VN - Ren'Py - Between Salvation and Abyss [Ch.10 Part 1] [Ethan Krautz]

Actually one of the best games out there. The concept is unique and very well suited to someone who's into SM things. I hope you continue the works and not abandoned it like the others. I will consider to become one of your patrons when i got the money. Thanks for the games, it is really satisfying concept, not an ordinary incest family things, but also great fetishes.

Overall, a great game that combines dark themes with romance fairly well.

Pros
Renders are good
Story is somewhat interesting
Characters are well done (cute red heads)

Neutral
MC can be a bit psychotic at times

Cons
Kinetic novel. There are choices, but it does not affect the overall story/most sex scenes. Since some of the fetishes are extreme, this is a negative.

Solid game that deals in some uncommon fets. If the one chick that tries to hurt your family wasn't so ugly (I like hardcore content but damn, looking at her is tough) I'd probably give it a 5. The abyss scenes are good, as are most of the adult scenes. Still want to see where it goes from here but liking it enough so far. If you're not a fan of rougher content probably move on but if you can handle it or dig it, again solid game.

-Writing is horrible
- story a cringefest and a total mess all over the place
-could be a kinetic VN since the choices do not matter at all
- renders look average - neither good nor bad
- forced content all over the place and the game refers to "you" as you would actually be the mc (for immersion right?) - well let me at least change the mc's name then please, because refering to me as the mc and giving me no choice of the name , makes it redundant to say "you yadda yadda yadda"

would give 0/5 if I could. Not my taste. cheers

There is a lot to unpack here, it's not that good. And there's also a lot of irony in the fact that you don't actually learn anything until the most recent update, but the english completely falls apart after Chapter 5. The English starts okay, but every update it legitimately get worse. So once again, I have to shout this for the developers in the back.
IF YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF SOMETHING, AND MARKETING IT TO ANOTHER LANGUAGE, IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO NOT HAVE A TRANSLATOR, PROOFREADER AND EDITOR THAT NATIVELY SPEAK THAT LANGUAGE.

So I will try to break down the story as I know it, but everything is so purposefully vague that there isn't anything to learn from the story. You "play" as Ethan(or MC if you renamed him) and every update you learn a little more about how much of a sob story he's lived. He killed his abusive father, fell in love with his immediate family (absolutely no pretense there), and is a psychotic, abusive, controlling, obsessive asshole. After killing his dad, he goes to juvie. And for no real reason (that is retconned later)he is scouted by a group called "The Hunters." They want to use him for an ability he apparently has. To see someone's last moments before death. Then they trained a child to kill people for... Reasons? The goals of all organizations in this story aren't made apparent. In fact, no one has any real goals outside of MC's "I want to marry my family."

So, circling back, MC kills people or seduces women for whatever jobs he does. He never really says anything meaningful or expository about the jobs or the hunters conveniently, due to amnesia they somehow gave him while the writer figures out what to write for this disjointed story. Everyone else knows more than MC and they won't tell him because.... Reasons? They won't tell him any expository dialog AND they won't tell him why. Even YOU, the reader, aren't given any information even though you're given the thoughts of other characters. Which is an issue I will talk about later. Finally, MC learns that people born in his family are special, they all have abilities, and are important. WHAT ANY OF THAT MEANS WHO KNOWS. Also, his family is "Pure blood" which means his lineage is just his family inbreeding. Made apparent by a character telling MC she wants him to breed with his family members. And that's about as far as the story goes up to this update. The rest is all character drama between MC and the girls he's having sex with.

Before I get into my complaints, I'll talk a bit about the characters, I guess. Alysha, the mother that was abused and is scared of everything. Monica, older sister who, now that I think about it, all I know about her is she loves MC. She's in a "gang" or group of witches. THEY DON'T EVEN SAY WHAT KIND OF STUPID ORGANIZATION OR GROUP THEY'RE IN. Anyway. Alessia, the younger sister that acts like an actual child and is also in the gang. Euphor, a torture victim that fell in love with MC in captivity and is just as sadistic as MC. Also she's the only one with any real visual appeal. Maya, MC's handler in the hunters is largely absent. Honestly, the rest of the characters aren't important. Or at least you won't know until the Dev gets to the exposition dump he's been teasing for a while now. They all knew MC before gaps in his memory that he's only mentioned in passing. Hell, most of the characters know he has amnesia more than MC does. And all of the characters involved in that are already in love with him. And won't tell him not only what happened during his amnesia, but why he has amnesia at all.

