VN - Ren'Py - College Kings [Act 1 v1.4.18] [Undergrad Steve]

This game has great renders, flexibility when it comes to path taken, reasonable consequences but still cheating/harem possible. MC can be a man-slut or committed, and game plays well.

Sandbox scenes are a bit more than I like but well done in general.

Love that the MC can basically be a pacifist or fight club enthusiast, double agent, etc without breaking the game. Can be an honest playboy, still developing love over time, or can be a dishonest cheat.

Interested to see if the implied incestuous relationship will ever happen

Review as of version 12.1.1.

This is a tough one to review. Each positive seems to have a corresponding negative. For example, the story is pretty consistent with a real-life freshman's first-year-of-college experience. That is, it feels "real," as much as a game of this type can. There is a lot of witty banter, characters looking for fun stuff to do because they're bored, and the biggest drama is interpersonal issues between individuals. The downside to this is that there is no real plot. Stuff just happens. That's not necessarily bad, but it means I'm hardly on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happens next.

Even with such a simple story, there are a handful of inconsistencies. (SPOILER AHEAD) For example, after the MC's first big fight, depending on how you've been interacting with Lindsey, she may be flirting heavily with you. In my playthrough she was essentially promising to fuck the MC after the fight, especially if he won. My MC was very excited about the idea. But after I won the fight, I suddenly appear back in my dorm room, chat with my frat bros, text with Riley, and that's it. There is no mention of Lindsey, no looking for her after the fight, nothing.

There seem to be a lot of different choices, providing good replayability. Some people don't want to have to play more than once to unlock all the lewd scenes, but I enjoy branching stories when they're compelling. To be compelling, it helps when there are characters that you really want to get to know better, not just see naked. "College Kings" offers glimpses of that. For example, I find the Nora character interesting and her being unavailable (for most of the game) makes her more desirable, in my view.

The renders and animations are pretty good. Not great, but good enough. Every lewd scene is animated, which I like. At the same time, the lewd scenes are mildly disappointing. The women have very similar body shapes, with few exceptions, so there is not as much variety as you would think, given how many women there are. Worst of all, there are no virtually no cumshots. The MC creampies most of the women he has sex with, but we almost never see semen actually shoot out of his cock. Only once or twice do we see the actual creampie, too. Most of the time, the game animation goes from showing thrust-thrust-thrust straight to cuddling or getting dressed. Maybe these developers don't like cumshots? In any event, it's an unusual omission in a porn game.

The dialogue is generally witty and enjoyable to read. Again, there is no real plot to speak of, but the MC is charming and the other characters seem likeable enough.

One thing this game has going for it is its relatively rapid development schedule. Seems I just saw this game come out and it's already this far along. Offering the game for free initially on Steam to get people hooked was a smart move...but the quality needs to be maintained for people to feel good about paying for subsequent chapters.

I would urge the devs to slow down a bit and tweak the game a bit more before each release. Try and get an outside playtester or two to offer frank feedback. Also, as a side note, when Mr. Lee told his students in the London museum that "scientists" and historians have debated for hundreds of years whether dinosaurs are real, I almost spat out my coffee. It's true that early on, when the first bones were discovered, that there was some debate about what they were, but that debate is long concluded. Anyone still claiming today that dinosaurs are fake is certainly no scientist or historian.

Final verdict: 3.5, which I will generously round up to 4, out of 5 for now. Depending on how the story and everything else continues to evolve, I could see this becoming a full 4 or even higher.

To be honest i don't have a lot of experience playing those game and i don't know how difficult it is to produce one. But even with the few games i played that have much more terrible graphic or animation i'm still enjoying playing them not like this one.

Why ? because at least they've got a good plot and the dialogues make senses, this game started to be quite interesting but since the first update the game only went down. And now i don't want to play it anymore.

I think that the game doesn't need better graphics (maybe better animation but i'm fine with what we have ) but a better plot and dialogues ( those are horrible).

