VN - Ren'Py - How I Became the Bodyguard of the Saintess! [v0.8.1] [Lunardis]

English: 5
User Interface: 4
User Experience: 7
Art: 7
Dialogue: 6
Story: 7
Opinion: 7

I very much enjoy this one. To the point where I almost don't want to review it. (At the time of writing it's in version 0.3.5) It does the typical anime-feels thing, but it does it well. What I mean by that is, usually, the stories on here that try to emulate an anime or manga are insufferable and practically cringe-worthy. But I'm never mad at this one. There are a LOT of places that need improvement, but the story and writing style are decent. What's, of course, holding it back is the stiff, almost robotic, translation and completely default RenPy UI. I gave the UI one extra point for the custom main menu, but its still the terrible default one that ships with RenPy and default fonts as well. Which implies laziness. But for whatever reason, I still like this.

As of right now, there's not a lot to the story. MC Boringpants is the older brother of "The Saintess." An all powerful girl that helps protect the world from evil. But no one takes anything seriously, ever. It's a light read and actually humorous. And not in the "LOOK I'M MAKING A REFERENCE TO SOMETHING" type of way. Most of the, I really don't want to call them "jokes," humor is situational. Which is a breath of fresh air. And it's not constant so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, MC is the Saintess' older brother and at a party, he jumps in to save her from a spell that binds them together. Forcing them to be close to each other until the spell can be removed. And to cover up that fact, Angie, the Saintess, volunteers MC to be her bodyguard. "Hilarity" ensues. I use quotes there because it's not that funny, but I chuckled at least once.

To elaborate on my number values; The English translation gets noticeably worse with each subsequent update. There's tensing issues and words that just aren't in the right order. If that gets worked on, I'll be happy. As I said before, the UI is bog standard default Ren'Py. Changing a few images and more than one free font can go a LONG way. The UX is default RenPy as well, so it works but nothing's changed at all. The Art is above average KK renders, but in at least one scene, that I remember the center "plus" is still in the image and was jarring. (during the match between Saki and Theresa) The Dialogue is alright, it suffers from the translation and EVERYONE comes across as robotic, not just the emotionless MC. I like the story, it's light, simple, and decently developed. Not perfect and is very "This is totally an anime" which, me being a weeb is fine but I'm also tired of that vibe, do with that what you will. And overall I like it, update the UI and get a Native English editor and I'll happily come back and change my rating.

I am thrilled with the quality of the writing and animation. There are some minor spelling and grammatical errors (the one that stands out to me is 'pole' instead of 'poll' regarding chapter 5). The characters are well written. I'm looking forward to the PM getting her comeuppance.

Really fun premise and great moment-to-moment writing for each character and scenario. The game presents a far more colorful and interesting cast of characters than many VNs and is jam packed with entertaining scenarios to show them off. Even secondary characters and villains are far more interesting and developed in their short screentime than similar characters would be in other VNs.

The game additionally has a great sense of humor, often leaning on the contrast between expectations vs. reality, or the protagonist's reactions to situations as an ordinary guy surrounded by extraordinary things/events.

Visuals are well done for a Koikatsu game - the models are all have plenty of added details to make them unique and are well anti-aliased (something I find is often a problem in Koikatsu games with poorer visuals). Backgrounds are sometimes mixed in quality, but above average overall, and have a lot more variety than many VNs.

The music is good all around. There are some recognizable tracks if you play a lot of VNs, but a lot of the extremely common royalty-free ones are avoided.

The novel's biggest weakness is that it could really use a once-over of proofreading by a native English speaker. There are quite a few grammar mistakes and awkwardly phrased sentences, but the writing still manages to get the tone and humor across despite this. EDIT: The author has, in more recent updates, had a native (or fluent) English speaker go through and proofread/edit the entire script. Grammar and phrasing is greatly improved since I originally wrote this review.

I feel this VN deserves a lot more popularity than it currently has, and hope more people find it and give it a read. Best of luck and keep up the great work to the author!

Best story by far in the adult game genre. Koikatsu games typically have stronger stories and this one is the best so far. So much so that I, a type of player that always skips text to see the real *plot*, did not skip a single line of dialogue in this game. There has not been a single sex scene so far. Only a nude, a lingerie, and a kiss.

It very much feels like you're reading a manga as the characters are actually worked on, the story is fun, and the writing and dialogue are decent. The writing is fine, the last chapter needed to be proofread a little more and there's a few disconcerting lines here and there. Nothing too noticeable. The MC is pretty fun and cleverly designed as his superpower seems to be autism, and you the one playing him also have autism.

