Ren'Py - Bastian's Family Secret [v0.02.3] [BOXgurih]

The Charm is starting to wear off with update. 0.023 extremely short and boring is the worse thing you can put out. Deducting Stars.

I should not like this VN at all. There is barely any sex at all so I would consider this more of a late night old school skinemax offering. I give the dev credit, because he has built up some interesting characters, that I can't wait to see what happens next. I would rate this as a 4 star on writing and a 1 star on adult but I am holding back a review in case the story goes someplace utterly silly. At this time, I always look forward to the next update.

This is an interesting VN that has an interesting story that's it. There is almost zero adult content but the story is damn interesting, If you write amusing characters you can get your readers invested in the journey anyway with the story you have something.

I hate slow burn no burn games but this story is till entertaining to check out different cultural perspectives other than what I grew up with. If you came for the sex this is 1 star but if you can just enjoy an amusing tale 4 stars.

I'm giving it 5 stars just because this VN amuses me greatly.

The amount of content in this game’s update is so little that, even if it were the best game in the world, I’d still hate it more than any other game.
Waiting for this game is truly nerve-wracking. I'm never checking in on it again, and I’m just going to leave a one-star review for the developer so they can enjoy that!

After two years the game still lasts a few minutes and has no content. At first I liked it but there is nothing yet. The last update was two minutes of dialogue. It took me longer to download it than to play it. Very bad. Maybe in 25 years it will be better. If I could, I would rate it -10 stars. netoare? vaginal sex? Prostitution? Maybe in 15 years.

There's pretty much no porn at all in this game. There might be a fairly average scene every 4-5 updates at most. Every character is a copy of the same narcissistic asshole. The whole story is a trainwreck. I do follow every update though, they're short and somewhat enjoyable for the "it's so bad it's good" factor.

rating based on v. 0.02.1

This game is awesome and completely underrated!

Sure, there is very few lewd content in there so far, but on the other side, the game has barely started.

Those who give bad ratings after the first release simply don't get that not every game has to start with sex.
This story is pretty cuffing and i was quite disappointed after i reached the current end of the game. Still it left me wanting to read more.
The whole back and forth was quite enjoyable. All the little plot twists and turn arounds same as all the small surprises did a good thing on me.

In short, this game is imho a gem and i can't wait for further updates. I moved this game near the top of my watchlist.

And for all those, who claim that i can only trash games of other developers - this one is the best example otherwise. Whenever a game is good, it of course deserves a good rating - and this one deserves the best.

Thanks BOXgurih - wish you the very best

Not bad! The story have a lot of potenital and there is a lot of interesting characters. There's way of improvement but I'm sure you'll make it. I would recomend to improve translation first of all, maybe using DeepL would be way better than Google!

Incredible game, waiting for the new updates, I just hope they don't take long.
The story is very entertaining, without a doubt it is one of the best ideas, I hope that many NV creators will base themselves on this game to create similar things but with their own touch, something like manhwa manga

Good Points
+ Despite the terrible start of the story, seeing MC beat up the guy who bullied him for years was somehow satisfying I guess? And if it handles well maybe it could be a good revenge story.
+ Choices somehow matter, at least we had a choice to have sex with Chyntia or not, with losing -2 charm tho, and it was kind of forceful.
+ Sex scenes have animations and they are decent, but the positions/angles we have animations are not that well chosen.

Bad Points
- The game starts very badly, we learn MC is a loser who has been living with his wife's family for 3 years, preparing three meals a day for the family, feeding cats, and even cleaning dogs & cats litters with a wife didn't even let him touch her at all... And we learn this when MC caught up his wife cheating on him with some rich guy... And again later we learn MC was the world's richest family's 3rd son and was actually training in that house, his grandfather sent him there to train his temperament and that's why he endured all that bitterness and humiliation from his wife's family, he even got beaten in public by his wife mother or got bullied by her uncle and cousin... Basically, we start the story with MC who was living 3 years of pathetic life... And that's a terrible choice of plot.
- Most of, even maybe all characters are toxic, cringy, dumb, trash, and not likable at all. I don't see any point in creating a story with this many bad characters, it's almost impossible to watch without dying from cringe how petty they are... Like what the f*ck was that birthday party? It was soo damn hard to watch... And later at the hotel all those people treating him like shit again, started saying you can't eat at my restaurants or work, you can't stay at my hotels, etc. Then they accuse him of stealing things from his wife's family, with one of his family members stealing it... Seriously what's the point? Is this story of MC becoming a Villain or something? Because if not this all shit not going to make any sense at all, no one can forgive all this shit, and MC has to become a villain for sure to make any sense at all. But weirdly enough second someone gets what they deserve (Kuncara for example) MC feels sympathy for them and decides to give them another chance... Yeah makes a lot of sense...
- All characters are terrible, but love interests are even worse... Like MC's wife, she is a cheater, liar, bully, and person who did all shitty things to MC, yet when MC calls him the first time with her surname and with not her name, she says MC is heartless and the text says her heart was filled with sorrow... And what's her obsession with making MC kneel down in front of him? Calling him dog, etc? Or Chyntia, how she was saying she has the authority to talk for the company because she is the lover of the president while the president is the MC, but it's not yet revealed.
- The translation is bad, the game needs better translation and proofreading.
- The level of content this game has is like a joke, is this really a nearly 2 years old game? It's too short and has only one sex scene and it's a forceful sex scene most people wouldn't even choose.

