VN - Ren'Py - Companion of Darkness [Ch.9] [Berkili4]

Great story. The developer did put a lot of effort to this game. One of the best game in this genre. I really recommend it to everyone. If you love fantasy and a lot of twist, this is the game for you. The character designs are beautifull. This might the first game that i am gonna actually support through money.

Companion of Darkness became my favorite VN several chapters ago, but it is still standing very strong with each new update. I can't even make predictions of what will happen from chapter to chapter because Berkili4 is a better writer than my brain can imagine.

I play a handful of VNs every week, so I often forget what has happened chapter to chapter. That hasn't been the case with "Companion of Darkness". It sticks with me. I would still recommend to Berkili4 and every developer to implement ways to remind VN regulars what happened in previous chapters. Sometimes it can be just character profiles that jog my memory, but simply a paragraph or two summarizing the events of each chapter is very useful at getting everyone up to speed.

5 out of 5, 10 out of 10, 100 out of 100, ∞ out of ∞

Loved it.

Discovering a good HS superpower / demony title is my jam and this ranks up there with the better ones.

I think what Companion of Darkness has in common with the best ones is the way it starts out looking very average and blossoms into something fairly epic. It surprises and delights. We're kept on our toes as to who friends and enemies might be and our relationships change as characters are not black and white but like the Dark Ones themselves, grey at best.

Pros

• Epic story with twists and turns
• Moves at a good pace
• Lots of adorable characters
• Good amount of content (Chapter 7 at time of review)

Cons

• Writing - The English is not great and seems to get worse as you go on. You can always get the point so doesn't stop you in your tracks but some find it irritating..

Yep this is a hit imo.

Pros:

- amazing and interresting story

- great LI's, all a very likeable yet unique

- the best big brother any avn has ever seen

- fun fights and power level scaling

- deep characters, seemingly wrong/unusual behavior can have deep roots

- clara's gaming talks and using a dark one for gold farming in wow


Cons:

- some LI's are just not around for quite long amount of times which can feel a bit disappointing at times

Worthless story with zero player agency and an equally worthless main character. How this got an average rating of 4.5 is anyone's guess. The dialogue is poorly written and from the grammatical error it's clear that the dev is not a native speaker. The renders are similarly of poor quality . Would advise new players not to waste their time on this.

It's truly amazing how dull this "VN", even if you ignore the generic "secret society of superpowered/gods existing" plot setting. The overview is big fat lie, the mystery gets revealed 5 minutes into the game. Poor writing, even worse proofreading. The "fights" are always one sided stomps by OP plot devices instead of characters. "Choices" are a lie, they have no impact outside of see/don't see sex scene. Characters that you have no reason to get attached to because they will either disappear as quickly as they appear or have a complete 180 to their characterization.
Pretty mediocre usage of Honey Select for the models and animation. Not great, but I saw worse. The sex is sprinkled apart and is pretty rare, so don't expect to be particularly aroused, and there is no replay gallery, the most basic of VN features.
I came expecting little and was still dissapointed.

Quite enjoyable experience. Very good writing and even with the budget of a VN the developer does a really good job with the action scenes. Love interests are all great.

My biggest regret with the story is I wish they didn't drag out the relationship with his childhood friend. She's too sweet and pure to be lead on while he's banging everyone else. They were stuck hiding out for too much time for them to not have had sex much sooner in the story.

This game is spectacular. Genuinely the relationship between the MC and Noel has grabbed me a way no other game has. Maybe it's just because I've feeling a little raw recently and Noel's personality is very much my "type", but all the story beats regarding their relationship hit me as hard as possible. The character work is really well done. Great stuff, can't wait to get my hands on chapter 7.

Incredible game. Love the lore, the number of characters that the game has and how smooth and enjoyable the playthrough is.

Probably something like 50 bonus points for Misty cameo btw.

Best of luck in the development! can't wait for another episode.

