Ren'Py - Abandoned - HSS -HighSchool Shenanigans- [v0.1.1 (bugfix)] [Studio Errilhl]

I will revisit this review if the game improves. The game is interesting enough that I will probably try it again in 6 months or a year. As of today, 9/27/19, the game is absolutely unplayable. Fairly impressive the way everything is setup but game ending crashes are everywhere.

Not much to review. Game is a broken mess not only with bugs when you go to save you can't exit the save menu (phone). You click on sisters tablet after entering password nothing shows but a blank screen and once again no exit button.

First day if you choose BF it bugs out to main menu. Once you get past the bugs there is literally no way of knowing where to go to get content. You click on empty room after empty room an hour at a time.

Code is a mess and impossible to follow. AVOID like plague. If you want content just look through the pictures.

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 v0.020...

(12/21/2017 - Original Review - v0.020)

I can really tell that this VN is in super early development... It also appears that at one time this was another of those Family Sex themed VN/Games that is being converted, but the conversion is not done yet...

The visuals are 2D for the characters, and although not fully japanese hentai looking, they do feel inspired by it at least... I don't usually read hentai myself, as I find hentai visuals make characters look underage... These characters look closer to adults though, so it's alright... The backdrops appear to have been 3D at one point, but were slightly modified to have a more painted look and feel... Not sure, because of the more painted look of both the characters and backdrops, if that is just the style this vn/game is going with, or if they are placeholders? The UI over all isn't bad, and I love the highlight-click system... Only qualm is that some of the highlighted entrances, to get to certain parts of the house, don't fully make sense, such as the closet door that allows entry into the living room or the other door at the entrance that allows entry into the hallway... I'm sure these must be a work in progress?

The script for the most part is alright, but there are a few grammar and spelling errors... The introductory text attempts to be humorous concerning the narration of the VN, but I didn't really laugh, mostly because it seemed more like the script writer was nervous about his/her work and wanted to relief tension by introducing the narration like he/she did... But that is a small quirk... The plot revolves around a High School Male Protagonist (I'll assume he's 18?) who lives with a roommate (even though in the script she is mentioned as his sister at one point) and a landlord who you only see a few times at random during breakfast a couple times, and who doesn't appear to have an accessible room... The protagonist also has a fellow female student, that for now just randomly appears to walk/drive the protagonist to school...

There are quite a few bugs, as to be expected with an early alpha introduction... Since this VN/Game seems to thrive on random events for a lot of stuff, some of those random events are very buggy as well... Such as taking a shower during the early evening suddenly shifts the time to morning, after the time that he normally would get out of bed for breakfast, after which he is rushed to school (only thing that happens in school is possible detention after some dialogue with the teacher)... Another bug seems to happen sometimes when the protagonist comes home from school and the roommate and landlord are away somewhere, and supposedly he can't get inside the house, yet you see the living room backdrop when this text is shown to you, and you can still move around inside the house... This particular event is also immersion breaking, since why would the protagonist be locked out if he lives there, shouldn't he have a key?

Another event when having breakfast, and the room mate makes the protagonist something to eat, and even though you are not presented any choices at all during any breakfast events, you sometimes get negative relationship with the roommate instead of positive... If the outcome of breakfast is supposed to be random results without any choices, and it can both help and harm relationship, then why would going down to breakfast be forced sometimes and not others? Also, during breakfast with your roommate sometimes the landlord shows up, and yet again, no choices for dialogue, yet negative relationship can occur? It is also very confusing, does the landlord live with them or does she not live there?

It definitely looks like a family sex story that is being converted into not being one... Sometimes those conversions work out ok, story wise, when author/s do that, and sometimes it causes the story to no longer make as much sense... For this game, it is way to early to tell... Even though I do find it confusing that a high school student would be living with a room mate rather then with family? And what is the deal with the land lord (I'll assume she was going to be the mom at one point before converting) since she seems as though she's involved with the roommate in someway, yet it's hard to tell if she lives in the house or not, or why she hangs with the roommate so much?

This VN/Game also has an inventory system along with the relationship system... Nothing seems to have much of an interaction at the moment in the inventory, as clicking on an item just exits the inventory screen without anything happening... Such as the school books, since I tried clicking them in various rooms throughout the house to see if they did anything, and nada... Now, since it has a relationship system, I'll assume this VN/Game will most likely be more of a grind game with story elements, but not actually be a full on visual novel... At least that is how it seems so far...

Overall, I like the concept of random events and the usage of highlights to navigate, but for the moment this game is a shell and not even a fully functioning shell... There is a short introduction along with a small amount of character interaction, but most interactions with other characters are random events, that you don't always get presented with choices during their presentation, except maybe when the going to school event occurs, or the initial intro to the roommate... This game is in super early development, and shows a small amount of promise... I'll assume this is a first attempt as well, based on how the introduction is worded and how raw the game feels so far... Not sure yet if I'll check back on this one, I'll have to wait and see how things pan out... This one definitely gives off a corruption style game vibe (with some supporting story) more than a erotic visual novel though...

(02/13/2018 - Review Update - v0.021.5)

Since it's been several months I decided to revisit this game... There are many changes and a lot of bugs...

First off the inside visuals for the home have all been completely replaced... They look like either real pictures or 3D pictures that have been altered to look a bit more like paintings... Navigation makes a bit more sense now with highlights mixed with arrows on the screen edges...

The bugs from the original version I played have all been fixed, but now new bugs exist... While working on the motorcycle, several times I received an error screen with no ignore button, only a rollback button... Also, when opening the cell phone, there is no available option to close it out, so you get perpetually stuck on the cell phone screen... The power button visual just exits the game, the bottom button only takes you back to the main cell phone screen, and I couldn't find any button assigned to turning the cell phone off...

Also, there isn't much content at the moment... The only new play content I found was some items to collect, and an achievement system... I went for several game days, where you meet a random character in the kitchen first thing in the morning, but no character interactions for the rest of the game day... There was an event getting to school late, and getting detention, but no character visuals appeared at all for that event, not even a place holder visual... Typically these day cycle grind games have several character interactions in the home throughout the day, but I didn't see any, beyond the morning... And even then, there wasn't any choice options, just a random character with some relationship building... If there is more content, I didn't run into it... I was over at least 5 game days into it, and barely anything was happening, even though I checked every room once per hour, just to see...

Overall, the game visuals have improved a small bit, the prior bugs are fixed, but new ones have taken their place... Including the game breaking cell phone... This VN/Game doesn't seem to be developing very quick, as I expected to see a lot more content, with over almost 3 months gap between play throughs... Have to wait and see if it gets better, and find out if more content gets added later... For now I'll just wait a long while, just as before...