VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Buried Desires [v0.5] [Betisis]

The story has as much focus as a child in a toy store jumping from thing to thing but never spending time on anything and the MC is the same as he can barely finish a conversation before being distracted by something else, you would think the family or job would be the focus of the MC but because there are so many family members the MC actually spends more time talking to a drugged out guy in a run down hotel and some random run away girl.

The prologue is awful, you get a text only summary of each character then you barely get a chance to put the name to a face before many more characters are thrown into the mix, then it jumps into way too much backstory(actually most of the game so far is just backstory), the whole job offer is really badly done as its very clear the down sides massively out weigh the good(total life destruction, risk of losing job, home, family, status, maybe even being branded a criminal and the only help is the word of a woman you met once vs the only up side a well paid job),only an idiot would take that offer.

After that its just endless flirting with every single woman who all cant resist you(making the game no challenge at all), long boring conversations where no actual information is exchanged and don't forget dozens and dozens of "choices" yet you will still be forced to fuck girls you don't want to and even worse than that loads and loads of single things to click which do nothing but stop the game every 10 seconds and force the player to click on something, i cant think of any reason to add them except to make the skip function useless.

There are a couple of sex scenes that are ok but nothing special.

As for the characters there is not much to say about them outside of the prologue as the MC spends almost no time with any of them.

All this adds up to is a dull game with endless pointless clicking and no pay-off, the story does look like it might pick up at the end but my guess given what has already been done is that the story wont focus on it for a long time.

Story 1/5 (backstory and more backstory oh and the MC got a job)
Sex 2/5 (not great)
Characters 1/5 (confusing)
Art 3/5 (good)
Choices 1/5 (couldn't find any that change the game)
Kinks 0/5 (none so far)

Am I the only one who liked the story?
Actually i really liked the story, mysterious, suspenseful. But i guess people are angry because of the lol* thing, they expected something else not a story focused vn.
I'm not interested in lol* so i don't know what others are feeling. I found the interaction with different characters, family very cute and wholesome and sex scenes that are present are actually really good with great animations.
I know Dev has agreed to reduce the story elements and fulfill their demands on the request of his supporters. But i also hope Betisis finds a way to satisfy his supporters and still keep up the great story.
Well I'm not an expert writer so i didn't notice inconsistencies in the story, i played the game i really liked the story so far, so much so it actually felt it on par with best vns available.
All in all really really good game with great story, humor, cuteness, lovable characters, etc.
Good luck to Betisis for the future developement.

i like the game, especially the newest update where there r alot of meme reference, its fucking funny and makes me feel closer to the NPC. BUT, im very uncomfortable with the many toddler looking NPC, eg: MC's kids. i understand that they r all 18 but looking at them and know there's a possiblity of incest, i just not down with fucking toddler looking NPC. So if the dev can make them look older and taller, that would be great

Damn this game is all over the place and it is only v0.2 at the time of this review.

It starts off fine enough with an MC that seems to have a pretty deep background. However it goes off the rails pretty quick and the story and choices jump all over the place and don't make a whole lot of sense. It seems that it has been written without much of a long term framework. The MC is almost like someone who has a multiple personality disorder.

The grammar is almost as all over the place as the story. I am not the grammar police, but damn it is pretty bad.

The art is decent and the models are pretty damn good. I'll come back way down the line to see if it maybe has been cleaned up, but right now it is pretty bad.

I never write reviews for whatever the reason, however I believe I must for this one.

What the heck happened?! Did this game get a new writer or something? I mean it starts off as a good game, then it just hits a hard turn for the worst.

First off! What happened to the MC personality, he is not the same guy you start off as(personality wise) and I cant even relate to any of the decisions he makes. Why am I forced to fuck/fling with random chicks? That's a terrible plot device, like cant I at least have the option to be faithful to my wife, because she seems like a ride or die chick but I guess fuck that option "CAUSE DICK MUST FILL ANY AVAILABLE PUSSY!!!" The story is just all over the place, not to mention the dominate options arent even dominate, its just him being an asshole. Another thing that worries me is the lackluster amount of "love" options available, in comparison to "dominate". So basically you have to be an asshole to get scenes, which in turns means there is no real options at the end of the day.

