VN - Ren'Py - Intertwined [v0.12.3] [Nyx]

Take Gossip Girl, filter it through the writing talent of the average native english porno dev, add an assortment of generic moralisations.. this game in a nutshell. It goes one step further than drama for drama's sake, it creates drama out of thin air. Horror movies have jump-scares, this has jump-drama.

Traditionally, characters are supposed to be established as characters before their problems or conflicts can be expected to have any impact on the audience. Here drama is synonymous with personality:
'I am a pregnant woman';
'I saw mom kissing her female best friend and was very angry at her' [It's unclear why that makes the PC angry, apart from - you guessed it - drama. But that's kind of the running theme of this game.]
'My dad isn't my real dad, and that's very upsetting for some reason'.

The characters themselves, beyond all these plot contrivances that happen to them, are defined by either one of two qualities - nice (most of them incl the females) or mean (the obligatory asshole jock rival).

Tldr, the story is a collection of superficial and not quite coherent drama setups featuring a surplus of romantic interests who constantly want to hang out with the insipid featureless PC. So like most porno gaems, except it's designed to force you to take the story and some of its moral lessons srsly. You can only choose one girl and cheating has consequences. Problem being, the game's mechanism for determining the PC's chastity reflects how stupid/contrived the plot is. So much so that merely having met or spent time with someone without successively informing everyone else of that fact is apparently a big deal. If the roleplaying setup is bad the roleplay won't be engaging either, however diverse or impactful the choices might be.

Gfx/models range from 3-5/5. Lighting is very good. Some anims are decent, most are choppy and awkward. H-scenes vary in quality. I saw two that were fappable, the rest not so much. Mileage may vary ofc.

I like how the dynamics between the MC and the rest seem quite organic. Some of the plot development seems a little contrived, but I get why that is necessary for things to all be 'intertwined'. I'd give it a solid 9 out of 10, and I look forward to what future updates will bring.
Nikki is best girl.

v 0.10.5
The story was delightful, with a delightful sense of humor and captivating characters. It stands as one of the most exceptional games I have ever experienced. I was completely engrossed, playing for extended periods without pause.

Nevertheless, there are drawbacks. The graphics leave something to be desired, occasionally even falling into the realm of subpar. This is particularly evident in the animations and backgrounds. However, the character designs and intricacies are commendable. While I don't necessarily require top-notch visuals when the characters and plot are so engaging, it would still be pleasing to have improved graphics as well.

Best game, but maybe more motorcycle scenes, I would imagine. .
Women like motorcycles. .
And it would be nice to have more scenes with Valeria on the road and also on the motorbike. .

This game really showcases what I love about adult VNs.

Really fun and engaging dialogue, without being pretentious.

Great, good looking characters, all with realistic motives and morals. (Alexis is wifey material, and I won't tolerate any slander coming her way.)

There's just a lot here to dive into and enjoy. Tons of ups and downs, steamy romance and some juicy drama. And I was into ALL of it, lmao.

Random note; I suspect the dev might be a pro wrestling fan, as the MC's shirt looks like a CM Punk shirt from his 2011-12 run. And they also referenced "making the list" which could be a Chris Jericho reference?

Anyway, yeah, infinite stars for this charming VN.

Great game, great story, characters show different personalities that make the game feel "meaningful", your choices do impact the plot of the game...
Beautiful renders, every girl in the game have unique traits.
This game is a must try for everyone, thumbs up for the Dev, definitely one of the best games of its genre.

I want to give this a 5, but I just can't.

Every male in this game is either a complete fucking idiot, or a dark triad son-of-a-bitch (or both... Zach). When the majority of your audience is male, it's really insulting. The introduction of John makes it better, but we all know he's going to be outed as another character's deadbeat dad in a future update, so "enjoy it while it lasts" I guess.

Because I can compartmentalise my discomfort with this, I do think the game is really, really, great overall. I just can't rate it the maximum, when I really wish I could, because of an authorial bias I vehemently disagree with and feel alienated by.