Game's great, like the story, girls. It would have been be better if there were any hints on which trait is better for a specific girl. Best of luck to the dev. Also liked the idea of picking the frat. But I don't like that MC looks like a kid. Animations are mediocre, but in the latest update I kinda liked them

Why is it so big? And not in a good way. Just a pale imitation of it's former self. Mini-games went from frustrating to unplayable. Half the girls have the same model with slight variations, and they seem to be getting uglier for some reason? Pick a path with a girl, and prepare to be nuked into the Friendzone, or just straight up rejected, for no apparent reason. Story went from mildly entertaining, if a bit generic, to a giant mess that doesn't even make sense anymore. This game is dead, it just doesn't know it yet. Time to start over from scratch. The bait and switch this game pulled on Steam was pretty epic though, not gonna lie.

Terrible game, that seems to be created to piss off the players. Girls that at the beginning of the game seems to be in love with the MC, suddenly become lesbian and don't care about the MC anymore and even seem to try to humiliate him, the MC telling girls that want to have a serious relationship only to be rejected no matter what, scenes and situations that seem to lead to something juicy, that end up in nothing, uninteresting and weird dialogues and situations, unplayable minigames, choices that doesn't matter at all, random changes in the personality of the MC...

Don't be fooled by the beginning of the game. At first the game is OK (that's the reason it has good reviews for the first updates) because was written by a writer that is no more into this project. Now the writer is another one, and the game is just a waste of time. The only good thing is the 3D models of the girls.

Review for College Kings [v11.0.1]

Contains Minor Spoilers

I’m not mad, just disappointed. That’s the best way I can summarize this review. There was so much wasted potential that was bogged down by lack of direction. Before I list all the things I disliked let me tell you what I did like.

The character designs are great. Not the most original but neither are most humans, we can always find people who look close to us. The renders are great as well, but definitely not worth the flipping file size.

Now this negative portion of the review actually has a lot of initial positives that I enjoyed but that later were either forgotten, discarded, or just plain don’t make sense. For brevity’s sake I will only mention my three biggest issues, starting with the combat. For a game that is heavily focused on combat there really isn’t much of it. I actually spent time learning the mechanics thinking I was going to be using them often but in reality, all I did was beat up two nobodies that made no difference. And the frats, forget about them, the developers sure did.

There are a ton of women and paths and stuff to do yay! Except as the adage goes, “Wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle”. None of the women have any memorable dialogue, nor is there a clear progression. You have sex randomly with one girl but with another it feels like you did everything right, but it leads to nothing. And that’s an overarching issue, your choices don’t mean jack shit, except for random times when it changes your personality with no clear mention as to why. You put your socks on before your pants? You’re Loyal. But you put on your right shoe first? Confident!

Lastly, file size. I already mentioned it, but I want to say it in a way that will show you how ridiculous this is. GTA IV is 22GB. College Kings is 17.4GB.

Updates full of bugs. Can't play for 10 seconds without getting an error message. Not sure if the developer tests the updates before releasing them.. Also Having to download 12gb of updates for a little content is not okay.

Nope!

This game is absolutely horrible. The branching is a total disaster. The writing is atrocious. Characters suddenly disappear for no reason. Suddenly they completely change their attitude towards you. Nothing makes sense.
That is if the game is working which most of the time it isn't because this thing has more bugs than any other game I have played on F95.

I am as confused as I am angry and I want the time I wasted playing this back. Do yourself a favor and don't download this.

drags out for too long with a lot of dialogue that does not really go anywhere. You hardly get into any lewd scenes a lot.

Kind of feels pointless too to go after one or any of the girls.

I assume this game i still a work in progress as the story seems to be cut after some sort of party thing.

Renders are alright. And that's why two stars.
The game just makes no sense whatsoever. First try I somehow end up in full blown relationship after just one date. Right at the start of the game.
Second try I completely ignore the girl from the first attempt. Go for a few other ones. Start dating some girl cause she seems fun. Other girls just drop off the map instantly. Then I am suddenly screwing one of them (no choice was given) right in front of what I thought was my GF. Then they both just vanish from the game. Some other girls appear out of nowhere and I am suddenly the college hunk.
I am utterly lost. Some girl calls me up out of nowhere and suddenly I am the only one that can help her.
What in the hell is going on with and in this game?

OK, here's what I believe to be a pretty fair review. This game is far from a 5 star but also not a 1 star - I think a lot of people are let down because of the game's potential/comparisons to other games of similar nature. 2.5/5

tl;dr - had potential, poorly executed. Characters aren't special and you don't feel like you have direction as you're playing, but you can get some decent fap scenes out of it.

