Ren'Py - Ataegina [v0.9.8] [Kthulian]

Update 6 months later (5 March 2024): due to the affection I still have for Ataegina, I decided to go back, to see what Kthulian has been cooking all this time.

I must say that it's gotten quite a bit better, enough to start leaving a better taste in my mouth again.

Subplots and main plot have picked up pace and started to make sense, though my question is whether it was too late to fix how sleepy the first two thirds of the second act are.

One more star, back to a passing grade.
Looking forward to the latest updates, to see how the remaining endings end.

Ataegina, Act 1: 4/5
Ataegina, Act 2: 3/5

I can't understand why this game is popular. The girls have no personality. The plot is scatterbrained and incomprehensible, at least for the first few hours. The combat is boring as hell - the skip button is its only redeeming feature -, the girls are a lot less attractive outside of the select screenshots. You have no choice but to be a voyeur on a bunch of other people's sex scenes, many of which are gross. The MC has a girlfriend at the start, so everything you do with anyone else is cheating. There's a ton of creepy shit, including a bunch of characters about to get sexually assaulted before the scene cuts out. Redeeming features? I can't think of one.
Often, when I don't like something, I can say "I just don't think this game is for me." And leave the reviews to the people its catered for. But here, I'm not sure whom it's for, or indeed how it's for anyone.

Finally came back to this game and I have to say it's very dissapointing. With the lack of any animations except for 2 extremely short ones in Act I, which you really can't call them that, is pretty bad. This game falls in with a lot of other games that I've played that lack any animations. The punctuation and grammar need a major overhaul. Maybe in another 2 to 3 years with a major overhaul this game might actually be worth downloading again. In its current state I can't justify giving it a higher rating than 2 stars. Plus the lack of any direction in storylines with quite a few of the npc's/LI's in the game.
Basic reactions and poses make it pretty boring and no way unique to 90% of the games that I've played over the last 3 to 4 years.

It's a real shame the dev copies a lot of other devs forcing the players to play multiple paths just to see all of the content.

There's something about this game which is very likeable. It's not that the renders are spectacular (although I do like Bredita's hips for some reason), it's not that the story is masterfully written, it's more that the game is just fun. You get the feeling this is something made by someone who just likes doing it, the story is simple and pulpy but fun, and updates are very regular. I didn't think this would grow on me as much as it has, but it turns out those things count for a lot, and I always look forward to updates. It's just good fun.

Ok, I gave this one an honest shot and decided to chime in my 2 cents. Played until about the midway point of Act 2. Most of the time a shitty story gets saved with hot and sexy H-Scenes....One with great build up, animation and hot action. Other times, shitty scenes are saved with a brilliant story, wonderful writing, characters and even good gameplay.........

This really has neither. The story is ok, I like the fantasy setting and the characters are personable and easy to get into to.....BUT I ended up skipping through the story as it seemed to slough on after a while. The sex scenes (While many) are just really poor....most are one or two frames, you might get lucky enough to get up to 5 or 6 on some, no animation except for 2 that I seen in Act 1. There's just no passion whatsoever put into the scene. I understand if the Dev can't or doesn't know how to do animation but these scenes are really flat.

Overall, I doubt I'll come back to this one as there are plenty of other stories out there that are better and also put a lot of effort into their "sexy time"

A must-have for fantasy game lover with a warlock mc who rapidly grows his magical powers. 3 different paths depending on how you wanna play good. neutral or bad. Different variety of Lis ranging from human, devil, demon, elf, ork who are all attractive. Is a harem game so no need to choose one.

Has a combat system with magic spells which is skippable for people who want to avoid it.

Sandbox is annoying but mostly present at the start then its pretty much a visual novel.

(Version Reviewed: 0.8.3)

I think Ataegina started off really well (part 1). The premise was unique. The writing was acceptable. The renders were good enough at the time when it released. My major gripe with the game is that it just stays at the same level with barely any improvement despite it's 5 years in development.

I liked the three different paths (good, neutral and evil alignment) and the different girls available in each path during the part 1 of the game. By the time part 2 rolls around even if MC is in the good path, he is likely to get the LIs from the evil/corrupted path too. I wasn't a big fan of this decision.

