VN - Ren'Py - Innocent Witches [v0.11.2 Beta Fix3] [Sad Crab]

Let's start with the positive things. This game is gorgeous, easily one of the best looking games I've played in a very long time. The drawings, even the little surprises that pop up in the background, it is excellent.

But that is about it. The game is slow and grindy, as many users have pointed out, but the thing that strikes me the most is how asinine so much of the dialogue is. It is long, repetitive, often going in a direction that just makes me want to log out of the game and never come back. The thing that bothers me the most is how the game tries to give you an illusion of choice, while in reality it is just another way to embarras your character. This game is a visual novel, in which you follow a strictly laid out path, the few choices you get not having any impact on the game whatsoever. I do not expect much complexity from an erotic game, but at least I want to feel like my impact reaches beyond simply clicking as fast as I can through dialogue.

Such a wasted opportunity and such a waste of a wonderful aesthetic.

Art is good, devs - not really.
The game is years in development. Old devs were milking their patreons.

New devs took over, promised monthly updates. Then switched to bi-monthly. Now switched to an update every 3 months. Trend is visible, using example of previous devs.
What's important - each update includes 1 scene - for a moment we've got spanking, watching how a heroine masturbating, etc.
The only sex scene was added years ago.

If you want walls and walls of text of bad fanfic quality and barely any sex - you can try it. Otherwise - move along.

Not enough content yet, development speed is glacial. The patrons should really find more worthy projects to shower with cash.

The devs keep finding excuses for the lenghty development cycles, discussion with the fans/patrons is reduced to just one man answering complaints one at a time. There is no dev diary, no transparency, no reliability, meanwhile they rake in almost 13k dollars every month at the time of writing. Things will only change once the patrons have had enough of being treated like shit.

This is one of those rare games where the history actually affects the gameplay. The premise is interesting, the adaptation makes sense and the art is superb, yet it has most of the annoying things in these kind of games: is slow and grindy. The suggestion system only helps to get yourself familiarized with the UI and basic element of the game, after which you are alone. The stat system shows promise, and isn't the grind most are.

The grind is actually advancing the story. It makes sense in the context of the story the author wants to write, and frankly, I can't suggest a way to improve it, since it is adequate. That only makes it a shame. Sex scenes are, as of version 0.5.1f, mostly non-existent, which, again if you read the story, makes sense.

I presume that the author wanted actually a VN instead of a freeroaming rpg, but that wouldn't allow certain story techniques to shine.

The other annoyance is the fact that somehow, saves aren't backwards compatible. I suggest the creator to establish a save structure and stick to it or at least make the migration seamless. Timeloop hunter creator does something similar with story rich elements (and the game punishes you for not paying attention and read carefully with grind).

I will be short. The game has amazing drawing and interesting characters, BUT it takes way to long to get the erotic scenes (or porn scenes). I have played for a few hours and I only saw some swimsuits and topless pics.
And most of the time i was solving puzzles.
So if you´re searching for puzzles this is your game.
It´s way too grindy and not rewarding.

Another in a long line of games around here with amazing art that gets buried behind questionable to bad game play. At one point I was giving games that would be better off as comics 3 stars for such good art but realistically they're just getting so common I have to start going with 2 stars. It's an adult game that isn't fun to play. I'd say it needed a walkthrough but even when it had one the effort to get a few good images was too much given how many good games are available now. The art alone would be 4 or 5 stars but when rolled into game play that would be better served as an adult comic, I've got to go with 2 stars at best.

I can't enjoy this game much, the game confusing always get stuck even with guide idk it's bugs or not
It's frustrated taking heavy amount of time to seek another task
I only get one scene with minerva by consuming so much time almost 5 hours i won't play it again i swear
I'm still human need to maintain quality of sleep

What happened? I check back after 4 years and the game has made basically no progress, theres 2 new sex scenes and like 18 hours of filler crap that doesnt need to be there! Such a let down.

I can't make my way through it. I legitimately can't. To start with, why did you basically implement two different story versions into one game? thats confusing as hell. Just have two seperate versions of the game and call the new one Remake. The fact that theres a different chapter option each time you start the game anew tells you all you need to know. There's not just too much filler, theres nothing but!

Such a let down. Character models are beautiful as always, but its not like you see anything of them beyond the normal standing still. Daphne sex scene is dry and reptative, she just lightly moves up and down, its just a switch from image 1 to 2 and back again. If you cant animate, then put the effort into making totally different images for the scene. You clearly have the time, judging by the amount of pointless extra stuff.

