VN - Ren'Py - Isabella - Chasing Shadows [Ch. 4.3] [badtimetales]

" Isabella: Chasing Shadows is an adult visual novel story crafted as an erotic thriller, where your choices will matter, as you find yourself deeply entrenched in trying to uncover those responsible for the murder of your fiancée. "
i think game got itself hit with this intro
not only it made me give it a try, but it also gave me reaction "sure i would like to see that"
Titled isabela seems to be Author self-insert character
i ended up fucking her friend Alex

let me summary choices:
Cum inside 3x - no consequence
avoid footjob - no consequence
fuck other lady twice - no consequences and no option to fuck her again or tell her that you have a GF and will no longer fuck her or anything

Tell Alex you love her/she need other boyfriend - finally we made it important choice i think??? i hope?? i took her because we had sex few times and she wake up in my bed and did breakfast once, whatever as close to companionship as porn games are willing to offer

try to recover your stolen bike - this seems to be 2nd important choice in the whole game, no consequences yet but there was a lot of bike related scenes... i just don't understand why not call police and have whole house of this losers in prison...

there was a choice to take self-defense items - NO CONSEQUENCES player literally can never use them at all, whats the point of it!

Additional note: Game is in version 4.3 developed since 2021 last big game in that version i tried was called Pale Carnation and i expected a lot..

THIS GAME BY ALL MEANS CAN GET GOOD

However for now:
Choices does not seems to do anything
Detective Thriller Game is not there yet xD
Isabella tag herself into my relationship like 5th wheel and seems to be more interested in fucking her dog than doing anything relevant
despite murder case investigation player talk only with 1 police officer!

Additional Qualities:
this seems to be a passion project, but author should step up development, game was super empty
Props for posting own game here, i respect this
Good luck on the project, i will try to give it another try in the distance future

This AVN summarizes with one word "overrated"
The story is not interesting, it's quite linear so there are only a few decisions and those that exist do not matter.
So far there are only 3 LI and the main one has the most cliche and ugly design you can find in this kind of games, but the worst thing is that the game practically forces you to be with her... If you're going to force the player to take a route at least put the kinetic novel tag on it and change the name to "Alex & Isabella"

It's a great game, in my opinion a good story line which is progressing not too fast, but also not too slow. I love the animated graphics, I simply love to game and i'm playing / watching it with great fun!

I'm a firm believer of voting for quality/effort and not content. Content is subjective. Too much sex, minus one star. Not enough sex, minus one star. I don't find LI physically attractive, minus one star.

With that kind of mindset, quality games that are niche gets buried in the sea of 3-4 stars.

Isabella - Chasing shadows is a game with high quality. It is clear the dev put effort into it. Therefore, it deserves 5 stars. Whether you enjoy the plot or not (and I did), you can't deny the labor the dev has put into the game.

My only annoyance is that during the sex, you have the button "finish" and the button "change angle" next to each other. Clicking the "change angle" comes with dialog. You can chose "finish" without changing angle and skip some dialog. I'd prefer to have a natural flow with the camera moving on its own until there's no more conversation. Then you make the button to finish appear. Kind of annoying to have sex > click change angle > dialog > click change angle > dialog > click change angle > back to original angle, no more dialog > click change angle to make sure there really is no more dialog > click finish.

Then again, this is my subjective opinion. Some people do enjoy the liberty of changing angle often during a single scene. I prefer a more streamline flow.

Isabella - Chasing Shadows is a mature story driven game with a great cast of characters.

I normally don't care about animations in these games, but they are done really well in this so if you like animations you'll like these ones.

Now I'll talk about the two main girls Alex & Isabella they are two of the most beautiful and kindhearted women you'll find in an avn.

If you want a story driven game with some really sexy content, you'll love this. And CS has some of the best dialogue I have seen it feels authentic and real.

And finally, choices feel important and suit the story they aren't just thrown in to please the players.

Story starts with your wifes death, then seconds later by your perspective you are fucking some meth head.

I dont like stories where the women have no thoughts of their own and throw themselves at you or you have a forced partner and this pairing with the start was particularly bad.

Next you meet a nice woman (your wife, before she was), but then you go right home to the unavoidable meth head. BUT WAIT THERES MORE. 2 seconds later supposedly a lot of time has passed and now youre fucking the new woman, without explanation, but as if this is not a new thing... so the plot sucks. There's no engrish though so we can say over all, the writing is ok. But wait. It was just a dream memory. Everyone LOVES when the sex scenes are dreams.

Next theres val who is basically a twin for isabella. She throws herself at you too, so so much for the women having autonomy.

However the animations are top notch, at least the ones that dont show the butch head of the model. The way the ass, idk, squidges? is better than a lot of weird ripple effects animations show. The renders in general are very very good.

