VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Confusion [v1.0.1] [AVNSnax]

I want to preface this review by saying that I am writing this from the perspective of a trans woman and someone who enjoys more intricately written AVNs. I understand that not a lot of people look for the same things as I do so I'll briefly touch on the more superficial aspects of the game.

I think the developer put in a lot of effort in trying to write a realistic and believable story involving a teenager transitioning; indeed, a lot of the struggles portrayed in this game (simply wanting to exist, experiencing bigotry, being sexualized without consent) are ones that strike a bit too close to home for me. I appreciate that even in a game that certainly contains more fantastical content (incest, harem), the developer strives to maintain this realism. I also really like that the developer writes a lot of small things well - one example I'll give is Alex cutting her hair after her assault as a means of regaining some (perceived but nonetheless valid) control over her body. Though seemingly trivial, when enough small things are written well, it lends to an overall more enjoyable consumption.

There aren't as many sex scenes relative to a lot of the other AVNs I've played, and they are largely concentrated in the second half of the game. Most of them aren't animated as well, though I think the renders are done well enough to be enjoyable anyway. I also agree with a lot of the other reviews about the kineticism of the story. Your choices do matter insofar as influencing smaller story beats and seeing a few different renders, but the game leads you to the same epilogue regardless.

If you're looking for a goon and go, this might not be it for you. If you're looking for a smaller window into the experience of being a trans person, the first half of the game will do so. If you want to indulge in an incest and harem fantasy especially from a trans protagonist, the second half of the game will fulfill that. Under those constraints, I'd actually rate this game a 5/5.

I have two big issues with the plot of this game. First, I think the developer attempts to have their cake and eat it too with regards to the emotional tone of the story. I found the first half of the game was incredibly well-written, especially the sexual angst that Alex faces due to her lack of experience. Unfortunately, I started to get tonal whiplash as the game went on. Virtually every female character in the game is seemingly hypnotised by Alex's cock, and it somewhat devolves into a stereotypical harem game. I also did not enjoy Ellie's rape and how she ends up by the epilogue. I understand that this is meant to be cathartic to the viewer and a form of retributive justice enacted upon her because of how she treated Alex, but I cannot help but empathise with her. She was sexually assaulted by her father as a child repeatedly, and subsequently neglected by both parents. Yes, her vitriolic bigotry towards Alex is reprehensible and her masterminding Alex's assault is similarly awful, but I find no pleasure in seeing her fall victim to the same person with whom she conspired with. Ironically, these are only issues I have because the first half of the game set my expectations very highly.

The second issue I have is Alex opting to undergo a vaginoplasty in the epilogue. This event is a kinetic one, even though you are given the illusion of choice prior. Indeed, even if you choose for Alex to not have bottom dysphoria (and she would say within the narrative that "it doesn't matter what I have"), your choice is inconsequential. I think this subtly pushes the narrative that you need to have a vagina to truly be happy as a woman, which invalidates a lot of the prior messaging and is also one I disagree with.

Ultimately, this is closer to a 3 or 3.5 for me, but upon further reflection I do want to commend the developer for trying to create a trans-positive game. Though I think some of the execution in this was clumsy, I think there were a lot of positives and I'm very excited to see what they do next.

This game is topnotch, the angst, the story behind it, the growth, the pain that alex has to go to is for all of us to feel, and no human can't just empathize with her.
I loved it, the characters (besides kevin who's face i've seen once too many time fully zoomed on my screen) are likable, or hatable, but memorable and you easily get attached to them.
My only negative feeling about the game is that it ends way too quickly and the jump to the future happens out of the blue, maybe it's just me but i wish the game went on for a little bit longer and had a little bit more to it, and i truly hope one day you get the time to fill the20 years gap or explore other characters ! Also big props to the character models, would take Alex on a date anyday !

Unique game with cohesive writing. It is quite dark at times though it's earned its darkness. Unlike some games that would flashback to a characters' family dying on them and their only hobo friend being taken away for no particular reason other than to create drama, here the darkness and the accompanying drama are appropriate given the game's theme.

The theme, the struggles of a transgirl, is again unique: I don't know if there's another game on the site with an actual trans (not futa/dickgirl/lab experiment etc.) MC, even more so a VN.


!!!SPOILER!!!

I hate the ending: I find it unnecessarily "drama-farmy" to split a happy harem in the epilogue. While the way events unfolded is maybe the most likely outcome, it is simply one of the ways the things could play out. Moreover, the girls' attraction to the MC is not particularly realistic, so I don't see how the need for realism would suddenly arise in the epilogue. Nevertheless, this is more of a personal preference.

