VN - Ren'Py - Between Two Worlds [Ch.9] [Drooskati]

[Review for Ch.9]

It kind of pains me to give this game such a low rating, especially because the dev's work ethic is praiseworthy, but it's just not a good visual novel.

The premise is interesting, but the narrative itself has a lot of issues that make it a very hard read.

The first several hours are a boring slice-of-life story without anything that'd really make you want to keep reading, especially because the weird grimoire gets introduced and promptly ignored to spend more time in very drawn out TTRPG sessions or with characters that range from inoffensive to cardboard cut-outs with a single personality trait written on their foreheads. Now, shallow characters are nothing new in AVNs, but the kind of glacial pacing this game has only works if the characters are interesting and engaging, which they are not.

Most of the choices are entirely superficial, as this game suffers from the same pitfalls many others do: they give you a bunch of choices that have no real consequences while at the same time denying choice in major moments that you'd probably like control over.

Actually, I'd go so far as to compare the VN itself to the TTRPG sessions in the game. They're entirely too long, very on-rails, and it all boils down to a bunch of random shit happening that points in the general direction the writer wants the story to go in. There are no characters, only actors, playing along a script everyone is automatically aware of.

I'd talk more about the LIs, but there's not much to say. They're all bi-curious, they're all surprisingly okay with sharing, some are blushing virgins, others are more experienced, and they all fall neatly into the stereotypes you've come to expect in these games. Not a lot of innovation on that front.

The MC's token nice guy #289 with absolutely 0 interesting traits, the male friends are a gay couple, one horny and upbeat, and the other more reserved and mature.

Grammar's pretty good, though. Couple apostrophes missing here and there, but it's overall leagues above the usual slop one suffers through on here.

Put simply, it's a boring game with shallow characters that takes a long time to even begin to deliver on its initial premise. It may be for some, but it's not for me.

Chapter 9

Story 2/5
Writing 2/5
Characters 2/5
Graphics 3/5
UI 4/5

Between Two Worlds is a slice-of-life story about a group of friends that enjoy playing D&D together. At some point or other our young and perfect MC goes to the library and accidentally picks up a magical tome that could give him unlimited power. UNLIMITED POWER to use however MC wants. Alas, MC is roughly as fun as left-over cardboard in the garage, and ignores the tome of unlimited power in favor of doing fuck all with his life instead.

I quit the game somewhere in chapter 4; I had lost all interest in the story and the characters.

Story 2/5
The story revolves around said group of friends playing D&D once a week, and generally being a close knit group. Much of this will become apparent through banter between the characters, and a heavy slew of exposition pointing out that they are a close knit group. The story moves at a glacial pace, kinda like a grandma at the checkout raffling for exact change in the bottom of her ancient purse. The D&D parts are a fun intermission in the real lives of the characters, and the stories told there do feel like real, if simplified, tabletop adventures. The D&D adventure parts also move forward at a more reasonable pacing, making them feel like the real real story even though the outcomes there have no impact. In fact, the D&D part of the story and the real-life part story seem to be entirely separate so far.
The strangest part of the story is that the main arc, the magical tome that MC finds (for real, not in a TT adventure), is ignored and given only the slightest screen time. This is absurd since a real live magical tome should be very high on the list of importance for anyone, and the lure of unlimited power is highly appealing. I cannot fathom why MC, or anyone, would ignore that potential with nary a thought. MC has nothing going on in his life, but perhaps ignoring a magical tome of unlimited power is also an indicator as to why MC has nothing going on in his life. Either way, it makes for an uninteresting story that fails to captivate or entrance readers into continuing.
The standard logical issues are also present: MC has infinite money and lives in a big house even though he's 20 something and a code monkey?

Writing 2/5
The writing conveys information and the grammar is perfectly fine. The conversations fall into the usual pitfalls: they are stiff/stilted and frequently fall into exposition. The written text also appears to have been developed without consideration for the scenes, as the text often describes what is already in the imagery, leading to more unnecessary text. The writing would greatly benefit from a show don't tell rework. All in all, the writing is serviceable in conveying what the author wants, but it does not have the attunement that makes the story or characters come alive.

