VN - Ren'Py - Cross Realms [v0.3.0 Public] [DuskDuck]

Review for v0.2.1

Cross Realms is a cultivation-based AVN, a genre I've been wanting to see explored in the lewd game world for a long time now. Truthfully there's a decent amount about this game I'm forgiving in a sense because of that. I do not think this is without flaws, nor is it the dream cultivation lewd game I've been waiting for. However as far as the average AVN goes and the fact that there really aren't any other good cultivation lewd games, this scratches that itch for one well enough.

Now I'm no cultivation expert, but even from my limited knowledge this game is pretty much the Xianxia classic. If you know anything about the genre you already have a good idea of what to expect, but if you don't the simplest way to put it is that this game is an over-the-top power fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology and culture among other things (google will explain it a lot better than me). The game does establish the setting well. One of the best aspects of this is probably all the different unique assets it uses for the renders. The environments, outfits, special effects, etc. etc. all come together to form a pretty fresh feel even if you've played a lot of other AVNs. They just look good in general as well, there's a lot of effort going into them.

I'm going to be real, the story and writing is average at best thus far. This is my problem with Cross Realms. The MC is as dull as a doorknob and suffers from his personality being the typical AVN nice guy who's a little pervy and is motivated by the power of "wanting to protect my friends!!!" Most of the girls are very surface level and quickly get sidelined, causing very few of them to actually feel relevant let alone get me attached to them. Ignore the cultivation theme for a second, and it plays very close to a lot of other power fantasy plots you've likely seen before. MC get's isekai'd (which I think is lame) and surprise surprise he's very special with insane talent because he has a mysterious parent. There's really just a general lack of complexity to the writing and characters of this and I find it kind of boring. I will say the little twist at the end of this version has potential to shake things up but I can't say I'm super confident about it.

The same kind of issue plays into the sex stuff for the game as well. As I mentioned, I'm not very attached to any of the love interests yet and the game is already a couple hours long. Sex scenes so far felt like random whims the dev threw in because he needed lewd stuff. They just don't feel intimate. Not to mention they're just pretty bog standard overall.

Now while these are pretty unfortunate drawbacks for me, I was able to personally push past it and still enjoy the game for what it is. Another big part of the game and a staple of the genre is the fights and action. It's probably one of the things this does best. It can be a bit hard to follow sometimes, but overall it's fun and engaging for a visual novel.

The four star rating is a bit tentative right now. I like aspects of this game and want to be fully into it, but I need to see the writing improve a bit in both the story and for the girls. I'll take this over the average incest slop game for sure, but there's room to grow and I want to see this get there.

Didn't think it would be at first, but the story and world building are really engaging. I'm hoping there is more exposition on and exploration of the nature Qi Cultivation coming up. Maybe some dark twists. Cost of power type stuff. And tie at all back to quality AVN fan service.

Great game. Both the story and the art are excellent! Story is very in depth both for the world building as well as the depth of all the main characters. Characters are all unique but all interesting it impossible just to only go after one. I can not wait for next update!

Despite being only at v0.2.1 at the time of writing there is quite a bunch of content. I suppose this has to do with the engine switch from Unreal to Ren'py. The former I have not checked out. This is just for the Ren'py stuff.

First and foremost, I gave this a try because the screenshots and ratings looked quite decent. Normally I'm not a fan of this cultivation theme, since far too many power ups are delivered by dumb ex-machina, it is kind of a genre thing. So far that is decently ok here, nothing too crazy, but some genre clichés do get attended to. My personal and a bit biased opinion is that the story is ok so far but nothing to write home about. It is still quite early in the grand scheme of things teased at. So I may change my opinion based on later updates.

The renders are quite good on the other hand. The scenery around the mountains and such is well done and I really got the feeling of being high up in the sky. Immersion is definitely a strong point. Really liked that. The visuals especially during combat is where it all shines in my opinion. This part is exceedingly well done and fun to follow. The sound design was very good and generally emphasizes the theme very well. Effects help give impact to the combat as well.

The character design is great as well. Characters are quite distinct and interesting and they look pretty good, too. Costumes especially were given a lot of thought and focus. Dialogues can be a bit hit or miss though.