Its just a slog for days to get to two mid sex scenes and a handjob. Come on, i had really high hopes for this. Just play Witch Trainer Silver and use this one for the nude gallery, thats about all thats worth doing here.

Massively shat the bed. It is fixable, just remove a bunch of the tangent storylines that take forever and basically dont further the main story or characters, then take some time to put in some real sex content, because there is about 1% of actual sex content, 10% the same topless render youve seen before, and 89% unecessary fat to trim.

Just start again, to be honest. Brand new version of the game, only take the stuff you actually need from the original and build on that. Only way to fix it, honestly.

[Review as of Innocent_Witches-0.5.1B-pc]

Commendations to the 2D artist, visuals are very pretty; up there with my favorite games [Akurbar, etc]. The progression through the story dialogue to corrupting the girls feels rather realistic and rewarding, even if it's far, far more 'grindy' than I'm used to.

My primary concern, and critical feedback I can offer that's holding back a higher score, is this game's English. Please, please, please, have someone fluent in English with a strong grasp of spelling & grammar review the code. I stopped writing up suggestions after my 55th note, only a few hours into the game.

A lesser thought, yet an impression non-the-less that may help improve the story; was the thought that the main character was written to be rather wishy-washy towards corrupting the girls. Was this intended?

Keep up the good work. Hope this project makes it to completion.

Completely tedious and unnecessary puzzle-like gameplay, the worse type of gameplay in a porn game. Hardly any sex to reward the time you invest. The art is ridiculously good and the music is on point.

The thread about this game started Sep 1, 2016. And looking at some early posts even then the game had been in development for some time. We have 2020 now and some 0.5 version with content worth at most few months of work while the devs rack up 5 digits money monthly on their patreon page.

I have my utmost respect for the skill required to milk so many patrons without actually doing any serious work on the game. This is some master level trolling. They even mock people in the changelog every release:
- fixed some bugs
- added new bugs

As for the game - not much to enjoy except nice art. Innocent witches will stop being innocent probably by 2030. One could rip all the art, make a new game out of it in one month and it would be much better.

At the start, the game seemed to be progressing well. Sure, it has a good amount of text. So does a book. Go with the book.
It seemed like halfway through the development team (probably just 1 dude) forgot it was an adult game and didn't add any H-scenes. Also, the first four chapters are worthless, the game starts from the fifth.
Another 4 years and it may just have a sex scene but i'm not holding my breath...

Art. As many have said before, art is the only thing is good in this game.
Sexual content. Well, u'll probably see someone's boobs or butt. If u're very patient and persistent person, can even see someone's vagina... but NO SEX. More then 8 damn hours of gameplay and no damn sex... (Well, there's the one and only scene at beginning... One pose. One angle. 2 changing frames. With an old woman. Enjoy).
Gameplay. You better prepare yourself, make some hand exercises and a bucket of coffee, because u'll face a ton of grinding. Eventually, when you'll get to something fappable, your hand will no longer be able to ...what you were intended to do. Based on the amount of text we have a typical visual novel, sit and read, sometimes make decisions and so on. But no. From your decisions the plot will not change at all. In addition, to go further, we need to solve annoying riddles and complete quests that often require a certain time / day / fulfillment of conditions, which is even more annoying. Even with a walkthrough.
Plot. Not a masterpiece, just OK. It could be better if it was shortened by a third.
But what really pisses me off is the fact, that the game is under development for at least two years. And it still raw, lack of a real content, developers always do not meet deadlines, every update comes out every 2-3 months. And they get 10k+$ per month.

In the beginning, the game seemed to be progressing well. Marcus was a giant perv like us gamers. A satisfying H-scene with McGonagall would occur and all was good.
Then, Marcus literally hit his head and turned into a good boy. All sexual advances (and potential H-scenes) were denied by him. But by the aid of his self portrait, he started perving again. But he just wants to have fucking swimsuit models to look at, nothing more.

This is Hogwarts, and his goals are to have prefects dress in swimsuits. I know this is an H game but come ON there has got to be more than that! Plus, you grind hardcore just to get a different swimsuit? I am not sure if most of us here are gluttons for grinding torture or are really hoping for more, but so far there has not been more.

