VN - Ren'Py - Intertwined [v0.13] [Nyx]

weird i had not put a review yet as its one of my favourite AVN`s!

the name of the game and the plot are mirror images and thats the story right there! you go around meeting people who are conected to other people but you know nothing about until it blows up in your face in a very fun way or in a very hurtfull way depending on how you choose to play the story!

its still in development and i am still hoping for 2-3 great reveals but the story is very entertaining and with consequences for being an asshole so... My MC is always suffering backlash after backlash but oh well if worst comes to worst i will just move back to my oldtown for college and rekindle my relationship with one of the stepsisters... oh shit!

V.0.7
Excellent VN but not perfect, that's why I don't give the full 5 stars.
Pros:
- Good, entertaining story, no pretentious, not overdramatic nor overcomplicated. There are A LOT of implausible coincidences, but that's the thing of this game, why it´s called "Intertwined". You have to suspend your incredulity about all those coincidences for playing and enjoying this game, the same way you have to do suspend your incredulity about a man flying if you go to the movies to see "Superman".
- Good scenes of romance. Not too cheesy. Some funny dialogues.
- Good scenes of sex, when the story needs them. There is not "sex just because" (not a lot, in any case). If sex doesn´t suit with the personality and background of a female character, there is only kissing and flirting with the MC (so far), and it´s OK. If the female character is older and experienced, there is sex and it's OK too. Also, not "flamboyant" fetishes so far, that would not suit with the story and characters
- Good, attractive characters. Again, not pretentious or overdramatic. The MC is a handsome and attractive guy and you can imagine why he´s popular with girls his age and older women. There is a variety in female characters and again, all of them have their own attractive.
- The behavior of the female characters is kind of coherent and realist. Not all of them are lesbians or bi, sluts or prudes (clichés of this kind of games) and they are jealous and sad if they see or think that the MC is dating with other women. It's not one of those games in which all women are blind to the MC dating with her friends, sisters or daughters, or willing to "share" the MC as if it where the normal thing in real world.
- Good renders and decent (kind of) animations. Not that I care a lot about animations, usually.
- A good number of paths with the girls. Choices matter (although the dev recicle one or two scenes and dialogues of a girl's path to another girl's path when you can't follow the two of them. A lazy trick, IMO).
- Zero grind.
Cons:
- The antagonists: so far, the antagonists are evil, because are evil, because are evil. That´s all. No other reason behind. Of course, it´s 2021. The only really terrible people are men. If a woman does something wrong, she has her reasons and is forgiven. Only men can be assholes and terrible persons (cheaters, liars, violent, stalkers) just because, apparently, they were born that way.
- No competition at all: the only attractive guy in the game is the MC. All girls and women are single and apparently, waiting for him to appear and make them happy. Seducing girls in that world is like fishing in a barrel. I´m not into NTR at all, and I don´t want an "Eric" in the game, but a bit of competence would be good. The only male characters so far are the MC, his goofy/funny mate that makes the MC look better in comparison, a bartender to fill the gaps of the plot, and the douche/evil antagonists.
- Lack of variety in female bodies: even 40+ years old women with sons have the body of a 25 years old model. Devs should learn that a women doesn´t need the body of a pornstar or a model to be attractive. Tits a bit saggy, a bit of belly, and butts that are not like a perfect peach can be sexy too. At least, the proportions of the bodies are natural, not huge melons and butts with ultra narrow waists.
- Some face models a bit too familiar from other games.
- The MC always is the "good guy" even if his actions are not the ones of a decent person. Flirting (and even having sex) with two sisters at the same time, for example. He should have punishment if he does something that in real life would have punishment. For example, if a guy seduces two sisters at the same time, and they know, probably the guy would lose the two of them. I don´t think most of the girls would sit with the guy and say to him "you can choose, me or my sister"
- The story of Erynn: She is too cool for being credible. I don´t see plausible that a beautiful 22 years old college girl that at the same time has a career as swimsuits model for magazines, has a huge crush with a high school boy that was kind of a little brother to her when they were children, and the last time she saw him was 5 years ago, when she was a teenager of 16 and he was a child of 13, and he had a childish tantrum because of a misunderstood, and left... At that point of his life, it´s safe to say that this kind of girl would have a court of friends/boyfriends/admirers of at least three dozens of men and boys her age, and would have mostly forgotten the MC... The dev could have made Erynn less cool to match with the MC, or could have created a situation in which the MC has to fight to gain her love, not against a lame antagonist that blackmails her and she hates, but against other male characters that she could be interested in.

