VN - Unity - Ashes of War [Battle System Update 1.26] [CTStudio]

English:............6/10
User Interface:.....6/10
User Experience:....6/10
Art:................9/10
Dialogue:...........9/10
Story:..............7/10
Opinion:............9/10................
Avg:.............7.43/10 [3.71/5]

Full disclosure, a while back the dev contacted me and asked for a review. I never came back around to put the review out publicly just cause it was more notes as I took them than my usual long-winded review. I will admit, I don't remember a lot. This time it's not cause it's boring or awful, but because I haven't touched the game in over half a year and life has happened. If you at least look at the scores I gave, it's a solid 4/5 from me. I'm HOPING this time around it's the same, if not better. Looking at the changelog this underwent quite a bit of rewriting. My only complaints about the story was that the romance or relationships weren't presented well and the characters, specifically the LIs, don't get much time to develop. And in a game about meeting and having sex with LIs, that's not great. I also remember just how laid-back everyone was about defecting from some group for no discernable reason. That was one thing I don't know if I went into enough. The intro starts, 10 minutes of meeting characters happen, then MC and his crew just defect from their faction because...? I couldn't tell ya. One other thing I remember is some of the sex is grouped together, like MC got with one girl, then walked to the next room and another girl jumped his bones for no good reason. I'm all for sex and lewds, but it has to be paced well. Again, I don't know what all's changed, and I'm not even to the first line of dialogue yet, but if nothing else, I'm hopeful.


As for a summary, this is up there in stories to watch. I will say this needs some proofreading, especially at the end the English fell off and it got a bit grating. That said, for the longest stretch it's not noticeable. The UI is good, outside the codex being bright blue and the menus being a bit small, it works. We'll have to see how the battle game ends up. The UX is almost identical to Renpy, which makes it better than most Unity VNs I've played. The issue is if the game window is active, and your mouse IS NOT over the window, my scrollwheel shouldn't affect it. I've missed a couple bits of dialogue because of it. The Art is great. I think my only complaint is that Xi's left hand looks a little wonky when its at her side. It's all ACTUAL art, not the same uncanny DAZ models you see 90% of the time. The dialogue is where this game SHINES. They wrote actual characters, they wrote natural sounding conversations. MC isn't the only decent human male that exists and they still make it semi-believable multiple women like him. Do you see how that's possible to do? Not some shit alpha male wannabe or degenerate pervert that spies on women until they fall in love with him. I'm all for it. The story, I'm still not sold on. What is the end goal? I get their fugitives, but their only goal is survive right now. I think I'm curious as to where all this goes, but we'll have to see. So, if my glazing isn't enough to tell this is great. I enjoy most of it and all it needs now is a follow through. This is very obviously going the harem route, which is fine, you're gonna have to put in some sex soon my guy. I like the characters, I'm guessing most that play like your characters, it's time to reward the MC who is stressed to high-oblivion lol. Gooner comment aside, keep up the good work. I'm a sucker for good characters and you've won me over. You have minor issues to work out with grammar, spelling, and the minigame stuff(for whatever reasons), but after that you have a golden goose.

Gorgeously hand drawn art work bringing to life a decent story, but players looking forward to extensive sex scenes will be in for a disappointment as they are few and short. The story could also do with a firmer direction as it seems to be gradually losing direction after a while.

Story
You play the role of a fleet commander MC who had enough with his incompetent superiors and launched a mutiny during a suicide mission. The story mainly focuses on how the MC rebuilds his mutinous fleet from scratch and go on a space adventure with the help of a bevy of lovable girls.

The story starts out well with good momentum, but sort of runs out of steam after the first couple of hours descending into a mundane sequence on the ins and outs of fleet management. Though there were a few mini peaks along the way, the story never quite recovered to the original excitement we see at the start.

Game Mechanic
Typical AVN with choices that are kinetic in nature. There used to be a mini game system during space battles, but this has been disabled as of V1.23 as the developer is reworking on the battle mechanics.

Background / Character Renders
Definitely the star of the game - all the backgrounds and characters are hand drawn with high aesthetic values. The style is reminiscent of 2D classical western cartoons in the 1990s but rendered in high resolution with bright saturated colours. This is certainly a refreshing change from the usual anime, Marvel / DC or gothic style cartoons we see in most other adult games.

There is however one minor irritant, a pet peeve of mine, which is the use of dark shadows for non-major characters. While I can understand the economics of doing that, it does break the immersion and overall experience.

