Ren'Py - DropOut Saga [v0.11.1b] [LazyBloodlines]

This comes as a huge surprise to me.

I'm usually not a fan of "mob" or crime games. It simply isn't a genre that captures my attention.
I usually don't like the whole "super alpha chad who can do anything" type MC, because they are unrelatable.
I almost always prefer incest content, because I'm that sort of degenerate.
I don't like forced scenes. I like to be be able to choose.

Because of these factors, even if I thought a game deserved a decent score, as it usually doesn't hold much appeal to me, I will usually never play them, play them and quit them, or play them through but decide they didn't appeal to me much, but that a review of them from me might be unfair, so I don't review them.

This game, on the other hand, did what practically no mob/crime centric game has done, and what many games with tags I look for fair to do... it captivated me.

I am very drawn into the story. The game's description almost leaves you to believe this will be the typical "assume control of a school and corrupt the girls" schlock. There is so much more going on.

Yes, you're fairly alpha-chad. The dev sets up fairly well why this is believable, and still leaves the MC relatable. No small feat, there.

Yes, there is what is essentially "forced" content (as in, forced on the player, not rape), but the dev builds up the MC's past relationship with that person, and being with them feels entirely appropriate.

In fact, as I see it, it is likely every girl who is an LI is more or less "required." What the game does, though, is allow the player to decide how the MC goes about it. For game reasons, pursuing them all is required, but choosing how our MC acts helps guide who he is, as we play him, which is a fantastic approach. And who you are with the girls will effect the girls development over time, which is also exceptionally well done.

I wish there were incest, but at the same time, I see very few ways to incorporate it. In the end, I'd rather play a game with good LIs but no incest, than a game with crappy LIs and incest.

The plot is developing at a great pace, allowing us to grow into the world without things being rushed. There is a lot of intrigue that makes you want to keep playing, not only for the girls, but to see what happens next.

You will want to play the prolog before starting the "main" game, and it is evident by a few changes that happen during the prologue that this is (I believe) the devs first project and is finding their feet, but it is still a smooth experience. I do hope though that, at some point (maybe after the game is done), the dev goes back and tweaks the prologue.

The girls are beautiful, and as characters, they're great. The best part is that they are not forced into trope catagories, but instead feel much more fleshed out.

In the future, I DEFFINENTLY plan to come back to this one. I am greatly enjoying it. I think the dev has done a great job at character building and world building. I think this game is a sleeper hit that many people might scroll past while checking recent updates, until they decide, as I did, to just check it out, finally, only to see what they'd been missing up until then.

My best wishes to the dev, and I really look forward to future updates!

Prologue Version

The story is interesting but at first the story goes too fast, and makes the story a little strange, even though I know this is only a prologue story, but it's a little disappointing. But the story starts to get a little more interesting after there are changes in the game system such as the character being able to click on doors, computers, and other parts of the main character.
And I really liked the ending, I felt like I got a strange vibe or feeling, and I couldn't explain it, so the overall score for the prologue version is 4.6 out of 5.
I like the musics and songs which fits the scenes perfectly, moreover there are sound effects such as gunshots and other sound effects which make the story even more interesting, 4.8 out of 5.
The rendering is quite good, 4.3 out of 5.
Apart from that, there are several things that make me curious:
1. When the Main Character comes home from school and sees a young man (Jake) surrounded by several men and the Main Character helps the young man's girlfriend. Why does the Main Character choose to take Kayle (the young man's girlfriend) to an abandoned building? which in the end the Main Character left Kayle alone because it seemed like Kayle was traumatized. Besides, where does the Main Character park his car if after that incident he chooses to drive the car home.
2. When the Main Character is attacked on the train and a girl is injured due to the impact, why doesn't the Main Character do first aid and call an ambulance or tell someone else to call an ambulance and after that the Main Character can leave, so that when the train arrives at the station (if indeed at that time the train was moving), the girl could immediately receive medical treatment.
Instead of taking the girl to her house and then having medical treatment, it would make more sense if the incident occurred in a location quite close to the Main Character's house.
Apart from that, we don't know whether the train is moving or stopped, but if you listen to the sound effects during the scene where the Main Character is attacked on the train, it looks like the train is moving, but then the question is, where did the man who beat the Main Character escape? To another train carriage? And, wouldn't it be too late to help the girl if the train is actually running and the Main Character chooses to take the girl to the Main Character's house for medical treatment, unless the Main Character lives at the station. Apart from that, on the way home, It's a bit strange that no one suspected and reported the Main Character whose clothes were stained with blood while carrying an unconscious girl. Weren't there several people on the train, and didn't they suspect or report the Main Character who besides fighting also took the girl home?
And also when a man pushed the girl, it seems like the man didn't push the girl too hard, causing the girl to get hurt quite badly, or maybe I was the wrong one.
3. As the story progresses, sometimes there are notifications such as other characters' views or trust in the Main Character increasing. Actually, is this necessary? Wouldn't it be better if the notification appeared when the Character chose one of the options available during the story?
4. Sometimes I feel that the coloring of the render changes, like sometimes the Main Character's hair is black, sometimes gray, sometimes slightly grayish black.
And it's better when conversations between characters take place, it's better if their mouths are open even a little so that it looks more realistic. I noticed they smiled more often or their mouths closed when they spoke, although their expressions changed according to what they were saying.

