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

Excellent renders. The girls are beautiful, unique and they are as of chapter 2 very interesting. I have to give props for the attention to detail. Sound effects when hovering over choices and achievements!! In a Ren'Py game. That is really cool and adds replay-ability.

There is also enormous attention to detail in the writing, but I don't feel like this is always a positive. The prologue is overly long and filled with so much exposition that I tuned out of the story a bunch of times. I love a good backstory, but too much time was spent here. The game in its current state is about 3 hours long and the majority of that time is spent setting up the two lead characters. The plot takes too long to get going and when it finally does it didn't grab my interest as much as I hoped it would.

There is a good amount of set up and some of the plot threads are interesting and could go in very cool directions, but right now the story feels like a big slog. It also feels very predictable on how the two main characters will come into conflict with each other later down line. I hope I'm proven wrong on this.

I'm also starting to be kinda burnt out on the trope in AVNs that the MC is a total messiah that every single girl falls for instantly. This is no different. The MC is almost unrealistically good looking and every girl wants to jump your dick. This is my personal opinion, but I'm not a fan of his pretty boy design. He acts like a ladies man, almost a simp, but he looks like a typical "Chad douche".

I would also love more choices in the game. They are few and far between and after testing some routes, most of them do not have any significant difference in consequences. This might change though.

The whole sister and brother taking over a billion dollar company from their parents - plot is okay, but it's risky to center a story around the corporate world. A lot of mumbo jumbo, exposition and extra dialogue is needed to properly convey to the player what is going on. It's ambitious and I have to credit the devs for trying. I just hope that this doesn't get too boring too quickly. Corporate intrigue could serve this game well, but currently I don't care about their company or the apparent antagonists. The corporate speak is already pretty jarring.

The best part about this AVN is the developing relationship between Jaye and the MC. If this particular plot thread is executed excellently I might ignore my other gripes and bump this up to 4 or even 5 stars. As of right now I will give it a 3 star rating. It's still early days, but I feel like my annoyances about different aspects and the lack of focus in the plot makes Chasing Sunsets a really mixed bag for me.

It has potential to be A tier and I will be revisiting this AVN when there is more content. I really wanted to like this game. A lot of people on this site are giving it 5 star reviews, but the current version doesn't even come close to the best AVNs on this site. Even ones with less content than CS. There is no question about the talent of the developers. I just hope they can pull it off.

[V0.3a]

If this isn't deserving of 5 stars, I don't know what is. I have 2 standards when rating VNs, broadly speaking. There are the porny fap games that just need to meet my fappability standards while having a passable plot. Then there are the more ambitious games that tries to tell an engaging story independent of the porn. Of these, I'd say the serious drama/romance types are the hardest to tackle, even though they are probably the most numerous. Drama/romance can get incredibly cringy and forced at the hands of an amateur writer, which most of these devs are. My most critical eye is reserved for games in this category because you are competing with professionals who write for traditional media, but this game blew away any reservations I might have had going in.

What stands out immediately when playing this game is the incredible attention to detail in the visuals. The render quality is top notch. The models are smoking hot (especially Tara, holy shit). That's not what I'm referring to, though. It's all in the camera angles, scene composition, framing of the scenes, dynamic movements, and most notably, the expressions. I have never seen expressions and body language tell so much in a VN before. This is visual storytelling at it's absolute prime. Nothing comes close in this regard after Primal Instinct got cancelled.

The writing is also superb. I tend to nitpick the writing in story/character driven games, and this one had very few moments that made me go "hmmm..." Grammar is excellent. The prose is excellent. The dialogues are very natural for the most part, save for some "witty" banter here and there. The plot is actually quite interesting and it ties all the characters together, but by and large, this is a character driven story. Being a drama, there are the usual "will they, won't they?" and "why can't they just talk it out!?" situations, but the plot developments make the decisions, feelings, motivations, and actions of these character quite believable.

The narrative structure is excellent. There is a pretty long prologue about the past events, but it's incorporated into the narrative, rather than making it an exposition dump. The MC meets an old family friend and talks about his life over a drink and it works rather well. There are flashbacks and past events shown throughout the game at opportune moments where it ties into the happenings at the current timeline.

