Ren'Py - Goddesses' Whim [v0.4.4] [Ncrow]

It seems like a good game. But I catch myself thinking "why is it so boring most of the time?". Sad stories and drama ruin my mood to fap, while mindless repeating of same dialogs to rise affection is wasting my time.

Pros:
+ Sex scenes are hot. Great animations, nice models, good variety of girls and places for sex.
+ its a sandbox, you can repeat sex scenes through gameplay, not just gallery.
+ hint system works great. Mission objectives are easy to understand and every girl has her own progress page with hints, if you want to focus on her.

Cons:
- MC is passive. Almost every sex scene is initiated by girls.
- MC it too shy, its really annoying. "Oh no, I have to hide my erection", "Oh no I looked at her boobs" etc. He acts like a virgin even after having sex with half of the village.
- Sad stories with buildup but no releaf. It ruins the mood to fap, when I have to read someone's sad backstory. And there is no relief afterwards, because I cannot kill evil mercenaries for what they have done. And I have a feeling that MC will not kill them either because he is a pacifist.
- Affection grind system is a waste of my time. Repeat same dialog 5 times to get something new. Its dumb and should be avoided in game design.
- Black screen transitions. MC talks to someone and every few sentences you get black screen fade in for no reason. Thankfully I turned them off in options.
- Fights start unexpectedly. I'm reading a dialog and then BAM! I have 2 seconds to react and click on a tiny icon somewhere on the screen. Every fight scene I had to roll back because I was not ready for this quick time event.

Written by an uber sage weaboo and it shows. The game has it's good parts (THE PORN) but the cliche story, characters and dialogue are so unbelievably cringe it makes them hard to reach.

This is the type of stuff going on with a girl he's known for ~3 days:
"Without being able to utter a single word, I try to explain to her that everything will be alright." "Ryoko, letting out a sob, just clung to my hand."

Talk about dramatic. Second hand embarassment is through the roof in this.

The good:
-Well designed characters with unique personalities, anyone can be your personal favorite.
-"Simple" story that is well narrated at a great pace.
-Scenes and emotions are according to the situation, not your typical ahegao face.
-Not extremely grindy, and the grind is well rewarded.
-Interface is intuitive and easy to follow.
-The music fits really well into the world.
-LOTS of mainstream anime references (loved the titan one).
-Fishing.

The bad (?):
-Is not finished yet.

GW takes everything of the genre and takes it to the next level, you can clearly see the passion and love in the making of the world and each character, even the support ones... started the game with my pants down and "finished" it with a tear falling down my cheek, definetly looking foward the next updates.

The visuals and animation are very well done, not a lot of animators put as much attention to detail to entire body movement and angles. This is especially nice during H-scenes were you can see the characters' pussies pussies spread out and in during the animation. Only detail I'd like is if there were scenes of the characters cumming instead of a still image at the end but it isn't a huge gripe.

Story-wise there isn't anything super interesting that sets it apart from other isekai/game mechanic story but it is still pretty early on considering only a fraction of what I assume will be a big map is accessible so far. The characters are cute and each have pretty distinct personalities from one another discounting the unnamed NPCs who are all just horny for the MC. (But being an H game, why not?)

Overall I am looking forward to following to seeing how it goes from here story-wise and hoping for continued consistent updates.

I'm not very far into the story yet, but I'll update as I go. So far I've unlocked like 8 girls, and have spent most of the time going for their events instead of zooming through the main quest.

Story goes you're a regular guy who's crazy good at kendo and get isekai'd by goddesses, since they find you interesting. From there, you're pretty much going with the on-rails isekai tropes of being unexpectedly strong and everyone is down bad for you. The story tries to like, make you interested in like multiple flashback sequences to his SUPPOSEDLY dead mom. But if you've ever read any manga or watched any anime ever, you'll probably see the twist from a mile away. The game is better when it's just being a slice of life rom-com, and it succeeds at that for the most part. You should NOT go into this expecting a serious or deep story. That's clearly not what they're going for.

The MC is just alright. Some people think he's cringe, some people think he's silly, some people think he's chill. I think he's a an alright balance of the three. The setting is less isekai and more like MC got transported to some rural japanese village imo, everything from the music to the scenery so far seems to reinforce the fact at least. So imo, it makes sense he's a little cringe.