LIs are all fantastic. There is not a single one I do not like. Valeria in particular is so good for a character who has really only been in 3/10 episodes. I love how calm she is and how mentally healthy her approach to meeting people is. The firey spirit in stressful situations that contrasts with her regular state... It's all just great character stuff. She also has the best looking model in the game, I just wish her skin texture was a little less plastic. Daz models tend to do that with any skin that has any shade of colour to it though.

The story isn't really a traditional plot, and that's actually a good thing. It is about little stories that are based upon the LIs and their character arcs. This works so well in the romance and adult VN format because it is the core of the game to present people we care about.

The animations are trash though. There is really no point in having them when they run at 12 fps. The game would be better if they just used still renders because it is clear from the quality of the animations that the developers don't care about them.

Exterior environments are also really flat, and a lot of depth of field is used to remove scene complexity. Which is fine for a VN, only it can also lead to some really horrible sharp edges on certain things (like grass joining to pavement or water lines).

The writing is mostly excellent. There are some scenarios that feel forced, and this is mostly dealing with the MC and his family situation - his "father" makes a lot of decisions that do not seem very realistic. It feels like the author forced them in to make something happen, but do not feel right for the characters in play.

There are quite a few typos, and there are turns of phrase that make me suspect the developer(s) does(do) not speak English as a first language. This is further hinted at with how many Anglo/American idiosyncracies are confused in the story (drinking out in the open under the age of 21, a clearly US highschool calling football "football" instead of "soccer" ). However, this is mitigated by how complex the branching and optional events are. There is no other game out there (Being a DIK is the closest) that has this much decision making from the player that affects the content. Typos and the occasional unassigned variable error crop up, but it is hard to blame anyone for this given the scope. It extends playability enormously and is worth the price.

When I play it, I feel part of it; and there can be no higher praise than that. It is what every AVN should aspire to make the reader feel.

The complexity of this story is mind boggling. Putting this together must be a nightmare. Once you get used to the fact that at the beginning the story isn't very linear due to establishing character references, it begins to come together nicely. I can understand that some folks aren't used to this writing style, but it takes talent and patience to pull this off.

Well done thus far, and I can't wait for more updates.

Written as of v0.10.5

I’m writing it after some time after playing it, because I needed it to be more objective. So I’m sorry if I’m not 100 % accurate, as some time passed.

If you're here because of the “male domination” tag, you can leave already. Maledom content is present in some sex scenes, but MC’s mostly submissive bitch outside of the sex.

I mostly ignore bad games and don't give them any reviews, because anybody can start playing and see that it's bad and sometimes games are getting better later on. This game is the opposite of it. It starts good and it's going worse (in a sinusoid way, but the tendency is present at least till 8 episode).

Some people were very hyped about this avn, so I checked it and thought that's above average for a long time, but actually the more I played, the more the story had less to do with realism. It's bad. The stupidity and inconsistency of MC can suck off all of your joy of playing it. You have been warned.

I needed to play some good music and force myself to play till the end to give an honest review: 3/5. Some explanations of my stances are in spoiler, mostly for hyped persons. Don't read it, if you want to be spoiler free.

Weak points: animations, inconsistency, MC, almost non music and sound effects, realism, story, double standards, light misandry, light philogyny
neutral: lack of voice acting, lots of flashbacks in story, common situations in porn games,
Strong points: graphics (character designs), girls looks and personalities, forced drama, amount of content, consequences, it brings emotions.

1.Animations.
Most of the sex scenes are bad.

Characters have odd, usually sharp and quick moves. It looks like they lack anatomic and physic accuracy, but it's the first time for me seeing such imperfect moves with such good graphics, so it may be something else also. Lots of titles have done better in regard to animations. From about 9/10 episode animations starts to be overall visible better, but not great still. Also, one of the first sex scenes animation (with the mirror in the bedroom) looks rather good, so I’m quite lost as to why most look bad.

2.MC is inconsistent.

Having that in mind he’s also a somewhat hotspur, hypocritical, stupid, submissive bitch. And I mean submissive bitch in life, but not in bed. There are some boundaries to show imperfections to keep it realistic, but they are crossed in game imo.