The story has so much heart. If something can pull at my heartstrings, it will probably do it for almost anyone. Notably, David's story was what did it for me.

The visual storytelling, writing, and the sound/music works together to create one of the more immersive experiences you can find around here.

I haven't done too much experimenting on the choice system, but it seems like the choices make quite a difference in how characters view and behave around each other. The UI is renpy game done right. Stylish, yet functional. There is a toggle for the quick menu at the bottom and an opacity slider. There is no unnecessary animations or lag when using the right click.

All this talk about serious story and characters almost made me forget the sex scenes. It wouldn't be unreasonable for a game like this to have vanilla and pretty uninteresting scenarios for sex. That isn't the case here. It's really fucking hot. The kinky, but grounded dialogue. The renders and H scene composition. The lead up and situations presented are just amazing.

There really isn't much negative things to say about this game. It's an heartfelt coming of age story with love and loss. It's a story about finding yourself. A story about reconciliation. Give it a try. I think it could appeal to almost any type of player.

Engaging story after the inevitable "death of a parent rehash"
Absolutely great art! really beautiful!!!
A likable MC that you root for.
Intelligent, beautiful women and one stunning redhead!!
I really see this one doing great things!

★ Chef's kiss: renders and CG are some of the best I've ever seen

+ Decent writing but the story is very captivating
+ Dialogue and plot has great attention-to-detail especially when it comes to going over previous events or choices
+ Good potential for branching storylines and introducing characters
+ Title makes sense for the direction of the game; I mean come on, how many VNs have you played where the title is just 'cool and poetic words' bunched up then slapped on to the project?
+ Achievement features
+ Love/trust mechanics are very open and not mutually exclusive; you can pick one or both (or neither)

- Illusion of choice; some of MC's choices don't seem to have that much reward or consequences (as of v0.3a)
- Lack of choices; some major events should have allowed the player the freedom to pick what the MC would have done (since it was very vital to the story)
- Everyone is hot and horny for MC - but it's an adult VN so I'll let this one slide
- Realism; the narration seems to be tailored to a more realistic writing but some of the dialogue and events just aren't immersive enough to let the player think "yeah, I get why he/she did this"

Overall, this is top-tier quality given the fact that this much attention-grabbing content is already in just 2 chapters in an ambitious game made by a very small team (Patreon says there's only two of them at the time of this review).

This is the first time I give 5 stars to a game. My attention has been caught very quickly. Unlike many other highly rated games, this one has a more solid, engaging and well written story. The lack of immature digressions, that are very common in other well know games, makes this game earn even more gratification. The high quality renders are highly appreciated but even with a lower quality this game would deserve 5 stars. Keep up the good work.

Wow, just wow! I am speechless when I started the game and as I get further into it, the more amazed I am. This has to be one of the best games I have played so far!

The storyline, while slightly cliche, is very well written and there is little to no grammatical mistakes. The graphics are definitely high end, from the models to the tiny details, everything looks almost perfect.

My only gripe about the game is the Achievement system. Being the perfectionist that I am, I want to get/view everything in the game and it doesn't seem possible without a mod/guide or multiple playthroughs.

I did not like it too much.

I did not like the writing and atmosphere, I found it humorless and pretentious and full of tired tropes. The narrator gets in the way, too much tell instead of show.

I found the MC tiring and unlikeable. He is increadibly capable and cool, but also very tragic and thoughtful and angsty.
He spends a lot of time looking off screen in a forlorn way, and the LIs notice his "sad eyes" and accorgindly immediately want to fuck him.
His main way of "showing his love" for his sister is beating people up?

I found most of the LIs uninteresting and unlikeable.

Graphics are good.

The story is bad.
The central premise of the siblings never being able to tell each other their feelings because something prevents them doing so in the last second, over and over again, turns annoying and boring soon.
I found the plotholes and the weird behaviour of the MC off-putting:

Yes, the main character has the standard magical dick syndrome where beautiful women want to be impaled by his magic wand at all costs. Unrealistic? Definitely. To be expected? Definitely.