Characters 2/5
There are three main girls available and two bros. The girlfriend and main driver of the story is a horny enabler for MC's sexual needs, the first friend is a hardcore girlboss that don't need no man and the second friend is a shy virgin with repressed sexual fantasies. There are some extras around too. The two bros are gay and as such offer no competition for the harem building efforts.
The characters, mostly due to the writing, do not feel distinct. They sound like one and the same personality as they too often fall into monotone exposition. That personality is also a bit on the juvenile side, with much of the banter attempting to establish familial relations instead sounding weirdly distant through the faux PC sermons and shallow statements of sensitivity. They explain far more than is needed or relevant which leads to the skip button getting worn out. In the end, I did not care in the slightest about any character in the story.

Graphics 3/5
The graphics are acceptable and the girls look mostly okay. Many of the scenes reuse older assets so if you have read a few VNs you will recognize the locations. That's an issue with the reader rather than the VN though.

UI 4/5
The text is easy to read and the UI does not get in the way. Some names have dark colors that often mesh with the scene background but that is not a major issue.

Summary
Unfortunately this is not a VN I can recommend (or even finish). While the premise is great, little thought has gone into realizing it. The writing is on auto pilot and does not inspire the reader to find out where it all ends.

I played through Chapter 9 of ‘Between Two Worlds’ (not to be confused with ‘Between Worlds,’ a somewhat similar game) over the course of several evenings.

The highly unoriginal plot has a group of metrosexual D&D players get sucked into the world of their game. The two other males in the group are a gay couple, so the MC is free to add all the women to his harem.

Pros:

• It looks good, with lots of first-class animations.
• The musical score is decent.
• There is a lot of material, as the game seems to be nearing completion.

Cons:

• There is a great deal of unexciting slice-of-life stuff to wade through in the mundane world before the characters arrive in the fantasy world. I found that part quite boring.
• The characters constantly engage in the most juvenile banter imaginable, with non-stop sexual innuendos. It was funny for a few minutes, but becomes excruciating to read through after awhile.
• I frequently noticed that what the text was describing was at odds with what the graphics were showing; as if the two streams were done by different people working from the same outline but not comparing notes. Not a big con, but it felt odd to me.

I’d rate it 3.5 stars if I could, but will round up to 4. Recommended if you like the premise, and have a high tolerance for retarded dialog.

This is a weird one to rate. I appreciate very much dev's diligence in keeping us updated on all phases of development, and the fact that releases have been consistent. Those factors are important, IMO. In fact, the reason I rate it a 4 instead of 3.
Because, I have to say, the LI dynamics are screwy. Graphically, romantically, lewdly, whatever.
Yes, the graphics are old-school -- and I accepted this to start. I was excited by the D&D premise, the whole immersion vibe. What a compelling storyline! Each character acted within their own distinctive parameters, and I was intrigued to see where the story would lead me.
But as it went... it dragged, I have to say. The distinctive characters became stock characters -- the sharp-tongued warrior girl who was sour on everything; the shy mind-maiden who intuited; the GF who became --what??
That was another thing -- the GF. Okay, she accepted MC as manwhore with all her friends, even her own sister -- after all it is a porn VP -- but then she gets all jealous when it's about meeting up witth the goddess who's been helping them the whole way through?
And that scene really threw me to question so much -- the Goddess asks the MC to meet her -- and the MC decides, with no help from ME that's for sure, and no warning -- that oh he's inviting his wife-to-be. WTF??!
Kinda said "Fuck This"after that.
Dev needs to up his game on making MC's LI a gotta-have LI. Not happening as of now.
And too much banter! Jeez. A lot of "Can we get back to the main thing?" -and - "I can't talk about that right now.."
A lot of the dialogue seems like an 80's sit-com. Zing! Oh, we might die, but -zing!

Overall, I think the Good rating is accurate. It's better than average but that's about it.

First of all, there are not too many LIs and they are all fun to look at... the dev is going for a more realistic approach to looks and that's great as long as they stick with it. The story is extremely well thought out and there is a clear storyline to be followed and the relationships and the h scenes are a "natural" part of the storyline.

Having spent a large portion of my youth playing RPGs, I appreciate blurring the lines between reality and fiction. This AVN does a pretty good job with the fantasy aspect and I like that each of the characters are kind of stumbling their way through.

The MC is solid enough and not too much of a Gary Stu. He does make mistakes and is not perfect and he does not have a horse cock either, which is a plus.

Believe it or not, my biggest problem is the h scenes. There are a lot of them, but none of them quite work for me. Maybe they are too vanilla. Even the blindfold scene was kinda lame. The dialogue during the scenes is kind of boring and not very creative, although there are a couple scenes that were pretty good.

