VN Ren'Py Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.1 Part I] [Grym Gudinna Games]

[motseer]

Well the fact you seem to have deleted your post (or it was removed for you)...says everything.

Hehehe... Gotta know them rules, bud. Gotta know them rules...

 

[DoverUK25]

The top 3 in the poll at the moment are

1.I play the dom path and prefer a more normal/dominant harem/romance gaining power Kane without extreme evil.
81

2. I like the subpath, prefer a mix of extreme and gentle
57

3rd.I play the dom path, and like the extreme evil path, absolutely would miss it.50 -

Side ask from here on down for research: I like the sub path, prefer more extreme content
50

 

[Zenith_11]

(just a rant) For me the best part about this game are its branching narratives. There's so many pursuable routes. You can be dom/good or take a more sub path depending on your preference. There's even a secret sub route.

But I think the part where this game really shines is its extreme content. It's refreshing to see a game that doesn't shy away from introducing extreme content. Specifically content exploring sadism from both the evil Dom and Sub path. It strikes a perfect balance and fits perfectly in line with its dystopian setting.

I mean the Karlsson company is literally run by people with sadistic tendencies. That's why I always played the Dom/evil route because it's satisfying to see Kane's slow descent into depravity and evil. The removal of the evil/Dom path just feels like a step towards the wrong direction and a complete deviation from the original story.

By steering the focus towards a more normal Dom/harem path I feel like it'll take away one of things that make it so unique. I've lost track of how many generic harem/dom games there are. But this vn brings something original and refreshing which I thoroughly enjoy. Ofc I support whatever decision the dev feels like doing. I'll also continue playing the game but it's just disappointing to see my Dom/evil route disappear.

 

[Maviarab]

Old conversations and dialogues with Tess aside, I can say the following. Sometime earlier this year in Tess's Discord, myself and other players, some of whom are also here, had an interesting conversation with TessSadist But it didn't start out about the game, it started about guys IRL.. I won't quote Tess verbatim, but from what I've read then and before, nothing suggests that Tess is an ardent feminist or anything like that.

I won't quote the whole conversation with Tess right now, it wasn't so much about the guys (from Tess' point of view) as it was about the KG, and boiled down to answering our questions... But if you do a "brief excerpt" of the "about guys" part, it boils down to the fact that Tess, on the contrary, would like modern guys to be more proactive, more confident, more in touch with women and not afraid to take responsibility. The problem has actually been around for quite some time, but this thread is probably not the right place to go off topic and discuss gender roles and changing social behaviour of one sex over the other.

Speaking of which, that's what the game itself is permeated with. Almost every female in-game character complains to Kane Dom that there are no strong and confident men around. And if you didn't notice it at all, but paid attention to some phrase about "alleged superiority of women over men". (which, by the way, I don't remember exactly in your interpretation, where both genders are compared head-on and the superiority of one over the other is asserted... there were such conversations, but the speech was about something else - about the complete lack of self-confident men who are represented in this dystopian world) then you should definitely replay the game a couple more times and scrutinize the dialogues.

So you are too quick to judge the game and label the person who created it based on some templates that are convenient for your mind. It often pays to break those patterns and start thinking outside of their narrow frameworks.

A paradox, you ask? A female femdom game dev, businesswoman and dominatrix IRL practitioner encouraging players through her game characters to be stronger and more responsible? What, LOL? No, I'll answer you. It's not a paradox, it's the unchangeable laws of life. And strong women still need a strong and confident man just as much as weak women do.

Perrectly said Stan, couldn't agree more with anything you wrote.

 

[kinkyshin]

I know but thats not the case here. but the inspiration behind this game might be the reason why there's so much hate both genders in some circles. there's a dialogue in this game where if i am not wrong alexandra says "man is inferior to women" thats definately a belief instead of a fact, but then feminists/females ask why the other side have such beliefs about them.

Just because Alessandra (a fictional character) believes that women are superior to men doesn't mean that the writer or other women think that way.

Too bad f95zone removed the facepalm emoji.

 

[YuNobi1]

ENOUGH WITH THIS INCEST BULLSHIT! It was fucking tiring years ago...it's still tiring. We know Patreons rules...we no longer care! Let it fucking die already or take the discussion to PM's or an off-topic thread!.
____________________________________________________________________

Now I've got that shit off my chest,...time to address another long-standing issue (as I'm currently...very...carefully..reading...and.going...through...various paths to make my new saves (and complete my own, more detailed timeline of important events: So, without further ado...just how evil is V really? Well:

Spoiler: V and her deaf slaves.

