VN - Ren'Py - Fates Collide [v0.4b] [KatanaVN]

What a great VN so far. I've been busy with my own dev stuff but finally had some time to check out KVN's project. I see some mentions of the long wait between updates. But with all the choices and various branches he's put into this little gem, you just can't knock him for that. I know how long it takes me to just get a single branch completed (which is why I chose to do a kinetic vn first).

Anyway, FC has beautiful HS2 characters, choices (that really do matter), and a nice mix of drama, comedy, and a decent plot. Each girl has a personality that is clearly seen and fairly well written. The branching choices are very well done (I know the work it takes to do that... well done Katana!) I really enjoyed making (MANY) saves and going back to see the different scenarios fall into place. I normally favor VN's with the 'harem' tag, but still loved playing this.

As a fellow HS2/renpy dev, I am looking forward to more updates to this to play between my own work. Keep up the good work!

Slower paced game indeed. Fun game definitely. Loving it right now. Spiritual successor of some games we lost along the way, hopefully this completes it journey

Also, do not worry about having a favorite girl, you can have many. What I meant is that number of times some leads are better than others etc etc, here everyone is treated equally well, and I hope some do get more attention for equal representation, but over all it has a balanced path for all

As of now (chapter 3) it's ok.
Humor is ok
Girls are ok.
Nothing stands out.
Music sometimes is really good and then sometimes really bland.
No real mystery or anything suspenseful yet.
so as of now I'll give it a 3/5 and update if it gets better

Game is funny, renders are very good, have multiple branches that are not so obvious at first glance. At this moment there is not much lewd content but the buildup is there. It's a shame that you have to dig here really hard to find underrated gem so I'd suggest to try it and just experience the game yourself.

Very good, nice models, nice story, i'm sure this would get better in the future!
i can say it was a good surprise, is a story that takes its time to build up the expectation of the hot moments. So give it a try

[v0.3]
The game is good BUT it has problems, the first is the lack of a phone or something to calculate love points, and the second is the lack of H scenes. I mean, come on, this is a porn game. I understand that the developer wants to build relationships first, but at least let him put some hot scenes, perhaps for example, the MC sleep and have a sex dream about one of the girls?

Not the most explicit game on this site by a long shot but I'm giving it 5 stars based on the strength of the writing and how funny it is. Also, the renders are pretty nice. Definitely play this game.

Slower paced but really well done. Really nice renders, good personalities, interesting situations and relationships. Slow-ish updates but its not like its abandoned, dev keeps you up to date. Hidden gem for sure.

[0.3 Review]
That was a surprise. I had previously ignored this as I am usually not a fan of this render type/engine (not versed in the techs used by all you creators). Thanks to the staff featuring it, I gave it a try and I am so glad I did.

I really enjoyed it. At times it actually made me think of BaDIK in the writing and the dynamic between characters, coupled with just enough dose of drama to make you interested without being over-the-top.
In my opinion the dosage is good for everything, there's good humour and banter, the memes and other references are a nice touch, and the anime trope references really get chuckles out of me; but again, neither of those felt too much (again, totally personal opinion).

Another positive for me is the pace. It is a slow burn, but the story is moving forward and I rarely felt like skipping dialogues (no "endless-inner-monologues", thank god) - only skipped a couple scenes with LI I wasn't interested in at first (Valentina and Serena weren't my first choice).
Also you won't get your "mandatory-sex-scene-in-the-first-five-min" with a character you'll never meet again, and that's a yes from me. It feels more realistic than every girl jumping MC's dick right after meeting him (that said, they still all think he's hot and stuff but that's how it is, this is not a cuck/ntr game). That said, as a game edging more towards slow-burn, it won't please everyone, but as I said above, IMO the dosage is good so far.

Haven't seen any sex scene yet (could be because of my choices, and I didn't get to the end of 0.3 - for personal reasons I won't detail in this review, not relevant) so can't judge that.
As for the renders, as I mentioned at the start it's not a rendering style I usually enjoy but it's actually quite good. There's always better out there but there are a lot more worse.

All in all, KatanaVN deserves praise for his work so far. Keep doing what you're doing!