I got really into the story! I like the world building, I like the characters, I like the humor and plot too--it's all great.

I think the art is good, I like all of the character designs. I enjoy all the scenes too. If I was to critique the game is I think its light on player choice and the setting/tone is a bit over the top.

I'm excited to play more of this! Its a game that certainly appeals to my particular tastes, but I'd also find it easy to recommend to just about anyone who enjoys adult VNs.

I really don't like the whole superpower genre. It usually is just an excuse for poor story telling, but this is really well done. So much so, that it left me impressed and eager for the next chapter. It is a great read.

It's not without flaws, the way it courts Deus Ex Machina is annoying at times and there's too many characters that often don't get to do anything meaningful and the story takes a bit to long to get anywhere sometimes.

BUT all that is nitpicking a great story with interesting characters and an actual sense of consequence. There's loss and betrayal and plot twists that I did not foresee. It's really REALLY well written in that sense, especially compared to all the Disney Theme Park Harem Trash that you usually find here.

Give it a try!

I was skeptical going into this game. I was expecting a banal and cliche chosen one story. While there are aspects of the story that do follow that trope the experience is quite special. The story does not shy away from the "darkness" but embraces it. However there is a wonderful balance between dark grittiness and meaningful connections. The contrast gives those moments more impact. The highest praise I can give a game is that when I have reached the end of the current content (Chapter 6 at time of review) I was left with that empty feeling you have after finishing a great show or book and a profound longing for more.

I only have 2 real criticisms. There are some minor grammar and spelling mistakes. Also there are some continuity issues that seem to ignore previous decisions. This is a major pet peeve of mine and often ends my interest in a game however I enjoyed the characters and story enough it was only a minor annoyance.

Fantastic job dev(s), I cannot wait to experience more of this story.

I played through Chapter 6 in a few evenings, and found this VN quite enjoyable. On the positive side it features an entertaining urban-fantasy story, a MC that is moderately relatable, and numerous love-interests. Graphics and animations are low to mid-tier Honey Select, improving over the course of the story.

On the con side: the text badly needs proofreading to fix frequent grammar and spelling issues; and there were a couple of minor fem-dom scenes that didn’t seem to offer the player a chance to flip the script.

I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

Edit: as of Ch. 8 I have upgraded my rating from four to five stars for excellence in storytelling.

The Good
The Story

The story Is the reason for playing this game. It's one of the better games out there when it comes to story. Honestly this might even be the best out of the 54 games ive played. This game's story could easily be something I would see on tv. The story does have a few issues.

Part of the story gives a reason for lewd scenes. While It's a nice to see having a reasons for lewds that make sense. At the same time it does feel like a cop out to find a way to include lewds because of this being a AVN and AVN's are automatically considered porn games by many.

Another issue I have with the story is early on there is a few characters that are introduced. They had a good introduction enough so I wanted to get to know them better. But they seem or at least feel like they are just forgotten about .We finally got reintroduced to one of them in the last chapter. Tho I will say there is a story reason that makes sense why they are forgotten about. Which goes to show this game really cares about telling a story first if characters can feel forgotten about but it making sense as to why they are in the narrative.
Mixed
Character developments / Relationships Building

For the most part this was done well especially with the dark ones. But with a few select characters like Clara it left me wanting to get to know her character a bit better. Because part way through the story she has a bit of a character change because of story reasons. When that happens it feels like alot of the character developments for her either stopped or slowed down. But is a shame because her being my favorite character which left me wanting more to get to know her better / character developments.

The other issue I mentioned earlier about characters that had a good introduction but then feels like they are forgotten about for awhile. Only reason this isnt completely a negative because the game at least gives a story reason and it makes sense why they would be forgotten about.
The BAD
The lewds

Like I mentioned Earlier how alot of the lewds are introduced being baked into the story does feel like a cop out to me but it does work for the genre and it's refreshing. Just personally I didn't like how that executed. But it isnt a big deal to me.

