Ren'Py - Dissonance [v0.13] [L_Elyot]

Review v0.13

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WARNING! For those that don't get it.
This is a Visual Novel with Adult Depiction. Not a Porn/Hentai Game.

The game lets you pick if you want a VN or Sandbox experience.
I recommend going with the VN route. Almost Flawless.
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Take my review with a pinch of salt, because I just finished and feel like I can only sing praises of the game. I don't want to overextend the Review. Let me start: (No spoilers)

- The Girls are adorable and each of them has a really defined and interesting personality. Some even have a really "realistic" response through the story about them opening up or drawing a line emotionally with the MC. Each has their own life outside what we see, and it really shows, both in their interactions and attitudes. Can't say that I dislike anyone, nor would I like it if someone ends up excluded (history wise).
(Of course, I also have my favorites).

- The MC "Toru Hirai" (or whatever you want to name him) starts with not much of a personality, but that's because of amnesia. It's fun to see him "grow" or at least develop as he interacts with others and battles with his past and head, eventually evolving mentally and personality in a way that I didn't expect. He has a lot of introspection throughout the game, and that's one of the things I Love the most.

- The Story is superb. From the very beginning, it only gets better and better. It "clicked" for me really soon and I really enjoyed it throughout. Sometimes the story gets you with a sense of unease, some other times it gets quite fun seeing some banter with the characters or seeing some references here and there. Sometimes it really makes you think and/or makes you remember things said or done before. But the thing that never loses is the mystery and a sense of dread that sticks to you.
I will add here that the grammar and writing style are good and also feel good. (Way better than... almost all other novels I've read).

- The ambient and music are surprisingly good, way better than expected. On VN it really shows when having the right ambient / music so in this case it's really a Plus. (I found myself listening to the game music from its files while working or doing my things).

The only thing I feel capable of criticizing:
- The sexual scenes, while they're good storywise and good emotionally with the characters involved, the execution is a bit lacking. While that's okay for me, as enjoying the sex scenes is not my main focus here, I understand if some people are not happy with it.
To explain further, there are too few images/frames depicting changes, the scenes feel short and there is too little conversation/thoughts while mid-act.

...
I think I'm not forgetting anything.
If anything, maybe asking the creator for more, and fast!

I won't go as far as to say it's a masterpiece YET, maybe when it's finished, but right now it's excellent, good enough for me to come and make my very first review after years of lurking and giving it 5 *.
I really think you'll be losing out if you're not giving this a chance.

Renders / Girls: 4/5
Animations / Scenes: 0/5
Gameplay / Tension Building: 4/5

there is a lot, I mean a lot of text (dialogues) only to get no reward
H-scenes are not even 2-frame animated...

wasted potential

Version as of review: v0.12p1
TL;DR: One of the slowest slow-burns I've ever read, but absolutely worth the time investment. Easily one of if not THE best game of its genre.

Before this game, I was very thoroughly of the opinion that 'sad, scary koikatsu ero games' was a doomed genre that was simply too fundamentally at odds with itself and tonally dissonant (heh) conceptually to ever result in anything better than an 'okay' game that would've likely been much better served without one of it's two primary themes.

I can confidently say that this game both proved me incredibly wrong in that regard, but also made me more willing to try and accept games that fuse these ideas, if only slightly.


STORY: 9/10
I think I've gone on record many-a-times in various reviews on this site about how I simply don't understand the appeal of games that attempt to blend horror with sexual themes, and I think I can confidently say that I just think I hadn't played a good one yet. How much of that is due to the game's glacial pacing (which is in no way a bad thing, mind you) and it taking it's time to tell a compelling story beyond both the surface level horror and ero themes, or how much of it is due to having a genuinely compelling protagonist, main cast, side cast, and world in general, is up for you to decide.

What I can say for certain is that there's almost nothing I could complain about that wouldn't be a superficial nitpick, such as the dev often using similar writing styles for each character, so much so that it can often be hard to differentiate very specific personality traits at it's absolute worst, but even then the character's are all developed strongly enough that you can almost always take a good guess at how they'd react to a given scenario, and most times your guess would line up fairly well.

Similarly, this is cosmic horror done right.

