VN - Ren'Py - Onhold - Echoes of the Past [v0.3] [SpectralByte]

Below average fits this one well. It's not terrible, but far from good.
For people who wants to enjoy some story to their renders and animations like me, might go even to 1* here.

PRO's:
-Renders look good, characters aren't overused models I see floating around
-Premise of the story is there, for those like me, who wants it

CON's:
-Some of the facial expressions are weird as fuck
-Albeit story is there, there are so much inconsistencies with renders from the start, or even characters contradicting in a single scene
-Don't get me started on the amount of inner monologues and the grammar is... I am no native speaker but damn, that gets on my nerves
-This should have the Kinetic Novel tag, there are no real choices in what I've seen here, which isn't necessarily bad

I actually gave up before I got through the first episode, all that empty yapping puts me to sleep. But I would still rate it at 2 not 1.

decent start. would expect more options for cumming and more scenes with the gym trainer. Besides that it has a good story and potentially some more stuff hidden behind the upcoming releases. Lets hope the dev keeps them coming

[v0.2]

Jeez. This is Exposition: The Game. I've never seen such drab writing. 99% of the text is internal monologues that are actually just exposition. MC wakes up and internal monologues about his backstory. The MILF internal monologues constantly about why she is frustrated. All of this is written not as if they were actual thoughts a person might have, but as just drab exposition for the reader to learn about the story.

I shit you not, even in MC's jerk off fantasy scenes, the girls are having internal monologues. How does that even work? Lol.

If there was an antithesis to "show, don't tell," this would be it. The dev cannot present a single thought or idea without having the characters painstakingly monologue to themselves about exactly what the dev wants the reader to know. I've read through MTL poetry that was more interesting than this.

That said, I've seen worse shit on this site. So 2* it is. If you have no standards for the writing, maybe you can give it a shot.

Overall an awful start.

The MC is extremely ugly and in focus in about 50% of all scenes. Masturbating, showering, you have to see it all. Completely unnecessary and disgustinging.

Some of the LIs look quite nice. But their characters are uninteresting and more often than not off-putting.

A lot of implied femdom already, without any choices. MC agrees to every domination and is clearly a sub.

Which all leads to my main critique: unavoidable sex scenes. You have no choices. They happen regardless if you're rude, creepy or nice. You will creep on your foster mom, she will blow you, etc.

In the end there are vastly better games out there, with meaningful decisions and interesting characters. It is an early version, so a big overhaul could potentially salvage this mess.
Don't waste your time on this yet, though.

Very good looking women. Nothing else really stands out but it's too early to just. I'd like to give it a little push (rating-wise), because I'm looking forward for its next releases.

I'll give it a 5/5 for now.

Current version: 0.2