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Considering she's supposed to be super intelligent, therefore already knows the logical objection, and when V actually wants a private conversation (Kane!) she makes sure it's completely private, I lean to them not actually being deaf. (Especially when you consider nobody has been in the tower, much less the room, for 3 months, and a blindfolded deaf man is supposed to navigate his way to his objective without getting lost or touching the wrong thing?)

But forget about them, let's focus on her concrete actions.
1) V's Programs: she runs the prisons, the Joy Facility/rehab program, and the Vipers. Therefore, everything that happens above board is within her desires and her designs. In Kiyomi's debut scene, she confesses to being obligated to kill the man, it is not her choice, and she does not desire it, therefore her boss (or boss's boss) wants it to happen, and who is her boss? V.

2) V's People: since she runs these programs, she also directly decides who works for her in them. So she hired Sam and Pat at the prison, she transferred Pat, she has chosen who can and cannot be a Viper, or at the Joy Facility. She knew what Katsumi was like, and put her in charge of Seth. Speaking of which, she not only tortures Seth directly, she sends J after him as well. Yet the worst of all is Dr. Chastain, V's lifelong friend and evil sadist that put A and J to shame, so while one could argue V "didn't know" how bad the others would be, she knew perfectly well who Chastain was, and placed her precisely in the position that she can see the most damage.

3) V's Products: J's hatred stems from a belief that V is lauded as "the great one" because of her "products", but J believes that the secret to these "products'" profit margins is J's marketing genius. If these were simple inventions, then J's thought process doesn't make sense, but we learn exactly "products" J is marketing in her manager training: slaves, and marketing is indeed pivotal in this type of sale. Therefore we actually see V's products on full display in her debut scene, and a running theme throughout the game is V's intentional pain creation to create slaves for sale.

If all of that isn't evil enough for you, then the "deaf cleaner" scene is her intentionally sabotaging the Gambit to ensure ONLY Olivia can win, by informing Elena of the whole Gambit plan (thus "informing" Olivia while also ensuring her deniablity) and blocking such information from all potential competitors. It's one thing to cheat to get the edge, it's another entirely to destroy any path to success for anyone else in the race.

 

[Stan5851]

(just a rant) For me the best part about this game are its branching narratives. There's so many pursuable routes. You can be dom/good or take a more sub path depending on your preference. There's even a secret sub route.

But I think the part where this game really shines is its extreme content. It's refreshing to see a game that doesn't shy away from introducing extreme content. Specifically content exploring sadism from both the evil Dom and Sub path. It strikes a perfect balance and fits perfectly in line with its dystopian setting.

I mean the Karlsson company is literally run by people with sadistic tendencies. That's why I always played the Dom/evil route because it's satisfying to see Kane's slow descent into depravity and evil. The removal of the evil/Dom path just feels like a step towards the wrong direction and a complete deviation from the original story.

By steering the focus towards a more normal Dom/harem path I feel like it'll take away one of things that make it so unique. I've lost track of how many generic harem/dom games there are. But this vn brings something original and refreshing which I thoroughly enjoy. Ofc I support whatever decision the dev feels like doing. I'll also continue playing the game but it's just disappointing to see my Dom/evil route disappear.

Firstly, nothing has been decided yet. Secondly, why do some players, including you, think that Tess is thinking of abandoning the whole EvilDom path, when Tess herself has clearly stated that we are only talking about the most extreme offshoots (let's call them branches) of that path, and more specifically those scenes that are inaccessible to the "normally evil" Kane and Olivia and that are only accessible to those K and O who have "demon" and "demoness" flags?

 

[Maviarab]

Firstly, nothing has been decided yet. Secondly, why do some players, including you, think that Tess is thinking of abandoning the whole EvilDom path, when Tess herself has clearly stated that we are only talking about the most extreme offshoots (let's call them branches) of that path, and more specifically those scenes that are inaccessible to the "normally evil" Kane and Olivia and that are only accessible to those K and O who have "demon" and "demoness" flags?

Because people can't read (don't want to) and like jumping to conclusions?

 

[Zenith_11]

Firstly, nothing has been decided yet. Secondly, why do some players, including you, think that Tess is thinking of abandoning the whole EvilDom path, when Tess herself has clearly stated that we are only talking about the most extreme offshoots (let's call them branches) of that path, and more specifically those scenes that are inaccessible to the "normally evil" Kane and Olivia and that are only accessible to those K and O who have "demon" and "demoness" flags?