No (or very few, can't recall) cheap scares or anything similar, nor does the game beat you over the head about how incomprehensible it's horrors are, or any of the tropey and tired staples that haunt these sorts of games. Just the looming, creeping feeling of dread, and the sinking feeling that no good moment is ever more than a single click away from things going horribly wrong, both for the MC or for the people around him. I wasn't ever scared of a loud noise and a flashing jpg of a spooky face, just of the consequences of the actions of the universe so far beyond my grasp I could never hope to begin to fathom them. Good stuff.

All in all, definitely one of the best stories of any game on here, though I can imagine a good portion of that comes from just how much of the game is its story and how sparse (but still well-done) its ero scenes are.


GAMEPLAY: 10/10
This point's pretty short, and it's kind of depressing I even feel the need to point this out, but huzzah, this game does NOT have that incessant grinding and sandbox 'random day on a randome time' gameplay loop that has made sure to ruin plenty of perfectly good games on this site before and likely will continue to do so until we as a species collectively realise how fucking stupid it is.

If I remember correctly it does let you choose between a proper linear "VN" mode or a sandbox mode, and while I appreciate the dev having both for the sickos who prefer the latter, I'm just glad I can enjoy the game without feeling like the dev is spitefully making the game more arduous to play for literally no benefit.


CHARACTERS: 9/10
One of the most universally enjoyable cast of characters I've had the pleasure of whacking off to. In these games I've come to expect to really like one or two of the cast and be thoroughly "meh" about the rest, but to my surprise there isn't a single miss, here. Even the character who actively antagonises the protag at every single point is still likeable and quite cute, and that's before they fuck.

Even my least favorite characters in this game would top the charts of most other games of this ilk I've played, and that's only due to lacking the strong "lovability" factor that some of the others can have. Even if you can't find yourself getting invested (which is genuinely difficult seeing as you are here for a minimum of 8 hours before you see a single tit let alone get your dick wet), there's no one here who will ever take you out of the story, or make you mad at their decisions, or anything of the sort.

Even the MC, who is almost inevitably the weakest link of these sorts of games, has a charm to him that made me genuinely excited to see what he'd say in any given scenario, and not even once did I find myself upset or even annoyed at a decision he made, as even if I didn't personally agree with it, it was still entirely understandable and completely reasonable.

The only, and I mean only complaint I could make about the cast is just the uh. . . let's call it "body types" of all the girls. While I'm definitely not going to pretend like I'm some kind of saint that cares even a bit about the percieved age of the fictional women in his erotic visual novels, just personally I'd have liked a bit more variety in there somewhere. While there are attempts made here and there and it is understandable given the "body types" we're working with here, I'd have been alright with a bit more meat on a couple of the girls at the expense of a bit of realism, though I'm entirely willing to accept that it's just the dev's preference, and hey if that's what led to the game being half as good as it is then fair enough.


ART: 10/10
Jeez I've already typed a lot, no way anyone's reading all of this. Anyways, the art's good, as I'm sure you could tell from the preview images. The character designs are great, there's good variety, and the renders themselves can range from 'great' to 'gorgeous'. There's a pleasant haziness to everything in the game that both matches the tone and themes and is just nice to look at. The game even managed to make the horror segments an odd but compelling mix of eerie and beautiful, the shattered sky in the [redacted for spoilers lol] being a personal favourite.

Genuinely, zero complaints here.


ERO CONTENT: 8/10
Just as well-done as everything else in the game, if you can imagine. The only reason I'd say it's an eight versus a nine or ten is simply due to the relative lack of it compared to the total game length. While yes, I did already say that the game's pacing is great and that I don't personally mind it at all, I would also never say no to more sex lmao.

But no, the renders look great, the animations are good, and it's likely made even more compelling by how long you have to interact with a character before you reach that point (sans one), and again, if you can get past the "body types" of the main cast (though let's be real here if you actually download the game you likely don't care any more than I don't) then it's great stuff.


Final Thoughts:
Idk what else to say, really. Just play it. It's good. Also Yoshie is the best girl and I'll fistfight anyone who disagrees.