This is one of the best erotic games that I have ever played. I have enjoyed it, for example, almost at the level of BaDIK (another great but not perfect game). I don´t give the 5 stars because that would mean "perfect", and it´s not. But it´s a great game, IMO.

Very underrated, Great story decent renders. One of the best VN's I played in a while that actually focus's on romance and not endless drama or harems. Definitely worth a play and more attention. I've only tried 3 of the relationships but all I've experienced had well flushed out back stories and story arcs so far.

TLDR: This game is a hot mess of good and bad, often "intertwined" (pun intended! ), meaning that the good has a bad counterpart. Had it been possible I would have given it a score of 3.5, but since that isn't possible, it get's a 3 to even out all the over the top favourable reviews.

Pros

• Choices really do matter. Both in terms of collecting romance points and branching the story.
  
  
• MC is physically attractive. Muscled and built and has kind of a handsome face from the front.
  
  
• MC is intelligent, confident and decently charming and assertive. Together with his looks makes it more believable that all those beautiful women lust after him. And of course a pro for any straight woman playing the game...
  
  
• Good looking female models.
  
  
• Jealousy. The women don't like the idea of the MC fucking other women. That's realistic and gives the game some nerve.
  
  
• Nice looking sex-animations towards the end.
  
  
• Many women to seduce. Though most won't lead to anything as of version 0.7.
  
  
• Sex early on in the game. You don't have to play for hours before you get your first sex scene.
  
  
• Slow burn incest romance. Or at least that's if there is to be an incest angle, but there is a good looking mom who you get romance points for being nice to, so everything points in that direction.
  
  
• No grind.
  
  
• Proper English. No engrish.

Cons

• Opaque consequences. In some cases it's difficult to discern what consequence a choice will have. Sometimes you even decide branching paths by complete random things. Without a walkthrough, this game is very difficult to predict and thereby play.
  
  
• All men are midgets. Including the MC. The fact that all characters, men and women, with or without stiletto heels, are equally tall makes it a little less egregious, as it's obvious that it's due to the dev being to lazy to do height differentiation, but it's still a bad look and fucks with the sex scenes, as it makes the male MC sometimes look smaller than the women he's fucking (also fucks with things like cock size, because what looks big on him won't look as big next to a woman who is as large as he is).
  
  
• MC look like shit in profile, as he has no chin whatsoever. It also makes him look very boyish. Screws with his supposed good looks. A look he by the way share with almost all men in the game, se below.
  
  
• Characters look alike. Especially the men. Many of them look like the exact same person with different hairdoes. But also some of the women look very much alike.
  
  
• Family members do not resemble each other. Extra annoying considering the above.
  
  
• Player/MC forced to choose between women. Happens all the time and the women not choosen becomes unavailable or at the very least severely bumped back in line. That means a hefty portion of sexscenes are unavailable regardless of how well the game is played. This is bad because
  a) most players are not likely to replay the game, meaning a lot of romantic encounters and sex scenes (=effort) is lost
  and
  b) in these kind of games, the sexual conquests are part of what's arousing and exciting, and limiting the number of love interests even though the sex animations and everything are ready to go, kind of defeats the purpose of the game. The player will just be teased with all the attractive women the MC won't be able to get with.
  
  
• As if this was not bad enough on it's own, many times the forced choice is in itself forced and stilted and sometimes it's not even conscious. Example: if the MC is nice to the woman sitting next to him on the plane, he'll have a sexual relationship with her, if he's not, he'll have a sexual relationship with a stewardess instead. That being nice or not being nice being an autistic dick will have such far reaching implications is impossible for the player to figure out beforehand.
  
