Ren'Py - Demon Boy Saga [v0.72] [ReidloGames]

[Rev @ Demon Boy Saga v0.61]

Clunky.

Art's clunky. Premade assets are fine until attempts are made at emoting. The backgrounds, layout, and integration are all all amateur hour.

Writing is bad. It's The Return of Unreasonably Hot Mom + Two Hot Sisters trope, subsection 13b2: Another extraneous sister. Narrative is both rote and ripped off and the characterization is halfassed.

The porn is also clunky; there's no convincing buildup/payoff, stuff just happens. The faces make everyone involved a Brown Bag Special in the making.

Gameplay is the truest indicator of quality here: the UI is ugly and terribly laid out, navigation in boner-destroying, and the game opens by telling you it's a fully free sandbox and then leads you around by the nose every step along the way like it's insecure that the player will wander off if not micromanaged between every frame.

TLDR: Fear is the mind-killer. This is the boner-killer.

Well, I was waiting several months for a new update to confirm my suspicions about that game, and it is totally confirmed.
This game just bad and that's why.
Plot are bad, no interesting twists or unexpected events. No story backgrounds for characters. Storytelling boring, without even small jokes. Gameplay asking you to grind and don't have any logic - ingame hints don't make gameplay better. Visual part average, but sometimes you just shocked how it's bad, for example ingame locations map. Models average, in my opinion, typical copy/paste variants. Backgrounds mediocre.
I really try to find something good in this game and I just can't. Well-deserved one star.

Why only 3 stars :
Story is so so, a lot of parts get started but never get finished and it goes on and on and on. You can get another scene if you subscribed or are a patron.
It's fine you do that but in my opinnion it should not be on the screen for everyone as it ruins the gameplay somewhat (Seems like you are really looking for more donors).

Models are good, but as i said it is really slow pacing but you want to bring in new content instead of progressing with the current models it seems.

All in all the game is not that bad, apart from the fact that some things are really repetitive, you can do every day the same things without any change , for me that is boring and I'm guessing for a lot of other people as well.

That's my 2 cents on this game.

Review for Demon Boy Saga v0.72:

Summary: 2/5 - This game is a lot of work for very little reward. I'm still hoping it ends up being a good game, but after almost 4 years of development, it's a complete disappointment in both story progression and content. Version 0.67 was the very first version that had enough content to make it worth the effort of downloading (i.e., where most games would be in 9 months or less). And version 0.70 is the first version I played that wasn't buggy.

Story: 2/5 - Just another average incest story, with some darker themes. It's full of plot holes and just feels like it was conceived by a 12-year-old.

Writing: 3/5 - It's not terrible, but it's not great, either. The English is occasionally awkward, but it's not riddled with errors.

Renders: 2.5/5 - The renders are below average. They are both low resolution and grainy/noisy. However, the models for most of the girls are very pretty and help make up for it.

Animations: 3/5 - The animations are relatively smooth, but the resolution of some animations is very low [Edit: I noticed that some animations have been very noticeably improved]. Unfortunately, there aren't many animations available, and some are paywalled for supporters.

Gameplay: 1/5 -

• The sandbox is tedious. It just pisses me off every time I play. E.g., 5 clicks to get from the MC's bedroom to the map. The world map should be available from anywhere and the home button should go directly to the MC's bedroom. [Edit: the dev pointed out that players can click the house icon to open the local map, then click the green box to go to the entryway, then click the exit hotspot to get the world map. That makes it 3 clicks instead of 5, which is still 2 clicks too many just to open the map, and it doesn't fix the exact same problem in other locations, like the university.]
• The UI is messy and ugly. UI elements frequently overlap. Sometimes, the game displays white menu text on very-light-colored background. Interior navigation is inconsistent.
• The game is unnecessarily grindy and very boring. Making money is extremely slow as the MC can earn only €10/day. Most important events can occur only one day each week. Individual updates have very little content but they are designed to force players into a boring grind just to extend play time.
• The hint system (called "iHelp") is intentionally vague, sometimes misleading, but always inconsistent and confusing. Version 0.70 was the very first time the hints actually worked like they should, but they're still vague and incorrect due to dependencies like time or the progress of other unrelated quests.
• Playing individual updates is very unsatisfying because there's so little progression in any quests. Honestly, you could play only one update per year and feel the same because there's so little actual content and story progression.
• Saves were broken multiple times earlier in development (last time was at 0.55). If it happens again, I won't bother restarting.

