VN - Ren'Py - Couples [v0.30] [Neverlucky]

Couples has great renders and great sexual tension, a slow build up, but not so slow as to be frustrating.

Many complain about its story, and I agree that the story isn't the usual kind of story with drama and conflict.

But with a change of a reader's focus, the story can be very interesting!

The story ... such as it is ... is like a slice of ordinary life, cycles of breakfast and dinner scenes, and other repetitive weekly events such as working out and sometimes going to a club or other ordinary event.

But in the midst of these ordinary daily cycles, something perverted and sexual is developing between the couples.

It's the contrast between the scenes of ordinary life, the breakfasts, the dinners, the normal weekly events . . . and what is happening in the evenings . . . that gives this story its erotic kick.

The oddity of what is happening in the bedroom is contrasted with the conventional conversations at breakfast . . . and this causes a tension.

Also, each of the characters has a personality. Each speaks a certain way, and each has motives and interests.

Excellent renders, excellent personalities, and a unique development of tension through a different kind of perverse storytelling . . . put this in the top 80 percent of games. So, that should earn a five star rating.

English:............8/10
User Interface:.....3/10
User Experience:....6/10
Art:................6/10
Dialogue:...........2/10
Story:..............0/10
Opinion:............3/10................
Avg:.............4.0/10 [2.0/5]

The ABSOLUTE WORST thing a story, game, or any piece of entertainment media can be, is boring. And that almost goes double for something meant to be porn. You cannot tell me "Hello dear how was your day?" "Oh great how about yours?" "Good thanks, let's ask our housemates" and then go through that two more times for the other two is fun. You can't even tell me it's a story. This game is so mind-numbingly boring that there's not even a story to complain about. Every story ever told is more eventful that whatever is in this game. There's no problem. No journey. No allure. No nothing. This is literally "Haha, remember my first game that everyone liked? Here it is again. Haha." I was blissfully blind to the first game's issues, the last one was so unbelievably boring the only joy I got out of it was naming the baby "Loser." And this game is just as ungodly boring I can't stand it. If I have to read *Munch* *Munch* one more time I may scream. This dev also somehow made it so when you click to focus on the window it advances the text. After a little digging, they're using renpy 7.0. Which is a SEVEN YEAR old version. My god. Update, please.

I have to say, all the dialogue is written as if the person playing is blind. Think about that for a second. You wrote dialogue, that isn't voiced, for a blind person. Hello?! Every character narrates what they're doing currently. There's rarely a line saying something that isn't describing the current scene. I think MAYBE once or twice they say what they're immediately going to do, but even then that's still boring as sin. How do you write something so menial? I just want to understand. When MC meets Amy and Katie, they say things like "you fit well together" The only thing we've seen is them saying the foods good and the place is nice. There's no chemistry, no banter, no emotions. The closest we get, ever, is the question about embarrassing stories about Claire. Even then, because writing a backstory of anything other than "they were college lesbians together" is too hard and therefore disregarded. The dialogue amounts to one of pop culture reference, store reference, "*munch*," or idle pleasantries. At this point, all it's missing is a character saying "I like missionary sex" and someone replying "Kinky." I'm not gonna say basic sex is boring, but the way it's presented here is. It feels like they've all been married for 40 years and are going through the motions. The best I can say about this is if you have insomnia, this will put you to sleep. You can tape your CTRL key down, go make coffee and come back, and miss nothing.

I really can't stress how little there is to say about this game. By the time they even start TALKING about everyone having sex, you're either asleep or mentally checked out. Is the English good? Yeah. Bunch of simple typos, but good. The UI is untouched. The UX is too, but it's from such an old version of renpy that a few QOL things like not advancing during window focus and roll forward aren't in the game. The Art is lit very flat, the animations and poses are the same you see all the time and it just feels dated. Could you get your rocks off to this? Maybe, if boredom is your kink. The Dialogue and story are nonexistent. I'm actually asking for some dumb mafia story or something because there literally is no story here. My opinion should be obvious, I'm so bored that I can't feel anything for this. They even skip some of the sex. If you're skipping the sex, the story doesn't exist, and the characters don't have character what is the point?

Have played this a couple times through the different releases. The story line at it's base I actually enjoy, but the dialogue is so very mundane at many points that I find myself skipping unread text.