The good:

• The characters actually look like college students. Sounds basic right, but there are some games out there where the "students" look like grown milfs, or just aren't attractive
• Character models are solid and unique - not really seeing the same recycled assets of other games
• Some good ideas for story/gameplay elements
• There are some genuinely fappable scenes, and the scene quality has improved a lot over time towards more fluid animations

The meh:

• I don't mind the free roam periods but sometimes they feel unnecessary
• Fighting was supposed to be a big gameplay element but I don't see it too often, and when it does come I feel like it's a nuisance so I end up skipping. It's kinda clunky, there's no real progression/skill development in it so I don't care for it
• MC is....sigh. I mean it's fine, it's a porn game, it's whatever. He is kinda femboy ish, and it's the case of just the worst kind of MC - where you both don't really shape his personality with your choices, and also the given personality is just bland.

The bad:

• The story is just a mess. It feels like there are so many routes and yet there's also none at all. What would've happened if I joined the other frat? I have no idea and it's just too much of a mess for me to want to explore that. I have no sense of routes or what i'm doing
• Along with that, some of the choices feel like they're important in the moment and end up not really having any impact. And on the other hand, the choices that affect your affinity - you have no idea why or how they do. For my playthrough I wanted the popular route and tried to do choices for that and instead somehow ended up on loyal and now i'm just stuck there. And based on the choices I would select I have no idea how I ended up on loyal, would revert and try different things and still end up on loyal. But even if i'm loyal I still just go around sleeping with everyone I can, so it doesn't seem to matter
• Uninteresting dialogue leads to uninteresting characters. In porn games you like to view characters as goals that you progress in; this one fails in that and you kind of just go through uninteresting scenes with them where you skip all the text and just go for the bottom line - what's going to get the sex scene. Everything else feels like filler. The game says here go shopping with this girl, go meet this girl at the coffee shop, blah blah, none of it's engaging.

The first few versions started looking very good.

Unfortunately, with each version the game gets buggier. It is like if saving at the end of the current contain is totally pointless because the next patch is going to break the save anyway.

I wouldn’t mind too much if the issue were only technical, however the scenario is also getting worse from one episode to the next one. The plot started by being about the rivalry between 2 fighting fraternity and with the choice between joining one or the other. Which is something that I have found original and interesting. However (as of version 11.0.1), with the last episode(s) it just feels like the developers don’t have any idea how to progress with the original plots so they just introduced a new antagonist that come from nowhere and that nearly everyone love (including the characters that were close friend with the MC) although he is constantly bashing the MC.

It just makes no sense, breaks the immersion in the game and gives the feeling that the writers have no idea of where to go with the scenario.

This game started well and it was a bit entertaining til the homecoming event, after that its just boring AF. One big problem is that because of the different paths and girls, the game feels very fractured with the constant feeling of the scenes just thrown out there, especially in later updates. Also mc looks and acts like a moron and a wimp, and many scenes feel like they are forced just to be there, no feeling and atmosphere at all.

This is my first review ever since I joined these forums, so don't hate me.
Act 1 was so good, actually had a feeling of a college, good storyline but it went downhill from there, Act 2 is all over the place, and too messy

(Haven't tried Act 3 yet)

Words fail to describe how HORRIBLE this game is, characters with no personality, generic LIs you don't pay attention to, a totally forgettable MC with no personality, your choices have 0% impact on the game's story, the sex animations are fired the worst that exist in a Visual Novel, not counting the HUNDREDS OF BUGS that the game presents,

Almost every update comes with more bugs that make The AVN hard to actually play. The storylines are all over the place and speaking as both a writer and a player, it's pretty terrible in terms of quality. The LI's have absolutely no depth to them. Their personalities were constantly changing from episode to episode. Things are brought up, only to never be spoken of again. Emily cheated, yet she faces no real consequences. Aubrey had sex with another guy right in front of The MC and his reaction was something along the lines of "damn that chick is hot". The writing is horrendous along with the ever-changing storylines. To further add to this, the pacing was not good either.

I formerly supported this developer on Patreon, but only for a short while, because he does not listen nor take the time to think about what his patrons are saying. It's frustrating when you're putting your money towards something and are totally discarded. Steve didn't listen to anyone nor show any concern towards the reviews. This is why I'm not at all surprised at the current state of The AVN. The kicker is that I was not the only one to approach him with concerns for this AVN.

