VN - Others - Father Figure [v0.5.0] [Xia Liu Bei]

I really wanted to like it but...

The graphics are okay, not bad enough to be unpleasant, not good enough to be a reason to play. The characters are likable enough, a bit one dimensional at the point I got to. The ahegao faces are... bad, but it's not my thing, so maybe others will like it. There's lots of sexy stuff to do, no issues there.

But the story and dialog... oh gods. It reads like it was written by a police PR intern who's addicted to 80s cop shows. It basically has every possible police cliche from copaganda movies and does everything short of hypnotizing you to immediately lick the nearest cop's balls.

Models are good, most of the renders seem pretty good, but most of the rest is poor.
The UI is awful, the massive, blocky text is horrendous and yet the text on the phone screen in the renders is perfect!
Lots of the storyline & dialogue either doesn't makes sense or is ridiculously unrealistic., characters doing things or reacting in ways that people never would!
Don't even get me started on Part Two!
I don't think I can even say it's worth it if you just skip the dialogue because game engine makes just skipping through to the 'good bits' needlessly difficult.
There's way better options out there that will scratch the same itch, avoid this unless you are running out of options!

Animation: Really good art style and well crafted
Story: A bit heavy on the drama but it's engaging
Scripting: Basic but readable

This is a fun game and I would like to see more. However I would like to either see a walkthrough or some kind of method to easily backtrack. If you're doing a game with multiple choices at least give people the option to save when a choice is offered.

Beautiful characters and surprisingly somewhat touching relationship between the MC and most of the girls. Only problem is that the engine used removes features that are usually available in Renpy that readers are used to. Because of this, things like rollback or even skipping through text becomes difficult outright impossible to do. The blocky text is shit though. However, there wasn't much problems overall in terms of just reading. As for the story, it was alright for what the version currently has and has some hook to leave the reader curious for more.

Game is mostly shit. The girls are hot but besides that it's pretty bad. Dialogue is terrible, I don't even remember the story it was so bad.

Half the game is a weird montage of images with no text and no context, it just felt really lazy. Maybe dev can clean the game up but right now it's pretty bad.

The renders are okay. That's the best I can say. The writing is juvenile bordering on infantile. The UI is horrible. And at the end, unless you're careful, they will open several webpages without presenting you with a Yes/No choice.

Avoid.

Such a nice little gem of a game, i dont know how i failed to notice this one until now. The models are great, sound and music are topnotch. Humour is good i especially liked the pictures of presidents on the wall, even side charectors are awesome. Hope the game progress onto daughters arc soon. Bestwishes

I don't know about you but to me the rating for this game is way to high.
renders are decent, story is barely there, progress is pretty much non existent and i had a full part without text just images as if it was broken. the part i am talking about is part 2, no text just images and an X on every swimsuit. without text explaining the images it didn't make any sense. maybe i had a faulty game but how is that possible? so all around badly made and not that interesting with the only proper sex scene being fucking your sister in the game ( the 2 pony tail girl from the banner image ). the game is not even close to being into a working in progress and progress is so slow I would call it into abandoned. hope this informed people about my experience

v0.3.1

This game got me a bit sentimental. So, I will do something that I hate other people doing. I will wax poetically. Which is to say, I'll say a little story that sets the mood for the conclusion. If you just wanna know my feelings about the game, skip to the red "ABOUT THE GAME".

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ABOUT ME

I play a lot of incest games. Heck, I almost only exclusively play incest games. It gets me because I don't have to rely on the author / dev to actually be good. It's a self contained thing. The fetish is enough that I can look past most flaws, as long as a few things are done right:

1) Decent enough models. Since the taboo does most of it, the models don't NEED to be great. However great modles can push a sub-avarage game into "still worth playing" IF it's complete or decently far away.

2) The taboo aspect, taken to both extremities. Either you must hide to survive. Or the whole neighbourhood knows you're fucking your suspiciously naive and vertically challanged daughter.

3) NOT A SANDBOX, unless exceptionally well made (read: still shit, but you know, not cancer)
Very low bar, is it not? And yet, a lot of games still fail somehow. If you're fucking your sister as if she were your girlfriend. If you're not hiding from anyone. If no one is shocked when they find out. If it's not secret, if it's not taboo. Then what was the point to begin with? Sometimes the games push the boundries in different ways. With more customization than just name and relationships. That's also okay. But if there's no one to judge you for it ... agian what's the point?

Don't get me wrong. I can also digg the whole "I'm doing something insanely taboo, but everyone around me is a sex maniac. And they think it's cool and encourage me to keep it up" can also work. But that's because it's just as taboo, but in a different way. It's the expectation of people saying "die scum", but them doing the opposite. It can be super awesome if done right. One game has a scene where you're having sex with your vertically challanged daughter. The cop asks what was your input in that customization field at the start of the game. The one that's less common. And basically says "Awesome. Mind if I watch?". That was insanely hot.

It's honestly hard to fail.