Only 1 legitimate sex scene. The game itself has so much potential! It's high quality but really it could be even better. I am not saying everything has to be sex sex sex, but we are not playing to just ctrl skip text and accidentally speed past a quick boob flash. That's the other thing. So much text. I am glad the story is important to the dev, but if I wanted to read that much I would have applied to law school.

Art: 10/10
Story: 7/10
Scenes: 6/10
Grind: 5/10

while the art is good and the story is fine,you have to play all thru the game again after each update,just to see the sceans,none of the save files transfer over to the next update so having to do it over and over,there is no point,just wait till if fully done,maybe by then you can import saves,and maybe less grind.

A lot of people are talking about the lack of c ontent. That's certainly a thing, but what pisses me off is the story.

It's like you're trying to make a serious, heartfelt story, with the most unlikable, pathetic, spineless, cowardly and straight stupid guy of all time. There is literally no reason why any girl would ever talk to him, much less actually give him a chance.

It would be fine if the game was a comedy, but it's actually trying to act like it's a serious heartfelt story.

The art is great, but as always, the Hermione is basically clickbait using Akaburs game as a medium. More or less noone gives a shit about all the original characters, most just want who was already in the universe.

But really...That personality... I really hope this isn't written as some fantasy from the author, cause in that case he might just be the biggest loser in existence.

If you want to make a light novel instead of an 18+ game, go for it. But you can't make the player want their character to literally just pull the trigger and let the world be better off.

To put it bluntly, Innocent Witches is a fanfic first, an adult game second.
Which is a huge shame considering how great the art is, but it's a chore to get through the story. To give an idea of the grind, the story goes 4 relatively long chapters with only 2 adult scenes.
Unless you're a big fan of the Harry Potter IP and like fanfics, I would recommend skipping this game.

I played this game a year and a half ago, it popped up recently in the updates page so i thought i would check out how much it has grown...have i gone back in time? Where is the years worth of content!?
It has barely moved. I am very rarely disappointed but this is a bit ridiculous. If its basically abandoned just say so. People have actually donated and funded during this entire time...I guess im dumb because i cant figure it out, this just reminds me of some Anthem style bullshit. Hey let me know when the 'Cataclysm' which was promised shows up so i can be disappointed all over again at the blue filter and swaying trees yeah?

The cherry on top is a developer in the comments section splitting technicalities over the definition of 'sex' because his game barely has any in it...so he is trying to convince us that 'technically' it does...Anthem. Triple A Game. Style. Bullshit.

I'm loving the world building, the characterization, and the art in this game. It actually feels like the school is lived in and the dialogues with the characters has meaning behind it for those that are interested in a story as much as they are the porn. The quality of the art is definitely my favorite part of this project. If there were such a thing as AAA quality for a porn game, this certainly qualifies. I'm fine with the length of time between large updates if it means the quality of the art and dialogue remains this high.

That being said however, there are a few significant flaws that I see in the game. First, as MANY other people have pointed out, there is a lot of time wasted. It feels like I spend more time skipping days or rushing through stat increases in order to reach the end of a week than I do reading dialogue or coming across interesting or meaningful events, and in my opinion that's not a good thing, no matter how much I like those scenes. The reason why you need to reach the end of a week is because in Chapter 5 the world opens up and there are certain things that you must do, that ONLY occur on Saturday. There is too much emphasis placed on what you have to do on those days and not enough time to do those things. The events that take place during the week end up just feeling like busywork that don't have much appeal after you've seen a handful of the different variations in those events. It's also not at all clear sometimes how you're supposed to trigger events and even with the help of the objectives tab in your journal you'll find yourself wishing you had an up to date walkthrough. In chapter 5 you also finally get the chance to use skills, but like the events, it's not very clear when and where you can use these skills, and the times that you can are few and far between.

As the game is still in development, the faults are not that pressing, yet. Some of the issues come from not much content being present, which is messing with the pacing of the game a bit. It's severely lacking in terms of actual erotic content, amounting to little more than flirting, and brief glimpses of undergarments and a bit of skin, which, sadly is the price to pay for a game that's going for a heavy narrative focus. I think the game has a ton of potential, I just wish that development wasn't so slow, even if I understand why it is.

After a long and tedious journey, the developers finally learned pacing. The art was always amazing , however now we can really enjoy it without grinding through a torturous experience that is the first few chapters. Simply skipping everything but the latest content makes for a simple and enjoyable game.