VN - Ren'Py - College Kings [Act 2 v5.3.0] [Undergrad Steve]

First thing first.

Developer listens to feedback and not only takes it into account, he fucking goes back and fixes shit. No "ey that's how I want this to go so fuck your choices". That's invaluable and merits taking my time to point this out

Besides that you have beautiful renders, enjoyable characters, good enough writing (Once you know mauling in MMA has a particular meaning ) that would make the game a solid 4 (real 4, not inflated 4). Having the dev listen to feedback? Can i give this a 6?

To do this review I made all the possible choices in the game and re-played it twice (version 0.7)

The game is good, but it is not perfect, version 0.7 had some bugs within the mechanics of the cell phone present in the game, some scenes and dialogs bothered me because they did not match the route taken by the protagonist in the game, for example: in a certain part my protagonist joined the Wolves, but scenes after they had just shown him with the only one in the group, they already show him without and talking about things that suggested that that later scene was out of order and at that moment he was not yet part of the Wolves or Ape's fraternity. Choices have greater consequences than in most other games and this is a positive factor, but what breaks the immersion is that regardless of what you do, some events with the girls, even when you don't date, are immutable in situations that maybe it shouldn't happen in a normal situation, another positive point is that all the characters are well developed, as well as the fraternities, the difference between the two is very clear and this really generates expectations of what is to come.

Below are my grades for each category, where 10 is the highest grade:

Graphics: 10;
History: 9.5;
Plot: 9;
Character development: 10;
Animations: 9.5;

Verdict: It is worth playing and this project has a lot of potential, it just depends on the developer to improve it more and more.

(Note: I do not speak English fluently, so perhaps the text has some connotation errors.)

Edit: Game version 9.1.1

This game regressed a lot, before it was very polished, but now the console that represents the phone is full of bugs, bugs of the type that prevent its progression in history ... I'm a guy who always likes to test all the possibilities of history, on the route in which you gain loyal status, join the Wolfs and are faithful to dating Loren, when you get more or less in the middle of the game, you can’t advance in the story anymore, because you depend on the cell phone for that and the game phone goes into an infinite loop, always giving you the same actions and this happens again on other routes, the developer released a patch to fix bugs that didn’t solve anything, all the bugs are still there.

Verdict: Cyberpunk 2077 optimization.

Edit: version 12.1.1 of the game:

They started fixing the bugs that came from version 8.1 and wouldn't let you play, the bugs the game has is interface, they don't affect the gameplay. The start of bug fixing is a positive point. The girls became more developed in terms of history, in this update Nora was the main girl ... But that's still a harem and in a way you're the sultan of it, it remains to wait for the bugs to be fixed and for more content to be added.

Verdict: It's playable and worth a look.

This game has so much potential and if you like something like this you won't regret. Graphics, stories, features are good. It sill under development, but this has everything to be great.
And don't forget, if you can support the creator, do it!

Thank you and have a great day!!!

-- original review --
TL;DR This game tries to be a college drama, but it actually feels like high school drama. Teens acting like dumb teens. Its like fiction written by 16 years old teen.

Story: 0/5
- I have serious issues with story. There are huge plot holes and things that dont make any sense.
- Especially depiction of college life is wrong. It feels like author has no clue about real college life and he "studied" it by watching (bad) teenage TV shows or by playing (porn) games. Majority of characters suffer from childish behaviour.
For example huge part of interaction between characters is about gossips. Girls are like "she said bla bla bla" or "She said I have nice jeans. That bitch!". Male characters dont avoid gossiping either. Even MC goes there with "Ryan said that Grayson said that Chloe is playing me". So much TEEN DRAMA!
- Once you notice the discepancy it will keep hitting you. Guys bumping shoulders into somebody they dont like. High school all over again.
- Another teen thing is the way it depicts violence. Small verbal insult has to be answered with a fist? Sororities centered around fight clubs? College chicks going crazy about guys beating people? Sorry, but college girls are usually more mature.
- Especially huge nonsense was the fact, that game mentions one (bad) guy that had GOUGED OUT opponent's eyes during fight! And how did it end? That guy was only kicked out from sorority and he is still going around and beating people up. No police or college staff wondering about a student without eyes. HAHAHA. Like I have said "fiction written by 16y old teen".

