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

College Kings was the game that got me into AVN's so maybe I have a particular soft spot for it, but after having played some of the other top tier 3D avns, I still think this game does something that other games haven't achieved. There is a volume of interaction with individual love interests that makes the relationship simulation aspect of the game incredibly satisfying.

Yes, there are other games with more polish, and CK certainly has its fair share of rough edges, especially in the early chapters: bugs, a meandering plot that picks up and drops college tropes left and right, and some non-native-English writing that doesn't quite capture the college experience. Early on, lighting and background detail are also a bit lacking, making it sometimes feel like you're looking at posed dolls.

BUT, all of that has improved with time. The writing seems quite polished in the later episodes, and the meandering plot has actually become a real strength. Going on a variety of dates and getting to do different types of activities with different girls becomes a kind of gameplay loop, unhampered by transparent relationship-point-collecting or reliance on minigames. The writing for the individual girls has improved as well, and I maintain that this is the most realistically attractive cast currently available. Each girl is rendered and animated beautifully, and the use of subtle animation brings each one to life. (Although I do wish that they had larger wardrobes).

And you can tell that this is where the energy of the developers goes--into the each girl as a believable fantasy. By Act IV, the sex is almost beside the point. There is a sweetness to the game that even the most beloved AVNs lack. The girls don't look demure and seductive by default, they are bright and cheerful, with warm smiles. Their stories are not loaded with melodrama, they are stories of young people looking forward to their futures, wanting to experience life.

So while those other games might drive the player forward through unlocking new lewd scenes or the forward momentum of cliffhanger plot points, momentum in College Kings is kept up almost exclusively through its affection for its female cast. And now in Act IV, all that time spent with the characters, all that affection, is really paying off as we start to get into each character's background and we start getting story beats about their family histories and conflicts.

Unfortunately, this love and care is not extended to the secondary characters, who do tend to drag things down. Especially because drama is not the game's focus, some fleshed-out, likable male characters would make the world feel richer. For example, there's a classic fun dumbass friend, but because he is only ever sex-obsessed an annoying, scenes with him feel like wasted time between more meaningful encounters. Even if he were perfectly written and was laugh out loud funny (which he is not), there still needs to be more for the player to want to spend time with him.

Still, everything released thus far has been still been really fun and satisfying, with the high points of the series coming most recently. The game manages to pull off big set-pieces in a way that doesn't interrupt the flow of character interaction and relationship development, and that is really commendable.

So don't come for the plot or the pornography, but do come for an immersive dating sim with a gorgeous, lovable cast that you can spend a ton of time with.

Renders are good but not spectacular, some of the girls are ugly af and weird, the stories also doesnt helps, its so bad that i dont know how this game could get so many pledges on patreon? dont get fooled by the 3 ladies on the banner, thats all i can say about this game.

Game started off strong didn't mind the kinda scattered events since it introduced people and the MC had some inner conflicts on what he wanted to do. Sadly it went down pretty fast after joining the frat it is pretty much all but forgotten in regards to most events and the plot seems to lose focus along with a lot of plot holes appearing the most egregious of this being that if you get into a relationship with Lauren which is the earliest girl you can really pursue she is pretty much forgotten in 90+% of the events when other girls hit on you. The MC will mainly just turn them down if you have the option and just give a milquetoast rejection to them never mentioning his relationship you can also just go along with them and do whatever and there seems to be only one girl that causes problems in your relationship which makes no sense. The overall story doesn't connect which I really wish it would and while I like the KCT system the story can make you feel like your choices really don't matter most of the time

Renders are pretty great ngl they are very well done even though sometimes like in a class room or other populated areas it is just empty besides named characters.

Fighting mini game was pretty fun kinda liked what they changed it into but for a fighting focused game you get into like 5 fights and I know at least 2-3 of them are avoidable and 4 of them are in the beginning and after the first arc it is pretty much completely forgotten. The training also makes no sense you see someone do something like an uppercut which wasn't even done right (wrist was bent good way to injure or break it) and then you now know it perfectly and can use it in a fight. The form is okay defense wise but almost all offensive renders really suck on even the basics of how to throw a punch.