What I thought was bad about the lewds was the animations. They feel fine and okay at a slow even medium pace. But when the animations speed they feel really bad and weird to the point I didnn't care for any the lewds would almost make the game better for me to not have any lewds because I could not enjoy them when the animations were going at a fast pace.

The text really needs a proofreader. I usually tolerate small mistakes here and there but they are way too frequent here and keep constantly bothering me.

The music isn't good. There's the smooth music that plays constantly but then there's at the same time something almost like a siren blaring over it that's really just terrible.

There aren't many choices, at least not where I stopped playing and they aren't really good either. Some moments that one would usually think there'd be one, the game just moves on without giving much player input.

I also didn't get very far but the only character that I actually liked was Clara but even her original character gets destroyed. MC gets thrown around a lot and even refuses to fight back at some points. Maybe it gets better later on and I'll try it again but for a first time playing, I really wasn't impressed.

i really like the plot it's amazingly intriguing and I'm enjoying the unconventional harem route of the story(if there ever is a harem ending). The only drawback is the careless amount of grammatical errors like using the word "then" instead of "than", spelling errors, repeated words, incomplete sentences, etc. If this doesn't bother you as much as a reader and can just read through it then this game is highly recommended.

Also, don't listen too much to people trying to control the plot, this story is yours to tell and i wanna finish reading the story as such.

Edit: please make the dialogue box more transparent, it covers almost half the screen and the transparency settings adjustment is a little modest for my liking if you know what i mean.

This game legit has a movie level plot. Unlike most games here that try to do a big plot, it is actually good and manages to make you care about it without detracting fromt he H content.
Characters are top tier, each girl has its own personality and is cool to interact with.
H content is pretty good.
Plot is not to slow.
Overall 4,5 / 5. Only thing I'd like is for the story to be a bit less on rails and for choices to have more impact.

As for the story, as far as where I left off.
I heard a fight in the bathroom between the rich guy at school and the little whore at school, for a trivial reason (they didn't want to be seen) I was hunted excessively by the school, suffering bullying, the MC is scared and doesn't want to use the power of hot darkness that follows him, he agreed to never fall in love with her, he passed out in the locker room because he didn't want to use her powers, so he chose to change the classroom where he was with the only girl in the school who respects him, because pity gets a handjob... out of pity... for still being a virgin and a way for the author to compensate for the toxic school environment, so that's it... from then on, I started to feel bad about the story that was supposed to be something pleasurable,
the game can still be good... if you enjoy a heavy and toxic story... but I already prefer things where I feel valued with an MC who makes the most intelligent choices since there is a lack of choice for the player in an almost kinetic game .

Well I just finished chapter 6 of this fine game and I have to say I am really enjoying this game, the plot/story line is fairly new to me when it comes to story/plot ideas, the renders/artwork is top notch and I can say I noticed any spelling or grammar errors, all in all this is one of the better adult games I have played.

I would highly recommend this game to my friends and I will be following this fine game for the foreseeable future.

[Review as of Ch6]

The English isn't perfect and the plot can be a bit scattered at times. Characters sometimes drop out of focus for a while. The sex scenes are nothing special. Power levels are out of whack and it makes things feel a bit deus ex machina at times. MC always has a guardian angel of sorts hovering over their shoulder which removes some of the tension and could've been handled more gracefully.

But overall, despite all of that, I like CoD a fair bit. It's sadly common for VNs on this site to kind of wander aimlessly, introduce tons of characters they don't know what to do with, and never really go anywhere plot-wise. CoD's plot moves forwards at a brisk pace, characters have their parts to play overall, and I've been left consistently intrigued about what's going to happen next. The author isn't afraid to take some risks with the story which may annoy some people but I think make it more interesting overall.

It isn't perfect, and tons could be improved with a second draft, but overall this is a VN I look forward to seeing more updates on!