However, the foundation of the game is solid. I'm somewhat invested in the characters like Kat and Rio. In the end it's difficult for me to drop the game despite not liking it as much as I did in the past.

Overall - 6.5/10.

So I'm gonna do a good old pros and cons, because it feels easier to express my opinion about the game this way.

Pros:
+ somewhat interesting fantasy story
+ many different and attractive LIs. I especially liked their body proportions, no oversized boobs on 4 out of 5 girls.
+ despite the quantity of LIs and this being a harem game, they aren't just brainless women whose main characteristics is to worship the MC
+ a lot of content. Anything else would be a big disappointment after 4 years, still a plus though, especially for new players.

Cons:
- sex scenes are pretty bad. I actually started to skip them at some point. They are not only pretty bland to beginn with, they are also all very similar.
- especially during Act 1 the renders are often very dark. In general the lighting is pretty bad
- alignments seem to make nearly no difference. I played an evil MC and never felt like I was playing an evil mage. I didn't expect to play a murdering psychopath and get a completely different story, but there was just nothing. Especially Act II seems to be very streamlined.
- too many LIs. I know, I also mentioned this as a pro, but the screentime of each LI is severely limited.


neutral:
- useless free roam sequences. They are mainly just annoying and not very time-consuming, that's why I didn't put them in the cons, but the game would be better without them.
- no animations (doesn't bother me personally, but seems to be important to some)
- fighting minigame (it's not very good, but can be skipped)
- render quality. Overall it's not terrible, but also far from good. Some pictures are outright ugly because of badly chosen backgrounds. Even the better backgrounds are not good though and often very distracting. In general, the generic backgrounds are a big weakpoint.
- This is one of those games where you never see the MC's face. Personally I hate it, because imo it does way more harm than good, for example it seriously limits the possibilities during sex scenes when you can never show the face, you can also show no emotions etc., but this seems to be a subjective thing so I put it in the neutral category.

Summary: I kind of liked the game and don't regret the hours I spent playing it, but I honestly can't decide if I should recommend it.

+ Plot
+ Characters
+ Fantasy theme
+ Some quests
+ Frequent updates

- Scenes (without animation)
- Bugs

In generally I liked. I hope the developer will improve the quality of scenes and add animations. 4/5

The only game I've ever played (and I've played a lot) where the sex scenes annoys me cuz of how focused I am cuz of how phenomenal the story and the rest of the game is! And also one of the 0.01% of games that makes me feel guilty af for not being able to pay. Hopefully I'd very soon.

I was first really interested because I normally like fantasy game, but I was very dissapointed.

Story:
I was bored the entire time and just started skipping most of it, the biggest reason is probably all the "meanwhile" scenes, which is really bad I don´t care what other characters do I want to see the main character, there were also way too many Ntr scenes which I just don´t enjoy.

Gameplay:
There are a lot of elements of a sandboy game but it isn´t one so they just felt time wasting, there are a lot of choices which is okay, you can also chose to play as a very good or very evil guy, but it doesn´t really matter I played as evil as possible and the story doesn´t really react to it in big ways. There is also a turn based combat system which is not really exciting but it worked and there isn´t too many battles so it´s okay.

Sex scenes:
Very bad and boring, dialogue is not really kinky or anything special just bland, there is also no animations for the most part.

Characters:
They just are nothing too, the main character had to be saved so many times that I really didn´t like him, all the other characters just feel lifeless and I can´t really remember any of them, there are also way too many and none are flashed out in anyway, the girlfriend of the main character for example, I can´t say anything more about her than it, when she shows up it´s always the same talk about nothing important have sex and that was it.

Character Models:
They are okay I didn´t really find anyone very hot or cute, and if I just see the model they could very well be from other games. There are also a lot of fantasy creatures but none are really creative, nothing will surprise you.


I wouln´t recomend to play it

4/5 rating as of v0.7.6

This is a fantasy harem game. The story is entertaining, there is good variety in the LI character models, and the dialogue can at times be charming (Kat/Ayna/MC interactions in particular).

What prevents it from getting 5/5 for me? Three reasons:

1) Unskippable sex scenes not involving MC. I did not need to see Suntako and Lilliath, the devil twins, Bredita and her subjugated paramores, etc.

