VN - Ren'Py - In for a Penny [v0.62] [Moist Sponge Productions]

I happily endorse what Larry2000 has said. This is fun, very refreshing and warmheartedly quirky. It's one of several VNs around which give us a look at a story with, for me, a fascinating and, astounding originality. The story just carries you along (with absolutely no need of a notepad) and into which the mostly lovely cast of predominantly big-boobed ladies dovetail perfectly with the setting and storyline. Though I'm no literary apostle of his, the style of humor reminds me somewhat of Kurt Vonnegut.

Anyway, this is a wonderfully enjoyable creation of which both Moist Sponges have every right to be proud and which, if it is of any significant importance to them, I hope attracts some much more useful support over on Patreon.

So, thanks a bunch Moist Sponge Productions for your prodigious talents, your enlightened inventiveness and, of course, your precious hard work and quality which, as I just said, I hope rewards you accordingly.

This game need to be treated more like webcomics than anything else. Word of warning, first day is brutally long and nearly made me drop this game. All things considered it is not bad, I like MC, I like most of supporting characters.

This is great!
The writing is good, the MC is likeable. There is an ambitious number of harem members, most of whom look great. The sex scenes are hot.
The main character is presented with some interesting world building, and the plot revolves around him solving its mystery.

It's a slow burn and there is so little player choice that it's basically like reading a comic. Many of the girls also have very big boobs. These are not downsides: if you enjoy those things don't skip this one.

This is turning out to be one of my favorite games on this site. I love the laid back pace and getting to know all about the characters and the world. Screw the haters. Keep on doing what you're doing.

The art is incredible and the bodily proportions are very much to my liking!
well done and looking forward to more. Very interesting how some of the family groups use alliteration. I must admit I wish some of these girls were real, especially the ones with the freckles....

There is something quite special in this game. It's something that is hard to put your finger on. It's not that games with Harems are typically realistic, it's just that they try and justify it when in reality there is no justification.

What this game does that's SUPER refreshing is it doesn't bullshit you. It's a harem game. That IS what it is. HOWEVER, just because it's a Harem game doesn't mean it's a sex fest. I saw other reviewers talking about how for a game with the Harem tag and revolves around the idea of having sex with every girl as a concept, there is almost no sex involved. To those I say this:

Are you kidding me? Is that not goddamn refreshing? I've played a LOT of Harem games on this site and even NON Harem games and they push you into sex with everyone right away. If you want that experience, cool. But don't trash this game cause it wants the MC to be something other than a horndog that bangs everything without any other purpose.

The MC is my favorite part of this game cause he likes having sex. He finds the girls attractive, but doesn't feel the need to just bed everything that walks. There is power in controlling yourself as much as it is to let go and indulge. It's refreshing to see that there might be a dude out there that thinks before he sticks his dong into everything.

Pros
-Love the HUMONGOUS breasts. It's silly and it's dumb, but it's also different. Why not have huge impossibly sized breasts when you live in a world where they can't sag or cause you pain.
-MC isn't a horned up youth waiting to bed everything in his wake.
-The writing is funny and engaging. It's not stilted translated dialogue from Russia. It's home grown from what I can tell.
-The pacing is pretty decent. Maybe a bit slow, but this game isn't about just fucking everything, but allowing the MC connect with each girl.
-The story is wacky and doesn't take itself too serious, even when it takes itself seriously.

Cons
-The MC's penis is... riDICKulous! As some have pointed out, it's wider than his arm and it's over a foot long.
-There is an NTRish scene in a flashback that some that like Vanilla might not like. (I didn't) but the Dev doesn't like it, so it's possible to be changed in the future. Who knows. IT IS DEAD!
-When you are introduced to each girl, it's really hard knowing which girl is which. Like, there are over 40 women, and sometimes characters are introduced two at a time and it's easy to lose track of who is talking.

Final thoughts:
This game was made for me. It's a silly game with a crazy idea. The MC isn't just trying to fuck everything (even though he will eventually) and the pacing is slow enough to enjoy forming relationships with each character.

If you like slower Harems with big breasts or like silly stories with fun characters, this is DEFINITELY for you. If you are impatient or don't wanna wait on story lines to be properly established, then avoid it.

(Psst, there might be family loving in the future )

the MC no matter his integration has no pair. yes being confused by stuff is understandable. But if yoyu someone as a bitch then just grow a pair and tell her to shut the hell up. If not then why create a vn with a male protag that does not have female domination.

For a game designed around a man having to make love to a town full of women or 2 alien girls suffer .... nothing much happens.