Onto my issues. Oh boy. First off, the content and themes in this story are "edgy for edginess' sake." That is all. I honestly believe the Dev only wants to one up the depravity every chapter instead of tell you the reader what is going on. We're lead to believe that during a bunch of the jobs MC doesn't talk about he seduces mothers for "reasons" but AT MOST he's 20. So all these women are just sleeping with an underage, baby faced, psycho. Sure. And I need to reiterate, EVERYONE speaks so ambiguously that you can't learn what the hell is going on. My biggest gripe, to do with the writing, is the Dev makes it seem like its a first person perspective, but then gives you the reader the omniscient point of view. Meaning you know the thoughts of the other characters. However, ALL THE THOUGHTS YOU READ ARE STILL VERBAL NOTHINGS THAT GIVE NO INFORMATION. What I mean is MC will ask a girl a question, and first she'll pause, second the reader will hear her thoughts "I can't tell him because I'm just not allowed...", then she will say "I can't tell you yet." WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HEARING WHAT SHE'S THINKING??? And finally, the "romance" is done the same with every girl. MC bluntly states how much he cares for whoever he's trying to get with, walks up to her, holds her chin up so she looks at him, grabs the sides of her face, tells her how she feels about him, then they wrap their snake tongues around each others for a makeout session. And she just decides that he's right. Not very romantic...

The technical issues I have are a little more sparse. We have another VN that uses the Default RenPy UI. I'm tired of repeating this, but if you can't take an hour or two to make a new textbox, choice background, and find a free font that's lazy. Or even better pay someone to make one for you, I don't know what you're doing. Also, the built in "narrator" that is used for descriptive dialogue is used for a total of 3 lines. And many many many times, the wrong character is said to be speaking. Or worse yet thinking. There's a line that Euphor is supposed to say and think but RenPy says it's MC and it makes the dialog weird.

There could be something here. There's (overdone) mystery. Mostly due to MC's forced amnesia. Some mysticism that isn't just suddenly medieval gowns everywhere. And there's an interesting plot way deep down in this, somewhere. But this is 100% just a reason for the Dev to put sadistic content in a VN and to let the story shine would need a huge rewrite that just won't happen. And I won't hold my breath.

TLDR - Vague story, bland characters, worse English as time goes on, sadism for the sake of sadism, default RenPy UI, and nonsensical MC. This is written as a fetish dump first with a half assed story to get from sex A to sex B.

Very good story and great characters, it's leaving me frustrated with anticipation to what's going to happen soon, most of the characters or sweet and kind Nd will melt your heart where as some will make you feel pissed off and feel justice when that get what they deserve, one thing I'm critical of is the rape, I don't like it and this isn't me defending the Dev but I understand why the MC does something like that given how he was taught things, can't go into specifics but you'll understand his motivation after playing, this isn't bad but the spelling and names can be wrong sometimes but it happens a lot so it's not that big of a problem

I Pretty much trust this Dev fetish wise after one sentence "others may like to share, but I don't" it did 2 things, it shows that the mc can be somewhat possessive but also warns that future fetishes like swinging/sharing isn't on the table

I'm also a current patron now since I love the story

Good luck krautz

Warning: This game contains graphic violence, such as: Rape, mutilated bodies, screaming nuns, more rape, skinless corpses and a guy name Drake. If that's not something you're into then, this game may not be for you.

I'm sure that message is presented in the game somewhere.

As far as this game goes, it has brutal scenes, a couple that may be stomach turning to some but overall I enjoy this game. Our MC has been screwed one way or another throughout his whole life. So it's no surprise that he's not this clean cut, squeaky clean guy some of you want him to be and that's a good thing. Not every Dev has to follow the standard procedure when creating a MC, the guy has had a fucked up life so yeah, that's going to spill out eventually.

The characters are likable, some more than the other. The dialogue is a problem but nothing that can't be corrected. Sex scenes are hot, especially the corruption scenes. This game just needs skip options for the squeamish crowd.

well holy smokes I fucking loved this game, the story, the characters, the scenes animations, everything is top notch perfect.. can't waste for the next update... Dev you have a banger with this one.... And smokes the Maledom scenes are top notch as well, hope to get more like these... Good Game

I love this game. A story with a dark twist but I like it. The character designs are great and well done. Animations could be a bit better but it's his first game so it's normal. Mommy is very hot can't wait to bang her. Can't wait to play more of this game. Keep it up dev you're doing a great job.

This is like a 2.5 for me. This visual novel takes multiple hours to play through, and you don't even fuck any of the main female characters yet. Footjob from one, handjob from another, and handjob/blowjob from the third. This VN is 95% story/reading, 5% sex. Maybe even worse. And, there is a "decent" amount of sex content, but there is just TONS of "story".

The story is... okay, technically unique. The dialog sucks in the beginning, but becomes okay. There are a lot of attractive women, but as is typical with a game that has a sex-to-game ratio as this one, you probably won't be able to sex all of them for another 2 years irl time. Maybe dev doesn't have plans for that to happen anyways.

And, I think the base game doesn't even have audio? Or, maybe it does... idk, I played the modded one.

