VN - Ren'Py - Artemis [v0.6.1b] [digi.B]

I would give 3 and a half if half scores were allowed but i'd rather give a 4 than a 3.

To clarify I love the game ... well 80% of it roughly.

I adore the characters, I love the build they are getting and the writing is spot on.

So what's me issue I hear absolutely no one ask, well allow me to tell you anyway.......

The main plot itself is far too predictable. It's more or less the same plot we've seen in movies, books, tv shows, AAA games and indie games involving 2 sides with similar goals and 1 getting ahead.

It's just slightly more frustrating here because a supposed tech genius who values her privacy and lives above a super secret facility full of her parents inventions has the shittest security ever.

Nobody should be able to get near the place nevermind waltz in like it's a casual Sunday afternoon stroll. I'm just waiting for them to put a sign on Artemis saying "please steal me rival AI firm".

I was hoping I was wrong originally. Kindra restarts her parents company, gets the ailing PR company on board, all friends and fuckbuddies working together to take down super slut.

I know i'm ranting a lot and it sounds like I hate it but I really don't. I do find predictability to be frustrating but the writing and characters make it all worth it.

That is a me issue though and should in no way put anyone off trying because it is a really well put together VN and is well worth anyone checking out.

It is by far one of the better games on here.

Edit - It's worth it for Artemis herself alone. Every scene with her is quality.

Perhaps one of the few 5 star worthy games, the story is intriguing to say the least, and YES, youre gonna have to be patient for "content", (therefore not a "2mins in and youre humping" but the wait is worth it (if youre into the contextual games)
great graphics, visual and level of detail make this one amazing game.
DEFINITELY have a go with the game!

Love the story and all of the characters are fun.
Renders are good and I like that the MC is on the road to recovering from severe depression/anxiety. So its like a power fantasy for me.
Kindra is #1, just the humor she gives and their dynamic is the only reason I replayed it twice.

Decent quality game, it can be funny and I find the idea for the story to be pretty good. It loses me because of how slow the pacing is. I mean its a 4 chapter game already and not much has happened.

I also find it very annoying how it seems like every scene or dialogue its just sympathetic and everyone is sad always and needs comforting. It really gets old fast. I will definitely be playing the next chapter though, because it seems now the game can finally get interesting.

Another complaint is the quality of the sex scenes. It feels like they last literally 10 seconds. I mean every one is cut and dry click for different sex positions, its boring and stale.

Great story with excellent renders. So long as the updates are not unreasonably late, this could definitely be top 5 on this site. The humor is a nice addition and the main character doesn't take himself too seriously. And the women are hot, that always helps.

I'm sorry but I just can't recommend this whatsoever

The render quality is too distracting. I know that the developer had issues with his eyes before, but if anything that just made me expect the renders to actually get better in later chapters. I guess the resolution got significantly better but they still have the problem of way too exaggerated facial expressions, poor composition, and extreme levels of noise reduction which makes the images often look smeary.

Story is fine I guess albeit really slow, I couldn't relate to the main character at all. The render quality was too distracting for me to enjoy the story for what it was anyway.

Animations are above average for Daz games but that's pretty much the lowest bar you can set. Very stale and robotic.

I can see that this is a popular game, and if you enjoy it then you have my blessing. But I could not find any redeeming qualities

rough start as far as visuals, but its hard to fault the dev for a medical issue. and the improvements digi made moving forward are huge.as a whole, this game is 1 of the best ive ever played. the writing is fantastic for an AVN. the humour is well timed, and the story if full of heart. cant wait for the next chapter!

I want to make something abundantly clear here: I don't think I can name another VN that I have been as invested in the story as I have with Artemis. There are others that are close or on the same level such as Project: Passion, or Once in a Lifetime, or even Ripples that have been able to marry a sense of urgency with a feeling of development as well as a hefty dose of humor.

It has been awhile that I played a game for hours without realizing how much time had flown by. And I fully intended for this next remark to be a compliment as opposed to an indictment to the naughtier focus of the story, but this was one erotic VN that I could have skipped all of the sex scenes and not feel shorted on the experience. To me, that speaks to the strength of the story and character development.

