Ren'Py - Astral Lust [v0.3.1c] [Victorius]

Version Reviewed: v0.1.7b

Overview: Save everyone from the end of the world, and also bang a bunch of cuties in a hotel and around town.

Story: After a terrible auto accident during the apocalypse you wake up a month later in a strange room in a hotel populated entirely by young horny waifus. You learn that the world has turned totally survival horror in the meantime and its up to you to prevent the world from being eaten by an elder god or something.

The girls are all sadly pretty one dimensional porn game archetypes. There is the oversexed one, the shy naive one, and the sisters next door. The only character development is in how much they are willing to let you in their pants. The shy girl gets the most development, with a whole lot of backstory about her mentally abusive upbringing. There are a number of side characters as well, but except for the magic librarian they're basically there to be warm holes for you to stick your dick in or glorified vending machines.

Gameplay: It's one of those 4 time slot per day free roaming games. The grind is pretty bad. Not the worst I've ever seen but most stuff is obnoxiously expensive. Thankfully the dev didn't implement one of those annoying hunger/fatigue/blue balls systems where you constantly have to refresh stats to keep going. The big thing that sets this game apart from the competition is the card battling minigame. Despite clearly being a huge focus of the development in this game, it actually doesn't affect the rest of the game all that much. There are a few forced battles and collecting rare materials to craft rare cards is probably something the developer expects you to do, as of this version it doesn't matter that much if you neglect the card game stuff, especially if you're willing to rollback or load saves to avoid random battles. One thing I will note is that escaping from battles seems to be much harder than the "escape chance" would suggest. It might say 22%, but you'll fail that check time and time again.

For the rest of the game it's more typical Ren'Py "sandbox" stuff. Do an activity to increase some stat by +1 (up to 20) until the end of the day, then go to sleep. Luckily there is a map with girldar so navigation is easy. You have to track down girls in the right place in the right timeslot to trigger some interactions, and sometimes you'll have to try for several days before the RNG shines on you. There is a built-in help system that is pretty decent most of the time, I never had to go find a walkthrough or search the thread to figure out a clue. Mostly it was just waiting for a girl to happen to be in the shower that day or something. Protip: If a girl's event isn't triggering grind up her trust/lust values a bit.

You also have to collect crafting materials to upgrade your hotel and eventually your card deck. This is especially grindy as the upgrades are quite expensive and there is always the danger of dying and losing all but 25 of your items every time you go out. In one especially egegious instance I was very close to having enough saved to build the Sex Dungeon and had also gotten lucky a couple of times on rare materials so my vault was full and I had a lot in my bag. Then the game tossed me into an unwinnable unescapable fight because the RNG never blessed me with the correct item (I'm not even sure it is possible to get given how much of the rest of the story assumes you didn't get it) so I was sent back an hour or more.

Ultimately the RNG is god in this game, and it is a cruel god.

As for the card game, there are a lot of really high level cards, but I ended up kind of breaking the game by filling up my deck with a bunch of head butt cards (delay enemy 1 turn and do a bit of damage) and only allowing them to act on occasion.

There is also a pixel hunt minigame where you can click on small pictures in scenes to unlock them on your computer. Either this game is mostly unimplemented or I sucked really bad at it. I only unlocked a handful of the pictures by the time I had completed all of the story arcs.

Art: It's Honey select with only lightly customized models. The proportions are good and the models look nice. Somewhat unusually for a Honey Select game the MC is neither a Yakuza looking tough nor a 98 pound weakling with a baseball bat sized dick. He's still pretty terrible, but one notch up from most other pornogame MCs.

Sex: As you would expect it's a slow burn affair. Voyurism followed by HJs followed by BJs followed by PiV with the final unlock being some Anal. Side girls typically require you to spend some resource to get the scene. Some of the girls go hot and cold on you as is typical with this format of game. You can build a sex dungeon but barely gets used in this version. I'm sure the sex options will expand in later versions.

Overall: This is a well done sex grinder with a surprisingly good card battling minigame. It loses a point from being just way too grindy for me, but all of my other complaints are just nitpicks. I feel like a lot of the skill checks that require like Agility >= 15 could have just as easily been Agility >= 5 and capped the stats at 10 instead of 20. It also took me quite some time to discover the Rubik's Cube and Books in my room. I also think the construction costs were pretty obnoxious, with many things requiring like 30 stone, 15 metal, 15 wood, 20 cloth, and a lucky exploration run might net you like 4 rocks, a couple of metal, and 3 cloth. It took me over 100 in-game days to finish the mysterious chest/map quest because the RNG was so stingy with it. I'm still pretty sure I've missed some events due to bad rolls.

Game starts off pretty interesting and feels like a different concept compared to your average 'fuck everything' game, but it falls off the longer it goes. The hints are loose, so if you misread something then good luck clicking for the next 5-10 minutes. Some events only trigger at certain times of day, and are unlisted that they occur at a specified time. There is no map so you have to click each place to go where you want instead of instant teleport. Exploration and fighting events are 100% random so you may never see a scene or get a specific item, even after 2 hour. There is a dog and cat that currently serve no purpose. Some choices are just instant death and you lose everything. All items have a value, but if you trade them you end up losing money because there is no actual currency.

