Ren'Py - Another Chance [v1.42] [TimeWizardStudios]

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

This game is fantastic. Each of the characters feels solidly developed and unique. It's a bit light on sexual content, but I'd count that as a plus, because when you get to it it feels much more earned.

The art is excellent, which can be seen from the screenshots, but the animations are pretty simple, which is a minor downside.

It is the first time I play this game and I must say that it is very good, the dialogues are good and funny, not too wordy, the art is cute and the characters are very well done, the fact of playing with a mc who is a incel and a weirdo I consider it something very interesting and I really enjoy his interactions with the other characters, it is very well done.

And speaking of "negative" things, for many the puzzles are a negative point or that it is a click and point game but tbh I like that in a game so for me it is not a problem, I understand that for some it is a problem but I don't think it's a reason to give this game a bad review, if I have to say something bad it would be that the (few) sex scenes that there are can be greatly improved, it's not something very fappable to be honest, they could be hotter and more perverted and the animations could be better, another negative point is that the quests are a bit confusing at times since the game doesn't differentiate between the side quests and the main ones (although one later understands what kind of quest it is) so they should add a type of menu or something where you can see what kind of quest you are doing

If there is one thing I would like is for this game to have its own I-patch or a version for subscribestar, anyway I played it with the patch that is in op and I must say that for the moment it's ok so not really a big deal issue

anyway great game with great writing and fun to read, and flora best girl.

Very clever use of illusion of choices, seems like every choice actually matter.
Great artwork and interesting story line, animation is a bit meh though.
It's not complete yet but overall I can tell it has a good potential!

That's one of the best games I've played. I have gone through hundreds but this one is fantastic. It has everything. Great art, great animations, engaging story, fun gameplay, even a quest select for people comming back to see new content and great "walkthrough" built in game. I'm playing pretty much every update great work!

Art 5/5
Story 5/5
Gameplay 4.5/5
Fapability 5/5
Music 5/5
DevSupport 5/5
Originality 5/5

TL/DR It is surprising how neutral I felt about this title based on how good the characterization and art is. There was just something incredibly disappointing about playing from the POV of a former incel wastrel who got another chance at life and shoved back into his shota body with a life re-wind.

Pros:
+Sprite art. Wow!
+Scene art was decent.
+ Some really lovable characters
+ Clever prose
+ Some real laugh out loud moments
+Stat progression system was fun (Though simple)

Neutrals:
The X-ray kinda cheapened the sexual progressions.
The music was pretty good- but the main musical loop was unbearably repetitive due to how short it is.

Cons:
-Playing as a lil bitch man-child MC doesn't make for very hot scene content. Watching this shota hump things was pretty underwhelming.
-Optional NTR content that was far more sexually powerful than the MC making my previous point even more prominent.
-Not enough scene content for the MC. Half of everything is chewed up by like rape shit, or voyeuristic shit
-There are a few rape scenes in the game.
-The progression system had runs of extremely unintuitive game-play
-Fetch quests as your primary game-play loop is not very fun.

First of all I want to say I like point and click games, but this game is madness. Some of the riddle are completely stupid. How to boil tea on a functioning stove? Stick a lamp into it. You made a mess and have to clean up, you have to click every single puddle to clean up, instead just once, it just wastes time. Also a lot of items only appear after you started a quest or progressed them enough. So you have to search trough the world again and again. Would that only happen when you complete a chapter or so that would be different, but so it's just wastes your time further. The writing is ok, there are still to many pieces missing yet to get a clear picture, so it is confusing.

The art looks great, but the h-scenes are a bit of a let down and are far to rare. Give us at least a few more glimpses here and now. Let us spy on people on the locker or in the bath. Yet it has x-ray vision but it's not the same.

The gameplay, the core of the game is just a confusing mess. The passing is bad and a lot of the character routes are exclusive to each other. Which forces you to play the mess gain to see it all, only now you know the answers to the riddle, which makes it utterly boring. Also for it's development time, there is not that much content. Yeah there is a lot of play time, because you are solving riddles and running painfully slowly trough the school, but that is not really content.

Slight edit: It still has some great moments under everything. If you got time on your hands and a lot of patience for it, give it a try, but use the quest guide to make it a slow VN.

This was really promising. The art looks nice, the story is pretty alright for a sex game. Then the problem came. The sex scenes are awful. It's not on par with the rest of the game and need a rework. Choppy, extremely amateurish and rushed.
The game could have been great, but the creator seems to have gotten bored with the project and is just milking it now.
Edit:
The game quality is still bad and is only getting worse. 1/5

I love the drawings and character designs. The x-ray option as well is a great choice. The quest help is very useful and easy to follow, and the writing is excellent. Excited to see this game develop further.

3 or 4 stars at best

Art is good
story is decent?
Good dialogues
Didn't see any bugs
H Scenes are ok but takes forever
Fetchquest

This is just a casual review and had a few hours of game. I'm not good with reviews so I'll get to the point which impresses and disappointed me.

Game does not have a deeper story though I like the options of choice matter. The number of clicks and fetching were just tiring. The H scenes takes forever to be seen. The character art I personally like. Story? I guess I like being nice to the girls and see which gives more stats.

3.5/5. If the gameplay was more forgiving, then it's probably a 4 - 4.5.

Nice art style.

And that's it.

There are tags on here for aheago, anal, BDSM, blackmail, creampie, dating sim, exhibitionism, female domination, handjob, humiliation, romance, sex toys, spanking, tentacles, vaginal sex, virgin & voyeurism.

After hours of play, I found *none* of them.

I think there was a sister masturbation scene in the shower, but it wasn't like MC got to participate really.

