Ren'Py - Diaba Doa [v0.3] [SeniGaming]

Version Played: 0.3
Time Played: About 2 hours

I've said it before, but Honey Select almost always can be used to make women that appeal to me. Through this game, I've cemented my suspicion that Honey Select models featuring a darker skin tone are my kryptonite. There's just something I find incredibly appealing and sexy about the look and that goes for both the more petite body models as we have here with the MC to some of the t h i c c e r ones (the latter being my general preference). Anyhow, all that aside, woman MC, corruption, chances to get freaky in a variety of situations with a variety of people all make this a game I desperately want to succeed, but our dev is going to have to do some heavy overhauling to get there. The game system is arguably logical but aggressively un-fun and tedious. There's also way too many locations on the map that don't seem to have any purpose.

Positives
+ Super cute MC who is a happy slut. I cannot stress how important that last part to me is. Drawn out corruption and all the noodling that goes along with it is fine and well, but a character cheerfully taking some dick with no coercion is enjoyable.
+ Plenty of side characters male and female to "interact" with. It seems that the dev is going to allow for a lesbian only route if that's more your jam.
+ Lots of repeatable sexual content
+ Interesting Latin American setting

Negatives
- Gameplay is unfun and irritating. Basically, you input your MC's "schedule" into a spreadsheet for a month's period of time (with multiple time slots per day) and the game auto-goes through the days and triggers events as they would happen if you've input a location or activity at the correct time slot. While the schedule can be adjusted and modified basically at any time, it is a massive PITA to fiddle with it. Plus the game just ends after the month is finished. I get the spirit of what's trying to be done here (and it certainly feels like a programmer's approach to the issue), but it would be infinitely better to just have locations where events are going to happen selectable and then allow time to advance after actions or a prompt like most sandbox games.
- English needs a lot of work though that isn't important because....
- ...there is no story to speak of. Elpidia's in college. She's a slut. The end.

Overall this one is probably a hard sell for most people. The most compelling aspect is by far the open-to-anything MC. Honestly, a lot of my favorite games are just sexual encounter after sexual encounter with little semblance of a plot, so that isn't really the issue here, but there's needs to be a little something more to create investment. As it stands, there really isn't much separating this from a random porn video. I think if the dev tried a little harder to have some basic plotlines with charming and interesting characters to follow it would go a long way towards making this more memorable and engaging. That and completely revamping the gameplay so it's more user friendly and events don't play out in such a disjointed fashion.

Honestly, in spite of it all, this is a game I will probably come back to since the core concept is 100% my jam, but I can't in good conscience give the game more than two stars as it currently stands.

Note to devs: I can tell you have dedication and you care about the game beyond trying to make a buck off of it. I strongly recommend you revamp the gameplay system and consider working on the characters and story a bit more. I wish I could post some examples of games that do this well for reference, but I think a peek at the usual suspects should give you an idea of what makes for a compelling and fun to play game. Good luck!

Has for the 0.6 version of the game, here what I think:

So the game is good, characters are cute and I like the Yuri/Harem/BDSM thing. BUT the story is kind of a mess and need some work.

The story itself is not bad but is all over the place. They are things happening everywhere, for a player It's kind of hard to keep up with everything AND everyone . Also there are lot of down time where there just nothing happening it gave to the game a grindy felling.

Personally think what would be the most beneficial for the game would be a rework of it, no need to change everything, just condense thing a bit cut in the blank-space between events and do a better job at guiding the players by telling him what need to be done to get to the next scene.

This is a very big game and you cannot do everything in a single playthrough. This is fine but I would like to have a better idea about what are the theme of the different activity (exhibition, BDSM, Humiliation, Domination, Submission, etc.) . I would also like to have the possibility to lock myself into an activity so I don't have to click on it every single day if I want to progress in it.

Finally there are some redundancy, do we really need to have completely unique stat for Volleyball, Tennis and Surfing? Could we not have like 5 master stats who apply to everything? Like flexibility, teamwork, power, etc. Right now there are like 20 different stats for every different sports and you need to level everything one by one... This is a grind.

