VN - Others - Finding Color in the Ashes [Alpha v0.9] [MooncatcherStudios]

Review for ver. 0.8

Art 4.5/5 - Excellent at what it does. Some people might complain about it burning their eyeballs, but I just inwerted colors on my PC. Would appreciate it there was an ingame option for that. there is also problem with animations I elaborate on in "sex" part.
Music N/A - Not my style, and I usually don't rate music anyway, opting for my own playlist in backgroud, but I have to admit, that it fits very well.
Gameplay 4/5 - While most of what's there is a solid foundation for future game, there is no denying that there are some pacing and balancing issues as of now. According to the Dev, these issues will be resolved as more content comes in, but if I were to judge it as of now, I wold give it 3. Also, it needs some sort of backlog to read back after accidently clicking twice,and maybe an optional log af results after a combat to see what stats, exp items, ect. you have gained. There is a short animation of gained items as icons, byt it dissappears too quickly to check both it and stats.
Story 4/5 - Main point of interest IMO. While nothing revolutionary, there are reasons why tropes exist. This game knows what it is, and does it better than most. Pacing issues from gameplay part are showing themself here, too, lowering final score by 0.5. would be 3.5 if treated as is, or 4.5 if completed while sustaining this level of quality
Sex 3/5 - Scenes are somewhat short animations with a few lines of dialogue in between. Scenes themselfs and art is 4.5, but lack of speed regulation and no option to skip to the next part of the scene makes revisiting them an annoyance. Could use gallery of some sorts, too, as there are few semi-secret variations that one could easily miss.

Overall 4.5/5 - Mostly because it shows solid foundations for what is hopefully to come. Play it, if you want a nice heartwarming fantasy romance with manga style art.

I like it a lot!

It's certainly "fine" right now, and it's only going to be adding content. Definitely worth a checkout.

My only gripe, to the extent I can have one, is that the game is very much like Monochrome Imouto, but with an emphasis on also being an actual game. Unfortunately, Monochrome Imouto can get away with very little story behind the characters, because the love is always implied. So the gradual shift from familial affection to lust can be told without a story; and just by how willing to be naked she is in front of you.

That's not so much the case here- without the implied affection siblings have, there is unfortunately no real buildup in a relationship between the protagonist and the heroine. She just eventually starts deciding that you're worthy of a handjob after giving you her life story- as long as you feed her enough. The change from strangers to lovers really feels binary, unearned and rather arbitrary.

Even though it's more 'involved' than Monochrome, the gap between siblings to lovers is just so much smaller than strangers to lovers. Which seems super weird to say and I'd highly encourage you to play the game to kind of see what I mean; it's a fun game! But there's definitely some work to do.

The game is deeper than it look and the gameplay is quite satisfying.
Yet it still have much more potential, can't wait for more updates and the final version [even then, it should be quite easy to add more content]
Hope this game keep being as good as it is

im all in for the cozy cosmic horror! sweet relationship building between the resource management and bits of combat and leveling.

the dev is very engaged and seems to be committed to evolving the game as it grows

if youre curious just grab it. if you love it like me support the dev

Alpha 0.5:
This is actually a good game, it would still be good even without the porn. Dev could make a SFW version and still work. Combat is well balanced, the female character interesting, upgrades and daily/weekly routines work perfectly.

My only issue is that there is no build up in the relationship, it goes from friends to blowjobs and sex without ever kissing or going on a date or something. That works for corruption games but in this case feels off. Other complains could be with cluttered UI and things like that, but being an early version probably will change.


Great work, hope it develops a bit more the characters and their relationship and backgrounds etc. the gameplay is already solid.

[Review of 0.05 version on itch.io]

I initially clicked the link to this game for the trainer tag, but really the girl is so charming and she gives so much positive reinforcement, she ended up training me. You will want to protect her, make her happy, and have cute vanilla sex with her in no time.

So far the game is pretty cozy in the summer season. I'm really interested in seeing how hardcore and difficult the Fall and Winter seasons will be. Will the author keep it casual or is there going to be more monster attacks? How lewd and hardcore will some of the sex get? Will we invite guests of the inn for threesomes and orgies? (god I hope so)

The game's story snippets and enemy designs are actually kind of dark. There's also supposed to be something that happens at high distrust/fracture apparently but I didn't encounter this (but I also didn't really try for this, other than seeing fracture variations on sex scenes). I mean if there's an "evil run" like with some Princess Trainer games I'm all for that.

Anyways, if you couldn't tell from all the 5 star reviews, this game is fantastic. I will definitely be following this game. It's great for 4-10 hours right now and has about 6 fappable scenes, including some great blow job scenes. The gameplay is engaging and not as punishing as other time based trainer games. There are *a lot* of days in Summer for you to recover from wasted days.

My hope for future updates is possibly more waifus, or more creative scenes for the waifu (exhibitionist, slutty outfits, group, more hardcore, what have you).

Gameplay wise, I would hope for more ramping danger and maybe even a chance to move or restart the inn in a different location (or maybe the war comes to us). The world building is pretty good and it really seems like an alive world with lots of stuff going on in it.

_______

Below is a quick tutorial, since there really isn't one and it's a massive wall of text that no one wants to read. But you don't really have a time limit in the demo so you can flub around.