The grammar needs a lot of work! During the whole apartment scene i could barely understand what the heck was going on(sure they're on drugs but why can't I as a reader understand my own character who isn't high at all). And even the dialog with your own family leaves little to be desired.

Renders 5/5
Music 2/5 (add some sounds to your game, it'll help the immersion aspect a lot)
Animations 5/5(love the many facial expressions, they have a realistic feel to them)
Grammar 2/5(its understandable, however its also frustrating to read. Readers should not spend most of their time auto correcting in their own head while trying to enjoy your game)
Story 1/5 (you had a good thing at first but you screwed yourself over)

Suggestions:
-Start by getting a better translator and a proof reader, it'll improve a few things story wise.
-Make a character charts for the girls, its just a quality of life thing.
-Love/Dominate options need to be improved, there's really no love options to speak of and the dominate one's are just the MC being a full on asshole. You can be dominate without being a dick. Possibly to fix that give love more options(because love isn't about being a pussy or pushy over, it's self control, care, passion, respect, etc) and maybe add a 3rd option like "power/complete control" because the dominate option isn't dominate at all.
-Players don't like when they're forced into relationship(s) they dont want to have, what was the purpose of the gas station chick?! Did he really have to fck Felicia?! Because you even went out of your way to make a valid point about them not needing to, but still forced the sex scene...cheating just to cheat doesn't make since. So at least give the players an option to go through with the sex scene while also having an option not to have sex. Either option could still move the story forward, you don't have to force things.
-Give the players meaningful options/choices! Did he need to punch his niece?!?! Did he need to fuck those 2 random chicks? Just let the player decide, and make the story revolve around both those choices, rather it be good or bad. Players love having options and feeling as if their choice matters, no one likes being forced to do something. Also you can add more than just two choices just to spice it up!
-Pace yourself! You don't need to rush a tragic story or again "force" it because then the audience feels as if they were played and cant even relate with the character. Slow it down and let the story unfold itself.

Hopefully things will change for the better, and so will my review. But for now, outside of the renders and animations this game is a waste of time. Please fix these things, and I'll be back on board.

So, initially, the game seemed like it'd be a fun time playing as a teacher dealing with trying to take control back in his life while having to deal with unruly students and a family life that is going through some personal drama with some sexy times tossed in here and there for fun.

Instead, with the most recent update, it took a hard right turn into a cement wall and exploded. The most recent update is such a jarring shift to the plot that it completely ruins any enjoyment I really had after the first release. And this is the only update aside from a side stories update that has happened in nearly if not over a year.

None of the choices in the new update appeared to matter or impact the plot in any meaningful way. The personality of the MC appears to have degenerated into an insecure thug easily prodded by his niece into behaving like an abusive prick. The relationship the MC had with his wife and it getting spicier is tossed aside for cheap thrills. A completely pointless character is tossed in for added cheap thrills and later a deus ex machina to keep the story alive.

Overall this entire update was just a massive trainwreck. Just about the only thing that even gives me a spark of hope currently is that this is allegedly an experimental build and so there's a chance the plot could be dragged back on track easily enough.

For the moment, I'd say this story is not worth investing your time in because of this update. If things change in the future I will happily adjust my review to be more positive because I do think this story started out with potential and I would like to see it realized.

Before the 0.2 update this for my was a 4.5 (would have given a 4 star) out of 5. The characters were nice looking, renders were good, premise seemed quite interesting. You started to learn about some of the characters, even the side story was good in the sense of growing the characters of the twins. That said even before 0.2 the MC had some questionable character issues. To much of the stuff he did was not your choice.

Move along to update 0.2, and the shit hits the fan! What happened to the school setting, you being a teacher of rich brats? None of them were in this update. None of your family was in this update, save for some memories (which were the best part of the update). You do some weird stuff that makes no sense and you're not able to decide for the MC, he makes the dumb choices. Most of what happens really doesn't make much sense. It was very confusing why stuff was happening.

In the first parts Betisis did such a nice job of introducing us to all the characters, and then inserting new ones, but then threw it out the window with this update. All the characters you liked and wanted to see more of weren't in the update, makes no sense to me.

I'm giving it 3 stars based on the beginning and the hope that Betisis will be able to steer this thing back to where it should have stayed instead of the head on collision it took in update 0.2!