Some really captivating writing in this game. At times it feels like the game is pretty blatantly taking from Lessons in Love's style, but I actually think this game pulls off the tone and concept in a much more convincing/realistic manner. If I have one piece of advice for the author/dev, it would be to stop abusing phrases like "bingo" or "more or less". Once you notice how much characters say those phrases you won't be able to stop noticing it. Excited to see where this one goes.

This game is a real Visual NOVEL. Expect to read, expect not a lot of cut scenes, because this is how Visual NOVELs were originally.

The characters are distinct and have good chemistry, MC is proactive, grammar and writing style is good. One complaint I have is we have a lot of questions but don't yet have answers. But I can look over this because the game is incomplete and we are just getting there.

Graphics are great, nice lighting, framing, and what not, it has it's own stlye. Above average for sure.

Sex scenes, not what this game is about, I do wish they were written better and a bit longer but if you wanted to fap, this ain't the game for that.

TLDR, good game if you aren't a complete ADHD gooner.

This is a short review. The story in the beginning is amazing and it's pulls you in, but after a long time with no box to choose it's got boring for me. I tried to skip the content until the next box comes, but it took so long that I could look a short video on youtube and it's still just text. I played many games like this with slow burn that takes much longer until you could have sex but their story was good how you build up your relationship with the girls. This on takes too long with no choices in between. It's more a kinetic novel with some choices sprinkled at sometime that doesn't change the story much. [Warning! I didn't play it to the end of this Version. I just played until get to school and then I skipped for a long time and even then I got bored.]

So incredibly boring and an exercise in excessive clicking.

After I noticed the extreme number of clicks required to get through a conversation, I couldn’t help but count….
One of the ‘shorter’ ones was about 240 mouse clicks….(and only 1 choice which didn’t matter)
Another, with the left-middle-right group chats in class… 600 clicks and 0 choices.
The last one I quit counting and deleted it after 130 clicks and 0 choices!
(These were just conversations...standing there talking with someone, no action.)

So boring…. I mean, it’s a harmless story so far with nice looking characters and colors. The mc looks a little too much like sonic the hedgehog and the images are a bit dated or grainy, not sure which.

The excessive clicking, though…. Maybe it’s just my pet peeve but having so many 2 and 3 word sentences to click through is really annoying and poor design.

It has the sandbox tag but I can’t imagine what parts would be sandbox. There are so few choices so far, and they don’t seem to matter. One certainly won't forget the mc has amnesia....it's mentioned in every 2 or 3 sentences which gets old....

Probably should be 2 star, but it’s harmless and boring not necessarily incompetent. Even if you get wrapped up in the story, it would still be pretty boring in it’s presentation. The dev warns about the slow burn but wow!

I've played through all the content so far, and .. While I actually do like it, the pace is just .. Kind of off. Too slow, with nothing really happening.

I'll be comparing this game to a certain other popular game. I'm aware of the rules, but it's essentially impossible to not compare them, considering .. Well.. This is obviously inspired by that other Koikatsu game.

One thing these "clones" can't really copy is the writing, and despite the amount of (unwarranted) criticism thrown at Selly, he's just a much better writer than he's given credit for. His characters come alive, and I feel for all the characters involved in his game. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that his game has some of the best characters I've ever experienced.

Now .. Dissonance is a good game in its own right. Its biggest problem lies in the fact that it's clearly inspired by that other game, and it just doesn't come close. I'm just not that invested in any of the characters yet. Toru is a fine MC, but overall, nothing special. I actually do like that he, unlike another Sensei, seems to be a good guy. Or is he? Because unlike another Sensei, he doesn't seem to have much of any opinion about anything, except a few random thoughts, here and there.

Something LiL does so, so well, at all times, is making sure the reader knows that what is going on is bad. Dissonance kind of skips over this, and doesn't really make a big deal of it. Sure, Toru acknowledges he shouldn't, but apart from that, he doesn't seem to really care all that much.
All in all, it just lacks weight, and emotion.

Now, I've given this 3/5 which is just "average". I think it has the potential to reach 4/5, but that really does require the developer of Dissonance to up his writing a bit, and speed up the plot of the game. Because as it stands, it's just too slow. It's already kind of "long", but I still don't feel that anything has really happened for any of the characters.

Again, even if I'm only giving 3/5, I'll be watching this game, and really do hope they'll improve in the next couple of updates. If they don't, however, I might just forget I even started playing.