Character Development
MC is well-crafted and believable as a fleet commander - he has a sense of responsibility and is well skilled in the craft of managing people and resources. At the same time players also get a glimpse of his emotional failings at vulnerable moments.

Effort has also been put forth to add flesh and blood into the four main LIs. I particularly like Nora who seems like a sophisticated character who fully understands the danger of her job and how to manage her emotions with MC to ensure her survival as well as Eva who is a smooth operator and crafty smuggler who knows how to get the ball over the line.

Some of the humour at the bridge with MC's deputy and XO is also on point and provide good comic relief.

Sex Scenes
Unfortunately, it's a bit lacking in both quantity and quality. If you are reading the story without skipping, there are some long dry spells where things can get dull for an adult game without any spicy scenes.

When it happens, the scenes are quite short i.e. usually just one static picture with some dialogue and the "unique" way of presenting MC as a translucent dildo-like dick is a turn off.

Maybe some players find this presentation sexy, but it's a mood killer for me. It is unfortunate that such well drawn art is not fully put to good use during sex scenes.

BGM and Sound Effects
The selected BGM tracks are mostly soothing at the background without standing out and there are a few basic sound effects that support the narrative well.

Conclusion
The art work is certainly a strong point of this game and the storyline is decent enough if not a little flat halfway through. However as an adult visual novel, I feel more effort can be put into the sex scenes to make them more passionate and erotic. It's coming across as peripheral and a "by the way" kind of thing now.

the art in this game is fantastic! It’s clear a lot of effort went into the visuals, which are both detailed and stylish. The gameplay itself is simple but enjoyable, and the art really elevates the whole experience. If you’re looking for a game that’s visually impressive and fun to play, this one’s a gem. Keep it up!

Excellent writing, believable characters, and some actually pretty decent lore. Some of the moments are pretty tense, but since it is a kinetic novel, it's pretty easy to abuse the save system. The emotional beats hit when they need to, and the jokes did land for me. There's a few spelling errors, but what's an F95zone game without typos?

A toast to our boy Allan, at least you died on solid ground.

Narratively speaking, I liked this game. Porn wise, it's not much but what it has to offer is nice. The girls are well designed and have nicely written personalities that mesh well with the setting.

I think it's worth checking on once and awhile for the story alone, as I'm interested in where it's supposed to go. I also appreciate the "bad guys" you meet being realistic in that they'd rather surrender than die like nameless grunts normally do

Pretty good overall quality. It is still in the middle of its rework phase so story and sprites are still subject to change but the current game is pretty good still. I'd recommend letting it steam for a while and go through it once at least rework phase is over. All in all pretty good work a diamond in the rough.

A space opera with a few sex scenes. A really well-written one, though.

This game shows that good execution is the one factor that separates a well-trodden trope from a filthy cliché. Consider this. The story puts you into the boots of a dashing space captain. A captain in crisp military uniform, yet free as the solar wind, upstanding and never having to stoop down to actual moral blackness of piracy, moral greyness of a merc, or the drudgery of a merchant. You have a number of chicks pining for you—of course you have—while you keep them all in your orbit without any real effort, and of course there will be exotic alien-but-still-humanoid chicks popping up for you to bang. And of course the Grand Plot involves some xeno-archaeological dig that probably contains some primordial tech, or some stupid mcguffin shit like that. You will save the galaxy, I can already sense it in the (recycled) air.

Such ludicrously high concentration of... space opera could be an issue. If it was written poorly. That's the thing: it's not. The characters are sympathetic, have their own voices and their banter is fun to read (dialogue comprises basically 99% of the story, with very few lines given to narrator). The jury is obviously still out on this story, as we don't have an ending in sight, but if its quality remains consistent and it sticks the landing, it will become one of the best adult VNs, like top 3 best.

On to the technical aspects. This is the part that leaves me in a somewhat awkward position as a reviewer, because I've initially played v1.19, only to find out that following releases had disabled the combat sub-game, making Ashes into a pure VN. Which is absolutely fine in my book. However, the combat system will supposedly be back after a rework, so I'm gonna touch on the previous implementation a bit. Now, the system this game had had was... a bit on the basic side, but it was still nice to have because of two factors. One, combat itself had at least a bit of depth, so not a waste of players' time. More importantly, the, uh, tactically disadvantaged players had an option to skip it altogether and there was an in-game justification for this option. So as long as the new system remains optional, and does not involve any grind, I'm confident in saying it will be a positive addition to the game.

The rest of the implementation is really solid. It's a VN, and what I've come to expect from a VN (rollback, quick skip, etc) works without a hitch. The game even has some 3D in-engine cutscenes (for the space battle stuff), which adds to the atmosphere. Music, SFX, choreography, the works. All present, all solid.