3. Double standards, light misandry and light philogyny.

To make it short, most characters have done something bad, wrong, controversial or debatable. And most of it is pointed by dev. But … overall final judgment, be it by MC’s inner thoughts or in other ways, is always in favor of women. I didn’t spot even one final judgment that would be in favor of man overall. I understand moral relativism, but discrimination by gender in this game is visible.

As for strong points, look at the beginning in green text.

Damn, I wasn't expecting much when I first downloaded it, but this is such high quality, I swear.
Of course, it isn't without fault, but it's still really good overall.
I would give it a 9/10, almost perfect.

Nice story. Gorgeous humor. Awesome Nik... emm... characters))) Overall one of the best game I have ever played. Seriously I got so deeply engaged that I played almost nonstop)
There are downsides however. Graphics are not too good... sometimes even rather bad. This especially true for animations and backgrounds. Character designs and detail are great though. Not that I need them very much when I have lovely chars and plot but it would be nice to get better graphics too)

My download said v0.9.2 (though I don't see that version in the Changelog).

A teen/high school drama VN.

+ Attractive models
-- Animations are subpar and not very frequent
+ Diverse personalities
> If you're looking for a harem story, this is NOT that. Pick a girl and work that storyline because you only can be with one in the end.
> Emily, the mom, is a MILF but no sexy storyline with the MC if that is another thing you're looking for.
+ MC is likeable.
+ MC's friend/sidekick is very UN-unlikeable (cringe-worth).
+ A detestable antagonist.
-- No gallery, which this VN could really use.
+ There is a good amount of story/reading here.
> A lot of brunettes (which is my preferred type), but not a lot of other variety...or so it feels.
+ I like we have different races...I'm just missing my Asian-flavor!
+ Not a direct point for the game, but the mod walkthrough was super helpful to know what decisions have what impact...especially with so many girls/storylines.
> I don't know if getting points with Layla's mom or teacher Gabi will lead to some MILF action or not. That doesn't seem to be the focus of this story.

OVERALL:
Enjoyable and I'm more than willing to try it again and explore more storylines through multiple playthroughs once it comes along further.

This VN is one of the better quality ones on here. The story is mostly your high school "omg my hormones..." type of setting where drama and comedy collide.

The MC is fairly likeable and I give Nyx points for the ink sleeve he has. Nice to see an MC with tats
He's not a complete dick and can be pretty decent mostly - even though he was a retard as a kid.

The characters are fairly diverse, the girls are attractive and have reasonably believable personalities.

Erryn just irritated me with her possessive behavior which is plain irrational at times. Alexis can get freaky (go girl!) but gives slight stalker vibes...
Layla is a teasing type who gets jealous easily. Elena comes across a bit bitchy but is actually fun, caring and loyal - she can also be interested in a throuple scenario with MC and Layla if you play it right.

My favorite is the later added Valeria. Val is just a smokeshow! she is cool, calm but feisty when angered. She gets stalked by a walking disease called Zach (your friend... *cringe*) who goes full Ted Bundy in his romance attempts.

Nikki and Carla are a pair of sisters the MC can become romantically involved with. I liked Nikki as she was fun, athletic and very confident. Carla is sweet, shy and unconfident for the most part - but she can improve with MC's help.

Now for the annoying characters. Zach. Oh god, never have I wanted to jam my nails into some VN characters eyeballs as badly as his. He's a dick. A diseased, leperous one. The guy knows no boundaries, or hygiene, or tact, or common fucking sense. literally a walking dick

Ethan is the resident scumbag antagonist that is trying to slide into Erryn's most holiest of holy treasures. He is an arrogant little cock womble. If I was Erryn, I would have drop kicked him into a trash bin loooong ago, but nope.

The drama can be funny at times, irritating at others. The whole Erryn/Alexis bust up over the MC, complete with lots of crying, just made me want to bitch slap them both. Hello? you are besties are you not? hoes before bros bitches!

Overall, it's pretty fun and offers a good slice of high school drama if that's what you like. I just want to see Ethan and Zach's exsanguinated corpses and I will be a happy girl

Intertwined just turned into 1 of my all time favourite games,its just freakin amazing.
The story is quite engaging from start & is 1 hell of a rollercoaster ride.

