VN - Ren'Py - Color of My Sound [Ch.3A v6] [Gallant Trombe]

Review for Ch. 1 Finale v8

For fans of slower burn/story-focused AVNs like myself, this is definitely one to add to the watch pile.

The overview gives a pretty apt description. I like the idea of being a commander in a 'special operations squad" within a sci-fi universe. There's a lot of different aspects that feel constantly at play, and you really don't feel like you can truly trust a single person yet. This has managed to create a lot of intrigue and mystery, and it's really only just getting started.

It's always nice to play as a competent MC as well. Though I think his nickname "The Officer" is more weird than anything, he's still fun to play as. While he's competent, he also clearly doesn't have all the answers. He has shortcomings, but I like that our team is going to seemingly make up for that.

Renders and character models are pretty great, and despite not being able to trust any of them as of now, I still like all the love interests introduced. A bit early to talk about character development and such, but given the quality of everything else I'm not too worried about them becoming dull for lack of a better word.

This isn't without problems though. I get the choice of waiting to add music because of story reasons, but it really needs some ambient noise and sound effects to compensate. It make immersion so much better, especially given that this is a story driven game. I also found the few lewd scenes a bit underwhelming. IMO, not having animations means you gotta be top notch with every other aspect in sex scenes. They aren't horrible but they didn't do a ton for me either. It feels like that aspect was almost underdeveloped in comparison to everything else.

Still, there's a lot of things I like about the game and that's why I'm giving it 5 stars at the end of the day. I hope to see some things get improved, but this is definitely a game I'll go back to as it develops.

Review of Chapter 1 Finale

Positives
Amazing renders
Interesting universe that seems well thought out
Focus on telling a good story
Lots of mystery

Negatives
Almost too much mystery, feels like every character may stab the MC in the back at any point

Very good start with a lot of interesting story threads. I am excited to see where this game goes. Some complain about lack of scenes, but I will take interesting story/world building over unearned scenes any day.

Excited to see where this game goes!

Excellent story so far. The plot is intriguing and vast. So far its got some great world building going for it. Dev definitely took the time to plot it all out. The girls are all truly lovely and have unique personalities. Wish it had sound but its fine. Im not a sound or animation snob.

Color of My Sound [Ch.1 Final review -
PROS -
Amazing Sci Fi story
Finally a Main character who is unique and likeable when compared to most games.
Top notch renders and good looking female characters and it also helps when each have a story on their own . Luckily it is a harem game where I don't have to worry about choosing one .
Excellent writing
NEUTRAL -
Game could use some music and sound effects .
In the end excellent first chapter . Great work dev , Highly recommended , looking forward to next release .

As someone who loves sci-fi genre I love the way story is progressing with lots of mysteries, empire and fucking gorgeous models game this deserves all the support and love. While the game is bang on the story and render part the lack of animations would disappoint some and also it's worth mentioning that color of my "sound" has no sound/music as of now although I expect the dev would change it.

This VN gives off heavy Dune vibes with its science fiction setting, political factions and intrigue. The main character does not know who to trust, he keeps getting small surprises from the people he is supposed to rely on, and he is operating in a political web with powerful people operating in the shadows.

The conflict and the world are set up beautifully. The main character is sympathetic , seems competent but is getting overwhelmed by the galaxy. Edge of the seat stuff. Keep up the good work!

The story is just getting under way, but it already has some great potential.

As of the current release (Chapter 1 Part C) the game is fairly light on sexual content. Yes, there are a few sex scenes and some nudity which were quite well rendered, but still fairly light. If that is exclusively what you're looking for then I'd suggest giving the Dev a little while longer.

The renders, as mentioned, were quite nice. While obviously there are some overlapped assets with a number of other games, these were done well enough that it felt more like "Hey, it's that Actress!" than recycled. Especially with the attention shown to fleshing out the backstories and personalities of the LIs, this was a pleasant change from a lot of games.