MC has no development muscle wise he looks the exact same as when he entered college even though he never fought before and now is working out a bunch allegedly. (Spoilers Tom went from femboy to chad in the time between he really bulked up but the MC stays the same for whatever reason?) Also almost all the dudes are as short as the girls with the MC being shorter in most renders which I just don't really like.

The game seems surprisingly linear as the game goes on which sucks because I thought that with all the setup and different paths it was showing in the first few acts we would see branching paths based on whom the MC is interested in or pursuing multiple or singular. But you just kinda get the exact same thing with maybe 1 or 2 different events or options before it goes back to railroad.


Side note writing is really awkward most of the time especially with all the *Laughs* *chuckles* and having everyone in the room individually do that.

Overall I think the game has lost a lot of its potential like it could recover but then you would either need to rewrite a lot of the early scenes and events or play through them and be even more confused on why it all of a sudden got focused. The only way I see this recovering is reworking a lot of scenes starting from the beginning.

Wish I could rate it higher but it is just lacking focus it is good for shits and giggles just don't really expect it to make a ton of sense or have a direction.

Well,

overall the VN is great, it also has a lot of potential. A lot more than a certain other VN some people are comparing it to.

That said there are some major drawbacks.
The lack of a central focus is very damaging, for example as soon as the MC gets to college it's all about fighting an joining one of the 2 fighting frats.
However when you join one of them, pretty much the same things happen with slight variations and then the focus is shifted to the Europe trip a few days after the frat business is over.

While the trip is interesting there are many missed opportunities for character development.
There could have been more free roam events or at least more freedom of choice to do more things with characters people might want to do stuff with.
However the choices are very limited and many times there is no choice at all, for example when Chloe mentions the sex shop, I refused Ryan and didn't wanna follow Imre but the game still ended up doing that.


And from the trip the focus shifts to the presidential campaign and now you are the Campaign manager because for some reason both candidates know that they won't win without your help.
And what's with Riley, she was in love with Amber but after the trip it's like Amber never existed for her and now she is in love with the MC and Aubrey.
Why is she falling in love left and right?
Why did Emily not speak to the MC the whole trip and after coming back decide to leave?
What's up with Chloe? Why is she so busy? What is she doing?

Why do we not get a choice sometimes, like the one with following imre when he gets cat-fished and with Aubrey deciding to be in a relationship with the MC if you make certain choices at her parent's wedding.
Why not give us to refuse? And since she is Chloe's best friend should Aubrey's path not be locked if Chloe is the MC's girlfriend.

There are many more unanswered questions like that within the story and if I try to list them all the review would be extremely long.

That said there are some technical issues as well, scenes happening out of order, or in an order that makes absolutely 0 sense.

For example. Chloe waking up the MC saying that the teacher had some sort of Event planned but then Aubrey comes in takes Chloe away and the MC goes back to sleep, only to be woken up by Chloe again with the same dialogue that the teacher has some Event planned.


There are others that also happen in an order that makes no sense.

The old fighting system was better in my opinion and the new is not fun at all, however there is skip auto-win option so that is good to have for people who don't enjoy the new system.

I like the KCT system but it is heavily under utilized and frankly the traits make no sense.

You can be confident and still be loyal and if you are popular you have got to be at least somewhat confident and still loyal.

And my biggest problem is that the saves from Season 1 cannot be transferred over to Season 2.

Maybe they can but as far as I searched there was no way to do it and one had to use the path builder which disables achievements and trying to play from new game made the game always crash no matter what one chose.

However back to the choices, there is one in particular that bothers me.
I always ran after the guy who stole Nora's bag but in season 2 the cannon choice is that you checked on Nora instead of running after the guy to get the bag back.

I would understand if the story wasn't meant to be taken seriously then I would not have so many problems with it, but things with Nora and Chris, Josh, Aubrey and her parents, Josh and Amber with their addictions those are serious moments and interesting events which give the story more depth.

Sadly most of the potential this VN has is being wasted.
It has a lot of content but most of it doesn't have much depth.

