VN - Ren'Py - Corporate Culture [v0.7] [sqwl]

Absolutely brutal take on the daily grind of an average guy in his 30s. I didn’t expect this kind of storytelling or such an accurate portrayal of the theme in an 'adult' visual novel. It’s a real treat if you enjoy stories with some adult content sprinkled in just enough to keep things interesting. You’ll find the adult scenes are almost negligible, and you can totally skip them if you want—there are choices, with or without consequences. But the consequences aren’t about missing out on another sex scene; they actually impact the story, and it’s done brilliantly.

The corporate world is a mystery to many—some fear it, some get passionate about it, and some just don’t care. That’s why, for someone who’s not in that world, this can be a cool way to experience it, even just a bit. The dev has captured the reasoning behind human emotions beautifully. Not many can pull that off with this much effortless grace, especially that scene with the MC’s past pathetic life symbolized by the sofa—pure brilliance!

Oh, and one last thing—the ice queen has become one of my all-time favorite LIs. You might say the rich barbie inspires the MC, but the ice queen? She’s the one who inspires me. Best of luck to the dev!

Profoundly Deep & Absolutely Unique.

This is Exactly what I was looking for, and I couldn't have been more happy to find something like Corporate culture to meet that need.
This is NOT a sex game, at All. Infact its one of those narratively rich games that even if you removed all the sexual parts from, would still retain almost all the depth to it. If you are looking for a game for a quick fix, this ain't it Chief.
What it is though, is a very personal relatable story about Growth, Ambition, Morality, Understanding and Change. The Protagonist isn't some gifted god sent savior that makes everyone fall in love in one glance, in fact, this is the very opposite of that.
Everything takes time, has weight to it, just like real life, that is why it is one of the most immersive experiences I've had in any game, not just adult. In a way, it is adult and mature in its themes for makes you ponder and contemplate and think about your own future and life ahead.
The Dialogue is spectacular, witty, snappy and just perfect. The Characters are few and have depth instead of having 20 cardboard cutouts, and the overall pacing suits the style of the experience.

This is a kind of a story driven narrative I would play just for the story and themes, and it is way beyond just the sexual part, although ofcourse that means its not for everyone, and kudos for the dev for taking the plunge in making something different and sticking with it throughout.
Wholeheartedly recommend this, but not as a typical adult game, but as a story a lot many guys can relate to. A Gem.

Boring game, Unlikeable characters, pointless story. The main character is spineless, and all the choices give in dialog amount to the same thing, so the choices just seem like a time waste. This is a kinetic novel with added fake choices.

Corporate Culture is a visual novel that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty. The mc is flawed, and the world doesn't revolve around him. Thus making the game already miles above most of its peers.

But it goes further beyond. Be it the dialogs or the renders, there's meticulous planning involved in every aspect of CC.

Overall, (with an exception of some minor misses here and there,) almost everything about this VN works really well.

If "VNs with actual story" is something you like, then I highly recommend giving this a try.

This is the game that divides the forum. I don't really know how to put it into words, but you have to immerse yourself to truly appreciate this game, no girl is easy and will throw to you. And you won't either. The whole story is a chess game and every girl is really defined her personality. The game is on track but every interactions makes you feel on edge especially with Elsa, you literally can't see through her and this is what's make the game so alluring.

If you are here to play "skipping to a porn scene", go away and find some other game.

Really good game, I enjoyed it for the most part especially the writing. It was refreshing to play a real story that was well written. The character models look great as do the renders. Can't say much about animations because I didn't see any. There might be one with a LI I ended up turning down but I don't know.

- 1 star for not letting us rename the MC, you're stuck with "Edward". This is a basic function pretty much every beginner dev allows you to do. I used URM to change it but some people still call you "Eddie". Annoying.

-1 star for the ugly MC. I get he's supposed to be a loser but I'm pretty sure he's not supposed to stay that way and I don't see how you're going to make that happen using that character model.

All in all it's a good game if you play for the story, if you are looking for lewd content, there is none here. I didn't even see one tiddy throughout the whole game. I'm really tempted to reduce it by one more star due to this but the 2 stars wouldn't be doing it justice due to the good writing. If there isn't SOMETHING in the next update however, I'm going to have to take that star. These are supposed to be adult visual novels and I see no adult content here. You can let your children play this game.

Amazing story deep and thoughtful, nice characters and setting. The MC path is exciting as well. Only few stories here gave me the experience this one did. Amazing job looking forward for future updates

Corporate Culture 0.6

I've got mixed feelings on this one. For me thus far the story got split up into three identifiable sections.