I understand the "boring" complaints...
BUT!!!....lol
There are plenty of other porn drama fueled NTR and incest games to occupy yourself with for months.
It's great to have a "normal" fantasy game that could almost be real...lol

This is a nice, wholesome, drama free VN, and it's a very welcome change from, well, everything else on this site...lol
The story is a little mundane, just daily, weekly life, it's repetitive and gets into a routine. And that's what is so great about it...
It's not flashy, just 4 everyday kind of people making their relationships work day in and day out, like this fantasy could actually be real, and you don't have to share the gf with another dude...lol

This is a vn I enjoy a lot. This game is a slow burn, too SLOW, romance betweem two poly (?) couples. This game start about two couples which down the line they start swinging (only between them) and only now, with this update it seems it's start to becoming a poly relationship. It's very slow and this is a problem of course even for me that I am a sucker for slow burn romance. This is a drama-free so if you want drama, couple fighting, or cheating this game it's not for you. There are a lot of mundane things, like for example everyday there are the breakfast scene, people may like it but the majority I think will not. The animation are not that great but the scenes are and they try to be always different. The models are great, especially Claire.
This update it was too late in my opinion, it should have been dropped months ago after the dialogue about changing the status quo of the relationship so I'm hoping to see in the next update the swift from swinging to poly.


PS: This game it's not NTR so please stop saying it is, stop asking for Claire to cheat and fuck everything please. And remember this is a kinetic novel, this is why there aren't any real choice.

PPS: Sorry for my broken english c.c

Reviewing v0.24

A novel with some below average adult content and a lot of boring conversations.

The novel is extremely simple as you will meet all the characters very quickly and live your life with them. Nothing exciting ever happens though so there is little reason to read this for entertainment.
The girls do look good and are the only value here. But the interaction with them is as dull as that you could have with a blowup doll.
As for the choices that exist, almost all of them boil down to choosing which boring topic you want to tackle first, but you have to go through both anyway to progress. Just a waste of time really.

So if you want to play a mundane simulator, with good looking models, sprinkled with some Fallout TV catchphrase, this is for you.
Otherwise you might want to look somewhere else.

I agree with most of the low rating reviews, this VN is a cure for insomnia... ZZzzz!

Renders are okay but the writing is lifeless; no plot, no spark or anticipation for what's coming next, no antagonist. It's just watching the boring daily routine of the main characters.

The worst game I've ever played, it's so bad that I just had to warn other people to not play this garbage.

All the dialog options can be basically summed into
1. Let's talk about last night
2. What do you wanna do tonight

Also who tf thought it's a good idea to put card games in a porn vn??!

Ooof... I should have known how this goes, given the Dev's prior game.

So, there's slice of life games that are really interesting. Nothing major happens, but the characters and their relationships draw you in and you become invested. This is not a game like that.

Nothing happens. The characters talk about mundane shit, do mundane shit, that's it. If I wanted to witness the boring tedium of a relationship, I'd go visit my brother's family.

This is not slow burn, there's nothing burning here. The carcass isn't even warm at this point.

Vanilla as you can get

Pros:

1. Nice models, cute, nothing flashy or over the top, simple, tasteful
2. Writing is good, and structured well, simple yet good.

Cons:

1. Boring, personally its not my cup of tea, its very long, has a lot of reading and is a really slow burn, pacing is not really good, almost too realistic in terms of having such an "open" relationship.
2. Sexual content is vanilla as can be, nothing changes much between characters and even with the same person its still pretty much the same.
3. Story is very simple and again BORING, you can speed through the game to the boring H scenes and you will notice a lot of the game plays of in the kitchen, living room, bedroom and at the gym...seriously...oh there is a club too, but nothing interesting happens.

The devs other games are pretty much the same, I actually found Triangle better than this one tbh and that is saying a lot.
Would rate it 2.5 but felt ill give it the 3 rather than a 2, but this is a little too boring for my liking.

A very slow game. I found myself skipping VERY early which is never a good sign.

I think the problem is the narrative is such a light touch. It takes a while before you understand what the game's for in the game itself. If you hadn't read the intro on the first post you'd have no idea where the story is going. It's so mundane. You're with a girl, you move in to a new place, she's got a friend, you go to work, you meet up for dinner. It's all very pedestrian, there's nothing to draw you in. I don't mean "hurr durr there's no sex scenes" (there is) but there's nothing that makes you want to turn the page so to speak. Like even the choices don't matter. It's not like "click this to influence the plot, click that to get points with character x" but more "what order do you want the dialogue to be shown in" but you need to click it all anyway so why bother? It's a case of choice for choices sake and it's completely unnecessary.

