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

(v0.8a)

Most of the women in the game are beautiful, but the one that gets the most screentime has an unfortunate skin condition that causes her to look orange enough to be the bastard love child of Donald Trump and an Oompa Loompa. But looks aren't everything, and her personality can easily have you forgetting about her Jersey Shore pigmentation as you wonder why anyone would ever put up with this bitch for any length of time.

Jaye is selfish, manipulative, unstable, violent, deceitful, hypocritical, entitled, and a complete writer's pet. She's constantly pushed on the player, even when you've chosen to distance yourself from her. The only other primary love interest in the game is saddled with an annoying side kick who is also pushed on you in ways that don't fit the story. So there is a good chance you're going to be left wishing that one of the side characters were a full fledged option.

The game begins with a prologue that is understandably linear since it is primarily a giant series of flashback scenes. But the game fails to let you take full control over the player character once into the main game. There are tons of choices to be made in this game, but you are often railroaded into certain situations regardless of whether or not they fit with the character you are playing and the choices you made.

The game frequently undoes the character growth that occurs due to your choices in order to relentlessly stuff Jaye into the spotlight and revert the player's character back to who they were at the start of the game instead of letting them grow into who the player has been shaping them into. And the same goes for Jaye, who's actions have completely gone against her end of chapter summaries that I've read for the last four chapters. That's half the damn game. It's a big problem.

First of all, if you are a defloration (Female first time sex), pure love, wincest lover, this is for you. You will enjoy it.
Now...


Character Renders: Simply gorgeous. This kind of style is usually only available in those western VNs where the girl had 10 exes or a slut or something. But here, the dev made great use of the models and the ambience.

Plot: The main thing. As I have mentioned in the first part, this is a romantic, wincest, defloration game. That means no sluts, non-virgins or drugs, peeping on your mom and other whacky shit. Unfortunately, this still has casual sex but not too much. . Also, beware that . The romance is pretty in-depth. It isn't the usual "Girl you're hot, let's fuck". "Oh MC your dick is so big, I'm in love" type of 'romance'. It has proper romance with tons of emotional rollercoaster.


Others: It's made with Ren'Py so the usual UI that'll let you speed through stuff.


As a wincest romance game, this deserves nothing less than 9.5/10 in my opinion.

I have played this game once almost a year ago and left it, when I got to Sicili in prologue... I do not know why (probably, because at first I did not like the MC and his action in Sicili... I know, I know... ), but decided to give this another go as others really recommends it and this AVN being at top ever made... So...

As the story unfolded, by the second chapter I started to understand and finally saw why this is loved by many. I have immediately liked it and now I am sad I have finished it... The longer time you spend with the story and characters, the more you connect with them (at least in my case), so it is hard to have pause from it . But I am really looking forward for continuation of this, as this is also amongst my top AVNs I have ever read. (God, the list is already around 10-15 all time favorites, plus count this...).

Thank you Stone Fox Studios for making this wholesome and interesting story about sibling love. It was so cute, so funny, so adorable...
You gotta love ferocious kitsune .

Jaye is so beautiful, so... real, believable, so supportive and finally, so loving.

Mallory as a character is also endearing... Her story being sad, yet she tries to make it fun. And as a friend is very enjoyable to have, plus her friend Amanda - peanut is quite handful, yet amusing and great .

The story itself is interesting, gripping and greatly fitting for whole sibling relationship and just what they needed (after long wait and played strings of fate), for their beautiful bond to unfold and bloom.

The setting and scenes are well done and few had me on the edge of seat for being so damn nerve-wracking, dramatic, and thrilling, yet everything was in context and fitted seamlessly.
And I have not even mentioned other side characters as George, Tanaka, and many others who makes this story a bit more down on earth, real and much more enjoyable.

Every little mischievous action by Jaye, every loving moment with her and connection with MC were so endearing to see.
I love this game and am very thankful for being able to read it... So I can only recommend it for others. You will not be dissapointed.

There's a reason this game is rated so highly. I want to give this game something between a 4 and a 5, but I can't do that so I've given it a 5. It's rare to see a story this logically consistent and intriguing. The writing is great, and I never struggled to understand the information being presented to me.

