Ren'Py - High-Rise Climb [v0.95.1.2] [Smokeydots]

Based on 0.4b

- The renders are very beautiful. A really piece of art for my tastes.
- Interesting plot with not so much grind like many another games.
- A good writing story with interesting and different characters and personalities. The concept is really original.
- I like the animations very much.

Seriously, Smokeydots made a very good work, pretty solid, with careful attention to details. I wish him every success.

Clean UI, In-game hints, Beautiful Renders, Interesting and diverse NPC's.
Worth ***** stars even at such an early stage in the development. Has potential to be as good if not better than Man of the House, Glamour (original version) or Big Brother IMHO. Keenly await to see if the creator is able to keep up with the updates, if so I will support.
Not fully tested, but it seems there is two routes to how you the PC can engage with some NPC's +Relationship or +Fear.

Beautiful renders, above-average animations, interesting premise and pretty good story. Even the GUI is nice to look at and interact with.

What brings my review score down is that it's a bit grind and gives kind of fuzzy feedback to the player. Quite a few of the characters look alike and many times there are buttons in the interface for actions that aren't available "coming soon", which kind of teases a bit too much for my taste. Since I don't know which characters have locked actions until I progress enough with them stat-wise, and which ones just haven't been developed yet, it becomes a trial and error thing which is pretty darn annoying.

Definitely gonna keep an eye out for further development on this one, but with its current state, I can't score it higher at the moment.

This game has some of the best animations in any VN out there. It is an early version, but it looks incredibly promising. The story so far is interesting and fun. The characters seems real and are not just cardboard characters. The girls looks really(really) good, same with most of the animations in the game really. The story is original and so far realistic. I hope the creator continues in the same vain, and builds his characters/realationships as the game progresses. The game is open world, but does not become repetitive or boring as many such games can become. As ive said this is an early version, but has become one of my favorites. I heartely recomend everyone to give this game a try.

I don't want to write a long review, especially as there is so little content.

That's not a criticism, I think it makes sense to set up the game first and introduce the content as you go and / or after.

Anyway, graphics are really good, the animations (there aren't many at the moment) are well done, the UI and general menus and navigation / choice options are clean and smooth.

The story isn't some deep philosophical meaningful shakespear but who expects it to be? It's already much better than what I'm used to playing, the idea, the concept is nice and creative. (it's not "you are stuck with your mother and your sister and your aunt and you peek through the bathroom and blah blah blah). I don't think i've come across any other game that had the same concept as this.

Dev seems active, including on these forums which is nice.

Honestly, I've only got good things to say about this game, except for one thing, there's is like, little to no to zero content even though the game has been updated a few times already.

Appart form a bit of polishing, that's all this game needs now really, content and we're good to go !

PS. One thing that I do fear is the high number of events that are triggered in mysterious ways (or not triggered) which means it's easy to miss them. But I think that had been adressed by people and the dev in the thread so I guess it's ok.

(and this was my "short review"

Excellent renders and it shows great potential. I've reviewed this on version 0.2A. There are a lot of different story branches and it definitely shows potential on how these different stories can work.

Writing is top notch. Characters have well thought out stories. Models and scenes are hot, but wish there were more. Interface is slick and the gameplay elements are outstanding. Very excited to see this develop. [0.2a]

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.1a...

(12/09/2017 - Original Review - v0.1a)

Well, this visual novel/game is fairly new and short... Only has the prologue, but you can get a small glimpse as to what it will entail... The visuals are pretty good and there really isn't an introduction story, instead you're kind of thrown to the wolves, as it were... There isn't a tutorial or anything to kind of show you the ropes, but that could come in the future, who knows...

For the moment it feels more like a choose your own adventure game with not lots of story yet... The protagonist has lots of different stats, skills, and other things to occupy your time... Which makes for a complex game system, that I hope does not distract from the story too much...

When interacting with characters you have lots of subjects to either chat about or actions you can use to interact with, but the kicker is figuring out what subjects each character has positive and negative reactions to, and the actions and other activities work on the same concept... It works a lot like the social system in the vn/game Super Powered... I personally find this system tedious and annoying to figure out and remember, and it only gives the illusion that there are lots of ways to interact or socialize with different characters, because what they like and don't like doesn't seem to change over time, hence all those other buttons become pointless once you use trial and error to figure out what each character likes or doesn't like... Be prepared to save/load game a LOT as you make tons of mistakes figuring them out...

