VN - Ren'Py - Confessions in the Dark [v0.12 + Halloween Update] [Maple Bird]

VERSION: v0.1
SUMMARY: Fairly decent AVN with typical marriage corruption elements.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

NOTE: The following categories and scoring method are my own criteria and may require more context. Additionally, scoring is based on the state, and what is in the current version and not what may or may not be introduced at a later point.

1. Model Visuals..................... : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. General Visuals................... : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Animation Quality................. : ⭐
4. Character (Persona)............... : ⭐⭐⭐
5. Story Quality & Pacing............ : ⭐⭐⭐
6. Writing Quality & Dialogue........ : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. UI & Game-play Mechanics...........: ⭐⭐⭐
8. Playtime & General Quality.........: ⭐⭐⭐
9. Sounds & Music.....................: ⭐⭐
10. H-Content & Fetishes.............. : ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Average: 31 of 50 possible points giving a 62% rating i.e. X stars.

PROS: - See my opinions section for details.

1. For the art style, the models and renders look pretty good.
2. Writing is structured and reads well.
3. Dialogue is not bloated or filled with pointless drivel, its all relevant to the premise which is sharing/ntr/cuck open relationship related.
4. Potentially some really nice kinks like pregnancies (even not by MMC) are always nice features.
5. Fleshed out UI but...see cons

CONS: - See my opinions section for details.

1. Story is flimsy and only revolves around the MMC who has an itch to be cucked, which the player has no agency over save for letting it happened in a controlled way or letter the wife do it on the side/cheat. The is otherwise nothing interesting about the story/plot so far.
2. Characters are not overly interesting, the MMC being the least so, all we know and seem to care to know is that he wants to share his wife and that he dreams of it. The wife is simply a highly devoted creature. END.
3. No animations are a let down.
4. The UX can use some work, at least when it comes to dialogue box, I would appreciate an outline for text, to see over the very bright colours, especially when dropping opacity to see more of the scene.
5. General sounds are missing, environment, ambient, interactive and of course lewd scene sounds all which add to immersion and quality.
6. Any scenes so far are mostly imaginary and dream scenes, which are not a point of interest to me.

OPINIONS, SUGGESTIONS & FINAL REMARKS:

NOTE: The following remarks are my personal opinions and thoughts, which may provide more context and could be useful to the developer. (Read them or don't)

• Coming from trying out Obsessed Lucy, which also sports AI CG, its nice to see that its quite possible to do good animations for these types of AI CG and something this Dev could consider looking into?
• While sounds for lewd scenes without animation seems a bit unnatural, it does work and is something the Dev should also look into, animations not withstanding.
• Regarding the dream scenes, I get why devs do this, but honestly its a waste of time, you could literally create on picture of the MC wife being gangbanged, shrunk down and almost superimposed, but like a dialogue bubble feature in one scene to convey the MCs itch, having to have several imaginary scenes of how the MC gets cucked does not work for me. Simply because you know the MC is "dreaming" this is a VN its already for the players imagination, but that falls flat when an imaginary, fictional character in a AVN is imagining things, it looses all kink and immersion. I would rather have said spend the time push the plot instead of creating dream scenes.
• I wont nitpick about inconsistencies in artwork, environments and models, the Dev already alluded to this and frankly to me, someone not overly versed in art, particularly this style...I hardly notice the differences from one scene to the next, its subtle enough to hardly be worth mentioning.

TLDR:

Not bad for the style and type of renders (AI CG) which are done really nicely. The story is nothing new or overly exciting and really will only appeal to those into cuckold, NTR, sharing, swining and cheating (with potential pregnancy) Its done overall fairly well and could get 4 stars easily but kinda ruins it for me a little with dream scenes instead of "actual" events. The lack of animation and decent sounds are also a bit disapointing.

A seriously promising start. It's so nice to see an NTS-focused game that doesn't spend its first 25 updates teasing the possibility of the female character getting with someone else without ever even showing anything. Focusing on 'fantasy' scenes with some really NSFW art helps to keep this interesting and enjoyable to play, even when we haven't got to actual NTS yet, combined with some good writing. Overall, such a good start. Looking forward to new updates in the future.

I liked it. The text, the experiences, the teasing are tense and exciting. The FMC is pleasant for the eyes and even the music is very appropriate.
I liked the atmosphere of the VN and had no desire to count the fingers of the models.

I look forward to the updates

I've be mostly focusing on the negative aspects about this game.

The good:

• The writing is actually great 4 star material.
• AI art that is directed in a way to make all characters seem appealing.

The Bad:

• AI art consistency issues
• Music sounds alright but is also generic "porncore" as hell, pretty sure I've heard tunes similar to this in other games. Some of it doesn't seem fully fitting with the writing.

