RPGM - Fear the Dark Shadows [v0.5.0] [FTDS]

I give it 1/10.

The great art is probably the only thing I like about this game. Let me outline the bad things:

1. Too much grinding. Difficult quizzes for no reason.
2. No gallery for play scenes.
3. No walkthrough or navigation. I know there's a guide doc, but basically, if you left at one point and come back 2 weeks later, there's no way for you to know your current progress.
4. Poor, complicated combat for no reason. People are not here for combatting experiences...

Yikes.

So. Not renpy? It's literally the easiest way to create any game. One hour in manuals and let's go...UI ugly and inconvenient, and you can't do anything with it, because it's NOT renpy and all mods just useless... Some ppl just can't play without mods (colorblindness, etc), but Dev doesn't care.
You even can't adjust sound volume, without using OS options. Well, you can, but after you somehow figure out that mc have mobile phone on right click...
No MC name change, in 2024, of course...

Visual not impressive, but normal. Nothing special or unique.
And that quantum corridor, where you don't know where you are right now, really annoying. And small text hints doesn't help. It must be intuitive understanding by default.

Plot (if it's exist). The narrative breaks every time you leave script scenes, so in result, game looks like some random 3d animations without any connections. For moving forward plot, you need just grind and spam everywhere and everything. All events and twists just happens like charts and really boring, grind detected. Text walkthrough (its allusion to spaghetti coding I guess?) dosent help much.
Characters just exist, with (if you're lucky) 2 lines of exposition, what don't create any empathy at all. We have some development, but it's all very superficial.

In the end. Grindy, inconvenient, ugly UI game (hello renpy), with weak plot and uninteresting and predictable events. Only with normal visual. 2/5 because of renders.
BUT! After acquaintance with that insanely dumb quiz system, where because of ugly UI, you can't even normally read it, I change my opinion...
People here not for brainstorming, people here to fa... I mean, enjoy story and visual. And cheat from Dev not make quiz system less bad.
Indeed, well deserved 1/5

Let's get the bad out of the way first:
RPGM engine, you just know the game is gonna be a headache to play from the get-go while I usually try to avoid RPGM games altogether it's hard to find that many femdom-oriented games out there so I gave it a shot, being an RPGM game means it's riddled with the typical grind that often comes with this genre, meaningless tasks and minigames that add nothing of value to the story except artificially inflate playtime, and you will not be able to see all the content you want without the need of a walkthrough, you will spend the majority of the "gameplay" grinding and walking around doing stupid quizzes just to see a few scenes, and there is no gallery to see all the events/scenes as of now, so the limited space for saves and inability to do so in scenes means you gotta do it right before but if you don't know what's coming you might miss your chance. And don't even get me started on the "fight".
The Good:
The story is very interesting and the characters are all good looking, the game focuses on specific kinks instead of trying to dabble in many while satisfying none, the prologue was impressive and so are the cutscenes, the femdom scenes that already exist in the game are well made, and to be honest, the scenes of Carolyn dominating Sarah and Light are the reason why I still have hope for this game and gave it 3 stars instead of lower, all in all, you can see that the Dev has a passion for the game and makes me look forward to future updates even though I greatly dread the grind and minigames that are to come. I think what holds back this game is a common error among a lot of new yet passionate game developers, who are so excited with the challenge of implementing systems and mechanics to their game, that they don't consider whether it adds value to it instead of diluting what it already has.
What could be done to drastically improve the game, in my opinion, is adding the option to skip and instantly win/lose the minigames, although that won't help with the fact that so much effort is going through making these minigames instead of adding more actual content to the story.

Well...
Technically the game is very roughly implemented.
It is very well known that if you want to use RPGM engine for your game you need to proper implement saving, quest log, maps etc.. (e.g. LISA or NLT games).

This rough implementation is reflected even in the plot, that is hastily developed.

in V0.5 appears to be a combat game mechanic that really makes everything more childish and frustrated me due the low speed and the impossibility to avoid this game mechanic.

I do not know.. I kind liked the atmosphere of the game, but delivery pace and time-for-enjoyment is not really there.

Hope it can improve in the future.

I like what I saw, tho I wish the updates would have more content or other stuff implemented. Surprisingly a "odd" choice of characters (with Dad still kicking and not being dead, but also having a younger shota-like brother) nothing as right now hints to going to something negative, IF you thought that.

Story is good, but since its rather short I see where it could been improved on since the delivery kinda is lacking behind todays "standart" for some as this leans more towards story then meet-and-fuck. BUT it also has these scenes too.

As for 0.3 its still in its "prologue" and this time the older sister (which looks like she is the asshole type) is the nice one, where the younger one is the bratty one. IF you enjoy the models, especially of that bratty younger sister -> you will not be dissapointed as where the game is going .

Choices wise its more linier with and how some character (fetish) will depend on the Players preferences like either to dominate or being submissive to her/them.

Not sure why its a RPG as there is not much of quest-like stuff to do, but probably will be added later. Hope for more updates in the future and also perhaps a Harem ending

Just like every incest game i hope this one does not get abandoned like many others. Its very well built up great models and storie. For me the best one in 2023. Keep up with your work dev.

The only advice i give is to remove that flash when MC sits on the living room to watch TV.

Great start, will be watching this closely, dev knows what they are doing, please add gallery of all past scenes for rewatching and make movement faster or find some way to stream line changing the time of day/ clothing. Rooting for the dev as this is my dream game, Carolyn is perfect. Would also like to see more voyeur / risk reward

1 more stars for the potential, even if it has some flaws because they seem to be easily fixable and the concept, art seems pretty top notch

Story is pretty good for a porn game and the characters are interesting. game is femdom focused for the most part but i can see a vanilla gamer enjoying it as well.

Flaws: everything takes a tad too long. Minigames are well designed but especially the spaceship game breaks the tempo too much.
When you basically do anything, you wait like 5 seconds of nothing. Even if you are just opening the game lmao.
Phone breaks the game on quite a few commands (commands for things that aren't implemented yet so its understandable i guess but it sets you back to your save)

Overall pretty promising and i would recommend it even on the 0.2.0 version

It has potential, I want to play it but in 5 minutes I crashed twice. It's not ready even for demo. Giving 4 stars just because it is demo, don't want to ruin rating, but c'mon... phone = crash

Anyway, I don't really have much to say, what I saw is great, I will try to come back later in hopes that it is (almost) crash free.

Love the build up of the story and prologue. Renders are also good. However, content is limited as of now, v0.0.1 and I find it a bit inconvenient having to travel so far between rooms. Walkthrough is provided along with the download, it also contains a cheat to skip the grind. Definitely a great start and hope to see further updates as soon as possible.

This game follows a very logical and interesting storyline, while the elements of rpgm are integrated well. There is a hint system, which is nice to have from the beginning considering the small amount of content and the big map in this early release. The characters seem to have some personality and you are able to choose a route with them, and acquire skill points along the way. The renders are okay, but for me the dev really makes up for it by creating the right amount of tension before every event. I have encountered one bug that leads to a game crash (going into the first room on the right) but other than that the gameplay is flawless. Great start for a 0.0.1 and I hope to see more in the future. Cheers!