For the fellow perverts out there, I hope you have kept reading. You may ask yourself why should I download this? Well, let's just say hentai scenes with characters that have been fleshed out will be much, much, much more rewarding. Just think about it. Especially with the main heroine given the nature of it (see the tags).

All in all, this game feels a lot like your favorite guilty pleasure isekai. Even if I cease being a degenerate and go on the righteous path, I'll still return to play the game just for the story. Like, for real.

Edit: Oh and there will be sex scenes later on in case that wasn't clear. Hopefully dev also includes landlady.

Brilliant game. Story is very good and gets you hooked right away. Events are very well paced, nice humor. The core idea is different from most games or even adventure stories, which I really like.
The English isn't 100% perfect, so you can tell the writer isn't a native speaker. But all sentences are perfectly understandable from what I can tell.
The renders and models aren't all that special. But for me, the dialogue, story, and the direction of scenes are extraordinarily good. Good enough to earn 5/5.
Best of luck, dev.

On the one hand, it has very little sex in it.

On the other, it has a far better plot than most porn games have and the buildup to the sex is bearable.

This is not a have a hero bangs all the girls' story. if you can accept that then I think you'll enjoy this.

I do wish that it is smaller in size.

I see alot of people bitching about the no sex stuff but i actually like the slow approach more. Gives more time for character development and more impactful scenes. Also like the idea of a girl per chapter so nothing feels rushed. Like FALL OF THE ANGELS is a game i really like for its fight scenes and world but i hate the every girl wants to instantly fuck you and theirs like 30 of them which was corney to me and rushed. I think its also smart of the dev to focus on a few girls to give them depth and make the viewer more invested in them rather then add alot of them that all feel and act the same with a different skin. I was worried about the MC being another sailor moon guy like OUT OF TOUCH but after this 1/2 chapter im excited to see how creative the dev makes the MC and his unknown powers. OUT OF TOUCH amazing game just not a fan of bitch MCs who conquer all with power of love and friendship lol. Overall im enjoying this game and best wishes to the dev.

The plot and character writing are a lot better than the average novel on this site. It feels a lot like a light novel/anime maybe a bit like To Love Ru. However the english used is a bit awkward at times and it could use an editor. For example a line might say "I need tranquility!" instead of the common colloquialism "I want some peace and quiet". It gives the writing a similar feel to an edited machine translation at times. Although the second chapter improved massively on this, so well done author.

Some minor complaints for me personally is that the plot has one of those anime worlds where you are just supposed to not think about how all of this works. There can be a murderous witch, but she is cute so lets not treat her too harshly. The ordinary guy protagonist is amusing, but is a bit hard to believe. How can you fail disasterously at sword training? You just keep training. And if you can't use a sword, use a gun. Also why do we exist in the modern world, but nobody uses modern weaponry? Magic explosions are effective, so a fighter jet with missiles should also work right? The power of the katana is superior to bullets. The saint is overpowered except when the plot needs to happen.

Anyway, if you can suspend your disbelief you will probably also give this 5 stars if you like the anime romcom genre.

First of all, I must give a huge compliment and praise to the developer. Thank you for this great game.
I have only recently become aware of this NV and would like to recommend every player to try it out for themselves:
- Artful and beautiful drawings that distinguish this novella. It looks simply fantastic and with great attention to detail, the scenes and moments are graphically presented at a high level. It is topped off with added visual effects. Simply great!
- Music and also sound effects are present, the developer has chosen them again very well for the moments and situations appropriately
- there are some characters that are gradually introduced to the player. They all have different looks, so body, hair and eye color and personalities
- The main story is captivating and exciting.

In summary, this NV is tops for me so far, with its render, music, soundeffects, story, chars and I look forward to future updates on how the main and side storyline will progress. This developer has worked with great attention to detail on his project and spent a lot of time on the renders, music and all the effects (visual and sound).
This developer deserves more exposure, supporters and hopefully will get all that one day.

Reviewed as of v.0.2

Looking good so far.

If I had to describe it in a single word, I think it would be cute.

The humor was enjoyable and I like the character designs. The plot seems a bit simple, but in a good slice of life kind of way.

I can picture some people complaining about the pacing being a bit slow, but for me that's a plus. The character relationships are actually being given some time to be built up, rather than being rushed. It'll probably pay off in later versions and make the scenes actually feel special.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. Fun characters, engaging story, great visuals and sound effects, and lots of potential. You can tell the developer put a lot of time and effort into this. Looking forward to future story updates and seeing some H Scenes!