VN - Ren'Py - Bad Memories [v0.9.1] [recreation]

So far not much happening. More an exposition to the backstory of your character's situation than an actual game thus far.
Show plenty of promise which can be said of a lot of "fresh" games releasing. How many will survive to a full version is the question.
I'm interested in Bad Memories mostly for the story at the moment. This initial release, which seems more like a prologue, does well to introduce Rachel, Ellie, Jada and Katherine in a very short time - with enough backstory and current behaviour for Rachel (Step-Mom) and Ellie (Step-sister), while leaving a fair touch of mystery with Jada (Sister's friend) and Katherine (Therapist). This leaves the reader grounded in part of the story with enough mystery to want to delve further and find out more about the other characters:
What is up with Rachel? What kind of person is she really; is she who MC remembers or is she truly the way she's behaving now? Is she hiding something from MC and does it have something to do with her referring to MC as "hun"? If so, what is it and is it something serious, and will finding out change everything MC understands?
What's up with Ellie? Sleepy-time cuddles and intense staring at MC (among other quirks) are fine and all but what's going on with her? Why won't she speak even to MC? Was her past truly what Rachel revealed or did something else happen? Did MC cause this all and if so, how can he do better now?
The little mix Jada is being the standard naughty friend pushing Ellie from out of her comfort zone and seemingly into MC's arms. What is she doing and why? Is she serious? HIding behind raunchy behaviour/humour? Does she have any ties to Katherine?
Speaking of.. Who is this Katherine and why is she Ellie's therapist? What hides beneath her curt, icey character? Is she there to help or hinder MC, Ellie or even Rachel? Is she professionally involved with anyone other than Ellie, like Rachel, Jada, etc?
What's with the MC? He did something he thinks bad and felt he needed to leave his home town. Even that one police officer is nigh-harassing the MC about whatever happened in the past. Does everyone else know about it? How will this affect the story as it progresses?
There's also the cop but not enough development on him yet. Actually it's good the game has so few characters for now because it gives the impression of focus which gives hope of development and releases in future.
The story seems to leave many opportunities to develop, has piqued my interest, contains interesting characters and that's where I'll stop - I have a lot of ideas of my own where I hope the story goes or what possibilities there are that might happen but it's not my story and I'm not here to tack on my ideas through a review - the story looks good so far and I'm always going to complain about a lack of content because at the moment I want more but I hope you can play a "real ending" playthrough while being a gentleman.
Visually I'm hooked. I like the look of each character and the design of the scenes is very good. Models, lighting and character placement are used well with body position, facial expressions and the dialogue making events seem quite natural.
Rachel looks the part of what kind of character I imagine she is at the moment as well as the possible characters she could play - her looks fir the part of the step-mom.
Ellie looks perfect for the character as well; innocent, sweet, curious, slightly naive, playing things close to the chest and hiding a secret.
Katherine fits well too - she seems heartless and manipulative in the game which is perfect based on how she's introduced. What hides behind that remains to be seen.
No sound thoughts at the moment - they're not always necessary.
Once this game develops and is more fleshed out then my impression is that it will be great to play. Keeping my fingers crossed for that to happen and truly considering supporting the developer for it.

I didn't wanted to lose my rating-virginity to an unfinished game but... BM has everything (at least for me) which makes the base of a masterpiece! The renders are top, the story leaves a lot of room for your imagination.

I played it a few times in a row just to get every nuance which would tell me what's wrong with Rachel.

The Dev is really active in this thread, gives hints but doesn't reveal too much, so the motives of the actors are a mystery.

I love it! Thanks, @recreation for creating this wonderful game!

This is truly a hidden gem, still a little unpolished, but with great potential. The renders are very good (the ones with Ellie are so fucking cute) but what is really outstanding, is the writting and the story imo. When the MC comes home for the first time, that scene with Ellie peeking around the corner was so cute. I knew immediately that i like her and something is wrong here.
Very well done dev!