Art: 5/5
+ Majority of girls are hot.
- Unfortunately there isnt much content at this point. Only 1 sex scene (plus one dream, but that doesnt really count)

Gameplay: 3/5
+ Its typical visual novel with choices.
- Unfortunately choices dont matter at all. Even though you refused to do something the game will force you to do it.
- Also User Interface has some amateurish stuff. (buttons to jump to different part during linear sex scene feels weird. Or you can only check your stats when you receive sms because mobile phone button disapears during playing, etc.)

To sum it up:
If you like stupid teen drama, then you might enjoy this. Otherwise this might feel dumb.
Also game is in early development, so there isnt much to see at this point.

-- edit after few updates --
Author of the game had reacted to critics and promised to change some parts of the game. Eye gouging should be changed to eye poking. Some useless game choices should be changed.
Since author is trying to improve his game, then I am raising my original review by 1 star.

-- edit after even more updates --
This game turned into total mess. Author simply doesnt care about original storyline and keep adding random stuff. You will think that there is an important decision in front of you, but it will ultimately dont matter, because 10 minutes later the game will turn the switch and it will go into an unexpected direction.
Its especially annoying in case of girls (LI). You are presented with the choices who you want to date and how do you want to treat the girl. Then the girl will become your girlfriend... but it ultimately doesnt mattter, because 10 minutes later the girl will disappear from game and MC acts like nothing is wrong and tries to secude new girls. Thats just so dumb.

The game doesnt even work as a source of cheap fap, because there is really lot of (dumb) talking between characters. You have to suffer through a lot of dumb interactions.

I seriously dislike this game. I reduce my review to 2 stars.

I've recently finished College Kings 2 Act 1 v0.9.1s, so I figured it's time to update my review as well. Fair warning though, there will be some unavoidable spoilers.

Let's start with gameplay features. For the most part, they aren't exactly unique in this college porn game subgenre and frankly, being serviceable and properly integrated for narrative purposes is already good enough, with some fun and creative uses sprinkled in there. Features like smooth combat animation don't exactly take priority over good storytelling. The one feature that really stands out was the campaign system, which was introduced late in Season 1, but still good for playing different routes. The free-roam sections could be a pain at times, but that's not really worth elaborating upon. However, if you're a save-scumming player like me, you'd find yourself encountering exceptions and weird-looking saves while playing College King Season 1. Fortunately, the developers pretty much said "fuck it, let us help you skip to the fun bits you want to play" and introduced a path builder, especially useful for those who want to start a new route late into Season 1.

With the boring stuff out of the way, let's talk about the story. The premise is simple: Enrol in a college, join one of two frats based on your aesthetic preferences, fight in a frat brawl and in the process, make friends, enemies and love. The frats in question are Wolves - a combination of nicer frat bro stereotypes like brotherhood and stuff - and Apes - basically the Sith to the Wolves' Jedi. While your choice could affect some details of the story, joining either of the frats doesn't necessarily require any Dark Side points or anything. For instance, I once played a nobler Ape whose niceness was noted by numerous characters to be out of place, and I got to fuck Nora. I've also played a pretty decent Wolf who was a really good friend (for the most part) and doesn't really sleep around that much, and I got to fuck Nora.

This brings us to the characters. I have a confession to make: I deliberately avoided sex with numerous characters because I didn't like their appearances (and one of them is the ex-girlfriend), so we'll have to focus on the ones I actually courted. First comes Aubrey, a noncommittal long-term booty call whose emotional scars are covered by her cool, party-girl side. She's not available for any serious relationship until late into Season 1, so don't rush things with her and just focus on chipping away her emotional defenses. In fact, you can't really rush things with any of the girls in-game.

Now let's move on to Chloe, the poster girl who initially appeared to be the pretty president of the sorority. However, a conversation with her rival Nora made it clear to me that there might be a nastier personality under Chloe's looks, while her unwillingness to do much with her position didn't exactly help her case. Then Chloe revealed why the position was so important to her and all of that kind of made sense, and if you encouraged Lindsey to campaign against her, you might even have some mixed feelings. I would know, since I was dating Chloe in all but name while conspiring against her.