I personally liked the presentation of the lewd scenes. It is more on the slow burning side but still offers some juice regardless. I like that. It generally fit in well I would say. No mindless fuckfest and characters behave according to their personality.

With the ups and downs I was really torn between giving this 4 or 5 stars really it is more 4.5 for me. I'm giving it some benefit of the doubt here because of my own bias towards wuxia. There are surely some rough edges in here but the hard work that was put in does show and it deserved the better rating in my opinion. Particularly if you are a fan of wuxia/cultivation this is surely a great hit. Experience may differ otherwise.
Will follow this for more since it did surprise me positively.
Dev seems to be around so props to some honest and good work and keep it up!

Cheers =)

Review V0.2.1
When I reached the end of this game, I honestly felt sad that there wasnt more. This game was so amazing, I just wanted to keep playing for hours and hours.

Lets get into it. I think that the best thing about this game is the story in itself. The story is so unique and well though out. There are so many different realms, factions and places to discover. It really makes me excited about what's to come. I also feel like the game does a good job making the hierarchy and legendary figures come alive by the way the people interact in the game and the way that is spoken about legendary figures from the past. It makes the fantasy world really come alive and adds to the immersion. Among the best storylines I've seen on this site by far.

Furthermore, this amazing storyline makes spaces for interesting characters with unique backgrounds. The charachters therefore have unique interests, personalities and powers. The love interests are therefore interesting frankly amazing.

The graphics in this game are also well done. Very creative and each faction has their own distinct things about them. The fights look absolutely epic and the places/backgrounds are all done with an solid amount of care.

Also great add of the quick menu about the Qi-levels, used it a lot while playing the game. Really helped putting the dialogue in perspective in regards to the hierarchy.

I cant find anything to critiscize in this game. This game is honestly perfect to me and the only thing for me to say is. Dev great job and you... play this game right now, because you wont regret it.

Version 0.2.1 :

It took me about 30 minutes t really start to enjoy this AVN. Why ? Because dialogs and charaters interactions are well behind the render and animations quality. But I got used to it as it in some ways fit to the setup.

I used to read quite a lot of Chinese LN with this knid of setup, based on chinese cultivations. And on those it was quite the same pace, you have an introduction about the differents level of cultivation but not too deep, just a hierarchie and that's it. Dialogs are usually not the best but the story goes on, almost without rest. The MC is kinda OP compared to his pairs and there is quite a lot of skip in time.

I feel this AVN follow this route and I love it. But not as far as giving 5 stars, it needs IMO improvements in dialogs as some can be kindy poor and hard to follow the real intent.

Without the greet characters design, all the good combats animations and lovely Li's this game would easily drop to 3 stars.

Great Game! Models are top notch, the story is great nice! It has a lot of quality comparing with 98% of all the games available in this plattform. I just hope the DEV doesn't abandone the game , cause it will easly get to the TOP 5 of this site! Thank you for your game!

As a huge fan of wuxia, xianxia and murim comics, this VN is an extremely awesome surprise. The quality of the battles is awesome and I did not expect so much to be packed into Chapter 2, this was simply an awesome update.

I am hoping that as the MC levels up, the ladies will also keep up so that the future team battles continue to be epic. I am all for an MC that can eventually beat everyone and everything but I love a good fight against an opponent that requires all hands on deck like2 of the fights that occur in this recent chapter(2). The strength chart helps you keep in mind the strength levels so you don't get confused and I love that. I hope the strength progression will be done well for all characters (especially the love interests since they are here for the long run) so that it doesn't look like a cheap gimmick. We already have a good idea of how the MC's progression will flow with some of the revelations that occurred .

I love the cast of main and side characters so far and as the mystery behind the MC's background is further explored, the story keeps opening up to greater heights. I seriously hope the MC will develop meaningful relationships with more than just the love interests, a couple of more awesome characters like Cassian (the real MVP) and Felix (dude's a bro) will be awesome.

The cast of ladies so far is pretty good, you have a diverse rage of personalities and looks ranging from cute to downright sexy (loved the reveal of the last romanceable girl). I am looking forward to how the harem will come together.

All in all, just read it if you are looking forward to an excellent zero to hero story with some awesome action scenes and a harem of lovely ladies.