But putting that aside Chasing Sunsets has one of the best written stories and dialogs that I have seen from a visual novel in the adult category. It is well thought out and well executed. I would gladly follow this just for the story. Easily in the top 20 visual novels available currently in this genera in terms of story telling and writing.

In addition to the well written prose, Chasing Sunsets features beautifully constructed images and models. There are a few minor issues with skin appearing a bit too glossy or shiny, but overall the images are top notch. The sex scenes are also well executed, and I don't think the lack of sophisticated animations really matters, especially in the later parts of the game where sex scenes are more intertwined with the story.

Chasing Sunsets is, in my opinion, a legitimate piece of art. It is clear that Stone Fox Studios is attempting to go beyond the standard confines of the genera by offering up the best quality product that they can create on all fronts. Everything from sound effects, character creation, story, and dialog show an attempt to produce the best piece of entertainment possible for the chosen genera. And to that I say, "Bravo!"

Take for instance, the story of David. A lot of time and work went into his story. It wasn't technically necessary. They could have handled this character with prose only, but instead a lot of time and energy was spent creating David's story. It ads depth to the main story and really elevates the quality of the overall work. David exists to help tell the main character's story, but in the end these vignettes with David are interesting in their own right.

Chasing Sunsets is still in the early stages, but if Stone Fox Studio can keep up the current quality as they move forward with the story then Chasing Sunsets will turn out to be the sort of VN that others will try to copy for years to come.

The Good:
I liked the story line. It kept my attention which should say it all.
The art work was well done.

The Bad:
The only complaints I could a raise is some of the naughty scenes were too short. As well the some of the transitions screens (between chapters) seems to hang longer than they I would expect. I could not click through them.

I am playing for like two hours now. But I am speechless ... Definitely one of the best games I have ever played here. The renders are very good, like really pro. But the story, oh man, gives me shivers ... The story is really good and the main thing, making this game so brilliant, is the way they are telling the story. I really like it and looking forward to more. Thank You for a great game and best of luck.

Superb ! For once the story is narrated really well. The Visuals are strong and after some time there were the first animations kicking in, very subtle though. could be a bit more of those. the models are sooo hot. maybe one of them to much quantity wise i could live without fiona, but i am not complaining a bit as long as this continues on this level. Kudos

V.03a, Damn this is good, i don't even know how to really put it into words, Emotional roller coaster?, The Story writing, either some one has a very good imagination, or the deep emotions in this story come from the heart, I don't have a single bad thing to say about Chasing Sunsets, The personality's seem so real, it pulls you into the story, make you apart of it, Dev or Devs, whatever you are doing.. DON'T STOP!

Wow. I'm usually pretty hard on games, but this one is pretty damn good. Good story, good renders, good models....not the same old rehashed, reused models. Plus bonus points for a realistic redhead. Following this one closely. Can't wait for the next installment. If the quality keeps to this level, I'm gonna have to support the author on patreon.

I can't say I'm a fan of VNs, but the comments section convinced me to give it a try and I'm glad i didn't skip this! I played version 0.3a. The storytelling is great, I was really invested into reading through each dialog. The character development is great and the story has a natural progression, doesn't feel out of place and doesn't leave questions unanswered. The renders are amazingly good with great detail. Also H-scenes have a good number of renders per scene,so it doesn't seem rushed. Music most of the times sets the mood for the scene,at least the times that I took notice of it. Content play-through should be at around 2-3 hours if you read through everything at a normal pace. Overall its a great game if you are into this genre and definitely recommend it!

I'll start by just saying "wow".

I'm completely sucked into this VN. The story is engaging and compelling right from the start. It takes a different approach to themes and settings we're all very familiar with so it's quite refreshing.

The renders and modelling are top notch. The characters are beautiful and the scenes are well designed. It's not often that I take screenshots of a game but I have with this one.

My only complaint is that I found this now after Chapter 2 (well, 3 including the prologue) instead of when it was complete. That means I have to wait for progress rather than playing the whole thing. To help with that though I went right to Patreon after finishing and made a pledge.

The basic premise/outline of this game does not reflect how amazing it is.