The sex scenes are mediocre and you wont get actual sex with main characters until far into the game. Only encountered 1 NTR event and it was a generic random character, more specifically netori.

BEWARE: EXTREME GRINDING even with the cheat menu

Hints could be more clear. Random Events could be less random the more you do them. Fast Travel map would be helpful. Actual Currency would be nice.

The game has a premise you've prob. seen a million times before, but it manages to actually be very unique in its execution. Still rough around the edges and clearly in active development, but already shines as a secret gem among this style of games. The girls are cute not just as renders, but as personalities too. I recommend it, even in this unfinished state it's a refreshing game to immerse yourself in.

If I was a random billionaire, I'd give the dev of this game a full time 50 person team of artists and coders without hesitation, so he can rapidly flesh out his great vision for what the game can be.

Fun card based combat and amazing world building makes this game on of my all time favorites on the site! If you like your visual novels a little on the scary/creepy side this is a most have. The only flaw is that some monster encounters especially early on you can't possibly win and its best to run from them but this is easily fixed later in the game when you get much stronger with better cards. Over all its a fun and difficult game that will keep you interested for hours and then having you eagerly await new updates.

I love this game, not just the sex parts. The story is cool and interesting, the dreams and murmurs are creepy. The haunting atmosphere outside contrasts perfectly with the warmth and security of the hotel.

I just love the way things go between the girls and the MC

If I had to criticize something it would be that the soft music sounds even in the tension scenes, which removes much of the fear that they should give, but for the rest I can only hope that the whole game maintains this perfection

Although still in the early stages, the game has a dark, dreary atmosphere that isn't overbearing and an enjoyable story, cast, and card combat system.

The cast is an enjoyable group, although their personalities can be exaggerated at times. The MC (who has one of the better HS models I've seen) has good dialogue for the most part, and the story segments have interested me. The encounters are varied and usually interesting, although this does have segments of grind and RNG which can drag it down.

The negatives mostly come from the clunky feel of various systems. The menu UI has to be closed manually, meaning when you click away it remains popped open, leaving you often advancing story or gameplay with menus in the way, which can stack on top of each other. Being able to click outside the menus would ideally close it. The hints on how to advance can be vague at times and it's unclear if you should wait for the next scene to trigger or if there's something you need to do. There's no way to organize your cards, which is frustrating from an OCD standpoint, but more importantly you can only destroy cards to change your deck, which could be problematic if future enemies counter your current deck and force you to grind resources to do so and fight monsters for new cards (I hope the unavailable options correct this, I played on v0.1.4c).

While it does have some clunk that hopefully can be sorted, the game is promising enough to give it a try if you enjoy the theme.

Inconvenient. That was the first word coming to my mind when playing the game. Too many rooms paired with a rather bad navigation (there are much better solutions for navigation, like a drop-down-menu with a room selection). There is no hint what the skills are needed for (for ex. "charisma").
The female characters almost look alike, there is no real difference.
The renders are ok/ mediocre, not very detailled. And the story is another generic one, with a failed attempt to implement a survival game.

I didn't like or enjoy it at all. No recommendation.

For now this game lands on 3/5 because of tedious grind, RNG on events outdoors which is crucial for the story to proceed and more things mentioned below.

The 3d art in the game is made with Honey Select with it's inherited flaws. But regardless of this the scenes are hot but too few at the moment.
The game has a premise to be outstanding if the dungeon and leisure area is actually used.
And finally there are a lot of objects with "Coming soon" which is also boring because I want it now!

I wish this game proceeds smoothly with regular updates because it could be wonderful.
Let's see after the next update as I'm considering being a Patreon.

Rated: 3/5
Rating based on: v.0.1.3b

It has a good game direction with good themes. I found the card-building aspect of the game to be very interactive compared to other games of this type. The girls are super cute and the writing is decent.

There is an option to enable story-mode in which you won't have to fight so many monsters while exploring, allowing you to get through the story easier which was nice.

Pretty fun game, I can say it’s a somewhat Slay the spire sex game, still kinda raw, but I am eagered to see the updates.
Writing is good, characters are nice, plot is mysterious and the tension is palpable.
Graphics are good, even if there are some odd choices of styles and renders, but I guess they make the atmosphere of weird things.
It’s good, worth your time

It's a solid game. Screen shake is the only reason that I won't rate it any higher than a 3.5.

Animations 5/5 and 1/5
Combat 5/5
Combat balance 2/5
Grind balance 3/5
Story 5/5
Horror 5/5
Characters 5/5
Screen Shake -5/5

Review based on 1.3
The story is well written, has an excellent theme, and an impressive horror element. The combat is turn-based and skills are based on which card you choose. The characters all have great and varied personalities. There are many choices, some of which increase your corruption. The sanity element is well done.

Animations is where this game starts to dip to me. The animations are well done and very smooth, but many rely heavily on screen shake which is a bad thing. POV animations can't even be enjoyed due to the volitivity of the screen shake.

In short, I don't like Screen Shake, it's bad for the brain, equilibrium, and can cause potential motion sickness even in people with no history of it >> enough said.

