VN - Ren'Py - Broken Promises [v0.38] [Light Cavalry]

Excellent game! A rare genre with great potential. Undercover/Detective/Mafia stories are as real as they can get so the potential here is great if rightly developed. The fact that you can "play the field" with the MC before choosing a single LI down the road, is a fresh breath on it's own gamewise bypassing entirely the pantheon of "harem" orientated games which are flooding the VN type of games. For the people of knowledge, realism and not loving mindless screwing around I recommend this game!

Broken Promises [v0.38]

Woah, wasn't expecting to enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did due to the overall ratings, but glad I ignored it and gave this game a chance. This is for sure a diamond in the rough!

Pros -

- Renders are very nice.

- The MC isn't a pushover and has a backbone.

- The characters are all interesting and feel quite authentic, and most of them look good (some of them have kinda odd appearances)

- There is A LOT of tension built between the LI's and the MC through body language, subtle looks, gestures and interactions. The dev knows how to build tension (romantic, sexual, conflicted etc) amongst the characters and all those little details are often neglected but REALLY add so much. I give major props to the developer for this. So much good use of camera work and body language to convey how these characters are feeling. There are times where characters just don't even talk, yet their eyes and facial expressions will say it all. The art of subtlety!

- The story is suspenseful and engaging, it's got a real calm before the storm vibe going on and I am all for it.

- Kylie (holy hell is she stunning, especially in that black dress god damn, def best girl in my eyes)

- Tianna (what I said earlier about tension... she has an insane lingering tension with the MC and it's very sexy. The way she looks at the MC with those longing, doting eyes is something else, bonus points for being the MC's boss and being a milf. I kid you not, I haven't seen so much tension in a VN before between a character and an MC like this.)

- Time is being spent building the relationships between characters, the girls aren't all just hopping on the MC's dick from the word go, which is great. I am so tired of the stories where the MC just gets everything easy, that's no fun.

Cons -

- Grammar and English could be better. The writing is fine and I was never scratching my head trying to figure anything out, but there are a lot of typos. Even in the opening disclaimer there's a few.

- As previously mentioned,some of the characters look off. Mostly the parents of some of the characters, they have weird hair colours and some don't even look old enough to have fully grown teens/adults as kids. A couple of the LI's look disproportionate and a bit "uncanny valley-esque" Grace in particular. Kylie more than makes up for this though, and it is just my opinion.
The "Ryan" character also looks like a dude in his mid thirties, looks way too old to be in university.

- The older female characters keep calling the MC "boy". I hate this, personal pet peeve of mine.

- I am confused that Kylie and Afina are twins but Kylie seems older and is a working lawyer, while Afina is a university student?

Overall - if it weren't for the grammar and a few other small grievances I'd be giving this project 5 stars easily. If you're looking for a VN that has a more realistic and grounded feel to it, this is a great choice. The story is engaging, full of mystery, conflict and intrigue.

Game Version: v0.38

It's rare for me to give any AVN a review - much less a 5-star rating - but what "Broken Promises" has done is captured lightning in a bottle.

Character Driven
Each character in this story has some kind of background that makes them feel three dimensional rather than flat, uninteresting set pieces. It's clear from the start that the plot is driven by everyone, not just the protagonist (which is rare in any form of media). The author seems to have well fleshed out character sheets for everyone and manages to set up meaningful arcs for each one regardless of their role.

It's also rare to see an author incorporate dynamic relationships between characters that aren't strictly controlled/altered by the protagonist, as is evident by the interactions we see between Eveline and Brie, or Afina and Kylie. Additionally, the relationships we can alter in some way are properly set up so it doesn't feel as though we're the sole reason for the change - such as the relationship between Alice and Tianna.

To shorten everything mentioned above, what you get with the characters is believable stories with properly telegraphed pitfalls that drive their character arcs.

(Mostly) Cinematic Rendering
It seems as though the developer had some growing pains in the initial few releases that seem to have been remedied... However, it's currently impossible to spot any differences in quality between chapter 1 and chapter 3.5. While Daz models range in quality, Light Calvary seems to have invest some time into rendering higher poly versions with extremely detailed UV mapping. Blemishes, eyes, and age marks all aid in making each character feel unique and has been used to great effect here.