2) The 'Meanwhile' narrative structure is jarring at times, wrenching the player between locations to provide third-party omniscient perspectives of what the antagonists are up to. I feel strongly that the narrative could be greatly improved if these behind-the-scenes moments were revealed to the player through the eyes of the MC at appropriate narrative moments, rather than contemporaneously as the plot moves forward.

3) MC's penis and ejaculate volume was nerfed sometime in middle of Act 1. Presumably some players complained that it was 'too unrealistic' and so the dev made both smaller. Sorry, but this is an ego-trip fantasy. 'Too big / too much' shouldn't be in the realm of possibility here. Perhaps an alteration spell will restore MC's anatomical prowess? One can only hope ...

Best of luck to Kthulian in bringing this to a strong finish! Kudos overall on an entertaining game.

PS - I am glad this didn't turn out to be a meta-game where Lust wins if the player gives in to lewd desires with any of MC's decisions, though that might be pretty funny that the only good ending requires a pure Love playthrough with a single LI only.

Good game, not a fan of dev and his attitude, makes me wanna give this 2 stars but I'm rating the game not the dev so, yes even if he releases it for free I don't approve bullying or unnecessary attitude.
3 stars. good score i would call it, I like the game but to me I just click like a mad man on locations on this sandbox mode, but i can't call it sandbox either when all is scripted for us to do it anyway, but we have to click the locations even if they have no purpose. As I may have missed where I was going, commonly, and somehow I always manage to click the right location last, always!
How to explain easier? You have locations, with no reason at all, actually it can be removed and should be, but you gotta click the right location or you can't go forward, this brings down a star. It's tedious as hell!

Else good game, good story, I mean nothing noteworthy that way but good. Good renders, good characters, good writing, good yada yada.

5 stars would need some of my kinks and fetishes. I got kinda tricked in to this game with the femdom stuff and cosplay.

Also this review is based on first part of game, as it didn't have any outstanding femdom, like none. I quitted it.

So if femdom isn't your thing, you can see this as a 4 star review, maybe.

For the most part this is a very good game. Lots of good scenes, a pretty decently sized roster and a decent story behind it. Pretty good game to consider for those looking for a game with large amounts of content to dive into.

There are some points to consider about this game, though, that would be of interest to those considering the game:

- Game has some open-world point-and-click features which aren't really necessary as most of the game is pretty streamlined, so there's some parts of the game where you'll be given multiple options despite there being only 1 location where and event is taking place. Example of this would be the college. Around 10 locations but events only happening in 1 at this point in the story. If you know beforehand that's all good, but if you don't you'll be spending time clicking through each location to not miss something.

- 3 different routes with some scenes being specific to certain routes in Act 1.

I don't really know why I haven't reviewed this game yet, but I will now. This first section will be focused on Part One, and I'll get to part two, if my thoughts change, later. As of right now, I'm still in the middle of part one. According to the forum, this game is now FOUR YEARS old. And my god, does its age show. Barely default DAZ models, a RenPy UI that looks as if every individual aspect of it was made by another person that had no contact with the rest of the team, the dialogue box can fit ONE LINE of dialogue so characters lines are broken up to fit on screen. Just about everything about this is a mess. On top of that all the CG's are poorly lit, posed as if they're playing with barbie dolls, barely taped together, and at best look like they're all just layers in a photoshop project. And the developer left in parts that say "This is still in development do you want to change stats?" If you can't be bothered to edit stuff like that in a project, what are you even doing? But for whatever reason this is comically bad so i kinda enjoy it.

You play as MC, the chosen one with immense magical power that fights off invaders as a child and loses his memories. There's 8 stats on screen at all times unless you click the ugly eye icon, and you will never be immersed after you start to see the UI. Anyway, Ayna, the archmage of hogwarts finds MC and takes him to learn about magic. He spends years there learning 5 POINTS worth of magic. And I wanna say that you get a bunch of other points just walking around the first pointless free-roam section. You also miss any sort of interactions with any of the characters you're supposed to interact with. The driving factor is "do you want to save the world?" or "do you want to rule the world?" I guess. But because the MC is treated as an autistic amnesiac, and you the player don't know anyone for more than a few lines of dialogue, nothing feels "worth" saving. And one could make the argument that that's "by design," but you know FULL WELL it's because the writer didn't do their one job and write and decent interactions. Instead it's a very simple "chosen by god" story the real twist is the writer gave everything and everyone names that are impossible to pronounce because they sound like something that might be in a dungeons and dragons book. Even the name of the game itself "Ataegina" my best guess is it's pronounced "At-ta-jee-nah" but what do I know?