Content: 1/5 - After 4 years of development and updates, there's only a couple of short sex scenes. There's two NTR scenes that I opted to avoid. I don't know what's in them, but I wouldn't expect much. The game has been dragging its feet on both content and meaningful story progression from around 0.3 where I started playing all the way through 0.72. Players continue playing hoping to get some decent content, but they get a tiny trickle once every 3 months, at most. This game follows the playbook of sub-par subscription-supported adult games. At v0.72, the game is at best about 50% complete and still introducing more characters. Can it survive another 4+ years? Not likely.

Bugs: 2/5 - This game has had quite a few bugs that block quest progression or force a restart/reload, but the worst has been the iHelp quest/hint system. Version 0.70 is the first time I wouldn't have called it a buggy mess.

Hate going so low on the review because the game has some fun dark content and other fets like lactation I'd normally give points for, and it's got some solid ideas, it's just kind of burdensome to play. Little or confusing guidance, lacking QOL features like a gallery, and while some of the renders are more unique some are almost cut and paste generic. It's on the border of 3 stars but I lean towards 2 stars because it's been out awhile and doesn't seem to plan on addressing some of those issues in the near future. If it did though, the game has potential. Just not potential that's enjoyable to play right now compared to other games. Will probably try it again way down the road and hope it fixes it's flaws but at this point kind of given up on seeing improvements where it could use them.

I only gave three points because: This game has positive elements in the form of models and story, but there is a lot of mouse clicking, unnecessary extra actions, confusing hints in the iHelp section, due to which expectations do not match with actual results, and because of this, the enjoyment is lost from the game and it will turn from predictable and pleasant to problematic and annoying. For example, the quest with the teacher just for the sake of the pin code requires too many actions, which could and should have been reduced to 2-3 actions at most. Instead, you're not only confused about what the game wants from you, but you also end up with the fact that it was all for nothing, because it leads to nothing at all at the time of version 0.57. That is, you made at least 4-5 iterations, but you seem to understand the code, but you cannot apply it. It's annoying. Unfinished action, expectations did not coincide with the result at all. And there are quite a lot of such examples. The quest with Erika is also completely incomprehensible, even with a hint. Therefore, I consider scripts and scenarios not prepared, not logical, or too complicated. Because the game should bring pleasure, be understandable to the user, but instead, a lot of questions arise, the forums say the same thing because EVERYONE goes through it and even considers it a bug, and it turns out to be a feature of the game. It shouldn't be like that!

Idea is nice, and devs are trying to reach ppl with issues/suggestions according to others reviews.

Sadly, the game is quite messy and tedious as it is rn.
Half the "interesting" (judging by game title itself), tags come from 1 early NTR scene, rest of the time is a blue ball journey walled by what feels like endless clicks after 10 mins of playing.

Yes, its early on development and all that im aware.
Also mention this is written on v0.57 (next "official" release is 0.6), as devs wanted to give more frequent updates, which was good... Until they decided to ask patreon support for those. Not worth considering content.

Truly wish the best for the game. But right now, there are a few red flags that I cant ignore.

Story: Same as in the original, I do not know if it is the original dev, but I assume not based on the pace of development. The story was always intriguing to me the girls are different enough to make them all interesting not just Giirl 1 with brown hair and Girl 2 with blonde hair.
"Landlady" is an absolute milf.

Landlady pacing is a bit weird by the current version but looking forward to the corruption path!

Execution: For the time being there as some bugs, and someof the game mechanics wor a bit weird. Security job rolls are not very clear for one. BUT I do appreciate the additional bits at places.