The music is great, but I wanted more of it. The sound effects were also great, but I also wanted more of them, particularly accompanying the sex scenes.

Speaking of the sex scenes, they're fantastic once the animations begin. The first leg of scenes don't have great animations, but that changes later in the game. Very satisfying scenes.

The LIs are attractive and likable, particularly Jaye. Mallory is cool and all, but this should really just be Jaye's game imo, especially if we're going to be made to choose a path anyway.

All in all, very impressed with Chasing Sunsets. Glad I played what content there currently is, and very excited to see what comes next.

The prologue and first couple of chapters are excellent. I loved the narrative device of the main character telling his story to his friend, giving an unreliable recollection of events while we see what happened via flashbacks. I wish it would have continued like that with brief, meaningful scenes framed in conversation. Unfortunately after the prologue it shifts to a more standard method of storytelling, although I think the MC is still sitting there in the bar recounting events to his friend.

I started losing interest around chapter four as I became aware of some issues with the story. To be clear: this is not a bad game, nor is it "average." I think it definitely qualifies as "good." But I can't say that it maintains the excellence from the prologue either.

My biggest issue is with Mallory. Jaye is obviously the primary love interest of the game. The whole prologue is about her, and Mallory is an add-on to the story that becomes increasingly strange as time goes on. At first I thought she was just another side character that the MC gets to have some fun with before the relationship with Jaye is mended. But then she shows up on the chapter review screen right beside Jaye with her own full list of points. Several chapters later it becomes impossible to get all the points for both Jaye and Mallory, and it becomes clear that you have to choose one or the other. Of course I choose Jaye, and then Mallory drops out of the spotlight for a while. Then she's back, there's a fake-out scene with her, and the chapter review says that she's friend-zoned me. I'm not even going to address the weird plot twists about who Mallory is and her importance to the story.

Plot twists aside, why is Mallory here? To be an alternative love interest to Jaye? I doubt anyone would play through the prologue (which is all about Jaye) and then decide to be invested in a completely different girl. It's a hard binary choice too. This isn't a harem game, which is fine, but I'm not convinced that Mallory is a real alternative option to Jaye. She has fewer scenes, and just to drive the point home again, far less backstory and character development.

Mallory is the worst of the "side girls" in my opinion, but they are all poor additions to the game overall. I don't think any of them have more than one scene right now. Fiona, Linda, Erika, Lisa, Tara, Amanda, the flight attendant, etc. and at least a few more to come from the looks of it. Why are they all here? It's painful to try to get invested in these characters when they are clearly meant to be recurring but end up as text conversations that go "hey MC, I'm still here, can't wait to see you again and have some fun." In my opinion side characters in a non-harem game need to do one of two things:

1. Show up once and then disappear. Maybe show up again out of the blue later on, but not feign at having any significance to the story.
2. Be integrated with one of the main love interests. Amanda does this with Mallory, and if I didn't dislike Mallory so much I'd be really interested to see how she fits in. Tara kinda does this with Jaye, but she's only had scenes in flashbacks.

"Too many characters" seems to be a common pitfall for visual novel developers. I understand the temptation to provide variety and more content overall, but in a game like this one it really drags things down. I think that the best story here is the one with the MC and Jaye, and everything else is just a distraction.

What can I say? This game rightfully has a big following and the renders are up there with the best in pretty much any game.
I actually think the story is one the better ones out there, with an interesting and diverse arc spanning multiple locations over time.
Add in 2 of the hottest love interests in the AVN world today and you understandably have an AVN that shines amongst it's peers.
I am sure as the game continues to come towards it's conclusiom the game will only get better.
Stone Fox - make sure you nail the landing with the endings!
*Edited for several spelling mistakes*

Really good game with a good plot about biology and science, with beautiful girls, and a good sense of humour. I hope the ratio of 4th wall breaks, inside joke remains identical: more would be not good for the work itself.

About the girls, the main ones are really beautiful and I like their personalities. I hope the "harem" can be sustained until the end, because both main girls are charming but their path is not different enough to justify 2 playthroughs.

I'm quite curious about the final length of the game : there has to be a lot of things yet explained, but not too much to avoid unnecessary duration.

