Ren'Py - Finding Cloud 9 [v0.8.3] [Onyx Decadence]

Slice-of-life-ish type of story with the more realistic approach.
The good:

• Nice visuals, clean understable GUI, OK writing.
• Custom models of decent quality, not default DAZ with default setting we see in every game.

The bad:

• Either the pacing is too slow in general, or it's only the beginning, nothing happened for the first 45 minutes of gameplay.
• Maybe that's author decision to go with more realistic approach, and as the MC is a young adult living in a small town, NOTHING was happening there (as it usually goes in small rural town), anyway got bored and quit the game.

The Meh

• While I truly beleive in 'show don't tell', a bit of exposition in the very beginning would be appreciated.
• Who's the woman that woke the MC? Why he lives in the same house?
• Who's younger woman that took him to cafe?
• Who's the older dude who needed a package to be delivered?
• Either let player set custom relations if that's incest type of game, or insert 2 lines of MC's inner thoughts (That's Mary she's been taking care of me since my parents died) or smth along the lines.

Nevertheless game seems to be ok, maybe it's only me who found detailed description of teen's day to day life a bit boring.
Give it a try.

Can recommend this one. Writing feels solid and engaging (with some Breaking Bad vibes here and there), renders and animations are above average and look nice overall. But the best aspect for me was the pacing, it was like a breath of fresh air compared to other VNs these days, to get a game where each and every girl you meet does not jump to MCs c*ck right away, lol. It is a definitely a slow burn but because of the story it feels right. The only thing I didn't really like at first is sandbox element cuz feels compeletely unnecessary for this game, though it becomes less annoying with the story progression.

Very high quality game that starts slow but quickly takes up the pace. At the beginning there aren't many erotic scenes but that's to be expected in a more than usual realistic story. The truth is though, this game has tons of good, juicy, porn stuff (just look at the gallery) so if you quit after an hour like one of the other reviewers you have only yourself to blame.

This game is long, updates are regular, story is great and all in all it's a complete package. Its only flaw IMO is that it has sandbox elements which is pointless. It's nothing egregious mind you (I usually hate sandboxes but here I don't mind it too much, just don't see the point) because your time is not wasted (too much) and you can go from scene to scene almost immediately.

Pros:
+Great sex scenes and a ton of them.
+Very good writing (that goes both for the story and characters)
+The game offers many hours of good gameplay
+Updates are quite regular

Cons:
-It's a sandbox (although one of the best if not the best I've played)

An excellent product. Despite the game being a slow burn in terms of its erotic content, the narrative and its characters make the wait worthwhile.

Narratively, you get exposed to many choices, some far more impactful than others within a sandbox environment. However, the sandbox element is very straightforward to navigate and does not possess any grinding participation on the part of the player that plagues many other sandbox titles. Straightforward in the sense there's not multiple rooms at any locations you have to traverse to reach an objective to move the story along and you can disregard this completely by clicking the objectives with the exclamation marker on the upper right corner for smooth sailing. Even though, an argument can made that the sandbox isn't adding distinctive/necessary., but it's not in the way either.

As for the characters, there are more than a dozen love/sexual interests in Finding Cloud 9, in which a single is not forced upon you and can even decide to cut off contact with certain ones or keep it professional/friendly. However, don't get too ahead of yourself as some of these LIs are integral to the story. Each LI are pretty unique in their hobbies, struggles, likes, dislikes, etc. and are obviously extremely attractive. You can honestly pursue the vast majority of them in a single playthrough, but keep in mind some of them are not interested in a harem/polyamory, but the consequences of said harem goal from what I have seen so far isn't implemented yet.
Not to mention, the conversations with the LIs/characters within the world generally are concise yet informative/entertaining, which helps keep me engaged and moving along with good amount of content this game has to offer.
Finally, the erotic scenes don't start picking up until later on in the story when you have established meaningful roots with the LIs. Once again, the game is a slow burn, but the pacing makes sense with them. The scenes in total is a fair amount, and do possess animations as well as the occasional moaning/sexual noises. The first few are somewhat short, but the later ones go on for quite a long while with no weird cuts/transitions. Some even have the faster/slower option(s).
Honestly, Finding Cloud 9 deserves far more recognition for this level of quality/quantity. I cannot wait to see what else is in store going forward from Onyx.

