VN - Ren'Py - B.E.S.T [Ep.5] [Dolyla]

I'm surprised that this excellent game currently has about 3.5 stars on average.

Granted, in its early releases it was not so polished, and managing the gameplay with 4 stats might not be that convenient for some (not me), but now at Episode 5, especially with "Official Walkthrough Mod" (DLC) it's a breeze.

(While the story actually varies with great mastery, depending on the player's choices).

My only serious complaint is that Ruby Suyun has that unnatural triangular face, like Asian girls in so many other good AVNs: Rin in "Long Road Home", Haru in "Once Again" etc. These don't look sexy at all, if you ask me. So why would devs use those weird models? And before you say that I don't understand or don't like the Asian type beauty, have a look at Zhang Ziyi or Qi Shu! That's what I'm talking about!

Still, there are so many perfectly cute and sexy girls here: the freckled redhead Grace, celestially charming Julia (sexy a bit like Scarlett Johansson, but more elegant looking), Antique Goddess Madison- and oh, don't let me started about Sofia!

You fall in love with them instantly. These characters truly have soul (Sofia and Julia were my favorite). They have interesting stories and plenty of screen time, including romantic interactions with enamored virgins and long and well executed sex scenes.

Renders and animations are top notch.

The story is intriguing, captivating, well paced and very well done technically (including the football matches and other dynamic action scenes).

Though in earlier releases you could have doubts about the veritability of that weird competition, in Episode 5 it receives a deep, even thrilling and philosophical explanation.

The dialogs are almost always perfect. There's some humor (e.g. Ruby explaining basics of AVNs) and attention to details, for smooth player's experience.

It's an interesting game. Endearing characters. Can't wait for BEST 2.

[v. Episode 5 - BEST part 1 - completed]

Ep 5 - End of chapter 1

It's a 3 1/2 star story that just scrapes 4 stars, as it looks so beautiful. The concept is good and had so many possibilities. However it promises something great but in the end fails to deliver as it lacks details, depth and explanation, with a few plot holes . In terms of the activities in the competition, there too much focus on football. What makes this worse, the football scenes themselves while looking beautiful are poor and seem to be done by someone who watched football once and has never played the game so are very unrealistic. What's with the smoking football all the time? It's ridiculous. The mind games such as over the token in the boxes seem over complicated to the point of boring and slow down the drama in the story. Not to mention the fact that we are ranked 20th going into the token room but there aren't 20 people in there and there's a glitch with some of the choices that don't make sense. Did the dev get confused? If not it didn't make sense to me. The intimate scenes while again looking beautiful lack emotion and take you out of immersion. They are short and have no choices in them so you don't feel part of the scenes. Essentially for a 10 GB VN it's surprising how little story there is, showing how the dev's main focus was on how beautiful everything looks rather than what going on. On so many occasions you feel there could be more detail and wonder why they haven't expanded on what's going on. It's good but it should have been so much better.

Review as of Ch 4

Really a mixed bag with this VN. It has pretty good presentation quality. Visually its at least above avg, if not very good. Pretty decent renders, models, ect... But unfortunately fails in narrative and storytelling.

Prologue starts you off on a private jet traveling from France to the US for the purpose of studying abroad. Meanwhile all the main LI, who are Americans and already enrolled at the university are also on the same flight. For absolutely no reason at all. Some suspension of disbelief is somewhat expected in what is a essentially a male fantasy, but this is utter nonsense. IMO the entire prologue should be scrapped. Or at least completely redone. Writing was also cringe early on. To be fair that does improve over time.

Delving deeper into the plot, the MC is an economics major studying abroad to improve his English. Meanwhile the only classes he has are economics. And his dialogue at least is written as perfect English. There is not a single instance of the MC misspeaking nor any struggle with his diction. So the entire pretext of this narrative is a massive plot hole. Now factor is this competitive B.E.S.T. program that no university would ever condone is utterly absurd.

May have been able to overlook the plot if at least the characters were well developed. LI are likeable and all but at best two-dimensional. And any antagonists having no development at all. Simply being a-holes for purpose of spouts of conflict. Then dev adds in cheap tactics trying to instill drama in LI backstories. Emotionally abusive father, dying mother, etc... But again there is no development to this so carries no weight to the player.

Some of the mini-games are OK. Tolerable if you're into that and at least, skippable if you aren't. One in Ch 4 though is a timed scavenger hunt. These are young adults ~20, not 12! I don't even like sports in general but the soccer elements were probably the only parts I enjoyed. At least that gameplay was grounded in some semblance of reality where I could find any investment.