I tried to like it but i played for 5ish hours and nothing happened plot wise(except for 1 instance of supernatural) or porn wise. Its extremely slow, which may be the point, but it's not for me personally.
Usually slow burns have a hook to make you want to continue but even the events that have happened aren't particularly interesting, just they work here or are at this place at this time then have a disjointed convo whe you meet or find them there.
The Mc is fine but he doesn't even know who he is, which is fine but it means he doesn't really have a relatable character. The girls are fine, not super tropey but i see no reason why they would fall for the MC, which is maybe why it takes so long for things to actually progress.
I cant realy comment on the plot as nothing has happened other than MC being talked to by ghost/mythtical beings. who just told him advice for anxiety? But it was actually supernatural not his pyschee as time moved forward.

As a story, its really good, clearly has that denpa style and feels like a true VN where there is a true story being told, MC doesn't act like a douchebag and seeing what is happening in his head is interesting, alongside some cute moments with the others and a nice story overall with some good relationships building, maybe a bit slow on the story front, and I would expect that, art is fairly nice too even if it is from Koikatsu, I think the soft aesthetic fits fairly well and the variance in looks, expressions and such is good enough

From the erotic side though it really does feel a little monotonous and drags on, you will spend a pretty long while before encountering much that leans into that aspect - from one side that is absolutely understandable for a story like this, but on the other side, I think there are better ways to balance that rather than leaning 100% on the story and painstakingly pushing tiny things through, so there is an aspect to that, apart from that I like the writing, some 4th walling here and there with jokes and such, but really not overbearing at all and otherwise a nice story, though the lack of options does make me worry that this will end up being a game where you have to go through every single LI no matter what, not that I want them to be cut out completely from the story and still be friendly with MC, but there should be an option as to whether we want to pursue further with someone, and currently that isn't coming up, so I'm unsure.

UI is fairly good with the character menu system, but the text box itself is a little bland and takes up a lot of the screen, so could potentially be tweaked

And ultimately, this game screamed VN to me from the moment I started playing linear mode, I do not get why sandbox mode exists, unless this is the dev's way of trying to give choice (which I don't think is the way for this, it should be branching story like normal for a VN) and just seems like a potential development time sink

Apart from that, fairly good game so long as you are here for a nice story and are happy to wait for the erotic side to some extent.

I did kinda like the story part of this one but it is supposed to be an AVN notice the A meaning adult and man does it fail on that part, it blows my mind how this can have such a high rating when theres just nothing there what so ever? it means absolutly no sense.....

I dont mind a good slow burn but this......this goes waaaaaay past being a slow burn, theres a handjob, a kiss, a grind....thats all..not a single sex scene with anyone what so ever.

It feels more like this is ment to be a none sexual game.

Girls are cute and i like the builds as well, there is a bit of diversity in builds to but mostly aimed for smols which is fine by me since im not into big tits.

Its not animated either not that there would be anything to animate....

Music is standard background stuff.

As for choices there are barely any, you can try holding down skip from start to finish and you might see i dunno 5 choices in total, so game does feel very kinetic.

As for the sandbox theres just no reason for it other then wasting more of your time doing it that way, no clue why it was ever put into the game.

It's really amazing how much the MC can mix up a formula. Like him or hate him, Tohru is a character he's got thoughts, feelings, and most importantly goals. He's driven (to a reasonable degree), so when things occur as a result of his actions they feel earned and help to make him alot more interesting. It does reduce his ability to function of an expy or surrogate for the player though, and certainly reduces the denpa-ish elements of the game to more of a supernatural adversary, which at this point is a breath of fresh air in this space.

Game feels fairly uplifting with an air of mystery, visuals are pretty great, particularly lighting and eyes, characters are expressive in a non-tropey way and I love that. Pacing's a bit slow as advertised, but comfortable; cliffhanger-drama doesnt appear to be a major element atm so it's fine. Also Linear Mode is a godsend, never thought I'd be so grateful for standard VN mechanics.

4.5/5 at time of writing.