It almost seems the developer is trying to make the sex scenes realistic too and I guess that's where it misses the mark. I want an AVN that has a well written story with believable scenes but when it comes to the h scenes, I want them to be more pornesque... if that is even a word.

And hey... if that is what the developer is going for (it is their story after all), then great! It's just not for me.

Regardless, there is a whole lot to love here and I am looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

This is an excellent visual novel.
Without giving too much away, it's the story of a group of friends who find themselves inside the world of their tabletop RPG.

Engaging characters, a fantastic storyline, amazing visuals, an interesting plot and subplots, branching choices, and sexy people in lewd situations.

If you like D&D, choose your own adventure novels, and fantasy romance stories, then you should definitely check out Between Two Worlds.

It might be a visual novel and a 'reader' but some of the character dialog is hilarious and reminds me of actual RPG players. Graphics/art work is very nice. Although, some of it is a bit robotic. I can't over emphasis the extra work that went in to character dialog. Some of it was down right hilarious. No one plays these games for that but when it is done good it is a very nice touch.

You're grabbed into the world of your tabletop RPG group in this one and so far it's been a very well written game which is what sets it apart from most. There's actually a pretty epic feeling in this game and as a veteran tabletop RPG geezer, this feels like the campaigns I had in my teenage years.

The renders are not the best I've seen but they're not bad and I like it that the characters aren't over the top boob and cockmonsters. This is definitely worth paying money for I would say.

I enjoy a good fantasy story. And yes, I know it's an adult game, but it's still great to have a good story with it.

Going into this, I had the expectation that the characters would all be transported into an alternative (fantasy) world and the fun could begin.

Having reached day 15 (no idea what chapter that is supposed to be), I couldn't help but think this story started waaaaaaay too early. No fantasy world as yet.

I kept thinking the story that wants to be told (the book and the mystery woman) is buried and is the lowest priority in whatever direction things were going in.

They are into roleplaying (D&D style), nowt wrong with that. This fake fantasy in the story is the fantasy aspect of this game?! I just thought to myself, why show us a fake fantasy world when we're going into a fantasy world at some point....

Outside of this, it was all 'slice-of-life' style.

At this point I just started skipping it all to see what would develop and it went into another stint of their drawn out roleplaying fantasy.

I called it quits at this point. I was bored and that's fatal for story-telling.

Adult content? Funny enough, it kicks off around the time I called it quits and I just didn't care at this point. Yeah, there is a little bit of a build up along the way, but eh.

I guess this take on fantasy genre is not for me. I don't want to inject myself into a story by roleplaying being in a fantasy, I want to get thrown into an actual fantasy.

If it does eventually get to the point of actually going into a fantasy world, then it's taking far too long. I really wanted to enjoy Between Two Worlds as there's nothing inherently wrong with it - apart from the discrepancy between my expectations and what actually is!

I'm gonna have to put roleplaying fantasy in a story up there with flashbacks and dream sequences. No, just no.

Story is interesting and has good approach. Combining real world and dnd world is original. But no matter how good story, Ugly Lis are tanking game. Yes ugly not fugly but straight ugly. Forget average they look like they crawled from nuclear wasteland.

While all male models look good/great. Female ones are very bad. Not to mention their character. Each of them are insufferable. MCs so called GF and her friends are horrible...

4.5 star game, unique story, well written, and is polished (no spelling/grammar/wrong character identifier mistakes). The amount of content relative to how long its been in development is on the high end. Plot is advancing which is nice, I would guess its about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way finished.


Most of the player choices in the game appear to be more stylistic than for actually impacting the story so far, for instance the party vs the lakehouse choice early seems like an unnecessary detour to moving the story forward.

My review of Between Two Worlds this game was just above average, but I don't really see the hype that some people in this thread and community are going on about, I played from start to finish to the latest content. The story is very textbook and predictable and... Bland. This game is I guess an okay time filler, but it doesn't get its claws into me and make me hyped for the next update to drop, when I see the next chapter drop ill keep note and add it to the list of something to play when needing some time to kill but nothing to get me excited to sit down for my next narrative adventure.

The render visuals of the game are okay and the Li's have a cute look to them but, the renders art not blow me away like other titles in the similar genre; but are still slightly above average and don't peeve me to look at, but they just seem flat and uncreative and very 2019-2020 VN quality and not what we see in popular game updates these days. But seeing how long this game has been in development the dev seems committed to the project, so maybe they have some improvement cooking behind the scenes which will blow this statement away in further releases.

