VN - Ren'Py - Intertwined [v0.13.2] [Nyx]

Intertwined could be a solid five star experience simply because it's doing a great job of being an unapologetic telenovela of the highest order. The plot is light to dramatic, with lots of choices and unexpected twists, characters you can empathise with and relationships you can nurture and develop and the stakes for some of the protagonists are high.

But there are also things about Intertwined that I find problematic. This AVN forces you to make mutually exclusive decisions between LI-paths. And even though I think that's okay in principle, I absolutely don't like the fact that the LI I didn't choose almost completely disappears from the plot.
Just because I choose Nikki or Erynn doesn't mean I don't want to have any meaningful interactions with Cara or Alexis. But in Intertwined that's exactly what happens. I feel punished by this mechanic if I'm being completely honest and it breaks my immersion quite a bit.
The way I see it and the way I played the MC he would never abandon a friend like that. It's an artificial design decision that goes contrary to his personality.

Music would do Intertwined a lot of good. There are much worse AVNs that do a much better job of carrying emotions with music and sound.

And finally, I'm not a fan of the points system. Many scenes or relationships are lost because you miss simple decisions. Without a walkthrough, it is VERY difficult to get on some of the LI paths, even if you really like them and treat them with affection.
The plot is written in such a way that a plot-decision can overshadow a relationship-decision and your relationship can suffer if you follow what you consider a plot choice. For instance, just because I want to catch up with Erynn after not having seen her for YEARS that doesn't mean I lack interest or are disloyal to Elena. The game will treat it like that though.

Intertwined is really well done, don't get me wrong. But some of the design decisions are questionable and significantly spoil the overall experience.

largely i enjoy this game. sorting out paths can be tricky, what qualifies or eliminates you from one girl's path is vague. some thing triggers are obvious and some others will probably require a walkthrough. renders have been compressed to keep file size smaller which is appreciated for those of us with bad wifi. the dialogue is decent, it tracks and make sense and characters have a nice back and forth. as it is a work in progress, there are a handful of typos and syntax errors.

characters are often described by a first name so then the last name and who they are and are related to is a "surprise". this gets old after awhile. the whole concept of everything being interconnected is an interesting novelty, but i believe the concept has diminishing returns. this is especially the case with repeated playthroughs, because it hinges on surprise and you already know what that is, you find yourself paying less attention. the push and pull between tension & set up vs surprise.

there is a prevalent use of flashbacks to give backstory and because so much focus and time and renders are devoted to this, i feel it disrupts the pacing and tension of what is going on in the present. it puts focus on the story not the story teller and how they remember the past and what they choose to tell, and what their reactions are to sharing.

the other weird thing is cheating amongst the main character's parents is vilified, yet in game you can pursue multiple girls at once and have a relationship with a married woman. i'm sure because things are intertwined the girls would find out eventually and it would be handled accordingly, but some consistency would be nice if we're going to claim the moral high ground.

on another note, the lack of music is surprising. i checked my speakers twice to assure they weren't broken. i know licensing music is expensive and most sources refuse to allow their music to be in a pornographic game regardless, but something would be nice, it feels empty as is.

the branching paths causes updates to be slow on account of the variety of content and the tricky little variables. the longer the development cycle takes, the more competition this game has. in that way, games with a well defined smaller premise have an advantage over a developer that is attempting a lot by themselves or with a very small crew. i would hate to have to code this game.

a couple other minor points, erin and lexi, if you spend the night with them go to sleep with makeup on. this is addressed in one of the latest updates where you see a makeup-less lexi. another thing is that there are a couple of lines of dialogue where the main character says addresses the plot conveniences of iris being alexis's roommate or his mom going to college with adriana. addressing criticism in game is meta and while i get it, it doesn't excuse the issues.

but the developer is doing the best they can and has a clear vision for what they want to do and is sticking to it. while the game is not perfect, you can't really ask for more than that.

oh, and if we are making pokemon analogies, layla is charmander, lexi is charmeleon and adriana is charizard.

