Ren'Py - Blossom of Pleasure [v0.416] [Bildur]

Normally I try to spend some time discussing each aspect of a VN by breaking it down into categories and then aggregating a score at the very end. However, "Blossom of Pleasure" is a VN that has little respect for a player's time, and as such doesn't warrant a full on review (it also wouldn't be fair to keep bashing the dev).

Issues
The game itself is built upon the premise that you will have the option of exploring two main paths: Domination or Submission. Each path is either explored exclusively, or you can opt for a "switch" role, which seems to be there for players who want to see both sides of the main story. This split, however, means that the total content of the game is split in half in terms of actual content for each path which progresses the story. That, in my opinion, is a huge "no-no" when writing a script for a plethora of reasons, but the prominent one is the lack of any sort of quality control.

...That is strike 1...

The gameplay loop has absolutely no respect for the player's time as you WILL spend dozens of hours just grinding various point values to progress each characters story. The reward you obtain after spending hours of grinding said points is either a minor story progression scene, or a half-assed lewd scene with rigid animations. The actual "reward" for engaging with the core mechanics just isn't enough to justify the amount of time sunk into performing senseless tasks.

Thankfully, there is the option to cheat these values to their max despite the warning from the dev stating your "enjoyment of the story will be diminished".

... Strike 2...

Perhaps not as egregious as the first two issues, the actual writing for story favors long monologues that overuse metaphors. For example - when describing the "mother" - the dev used 3 metaphors to get the same point across about her personality being cold and calculating, or the fact that she is playing a game in which she has an advantage in. The whole point of the "Visual" part of "Visual Novel" is the ability to convey several lines of descriptive text into a single image that conveys the exact same point.

This issue persisted throughout the ENTIRETY of chapter 1, only for Chapter 2 to implement a different writing style and actually taking advantage of imagery rather than descriptions. There wasn't even a gradual transition of writing style, so enjoy that whiplash.

... Strike 3 ...

Closing
I never enjoy writing harsh reviews of VNs due to the fact that solo devs are having to wear many hats when pushing out updates. However, when a dev actively chooses to implement gameplay mechanics and writing styles that show little consideration for a player's time they end up making a rough situation worse.

My advice to the dev (please don't take this negatively as I'm being genuine):

• Pick a theme and stick with it. Either focus on a Submission story, or a Domination Story.
• Cut the overall grind requirements by 80%. Very few people enjoy timewasters in erotica
• Streamline your writing style to focus more on dialog rather than descriptors. You have the massive advantage of using visuals to convey key points without needing to write several extra lines of narrative.

There is massive potential for this VN that I sincerely want to see succeed. You have a great foundation plot wise, home in on that and the players will appreciate it!

Really eh game
Pros:
+Great renders
+Nice premise
+A lot of scenes
+Straightforward grind that isn't too hard to understand
+Good guidance to triggering scenes
+Fetish filter

Cons:
-Time management, "Do X at Y time for Z to happen"
-Real life time management, the grind takes so long this feels like an actual job
-The game doesn't have the advertised tags it claims to have, in my several hours of playing I only stumbled upon very few of the tags, I have not unlocked every single thing but apart from basic femdom, watching women do erotic things, getting spanked and kicked occasionally, there really isn't much and I have doubts most the fetish filters do anything at all.
-Grindy, I came here to jack off man not play knockoff cookie clicker.
-Scenes while many with excellent and varied renders, are very short in terms of what happens, its 90% dirty talk/teasing or in case of Riccarda random nonsensical philosophy.
-Text wall, I am again here to jack off not read a Shakespearean erotica.
-The grind is not worth it, I would be content if there was like 5 minutes of erotic content after every 15 minutes of grinding but no, grind grind grind and occasionally get a sneak peak at someone nude while grinding.

The game can really become good if the developers change the approach to the game. It seems to me that you need to focus on one thing (in my case, I would like to see female domination). Because trying to sit on several chairs irritates both camps and you scare away the audience. There is a good story, hot renders and characters, but there are too many grinds and useless scenes. I hope the developers will decide to rethink the project, rebuild it taking into account the existing renderings and give out a game in the genre of female domination. In the meantime, unfortunately, I can't put a higher rating.

Was okay as a concept, but too much grind and doesn't know what it wants to do.

Dev is going to have to make a choice at this point and then rework everything with that choice. Do you want a femdom setting and world or do you want maledom turn the tables? Trying to do both just annoys everyone and slows down dev time, forcing insane grind and repetitive content.

At this point even if that was done, you'd have to get the word out. But with how it is now, it's hit a real dead end.

This game is a very confusing one, I am not an super organized person and sandbox games are just not for me. Still I tried and regretted it. Some contents are easily missable, You have to grind same dialogues everyday with different characters in different rooms at different times until you hit the minimum required RP to see a slight dialogue change with a character. There are too many icon layouts with different info to follow which stress the sh*t out of me. I have played many aaa games, but I don't think this game worth the time considering how little you progress compared to the time spent. Sandbox games are a cheap trick to stretch a minute long content into an hour, and this game is the proof. 99% of the stuff here is nonsense and re-reading a newspaper is more interesting than playing this game. So don't waste your time playing this unless your life is boring af and you have nothing else to do other than playing it, but also be prepared to be overwhelmed by icons n stuffs.