The only way to describe this VN is using every synonym of the words slow and boring. This isn't a slow burn, this is continental drift levels of speed of progress.
Every event is duller than the other, the characters are either not engaging or outright annoying, the very first one you meet is a nurse that should never be allowed near patients due to how she acts.
The "sandbox" has no reason to exist, its presence only wastes even more time, better spent staring at the wall.
Visually, I don't know the range of facial expression custom maid can output, but it's definitely more than the three used here, everyone constantly has semi tired smug smile on them, regardless of circumstance.
And most importantly, no sexual content, so don't expect to even bust a nut.
Horrifying waste of time, wish I could get those hours back.

Installed @ update 0.8

Still nowhere near finished so at the "slow burn" phase of the game. So far, it's interesting to say the least.
I'm definitely curious about the whole time event but I'm sure I'll get more answers about that soon. Bit of mixed opinions about the MC's attitude in general.

One of the girl's on her first event mentioned that she was interested in knowing the MC was doing naughty stuff with other girls and the guy just acted like it was the most normal thing in the world and didn't even reply to it but then there's no lewd scenes (up until prior to the festival at least) and it's already been a year since release.

Haven't been around for long but can already tell the updates come out rather slowly. While I do hope they pick up, I'd rather get quality content instead so for the time being, beggars can't be choosers.

Here's hoping that this game does picks up. Slow burn is good but when it's a little too slow, that's when people start dropping out. More and different music would also be nice, don't feel like the current BGM fits the game that well to the point where I sometimes just have other songs (including from different games) running instead of the game's music

v0.8

This is one of the top games in regards to story telling here.

The main aspect of this game is the story first and foremost, all the other things are secondary.

In addition to having one of the best stories, this game also has a plethora of cute and unique LI's.

The only thing which everyone playing this should mind is that don't come into this game expecting to see lewd scenes in the current version, cause there is literally only 1 scene which I found. I guess there is only that one scene for now in this game.

The Dev did say in the future there would be lewd scenes with the LI's but that is not a big drawback for me since the story more than enough makes up for that.

Even though this game has a dark supernatural undertone, the interactions and events with all the LI's are heartwarming and well made.

If you are really in need of a good read and have time to spend, play this for sure.

A future Master Piece for sure.

You can turn off sandbox mode. That shit is the single greatest thing on this site, and that feature alone deserves 5 stars. (seriously fuck sandboxes if your story can be told linearly.)

Story is slow, like many others have pointed out, but shit's good, with competent writing.
It's got that typical mystery element that most Denpa-like games have, but it's mostly in the background and focuses much more on the main cast.

The main character being a decent, normal guy instead of some psychopath or pervert is also a plus for me.

Great game with great potential.
Sadly it's quite a slow burn but writing is great and story is even better, leaving me to ponder for a day and a half after each update, which is quite a good sign in my book!
Hope it will grow into something great in the future)

This is a slow burn game, I am okay with slow burn kind of games and others might not be and that's okay. I think this game has a lot of potential the renders look good the story is interesting so far the girls are good and the MC is okay.

Disappointment

Review on 0.7

Other reviews mention slow burn, but you cannot just call 20 hours of gameplay "Prologue" because of slow burn. It is just an inability to move forward. It started well (a bit boring, but this is how actual slow burn works), but since MC discharged from the hospital, I did nothing but made a lot of literal laps in same circle. How am I expected to focused on some story arc, if there is about 20 events between each update on it? How am I expected to be excited by some character, if I met 10 other exciting characters since our previous meeting?

Just to prevent confusion: I played game in sandbox mode so I expected at least somewhat control on what is going on, but sandbox mode itself is a joke: the only thing I can decide is order in which i meet girls in a given cycle. Cycle which brings one to two events whith each of girl, which is essentianaly nothing in terms of character development.

And once again, it is not a slow burn. Character-wise it feels more like a rush, game just does not focus on characters. And honestly, I have no idea what it focuses on

Don't get me wrong, this game has it good sides: (some) interesting characters, strong vibes of loneliness, nice denpa trope, good graphics, hillarious sound etc. It actualy enough for me to keep going and take a look for next updates, especialy with promising 0.7 which actualy focused on certain story arc, but for now this game is almost nothing

really quite good. conceptually very similar to Lessons in Love but executed very well. its a slow burn, for sure, but it promises to pay off well as most characters are pretty well done, pretty cute, and most importantly, its not sensei overnight