VN - Ren'Py - Blood Spirals [Ep.2 v0.2.3] [Modern Degenerate]

I think I'm still in the first chapter and it's quite a great AVN with compelling story , the writing is good and visuals are great as well but for fuck sake please stop using 5+ renders just for the exact same scene.
Every single ducking time people talk, you get a render of the first person's face saying nothing, then one when he speaks, then another render when he turn his head and again another render with the face of the person he's speaking to, sometimes that person will get a render after turning his head like because he's thinking, then another render for facing the first person, then a render of with the second person speaking after "thinking" then again a render of that 2nd person after he spoke then back to the first person and the cycle goes on.
Worst thing is that you often have to click to times to change tenders and when you get multiple "fillers" renders as I call them and it pisses me off so bad I start skipping but then I skip some text and it pisses me off even more because then I have to go back because the story and writing is really great so far
I'm a sucker for good story and writing so even if I often quit the game because of those fillers renders, I come back because of it but man (girl?) you should fix this because you're putting extra work for this but it's just increasingly annoying
Many people will just drop it, he'll I was this close to delete it but here I am giving 4⭐, I was going to give 3⭐ but as I said everything's good/great except this so a 3⭐ review would have been too harsh.

Played Ep 2 v0.2.3 – rather linear visual novel with a male mc. You play a former criminal who’s trying to leave a life of organized crime. Sadly crime doesn’t want to let him go.

Firstly the good parts: The story is pretty good, the writing and dialogue is excellent (the people speak like actual people for a change), the girls are pretty and the sex scenes hot. The music also works well. The creator also seems to have plot at least partly planned out as he claimed that there would be four episodes – not more, not less.

The bad – it’s the creator’s first game and it shows: renders and animations are often rather uncanny and fucked up (f.E. mc has tiny hands in the first chapter). I personally don’t mind, as I am more interested in good writing, but others might. He also visibly improves as the story goes on and I do prefer that he drives the story forward than try to improve old scenes (and get the game stuck in development hell like so many other games).

I do recommend reading the creator’s summary as the mandatory heroines might be offensive to some (one has a rather colorful sexual history – but does stop sleeping around if you tell her to, the other looks rather young and has a history of sexual abuse)

There is some (avoidable) sharing if you’re interested in that.

Bdsm wise Aneta likes being dominated and hurt. Sadly the creator stated that “her fetish for punishment comes from an unhealthy mental state that she will have to confront over the course of the story”. I hope that does not mean that she’ll lose interest in bdsm, as that’s the main reason I’m interested in the game.

Has some domination, rough sex and one hot scene with a cage and light whipping. There is also one light lezdom scene if you don’t tell her not to sleep around. All in all there aren’t many sex scenes because the story has priority (I’m fine with that)
The other heroine is vanilla only.

A walkthrough or a guid mod would be really helpful because the game makes it really easy to miss shit if you accidentally miss some points or make a single wrong decision. Also the (sex) scenes with Aneta feel like a minefield because it feels really easy to make wrong decisions and lose relationship-, wall- or influence-points with her. (might be better later on, once you have an idea how many points of which type you need later on and what they’re good for).

Still check it out if you like good writing and an interesting story.

This is pretty dark game and not might be for everyone. Coming from someone who likes more pure setting. But boy story is soo good. Both LIs have heavy baggage and its up to MC fixing them.. Kudos Dev for good delivery. Give it chance it will be worth of your time

Leaving this as 5 stars for what it COULD be.

The Good:

Some of the best writing and most compelling characters I have seen in a very long time.

The Girls have a solid variety and each is a little broken in different ways ( Refreshing to have well written female characters )

The Bad

Animations are a little Jank at times but i'm not going to throw shade at a solo dev for this. They will get better and honestly have gotten better with this last update.

Some minor issues with texts on the phones clipping through so you cant read the text itself.

Overall I think this project has the potential to be something great, and I encourage people to download, play it for what it is, and consider donating to the Dev.

[Ep.2 v0.2.3]

TL;DR - Not the best nor the worst AVN I've Ever Played.