How the 2 alien girls haven't been punished yet I don't know because the lack of action goes against everything they said at the start.

The plot makes no sense to what is actually going on with is ... well ... nothing.

We're 11 updates in and it's gone nowhere. The most action the game has scene is from a flashback and it shows no sign of improving.

Only 1 word describes this game and it's a word I wouldn't ever have considered could be used for a game about 50 women all there to have sex with 1 man.

Boring.

IT is, arguably, the single most boring VN i've had the misfortune to play.

From limited action to shit scenes that don't match the plot. On top of that it has terrible characters. Hardly any of them have a personality and if the nuns didn't have names I wouldn't be able to tell them apart, they all act exactly the same.

By far the worst offender is the MC who is the most useless, utterly moronic waste of a lead character. You read the overview and listen to what certain characters say in game and the MC actively fights against it. Women throw themselves at him and he all but runs away.

I didn't manage to finish the latest update. I've tried with this several times and quite a few people have voiced the same issue with the lack of anything going on I just couldn't be bothered with it anymore. I got a couple of scenes into the update and it dawned on me I was forcing myself to play but paying no attention, I was bored.

By all means check it out yourselves and make your own minds up but I just can't recommend it unless you're suffering from insomnia then this might help you fall asleep.

Even though I've given this VN 3 stars, I'm writing this because it has a lot of potential. This VN is still just getting started and I think it could very well turn in to a very good VN if the dev listens to some of the criticism here.

I don't know if the devs read these things but I really hope that this dev does.

The writing is pretty good, there's a pretty interesting backstory and character development etc. I think the dev has also done a pretty good job introducing and framing each girl in an attractive and tempting way to the reader, both in terms of writing and appearance. The renders of the girls aren't amazing but they are good enough. I think these elements alone are enough to make a great VN and the dev has done an exemplary job in crafting them for the reader so far.

Here's the criticism:

Your renders look good but let's face it, your animating skills just aren't ready yet. I think it's fair to say that your animations aren't adding much to the scenes at the moment.. I think you should, instead, embrace your strength until you get better at animating. Drop the animations for now and just focus on getting good still-frame shots of the action. Try zooming out a bit with your frame and getting good emotional, sexy, still-frames of the scene... like framing a beautiful painting. Animations are great but you can still get a lot out of the positioning and framing of the camera on these beautiful bodies that you have spent so much time creating.

There are lots of girls in this VN, something to keep track of who's who would help, especially when someone who is not present in the scene is being talked about. Maybe show a small head-shot whenever a name is referenced, or some kind of color-coding scheme which labels each name with a different color? Perhaps different shades of the same color for girls who are related since there are several large families?

The MC's attitude is a little strange. Hear me out.. I know people have already mentioned this. I understand that you must have a build-up to the story so you can't have the MC act like a typical guy and instantly try to bang every single woman. But I think there needs to be more creativity in how the MC is behaving in this circumstance, because how he's acting so far is just not believable. Consider that the MC has just met 40+ exceedingly beautiful women and yet has never thought to himself that any of them are particularly attractive other than some expletives about big tits (and enjoying actual sex during sex scenes). Even guys who are afraid to actually be forward in pursuing women are at least thinking about being forward and what may come of that. Maybe spending a bit of time writing what the MC is thinking could go a long way in showing the reader that this guy actually likes the attention he's getting and wants more of it with specific girls but is constrained by nerves and being in a bizarre situation that makes him feel not so great about pursuing women as if everything was normal and he had not been abducted by aliens. As it stands right now, the MC just comes across as having inhuman levels of constraint or disinterest and it's distracting. I think a good way to view writing the MC's thoughts is that it foreshadows to the reader what the MC's future may hold with specific girls and puts that anticipation in the reader's mind which keeps them interested. As it stands now, for all the reader knows, this guy may bang everyone or may decide to just sit in his house and do nothing and he doesn't really care which one happens.. and when you're reading an erotic VN it makes the MC feel like an antagonist, which I don't think is a good thing.

Ok that's all. I think you're doing a great job so far and I wish you the best. I look forward to future updates.

Love it. Finally a developer who is not afraid of huge boobs, we need more of those.
Story is fine and quite genius actually, because it lets you explore so many different settings and characters.
Would give 5 stars, but have to give only 4, because of the mediocre animations. Hopefuly the dev will get better with those.
Very promising game.
Oh, and scene replay gallery would be nice.