Now I know that what I've said is mostly negative, however despite all that the VN is a good time.
There are many funny moments and interesting ideas which can still be enjoyed even if badly implemented.
I liked killing all of the people on the trip, spin the bottle was hilarious. Mr. Bruce Lee is always a laugh. And the campaign is quite fun, again even if it is not implemented in the best possible way.

I probably enjoyed it enough to give it 5 stars, but I cannot because despite my enjoyment these are still issues the dev needs to fix or avoid in the future.

Tried Season 1 (huge file, downloaded by Bit Torrent), and I enjoyed it some ways. Didn't care for the confident/loyal/whatever it was way of determining if a woman interacts with you (like kissing or sex). But when it came to certain free roam areas, it was not easy to find where to go. Would have been better if a map was available and you can click on where to go, or highlight the areas so much easier.
Not really interested in the whole fighting thing, just seems so juvenile. I did find some of the story interesting and made the game better. Would have continued but reading the later posts about it being so buggy was a reason not to download the 2nd Season.
The women were mostly interesting, and different looks, except all pretty much the same body. But when certain choices made it that a birthday girl didn't want sex (and it was implied previously that she did on an European tour), I just thought why bother. So I'm done.
Take how you want, but I'm going to waste my time on something else.

My first ero VN. Still very good even when I fund other also have very or more interesting story. Some character are changing of views from unexplained causes. Still good story. Changing writer aren't good idea, because there is not consistent level of writing. (I would like to give 4.5) I canot so I give 5.

I love this game and it has become one of my favorite updates. There are a lot of different paths to play through and the decisions all have consequences.

The erotic tension is definitely there for me, and there is enough to do in between scenes that you don't want to really skip through too much of it, but there isn't so much to do that it becomes annoying with mini games that take way too long or too much energy.

Looking forward to seeing how this keeps developing!

This vn started being really good but after act 1, CK went downhill fast; the change of writers affected a lot to the history of the vn. Its still enjoyble but with the messy code and all the bugs that it has makes this visual novel mediocre and sometimes even unplayable.

This is one of the best games i have plaid so far and I got so hooked that I dont know if I could find anything like this
The plot is not something mindblowing but it doesnt need any, the story is good as it is.
As for the characters there is depth to the relationship with every girl or friend you have and its pretty nice.
The renders are insane actually and well animated, not the best but they are far beyond average.
My actual rating would be 4.5 though because of the potential it has.

I've been following this game for a while and I can tell you this game is great. Don't get fooled by its earlier reviews because I think all major bugs were fixed and I haven't had any problem playing it for the last 2-3 updates. There's a lot of content and funny branches/path that you can experiment. Overall if you like School/Collage setting games, give this a try.

having played the v15.1.0 release, I'm feeling attached to the game not only by the lewd scenes, but to the characters belonging to their tits and ass. the game offered me what we always want: have a good time. even the mini-games are effective in that manner, so 5 stars for not pretend other than being a fun game filled with sex and the never fullfiled dreams of teenagers arriving colleges.

I think the game has improved a lot in the last few updates, there is still room for improvement, but the current update made me think that the game is taking an interesting turn. For me this game is 4 stars but I will give it 5 because the current rate of it is not fair enough and it is low for the game it is.

I was somewhat sceptical at first because I was already well acquinted with the formulas of college AVNs when I tried this one out. But I have to say I've been pleasently surprised ever since. There is really a variety of events that give you new stuff to think about, new situations to adapt to and changes in atmosphere that keep you on your toes. Even after days playing the same game I find new information about characters and new dynamics that change the status quo. But what I admire the most is how the developers managed to create a dating-system where relationships develop over long periods of time without locking into a certain path early on. You can be friends with benefits but you can also reverse back to just being friends or move on to something more serious. This feels extremly dynamic and I haven't quite experienced that in any other game so far. As a result, sexual intercourse is not necessarily tied to long term relationships where have to break trust at every corner. The only thing I really cannot stand is the combat system, I really struggle to read my opponent and I feel there is not really any direction or advice how to improve. I play on easy already and still find it quite difficult to master this part of the game.

