VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Bare Witness [Steam Build] [AlterWorlds]

TL; DR

Good game with great characters, compelling story, and hot girls with a charming but beta MC. Little conflict and vanilla sex makes it a dull game in the long run but still good.

This is a good game. The characters are all nuanced and lifelike, they converse like proper human beings with feelings and unique motivations. In short, they're not one-dimensional and that's really a breath of fresh air here.

Not to mention they're all gorgeous, renders are top tier. Clothes and even food is well done, hats off to the dev. Story is engaging even though a good chunk of it is the unoriginal "boy goes to college" trope. I'll leave you to discover more.

HOWEVER! And this is a big one for me personally. The MC, while intelligent and otherwise charming, is a bit of a beta boy. He lets women do the seducing, ignoring even the most glaring of signals because... He's afraid of sex or something? It's super frustrating to see him so timid around these girls.

On the plus side, the music is great!

5/5

I rarely give 5 stars, as I'm a big believer that things can always be better.

However, this was just an enjoyable read.
Ya know those moments in a VN where you're like, ok he's totally about to wake up cuz it's going too well right now.
Well, that's pretty much this whole VN, except it's what is actually happening.

Is it realisitc? eh. Not really. Plausible though, so it works.

I was a little disappointed to see a lack of
The art was pretty good. Sex was hot. Dialogue was smooth. Characters developed well.
Conflict was nearly non existent, which is ok.

All in all, ya. I'd recommend it.

The game resembles reality in one way , you can fuck a lot of girls but you have to choose one at last . This choice is often uncomfortable, especially in games .
The overall quality of the game is good , but updates are surprisingly slow .
Other games have monthly and weekly update cycles , this game has a yearly update cycle . It's been updated three times in 1.5 year .

Game is pretty damn good, the renders are amazing and the writing is phenomenal, I also like how the girls all have unique personalities which makes certain scenarios in game quite interesting.
Overall enjoyable experience<33

First thing you´ll notice is that the girls are hot. Very. The sex scenes are hot (some have weird leg positions but whatever).
There are many sex scenes for a 0.3 version
Like a lot.
Like you go from one to another.
A lot.
Of.
You got the point.
The story itself is good but juggling the different paths is where this game falters. You cant say you love a girl then go out with another and love her too.. Unless you´re a dirtbag, but the MC is a nice guy. It just doesnt work. This needs fixing.
Oh and the MC was cucked. Doesnt matter if is was by a couple of girls still counts. F*ck that.
So yeah 4 stars i like it.

- The story is very interesting and well written
- The characters are interesting and believable
- The "art" (characters, background, animations, etc.) is very good
- The music is very well chosen
- Easter Eggs / Refferences from other VN's and Pop Culture.

Overall 5/5 stars

The other reviewer who mentioned the dialogue was kinda cringy piqued my interest so I gave it a shot myself.

aaaaaannnnd while it's not awful, it's enough to give the tab/ctrl keys a good workout.

So overall, artwork/renders are good, characters look unique, thats probably the main reason I kept plowing through it. Animations are hit or miss, some are great and capture subtle details, others feel phoned in.

Dialogue, as mentioned, is a low point. It wouldn't be so bad if like many other games on the site, it was just a translation/cultural issue. But this is clearly written by someone with a strong command of english, making it worse. Whats more, all the female characters speak quite normally and sound organic, which makes the MC's text so more out of place - I could understand a shy mc and shy girls, but the juxtaposition is so jarring...he's constantly whining and apologizing. A good vn shapes the mc based on choices, instead of forcing them into a specific personality.

Anyway, 2/5 - longer game and better dialogue could easily be 4star base on render artwork.

Everything about the game is great. Story & renders all really well done. Every girl so far is really interesting with cuteness overload and compelling backstories. Really difficult to choose between them all.

This game has some of the most gorgeous, straight-up sexy females put into a game. Just outstanding work.