Chasing Sunsets is a wonderful story built on a foundation we all recognize - relationships. It is, at its core, a story about a blended family, the way love can grow and the unexpected damage that can come from what seems to be a small misunderstanding over communication and choices. During this VN, you will follow the growth of several key characters, the MC - who you get to name - Jaye, who becomes his stepsister - and Mallory, who we are still learning about.

For those who want a more category-based analysis, here is my subjective assessment!

(scale of 1 - 10 with high number = better)

Immersion = 8
Story = 9
Humor = 11
Imagery = 9
Animations = 9
Music = 9
sound effects = 8
Frequency of update = 7

If you want to know why I rate Chasing Sunsets this way, please read on.

There is great writing, with humor, sadness, acts of love, protection and sacrifice, painful loss and fateful choices all wrapped up against a journey in both the present and the past, using looks into the past to help frame how each of these three people have grown into the adults they are now. Each of these characters has dealt with hurt and great loss but still found joy and each carries hope for the future, all against the background of day-to-day life as well as greater world events that impact the story, be it war or major weather events.

Choices matter - and the MC has to choose how or if to build trust and love with either or both of Jaye and Mallory. Chasing Sunsets is now up to rev 0.8a, and the MC Can make Major choices that will result in the death of one or more main characters, obviously leading to bad endings.

This is not a harem game (based on the story we know up until now at least) and, while I am focused on the Jaye path right now, I will eventually restart this VN and focus on Mallory. These are complex adult relationships where your choices can lead to deeper and more meaningful interactions (perhaps culminating in marriage and family - though this is only my feeling based on how the story has developed). Conversely, consistently making choices that break trust and don't foster the growth of love and affection could lead to very bad results, perhaps even death, just as these choices would lead to endings from bad to horrible in real life. You choose how the MC interacts with the world and the people he encounters along the way. The MC is Not perfect, but your choices can create an MC who is admirable, dependable and someone others look up to and rely on Or they can create an MC who is self-serving, callous with the affection of others and one who chooses to leave some destruction in the wake of his passing.

Will you be bitter about the past, and let your losses cloud your perspective and dim your hopes for the future Or will you learn from the past, be a caring friend who puts others ahead of self and find the admiration and love of a spectacular woman as well as the stalwart friendship of worthy men and women?

Come take the journey, Chasing Sunsets, and see what you think.

PS - Take your time enjoying this story. Don't just click through each image but take the time to view each image, enjoy any accompanying music and watch how the scene changes as you immerse yourself in this story. If you treat this VN like a clickfest, racing to get to the next sexy scene, you will miss out on some of the immersion that makes Chasing Sunsets such a good VN. There are many scenes where one 'click' to advance a scene will reveal not just a static image, but an image that morphs as emotions play across the face of someone the MC is spending time with or offers the animated movement of a character as they wrestle with a difficult choice or situation.

FYI - I have supported this VN on Patreon/Subscribestar from early in its development and I have more than 100 hours of time spent enjoying this story through multiple playthroughs.

This is probably the most overrated game I've come across in this site. This is not a bad game by any means but it has achieved almost a "masterpiece" status in the community and I just can't see the appeal behind it. Let me start off by listing a few things that bothered me with this game.
1. The story is not that interesting, more than that it's borderline nonsensical and barely cohesive at times. There is no sense of urgency to the game, most importantly the story itself doesn't have any consequences for MC, at no point is MC in any immediate or impending danger(except a few flashbacks). Overall it does a poor job on immersion.

2. Lack of LIs. Basically you get to chose between 2 LIs, one of whom is clearly given more priority throughout the game, so at the end I'd assume most players end up going her route. There are a couple of side characters none of them particularly LI material. If you don't click with one of those LIs you might as well drop the game, because let's be honest they are the main focus of the game even more so than the story itself.

3. Lack of meaningful choices, it's not an issue in itself, it's rather a consequence of point no. 2. There being only 2 main LIs makes it so that there are no meaningful choices in the games, only "right" and "wrong" choices which make the game kinda stale and boring. Even if you chose the "wrong" choices, MC's motivation for doing things remain the same. For example you can chose to act against Jaye, which should indicate that he is angry at her but later in the dialogue it is still revealed that he ran away not because he was mad at her but because he was in love with her, the reason still remains the same so what's the point of even giving those choices in the first place. Might as well then it into a kinetic novel.

