VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Chasing Sunsets [v1.01] [Stone Fox Studios]

Tried to like it as production value wise it's very high and visually one of the best on the site.

The problem is that the writing its in service of is just unbearably cringeworthy. Everyone is trying to sound funny but isn't and everyone is a generic 2000s sci-fi nerd.

Good Points
+ Past scenes with Sarah & James & how they romanced, etc, were fun to watch.
+ David was a likable and funny character, his scenes were refreshing, emotional, and sad in later parts of the story, he was a good friend and well-written character.
+ Even tho she is a bit weird and has some mental problems with all that weird hearing her ''Daddy'' thing Mallory is still quite funny, and a likable character/LI for sure, and her relationship/romance development with MC is quite well-written, especially MC's bandit gift, how happy she was when she reunited was emotional enough to made me cry as well.
+ Even tho she was unbearable at most parts after the talk on the yacht Jaye became at least a bearable character/LI, and some scenes she had with MC in the past, and references to them, like Bed Fort were emotional as well.
+ MC has a good model, he isn't the cliche skinny guy every other game has and even has a muscular frame.
+ The scene where MC acted heroic, and saved Jaye was pretty cool, the whole ambiance was well-created, and the song and sound effects were well-chosen as well.
+ Choices matter at least on some stuff, for example having the choice to kill or not kill murderers of your family was pretty damn satisfying.
+ We have the same really gorgeous girl/woman models in this game.

Bad Points
- The prologue has quite weak, and unlogical writing, and it feels like it was forcefully made longer and more dramatic with writers constantly using Jaye, making her act dumb, egoist, rude, etc, against the MC, and ruining the things.
- Connected to the last bad point Jaye as the main love interest of this game, is not a really likable character for most of the game, it's really hard to like her considering especially how she acted in the prologue and after, she becomes better later on, but that doesn't change how dumb, egoist, rude, and unbearable she was for most parts. First of all, she & MC could have had a great relationship for their whole childhood, yet she has to make things bad between them just because MC wanted her to have some friends, and take things further with everything she did until she takes a guy called Christian to home just to piss off the MC and nearly got raped (she would if MC didn't come home early) She could change her ways after crossing the line like that, and nearly getting raped, but instead, she let Christian come to the party, bringing the guy who tried to rape attempt you to the party, the party where MC and your whole family are? BRUH... For nearly the whole story she is constantly hurting MC because of having no control over her own emotions, and ego meanwhile having sex with Tara, etc, and keeps saying she has feelings for MC in her monologues. She could have at least acted mature, and treated MC better after growing up, but she still acted like a b*tch to him until the talk happened on the yacht.
- Even tho MC has done things he did because of his love for Jaye and distanced himself from her (not abandoned, she literally was the one who abandoned MC when they were kids, and later told MC to stay the f*ck away from her with all hate in her eyes, go further as he can go) for right reasons, he still could have turned things for better at some points, especially he could have talked with her after reading her diary since he learned she has feelings for him and he has feelings for her as well. Still, Jaye had far more chances than him, and she was the one who ruined everything over and over again, so can't say MC is as unbearable as her at least.
- The story getting told by MC to someone instead of happening in that moment makes things a bit weird, if the story didn't start with MC talking with that guy and telling while we are reading it would be more immersive.
- There are too many scenes MC got ridiculed for no reason, at first it feels funny, and you laugh, but at some point, it becomes annoying, especially the thing that happened with his dick picture sent to Fiona was a low blow.
- Textbox has a vector for every talking character, and it looks quite distracting, and sadly there is no option to close it.
- Some of the girls/women's faces look quite unattractive like Erica's face, she could have been one of good looking ones, but she has a pretty bad chin makes her unattractive. Along with this some characters had genetic and & paste face designs you have seen in a lot of other games as well like Linda. I don't understand why, but Tara looked gorgeous when she was young, but thanks to DEV changing her hair to terrible side-shaved model, and now she looks less attractive, very bad decision.
- Sarah (MC's mother) model feels wasted, it would be great if it was used on some love interest since it looks great.
- Sex scene animations are not that great, most of them have badly chosen positions/angles for animations and not all sex scenes are properly animated either, for example, Fiona's sex scene didn't have animations for blowjobs or cunningly, etc, and had only one static bad animation for very close bad angle penetration position. Along with this problem, some sex scenes do not even have any animation, like Linda's or Erica's sex scenes. So generally renders in sex scenes look far better than animations and they fail to deliver what animations do in these types of adult games.
- We only have two real love interests, Jaye & Mallory, and you can't choose any other girl as a main love interest, which is a big shame because there are some girls/women with great potential to become love interests, like Tara, it's damn shame she is not a love interest, and not just her, Bianca, Tanaka or some other girls MC had intimate moments could have been great love interests as well.
- Considering the connection MC had with both main love interests, especially after he risked his life to save both of them at different times, how they can't even imagine life without him, understand each other, got closer, even share a bathroom and showered together, etc, it would only make sense MC having relationship both of them, but unlogically the game forced players to choice one of them at last chapter out of blue, it was quite nonsense and unlogical.
- Ending sucked, it's been told we will get an epilogue, but seeing how bad things end up with girls, how MC had to choice, and other one lost someone they can't ever get is enough to say this game has a very bad ending, literally four years of development done for this sh*tty ending? BRUH...

