VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Bare Witness [Ch. 5] [AlterWorlds]

Review for Ch. 5

If you like dating sims I think Bare Witness is decent enough that it could be worth a play. If you aren't into dating sims, would I say you're truly missing anything by not playing this? No, I personally don't think you would be.

I'll mention first I played the harem path only. Normally I hate choosing, but outside the four girls you can end up with in the harem ending, one I just didn't like and the other had a nice sort of side path with a satisfying closure. There's like ten other endings and parts of other paths I just didn't see, nor did I want to really. Onto the review.

The overview mentions a "major upheaval" and potential "further disaster" This is my first problem with the game. Long story short, the MC has been placed into witness protection due to a traumatic event and is forced to sort of begin a new life. On paper sure this sounds interesting enough for more unique spin on a dating sim. In reality? The game did next to nothing with it. If you maybe had the idea that this would be full of thrills and intrigue you would be very wrong. The game is actually 95% dating sim. Where all the events are focused solely around the different girls, and that remaining 5% randomly shows up only to say "hey don't forget the MC still has this mysterious past and is in WITSEC!" Queue another bit of backstory reveal and hint at future danger that only ever comes around in the very end of the game (which then gets a very weak conclusion). This aspect feels shoehorned in to a detrimental degree.

Though as much as I ragged on that part, it's still only a small part of the game as a whole. It wouldn't be a huge problem for me if the actual dating sim /romance plots hit and managed to make up for that. Unfortunately they did not.

There's a couple reasons for this, but my main one is as follows: When I'm sitting down to play what is mostly a vanilla romance game, I want that romance to really build and feel intimate. I want to fall in love with the girls as much as the MC does. Playing this game did not give me that feeling. When I really thought about why, I think it's a pretty clear answer. The game feels rushed.

Never in my life have I played a game with this many montages. I can't fathom it was done for any reason besides wanting to save time and actually complete this. Which is fair, but I think it has harmed the game as a result. It feels like literally almost every date begins, gets cut short with a montage, and them abruptly jumps to the next event. This SUCKS dude. I want to watch these cute dates play out in their entirety. Especially in a dating sim, this is what would have gotten me attached to the characters. But that's not all. The game also thought "hey lets have like three time skips for no reason." So now all these sudden love bombs, established feelings, offscreen events, yaddah yaddah, you're just supposed to accept. Great if that works for you, but it makes these relationships feel so empty to me.

My last point of contention is specifically with the harem path. I was kind of disappointed by it. For a large majority of the game it didn't feel like an actual polyamory, but rather you're just on four solo paths that occasionally all intertwine for group sex. There were very few scenes outside of sex that showcased them all doing things even as simple as hanging out together. There were scenes, like Heide's dance, where I thought "cool, one of the other girls are here to support her, where are the rest?" as just one example. When you did get those scenes towards the end of the game, most of it was montaged yet again.

With that out of the way, is this game awful?' Not at all. Genuinely I think the girls are pretty cute and they do have personality, which is why I'm actually disappointed with how the game handled itself. The MC, while a little bland, also wasn't bad to play as. The sex scenes specifically are probably the best thing about this game, and I did like the inclusion of some lesbian stuff. Renders looked good and the animates weren't bad either. I will also say I turned the music off because I disliked most of the song choices.

TLDR: It's going to sound a little ironic considering this is a VN, but I want to watch the romance build up and play out proper, not be given constant summarized slideshows in the form of montages combined with multiple time skips. I do give props for this being a complete experience, but by the end of the game I found myself just skipping around to see the ending as I had lost interest.

Nothing else to say but 'Wow'.

Great writing, beautiful renders, a story that makes sense, is interesting and captivating.

A beautiful game, I enjoyed every moment of playing it.

What stood out for me was the length of it. It isn't as long as most other games and because of that it never runs the risk to feel boring or tiring to play. Sure, because of the short length, there is a thing or two that only makes so much sense but can be easily overlooked and doesn't disturb the pace of the game or how it feels.

5 stars are more then earned for this game in my opinion.