This was surprisingly good. This is not a genre I have much experience with, nor is it one that I really care to explore. Despite this, I still enjoyed the game.

Graphically the render quality it is quite good. It's an indie AVN, so you sometimes have to be lenient with this, but in general the environments and characters consistently look great.

In addition to this, the UI is beautifully done. It's slick, stylized and makes the game feel premium. This is something that all AVN's should look to do more, as I feel it has a massive impact on how the game feels. Nothing diminishes an otherwise good game more than clunky/ugly UI.

The plot is super meh. Gary Stu MC gets isekaid into a cultivation setting. People are out to get him for unknown reasons. There isn't much to really grab you here. There is ofc the MC's mysterious mother, but it's not a particularly intriguing plotline. Frankly, the plot serves more as a vehicle for fans of the genre to enjoy the setting and it's trappings, and that's ok.

The characters are also a bit one-note, and on top of that there is quite a few of them. Your interactions with them seem to be mostly "say correct thing to increase affection." I think this is my biggest criticism of the game. I would love to see characters get different paths rather than just romance on/off, but I appreciate that that would take a lot of extra dev time. At the very least, there needs to be more time spent fleshing these chars out beyond the stock personalities (childhood-friend, geek, cold highborn girl with hidden family issues).

Finally the porn part of the game feels a little tacked on. It feels like the dev wants to tell their isekai cultivation story, and then just adds the h-scenes in as an afterthought to justify the A part of AVN. The scenes themselves are super porn-logicy and kind of jarring. I understand the need to get scenes in early before relationships have developed, but I think it could have been handled a lot better. None of the scenes so far have felt super great.

The best parts of the game are the Slice-Of-Life stuff when you are exploring the setting with different characters and building the relationships. I hope to see more of this in the future.

Overall, while I was quite critical of some aspects of the writing, I definitely enjoyed this game and recommend others play it. My main hopes for the future are better h-scenes, more character depth and maybe some more choice/agency.

Really fun concept, I love seeing these games have some more focus on some action scenes. I know it's a difficult thing to do in HS2 but when done well you get a gem like this.

Awesome visuals so far, and great story telling. Really hope this one gets some support cause you can definitely see the effort put in!

I really like the story so far, it seems greatly inspired by anime but had no cringe moments. I hope there will be more (impactful) decisions (& sexy time) in the future.
Looking forward to the next update

Generally i do not leave reviews this early in a games journey, but i have to say this is one of the better games i have played in a long time. When a game ends with you wanting more then you know it is good and i will eagerly await the next installment. Great job so far.

I love the story of this game. Even if this game is only a normal VN, i would still play it! The fight scene is so good! Wish I can see it fully animated (Not that I mean I want the game's author to make because it will be too much work, but I just love the fighting scene with Qi spell. Not many anime have that)

Really good Xianxia VN, I don't think I've seen any of its kind before here.

+:
Interesting story
Good fight scenes for an 18+ VN
Nice models and renders
The setting and background seems unique, not reusing assets that I've seen in other VNs a million times

-:
Too many characters, too soon. Some of them get introduced and more or less immediately sidelined.
Some dialogue sounds stiff or out of character, especially how the "modern college students" sometimes sound like medieval novel characters

+/-:
Generally western-ish sounding names, doesn't really fit the setting, but it helps to remember the characters for those who aren't used to Chinese names
Honey Select 2 models, seems to be hit or miss for some people. Personally I'm into it so it's all good.

Overall really good, hopefully the dev keeps the quality and speed of updates and it doesn't turn into one of those perpetually in development VNs.

Damn! That was a good one! If dev keeps it up, then it shall be a banger!

First of all, renders. They are good. I didn't see anything out of order, except that in one of the animated scences background was a lil laggy, but i didn't find it in the replay, so I'll chalk it up to my schizophrenia (don't have one, as to my knowledge).

Story and Lore. It's interesting to see story with eastern motives. Of course it's not something unsual, there were projects before with the same vibes, but still this one looks... "natural" i guess? Like, i can't explain it, but some of the games i am checking out feels like i am eating plastic apples or 3d printed meat (whatever). It feels like i see game not only for the sake of making money, but for the sake of creating something interesting with good quality.