This is absolutely a visual novel though and a heavy emphasis on the novel side of that. With so much to get introduced to, there is a lot of reading you'll be doing. This isn't one of those narratives where you can gloss over the message and know that it'll just be a variant on "I'm the girl next door who works at a coffee shop". While I didn't find this to be a bad thing, I know that this will also make it not everyone's thing.

As for story and pacing, that can be a little rough. The pacing is considerably slower than a lot of erotic visual novels for the above mentioned reasons. There is just so much world building that the Dev is trying to do and only so much of it can be shown rather than revealed through exposition. They did a fairly good job at making the exposition feel natural for the most part, but there are some clunky spots.

The story, thus far, is top notch. As an espionage story you're brought into this world filled with political maneuvering and half-truths. Everyone you speak to has their own agenda and you can't be sure who is really pulling the strings. The end result is a game that even without the chance for erotic interaction would be interesting to watch play out.

But it's not perfect.

The MC has their moments. The Dev has tried to explain that there are reasons for a lot of the odd choices which will make sense as the story unfolds and I have no reason to doubt that. However, that doesn't make it any less jarring at times.

Likewise, the limited choices you get to make don't seem to have any real impact on anything. Again, this is really early in the story and I wouldn't expect any major branching storylines just yet. This just creates a little more of an observer role for the reader as opposed to actually playing the MC.

That said, I'm loving what I've seen so far. I'm confident that the Dev will find a way to close that gap between observer and player to a more comfortable level as they get the world and story setup.

Also, best girls are Hilde and Blanche.

Color of My Sound [Ch.1 Part C] review
Pros:
1. The story: As a huge sci-fi lover this game is amazing. It's just dark enough to not be grimderp. The dialogue is well written and has amazing english(finally). There are enough mysteries to keep the player invested and in my case to do multiple playthroughs.
2. The characters: The Gods finally heard my pleas and gave us a unique looking MC. He is well written and so different from all the others. But the main things are the girls. All of them are different and actually feel like real people with real motives and hidden agendas. It's just hard to choose a main LI when all of them are so captivating. But thankfully game is harem )!
3. Visuals: Visuals are great. Game has good camera angles. Lighting and colors are also really good.

Neutral:
No sound or music but as the dev stated (I think) it is intentional


I highly recommend the game even if it's a first release and very early in development. The Dev is a fantastic guy and always active.
Also pls give more Lana content DT <3

It's early on but so far, I'd say it's fantastic, though currently it's more of a KN than VN so far, but the Dev says that will change after chapter 3.

Very pleased there isn't any sound but I understand others want it. So long as I can mute it if the Dev ever adds any. Heck, this might be tied in w the MC music storyline.

Very interesting/different storyline that's just dark enough. The storytelling is great so far. Enough so that I'm on my second play through, lol.

Nice colors and renders.
The women are very pretty and each have different enough personalities so far. The MC is a decent guy but not so wimpy that he can't pull the trigger.

The first few scenes kind of speed by, but c'mon, you can't go day by day through the guy's whole life. I'll just presume we're jumping ahead a bit and will be appreciative that the author isn't treating me like an idiot.

Not trying to rush the Dev, but I hope there are fairly regular updates rather than stretching them out to, say, yearly updates.... That would ruin the story for me.

Anywho....guess we'll see after another couple updates....... Great job Dev! Keep up the great work!

The sound of silence


I'm not the biggest sci-fi fan on earth, but I like a well written story.
After reading the overview and the raving reviews I was intrigued enough to give Color of My Sound a try.


Visuals

The renders are pretty (good) and atmospheric, some even animated (eyes).
They aren't super high res, but that's actually a plus because in my opinion the slight grain only adds to the (dystopian) feel.
Also nice use of depth of field effects.

There are no animations - which is fine by me.


Sound

There is no sound at all - which is a big shame.
Color of My Sound would be(come) so much more immersive by adding accenting music (for example in the Red Velvet) and sound effects (beeping devices, hissing airlocks, echoing gunshots, etc.).
It would be nice if the dev considered adding sound in future updates.


Characters

I like the looks of the MC, he's very unique (although he seems to be in desperate need of a haircut).