The few issues present in the current release include:

• Clipping between characters when they physically touch
• Harsh edges between the sclera and iris, which is easily visible in close-ups
• Discrepancies in lighting quality that change between scenes (i.e. darker to brighter)

Overall the renders are top notch without over-detailing characters and objects. It seems as though the dev has a proper piepline for rendering, so here's hoping he maintains consisency without falling for the allure of more detailed modeling.

Writing
So this is where we get a mixed bag in terms of quality. The underlying plot follows the standard story structure with a well paced exposition and inciting incident. Additionally, Light Calvary also seems to be following a three act story arc wherein we're just reaching the climax of the first act, so I have high hopes we'll see consistency within the story from that aspect. The key issue with the writing is grammar...

To elaborate, the writing is full of mispelled words, odd punctuation, and broken sentence flows. The lack of an editor is painfully obvious alongside any sort of personal review by the dev. Internal monologuing is indistinguishable from narration, words are repeated, and dialogue in general doesn't feel as organic as a taditional script. The end result is the audiences' brains needing to work overtime in correcting these issues which detract from the otherwise engaging plot in a detrimental fashion.

Final Thoughts...
Despite the negatives outlined above, the quality for the rest of this AVN carries this project into 5-star territory. The few issues present are nowhere near egregious enough to warrant a lower rating.


To Light Calvary directly (if you're reading):

1. Spend some time setting up and maintaining a render library alongside values you commonly use. This will help with overall consistency and streamline some of the rendering process.
2. Outsource an editor
   • This can either be community volunteer work, or agreeing to a percentage comission for each month work is performed
3. Refactor the choice menus when implementing a recursive menu
   • There are a few instances where choices aren't removed from the menu which can be fixed by incuding logic statements within the choice (i.e. "[mc_name] checks out the living room" if not temp1

This is such a fantastic story that I genuinely hope it reaches completion.

So far, I am really loving this game. It has all the important aspects needed to be one of the top games as it gets longer, too. Great and lovable characters, gorgeous renders, and well thought out writing. Can't wait to see more!

The game is quite good the design of the mc is very generic but the LI are one of the best I've seen in games. The story has unexpected twist that make it quite engaging. Truth be told I am more invested in the story over the sex scene

As many reviews have called out, this game has very nice renders with a somewhat interesting idea for a plot. Sadly the writing is just horrendous. A detective going "undercover" but immediately tells anyone who asks that he is a detective.

The way he interacts with the female characters is also really awkward. He talks to someone in passing once and then acts as if they are close friends who tell each other everything. The way the characters interact is just so unnatural, weird and inconsistent.

I know this game has already had 2 reworks, but as it stands now the first 2 chapters really don't work at all. Chapter 3 was better, but I would bet a lot of people will drop it before making it to that.

Great game. Definitely one of the amazing games with great story and amazing graphics. Love it! Should definitely try this game at least once. You won't be disappointed. One of the best games I have played so far.

[0.37] Good graphic, first time I do screenshots not only girls, but also some scenes, because they are great Womans are not perfect (and that's great!). Not much much sex scenes, and it's good, there's build some of relations.

Cons what I see - sometimes the all undercover story is little stupid, when you think "soo, he's undercover, it's dangerous, but at the some time many person around know about who he is". But well, it's still pleasure.
Second cons - I like, when story is step by step released to player, but here sometimes is really confusing and I think, that every person around know more about MC than you - player.

Waiting for next updates

Good game, looking forward to more.
Great graphics, detailed and beautiful models.
Storywise it is a bit lackluster. The whole cartel/police thing is a bit silly .
The characters and their backgroundstories are all slightly overdramatic, and in terms of sexual content the game is much of a slowburn until chapter 3.
Don´t get me wrong: in comparism to other games here the story is not worse, proably even better.
All in all a beautiful dating sim-game to play, that has more qualities than a lot of other games here.

4stars , there's still room for improvements , but i think this is a very solid game , so far solid start with great renders , and hot curvey thicc girls and milfs (chef's kiss). Storywise i would say its fine , not bad ,but also not great , and it's still early it might also go south in the future who knows?, but for now it's a very solid 4stars for me atleast.

