VN - Ren'Py - B.E.S.T [Ep. 2.1] [Dolyla]

I recommend this game.
Excellent characterization of the characters. There are no sex scenes yet but for me it's ok, at the moment the emphasis is on the story and the MC's bond with the various characters.

v.Ep 2.1 (which i guess means episode 2 will be released in 10 parts?)

can't say i am a fan yet but liked the premise and delivery...up to a point.

writer ignores themselves by giving a long soapbox-y dialogue on rules for a VN, which are their personal opinions, and breaks their own rule on TMI for a start. not sure they spotted their own irony

then oddly, opens an economics class, of alleged adults, by asking a really dumb question. i cannot imagine there are many adults in america who don't know about the statue of liberty and i would accept this as a posed question to kids, not young adults. elementary school kids maybe?
first answers popped in my head were 'friendly fire' as made famous by old boney (cannon fire on french streets and yes i know he was only around 14 at the time of independence, but not all thoughts involve logic) which america took to with some alacrity in what was called a "civil war" to keep it polite and 'titles for cooks' because everyone is a chef now.
that may just my dark humour after an evening watching gervais and chapelle specials and the bear though

insert your own roll-of-the-eyes here -> [ ]

the rest of the time i read through with fluidity. some of the dialogue can seem a little immature but not childishly so.
i might have gone with describing the tournament as a knockout tournament instead of getting tongue-tied by saying it is an elimination tournament after already saying no one will be eliminated, but that's just me

art is pretty good for what i see on this site, but as my main focus is the writing, as ever, i may have missed any odd poses or something. was nice to see some sport action. nice to see a young m.i.l.f for once considering they normally get shown as middle-aged here despite age not being part of the requirement, on this i agree with the writer and will happily don my soapbox here in solidarity, this being a forum, not a game.

the recap exchange was a nice idea as long as it is not overused.

could turn out to be good. not top 5 good as no signs of that i can see, but certainly top 10 should the competition build the right kind of tension. it shows promise

*mic drop*

Review for B.E.S.T Ep 2.1:

I played through to the end of content and got 1 teasing scene and two kissing scenes. That's all. The gallery shows that there are only 7 scenes total. I'm seriously wondering if the tags are correct for the current content.

A few of the girls are cute, but that's all the game has going for it. The writing (in English) is poor, the story is poor, and the gameplay is poor. The gameplay appears to be mostly just guessing what choices will raise stats to the correct level to allow the player to see different scenes with different girls at some point in the future. Basically, it's intended to be replayed a few times to see the available scenes. Sorry, but the game just isn't worth replaying. I would've tried the multimod but the thread for the multimod indicated that it was broken when I played and I have no intention of going back and guessing over and over to see all of the scenes.

I think I'll just check the discussion and reviews after another 2 or 3 updates and see where the game is going, and maybe replay it and give it a proper review.

First minute of the story and mc already said "sorry" five times and was labeled with "perv" nickname by some stranger girl if you chose to check her out or "redneck" if not and he cant do anything about it, what a great story beggining) I already can predict that mc will be soft undecisive pushover through the rest of the game, but contrary to reality and thanks to dev writing, somehow he will be capable to make girls panties wet.

Conflicts and interactions between charachters so childish and unmature, they feel more like middle schoolers than adults to whom I can sympathize. Add here bad English, weak unnatural dialogs and choice based points system which doesnt make any sense and you will get this game.

I played on the english version and decided to give it a 1/5 because of many reasons and I will list them.

Dialogue 1/5
I could barely stand reading anything: a lot of misspelling, no capital letters and very cringe dialogue. The characters make references to Rag'n'Bone, game of thrones, pokemon, visual novel cliches (4th walling) and some french pinky and the brain. The diagloue reads juvenile, also unnecessary dialogue and did I mention very cringe?

This desperately needs to be proof read and edited by a native english speaker that knows how to write human beings.

Character 1/5
The terrible dialogue just drags down the characters. MC looks like an incompetent goofball. Ruby is comedic relief in a parody. First impression of Grace is her getting drunk the evening before her first day of uni. Getting a headache while drinking and then touching herself. I don't even want to go on.

Story 1/5

Is the story really a mixed gendered corrupt blue lock in a university setting and the main prize is a job position as an assistant and 500k cash?

"Gameplay" 1/5

Choices and point system makes no sense, you not talking to a girl doesn't give you education points or else everyone here would be einstein. And I don't know why you would get temperament for molesting a girl. Either way besides that it's the laziest thing I have ever seen when you make choices Buddy/Education/Sport/Temperament instead of showing dialogue. It break the pace of the story and immersion imagine you could respond to someone and instead of thinking of what you would say to someone it's just "Passive aggressive".

(Also a side point the font is terrible)

There are some things that I do like the renders, animations and music are pretty good. If I made a score system it would be higher than a 1/5 but I feel like when the dialogue is this bad and the story is even worse and there is no reason to not just hold skip and look at pretty pictures. And that would just make is visual and not a novel.

I don't think the story is salvagable, if the dialogue gets changed and choices show us what the MC would say that would definitely bump this game in my opinion from a 1/5 to a possible 4/5

The game is very promising.
Story is good, girls are not falling for MC for no reason.
Also, harem path is optional, so you are able to pursue single girl if you want to, and that's great, I am really tired of harems lately, I doubt the story will change depending on the girl you choose, but I hope there will be at least decent endings (epilogues) for solo LI paths.
Girls are very beautiful. My fav is Grace, damn, she is gorgeous, her solo ending will be my canonical. Ruby is great as well, interesting personality.

Anyway, can't wait for steam release, added to wish list as well.

Regarding v0.2: I have totally mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand cool renders, on the other story that stands still.
The whole update 2 is only about explaining to the player what is ... AVN ... In general not sure what this story is all about...

Renders - 4
Story - 3

Because in VN the story is more important than the renders ( ) so for now 3 stars is the max and I've to wait a few updates before playing again.

I think author focuses too much on cutscenes, which are mostly unnecessary (animation entering the stadium -> what for?, animation of people in the hall of the academy). Waste of time, better use it to create decent animations in the future since it's AVN

I wish you luck, I can see a lot of work put into the game.

The game deserves 4 star as renders are not refined, but as it is in early stage giving it 5 star.
Story and choices were good, the premise is interesting.
lack of mini games is definitely a bit disappointing.
some renders look completely washed out.
A bit of conflict b/w girls would be great.

While its far from perfect this college game has a few good elements going for it already that carry its weight amongst other similar genre titles out there
Humour is spot on to match some known buddy comedy moments in college games, The choice of love interests seems pretty good and varied and the writing while in need of an english proof reader before release just to tweak and edit a few common dialogue points, isnt as bad as some foreign native visual novels out there..
Its one i'll watch going forward but the patreon option is a no go due to such HIGH base rates to even just support without any extras.. needs a lowest amount to just give people chance to donate a basic amount each month..