Ok, I really enjoyed the 0.1 version of the game. 0.15 was nice, even if sidestory came a bit prematurely in my opinion. I was really looking forward to 0.2, and since I always wait a bit before supporting new games were it good, I would have supported this one.
But after playing the first 15 minutes or so, a voice in my head began to insist that the game should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque, this voice became louder and louder as this update progressed. Multiple extremely questionable, unavoidable OOC decisions. Shift of genre from school adventure to crime thriller. All culminating in an injury that should take months to recover from and thus result in MC losing his new job. This said, if a witch or a psyker suddenly appears and heals the MC I would not be surprised anymore, what is one more genre jump at this point?
The only good parts of this update were the flashbacks giving some backstory about the MC’s daughters.
All in all, this update left me absolutely baffled, and not in a good sense.

Edit:
If this were a first update of a new game it would easily be four stars - the graphics are good, story would be intriguing. The problem here is the huge disconnect between 0.15 and 0.2.

Review based on v0.2.0:

What the hell happend between 0.1 and 0.2!? This was a game with a cool story where you was going to be a teacher corrupting the students, but it suddenly morphed into a crime/detective/thriller story over the grand span of 2 updates. Like what the hell man? That is not the game you ''sold'' us into with the prologue and 0.1 release... It might actually work out in the end but as it stands right now so is there a jarring disconnect between the two latest updates.

But the models are still hot, and the original premise is still solid (IF he goes back to focus on that), and I personally have nothing against the hitting women moment, like she begged for it and she got it.. Gheez, hopefully so will he get the game back on track again because this was just a bad update. As it stand so will I give it a 3/5, because the models and sex scenes are still good looking.

I don't normally like to give bad ratings, but I had no choice here. This VN started with so much promise. From the demo release to version 1.0 and on to version 1.5, this was a VN I even considered supporting financially. There was a great start with wonderful renders, the story started off so promising. The 1.5 side story focusing on the redheaded twins was great background and nice filler while we awaited the next update to the main story. We even see how helpful the MC is in this side story, how compassionate. Then the v2.0 came out...
A man who never cheated on his wife, a superb teacher, a helpful brother, a loving husband and a patient father SUDDENLY turns into a man who has sex with two random people. One who was just a woman (not even good looking in my opinion) outside a petrol station. And another who was a junkie in a random hotel room... ALL while suppose to be helping his troubled niece. There were no choices that could be made to prevent either of these encounters from happening, I tried multiple choices but in the end, it happens.
The icing on the cake, and the reason I have now given this (what was building a 5-star rating) a 2-star rating... the MC punches his niece in the face with a powerful hook all because she was insulting him while she was high. She said she had other reasons afterwards, but the point is moot to me. We, as the player, were never given the choice to hold back the anger, we were never allowed to not punch her. It was something I found quite deplorable and there were no tags as of this writing to warn of such nature.
Personally, I believe in this situation, things could have been handled differently, but instead, in my mind, the MC just became a woman abuser - a pariah - and a complete change of character from what had been portrayed up to that point. I can no longer recommend this VN personally, and unless the Dev scraps this v2.0 and starts it over... then I am done with it as well. I cannot condone the abuse of a woman in this manner.

Based on 2.0

so I had high hopes for this game, the renders were good, the characters had different personalities.
It seemed to atleast aim for a choice system.
It was a fine slice of life story with good characters.

Then suddenly it all turn into a horror story, not littrally but, nothing makes sense!, (you beat up a woman and fuck a crack whore?!?) No choice!,
everyone start acting strangly. And the "old" cast seem to be forgotten.

could have been 4-5 stars. now i'd rate it 1-2.

The prologue of the game started impressively with good renders, good animations, and an interesting story about a conflicted teacher returning to teaching after an incident with a former student.

With the release of v0.1, the Dev already chickened out and cut/changed scenes from the prologue which was already a bit disappointing but the game still was on the right track to be good.

Then v0.1.5 was a release of a side story that came far too early because the main plot was still in its infancy and even the implementation for said side-story wasn’t good.