MC isn't pathetic. That alone is a big win. It is beyond my understanding why so many MCs are absolutely pathetic, so I have started including this in my reviews.

I got a bit further but then gave up since the whole game is essentially flashback->meth head->flashback->meth head. I dont like that style, but on the strength of the renders and animations I think a lot of others will like this. A real shame because the models are great too.

[Review for Ch. 4.3]

I remember I have fond memories of playing the initial versions of the game, but now, as of Ch. 4.3, the game unfortunately becomes more and more BORING without any promising rewards.
After three years of development, the story just seems to lose the spark that the initial versions have. The initial suspense is slowly sabotaged by the mundane interactions between only a few characters, and the choices become fewer and unimportant to the overall story. And the characters become less and less interesting after a few updates, with the primary example being the increasingly soulless MC. The excessive focus on the cat and the dog is WEIRD to say the least. And the renders: they are OK at best, but it just feels a bit off, I wouldn't say it's lifeless, but it's nearly there. What doesn't help with the case is the mediocre render of Alex, one of the two LIs in the story. The story is supposed to focus on the titular character Isabella, but instead, we are stuck with the okay-ish LI with the boring sex scenes, without any prospect of plowing Isabella even tho you're on the throuple route. Sometimes it feels like Isabella has become a background character instead of an actual LI.
I wouldn't call this game a bad one, but a boring one. For me it's worse than being bad because there are a lot of "so bad it's good" ones I thoroughly enjoy, but this one fails tremendously in arousing my interest anymore. So 2/5 for me.

Boring story with always the same content with the same girl.
The annoying and very generic Alex stays with you all the time even when you reject her.
Renders are ok.
No content with the supposedly main LI after 3 years, I like slow burn but this is going into a direction I don't like.

I liked the initial versions of this game but now(4.3) i don't find it interesting anymore.
Too much focus on a character that doesn't attract me on any level and very little to the titular character.
The main crime story also doesn't grab my attention.

In theory this game offers 2 paths, one that is throuple focussed and one that focuses on the titular character, but this second one lags behind in development noticeably, all the devs focus seem to go in the throuple route and specifically on the non-titular character.

[Review for Ch. 4.2]
I can tell there was some effort on the dev's part to at least try and write a good story, but the constant flashbacks, overly verbose dialogue and inner monologue, snail's pace, and general grammar issues make this a slog to read.

Plus, I just find the story to be kind of boring--things are too obviously telegraphed for the most part so there's almost no mystery to the plot and whenever there's something actually interesting it's lost in a sea of dull dialogue.

Ultimately, it was just too slow and sloppy to really capture my attention. Don't think it's worth the time investment.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what annoys me the most in this game but I finally figured it out. It is BORING. BORING BORING BORING

It's not the Slow burn that's a problem, it's the Boring friggin story. This VN is custom tailored for women. Women who want a romance type game will love this (maybe). Guys who want a GF, if you find the 1/2 shaved head girl (Alex) attractive then this VN is for you (maybe).

Her character model is just OK to me but you are tethered to her throughout this game. The renders are...weird..good quality but you always get the impression something is off. The people look very dry (best way I can describe it)

This game is really mixed to me, Isabella is very beautiful and has an interesting story, but the choices in the game are very lackluster, there are not many choices and the ones that exist don't do much to the direction of the game, there is too much attention on the dog for some reason, that decision doesn't really make sense in my perspective, and also to make it worse there is barely any sexual or even romantic content with Isabella for now when she is obviously the main LI, overall just a 5/10 experience, it could get better as the developer adds more scenes with Isabella in the future.

Awesome story, great cinematography, almost like watching a movie. Characters have incredible depth and are authentic. Bit of a slow burn, but in a good way. I loved the complexity of the storyline, well hashed out. Kinda gives an Epstein feeling, which I assume was at the core of this project.
A+++ Dev!

Oh, and I wouldn't mind a run at Cath as at least a single time option.

Well, let's get to the game and how interesting it could be even more if you had more choice options, apart from the hot scenes where you have angle options, Other than that you are very limited to certain moments, There is a lack of choices that can really give impact on the MC that he may regret more in the future.

The girls
Jennifer: although you already start the game with loss, it's a case that still intrigues who is really the mastermind behind her death, that's just the future for us to tell.

Alex: because of her turbulent past for everything she went through with her father's death, her being deceived by the band leader, I even understand more if she was a little more open with him having to know about her past because of her sister, it's missing more attitude from her for now, I'll follow her route and see where it goes and it's the only one she has at the moment .

Isabella: this is difficult to cry a lot and the mc is weak in the end he falls for her charms and as Alex is jealous he doesn't like it at all seeing his male flirting with another in front of him, because in reality I don't like this type of girl who does anything to attract attention, unfortunately it doesn't work for me as a romance option .