The Ugly:

• Half the art is unappealing, characters do weird poses.
• Clothing consistency problems

Truth be told, the game starts decent, until it turns into your generic cuck fantasy slop. The writing throughout the available content is great however

The art itself is...great aswell, at least if judged solely of its direction. The focus here are character closeups. The best thing about the art is that most of the frame is character centric. But thats where the positive things stop. The artstyle here is part absolute slop and to the other its really well done in terms of coloring, perspective work and the developer trying to come up with attractive designs . AI Art in general is better by leaps and bounds compared to human garbage, but there are 3 problems here that come with it that can blamed on by the developer themselves.

Consistency issues with the body and body proportions
Background and composition issues
AI smushing

Don't get me wrong, the characters here do resemble people in a way. Ashley, the generic female MCs name the game picks for you, is kept somewhat consistent compared to David who is the generic pov male MCs name.

Her hairstyle and to some degree breastsize and body proportions change with every image. Don't get me started about Davids size changes. His dick seems to change between 3.5 inches to 6 inches between scenes quite often especially in that one scene where Ashley smooches his dick with her face.

Smushing is that weird effect where the lineart and the colors weirdly blend into each other, causing a fumbled mess of shapes. Hair almost blending into the skin, character blending into the environment. You name it, you know it.

But the worst thing about the direction of this game is that the characters have no adherence to them interacting with the environment itself. In one scene early on, David sits on a couch watching TV, that couch is basically a futon, making it seem like he is sitting on the ground rather than doing anything else. In another, Ashley is blended with the table and in another her leg almost fuses with the bed.

Don't get me wrong, I get that most coomers look at the boobies and ignore any other detail, but holy shit are all of these problems in your face.

Some of my gripes can be alieviated with the use of AI video. Animating every scene would make it feel much better, or turn it into even greater slop. Thats by design, Good art is usually handled well by the AI, bad art isn't. Up to the developer to do that.

So overall, Confessions in the Dark is another overambitious Visual Novel has isn't really dragged down by hubris rather than the lack of understanding of the tools the developer has in their proposal. If you solely focus on the writing, its competent and fapable. If you begin looking at the game itself, the problems unfortunatly overwhelm its positive qualities. This game would be great as a book but its terrible as a video game but I've not given up hope yet. I'm sure newer versions will see improvements.

Until then, solid 3 star material. Play it for the writing, ignore anything else.

Version 0.2

TLDR: Pass for now. Game was done faster than the MC could bust a nut. Seriously.

For starters this game has one of my biggest pet peeves, bad versioning. For a 0.2, (and there was a 0.1) this is so short it barely feels like a prologue before the 0.1. People need to rate these games on what they are, not what they can be.

There's barely enough here to judge but since a few others think there's enough I'll give it a shot.

Very short (obviously).

The plot seems to stem around the MC's feeling on inadequacies which while is a fair reason to experiment with sharing, doesn't have to include having a small dick. I suppose the story could still include a lack of stamina or skill issues because no MC in these games has ever heard of foreplay. I'm not going to hold the humiliation content against it since that seems to be the meta of most NTR games.

So what's good about the game? Well, it didn't crash and seemed stable for the entire few minutes I lasted. Art seems good. FMC is full bodied and more realistic than some titles. Grammar was solid so far. No paywall other than an understandable patron reminder at the beginning and end. Nothing to crash and burn the game in the brief play there was.

The greatest sin is there is nothing to pull me in either. Looks like the standard recycled plot so far. Maybe. Again, hard to say at this point. I might yet be wowed.

3 stars because I can't see how to rate it otherwise. Padding ratings isn't fair to genuine 4 and 5-star games but I'm not going to score it low to offset them either. I'll revisit this after another update or three (0.5 maybe) if the current update size is any indication of the game volume.

Just finished the newest update and I played version 0.1 aswell and I like the changes the devs made quite alot. Graphically it's much better and I do prefer the writing in this version and would love for the dev to continue it like this. As it's only version 0.2, there isn't much content and the dev is focusing on changing whats already in the game to make it better quality aswell as progressing the story which I fully support, as the new changes are much better : ). Also, yes I did like the "fake cheating" story and I would for more stuff like that in future because teasing and roleplay are a vital part of NTS games in my opinion, they add spicy scenes for the pervs with little patience (most of us XD) they also progress the story well aswell as add to the characters personalities. So please add more stuff like that, it's always great! Just some ideas would be eluding that something more could of happened to a story she's previously told you when she starts going with others guys. (example would be she kissed a guy and stroked his cock through his jeans, but says more happened that she didn't tell us about. Or maybe the classic type of teasing like wearing certain clothing for other guys that you haven't seen, stuff like that!) Anyway, long ass review gone, carry on. Great game so far and thanks for making it. Much love! <3

Excellent start. The writing is very good and the visuals are great, especially the facial expressions. I was disappointed that it was so short but I'm sure the dev will add more soon. Hopefully they take it all the way and don't wuss out!