Writing:

• The script contains quite a lot a region specific slang, which is sometimes difficult to comprehend, a bunch of words I've never seen or heard anywhere else before. Not like it's a negative or anything, just though it was worth to point out. I do like meself some challenge but some may find it annoying.
• The writing itself is very mature and down-to-earth, with a heavy focus on character development through conversations.
• The main plot is engaging despite me usually not being into the crime drama settings.
• This is some of the best written protagonist that I've come across in AVNs, period. Caring, assertive, thoughtful, profound, cunning and reserved when appropriate, and many other positive qualities. Has internal moral conflict about his questionable actions which makes his appear more alive. There wasn't a single instance where I was irritated with his actions.
• There a two main girls - Aneta and Emily, and three-four side ones, not sure if they will eventually blossom into full-fledged love interests a bit early to talk about that, but so far they seem like temporary hook-ups. Look, I dislike romancing sluts as much as the next guy but Aneta is sorta well-written + sad backstory + she's pretty interesting + there is an option to tell her to stop fooling around and she actually does (don't know if it was there initially or was added retroactively due to player backlash), anyways, she's a nice girl deep down, just with a troubled past (and present). The other one has medical condition due to which she stopped developing physically circa after 14, so she kinda looks like a kid. The contrast between her small frame and a hulk of an MC is especially goofy. Not a problem for me, I appreciate women of many shapes and sizes, but if it bothers you, feel free to come back to whatever safe space you've crawled from. She's also been taken advantage of by a child groomer, who apparently raped her in a drunken state on several occasions. But otherwise she is a normal girl tho shy and insecure. I like both, they are not without flaws, but they make up for it with originality.

Gameplay:

• VN has several "free roam" screens after the prologue ends where you can choose in which order to play events or maybe to skip them altogether. I don't know why it's there and what was the purpose, but whatever.
• When you talk to Rosa on the balcony, both choices lead to the same dialogue. This is also the case with Aneta in the kitchen and some other places. Like maybe it changed hidden variables that will come into play later on, but when players make choices in VNs they expect at least some different lines of dialogue. Bun in spite of this nuisance, overall choices are plentiful and somewhat impactful.

Visuals:
⠀⠀⠀Dev's modeling is .... a bit controversial. Some faces are unsavory or bizarre looking, e.g. Grant's GF's textures look plastic, Emily's cheekbones are too sharp, idk, she kinda looks like a gremlin. Not even gonna comment on MC's mom, WTH is that monstrosity? Some environments are low-effort. Lighting in some scenes is botched. The second episode has leftover model skeletons on the renders. On a more positive note developer went through extra effort to create a bunch of additional renders to reflect character's emotions to breathe more life into them.


Erotic content:
⠀⠀⠀Animations are really bad, movement is unnatural af and lacks amplitude and motion, models look more like puppets rather than living creatures during animated scenes. I appreciate the effort of making your own instead of sticking with default HS2 assets, but this department clearly needs more work. Still renders are good though. Some camera angles are fucked up. Sound effects are 'penis music'-tier, not sure is they're supposed to make me aroused or piss myself laughing. The dialogue and naughty talk during the scenes are spot on like the rest of the VN's writing.

Misc:

• Text within the phone message box is clipping.
• The soundtrack has good variety and fits the mood well. I liked some of the tracks. Nice synthwave theme in the main menu.

Conclusion: I do recommend checking it out or at least making a bookmark, not for the porn, but for engaging writing and refreshingly original characters.

TL;DR - Best AVN I Ever Played

(Okay, maybe the second best new release lately, but hey, a little hype never hurt anyone.)

I was gonna hold off until Episode 2 or even 3 dropped before writing this, but screw it. I kinda messed up my review for Wildcats by judging it too early, so I don't wanna make that mistake again. But I just read that last review, and feel like there needs to be some balance. Gotta give credit where it’s due.

Episode 1 of Blood Spirals is a solid 4/5 on its own, but the potential is absolutely 5-star. After seeing some of the reviews, I felt the need to balance things out with some major appreciation.

The Good Stuff:

