VN - Ren'Py - Echoes of Deceit [Ch. 6] [RumTechFeel]

Bad internet porn meets unpredictable and implausible writing and no choices whatsoever. There is no involvement or sense of immersion. I understand it is the developer's first game, but it is not a game at all and the lack of any effort or pursuit of quality is very evident.

There's a reason real porn tags don't pair well with ren'py and this is a prime example.

• Writing:

From the smallest things like inconsistent (or in some cases wrong) capitalization to nonsensical dialogue, I could give this one a bit of a pass (it isn't even the worst out there) if it had some redeeming qualities.

• Visuals:

I can appreciate the edits, particularly the character presentations, but for the ease of access real porn as material is supposed to represent, there's nowhere near enough content to justify the limitations it brings. Background image quality is far superior to actual porn images/videos, which in a way is good because the bland background occupies at least 80% of the screen for the vast majority of the game.

• Mechanics:

I understand the phone is probably your pride and joy, looks good enough, messaging feels unnecessary but still nice, until it comes into consideration the fact that 50% of your time in the game is staring at the phone message after message, and it takes so fucking long, I even tried skipping for my "second" play through for this review and it still takes way too long, other than that, the phone seems like an overly complicated way to do storytelling but I'll expand on that later, it's only functional for "sending" or receiving (reading) messages, you don't have a contacts list, can't read up on anything, dev made sure we have access to settings for some reason when they do nothing.
On a similar topic, we're sat at the MC's desktop where we have to interact with the computer screen, the reason to bring it up is that it happens once, and there's literally nothing else to click.

• Story:

We're heavily hinted very early on in the game that , at the point of this review (ch 5 part 1), there's no resolution to it, and there aren't even attempts at addressing it, at least not some an adult would make.
I counted 6 choices in the whole play through, some of which are inconsequential (went for different choices than my first one and got mostly the same results).
Going back to the phone for a second (and how annoying it is), there's a recurrent group chat and a chat with one of the mc's friends, it's revolting, from porn dumping to shit memes, which wouldn't be an issue if it was optional content or at least relevant to the story (they aren't).

• Conclusion:

I can't say I'd recommend anyone plays this, I would however say to the dev:
Pick a lane and stick to it, from an outside perspective, it doesn't look like even you know what you want to do with the game, if you want a visual novel experience add more impactful choices, cut the unnecessary chatter, if you want a fantastical world where everything goes wrong for the character (like the only 2 major plot points so far) drop the "realistic" gimmicks (at least that's what they assume they're trying to be) and focus on that.
I'm pretty convinced it'd be much better to take what you've learned from this and start from scratch, there's a reason html is so prevalent for real porn tags, they work really well together. Or if you want to focus on mechanics like the phone, I'd say look at an engine that allows you to do more with less and mix up these characters, since you're only using crops 90% of the time, might as well be a render.

After 5 updates, developer decided to tell us that main plot of this game isn't actually about ntr, meanwhile netorare tag casually chilinig down there and whole game content was basically centered about wife being whore and do some stuff behind husband's back! What a trash

There's next to no gameplay here. If you use the skip command, you get a choice maybe once every 100+ clicks. This is more like a visual novel than it is a game. Way too much clicking. I'm not sure I'd bother downloading it until the author adds actual content.

After playing for five minutes, I realized that this game is about a corrupt, cheating FMC. So why would NTR be appealing to me anymore?
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Chanel: Oh yeah, hmmmm that sounds so good. Delicious…What, no I can't do that …
Chanel: oh that sounds soooooo good

Thought: She isn't telling me the whole truth. I just heard her talking to somebody. Better just play dump for now...
Thought: She is not even listening. She is constantly glued to her phone lately. I have an idea, let's try something new.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Chanel: I hope this helps with your hot tantrums, you little Casanova.
Chanel: btw, your scream was really high-pitched...
Chanel: Hahahahaha

MC: Let´s go out today. You told me months ago that you want to try the new Asian restaurant down the street. Or let's go to a bar like we used to.
Chanel: Today? No, as I told you already I'm exhausted today and I still want to wash my hair.
..
Five minutes later:
MC: What's going on here? Have I missed something? Weren't you just about to take a shower?
Chanel: Sry sweetie, small change of plans. Unfortunately, I have to deal with a customer quickly. I'll be back in an hour or two. I'm sure you don't mind, do you?
..
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Big bug: If you scroll back, all the messages get pushed back.
Wife character: Very weak, not likable at all, shows no respect or love towards the MC.
MC character: Weak, constantly crying, instead of being assertive, just begs.
Creativity: It's a complete copy of a similar game, no creativity at all.
Writing: Full of crying and whining.

Good game V.0.3 I like it. The story is well directed, I don't like the MC that much, it would be better if he took the initiative, but maybe that could still happen. I hope we see more of the game, which definitely needs more support, that it is well made. My rating
Story: 4/5 stars
Rendering: 5/5 stars
Gameplay: 5/5 stars
Let's see what else is coming. I'm excited.

very good
good choice for all model
looking for more content
i hope from you to make every update longer
very promising game
i hope for more fetishs like femdom and ntr (specialy netorare )
really deserve more support
i gave it 5 stars

[v0.2]

Guy below says a 5 star review was misleading, and then he rates it 1*, which is equally misleading.

It's too early to rate this game, as we haven't seen enough developments and there are some kinks that needs to be ironed out. That said, at minimum, the dev can write in proper English and even do a fairly good job of conveying somewhat believable characters and natural conversations (more often than not). That's already better than the average slop you will find on this site, just by virtue of not being some ESL production with atrocious grammar and laughable dialogues.

As for the story set up, I suppose the themes and progression will be similar to the other wife phone games in which the MC deals with anxiety and suspicions about his probably cheating wife, and there are some other parties that leak videos of her or something like that.

That said, this story at least tries to stay a bit grounded I think. The dev said it's not a BBC game. Also, the MC behaves in a much more believable way and doesn't act like an immediately pathetic cuck. When he argues with his wife, he says things that makes sense from his perspective.

It's still very much in the introductory phase, but the different characters show some distinct characteristics and mannerisms. Sometimes it's laid on a bit thick, but honestly, the writing is better than most. And it's not something I personally mind in NTR productions, but this universe doesn't seem to be designed specifically to fuck over the MC's life and cuck him lol. It seems like he has some support, although it remains to be seen if they are reliable as the story progresses.

What needs to be fixed is the rollback during text messaging which rolls back to before the text chain started. And there are cases where the MC is called "MC" by others.

I could see this game being a solid 4*, but there just isn't enough to go on yet.

Saw 5 stars which was misleading. Bad internet porn meets spotty, implausible writing and absolutely no choices whatsoever. There's no engagement or sense of immersion. I understand it's the dev's first game, but it's not really a game at all and the lack of any effort or striving for quality is very apparent.