VN - Ren'Py - Chasing Sunsets [v0.9a] [Stone Fox Studios]

I just came across this game and played the latest update in just over 3 days. Here's my review.

Plus

1. Story - Like many have mentioned here, the story is absolutely gripping and has a realistic feel. It feels more like a movie, with you being a character in it. This experience could be even more realistic if there was a narrator, thereby rendering you more as the MC. The main plot and the subplot never feel out of place, thereby keeping the player engaged throughout. Even the character interactions are well spaced out with extremely organic dialogues.
2. Artwork - The artwork is fabulous too, with the girls being well rounded as a personality than just being a body type. So if you're looking for out-of-proportions fantasy fap, find another game. The animations are just enough to keep it interesting, like the cherry on a parfait.
3. Characters - This is the highlight of the game. The characters are extremely well-thought and fleshed out, so kudos to the developers and story writers. The interactions between them are dangerously close to what can transpire to these characters if the events they go through happen in real world. There should be a "completely fictitious with no resemblance to living or dead" disclaimer.
4. Scenes - I have to write scenes instead of hot scenes as they serve as stepping stones to each rare, R-rated encounter that happen, with the dialogue, character interactions building up until at the crescendo you get an above average sex scene. I have to mention above average as there are other games that focus solely on sex scenes, do it better. That's not a negative for this game, that's just this game's style. So again, if you're looking for a quick fap, look for something else. IIRC, there are merely 2-2.5 scenes as of now and are extemely rewarding.

Minus

1. The only gripe I have is that at the end of the update, a character who was more-than-friendly with the MC suddenly shifts down on gears and starts acting as mere friend. It could very well because I chose badly for that character. Warrants another playthrough.

I wish the dev continues the great work and sees this game to completion. Highly recommended for a great story, engaging characters!

Review of Chapter 5 (0.6)


What can I say other than wow! A truly brilliantly written game, with fantastic renders to boot.
In-depth storytelling from the get-go, told brilliantly through both past and present.
Renders are top notch, some of the best out there.

Visuals are near-perfect

Story is just perfect,

I didn't see a game that had a better writing/dialogue than this one.

Game isn't rich on the quick-fap content but if you're playing for topic its excellent.

This is rare for me, i don't tend to do 5/5 stars..... the VN has to be special for me.

Didn't have high hopes at first. theres so many VNs, coming and going. and frankly atleast half are trash, either laser focused on pure visuals, pure story or uber trash sandbox/mobile games.

Me personally the writing is the key to an outstanding VN, to get noticed, to generate buzz, to get help get supporters etc.. visuals of course help, but aren't the bee all and end all, of a great VN.

Chasing Sunsets, however surprised me, alot. the premise was different, but the execution, even more so and refreshing.
Then the story and writing kicked in, and simply put i couldn't stop even if i wanted too.

Amazing writing, engaging story and very nice visuals. its truly a rare combo for and defo earns a 5/5 from me.

only recently came across it, but will be keeping and eye on it. its downright criminal that a gem like this is not getting overwhelming support, when alot of frankly trash 2/5 VNs are practically milking it.

Yes its a slow burn, its not a fap focused VN. theres real depth and quite some touching and emotional scenes. i urge anyone who comes across this one, to try and then help support, even just lowest amount is still help towards this Dev and VN.

I will be stopping a couple other VN support and directing it to this one, its much more deserving of support and praise.

Unbelievable game. I waited until 0.6 to play it, and then ended up playing the whole 3 or 4 hours at once.

What sets this apart is the storytelling / writing. Absolute professional writing on a story / concept that's equally stunning. Top tier renders as well. It's a slow burn, which is a plus for me when the setup is this good. Makes the sex scenes that much more enjoyable.