4. Annoying decision by characters totally out of the players control. First off the main foundation of the story is based off of a fucking stupid ass decision by MC, which is running away from home. It's not the decision alone that annoys me, it's the reason behind it. He ran away because he was in love with his step sis, like seriously bro are you that out of control of your emotions? That's your reason for leaving behind your family for 6 years? That always seemed so silly to me and that's actually used as a building block for the entire story.

There are also many other out of control things that happen which are simply annoying. Like Mallory kissing MC. It's an inevitable action, no matter what options you choose it happens and the only purpose it serves is acting as a catalyst for pissing off the main LI.


That being said, I did enjoy the game for the first few chapters, the dynamic with the sister is done really well and the end results with her are also very satisfactory.

This is a visually stunning game. My first thought was jealousy (I'm writing my own game and I want the programmer and artist). Then came the first animation and I was disappointed. However, that got better as the game went on and the animations became a lot better. This game is a story, with sex. If you don't like a linear story then you might not like this game. As far as writing and graphic, this is probably the best VN I have played. It's a well-written story and visually pleasing. The only thing I would say is to go back and fix the first few sex scenes to be as good as the rest of them. I am looking forward to more updates.

Wow wow wow! Play play you must play! Writing is top notch along with real life like characters. Renders are nice too. There's a lot of humor along with references to movies and such if you are into that. You will really enjoy it trust me. Goodluck to the dev and can't for new chapter(s) ❤

The review contains spoilers!

The only good thing I can say about this game is the graphics.
The story is boring, already during the prologue a red light went on for me.
The girls are boring and predictable, there are only two li in the game, one is in a lesbian relationship(Dev seems to know that he fucked up here because later he tries to undo it) and the other enters the game as if on assignment to meet the protagonist and it is not clear what her goals are(on top of that she want to enter in lesbian rel later xD), so both are red flags at the start, the side girls are uninteresting and in a stupid way trying to seduce the MC.
Variables are unclear, I played a solo game and died, probably because with a boorish Asian girl I didn't want to train, hard to tell because the variables are called bolo(number)
Protagonist - it's hard to like him, he shoots a furball because he loves his sister and runs away from home, he has sex with the wife of a guy who treats him like a son, he has sex with his sister's partner, he has sex with a newly met girl and she records it, well retard and on top of that he writes a diary and leaves it on his desk in an open room, let everyone read xDDDDDDDD.


I don't even want to dwell on this production, a very boring story with no interesting girls, the first game ever where i reject all the girls along the way.

English: 10
User Interface: 8
User Experience: 6
Art: 9
Dialogue: 4
Story: 7
Opinion: 5
------------------------------
Avg: 7.0/10

I think I started a review of this the last time I played it, but for whatever reason gave up on it. And if I remember right there's an ENTIRE MIDDLE SECTION that just does not matter. (I'm starting this before playing again.) Where MC just lives at a ski lodge and has an affair with the wife, and/or daughter, because... They had a couple conversations? And it provides context for MC getting nudes intermittently. MC is a barely atypical Gary-Stu where his only quality is quippy-ness and "I traveled a lot." And none of the LI's are at all interesting beyond some backstories that are better than most of the garbage on this site. They all kinda act special needs (never mind the ACTUAL autistic girl later on) And another issue is the start. Listening to MC go on about the false troubles he's had up until this point, pretending there's even a chance that there's some negative ending to an AVN is laughable at best. And all the dialogue spouted here by MC is a bunch of fluffy cliches you hear everywhere, trying to sound profound. Which, if you've watched anything in the last 10 years, since writing has all gotten kinds of samey, you know exactly what I mean. Either way, I do want to say, this is better than most of the shovelware on this site.