Val: interesting, happy, fun girl has her ways of what she really wants if she had more screen time like Alex and Isa she would be my first option for who I should follow until the end, for now I'll leave her as my second option romance in case I change my mind with Alex later .

The other girls still don't enjoy waiting for what will happen from now on or in the future.

Overall rating: 4/5

Note: my review is not the best, I took a few hours off my break to play and people insisted that I at least try.

I'm really not one to review games because in the end it could end up being deleted, which is why your review suggests that it's an attack on the developer, because some developers don't like it when you criticize their game even pointing out the errors and flaws, you have to say that the game is good

This game is not for me, it's not at all what I expected when reading the reviews, basically every review here exclusively praises the game, so I'm going to do it differently, I'm going to talk about what I didn't like.

To begin with, as far as I was able to play, the player basically has no right to make serious decisions, we can only watch, the few choices that appeared were stupid, like choosing where to cum, or acting like a creep with a girl who is scared and asked for your help.

I read in other reviews that the game is slow burn, maybe that's the case with Isabella, but only with her, the "MC" has a very active sex life, he repeatedly has sex with a "friend", without asking if we players want it or not, even Isabella is forced on us, without caring if we are interested or not.

There are so many animations in this game, none of them are of good quality, I'm not insulting DEV, I even take my hat off to him for trying, it may not be good now, but it will be in the future; however, the ones we have here are not good, with the exception of the sex animations (which are basically 3sec loop stimuli), the rest are unnecessary, and make the game worse, I think it's stupid to watch a long animation just to see a character form a smile, it would be smoother to use stills with a dissolve, it would be much better than this animation, and this is just one example, the DEV even tried to create cutscenes.

I expected a serious game, with good dialogue, drama, but what I saw was a game where the player has no decision-making power, and the MC acts like a pervert all the time; despite having a certain plot, and drama, it disappears like smoke as the MC can only act like a 15-year-old pervert.

I'll summarize by saying that it's a good idea, but with poor execution.

Must say I didn't expect all these "Video's". Story is good so far and the characters are refreshing. Alex is quite the firecracker
Just wanted to say. Going back to the game
Keep up the good work!

This game has many positive points and honestly, without exaggerating the negative points, even if it has, they are not felt against the positive points

Positive points:
The appearance of in-game females is very attractive in their own way

The females and males in the game are not copies (these days, most games use models that are copies of other games, and this is not good at all)

The renderings are quite satisfactory

The animations are great, they have been worked on and the physiology of the models changes inside them, this is great

The story of this game is very interesting and original, not a copy (unlike most other games).

The music of this game is great and has a special harmony with the atmosphere of the game

MC's personality is very great, he is attractive, one enjoys being in his place.

The personality of the girls in this game is very attractive, they are not boring sluts, they have a strong personality

Writing is very strong. We are not in favor of long, redundant and boring writings

and Etc ...


negative points :

Nothing ! Even if there is, I did not feel it

This is one of those slow burn games that you need to set right expectations for. It absolutely delivers on what it wants to showcase, and how it presents its story but if you're thinking you're going to be ogling women left & right and skipping through the dialogues to get to the "good stuff", you'd realize that the dialogues, characters, worldbuilding and the story itself is what is the main course, whereas the "Adult" part of the games are more of a natural occurence and not the main feature of the game.
Its a game that doesn't rely on sex, and infact, I believe it is one of the least "perverse" games I've played from all the ones I have. This isn't a compliment or criticism, its only an observation, and I'm all in for a compelling plot, which builds up slowly with natural character progression, realistic dialogues and tone, grounded framework and Great visuals on top of it. I also enjoy that the MC feels mature and doesn't act like a usual adult 18 year old MC with big dick mode on jumping on every woman in sight like a dog chasing a bone.
Really enjoyed the experience so far, and very intrigued to see where this goes next, the choices are few and far between but they still feel relevant. Isabella - Dark Paths is a dark horse in the making.
Go in with the right expectations and you'll really enjoy it, for the rest who want quick fix, its not a game for you.

This is an excellent Virtual Novel.

It is well written and enjoyable. The characters are endearing and interesting and carry the story.

While nothing is perfect, I would say the only drawback is you are stuck with one of the love interests from the beginning. And in order to not be involved with them, you have to friend-zone them. Cruel, because this L.I. like the other main L.I. is very likeable.

I hope the author considers making more VNs after this one is complete. Over many years time, they could have a wonderful set of stories.

Isabella-Dark Paths, recommended.

Ok, its been months since I've played a game that did not make skip the story, characters are well written, decent animation, good plot, a bit predictive but let's hope you surprise me! Well deserved 5 stars. Keep up the good work!