Edit >> I forgot to include the combat and grind balances. The combat is rough in this game. You start out weak and stay there for a long time. The enemies can range from somewhat stronger than you to death sentence levels of difficult. The grind is also rough to a point. You need a lot of materials to build some things, and the amount of stuff that you get from scavenging can range from very low to ok.

Due to these factors I have reduced my rating from a 4 to a 3-star.

Play with caution and if you have issues with motion sickness, then I'd recommend avoiding this game.


1.9.g
So the story and horror elements are things that I have no issues with. I like that the dev is finally starting to use scenes without nausea inducing screen shake more >> I have no problem with some scenes having shakes, but was a bit much in the early stages of this game.

The grind is still heavy >> combat still has a major balance issue >> areas in the hotel need functionality (a working shower to use, a working bathroom to use, use of the hot tub) . That's it. If the combat and grind were balanced better and functionality added to places in the hotel, this game would get at least a 4 star from me. A 5 star if screen shakes were removed entirely.

@Victorius Astral


~>Good game

~>The story is good and decent

~>The music is not my cup of tea though.

~>The girls is definitely unique and totally my cup of tea.

~>Combat is good and decent totally different game than others.

~>free roam and freedom to choose be sadistic or gentleman

~>Though lack of variety of sex option.

~>Worth to play if ever you got tired of clicking so on and so forth without combat.

~>Good luck with the game worth to support in my opinion

The game has decent quality. Interesting characters and the dialog is good.
The settings common enough but it lets you take choices though to do things that effects the MC's characteristics.

I do not normally like card like combat but is not bad as combat is fast and does not drag on and on and the strat elements are good as there are many types of builds to use/create with pros and cons.

There is not much content yet though, which is why I think thats why there is not much support for the game though. If the dev just had a large push in content I think a lot more people will take notice of this game.

I would almost give this game an averge in its current state but the potential I see being set up edges it up a bit I feel. But will probably review again in like a month and see if anything has improved or its time to just forget about the game for like a year+ and check then for its current state.

Honestly the game was better than what I expected to find.
- History is interesting and you feel part of it
- Exploration and combat are not boring and seems balanced for what they should represent. I was worried since description said that will need some balances in combat, but comparing with other games looks fair to me maybe more atractive when you can upgrade and custom your decks
- Characters for my personal taste is the weakest point of the game, I'm not a fan of the designs, style or bodies can't reach my primal insticts
- A strong point for me is the potential of future updates, game already prepared the way for some scenes and situations that feed my inner monster

What a pleasant surprise this was. Might be the 2nd game where I actually didn't skip past all of the dialogue. I checked it out for the weird surreal sounding story and the 'slay the spire' type cardgame bit. Both were really enjoyable, hats off to the dev for putting this much effort into a 'porn game' .

The more intimate and romantic parts were refreshing, nice touch. I could go for more stuff like this.

Normally I don't go for honey select games, but this was pretty good, wasn't bothered by the renders.

Visuals: 8/10
Story: 9/10
Coom: 7/10
Feels: 8/10

great game, can't wait for more of it. especially the sleeping interactions. amazing story, great graphics, and phenomenal music. fsdaf dsaf ds ad saf da sd as d saf dsa fdsaf dsf dsf dsf dsf dsf sdaf ds s fds fdfs fd sdfds fs f sa f sdf dsaf dsf s af dsa fd sf ds fdsf dsf adf sa as s

Lots of potential here, you can tell the dev has a great vision for this game and I'm very excited for where it will go in the future. Not much content as of yet, but everything so far is high quality and interesting. First thing I noticed, aside from how adorable the girls are, is that this game just oozes atmosphere. The bleak and mysterious apocalyptic setting, corruption/sanity mechanics, and dangerous exploration/combat give it a very unique feeling compared to other erotic games.

Astral Lust is definitely a game to keep your eyes on and consider supporting. I'm positive that future updates will lead to this game getting an explosion of popularity and funding so the dev can dedicate more of their time and resources to it.

[Review of 0.1.1]
Great Card Battle mystery game!
MC isn't a Teenager and he makes grown up choices.
Optional Dark path available (blackmail/coercion/rape) in a post apocalypse world (strongest gets to decide).

Still early days, some mechanics have been developed but not implemented but still playable.

V0.1.1 review
A great game so far, I like the girls, the gameplay, and the story.
So far, there is no NTR (that I have found) and a little corruption, so I like this a lot.
Keep an eye on this, it's very promising

Pretty early without a ton of sexual content but it looks very promising. Hints throughout of exact planned releases for interactions per patch is always very inspiring.

I love the explore animation looks really cool. Card combat is my jam, even if its a bit wonky for the setting. But better rewards for defeating scarier monsters so thats cool.

Upgrades and stuff is kinda grindy, but I cheat that shit anyways. All the character interactions are fun and exciting, and theres already branching story elements that close back up which means lots of fun content without it getting bogged down into an excel spreadsheet of figuring out how to interact with every character


4 stars since its early, but I expect this to be a 5 star game easily. Pretty much just depends on content output rate. Much love

ps let us rape the Asian bandit chick model after winning instead of getting a card