Ren'Py - Forbidden Memories [Ch.2 v2.1.1] [SGDP]

Summary:
Interesting game that I wasn't sure about at first but grew hugely on me. Definitely a couple of areas it needs improvement but will be great once those are sorted.

Renders: 5/5
Great variety and quality on the renders both in the characters and scenes.

Animations: 4/5
Generally very good - there was one I thought could be better but thats it which says a lot bearing in mind how hard it is to get animations right.

Story: 5/5
Interesting story which moves forwards with the characters you meet.

Characters: 4/5
Well written characters with different personality types. Wasn't a huge fan of most of the dream ones as they were just lazy adjusted actresses etc (Ada worked well though).

Music: 4/5
Recognised a few tracks but good choices and set to the locations and scenes well.

Gameplay: 4/5
Worked well particularly the replay method in sims, BUT badly needs a walkthrough. I found myself constantly using URM to review what the step would do. It wouldn't have been so bad but sometimes the game gives you a feedback statement so you know you succeeded or failed and others it doesn't which left you thinking ... do I need to replay that? I'm still giving it a 4 overall for the gameplay as it was genuinely interesting and innovative just could be better with either better feedback or a walkthrough.

Minigames 4/5:
Caveat, I usually play minigames and indeed I did all successfully except the fighting and swimming ones. There are 3 options - no minigames, optional or enforced which is good and the only reason I didn't give this a very low score. However, I wonder if the dev designed this for people with small screens set to a 60 refresh rate or perhaps for tablets/touch screens and didn't test it on anything else. Playing the bar fight game on a 2560x1440 165 refresh rate screen was horrendous even after I wimped and dropped my refresh rate to 60 as I could barely get the mouse cursor across the screen in time, it had to be a precise area clicked on... and then multiple times in rapid succession. I eventually skipped the game after 12-15 attempts on the round which needs you to hit at least 7 of them as it was rage inducing and totally ruining the game. The swimming game was just mind numbingly tedious. The phone games on the good side are very avoidable thankfully and I just used the roulette to build up silly money.

I know my comments sounded negative there but overall its a very good game and could be great.

Alright, I'm gonna counter some of the recent negative reviews for this game.

About the sandbox: I can see why people don't like it. It can be a little confusing and hard to follow, but it's more similar to a linear sandbox then an open-world sandbox. If you go to a location and see nothing new, then there's no content, but should have content in the future. It doesn't take a brain scientist to figure that out.
About the renders: Most of the characters are attractive to me personally, but one or two don't appeal to me much. If you don't like one of the characters, you can eastily avoid them. There's plenty of LIs/characters in the AVN to suit any interest,
About the Minigames: I agree, the minigames can be a little difficult. Personally I don't know how to play suduku and the slider game took me more time then I care to admit. Also, the swimming minigame took me a while to pass but I eventually did. The dev said it himself, in the newest update there is an option to skip all minigames. If you don't want to play them, just skip them.
Lastly, about bugs: I've played through every release of this game, including beta tests, and only experienced two bugs. There weren't game breaking and I just loaded an old save and was able to play through the content.
All in all, I greatly enjoy this game and will continue to play through each update for as long as the dev has the passion and drive to work on this AVN. I'll always support this game in some way or another.

Positive Points:
+3D render

Neutral Points:
*3D render
*sandbox system
*story

Negative Points:
-3D render
-MC
-Quest system
-Bug Bug and Bug
-Mini games

Conclusion:
This game could be good but he just proves that some good render isn't enough to make a good game.
Speaking of the render, I put it in the three points, because some are really well detailed (Tess, Barbara, Catherine...) some are poorly detailed (Ann, Kira..). Yeah there is a good render of Lockne/Mama, a meh Ada Wong and a disgusting render of Angelina Jolie. I supposed Claire is gonna lose weight to charm the MC because it's just a fat Claire Redfield.
The sandbox system is tedious, boring to navigate in the different area and coupling with a shitty quest system. Objectives are only appearing in menu and you will miss most of them when they are not just bugged. Probably one of those games that need a walkthrough in your second screen to succeed in the route you want.
The MC and story aren't credible at all. You are playing a really good looking man that is depresive coz he never fucked a woman... Even if he's surrounded by women (this world is apparently populated at 95% by women) that all want to fuck the MC. So it will take 2 days for this pathetic IT guy to finally lose his virginity...
You get money by playing mini-games like tic tac toe (yeah the game that you can only win if the computer let you, if you draw you lose money), roulette (totally RNG game), sudoku or tetris (take lots of time) or slider (good luck if you don't know how to finish them). Money is used for quest or sex scene.
Last but not least I got lot of bugs during my playthrough. Quest that not appear or failed for no reason, roll back on dialogues or teleport back in another area, app that not appear on phones. At the end I had a permanent skip button from the first mini game with Ann's computer that I didn't used, I decided to click on it after several hours and.... the game brings me back to Ann's dialogue at the beginning of the game......
To conclude like lot of other games he has potential but he is ruined by bugs, poor quality of life and unplayable without a walkthrough. Not sure dev gonna rework the first two chapter to get a better base for his game.