Many of the choices are for developing your character stats. I'm not against the system in general. And it would offer some replay value except some require choosing between normal and behaving like a douche. If I wanted to play as a DIK there's already another game for that. Though 'creep' is probably more accurate. Too many black and white choices, not enough gray.

I'll give points this AVN isn't just another fap game. Adult content is there but not the primary focus. And there is some creativity in regards to the narrative. Translation was well done. Don't recall seeing a single typo or grammatical error. And writing did improve as it progressed. I'd even be open to checking out other projects the dev may pursue. Flawed as I found this VN dev has some talent. But I feel those talents would be squandered in continuing this one.

Good quality of animation, multiple endings, good job !
For a first game, you can be proud.
Still a bit confused to search for the last endings, but, well, it's the game
So continue like this, I'll follow the game evolution !

Good game and good characters. Finally, a MC who isn't ugly or stupid. The characters are very pretty and have good content. The story holds up, the villains are really bad ^^, but it lacks a bit of eroticism and clarity regarding the possibility of a harem or not.
A good start, although I'm hoping for a bit more length because these four chapters are quite short.
Special mention also for the humor and Mr. Cat ^^ for the moment 4 stars

The story is getting better and better, and the changes that were made in relation to the first versions were very good, the scenes are very beautiful, the characters have charisma, each with their own story and personality, and the routes are well done, as I said, the story is getting better and better as new chapters are released.

Seems I am easy to please because I felt entertained by the game, unlike some other reviewers.

What I liked
Girls are pretty and distinct from one another as well as other games
MC looks like a person, actually quite French
the premise with the competition is a somewhat different take on the school genre
The language, despite not written by a native speaker, mostly brings across what is going on. I was misdirected once when the options asked if you want to pass the test (well, duh) but should have been to skip the test. I have seen much worse before though, nothing dramatic.

What I did not like
the stat system. I don't like that you are forced to be a dick and to be needlessly rude occasionally to get certain points.
The opposing team is very one dimensional. They are evil without any plausible motivation. Despite being in the same classes as the girls and MC and thus being clearly recognizable they still run away without paying and even nearly assault a student. Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Overall I'd recommend to have a look

Review on Episode 3.
Good story
Graphic is average+ (textures of objects are really bad, girls are cool)
Animations are average+ (the last scene with Red on top of mc is not good imho)
It's a strong 4/5. Give 5 in advance and for better overall.
Wish all the best to the dev and complete this vn.

Update for Episode 5
Can't add something new to others. This game had great potential with good looking visual, different types of girls, cool vibe and other features. But it become another bad written common vn with cheap tricks to evoke emotions and not working mixed features.
Same problem as in The Mystery of Vaulinhorn. It wants to be something more then good adult vn but becomes a joke.

Hard to enjoy this game, it's so overly focused on 'being sporty' and football, it's really sad.

The MC ends up being so pathetic. The 'best' choices always involve running away from girls to do sport and touch guys.

The renders are good quality but make all the women football tomboys. The writing is so so,not engrish but verbalizing everything on screen is weird when communicating with women who naturally throw themselves at sad mc because he has nothing to offer?

Sex scenes feel just thrown in, between overly long dialogues about sports

Could not finish playing through. Felt the game was a waste of my time in its current form. Giving a brief explanation because I see some ridiculously high reviews that don't reflect the game.

1. Sex Scenes - There aren't many, but you can get one immediately... only if you choose Casanova trait. The lack of sex scenes makes this not worth the time investment, at least for now.
2. Renders/animations - Just above average. Definitely not cutting edge or particularly good. The animations I saw were not great.
3. Writing - Clearly not written by a native English speaker. The English version of the game is very poorly translated and is often hard to read. Even the overview of the plot uses the word "enigmatic" to describe the program the MC will be partaking in, but there is nothing enigmatic about it. The goal is clearly explained and there is no mystery - nothing difficult to understand - about it. The poor English translation really hurts any immersion in the story and should really be fixed by the dev for the sake of gaining in popularity and support. Overall, I find the plot/premise to be rather unrealistic.

I found the other reviewers to not be very accurate and I wanted to give my feedback for others who are trying to decide on spending time on this VN. I don't want to be overly critical of the dev or other reviewers, but this game needs a lot of polish to get anything close a 4-star rating. It's absurd that the rating is so high. I would wait a few updates to see if the writing gets re-translated and more sex scenes are added.

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..