Before I digress further, MC graduates hogwarts and is immediately given two quests and both times he's knocked unconscious and someone else solved his problem, but MC is the chosen hero? Every time the MC is in danger or has to do something, the same thing happens. It cuts to black, MC has a dream about something, and the issue is suddenly resolved off screen by someone else or just nothing at all. And every time he comes in contact with a love interest, they don't like him for anything other than "his aura" or "the power emanating from him" You know, things you the reader will literally never know or feel? And as it stands the MC himself doesn't even feel it until the end of part one. And there's not enough room in the textbox for a narrator to describe it, the closest you get is MC starts to feel dizzy because there's a space rock too close to him. Eventually MC gets caught in a battle between the elves and slayers, and after fending them off, a character that you have had exactly TWO interactions with, runs to him crying and giggling that he's alright. And MC thinks "I've never seen this side of her before" YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANY SIDE OF HER BEFORE. And because there's no indication on whether or not the scene you are currently watching is happening right now, is a flashback, or just an illusion, you never know whats actually going on. And because none of the characters age and the locations stay the same, the flashbacks look the same as current events, adding to the confusion.

By the end of part 1 MC has passed out and been concussed enough times to kill somebody. And next to none of the sex has anything to do with the story because MC only flirt/interacts with three of the characters, the rest are just like "Yes you're a man in my vicinity, lets do the sex." After getting to Part Two, the UI is slightly better looking. The "relationship status" screen though is actually worse and has a TON of unused space. And then MC goes and talks to all the other wizards and they essentially say "Let's consolidate your skills and make them cheaper to cast" (even though we all know you just skip the battles because the battle system is sluggish at best) And the only other improvement, I guess, is the renders are lit better and don't look like photoshop layers anymore. But the story is still stale and in part two the story isn't advanced yet, as of 7.5. I'm 90% certain this will never be finished or, once it is, the dev will start "remastering" it instead of starting a new project.

If you like campy, "My first DAZ sex scenes" and cluttered UI, go nuts. This just isn't interesting after a certain point and while I think it needs a "remaster" it needs so much work it'd be a different game. I had a bit to say because I remember liking it, but once again, it's showing its age.

Version reviewed: V0.7.2
Edit: added a conclusion

Synopsis:
A nice vanilla harem fantasy adventure
Ataegina is basically just what you expect from it:
A power fantasy about a guy set in a run-of-the-mill fantasy world who starts out as a nobody and grows into an incredible powerfull mage , picking up a host of nubile women along the way.

Gameplay:
I actually had to giggle when this game was called 'Skyrim + porn' in another review.
Catchy, but completely untrue. Ataegina is a DAZ slideshow, static images where you click through making branching choices, just like any other Ren'Py game. Also, the story has nothing in common with Bethesda's big seller (more on that later)
Although a Ren'Py game it is not a purely VN, the gameplay has some sandbox elements (not that often though). There are also combat scenes, which are pretty basic and very easy to win. You can even skip them completely if you don't feel like it (you win automatically in that case)

Story:
Skyrim + Porn Diablo meets Harry Potter
That's i; there is a magic school, Demons, Devils, Orcs, Evil Emperialist Humans, Elves. Sword Swinging, Fireball Tossing, Eternal Good vs. Evil struggle etc. etc.
(No, you will not find a pseudo Viking civilization or an extensive civil war scenario here, there are dragons though....)

Like mentioned in other reviews the game starts of strong but escalates in a string of x-scenes later in episode 2.
Some small side quests can be started but are completely forgotten and never mentioned again further down the line which is odd.
You can choose to play an Evil or a Good path but on the evil path you miss out on a lot of sex scenes.
All in all, nothing new or exciting but nothing particularly bad either.