In the very beginning, the MC is not only a loser but also really loathsome. IMO, there needed to be more of a show of some spark of humanity or kindness there in order to root for him to turn things around. Having the spitefulness in his inner monologues cranked up to a cartoonish level didn't help.

After a bit the MC does become a more interesting character, we learn about his background, and he starts to progress. During this section I felt things were generally paced well and I really enjoyed the dynamic between the MC and Elsa.

Things came to a grinding halt in my enjoyment sometime around the middle of the available releases (0.4 Dhaka I think). Some of the conversations with Elsa start to get to be unnecessarily tedious and incredibly drawn out. These conversations get to be mentally punishing and devoid of much feeling other than sometimes being annoyed as the player (especially when Elsa is getting away with gaslighting the MC into thinking he's being ridiculous for raising valid points and he just agrees). The sheer amount of things being discussed lessen any impact these back and forths could potentially have if they were more succinct and/or split up since by the time you get to the end of them you don't really remember a good amount of what was discussed let alone what the important parts might have been. Other than a few small moments there's very little to show that Elsa is anything but a nearly emotionless wise-beyond-her-years all knowing guide there to help the MC move up in the corporate world. She starts to seem more like an anime trope than actual character. I found this latter portion of the story to really slow things down and become an unenjoyable drag to get through.

I don't mind a good slow burn but this is starting to feel like a no-burn at this point. Things aren't really going anywhere with Alice yet and we barely know her making it hard to be invested in the MC's dream girl. Elsa and the MC do have some good tension built up but it's really hampered by the unnecessarily mind-numbing conversations mixed with her dominant arrogance and near-robotic demeanor starting to wear on me. Their relationship largely still feels like puppet and puppeteer. Lucy doesn't seem like a viable romantic interest and more of a sexual stepping stone for the out of practice MC to raise his confidence with (this could change, but wouldn't be a route I'd ever pursue). Best character atm is Tommy for being the only one to suggest the MC see a shrink (he should really drag him to the gym as well).

The writing for this AVN has been lauded in reviews thus far and it's the biggest strength and weakness. The story is an interesting one with lots of relatable elements but the writing style itself, while it has its moments, isn't anything spectacular. Execution of the story really starts to falter and get too drawn out after the midway point of what's been done so far. There are good moments and humor generally lands but is used very sparingly. There's really nothing else going on to make this stand out - visually it's decent at best, the music and sound aren't anything special, the choices make it hard to tell what's going on with them without reading through the script files (even with the WT mod), and the adult scenes which aren't really a focus of this AVN (only real ones are with Lucy the neighbor) are neither horrible nor particularly stimulating.

I'd like to give this a try again when it's done but for anyone else thinking of trying I would recommend waiting until a later version.

Yet another game I think is overrated.

I mean, it's one of those games which sacrifice lewds for story. Well, that is always a great risk: sex is one of those pillars on which an AVN stands, and, if you remove one of them, you better make sure that all the other pillars are extra sturdy, otherwise the AVN building will shake and eventually crumble. So, in exchange for sex being limited, I want a likeable MC, great writing with lots of humor, and, of course, adventure with tons of action! A good mystery, horror or thriller will suffice too.

And what do we have here? We have the ugliest and the most pathetic MC I've ever seen, obsessed with a girl he met once, and trying to change his life for her. Not because his life needs change, not because his self-respect awakened. Just for her, a person who barely knows him. What a stupid motivation for a guy his age; it'd be viable for a 18-year old boy, but for a nearly 30 y.o. man? Nah. The MC is so pathetic that I didn't even feel NTR-d when other guys were more successful with women than him. I mean, it's completely justified, I don't want this guy to succeed, and if I don't want the MC to succeed, what's the point in playing at all? The character of Elsa is interesting, but she's not enough to save this game in my eyes; to accomplish this, she should've been the MC, not Eddie.

To summarize:

Pros:
1) Good (but not great) graphics
2) Good (but not great) story and writing.
3) Specific girl: Elsa.

Cons:
1) Ugliest MC I've ever seen.
2) Most pathetic MC I've ever seen.
3) Sex is extremely limited, only 1 girl has it.
4) By proxy from p. 3, the selection of LIs is extremely limited too. A crush who'll never notice the MC, a smart friend who isn't really interested in the MC romantically (I mean, for good reason), and a fucky neighbour. That's it.
5) The story isn't exciting enough. Just office days, not much happening, and no details on what the MC actually does for work. I mean, if you want to concentrate on office, may as well tell us the gist of his profession to enlighten us! What, no? ... It's like grind without the grind.