Version 0.8.7b
Until this version, the story is more interesting than the Prologue version. In my opinion, in the Prologue, apart from the plot being quite fast, there are also several things that I think don't make sense.
There are a few little things I noticed that made me curious:
1. At the beginning the students and Main Character visit the school swimming pool, when Lila enters the swimming pool, the one who says "Yeah.. I'm not doing that. Thank you very much" is Jasmin but the rendering is Julie (I think). Apart from that, Julie's front hair is slanted to the left, and Jasmin's front hair is slanted to the right, but in this rendering Julie's front hair is slanted to the right, so it's a bit confusing, because I thought this rendering was Jasmin.
Apart from that, in this rendering, you can't see Jasmin wearing a bikini next to the entrance, but when Jasmin appears and says "Listen here, you little sh..." Jasmin's position is in front, slightly to the side of the dressing room entrance.
2. When Lori visits the Main Character's house, and Ava is there, Lori puts her smartphone on the body of the car near the windshield and the two of them lean against the side of the car. Shouldn't Lori's smartphone have fallen considering the position of the car's windshield is tilted forward?

So far my favorite female characters are Jasmin and Julie, even though Julie rarely appears in the story until this version.

Sorry for my bad English, and please correct me if there's anything wrong.
And thanks for the game.

This is great. I didn't expect it to be good at all, and I'm absolutely blown away. It's a game with not too much lewdness, compared to the amount of text (still on prologue) but for the first time, I don't care. I want the story. This story feels incredibly human to me, the characters have a personality, a story. Keep it up, this isn't just some lewd game, this is art.

My Favorite VN for all time right now .


i love all characters in this game . i love all of them . i can hate everything easily. im hatretful guy. even to 2d characters . but this is only game that doesnt give me hatred and disgust. all characters are great designed. and i love it .i dont hate anything in this game .this is first for me .

Also ,i care Characters more than story and writing. so this VN is really enjoyable for me .

For me, this game is Eternum level of storytelling, humor, plot, etc. Everything is fabulous. Good luck to the dev with future updates. Wish u all the best.
Sophia and Ava's chemistry is fucking insane.
P.S. I wish there was sound in sex scenes.

This is such a great game that I didn't think I needed.

I'm not a big fan of male protagonists as most of them are immature and too horny, so the plot and pretty girls are important to me. The story of a man with a hard life, who has lost a lot and constantly battles his own demons seems banal, but when it's done well, it's always attractive. Add to the story interesting female characters whom you want to get to know better, whom you want to see in the life of the mc, and you can get the ideal formula for any plot. (Sophia and Ava are the perfect duo for that.)

And of course the soundtrack. I very rarely play with music from visual novels turned on, but I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure here.

found one of the best songs i have ever listened to from this game. Gone away is a legendary song and you are a legend for fitting it so perfectly in the game, absolutely loved it, both the game and the music playlist

The games that stick in my memory are the ones where the writing has gripped me enough to become immersed in either the setting, the characters or the plot. This games writing is brilliant. I love the characters and how they potentially could develop. The city with all its inter-fighting factions and power struggle. I like how the girls introduced so far are all pretty realistic characters within the context of the setting. Personally Asuna's my favourite. I enjoy how she challenges the MC. Looking forward to how this story plays out. Good luck
Edit: I forgot the references too! The ME one had me laugh and the FMA one was perfect. Also Isabella's reaction when she heard *THING* happened to MC was brilliant.