And what makes it even better is they have awesome, unique personalities and quirks to match! The storylines on some of the girls actually showcase a good level of writing and character building which, maybe at this pointI shouldn't BE surprised when I find that in a porn game, but I still am.

When a harem game can make me actually forgo all other girls for fear of making my favorite jealous, you know it's damn good.

Played on Version 0.3
Really wanted to leave a Review because this gem right here exceeded all my expectations and is definitely one I'll be supporting whenever I can. First what's great about BareWitness :
+ Interesting and original plot, most things are tied well together and follow a more or less reasonable logic.
+ The characters, in both personality and design, are phenomenal for the most part ( Heidi is just ahh )
+ The music. Well placed, can be touching, and very appropriate for the different situations.
+ The choices actually feel impactful, and if I do something that upsets a certain girl, it succeeds ( perhaps too well ) at making me feel horrible.

As for the negatives, I honestly can't find any major flaw in the game for now, perhaps if I replay enough times I might notice something.
The game is the dev's first project, so I can't praise it enough and minor nitpicks aren't worth mentioning.

I want to like this game but the underlying tone of "men are scum but women are smart and can do no wrong" that keeps popping up coupled with how spineless the MC is just makes me think this was written by a feminist who really views the world like that. I mean there's even one instance he should've been rightfully upset at an accusation but brushes it off because "men are scum and goth girl is strong and scary".
Could honestly deal with the boring dialogue if not for that. I mean the first few times were fine but at some point I just felt like I was getting beat over the head with it.
I play these games to avoid that.
At a certain point, I couldn't even get into it anymore and just started clicking through then realized I might as well just close the game. The sex scenes were also kind of lackluster. It's not like I want a story that's the exact opposite of this with some creep MC because that'd be awful too. I just want ... normal people who touch grass occasionally. I can already feel like there's a good chance its' going to be revealed that the mom is going to be some absolute saint and it's all the dad's fault and he'll die off.
Renders are great though and I still like the overall plot. Played for Heidi and Mora who are great characters. Also, I feel like this might be more of a matter of personal taste than something objective. Which is why I'm giving it a "meh".

After playing a few Ren'Py games, I realize that it's not easy to finish a story properly. There are a lot of choices to make, and I think I need to start from the beginning. I may not have understood the dialogue well enough to make the right decisions, so I will take the time to understand it in my own language. Personally, I would have made it more challenging to have sex, but I understand that it requires more work. It's a good game, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

A very enjoyable game with a great set of characters and potential story paths.

The character models are fairly varied and well done.

Each of the characters is well written and although they more or less fall into some archetypes, I dont' think it's a detriment. The different personalities may push you into different choices and I think that's always interesting in a game.

The quality of animations is high as well.

Scenes and the environment are fairly detailed which is good.

The writing is also well done and I don't think there were any particularly jarring sections. Each character's story has good potential for expansion.

I almost never write reviews of games on this site, but this visual novel is a masterpiece. I started playing it in the latest version (chapter 3)
The stunning graphics make it a masterpiece, all the characters look almost natural, it's very nice to look at everyone (Athena is my favorite). What makes this game very different from others of this genre is a very good script. Yes, the hero here is super-strong again and gets everything with ease, the girls want him and all that. But the way it is served distinguishes this game from others - the emotions of the characters are visible. The characters themselves are well spelled out (for example, Mora), it was very nice to watch the plot. I especially want to mention the soundtrack - I think it's the best, it doesn't repeat itself hundreds of times, it sounds appropriate and therefore doesn't annoy (I even saved myself a couple of songs). Once again, this novel deserves the maximum number of points. Sorry for the cringe and my bad English

This is one of the first games I've touched since I started development of my own game. Decided it was time for me to take a break from my development to explore something else, and this was my choice. So, let's get into it.

Graphics/Art: It is obvious that the dev takes great efforts in their art and assets. The character are unique, the environments are fresh. Graphical quality is very high, and the animations are pretty good. There is certainly plenty of eye candy in the game, both in terms of lewd activities, as well as just the "day to day" stuff.