However, I really don't like how he gets portrayed as this glorious hero of the empire who won countless battles.
He constantly gets treated like a celebrity - everyone recognises and admires him, everyone says what an awesome guy he is.
I never liked it when games depicted the MC like that.
It's especially odd since he looks like he only just graduated - way too young for having achieved all the merits he gets credited for.

The LIs have interesting and distinguishable personalities.
They are also good looking, but not really my type. Okay, Mireille is kinda cute...

Unfortunately, some of the female characters are wasted in poorly written lewd scenes (more on that in the next paragraph).


Writing

The English is really good - there are only few typos and grammar mistakes.
Definitely a pleasant surprise since my first impression wasn't that favourable (there's a grammatical error already in the adult content disclaimer).

Now, on to the story.

I absolutely didn't like the opening scene. Here's why:

The MC performs a single gig at a club and - of course - the whole female audience is fangirling over him. *sigh*
One of them - a groupie named June - is already awaiting him outside, only to tell him how she's head over heels into him and would like to accompany him back home, but - of course - she's totally not like "those other girls". Eh, sure.
Our MC takes her home and while she's busy in the bathroom he thinks about how "nice and innocent" she is.
Nice? Maybe. Innocent? Hardly.
I'm not sure what kind of girls the MC usually deals with, but her asking a complete stranger to fuck is hardly "innocent" in my book.
Anyways. Next thing we learn is she's indeed "innocent", literally: She admits she's a virgin and wants him to be her first.
Just a reminder: June is a full grown woman who looks like she's in her late 20s, wears raunchy makeup and asks a complete stranger to take her home to have sex. Virgin? My ass.
But we're not done yet. The "climax" is yet to come.
The MC starts fingering her and when she's about to cum, she asks him to stop because she doesn't want her "first orgasm to be like that".
Wait, what? First orgasm? Like... ever?
I'm not entirely sure, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the writer actually meant it that way.
Of course our MC is more than happy to assist in the deflowering process (quoting June: "Fuck my virgin pussy. It's yours forever" - yup, totally sounds like something a virgin girl would scream).

Is the person who wrote this even hearing (reading) themself?
I wonder if this is what incel fantasies look like. For me it was just incredibly painful to read.

At that point I was close to quitting Color of My Sound, but curiosity got the better of me.
I continued reading - and I'm glad I did because once the writer leaves the lands of lewd behind Color of My Sound does a 180° spin and turns into an actually well written sci-fi story with interesting characters set in a coherent universe.

I had almost reconciled with Color of My Sound and was willing to forget that gruesome opening scene - until...

...the next explicit scene occurred (this time involving Lana).
Out of thin air Lana - a respected veteran and recent member of his squad - starts to give the MC a hand job because... I guess that's what people do 24 hours after they first met: "Handing" out cheer-up hand jobs to colleagues who feel a bit down.
Oh, we also learn she (a grown woman) has never done anything like that before. Yeah, sure.

At that point I was so annoyed that the writer is obviously willing to sacrifice well established characters for a quick fap (crowd-pleasing at its finest) that I finally quit Color of My Sound. Just too much stupid "porn logic" for my taste.

By the way: The explicit scenes aren't even particularly arousing - they lack emotion, empathy and eroticism.


Choices

There are only few choices so far and they don't seem to impact the story that much (mostly if you are interested in an LI or not.
You can't avoid June, though - she's a given).

Minor bug:
At one point Color of My Sound asks if you want to keep your MC's name or like to enter a new one, but regardless of what you choose there's an "enter your name" prompt coming up afterwards.


User Interface

The UI is clean and stylish. Some elements (quick save, etc.) are hoverable, which is a nice idea.

The text box offers excellent readability. You can even adjust its opaqueness in the preferences.

There's also an integrated codex with further infos about the characters and a glossary.


Conclusion

Well, this was quite a roller coaster ride.
My first impression of Color of My Sound was rather negative - the opening scene with June was so underwhelming that I almost quit.
I continued reading and was surprised to find an actually interesting story of much better quality than the explicit opening scene.
Kudos for that.
Unfortunately, the enjoyment came to a crashing halt with the next lewd scene which was just as implausible as the first one (and made me quit for good).