For The End
Honestly, the game starts quite bad, then starts to get better, from middle to end becomes quite good, then ends terribly, At first I was thinking of a 1-star rating, then started thinking of giving 3 stars, then 4 stars, and with ending I'm going to give 2 stars and gonna say it's poor because even tho it had great potential sadly most of the stuff executed quite poor.

another beautiful game. Beautiful story. Beautiful writing. Beautiful characters, with a crazy messed up life and head. Even in this game the sexual content is irrelevant and almost annoying. I'm missing one thing. I didn't understand the connection between this game and Leap of Faith. There are two characters that interchange. I played LoF before and there was this ‘useless’ character who appeared and went through that story. And the opposite happened here. Lexy was a cameo in this story. How are the two stories connected? The authors are different. Why did the two stories intertwine?

A terrific game that delivers a high level of story, characters and dialogue.
It deserves all the praise it gets and I could go on listing all the pros of the game but I'll keep it short and sweet. This game focuses on story and relationships above all else.

Play this game if you're into: Character development, story progression plots and twists, choices that has impact, love-based incest.

Some notes of importance: while sex happens, it's not a main focus of the game. While not completely vanilla, it's not very kinky either apart from a few scenes.

Constructive criticism: While there's a good reason for MC's less than exuberant personality, I found it to get old. I get it, tragedy happened but the semi-depressed attitude is tiring. I'd love to have seen him have some DRIVE, some PASSION. Don't get me wrong, he's an interesting guy but there was something missing from an otherwise excellent game.

Easily one of the best stories in visual novel territory.
Loved the characters, renders, jokes, tone. really everything
5/7 perfect game

It's not done at the time of review as the epilogue is still missing.
But it does the "up" thing where it tells a hell of a story in the prologue where the parents meet and it was amazing, I actually cried.

for those that find in*est squicky, you should move on. that's all I'm going to say on that everything else could be a spoiler.

Seriously while I was expecting some mostly somewhat vanilla story, it managed to add some interesting twists if you can try to get all steam achievements. And all the cameos made in this game from other AVNs were really fun to see. I found some of my favourite AVN character designs here. Which brings me to the biggest downsides of the game, some like super character designs were wasted by not getting proper attention and would have liked those characters to be more involved, way more than main characters. Some scenes are very romantic,so there is that. I really enjoyed this game.

