VN - Ren'Py - Epistrefo [v0.6] [Epis3D]

Review based on v 0.5

Possible spoilers.

The story of a young man who recently completes his tour in the Army and returns home. The opening scene has our MC arriving at the doorstep of his "landlady" and her two daughters. Here, the reader is afforded the option to rename these relationships, making it into an incest game if you so choose. Sister and niece being the most obvious choice.

The story unfolds as the MC tries to settle into civilian life while running into old acquaintances along the way and he is soon offered a job as a bartender, which he eagerly accepts. As the story progresses our MC meets a number of very horny females along the way. There is also a party scene with the obvious party games and ensuing mischief as well as the addition of a swingers club, which I thought was a nice touch.

There is a lot of sexual tension and teasing between the MC and the major characters ("Landlady" and her daughters) but there were no actual sex scenes in the version that I played. I felt that this was intentional and not necessarily a bad thing, as I found myself looking forward to seeing just how far the relationship will progress between the MC , the "Landlady" and her sexually curious twin daughters. But don't put your dick back in your pants just yet! There are sex scenes throughout the game between the MC and secondary characters.

Pros:

1- Cute characters in abundance. A model used in a glory hole scene was absolutely stunning and should have been used as a major character in the game.

2- Although the majority of the renders were basic, there were some very nice ones sprinkled in.

3- Although there were quite a few cliche scenes I felt the overall story has potential.

4- The sexual tension that was slowly escalating between the family and the MC left me wanting for more. Well done.

Cons:

1- *Poor writing throughout the game. It must be overhauled if this game is to be taken seriously.

2- No sound.

3- Some charcter poses and outfits were poor.

4- Parts of the story made no sense, referencing events that never take place. Leading me to believe that the game was not proof read very well, if at all.

Final thoughts

The story and characters were actually pretty good. However, if the developer is serious about moving forward with this game it is vital that the dialogue be re-written. I see promise from this developer and I hope he continues to improve.

The games strange title may be a turn off to some. I discovered that Epistrepho means "to return" so this now makes sense. I would strongly suggest changing the title to the English equivalent in order to attract more attention to the game.

* See links to my re-write of the game dialogue in the forum. A copy is also available on my profile page.

I'm still playing the game so the score could change. The art is decent enough. The models are the strong point of the game.

There are some scenes with random chicks so there is some vag action.
The problem is the scenarios. It plays like it was written by some random porn generator. It's pretty flimsy. I ended up at some sex club but I don't know why I was there. The story is doing little for me at this point so I find myself just clicking through the dialogue. The family stuff is pretty standard so far with teasing shots being the content so far.

Anyway, I think average is fair enough.

- It isn't BAD. It isn't GOOD either. It's stuck in a limbo, that doesn't allow us to love it, but, also doesn't let us hate it.
- Models are ok. Renders are decent. No flagrant problems with lighting.
- Scenarios are bare. MC's room has less interest than a bad hotel room. The whole house is bare-bones.
- Internal dialogues aren't marked, it's up to us to decipher if they are thoughts or not.
- Dialogues aren't horrible, but, they aren't good, it is actually a relief when we get the narrator summary so we don't need to continue the suffering.
- The women are ALL way too horny. This sounds like it would be a good thing, only, it isn't. They all come around to look and talk like a 12 year old wet dream. Way too simplistic, way too porny.
- So far, there's really no story here. Just a setup to create sex scenes. That in itself isn't bad, it just isn't any good at all.

- I'd rate this a 2.5. Because it isn't bad, but it also isn't good enough.

Meh! Sex scenes could be longer with more positions and options available. Most important would be where YOU choose to drop your nut. NOT the Dev's choice BUT yours!!!!!! If you don't feel incolced in your characters there really is nothing to lock you into what you are trying to immerse yourself into. Sex IS what everyone is here for. Sure they SAY its about the story and that is true to a point but why are we playing Adult Visual Novels if we were not really all here for the SEX!!!! So the sex scenes need to be top notch. These are decent vut top notch they sure as hell aint. Too short and way too bland. Kind of like the most recent update was actually. A coupel minites of gameplay. MEH!!!!!

Unless this improves then this is a waste of time to play until you wait a few years.