Ren'Py - Completed - Callisto [v1.00] [Xavster Gaming]

---- Characters :
---- Renders/Graphisms :
A really good job on that side, the characters have their own looks, own personalities, own quirks. They are not lambda and you enjoy getting to know them more

---- Story/Writing :
---- Background/Atmosphere :
The space/aliens background is well built and "believable". The story could be a little more epic but makes sense overall. There is a lot of effort in context. In fact it could be a story suitable for a scifi novel, less for a scifi movie. The writting is very good, and the humor is there.

---- Animations :
---- Sex scenes :
It's above average, the renders and animations are ok, but the high speed pace is making them a bit futile. It's over in 3 secs or 3 clicks, then you get back to business. The results is a lack of intensity which could be negative in the long term as we might not care much if we get some sex with her or her.

---- Gameplay :
---- Contents/Updates :
Heavy in both ways.
Lot of contents, but a lot of time spent to get those, although the prologue is quick paced and intense.
That said, the mechanism of the gameplay works well, and comes out with some context, but it makes the main story kinda slow and hard to follow and remember. The music is a great match.

===

I usually don't like sandbox system, but the map of the ship with the stars saves it from being a total hassle and as the background, the music and the characters fits very well to the scenario, you can bear it pretty well. The actions makes sense and the writting is qualitative.
However it's not one of those game that you can't stop playing until you reach the end. Here you will have many occasions to say "geez again trades, showers, training ? No more, I stop for today, I want to sleep"

review based on version 0.41
pro:
- not bad CG
- good enough animations
- very good UI and navigation system
- not bad story
- code is ok
cons:
- grinding money is easy, but in current state- its useless
- not real flaw, cuz game in early development stage, but player ll feel- some content missing

in declared genre, considering early development stage- game very promising and curently very good.

As I like Sci-Fi in general, I was kind of excited, when I stumbled upon Calisto.

The Game manages to deliver a good Story with nice looking models and some simple, yet not obnoxious feeling mechanics.

yus... onto details!

Renders:

The models are well designed, the motion scenes really good and no character of the novella struck me as ugly or weird. Even the smurf.
Except: Wetlooks. Scenes like the showerfuck look kinda weird thanks to the wetlook, which needs improvement.

The Cast:

MC - Ah the poor, rather frivolous Marine who doesn't fit into the core. It made me giggle actually, as the characters in the prologue are rather over the top in the way they act.
Getting MC fired from the core just because he had sex with the commander's mature daughter... uuuuh... rather thin ice. no matter what problems those two had with each other, but to get someone fired from the core takes a bit and proof xD
Ah well. It's okay as it is, as a story starter.
So our Marine gets fired and tried to get himself a freighter.
Shady loanshark later the fun in space finally begins.
So to say he is an okayish MC. Nothing extraordinary, some illogical background things, and a rather nice and openminded way to handle things.
For an MC really likable. A minor point to dislike another horse stud. ugh...

The Girls - Okay, I dunno how many words can fit into this review tool, so I will keep it brief.

We have our Ex-Stripper Pilot, who is a bit inconsistent as a character in herself. On one hand, she starts off wanting to take it slow with the caption, on the other hand, they end up fucking rather quick.
Kind of like 2 Days from "Let's take it to slow please" to "fill me up" escalated very fast. The rest of her is rather enjoyable. She is openminded relationwise, rather smart and reliable.

Next, we pick up the masterpiece of the novel, Lia.
This girl is, despite her age - coming from a very long-lived race - is rather innocent and pure. Or more like... Outright adorable. In her ways, she stays logical as a character, true to her innocent shyness and the design of that race is interesting as a bonus.
Although the change of color when she climaxes really made me crack, it fit her perfectly.
Later on, something happens that comes along a little bit of over plot convenient, but okay. If one wrote oneself into a dead end, there's nothing like a Deus ex Machina to save the day, aight?

After that, we pick up the ex-pornstar, Medic of the Team.
She comes of mature, cares about the mental and physical health of the crew, and offers stress relief. The last thing made me raise an eyebrow as this is a bit... uh... typical for more fuck focused games.
In my books, I could have lived with leaving her on the planet. She doesn't really add much to the Story plot and characterwise.

With the reason to meet the Medic, follows the one to encounter our soon to be a bodyguard. The Pandoran smurf-copy *giggle*
Kara is an oddball in my books. On one hand, she is a really strong and cold-blooded bodyguard and fasts on the trigger to pull. On the other hand, she is written like a small kid in some situations. Which annoyed me. So she isn't really one of my favorites but if I ignore those strange inconsistencies, as a bodyguard she is a good pick and crafty.