Like that large breasts means that here. There is some effort taken to make the renders slightly different than the norm, though the key word is 'some'. It's a passable story. I wish it had a walkthrough or gallery mod, it's replayability isn't high enough to play the 'guess which choice for the result you want' game, and if I wish that I can't call a game 'good' relative to some out there, however I also don't see any flaws that make me immediately want to call it 'bad', if you like the preview pics you'll probably like the game.
I'd call it a 2.5 but I'll round up to 3 just because lately I've had a pet peeve with devs calling things 'big' or 'large' breast that really aren't and at least here they aren't playing around with that lol.

Interesting premise, definitely harem ( which I have no complaints about, lol). Some very nice models and very clean graphics. My only problem is the impossible breasts, its very offsetting and a major letdown to a very nice game.

I find it VERY annoying and unbelievable that a loser with no life is given an opportunity to fuck 50 something women with you being the only dick in sight. Any normal person would jump at, and yet he's apprehensive. Like what!

Pros: I like the fact that there's a group of women that actually hate him and is working to foil his plans. The writing, although long winded, goes into details of all the women. It helps brings out each individual's character. The women are nicely draw.

Cons: The sex scenes are lacking and the renders could be approved on. Would like actual options, more of a free roam, that actually gives me a choice on who I am as a MC. Whether I want to be a horn dog or this shy character. As far as I see it, you have no real choices. I found it really hard to know who was talking when the women were in groups of 2 or more. How about you zoom in on the person during their dialogue.

All in all, it's interesting and I would like to see how this pans out. Fuck these broads like your life depends on it, which I think it does.

Really good writing if you take the chance to read it. You can catch some humor lines here and there which help brighten up the story. If your looking for fap material than this isn’t the game for you because it's not a virtual novel with a whole bunch of sex scenes but it’s a VN with sex scenes and a good story. You don’t need to be a incredible smart person to understand the story you just need to take your time and enjoy it.

Pros:
- Good story
- Amazing variety of girls that all have their own story
- Amazing dialogue
- Good amount fo work
- Humane MC who doesn’t just try to dick every girl he sees but approaches with sensibility like we humans do in a real world situation. No guy in the real world as soon as she sees a girl is like “let’s fuck” it’s not plausible and there is no way the girl will reply to complete stranger “sure, let’s fuck” she’s more likely to press charges against you.

Cons:
- Little issue with who’s talking when there is a group talk
- Not the greatest animations but the dev is trying. Hopefully they will get better with each update

Personally, I am liking the story and I think the writing is the strongest point of this game. The renders are pretty good. The premise is funny and I like how the main character is not just another horndog. I would have to agree that the pacing seems very draggy but I actually found myself drawn to the story that it slipped my mind. More scenes wouldn't hurt though, just saying. Will be paying attention to this game!

You should really make the MC more excited to get to fuck 50 sexy women. I understand being apprehensive about the women pitted against him and being a nice guy but He is acting like its sum Burdon and not pretty much every hetrosexual guys fantasy.

characters: there is like 40 of them and they all feel nice autentique.

story and writing: is actually really funny and easy to follow.

draws(cg): needs a lot of work on it.

scenes (all of them): mnostly are very well done.

conclussion: IS A WORK IN PROGRES, so don expect amazing draws and renders, and a GOTY gameplay.
NOW... with that say, this game shows from the very first moment that aims more to be funny than sexy (there is some very hot scenes yes, but i laughted more than i faped) the best part is the characters ALL OF THEM, the MC is kinda a anime cool guy but still occidental enough.

this game TOTTALY deserve your time and money.

psdt: again is a WIP, so expect LOTS of places that need some polish and upgrades, but if you can focus on the idea of the game, you will find a nice time...and also you will find that the detective is the best waifu.

What a disappointment of a game , the renders are extremely weird the story and dialogue are silly the choices are a joke (stay with the mc ,follow sally ,stay with mc ,follow sister anne). this vn does not take itself seriously or the player+almost no sex action .better to stay away from this horrible game and don't waste your time.

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 v0.02.5...

Even though this erotic visual novel hardly ever takes itself seriously, it goes to extreme lengths to be silly, rather then entertaining...

The visuals are a hodge-podge of varying quality characters, mostly with larger then normal breasts and a protagonist with a penis wider then his forearm and almost as long as it too... Other then a small handful of female characters that looked somewhat normal in dimensions, most are over the top with insanely large breasts... Some characters just started looking too much alike after a while... Some character models I have seen before, while others were somewhat unique.... The backdrops are alright, with only a couple I recognized... The navigation map is a bit daunting looking, but in the current content only one location seemed to work anyhow...