UPD: played a clean install of 0.38 and it turns out I previously lost quite a bit of content (including, like, half of the sex content!) to a bug. Promoting the review to 4-star now.
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The version is 0.37.

I'm kinda surprised that I got to this game so late, as "law enforcement action" is totally my thing. So, about what we have here…

Pros:
1) Good plot.
2) Decent visuals.
3) Good MC. I like playing as heroes.
4) Good LI selection, especially if you like redheads, tsunderes, or MILFs. The devs make an effort to show their troubles and lives to us without being overly dramatic about it, making the girls relatable.
5) Good "directing" in general. Action, humor, and drama elements are all on their places.
6) Action again.

Cons:
1) Despite the good storytelling, I have to say that overall the writing is subpar. Tons of typos (including missing full stops; I go bananas when I see that!), the narrator sometimes talks directly to the player which doesn't work well with the MC's frequent inner monologues, and the cases where the narrator first tells the player that the characters did this or that, despite a render showing it appearing right then… Well, these things just shouldn't be in a game with this much potential.
2) We need more sex, dammit!

So, overall, this is a decent game that has potential to become great, but requires a lot of proofreading and a couple of sex scenes to get there. Both tasks are totally feasible.

This has got to be the most improved game so far. I love how Knight managed to find a co-creator whom he can agree with because the game has changed for the better.

I will say that Kylie has been my fave LI so far, with Brie following after her despite being a colossal bitch at the moment. The MC is a lot better and more mature, which fits the overall tone of the game.

Whatever the case, I look forward to future updates to the game and become a patron again soon.

Among the best games and the rare game where revamp really improved the quality. I really appreciate the dev not giving up back when it initially launched and hoping all the very best in the continuation of this game's development.

The main story's plot might be fairly straight forward, but it is done well by tying it to a character close to MC so it has strong relevance throughout the game. Each love interest is well written and despite each of them having their own issues to face, they are all still likeable characters. They are all beautiful too which is always a good problem to have.

Most importantly, there is a good content balance when it comes to the story and the romance progression to ensure that each update feels satisfying to play. There is always enough hook in this game. I want to see what's going to happen next in the main story's plot. I want learn more about the love interest's character story. I look forward to see how the relationship develops.

This game and its dev had a rough start...The first releases were messy (which could be seen by 1-star reviews that still arent removed by f95zooone miracle).

The dev didnt lost his passion for it, nor become disheartened instead he worked hard and improved considerably in every department.

This game now (v0.37) could be considered one of the top AVNs around - in regards to story/plot, renders, atmosphere, characters, relations development, meaningful choices...

And what is more important it still has considerable room for the improvement (sex scenes for example, view is often "too close" which isnt that erotic imo), yet those mostly fall into some personal preferences.

All in all i could only wish the dev to continue his pursuit for the best game he can make, and i have no doubt he will get there in time.

p.s.
seeing that this gem has only 3.7 rating, while too many crap projects/games have 4+ (or even higher) ratings shows how pointless/and useless current f95z rating system could be.

To keep this short, I liked this one. Great models and characters are very well-created. The history of this one is something that I was searching for in some VN games. It has solid and beautiful elements, decent scenes of sex, and quite a charm.
I recommend this game to all of you

There is nothing really that I can complain about in this VN

The story 8/10
Renders/animation 9/10
Character design 10/10
Spicy scenes 10/10

What I liked most about this game was the girls/Lis are very different from body type to personality very well done and that this is not a harem so your choice may bite you later
MCs story is kind of generic (hero born from tragedy) but very well executed and with some twists and turns
I very much recommend this game try it

What a great AVN. The story is not unique but still compelling and a fun read. the MC is really cool and obviously a chick magnet but what wins this hands down are the graphics and the LIs. They are gorgeous ! like SG level of gorgeous and varied in looks. Also each has their own personality which you don't see in every AVN. I'm really looking forward to see how this game progresses.

+ likable mc, he is not a pathetic wimp
+ story
+ music is really nice
+ renders and animations, top notch
+ smoking hot gals with interesting personalities

a real fucking gem, no idea how i missed this game. 5 stars from me

I played v0.34; apart from a few logics, the game is actually pretty good. There is a nice variety in LIs, which are a class apart from regular AVNs. Go for it!