Tough love Seni, but I think your game is a rough diamond and you should invest some time to polish it

the story is fun, interesting and creative with some unique twists.
The animations and renders are interesting and there are a lot of unique/creative ones but their quality is average at best.
there are a lot of all kinds of models and yet again "unique/creative" but their quality is lacking.
the UI isnt hostile it isnt friendly either.

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.3...

Well, even though this VN/Game is unique in that it is probably one of the very few erotic VN/Game's I've seen set in a Hispanic location and theme, but it is really not that great...

Visuals are in essence modified versions of typical Japanese characters, made to look more Hispanic, even though some still look very much like characters I've seen lots of other times in Japanese themed VN/Games using Honey Select... In fact, some of the characters are not even modified from general Japanese characters you find now and then in Honey Select VN/Games... The backgrounds are moderate quality, some of which I've seen lots of other times before in other erotic VN/Games...

The script is so-so, with lots of broken English here and there, although not as bad as other's I've read... The plot (what little there really is) revolves around a Female Protagonist who is attending a university, and you get to pretty much choose where she goes during certain times of the day as well as days of the week... You have to concern yourself with money as well as her happiness (which I believe is effected by showering-choices-attending class but it's hard to tell most of the time)... It's a bit different in how it's portrayed, where you get to select the name of yourself as an observer, not the protagonist... In fact, as the observer slash player, you get spoken to now and then by the protagonist as though you are partaking in the story, when in reality you are just controlling the protagonist through out each game day...

The story itself is very erratic and jumps around a lot, with various things happening at any given time and usually in very quick fashion... You don't really get to control a huge amount of what really happens to her, as you have to manage money to pay for the various items that you sometimes need as well as rent... So you get all these jobs (which kind of feel forced onto you as most don't pay much yet you seem to need money all the time), most of which involve situations that will eventually lead to sexual based content that just flies by when it happens... No real normal jobs, not that I saw... The office job has a pervert female boss, the maid gig teases a lot at ensuring to please the clients, the cheerleader team is a bunch of stereotyped dominatrix women, the student you are pushed into helping is a psycho dominatrix, the seedy bar has a glory hole and other stuff, and the list goes on and on...

And there is no story consistency at all... In one scene she was visiting a Mayan temple, suddenly some other student appears, forces the protagonist and her teacher into various sexual things with each other, as though they had no choice... It's not like the bad girl had a weapon, and then afterwards the protagonist says she will get revenge... Yet, moments later the narration says that all three meet up (prior to the protagonist going home), talk it out, and decide not to go to the police and press charges... What? That made no sense at all... There are lots of moments like this...

The whole VN/Game plays out more like a Visual Novel with choices that in some ways are like a grinder, so as to make it seem as though you have full control over how good, or bad, or sexual, or not sexual you want the protagonist to be... But lots of stuff is kind of forced upon you, and you can either just let it happen or press the Back button and make a different choice, and hope it also doesn't lead to something you do not want... The whole thing is a hot mess, and really doesn't focus at all on anything really meaningful or deep as far as the story aspect is concerned... Yes she is a student trying to do what she needs to pass her grades, but that sort of feels like it's the only real plot, and even then it's highly repetitive most of the time... Add in the poor story telling, outside of the occasional broken English, and I eventually just stopped reading, and then just stopped playing...

Overall, it feels like this whole VN/Game is just being thrown together too quickly, is in essence more of a quick porn fest, and although it tries to play it off like it's going to be an interactive story, it really does a poor job at it... I was very disappointed, as it would have been nice to see and read a good Hispanic themed VN/Game (erotic or not)... That is really the only unique thing this VN/Game has going for it... I know it is kind of early in it's production, but with the amount of current content available, they would have to start completely over to fix most of the issues I ran into... I will not be revisiting this one...

I like how this game is progressing. The developer seems to want to create something that the players will enjoy and has been very creative with the content created thus far. Leaves me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next update. I mean, it's almost equivalent to the excitement I would get waiting for a new episode of G.O.T.. Yeah, it's that exciting folks. It's worth supporting too. Even the artwork is impressive work. Many more people I am sure would enjoy playing this game. Three thumbs up. No, not up there, silly!