As you can see, Ashes doesn't give me anything I can really complain about, and its story deserves praise. Petty damn impressive. Five stars.
And I swear, the puns just wrote themselves!

I am not usually one to drop reviews but this game is such a joy. From just the dialogue alone, I have full on gut laughed pretty hard a few times now. After actually playing the current update (1.2) I have to write one as they honestly deserve this. Again this is my first review and it is my honest opinion.

Story: 10/10
In terms of story, this has one of the most well written stories I have had the pleasure to play through in a long while. From the great characters, the scene and pacing of the story, all excellent. There is ACTUAL character development throughout the story (and potentially more with future updates). And not just MC gets the hot girl with no plot going on here! The real highlight is the candor and dialogue not only between the MC and the main girls but even the side characters are all so well written that you cannot help but like them (the XO and ensigns are hilarious)

Gameplay: *8*/10
Unfortunately, it is a VN so besides the choices to make during key events, the dogfighting or ship battles are not available in 1.2. I feel that once I can have excess to that again with the next update I can write a more fair view but for now. The choices in the storyline fit well and does make me feel like there can be future 'routes' incorporated into the story but that also feels somewhat unnecessary currently. Maybe if they decide to change this and or for future development? But just from the VN choices aspect that still carries them far though. It does not disrupt the story but still gives enough weight to make it feels like player choice matters. I look forward to the ship battles at some point.

Art: 10/10
It is just gorgeous. Nothing is too over exaggerated, the girls are hot AF. Its tasteful and consistent with the themes as well as the character portrayals

Overall: 9.5/10
While not a perfect score, that is just because of the current update removing the combat portion for now. Everything else I cannot help but applaud and enjoy. Keep up the awesome work!

Ashes of War features a wide variety of characters with distinct personalities and as of writing this review is trying to make an actual game, not just a visual novel (although the game elements are still very early in development).

So I will focus more on the story and the characters then the gameplay elements:

Overall score: I loved it 10/10
- I will admit that there are times when I just skip the story, either because it is bad or meh, but not this time. From the start, the story got me hooked, and I actually finished everything in one sitting, wanting more. It was pretty straightforward, but what stood out were well written characters that got me wanting more.

Story:
- The story is good, and is as the overview of the game sets it out. War between two factions, rebellion against incompetent military bureaucrats and your adventure begins! While the story itself didn't subvert my expectations or present some surprises, it is solid and provides a good background for the main showstopper of the game, which are the characters inhabiting this universe.

Characters:
- The characters is what captured my attention the most. They are well written, have their own quirks and personalities and they don't feel plastic or two dimensional. I never got a feeling that I could just sum them up in a phrase or a couple of words, and this is what for me at least made this game truly shine.

Conclusion:
- I hope that the creator continues down this route and keeps expanding the game. If there were any additional gameplay elements I think they will eventually blend in very well and provide a necessary pause before you continue exploring the true gem of Ashes of War, the inhabitants pursuing their own agenda, and their interactions with the main case.

Keep up the good work!

Ok, this game is amazing, I'm curious about the characters and the further story, so far we've explored very little of the world, but everything is coherent and waiting for development, I like each of the 4 heroines, along with Xi, but I don't know if she will join our harem, well, the harem is not in the first place only relationships, thanks to which the development of events seems natural, our officers also have characters, I like Aiden, which is a plus because often in this type of games, apart from potential interests, there are no interesting characters, although it would be nice if they gave a separate graphic for Grant, what's more, I am curious about the further story and whether our choices influence it from now on it's my second favorite game on the site after superhuman
PS, sorry for English, it's not my first language

Amazing game, not for porn though

As you can see from the rating, I really like this one. That is down mainly to two reasons:

The Writing
Very nicely written, interesting story with cool characters and jokes that mostly land (as someone having a very tall big sister I feel for poor Ethan). I am honestly more interested in continuing the story than anything else here.

Polish
This does not feel like a one programmer project. The art is great (not sure who made it, sorry), the VFX, damn... This has 3D cut scenes AND THEY LOOK GOOD?!?! The UI is nothing special (it's mostly a visual novel after all) in terms of navigation but here's the thing: It works. I have not seen a single bug or error (looking at half of the Renpy games on this site) - turns out using a real game engine has some advantages. The only part of the game that didn't feel "finished" yet is the space warfare system. I already liked it and played all the battles (despite not having to) but it could use a bit more variety - and behold - it's currently being reworked.