What really sings to me about Artemis was how each of the main characters struggled to overcome their own traumas and learned to grow from them. The art direction in also made quite an impact: the facial expressions of Kindra in particular were well done, and the dialogue was written with a lot of care. Many of the INK-side aspects were neatly done: the professional/business conflicts between Reina and Cassandra, and between Cassandra and Richard were interesting to get into and could be separate projects on their own.

The relationship between Aiden and Cassandra was also fairly well done without being gross, exploitative or exaggerated. It was kept at a level that could be realistic, and was very relatable. I still hope to get a proper explanation for Cassandra's actions in future additions (or future revisions if any are needed) because for all of her supposed intelligence and toughness it never made much sense to me why she would betray Aiden in such an aggressive manner. While one can easily understand the need for control or for power she could have saved herself a lot of trouble by keeping Aiden close and maximizing the use of his talents as opposed to cutting him off.

Another part of their dynamic that worked 'cinematically' but not as smoothly logically was Cassandra's focused vindictiveness and pettiness towards Aiden specifically. After several playthroughs it never made much logical sense why Cassandra would go out of her way to actively destroy Aiden after three years apart, but I could understand and appreciate the need for that villain trope to move the story forward. Still, there could have been narrative solutions to intensifying the conflict between Cassandra and Aiden that would have made sense: the presence of Richard and TWR and the deaths of Kindra's parents both could have offered thematic outs for Cassandra's behavior. Perhaps these ideas could be expressed in later chapters.

The transition to Kindra's World was a bit jarring at first. On the one hand you had the INK-side world that was closer to a typical modern civilization comparable to ours; on the other hand you have this fantastically advanced hidden world that seems to belong exclusively to the Kapulettis. The juxtaposition of a very familiar setting with one so futuristic was clearly intended to be a parody of Tony Stark's own trauma (absent parents) and running away from responsibility.

With that said, however, the Kindra/Artemis side of the tale was still pretty well done and worked towards merging the two settings more intimately by the end of the 4th Chapter.

The last bit I want to talk about are the models. I really loved the facial expressions, especially with all the attention done to bringing Kindra's emotions to life. There were still a lot of moments when that uncanny valley thing reared its head that distracted, and there were times when I could tell that the booty on the girls some times proved difficult to pose or animate, but thankfully these instances were few and far between.

What I truly appreciated, however, was the clear attempt at giving each model a distinct feel and personality just from their appearances. The different heights, the different frames, the dynamic between when they do their makeup and when they've come out of a shower, etc. all of it was well done.

The animations during the sex scenes were also well done. There haven't been too many games that I've played that took the time to animate authentic (from a pornographic aesthetic) gestures and movements, particularly during the oral sex parts.

In any event, that was quite a lot of things I wanted to say about the game! TL;DR 5/5 stars for the story, dialogue, character development and the facial expressions. Great job! Looking forward to the next chapter!!

Disclaimer: I'm predisposed against any protagonist that has tattoos. But given the hype on this game, I decided to give it a chance. I don't regret it, per se, but it certainly was an unrewarding few hours before I decided to call it quits. I'm between 2 and 3 stars here.
The therapist at the start doesn't sound anything like any therapist I've ever had (and I've seen a few). Nobody ever says "Congratulations, you're fixed!" That's bad therapying. Ultimately, and to sum up what could be an hour long rant, she sounds like a supportive sister, just telling the MC what to do, rather than helping him try to understand why he's feeling the way he is in a self-empowering way. I wouldn't recommend her to a friend, and it doesn't give the game a good beginning.
The writing is uninteresting, although not offensively so. The girls have a bit of personality, but not enough. I can't put my finger on it why they don't work - on paper they check all the boxes - but they just don't have any sort of charm or charisma or something: they're not interesting. Like everything else. (And they're not particularly good looking either.)
The MC is a douchebag. He spending years fawning over the stereotypical "overconfident incorrigible bitch with big tits" as she seeks to ruin everyone else's life; he deserves to have her give him a total dicking over. Even by the time the game takes place, he insults Kindra when he sees her really excited about her picture of DJ KinK, and then again when he sees her diamond record. Not teasing insults, just "I fundamentally don't think you're good enough" kind of shit. Ugh. The kind of shit that gives people decades long insecurities. What a lovely guy!
The sex scene in the sorority is one of the least erotic things I've ever seen. It could not be farther from my fetish, and there really needs to be a way to skip stuff like that. I can't say much about the other sex scenes, because there aren't any for longer than I'm willing to play.
What year does this take place in? There are AI, magical endless power sources, but electric cars are still pre-Tesla? And that drag race made no sense whatsoever.
I don't mind a protagonist who has problems - all best ones do - but something about him is particularly uninspiring. Maybe it's his douchebaggery. Maybe it's the fact that he needs everything handed to him. Maybe its his stupidity; he's a programming genius, but he can't figure out that Cassandra ruined the job opportunity for him? I'm not sure, but I know I'm not rooting for him.
I don't like the free roam stuff. The couple times I was given those options, all I wanted to do was find the exit. Which was hard, because who goes to sleep by clicking on a fucking window?
Technical problems:
The rollback is broken, sometimes allowing a few steps back, sometimes allowing none. Then the menus stopped working entirely, and I had had enough.

