for your work and I hope you have a good day. I'll try it again next update