I think another issue I have is how static it feels. The characters are nice looking but they don't seem to be that animated. I'm not talking about animations but like when they're talking it's just the same face. There's no reactions. So your wife offers your spare room to her best friend, saving her from being homeless and she's got the same look on her face as if she's just been told the mail's been delivered. I mean Jesus, there's a scene where a lassie has an orgasm and what you get is a render of her stretching and she says "well that was nice" like she's just woken up from a nap. The dialogue is so wooden

Apparently post nut clarity sounds like this nowadays

*hmmm* Well that was nice. I feel great.
Yeah? It sure looked like you enjoyed it
Now it's your turn. Do you want to use the wand too? Or maybe you'd like me to eat your pussy? That's your favourite right?
Oh yes. I'd love that.

Like... what? No emotion, no energy. Like the characters themselves are reading from a script.

All in all I found the game lazy. As I mentioned the game's so static and it feels like corners are being cut. It's just a talking heads simulator with the occasional sex scene. Anything else is bare bones. You play a sexy wee game and there's instances where two characters kiss but more often than not you just see one of the characters doing it, in others a character removes some clothing but you don't see the character you just see other characters going "wow what a cute wee butt". A good story will show don't tell. This game tells.

Good Games a littel slow but good, visual can be better but i like it.
i'm excited to see further evolution of the story.
I'd like to see a foursome and more foot sex especialy between girls
Impatiently wating for the next release.

Interesting story, good graphics, steady updates. my only complaint is how 2D the characters feel. It seems like they have no feeling which is odd 4 a pair of couples who are swapping partners on a regular basis. You would think they would be closer emotionally, yet they still act like they r strangers.

Mundane sums up the story pretty well. So much wasted time getting nowhere. It's sad because the models are great, especially Katie. The male protagonist is about as bland as you can ask for and it's just incredibly unrealistic.

A couple in their 20's is moving in together in the city and they act like they're about to celebrate 20 years married. They have sex once in the first week, the rest is just a bunch of nothing. There's just no spark in the writing or even an inkling that shows passion between them. The male is just a very distant side character with zero libido, it's damn insulting.

Short summary:


This is a waste of time. The story drags on and on and its not fun, because of bad writing.


90% of the renders are the same 5-10 expressions on the girls, mixed with different backgrounds, repeated forever. The game is average to bad at everything it tries.



Good Things

• Some cute models
• Taboo or implied taboo is the only remotely intriguing thing about the whole game

Bad points

• Character development is bad
• Lighting, expressions, renders overall are flat and uninspiring
• The only details on the faces of the girls are freckles
• There are no choices of any consequences.

V0.18

ordinary is the word of the day

no surprise, just like this devs plots. their research needs work as the thing was never remade that i can find, as the 2011 movie was a direct prequel to the original movie. anyone who has seen both movies would know that, unless they ignored the plot. any remake of the classic would fall as flat as last weeks lemonade anyway as it would be all cgi greenscreen crap that looks as fake as a pornstars tits.

on a plus note, the dialogue is a step up from the teenage rubbish the dev pumped out previously and i find myself reading without my mind trying to kill itself. the dev is developing. nice
still stuck on the character dynamics though. practically their trademark now, which is neither a plus or a negative for me.

so with improved writing but non-improved plot, it is better than what came before. might be couple steps from being good, but it is mildly entertaining.
one to read when you don't want to think

Ah, Couples. A sequel 1000 years in the making.

I'm about an hour of playthrough into this and it very much feels like a modern reboot of A Knight's Tale (from here, referenced as AKT), a previous kinetic novel by Neverlucky. Yes, I will call it that. No, your choices absolutely, positively do not matter and will never matter. Stories from Neverlucky give you the illusion of choice by occasionally presenting options for flavor, but will then take your choice under advisement and either vary the next scene very slightly or the LI your character is speaking with, usually the SO--in AKT this was the wife, Cathy, while in Couples this is the girlfriend, Claire--will convince you to avoid either choice after the fact and go with her previously unmentioned option and will immediately return to the one path.