The good thing about games is that they, basically, are something between a story and memory: a story because it's something that you have to see from the outside because it's not yours, a memory because once it gets inside you, it becomes part of you as long as you think about it. This game is exactly that. Apart from the marvellous images and the dialogues that are simply amazing, this game is an interesting story, a tale where the author's passione can be seen inside every single word and picture, where you can learn about many things. The plot itself is interesting, but the main reason i recommend it is the whole concept around it: a bit of comedy, a bit of drama (well... more than a bit actually), romanticism, action, sexuality... all you like is there, but, that's the most important part, inside the game there will be also a bit of you, whoever you are. It may be hidden, it may be elusive, but at some point it will emerge. That's why this is a GREAT game.

Okay then, I have played more than a healthy number of games from this site. Most are a lot less than good. Some are ok, and just a few are excellent,
This game is among the best of them. Top notch art, quality rendering and a very attractive cast of characters.
Technicaly its mostly great, some of the animations seem a bit clunky, but that could be becasue I am playing on a 12 year old mac that has seen better days.
It's the writing and the characterisation that make this game stand out. I read a lot, have a degree in lit and an MA in psychotherapy and I (mostly) believe in these characters and their story. For an erotic VN that is a ral achievement. To the devs I'd say don't be afraid of pushing the story between Jaye and the MC over and above the MC's opportunities to get it on. At present the fact that he can seemingly fool around with both Mallory and Jaye without consequence seems to me to undermine the believability of the two main girls. Given the implied intensity of feeling I am not sure that either of the would be so comfortable with the MC's infidelity. I am assuming thata choice point is coming, Mallory or Jaye, but if it was me writing this I'd want to go back and either prefigure/telegraph their acceptace of polyamory (which given their traumatic backstories would be a hard sell) or build more tension into the relationship between them (ie Mallory and Jaye).
As things stand the writing is excellent, the character are mostly believable but the acceptance of the MC's wandering cock is acting against the believability of the two main girls. Given their characters as presented, I cannot honestly believe they would accept his slutty behaviour without some serious consequences.
I get that the genre demands a certain amout of lewd content but overall it feels like you are reaching for something more interesting than just another faptastic wankfest.
Push the tesion between Jaye and Mallory, push the MC's internal conflict .
RetCon the hell out it all so that it's not just another "I got fuck em all and now I can choose whomever without consequence." easy fantasy.
Despite all the consessions you've made to the genre you are still pushing a hard choice. If it was me writing this I'd have made it a harder choice earlier.
I mean really, if the MC actually loves Jaye, ahy is fucking around with all th others? If he doesnt and just wants her to be another notch on the bedpost then you need to puch his callousness. i don't know. I could twat on for hours, Suffice it to say that this is the only game on hear that has inspired me to think beyond my next nut...
Do what you will, I'll enjoy it however it plays out.
Top 3 game

Really well made, well written game with a lot of care and love gone into it from the Dev.
The only reason I'm putting my slightly negative review in is to maybe let others know some key points that personally put me off.
It is is very vanilla, very slow and very much full of endless perfect rock hard bodies.
I know lots of people love this but I'm just warning any potential players lured in by the glowing reviews that this game is very much your run-of-the-mill vanilla romance game. Albeit a very well made one.
If that's your thing then I'm sure you'll love this, it's one of the best at that. If however like me you need a more edgy experience then I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

10/10 Overall
7/10 Animations
10/10 Story
9/10 Character design
8/10 Character development
9/10 Quality

This game was unexpectedly amazing, story is interesting, characters look stunning, There is not much to say, me recommend

Ok, I'm not sure why I haven't played this before, but it immediately shot into my top 5 list, possibly top 3... Played from start to current finish yesterday, but didn't get around to posting until now, dues to several hours spent facepalming for not playing sooner.

Every girl in this game is stunning. I can't pick between the main two, and the side characters would be top tier in any other game.

Animations and facial expressions are brilliant, they're more like actors than just character models.

