VN - Ren'Py - Heroes of Celtica: Dark Druid [v0.8.0] [Slamjax Games]

Version 0.8.0

Heroes of Celitca is an adult parody of Celtic mythology. It offers a rich plethora of Celtic folklore with multiple story branches though there are some questionable decisions along the way which has affected the overall quality of the game.

Though this is tagged as animated, there is virtually no animation for almost all the sex scenes and that one or two times it has are poorly done stock animation short loops. This isn't a game for those who prefer animations in their lewd.

Story
A collection of Celtic stories loosely woven together into a long novel with plenty of porn logic sex injected into the narrative along the way. It's somewhat interesting for a player like me who has no inkling of Celtic culture, but just don't take the adult aspects too seriously.

I played the evil druid route as this is the main focus of development so far - MC is a druid who fought against the evil Fivorians and got petrified during a major battle. By the time he was "unstoned", a millennium has passed and our MC finds himself now in a new environment with new kingdoms and new people.

What follows is a typical porn story in which MC uses his druid powers to corrupt and control various LIs for sex. The whole corruption experience is meh... Too easy and straight forward with too many girls for any to register.

Game Mechanic
The developer has plans for four occupational routes for the MC, but current development is centered on the druid one. Other than the initial occupation selection choice, the rest of the in-game choices are minor variations that mostly determine whether you get to see a sex scene.

However there is a major choice later that determines whether you choose to conspire to take over as Captain of an army or embark on a quest to look for four mythical items. These two branches appear to be entirely different stories with minimal overlaps between them.

Background / Character Renders
A really strange choice of render engine. Daz is well-known for background and character realism whereas HS2 is good for more anime like models. There are plenty of developers who pick either but steer their art style closer to the middle.

Celtica though is weird in the sense that it uses HS2, a render engine meant for 3D anime, then tries to forcefully use it to make realistic character models and yet at the same time the backgrounds retain the typical HS2 anime feel.

This all culminates in an awkward looking and disharmonious presentation whereby backgrounds consist of the usual HS2 assets while character models look like they were made to mimic (rather unsuccessfully) Daz assets using HS2.

Character Development
There is some initial character development at the start for MC as players get to choose whether he's a moral or evil guy, but once you've picked your side MC pretty much just runs along the standard stereotype.

Due to the large number of LIs who come and go, there is little space for character development with any of them. Most of them simply appear with minimal introductions, interact and fuck with MC, then move on. Very porn parody approach.

Sex Scenes
As mentioned earlier, there are no animations for almost all the scenes. Majority of the scenes are also short with little build up before sex followed by a collation of still renders, moaning sounds and minimal dialogue.

Most of them are rushed and over before anything builds up - classic quantity over quality approach.

BGM and Sound Effects
There are a few suitable ancient medieval type BGMs that complement the story, but this is punctuated by significant periods of silence without music or ambient noise making the entire experience a little inconsistent.

Non-sexual sound effects I cannot recall, so I reckon there are either none or it's minimal.

Conclusion
Celtic mythology is new to me (and I suspect to many other players), so in a sense the material can be considered new and innovative. However such good material is ultimately wasted on a typical fuck and go porn parody, a lot of unrealized potential for world building and character development IMO.

The unconventional choice to use HS2 to mimic Daz realism produces questionable results and I'm unsure of the rationale behind this. The bland and perfunctory sex combined with mediocre visuals and the absence of animations brings the overall experience down a few notches.

[v0.8.0]

I know... The models are very dated and janky looking. So if visuals are your main draw, maybe this isn't the game for you.

What this game has is legitimately good writing. The story is actually interesting. I know absolutely nothing about Celtic mythology and lore, but this game made me look up some stuff and read through a bit about the characters and events of this game. Surprisingly, despite being a porn interpretation, the dev actually sticks to canon as much as he can (at least according to my very cursory reading about this mythology).

There are branching pathways and different outcomes, so you feel like your actions do matter in shaping your playthrough.

Finally, about the actual porn, there are two good and two evil variations of the MC's background. Currently, the evil mind-controlling druid is being worked on with priority, and it's a very satisfying evil MC story. The main story is a base that provides interesting lore, mystery, and well realized characters. Corruption is most delicious when there is a genuinely interesting story to go along with it.