You also have skills to worry about, stats to worry about, character level to worry about, and a talent tree... Which is basically a ton of stuff to micromanage... You also have money to manage, an in-game job to manage... I tell you right now, this game/vn looks it is gonna become one of those grindy games with so much stuff to worry about and manage, which is why this is looking less like a Visual Novel and more like a general adult game with some story/erotica now and then...

There seems to be an underlying plot, that appears like it is, either some sort of mystical being that controls you to some degree, or corrupts you to some degree, or maybe gives you abilities? For the moment, it's not really clear...

It's super early into the development cycle, and all that really exists is the basic game mechanics, and a very short amount of character dialogue/monologue, followed by a very-very brief introduction to a plot element that isn't real clear on how it effects game play... With all the micro-management I really think this games future will be about grinding your way to the story elements... But only time will tell, as it seems like some very interesting concepts, but it will really come down to the story elements, and how much story exists or how fast you can reach it, as to if this game will stand the test of time... Without it, it'll just be people grinding their way to see sex scenes (which this version already has an erotic scene early into game play), and moving on... I'm currently a bit skeptical at the moment, probably because of the overwhelming amount of grind the game appears it will have, and yet I'm very hopeful that they will not make the same mistakes I found in other grindy games, like Super Powered with it's epic grind that still permeates that game today (which is deep into it's development already)...

I'll have to revisit this one in the future, probably a couple revisions down the line, to see if my worries are right or dead wrong...

(02/10/2018 - Review Update - v0.2b)

Not much new playable content since the last time I played this game... The user interface looks really nice... There are a few more interactions, a small bit of girl friend story added, and some other scenes since last time, but not much else... This game is still designed to be super grindy, and has a mystical feel with the dream sequences, but unsure what purpose they really served besides motivation for the protagonist to get into the whole research thingy for the skill tree system... For 2 months worth of work, typically you see more playable content added over a two month period of time... It's possible a lot of under the hood work was done over that period of time, which doesn't necessarily translate into viewable content... I don't know...

There are some opportunities that even when you complete them, they either do not update or they don't show any sign of being completed... That is either due to them not actually have a function to show as completed, or the mechanic is not in place yet to have them actually be complete, not sure... Such as doing the present/past/future business doesn't actually move the opportunities forward at all, or how the store has nothing to buy for the furniture needed for the girlfriends sister... Stuff like that...

Overall, even though the character models are really good, and there has been some content added, I'm not seeing this game move forward as quickly as other games of it's same style... The animations added, although short, are very well done as well... If I revisit this game again, it will be many months down the line, so as to give it an opportunity to show much further progress than what I've seen over the past 2 months... Even though I'm still not a fan of grindy games that use the same chat system as games like Superpowered... It does show some promise...

Review 0.1

Art 9/10: Wow.. the Cgs are something else, backgrounds, models, posing, animations,everything looks absolutely stunning, if you ask me to compare them to other developers, i would say that is on the same level as Lewdlab or Lust & Passion. The little down note are the stats and skills menus that are not at the same level as the 3d department, they seems kinda rushed.

Story 7/10: So we have a man with a goal to reach, but he wants to ? which relationships should he grow? and how? The premises seems kinds "i've already saw that 1000 of times" but there is actually a nice writing to support it. The story is already set to branch into so many paths that is actually surprising.

sound 0/10:I can only ear my dog whine cause she want to go out, but i'm here writing the review (i know, i'm a monster)

overall 7,5/10: This game will definitely fall into the AAA category with DoD, a wife and a mother, lily of the valley, dreaming of dana, anna exciting affection, DMD etc. There is a little of "rpg style" in it cause you have to raise your skills and not only relationships, but maybe with a little too much grinding.Sadly for me and happily for others, seems to be a netori/harem type of game without the ntr branch (so i will not probably play it anymore) but who knows, the game is open to so many possibilities that the only real issue will be the Dev time to develop each route. The game will be massive! so, best of luck to the dev.