Ren'Py - Frozen Past [v0.40.1] [Leonave]

Boring and recycled. I don't have anymore of a lead-in for this game. I didn't even make it to the end of the current update and I really tried.

The story has been told about a million plus one times. Man wakes up from a coma with amnesia. *Totally not mom* (?) comes in and is heartbroken that her son lost his memory. *Totally not sister*(?) is a massive bitch to her brother for some reason. On and on it goes. The mom is referred to as a tutor instead of landlady and the sister is referred to as landlady and childhood friend so the relationship structure is wildly confusing.

The renders are average. They have a slight grain and everyone looks a little dead inside. The women I've met so far are okay and the MC looks like a cookie cutter male base-model from DAZ. The locations aren't unique and some of the frames are just strange. Who eats a sandwich with a fork?

The writing is typical of (what I assume to be) a Russian made AVN. Grammatical errors and poorly written dialogue are littered throughout the game . The premise is tired and overplayed in recent AVNs. The gameplay isn't that fun either. Another sandbox that doesn't need to be. I don't want to have to click six times to get to a certain place, if you're going to have a sandbox you really need a locations tab so I can just clock on the room I want to go to.

I hate to be so down on a game because I know the dev likely worked pretty hard on this.But come on, at least make it interesting. Do you know how many AVNs I've played that start with the MC waking up from a coma? I probably can't count them on all my fingers and toes. The amount of those games I've played that ended up being good games I could count on one hand. You have a futuristic setting. Have the MC wake up in a gutter with his mind erased by the bad guy and start from there. I'll throw this one on the "Played one so I've played them all" pile for now. Good luck Leonave.

Edit -- 02/17/2023 -- A year and a half later and the story hasn't gone anywhere. Renders are currently way below average.

Edit -- 07/09/2021 -- Upped overall rating to 4 stars. Not sure why I gave the renders such a low rating before, maybe it was from my frustration of where to click. Renders should have been 3.5/5. . Renders should have been 3.5/5. My "Other" issues have been fixed!!! Thanks!!!

I hate rating things so early, but the other 2 reviewers forced my hand.

Story -- Yes Amnesia has been done before, but on the other hand I don't think anyone has done it right yet. The closest one that did was abandoned. Maybe this creator will. The characters in my opinion are fine because we don't know them at all.... so WTF would anyone say that they aren't any good. I am definitely intrigued enough to want to know more. 3.5/5

Renders -- Nothing bad, but nothing that stands out either. 2.5/5

Animations -- N/A

Other -- I almost did give up on this one. It took me forever to find my effin room. On the second to last floor click on middle of the left side on the white wall. Also when you get to the (girlfriends?) hot dog vendor's house you have to click ALL things before you can move to the next room. With these 2 frustrating things I can understand why someone would not give it a chance. I will give it more of a chance myself. 1/5

Overall -- 3/5

-- Rannell

Update from my March of 2021 review.

I'm not dropping the 2 star rating. It deserves it.

This VN is absolutely awful. Almost 3 years after my original review and there isn't that much content. Not to mention the only way to possibly make any money is to whore yourself out in an alley behind a dumpster. Real original.

Amnesia starts off the VN. It's been beaten into the ground, and shows no originality at all. The MC's "family" is standoffish and down right rude. After your second trip to the hospital( for being shot) you end up living with the hotdog vender chick. HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? You just met her, and boom! you're in a relationship with her even if you end the relationship. HAHAHAHAHA!

Summary
Skip this VN. It's just poor. The MC is spineless. The plot is amnesia. It's so bad that I forgot all about it for almost the last 4 years. That should give you enough of a summary right there.
I do not recommend this VN. It should have been finished like 2/3 years ago.

This game left me unsatisfied (in every aspect). First off, the story, and characters are bland, with no depth. Then there is the dated, "ok-ish" overall visual quality, together with the "ok-ish" animation quality (there is no visible gap between the last and the first picture of the loop, which is good). What makes this game really bad and exhausting for me is the non-existent orientation help. There are MANY rooms in the house and other locations, the different floors almost looks alike. The navigation buttons are only becoming visible when you hover your mouse around the edges of the screen; they are sometimes too small and sometimes too big. A map would help extremly here. To sum this up, it's a "play, delete and forget about"-game for me.