Despite the well-known limitations of the engine, this title stands out as the most realistic by far. All the subtleties along a huge variety of facial expressions and movement scenes quickly adds up into a nice and coherent immersion, almost setting a new ground.
The game also does a great job into trying to break from the saturated overly-explained cheap self-helping messages with brief moments of levity that are fun just to be fun, but also that enriches the MC persona.
The cast is diverse as your usual harem, but different from the fuck-doll style, the girls have a little bit more of flavor both aesthetically as in their personalities.
So far the sex scenes feel lacking and a little too sparse, especially considering the deep emotional drawdowns along the way. Scenes are often short with few positions to explore. There's also a sense of rushing that makes it all feel "robotic" (no pun intended) meaning you can barely feel the tension forming, the games goes straight from (minimum foreplay) -> basic sex scene option 1.
The story so far is nice, a simple set up with potential to major implications and warm sense of awareness.
Nitpicks: the interface and fonts could be a little less "tryhard" from the "futuristic" thematic for the sake of a better readability.

Version 0.4.2
The game is very well written, with interesting story and nice pacing.
So far the first 4 chapters took about 12 hours to play through.
The scenes all look good and the animations are well done. All characters feelvery live like and the story is captivating.
Can't wait for more.

So I just finished binging through the current update (v0.4.2). This is easily one of my top five favorites on this whole site, and I have completed quite a few... enough so that I have to keep a spreadsheet to track what I've completed, what I'm progressing through, and what I'm actively avoiding.

I don't know if you'll finish, as it seems like a lot of the games I enjoy end up abandoned somewhere along where I feel is closing on their climaxes. I sincerely hope this one goes the distance, because I don't have a bad word to say about it and way too many good things.

Five stars, easiest review I written to date.

An absolutely top tier game, one of the best VN's out there, and one of only a handful I actively look to see if it has updated every time I log on. Artemis definitely falls into the 'came for the fap, stayed for the story' category, with well written characters and an interesting, ever evolving plot. Not to say it is lacking in lewdness, but the sexual content always flows naturally from the plot, and never feels forced.

It speaks to the quality of the game that my only gripes stem from my investment in the plot. At the start of the game the MC is pretty much emotionally broken, and it is occasionally maddening that this trauma gets in the way of all the opportunities that are right in front of him, especially in the early part of the game. The fact that it isn't a harem game also means I am going to have to pick a favourite at some stage, which will suck (who am I kidding, team KinK for life).

In summation, a 10/10 game, in every way.

Incredibly impressed! The visuals are amazing. The storyline. The characters. The personalities. It's all phenomenal. Not to mention fun references to inside jokes... the MC is has such a "Archer" way about him sometimes... too funny. I can't wait wait for what comes next!

After 5 years of playing VNs this is the first one I've bothered to rate because it's THAT good. The renders, the animations, the characters, the storyline is all excellent. Even the spelling & grammatical errors are far fewer than most games. A+

I have no idea how to write a review so I'll be brief and just praise this dev to hell and back:

This is, hands down, the best VN I've ever played. The characters are amazing, the visuals are amazing, the sex scenes could use a lot of work but they're decent enough. The writing though, oh my god, the writing is simply brilliant. No other story comes close to this one.