I have not finished the game. Yet so far I think it has a very good story with plenty of funny touches, great models (damn good), good branching, and good amount of time. Not a whole lot of animation, but when it does it is good... not too robotic, not just a two movement done over n over again with shaky camera that makes me dizzy at times.
So far this is one of the best games i have played.

Just finished playing the final version here are my thoughts and verdict:

Story: I loved it. For me, it is really well-written and well-portrayed. The jokes in this game are acceptable, some are cringe and some are quite hilarious. There are even times it touched my heart. Though I understand there are some people that didn't like the game because of the slow 'sex-pacing' as you don't see nudity and sex as frequent as you'd like as this game more story-focused than sex fanatic.

Characters: The MC looks good and his development throughout the game makes him likeable. The women in the game are stunning and attractive and actually have roles and purpose in the story aside from just being a typical slut.

music: The developers really knows how to choose the right soundtrack for any scene and scenario.

The only issue I have is the side chicks aren't given enough attention, particularly the more matured women. I wish they gave them more screentime and interactions with them to bond more deeply. There's even the one pretty woman we don't even have a choice for a chance to intimate with. Even though the story revolves around with the MC and two main chicks, I wish they pay attention to others just a little more.

Overall, this game delivered beyond my expectation. The story's deep and complex but really well-narrated which keeps me vested to the story. There are even times I genuinely felt emotional towards the story. The characters are also really well-written. Even though the sex scenes are kinda rare and not frequent, it builds anticipation and subsequently, it felt rewarding.

Final score: 9.5/10

Great Story,Great Plot,Great Art,Relatable characters.

No wonder the crowd give high rating.
Wish more people would find this masterpiece

Respect to the Author who touch lot of technical science stuff and presented it in entertaining way.

Highly Recommended!

Very good game if you meet it on its terms.

The story and initial conflict for me were tough to swallow, but the story of MC and his friend was good enough for me to give it a pass.

The story for the most part is quite enjoyable, not too predictable but also very consistent and consequent in how they play out. Some moments shine brighter than others, but that is to be expected. The "ratio" of story: sex is also quite ok. The choices also really feel like they have a meaningful impact on how the story unravels.

The visuals are very, very good, the character models look fantastic. If you don't care for the story and only want to watch the scenes, there's definitely a lot worse games out there.

So overall 4/5 because the thing in the spoiler really bothers me but the game is quite enjoyable.

im not gonna argue too much about this , but , having a game that has the most amount of unfuckable girls in this whole website is not gonna survive no matter how good the graphics or the story are , im sorry , this kind of deadly flaw is literally fatal , its just gonna ruin every thing that the Dev has to offer , i cannot imagine an adult game that has more unfuckable girls than the fuckable ones

i remember giving 1 star to a game before that has only 1 or 2 unfuckable girls , now in this game , check this out : ( Anette - Dr. Sophia Allard - Anne - Ronna - Serena - Sarah - the Asian server - Kaili - Eva - Rachel - the reporter girl - Jill Klein - Artemis - the receptionist - Mrs. Cohen - Arresting agent Steph - Senator McMurray ) this must be a joke , that's like 70% of the girls already in the game are unfuckable , its just straight up brutal ..

i actually liked some of these girls even more than the main girls , believe it or not & i was hopping to get some of them in a sex scene later on , but in the end , the game just gave me the middle finger in the face .. a critical disappointment like that will deserve a ZERO star at best , if there's an option for it

the Dev should not force the player to fuck who ever he wants , you should give players the freedom to decide who they want fuck & who they don't , and add a sex scene to all the girls , not just the ones that Dev choose , other wise , the choices are irrelevant & those girls are totally useless , its a 100% deal breaker for me

and by the way , the story sucks , its all about ( company - business - polygene - plans - clones - lawyers - Mom & dad ) 24/7 .. and that's it .. no other topics .. specially when that bastard George appears , he always trigger these conversations every time and he goes on & on like for 10 minutes , even your finger will start to hurt you from skipping clicks ( yea its that long ) until finally he stands up & leave .. i was expecting some conversations about the daily life situations , personal problems or fun events .. but no .. its rarely happening ..