Next in line is our lesbian Duo.
The rather trope like redhead, easygoing, loves to look beyond her mate to fool around and the rather trope like aggressive lesbian due to past happenings.
Plotwise both are enjoyable, stay in their boundaries as characters and for the grey mouse crusader lesbian, we get a glimpse of why she is like that and so far I deem it acceptable.
For the redhead no background is given so far or I overlooked it somewhere.

And last but not least, the little stupid lovey-dovey princess from the station who got us fired in the first place.
I laughed about how the story played out with her.
Stupid good for nothing Girl runs after her big love, gets crashed hard by reality and hires herself onboard of MC.
Oof. I'd have loved to get a say as MC if I want to take her or not.
Later on she actually becomes useful. Kind of. So I guess lucky me... woho.

The Storyline:

We start of indebted, hunted and manage somehow to get away with busting a major deal, not only netting us the best castmember, in my books, but also your freedom later on, as the one putting a bounty on your head gets his own problems.
The base setting is that two major factions, earth and Kraal are kind of fighting with each other, which reached some form of truce.
The Kraal now try to grab a planet with rich helium-3 deposits as a major asset for fueling their fleets. Thanks to the truce though the earths hands are tied for helping the poor inhabitants of the Planet.
That's where we come in thx to our ex-career.
Of course it is a rather bleak trope that civilians get asked to do covert missions for the military but it fits in the story nicely so I don't care about the trope. Would it be a novel though I would have called you out on it as that is rather lazy writing.
The rest ensues nicely and thanks to the dialogues we get, is quite enjoyable.

Gamemechanics:

Oh joy... run around and search for what to do.
Luckily that rather pissed thought subsided quickly. Events are marked with stars, so it is kind of hard overlooking them.
The Game sports a simple yet not obnoxious tradesystem to raise funds for yourself and your crew.
After you got the lesbian couple and raised the findings for the shipscanner you can start salvaging wrecks, which sadly isn't nearly as lucrative as the simple trading. So I'd like to say this needs balancing/improvement.

For what it tries to be, I am missing a few things like upgrading the freighter. Or changing ship and stuff.
There is kinda literally nothing to do with your money, after you bought the Shipscanner. So it would be nice to add, in futureupdates, more stuff you can waste money on. Shipimprovements, comfortstuff for the crew or even new ships etc.

Language - found a few typos, but nothing that would have annoyed me or killed the flow while reading.

On to the final rating:

Renders: 5/5 (Dont really see the wetlook as a big impact on them.)
Characters: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Language: 5/5

Result: a solid 4/5

Overall a good experience to read it and quite enjoyable. Nice renders, a very beautiful firefly as crewmate and a decent trade/salvage system.

P.S.: Forgot to mention a good and fitting soundtrack!

My Rating of this Game (v0.41) is:

Pros:
+ Good Renders
+ Above average story
+ Nice animation
+ Interesting Sci-Fi environment
+ Interesting characters

Cons:
- One of the worst gameplays i have seen
- Non existant tutorial that the game desperately needs
- Complete lack of Hint system
- The Mission tracker actually goes against the player

Explanation
The visual part of the game is very good. The Prologue is well done and does it job in setting you up into the story and introducing the characters.

The problem comes right after you finish the Prologue. You get thrown into a semi-sandbox gameplay, with aspects like a bad trading, navigation and quest system, without the game explaining anything to you or giving any hint.
You have a mission tracker, but the misssions names are A,B,C,D, etc, absolutely non-descriptive and even tricks you, because it gives you an impression that they are secuential when in reality they are not, which leads you to missing some missions (and therefore scenes).

Conclusion:
The game has potential, but needs a complete gameplay revampt

This review was written after the release of v0.41.

Characters are attractive and visually distinctive. Some characters also showed decent development. Of course, multiple female crew members being attracted to PC is an obvious fantasy, but it's blatant enough, so I wasn't too bothered or annoyed. (sometimes, you don't need to justify acceptable breaks from reality, if your reality has fucking spaceships and interstellar empires) Playing as captain of a freighter crew and making a buck works for me, but the central stories are nice too.

Took me a bit of time to figure out how the game works, but I do enjoy doing things like purchasing resources, shipping them elsewhere and earn the difference between regional prices. This part of the game may be appealing to players who enjoy trading simulations, as it's simple yet effective (it will become better as the story progresses). Of course, I prefer treating them as minor elements as I would rather focus on character drama than farming for money. Some possibly new animations are a welcoming addition, so keep up with the good work dev.