Exactly what I wanted out of it, all of the renders are really nice. All of the characters are interesting enough for me to keep playing. The story is pretty cool and I like the branching points. Overall very solid!

I feel like there are 2 games in this one game.

If I were to rate the beginning/intro. It would be a 1/5. Mostly sandbox in a empty map with 0 interaction (idc about sandbox/free roam style of games IF its well implemented, but there is literally nothing to do in the map - 100% a waste of time), uninteresting slice of life story, just doing boring errands, the intro characters (family + Mila) are stock Daz models that you've probably think look familar to many others you've seen in other games. I really wanted to give up on it.

But If I were to rate the rest of the game, it would be a 4.5/5 easily. I don't like drug dealing stories as their usually corny or overblown but I found it to be decent. The latter character models I can tell are customized and are unique, the stupid free roam sandbox is mostly gone (you can play it like a VN by just clicking the portraits). The dev's surprise strength is animations, we don't really see that shine till the first H scene after a few episodes. Only thing is the branching, I don't really see any evidence of branching or choices mattering a whole lot. Seems linear so far.

What I loved about this dev, is that he actually listened to feedback and discarded the aspects that didn't work out and leaned moreso on his strengths (renders/animations/writing). He could've abandoned the game, started a new patreon account, a new game, and forgetten about this. But nope, he didn't give up. I really like that. But I also think the intro of this game probably turned a lot of people off. Like this game can't even get the VN tag even though it does operate like a VN but because of the stupid design choice of returning the MC to a empty map, its technically a sandbox/free roam game. I'm 100% sure many people dropped this game because they think its grindy door clicking simulator like many others with that tag.

I’ve played for an hour, and damn, I even felt bad. I can’t even call it a porn game it’s more like the developer’s attempt at making their own TV series lol. It’s laughable: it has good models, a good map, good music, animation… and you throw it all away by trying to make a realistic story. And it ends up just being an attempt, because it couldn’t be more unrealistic, absurd, and submissive if it tried. Since you were going to make a ridiculous story anyway, at least make it about screwing everything that moves with over-the-top sex scenes. That would be way more fun than this bad lunchtime soap opera. Lastly, just the ‘letter’ scene alone is enough to make you want to kill someone and completely change the reaction of any coherent person. It pissed me off so much I deleted it.

I recommend watching this if you like the magical cock hero harem genre. (no sarcasm).
Very juicy girls and wonderful animated sex scenes - 6 out of 5
I liked the interface; it's very well implemented, freeroam - 5 out of 5
The story is weak and derivative - 3 out of 5
A special plus for the cute MC

Highly Recommended. The game is polished in terms of continuity of renders and animations, feels solid. Easy navigation so you never feel stuck without knowing where to go. It is a slow-burn, which isn't something I prefer personally, but it's great for someone looking for emotional attachment in their porn game. Great models, use of sound, storyline etc.. deserves a 5

So far, this game is simply great. The story is well told and stays (mostly) to stay away from many other stories in this forum that try to juggle crime and slice of life. With the exception of the Red Raven part and all related to that, of course, that part did through me off a lot because it really makes no sense. But the game really has well written and created characters with their intentions, trying to play you one way or the other, and choices are meaningful and do matter a lot. It is a slow burn though, but when the payoffs come they really are great.

Render quality and animations are top notch, character models are simply great and diverse. There are some sounds (I turned off the music so can't comment on that) which do enhance some scenes. And at least in my playthrough I found no bugs, with an UI that works pretty well to make it easy to find what to do, where to go, etc.

So, all in all, unless the devs drop the ball now, this one is headed to be one of the best in this forum.