This game is excellent in its attention to the mythology, its very strong characterization, and its sense of narrative. I genuinely want to play all the paths in this to experience the meaningful branching. I think the champion path is probably the most narratively satisfying, but the dark druid path is also good fun. Really looking forward to further updates.

This , like the dev's other game, is all about the branching paths and agency given to the player. If you're here for models and animations, there are better games. If you're here to dive into a great CYOA-style story where stats matter, bad endings abound, and actions have consequences, there is no Dev better than Slamjax. They're just getting started with this game (though there's still quite a bit of content here), but I would look to Stellar Incognita as a great example of just how much work goes into their games and how different the story paths can be. Great job, Dev! Keep it up.

Very promising so far, if you can get past the dated models. You can be a good guy, or a bad guy, and your choices feel at least somewhat impactful. It really gives you the feel of being an ancient/classic mythological demigod and doing all the recorded things that are not so nice about them to the modern sentimentality. You can basically mindwipe, brainwash, possess, etc.

I'm just waiting for the part where you turn into a bull/horse and have your way with a woman like Zeus.

There is a ton of character here, and it is surprisingly mythologically accurate (at least according to my google searches). You can tell the creator really loves the subject matter. The writing can be a little off at times, but for the most part it is quite polished. The only real criticism I have is that you have no control at all over the sex scene, unlike in many other AVN's. It's either you choose to have it, or not.

Nice game with a lot of path to choose. Image quality is good, as is a storyline. Another great point is the female characters are not too one-dimensional.
Too bad some of the content is behind a paywall but we should support devs who can finish quality games right?

A great game with interesting story taken from myth of celtic. While the story is hard to grip due to 1.This is primary a porn game, 2.Squeeze the story in a few render and paraghraph of text, 3. As someone thats has zero knowledge of myth from celtic this is really confusing to me dumping the lore, For lore wise It should be a slow burn for introducing the Worldbuilding

That aside for the graphic is not really the great that I had seen and sex scene can be improved Altough I want to rate this game as mid but I will give it 4 star for variety of character(and not only the female but male friend too)

Very poor retender hardly any animation although it is tagged as animated. This is more of a slideshow than a renpy game. The 5 start rating are based on the story, which is more of an exaggeration, which does not warrant a high rating, if you are interested in slideshow stories than you can play but for me it's totally waste of time.
The story is good and it could better if a lot of work is put into retendering and some good annimation to some good sceens already added.

I honestly don't know how this game has only 5 star ratings I've seen far better games get 1 stared for by the pickiest people.

This games renders are below average.

Animated H-scenes are pointless you get a small animation during scenes with random positions. With sex noises only during the un-animated parts.

I like the premise overall in the hands of someone who could properly bring it to life it would be a good game.

This is one of the most unique games on here.

Taking stories from mythology and adapting them for AVNs is a fantastic idea, and gives a lot of personality and "colour" to the game. It also makes the fantasy sold by AVNs in general seem much more plausible. You're not just some random dude getting attractive people throwing themselves at you, you are an epic hero

It also feels strangely educational given how faithful it is to the original myths. More than once I've found myself curious about some character, looked them up online, and accidentally spoiled myself what was going to happen next

To start with, it's got 4 paths that are, so far, completely separate, with a shared premise and some overlapping events. It's a 4-in-1 deal where, if one storyline or its content doesn't tickle your fancy, there are others that will. This division also allows each one to operate on a different stat premise, tracking different behaviors or events.

As far as choices go, this one has some of the most consequential I've seen. AVNs are fundamentally about interacting with characters, and this one makes the presence of major characters depend on choices. One path has choices determine whether a major character/LI becomes your companion or whether you are going solo. Another path has you choose between 2 major characters/LIs to join you, with the other one going elsewhere and not being seen again.

Finally, the elephant in the room, the graphics. They are definitely older and worse than the average that what we can see out there nowadays. But weirdly enough it doesn't bother me much for this game at all. It gives the game a nostalgic vibe, like I'm playing an AVN from 10 years ago. The characters are still attractive and there is a stunning amount of visual variety in the assets. The last update had multiple colorful supernatural creatures that looked great.