Straight up fire. The writing is excellent and is the main selling point of the game. The MC is an absolute beast, but you don't feel like there is that much plot armor crap just becacuse. He is just a badass fighting his own demons while protecting what he loves, incredibly well done. The only downside to this game is that you want more.

The corruption vs love mechanic seems fine. The gameplay is way better than usual VNs, it's more engaging while it's still pretty much a kinetic novel. The constant balancing between basically the underworld plot and the headmaster duties brings some really nice fresh air so neither of those get tedious or exhausting.

Characters are awesome. Many different characters that all have their own personalities and background, they are not just random npcs, even the students...

Really well done.

Pros: Plot is pretty exciting, musical choices are decent where present, characters are likable, and MC is a badass. There's a huge quality jump from prologue to main game so great work! Also, MC doesn't sound like a pervert so matches my taste.

Cons:

1. Writing needs more polishing. It needs the extra oomph to make you connect with characters. It needs more creativity cuz currently it just comes off as shallow and it looks like MC is just lecturing rather than connecting with people.​
2. Animation could use more polishing cuz you cant see their faces half the times.​
3. Renders could surely use more polishing (especially prologue).​
4. Some sections don't have music so maybe implement appropriate music in those areas.​

Verdict: I would hold off until more sandbox elements and more chapters are under the belt.

If I had to sum up the premise of this game in a single sentence it would be 'what if John Wick was the headmaster of a small private college, because reasons?' You play a mid-level gangster in a very Wickian city, tasked with infiltrating an exclusive college attended by the offspring of the cities elite in order to dig up dirt on said elites on behalf of your faction. You can accomplish this mission through one of the two time-honoured paths: love or corruption (or a combination of the two). I mostly followed the love path, and it led to some genuinely sweet moments.

The girls that you encounter in and out of the college are all pretty well actualized, and I came to feel invested in their stories as the game unfolded. Thus far (0.8.0b) it has been a pretty slow burn kind of game for the most part, but that didn't stop me from wanting to play it through. The occasional slips in English aside, the writing is good, and I am interested to see where the story goes.

Visually it looks decent for a Honey Select type game. It could possibly benefit from a bit more lighting in places but maybe the developer is going for a Noirish feel, I dunno. The girls all look good, with a nice variety of body types and decent facial expressions. The guys all look like ass, but it's a Honey Select game, what do you expect? the soundtrack is also good; I normally play muted but this one is actually worth listening to, some decent tunes in there.

One minor quibble (if dev is reading): lose the loli tag. The girls in the game are all of age, and it would actually hurt the story if they weren't. The game is strong enough to stand without it.

[v0.8.0b]

The initial concept seemed somewhat cliché, I thought it was just another game having a back story that only serves as an excuse to get to a setting where there are girls to fuck. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the story, and amazed at some of the character developement and dialogue.

What stands out for this game among so many others to me is how compelling and interesting a lot of the characters are. I find myself not sloppily reading through dialogue like I usually do, actually finding the beliefs and struggles of different characters believable, and curious as to what comes next.

The renders aren't top quality, although seemingly improving by the update, I still don't think it is worthwhile to get into this game just for the sex scenes at this point. If that is what you are mainly looking for, there are plenty other games that do it better.

The story has holes to be filled for sure, hopefully the developement is in the right direction, and I have high hopes because of what the dev has managed so far.

5/5 The most exciting project currently

S tier game. I don't usually review games, but this game has genially Really interesting plot, mc and side-characters. The author has planned the characters for a long time, and it shows. The mc is really likeable and the girls are hot. I think the game will definitely get updates for a long time cause it looks like it's in the early stages of the plot. Definitely will be waiting for a new update to continue story.

DropOut Saga [v0.8.0b] Rating: 3.5*

First off, I really appreciate the effort the Dev has put in, and I heard that this is his first game he created, which is very impressive.
I do like the visuals, the girls look cute, and I do like the fact, that this game has animations that look decent.

The premise of the Story is really interesting and one of the reasons I downloaded it. But here are the issues I have with this game.
Although it is really well written, the story tries to be too much of everything and is all over the place, making it feel too overwhelming to process and the pacing suffers greatly because of it.
We jump through so many plots that it feels like you don´t progress with any of them.
I think it would probably be better to spotlight the girls and your relationship more, just like progressing more with the love and corruption paths and add more sex scenes. The Story paths could be distributed much better and I would handle it more like a TV series where every path gets their shine.
So, I think this is a decent game, but there´s a lot of work that must be done, and certain things need to be more optimized. That´s why I can only give it 3*.
I wish the Dev all the best in his development of the game. I will keep following the development and will update the rating if needed.