For The End
Visually the game kind of looks good, but aside from that it has nothing worth spending time on, if DEV wants this game to go anywhere, he has to up his writing and make the revenge story worth playing, add a lot of content ASAP since the game lacks, add sex scenes along with the story as well, only then maybe this game can be good.

v0.01.9

This is a VN adaptation of a chinese web novel(it has around 1400 chapters). For those unfamiliar with the web novel scene, most of these novels are by aspiring amatuer writers, so they're more like fanfics rather than professional authors with relevant writing experience who have support of editors, publishers and resource libraries. Due to that, theres a huge difference in quality of the writing and narrative between webnovels and professional published novels.

Personally i'm not a fan of the premise or setting of the web novel and the VN. The narrative starts off as a whacky slap stick comedy of a husband in modern times who is secretly a son of a wealthy family(old money kind) who caught his wife(she's from a rich family but not that rich) cheating and divorcing her. Moreover he has always been treated poorly by her and her family. Later on the story turns ridiculous as they start throwing in Xian Xia, Wuxia elements. Those unfamiliar, they're related to chinese fantasy and mythology where you have a cultivation system that gives you magical powers, usually martial arts related, with the goal of immortality through ascension to godhood.
Don't get me wrong, i absolutely love Xian Xia(big fan of the genre) but this novel does not gel the different themes well and the plot ends up getting ridiculous and stupid.
I'm not sure how far this VN will take the plot of the web novel to, but i hope it eventually branches off from the web novel before the nonsensical plot starts and create a different ending.

Am not a fan of the characters, especially the MC. He is submissive and dumb throughout, soft hearted guy. Of course since this is a chinese web novel, expect a lot of antagonist and rivals who you would love to hate. There are some likeable supporting characters down the line if the VN is faithful to the web novel. Later on in the plot MC will start to grow some balls, get stronger and mature emotionally but he still remains a softy and a push over despite having the capability and power.

Models and renders are pretty nice, though nothing outstanding as they're kinda simple and low res. The scenes and storyboard are quite decent and re-created faithfully from the web novel. I would say the dev did quite a good job on the adaptation of the web novel to a VN.

In terms of lewd scenes, to be frank it does not exist in the novel. The lewd stuff seems more of personal addition by the dev just for the sake of having sex in the VN, so its not that good either and makes no sense in the context of the story.

So far the plot follows the VN closely so that also means this is more of a kinetic novel rather than a VN as choices do not matter or don't diverge much.

I'm pretty excited that web novels are getting VN adaptations but personally the dev chose the wrong novel. This novel is a disaster of a story with messy and incoherent plot and writing.

I would give dev's work & effort a 4/5 as he did an outstanding job with the adaptation although it could use with better assets. Unfortunately he chose the wrong web novel to adapt to VN which is a 1/5 story(web novel has average ratings so that says a lot too) unless dev only intends to use part of the web novel plot, as mentioned before the crazy narrative kicks in, then it'll be a 3/5.

You are constantly kept on your toes and anything can happen at any time. The story is very interesting. Lots of grit, lots of just trying to survive in a f*cked up world. But even so they find time to have sex as well.

I gave this game a bonus star because of its uniqeness.

What a different little game/vn. The story is totally ridiculous and I really should hate it. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I rolled my eyes at the silliness of some of the scenarios and even the MC is not all that likable.

Somehow he is a total Gary Stu without actually being a Gary Stu. He is like the anti Gary Stu where he is perfect but instead of everyone loving him, everyone hates him. Yet, I kept clicking through to see what crazy thing would happen next. When I got to the end, I was actually disappointed. It's crazy.