I, personally, do not mind ANY of the classic incest tropes:
- I like night rapes
- I like to thoroughly customize family members, not just names and relationships. I'm also a number's guy. The more options, the better, you know?
- I like molestation and coercion
- I like blackmail
- I like turning other members of the family (dads, usually, but brothers and uncles work just as fine) into cucks while I impregnate their closest relatives. Though not the other way around.
- I like going to buy clothes. I like peeping, I like barging in, I like raping.
- I like being the one to coerce more naive family members. I like playing as the naive family member who is being coerced.
- I like exploiting family members. I like family members exploiting me.
- I like harems. I like not being able to have a harem and having to choose.
I don't even know where to go with this list. I like everything except being cucked. I don't mind sharing though.

ABOUT THE GAME

So where does this game fall?

- Not a sandbox (thanks GOD!). You can basically only choose: "Do you wanna fuck? Y/N", and some minor guessing stuff. No real branching paths at this moment.
- Not Ren'py, so that's kinda fucking bad to start with.
- It's not clunky though. Just inferior. Pro tip if you like enjoying the moment: Quick save every 30s or it's gone.
- UI is horrible tho. Controlls too.

I need a section for the UI. God damn it is it bad. Like ... this is an awesome character centric game with great "show, don't tell" moments. Yet THE FUCKING UI IS IN THE FUCKING WAY AND I CAN'T SEE!
JUZUS CHRIST! IS IT BAD!

- MC is fucking his sis from second 1. But he's not in control. You can turn her down, and have some control and not the sex. Or you can accept it, but you're still being used. Kinda. Like you're not resisting. You're not being blackmailed. You just know this shouldn't be happening. She be hot tho!
- The daughters are hot. They're not hiding it. You go swimwear shopping with them and they pick stuff that exposes their pubes. Not shy.
- MC is not being a creep, isn't raping his daughters.
- Honest to GOD, good characterization. I can easily see this as being a "character growth" kind of game.
- Hot models, all.

Actually. The models are so good. That part of me is torn. I, if I could have everything I wanted. Would want two types of games. "Harem insanity ... with pissplay and more", and "Choose one. Love her. Have a life togeather. But have some adversity from it cuz it's a family member." This game makes me wish it were the second type. But I'm having too many "Yes, I want to eventually fuck you" options on display. I hope the game will keep focus going forward. But only time will tell.

I really have to hammer in this point. I honestly like harem: Impregnate all your daughters and sisters and their daughters and piss in their mouth - kind of games. And this one is making me WISH that it were a deep immersive incest dating sim with a focus on romance. Heck. The option of choosing a non incest partner is appealing. That's insane. That never happens to me.

I like the MC.
I like incest above all else, and I'm falling for the "not related to you in any way shape or form" cop lady!

This game is special!

Like ... this game has a scene where someone cums from a kiss and falls on the floor with an ahegao face. Yet I'm still able to take it seriously. I cannot express how rare this is.

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--------TL;DR-------
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PROS

- Proven dev (albeit with short games)
- Masterful shot composition and good writing
- Incest
- Breedable models
- Romantic edge. But potentially the kind that gets complicated.

CONS

- Not ren'py
- God Awful UI. Not the worst but really bad.
- Short. Basically a demo.


P.S.

This site has the most horrible review window. Man is it tiny and useless.

As of v0.3.1:

This game is pretty good. Very unique, which I appreciate. At the same time, not much content, maybe 30 mins so far. The game gives clear choices if you want to pursue a character or not, which i very much appreciate. The models art PHENOMENAL, story so far is pretty good. All in all, this game has very very good potential, it all depends on how the creator moves forward with it. Would definitely appreciate some animation, i think it would increase the greatness of the game by a whole margin. With awesome visuals already and a good story, animation would be a great touch. Keep up the good work.

This game is actually very well produced and makes a good use of sound (Which I usually turn off)

However it falls down in some big ways for me: someone jumps in bed with you from scene one and then when you make decisions you can't undo/rollback. Some people may like that, but I don't so it destroyed the game for me

The text is irredeemably awful too and the silent interlude though well done, confused me with the big red crosses' meaning

Father Figure, a project with care and effort that will not leave anyone indifferent

The story, although it may not be anything new, fits well with the development of events, making it easy and fun to play.

The renders and models are incredibly excellent, simply wonderful. It's been a long time since a game excited me this way.

The sexual scenes, although they are few right now, are well done and accompanied by a narration that adds a little extra to an execution that more than meets its objective.

The user interface is fine, if it is true that it is not Renpy, but you have a Quick save and Quick load button that helps when you decide to come back for choose other answer in game.

Summary Father Figure may be the most promising project on F95 right now and I highly recommend playing it, especially to those who are looking for something new and refreshing.

Edit:
Only thing this game has going for it is the renders tho not the best ever, I would say something about plot but so little of it and then a silent interlude

long transition screens & wonky skip function, story started off like most other in this genre and that is perfectly fine then it just fell through or didnt happen at all.