I also enjoyed the background music. While the track is not especially inspired, it provokes the sense of wonder one would expect from the story, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

All in all, this game is enjoyable so far.

The animation and writing for the characters are great. Trading and salvage aspects were intuitive and easy to get into. This is an excellent game, could do with more unique interactions with members of the crew but that's something I assume would come with more development time.

The only think missingg from the game is a Quest Log to direct you to your next step , other than that , nice story and Renders , navigation no to Chaotic .. The future will tell if the game worth it .

Overall really great game. The animation loops are a little bit short, but hopefully with more updates they get improved over time. Great character build up and stories for the MC and the girls. The events are a little shy but only being version 0.4 I can understand there's a long way to go for hopefully a lot more of them and storyline build up. Not to keen on the whole sandbox but hopefully more locations open up besides the 3 stations and the scrapyard and junkyard that the crew can visit.

Definitely a game I can see supporting on patreon so the dev can continue making this a really great sci-fi oriented game with great characters and storyline.

Pretty good. Very nice models and renders, prologue writing felt a bit rushed but its understandable, as you needed to fit a lot of information in a short space. Dont really get the golden and silver star things in the map and crashed one time when i clicked 1 of them. More Lia and Kara please.

This game features a great work on character/universe building, very liked the overall writing!

Awesome cast, nice animations (videos) and renders (shower scenes <3). I also like to point the nice work on music.
The free roam is nice tuned and actually cool to play, you feel like a captain checking on girls and do stuff.
I really liked the overall quality of life this game have like the pad to check prices, girls, prologue,... and the navigation shortcuts!

Looking forward for more content, I only played the Prologue before and played whole night the new content since, hope Xavster can continue this project and growth it healthy, it's a nice piece of Sci-Fi in good hands and there are no limits!

Review during v0.31

I think more people should know about this game. The story is original, the characters are diverse, and it has decent animations. The gameplay can seem a little grindy at times but it makes sense, fuel ain't cheap. The navigation is a little wonky in some places but I like that you can see the rooms from different angles sometimes. It's refreshing. The soundtrack is nice but could definitely use more songs. I enjoy the "repeatable content" such as checking up on the girls because without it the game would feel really empty and lonely. Lia is my favorite girl. She's super cute and shy, and I really like that her lights change color when she's turned on, I think it shows attention to detail. Speaking of attention to detail, I noticed that during one of the shower scenes the soap bubbles would actually wash off the girls as the scene goes on. This game seems really promising and I can't wait to see where the developer takes it from here.

I would not normally rate a game this early in its evolution, but I'm going to make an exception as this game deserves promotion and attention.

Pros:

- The almost complete absence of the tired and boring tropes and cliches that are used in the majority of adult VNs.

- Artwork. Very few of these games can come close to what this team/person/android is producing. If you look at these games and other 3DCG works around the internet you will see how difficult it is to create wet or sweaty skin that actually looks remotely realistic. Most of the time the result leaves the impression of some form of plastic. But this author knows how to create an accurate specular layer and should be commended.

- Animations. Again, very few games in this genre are on this level. The katas/forms of the fighters and MC performed in the hold are superior as are the shower and other intimate scenes.

- Speaking of intimate scenes. Lia's nocturnal visits and animations are just superb. Very nuanced and all-around superior artistry.

- Story/plot/premise. A foundation has been laid that will allow a huge amount of content to be produced resulting in many, many hours of play. New planets and salvage areas can be introduced. More commodities and characters, if need be. The author has not boxed themselves in with a restrictive script.

- Interesting characters with detailed history. These characters are not as shallow and poorly developed as most in these games. Keeping them all happy and functioning will take work and thought and that's a good thing.

- Complexity. Again, alluding to what I've already written, the game will require the player to use their grey cells. There aren't many intellectually challenging VN's out there and that's a bad thing.

- Above average coding. The addition of a commodities-based trading system with price fluctuations is appreciated.

- Excellent English translation with on a rare grammatical error. Easily read and understood.

Cons:

- For now, the lack of content and the navigation/sandbox feature. This game uses different colored stars (not space related) to highlight where one should visit (eg, as which room on the ship). I'm not certain if the system is yet to be fully implemented, though, as I only rarely was able to get any dialog beyond the standard "hi and bye" greeting/response. Maybe the stars were added early in anticipation of future dialog.

In conclusion: I can't say enough good things about the talent expressed in this game. There will always be detractors, of course, but in this case I would remind the author to adhere to the vision and realize that we can't make all the people happy all the time. Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to the progression of the story.

