VN - Ren'Py - Defending Lydia Collier [v0.17 Beta 1.6] [White Phantom Games]

If development keeps going the way it is, this is easily S-tier product. Multiple, well thought out relationships which move fast enough to stay interesting but not so fast that it's jarring. The amount of kinks not just present, but that are ELECTABLE without ripping out large content swathes is amazing. Paths you really didn't see coming open up, and I rub my hands with glee.

I'd like to highlight how the author uses side plot devices really well. For instance, you can get a handgun, or say no. This opens RADICAL new choices, both bad and good, in certain scenarios. Hell, at one point, you can get an STD, and it can seriously impact your relationships. It's amazing how a genre based on sex never seems to have STDs play any role.

So why 4 instead of 5? Well, 2 reasons. One, you have to use your phone and laptop as 2 different info sources, and frankly, there's no reason for it. Second, while the section of the game where you manage a team is interesting, I never really felt like I knew what the goal was, and having pop ups asking "am I sure?" just tends to slow things down.

I really am looking forward to see how this ends, and for the dev's next project.

PS Game is set in London, and the dev does a good job of making it feel as such. Good set and background choices.

This game really surprised me. So may games out there are just more of the same. But this game.....WOW! SO many choices. I felt in control. I also felt challenged in having to pay attention to what's going on in the game world to make the best choices. There are really interesting things going on. Things I felt a part of and not just drug through without any input. The ladies are just as lovely as the writing! The MC feels like a real person and not just some brain dead teen boy who does the stupidest shit he can think of. I'm an adult. Playing an adult game. Thanks for letting me act like an adult for once! Last big kudos for Steph. I'm actually in love with her. I'm constantly being reminded of an ex I really cared about by being Steph's BF in in the game. Just reminds me of this one girl I used to date (So I may be a bit biased) She just feels real. I feel like I'm dating her. Not many games can elicit actual feelings or get you to feel like you're actually part of the world. Anyway this is probably my second favorite adult game i've ever played and i've played like 30 now. SO glad I found it and cant wait to play the devs other game.

Version: 0.13.7
Renders are really good but I don't really care much for them as there are many games that have the same if not better quality renders. This game really shined for me due to its story and that is the reason why I decided to post my first review on this site.

You can find many games that have multiple choices tag but I have never replayed them more than once, this is the first game where I tried to choose different choices, for the first run I didn't really pay that much attention to the story, in the second run however I made different save points and read all the ingame news articles ( which for an adult game are very detailed) got a lot of the story context and tried to choose different teams.

My only gripe is that the Ellie story line is kind of unrealistic, however for the first run when you get a choice to snoop through her computer which I didn't really care for, in the second run I decided to do so and boy I was surprised her chat really showed how much invested the author of this game really is. This game has so much 'lore' that I genuinely want to see what happens in the story next.

P.S: Sorry for my Engrish and please know that this is my first review.

Outstanding render quality, beautiful girls, a well crafted and executed story. Overall it's a home run.

A lot of times games with avoidable content just means that you're missing out on the bulk of the content as often the case is that was really what the dev wanted to focus on, as a result when you choose to avoid something you're losing content because it isn't replaced with anything and a whole scene is just skipped. That isn't the case here. The tags you might want to avoid are tacked onto the scenes you do want to see so when the time comes to see something or not you really aren't losing anything because the main thrust of the game isn't built around those tags, it's built around it's story.

The women are sexy and come in all sizes from petite to bombshell and everything in between, scenes aren't just 2-5 pics of a pseudo animation and really have some variety.

There is a lot of reading, but worth it for the scenes,lot of contextual clues, things you have to find out through investigation, all handled well for a adult game. Actual plot with twists and turns and meaningful choices. Highly recommend

(review for v0.13.06).
This game is a gem, in the sense that deals with a lot of adult themes -- and not all necessarily sexual! Not only the characters are all adults (with the exception of some really young females), such as the MC himself, the story develops as a murder mystery but also as a political thriller.
More of a VN with multiple paths than a true "game", the fact is that that our choices will impact paths and possible endings. In turn, this also makes it possible for multiple re-plays of the game in search of alternative realities according to our choices.
The companion official walkthrough PDF is a must and will show the several ways the story can develop, and also shows the correct answers to some really tricky legal advice dialog!
A very well written game (this is not one of those that you just want to skip dialog and running for the next sex scene!) only let down, IMHO, for some rushed sex scenes.
Although sexy and well baked into the story, most of the sex scenes seem to be too quick, almost as if the author felt obliged to pay fan service, so he just can continue to write the rest of the thriller.
Although not heavy on animations and with the sex scenes caveats, I still feel it deserves a 5 star rating.

(Version Reviewed: v0.13.06)

Defending Lydia Collier (DLC) has one of the most interesting stories among the AVNs that I've played. With good art to complement it, DLC makes it into one of my favorite AVNs to play. Something to complain about would be the framing of the scenes, but that has been steadily improving in each version. The kinks offered are note-worthy. Pretty much one of the few games that offer such a wide variety of kinks without sacrificing on the story content. Also, Steph is pretty much one of my favorite AVN LIs. Great game all around. Definitely suggest playing it.