Finally, let's talk about Nora. Unlike the other main girls, Nora was first introduced as the long-time girlfriend to the Wolves' president, so you couldn't start courting her right off the bat. However, it was soon clear that through no true fault on either side, there was serious trouble in paradise, and you might have a chance to profit on her vulnerabilities. She's actually a pretty nice girl with the looks and personality that made me ponder starting a serious relationship with her. So I did, in both my playthroughs, and all that buildup was worth it.

All in all, this is a good game with at least serviceable gameplay features, a surprisingly engaging story with sympathetic characters. While some polishing would be appreciated, I am more interested in seeing the story continue with the same, if not higher quality it already has.

The game draws immediate comparisons to another college based visual novel game, primarily because both games have a focus on college frats as their central conceit. But that is pretty much as far as similarities go, and it's not usual to see different games explore the same set-up. (See for example, the dozens upon dozens of games feature a young male PC, his single mom and two hot sisters.)

Overall, this game is pretty good. It's polished, and bug free in my fresh play through of 0.4. Character models look decent and custom UI elements and mini games all seem to work as expected.

The writing is serviceable, but nothing spectacular. There's definitely an issue of a lot of the female characters not really showing too much of their personality traits, and end up blending together.

Other people have mentioned that choices don't matter, but that's not exactly true. There are absolutely choices that do matter, in particular you making decisions that can end or cut short your potential romance to different girls. What there is though is a fairly on rails main plot line that you can't deviate from, and that's the part that rubs people the wrong way.

I think the one star rating below me is unnecessarily harsh. This is a good game about the college experience. Not as good as the game we're not allowed to mention, but then again what is?

The renders are excellent and dialogue is decent. I like the three pronged personality system, and I hope the game gives you different outcomes based on those choices you make because as of now, your choices don't really matter that much. One thing there has been zero focus on so far are the classes themselves, which matters because most of your time at college will be in classes. I like the other girls more than Chloe so far, but given the story focus on Chloe, I'm not sure why sneaking into the gym at night to play Volleyball is somehow more meaningful than a simple conversation in the dorms. I also don't understand the obsession with fighting. Like why is this important to the school? And you'd think that faculty and staff would moderate this kind of behaviour. The fighting system is impressive but overly complex so i know I'll set it up for auto-win.

All in all though, there are a lot of good looking girls to pursue, the story isn't cringe-worthy and the English is good. These factors alone warrant four stars.

A side note: I mentioned this in a comment before. If the story is insistent on side stories with Julia (mom? step mom? Adopted mom? It's unclear), then you might as well make her a romanceable character. Slap an incest-patch on that and call it a day

0.52 - This has the potential to become a great game as there is some beautiful models, some great renders, a enjoyable setting/story idea, updates are consistent and the developer is actively trying to improve. The programming has improved as I had 2 complete playthroughs with no errors/problems. The story as a whole seems to move at a much more reasonable pace now than previous updates and there is obvious improvement to the choices. There are some writing issues but nothing terrible.

Version 0.4

Graphics 4/5
Story 3/5
UI and Gameplay 5/5

I can't wait for the next version!
It looks very promising, at a graphic level the renders look good and the characters are nice, although I have the feeling that they all look alike. The story is not yet very developed but it points to good manners, a story of the university, with fraternities, fights and all those clichés.

It has its own character in spite of the similarities in the theme of the story, I liked it.

It's worth playing it and if you like to support it so that we have more of it.

Well the game is polished and the renders are good so is the animation. The game lacks is in the story dept. And the update kind like i prefer the episode style of update instead of event kind so it gives the develper the time he needs and the playerbase the content also it helps to manage time for his own so a episode kind of approach would help the dev tooo
For the game, characters somewhat lack some detail like ryan was a Ape guy and imre was a wolve we are friends with both of them but ryan didnt pick our side maybe cause of my choice but he should have picked our side imo. So i conclude my thoughts here
Story 4.7/5
Renders 5/5
Characters 4.6/5
Animations 5/5
Gameplay 5/5
Overall 5 stars for the time and efforts

A first I loved it, now it's the worst game I ever played seriously to pass from 5 star to one you are a genius in destroying a game.
I hoped you will listen to your Patreon and correct the shit you have made with bug and inconsistency but more I try more the game disappoint me.
Seriously courrect it or drop it, but don't let it suffer like this

Was a masterpiece early on, as time goes this game went downhill real bad. Shown a lot of promise early and now it is a big disappointment at least to me.