One of the talking points I have seen a lot in the community on multiple platforms is the animations. So I hoped in excited to see what the developer had cooked up, and I was disappointed, they are super slow in timing, un-dynamic linear animations, which almost look like the characters are moving on a locked axis track and not much natural fleshy motion and these animations are still above average VNs and better to have these than none. Maybe i had higher expectations due to the public hype and the way the developer has spoken about their animations in dc servers. I'm sure with the changing tools i have heard about in the scene some big developers expanding their toolset to other programs to enhance their animations to keep in line with other games of the genre and be competitive in the scene.

All in all Between Two Worlds is an okay game that is just way overblown with compliments, I'm willing to edit my review as updates release and as i play them and see if the developer had some awesome upgrades baking in the oven. This game is worth a try and a good 'fast food game' where you can sit down and read some text and kill some time but nothing that will stick with you or make it to your top games list (IMO).

(Please try and ignore typos English is not my main language )

This game just doesnt seem like it has a soul. It has potential but its not even close to fulfilling it. I'm just not able to grasp anything with the overall story and get "hooked" on it. The whole attempt seems very lazy, along with the janky looping animations. I just don't see what other 5 star reviews are talking about at all about them.

Some of the LI's are attractive, but the flat, blandness of their personalities gives me 0 reasons to care about them. Imagine reading a college level thesis that doesnt have a "point", thats what it felt like. If this game was a Book, without the mildly pretty renders, it would be near indecipherable to read. Its like this game doesnt know what it wants to do, and tries to do everything, but nothing actually well.

So is one interested me, as someone who dabbled in roleplaying games with a group of friends in my younger days. and the early updates showed some promise. Having just finished chapter 8 I thought i might write my impressions.

I want to point out that the developers of this game seem to be capable of following through on their project, that's high praise around these parts. I also liked the setting a good backdrop for a story. Unfortunaly that's really the only positives for me.

Everything about this novel is bland, super bland. They have a planned story wih a planned ending. But it's filled with nothing moments that add nothing to the narative... You meet some centaur people on the road, cool right? nope a short uninteresting dialogue and you continue on your way. The story is filled with scenes that just don't mean anything.

The story starts you off in an established relationship, It's really a fuckbuddy type arrangement, you never feel any real attachment with your 'girlfriend'. and thats the same with all the characters, they are all pretty uninteresting people. The girls are very plain looking (just my opinion of course) The girlfriend I found to be quite distracting, she has an uncomfortable looking bone structure and perpetually pouty lips that I found offputting. In fact the most attractive girls in this game a usually the random encounters that you have almost no interaction with. The whole fuckbuddy sex ring thing just feels like it's tacked on to make the game adult, its adds nothing, the writing fails to make anything feel emotional. after the first couple of sex scenes I just skipped the rest they did nothing for me.

Early on the game seems to offer up a choice to be the hero or go all dark side, by that stage I had no emotional investment in any of the characters so naturally I went straight for the dark path. Up until now the game seems to carry on as if I have chosen to be the saviour. It feels as if the game is just going to railroad you into being the hero. If there is a dark ending it probably won't make sense given the narative so far.

Overall a dull game, with mediocre writting that fails to make an emotional connection with it's characters. I'm giving this a 3/5 because there a lot of games worse out there, And I appreciate the developers seem to be able to see their project through, hopefully they grow from this project and can make something better next time.

I don't often give five stars, but on reflection this deserves it. Just discovered the game, and played it all the way through to the end of chapter 8. I also bought it on Steam.

Overall story concept: 9 out of 10. A clever variant on the "ordinary guy saves magical world" theme.

Quality of the writing: 8 out of 10. Mercifully mostly free of spelling mistakes and the grammar is sound. Narrative style is a bit wooden, but the characters' different personalities are clearly delineated, and they develop over time.

Models: 9.5 out of 10. The character models are individual, facial expressions are very well done, and they look at each other properly when interacting. The Bailey character is a bit strange - looks like she was based on a child model, then enlarged to adult size, so her head is too big.

Animations: 10 out of 10. They are really well done. As someone who tends to click through sex scenes in most VNs because they are a bit boring and mechanical, in this game I even found myself replaying some to admire the skill with which they are executed.

Renders: 10 out of 10. And the icing on the cake for the graphics is the lighting. Both the placement of light sources and the overall exposure is worthy of someone with photographic or cinematographic experience. Really looking forward to the next instalment.