Like I said, this starts with MC telling his story for no discernable reason... Going into a flashback about how his mom met his step-dad. And you get to watch a cringey, barebones, rom-com play out. Sarah, MC's mom, mentally notes to not bother with a marketing asshat that thinks he's charming, then falls in love immediately... Cool. And it goes on forever. All to try to paint a backstory to garner empathy toward MC and Jaye's tense relationship. Tense, mind you, only because they're step-siblings that became attracted to each other and pushed each other away to fight the stirring in their loins. Truly, the next Romeo n Juliet. Snark aside, I will double down and say the intro is weak. And all for it to take a turn to YET ANOTHER CORPORATE ESPIONAGE STORY. I can't tell you how bored I am of "I'm so rich, and OTHER big business wants to stop it now that parents are dead." The theme is dead, beat another horse, will ya? Back to the narration by MC, he's telling all of this to the dad's best friend, THAT WAS THERE FOR 80% OF IT. He knew all this. Why tell him? With ham-fisted references and fourth wall breaks too, it's grating.

And it kinda devolves from there, less rom-com, more trashy soap opera with the cloning and stuff. Between the time MC finally makes up with Jaye and the end of content, NOTHING important, story-wise, happens outside of the VERY END. You learn Mallory is the clone of MC's mother, there's a miracle drug that was created, Jaye's ex is working to steal company secrets, and MC "trains" to take over the company, and Jaye is ACTUALLY MC's half-sister. Everything else reads like a casual encounters or missed connections ad on craigslist. "What I really wanted to say, was written in my cheesy diary." I will say the writing is, at times, personable. But so much just ends up as references meant to be relatable or worse, jokes. References will never be funny and always feel cheap, especially when every other line is some nod to a movie, book, or show. And The characters lose a lot of quality once any sex is involved. Suddenly they're these innocent pure maidens that have never even heard the word penis before. It all meanders and skips a bunch of time saying "So much happened, and BOY you shoulda been there, but we didn't write that so you get a half assed journal entry about things that happened and you still won't learn about anything until later."

For me, this just barely hits the 4 stars (3.5 rounded up) And It's almost refreshing after the slew of shovelware, boring, broken English, zero effort, nonsensical garbage "games" I've gone through on this siteas of late. The English, in this case the spelling, grammar, wording etc. Is good, I don't even remember spelling mistakes and the dialogue never felt robotic. The UI is very much custom, but somehow it felt clunky. It would freeze up and more than a few of the buttons somehow didn't interact with the mouse correctly? It's odd, but the UX suffered for it, the game full on crashed for me for an unknown reason as I didn't even get a traceback. (During the scene with Rikki at the lake if it helps) Anyway, the art is great, the faces never look dead and the expressions actually express. Imagine that. But most of the animations are noticeably lower quality than the CGs so the quality change is almost jarring. I hate the dialogue. "Reference, reference, cliche, reference. Emotional moment. Reference, cliched writing. Story information. Reference." That is hands down the weakest part of this. The story is kinda interesting. It's not ground-breaking and incest literally does nothing for me, but I'm interested in seeing how it plays out if nothing else.

Graphically, aesthetically the game is well done. The developers tried to make a cover, packaging, and also thought out a positive-negative system, and that's where the pluses end.
The game is boring. Just boring. The variability is minimal. The history is not interesting. The characters and their reactions are flat and predictable.
Developers have great potential. In my opinion, there was not enough creativity, courage in ideas - the product was made within the framework, stuffed into a Procrustean bed. Sad.

This game is a soft 4. More like a 3.5 than a solid 4 but definitely not a 3. Can't say it's average and mostly it's a good game. I enjoyed and and the game kept me wanting to play and see the story through, which is a good quality but it's not without faults.

Firstly the humor will be hit or miss. The game and dialogue are LOADED with media and pop culture references, meme references, and other products and games even other VN characters will pop up in this game. The first few times are kinda cool, but playing it all through kinda breaks immersion after awhile as it just pulls you out. Idk I'm not really the kinda person to just meme all day so sometimes the humor just wasn't for me.

The characters are good and interesting and the story is pretty good. You're kinda a Gary Stu who every girl you meet wants to fuck you or is interested in you in some way or another but it's not as overbearing as some other instances. This MC is not insufferable and he does have chinks in his armor.