Looks: I think the renders are generally good, not outstanding excellent, but they serve their purpose absolutels perfectly. I am really interrested where the project will go once it passes the original.

One of the worst games out there

Terrible and boring gameplay, most of the time you don’t know what you have to do, and most of the game is spent clicking the skip time button to catch the boring events that barely advance the story, so after all this time the game is going nowhere, there is no real progress with the characters. There is also basically no overarching story to tie the pointless events together.

The developer is really slow, the game is already more than a year old and nothing to show for it, There are about four or five scenes with sexual content in the game (no vaginal, so that tag is misleading), some of the MC creepily molesting drunk or sleeping characters, and some of an old geezer fingering a girl. In fact, the old geezer has most of the sexual content, maybe he should be the protagonist, and the game should be called "Demon Geriatric Saga" or something. I don’t know what the developer was thinking.

This is really a bad game; it wastes your time and has so little content that it is impossible it will be rewarding. Don’t bother with this.

Renders are nice, however the game loop itself is really frustrating. There's a lot of what I call "getter" quests, where all you do is just go to a certain place for a 3 second prerequisite step, and then move on with the quest. The author has clearly drank to koolaid of "in order for it to be a good quest, it must have a lot of steps". The tiny meaningless steps just make the game boring, and is not what a sandbox style game is about.

The real dealbreaker, however, is this quest system paired with the really god awful navigation scheme. It's not interesting to click on the actual scene to move. Just give me some CLEARLY labeled buttons, don't make me guess all the time as to "oh is this where I go for the bathroom? Oh, I'm in the bedroom now. Oh I'm in the kitchen now. Wait, how do I get back to the hall?" It just makes moving around a huge impediment to trying to get anything done.

Nearly unplayable. Native language is Spanish. It can't be that hard to find a translator, but the English is terrible. It is just a click at the right time, and right place sandbox. No content. Just trying to navigate around, and every interaction is just I can't go in there now. Sorry, I'm busy, come back later. Has a map with only 3 locations.

Que onda carnal.

Look, the game has a LOT OF POTENCIAL, A LOT.

I've playing and the womens are 100/10
The story is fine.
But the way to progress... the way to progress is ok, but sometimes you don't know if you are grinding or just repeating scenes, if your !help didn't existed i won't know if im reapiting or grinding. ¿Me entiendes?

You should add a bar where can tell you how much of more events need to repeat before getting a new scene.

Out of that, your game is amazing, your protagonist is a sick fuck, and i love that, you have a diamond here.

Good Luck, and i had years waiting for a game like this.

26/04/23

3 yearrs and nothing.

v0.55a - Very average "absent father + family harem" sandbox game. The very beginning is rough with lots of Engrish and bad gameplay but once you get past the (totally unnecessary) prologue, things get a lot better. Unfortunately, progression isn't intuitive so you're almost completely relying on the in-game hint system to know what to do next and it ranges from "very helpful" to "completely meaningless". I got stuck with three of the women (out of seven currently in game) so I don't know how much content there is in this patch. Be warned that a lot of the more explicit content I was able to find involves a schoolgirl and the principal (it's skippable if you don't want to see it).

Also note that in this version the settings reset every time you exit so be ready to turn down the volume and make any other changes every time you play.

2.5 stars. Rounded down because of how many quests there are that require you to just check every location at every time on every day to solve them.

The author has improved the map since earlier releases, but it is still quite inconsistent. At least it's an improvement.

Version 5 & Sofia is still referred to as HE not her or she (room ID & conversations). Saves & quitting have been redesigned making them needlessly more complicated. Navigation is a pain, even when using the map, some locations you can go straight to and others you have to go nearby then click on your final destination.

There is very little content so far.

Demon Boy Saga (v 0.5) is a clear miss in my book. It fails to keep any sort of interest in what's happening or the characters in it, since the very beginning. Writing is not horrible (at least in spanish) but the story it's telling has nothing interesting or compelling to it. If we add to that a bland sandbox like so many others with generic mechanic and feel, we continue spiraling down.

