Ren'Py - From the Eclipse [v0.4.4] [Erochaser]

Version Reviewed: v0.1.5b

Overview: Be a kind hearted slavemaster in a world full of virgin sex slaves.

Story: Basically there was a big disaster that left the world's legal systems in total shambles. It's a world where everything works the opposite of what common sense would dictate. You are a down on your luck guy who just had his soon-to-be wife sold into slavery out from under him, but due to a bunch of bizarre circumstances you have a way to win her back, and also become a slaveowner at the same time.

You spend most of the game trying to undermine the bastards who apparently have absolute legal authority but also no sense of how rules are supposed to work. It's absolute crazytown. The world is run by horny 14 year old boys just making up shit as they go. Along the way you acquire numerous slaves as well as wifes, always virgins and always just in the nick of time as they are about to be given away to some horrible person. All of the bad guys are moustache twirling villains that would make Snidely Whiplash blush. Thankfully for the protagonist they are also about as competent as old Snidely.

I can see why some people like the story, but it was so dumb I kept getting knocked out of the flow. The MC is totally just along for the ride, I don't think he has a single original thought in the entire game, he just says yes to whatever people suggest and virgin slave pussy keeps landing right on his dick.

Gameplay: It's one of those four timeslots per day with multiple locations where you have to seek out what is going on by going to the right spot at the right time. The game does at least take pity on the player and gives them a cheat sheet of where to go to trigger each event, which is good because many of the triggers are basically random. Unfortunately in the second part of the game this menu disappears and it's unclear if I have completed all of the events or not. This game has abysmal pacing, with you often having to click through timeslots and entire days waiting for the next event to occur. There is a money grind as well, which takes about 11 days or so once you unlock earning money.

I want to reiterate my big complaint about the game. It's so damn empty. Even after you fill up your mansion with hot young no-longer-virigin girls (seriously, you pop so many cherries in this game) in most rooms there is nothing to do. You can't interact with the girls in any way, sometimes they don't even show up after joining the harem. The ones you can interact with are just to repeat sex scenes. Girls tend to have one story event where you can get to know them, and after that they're literally just background material as you page through the rooms looking for something to happen. Combined with the slow pacing there is not much here to hold your interest. If you're looking for corruption or even relationship building this is not your game. You have your dick in almost every girl on the first day you meet them, and the sex scenes are all some kissing, maybe (maybe!) a blowjob, and then you're pounding cooch. There's no buildup, barely any foreplay, just straight to pound town with the girl you met 3 hours ago.

Graphics: Pretty standard Koikatsu stuff. Nothing too exciting. There aren't rediculous proportions or anything grotesque, but all of the girls are a bit generic looking as is typical with that engine.

Conclusion: With only mediocre graphics the kind of insane story is the only thing that stands out. The gameplay is sucks at least one star out of this. The developer seems far more interesting in dumping more and more girls on you than fleshing out any of the existing characters, which is usually a mistake in my opinion. Already there are so many I can't remember who is who. I can only imagine the look on my first wife's face when I bring home yet another girl with a sob story and still bleeding from where I took her virginity. Is she cooking for all of those girls?

That said, this game is far from a disaster. The whole thing is solidly medicore. A quintessential three star game.

Okay, here is the thing.
The graphics are ok (standart Koikatsu), albeit you could have done with a way better models. But thats a minor gripe.
Main problem lies with story pacing.
For example, you have several days at the start that are simply empty. With scripted events being somewhere way after them, forcing players to search for something that isnt there to trigger at least some changes.
Then you have option to buy another slave, but no hints as to how you will earn money to pay for her. And there is cute little ZERO cash flying in the corner of your screen since day one and for almoust two weeks, making you belive that you either missed something, or the event that allows you to earn money is bugged. Cause in the world that empty, at the start of the game, there should at least be some kind of grind... right?
In the end you have to return to the site where you downloaded it, not because you want to skip some puzzle or anything, but because you got lost in what seemed like a simplistic game design.
In short, either make an ingame walktrough/journal, shorten the waiting between events, or, preferably do both.

Very promising beginning. Cute characters and a generally likeable protagonist. Models look quite good for Koikatsu and the girls are all well written and likeable. After the intro it's mostly wholesome vibes. Very emotional character writing, the girls carry a lot of traumas from the world around them.
Only complaint I have is the chapter 1 sandbox is a bit of a mess. There's a guide for it so you won't miss any events but it takes a while to get though them. Chapter 2 is better organized and future chapters will be as well.

v0.1.3
When in the first 10 minutes you feel like game is insulting your intelligence... it is usually pretty bad sign.