Let's start with the writing.. it is the best out there. It can get lengthy but there is purpose to it, I did not labor reading through it. The storytelling quality to it, the clever going forwards and backwards in time and in POV, make this extremely easy to fall into. The general framework of this story is not that complicated, but the set-up and execution and care to detail is what does it. The story has been planned out to where there is a great twist or reveal hidden around the corner now and then. There is a tone of warm-heartedness, humor and levity, but also gravity and seriousness when needed.

The renders are excellent. Fantastic attention to detail. A lot of little things, like reaction shots and in-between shots that most games wouldn't bother with, this one does. Very easy to lose yourself in this universe.

I feel like the plot is good but again it's really the combination of the writing and the renders is what does it. Hey, it's a rich siblings with baggage and potentially sinister villains pllot, I think I've seen quite a few of these before. But it's the quality of the storytelling, renders, execution, attention to detail, that really set this apart.

And I always have this rule, any game that goes through the trouble of rendering children in a game, you know those will be good. Definitely true here, haha.

EDIT: 3 years later I completed the game in 2024. By 2024 standards, it's a good game, however the ending comes abrupt. It's certainly one of the best finished games ever, as a game in general it's worth a play. One thing that irks me is that the main 2 girls are.. so fundamentally similar. If I just read the dialogue without any context, it could be either one of the 2 girls.

The most interesting girls in the game are not the 2 main girls.. the Chef, Lisa, Amanda, are far more interesting than the 2 girls. And well, I get it, this is not meant to be an extreme VN, just high quality, light tone, well written, and it is.. so the girl were never going to be edgelords.. but yeah.

This game is really well made, has excellent art, and engaging characters. I highly recommend it, however I have one specific issue with it. The large use of people being repeatedly unwilling to just talk about issues that cause plot/drama problems (over literally the course of years in game) but would be 100% resolved if the idiots just took 20 minutes to have a conversation is exceedingly frustrating - especially at this situation keeps reoccurring in this story. I know it is one way to add tension and drama to the story, but it it can be infuriating as it happens multiple times, and makes me question the intelligence of the characters involved.

I know this won't matter to some people, but if you're like me and find yourself wanting to yell at characters in a book or movie when you're really into the story and they're doing something fucking moronic and braindead - well, consider yourself forewarned, there will be a lot of that going on here.

This is actually somewhat surprising. It's clear to see how much care is being put into the game right from the beginning, it's all in the small details, in the announcements, in the menus, etc.
The models are really good, and what surprised me the most was the story. It's quite original and took me into an emotional roller-coaster.
As of episode 3 it has about 7 hours of content, so if you want to binge it, maybe wait a couple more releases, as so far it seems like it was just a prologue of sorts.

5/5 (v 0.3 Ch. 2)
Fantastic game. Sometimes I regret getting invested in a game in early development knowing that I'm now in it for the long haul (years) ... but this one seems worth it.

Gorgeous renders and characters. Best looking MC I've seen in any game, period. A long welcomed change from creepy pervs, shotas, and extra-chromosome MCs featured in so many other games.

Excellent complementary sound-track.

Very well written, though some inconsistency in the narration (this is supposed to be MC telling a story just prior to some kind of ending where girl(s) pick him up at the bar, but there are many scenes that go into detail well beyond what should be MC's knowledge).

Characters are a bit of mixed bag so far.

Will eagerly await future installments!

Edit: Removed 2 stars, now 3/5 as of v1.01
Removed two stars due to story decisions by devs that quenched most of the lewd potential of the game for me. Everything about the production is top notch from sound to renders to interface, but you simply can't tease taboo liaisons for years without payoff and you can't artificially dead-end one of the major routes. Should have used the trust variable to affect whether the open relationship route could work instead of forcing it to fail no matter what. Shame.

Wow, I'm so glad I decided to play this after seeing the cameo in Leap of Faith. For a dev team's first foray into an adult VN, it certainly doesn't show. This felt more like I was playing a movie than a Ren'Py game. The characters' models are unique, their personalities and dialogue are organic (especially love Rikki's accent btw), and their faces actually look expressive like actual people (which is a huge immersion point for me!). I'm caught up in the story and I love that the plot doesn't fall back on tired old tropes. What I'm trying to say is: I love everything about this, and I feel compelled to give it an unironic 10/10. Keep up the amazing work.