The girls are pretty distinct from one another. You got typical town knight, milf doctor and her clumsy assistant, slave who loves you, and etc. They all have really nice designs and their personalities overlap sometimes, but for the most part - everyone is pretty unique in their own way. My favorites so far are Hana, Ryoko, and Charlotte, all characters that feel a little more deeply involved with the MC. Mayu is the super hyper and silly blacksmith - I thought she was really cute for a side character, since she plays on the more comedic aspect of the game.

H-scenes are pretty hot and the models are really detailed for KK game. On par with other HQ works using them. I think the grind associated is pretty meh. Like, there have been worse grinds - people act like there isn't a big skip button and will complain, but it's really not that bad. And the amount of pretty unique content so far, considering I haven't even touched the main quest that much is pretty amazing, since lots of Devs will take almost half a year to consistently pump out scenes. Just a tad disappointed there's not really any sound effects/voices during them, but if you play alot of renpy games, that's not a huge surprise anyways and you're mostly there for eyecandy.

I do think my main gripe with the game is the dialogue. You don't need to be an english major to understand that the translation is pretty mid. It's very stilted at times and doesn't flow naturally from sentence to sentence. What I've chosen to do, to alleviate this clunkiness, is make it my head-canon that since the MC is in some kind of rural Japan setting, everyone speaks in a weird way, resulting in the weird dialogue. But really, it's not too bad - you can understand what the characters are saying. Most of the time I take out the somewhat garbled mess on screen and reword it in my head so that it flows better anyways with these sorts of games.

Solid 3.5/5 so far, if the quality of more LIs' and their scenes keep up as I go on, it'd be like a 4/5 for me, once it hit the current update. If you're going into games like these, it's better to keep expectations somewhat low and just enjoy the lax ride. Surprisingly, it's better than most renpy-KK games on the site, with more polish put into it.

Dont get why this has such a high rateing maybe i just dont get it...some reviews talk about alot of bad stuff and still rate it 4 or 5 stars? some only talk about animations and sure they are nice but a review should be about everything....

Story was quite boring, dialogs are cringy and just meh, its all so kinetic hidden behind a pointless sandbox since your forced to follow a set questline where you have absolutly no choices so its also a mindless fuckfest game where every LI is forced on you, quests are idiotic and boring where you just repeat the same shit over and over untill you have enough points with a LI to get a little progress.

MC is cringy and brainless and dosent dare to do fuck all on hes own, but girls just trows them selfs on MC for no apprent reason, but i guess if they dident he would always be a virgin....its just boring like most of the game...

Girls look ok but not a fan of watching MC fuck those i hate or just dont like since it just becomes a turn-off.

Animations are good and proberly the best part of the game but that alone cant hold up a game.
Music is pretty decent and suits the scenes.

It really is mostly a 1 star game but ill add one for animations and music.

If the only thing you want is stunning visuals and steamy scenes, play this game.
Personally, the story did not capture my attention, and the dialogue was below average. There was an excessive amount of exposition, which was tedious, and characters frequently delivered monologues in a manner that was annoying and cringy.
The game heavily relied on clichés to provide the player with a sense of comfort and perfection, so I got bored and annoyed very quickly.

5 stars for visuals, 0 stars for typical harem with no depth, 0 stars for typical boring MC, 0 stars for minigames that served no purpose, 0 stars for 0 player agency, 0 stars for plot.

This game is fantastic! It exudes a cozy atmosphere throughout, and each moment brings me closer to the love interests. There's a distinctive quality to each character that sparks my curiosity and leaves me wanting to learn more about them. The action scenes are also exceptionally well-executed, making this Visual Novel truly impressive. Overall, the game is absolutely outstanding.

The art is surprisingly well done - characters aren't flat, scenes look good. I just can't stand the writing. Not only is it just so incredibly cliche, it's riddled with translation errors between the author's original language and English (I can only assume). I didn't really get too far into it because I was so bored, but the assets looked good enough to at least give it average.

If you can stand sub-par writing and story for above average models, then you'll probably like this.