Porn games need porn to be porn games. That should go without saying. If this game has it - porn - I barely found it - again, just one scene - after hours of play.

So the 1 star is for the art. Nothing else worthwhile to see here, yet.

Only the art is good but the rest meh. It is WAY to much clicking even for a sandbox and the fact that the ingame guide sucks it just makes me so confused. The gallery is a joke with the fact that it puts in every special scene even if it is just talking to someone. A gallery is for sex scenes only.
And a warning to anyone reading this the game contains pegging.

the game is okay but i hardly see any sex or romantic involvement.

too many quests to keep track off and i got stuck in the classroom, with a missing item so i just gave up-

I interact with the characters, but it does not feel rewarding and i don't see any progress being made.

The tags are a bit misleading
I dont know how or why other players like this game but i find it a bit boring. Tehe art style is good but in terms of gameplay, i dont find it really interesting at all.

I tried to see what the other chapters were like but had to type in some text i did not know so gave up too. I would not recommend this game really.

If there really is supposed to be some sexual stuff involved, sorry but i don't see or cannot find any. To those that have been able to progress and find some, good for you but I have not.

Sorry.

v1.23 or so

It's a cute game about turning your life around. In terms of art it's quite solid. The dialogue is decent and at times even amusing, which is high praise for a game in this genre.

Especially liked Flora and Bri'ish girl, they're best girls. They appear to have slightly different interactions based on your love/lust points, but I only played the lovey-dovey route with them, so not entirely sure to what extent this is true. Still, what I saw in terms of romance was quite cute and I'd like to see more of both characters. Flora's banter, for one, is top-notch. Taking care of her blindfolded self was probably the highlight of that character arc.

Which reminds me: the pacing is a bit strange. It's not exactly slow-burn and I wish there was some more padding to flesh out each relationship. In addition, certain character arcs are not self-contained, so for instance, I had to date the arts teacher first in order to be able to progress with Flora. A little inconvenient since you can't seem to focus exclusively on the characters you're interested in this way.

The "puzzles" are, well, such as they are. Do yourselves a favour and keep your quest compass on.

One last thing regarding incest, and this is by no means a major issue to me, but the devs appear bent on having their cake and eating it, too. Granted, I might have misread something, but Flora and her mom aren't your relatives. It's fine to make the game palatable for Patreon and the like, but then the this-is-so-wrong moments with Flora stop making sense altogether.

Enough nitpicking. Thank you for the feelings. Looking forward to the finished product.

First and maybe only review i'll make, but felt it deserved.
I'm following this game since the beginning.
Amazing art, funny lines, great characters.
Just can't wait for more explicit content and to see the endings.
Thanks for your work.

Although there are mixed opinions about the game, but in my opinion, this is a game worth experiencing at least once.
1) First, the actual game size is very light (at the latest version v1.21 the total capacity is only 260 MB)
2) The game has nice 2D graphics (at least in my opinion) and doesn't require a high-end computer to play - you can use an ancient computer with win 7 still running good
3) The game plot is simple but still has its own "complexity", the plot direction changes based on your choices. This makes the game worth exploring the plot in subsequent replays.
4) The gameplay is simple and fast, even if you forget what you are doing, there will be instructions+arrows and icons to help you follow the mission objective. Also you can directly play the latest content via the game menu through several plot oriented options instead of playing from the beginning (you can of course also choose which chapter to start with)

However, even though I really want to, I can only give the game 4 * because of the following minus:
1)The actual characters are all rendered over and over at fixed points with fixed actions. Except for the characters related to the quest you are doing, all the other characters appear and do the same actions every day.
2) The game's H-scenes seem to lack the investment - many scenes are so simple that it's like the main character does a single action with the heroine standing still (or some scenes don't even have any animations). Of course, if you come here to "fap", it is still possible, but for those of you who require beautiful and suitable scenes, it is very difficult.
3)The game's library of H-scenes is very small and doesn't have separate sections for the characters - which means that after watching a scene you will have to exit and go back to the beginning to continue watching another scene.

Way too much stalling, grinding and lollygagging going on to enjoy this game. Certainly not enough sexual content compared to what you have to deal with. The art his it's own highlight but after that the milking and grinding isn't worth it.

While 5/5 is reserved for games that are very good, this game has it's flaws. However, those flaws mostly are just the game not being a finished product. You have a dating sim, which obviously means you have to build relationships to get your h-scenes, and so there are very limited h-scenes at the moment, since so much of this game's focus has been on the beginning and middle of every girls relationship. With that being said, the h-scenes that are in the game are good quality.

Speaking of quality, there is a lot of it in this game. The characters and the art style of his game far surpasses anything else I've seen from a dating sim. Seriously, I'm a very picky person and 95% of the time a good h-game just isn't for me because I can't get over the art. For example, summertime saga, don't like it.

Another good point in this game is variety. You're into this? It's in the game somewhere. You're into that? It's in the game somewhere. Not a fan of something? Skippable, or just go a different route so you're not getting dominated by women and pissed on or whatever the kinks going on at the moment are.

This game could end up being a 4/5 when it's a finished product in 1-2 years, but I believe it'll probably be a 5/5, and maybe that's a little bias from me since this game has better art than any other dating sim on this website.

Side note: Why does this game refuse to call your sister and mother what they are? Like you have incest, just go with it man. It's like you don't draw the line at any other fetish, but you act like your mother is more of a teacher than mother, and your sister is like a step-sister(?) even though she's not, but also maybe just a friend staying in the house(?) but you're character acknowledges it's wrong for them to do things with them? I gladly watched my sister/step sister/friend/enemy/mom-teacher's daugher (whatever she is) pour milk on her vagina.