It was pretty good right up until the end, but the final chapter was a slog to get through - excessively long sex scenes, every woman squirted like their pussy was a god damned decanter, and in a lot of places it was clear that the artist didn't bother reading/listening to the direction the writer gave for a particular scene (wearing a light-coloured sweater and blue jeans when told to dress dark, and taking off a hoodie when he's not wearing one, for example).
Writing was a bit frou frou in general (especially during the confrontation with Joey Smiles), and on a lot of paths it didn't make sense that in the dream before said final showdown showed Joey Smiles by face when the protagonist apparently had no idea what he looked like.
After the drama was resolved (in the first 30-60 minutes), the rest of it was basically an art gallery to click through; it felt far longer than it needed to be, and just came across as the team going "oh shit, we made our patrons wait over a year for the release - we can't just put out an ending chapter that takes 1.5 hours to get through" and padded it out with unneeded images and sex scenes.

All in all, a fairly average game. Had some bright moments, but felt in the end like the devs were sick of it and wanting to move onto their next game.

First of all I wish to thank the Dev and the crew. I loved Bare Witness.
I have some minor issues.
All the girls just jump on the mc, no efforts, too easy.
I would have liked the chance to choose the girls i want in the harem.
I think the sex scenes would be much better with moaning.
That been told, I will rate 5 stars, story is decent, i loved the girls, the renders are great and so the animations.
Sorry for my english.

There have been a lot of games that have been shared on this website but unfortunately with the sheer volume of games there will always be good games and bad games. Personally, I find it the most disappointing to see games rush to end, or stop development. I found this game in completion, so I cannot judge based on the game's development. But what I found so nice was how much care the developer took in how he ended the romance. It was not just a single render with a title card but a series to reward the chosen path. I found myself playing the game multiple times just to see how the ending differ.

TLDR: Renders and Characters are beautiful. Consideration put into endings puts this game on the top of my list.

Excellent AVN, I like the overall feel good story with the LI's. The renders are great and the lewd scenes are very good. Definitely one to check out. If you dont like mushy I love yous, you might get an overload of it but I was ok with it. I will be looking forward to the next project from AlterWorlds

I really don't get the high rating of this game. I understand that much effort should be put in the sex scene since it is a porn game. And there are a lot of sex scene in this game. I am all for that. Trust me, my username says it all. But there is a reason people like me choose to read a visual novel like this rather than just straight up watch porn. We want the story, the connection to the character, the chase of the girl and of course the sex. This game barely provide the first 3 things.

Story and connection to the character are barely there. The dev kind just brushed off the background of MC, and his story never develop further than just a hot guy with big cock stuck in WitSec.

The chase of the girl? forget about it. There are no chase. All the girl practically throw themselves at you. Zenda, the girl you met on the train, called YOU and asked you out. Heidi, who had male stalker problem in the past agree on a male roommate without a second thought cuz she thinks you are cute. Which you then can choose to behave like the male stalker by creeping on her while her girlfriend eating her out. Not only will she condone it, but also encourage it. Athena, who is a hardcore biker chick with ton of tattoo and kinda standoffish in the beginning thinks she falling for you after a few online gaming sess with her. The cougar Val, will have sex with you at your first encounter in the afternoon after lunch. Your cousin Sadie, already had a crush on you for the longest time when the game start. Mora invited YOU to play DnD at her apartment after she uber you a few times. No chase for what so ever.

And there are so many "I love you" in this game and there are no build up to it. There is also a time skip element that make everything feel even more rush. Nothing feel earn. And If you choose the harem path (4 girls), you literally say "I love you" to each of the girls, one after another. They will say it back to you and they will say it to each other too lol

Most of the effort were put in the sex scene, and they are alright. Nothing special, most of the animation are quite stiff actually.

This is an excellent game and is worth playing if you're into the art. The devs put a ton of subtle visual detail into every scene, which doesn't always get commented on in the text, so it makes the game feel a lot more alive. It's not always perfect, but the sheer amount of content given to each different route is astonishing. The girls all feel incredibly unique and their quirks come across very well visually. Show dont tell and what not. This game also has some of the longest and most satisfying sex scenes ever, particularly in the poly routes.