The game takes a long time to get to the main premise and doesn't really contribute much to the overall plot. Additionally, the choices are quite limited so far, especially the fact that you're forced into a Love Interest without the option to reject them. The "good or bad" decisions don't have a truly significant impact beyond changing some dialogues, which is quite poor considering they are supposed to hold importance in the story. The characters, for the most part, are flat and uninteresting, including the MC's girlfriend and main Love Interest, who seems more like a friend than a romantic partner.

+ kissing renders looks really good
+ animations
+ music
+ nice idea for the story, something new in this genre
+ harem
+ no jealousy drama
+ no cockblocking

- no dirty talk in sex scenes
- Emilly and her annoying jokes, especially during dnd sessions
- mc is boring, no to mention his pathethic jokes. He also trying to be some sort of "chad" but fail miserably. Sometimes i really can't stand him
- first threesome, probably the longest scene in the game and it's a bit disappointing, mc looks there like a third wheel. Wasted potential
- he and his gf looks more like fuck buddies than a real couple

Good avn with interesting story & sex scenes, 4 stars from me

Wow! Thank you Drooskati for a really great novel. The writing is great. The renders are great (very normal LIs are a refreshing change). The animations are great. I even love the story. The way the harem is create is very refreshing and somewhat believable (as believable as a harem can be). I would have never stopped playing DnD if I would have had a dungeon master like Drooskati. I am actually going to follow this novel to the end which is very rare for me. It is criminal that this only has 46 reviews as it should be up there with the top novels.

[Review as of Ch. 7]

This game is absolutely amazing. Top shelf stuff.

The writing is good, the story takes itself seriously while still having great humor intertwined in it (there are a couple of instances of "why didn't the MC ask X character about Y event/circumstance in this situation" but they aren't numerous and don't really detract from the story. And so far, the story is pretty great). The characters are awesome and I like all of them - with a special mention to Oscar and Kenny.

Game starts fairly slow, but once you get used to the initial slice-of-life pacing things move along in a decent rythm. That said, things really shift gears on chapters 6 and 7 and now I'm feeling miserable that I must wait for the continuation of the story.

One of the few minor gripes I have is that some characters are significantly more attractive than others. But attractiveness is something highly subjective per individual since what is a 10/10 girl for me in the attraction scale might be a 6/10 for some other guy.

I do appreciate that none of the LIs look "generic" though. You know what I'm talking about, those models that all look uncannily familiar and you seem to find them in a lot of different games? In here most characters look quite unique. Or at least, I don't really recall seeing many characters similar to the ones in B2W in other games.

Just... for ME, the only one I think is actually not appealing at all is Kaylee. Specifically her face. Seems like her face does not match her body at all, it's as if she had the face of a fat person imo. Makes me think of Ursula from the Little Mermaid. But all that is basically just her appearance. Her character, as with all the characters in this game is fantastic and I truly wish this game explodes in popularity. It certainly deserves it.

At this point I'm only hoping that the dev can work as fast as he can while keeping the quality to deliver updates regularly, hopefully in a way that doesn't lead to burnout or anything negative. I also hope they get a flood of subscribers/patrons and whatnot.

I'm really glad I picked this one up and recommend it to anyone that reads this review. I might update my review once more updates come through, especially if something happens in them that makes me want to change my rating. So far though, I'm giving it a 5/5 and I honestly do not expect it to change in the future.

Awesome game.

I really enjoyed this story, both worlds of it, even thought it is a bit drawn out, which i personaly dident mind when the story is good enough to carry it and this one is just that.

I am not the biggest fan of how the LIs look, i cant really call them hot but they will still grow on ya du to nice and diffrent personalities, and its nice to have the option to make a small harem with some of them.
I am a little annoyed to see that they do have hot LIs in game like the black haired girl that you only get a BJ from in a house, or the elven girl in town, just wish there was some hot main LIs as well.

Not sure if you truely can pick freely or not but choices does seem to matter, but it is a harem game so dunno if solo route would be a thing since so much in my first playthrough was harem route and alot of the story spinds around that aspect, but i might test that in another playthrough.

Story 5/5
Not much to say its good with well made personalties for the LIs.

Girls 3/5
A bit low score but its based on hotness and they arent really hot in my eyes, but i still enjoy them due to the story with each of them, some of the side LIs was hot but i am more into rating main LIs not side stuff that you barely see.

Animations 3/5
Animations looks good but they are about average compared to other games, but they are still good enough to enjoy.

Music 4/5
It is a nice background music that fits the game.

It is well worth the 4 stars since it is a long story and its good.