The script is o.k. although I ran into quite a bit of misspelled words and grammar errors... The plot (what little there really is) revolves around a male protagonist who has been abducted by two aliens, for an experiment where he needs to have sex with 40 or more women in a town made up by the aliens... All of the characters have been genetically modified to allow the protagonists way over sized penis to not cause them harm, like that is supposed to make the sex encounters not feel wrong looking?

Pretty much every single character is over the top, highly stereotyped, and so forth... No personalities of any realistic nature at all, that I noticed... Most of the current content revolves entirely around introducing the protagonist to all the many various women of the town... Many of which are broken up into groups of a mother and her daughters... Most of the characters have chosen to take on various roles in the town, with many taking their assigned roles to the nth degree... Even the two Greek female gods at the end of the current content...

At no point, does any of the content feel meaningful or have any deep story elements... The story text, dialogue, and inner-monologue pretty much involves a lot of fanciful sarcasm, over played character dynamics/personalities, and varied attempts at humor... Sometimes things were funny, but most of the time I just wanted to skip through it... Which I didn't, no matter how many times I wanted to...

This whole visual novel, seems designed to be purely a highly over the top sex romp with many overly size breasted women, all of which seem to be suffering from one psychosis or another... At no point does it take much, if anything at all, very seriously... To the point of annoyance after you've read through enough of it... There is a lot of story text to read, but nothing of real substance...

It appears, based on the existence of a navigation map, that the game play style will most likely be a navigation system, although I didn't see any grinding elements, at least not in the current content... For the moment everything plays out as a primarily linear visual novel...

There are some occasional choices, that allow you to stay with the protagonist or play the role of an observer following other characters briefly... In some cases you may catch some information, while other times you may miss out on an erotic event based on the choice... A continuity issue I ran into revolved around one of the choices I made to follow some girls, and when they returned it appears I had missed something occurring with the protagonist and another character, which later on comes up in dialogue with one of the goddesses as if I (the reader/player) knew what had happened, when I never experienced that content... So I was rather confused...

The erotic content comes in fast events here and there, but as this is mostly just lots of character introductions currently, it's not that big a deal...

Overall, this VN/Game is basically meant to be a meaningless porn fest, under the guise of a farcical universe of over the top fetishes... At no point does it take itself seriously, and although it did have a few humorous moments, it becomes tiresome and annoying after a while... There are so many characters, I'm not sure how it will ever keep anything straight unless it stays as a linear story... None of the characters seem grounded in any form of reality, not even the protagonist...

This VN/Game is definitely unique in it's approach, but I think it might be over doing it, or perhaps the developers may be biting off more then they can chew... Some folks may enjoy the constant sarcasm and craziness, but for me it has a tendency to wear on you over the long haul... Also, large breasts are not a turn on for me, and outrageously over sized breasts are a turn off (because they look ridiculous)... And this VN/Game has a lot of overly large breasts in it, especially in comparison with the smaller body frame sizes they are attached to... Also, the overly large penis is so overboard large, it just kills the mood... Regardless how the developers try to play it off in the very beginning...

Obviously this VN/Game is still in it's very early stages of development... But based off the amount of starting content already, I don't think it has any plans to stray away from it's current trajectory... Do I plan to revisit this one? Not really, as most of it I found unappealing and reading the constant over the top story telling with far fetched characters, just wore me out about half way through the current content... I wish the developers the best of luck...

Update on my initial review. 2/12/2024

So it's been 4 years since my initial review. Figured it was time to update it for the current version.

CHARACTERS: Characters are dynamic, and show growth throughout the story.
RENDERS: I'm on the fence with renders. Some are good, but others are grainy and not so good. Then there are the mishaps with having complete conversations with someone while looking at the character you just had a convo with. Then there is the scenes where you just get the diamond pattern with nothing else.
STORY: Story is crazy, but it's fun and interesting. Basically it's so far fetched it works.
WRITING: For the most part the writing is pretty good. Yeah there are some flubs here and there but it's good enough.

Summary
The MC wakes up and is thrust into a situation where he has to have sex in a controlled experiment. Most of the women are already in love with him, but there are a few that want nothing to do with him. Which really makes the story better. Meaning that the MC doesn't get to have them right away.
This VN is super long. Not only in the amount of time it's been in development, but in content as well. I'm usually not interested in projects that have been going on for that long. Granted I haven't really paid attention to this VN since my first review. But, I'm not going to be doing that again. It's fun and enjoying. You have a bit of everything rolling around in there.
So with saying that, I highly recommend this VN. MSP is doing a good job developing this VN.