That being said, the game does suffer from a little bit of girl bloat. IMO this game should have just focused on the four MASH girls and cut the rest. The biggest strength of Bare Witness is it's poly routes and while what we got was amazing, I would have liked to see more nonsexual interactions between S/M and A/H. I understand that it happens in timeskips, but it makes the initial groups scene feel a little off. Everything after that is amazing, though.

Shoutouts to the "Cuck Queen," who was, surprisingly, best girl.

Well this is an excellent implementation of the tired old genre of Harem games. What sets this game apart is that it (mostly) avoids falling into the traps of the genre.

The characters and the relationships develop organically and you don't need to suspend your sense of reality to follow the story. The writing and art are extremely proficient.

If I had to criticize it, I'd say that this doesn't apply to all of them. The game works best if you go with Athena/Zadie and maybe Mora and/or Sadie. Even then, there's a few disconnects in the story. Sadie's suddenly just there in a few scenes and a lot of important developments happen off screen for her. (Trying not to spoil anything here)

Zenda really doesn't make much sense and is more along the line of "Magic Dick MC" trope. The story would be better without her and more focus.

Either way, it's refreshing to see that something this good can come from this genre. It's just an excellent game.

This game for sure is S tier. The models are gorgeous, and the lewd scenes all flow smoothly with decent length.
Above all, the game had 11 endings. 11! Madness!
Huge respect for the creator. Thanks for the game.

This game will leave you with a good feeling after playing. This is for the following reasons:

• The MC is a genuinely good guy, who is - as far as possible - concerned about the girls and their well-being.
• The girls. Each girl has a unique personality and relationships with the MC / each other are affected by this. Devs clearly have the characters fleshed out and care about writing them well. While most porn games introduce a LI just to add another kink or clichee (like one is into rough sex, one is into BDSM, one is into role-play, one has daddy issues, etc.), this game remains pretty close to what I experience as realistic and the girls are able to communicate their desires and establish boundaries (given that the whole harem setup can be considered realistic at all).
• The renders and art works are absolutely beautiful. And since I like freckles and redheads, this game got me instantly hooked.
• The endings. It shows again that the Devs really gave much thought and effort on this, which can be seen in the differrent ways the story is resolved and the number of renders for each ending covering years of life with the chosen LI. It seems that Devs would have prepared enough story content for several more chapters but have been overwhelmed by coding the branching stories.

So I can give the full 5 stars, although - of course - the game is not perfect, which brings me to the cons.

• Main story is pretty standard and will not surprise you much. Although better than most porn games, it's remains a cover for the adult action.
• The time-skips could have been handled better. Feels like Devs had no real idea how to balance the daily / detailed parts of the game with the main plot taking months to unfold.

In sum, I can totally recommend playing this game (several times), have fun! Hopefully the Devs will keep up their good work!

It’s not my favorite VN on here but I decided on 4 stars because while it does have a blandness in the story and characters, it does so many obvious things so well that somehow so many games just don’t do.

I’ll start with some of my critique about the ‘blandness.’ Other reviews have touched on how the MC is basically given a secret superpower that he’s a chick magnet without really any background or development into how or why. Things just happen, and usually fairly quickly without pretense. Moreover, while there is some uniqueness to the look of the characters, they all generally have a similar attitude and general behavior.

For the good, it’s one of the only harem based games I’ve played that is more down-to-earth in a poly-centric way, rather than just NTR or slavery. There is a development in the relationships and the care the MC has for the girls is refreshing to see. The polish really comes through though with the quality of, the render and animations - a place that many touted games with a similar small dev team struggle to reach.

Finally, while it is a harem game, there’s almost no unique or diverse fetish options. There is impregnation and one anal scene (afaik), but it’s a bit disappointing that with 6+ different girls, there’s not any real unique kinks or sexual preferences that I saw.

To expand on that, there is a very fun and hot that scene at the end with the girls (at least on my route) Why not have more of that? That one scene is better than like 90% of related content out there. If the dev(s) aren’t into suck kinks then I don’t fully get it, but if it’s also because they are into a kink then I’d [desperately] encourage them to create more in those directions.