There is some lore, we have some grades of power which determines social status of the characters. So dev thought about the world. Like how should it work if we took MC out of the picture. If it was thougth through at least a lil bit that is already good, in my opinioun. Story itself is interesting. I am waiting to find out what is coming next.

Spelling. Of course i read it in english. It's not my native language, buuut i was glad that english version wasn't poorly translated. (I assume that dev isn't english native speaker too)
Some of the games on the Forum have quite a funny "english". Especially when girls at some points refered as "him" and at the same sentences there are some explanations that MC(he) faced (bla-bla-bla) to save him(actually her, but "dev's eng iz nod zo goot" so yep here we gonna play a game where a player needs too understand what the dev WANTED to actually tell us).
I am glad that there is no such mistakes.(maybe there were, but i really didn't see any, while i was reading it. AND i would see something like that, cuz after some time on this forum poorly translated projects just trigger me, god damit! This Forum turned me in grammar nazi, for f**k sake! Why de hell ppl can't use google translate at least? WHY?!?!)

(khm-khm)
Anyway.
Explicit content. Well, we came here for the BOOBA and we got it guys. We have some scenes with BOOBA, but for now there is not much to see. Still, they are present
Personally i come here more for the story, then for the BOOBA, but if there is no BOOBA at all, then story is not so interesting for me, cuz i can go and read some books with the same success and moreover, i wouldn't even need to wait, cuz surpriiiise there are plenty of them, right?) So, for this kind of projects there must be some balance with the story and BOOBA and i think dev achieved it.

Overall,
BOOBA - presnt.
English, motther f***, do u speak it?!?!? - present.
Good quality renders - presnet.
"Alive" story - present.
My own opinion? Combination of all above are presnet? Then +1.
So here goes solid 5 from me!

Good luck dev!

Many thanks to the author for this work!

I love fantasy and everything that touches it is here, quite simply.
I simply love it!

You can clearly see the inspiration from the Chinese universe, such as
donghua, which I'm particularly fond of, so I'm really happy here
so I'm really happy here, because so far it's been particularly successful.

I really loved the page with the power ranking and
to see where each character stands and their photos, it's a really
excellent idea!

On the other hand, be careful not to do what some donghua
with the power ratio, sometimes they're really bad at showing the difference in
to show the difference in ability with levels etc., which is a bit of a problem
as a problem, but here it seems correct.

What I like about the developer is the ability to work
each update, here we're only at v0.2 and we've already got a huge amount of content
content, which is really nice!

When I can, I'll take part in the financing because the
here is really deserved!

Good luck with the rest, I look forward to future
future updates!

After Chapter 2 i have to give this VN 5 Stars, even it is not perfect.

High quality Xianxia Cultivation themed VN.

I hope we will see hype battles in the future with appropriate musical accompaniment.

Clearly a game that deserves more love.

- Excellent renders with a great and original setting for this kind of VNs.

- The universe is captivating and wants to know more about it.

-Characters are good but lack a bit of depths for now to be really interesting, wich is understandable since the game is still only at chapter 2, we'll have to see how they develop in the future.

-The plot is good and enjoyable to read, but feels a bit rushed at times, there is little to no downtime between events to develop relationship between characters.

-Unfortunately the sex scenes are a bit lacking, they lack build up and eroticism. they are also too short, with too few lines of very tame dialogue.

I will still give it 5 stars because the upsides clearly overshadow the below average stuffand because it's an original and welcome setting for the genre.

Keep it up Dev, you're doing good work and I'm sure your VN will be a very enjoyable one.

I don't understand why the game didn't get more reviews. The game is excellent, it focuses first on the story (that's a positive point), if what you're looking for is a lot of sex scenes you can skip it.

- The renders are very good and use a universe we don't often see.
- The characters are nice too (although I think they lack a bit of character).
- The game doesn't have much choice, but that's not a problem for this game, I think.
- The story is very good, I often skip moments in other games, here it was not the case.
- The ui is good too.

I'm only giving it 4 stars because the VN isn't finished yet.

An outstanding VN and a criminally under utilized genre. It was good since the the first release, but that second update really cemented both the quality of the VN and the dev's chops.

