VN - Ren'Py - Banking on Bella [v0.08a] [Profile Game Studios]

I just gave this a quick try, but I gave up before I got too far. On the plus side, there are some nice looking girls, and the English is, for the most part, pretty decent. Unfortunately, I found a couple of the characters to be entirely unpleasant. When the game mentioned consequences of one of my decisions, but everything indicated I had made the opposite decision from the one I made, I called it quits. There's potential here, but I believe some of the things that bothered me are too integral to the story to be changed, so I am probably done with this one.

Game version: [v0.03a]

The game has a solid core but it's full of too many little things that annoy the shit out of me.

The renders are good and the writing is decent. I like the general setup and story, the MC isn't too shy or too creepy (depending on your choices) and it has some interesting love interests, including some mature women that actually look mature and don't have supermodel bodies, which is something you see way too rarely.

I think the implementation of the Dark/Charm point system is a terrible idea and just makes me download a cheat mod. Spending points to get scenes and then potentially having to miss out on other scenes is a bad system. I do like the choices in the game so far though, it's nice that there's a big range in your behavior, to the point that you can either end up on your knees saying "yes, mistress" or spanking bitches and being Chad Thundercock. There's rarely a middle path, but who cares, extremes are more fun.

The music choices in this game are an atrocity and basically the leading example for why many people choose to play these games muted. From the loud, obnoxious song with clapping samples that loops throughout the entire introduction to the completely uninspired selection of tracks you already got sick off ten games back. There are thousands of royalty-free songs on the internet, but devs choose to use the same like 20 tracks they heard in other games, it's just lazy and boring.

The story recaps the MC does when he goes to bed and when he wakes up are extraneous and incredibly annoying. I get what the dev tried to do, like give people a quick refresher on the story when they play a new update but it just sucks ass when you play multiple updates worth in a row. Cut these out except for the newest update. Or at least cut out the recap at the end of the day. Or just give an option to skip those sections entirely. Also, stop with the masturbation segments, they are boring rehashes of old scenes with nothing added, nobody cares.

The weirdest thing this game does is inventing made-up words and variations for things. I don't know if the dev is just super paranoid about copyright infringement or something, but Chris Hanson, Yahoo, or Uber aren't going to sue you for mentioning them in your porn game, that's not how copyright works. And even if it did, they don't care about you.

He even does this for races and ethnicities for some reason. Like, people will say "Mayacana" instead of Mexican, even though it's absolutely clear that they mean Mexican. Then there's like Polinski instead of Polish and Davorian for Russian I guess?

Oh, he also replaces every instance of God with "Gawd," not just once or twice, but literally dozens of times, even in phrases like "good Gawd fearing family." It's just fucking weird and takes you out of the game. Instead of being invested in the plot you just scratch your head and go "but why though?"

This game has the potential to become something great, but it needs work. I'll keep my eye on it.

[v0.03a]

I had a blast with this one. The writing is pretty good. Some of the characters are obviously outlandish, but there are enough normal people to keep everything grounded. It really does feel like a corporate setting with just enough finance lingo and office politics to make things believable (at least to us non finance guys). The core plot revolving around the workplace stays pretty interesting throughout the current content.

The thing I like the most was the way the game handles the love/corruption pathing. You build up charm points and dark points for the MC throughout the game. You occasionally have pivotal moments where you can expend these points to get specific results. I tried going all the dark stuff, but it's balanced in a way that you don't have enough points to go for everything in one playthrough. Some people may not like this, but I find it hits the right balance to make you think before spending points. And my god, are these dark point scenes satisfying lol.

The other thing I really liked was the character writing. They seem quite realistic, although some are obviously exaggerated (boss, company president). What I absolutely loved was the writing for the MC during the dark scenes. The MC can be comically dense and self absored sometimes. Minor spoilers for one scene ahead. For example, he might rape a lady and convince himself that she was leading him on. She is crying afterwards and looks a bit tramatized, but he is sure she loved it. He will text her later and assume that she is just asleep when he gets no reply. It sounds kind of sad when described, but it is really funny within the game.

Now there are some very very big problems that need to be addressed before the game can really be considered excellent.

• The game is extremely poorly optimized. In fact, I'm pretty sure it has memory leaks. The animations are laggy as fuck. The game just lags in random places too like in normal conversations. It's not just the game lagging, but the entire computer was slowed down by whatever was going on with this game. I don't have a gaming rig or anything, but I don't have this kind of problems on games with 10x better renders and smoother animations.
• The day end recaps are fucking annoying. Do we really have to go through the events of the day every night? As if that wasn't enough, the game does ANOTHER recap in the morning literally right after, often with the same exact text as what we just had.
• The facial expressions are just appalling. Like I know this could be subjective, but damn they make the most awful facial expressions.

It's still in development, but its already shaping up to be one of those games with a rich and complex storylines that one will need to play multiple times to get 100% completion.

What separates it from the rest is that its grounded in realism. You actually need to make the right decisions, or do the right things based on each personality you are dealing with in order to advance your relationship. But the developers seem to understand that in the end it is a game. Rather than delay all the action, they balance character development by giving you other "opportunities" to focus on in the meantime.