Writing is this game's strongest point, and the sex scenes and sfx when they actually do happen (it's fairly slow going for mc to get his dick wet) are pretty hot.
This is also the game where I actively rejected the most chicks in a porn game. MC is a bit of a simp, every time he meets with half the chicks in here he's just doing errands for them, one of them straight up just uses the MC which was really obvious, and the game did not acknowledge the fact that her and mc didn't fuck. I hate how there is no option to do the right thing and not have the mc behave like an absolute doormat simp.
You catch abuse for half the game and are supposed to empathise with *their* circumstances while no one extends the same courtesy. Kinda realistic when you think about it.
Game feels extremely tone deaf when it comes to Richard and the lawyer.
Game looks nice, got me actually reading and interested in making choices, too bad it then feels like it really wasn't expecting you to make one of the choices (rejecting chicks that (deceive and) use the MC).
All in all, I believe the dev can make something better if they pick a different setting, the porn is good when it's there, renders are good (although I feel like some characters were originally supposed to look older but were written off with a "you look pretty young for your age" type shit), dialogue is fine for the most part, and I like that you grow to know the characters some before anything happens, too bad I just don't like most of them.

This game was a 5-star adult novel material for me in first couple of episodes but last couple of episodes are somewhat mediocre and I didn't dig the pacing, plot development-climax. So what can you expect from this? Contentwise 0.7.2 has 4-5 hours of reading given you didn't skip. Lewd content is vanilla with average animations for today's standards. Plot is drug and cartel drama with twists and dating sim sprinkled on top. Pseudocest checkbox is ofc checked. MC is a little bit bland. Despite this I was willing to give this game 5 stars because for first 4 episodes or so it kept me reading without skipping but in last 2 episodes I was a little bit bored. I can say that climax didn't fulfill my expectations also lewd content is a little bit slowburn on main LIs. MC gets his dick wet with mostly sidechicks. Qualitywise I can say it exceeds %95 of the games on this site so definitely a must play, but has lengths to go for perfection.

**ONE OF THE BEST NEW GAMES TO POP UP HERE IN THE LAST FEW YEARS**

I rarely give out 5 star reviews but this is deserving of that rare exception. In fact for the couple hours of playthrough content and polish already included it's almost criminal here imo that this game is sitting at only 28 total reviews.

- Fantastic collection of sexy girl models.
- The writing and english language setting presentation is basically A+ tier for this type of game.
- One of the better and more unique game stories that isn't leaning into the same carbon copy cringe plot we've probably all played 9473 times by now.
- Great animations with variety on the sex scene payouts (which already include vaginal on few girls)
- All the sexual payouts thus far feel "earned", and not simply a product of "magic penis" or having immediately thirsty for your MC LI's.

In fact the only really con I would have here is that it does take a fair amount of time before you are going to get to a legit jack off scene. But as noted above the juice here is worth the squeeze.

Maybe the 4th time total I downloaded game here since 2018 and felt that immediate need to at least go give the dev that quick cheapy sub on patreon. But hey, tbh it's been a *REALLY* long time since i downloaded something here and actually ended up jerking off to it too (and not just from the post-play trip over to a porn site). So bonus points for that too. Great work so far and nobody should be sleeping on this one imo.

Review for v0.7.2

I really tried to get into this one. I gave it much more of a chance than I usually would hoping the game would eventually find it's ground and capture me. After three whole chapters and skipping around through the fourth, that moment just never came. I find the game extremely boring.

There's no shortage of coming of age AVNS, but I like the premise of this. Small town guy with a whole summer ahead full of partying, hanging out with friends, and making some money. Life is bright, fun times ahead. But then a wrench gets thrown into that when your stepfather is arrested on drug related charges, and now the people he was working for are telling you that you're gonna take his place or they'll slaughter your family. Not to mention the idea of losing his home and now needing to provide for his stepmom and sister.

If only the game did more with that. If I had to sum up my core issue with the game, it's that it provides so many bases for interesting plots and characters but never takes a single one deeper than some mundane conversations and weak attempts at drama/tension. Three chapters in it just feels like no one has done anything. The stepfamily you care so much for barely show up, especially the sister, and when the mom does it's just the same kind of events you've seen a hundred times over with other lewd game moms. There's nothing interesting going on there. The friends to lovers story with your best friend has got to be one of the most bland story arcs I've seen with that trope. I can go on and on with each girl, but it's all the same issue. There's slow burn and then there's dragging everything out with a whole bunch of nothing. There's almost no excitement, eroticism mostly shows up at the end of events where the game remembers it's a lewd game and gives you an option to peek at a girl, and there's not much keeping you guessing plot wise either.