TLDR: Interesting sci-fi story and characters set in a coherent universe ruined by poorly written "porn logic" scenes - if it wasn't for them, I would have easily awarded 4 stars.

Color of My Sound [Ch.1 Part B] review -
PROS -
1. Story - This is one of the best stories I have played in this forum . The writing and dialogues are top notch . Loving the Sci-fi theme .
2. Renders are totally great , one of the best and details are amazing in each render .
3. Main character who looks different than other games and with a nice personality .
NEUTRAL -
There are no music and sound effects and no animations to the H scenes till now it would be nice if it gets added in the future versions .
So in the end 5 stars excellent start , added to the watchlist and looking forward to the story and how the game progresses .

Pros:
~Initial plot hooks came in blazing and fully captured my attention
~Main character looks great. Absolutely awesome. Most games have an ugly male MC or some 5'5" big-dick manlett as their main character. This MC kinda feels like Spike Spiegel with a more conservative haircut.
~Premise regarding the MCs role seems absolutely ideal for a nuanced harem pathing.
~Detail on the renders of the gals is high tier.

Neutrals:
~No music / sound yet. Arguably much better than someone half assin' these game components. Throw some "Space" themed lofi hip-hop on and it fits the vibe perfectly.
~Descriptions are sometimes vague. (I.e. 1st planet was described as having a "unique odor" two separate times- but that was never elaborated on. Could be narratively intentional to add a layer of mystery.

As of Chapter 1 Part B
Simply excellent Visual novel with amazing story loving the Sci fi setup and mystery theme around the Main character and people around him .. The renders are great and all female models are attractive and hot . All characters including Main characters are interesting and nicely developed . This is one of the games where I enjoyed the story more than the sex scenes. Genuinely impressed with the story writing , does not feel like your first time dev . The game does not have any sound and animations till now , but I don't mind it .
Overall 5 stars for this game , Nice start dev it has lots of potential to be among one of the top games in this site despite being in early stages and looking forward to future release .

Color of My Sound [Ch1 Part B] review

3 words:

Very. Fucking. Promising!

What it is:
Branching-path visual novel. It's a classic detective story, with military undertones. And sexy women. And banging.
Right now the choices don't seem to matter much, but I suspect they will, later. I'll forgive it for now because we're still only at character introductions and main plot intro. It's still quite early in this project.
A playthrough of this version will take you 1-3 hours, depending on your reading speed and how often you stop to enjoy the "scenery". And there's a lot of "scenery" to enjoy.

Visuals: 5/5
Just fucking gorgeous. Hot women, diverse cast, beautiful backgrounds. Perfect lighting. All the bells and whistles. It's just super clean and beautiful in every respect.

Story/writing: 5/5
Multiple story threads. Mysteries everywhere. Each character has their own agenda. Well thought out world building, with political systems and different conflicts going on.
Character portrayals are excellent. Each character feels unique, with their own kinds of expression and language. Dialogue flows naturally but sometimes drones on a little bit about old battles and other background lore.
Quality of English: Absolutely flawless.

Visual storytelling: 5/5
Show, don't tell. That's what I always say, and this dev really gets it. Sometimes just small changes in facial expressions can tell the story. That was fucking great to see!
There are sequences of images without text at many different points in this story and it works fantastically. I just love the shit out of that stuff! Excellent!

Unless you are bothered by the kinda small amount of content, you need to play this right fucking now!

The raw skill at display here is absolutely formidable. By the time this project is completed it will be top 5 of all time here on f95, mark my fucking words.

Nice story, beautiful characters (even the MC, YAY!), outstanding renders, solid writing and above all that a harem game.

So I can see this game in top 5 at least, if the quality remained like that, not to forget it's that good despite being the developer first game, really well done.

Version: 1.A.3
Platform: Win64

Heads-Up
Really great visual novel with an interesting sci-fi story, beautiful crafted characters and a lot of content for a first release.