This started out great and became less so. The best part is that it does away with most of the clichés. For instance, when I first saw Avis, I thought she would be the typical badass who is annoying as hell and always puts down the MC, but this went the sane route and made Avis likeable. I appreciate that a lot.

Pretty much all the girls are likeable, except for Valentina. She is dull, and curt and not a lot happens with her. Levi might not be that likeable either, though. She's a bit annoying with the whole "don't get yourself into trouble" thing. It's not like the MC busted a cartel ring or anything. Just tripped some guy and stopped a fight.

Another would be the lack of anything interesting happening. It's mostly just slice-of-life stuff, but I dunno, I don't think it does that well. I'm giving it a good rating because it didn't use the annoying clichés that 99% of VNs use. Nothing interesting happening also includes sex scenes, I guess. There are none.

I think to improve this game, the dev should add some drama or action. The current slice-of-life flow doesn't suit it.

Story 8/10: An Amazing game from start to finish. Its funny, with a serious future storyline. The dialogue with each character was refreshing and nicely done. The memes were hilarious. I cant wait for more. Couldnt find a single dislikeable character, serena is kinda on the fence but she is hot so ill let it slide. I love the fact there is more than 1 male friend. Each Romance path is nice. Ranking each LI, 1. Avis 2. Raiko 3. Koko 4. Valentina 5. Levy 6. Serena 7. Eiko. Each character is great but someone had to be last and Eiko just didnt have enough screentime for me to put here above anyone. I dont really care of Serena's Character so far but she is the only one with an H-Scene.

Sexual Content 5/10: The SC in that game isnt that great, only one scene and it isnt until episode 3, however i know the dev had said this will be a slow burner. The scene itself was short, but decent quality. And there are some renders that have SC in them but not an actual scene.

Renders 8/10: The renders are great, not much to say.

The Character Models 9/10: They are gorgeous, Avis is #1, Raiko is adorable, Valentina, Eiko, Serena, Beth, Koko, and levy. All amazing.

Best new game that I've played in a while. Really promising. The characters are engaging, and they develop organically instead of in one big intro dump. The creator really knows how to plant the seeds and let them grow gradually alongside the story.

The art is phenomenal. I haven't even gotten through much of the content, but many of the models have already left a lasting impression, which is something only a few AVNs have been able to do.

Not sure where exactly the story is going, but it seems the city has a lot of twists and turns in store, and I'm loving the interactions and relationship building so far.

This game is good. I don't have a terribly organized a review ready, but here were some of my thoughts/impressions while playing Edit: I organized it and tried to stop being a butt about my dislikes(Please finish this creator, I like this and like you(maybe)!)(Version 0.3):

• Likes
  • Really liked the early banter.
  • Love how there seems to be a number of choices/times where you have to choose between two girls. Made replaying it to see what happened fun, and there were some interesting deviations in scenes.
  • Laughed when a certain choice came back to bite me in the ass. It was funny though, so and I'm kind of excited to see if it ever happens more often(pretty sure I've already seen hints too that it will which is great).
  • Good music. Nuff said. I appreciate games that include music and this one's noticeably improved things.
  • Did I mention that the banter is top tier? The way characters tease each other is how I expect dialogue to be done and has been a lot of good laughs. I always like the playful options.
  • I love that there are guy friends, and I love that they actually get their own scenes/screentime with the MC.
    • Simon is awesome. I love Simon. #GayForSimon + #HisSisterIsHotToo.
• Dislikes
  • Some of the Japanese/anime-like references were a little too much for me. I eventually got over it, but the beginning almost made me drop this.
  • I still can't figure out the setting. Half the people have Japanese sounding names, but don't seem to actually be from Japan? Add to that the Italian-sounding people and the random protagonist named Nathan, and I have no idea what culture this is supposed to be emulating. This bothers and confuses me.
  • Dialogue is mostly good, but sometimes a little bit of broken English slips in that seems so right I wonder if it's intentional. Assuming it's not though(?). Hopefully some editing can fix that.
  • I'm dubious on the 'romance' so far. I've liked all the set-up, conversations leading up to things, etc., but the one 'climax' sort of scene I've read so far didn't do it for me. Still lots more climatic scenes to go I guess.