favorite characters ( Tara - Bianca - Fiona - Mallory - Lisa - Erica )
however ( Tanaka - Amanda - Linda ) are just OK , but not the best in my taste
now ( Jaye ) she got the worst body shape of all time .. like , im impressed , how the Dev managed to create such an alien body , i have no idea , she literally has a body of a Ladyboy , its a huge turn off

he also used Jaye's Face with another character , but changed her eye color from green to sky blue , & her hair from red to black , and then BooM , here comes Lisa , there you go .. i don't know how dumb the Dev think we are , they are totally identical .. but ill be honest , Lisa's body is way way better designed than " Jaye "

any way , here is the honest Conclusions :

------------ BAD --------------- OK ----------------- GOOD --------------- EXCELLENT
STORY :

SEXY GIRLS :

SIDE CHARACTERS :

GRAPHICS :

SEX CONTENT :

SEX SCENES :

CONVERSATIONS :

HUMOR :

GLITCHES :

TYPOS :

CONTROLS :

CHOICES :

DIFFICULTY :

Great game, Beautfil Renders, some of the best written LIs there are with so much depth and complexity, Great Mc, Great concept with the business, This game made me emotional on multiple different occasions, it has some of the most depth in any VN, while also being incredibly hot, it has great humor and just great writing overall, truly a enjoyable experience and a really really great game with a very talented dev

Review for Chasing Sunsets [v1.01] I like Chasing Sunsets, I like it a lot, despite the flaws in the game. Story is beautiful, emotional, filled with funny moments and amazing dialogues. Choices in the game feels impactful, and has varying levels of consequences. The girls in the game are all really beautiful, with their own unique character. The growth in the characters throughout the game is really great as well, and that's someting really great to see, seeing the characters grow, mature, and being caring and loving to one another, brilliant.

The game mainly consists of 2 LI's, Jaye and Mallory. The main issue with this is that, Dev will have to make 2 really good characters that appeals to many, as this will greatly affect the experience we're gonna have. I really cannot bring myself to like Jaye, so this already affects a lot of the experience I'm getting in Chasing Sunsets. That being said, the story is still good enough for me to continue the game, despite skipping majority of Jaye's content.

Dev made some really beautiful side characters, not gonna lie, I love the looks of the side characters a lot more than the main LIs, yes I'm talking about Lisa, Biance and Sophie. The fact that you really only get 1/2 scene with them is just such a waste, given how great they look. Would love to see more of them, hopefully the Epilogue would change this up.

Another issue I have with ChasingSunset is the "open relationship" option with Mallory. Someway or another, going with this choice would always end up with Mallory breaking up with MC, if that's the case, why even have the option of being in an open relationship? Would be great if somewhere along the line, we get the option for MC to commit to this relationship, instead of it just always ends up with a break up?

Pros:
-Splendid story
-Great renders and animations
-Beautiful girls
-Great UI
-Gallery for viewing of scenes

Cons:
-Only 2 main LI's, so not much variations in endings and all
-Lack of scenes with the othercharacters, comeon, one is no enough when you have such beautiful side characters
-Open relationship with Mallory seems to always end in breaking up? If so, why evenhave the option of being in an open relationship?
-Adrubt love arcs with Bianca/Lisa

It's a beautiful, emotional and gripping game. The MC is good looking, muscular and witty which warrants all the thirsts. The story was unexpectedly very mature, providing moral and emotional dilemmas that were set up very carefully with satisfying payoffs. Making the right choice makes the player feel a sense of gratification.

Every sex scene with the main LIs had so much emotional weight and were smoothly animated. The side characters mostly had one night stands apart from a few who've developed feelings later on for the MC. It's a story that you'd never want to end but the ending feels welcomed.

I like the devs, they hold to their principles and not surrender to some delusional outcome where one can have everything.