Updated at 0.4.1, about a year later from original review:

I decided to revisit this game with a less judgemental view and wouldn't you know it, I did enjoy it more this time. The writing is still cliche but that's not necessarily a bad thing, you just need to lean into it. The scenes are great and the story is interesting enough to keep me playing, I just think it ramped up too quickly with a few characters for a full 5/5.

Definitely worth your time.

Favorite KK game on the site hands down. the animations are so well done, you can really tell the dev puts a lot of effort into the details.

Story isn't bad and it seems to be getting better as updates continue. Highly recommend.

I'm not really good reviewer, so let's make it simple :

Character : 4/5 (very expressive, especially the main girls)
Story : 3.5/5 (it's good and has nice comedy in it)
Scene : 5/5 (no comment. Just play it and you would like it)
Overall : 4.5/5 (this is one of the best koikatsu based game you probably ever play.. imo, it's golden experience)

What a great game! It has comfy feelings all around and it's full of moments where it feels like I become closer to the love interests. There's also somehow something unique in every love interests, makes me want to know more about them. The actions scenes as well, they are too awesome and looks really good for a Visual Novel! The game is fucking amazing overall.

game has likelable characters, fantastically animated custom h-scenes, is regularly updated (usually once a month), and great visuals. it is quite hard to find a fault in it. I would recommend it to pretty much everybody. the dev knows what they are doing and i look forward to seeing more updates / what they go into next

Amazing so far, haven't even finished it yet, absolutely blown away by how much content is there, the animations are great, the character are diverse and look pretty good, cute + funny + "plot" + plot = perfect, looking forward to see how the story develops and more "plot" for sure, the music is also pretty good.

I don't have much to say. I just wanted to leave a very well deserved 5 star rating for this game. Everything about it was fantastic and I can tell how much care and effort has been put into this project. The animations are top notch. The story is fantastic as well but most of all I enjoyed the characters. Their stories and personalities are really the thing that kept me hooked. Excited to see what comes next!

Story:

You take the role of a modern-day teenager, who tries to save a girl and ends up dying in the process. In the afterlife he meets a goddess who gives him the opportunity to be reborn on a medieval world.

Yes, the premise is a carbon copy of a isekai anime, but the game plays is out like a homage, rather than plagiarism. It makes clear references, and the dialogue is written as anime as possible, complete with expressions like “fufu”, “oi”, “ara ara” and so on. Theres no shortage of headpats, pouting, blushing and cat/dragon girls. If you dislike this style of cutesy anime characters, this won’t be a game for you. If you are used to that, however, you will find a story that despite the generic premise, still manages to carve its identity as it unfolds, and has no shortage of likable characters (even if they are fairly one-note). The script is lighthearted and pretty funny at times.

Design:

I won’t beat around the bush, this is a sandbox game through and through, where you must build relationship points, acquire money, resources and so on. Once again, if you are one of those people who goes into every thread complaining about sandbox, even when its clearly labled (you know who you are), then don’t bother.

With that out of the way, some grinding is required, but it’s not too excessive. The early girls need you to interact a handful of times before you can see new events, but that seems to have been dialed back substantially for the later girls, which is a plus for me. There are minigames for fishing and wood cutting. The map is user friendly enough, and you can teleport to a girl’s location from the menu if you’re on the correct time period, which is a nice feature. The tips are always clear about what you need to do.

Visuals:

Visually, this game is fantastic in several ways. The renders are great, the UI is pleasant, and the animations are some of the best out there (as you can tell from the previews). The one caveat I have with the presentation is the perspective of the sex scenes. Most scenes are shown though first person or a closed-in camera. One advice I’d give the dev is to also present the scenes from a pulled back camera for those who prefer to see the whole picture.

Conclusion:

Goddesses Whim is one of those games that isn’t for everyone, given its overly anime and sandbox nature, but it’s hard to deny the quality and effort. The story so far won’t be winning any awards, but it does get more interesting as you play, and I’m curious to see what comes next.

This is my Review of v 0.3.2. Public (Goddesses' Whim)
Made by the developer (NCrow)

There is a possibility that this Review will change when a new update comes later on since this game isn't finished yet.
Spoilers alert BTW!

