VN - Ren'Py - By Justice or Mercy [v17] [TowerBoyGames]

[v0.1]

It's the first release, but I've seen enough to get a feel for it. This is a solid harem game. Cliche and clearly a power fantasy wish fulfillment, but executed well.

I'll just list some characteristics of this game.

• Extensive user input relationships which is utilized well to make everything sound natural. This is rarer than you may think.
• Revenge story. Pretty farfetched, but within the realm of possibility, at least in a TV drama kind of way. Gives MC some justification so that you can...
• Do Love/Corruption routes without making the MC evil? It's still asshole stuff, I imagine, but dev tried to avoid complete unredeemable MC on the corruption route, I guess.
• Pretty good portrayals of the characters and their individual vibes. Childhood friend's mother seemed convincing as a small Japanese lady.
• Cliche family dynamics. Bitchy/conceited older sis, innocent younger sis, and twin sis that is angry that you left or something. And a mom that is sorry for doing you wrong.
• A bit underwhelming sex scenes. Not enough sex dialogues for my taste.
• A lot of side characters and two antagonist families, but the vibes I get is that MC will solve everything, one bang at a time. I don't see him getting challenged substantially, but that remains to be seen.
• All in all, a very typical harem wish fulfillment, but the writing is competent. A familiar set up that is executed well.

Good potential here though mildly concerned about the number of interests there are available and how that can make workload spiral out or end up diminishing the quality of each path. But nice optionality in terms of paths, good modelling, and while the story is a bit cliché, we'll see how it progresses.

Lot's of potential! Ways to go on the story, seems decent enough. Animation and renders weren't bad. Decent variety of characters and kinks. Only downside was the amount of time it will take with animating characters. Either way I'll be waiting.

Solid start, not a whole lot of content yet. The one thing I will say is that it gets confusing as shit at times due to there being no names above the dialogue. The only way you can really tell who is talking is because the mouth of that character is open.
Renders are great, animations are solid, story is building. Looking forward to more

It's very early in the development. Looks really promising. Good looking girls, interesting story, nice UI and clear and significant choices (very important for me). I am looking forward for future versions.

VERSION: 0.1
SUMMARY: Seems like an OK start, models and renders are decent, writing needs work, plot is flimsy and could have used more thought.

PROS:

1. Decent looking models and renders (nothing over the top or "too pretty", but, see CONS)
2. Ability to customize relationships
3. Plenty of tags and kinks, which are always nice, many optional which is also a good thing.
4. Choices have consequence and initial outcomes differ. Its hard to tell if they long term at the moment but so far immediate are good so well done there.

CONS:

1. Flimsy critical plot point
   Spoiler: Plot

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2. Renders are decent but they are pretty grainy and lack the quality we come to expect these days, this is something the developer should look into.
3. Some models are unrealistically out of proportion e.g. ginormous breasts that don't appeal to me.
4. Everyone knowing the MC,
   Spoiler: Plot

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5. Some choices are not available at critical junctures where the MC acts completely out of character (at least my version of him) which is jarring and off putting personally.
   Spoiler: Example from plot

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   The MC comes across as nice and helpful, until he goes all schizo and does something completely out of character...is that what the developer is try to do?
6. Random sexual encounters that could only happen in a game or in someones dreams does cause me to be taken aback sometimes and think "wtf, did that just happen?" Depending on what you going for, this may appeal to some, but not really for me. I prefer a bit more build up, not long winded, but at least "buy me dinner first"

FINAL THOUGHTS:

• Implementing all these TAGS, the subsequent plot points and agendas will be tricky, at least to do it in cohesive and meaningful way, which I really hope is the case. From what is here though, I think the developer will simply carry on with the current trend in the game to introduce these TAGS as if they will be everyday occurrences, great for mindless fap content, not if you want a little more intrigue or story.
• There are plenty of games out there doing these so there is no excuse to put out a poor game IMO. Hopefully the dev is taking notes...
• I think the dev should focus on providing 2 options to MC interaction with others, either nice or not, simple, but having the MC be steered when the developer wants and then taking over and doing something counter to what the player would do is just annoying as fuck. Either give choice or not, END.

Would give it 3.5 stars for a good start. Will change my opinion maybe after a few more updates.