In short, it's just a lot of fucking reading, for not much payoff.

seriously, I want to get into this game, the premise of the story is great, renders are awesome, the girls are hot with heaps of potential for the game.
But Damn the longer I play it the more it reads like it was written by a teen, the writing sometimes comes across as juvenile and unintelligent, missing information and jumps all over the place. honestly it gets a little frustrating.
over all i think this game deserves 3and a half to four stars.

Where to even begin...

Story/script: A convoluted mess, full of tropes that we've seen ad nauseum. For example, a male MC who appears to be barely old enough to have a driver's license, with a schlong the size of his arm. But not just any schlong...this one is magical, somehow exerting influence on all females who come near. Even though he's been locked up in juvy for years and has just been released, he has somehow managed to be with many women and is able to satisfy them all. Then, with the magic wand, all his female family members come under his spell and no matter what he says or does, they gladly take their place in the harem without nary a complaint.

-- Cons --

- CG/Renders are mediocre at best. All the mature women have breasts that sag to their waist. Backgrounds are poor quality.

- Forced Harem. Forced Incest. The choices presented in game matter not one whit in regard to banging your family...er, landlady. There's no mystery here and no sense of accomplishment.

- Maturity level of the MC is far beyond his years and makes no logical or reasonable sense. Contrived beyond believability.

- Full of the standard tropes. Shower, peaking, hypnotic juju of the penis. There's not one original or unique aspect of the story.

-- Pros --

Nada.

Overall it's a great game. I know it's a bit dark for some people here but I really like the mc.
- great story
- hot and thick females
- funny but dark story
- the mc is intriguing and never gives up
- the game has well done animations as well
Overall I recommend this game!!! The dev is doing an amazing job.

Renders are a bit grainy - no hi res? They're actually very inconsistent, all around. Some clearly have more effort whereas others look like they have a blurry/brushed effect?

Why are there real images scattered throughout at random? (prison cell, squirrel)

How is Sofia riding a skateboard on grass? The fuck?

Why is Drake's hair blonde? Is he albino? It wouldn't grow like a white guy's hair either.

Hospitals don't have "owners", they have CEOs, boards, etc. They're never ran by one person. And we're supposed to accept that Victoria - the "owner" - is going to do something like AT THE HOSPITAL SHE "OWNS"/WORKS AT? No.

I'm not sure what happened, grammatically, but the story started off with little-to-no spelling/grammatical errors and quickly they begin to be peppered-in everywhere. Is this another ESL dev that doesn't have someone to help with proofreading?

The models look almost 2D instead of 3D. That is to say: it looks like the background image has a 2D character pasted over the top of it. Weird.

I give it 2 stars because, from a writing perspective, it seems like that's where most of the work went. But it's still utterly juvenile, predictable, and ridden with over-used dynamics and scenarios that are in every VN anymore. Can't say I would recommend.

This game is interesting, although I can see some may not like the early part of the story. I like models, especially Alysha. I can't wait to see more interactions with her (and other hot female characters).

This is a great underrated game, although not for everyone.
It has a fresh story with interesting characters and some hot models. Some look a little exagerated, but they're still nice.

The translation could use some work, but I'll still give it 5 stars because I think that the current rating doesn't do this game justice. But beware, as I've said, this is not for everyone as there are some dark stuff, such as rape/blackmail and gore.

Honestly great VN, has a character archetype that is Strong and knows what he wants, and is not afraid to do what it takes to get it, and puts his family above everything. The MC makes sure to punish those who deserve it, and i always love a good revenge story.

Characters 5/5
Renders: 3/5
Sex Scenes: 5/5, MC rapes someone, just a warning
Plot: 4/5, love a good revenge plot
Overall 4.5/5

I put off playing this for a while, even though it had a good review rating.

Now I know why I did. The writing in this is horrible, it takes huge leaps of logic. We're introduced to characters and things happen fast with almost no character development. This feels like it should have been a sandbox with the way it jumps around with no regard for building any kind of story. If it wasn't for the supernatural stuff and the violence this would be just another crappy incest game.

A hacker friend who has powers, maybe, you never go into it. Suddenly we go from headaches that you only hear about once to IT MUST BE WITCHCRAFT!

Not to mention the doctor woman. Like, the MC just suddenly knows she's Drake's mom, it's never even fucking said by anyone. It's bad writing surrounded by hot girls. People praise stuff like that all the time, but it's terrible. The story concept is great, but in practice is plagued by bad pacing, weak characters, mediocre writing and poor follow through.

Disappointing is all I can say.

Honestly, difficult to get through. Renders are now pretty outdated and VERY grainy. They improve a bit as you go, but not much. Story doesn't make a lot of sense and there's quite a bit of mood whiplash in terms of the behavior of your character, although that's been covered in other reviews here, so I won't rehash it. I gave it two stars because it's not completely irredeemable, but I wouldn't recommend this one.

Excellent game, wonderful graphic and super sexy characters. MC's mom is super sexy, and other characters are gorgeous too. Very good start, can't wait for upgrades! The gameplay is easy and the story is interesting too.