The good
good scenario
good renders

The bad
Limited sex scenes in both duration and number
Points problem the player has to collect points to unlock new scenes one mistake and you are f****d
Only one girl the game restricts the player to be with 1 girl at a time making plus te lack of sex scenes with 90% of the girls this is b****t
Dialogue at sex scenes are terrible

Conclusion there are much netter games out there this is a waste of time

So I was looking for a new game to play and came across this one - it had a high overall rating and the renders from the preview pics in the opening post looked promising...

This is a slower-moving story that focuses more on character / narrative / relationship development, which in my opinion is a very good thing - I find these preferable to games where the MC meets a girl and within an afternoon they're already banging 6 ways from Sunday.

The good stuff in the game are the women are gorgeous, relationships are pretty well-developed, minus all of the women having the fairly typical "goo goo eyes for MC at first sight" that we see so often in VNs - minimal effort required to initiate things with them.

The story is well-developed. You can tell a lot of planning and thought went into the game's narrative - there is a lot of branching code involved for all the interactions and relationship possibilities, so I do give the dev a lot of credit for managing it all.

The negatives are no music in the game, which detracts heavily from the environment - I find that VNs with roaming / situational / character-themed music really helps add a lot of emotion into the game.

And the biggest negative for me is how the mother (Emily) / son relationship is seemingly handled. In the years I've been enjoying VNs, I don't think I've ever really gotten into a mother / son relationship - it's generally not my kink - in the incestual situations of games, I am more into brother / sister stuff, but in this game, I found the mom so unbelievably attractive, that pretty much within the first 20 minutes of playing the game, she was in the #1 slot for me and hasn't budged through Chapter 10. I assumed she was romanceable as there are spots all through the game where you're being shown her cleavage and given choices on how to handle situations with her - even sleeping in her bed and waking up fondling her boobs. There are places later on where you have to decide whether to kiss her on the mouth or not. Whether to let her know she looks sexy or not, etc. See Vidal's Post 17111 for some example screenshots (as long as they're up, at least) - https://f95zone.to/threads/intertwined-v0-10-nyx.53676/post-9328875
What I've come to unfortunately discover in my perusal of the game thread after playing through Chapter 10 is that in all likelihood (if not a certainty) there will NOT be a romance option with the mom. I've lost track of the # of posts where it was stated or implied that that the Dev is trolling people with the development of this relationship. Now I don't know that for a fact, I'm just going off of what I've read in the thread, so we'll see. If something changes, I'll update my review [and the score] accordingly, but I do find this pretty off-putting if it's the case and I think it reflects poorly on the developer as it's literally just teasing people, if true. I am generally the type that, after playing a game on F95, if I enjoyed the game, I like supporting developers by going and buying their game on Steam or GOG and sometimes even backing the game on Patreon to offer additional monetary support, but in this case, needless to say this will negatively affect the score I leave for the game and it will remain an F95 exclusive. This was the first game I've played by this Developer and will likely be the last.

Amazing game looking forward for its continuation! The girls are looking AMAZING (11/10!), at least for my taste.

The replay-ability is high, your choices actually matter (at least more than most other game)!

I am afraid that giving you that many choices will come at the cost of development time. Drastically increasing the paths will exponentially increase the development time, I think (not a developer myself).

I am going to give it a 5/5, not meaning that the game is perfect, but comparing to other game is definitely into the top 10% and a must play game.

Current game version: 0.10

-no audio
- some models are really ugly
-stupid story about how the mom is a lesbian ho who started dating mc "dad" being pregnant with another dude and cheated him with friends mom- and you are told this with graphic detail and you cant skip it
-weak mc who cant be an asshole to the stupid things he being told
+sporty "sister" model is great

Probably my favorite AVN right now.

The amount of thought that was put into this project is astonishing.
You play the update and then find out you haven't seen even 70% of what is really there.

I'm feeling extremely invested into the game as Nyx writes very believable relationships and character developments.