My favourite part is the branching which is insanely good & increases its replay value as subtle changes in decisions leads to various consequences.
LI r also quite wholesome, though my fav is & will always be Nikki (though I'm hooking up with 5 girls in the end of 10.5,needs more Nikki sugar cuz she isn't there 75% game).
I like the MC as he isn't a douche/edgelord infact most of his interactions have a realistic approach

Though in the end i do have 2 complaints:-
1.No music/sound which is a real shame as I've seen games with bare content or 1/2 a polish as this with it.Audio can really enhance the immersion which can literally elevate this game to a whole new level
2.Sex animations though at the start were really subpar I've noticed it getting better with latest updates still the animations could use an fps boost cuz it's really weird seeing 30fps animations especially in 2023

Liked the game, and checking frequently for updates. Decent story line, lot's of paths to take. Alot of li's for every prefference. But i mostly play these games for the story, The "Adult" part of it is just a fanservice in my head like in TV-series like got etc.

This is a five-star game. It has everything needed to make it one of the top games out there.
Overall Impression -
Look, if you are into only immediate sex or quick harems or dumbed-down writing to make sure the MC can just go around railing everyone, this is not for you. I AM NOT knocking those games. They have their place and are very worthwhile and I personally love those as well. It's just time we really categorize these games/novels if we are going to have them taken seriously and we are going to fairly evaluate them. This is in that different category of Adult games that is above and beyond in story and writing and is upper echelon. It has was makes everyone love DIK and the like. It is way more than the "adult sex" game genre. It has a fun story that has some really fun and good (if predictable) twists that make it fun to continue on. Part of the unique fun is not that the twists are so much undiscoverable, but the anxiety they create knowing the twist or after the surprise twists are revealed, waiting for the consequences or the moment they will affect your finely tuned playthrough. The writing is splendid and is the real talent of this dev. The rest is great but the writing has excellent humor that is realistic and relevant and the feelings are real. No over-the-top nonsense or excessive inner monologue (though early on it is too much, this heals itself thankfully rather quickly). The story origin itself is fairly simple and not even that complex but what it does is lends itself to making more opportunities as you progress. It makes for scenarios you may not see coming, opening up new path ideas.
The Characters - Most of the characters are very well thought out. the renders are well above average for the most part. animations are very lacking which may turn people off, but I happen to prefer that. Again, there is very little sex for quite some time compared to most games so animations aren't necessarily needed. The characters are rendered nicely and most are very gorgeous, but more importantly, their development is great. Somehow the writing doesn't go so in-depth for chapter after chapter making them come to life, but they still have enough development to make them very liked and alive. Even the models we have all seen multiple times still have their own unique personalities so in short time you will not have any trouble seeing them as the character in this story and not as the character you last remember that model being.
Story - Overall the story is kinda random. Not in a bad way, but it doesn't tie itself down to the original idea and then force everything. It is almost like one of the few cases I have ever seen where there was a small idea and the writer just went with the flow and developed it as it went, but in this case that was a blessing. I don't know if this happened or not, but the lack of a defined path at the beginning is really useful, oddly enough. It's clever because it develops more plot as it goes forward. There are times when the story is getting good and you are super connected to the characters, but then you change course into a completely new direction. This frustrates you and worries you because you developed your attachments and want to see what happens with those you choose to love, but then the new path reels you in and when you start to love them and want that to go somewhere, you are allowed to merge those paths together and get back to everything. You can breathe a sigh of relief and smile because you are back to your original characters and love interests, but now you feel more whole and have more to care about.
Menus / UI / Choices -
The menus and UI are standard, nothing new and fancy. It works perfectly fine and the options are there you need, including named saves if you need that. Choices are pretty limited but most of them play a small role in developing points toward one character or against another. No grinding and no jumping from day to day looking for certain events. It's linear and there is no veering off the set path, but trust me - this is okay in this case.
If you are a financial supporter of these projects, this is one I would support simply because it is excellent and clearly the dev cares about their project.