The only actual downside, in my opinion, is the lack of sex scenes. Lack might not even be the right word, but given the overall atmosphere, at times very daunting, the scenes either weren't uplifting enough or sometimes felt "tacked on" to justify calling the VN porn.

I would hope everyone is looking forward to your next project, those of us that went through the journey of "Confusion". I could honestly post a few paragraphs about it but I feel its best to say summarize it. A few words certainly comes to mind... WOW, simply inspiring and phenomenal the story was full of life, depth and compassion. Ive stated before every now and again you come across a story that just hits home, knocks it out of the ballpark one that you sit and THINK about after its gone. Its a journey that I did not expect and am glad to have read. Thank you for sharing it with the community it has gone down as one of my favorite story driven VN. I'm eager to see your next story in "Forgotten" and any future works you share.

True passion in one's work cant be rushed it gets finished when its finished. I would rather it be released when your happy with it rather then rush in hopes of saving time, I would hope others are of similar mind within F95. thank you for the wonderful story and for you sharing something important that most don't either understand or see that exist. I must agree in the hope others do have a better understanding and appreciation for the trials and tribulations of LGBT after going through the journey of Confusion

This is mostly a sad story of drama and trauma (dev did warn us and they weren't wrong). I got up to I think chapter 6 or something () and I just couldn't keep going. It just gave me the creeps.

The game hits on some sensitive topics for sure. It is however VERY stereotypical with the bigots. Almost comedically so in the case of Kevin and his father.

It is a sad story and when the dev said that this isn't a fap fest, I do agree. The sex scenes are spicy and interesting, but how they come about make it seem like everyone is under a lust spell. It's almost as if the MC's cock has a magical property, anyone that looks at it is suddenly under it's spell. It just seems more than pure fetishization, but I guess it gets the harem moving along.

I feel like this could have been a game in it's own right with less fixation on sex. It's got a decent story about someone struggling being trans, but it plays into tropes, stereotypes, and losses a lot focus on conveying it's message with everyone's (borderline supernatural) sexual fixation on Alix.

I loved this game. It's not fap-able a whole lot; it's got H scenes yes but a lot of Hard Topics and Emotional scenes in there as well, but it's got a good message to spread and it does so well, I think. I think there should be more games like this.

Graphically the game is very nice and the renderings are very well done. Maybe it's the faces of some characters that are a little ugly in some scenes but overall it's a good nine out of ten.

The story is well crafted and extremely realistic, with very dark tones and heavy themes to tackle. The problem is that it becomes a bit too realistic, forgetting that it's a video game and that there's a player on the other end actually playing it.
The choices in the game are few to allow the narrative to flow realistically and more or less naturally. However, while maintaining some small variations, the story remains very similar to that of a kinetic novel. The choices you're given don't lead to changes substantial enough to be able to say, "I left my mark on this story," thus leading to a rather unsatisfying ending precisely because you don't feel much personalization or the impact of your choices.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of "20 Years Later"-style endings where we see the protagonists aged and the bonds with the other characters dissolve because everyone has moved on, but that's a personal consideration that I didn't want to factor into the score.

In conclusion, I consider it an excellent story but a terrible erotic game ahahah.

I would like to thank all the warnings included before playing, which effectively present this story with the heavy and realistic tones it is intended to be.

I CAME HERE TO FAP NOT TO FEEL

seriously, this is amazing storytelling, but holy shit is it DARK. It reflects the real world plight of trans girls, and just how fucking fucked the world can be for them. As a person who has trans girlfriends and is a bit of one myself... This one cut close to home. Well done Dev. 10/10. No notes.

The journey was pretty good for the most part. The characters, story, and sex scenes were pretty good. I felt the ending was a bit rushed, some choices being there for the sake of being there, and how "kinetic" it seems with a few variations.

Wish i could give a 3.5 but can't.

Cant say i liked all that much of this one, story dident really do anything for me and its just to kinetic for my taste as well, you do get a few choices but your forced into relationships and sex scenes with people you couldent care less about, like Chris i wouldent want anything to do with her but did like the red head but only way to really be with her is in a 3 way relationship since Chris s apprently forced on you no matter if you go good or bad routes.

The hole Zoey story and drama also wasent really needed, she was proberly the only one i cared even a little about but that turns into some weird rape drama where you can forgive her alot later in game, but before that your forced into relationships i dident give a shit about and dident want, so it was very boring to play through when you dont care about 80% of the story and people.

As for the girls they dident really do much for me either, they look bland and boring and pretty much all the same build which dosent help any.

I had higher hope for this one, since it talks about putting story first so i expected to be alot more in controle of things, but that just isent the case and i truely hate kinetic games and never play them which is why its always such a let down when a so called story driven game turns kinetic.