I don't want it to end too soon and I'm enjoying every moment of this story.
I hope Nyx manages to create all the content and ideas they have in the mind.

Val is the best girl!

- No sound or music
- Below average animations for 2022
- Lacks humor
- Some parts of the plot is just plain stupid and is to create drama, really no choices. Every choices is tied to love interest point/path.
+ Characters are pretty well written
+ renders are decent

to me its not memorable

Although the author does a good job overall, the girls' faces appear in many games , the first time I played it I thought it was the work of a fan .
The story itself is wonderful, but the problem is that it's all images that have been used before .
I hope the author can finish this work, although the updating speed is very slow .

This is easily one of the best of the Renpy dating games out there!

First of all, most games I give a chance but generally after a few minutes the dialogue is so stale that I'm just skipping through to the "action". But here its fun and like the story it has unexpected twists. The women in the game are almost universally gorgeous but the specific appearances are varied enough to make it interesting. The sex scenes are well-distributed and VERY well done, too.

Highly recommended!

For me, the gold standard of AVN games, S tier.

Pros:

Good art and renders.
Realistic meshes in renders.
Nice variety of characters and faces.
Good storytelling.
The writing feels organic, and many scenes bring characters a sense of life past anything I've played.

Cons:

Not long enough.
Animations could be better.

But overall, the drawbacks are minor relative to the quality.

First I want to thank some dude on Discord for suggesting this VN to me.
I was reluctant to try this at first Because i wasn't impressed by the previews. (But art inside is actually good)
Episode's 1-4 didn't leave an impression on me. I started to think that this is just another porn game. But the later episodes are great. I'm glad i didn't stop playing it.
The storyline keeps it's promise to it's title.
THE CHARACTERS INSIDE ( except Tori‍♂) HAS AN ATTITUDE ❤.

Thank you so much for this.

I love this game. I love the characters, the art, and the storytelling. But I think its bets thing is that its pretty good at invoking feelings from me. It got me really emotionally invested and I rarely get that way about games.

Im really hyped to see how the story ends.

Version 9. Replayed this one recently. I'm impressed by the careful plotting this time around. I went through and played through all of the LI's. My favorite is Alexis, it goes through an entire arc and shows the insecurities of a new relationship. Maya is cute but so young. It is a little like a soap - but it follows TV and movie conventions of using every character (they're all meaningful!) and the low-key pleasures of finding out what happens when someone is a sister or father or mother or someone else at key moments. But the plotting is careful - paths are slightly but significantly different. Things get to where they need to, but look really different depending on who you choose. It does take a lot of replays (and they aren't always intuitive of what decisions will mean) but it's satisfying and engaging to see how things pan out.

The complaints about Ethan are legit. He is for real one of the most frustrating villains in games I've played and MC looking like a young thug but constantly getting beat up doesn't help. He better get hit by a truck or something in the last episode. There may be people like him in real life, but I wouldn't want to know them.

It makes good use of flashbacks, sometimes seemingly too many, but it matches the theme of the game, everything being connected, including the past and present. At least the flashbacks are different people and not the same characters will small bodies and big heads.

It's also a game that has consequences. In some games you can basically molest people in their sleep and the next morning everything is cool, but in this some small but important decisions will seriously derail relationships, and fidelity matters, mostly. It's refreshing. It feels like the stakes are more real, because the relationships have to be nurtured.

The models are pretty and there is some humor and the writing is generally solid. Characters seem to genuinely like each other. There's romance. It's also not common that emotional withdrawal, like tantrums, are used in games, when they're pretty common in teen and young adult relationships.

I also like the SoCal vibe - it feels like it would happen in southern California in the U.S. The main character and other key people are Latinos though a big deal isn't made of it. We'll have to see what happens later, but I'm not crazy about the black students being belligerent, horny athletes (or Math teachers) but that also feels like that's planting seeds for later.

Finally, Eryn (sigh). She's a model, easily manipulated, hard on herself, and signs of trouble with her situation start and never ease up. If you're into the Troubled Young Woman, you've got it in her.