  
• Player penalized for having multiple relationships. If the above (X2) isn't bad enough, when the MC chooses to engage in non romantic sex with side characters, he will always be punished for it sooner or later. Just as above, the way he gets punished is often forced, stilted and ridiculous (what are the odds that the MC and his love interest would stumble upon his teenage one night stand the one day he's back visiting his old home town and that the one night stand would think it a good idea to randomly spill to the love interest that she and the MC had sex once?). I don't mind that there might be consequences to risk taking in a game, but this is just ridiculous.
  
  
• Women fly to the MC:s cock. Yes, it's good that he's portrayed as someone who's very attractive on multiple fronts. But virtually no gorgeous woman would have sex with a total stranger on an airplane lavatory, just because the stranger is handsome. And especially not a stewardess working on said airplane. The women fall head over heels in love with the MC way too quickly and way too many are willing to have sex with him without knowing him at all.
  
  
• Still, slow burn. Despite what's said above, it takes a lot of time for the MC to bed some of the female characters who are more or less in love with him from day one. A more assertive MC should have the option to move quicker (possibly at the price of having his chances of a long time relationship diminish).
  
  
• Constant mind reading. Shatters first person immersion, as the MC isn't a mind reader. Many times the thoughts are redundant, as it's quite clear what the female character is thinking from her action anyways. If the dev doesn't trust his/her player base to figure things out for themselves, then he/she can let the MC muse/speculate on what he thinks the women are thinking, thereby giving the neccessary clues to what's going on in the head of the women, without breaking first person immersion.
  
  
• MC charm not allways so charming in reality. Sometime the dev nails the charm, but other times the dialoge is flat and boring. It's heavily implied that all women find the MC very charming and endearing, but when the dialogue feels anything but, it kind of ruins the illusion. No biggie though, it's not *that* bad.
  
  
• Childish and immature at times. For instance, almost all men apart from the MC are portrayed as assholes or idiots or both, maybe that's so that the MC will seem even more fantastic in comparison? A lot of fistfighting that wouldn't take place in the real world. I don't mind the fighting, but if you're going to have those kind of conflicts, why not have the men fight openly about the women and have the winner fuck the woman as the spoils of war/victory? I mean, if you wanna go down that road anyway, do it properly and have some real alpha male dominance (it would still be unrealistic, but at least it would serve a purpose as a sexual fantasy).
  
  
• To much talking to bros and too many banal and pointless conversations. Not a huge gripe though, most conversations are on point, if a bit long winded (like this review... ).
  
  
• MC morality conflicting. The MC doesn't seem to know what kind of dude he is. On the one hand, it's very much implied he's a good guy who acts decent, caring and altruistic in general. On the other hand, he has multiply love interest that he strings along by telling them that he loves them and that he will break up with the other women he's seeing (while doing no such thing). Despite that, he doesn't seem to have that many thoughts about what he's doing or why. As if earnestly telling multiple women that you love them and only them, while at the same time holding a raging hate boner for unfaithfullness is something normal. He also gets into one fight after another, favouring violence as a problem solving method. Don't get me wrong, I prefer playing a bad guy rather than a good guy when I play erotic games, because that opens up both fetishes/fantasies and opportunities. But I get a little annoyed when neither the MC, nor the dev (especially the dev) seem to realise that the MC actions kind of preclude him from being a hero. If you're going to let your MC do douchy and assholy things, then accept and embrace that he's kind of a bad guy. Doesn't mean he has to be a freaking psycho or anything, but you know, let the MC be aware of what he's doing and give us some more bad guy options, like putting pressure on love interest to get to the sexy parts.

Big fan of this game!
I hope it get's finished and also a sequel.

The story is very intense and captivating.
Top class writing!
Some exquisite visuals and animations. Really good work!
Best models I've seen so far!

I got caught up in it immediately, this is making it into my top 3! (which should actually be 1, because my top 3 are equal, imo).

I can barely wait for updates.
Thanks Nyx!

great game design , great 3d character design and wonderful story with good character development. love stories like this with a dedicated developer and active community. I Look forward to this games updates and other developments from this developer.