UndergradSteve made an awesome job with this game and it still keeps going. It's one of the best in its own category. It includes many things about college life other than trying to be with every single girl, like fights and betrayals.

Great game so far. Only things I notice that are "bad", but not really bad if you know what I mean, is that they recycle characters some. Like the Dev uses the face for lauren for the waitress at the coffee shop, and Aubrey for the waitress in Europe.
Also there is a few grammatical errors that you notice. Like, for instance, it should be Mrs. Rose when you first meet her, then Ms. Rose after she leaves her husband. Instead the Dev has her as Ms. Rose, then Miss Rose.
But I guess I'm just nitpicking.
Other than that, great game!

Played ver 15.1.0
As dev efforts go this is definitely ranks up there with some others I consider A list efforts.

Girls are beautiful, with 4 definite stunners out of a long list of great lookers.
Writing is decent, playthrough kept me occupied for many hours.
I don't remember encountering any bugs.
Solid effort from the Dev team

This VN has to be a 5 every day. The effort and scale alone is amazing. Renders are top shelf, a few in the intro have some light inconsistency and out of grid black eyes but those very minor things and it only gets better and better. Animation are top notch and with good angles.
The girls are all cute and keeping them in the same outfit is a good idea, it makes them easier to remember in the beginning as there are so many of them.
I was half expecting Chloe and Emily to be pushed on Alex but that is not the case at all, there is an amazing amount of freedom as to which girl you focus on. I am quite pleased with Riley, Aubrey and Lindsay in my playthrough 1.
Alex however is a greedy boy and has no real limit I think.
That probably is the only draw back, with most girls and Alex only being interested in friends with benefits it means that Alex has no real deep connection with anyone. It is possible that perhaps Penelope and Lauren are different in that regard.
Because there is always another girl waiting to hang with Alex some scenes can end in an unnatural way.

Anyway I understand that compromises must be made in any production , that's just how it is. I only mention it because this VN puts the bar so high and clearly expect a lot of itself.

Solid 5 any day Well done guys and darn it if you didn't just free Nora

If the developer reads this, I hope you take my review as a constructive criticism and improve the game based on that.

Now, I know making a game takes alot of effort, commitment and nice amount of money every month to make it come all together.

However, I want to highlight the things that I liked first, and the things I didn't like.

Stuff I liked:

1. The render quality is actually pretty good. I'd say a solid 7.5 to 8 out of 10 for the render quality of the girls and the environment. You guys really tried to make a nice college environment. So kudos to that.

2. The music. Music in the game is pretty damn good. Gives alot of funky vibe of the college to it.

3. The girls Nora and Chloe are some of the best girls that I have come across. Please keep making them.

Stuff I didn't like:

1. 80% of the girls in the game, are way too shallow and no matter what you do, you can't seem to get attached with them. For example, Riley, Emily, Aubrey, etc are all very one dimensional characters that even if they didn't exist in the game, it wouldn't have no effect on what I feel about the game.

If, you guys focused more on writing few but correct indepth characters, like a maximum of 3-4 love interests but they had SOLID writing/personalities and a few side romanceable characters, then that issue could've been resolved. The writing part of the majority of the girl's personalities just pull the game down sm that I almost play the game for Nora and Chloe ignoring the rest.

2. The writing overall in the game. This is one of the biggest gripes I have of this game. Everytime I play this game, it feels like a bunch of events sewn together because the dev promised quick deadlines to keep the content flowing. But, I swear to God this game has/had still has ALOT of potential. Slow down. Take a breather and don't rush into pushing updates out. The writing in the later versions feel lazy, haste and feel like it was sewn together in a hurry.

If you guys can really focus on the negatives in the later episodes, you guys can really blow off in the AVN industry.

Best of luck for the future updates.

The game has an excellent artwork for characters and also for surroundings. The storyline is enjoyable and you can relate to the characters. College Kings is way ahead of most of the games and I am really curious how the story evolves an completes.

This is a good game and satisfied me with the story and gameplay.
Models are great 5stars
I needed some school setting game and this is a fun filler for that. I understand the game developer is working hard to bring this to all of us.