Now we can admit it has some pretty good character models. But animations are very clunky and facial expressions are quite often meh. Sound is almost non-existant.

All in all, this is a clear drop for me, mostly because of the terribly boring story.

Worst Game Ever Played . The ihelp stops after awhile not you are left with nothing and have to figure things out on your own and the progress is kinda slow with a neglected storyline from the very beginning .

Before v0.5, the game was good as you have hints that at least does the bare minimum in showing you how to progress.

v0.5 is the real Demon Saga! Hints that disappear, no indication of how to progress the game and all the same events for weeks.

I do think the story is/was good but now I cannot move on with life (in the game) so just wanted to point out on the gameplay only.

Gameplay is terrible, progress is sloooooooooow, hint system doesn't work,
story is terrible, graphic is okay but not enough to save the game.
At version 5.0 you play for hours (just trying to figure what to do) and you get very very few scenes.

Currently trying out v0.5
The game is a mess of poorly thought out seemingly random events which provides little to no value when actually found.

The general quality of the game is subpar. The renders are low quality and not the best of models seeming blurry and lacking texture and clarity. The writing is uninspired for the most part and functions much as air filler. The story I get lost in because I need to click around so much to find new events that I forget were I was with the different characters as there is no consistency. One moment you have a heart to heart and the next they are robots - also the repeatable events like walking in the rooms have no effects outside that and character completely forgets about it in between events: "Oh you have walked in on me naked 27 times now, what a coincidence!"

The biggest issue is the lack of direction and the false promise of the developer. At the start of the game you get instructed that the iHelp option is there to guide in case of need. Sure there are some events that are listed there - also when not even able to be triggered for some reason. A lot of events are not listed and progressions are impossible to keep track of.
That only helps to make it more infuriating to try and figure out what the developer wants me to do next.
I am not sitting here with the experience of figuring out what to do, like: "I need to distract the teacher, what is the best plan?" but instead frustrated at trying to guess what the developer might have thought should be done and where that might be, making the option to just scan every scene of an unknown trigger - maybe a new thing or maybe something already clicked that needs to be clicked x number of times.

The layout of the in game world is also confusing even after spending a decent amount of time forcing myself to try and complete the game. Completely resorting to use the overview at all times, where I would normally feel pretty confident at navigating around.

Then there is choices; I don't feel like I have really made any. It is either choose to do nothing and then we can choose that again tomorrow or choose to do the next thing.

I am really trying with this game but man it is not great. I often find myself making a save, hovering over the delete button and then shouting internally.
Besides my frustration with the structure of the game, the idea of game it self I will describe it with a quote from the MC of the game himself and his friend:
"MC: Sounds perfect to me!
A few minutes later...
MC: This is so boring...
Mike: A little more time to see if we can finish our work
MC: What a drag...."

I would not recommend this game without someone making a walkthrough.

Completely unexpected massage scenes which are always a loving hit throughout the VN community - check
Interactive yoga montages - check
Cowardly sleep creep scenes (after drugging your own sister) - check
Useless dream scenes - check
Rape scenes tagged as NTR - check
MC with a humongous unnatural penis, which subconsciously reflects the dev's lack of sexual experience and his own low self esteem - check
Upcoming, even more boring photo shoot scenes - check
Idiotic story line which is neglected from the start - check
Oblivious sisters and a mother that love to be molested - check
NTR clickbait for the NTR fans, which turns out to be a blue ball scheme - check
Astronomical debt which the MC wants to repay by earning 10$ per day (sundays closed of course) - check
Bugs that block us from half of the game's content - check
Complete lack of sexual content after one year of development - check

Judging from the above i assume the dev is a 14~15 year old virgin full on puberty. Instead of whipping out his high hormone levels on the local cheerleader team, he abuses the DAZ software...
If a f95 harem snowflake finds my review "offensive"...dear mods please don't bann me again...
THIS "GAME" SERIOUSLY SUCKS BALLS...
The models are actually ok and not over the top...two stars.