Despite the aged look, it does not feel like there is any poverty of visuals.

All in all, when this game shows back up on the latest updates page, I'm ecstatic. That's why I give it a 5

Tldr: Have you ever read greek mythology and thought that the various gods and demi-gods going around fucking scores of hot people sounded appealing? This game lets you do this, but in Ireland

(Someone please make the Greek version though, seriously)

I'm impressed.

The game looks positively ridiculous, the outfits, the literal application of celtic mythology, but it owns it and goes hard on it. It just works.

The writing is decent. The sex scenes are rarely animated, but they're okay when the dev takes it seriously. Renders are pretty bad.

It gets a 5 star for just being unique. It's prolly a 4 star otherwise.

Game is basically 3 different games made into one. Lots of paths and variables on how to choose your story. You ca. n be a brutal warlord, a good champion, a horny bard or a mind controlling druid.

Personally the warlord is my favorite path so far. I will definitly support this game

Absolutely excellent, great lore, great world-building, and extremely narratively rewarding, with 4 different branching paths, I am a little worried that the characters from the prologue might be forgotten, and that with 4 different branching paths this game might get too large for the author, but otherwise I am genuinely shocked at the content and choices. The models seem a bit dated but it also is a bit unique and adds charm.

I am sticking to the bard path for the moment, but I would love to see how every story pans out.

really great
The plot branches with 4 paths and many LIs appear, I don't know if the LIs we chose in the beginning will appear again, I don't hope they will.

Updates are also very quick. Hope you keep up the good work

For a prologue this is pretty well done and my appreciation goes to the Dev. The story is well-paced, pretty well written and interesting. The H scenes are sparse and pretty basic yet still interesting. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much considering this is a prologue, so this isn't a drawback since it's so early in development.

My only "complaint" (and it's a very minor one considering how well done everything else is) is I don't care for how the MC looks and this is primarily due to some of the wardrobe. He wears skimpy leather strap armor in a few early scenes that you would see male strippers wear. I'd rather females wear this style of skimpy armor so I was a little annoyed to see the MC sporting it (don't get mad, I'm just being honest and I'll wager 85% of gamers would agree with me)

That being said, I like the fact that the MC is relatable to a masculine male, not some annoying idiot, a feckless wuss or a spineless degenerate. There need to be more games that aren't afraid to feature Alpha males as the leads instead of catering to the woke idea that masculinity is somehow "toxic" IMHO.

I applaud the LIs as well, as there are no monstrous fake beachball breasts and no ridiculous looking curves, just realistic lithe female forms with attractive enough faces. Bravo!

I look forward to more content in the future. 5/5

Actually one of the better choice driven stories I have played in awhile. Good pacing. Suggest doing the Prologue so you can see who really should be in the game. They do a have a fast option to pick your character type right away. I really enjoyed the Prologue story. So far, very well written and good amount scenes to keep you interested. no slow burn.

The prologue is fun to play through, though content-wise that's all there is right now.

That said, you can play through it with different options to get VERY different scenes... and different end results as well. It's a shame that half of the "classes" require keeping the sex score below 4... but I'm enjoying it a lot so far and looking forward to see where it goes. The potential is pretty high.

Is it early to be writing a review? Sure.
Does the game still deserve one? Absolutely.

I'm a big fan of games where the MC is mature and confident. Evil or Good, lustful or not, is a secondary concern at that point, so long as they don't have a pea-sized brain and don't fluster all over themselves at every turn, I'm happy.

Unfortunately, an MC like that is frustratingly rare, but this game definitely delivers. Not only can you choose one of four paths, but I like the MC in each of them, with the druid being my favourite.

Renders and animations are the weak point of this game, but at least they're not AI slop. They still look good—unlike those in stellar incognita, which tried to melt my brain—but there's definitely better to be found.

That said, the renders don't take away enough from the story or the sex scenes for me to deduct a star. Both are excellent, and the worldbuilding using Celtic myths is well done.

I'm looking forward to more, and I would recommended this game to anyone.

P.S. I do hope the developer doesn't burn himself out on the four different paths, but the fact he finished two games before is encouraging.