So, just 2 stars, for decent overall production quality. The lack of sex must be compensated, and CC just doesn't handle the compensation.

Brilliant Game. I love the office politics. Great look and story for the game.

I can not praise this game enough to give an enough credit.

Just a great human story with good graphics and some good sex images.

Just a bit of pity that the games is not been updated in nine months. Hope for new updates.

Great story! So far the best game to have ever touched this corporate VN genre. The LIs are amazingly beautiful but the game lacks content as of now. One of the most promising games for me personally, and it's good for a wank.

phenomenal storytelling, i can't wait to read more.

would 100% recommend to anyone and everyone, it's so good. loving the non-US perspective too, you don't see that often here. please keep up the amazing world, i am so happy to support you

Long overdue review. This game is S-tier. Top quality renders, actual story in a non-generic amnesia / dead father environment, MC shows proper character development, other characters are much less one-dimensional than most other VNs...

Other than the flashback scene which was equal parts unnecessary, too long and boring, I have no complaints about this game.

One of my best ongoing games right now. Eagerly waiting for updates!

Go team Elsa <3

Very well written vn, it is really up there with the best vns like Dik, pale carnations,Unbroken etc.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have the recognition it deserves. If you wanted a game full of sex scenes this is NOT for you. However, if you love good writing story line, great characters with development, and some great looking renders-characters this is a match made in heaven.

Interesting storyline. Recommended.

I'm curious to see where the story is going - I agree with a previous review that it can be a bit indulgent and rambling - the sofa scene was was a bit tedious - but I think the author is experimenting with this as a work in progress.

Short summary:


I can’t believe the game is 4 years old. This adult visual novel is super heavy on the “novel” part and almost nothing on the “adult” part. Some people claim the writing is great, but to me it seemed boring and self-indulgent. Doesn’t help that MC is ugly and boring.



Good Things

• Realistic story and situations
• Some characters are written well

Bad points

• Girls are just ok, MC is terrible
• Very heavy on “alpha” vs “looser” choices, some pretty bizzare
• Not much exciting stuff happens here
• Most dialogue is very long sequences of text, with 2 frames changing slightly
• Only sex scenes are with a neighbor that I didn’t like
• Renders are pretty boring mostly, lighting and expressions are bland

An interesting game with beautiful renders. A lot of work seems to have gone into the story. The dynamic between Edward's obsession with Alice and Elsa's cunning intellect quietly propelling Edward upwards is something I would expect to see in a well-written novel, not an h-game.

Still, in my opinion the dialogue and the protagonist's thoughts both have a tendency to ramble. It's witty, intellectual, and sometimes funny but so much of it turns into psychotherapy and tangents. Considering Elsa's personality and the way Edward thinks, that's not surprising but it began to lose me after a while. The flashback sequence with the couch was especially boring, which may have been the point but it felt weirdly paced compared to the everything up until then.
Corporate politics don't really interest me either but I still think the world building is interesting enough.

The renders are really well done but I feel like some animation would make them even better. The focus on legs and feet is very nice. To me, there's a bit too much of an emphasis on narrative instead of sex. I was really hoping for something more with Elsa, or at least scenes with someone else besides just Lucy.

Very good overall but short of being one of the best.

i was baited into playing by renders suspiciously focused on feet and legs. ended up skipping through the game, but can still recommend it if you like those two body parts in particular. there is no sexual feet content, but the game does come with a number of renders showing feet and legs. some are very much focused on them as well, some have this femdom vibe too which is nice and like 95% of those few renders iniclude high heels which is cool. imo it's a bit suspicious how subtle they can get, almost as if the author himself was a fan too, but decided ro be very cautious in how far can he go in order to keep the game SFW.
still much better than many games that just ignore that stuff completely. worth to check out just because of that imo.

Story is absolutely fantastic. A bit dark but very entertaining.
I'd deals with a lot of darker part of life like self isolation but dose so in a way that keeps you entertained.

The relationships between the people in the story is done in a very believable way where no one feels like their part in the story is just to be there, but serve a purpose, to drive the story forward.
Also, the actions the MC makes in the story feels like they truly are affecting the world around him. It turns characters in the story from someone that is just black or white to someone that had ulterior motives or underlying feelings that was not made clear from the start.

Very happy to have stumbled upon this avn and I'm looking forward to seeing this story progress

This game is an adventure. It's one of the very few AVN, for which I have no idea how the story will unfold. Great dialogues, unique characters, good renders (and improving with every next episode) and interesting story. The only downside of this game is the development speed. All together - it is one of my most favourite AVNs