Audio: Bare Witness has full audio, which is great. While many turn off the music and sounds, I personally find that this detracts from games where devs have taken the time to do proper audio engineering. The music isn't the same royalty free stuff that appears in most games. It fits the scenes and the moods quite well. Recommend that you don't turn it off!

Story and writing: The story is quite good, and is accompanied by extremely high quality writing. The relationships with the girls build a LITTLE too quickly for my liking, but that is purely a personal preference, and I would not downrate the game for this. The writing is obviously English first, without a single grammatical error. The Grammar Police will be proud.

Gameplay: This is a choice driven VN. Your choices do have an impact on how things play out. Sometimes, the "right" answer isn't obvious, but that's okay with me. I'm more of a "do what you would actually do" kind of person, and so far, it hasn't led me astray. Sure, you can play with the walkthrough mod if you want, but I'd recommend against it. Just play the game

Final thoughts: The dev obviously cares about the quality of the game. Significant efforts seem to have been taken on pretty much every aspect. If you're looking for a new story driven game to get started on, with cute girls and lot's of options, you won't go wrong with this.

Game is an absolute must play, from a great story to fantastic renders ans music, this game has it all. MC has depth, the girls are fleshed out and the overall plot makes sense. Shout out to Slockie and Storm from the number one Heidi simp.

Clearly a competent work with amazing renders that lacks juice in the story department. The MC is seriously dull, and the entire premise of the story is yawn inducing. Of the girls, a couple of them are good(Moira, Sadie), but most are forgettable with Valeria as the all knowing MILF especially grating to me for some reason. This sucks because most of the sex scenes are with her. His equation with the roommates is never quite clear and I don't see a believable romance path with either being possible.

Why 4 stars then? The renders are great to look at, well written dialogue, it doesn't have any performance issue, the gameplay is straight forward with no annoying mechanics and you can make meaningful choices in the girl/girls you want to pursue. So overall, definitely worth a playthrough.

Edit after playing till v0.4b: The hot group scenes elevate it to 5 stars lol. The relationship with the girls is unbelievable but playing for the ultimate harem ending is a fun challenge.

I will try to keep it straight and simple. The game is perfect for almost all kinds of people. If you dislike harem, you can go for the monogamous path. If you want a harem, you climb the stairs to it. It isn't as easy to get everyone, in fact it is quite a complicated and a thin line to walk, which makes the game even better and more compelling. There are many branchings to the game which makes it even more intriguing. This is all accompanied by an absolutely bewildering storyline, beautiful girls of all kinds, and something that is the missing key in most games, an absolutely bangable MC. The attention to detail to him is great, it makes the game more sensical since a person with such good looks as him is bound to be getting a harem, unlike other games where the MC is mostly malnourished and/or looks as if he can be beaten into a peach by literally anyone around him. OH and how can I forget, the spectacular renders! The renders in this game always make me drop my jaw to the floor. Magnifique.


TLDR: Suitable for almost all kinds of people, many different kinds of women (all beauties ofc), a lot of branching thus a lot of ways to go, amazing story, one of the most handsome MCs, stunning renders.

Very great game all around. Writing is awesome, graphics are clean without issues, music is good, and last but not least, the girls are awesome. Having Heidie, Athena, and Mora at the same time is a dream. Hoping we can bring the cutiepie cousin sadie into the mix aswell. Will be awaiting the new update patiently! Keep up the great work

The dialogue is so poorly conceived. I'm not sure how this game is praised for its writing. The dialogue feels like it was written by someone who doesn't know how actual conversations between people work, and wrote the dialogue anyway.

Each interaction goes like this: make small talk with girl x100, then suddenly they start wanting to spend time with you and have sex with you. This is despite the MC being totally spineless and uninteresting, because you discuss literally nothing of substance in all the small talk. At least in other convoluted harem VNs when the dialogue is bad it's almost entertaining in a stupid way. But this one is just pages and pages of boring, mind-numbing filler. 0/10 story.

At least the renders are good so I give it +1 star.