Here's an obvious proof from v0.19, but spoiler warning--if you haven't played v0.19, just know that the choice mentioned within changes nothing of the next event it supposedly influences: A partner swap depends on who wins the last poker hand in v0.19. You get a choice to call or fold the hand. In either case, Amy wins; the only difference is whether she beats you (call) or if she beats Claire and Katie (fold). Since Katie last spent time with MC during a swap, Amy is doing so this time. As usual, choice subverted.

If there is one thing I've learned about Neverlucky's stories, it is that the stories will be about normalizing the polycule. Write a story of polyamory so mundane, it'll feel like the most common thing imaginable. The polycule is the most interesting aspect of the story, but it's eased into slowly enough that it feels like the most natural thing in the world. If you don't mind the repetition required to make that seem the case--and there will be a lot of repetition in how the story is paced--then this is the game for you.

I'll start it off at 4 stars, just like I did with Neverlucky's previous entry. I may end up leaving it there or I may knock off the odd star depending on how old it gets repeating the same thing for hours of content.

For reference, AKT took me 3 weeks to go through, and I knocked off a star for how long it took. Knowing Neverlucky, I fully expect this to be how it goes, but we'll see.

Update: I went ahead and lowered my review to 3 stars.

The longer I play through this AVN, the more I wonder where it's headed. This normally wouldn't concern me, but that's usually because the story is exciting and each new installment leaves me wanting to know what happens in the next version. This is a concern in stories where there is no conflict resolution.

A good yarn requires ups and downs, some sort of conflict and a necessarily resolution--for good or ill--to that conflict. A resolution doesn't necessarily have to be the end of a story (for some, it's only the end to a part or episode; maybe the jumping off point for a sequel), but an ending story absolutely requires some sort of resolution, otherwise it feels like an unfinished tale. With AKT, we more or less knew what that was early on (AKT spoiler: an eventual recall of a regicidal son and the coronation of a newly elected king), but here we are left not knowing what is in either the short or long distance. We just don't know. Hell, we're not for sure if Neverlucky knows.

Now, I could be speaking out of turn as I'm not a patron--so I'm decidedly not his target audience--but does anyone in his community know if it's ever come up? I'd love to know if future ending ideas have at least been brainstormed and/or storyboarded. I'm sure I speak for more than myself in hoping that even if it's not in visual range, there is an ending planned just beyond the horizon. After all, no one intends to truly write the never-ending story. I like the general theme of "slice of life" stories, but until we have an idea what the purpose is, this is really just a normie swinger sim on rails. I'll keep playing until it ends... but for my part, it's mostly sunk cost fallacy: in for a penny...

PS: *Slurp*

PPS: We finally get our first real choice of the game in v0.24.

Your typical everyday - feel good game with no real storyline. Nothing out of the ordinary happens and pretty much the same as the other two games that I've played from this dev.
What sets this one apart from the rest (and not for the better) is the fact that the dev decided to hide most of the sex scenes behind a paywall now, so if you're not a patron you'll get like 10-20 dialogue boxes in front of black screens.
If you want a nice little game to kill some time I'd recommand to play the others.

About the only thing this game has going for it is the graphics. This story leaves me feeling this Dev's idea of a hot time is eating a bowl of spicy noodles.
There are plenty of people that feel Vanilla is too spicy for them, and this game fits the bill for that market...very bland and predictable storytelling.

my First rating a 3.5 but... after further updates now a 2.5, really hoped it would improve from a decent start but

Pros:

Started with Pretty good writing with a decent plot. Characters were relatable and look pretty good.
Scenes and settings make sense and the characters and story feel believable but...

Cons:
Becoming less interesting with each update, repetitive with no character growth.

A bit too wordy and bland, more intensity /risks needed.
Sex scenes are below average and seem short like they are not a priority.

This definitely could be better as the story comes off a bit boring and stale with no real intensity. Quite predictable unfortunately and not being rescued by the sex scenes which should be the reward for putting up with the wordiness but instead makes you feel quite bored.

Hopefully the Dev will spice things up a bit, throw some curves into the story-line. The characters swinging should have a bit more of a risk factor, new neighbours or introducing a main characters parents/inlaws into the mix would help perhaps. But gee make them more believable and less boring.

Definitely not ready to give up on this one yet as the Dev shows some writing talent and that seems more rare nowadays.