What else do I need to say? This is a great game. You can tell that the developer really spent time and energy on the story and world-building. Each girl is beautiful and unique, which is especially hard to see in a lot of recent games.

I have enjoyed replaying after more than a year and I must say that the developer has done a great job, both from a graphic and content point of view. Animations are much smoother and well cared for. The depth of the landscapes, the charming realism of the girls and the attention to detail raise the level of this product very much. The story has been enriched a lot, the characters are always better defined and characterized, random events make everything more varied and playable. Very varied music, pleasant and well integrated with the contexts.
Last year I had reviewed this game still in its embryonic stage evaluating it 3 stars but, given the remarkable progress, I gladly raise it to 5 stars, to reward not only the result obtained so far but also the developer himself who, in addition to having evidently committed himself a lot, is proving to be a level artist, because this is not a trivial fap-game, it is art!

Allow me to make a single constructive criticism as I have noticed that it is too easy to cheat by going back after making the wrong choice. For those who love the harder game, perhaps you could insert an optional hard mode in which you can only go back for the texts and sex scenes but not for the choices made.

I leave the old review in the final, testifying to actual progress.


( Feb 8 2020 - At the moment it is still scarce of content, but considering that it is work in progress I would expect to give a premature judgment. The animations are discreet but I have definitely seen better, it would be necessary to work on a little more adding frames to make them more fluid and realistic. Free roaming is limited and the trade options are very boring and repetitive. In my opinion, random events should be added to make the product more interesting. The music is nice and makes the atmosphere well.
At the moment the playability is minimal, I reserve the right to review it in the future hoping for an improvement. )

Awesome game! Engaging story. Great renders and animations. Diversity of crew and looks. Playing the prologue and seeing the crew joining one by one, I couldn't help thinking of old Star Trek Original Series and Next Gen characters whose job roles these new characters were stepping into. The MC even has a greenish shirt that reminded me of Kirk in some STOS episodes. Ship wise, Firefly came to mind. I very much look forward to seeing more of this game! I only support a handful of games, but just added this gem to the list.

Liked the story, renders and species variety. Ship navigation was a bit confusing at start, but quickly got used to it. Xavster mentioned that this won't be "trading simulator" and kudos to that, noone likes grind after all.

In general looks very promising, will definitely keep an eye on this.

p.s. Kara is my fav

This one is a true pearl! Breath of the fresh air for someone itching for interesting, not overburdened but fun to follow sci-fi story.

+ Renders are great
+ A lot of diversified characters in the crew
+ "Dat Sci-Fi feel"

-/+ This point is a matter of personal taste, nothing more. Only can judge by chapter 1, but space animations are looking a little "cheap". If you ask me it's better to have none of them than not-engaging ones. Cosmos is beautiful by itself ... Static images IMHO are perfect fits in this case.

Overall - can't wait to see the final version (though it's a very distant shot, cuz only intro is available at the moment)!

My Rating of this Game (v0.1) is:

Pros:
+ Beautiful Renders
+ Nice Story
+ Fantastic Animations
+ Scifi Story
+Great Sex Scenes
+ Lots of Species

Cons:
- Nothing

Conclusion:
I must say I love the Story, The animations are fantastic,the Spaceship landing is like out of a Movie.
also liked the Sex Scenes which also had nice closeups.
Also love the different Species in the Game,just Great.
I just couldn't find anything I didn't like.

Space the final frontier is all I can say.

Worth the download.

What a fun little surprise this was, a 0.1 with some actual meat on it, and real good looking meat too.

Renders are looking awesome and the story, while clearly inspired by the greats of scifi story telling, manages to set itself apart enough to keep it interesting. All in all Xavster is off to a promising start and I can only hope it gets better from here.

The only thing I was missing was the ability to name the MC.

My first review of this VN was way back in August of 2019. I gave it 4/5 stars back then. My updated rating is based on the fact that it has now been over a year, and very little has been done.
PROS
Renders are good
Story has only progressed slightly from my last review
The ladies are still sexy
CONS
MC is subpar at best
Choices make no difference
The slow build up with the ladies is to much
Overall
It's not bad, but it could possibly go that way fast. At first I thought the story was good, but I guess the dev is at a stand still. You get one really huge main story arc, and what appears to be some minor ones sprinkled in that lead to nowhere. The different colored stars that indicate things to do on the map, rarely do anything. Even though I've updated this review to have 3/5 stars, I do recommend giving it a shot. After all, this is just my opinion after playing after a year. I wish the dev the best of luck. I hope future updates happen again.