The story is well paced, interesting and a few nitpicks aside, very cohesive. And the jokes and pop culture references are on point. Got more than a few laughs out of Lisa's reactions to the van, and that's just one sequence.

I don't do patreon, but I hit the "add to cart" button on Steam with the power of a thousand suns.

Sometimes you see a couple tags in a game thread and you feel you know what to expect. And when it comes to tags like the "i-tag" or "romance", I cringe immediately.

Not because they are themes I don't enjoy. If they are done right. Which is very rarely the case. Most "i-games" are just copies of the same "amnesiac dude, mother, 2 sisters" package. And done in the same pointless manner, that barely touches on the taboo subject, so they can just pass under the radar and not spend too much time working on the patch. And romance...well let's just say most game devs on here don't really know how the fuck to write romance. It's usually some cringy, idealized version of adoring vanilla waifu worshiping a white knight. And it ends up being an one-sided power fantasy, pretending to be romance. Which kills any kind of drama a good romance story is supposed to have. Might as well write a romance story about your anime pillow, which is how the female characters in these stories read anyway (fitting for the intended audience I guess).

Surprisingly enough, this one gets both right! The taboo part is not shoved under the rug. It's at the forefront and the combo of sexual tension and conflict it creates, is one of the main driving forces of the plot. And this treatment bleeds into the romance part of the game, making it interesting. With tension, ups and downs, humor, intrigue even a bit of betrayal. And devs were smart enough to use the last aspect up to a point , so it didn't devolve into another (hated by many) genre, but still added to the story drama. I wish they haven't killed it that early, but at least the rivalry aspect remains, which means the conflict part is still alive. The game has villains lurking in the shadows and has done a good job establishing them (the one we know so far that is). And more importantly, it's not a romance story between one Gary Stu and a dozen different girls. There are scenes with other characters but the game reserves the romantic aspect for only two characters (plus MC). So a triangle at most.

Combine all that with some gorgeous renders and you have yourself a good game. One that doesn't pretend to be slow burn for no reason, it actually takes its time to build characters and tension.

My only worry is that development seems a bit slow. I saw that during its first couple releases and decided to let it stew for about a year (maybe more). And yet when I picked it up again, it hadn't progressed as much as I expected. Hopefully I won't have to come back next year again, in order to get a good chunk of content.

Anyone who's interested in a good taboo romance story, unlike most uninspired clones on this site, should definitely keep an eye on this one.

unbelievable game. Graphics are so well balanced, not to much reality and not to much flat design, just so perfect middle ground. And for animations they did fantastic job. No standard error with depth, bouncing and object fling trough something not supposed to. It have almost all unique characters (i recognize only 1 from other game) and it has a lot of unique surroundings compared to other games (even if they maybe free its nice to see different surroundings, and not all same for all games). Story is also fantastic. Love humor during game, its not often see in games. Overall you got your self a supporter. Thx for game and keep up with good job.

A very good story-focused game.

The models and scenes are good, but not the focus of the game, which seems to be the story. And that part is also quite good. Lots of choices which change the outcomes quite a bit, although it's fairly clear that the intent is to get along with everyone. The characters are relatively distinct and the writing is good. Scenarios don't feel forced.

A good amount of effort appears to have gone into expressions on the characters, which always improves things.

This is my review for Chasing Sunsets by Stone Fox Studios version 0.6.

The good

• Renders are looking really good
• Characters have different personalities
• Music
• Writing
• Gameplay
• Big amout of content 5+ hours
• Story is interesting

The bad

• Some animations are bad
• Few important choices

In conclusion, 5 stars worth playing.

I've had this game on my watch list for a long time now but never gave it a chance due to how "generic" the preview images looked. The renders look good, don't get me wrong, but after playing a few games around here you begin to assume what kinda of gameplay you're gonna get based on those preview images and tags. And well those didn't help getting Chasing Sunsets to the top of my list.
Now that I finally decided to stop being an idiot and give it a shot...well, it's excellent. Renders, characters, writing, everything ,really. I won't go into details but I think you should give it a shot too.