Excellent piece. I could go on writing paragraphs on how and why this is a good game but in short, a futa-disliker like me loved this game and read through the dialogues. The emotions, distinct characters, turned tables. Just bravo, really bravo. Hats off!

The...game...seems...to...be...okay...however...there...is...a...nuance...the author...really...loves...dramatic..................pauses...)))
Almost every sentence and absolutely every scene has "..." these three dots. At first you don't pay attention to it, but over time it starts to seriously irritate.

You could say it's a heavy drama, but in reality, it's a forced drama. The plot tries to show how bad homophobia is, but in the end, it's nothing more than a feminist thought about men. All the male characters in the AVN are completely retarded, giving the impression that society is better without men. The renderings are great, but any facial expression on the characters causes a bizarre distortion that makes them unrecognizable and ugly. Nice animated sex scenes. The AVN is not bad, but solid average.

This is a really great story. More than the story itself, I think anyone who wants to raise children should see this. More than half of the trouble in this story is due to a parent. Especially how Kevin turned out. If his mom were alive or his dad was an empathetic person who understood others and supported his child, then he might've become Alex's friend and become a trans or at least a decent human being. His father trying to kill him for being anything but straight made him fear his sexuality, which he, in turn, took out on someone who was going through it. This could be written as a book and still would be good. This is a game that anyone who wants to be a parent should be playing. For me it was a really touching story, and storywise a top 3.

P.S. Still would have liked at least a mini harem with Chris, Sammy, Becca, and Zoey in it.

A compelling story, I couldn't put it down.
Some antagonists were over-the-top caricatures of their archetype, but that served to bludgeon home the story points.
Overall it has high quality rendering, though I foun that the tears could have been better.

Imagine the Catholic Church made a heavily ideological game about traditional values. This is the "progressive" equivalent to that nightmare. I can not think of a more disgustingly repulsive main character. The story gives you enough background to feel for Alex, the protagonist. She is clearly tormented by personality issues (way too passive) and bullying. She also has a mostly supportive family, maybe too much so.
What makes this story repugnant is how Alex reacts to everything. Like a spoiled, entitled brat. Forgiving? Even in the "Angel" route you get the most self centered ideologically driven justifications to guilt trip anyone who makes a mistake or doesn't comply with out of the norm behavior.

The characters make no sense and behave in irrational ways that only make sense when you assume the ideologically toxic mentality of the protagonist or people like the protagonist. Elliot is probably the best character in the game, and the one horrible decision he makes doesn't fit with anything we learn about him, before or after. The game ALMOST gets something right by showcasing how the protagonists deception towards him was unethical. Her sister had the same experience, but she had the benefit of being close to someone who shared the same features, so it was easy for her to let it go.
The behavior of humiliating someone who says sorry and shows remorse is disgraceful. If you think the behavior can't be forgiven, say so and move on.

I decided to give this a chance because the developer mentioned how adult content was there, but would not be the focus. I like story driven games, but propaganda mixed with bad writing isn't my cup of tea.

The scenes are decent, but adult scenes shouldn't be the best thing about your game when you promote it as a story first experience.

The villains are all caricatures, they all tick the boxes you would expect.
To finish off, the protagonist has a weird trajectory. I don't know how this even goes through "HR" but Alex acts more and more like a guy, especially if you pick the more "evil" options. Was it really necessary for the protagonist to act like a horny dude? This protagonist ends up as the most toxic version of a trans woman, almost a caricature. Among people critic of the "trans community", many are critical especially of people who behave like the protagonist, with many trans people also disliking this behavior of acting like a horny guy while claiming to be a woman.

That would not be a problem if we had an alternative route, but the angel route is just a less rude version of the protagonist,but actions stay mostly the same.

The epilogue gave me chills, it looks more like what an evangelical radical thinks of trans people who have children. What are the odds of a trans person having a trans child? Depending on the numbers,a trans person would need to have between 95 and 98 children on average to get one trans child. Anything above those odds can only be proof of something twisted going on (same goes for schools).

I wanted a good story with this kind of framing, but this game manages to make the writers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard blush with embarrassment.

EDIT: Reading this again, I noticed how my review didn't explain my claim that Alex is a disgusting protagonist. I love playing games with different settings. Evil protagonists can be super fun to read. What makes Alex horrible is how self centered she is. It's evil behavior being excused and brushed off. It's the defilement of the good (forgiveness, tolerance) in service of ideology. What makes the story horrible, beyond what I mentioned before, is the extreme position it takes on its core topic and how the story develops in a way that puts the entire trans thing in question. The protagonist starts taking puberty blockers and hormones as a CHILD. As expected, they get libido suppression and no sexual arousal for years. When the protagonist starts having sexual arousal, everything about it matches male behavior. It's almost as if a CHILD should go THROUGH PUBERTY before they make decisions about sexuality. The game is a perfect refutation of these horrible practices on kids, and yet it ends with the cycle repeating itself.