tl;dr - Falls into the different category or actual GREAT GAMES developed with thought and purpose. Excellent game. One of the top 3 IMHO. Very good renders, beautiful characters, and character development. Good story. Choices make small differences but there are big choices to make. OVERALL MUST PLAY

This is the best game in regard dynamic and design , first time I played I didn't notice that I missed so much because of poor choices, interaction could be awfuly short when that happening , which shows importance of action and choices ,Nyx really did this masterfully.
Story is classic and beautiful, childhood love something that many of us experienced it growing up and it's unforgettable , and here we have it all in glory , story is really captivating , characters are so adorable I wish knowing them in reality .
Intertwined is really one of a kind .

The better name for this game would be "Soap Opera: The adult episode", because that is pretty much what it feels like playing this game.

So you can expect lots of artificial drama, highly unlikely coincidences, stupid behaviour that makes you want to punch the characters (both the MC and NPCs) and problems that could be solved easily if people would just use their brains for 2 seconds.
I also wasn't a fan of the MC. On the one hand he is this huge babe magnet and almost every girl you meet pretty much falls in love with him undyingly after 5 minutes which was both boring and unbelievable, on the other hand he is often very passive in situations where it's just extremely annoying and on top of that with pretty much every answer that isn't 100% nice and understanding, you risk losing points so if you don't want to miss content, you are very limited in your actions.

But the good news is: while all that sounds pretty negative, just like a real soap opera, playing the game is actually pretty fun when you know what to expect. The characters, while often being quite stupid, are still more nuanced and interesting than in most other games and the story is interesting enough that I was following it until the the end of the current content and I will definitely come back to the game as well. The writing is also not too verbose which is a big plus.

A word about the technical side of the game: Images and especially animations are nothing special, same goes for the sex scenes which are kind of bland, there is also no sound, so the game can't really score in that area. Some of the girls are really gorgeous though (and very well rendered) and the expressions are often on point without the need of further text explanations which sadly is rarely the case in these games and therefore worth mentioning.

All in all I was very well entertained the whole time and that is really impressive considering how extensive the game already is, so while I do have issues with the game, I still recommend it and am looking forward to future episodes. (v.10.5)

Edit: Also read @Kata review a few pages back (May 3 2022). S/he describes much more elaborated and detailed the problems this game has with the storytelling and gameplay design. I still like the game overall and will continue to play it, because like I previously said it can be very entertaining, but the game has problems you must be willing to overlook.

After I played the first section in the plane, I did not expect much from this game. The Render and scene quality was pretty meh, there was no music, and it just didn't feel that interesting.

I gave it a second chance and booted it up again and I'm very glad I did. The story and characters have been quite enjoyable. Quality has been improving and I'm looking forward to upcoming new chapters and re-playing the game with the re-renders.

A little concerned about the length of the game however, we are currently on chapter 10, and there seems to be a some paths left that we have not even begun exploring, like Brooke and Shacarri

For branching we have our main 5, and quite a few characters that seem like realistic main partners, like Elena, Valeria, Iris(maybe?)

On top of others that we will likely get a couple scenes for here and there:
Melissa, Gabi, Tori, Julia(?), Lakeyn(?), Rachel(?), Mom(?)

Curious to see where it goes from here, though I fear we may be in for increased dev time with episodes being shorter for any particular branch going forward

This VN sure shows the touch of a woman in writing. I congragulate the dev for the ambitious writing. In overall, it shows how fucked up things can get if serial monogamy and/or one night stands are too mainstream coupled with lack of contraception in a small town.

Lots of girls with distinct faces and realistic personalities and problems. Good renders, ok animations. Mild het intercourse in general. Unexpected ..cest.

Due to intrinsic issues and complexity in code, in the first playthrough many may experience a hit and miss and you might end up with the girl with the least checkpoints. It's OK tho cuz this game worth a couple of replays. One way to solve this might be giving girls inner dialogue as to show the player their interest in MC has gone or so. Thus, I had to get the walkthrough guide to optimize my experience and RPs.

As in v0.10, we didn't reach the climax yet, imo.

Hope dev keeps up the quality and gives this game the climax and the ending it deserves.