5/10 Overall
4/10 Animations
5/10 Story
6/10 Character design
6/10 Character development
5/10 Quality

I really liked the game, it has a unique story with more than one path for it, pretty interesting

Now this is a quality game! First of all, it is interesting by itself as a game, which is quite rare. Secondly, it is diverse in characters and playstyles, not forcing anything onto the player. Lastly, it is simply excellently done from the point of view of graphics, sound and everything else. The easiest 5 stars I gave out.

This one is hard to rate...

Story - Very interesting so far (that's the mainreason for me to recomment it to anyone)

Renders - average, not bad not impressive, just average.

Models - yeah, have to be carefull about what i say here - let's say, I didn't like 99% of them at all since they all look like bimbos/botox aliens to me - ofc that doesn't mean they are ugly per say, depends on taste.

The only 2 female models I kinda liked never had a big appearence in my playthrough since I got locked out of the policechicks path for not looking at her ass in the restaurant and the second woman hasn't much content yet (danielle).

Over all that means I sure did miss a huge portion of the sidestorys just because I didn't find any girls attractive or appealing at all - worst sadly is the one we are suppose to be defending wich makes it really hard to want to play again and try other paths or outcomes.

I would rate this VN somewhere between 3 or 4 stars, but since it isn't the dev's fault that I have clearly another taste in woman, and there is clearly put much thought and work into this project, I will give it the higher rating.

4/5 - good read, best of luck for the future updates and projects.

Cheers

When I first saw the renders I thought it was going to be another good render bad story game...man was I wrong game has great renders and a great story too and well worth the support on patreon. Beep boop 200

White Phantom is one of the best devs out there. Been a fan since the first episode of Shadows... Defending Lydia Collier is my favorite game. Fantastic graphics, great story and the most beautiful British babes in gaming. This is a MUST have game. If you are able please support this dev. He brings you the very best this medium has to offer!
P.S. Spent three years in the U.K. Missing it a lot

This is my review for Defending Lydia Collier by White Phantom Games version 0.13.2.

The good

• Renders are looking really good
• Characters have different personalities
• Music
• Writing
• Gameplay
• Big amout of content 5+ hours
• Story is interesting
• Big updates

The bad

• Some bugs with laptop UI
• Phone and laptop UI could be better

In conclusion, 5 stars worth playing.

Amazing game. Although girls' routes may conflict, player can only choose other girls by playing the game again, but each girl's route is very attractive .
There are so many fetishists and they are so interesting that you can choose how to make these girls. And my favorite character is Steph . This character is really perfect. She satisfies a lot of my fetishism.

v0.13

Maybe this game has potential, but it's let down by bad writing.

Virtually the first line of the game, the writer's already missed a comma. In fact, even before that, the game has randomly capitalised words in the warnings/disclosures. That pretty much sets the tone for the quality of this game.

The prose is very flat and the grammar often comes across as weird or unnatural, as if English isn't the writer's first language. The shot selection and character rigging/posing is also unimpressive and adds to the blandness. And the limited and poor use of music doesn't help at all. With all that said, this game doesn't exactly have killer renders or unique character models either to make up for it.

So yeah, interesting concept but it plays as your run-of-the-mill game with nothing really good about it,

Version reviewed:
v0.13

I kept this on my personal favorite list but I finally decided to remove it from it.

The pros:
+Fantastic storytelling
+Nonlinear story
+Real choice-effects
+Fun minigames about your job as a lawyer

The cons:
-Unimpressed with the quality of character models. In the new version I didn't see any improvement. It got worse IMO.
-Most of the characters look too similar (not just the sisters) using a model is well known from other AVN's. To be honest when I saw this model I know the project is low quality and loose interest instant but with this I made an exception due to the pros above.
-Sex scenes are poor quality and boring. MC's private part for example looks like he roasted it.

If creator drop the sex aspect it would be an excellent 5 star Visual Novel.
As an AVN the character models and animations are in the focus so I lost interest on this but I can't rate it worse than 3 (average).

Wow, loved this update (v0.13P1) as well as the rest of the game so much!
Gotta be honest, I'm mostly here for the relationships and the scenes and the story is a nice bonus, and I'm happy with how the things are going.

Love the part of the game with Ellie and her family, they actually feel like a family, albeit a slightly crazy one, and most games fail with that.

Not really too much else to say, just that I enjoyed it a lot and hope for more, definitely gets a recommendation from me!

Amazing storytelling and character development which is very rare to see. The only game I don't use ctrl to skip at all.
Every character is lovable. Even NPC ones without paths. The game feels real.
When the game is finished it may has a chance to challenge the best renpy novel game of all time.

One of the most underrated visual novels ever played! This should be more popular!
Loved Steph character and loved the different attributes of her and and the VN, played most of the paths in a short time and looking forward for more updates.
Good luck!

This is an enjoyable game. I actually enjoy "doing some work" as a lawyer. A lot of games set up activities that your character does, but skips the activities, and then give you a single line about wow what a day or something to that effect. It breaks the immersion for me somewhat. So I enjoyed that we could "do" the things the character is doing.

That aside, the characters are great, and the different paths have a unique and interesting feel, making the different paths a joy to play.

A hidden gem. Just an all round fantastic game that kept growing on me the more I played. The story is engaging interesting and very unique compared to other VNs, the women are diverse and interesting and the game as a whole is very replayable. Looking forward to playing more