So, about the heading - why not a great game for porn? Well, easy: There so far are very few lewd scenes (looking at Camille belly muscles did things to me I didn't know were possible though). The art itself is good as mentioned but there is no voiceover or anything like that for those scenes and not a lot of different visuals -> This may all change in the future, who knows.

I really appreciate seeing something so high quality here - give it a shot if you don't need to fap but to just enjoy a nice read with some giggles sometimes.

What I would like to see
- As mentioned more variety in the space battles
- Ability to replay scenes (not just CG gallery)
- More Eva. We stan Eva.
- Customization for This is essential for immersion!

Reviewed Version: 1.17

Ashes of War Ch1.17

This game fucks.

While browsing F95, I randomly stumbled upon AoW. And I decided to give it a try since I saw it had both Sci-Fi and Romance tags and can I just say? It blew my expectations straight out of the sky(Or I suppose Space would be more apropos).

Pros:

• The art style is a major pro, managing to encapsulate both subtle and overt expressions.
  • Character design is also a major highlight.
• I know porn games tend to set the bar rather low for characters acting believable but the writing manages to do just that, even the MC is competent(hallelujah!).
  • The bridge banter with the XO & Co is also top-notch.
• The world-building is great, you got corpos using PMCs(Just like Coca-Cola), galactic scale war and even planet/system descriptions reminiscent of Mass Effect.
• Arrogant ace pilot and smol smuggler? Sir, they are my wives right there.
• Soundtrack was also enjoyable.

Cons:

• It's a slight con but the combat elements are a tad barebones(I call it slight because Dev has addressed this).
• Ayo MC dick looking hella sus lmao(jkjkjk).
• Dev referred to themselves as "baguette brained" Thus implying they are Fre*ch, automatically a con(Dear French people, I am joking. Please put down the Assault Baguettes).

Suggestions (if at all possible):

• A character creator for the MC? Obviously, it would be too much work to custom-create the different H-scenes for every combination but the option to have a custom portrait for dialogue would be much appreciated.
• Greater utilization of the Codex, perhaps for character/romance information and chosen choices.
• This is a biggie, but I wish we could have moar choices with consequences.

Okay, with all of that out of the way. I really enjoyed what I've seen so far, obviously, this AVN is still very early in the dev cycle but there is a lot of potential, in the words of Palpatine, I shall watch your career with great interest.

Fantastic Art, nice music and a lot of potential.

This is certainly a game to watch out and support if you're in any way a fan of the Sci-Fi genre. Or just like good anime-style art.

My only gripe so far is there's too litle of it and no replay gallery. Hopefully, new updates will fix both.

Magnificent select of soundtracks, and the art, characters, story, dialogues, plot development and build up is decently well done. I have hopes for this story to maintain its pace so that it does not crumble apart. Everything here has its own charm, for a vn, this novel offers a rich story overall.

Great art. Seriously, really great art.
Cinematics are really nice too.
Story is intesting to read, interactions between NPCs are well written.
Only one s*x scene by LI, but dev warned us : game in progress.
Not really fan of Space Battles, but they are skipable.
Following this game !

Still WIP but this seems like a diamond in the making, characters dynamic is fun to read. Because of the nature of the story I thought it gonna starts slow and will rain us with info dump but it starts up real fast, which I do prefer. Cant wait for more updates and keep it up

So good so far the story is nice, classic pacing really love the charc design i relly love the atmosphere of the spaceship
i ope there is an awsome develop for the charct
will leave it on hold until a major realese of content so i don't burn it

I've got to hand it to them, even though I'm not a big fan of VN's I stuck around for this one. Story's solid, characters are likable, and the H scenes aren't half bad. Hopefully more gets added within a reasonable time frame, but from what I've seen so far I'd recommend.

Man this is a hidden diamond if I ever saw one.
Great art, good H scenes MUSCLE TOMBOYS.
Cool characters and lore, also dialog and personalities sound realisitc, it's surprisingly rare for characters in games here to sound like real ppl but hey, this game does it and it's not often a adult game makes me stop and actualy read so good job, great game so far.

A stylized star empire story where the graphics and art are great, the characters are engaging, and the H scenes are promising. I'm not sure if CTStudio plans additional characters, but they have shown that they can write. While mechanics are alpha stage, I see a lot of promise on many fronts, including gameplay, story, H scenes, and world building. I note that at the time of this review, CTStudio already has plans to expand the combat system and develop further H scenes. While I hope that the developer can incorporate more of the H scenes into the story, the four scenes included at this point do feel a touch forced, but nothing obtuse. Well done!