VN - Ren'Py - Imperial Chronicles [v0.11] [Lazy Monkey]

TLDR

• Pros
  • Same models and genre/fetishes as Monkey Business
  • Good plot and plot-sex pacing
  • (Personally) interesting/engaging fantasy theme and medieval intrigue based plot
  • Multiple(3) archetypes for the main character that can shape their personal character, frequently influencing dialogue and interactions
• Cons
  • Some characters seem too visually similar
  • Very narrow/linear story progression; choices shape facets of a largely similar journey
  • Text subject to english/grammatical improvement/revision

I, like many others, came here following their previous game "Monkey Business." So far, it seems not only that the continuing quality of models, an engaging pace of plot, and continuation of genre/fetishes, but I have also found myself enjoying the fantasy theming and background as well as royal politik/intrigue among the main characters family and what the player would like. Especially the 'inbetween' scenes, such that erotic and personal/conversational interactions feel natural(within context as a sexual game). Also, the choice between 3 character archetypes- warrior, mage, or scholar- shape dialogue and interactions much more than i expected.
The only critiques I would give are that the models for the mother, sisters, and mage teacher seem too similar, even if they are family they don't seem as stylistically as distinct as i'd like, even hair style diversity would make a big difference. Or, perhaps give the full-blooded elf mother more pronounced ears. Additionally, so far it seems that the character archetypes don't really affect the plot-line in a major way; all 3 archetypes face the same events, albeit potentially handling it or feeling about them in a distinct manner. However, I don't really think this is a true gripe because it makes sense from a creator perspective to keep the storyline linear and coherent, as well as having a streamlined process of making and writing the visual novel itself. Finally, the english can be off sometimes, but the dialogue is still reliably comprehensible, and can likely be improved with simple proofreader suggestions.

Review of version 0.2

Imperial Chronicles is quite early in its development, but I was very impressed with what there is to judge. The models are sexy. I found the characters to all be enjoyable and as interesting as one could hope for the amount of screen time they've had so far. The music is good and well fitting for where it's placed. And the plot has me impatient for a new update to see what happens next, which is a great, if annoying for me sign.

The only Con I've seen is the English isn't quite perfect all the time, but it was still way better than most ESL games in that regard. Everything is completely understandable, including its rather funny humor, it's just that every now and then you'll get an awkwardly phrased line or two, but nothing that hurt the game for me.

All in all I'm very much looking forward to playing the next update and hope Lazy Monkey has the best of luck in this endeavor.

(Adding some more thoughts after 0.7: I honestly can't stress this enough how good the writing is. It has got even better. The plot captures the intricate politics of royal courts from medieval times perfectly, and let's you play an important role in shaping it. The writing honestly feels like you're reading off a script of a big budget professional TV show. Whoever is the script writer, give him a raise!
However, there's now a big issue where the name of some new characters are written in Russian even when you have the game set to English.)

(Based on 0.1) Monkey Business was pretty good and the dev promises to not repeat the shortcomings of that on this new game so that's a pretty nice attitude to have while developing a new game. Making it VN instead of Sandbox certainly makes it less time consuming for the average player. Overall this one is off to a good start.

Pros:
1. Good setting and good writing. Plot seems interesting enough and seems to be heading somewhere. The medieval world seems interesting aswell with stuff happening as the plot progresses.
2. Good models. Seems uniquely enough instead of copy pasted models found everywhere on this site.
3. Characters seem to have personality.

Cons:
1. The girls lack the THICC
2. Sometimes dialogues lose coherence or maybe it's just grammar error.

Amazing visual novel (hopefully becomes a sandbox game at some poiny) . Love the medieval times setting. Intriguing plot, great potential and characters. Can't wait for this story to keep unfolding.

I'd certainly say this is a good introduction. I enjoy fantasy AVNs more than others, since their stories are often far less boring than the regular modern-day stories that are often mundane or repetitive. I'd say story-wise this game is better than the dev's previous work, Monkey Business, as that was filled with a lot of inconsistencies and made little sense. However, the true test is *after* the set-up.

Writing-wise, there are several grammatical and spelling issues, so either the dev speaks English as a second language, or they're just not a very good writer. They clearly try and distinguish characters by how they speak, but it doesn't go beyond "rude" or "cold" or "shy" really. You can see moments where it tries to be more, but it just rounds back to the more simpler and direct approach.

Visually it's good, I wouldn't say it's great, but it's definitely enjoyable. The sex scenes aren't great either, but I think the set-ups help enough where it isn't a major drawback.

In terms of choices it feels quite good. I enjoy AVNs the most when I feel a sense of accomplishment in balancing my choices in order to achieve the best outcome, however this game has more examples of "pick one or the other". It's certainly an easy way to diversify play, however for me I find it more annoying, due to the fact most people don't replay AVNs unless the writing and/or sex scenes are top-tier.

Easy 8/10, could certainly improve and get to a 9 or 10.

-- EDIT v0.3 --
The grammar and translation seems to have improved, as I almost didn't realise that there had been issues in previous versions before reading this review back. I wouldn't call it amazing, however any improvement is good, and speaking in a second language is always going to be more difficult.