I don't know what is happening behind the scene and if there are any personnel changes but if this the same line up then i am surprise this could went as bad as it is right now

great game so far cant for future updates great overall concept so far. maybe in the future f the game there can be new characters introduced and maybe even wilder scenarios for the main character and hopefully the develpoer can continue games like these in the future overall 5 star rating so far reminds of another game just like this they are both great

Review of 0.2.3

Pros:
1) unique (AFAIK) 3-axis morality system, really promising. Might lead to many more branching paths than most games.

2) Love interests are hot, currently kind of vanilla (diferent flavors of white girl) but room for expansion and a developer specifically promising more options in coming updates.

3) animations are nothing to write home about just yet, short with low frames - - - will change this section after playing 0.3 update .

4) developer update schedule is apparently very active. 1 month from initial release to 0.3 is nothing to sneeze at.

Cons:
1) Early development will show itself in the length and depth (As of 0.2.3)

2) Still early in plot profession so might still veer away from "two frats don't like each other/ slice of college life" plot that 0.2.3 makes it seem like is coming. On the other hand there's a lot (lot) of worse games to be compared to.

Developer (b/c) i know you're active af on here: lean all the way into the 3 morality axis as soon as you can.

The VN has alot of great stuff going for it. First of all amazing renders and models with different variation in faces and looks. Second the dialogue and banter is great and reminds of the good old days of romantic comadies like 10 things I hate about you. Dialague is sharp and flows naturelly and does not have endless exposition. Third the game is taking a realistic approach to relationships, while at the same time acknowledging that it is an adult VN first and foremost, so it will not be a mindless rump where you fuck every girl until you get bored. There will be consquences for your actions and you will need multiple playthroughts to see all branching paths.

so far i love the game. the story and the characters are interesting. the render are beautiful. the fighting minigame has a good concept. love it. but the MC looks kinda like a kid but maybe after training for the fight the MC buff up a little bit? i dont know. overall awesome and cant wait for the next update.

0.1.1 Review

I really enjoyed playing this game. Took me around 30 minutes to play through, so while there is a decent amount of content there is not a ton which is understandable for a first version.

Firstly, I enjoyed the render quality. It looks clean and I liked that some of the scenes had animations. The models look good and so does the scenery. Some of the indoor scenes and also outdoors feel a little overexposed on the characters though. Another critic is that some places look a little empty, for example, the hallways which are usually more crowded in a school.

Secondly, the story is nice. I like the theme and also what the story is trying to do. It really has great potential of opening up and becoming really interesting. I especially like the rivalry between the two main frats.

Thirdly, the music is good. I like it and it fits the theme of the game very well.

Some other things I'd like to comment on. The UI is interesting, on one hand, I like the in "in-game" UI with the buttons and phone. Although I find the main menu UI a little too confusing for me personally.
Also, there is not much "real" sexual content with the MC in this version, which is unfortunate but understandable for a 0.1 version.
Some transitions between scenes are a little too harsh, so to smooth them out would improve the immersion, with either doing "20 minutes later" or have the screen going black, but preferably something more creative than that

So to summarize:
I enjoyed this first version and it's a solid start with only a few minor issues.

+ Good render
+ Nice characters
+ Interesting story
+ Solid Music

* More choices for the player would've been nice.
* UI is both good and bad

A solid 9/10!

I really enjoyed this game and will definitely come back for the next version!

0.2.1 EDIT: UI is improved and is no longer a problem!

Awesome Experience. Very good Storyline with good plot development and character development. This gives a very immersive experience. It is not for those who just want to fap. This is an immersive experience which can be enjoyed even without the explicit content.