• The writing is top-tier. Every character has a unique voice. The MC is low-key and direct, his best friend has this almost musical way of talking, one love interest is all nervous pauses, and another just can’t stop oversharing in the best way. Even the side characters like the uncle and mom are dripping with personality.
• It gets to the point. So many AVNs get stuck in the MC's head with endless internal monologues. This one cuts that out and the pacing is so much better for it.
• The characters are mysterious and layered. You instantly want to know more about them and peel back those layers.
• The vibe is seriously sensual, kinda like Strangers on Paper. It’s got this eroticism to it, even if some scenes are pretty graphic and in-your-face.
• You always know what the characters want. Their motivations are clear, which makes everything they do way more engaging. No meandering nonsense.
• It treats you like an adult. No hand-holding, no boring filler scenes just to explain things. It trusts you to figure out that time has passed or that something happened off-screen. (I see one guy here who really struggled with that concept…)
• The renders are above average for an HS2 game. Yeah, there are a few duds in there—some weird lighting, a few too-bright scenes—but it’s a big update. The later renders are awesome, and the Episode 2 previews look even better.
• The sex scenes are filthy in the best way. And they actually make sense for the characters! It’s impressive how well they tie into the story and who these people are.
• The dev says it’s planned for four episodes. That’s a perfect length for a first game. It actually feels like a project that might get finished, so we might avoid the dreaded “abandoned” tag.
• It knows exactly what it is and who it’s for (which, lucky me, is people like me). It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone by being bland and safe. If you’re its target audience, you’ll love it. If you’re not, it’ll probably piss you off—just like it did that one guy below. I love that it doesn’t cater to certain… fragile audiences.
• The story has huge potential. So many threads are being set up. If the dev can stick the landing, this could be something truly special.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• The animations are kinda janky. Mostly stock or a bit jerky. I’ve seen worse, but they definitely need work.
• A handful of renders miss the mark, usually due to weird lighting or colors.
• The pink-haired girl looks a bit off, but from her conversation with her dad, it seems like there might be a story reason for it. I’m curious to find out.
• Biggest tragedy: Coffee shop girl is clearly best girl, but it looks like we won’t get a scene with her. Dev, you tease!

All in all, a fantastic first episode with the potential to become something incredible.

TLDR: The worst AVN I've played.

Positives:

• Sex scenes have animations. Although these are very basic and has some issues.
• Double vaginal penetration (but you don't see much and it's extremely short).
• Anal. 1 scene.
• Decent dialogue (although overall story is annoying) and no significant language issues.

Negatives:

• The worst character models I've seen (in a 3d game at least). Low quality, low poly. Cartoonish. Strange, unnatural looking faces. The body and face proportions are wrong, e.g. completely round face on one girl. Legs that are three-quarters of the body.
• Low quality of renders and environments. Bodies clipping through clothes, poor textures, lighting issues, too dark, no depth of field, etc.
• Only two LIs. (Plus one scene with two other girls.)
• I find both LIs are highly unattractive. One for her long history of depravity, slutting it up with old dudes. The other for her childlike appearance.
• Main girl 1 starts out as a complete slut with a long history of fucking dudes, some old and ugly too. I prefer corrupting a normal/innocent girl into a slut.
• Main girl 2 looks like a muscular prepubescent child.
• Incoherent story with poor flow. Scenes just "randomly" happen without any explanation or preamble.
• Also, annoying and clichéd story. E.g. the waitress sets the girl up with a guy but it's actually the same guy she met the day before!? OMG, that's such a funny and interesting coincidence... And of course they both failed job interviews on the same day.
• You have to see main girl 1 keep acting super slutty, dressing semi-nude (tits out), sucking off other guys when you're not around, etc. even after you start pursuing her.
• Have to watch other guys fuck girls. Several times.
• MC is stupid.
• Hairy pussies.
• Currently available scenes, in my playthrough going for both girls: 1 scene with two other "random" girls. 1 BJ with main girl One. 1 penetrative sex with main girl 1. That's it.

(Version 0.1.01)

This isn't a perfect game, as others have stated. There are some issues with animations, only 2 h-scenes if that's what your play these games for. But there are lots of positives.

First I'll just mention some of the issues I have, all pretty minor. I personally like a 'slow grind' type of AVN where you get into the story and characters before just jumping into bed, so to speak. This game is very heavily focused on it's story and characters. So if that's not your thing, this one isn't for you.

My biggest gripes with the renders have got to be the sizes of things. The MC is supposed to be very tall, but some characters aren't much shorter than him, at least at first. This seemed to get better as the chapter went on, so maybe the dev made adjustments to this. The other issue is the size of hands on the 'bigger' characters. The MC, for instance, again, is big! His hands should be big! But they are tiny! I guess its the normal default hand for HS2? They fit on the smaller characters, but and larger character in the game just has supper oddly proportioned hands.

I've read some people felt the MC's character was not acting consistent with the past that's been presented to us. I feel this is fine, he's trying to be a different person, he's trying to change. Not going into any spoilers but he's had a rough life, I think the issues he faces in the game thus far and the choices he takes in the story fit with someone going through changes in life.