The Story-line: 4.3/5

The thing about this storyline I liked is that it's straightforward to understand the main character's goal. From one boring life to a second chance with a new life after giving up his life for another without hesitating. (But there is more to the story than what we think)

Now the story is pretty easy to follow since there is a main log of events you can do for each girl you meet in the game and a main storyline. Let's just take the part I (Didn't like first) like most games, you are forced to do everything with everyone or you can't continue the main storyline. So if there are any types of girls you don't like, but want to continue the main storyline you're forced to do it...

(My very own opinion) For me, if there is one girl I like (Ryoko), I like having the choice of whether I want to go after others or not. I don't mind been around any of these beautiful Girls/Women, but I would have liked it more if I had a choice to take the relationship a step further or not. That's the only main thing I didn't like, so far.

The best part of the story is that everything makes sense, is not hard to understand what every character feels. Easy to see it right away in the text, the facial expressions, the music, and the humor in this game have made me break into laughter several times. Well done!

Every character in this game has their own personality and story to tell which ends up in several hours of gameplay of content. Some parts have made me laugh, feel excited, cry, and even scared my pants off... (Damn you Shika!)

Animations and Art: 3.7/5

The game is Anime-3D, I do love Anime-2D more when it comes to the art style, but the creator/creators have done an amazing job on the characters here so far. So I didn't mind it at all.

For most people (Even myself) if there are some types of girls you don't find attractive, they are still lovely in their own ways. The more time you spend with the characters, there could be a higher possibility of finding other types of things you find attractive, so it's pretty much recommended to spend time with everyone.

There are almost nothing of animations in the game when you walk around. The only part that moved was Shika when she was standing outside of the Doctor's house sweeping (Animation video that repeats itself every 2 seconds) Tomoe in the shop and Mayu in her shop It's not bad or anything like that, the only bad part is just those three animations. BESIDES from the Ara~Ara parts... That's where the game shines when it comes to animations.

The part that almost broke me was at the last event part for this version when you watch Ryoko and the main character training and she falls back on the grass. The grass didn't move at all, either Ryoko is light as a feather, or the grass was made of metal. Maybe some magic was involved here... idk

Lack of shade, flat texture, repeat texture, and some blurry color here and there.
But the characters are almost flawless and the world part looks average good for now.

Level of difficulty: 3.1/5

The game has mini-games like fishing, rock-paper-scissors, and chopping wood. And a few fighting scenes, I didn't know what would happen if you failed fighting scenes so I went back to the game to find out... Nothing will change the outcome of the story, just that you have to (Try Again) and take it from there.

There are no lewd difficulties, no Story challenges, and no decision challenges which makes the rewards worth less. So it's just go to the next event and see what happens. My hope if there will be (Multiple Endings) when the game is finished. It's not an expectation, just a hope. Can give the game more reasons why one should play it again later on.

The sounds & Music parts: 3.7/5

The game has both sounds and music. But it still lacks sounds here and there (Even for the lewd part. That part came as a shock, to be honest) Some parts of the game really hit the right spot when a sound was needed for the humor, and others like hitting and magic were good.

There were enough sounds to enjoy the story, but it would have been great with more. There were also some sound effects I didn't expect. That laughter coming from the frog at the Mayu event was terrifying. You have to hear it to believe it...

Overall: 3.7/5 - F95Zone Star 4 "Good"

The game is not a final version, and it has a great start. With many types of events. I didn't detect errors or bugs as I discovered. The girls in this game are amazing. Love their story, personality, and their looks.

If I had to pick the top 5 out of the list that I loved the most.
The list would have been 1: Ryoko, 2: Charlotte, 3: Natsuki, 4: Akane, 5: Shika

It took me hours to get through all the events and it has been an incredibly good story that I would really like to continue to see through for future updates. Oh god, I love the humor in this game! Keep up the great work!

one of the best games i played , the models , the animation , the story ist just fugging great , hell of a great game , you think you played all then you missed this scene and another village new scenes i love that game really

Attention to detail is great, little to no clipping textures, nice animations, dreat models and a not that cringe plot. Decent divercity of not overly stereotypical characters.
Very decent game overall, can't wait for a full release.

Excellent game yeah can be a bit grindy sometimes but that's something fixable upgrading the resource quantities you get from activities but the rest damn animations are pretty good ,models are custom , girls are Lovable it doesn't have any rare kink you can't avoid that ruins the experience....