I am pretty sure that I am on the demon and demoness path. I picked the most extreme evil choices for both my Kane and Olivia on my playthrough.

 

[Maviarab]

I am pretty sure that I am on the demon and demoness path. I picked the most extreme evil choices for both my Kane and Olivia on my playthrough.

If you have URM installed it's simple to check. Flags are:

demon
demoness
demonessdompath

If all true then you are.

 

[Stan5851]

The top 3 in the poll at the moment are

1.I play the dom path and prefer a more normal/dominant harem/romance gaining power Kane without extreme evil.
81

2. I like the subpath, prefer a mix of extreme and gentle
57

3rd.I play the dom path, and like the extreme evil path, absolutely would miss it.50 -

Side ask from here on down for research: I like the sub path, prefer more extreme content
50

DoverUK25, thanks for keeping us informed. Despite of the not-so-fun reason that prompted Tess to make this particular poll, its questions, much less the results, will be of interest to a great many players. (imo)

If you have URM installed it's simple to check.

Maviarab, what's an URM?

 

[Maviarab]

DoverUK25, thanks for keeping us informed. Despite of the not-so-fun reason that prompted Tess to make this particular poll, its questions, much less the results, will be of interest to a great many players. (imo)

Yeah it's very interesting actually given it's from actual patrons...and as said yesterday, find it interesting that despite the noise made here by some, the sub paths are actually not the most popular (which actually doesn't surpise me at all). Still, unique look of sorts into the playerbases minds that actual contribute to KG.

Also interesting to see just how popular that particular 'path' actually is....

Maviarab, what's an URM?

Universal Renpy Mod Allows to check all the variables/flags/points etc within a VN. Useful not only for cheating (for those that want that) but either fixing things yourself easily or checking you have activated a flag/variable etc or fixing a mistake of your own (as I did on my last KG save where I forgot to do something and only noticed some time later, thankfully was easily remedied by changing a couple of variables from true to false and false to true etc).

I use it on every VN I play as because it's a python renpy file...it does not interfere with any actual 'mods' you may wish to use. Save settings, make a backup in case you kill your save and need to revert....marvelous little thing.

 

[Raj07]

Use JoiPlay and replace game/scripts.rpa with mine.

Hey, can you give us something like that for season 2?

 

[shitass1001]

Hey, can you give us something like that for season 2?

They probably will, when the full update comes out

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

On the veronica thing, still not sure of her endgame since the two times she talked about deaf slaves, the only person giving out information was her. There were much easier ways of her to give out information to the slaves if that was her goal

 

[YuNobi1]

On the veronica thing, still not sure of her endgame since the two times she talked about deaf slaves, the only person giving out information was her. There were much easier ways of her to give out information to the slaves if that was her goal

Well she's clearly not wanting the information to leak through them... because it doesn't. Nobody else finds out about E-O until O's first Board meeting (when E was supposed to find out), nor has anyone other than E acted on the "Alexander Jr. via K" plan. So either a) she's the absolute worst information leaker in history, or b) she's lying about wanting information to leak farther than E-O.

As for her endgame:
1) O wins Gambit
2) K-O takes over Karlsson Group and transition all resources to the Island 4 project, and vetting all potential residents.
3) The "chosen" move into Island 4
4) The outside world collapses/becomes uninhabitable.
5) Theory: Island 4 turns out to actually be a spaceship, and it's residents/crew set off for a new home planet. This then sets up Tess's other game(s).

 

[terassiel]

Yeah the game is great and all, but the wait really is no longer worth the amount of content in the update.

 

[Maviarab]

*sighs*...

You can tell an update is out/due out when all the new accounts or old accounts with barely any posts suddenly appear out of the proverbial woodwork with their 'expert opinions' and bullshit trying to stir up problems....

Yeah the game is great and all, but the wait really is no longer worth the amount of content in the update.

I'll add you into the above bracket also. You don't follow very many VN's do you? You don't have to answer that, was a rhetorical question.

 

[Sancho1969]

Because people can't read (don't want to) and like jumping to conclusions?

Amen.

If you have URM installed it's simple to check. Flags are:

demon
demoness
demonessdompath

If all true then you are.

Damn, took me right out of the possible mainstay in-game info source... not even the alternative I see how you are.

 

[Maviarab]

Amen.


Damn, took me right out of the possible mainstay in-game info source... not even the alternative I see how you are.

Bwahahaha...sorry Sancho. You know I love ya