I have no words. Amazing story and dialogues, it's so hard to hold back the tears at some moments. Amazing renders and animations. Amazing music that fits that moments. And exciting scenes of course. Guys, you are the best in this portal. I definately will do the payments or membership when I can allow it. You are first in the line. Sorry I couldn't do it for now. But Stoya must write forever. She feels us so much to push right buttons... And I am in love with Jaye...
But the end feels a little unsaid.

Charming VN with INCREDIBLE Character Growth

I have a lot of good things to say about this game, but I am also not gonna avoid mentioning some of the things I didn't like.
This review has some mild spoilers. I've tried to tag the ones that are slightly more spoiler-ish than 'mild'. First-time players might want to avoid those ones

First Things First

I gotta say Stone Fox Studios REALLY cooked when they made this visual novel. On first impressions, I was not liking this VN much at all due to the teenage drama that the first hour of this centers around. But the character development in this plot is just a LEAGUE above all the other VNs I have ever come across.
I went from not being interested in the Lead Interest - to being resentful towards her - then to absolutely end up adoring her.

The Suspect In Question

This is a GAME. It has choices that can have varying levels of consequences. You can have a different type of play-style to mine and end up experiencing the story very differently.

Despite that I like to think of it more as a Visual Novel because the 'gameplay' of this game consists about 99% reading. It is not interactive, there are no sandbox elements, there are no fun mini-games to try your hand at. Only choices to make.

Games on this platform I have high opinion of ALL seem to have some levels of sandbox in them.
I like to think If I can still enjoy a game after removing all the 'sex aspects' then what I have there is an amazing game. This VN, for me, manages to fall into this category even despite not having much interactability. The character development and the romance in this story just carries it.

Would it have been a better game had it been more of 'game' than it is? Maybe.

Although, I would rather the developer didn't focus on implementing that if they were not confident in their ability to be able to produce 'gameplay elements' that flowed well with the story and didn't BREAK the game. Last thing I'd want is a captivating story being plagued by overtly ambitious and an inexperienced team.

I think with this developer - they knew what they wanted. They were not aiming to create the best game possible in all aspects, rather they wanted to try their luck at creating a charming game with a captivating story. And, imo, they have managed to do that fabulously.

Hit & a Miss

The story revolves around romancing two main leads - Jaye & Mallory. The game tried hard to make me not like Jaye at the start, and they succeeded.

But as the story progressed she grows on you significantly to the point where choosing to be with Mallory instead becomes impossible.
Mallory is an amazing woman in her own rights, but the bond between your character and Jaye has been created so much better.

So I don't really understand the point of her character being a Lead Interest since I believe she has not been shown the same amount of attention & relevance as Jaye has. Instead of being a really well-written character that independently ticks all the boxes, she feels more like a substitute for players who don't pursue Jaye.

Live. Love. Learn

I ended this game having learnt, or rather having renforced a lesson that was perhaps reduced in me through the times, that being - baggage & forgiveness. This game does an wonderful job at portraying this through out the story, with multiple characters, often times not forcing you make the 'rightful' choice but rather inspiring you to do so.

I am not somebody who plays these games picking choices based on what gives the most stat boosts with the LIs, I instead like to play by the ear.

You can make many choices in this game that are not 'optimal'. You're allowed to be a human and express yourself and pick options that the LIs may not like, and still achieve the best ending as long as you exercise the common sense of not overdoing it.

In my playthroughs, I did just that. The only time I would recommend picking options favorable to an LI is in the prologue of the game.

The GROWTH is Insane!

Jaye goes from being a rageful, immature & insolent LI to being the most MATURE, caring and loving LI that adult games have to offer. Her character development is insane. After playing the first hour of the game I couldn't imagine I would end up changing my mind about her as much as I did.

The writing for this so well done. I was impressed with how much of an 'ass' you can afford to be towards her after the time-skip and still end up with the best ending.