Now with v0.2, the Dev turned the game into a convoluted rambling shit show with completely different plot lines. While the sex scenes in the update were hot, with what I describe as a slut at a gas station and a runaway drug addict with family issues at a cheap motel and there was no way to avoid these scenes. Then the MC punches his niece Luna (who looks terrible with all the tattoos) in the face and gets shot by presumingly mafia goons Luna is involved with.



Honestly, after the prologue, I was hoping the game was going in a similar direction as another teacher harem game but is made with a smaller cast and in beautiful Daz renders instead of HS screenshots but that hope went up in smoke with this update.


The only change I see to get back on the original track is to completely discard the update and start again from v0.1.5 or even v0.1 and also implement the side-story better into the game.

It's always a shame when promising games take absolute nose dives off a cliff. Unfortunately, this was one of them.

This review WILL HAVE SPOILERS. You've been warned.

I'll start with the positives. Firstly, the characters look great. The women are beautiful (including the wife, a character that usually gets the short end of the stick in these kinds of games), and even the husband looks pretty good which is a nice change of pace.

I can't count how many times I've played a game where the MC is supposed to be an attractive and charming guy who pulls in all the women when in reality he looks like the doctors took turns beating him with an ugly stick after birth.

More so, the first part of the story was great too. A simple yet classic premise - teacher pervs on students and daughters - that never gets old in these types of games. (There's a reason why sayings like "don't reinvent the wheel" exist)

And, when you talk about the prologue of the story, a lot of authors fail to build excitement for the coming updates due to lack-lustre teasers, but I feel like Betisis hit it out of the park.

I mean this with 100% honesty when I say that there was not a single girl introduced in the prologue that I wasn't interested in and excited to learn more about. And then there were some standouts especially among them. His nice niece, the ginger twins, the white/purple-haired girl who shook her butt in front of him, and the girl who was reading by herself in the classroom after everyone else had left that you can have a fun back and forth with to name a couple specifically.

So, again, you've got a classic but loved premise set up, a wide range of attractive and interesting characters to explore in future updates, and everything should be smooth sailing.

But it wasn't.

I honestly have no issue with this update jumping to the troubled niece as the previous versions set up a fairly clear picture that she was getting into trouble and people (namely her mother and sister) were greatly worried about her but didn't know what to do about it.

Once again, a simple but great set-up that leaves an opening for our "awesome and manly" MC to step in and rescue her, bringing another girl into the soon-to-be harem and making everyone happy.

But it doesn't happen like that. It starts fairly normal - and I use 'fairly' pretty loosely there because it's still kinda weird. I mean, his niece (who can't be more than like 21) is some sort of all-female gang leader or something? Like, that's kind of out of left field, but whatever. MC puts his foot down, gets her to come with him on the agreement that they would talk over food. Great. But not actually.

They head to a gas station where the niece is told to head in first and MC will follow shortly after, however, he gets hung up on some random chick stood by her car, they play some totally random and kind of stupid mind game? Then proceed to fuck in the gas station bathroom while his niece is waiting outside totally aware of what's going on.

And we are, of course, given no option to skip this encounter.

~
Mini Rant inbound...

For the love of God - and this is a message to all creators - give us an option to skip random encounters. We all understand certain things need to happen for plot purposes, good and bad, but random encounters that have nothing to do with the plot shouldn't be forced on us.

Mini rant over
~

He then finishes with the random woman, meets back up with his niece who makes no mention of his random bout of infidelity and they move on. This time, however, to a motel because the niece - who clearly has romantic feelings for the MC who is, as always, too dense to realize - doesn't want to go home yet and wants to spend some time with her uncle.

During the drive, they have some weird conversation that's a mix of them actually trying to work things out, some weird wanna-be philosophical mumblings, and random bouts of heavy emotions including anger and sadness that just makes for an overall really awkward and confusing scene.

So anyway, they make it to their destination, some cheap hotel that 'coincidentally' only has rooms with one bed available, and once more, he tells her to go on first while he makes a food run etc...

However, just before getting back to her, he does what? You guessed it, makes a pit stop, this time with a couple of people high out of their minds.

So basically, he hears an odd noise from one of the hotel rooms, knocks but doesn't receive an answer, so being such a caring guy decides to just enter uninvited to see what's going on. He finds some middle-aged dude cracked off his rocker watching the wall 'cause he thinks it's a t.v, and some almost nude chick that we soon learn is unrelated to the cracked-out dude laying on the bed apparently cracked out too. Or is she? We'll get to that.