Test done in version 2.1.1

V.2.2.1 CH2

without looking at reviews i can see instantly from preview pics why the rating is high but i personally found it a bit tedious and quit before ending of content. i may try again but not gonna lose any sleep if i don't.

imagery is great. make some sparkling pictures and you are two thirds of the way to perfection....apparently. 5 star reviews abound.

the writing needs work as not being able to spell the same word one sentence to the next is just really poor. considering a new chapter has been released since these occur, clearly another dev who could care less what they release.

which they really should as public perception is their bread and butter, hence the crowd-funding pages and eventual gaming site releases to purchase, but mini-games pay nothing. tried and complete a sudoku and got the same puzzle reset to blank spaces when i hit complete button. total waste of time, just like tic-tac-toe which means constant stalemate. would i like to play the game? fuck off joshua
add a dating app and it's pure convolution.

and therein lays the crux of my issue with this, too much fluff with mini games and free-roaming and bloody collectables to add to what is otherwise a pretty bland plot. added for distraction i guess, but i prefer a game with a strong plot with minor distractions. this one seems the complete opposite

it may improve but as it bored me so early on and i left before even new content (i suspect. don't know for sure as not tried before this release) when it pointed out how to skip some time. all that filler and still requires a time skip option? jesus

looks pretty but just a slideshow of worth for me. opinions vary

This game is designed and could be much better with the built-in navigation and tools. Instead, it is overloaded with constant transitions between locations with very short plot inserts in each of them. Some additional games within the game are also distracting. At the same time, some of the characters have been poorly designed or even poorly rendered, making them look unattractive or even terrible.
In general, it leaves a residue of an unfinished, cheesy, unfinished product.

Renders are good but the models all look a bit overweight to me, seems it's just to support big tits kink.

MC is pathetic, it's kind of a meme now for these games to have pathetic MCs so I cant judge a game for that alone.

Writing isnt bad and can switch off minigames at the beginning but it has unavoidable ultra-slow sms sequences and unavoidable dream bs - you instantly have a sex scene 1 min after starting. You also are forced to go to locations just to have 1 minute conversations and go home again

Navigation is completely unhinged. you have to click silly arrows to move and then suddenly the directions are inexplicably reversed so you go back and forth accidentally. That point was enough to move it from a 3-star game to a 2-star game for me

Review as of version 2.1
Summary:
I really like this game, and am excited for what's more to come in the future. The renders are great, animations are great, there are funny moments, the dialogues aren't overly long in between actions. The music is nice. I played the chapter 1 release (initial release) a couple of months ago. Just finished chapter 2. I must say: the quality improvement over one release, in that short period of time is really something else. If you don't pay attention to it you won't even notice it, but there are so many things that improved. The dev gives me the confidence that he/she loves this project. Would highly recommend.

Renders: 5/5
At the beginning of the game I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The scenes in the therapy session aren't extremely good, but aren't extremely bad either. Good thing the story is interesting enough to pull me through that. When you get into the actual game the renders are very very good. The consistency and attention to details keeps being there throughout the entire game. The renders in chapter 2 are maybe even a bit better than the ones in chapter 1.

Animations: 4/5
The animations look great. They are not the loop 10 frames kind of animations you see in a lot of other games. They feel realistic, and the quality of them is on par with the quality of the renders. The only reason I'm saying 4/5 instead of 5/5 is because there are not that many animations yet. The game is very new so I guess it makes sense, but the quality of the renders in general just leaves me longing for more.

Story: 5/5
The story is great. It captured my attention almost from the start. I like the fact that everything feels quite realistic. You go through your workday and stuff happens during it, as it would be able to in real life. You don't have these fake porn type of scenario's in there, it's quite a slow burn, but the gameplay keeps it entertaining enough to not get boring. The girls look very beautiful and I keep being interested in what's happening next. The choices often make me think twice about what I should do. I like the idea of the roms, I just hope it doesn't get old soon, and that it won't take too much dev time away from the actual story. Sometimes the story feels a little bit all over the place. What I mean by that is that lots of storylines are happening at the same time. For me this is a positive, as it feels highly realistic, and it requires you to be attentive to things happening, and the story doesn't get boring too soon, however I can imagine that some of the audience for a game could find it a bit too chaotic.

Characters: 5/5
Almost all the women in the game look absolutely stunning. I wasn't so sure about a couple of the girls, but spoiler alert - those worries get taken away.
The renders look great, the girls look beautiful yet somehow realistic. The expressions, especially in chapter 2 , are very nice. I like the personalities.
If I must give one point I still worry about: There are a lot of girls. At the pace the game is currently progressing I feel like you won't be able to be intimate with all the girls, or it will get rushed, or it will take 20 chapters without introducing new ones to complete all of them.