The dev has done well with the renders as i said but not a game for me, wish all the best in future projects

For v0.3.1
Early days yet but I see potential. Quality of the renders is honestly top notch. Resolution doesn't seem to be extremely high, which can show slightly when you get close up, but even then it isn't distracting.

The girls all look varied and fairly unique, you feel like they're all adding something rather than hitting the exact same beats.

The writing is fairly strong for a VN. No grammar or spelling errors as far as I could see.

Descriptive writing is in my opinion one of the most important aspects in sensual stories. Sensations, like touch and sound, go a long way in immersing the reader. I think the VN does a good job here, describing the softness of skin, the cool breeze etc. Not all VNs put in the effort.

I did find the lack of rollback to be a bit tedious, and the optimization in general is pretty finicky, thought that's likely in part due to my unfamiliarity with the engine.

Review for Father Figure v0.5.0

I played this game for the first time at version 3.2 and thought it was pretty good. It's still good, but development pace has slowed from an update every 6 weeks to an update every 8 months, with less content in each update, which doesn't give much hope for the game's completion.

Story: 4/5 - There's not a lot to the story, yet, but what is there is good. It pulls on the reader's emotions a few times without being overly dramatic and makes the reader want to learn more about the MC's sister, his former partner, his deceased wife and her family.

Writing: 5/5 - So refreshing to play a game with good spelling, grammar, and style.

Visuals: 4/5
- Renders - Renders look excellent even though they don't appear to be extremely high resolution.
- Animations - N/A
- Graphics - I found the text box a little annoying. It's large and there's no way to vary the opacity. However, it can be hidden to see the full render, which is great but tedious. Also, the font is low-resolution making it harder to read. The font looks like it's from a retro 1980's video game, but I don't see a connection, so I don't know why it was used instead of something much easier on the eyes.

Gameplay: 3/5 - the dev mentions that he tried to make it like Ren'Py, which is understandable since so many players are familiar with it. In general, he did a good job of it, and going by the changelog, is still improving it. One thing I found annoying was the lack of rollback, combined with the inability to save on screens with choices, combined with the lack of autosave. What that means is that in order to try different paths, the player must load some arbitrary save before the choice. How far back that might be is anybody's guess. Frequent manual saves will help, if players remember to do it, but remembering to save all the time breaks immersion and not remembering to save pisses players off. Another big negative is that there are so many renders with ridiculously long transitions that aren't skippable (i.e., holding the <Ctrl> key didn't skip them), which is very annoying and makes replaying part of the story more tedious than it needs to be. Seriously, this is so bad it almost made me rate the game lower.

Audio: 5/5 - I normally turn down the music volume to zero when I play a visual novel, but I found the game better with the music than without, that's already better than 90% of visual novels out there.

Content: 3/5 - v0.3 had a good amount of content. There were only 3 months between 0.1 and 0.3. Now there have been 17 months between 0.3 and 0.5, but maybe half as much content added during that time. The content quality is pretty good, and I would really like to rate the game better, but the quantity of content is really holding it back, now.

Other: I saw players complaining about it, but I thought the shopping trip sequence was genius. I don't know how many renders were in it, but it told the whole piece of the story perfectly without a single dialogue or narration.

The only negative so far is the text. Not the script, don't get me wrong, it looks so far promising and that's the only way to rate such a short bit of a release so other than that blocky text, it looks great ( let alone the very hot initial scene/female model which I am 100% digging ).

Story and quality show big promise, what's left is to see how this goes forth and hope it's not abandoned or with too slow and small updates so the interest can keep growing.

Father Figure [v0.1] [Xia Liu Bei] is a good start for a game about a father to be reunited with his daughters. The story is slightly above average at the moment with some mystery (might have some deja vu), renders are enjoyable, and have some nice dialogue mix in. While the text fonts are unique, I think it would be nice to roll back to a text or a render and have more than 5 saves in the future. Probably have a replay section as well for the characters. I'd say this game has potential, I will be interested in the future for this project. Might not be enough content to fully judge it yet. As of right now, it’s just enjoyable. Best of luck to the developer.

Worst text font of this year and in all my time playing this type of game. There arent even options or i am legally blind.

I hate this slow text speed. You cant even skip and as a bonus you get athritis for clicking (thanks).

You also cant name yourself.

Pretty hot sister right at the start (10/10) with some action, thats new. She "THICC".

English seems native.

Its kind of bugging me how the daughters always say "daddy"; kinda too much. But at least they like you and are attractive.

Well its really short as if the dev (like so many others) never played a good, long 0.1, how i hate that.

My early rating. Yes the premise is used a lot, but I don't care. 95% of them don't get finished anyway so here is hoping that this one will. Also unlike a lot of incest games these days we don't "hear" that they are really related. This does a pretty good job of it. It will be interesting to find out how his daughters ended up not being able to be with their father.