And it is not out of 'I am the MC. I do what I want and take what I want'. Rather, her forgiving nature has been written very intelligently. It stemming from the regrets she carried for years regarding the events occuring in the pasts and her treatment of your character.

Where is the taboo/Why is the taboo

This game delves into some aspects of 'taboo' relationships. I don't think this game needed to do that. It'd be just as fine without it. But, I understand people in general have grown quite desensitized towards the idea of taboo relationships in adult games. Which is fair enough.

"Captain, Only Sexy Senioritas In Sight."

The girls in this game are HOT. It is not thaaaat long a VN and packs punch. Sex scenes plenty with amazing animations!
The render quality is amazing in itself. but I wouldn't call it top-tier. Perhaps it's the lighting? Since the texture quality looks to me very good.

One, Two, Three.. Rush Hour!

Just like this review, some of this game is rushed, not all aspects in this VN are drawn out as long as they should be. For reference, Jaye falling back in love with your character felt a lot quicker than, imo, it should've been. And that is especially more so if you have been choosing the 'optimal' choices. It's as if they pressed play on something they paused 6 years ago.

So To Sum It All..

This game really shines in it's story especially regarding romance, and character development. It is about 8 hours long, has plenty of sex scenes.

What is isn't is a - grand, ambitious project that ticks nearly all the boxes, but rather what it is - a charming story, with intelligent use of depth, emotion, and shallowness.

I have played this game multiple times and it has become one of my favourites despite its 'relatively' shorter length. I hope the developer takes what he learned from this experience and continues making awesome games that reach close to your heart!

The best stepsister romance AVN out there hands down no doubt Jaye is the best girl the writing is top notch.Dont be sad it ended,be happy that it happened.All the best for future projects to the devs

An amazing game and story that really had me emotionally invested and addicted. I was genuinely brought to tears a few times and literally laughed out loud on several occasions. And of course had many a wank over the hot characters and scenarios.

Im not really a super fan of incest I may play one playthrough and that's it.
But this got me to play all possible endings, the dialogues are with depth.
The situations are somewhat relatable. The animations and render are good.

Imagine that you've spent a good chunk of your life creating a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa. And then at the end you decide to draw a handlebar mustache on her.

That's Chasing Sunsets.

For 90% of the game, you're playing a VN (it doesn't have a lot of choices, but has enough to fit the VN category vs KN) that has witty dialogue and engaging, sexy characters. Which is great! And yes, you can tell that this game started years ago in the renders in the first chapter or two. And yes, the two main LIs have almost the exact same body type to the point where they might actually be the same render model. But OK. They have different enough personalities. It works. Renders get better as the game goes on. It's good.

And then you get to the end. And I'm sure I'm not the first to discuss it or mention it. Don't read further if you're worried about spoilers!

For the entirety of the game, it feels like as a player you're being given a choice of Mallory or Jaye...or both. Yes: the game presents a throuple or polycule or open situation as a possibility. But then in the blink of an eye,
It feels like the devs decided it was time to end this game, no matter what, in this chapter. It's abrupt and it is silly. It is the kind of plot development that made another VN about thespian lessons so outright BAD. (At least no love interests died in this game.) I get it: some people will love Mal. Some will love Jaye. Some will love them both.
So hey, let me provide some universal advice for game creators in this particular space: you ain't Bertolucci, Zeffereli, Brass, or Pasolini. Your audience isn't here to discover greater truths about the human condition. Your audience is here for a fun, interactive, engaging sex fantasy. Know what you are, and just LEAN INTO IT! Chasing Sunsets is at its very heart an unrealistic but incredibly fun and very sexy fantasy. And then it decides that for "depth" or some such nonsense that at the end it has to lose its way and lose the courage of its conviction to that fantasy does what is becoming an all-too-familiar and idiotic "Well, that's unrealistic" rug-pull.

For now this is a 3-star game that should've been 5-star. Maybe with an epilogue that can sort the final story.