Pretty sound game so far. Very heavy on dialogue, not so much on sex, but honestly that's not a bad thing. The thing is, this game has something most other games don't: the MC is a total badass. Plus the music is awesome.

Girls are cute, eyes especially are expressive, and the naughty bits are pretty okay. The only downside is that some convos drag on a bit too long, the creator seems to REALLY like freeze-frame expression shifts, like a 40 second long 4-frame scene just so someone can give you the side-eye, and some of the English is a bit grammatically off. However none of this takes too much away from the story.

since this is a place for critical review, I assume everyone here has played it or doesn't care about spoilers since this is a place for the dev to improve your ideas, that said, this is my personal review,
that said, MY personal opinion, I think the dev put a lot of short-tempered, stressed, angry characters that take it out on those who are not to blame for anything, sophie is one of them, I don't think the people around us are to blame for what how bad our lives are, or what the fuck has our choices made in the past and that they deserve to feel that person's wrath, through no fault of their own, let alone poor Ava, watching Sophie take it out on Ava after the MC takes 2 shots, it was discouraging, and the state in which sophie finds herself, all finished and invasive thinking she is "queen" as she calls herself, disgusts me, there are 2 things that I hate in stories, cowardly characters that he doesn't know how to take advantage of his luck (which is not the case with this mc), and when the DEV chooses something for us, such as a love interest, and there is no way to refuse that person, it's very bad these stories that the mc it's already predestined to have a romance with such a character in a harem game without even being able to refuse, not to mention that clearly sophie is the dev's favorite, the focus that the story has on her, much more than on others... even if the player likes someone else, you WILL HAVE TO SUPPORT sophie because the dev wanted it that way, sophie almost shot the hot school nurse and the secretary, who just went there to help the MC, she practically decides who the MC is with can relate and control his life, and when mc doesn't tell her about his personal life, she fights with ava and mc since ava was just offering them breakfast, I won't go into details, because there's a "mini sophie" at school, also one with a twin sister, who lives taking it out on everyone too. And this thing about the MC always having sex scenes in dreams, I think it's a lack of creativity, I see it as Dev couldn't implement it in the story without being in a dream due to the excessive amount of drama and tragedy in the story that didn't even have room for a scene " real", there's the MC almost dead everyone fighting and out of nowhere a sex scene, do you really think that after a drama, blood everywhere a person out of nowhere will pick up the dick and start hitting one with the scene of sex in the middle of that drama? and I don't see the point in giving a nickname to ingrid in the dream to call the mc, since it's just a dream, why do dreams need nicknames? woke up it's over anyway.
I played in corruption mode, because I don't care what the DEV said about sensitive content for certain people, what bothers me is the personality and the invasion and the false sense of choices that the dev gives to the player, no matter what you choose, nothing changes.
Of course there is more to say, but the main thing for me is this.

[Review as of Version 0.8b]

The story and the narrative in this game is so damn good! Holy shit! It keeps getting better and better!

To the point that it almost makes me mad that the updates, and the story as a whole, is as good as it is. I really wished this last update was 3x longer.

Seriously, very few times have I read an AVN as engaging as this one. Hell, it's about as good as some actual novels I've read in the last couple of years (at least up to the point where the story is now).

I really, truly hope that this AVN blows up, to the point where LazyBloodlines is able to hire a team so he can keep pumping out updates at a faster pace (while keeping or even upping the quality).

This story, although still early in what could become a long-running saga, has so far been done so extremely well that I'd recommend this game in a heartbeat to anyone looking for an interesting story.

It's not just the story itself that is good though, but also the way it's being told and the way the narrative is used. All of the characters are different (though, granted, some more than others) and all have a lot of room for development.

One of the reasons I'm not giving 5 stars* to this game is because of the render quality. The lighting and the overall image quality could be better. They are not awful or anything, perfectly serviceable but could be better. Then again, I'm sure that dedicating time to do that would make the updates take a lot longer to be released. So far, the main focus seem to be the story, and I think that's a great decision. I hope that in the future, the overall visual quality improves though.

That isn't to say that the animations are bad though, make no mistake. They're pretty hot. I'll say though... I kinda hope the MC's dick was more "normal" instead of it being a mix of dinosaur + exomorph. Minor gripe though.