On a site full of erotic games, this one stands among the few in which the story really draws you in. In most games, I find myself skipping though or simply skimming pages of dialogue, but this is one of the rare exceptions in which the story itself drew me in and kept me fully engaged. This is not your run of the mill "son returns home after years to seduce the whole town" games. I highly recommend checking it out.

about Story : very interesting story line . 5/5
about graphics : excellent 5/5
about of content :its a pretty good start enough to love the game . 4/5
about dialogue : excellent dialogue . 4/5
about char. F. : they r all beautiful . 5/5
about bugs : no bugs found . 5/5
Note : after a few updated it will be one of the top 10 games for sure .
about me : the Rate ........5/5

Great story. I think this game could be one of the outstanding ones. The story, what is known so far, seems to be thought through and have a great potential to develop in something even better.
The Renderings have a good quality and the Characters and settings are well choosen.

Revised Review
by request of the Developer
08/25/19
Version: 2.1

The artwork of this game is extremely well done. Random characters that have no basis on the story are even made well as opposed to some games where you see random shiny black plastic stand ins for people who don't matter. Each of the characters that do matter clearly have more than just basic work done on them, they've been specially created for this game rather than using the same models other people have used in their games with just a few teaks.

The story: It's compelling, no matter if you're seeing it from the Male or Female side, it's same story but seeing it from a different perspective based on gender is actually rather interesting. There are thankfully some unique scenes between the two genders, though it would almost seem like the female version has seen more skin.

The story of the game is a bit of a mystery and the MC and Player both have about equal idea of what's really going on. Right now though it's nice to just enjoy spending time with Ellie and her oddball behavior. Which just cracks me up. (The VR porn scene made me snort). Whether or not Rachel is truly being upfront about if she wants to reconcile or this is all some trick has yet to be revealed.

The transitions are STILL by far the most annoying. You don't need both the white text on the black screen and the "Later..." thing to pop up. One or the other. Also a lot of those transitions would be better served with a place holder render or some signs of the actual events taking place rather than a black screen with white text that just feels cheap.

I will continue to play this one as I love the story and art of this game so much.

Honestly its a pretty good start to what might turn into something great. Lots of back story being put out there, and emotion as well. Looking forward to seeing where this gem goes in the future. Probably the first demo I've gone through that makes me want to tune in and see where it goes.

Pros: Recreation is a visual artist, and I love the work they have done in creating beautiful characters and renders. While Ellie may not be everyone's cup of tea, I think she has a beautiful innocence about her, as well as being highly original and human looking, with well-crafted skin textures.

The first game is long enough to tell the story and situate the characters so that the backstory is at least understandable. The closeness between the MC and Ellie is told well, but not in a bawdy way. Even though the MC has bad feelings towards his dad's ex-girlfriend, he manages to put them to the side and they start to develop a relationship.

The side characters (the therapist, Ellie's friends) are interesting as well, and show some promise for adventtures in the future.

Cons: The creator uses some unconventional ways to convey story information without graphics by going to black screen. They then use a grey text popup with timing from Ren'py but a glitch in the software is making that grey text persist into later shots. I am sure this is just a matter of playing around with the timings somewhat.

The story has some typos as well. Running things through a grammar checker would help a lot.

Overall sentiment: This is a game with story and graphics which was painstakingly crafted (which is very clear in the visuals) and carefully written. I look forward to how the story will develop down the line and will update this as more content is added.

Very compelling for beta gonna be honest.
This game has some serious potential, with all the emotions attached to this story I can really see it going somewhere interesting.

Ellie is the cutest, and the way she is portrayed is fantastic, I look forward to the future progress of this story.

I would suggest giving it a look, it may still be very short, but the potential is certainly there.

Finaly found a diamond amongst the far mayority of games... Game reads truly as a novel. Has an interesting storyline and beautiful graphics.
Although this is just a teaser version, no real nudity or sexacts, but there's a novel in the making. If Dev keeps this up, I'm sure he'll get some money out of it. Just keep on telling the story. no matter the sexacts all players want in the first three releases... Keep on building this novel with the strong start you've already done.
worth 5* all day long