Even with its problems, it's so much better and more cohesive than so many games on this site that it's hard to too hard on it.

The story of this game is moving and the mods are detailed. The characters in the story are very cute, and the dialogue is very interesting. I hope to play it soon. Thank you very much for making this game, and I hope it will have many seasons.

Intertwined
This is soap opera from the early 90s. Even the baddies cringe as they are are here.

First all the good.
Yes and yes again this is really good game with believe characters and beautiful renders all around, I love that even though many assets are reused in VN games this game tries to change it up abit not all renders are reused and the background and settings are unique.

The story is way above average compared to many other VNs but it starts to feel like there are almost to many elements or nearing the breaking point of being to many. To many elements just makes the story to complex and in need of way to many updates to explain everything and make the characters fully fleshed out and believable.

Pet peeve or the bad of the story this obnoxious "Ethan" character, this has to be the most cliché ever. And how the MC reacts against him in the last update. This mc haven't been in any scruffs that is certain, when you see someone you have beaten unconscious before with 2 more guys with him and you are not sure of your fighting abilities you do not go up to them, not when you know or have strong suspicions that this douche is not above foul play.
Does the MC not have any self-preservation?
This took me out of the story and was made so clear that this had to be because of the plot, bad and cheap.
Do your self a favor and remove this character as humanly fast as possible his entry makes the story weak and predictable. This dude money or not would be spitting teeth in a ditch when I grew up, and I wouldn´t had been alone in putting him there.
You need and older guy with power and connections not a 20 year old kid, your writing is way to good for this. This was just infuriatingly bad and unbelievable. Without any life experience, the things he is trying to pull off just becomes embarrassing. Like a soap opera from the 90s. The difference is, they have multiple episodes to flesh out or just remove such a character.

Being 18 and looking like 25 is nothing new almost all romcoms and sitcoms during the 80s to the early 2000s had 25 year-olds and above playing highscool students and 18 year-olds so nothing new there.

Still I gave this game 3.7 stars because every other character feels genuine and even though the MC behave from time to to much as a kid the story states he is just 18 years old, that is why he gets a pass.
Mostly the stars are from nostalgia of reliving 90210 or the OC or even One tree hill. This is so much one of those soap operas.
Good game and real good writing like 95% of the time so well deserved almost 4 stars, good luck in future endeavors.
Remove this "Ethan" joke and this would be steam purchase for sure.

And no i´m not rounding up.

i love the storyline on this game. i love how intense the story and the plot from MC past life story to the new MC . For the graphic i love it. overall i recommend this game for people who love reading or just a coomer who's playing game only for sex scene.

All I can say that this VN has an amazing story with very likeable characters, good character models and great renders. After playing many different visual novels I can comfortably say that Intertwined is in my top 5 favorite Visual novels in terms of sheer enjoyment and I can't wait to see where this story goes

This VN is a real masterpiece and juwel. The short description may be misleading to have the typical story as many others here BUT you realy get a very dense and well written storyline with many twists and choices.....nice characters. For me one of the best VN on RenPy you will get here.

At first glance, Intertwined may seem like a VN with a not-so-original setup full of porn game tropes and familiar archetypes. Yes, this impression is true. But don't let that discourage you. The use of these elements is not the result of poor creativity. On the contrary, the developer seems to know them well, uses them intentionally, somehow masterfully, and manages to add layers to the story and characters that go beyond the scope of most other porn VNs.

Even though I've played dozens of VNs, the story still surprises me at some points, in a good, not facepalm way.

I have only explored some of the options but it seems that player choices really affect where relationships with girls go , there is quite a variety of girls and I guess most players will find some girl they like.

Overall, I'm enjoying the VN and looking forward to more updates.

Some moments in the final parts of 0.9.2 suggest that the story could get quite dark, but I dare not guess where it will lead. I'm almost certain the developer has some interesting surprises up his sleeve.