Plot: 2/10 (no set plot and too many abrupt changes... tends to leave everyone confused)
Art: 6/10 (the only good thing coming out of this AVN)
Dialogue: 3/10 (it's almost as if no effort was placed here)
Characters: 2/10 (this rating is this low because the characters are not written consistently. They also have no depth to them. They don't feel realistic or as if they had any quality to them. There is no natural progression when it comes to forming relationships with the LI's. They're so inconsistent, that it makes no sense to pursue them. Why would I pursue an LI if she turns around and starts bashing me anyway the very next update? This rating is also because the dev kept saying that they were aiming for realistic LI's when they were literally the furthest thing from it.)

Overall: 4/10 (the only thing I have to say here is that I am surprised it isn't lower)

I don't say this often, but this AVN is just a waste of time. Please don't waste a few hours of your life playing this.

One problem irritates me the most in this game:
Why does the MC look like a kid ? Isn't he supposed to be 18+?

Please let me mention that I appreciate the work that the dev has invested into the overall appearance and renderings of the game.
There are also some nice looking girls who are worthy to be chased after.

This game generally gives the impression that it has great potential.

However potential is worth nothing if it is not realized.

This is my first review ever since I joined these foruns and its more of a rant than a review, but I feel I have to warn people about to start this one. Basically my feelings: You know what? I've had it with this game, I just had it. Its simply too much.

I dont know what happened since the earlier updates, but damn if this one just got literal shit at this point (v11.0.1). Its not even the storylines getting destroyed, the characters being dumber and dumber, the grammar and the writing, the constantly worse dialogue, in the same scene the MC and others characters swapping clothes, the useless render (how many times you need to see the MC go to the freaking bed!?), the billions of useless scenes that make this game be 16gb worth of nothing, the constant bugs, the unplayable fight system, the choices not being recorded properly...its the sloppyness of everything baked together to make this game into a shit cake!

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING works as it should! And it feels like Steve doesnt care at all. Shitting out beautiful renders does NOT make this a good game.

Seriously, I dont know if Steve roams here on F95 or not, but please, grab this KCT system or whatever it is, and trash it. I mean it, TRASH. IT. Its literally terrible and its making the game even worse to play than already is with the bugs and the wacky, non-sense storyline. The build up for relationships... which was the best thing about this game... is god damn awful and buggy because of it. Hell, almost everything its just so sloppy made that this game gets unbearable to play, because I am never ever sure if I am going for the right path that I am aiming or not.

Example: I mean why would you be able to choose to room with a certain character if you're not specifically on her path? Imagine being building a playthrough path with a character, do all the scenes with her, but at a certain point, your KCT changes, and because of this retarded... and I cant it enough... RETARDED SYSTEM... you get out of said path! Because of WHAT? Because I'm "Loyal"?! The fuck, that doesnt even make sense! Characters shouldn't just stop liking/have feelings towards the MC because of that! You cant tell what the characters even enjoy. You will get shot down by tons of characters if they dont "enjoy" your certain KCT... AT THE MOMENT.

HOW FUN, STEVE.

After the last couple updates I decided to give this a go again, but I am just fed up with it at this point. This one's going to the trashbin until its completed and fully fixed because otherwise, its a freaking waste of time, stomping through the spagetthi code and systems to get where you're aiming to. God this is so... unsatisfying to role-playing because everything is so buggy and messy.

Games like this make me value devs taking their time to get their heads straight and provide good, functional products. Garbage like this doesnt deserve support... and it break my heart saying it because I did enjoy College Kings in the beginning, even tho its was a carbon copy of the "one who shall not be name" (which no wonder people compare it too, because the product quality its DAY and NIGHT)... but just forget it, its not worth the hassle. Save yourself the disappointment and go waste like 8 hours on something else. Until this gets fixed, if ever. I repeat, if you plan on supporting, save your money for whom actually deserves it. If not, save your time, and play something better than doesnt mock you in the face.

This game was fun at the start. It was college themed, which wasnt bad, but the fighting aspect was nice. The characters were relatively good. But now, some of them just became frustratingly unlikeable. Just an update and all of a sudden they seem to be against you because some random character says so. Add this to all the bugs that's been showing up more and more on each update and the massive amount of file space this is taking, without a reliable download source. Come on...