Setting:
The world of Cross Realms is expansive. It features both our mundane world and the magical realms where the story takes place. It starts in an Isekai fashion and it quickly becomes apparent that MC's circumstances are extraordinary since not even the powerful realm guardians know how to help him.

For cultivation fans, the system should be straightforward. For anyone else, the power system in this world is based on the individual's ability to cultivate the mystical energy known as Qi. The more Qi you absorb and the better you become at wielding it, you reach milestones known as levels. The higher your level, the stronger your body is and you can use/develop more abilities. Each individual has a set potential that determines how quickly he can cultivate Qi.

MC:
MC is a young adult, easygoing but with a difficult past. He is a good guy, ready to stand up for his friends and support them through thick and thin, with a penchant for self sacrifice and always willing to move forward no matter the circumstances.

So far things have been hectic for MC, so he never really had a chance to take it slow and show us a different side. He puts in the work to become the best version of himself and is reasonably observant and quick witted. He seems to be capable of putting together the pieces of his past and figure out his circumstances, but for all intends and purposes he is an anomaly and those in the know don't seem very comfortable to give him all the information he needs.

A relatable and comfortable MC for a harem power fantasy novel, with a healthy appetite for horniness. Someone could say that the characters tend to fall for him a bit too fast, but he does have a winning personality and his self-sacrifice goes a long way to keep things consistent.

Cast:
For the kind of story the writer wants to tell, the characterization is excellent. The majority of the characters feel like they belong and are driven by their values and emotions. Certainly there is an obvious imbalance of female to male ratio which is to be expected, but I think the story could make use of more worthwhile male rivals on MC's level. Chapter 2 features a mostly fair fight with another disciple but he feels like a stepping stone/caricature.

Visuals:
The backgrounds and female models look excellent. Male character models are mostly hit or miss but even with HS2, this is to be expected. The overall image quality is good but it could use some better lighting. Still the game looks better than how a lot of other highly acclaimed HS2 games started out so I expect to see a natural progression towards higher quality renders. Honestly though this is more of a nitpick because after all the images look beautiful and immersive.

The dev has a unique style when depicting combat that looks grant, but also a bit confusing at first. The reason is that there is no obvious correlation between the "size" of the visual and the intensity of the effect. Most attacks look like they would leave a human as a smudge in the dirt and even relatively weak characters can create such visual effects. Also there's the concept of physical and mental attacks which make things a bit more confusing. I'm sure that the more we learn about the lore and the more fights we watch, we will get a better sense of the scale.

Audio:
When I rate the audio I focus on how memorable the music and sound effects of a scene are. For the most part it's pop/slash/blam sound effects and soft chinese background music. If there is combat battle, I just can't remember it. I'm sure there is but I don't want to go back and check because it's besides the point.

This is certainly something that could be improved upon. Combat music's rhythm gives a sense of progression which can also be used as a design principle, not just elevate the viewing experience.

Again, the game is early in development. These are nitpicks that I'm certain the dev will eventually improve upon naturally, even without my input. I mention them mostly to bring awareness.

Sex:
So far the scenes are on the mild side. There's a lot of "figuring myself out" going around, especially among the females but you can also find some deviancy too. Additionally some sexual encounters seem to be setting specific (unless the character in question was lying out of embarrassment). So far, while the game mostly focuses on foreplay so far (and it's early), it thankfully doesn't seem to follow the usual "handjob -> titjob -> blowjob -> vaginal" formula. The progression depends on the character's demeanor. Some are innocent, others are more sensual, a few of them rationalize because they feel too old to bother with this stuff.

Technical things:
Congratulations are in order for both the quality and quantity of chapter 2. I was surprised to see so much good content. This speaks to the dev's talent and enthousiasm. He started out with Unreal because he was more familiar with the programming languages associated with it, listened to community's feedback and switched to Ren'py, learning it from scratch and remaking them game in record time.

A lot of times you think that something sounds a bit too good to be true. This is not one of these cases. This update was big and featured so many scenes, ever increasing in quality and complexity.


So bottom line, this is a great project. Cute girls, a great power fantasy story in an interesting and underutilized setting, a hardworking and talented dev who churns out content like nobody's business with uniform or increasing quality.

Best of luck going forward.