The MC is a bot in the sense that he has like no personality man. I have no problem that he follows orders and doesn't back talk his new bosses, because realistically why wouldn't he? He's young and suddenly told "we're gonna carve up your family if you don't obey." But he just has like no interesting character development or insight in regards to any of it. Kind of like he's on autopilot. He's just a nice guy who gets through most of these tougher situations by dumb luck.

The sandbox element is meaningless because it doesn't really do anything extra besides letting you view events in different orders. Maybe I just missed it, but there was no secrets, no extra interactions, or extra anything to do during it. Normally I wouldn't really care, but It almost feels like a crutch to not worry about telling a consistent story truthfully.

The game has nice visuals, some hot characters, and pretty solid animations. But as I like to say over and over, that doesn't matter much to me when I can't get invested into any of it. Should have focused more on the crime element and less on being a tropey sandbox story with a crime façade imo.

I haven't tried the game before due to my allergy to sandbox but it plays like a VN. Maybe it would be better to get rid of the map but right now is no problem at all. Renders are good and the sex secenes are pretty good. On the other hand it takes a while to reach the chapters with sex, so maybe some players will discard the game early due to the lack of sex. It can be avoided easily adding a couple of sex scenes with the stripper or other girls earlier but that's my opinion.

Storywise and when it comes to kinks this is quite tame for a game about drug dealing and the mob. Better than the usual tenant fucks landlady and co. but still that's the base of the game when you get rid of the breaking bad paint. At first I thought the corruption/good guy points would play into how the MC deal with the girls and the rest but so far I've only seen vanilla harem tropes.

Overall this is a good vn but it can be better with little changes imo.

The game's story is very good, it has some twists and turns that keep you hooked and make you want to keep playing, the characters are beautiful, one better than the other, and the scenes are very well done, my only criticism is in relation to the map because there were times when I loaded my save and it got bugged in that mission at the beginning where you have to talk to the two characters in the house who are in the kitchen and to solve this I had to start all over again, another thing that the game needs is another way to pass the time other than going back to the room all the time, that's very tiring if there was another way to pass the time it would be much better, other than that the game is good and worth it

I believe this will slip under the radar but it crazy good. The characters are super well-written, with actual depth and personal backstories that make them feel real—especially the girls, who are way more than just eye candy or love interests. The romantic and steamy moments come across as natural and earned, which makes them way more satisfying. The music sets mood quite nicely inbetween scenes. This is somewhat of a slow-burn with some the girls that keeps things interesting, and it’s clear the game values emotional connection over instant hookups—so if you’re just looking for quick action, this probably isn’t it. On top of that, the art’s great, the girls look amazing, and the animations are really solid and massive improvement after Ep.7. The dev has something special here and having such a clear and thoughtful vision in this game. Can't wait for next update!

Great game. From the rare category of games that you can play several times and still enjoy. Good crime story. Very nice characters. Excellent graphics, there are animations. The ability to make real choices that affect the plot, hence many options for the development of events. Key choices are highlighted in a different color. Rate the clear and simple interface of the game (no need to walkthrough). No errors during the game. In general, I recommend trying it.

on the darker side of games I have played on here. This is a gem of a game. This made me feel very appreciative of my life. I think this is definitely worth a spin, there is already a lot of content and ultimately, the isn't a lack of cohesion. The game is very streamlined and is in no way grindy

One hell of a game, the story is really captivating, you can feel the MC's growth each chapter, as a kid who is inexperienced in maybe everything, partying with his friends, NEEDING to grow up as fast as possible. The coming of age is superb.

Also, i don't care much for the sex scenes when i play these games, but the animations are seriously impressive, the tongue animation during the BJs is hot as fuck. This game is gorgeous and the production value is really high.

The sandbox mechanic is something i missed in the last chapter, but i can agree that it was kinda pointless in this game. If it will bring us faster updates i'm all for it.

All in all, masterpiece, keep up the good work.