VN - Unity - Ashes of War [Update 1.5] [CTStudio]

Update 1.5

Overall: 4/5
I came back to revisit this game after it had built up quite a large amount of content, and it truly surprised me... in a good way. I think the game is awesome and the way it tackles the little things makes the gameplay experience worth it. From the sound design to the battle system, it was done in a way to insert you into this massive world.

One thing I really appreciated was the addition of new character art. Some characters didn’t have any visuals before, and finally seeing them brought to life was a highlight. I was especially curious about the marines, and they looked exactly how I imagined based on their dialogue—big win there.


The writing’s also stepped up. The LI cast has gone through real growth, and the pacing makes their development feel earned. You can tell there’s emotional depth behind it.


That said, my biggest criticism is the ending—it felt rushed. And that’s what kept this from being a full 5/5 for me. There was so much potential left unexplored, especially with the existing cast and the newly added visuals that hinted at deeper stories. It’s a shame, because the groundwork was there for something even more impactful.

One of the best games not just in this genre, but on whole site imo in general. Great dialogues, interesting characters (well almost all of them), very enjoyable battles (I wish there was more).
Game is 10/10
There is very few things I did not like about this game, developer did amazing job!

Normally I'm not a VN person, as I shy away from many of them; either because they are fully kinetic, or are sloppily made.

But this, THIS one really caught my eye. As sad as I am to say I haven't known of it since the early days, it still has been, and will be one of my favorite VN H-games out there, whether it is the battle minigames, H-scenes, or the story/writing as a whole.

Despite the numerous, and sometimes annoying bugs found throughout the game, they are often minor enough to go undetected, or are fixed by the developer rather quickly - who, despite having their own personal issues, is super devoted to this game, something seldom seen.

Overall, kudos to the developer; even if imperfect, even if this project is reduced in scope from what it once was, it still is one of, if not the best of it's kind on the market.

Must recommend, 9.5/10.

Not that many space opera / erotic games on the site. In spite of this, this one is quite palatable and promises to get even better.

As of 1.30 there are some systems that aren't working properly, some combat operations which aren't actually in game yet, resource management is spoken off but not actually in game either.

Still, the story keeps you entertained, with solid characters and scarce but satisfying erotic content.

Some tropey sci-fi here and there, but nothing egregious.

If you love games like Mass Effect and Starsector, this game is perfect for you. The art is fantastic and a breath of fresh air in a sea of 3DCG EVNs. Both the male and female casts are fun and lovable and the banter is always top notch.

I do have a few criticisms. First, the dialogue can come off as a bit awkward or too formal at times. Often times there's not enough contractions and the dialogue is overly verbose. Native english speakers will get what I'm saying. I'm not too worried about that since you can easily proofread and edit the dialogue. The essence of what is being said is fine.
Second, the flow of the story can sometimes be confusing. There are times where the story jumps forward in time due to new updates. A casual scene can dramatically shift into an emotional one and while there is foreshadowing, it can still come off as a bit out of left field. All of these combined can lead to a somewhat disjointed and confusing reading experience.

TLDR The framework and core of the story is fantastic but it can feel disorienting due to the timeskips and sub-par English. The motivations of the characters are believable and human but need more time to develop.
A more gradual buildup to the emotional crashouts, more context in between time skips, and some proofreading and you've got a real gem of a game. I'd rate it a personal 4/5 but I'm giving it a 5/5 because it's criminally underrated and needs way more exposure.

Also let me romance Ashley

Ashes of War [Update 1.30] [CTStudio]
Overall - 9/10
Highly recommend - Fun sci-fi story with interesting characters to interact with. Exploring space going head first into pirates and hot possible LIs, whats not to love. (4-5ish hours of gameplay)
Story - 8/10
Set in sci-fi space themes, you MMC is a captain for a small colony of union defectors? kinda pirates/independent affiliations. Exploring space for funds and allies to defend or gather firepower.
A lot of dialogue talking to allies within the colony and finding new allies in other corners of space.
Characters are very enjoyable to interact with banter and all have their own kinda distinct personality
Renders/art - 10/10
Good stuff
Hscenes - 8/10
Well done animations + hot FMCs
Hscene develop naturally enough, not just sex now
Scenes are time based -> skipping text or reading too fast can misalign scene to text
Needs more Hscenes

Spoiler: amount of hscenes

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There is a lot of content in between each Hscenes - hopefully more gets added
Sounds - 7/10
has BGM + good SFX
Playability - 9/10
Has actual gameplay -> fire emblem tactical rpg grid game. Ally units vs enemy with objective (kill all enemies or survive X rounds) -> CAN BE SKIPPED -> it's good, I personally never enjoyed this type. Thank god for skips
Classic VN - has choices that matter

This game is sci fi peak. Rare to find a sci fi harem game with such a great cast. Such a great game that I even skipped all of the H- Scenes. Would highly recommend anyone into sci fi games to play this game!

I appreciate the effort put into the game ;P

Anyway, for a game that's been around for roughly one year, it has a LOT of story (and some +18 stuff, obviously) content, and I'm talking about good content. This game's dialogues are honestly impressive, very well written, and develop the characters well. I don't know the dev's background, but just by looking at what I can see in the game, it looks like they have at least some experience and knowledge in story writing and related things. I will be following the trajectory of the game until its end. I hope the devs can finish the game without any problems and that we get much more content in the future.

Ah, the scenes are basically all animated and very hot, but I also really like how the CGs aren't limited to only porn stuff.

The game mainly focuses on the story and character-building, which is pretty good; the gameplay is not bad, although skippable and not memorable; Sex is more of the topping on the cake, but the sex scene,the lines and the music are just right and impressive, way more than just some random fuck scene , and LIs are adorable in their own way.
All in all, a perfect game if you enjoy the solid story and naturally unfolding sex scene rather than some quick fucking, you going to love it.

Another excellent space opera, akin to Mass Effect Shepard's trilogy with a unique twist; you are a deserter & on the run with motley of crew that both unique & lovely. Follow the story closely & you will have an unforgettable tale of love, trust, regret & loss. Thanks for reading my review

ten days in game yet prolly a few hours in real time has yielded on nicely jiggling clothed mechanic a lot of static images and a metric poopton of text

no sex no nudity but one hand held briefly

this might be too coy for me but ill try to play a while longer

Incredible game, well polished gameplay, battle, art, and a interesting storyline. The animations are really pretty and makes it super immersive to play. The H-scenes and girl design/personality are also top-notched. You will regret not playing this.

Can't wait to see what else this studio cooks up.

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.

Version 1.27

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!