Very promising game, interesting story, characters & the protagonist actually has some depth to him, with the makings of a great love story to boot that's bound to become more complicated with the characters become more fleshed out with each update. Hope this game doesn't get abandoned like so many others have as its genuinely got intriguing characters

This is great. The characters are beautiful and likeable, there is chemistry, great build up and it's pretty believable. There are some slips of engrish towards the end and not all animations look great but that Michelle Jenneke animation makes up for that and then some. More than any other game I've played I actually felt like an asshole for going for multiple girls in the same playthrough, the writing made me like the girls that much.

Art could be considered great if this game had a couple of years, but it's from 2020, so it's really subpar. Animations are quite static and are certainly below average, story is OK-ish and the gameplay is quite quite dull. Sure, you've got choices to make but since the story isn't that great, the gameplay ends up not being that captivating. It's unbelievable to me how this game can have such high grade while much better games have lower grades than it.

Overall, if the game was from 2018, it would be quite good. But since then, we got much better stuff that pushed the genre forward and increased the standard for art, story and gameplay. Today, this game falls below that standard.

So.. I just was able to play the whole game at this state (0.7) and yea..

First of all, I need harem. I cant hurt any girl in such games but I could also love all. .-. xd


The story is really good, after some clicks and readings there is like a puzzle and u get everytime a new piece, what you also gave some glues who is with who related or similiar. I prefer also visuals where can catch me by reading them in the most parts. But also its a kinda classic way for such games. Isnt the first with such a story build, but also wont be the last. At least its one who can catch the player/reader I think.

Nearly the same apply to the graphic of the game, its not really a new or innovative style of design but its really good done so far, I prefer also here more the details then the whole pack of pictures. But in all its fitting and thats so far I think important.

In all I can rate this 4 out 5 stars, its really good so far, but nothing really new/innovative

I hope for the developer my best and that they keep hold their work up

(I hope also my english is readable so far, its not my native and to my bad I didnt learned it to well too ^^ )

After playing v0.7 of this game, here are my thoughts.

I like:
-good renders and animations
-good story
-comedy, some of the scenes really made me laugh
-hot women
-lots of hot sex scenes
-no unavoidable sexual encounters
-the player's choices matter
-the player have the option whether to pursue or end a relationship with the female characters
-no NTR, I wouldn't mind it as long as the MC is the one stealing the woman (netori), otherwise, it's a huge boner killer for me
-Emily is so hot
-there are twists in the story which is so uncommon with most of the games here
-scenes are realistic aside for the one when Cara sits on the bike's handlebar when the MC takes her to school and home

I didn't like:
-the drama or rather the source of the drama which is the MC's over reaction on the situations especially with Emily, Erynn and Alexis. It is the most commonly used way to start a drama in stories, the "there's nothing to talk to, what is there to explain, I've heard enough. If only the MC didn't over react and just talked with these people instead of speculating, all those drama and problems could've been avoided. It's irritating to see those kind of scenes in stories,
-there is no way to torture and slowly kill Ethan. I really hate that piece of shit
-there is no romantic option for Emily. It sucks that the devs made her so hot but the player cannot pursue a romantic relationship with her
-no sex scenes with Erynn, aside from the one which did not progress further, I hope there will be more of her and the MC in the coming updates

I'll give this game 4 stars but since it is still ongoing so things can change and making something of this quality is not easy, I'll give it 5 stars for now and see what happens later on.

One of the best game i've ever played, great story.
I love the charachters, i love the way they act and i love that there is a lot of content. I want to play more and this is the best i can say.
This is not the game where mc has superpower, is not the strongest and he is simply a guy.

Really like this game.

the good :
a lot of girls
a good story , and well developped characters.
A lot of options and really nicely setup.

The less good :
Renders could use a few more frames & some audio added during the game would make it more enjoyable

excellent game. the emotion is complete with this game. you'll get funny scene, sad, emotional, etc. graphic are really nice, the girls are awesome with their own ways. would be really hard to choose one . The updates are quite frequent with a decent amount of content. Maybe adding music/ voices is the only way to make this game better. Good luck for the developer. I think this game have potential to be one of the best here..