I downloaded this expecting just some generic harem game and got out loving it and wanting much more.
Good job devs!

Version Reviewed: 0.6
Every once in a while a game comes along that just ticks all your boxes. This is one of them for me.
The writing in this game is among the best on this site, in my opinion. It's a bit of a slow burn, but the character development and worldbuilding more than make up for it. I'm always appreciative of games that help us get to know the characters and their motivations instead of just mindlessly banging anything with a pulse.
One of the things that stands out to me the most about this game is the attention to detail with the characters' expressions. I'm not sure I've run into another game that does it so well. It gives the characters so much life.
As far as "incest" games go, I feel that this one does it fairly realistically. You don't just have family members jumping each others' bones right out of the gate.
If I had to have any criticism about this game at all, it's that there isn't a lot of variation in body shapes. They are quite realistic proportion-wise, but it still would be nice to have some differences. Two of the characters (who I'm pretty sure aren't related) have almost the same face even down to the makeup- the only real difference being skin tone and hair. Again, this is a really minor complaint and I wouldn't even knock the game down a quarter point for this.
Overall, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite games on this site. I encourage anyone reading this to give it a try. It's an experience that is rare to come by in these days where most games are made up of the same old recycled tropes (shower peeping, yoga, massages, etc.)

how much i would give to like this game, but i simply can't. like someone earlier in the reviews wrote about the fact that the story is about the MC/Jayce. how can this work if the sis is already fucking with her gf. (with the dull reason she imagined it would be the mc)

is that the reason for making MC's first sex scene forced? just to make things even? i didn't liked that at all. and because thats the main plot of this game i have to say that i just deleted it. the forced M/F/F "relationships" are just a huge turn off.

btw the thing with mc's mom and jayce father. why you show us (the player) this sex scene if it has zero relevance to the story? just delete it, or give us the chance to skip it. IRL i wouldn't be interested in seeing my parents fucking either. (and i know it's NOT ntr, it's just not my thing.)

without changes in jayce behavior or her relationship to her gf i don't see any reason to rate this higher.

Just finished playing the update and everything about it is superb. The visual and the plot is top notch. The way they approach things from a different angle from the usual is a breath of fresh air. There's humour, drama, some mystery, and of course romance. It has enough sex scenes but the way the story for each LI works is enough and makes the wait worthwhile. However I am a bit sad that one of the girls I like is not a LI, I understand the reasoning but still.

What I like the most about this game is every character acts. Yes, the beginning premise may sound outrageous to some but honestly, I can see it happening but not to that extent and is explained later on. And yes they did some mistakes, they are flawed but they try to redeem them. After reading some comments, I'd ask you to give them a chance as you won't regret it.

That's about it, I can't describe how much I like this game. One of my favourites. Highly recommend it for those looking for a vn with a bigger emphasis on the story and good visuals.

Cliche writing, bog standard fuckfest with zero consequences, and more plot holes than a modern Star Wars movie. The only saving grace for this game are the renders. In addition the false drama (which could have been avoided by a single chat) permeating the game is a pale distraction from an underlying story that makes zero sense with more nonsensical twists than a Shyamalan movie.

I don't recommend it to anyone who likes a game with more than pretty pictures. If that's all you are after then have at it.

It's one of the great ones. The review concerns chapter 4 and earlier.

Plot
The story is really good, for me it finds the rare middle ground between developing mc relationships with girls and progressing the overall plot. Girls are interesting and varied, the overall plot is interesting enough without being too stretched and boring.

Graphics & scenes
The graphics is very good for vn. Girls look realistic without exaggerated body features. Scenes are ok, not too much of them but they are driven by the plot which is expected from that type of game.

Overall would give it 8/10 (where 1 is trash, 5 average, 10 masterpiece) so far, hope it keeps this level in future updates.