**TUTORIAL / MINI GUIDE**

• You have to increase your attributes to 50 and 100 to gain more dice. The dice improves your combat and how much yield you get from an action. Thus the gameplay is to scrape by a meager survival while trying to level up your stats (ideally in increments of 50).
• Eventually you level up (they really need an alert/notification bubble when you have enough XP) and getting a combat skill will really make combat easier for you. Winning combats safely will get you a steady supply of food so you can start earning gold from visitors.
• Combat: Damage and blocking is straight forward, you add dice to deal damage. At first glance it's confusing when you can only add one dice (you will always want to add the die), but the system becomes more apparent with more dice as adding too much dice costs stamina.
• Dodge: This was the most unintuitive part about combat. Dodge is different than block in that it's all-or-nothing. It's also incredibly hard to do early level because you have to add enough dice to beat their damage. The text says "you need to roll 3 or higher to dodge" but you don't actually roll any new dice, you have already rolled the dice and you are adding to the sum. It's pretty strange the dodge UI doesn't automatically add the dice for you (it makes sense later when you have to start paying stamina)

Similar to Sister Seikatsu, but with less incest and more actual gameplay. Looks very promising, and is fun to play even at this stage. Also, the girl phasing in two when she's shy/horny is hot, as is the rest of the implemented cohab mechanics.

Looks incredibly promising.
The art direction is the main hero here.
Combat and management are good and uses solid systems promising some variety.

Story is ok so far, a bit of worldbuilding and a girl who has a background and personnality.

Only thing left for this to be a great game is to deliver on the mature content. For now there is very little given the early stage of devellopement.
What little there is is doing an ok job.

I will be looking forward to incoming updates of this one.

Fantastic game so far as of v0.21.

Still early in development, but everything so far looks promising.
The charming art style and calming music build a comfy atmosphere that is a pleasure to spend time in. The core gameplay loop feels satisfying, with enough complexity to keep things from growing dull.

Content is still fairly limited at this point, but if future content maintains this level of quality, this could be a truly special game.

10/10 game.

Good art, nice gameplay loop, liked the writing and world-building.

RPG system is well-crafted and has well-paced progression, not too easy and not too difficult.

High amount of content for v0.21, thanks for the game author.

Still early for a solid review, but 5/5 regardless.

Love everything about this game. The game part is gaming, the sex part is sexing. Perfect harmony.

I understand that this is wildly early, but I'm still willing to provide some feedback. The girl seems a bit stiff, she could use some more agency in the story. Maybe some passing dialogue when you're doing tasks. Some random events in which she interacts with the player (mostly non-repeatable).

One more suggestion. If the monster count is high, there should be a chance of a midnight ambush. Though I understand if this is too much of a disturbance from the comfy tone.

The setting, art, and gameplay are very promising. I'm really looking forward to more of this game.

This is a great showing from a relatively early version of the game, and definitive proof (not that any was truly needed) that a consistent, well-executed art style, made by hand and with care, trumps anything else available. It's cute, it's cozy, the gameplay elements ask for a little thought without being overly intrusive, and my only problem so far is that I'll have to wait for the next update.

Great combat
Good management
Good progression
Good H scenes
Incredibly comfortable setting

Only downside is being so early in its development. Fortunately, the heavy lifting is done and now it just needs to be fleshed out.

Really on its way to being a standout. A bit early, but if it keeps being supported, this will be next the Monochrome Fantasy.

Great gameplay loop, very cozy aestethic. Art is very well-made. Sex scenes are excellent. Eager to see the game develop, though it looks pretty solid even at this early stage. Magnificent overall, best of luck with development!

As a person with astigmatism, chromatic aberration as strong as this one, makes me literally nauseous. It makes me cross my eyes, squint, have watery eyes and causes me a headache. Unless it gets toned down a bunch, the game is literally unplayable to us. I feel like giving it 1 star wouldn't be fair since the game might be great, but if you have astigmatism or other eye conditions, or you just hate chromatic aberration, you won't be able to play this at all...

Changing the review: The dev already implemented the option to turn off the CA in the newest verion. The game itself is really really well made. The combat system has a very interesting take on dice rolls, and particularly the ability to choose the dice counters many issues the system has (random chance being annoying). The management is nicely done, the scenes are hot and cute! This deserves all the support.

great management game i love the mechanics, especially how the combat is better than most h-games. i love the inn management system as well, although the there could be more time slots because you are just limited in what you can do in a day. i love lucy's character design and her personality although the story could use some polish, and maybe it's just me but you get to the sex scenes too fast.

This game is still early, but it shows a lot of promise and already has a lot of content. For what it has, I'm already giving it 5 stars and admitting it is now my most anticipated H-game.

Clearly inspired by the gameplay of Imouto-Monochrome, you start out struggling to increase stats, feeling like you're doing everything wrong, but by the end of the season you will most likely have figured out what the game expects from you, and it will be smooth sailing from there. I was easily able to see all the available content with time in the season to spare.

Beautiful art, carefully balanced management gameplay that actually made me think about what I was doing... Overall, this game does everything it sets out to do and does it very well. Definitely one to save and keep an eye on.

(If I have only one area to suggest improvement, it would be that sound design could use more oomf to it, like the brilliant sound effects in imouto monochrome. I'm not sure how to describe it though exactly, and the existing sounds are still fine.)

Good gameplay, simple but fun inn management, balanced combat and has an intriguing story concept. The h-scenes were ok but given this is currently in early access it has potential to be good once it releases.

Would be great if you were able to skip or fast-forward during the h-scenes, considering there's 4 seasons (about 90 days per season) and if the player wants to progress quickly for new content being able to skip the repeatable h-scenes is a good QoL addition.

so much potential in this game! Lucy is well written and an interesting character. I would prefer if some of our character's backstory is revealed too. I would rather them be more than a faceless hero (I know we can see the face in the status screen)

Can't wait for more!

The Game is promissour, I realy like the back history, its well developed, and the girl (Lucy) is very carismatic, I dont have anything to tell about the game that is bad, have a interesting ui and navigation, you can be a little confused in the bigginin, but you will get it.