The only negative comment I have is the art. Its a bit inconsistent, but not enough to tank in that department. Most of the renders are great, but little infractions such as bad angles or poor lip/mouth art can be distracting sometimes. Then again this is the artist's first work, so there is definitely room to improve.

Overall, a great start and would recommend. I look forward to seeing the next installment. I will go and say that I will pitch in and support this group for selfish reasons. I do want to see where they take this.

The story seems like it might develop into something interesting. But as of now, it's average. It reads as if it was done using some kind of translate. Which I understand that English isn't everyone's first language. So it's not really that bad.
There are quite a few funny moments through out the story so far.
It's not a bad VN, but it's not good either. With some fine tuning it will be better.
The creepy priest is humorous, and in several background scenes.
The tutorial is quite extensive. The light bulb mascot is different.
Overall
I do recommend you playing through for your own experience. This is just my opinion.
Keep up the work.

The game is still relatively new but has decent content in it already. I like the story , the writing is good and if u prefer a slice of life story with no magic potions or dead parents you will enjoy it.

You can tell right from the first version that this team has it together with all the functions already working in the game and not having to wait 4 updates to get a working points system. As mentioned the point system is explained and you will actually have to manage them and make choices.

Renders are solid, this game will only continue to grow on people as it gets updated.

4.5/5 for "my" rating.
The Good:
There is a point system and an intro explaining how their system works.( I've played many games with a point system, but very few explain how their system works leaving you to play blindly to figure it out.)
Multiple paths throughout an office intrigue setting to rise to power, allowing for many replay options.
Well written dialogue with different shades of humor some really funny and others dry, both are a plus.
An active developer team willing to listen to suggestions and ideas.
The Bad:
The game is still in it's early stages, but the character name Bella whom is in the title of the game has made but one appearance. With it taking that long for such a character to be invited to a story, the title should have been named differently, IMHO.

This game has A LOT of promise.

Very Respectfully,
TheWrongGuy

Easily 5/5. Very enjoyable.
A lot of different characters with different personalities. The world feels alive and vibrant. Well written dialogue and different pieces of music. You have to manage money, love points and corruption points when interacting in different situations. No grinding and the points to be spent aren't scarce. Enjoyed every second of it. Looking forward to future updates.

Great Game with an interessting, fresh setting with "realistic" approach.
Fine tone of humor in the writing and one of the best written sex scenes i´ve played.
If the developers stick with their plans we can expect a lot more!

Hoping for more in the near future!

The game has everything, good renders, presents its premise in a good way with dates, relation points and carreer advance. But maybe it promises too much? I will certainly follow its updates and update review. For now its a 5/5 but maybe you should wait for more content. Reviewed version 1.00b

This is average in its essense. Has its good points, has its bad points, and that should be it.

But let's look at it closer.
The renders are mediocre at best. Lighting is done poorly, but at least the girls' models are great, yes? Too bad pretty much anyone can DL cute daz models.
Dialogues are okay. There are typos, errors, but not too much of them. Some conversations are even amusing. Characters, on the other hand, are on the dull and sometimes annoying side.
The stats system is at least somewhat original, yet as of now it all comes down to "make the expected dialogue choices". And yes, the choices are "do pervy stuff/don't do pervy stuff".

Overall, I didn't dislike it too much, but didn't enjoy it either. Could be worse, but could be much better as well.

Game looks promising. My rating is kind of advanced because it is early stage but there are ambitious possibilites like lot of choices and point system so it is not a linear something. Renders looks good animations are ok and girls are young and beautiful.

This is a v0.1, not a 1.0. I really hate being lied to, so lose points for that.

Good:
Most of the models are attractive, with some real variety.
There is an actual plot, with attempted social progression, multiple meters, and a lot of foreshadowing.
The stated goals of professional and romantic progress, of having to juggle professional, sexual, personal, and romantic concerns, and the multiple effects of interactions has a lot of promise and could make for a long and engaging game (with lots of replay value) without becoming repetitive.

The Bad:
Unclear systems and meters. The tutorial is a boring wall of text with a stupid light bulb mascot, so you want to rush through rather than read that bit.
The music and sound effects are loud, jarring, and sometimes incongruous.
The project is probably too ambitious for the team - the goals are really impressive and I hope to play the game they describe, but it's so far from the current version and so difficult to make that I don't expect the developers to actually finish this game.
The male characters all look pretty bad.
The older female characters, especially your bosses / executives, are that special kind of ugly only found in computer graphics and drug victims.
Some of the text sections are barely intelligible. Which might be intentional, but there isn't enough context for me to be sure about that.

Overall:
If the team keeps focused, has a good outline, and actually tracks all these systems then this will be an amazing game. If they don't then this will die an ignoble death.
Currently, it is too early to recommend but it makes for an intriguing demonstration.

Good game! I'am only test this game for about 30 minutes, but...
- the graphic is good
- there are many choice you have (not only yes/no, fuck her/don't fuck her)
- an intresting achievement system
- it's one of the most complex Ren'Py-games that I've played so far
- Good work!
- Oh, .... and thinking of the game: there are several unique and funny sentences (i.e. there are no graphic persons harmed in this game ... or so)