Ren'Py - Bonds of Love [v1.7] [Zelathorn Games]

V 0.5
Sandbox games are not my jam usually but wanted to give this one a chance. It still is in its early development and it's a slow build relationship style which I like. A bit more realistic than those games where all the ladies fall suddenly in love with the MC and want to fuck him...
And, for a change, MC is not a perverted manipulative jerk even if his hormones are acting up.

- Renders look a bit outdated (though, the quality of a game can't be only defined by that) but at least the faces (and bodies) are pleasant to watch and are not the one that are seen in most of the recent games.
- Some clothing and postures look a bit unnatural and/or out of place. But I know nothing about game designs and all that, so I guess must be difficult to have a perfect rendering.
- Could use some more different facial expressions during dialogs, that would give a more immersive and genuine feeling.
- Timing between dialogs and images are not in sync sometimes.
- Writing is good and funny. I'm a sucker for sarcasm and puns.

Game still has way too many exceptions occurring while navigating the map. Will come back to check in few versions and see if they've been fixed. Can't bother "rollbacking" so many times to advance.

----------Review based on v0.3-----------

Writing (5*)
-Pretty good writing in my opinion. The developer has done a good job delivering the expressions of different personalities (Introverts, Silly, Naive, etc.). Couldn't find any grammatical errors according to my knowledge.

Story (5*)
-It's the usual fatherless home kind of story but a bit realistic and engaging. In other words, you are gonna have to wait for a couple more updates to see actual action, but I would say the funny interactions and small excitements cover it up pretty well.

Renders (4*)
-Characters are unique (I've rarely seen them in other games at least) and beautiful. match their personalities. Renders are not that great but good enough to enjoy the gameplay. (With better support it will hopefully get better)
I would suggest you to definitely give this a try. Also, sandbox is just to let the player have more control over the mc I guess. It's pretty simple and straightforward so don't have to worry about it being grindy at all.

The first review doesn't do justice to this VN. it definitely needs to be updated. It's weird that there are much worse games getting less hate than this.

90% of your time will be clicking on rooms with character icons on them, then looking for chat or eye icon and usually there is none. So then you skip to another hour and repeat.

Empty sandbox, should be just a VN.

Very little content at the moment. Wait at least few months and updates before downloading.