I liked the models and the scenes. Dialogue was fine and the setting was ok. I only played through the submissive path as it had the scenes that interested me the most.

The clicker sandbox part of the game seemed quite pointless but perhaps if the game grows in the future and lasts longer after you gain access to it, there'll be more time to passively grind it.

My biggest complain would be the way too long descriptions that happened during some scenes where it would use 30 different adjectives to describe how warm and cosy a lady's private parts are. If it were an HTML game for example I could just roll my eyes and skip through those paragraphs, but here you need to click through a dozen text boxes to get the scene moving.

I'd still recommend anyone into femdom to check it out, it doesn't take too long to unlock all the scenes as you don't really need to interact with the grindy parts of the game unless you really want to 100% the game and gain nothing.

Score is 3/5 for a game that's in development, and I can see myself coming back to it in a few months to check if there's been more content added.

Was really enjoying this one and then Act 2 happened and it's like a completely different game altogether. In the second act of the game you are introduced to a ridiculous clicker/stonks 'game.' Get used to it, because this is your life now. Money is useless and you need the new blue money to pay for everything and to progress the story.

So after grinding for a few hours to acquire the 10k blue bucks you are rewarded with an empty house. I should mention Act 2 you will be pressing the skip button a lot. A few days go by and the older 'roommate' stops in to deliver some dialogue about la resistance and you get a boring facefuck scene and a FADE TO BLACK sex scene that only Ray Charles could appreciate, but don't worry you can revisit that scene every night.

What happened? The game had great writing, the music was good and matched the tone and atmosphere and then it's like Act 2 comes along and it's just not it. How does the shopkeeper girl get a more meaningful romance than the older roommate who is supposed to be 'the one that was always nice to the mc?'

If I was to rate just Act 1, it's an easy 5/5. It had a good story, nice world building, good dialogue and characters that felt authentic and part of that world. It's just such a stark contrast to Act 2 that feels empty and the progression loop becomes press skip button lots of times. I am wondering if it's just a matter of there are 3 paths now instead of 1 so there is less of that attention to detail that Act 1 had.

tl;dr solid start that went off a cliff, hopefully it gets back on track somewhere down the line

I’m taking a firm stance on this game after an experience that was frankly disappointing, if not outright frustrating. Set in a gynarchic dystopia dominated by women, subtlety is clearly not its strength. World-building, characters, and story are presented in broad, heavy-handed strokes without nuance or depth.

This classic premise, similar to Karlsson’s Gambit, is far less engaging. You play a male protagonist navigating a female-ruled world, with options to resist, submit, or blend in. However, it feels more like an excuse to deliver adult scenes than a meaningful narrative.

Attempts to balance submissive and dominant male routes come through a switcher option unlocking scenes from both, resulting in bland encounters with exaggerated, cartoonish characters, shallow writing, and poorly rendered models except for one halfway decent one. The tone awkwardly swings between hard femdom and overdone male domination, making the experience feel disjointed and inconsistent, as if the game can’t decide which direction to take. Sex scenes come off clichéd and unsatisfying, lacking emotional or narrative depth.

Gameplay proves grind-heavy with weak rewards. Scenes remain short and low-quality, animations clunky, moaning sound effects recycled and cheap, music almost nonexistent, and sandbox mechanics tedious and unrewarding. The interface feels clumsy, the world map looks like a joke, and dialogues are bloated and often meaningless.

Little is offered to enjoy or keep players engaged at this stage. Technical flaws and endless grinding led me to drop it quickly. Seeing many games with interesting femdom themes fall flat like this is disappointing. As a fan of the genre, it was a letdown.

In my opinion, one star seems far more fitting than five given what’s offered.

Have a nice day, folks. Don’t waste it on this game.

I really liked it.
Beautiful renders and a lot of kinky s*it.
It is a sandbox game, with some management elements, I loved it.
Plus it explore some fetishes leaving the player a lot of choices regarding them.
If you are curios about it I recommend to give it a try, you'll not be disappointed

+ Great femdom scenes, wide selection of optional fetishes, nice renders and gameplay features. Didn't play maledom part.
~Plot is strange (IMHO), but it's fine.
- Some scenes are grindy, you need to raise or lower girls' happiness or anger to get scenes. And it takes a lot of time. There's also built-in clicker game that is EXTREMELY grindy, and is required to unlock few renders.

In conclusion – great game for femdom enjoyers. Edit saves if you are getting tired of clicking.

Really enjoyable game, plenty scenes and no insane grinds, the choice between sub, switch and dom is a really good part of the game as well. Everything from the dev has been thought through. Look forward to playing future updates.