SUMMARY TLDR
GOOD GIRLS, GOOD HUMOR, GOOD BANTER, MUCH SUGOI. ME READ NOW, YOU READ NOW. YES!

Played up to v0.3, would place this one on my top 5 games on this site and if it keeps going this way, when enough content is added i will bump to 5 stars.

Good stuff: Quite remarkably good amount of content and extremely well paced imo. Interactions feel very natural, same goes for progression, All the LI are charming, interesting and have a mystery woman vibe that leaves good room for character development. The models are gorgeous, all the LIs are all simply beautiful, this one has my favorite cast and while theres nothing super creative when it comes to personalities they are developed enough to be interesting.
The writing is really good specially in the character development and dialogues department, there seems to be a backstory slowly building but so far theres not much about it, so far i would say this is a top notch very well wrote dating sim.

To be improved: Choices and/or transitions need a little rework imo scenes need more context a few "x hours later" or "next day" will help a lot since the lack of time awareness makes the player feel like they are missing content in the middle, or simply dropping a hint on MC thoughts saying "if i had done this...".

No bad stuff to talk about atm, i dont think the game needs harem or that it would fit well in the game and im confident enough on the dev writing skills to think that having to choose between LIs wont be that bad .

TL;DR: I would rate this one a 9/10, top notch dating sim with a small backstory slowly building. Beautiful renders with awesome character development and dialogues. Pace and relationships development well written with different progression speed according to LIs personalities. So far i can recommend to anyone but hardcore harem fans should wait a little to see how choices are managed in the future. Its rare to see a game with such beautiful renders accompanied with good engaging writing.

Pretty good as of v0.3. Characters have distinct voices and are well-written. Character design is also good. Koko could have shorter bangs tho, not being able to see her eyebrows is weird. The story events are interesting. I liked the Chang cameo! I loved every single word from Falazio. Raiko best girl. Definitely worth your time.

not great at doing reviews but i will say that this is growing to become a pretty damn fun game, i love the character relationship building & the humor is nice, Avis is by far one of the hottest characters besides Raiko, im really glad i came across this game & im very much looking forward to seeing what the future brings here.

At the time of this review the game is on version 0.3. There's not much content yet (no sex scenes) but the game does offer right off the bat interesting characters and decent writing.

This game is a dating sim type game focused on the romance with the love interest you choose to pursue. The developer has stated the game isn't a harem and you might get punished for pursuing more than one girl. Which I personally like because this site already has an abundance of harem games already and very few strictly romance games.

The designs of the girls are all very nice and seem to differ in personality enough for them to be unique. The side characters like the MC's friends are interesting enough and can be funny at times, as they're not the main focus they can be hit or miss depending on your expectations.

The only negative I have about the game is the MC. He's written fine I just think his hair looks ridiculous and looks out of place from the rest of the characters, so I think if the hair was changed that would make me like him more. All personal preference though and if the dev likes it, it doesn't really change much.

very natural dialogue, storyline lingers just beneath the surface (once in a while you get a HINT of what's going on). many question marks so far - which is good!
girls a very disdinguishable, with their own little problems.
the male cast is very naturaly integrated in the story - which is rare with those kind of games. I wouldn`t even have a problem with them getting a girl for themselfs, but with all the insecure snowflakes around I understand, why that would be problematic - although natural! yes, I go ahead and say it: I very much would like POSSIBLE NTR for this, depending on the players actions! would fit like a glove!
so far, this is a game with a lot of heart and very little xxx-content. I love it!

Lighthearted fun.

I tend to like more story focused games, the problem with it is that they usually come attached with some heavy themes.

I really like this game because it´s a well crafted story with great characters.
The weakest link is the MC. He has a backstory but it´s so bland that it makes it hard to believe that he should be really this cool guy the game makes him to be.

There is 1 sex scene and it´s a short and rather weak one. So if you want sex move on.

Be here for the fun and the cool LIs, you wont regret it.

What a beautiful world, with some of the greatest looking models. Everyone feels like they're their own person, and their personalities are actually different!

This is one of the few games I didn't immediately skim through all of the dialogue, only to read the important bits.