It must also be said, that the audio in this game is dope as fuck. Really damn good selection of music and sounds in general. And the placement of those elements are just *chef's kiss*. Although, your mileage may very depending on your music taste.

Please give the game a go, and consider supporting the dev if you can. I think this one deserves the support, and hopefully with it he'll be able to be even more efficient with the production of the game.

||Edit*: Came back to review my review after waiting for an update for a while and decided to change my 4-star rating to 5-star. The previous 4-star rating was due to overall render quality, and my previous points about them stand.

However, I chose to give it a 5-star score now on account of just how memorable this story is among the ocean of AVNs present on this site. Even after quite a while, I keep looking forward for an update and actively search for updates, all the while lusting after the continuation of the story like almost no AVN can make me. So far, for my taste story-wise it's an easy top 3 AVN on the entire site.||

This is good. Really fucking good. Good soundtrack - very different from most other indie VNs and it sets a very different tone for the story, but it works very well. The characters are all different shades of interesting even if some are clearly stereotyped to shit. The narration is really good, and the quality of the writing isn't perfect, but there are very few complaints to be made - good quality english.

The reason this is narrowly avoiding a 5 is because the Prologue was definitely a WIP, and it shows. The prologue (as well as small parts of "Chapter 1") having that sandbox style pick and choose is really annoying, done more annoying by the fact that the choices are meaningless. I understand the appeal of wanting people to interact with your game, but I don't need a menu to choose between which girl to call to my office when I CANNOT call them to my office, or if I MUST call them to my office to proceed. In other words, the sandbox instead just makes it more annoying for me to progress a story that is already entirely on rails and CAN NOT be made modular or "pick-your-own-pace" since it's not how it's built.

Even with the interface changing, the problem still remains. Not only that, but the game itself works weirdly with it - the choice is mostly just meaningless fluff interaction before yet another long narration section outside your office, until you're back in, and you really just need to call that one person or two into your office before going back into the bigger narration sections. It's like the dev himself is conflicted whether he should use the sandbox elements or not, because the narration sections are way too long that it feels like we're avoiding them anyway.

I'm a firm believer that games like these - particularly when the writing and setting are as appealing as this one - would do better with ditching the entirety of the sandbox elements, because they add nothing to the game - worse, by keeping me from progressing through the game by having to click around to call the people I need to progress the premeditated story to begin with, it is actually detracting from my immersion by giving me a fake idea of interaction.

Other than that, the love/corruption points are still there and you can see slight dialogue differences thus far but not much. Given, I'm not going to rate that too harshly given this is still a Chp. 1 and these things need time to properly alter the personality of a character, so judging it right now would be unfair.

Two more minor complaints: first, that particularly in chapter 1 and towards the later parts of the prologue there was very little focus on the school, which... was a bit annoying. It was nice to see them intersect at points (such as Ava with Lori) but more focus on the school itself would be more interesting, I believe; we've barely interacted with the 5 main girls equally (Julie has ONE scene, and Asuna 2), and the 2 main guys who looked like small-time villains we'd need to purge were left by the wayside. The story is good, but it is leaning too heavily into the past/mafia aspect in detriment of building upon the college aspect. It is somewhat fine because it's clear that this is to set the tone of how the protagonist will behave from chapter 1 onwards, I just wish that it flowed a bit more nicely into one another; or perhaps that the story structure was a bit more defined, as it feels a bit too spread out for my tastes.

Secondly, sometimes the references can feel a bit much. The "it's raining" scene is fun, but like... it worked best when I first saw it somewhere else, you know? Your writing is good enough, you don't need the references. It does still look badass though.

All in all I'm pretty happy I found this game and I'm looking forward to the future updates, but I don't think I could ever give this a 5 without a more polished and revised prologue in the distant future.

I started this one a while back, when it began. At first it wasnt really that impressive, as it went through several major changes and the prologue was a messy sandbox. However, I can honestly say that all the changes that the dev has implemented have been exponentially better, and that is the key to knowing you have a winner. A lot of devs never get better at what they do, but this one was able to identify areas that he could improve on and fixed them, and fixed them properly. In particular, the story is outstanding. I don't EVER find adult games that actually make me FEEL something. For that, the only acceptable answer is 5 stars.

Ava and Sophia forever, and RIP Ingrid. Save the College, build your army, and rule the world!

Great game, author really put effort into developing a story with interesting characters and backgrounds. This is definitely a hidden gem for those who actually enjoy funny moments/dialogue and good stories.