What can I say? It was shit.

Totally nor worth your time.
It's not a sex game, it's a game about tears with sex.

The story... doesn't matter. There are far too much lines of text without any reason to read them or sympathize with characters.
Even worse, wherever I stopped skipping, I was greeted with more crying and flashbacks of bulling.

More than that, the main drama is blown out of thin air, as people do not act that way.

It's all crying and tears with some light teasing for about 4 chapters, then there are some good scenes for the next two chapters.

And then the game remembers, that it's a shitty rape-drama story and it all ends?

Did I get my fap?
1 in 3 hours of skipping text.

As such, I strongly suggest you skip this... em... thing? It's neither a story or a game, so... thing?

Confusion: aka a mentally unwell individuals wet dream, involving a man who thinks they are a girl all because they played dress up and was subsequently encouraged to do so, enabled to go on hormones at a young age, thus ruining and stunting their development and thus causing them to be bullied for their life until recent times. In addition, the preachment of 'all males are worst than Hitler' save for one character, entirely embodies the notion and belief that the vast majority of males are seemingly horrible human beings who are all toxic. Apparently there aren't any who are such as myself who are indifferent or in the middle ground on such matter.

But lets get to the heart of the problem, besides the forcing us into a relationship with our twin and lack of actual options on who we wish to end up with, including the self righteous monotone on social issues, not to mention the ending where our possible first born is practically groomed into becoming a transgender individual, this story and game more or less reeks of attempted validation of a character written to be pitied on simply because they identify as a girl, yet has heterosexual sex with most of a available characters. While of course foster the stereotypical onsets such as the main antagonists being 'into trans'.... lets me correct that... being into crossdressing males.

Graphics wise, it's entirely hit and miss. Some moments look good. Others down right horrible. Even some of the facial expressions and camera zooms make me truly question how the Dev believed it was a good idea to have in the first place.

Character wise, it's all over the fucking place. Your twin is your only real choice. No one else matters, barring of course you go with pulling out. Sam would have been a solid pick but of course, can't have that. Mom and Aunt get one moment of time before vanishing off.

And of course all the male characters, spare one, as I mentioned prior, are made out to be the most unlikeable of characters imaginable. And even with one characters 'forced' redemption, is left by the way side. And of course the father, who sure is a real piece of work, spoiler alert, dies alone and gets the fuck you treatment.

In short, if you want to enjoy a panderment of a heterosexual male thinking they are a female and seeing how they were over the top bullied because they were encouraged and enabled by their mother to become who they are, while lacked actual true choices in who we fully end up with, feel free to do so. Had the game had more actual options and choices and not gone full on heavy with the guilt/pity party of the character, I'd probably say this game maybe had a chance to be a niche little game. Unfortunately thats wasn't the case.

It's a terrible game. I rarely abandon games half-way through but this one was it. Story is nonsensical, too much random crying, random flashbacks which nobody asked for, stereotypical and one-dimensional characters, and forced non-choices (why does MC have to reject Zoey's awkward advance?). Renders are poor quality, some face expressions are outright frightening and make characters look like Joker on crack.
There are better futa games, better incest games and better 'emotional story' games here. Play them, avoid this one.

This is just a very unsexy angst simulator where the protagonist is a martyr going against a world where men suck. It's bad as a porn game, and it's bad as a regular visual novel as well. If you're here for the porn, be warned that the sex scenes are few and far between, and even when you finally do get one, the scene is still muddled by an unavoidable air of melancholy and pain, and the constant flashbacks only make matters worse.

If you're here for the story, there might be something you'll enjoy if you're particularly enthralled by the journey of a trans woman who gets wronged, bullied and abandoned at every turn. Personally not my cup of tea, though. The whole "everyone hates me and I want to die" thing just gets old really quickly, and the only options are to be passive or be an asshole to them as well.

The renders look dated and lazy. It's basically just vanilla Daz 3D, which includes the "plastic" looking anatomy and generic character designs.

It may sound like I'm being harsh, but truly I just can't force myself to give a more glowing review when I barely see any redeeming features about this game. It's unique, that's for sure, but it's just not something I'd recommend to anyone. The story is too sappy with minimal payback and the porn is drowned by the constant angst and melancholy. It failed to keep me hooked on both fronts, and for that it gets one star.