Visuals:
The LI's are a bit of a mixed bag, most are really hot, like Isabella, Mida, Katherine or Lust (!!),
Others not so much (the dark elf mage or the farmers daughter, ewwww)
In episode 1 there were some (very badly) animated scenes, in episode 2 they are missing complety.
Too bad, I think proper animations can add so much to the game.

Apart from the character models the backgrounds and clothing are Okish but not that good. It feels like everyone dressed up in their halloween costumes and just pretends to live in a fantasy world.

All in all, the visuals are servicable, sometimes great, sometimes a bit meh.

Music:
Now ,this is often an underestimated area for these kind of games but Ataegina really shines here. It has a very tasteful and fitting soundtrack which really helps with the atmosphere.

The Naughty parts:
The game features several metric tons of (static) sex scenes with a plethora of women to choose.
These are pretty tastefully done and not too short or long.
So, a lot of harem content but everything stays very vanilla, maybe because I mostly played the ' Good' path.

Conclusion
Ataegina is a nice piece of light entertainment. The main story is interesting enough but nothing special.
The gameplay is mostly a branching dialogue style VN intertwined with some sandbox moments. Turn based combat is very basic and not very challenging but gives some variety.
Sex scenes are quite pretty but not animated, LI's look mostly hot but environment not so much.
The music is very well done, scoring some bonus points for my overall rating.

It has a very good and interesting story.
The battle "mini-game" and music are also good.
The character design is between good and mid, but the story behind each character is still good.
The animations in act 1 are not good, so it's good that he cut them in act 2.

Overall 4/5 stars

A hot take but this game would probably be better in any other engine and not being a vn. The combat is not good, really basic and no thought required. Spam damage until you need to heal. Story seems rather good but not good enough to make up for the games short comings including aforementioned combat, poor animation quality, middling at best renders, and being a vn more than an rpg.

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to rate this game. I think it's very different to anything on this site in all the right ways, heavily story driven with erotic scenes thrown in, allowing you to follow your own path to a degree, progression at a steady rate, engaging characters and dynamics and a real sense that the world continues around you. This would of made it one of my favourite games on the site but then (in my opinion) the game just stopped evolving and became another go here, fuck her, go there fuck her, everyone is in love with you game. The story feels like it has abruptly halted, the characters are more and more one dimensional and the "game" elements have become either tedious or just dissapeared. At this point I would say it was a game that turned into a VN and lost a lot of the magic (pun intended) it initially had.

Overall I love this game. I knew I should've waited to DL until it was done because now I have to wait for the story to be complete and try to remember what happened and I hate that. It has it's blemishes that need correction but it grew on me so much I decided to subscribe which I don't do often due to my fixed income. The dialogue in the beginning was pretty meh, but got better as the story progressed. There are still some grammar and spelling errors as well as unnecessary dialogue at times. The use of "Oh God" during sex scenes is immersion breaking and comical considering their religion is based on Ataegina their goddess. There does not appear to be a male deity existing in the game world. Some of the renders for the characters are bizarre such as the Farmer's daughter who looks like a mutant with her face, and the cat folk IMO could be rendered with better art because they look very strange. I love the music tracks especially Celtic Garden. The game comes at you at a very rapid pace. The MC is always tired because he hardly ever gets a break to rest and relax and that translates to you the player. More freeroam time would be appreciated to follow up on quests that are presented. Early on in Act I you are given a quest to help a carpenter in the village find his tools, but you are never given the chance to complete that quest before you are told that he disappeared. The same is true of other quests. It like they are presented then forgotten about in lieu of lewd content or a new fire that MC needs to put out. The best example is the Silver Dragon quest where she asks MC to find her stolen egg. The MC speaks with the Archmage to find out more about dragons, meets the Archmage's Dragon friend, discover that completing this egg quest would net MC a Dragon friend for life and then nothing. The quest is forgotten. The game is feeling like as it progresses the story is driven more by Patreon subscriber polls than the developer's vision and desire to tell a story. This is why at present I would give it 4/5 stars if I were to rate it. It's still one of the best games on here though.