VN - Ren'Py - CaptainVerse [Part 2 v0.7] [TranquilHaze]

I skipped over this for a while due to other reviews, but as a player entirely unfamiliar with honkai lore or characters the dev has done an exceptional job at making it approachable. I am of course unsure if these character variants are faithful to the source material, but the way their trauma plays into motivations and personality traits seems realistic and compelling. Captain comes across as an absolute Gary Stu - however the dev has managed to portray this in a way I found quite endearing and satisfying. A clear parallel for this would be four elements trainer as the presence of an established and well written narrative significantly increases the payoff associated with lewd scenes. Perhaps my thoughts are skewed as I downloaded with no expectations exceeding some 2d eye candy but ended up emotionally invested.

However, I have to be clear - the story is pretty ridiculous, plot points and fight sequences require significant suspension of disbelief, but the exploration of psychology, motivations, trauma and personality in the LI's makes me completely disregard these inconsistencies. Further, usually I'd find such things annoying - but intentionally or not - this actually helps with pacing and break up the intense emotional moments which are the clear highlight for me.

Finally as for what everyone is interested in, lewd scenes are pretty basic but visually appealing and smoothly animated. As pure wank material this game could be seen as underwhelming but for me the quality of the build up more than makes up for this - honestly this is preferable compared to some games on this site with amazing sex scenes but a weak build up of tension and storytelling.

Edit: the points i made are very subjective and the depth of character building i experienced is because i found it easy to self insert. essentially, the characters express a lot of self pity and guilt - most of which is quite irrational and can come across as pretty annoying and indulgent to people who can't relate to or are uninterested in the dissection of trauma/PTSD or flawed/irrational decision making in the presence of strong emotion.

First things first: This game is a 2.5/5 if you're not a Honkai Impact 3rd fan, 4/5 if you are a HI3 Captain fan. Settling on 3/5 overall.

In terms of gameplay, it's a linear visual novel experience. There is a token affection system, but it is mostly a series of linear events that unlock as you do whatever the chapter's main progress is. Always pick a character event over main progress when the option pops up, as I've had an instance in Part 1 where progressing caused me to miss an event because a new event was lined up. Rollback is enabled so it was an inconvenience more than anything

The important part is the writing. and that depends solely on whether you're a Honkai Impact 3rd fan.

• To fans, the writing is a streamlined exploration of how familiar characters act in novel settings, with appropriate responses from Captain which is likely to resonate with HI3 players. Basically Captain as usual, exploring not!bubble universes.
• To everyone else, the writing is rushed in a way that does not adequately explain itself, spending more time on the individual scenes rather than establishing the setting overall. Little time is spent building up individual characters, with the most being an archetype and generic motivation.

The writing quality is competently done. A few typos exist, but it's otherwise well constructed with a consistent writing pace, focusing more on character dialogue and less on narration.

Art is just Honkai Impact 3rd models in custom outfits. No surprises, you get what you see. Model work for the outfits are good and fit the art style without issue.

Sexual content is present, with events alternating between character story progression and followup lewd events. It's neither abundant nor sparse. For reference, in part 1, I had 2 characters with 2 scenes, 3 with 3, and the rest was 4, 5, and 6.

In conclusion, it's not bad. If you're in the market for a VN, this game ranges from "maybe" to "great" depending on how much you've bought into the source material.

Not bad, but not so good either.
The plot is okay, but there is a certain event that i have to turn off my brain for it to make sense (example: how captain save seele from falling, or how Mei can destroy a whole building but still gets reked,... ).
TBH, the only reason I rate this good is because of bronya scenes; the others are just meh. Himeko seems like a free ticket. Seele sure,Teri um sure? Mei & Kiana not sure but seem ok. Bianca nope, prejudiced, i don't like her in the game. Senti seems a bit strange, but it seems good enough.
There's nothing to say about the story; p*rn focused, nothing much going on, not a bad plot, and I hope they don't go too deep into the guilt-tripping route either.

This novel is a rather difficult case to evaluate, as it has great potential, but it has not been realized yet.

+ Visuals is about 10 from 10.
+ Very good music choice.
+ Entertiment is 8 from 10.

+/- The story is not easy to understand for me.
+/- It looks like the author is planning a very big story.

- Just one very small sexual scene and nothing much happens in there
- Kinetic novel (in v0.12 Demo)

As a verdict, I can say that I do not feel sorry for the time spent on this novel.