This to me feels like a platform - this dev [team] should feel good about their ability to create a masterpiece. Maybe for some this is that masterpiece, but to me there is so much potential and I hope they’ll create something even better.

Renders, dialogue, music are all basically top notch. Wish more devs can learn from this one.

Story frankly a bit ordinary compared to the other elements. Highly recommended, be prepared for more than one playthrough.

That was very a good ending. This VN is very thought out. Good story simple but is very great. Best LI Valeria she is a package deal best LI path out there. I dont really mind the harem but I think the single paths are better. This is one of the best VN I played and it ends very sweet.

Review for Ch. 5
When I first started "Bare Witness," I was impressed. The game kicks off with an interesting and unique story, and the character models are very attractive. It really seemed like it was going to be a great experience.

Unrealistic Romance
However, the game quickly dives into the romance aspects, and this is where it starts to fall apart. The romance feels forced and unrealistic. All the girls seem to be immediately infatuated with the main character for no apparent reason. Take Valeria, for example. She wants to hook up after a short conversation in an empty bar in the middle of the afternoon. It feels rushed and makes her character come off as desperate, which really detracts from the experience.

Stellar Graphics and Sex Scenes
On a brighter note, the models and sex scenes are definitely highlights of the game. The scenes are hot and frequent, and the overall graphics are top-notch. This is where "Bare Witness" really excels, delivering visually impressive and engaging content.

Forgotten Storyline
And then there's the story ... almost forgotten about it. What started as a promising plot about witness protection quickly fades into the background. Throughout most of the game, you hardly feel like the events are connected to the main storyline. The focus on the witness protection plot only comes up at the beginning of chapter one and again in the last chapter. In between, there are just a few flashbacks to remind you of the initial story, but that's about it. It's a real shame because the story had so much potential but was ultimately underutilized.

Good gameplay
You might think that I really disliked the game but that is not entirely true. I just feel like a lot of potential was wasted. The gameplay in this one is simply perfect. Choices u make matter and there lots of paths to discover. So you can replay this game a couple of time to find different outcomes if you so like.

Conclusion
Overall, I feel kinda conflicted about "Bare Witness". It starts strong with a unique story and great visuals but falters with its unrealistic romance and lack of consistent storytelling. The sex scenes and graphics are definitely high points, but they aren't enough to carry the game through its narrative shortcomings. All in all, the game is definitely above average so four stars it is.

The game is interesting with various and beautiful girls, who - it's rare enough to take time to say it - change hairstyles many time (after some point, not before where they have 1 model only).
I liked how the "harem" option was in the story so it was good.
The story felt a bit quick/easy and there was no real plot after some point, it was just sex scenes after random little evens. I liked it but the pacing was off.

Heidi and Athena were really two gems, and I would have loved to see more of their interaction, more options, more variety in sex. As it is, the game is good but feels short.

Elite game, story is nice endings are satisfying and the characters look amazing, good variety in choices and characters lots of fun, 100% reccomend, athena bad af. cant wait for the authors next game.

A pretty good game.

The love interests are cool and the animation's nice.

The different paths available also make this game pretty replayable.

The different endings with each path really make the last chapter of the game rewarding.

My only complaint is that getting Mora's poly paths unlocked is pretty difficult.

All said and done, this game is pretty good.

I'm looking forward to AlterWorlds next game.

A pretty great game that gets better and better the further you delve deeper into the story. Graphics are great, and quality is pretty amazing. There are more than 8 different achievable endings that makes the game interesting. The story isn't something too far fetched from real life scenarios where it is relatable to many people, but has a hint of adventure in it. Overall, great game and would love to see the creator expand the game further, or just create new projects later on.

love it love it love it. unusual harem game where you can end up with four girls and two other girls induvidally. the story is full of suspense. The idea of witness prtection is genius, i kinda suspected something in the first chapter when he talked about where he was from or simply almost saying his real name. kinda sus. The girls are really adorable and lovable. also love the taboo with sadie, kinda kinky and i dont even need a patch for it. i am not really into Zenda tho to be honest she is kinda posh and pretentious. too classy gotta say.