Art
Overall great visuals. Good use of camera angles, colors and dof. Well done on the image editing as well. On a few occasions I saw some noise, could be either artifacts on the editing or artistic choice. However, it doesn't take you out of the game at all, just a minor detail I spotted while reviewing.
Great work on the environments and some re-designs / re-shading and especially the lighting. Really nice scenes that amplify the beauty of the well-crafted characters.
Nice details like mouth-opening animations when starting to talk or eye-blinking animations.

Characters
Unique background stories, tasteful design, no super unrealistic proportions. Great introductions of the characters with hints and cliff-hangers for character-development. Simply well done.

UI
Simple, slim and clean. Nice font and nice color pallet. Has a fitting minimalistic touch to it.

Dialogue
Overall very well written. The dialogues are meaningful that progress the story and not just empty conversations. Good natural language, so no off-put because of bad translations. Erotic sections are written pleasingly which let's you look forward for upcoming scenes.
A little minor critique is about the usage of the narrator, but this might be just a misunderstanding on my site. Often the narrator is used when the current impressions of the mc are expressed or if memories from his past are told, while thoughts are written as inner dialogue of the mc. While having the conversation with Lana it feels like a mix of both. Could be a misinterpretation on my side and again it's nothing that drags your attention away from the story and the art.

Story
Great story already with a promising lore. You already can tell the dev has put much effort in the background story. The first chapters also come along with some mysteries and cliff-hangers to certain stories which keeps the story interesting and wanting more. It also allows the community to speculate and talk about the story and how it might unfold.
Introduction of the characters is well done with interesting background stories. I'm sure there will be more to them in the upcoming episodes.

Sound
None at the moment of my review.

Details
You can already tell the dev has an eye for details and puts a lot of effort in these. For example the conversation with Blanche and the meaning of her name. I like the fact the dev even put a white/silver shirt on Blanche to underline the meaning.

Summary
Really great sci-fi visual novel with a lot of content for a first release. A strong dialogue based visual novel with a great story to unfold and not just an continuation of sex scenes. It looks really promising, can't wait for more updates.

Well well well, what do we have here?

This is one of the tightest and most impressive starts I've seen for such a serious premise.

Rarely do I see the military aspect of any VN feel legitimate. It's certainly a new flavor to me. The MC is a military officer, and you don't question that fact.

The renders and models all look fantastic. Even the MC is one good looking dude, which is pretty nice since we usually either A: never see the MC, or B: get a stock/fugly one.

And to address the topic of the girls and the Harem tag, they're beautiful and feel like unique people. There's not much to say about them, as they haven't had as much time to be fleshed out yet. The team dynamic is going to play a major role in shaping these characters.

There's some obvious references here, especially to the nobility of the Dune series, but it's less about spice and destiny, and more of Game of Thrones-esque political thriller. Hopefully without the Game of Thrones-esque ending.

As a result of these political nature, the MC gets thrown into something much much bigger than himself, even if he's the greatest hero in the galaxy.

Which btw, doesn't inflate his ego or even mean much to him. It makes the MC more than just the bestiest guy in the galaxy, like many other games. The MC is a calculated man who gets the job done.

This game also came with a decent start to a unique UI. I'm thinking once that gets nailed down, and appropriate atmospheric music gets added, we're going to see the foundation to another banger like City of Broken Dreamers.

I'm excited to see more of this game, but it definitely has potential.

What we got is a masterpiece of art, story, and character development with meanings hidden behind each color, a good intrigue that unfolds, schemes, betreyal and good looking love interests.
The first time I played I was lost in the beauty of the renders, but! next time I played I enjoyed the excelent world building.

Don't ask me to form a coherent thoughts process, the game is that good ( the only flaw is the limitation of the hardware used for the renders but that doesn't invalidate the fact that the game is perfect!)

What a promising start! The game looks great, the setting is really fucking cool and the cast of characters introduced so far is excellent. There is barely any lewd content so far, but to be honest I was more interested in the story and discovering more about the characters and the setting anyway. There isn't much there to review yet, but the potential here is huge, hence the gushing.