So, being the sensible person he is, he decided to sit down beside the cracked out dude and try to talk to him, where a fairly nonsensical and pointless conversation happens that leads to the girl where we (the MC) learn that the man hasn't fucked (raped) the girl yet because all the drugs are stopping him from getting hard, but he suggests the MC fuck this random girl instead... great.

Now, getting back to the girl as we said we would, we find out she's not actually cracked out of her mind, just a random runaway girl who apparently gave this dude the drugs that currently have him cracked out of his mind (how does she even have them?) she then decided to lay on his motel bed half-naked while pretending to be drugged herself...

... like what..?

She and the MC then proceed to fuck after some talking because, of course. Another physical encounter that you cannot skip (though this one I can understand being unskippable due to plot implications unlike the earlier gas station fling)

After fucking, he decides that she should come with him to his room where his niece is STILL WAITING. She agrees, then changes her mind but tells the MC more of her backstory before leaving. The MC then returns to his niece.

Okay, we're finally back on track. Let's get to talking and working this out so troubled niece can come back home and we can get back to happy school harem fun time, yay!

... but actually no.

First, the MC and niece get into a really weird, awkward and angsty argument that leads to the niece throwing middle school level insult after middle school level insult toward the MC all in hopes of getting him to slug her. Yes. She wants him to punch her in the face. And, guess what, HE DOES, another plot point that we have no choice over.

At this point, I was pretty much already done. But, unfortunately for me, the author wasn't done swinging out of left field yet.

We are then greeted by two wanna-be Mafia Esq characters who want to take the troubled niece away, MC tries to step in and protect her, one of the wanna-be mobsters pulls out a gun, MC tries to act hard despite the gun, gets shot, trouble niece gets taken.

We are then met with some honestly pretty interesting flashbacks as the MC lays there dying that fill in some more information regarding how things ended up as they are with the MC finally getting back into teaching and needing a therapist, why two of his daughters are kind of hostile towards him etc...

Anyways, then we shift back into reality where the MC is still very much dying, but wait, runaway drug girl pops back up and says she's called an ambulance and that he just needs to hold on etc... she then tells him more about her past to try and keep him awake and alert so he doesn't die, and after some flashback accompanying her story, the update ends.

I'm at such a loss for words.

To summarize with the typical rating system...

Art? 5/5 - Everything looks great

Character Models? 5/5 - All the characters look amazing

Sound? ?/5 - I'm drawing a blank and can't remember if there is music and ambient sounds etc... I'll come back and update this category at a later date.

Dialogue? 3/5 - I mean, to be blunt, the writing isn't super high quality, and the grammar, sentence structure, etc... isn't the best, but it's passable.

Story? Version 1 is easily a 4-5/5 for me, while, unfortunately, version two is a 1-2/5. I just don't understand where the author was going with this, where it all came from. It seriously felt like he started making a whole new game in the middle of the original.

I know this wasn't the best review, the grammar and sentence/paragraph structure being pretty poor overall, but I'm tired as hell and just wanted to get this off my chest.

I'm going to keep following this game because it has a lot of potential, and I know the author can right the ship, but whether or not that actually happens? We'll just have to wait and see.

Nice artwork, cute nubile daughters, nieces and just over 18 female students. Unfortunately the Dev has taken a sharp right turn with the story in update 2. No sign of any possible sex between the MC and the daughters, nieces and female students, even though the story has been tagged incest and loli. Instead the Dev appears to be making the MC a teacher/detective/hero in a cheap crime novel, instead of him turning into a PERVERT teacher/father, which is what we are all hoping would happen. Time for the Dev to make a sharp left turn back to the original story, after all whats the point of having all those attractive young women if you arn't going to do anything with them? Just 2 stars for now for the nice artwork. If the Dev starts using his characters to their full potential of course I will change my rating later.

The renders are lovely, the effort really had been put in but the story is a wet mess.