Music: 4/5
I really like the music. I found that a lot of songs stuck in my head even when I was done playing the game. The quality of them is good, they mostly fit the atmosphere the story is in, or they actually make the atmosphere more clear.

Gameplay: 5/5
I've seen many comments hating the sandbox element of the game, and while I do agree sometimes sandbox games suck, this one doesn't. I like having the map, which gives me a sense of actually directing the MC on where to go and what to do next. I try to remember as much as I can and make the best choices, but when I didn't know what to do next, I just opened the reminders and I could continue. It also made me realize I missed some opportunities so I made sure to pay extra attention on my 2nd playthrough.

Minigames 3/5:
There are some minigames in the game. Some are hosted on your phone and their main purpose is to make you money, which you can use on wallpapers for the phone or purchasing items which you will need to complete some opportunities. The minigames aren't super special, but I mean, you're probably not playing the game for the minigames. I like the Tetris game although it takes much too long to complete the entire thing, and the reward for it is not that great. A little rework here could improve the game even further. I like that you can disable and skip the minigames if you don't like them, because that does make things easier for a 2nd playthrough - for me mainly for missed opportunities, or to find missing collectibles.

All in all I hope this game is continued as it has great potential. I'm confused as to why not more people have played the game. I hope the dev will get enough support from the community to make the game even better.

Off to a promising beginning! There are decisions that prompt me to pause and consider rather than merely skimming over the NSFW scenes. The plot has captivated my interest. I trust that this game will see its development through to completion, rather than simply fading away after a few updates.

Story dident really do anything for me, its pretty boring and cringy sometimes, dident really enjoy the mini games either and not just the phone ones, you can get unlimited money doing the rolette by reloading so the money wont matter at all in the game and story mini games is also just boring.

It dident help that its purely made for people with big tits fetish which i dont have in any way so close to all girls was just a turn-off to me personaly.

The diversity in builds are just awfull, theres 1 granny with B cups, then 2 girls with C cups and the other i dunno 17+ girls is D and above, so you most defently have to have that fetish to play this one.

Music is pretty standard stuff nothing special.

This game is a prime example of minigames in games not being conducive for the gameplay and a showstopper.
Most often there is 1 route through a series of questions which lead to a positive outcome, and not only do you need to understand the internal logic of every character, you also need to master a range of subjects from basic IT-troubleshooting from fixed categories, to cardgames - all which have impact on the game itself.
This is just my personal review, and there may be a deeper meaning to intertwining your game with mandatory minigames, but it doesn't tickle my fancy.

Writing is good, and visuals are also good, the structure of the game itself is why I'm only giving it 3 stars as of v. 2.0.1.

Decent renders. But it doesnt matter because the gameplay is so goofy, directionless. The U.I is convoluted, unintuitive. The writing is very cringy and awkward at times. It's like stealing someone's homework and still getting an F. The dev should consider reading a proper book and play some more games here on F95 to improve this game.

Great game overall, i hope its continued. The render are great, the story is also interesting, maybe there are to many stories or branches but they are not overly complex. And the gameplay is very variated and not at all repetitive so far. I would say that the only thing that worries me is that the game is trying to do a lot at once, many girls, stories and mechanics and its not unusual for projects like this be abandoned or stuck in development hell for years. But its a great game, it a nice change to finally get an adult mc that doesn't look like a 13 year old kid or is absolute inept at everything. The girls are all pretty hot and i like that the game doesn't just go directly to full nudity as i like to see some lingerie.
Overall I'd say its a normal game that does what it does a great way, never felling lazy.

I think this game doesn't have a clear focus. It has a somehow plausible plot that seems to indicate that the dev intends to tell a serious, interesting story and not only an excuse to show tits and asses, but at the same time introduce absurd elements like the simulation that allows the MC to live again moments of his life to adopt different decisions that make plot an "everything goes" story and put the game in the zone of "the plot is a excuse to show tits and asses".

At the same time, the MC is a handsome and somehow attractive and kind of successful guy with a decent job and a pretty house, but the starting point of the game is that he's a lame loser that can't get laid in spite of having a lot of gorgeous girls around him, and cries and complains all the time. It makes no sense and it's not attractive to play as such a loser.

The renders are OK and he girls are pretty, although some of them has unrealistic too big tits for their frames. The free roams are sometimes annoying, and it's difficult to navigate with the arrows. The dev should improve that. Writing is not specially witty or fun, but it's not terrible either. Minigames are an annoyance, as 99% of minigames in this kind of games. I don't get why devs insist in introducing them in their games.

A very good start imho.(this review is for ver. 0.3) There are choices that makes me think a little not just skipping for the nsfw scenes. There is a little mismatch name in the chapter 1 but it is minor. I like the plot, we are not a horny dog that just wanna eff every single thing that moves. I hope this game will be complete not just "gone with the wind" after some update.