Story-wise I still consider it weaker than I would hope, however that has more to do with the slower pace than the potential in the AVN. The main crux is that there are multiple threads being established early on, and so there's a lot of sitting to see those threads actually tie together. In fact, it still doesn't really feel like the story is out of the prologue, as in v0.3 we meet our third sister for the first time. My hope is that with the quality of writing on display, when the action picks up then it will be very enjoyable.

An issue I've noticed the longer I went is that the choice at the beginning seems of be one of the few opportunities you get to genuinely make an impact on your character as a whole. At the beginning, you get the very generic choices of "intellect, strength, or magic", you can tell when it's relevant and I appreciate that fact, but then there are multiple instances where it feels like instead of choosing your one competency, you chose what two you're INCOMPETENT with instead. The easiest way to think about this if that the MC had no choice in what he'd be strong in, he'd be fucking useless. For a man who's entire EXISTENCE essentially revolved around these 3 specific aspects, the fact he seems to be so weak in the majority of them ends up making it feel more like I'm piloting a drunk idiot with a very specific set of skills.

Ultimately it hasn't really changed my opinion, however it's improved my confidence in the ability for this game to be truly excellent.

There are elves! For that reason alone, it's worth testing, but it doesn't stop there, there's incest, that taboo that everyone loves, the MC has a beautiful and "young" Elf as his mother, and at least three sisters, two who have already appeared in the story and who showed that they were interested in MC, and I liked them all.

The MC is not exactly a gentleman, he is rude and does what he wants, maybe this is the image the developer wanted to give us, the MC could be a better person, but no, he is an alcoholic and a womanizer, and maybe is an MC like this who can give us the scenes we want to see, even though I don't like him, at least he's not a smooth-talking ass-kisser who just wants to do what's "right".

Choices matter, I recommend using URM to keep an eye on the variables, don't choose blindly, think carefully about what you're going to choose.

There is not much to judge, this review is about the v0.2 version, what I can mention is that there are several characters, and this indicates a rich world; there are conflicts, even if small at the beginning of the game; a potential drama, the MC, a half-elf exiled prince has returned to the kingdom, but will he get the throne that easily?

The renders are ok, but could be better, it's clear that the DEV suffers from hardware limitations.

The script has many errors, it is clear that it has not been revised, it was due to laziness or haste, if the developer does not have time to make revisions, find someone to help, some fans will love to help, here at F95 there are areas to obtain this type of help.

The sex scenes are bad, seriously, really bad.

The interface is bad, especially on the save and loading screens, my cursor is in one place but seems to click on another, seriously, how dare the developer launch the game like that, the default Renpy screen doesn't have this problem.

As far as 0.2 goes I can say that this is a very good VN. Maybe should be 4.5 instead of 4, but there is a few things that worry me going forward(in terms of story), so I thought 4 stars would probably hold better. A few things:
- Better setting, characters and writing than LazyMonkey's previous game.
- The incest doesn't feel to out of place since MC is a "prince". With irl nobility marrying relatives and all. Besides, it is not based in pure lust.
- In terms of sexy scenes (I call it like that to include teasing), it is a bit of a downgrade. What I mean is the scenes are not as "hot", but still good.
- Good amount of content.
- A bit to grainy.

EDIT: As of 0.4, I have to say I am glad my worries have been squashed. The world building and writing has proved to be fantastic (as far as adult VNs go of course). A lot of devs will drop the ball after a promising initial set up, but Lazy Monkey hasn't. So I updated my rating to 5.
It is not the "hottest" game, but it is VERY entertaining.

So far so good. The renders are a bit grainy and at some points the story did not make a whole lot of cents but over all not a bad start. The plot is good and I like the magical / mystical aspect of it.

I played the previous game and liked the characters, but the story was too strange for me.
But here I already like the characters I've seen, I love fantasy and here the story seems really interesting!
This is just the beginning but I can't wait to find out what happens next!
I liked the changes at the beginning, but I hope there will only be small changes and not the impossibility of having certain people.

Anyway, I'd recommend it and wish the developer all the best!

0.1 review.

+Damn nice and very good a mount of content for an intro!
+Beautiful ladies. (Sona is my favorite.)
+Elf girls!
+Choices matter! And can drastically change who you meet and what you experience.
+Good, consistent art style.
+You don't have to wait for version 0.9 to get to the spicy scenes! You can score right from the start.

o English isn't perfect, but perfectly understandable.

Loved the first game by Lazy Monkey - and he seems to be off to a very nice start once again. Check this out if you like some fantasy and gorgeous girls.

A great start for a game for what is likely to be another successful project made by LazyMonkey. Even though it is just the prologue, it still has more content than you'd expect from a newly released title. The renders are while not the best, still look good to the eye. The writing feels childish at times, however it was not bad enough for it to bother me that much. The sex scenes are great and I hope to see the continuation of this game in the future. I believe LazyMonkey had done a great job with his former game Monkey Business, therefore I have fine belief that the creator will make another good title.