It's all over the place, it's like it doesn't know what it wants to be so it instead chooses to be.... nothing? Like... are you a teacher? At times it feels like you're an edge lord who posts topless photos of themselves online mentioning the darkness inside you and how sometimes it breaks free. The characters are REALLY not fleshed out so basically every situation doesn't make sense. You have dialogue with someone, then it cuts to the next scene so you're left wondering what the hell just happened. Throw in a random sex scene here and there and you're left with great visuals but nothing going on under the hood. It feels like it's trying to be mysterious but instead it comes off as comical.

AND THE DIALOGUE! Jesus wept the dialogue. "She'll probably be too traumatized to ever experience anything sexual again after the punishment she'll be given" What? That's not how people talk man....

Game is going in a 100% different direction than it is portrayed.

Super long time between updates only to arrive at 0.2 and find out the story has pretty much nothing to do with MC being a teacher or any of the characters in the banner. Instead the story is going more gangster drama with the idea of MC being a teacher just a lure for subs.

The renders are good and the animations are OK (the first time you see it it looks good but all 3 sex scenes use the exact same animations just with different character models so its pretty lazy).

Game also turns straight up into a kinetic novel. Don't like any decision fool you or any points that pop up fool you. There is 1 single path for the MC to take no matter the choice and you can't refuse to have sex with anyone even fucking a dirty crack whore without a condom (ewww).

Save yourself the disappointment of the initial cocktease of his students - you won't fuck any of them - and pass on this game.

Art is OK (but some of the characters look like actual children; which I find off-putting). Writing is sometimes stilted and pretentious (e.g. the therapy session), often violates the "show, don't tell" rule. I found the whole setup, story and atmosphere somewhat unfriendly and unpleasant in the end. Maybe it is unfair to rate a game as mediocre when it seems that I am not the target group (I dislike father daughter stuff; here even the wife calls you daddy..)

I think this game included a free sex scene with the wife to avoid including the tag "NO SEXUAL CONTENT", cause besides that i didnt see anything at all.

So to make this review of this demo short, as short as the game:

2 points for the girls, they definetly look good,above average DAZ. 1 for the writing, there is nothing that hasnt ben invented already or groundbreaking, but characters, despite being almost the same stereotypes already used 1000 times, are interesting, and it is pretty well balanced.

This storytelling comes at a cost, despite being well written which adds points, the sacrifices were obviously the actual lewd content which doesnt exist. There is one scene and thats it.

The dev decided to make a side story, also with no lewd content (im starting to see a pattern here and i dont like it) so the game and even its side stories are progresing slowly, if progressing anything at all.
This could come as a bad thing which it is, but is also a very good thing. It shows at least integrity and a clear vision of what the wants, so RESPECT. For that I add another point for a total of 4

I wish i would live to see this becoming one of the top VN.

V0.4
Well this went down hard. Whats left of this game with an exciting premise and cute girls is just cute girls. Really I dont know what happened to all that, for instance at this point i dont even understand the love/dominance thing cause most of the characters are stalled and they became expectators. The 3 girls from the house they are literally expectators, they just peek and spy but in those scenes the Mc is not aware or barely aware.

There are like 4 canon scenes in total with their variations and the rst is filler with side characters. The school thing and all the cute girls is not moving much adn it kind of was the main plot.
So besides some sexual release with side characters or Luna who for some reason changes her appearance totally, there is nothing with the rest.

I dont know the reason for introducing so many characters that only stall the progression for the rest and offer no more than some fanservice.

Well its clear that this game will need 2 years to get back on track, if the minds behind it desire so cause the side story thing, doesnt seem such a good idea at this point seeing how slow thigns are mocing in the canon story.

Holy crap this is good. Like standout good. Honestly I don't say this lightly but for me potentially one of the best ever.
I really can't fault a single thing. The cast of characters, buildup, visuals, premise, writing, teasing, all right up my street.
The only potential major negative barring an unexpected downward turn in quality or silly left field story turn is that it gets abandoned or takes years and years to fulfil potential like so many others on this site.

Anyway here's hoping for this potentially amazing game to become what I truly believe it can.
So cautiously and optimistically it's an easy 5 stars... for now.

The visual renders and beautiful and the animations are excellent. The story is different and very memorable compared to others VNs like in a similar genres. The story line is engaging and and characters are well written and memorable. It's still very early in the process but this game looks very promising and will be one to watch.