Really loving the story so far. I dont mind the incest because it's not literal incest, it's actually quite enjoyable incest. I don't mind the animations. The music is non existent but im using my personal music playlist so it's still the same for me.

I've played through this VN twice (0.5 & 0.7) from beginning to end, the only other VN I went this extra mile for was Being A Dik so that says a lot. If you are looking for a good read with plenty of beautifully rendered characters that have personality then you have come to the right place. The drama is good and I love the fact that the MC is rough around the edges which creates plenty of opportunity for growth in the scenes that play out. The way the VN uses the flashbacks is also pretty awesome. The fact that the MC follows my simple rule of foreplay (kissing and fondling because why have a beautiful woman with curves if you are not gonna do the needful) and then sex means everything as well.

Lastly, Layla is best girl and I consider her route also to be the best simply because I love the chemistry between her and the MC. . Nikki is a close second but honestly all the girls are pretty awesome. The new girl Valeria is arguably the cutest chick of the VN though.

I don't normally review, but damn this game deserves the five stars. The characters feel more realistic than most, and the writing is top notch. Normally plots for these visual novels can be pretty flimsy, but this one managed a good balance of humour and heart while keeping it very grounded. Of course, the women are also gorgeous and the animation stands alongside Being a Dik and City of Broken Dreamers as some of the best in the genre.

Waited 1 year to find out that the main Li of the game was in a serious relationship with a other man
While her love of life was away
And now there there a sex tap of her to with the other guy
This game is not for everyone

Overhyped mediocre "meet-as-many-girls-as-you-can" VN
which beauty-renders obviously are there to distract from its dullness

Well, due to all these overwhelming reviews with 5 (and even more!) stars I was tempted to give "Intertwined" a shot as well.
But to make it short: the whole thing did not convince me!

Okay, ... on the (+) side...

• the renders and some animation are done quite well,
• the girls are beautiful (of course that's subjective)
• the writing isn't bad, neither is grammar nor the dialogues
• there are a bunch of choices (but most of them without too much impact as they are mainly giving you more scenes)
• 5+ GB of content (well, the renders are HQ jpg)
• no real complaints about bugs so far

??? So why is "Intertwined" only average for me???

Many reviews here point out that this one has...
For an approx. 5-star "game" or VN that's much too less... immersive, realistic, story-driven and interesting for me.
I got bored by all the cliches of characters and plot both...
"Intertwined" isn't bad or poor, but it's far from being soo great!

There is a lot to like in this VN but it has a few minor issues.
The game is basically about 'teenage relationship drama', and it is written that way. That was not a criticism btw, it is all believable and otherwise well done (although I feel the story gets a bit convoluted later on) The MC is kinda dumb and drops a few plot holes for his character considering he has excellent grades in school, his emotional intelligence is certainly lacking when it comes to dealing with the women and girls around him!
Sometimes there is drama for drama's sake Which then get explained away and 'solved' through a flashback or lengthy conversation. Like how some bad romance movies could be half as long if characters just talked to each other instead of running away and creating extra misunderstandings. This game is a bit like that. It is not a deal breaker: It adds to the story! If one girl is angry with you, that is how you can get more familiar with another girl or if you are friendly with 1 girl her friend might get to know you better as well. The way conversation choices bounce off off each other really makes the story all 'Intertwined' : :roll credits: :


Seriously though, my biggest gripe with this are the sex scenes. There are animations, but they are choppy at best and underused sometimes. And on 1 occasion a sex scene was entirely made up out of a single, short animation, fade-to-black and on with the story. When there are still renders used, they are used well and plenty which is most of the time.
The differing personalities On the girls and women are working well and the visual models are all overly beautiful. Visually overall the game looks good. Sound and music is used sparingly for the dramatic moments and is done well!
Overall: try it if you want interesting story. I hope the game gets finished and then gets another pass to fix some of the minor issues like fixing plot holes and spicing up lacking sex scenes/renders.