Maybe it's like a car accident. Normally I get really upset at people who slow down to look at an accident and yet, I can't take my eyes off this wreck of a story.

Why 4 stars? IDK... it kept me entertained through the end. I may have had a funny look on my face while doing so, but I stayed through till the end so that has to be worth something.

Honestly, this should be 2 stars at best. The dev is clearly new as the UI is as silly as the story and almost as useless and I would imagine they are pretty young and maybe a little bit angry about life, but I am actually looking forward to the next release. Hard to say that about some of these.

You just have to download it and make up your own minds on this one and good luck to the dev.

EDIT: Okay, I changed my rating to one star. This story really is a rip off another story already published. I mean it is word for word. No attempt to change anything. So until I learn if the dev has permission or is the original author, it will remain 1 star.

I really liked the game at the beginning, I was interested in the protagonist's ex-wife, Mc, the story, despite not having sex or anything like that, was very engaging and made me wait anxiously for the game's updates.

However, as not everything is perfect, after some updates I noticed that it took a long time for the game to be updated with content that lasts less than 5 minutes of gameplay, and the story quickly stopped progressing and started going in circles,

The MC, despite rising in business life, and being successful, continued to give in to the blackmail and provocations of the game's antagonist family, the family of the MC's ex-wife, there is no reason for this as he becomes the most powerful and important character in the game. but he continues to lower his head and accept being bullied, beaten, threatened with prison and slandered, for some unknown reason, without reacting,

the story doesn't progress and remains in this cat and mouse fight with that family to a point where I lost the interest I had initially, and the expected revenge never happened, much less getting back together with the wife.

That's why I needed to edit this analysis explaining why I reduced it from 5 stars to 1... due to ridiculously small updates and lack of progress in the story, and also the lack of choices available to the player at key moments in the story, being just a kinetic story without sex and without progression.

Love the premise, it follows the trope of many Chinese webtoons and has a solid plot point and potential, but my main gripe is that the updates feature too little in the form of new content, there is no development, and it feels like reading a new chapter of a manga or manhua, just very brief. If that can be fixed, this one is a winner.

Wow Just Wow!!!

This Story is Amazing <3
The "Porn" isn't my Favorite (its not Bad but just not my Preference)
But the Characters Are Great!!!

10/10 would Highly Recommend
Thanks a lot dev for the game and good luck

This story I've seen it before. When the first version of game was released, I read the overview and it reminded me of an advertisement of story called Insta millionare of Pocket FM. It was exactly same. But I don't know about the full story it's only the ad I've seen and it's same. Don't know wheter dev is following the same story or made changes in it, or made it entirely different. Alsi there is manhua with the same premise with cultivation elements forgot it's name though.

Coming to the game this one is average. game got average renders. Development time takes lot of time and there is only little content. I don't mind if he is following the same story of pocket fm ad. There is not a single girl who picked my interest all are gold diggers. Also the story pace is too slow that's also a downgrade considering long development time and little content. when you are having your way with a gold digger it decreases your charm. Suddenly MC forgives her

Playing this game now is waste of time. Check it after some years. Dev please introduce a girl who is not gold digger.

The story is a bit repetitive and exagerated at tines but I like it, at this point I like everything that isn't incest/harem so there's that. It is my opinion that the lewd content should be inserted in a story and not being the story itself but I digress.
The renders and the girls are average which is normal in this type of VN. If you came here for FHD stuff this one is not for you.

Thank you and the best of luck.

The game story looks interesting but i just cannot endure it as it was dragged for too much longer with his secrecy, unfortunately for me is big No, tho good luck with the game dev. Play at your own risk, extreme boredom

I rarely rate games, but this one made me furious.

I can not find any positive sides of this game:
Average graphic, average storytelling. Maybe only the plot, it's kinda interesting, but into is overlong.

What do you get from an hour of playthrough?
1 sex scene (edit: yeah, there are two short scene in the game with the random girl, but I wont count that because they are way too short and barely connect with the main plot), thousands of word lines and barely any plot moving.
There is no literally game inside, only some kind of prologue for an hour.
And that is after a year of development! I guess we will see first sex scene in the next 2 or maybe even 3 years only.

Strongly do not recommend to waste your time on this. 1/5

The story looks interesting and great but i just cannot endure it as it was dragged on and on for too much longer with his secrecy, why dont he just come clean about his identity soon? but keep doing this circus, i will keep this game on check and hopefully the pace can be much faster than this, for now its 1 star and hopefully the next one can be better than this.