I wish the dev good luck and much haste!

Review is for v0.4.2. Some notes to start off.
One thing that immediately stands out is how much personality the MC has. I don't mean to say he is in any way sane or something like that. Just that compared to all the relatively clean slates seen in many games that players can more easily identify with, this stands out a lot. I personally thought of it as refreshing and funny most of the time, but giving MC's this much personality always bears the risk of some people not liking it. It's up to your own taste, ye have been warned, more on characters later. There is also a lot, and I mean A LOT of dialogue. Considering this as a quick fap will be disappointing no doubt, but treating this as an actual book to read through (like visual novel, DUH) will be quite the treat. And here are some reasons why:

The story is downright amazing. Not in ridiculous scope or anything. It is just a well written stringent flow of events that makes actual sense within it's sense of time and the way events are connected to each other. It's also pretty creative in my opinion.
The characters all have consistent and well thought out personalities that go way beyond your cliché troupe of you-have-seen-this-and-know-all-this-character-is-meant-for. The characters also interact very convincingly with each other.
Special note on that point for the humor. It won't be all for you, but holy hell when two best buddies make the dumbest joke that's only funny to them, it reinforces the above points so much and makes characters feel much more alive. Just.... good. I may just be unlucky in my other choices of VN's but this feels like a rare gem indeed.
Music is present most of the time. So no empty silence at least. The sound effects for events and ambience are pretty good, actually. They really underline some tone and some actions quite well. Also the DJ scenes where much better in my opinion (would be strange though if not).
Despite some freeroaming segments there is no grind to speak of like some sandbox horrors have. I don't have much of an opinion on those elements, they were ok, not great, not terrible.
There are some small collectibles though and FUCK are those things hard to find. It's mostly because you just don't expect them and then forget about them and then you see one after a long time and be like "GRGH.... I missed the previous three, didn't I". For a dev with vision impairment they are hidden so damn well....

Anyway, to sum it up I really and I mean REALLY enjoyed my time with this game. The small annoyances did not add up to deduct an entire point for me. Lesson learned: It does not always need to be 100% personal fantasy to feel entertained. Sometimes a bulk of creativity garnished with copious amounts of love for detail and a good story is all you need. Not that any of that is easy to achieve, but I feel digi.B is killing it in that regard.
I highly recommend to give this a try even if it falls outside your usual preferences. No guarantees for reasons given above, but you never know, it might surprise you. Good luck and good health to the dev going forward.
Cheers.

This is the last of the "Top Tier" AVN's on this site, and this is far and away the top of the pile for me. I know that there is some development in all of these, but this story is so cool and more than any other the LI's actually make sense.

This is one that you should definitely try, it is a burner. Have Fun.

Damn good game! I was so hooked, I played it for 2 days straight! Can't wait to see the next part of the series. With Artemis now finally waking up and we finally seeing 'She who shan't be named - Vulvamort' become desperate enough to steal KinK's tech, I hope there is an ending good enough to match LoF's storyline, especially with the same level of humour and story development.

Artemis is a very intriguing and immersive AVN with a lot of focus on the characters, dialogue, worldbuilding and atmosphere. Having a great set of characters that have their unique personalities, histories and so on makes the game very easy to get into and the story set in place pulls you in ever more so. It may come off like a slow burner but it picks up the place quite hastily and engages you very quickly. The character renders are well made, with some of them changing designs later on in the game due to digi.B's condition but I can't say that bothered me much. The main quarrel I have with Artemis is its sex scenes. The scenes don't really have much depth to them even though they take ages to get to in the current version of the game. The minigames are fun and contributes to the worldbuilding. Music, when done well can definitely help you immerse yourself in the world of a VN and Artemis does not skip a beat in that regard. The humor is intricately woven into the characters' personalities and it does not seem out of place, I especially liked the pop culture references a lot. The points which the chapters end are written superbly and leaves you wondering what's gonna happen next/wanting for more.

Overall, Artemis is definitely in the upper echelon of AVN's and I'm excited to see the story unfold.