Now onto the things I like about this game up to now. First, for a first release this thing is huge! I usually play these games slowly, reading everything, looking at the renders. So to have over 5000 renders in the first update, kudos on that for sure. The renders themselves have some nice lighting in a lot of them. Some of the side characters could look better, again going back to the proportion things I mentioned earlier. The main LI look good. Very distinct looking, unique, which is good in an AVN.

While I'm not to sure of where the story is heading at the moment, I can say it is very well written. There is a lot of dialog, and baring a few grammar errors here and there it is well written. As the dev mentioned the characters 'baggage' from their past, but I found it's not discussed ad nauseam over and over in dialog as a lot of other games with darker narratives tend to do.

All in all if you're interested in a true VN that is trying to tell a story and build character relationships, this is something you should definitely try. I usually like to wait to write reviews for games but I feel this game needs more eyes on it, more people trying it and playing it. It's not a 5 star game, not yet. If things in the renders and animations are cleaned up - and seeing where the story goes, it could easily get there.

[v0.1.01]

Definitely not your run of the mill AVN in dialogues. Full marks for that.

The British / Irish vibe is great. Different characters have distinct ways of speaking. There are some great convos, like MC with mom, MC with Anette. Then there is a general tendency for dev to turn convos to pscyhology/overintellectualize even where he shouldn't. I mean, Joe extrapolating on "personality clashes"?

The issues?

While there are one or two H scenes, it's mostly dialogue/plot driven cascade of shots. Expect 99% dialogues in this version at least. Not exactly my cup of tea for an AVN, but then I never claimed refined tastes.

There is a generous number of different shots per each scene (not talking about H scenes, but regular gameplay), but their framing with characters jumping across screen together with the sheer amount of short dialogue lines create quite an unpleasant sense of jerkiness, which makes reading the text harder and makes want to skip.

The couple of H scenes that are there, are not exactly visually very appealing. In general, while main models are OK, background characters are bizarre (cf. Anete's sister and her fiancee, but not only those).

Backgrounds are sometimes okayish, but frequently subpar.

Essentially an illustrated novel, which doesn't fully get or exploit the medium it's working with.

I also agree with the reviewers that commented on how the MC's actions don't much match his backstory, which makes things somewhat confusing.

All in all, solid 3/5, might be 4/5 for the refreshingly grownup dialogues, which are a rarity.

The story, dialogues and animation are great.
The characters felt alive, and the pacing kept me hooked. Visually charming and emotionally engaging ، It would’ve been even better with some in-game hints + gallery.
I can't wait for the next update !

In all honesty this is a really weird game to rate. Because it is somewhat unique, which is getting to be a rare trait. I'm just not sure that it's in great ways in all honesty. The LIs all have some extremely intense baggage, so it's emotional heavy, which in itself isn't terrible. I think the biggest problem of the game is that things don't seem "congruent". The back story that you're set up with, the way you act, and the choices that you have don't really match. The get almost frustrating because you really start to understand who the character "should" be, but just isn't for no real reason which makes it a bit strange.

Regarding the renders... to be blunt they're a little disgusting at times. Not in that they're made badly, or even in terms of fetish, but in terms of content. I won't spoil it but beware if you're sensitive to that stuff.

The plot is interesting, but as I talked about earlier the lack of congruency makes it a bit tough. As the game continues I may change this rating, because I could see it getting a little better or much worse. We'll see how it goes but I think 3 is a solid preliminary start.

Edit:
I went further and it gets a bit worse. The character not acting how the player wants him to or even how he realistically would given his story is getting more and more frustrating. The renders also proved to not be spectacular, they have glitchy issues where it looks like things snap bcs the animation doesn't start/end at the correct place. It's unfortunate bcs the creator clearly has talent, but this prob gets updated into a soft pass at 2 stars.

Holy Shit!! What a start to a fantastic story! No college or high school trope here, nah my mans didn't even have time for that and dropped out to hustle. This is story rich af but brrrooooo it's so well done!
Here's a guy that has been dealt a very shitty hands of cards but he is steadily fighting through it to become a better person. And along the way he finds two lovely women who want to be by his side.
I've always had a bit of a hard time with cliff hangers in VNs because most devs just piss me off. This first episode does end in a cliff hanger but it didn't piss me off. It genuinely made my jaw drop. Don't sleep on this one, it's so fuggin good.