Excellent game with some nuance.
+ Great render. Even with default setting you can see difference in skin between Riccarda and other girls. Her skin good but not so smooth, because she 46 years old. Have a little mark.
+ Mostly this game like date simulator with element soft femdom.
+ All girls have pubic hair. Yes. Full bush but trimmed. You clearly can see they pussy. And I like it because girls without pubic hair mostly look like child. I don't want see sex scene with child.
+ Interesting story. Yes story not much but interesting.
- Humilation. Some scene really to much for me because I don't like humilation. But mostly other scene don't bother me.
- "Optional magic lube". That I mean. Game don't show lube. Okay. Most game like this. In scene with prostate stimulation protagonist recieve pleasure (okay "magic lube"), but from sounding he recieve pain. What? There now you "magic lube"? Why he recieve pain? Urethral plag look like for begginer. Why protagonist cry like baby? No "magic lube" for sounding?
- Grind. Not really annoying if you have time. And no need grind so much like in other game. Grind it's a little problem.

Total: Excelent game mostly with soft femdom element. Some scene with hardcore femdom and maledom scene (different rout). In beging 2 chapter and almost in the end realise v0.30 you can play in minigame(managment). Good game and good minigame.

The writing in this game is as if a robot tried to write what human interactions are like. The way people are, the way they talk, is just so weird. It borders on creepy just how unnatural they seem. I don't know if it's because the game dev isn't an English speaker but for a game that is about human interaction, you gotta have those interactions at least be somewhat good.

Others are right too about the grind. I normally don't mind sandbox games, but this one really pushes it. What is the point of a conversation wheel where you have to click COMPLIMENT and then click TALK and then click TEASE and do that over and over and over again to increase the score? Makes no sense, it's just anti-user-friendly.

I love femdom games and humiliation games, but this one just gives those a bad name. Not enjoyable.

4 TO 5 STARS for this one.

PROS:
*1- GOOD STORY WITH ELEMENTS BETWEEN SANDBOX AND VN.
*2-PATHS TO CHOSSE FOR THOSE WHO LIKE MALEDOM OR FENDOM.
*3-DECENT RENDERS 7/10.
4*-THE PACE OR GRIND ISNT TOO HEAVY EITHER.

CONS: WELL IS A SANDBOX AND EVEN WITH THE GRINDING ISNT
MUCH STILL IS THE WORST TYPE OF GAME [THIS IS ENTIRELY MY OPINION.


P.S: THIS IS GAME IS AS GOOD AS ANY OTHER VN OUT THERE EVEN FOR ME WHO I DONT LIKE HEAVY FENDOM/MALEDOM STORY THIS ONE GIVE ME THE CHOICE TO BE A SIMP BE A NORMAL GUY OR BE HERO/ANTIHERO .SO A NICE ADITION TO MY COLLECTION .
LETS SEE WHAT THE DEV BRING US IN THE FUTURE.

I was already skipping most of the stuff and though about quiting the game and never looking back when i finally reached the part when good stuff begins (for me maledom). Sadly shortly after that the story ends, because it was the end of the content. Now i'm really looking forward to make all the bitches pay...

So if you want to play it you have to suffer (or enjoy) through some femdom and humilation, before your can choose which path you want to follow.

On my path this previous build up make the following revenge much better.

What can I say...
The graphics of each room and environment are well represented.
The city map reminds me more of a nursery school game
The girls' characters are also well developed, but you could knit a winter hat out of their hair. (and I'm not talking about the hair on her head)
MC ..... I have rarely found an even worse representation of a man, thin, small, emaciated and a penis the size of a little finger. you could say it's pretty discriminatory for men, but ok it's a game.

About the story: mc doesn't really have an alternative, he has to put up with everything .... as I said, it's not a really good game, but I'll wait for the updates to form a final opinion.

Love the sister, like the mum, renders are ok, hate hate hate the grind.

There is absolutely no fun at all in playing this game.

A sandbox generally involves grinding and that's ok to a certain extent, but you need some reward every now and then (as in every 10-15 minutes).

This game just takes a piss at the player, and not in the fun watersports kind of way.
Tags like humiliation should point to things inside the game, not towards the player.

TL;DR
grind, grind, grind for short mediocre animations that always leave you disappointed.

Really wanted to like this, but the grind lvl is off the charts for not much tbh, story is meh the only points it gets is that it does have some nice renders and you have the ability to customize your play-through by turning fetishes on/off -- but that grind tho. Not worth it imo.

Best of luck to creator, genuinely think it has potential it could easily be changed for the better ^^

This game is grind, grind and more grind. I can't even tell if there's a good game behind the grind there is that much fucking grinding to do. I tried my best to get into this game as i absolutely adore femdom but even after several hours i couldn't find a single thing worth looking at, it's just grind, nothing but grind... i don't mind some grind in my sandbox games, i enjoy it even, but this ridiculous, it's JUST grind. I honestly feel like this game is one major attempt at trolling people, a dressed up grind wheel and you're the Ox.

That was a well laid out game. Liked some things I did not think I would but liked even more how the developer gives full freedom to turn on or off items a player may not wish to follow. one other, it is long, not in a bad way but effective way.