Characters are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, cliches pretending to be their own characters.

Story is nothing to write home about and things happen just because author wanted them to happen. If you read literally anything else then you most likely have read better story and dialogues. Choices are meaningless, if you go for what author didn't want you to choose you will be given explanation that it is bad idea and returned to choose again until you pick "right" option in order to continue... Why do you even give choice if there is only one thing that you want players to pick?

All of this resulted in me not caring about story or characters. I really couldn't bring myself to care at any point, and every time main bad guy (it's amazing how hard author tries to make sure you know he is THE bad guy) appeared I would just roll my eyes.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget that's for some stupid reason this game is actually a sandbox... Why? I don't know, I honestly can't see any good reason for why it is a sandbox, except to make player click "rest" 8 times before something happens.
And why is everyone referring to you by your surname? Even text box is using your last name to identify you...


It looks like it's authors first time writing something and creating game, so I just hope it is good practice and they will improve in future, but as this game is right now... I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, unless I wanted to bore them to death.

I think this game is really promising!
The game is still in an early phase and you can certainly feel that.
It's still rough around the edges (typos, the wrong character speaks etc.) but not unplayable by any means. Just some noticeable hiccups.

Between the first and second chapter, the way events trigger changes which improve the playability for people who don't want to use the assistance sheet provided.

The best thing though and why I really recommend checking it out is the writing. The Stories especially the introduction story is really good and believable. So far every introduced character seems unique and has an interesting story attached as well.
The world feels lived in and you get a hint from time to time about events that happen in the background.

The game has great potential as it expands its content.
That's why I give it 5/5 =)

Some smaller pacing issues aside (Once you get the ability to sandbox prepare to just wait around for about 7 days) and some stock models (For now) I really enjoy this game.

Its just a bit silly and the MC is clearly lost in something he doesn't really understand and probably should to gain some semblance of control over his trajectory. Expect some humor, some kindness, and some sweet, sweet vindications as you go.

To put it mildly.. I am looking forward to seeing a few characters rot away.

Otherwise its a mild harem with negligable slavery elements. Don't expect to be disciplining anyone...etc.

First of all, the characters. The characters' personalities are designed, well, hm, poorly. It feels like I'm watching '90s anime, where I can predict almost every line of the another cliche girl. The same applies to the look of the characters. I can swear that I can't tell the girls in this game from others like them. I somehow do like the fact the MC has a GF at the very beginning of the game, it feels fresh, but hey, talking about wedding and good cooking and having a lot of children is not exactly what I do want to hear in R18 game, at least not at the very start.

The story. What do you expect, the game greets you with a large text intro on a blank black screen, all about "The earth has been overrun by dark forces, but now we're in a world with elves, goblins, magic and an evil opressive empire." I don't mind classic modern-like fantasy, but that borning text intro should have been portrayed in the game, not just a readme file. Nevertheless, if you can stand the boring parts, the story will begin to unfold, though remaining as clichéd as it was from the beginning.

Renders. Don't expect much, they are just posed characters, but the problem is that in those moments where the player expects to see a unique image, the situation is written in text. Like, you know, kissing a girl. You probably want to see MC kissing a girl, right? You're just getting a text line "You've kissed a girl" instead. Or taking her by hand. It is just frustrating. Is the game meant to be about relationships? Please, can we have the most emotional parts of dating with a girl posed and screenshoted?

Choices. Everyone wants to see meaningful choices, not "what kind of coffee you want to order?". The choices are basically the main thing why people play VNs. Everyone wants to be involved in the game, not just a random bystander. Otherwise, I just can watch anime.

Dialogue. I get the feeling that the author wants to jump to the part where there are battles, explosions and magic, so that the calm dialogues look like fillers. Moreover, some of large dialogue parts are just skipped, like "You two just talk for the rest of evening". I mean, it's okay for the author to skip the dialogues about nothing if the scene already showed something important and/or interesting, but in the case of this game, the whole scene could have just been replaced with "you went to the cafe" without losing the overall meaning. Of course, not all of the texts are like this, still I had to mention this.

The sound. There is none. Its OK if you want to listen music while playing the game, but the good choice of music and sound effects sometimes can really boost player's emotions.

I'm suprised this game had no reviews yet
Game is not perfect Somtiles you need to skip hours days to find somthing new But i actually don't mind
Renders are really good
Story like i said could use some hint button
But I don't mind
No bugs