When the game is focused and taking itself serious is when it's at its best in my opinion. When it's just being goofy and memeing between the characters I could take it or leave it but that's just me. The LI's are pretty good in this game and a bit contrasting in personality. I don't think they're like all time greats or anything like that but they're serviceable for the story and it's need.

The attention to detail the dev put in the game is good. Spelling and grammar areas are VERY few and far between and the game is quite polished. If there were errors there weren't enough for me to remember them and they weren't as glaring as to break me out of immersion. A lot of effort went into this game and you can tell which is also what helped with its high score.

The game is incest based but not so much as to know if it wants to be full on incest or incidental incest and it tries to toe the line between them both and give reasons as to why this situation is acceptable and different. I know different markets have different rules on the taboo but I both commend the dev for how he handled it but also wish this game would just pick its lane and drive firmly in it. All the circling around gets kinda off puting at times but it's believable enough and is not just there so the game can be accepted by this market or another, it's a part of the story.

Scenes are decent enough. Not too much animation until the later ones and even then maybe like a position or two of animation. Not life changing or anything but it's okay. This game seems more like it leans more toward story and relationship building than it does fap material anyway.

All in all a good game, worth the play if you're into stories and building relationships, character development, and all that good stuff. If you're looking for quick sex, a god mode MC and getting sex scenes every few minutes this game isn't it. It's a well done story game with humor elements that may make or break it for you and characters that might do the same, but the game has a lot of care and heart put into it. 3.5/5 to me but too good to get a 3 so I have to give it a soft 4. Definitely worth a read.

This one went from being my preferred to I won't even downloading it.
It had a story that picked my interest and that is so rare that I was wow.
Renders are top notch.
After 3/4 updates it started introducing more and more woman just like most of the other titles that I had 0 interest in interacting with.
This one and almost ALL devs make their tittles/stories too long mostly by introducing new woman that want to fuck the MC from the moment they meet. Many here are fine with this kind of... fiction, I prefer more focusing on realiy. It's cheap and unnecessary and a waste of good and decent stories but that's my opinion.

v0.8a

Thanks and the best of luck.

Great Storyline -up to this point and probably from a writing standpoint the best quality in a Visual Novel for a long time,
Renders and Scenes - are top notch with outstanding quality
Normaly in VNs im sure witch Character im romancing but this game made it so damn hard and had to do several routes

v0.8

Wow, this game has it all. Story, rendering, and music are all carefully crafted into each scene with such finesse, I dare say it's perfect.
I could feel the dev really cares about this game.

Pros
- Story is very engaging. No stalling for content. Not too slow not too fast.
- Relatable reactions by MC(No cringe or WTF? moments)
- Beautiful girls. Even passer by waitresses are stunning.
- References. Very well placed and funny
- The music perfectly catches the scene's context and emotion
- Facial expressions. One of the best. I can FEEL their emotions.

Cons(sorta)
- Wish I could understand all the medical references.
- How am I going to fill the void when this ends?

V0.8

i am sure it has all already been mentioned and i can only reaffirm the justified praise of others.

though i do not rate this above or equal to leap of faith, i do consider it 2nd best just by the pacing alone. the sex scenes are better, with the developer/s showing sure signs of a deep understanding of the moment (see Jaye's hand placements during a scene in chapter 7) and able to animate the very real intensity of desire and arousal in a way many of us will no doubt see as obvious.
yet so many devs miss hand placement and body movement during scenes and turn described desire into mere fucking.

whereas L.O.F feels like a rollercoaster to experience, short but emotionally charged, this one seems more like having the day of days to remember. having the same experience but less intense and spread over a longer period.

i guess the real dividing line here is with the humour as this has only managed to make me chuckle instead of belly laugh, and that's a good thing.
i may favour the rollercoaster but, as this one is still developing, just as i described above, i suspect that chasing sunsets will be the memory we fondly trigger in future when talking/thinking top VN's.

One of the best games on this site . Has it all, story, writing and renders.

Pros
- Latest lewd scenes with Jaye is off THE HOOK.
- Best renders on this site
- Hottest cast of girls in any game
- Best looking MC - no homo
- Story is engaging
- Funny banter between characters
- Great looking UI
- Good replayability
- Quality developers

Negatives
- Animations are good, but do not have the same texture as the images.