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

[Maviarab]

Okay, so I've played through the episode 5 times now as K9Junko/Dominique, K9AllEvil, K9Veronica, K1GoodKane/EvilOlivia and SecretSub. So here are my thoughts on overall quality of the episode, the state of the world and the characters.

The quality of the renders varies heavily from scene to scene, the lighting is the biggest culprit (way off in the beach/cave scenes and some others), the camera position could be improved in some shots, but overall it's quite good. There are occasional misspellings and typos, but nothing game-changing. Some flags, however, are bugged (like the one Sancho described earlier) and hopefully will be fixed in the future.
I absolutely love the dark red dress Olivia is wearing, it's lovely. Frankly all the outfits are really great (except Kane's new business executive suit, it feels too bulky, I prefer the tight shirt one). The music seems to be on point as well.

I would say we have 3 major stories going at the same time - personal stories of Kane/Olivia/Seth, the feud between Karlssons and DeKocks (with New Paris having to choose a side eventually) and the state of the planet.

Spoiler: The State of the Planet and the Gambit

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Spoiler: Characters

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can argue with very little of all that. To be fair on one point though, Veronica does question your decision to turn the show down saying it would be a great opportunity for you...

Other than that...pretty much all spot on imo.

Now here's ya like

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

Veronika shouldve had Alexander by the balls as soon as it was revealed that the threat to turn off Collars would be so effective. Yet the only thing she did with said threat was to get him to stop torturing her half-dead sister. Admittedly a noble goal, just figure that she really could've helped a lot of people by either neutering him or having him removed.

 

[Maviarab]

Veronika shouldve had Alexander by the balls as soon as it was revealed that the threat to turn off Collars would be so effective. Yet the only thing she did with said threat was to get him to stop torturing her half-dead sister. Admittedly a noble goal, just figure that she really could've helped a lot of people by either neutering him or having him removed.

Yeah...timeline for this is key for me....

We know generlaly speaking from earlier episodes thatn he condifed and trusted her with a lot. So while she still had all the power, maybe this was at a point where he still generally trusted her so she chose to protect her full sister over all else and not antagonise him 'too much'...

Looking at Katsumi, while we don't see her face, she is obviously still a child by her general size, can be the only reason i can think of as to why she truly didn't go for his balls...

*shrugs*

 

[PickerLewd]

I ask the experts here: why do all pussys, except Scarlett's and Veronica's, look the same?
Tess, we also need the muscle girl and the chubby girl! .

 

[Maviarab]

I ask the experts here: why do all pussys, except Scarlett's and Veronica's, look the same?
Tess, we also need the Muscle Girl, and the Chubby Girl! .

Daz models and corresponding extra genital morphs. There's not a 'huge' amount of variety, even with the add-on that Tess is using.

 

[PickerLewd]

Daz models and corresponding extra genital morphs. There's not a 'huge' amount of variety, even with the add-on that Tess is using.

Yes, we are playing in the nascent era of adult visual novels. There is already a huge variety of faces, but the rest is still to come .

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

Yeah...timeline for this is key for me....

We know generlaly speaking from earlier episodes thatn he condifed and trusted her with a lot. So while she still had all the power, maybe this was at a point where he still generally trusted her so she chose to protect her full sister over all else and not antagonise him 'too much'...

Looking at Katsumi, while we don't see her face, she is obviously still a child by her general size, can be the only reason i can think of as to why she truly didn't go for his balls...

*shrugs*

They had the easy explanation of people legit being scared of him. However at that point, from the way she was talking to him like he was a piece of shit and the way he accepted it, I cant see why she'd let him get away with so much shit after that. Unless he died not too long after that, it stands out as ronny having the opportunity to help others but not doing it because reasons.


I also must ask if it is normal for a brother and sister to skinny dip together. That wasn't the first time they did that together, apparently. This game loves skirting that line. Ignoring that, the scene was intriguing because it felt like the first time those two were reclaiming their power and plotting against their enemies, regardless of whether or not Kane turns Olivia down.

 

[Maviarab]

I also must ask if it is normal for a brother and sister to skinny dip together. That wasn't the first time they did that together, apparently. This game loves skirting that line. Ignoring that, the scene was intriguing because it felt like the first time those two were reclaiming their power and plotting against their enemies, regardless of whether or not Kane turns Olivia down.

I have no idea....only child....though if had a hot sister and she asked/cajoled me I'm not sure what I'd say

Being serious again though, that seemed to me like they were much younger and goofing off together...neither probably thought anything of it at the time, 'kids' do stuff like that together all the time...but as you say...it's a line...

The rest, yup...we've finally hit a fork with 0.8 where it seems things are starting to fall into place and stuff is happening.

 

[PickerLewd]

They had the easy explanation of people legit being scared of him. However at that point, from the way she was talking to him like he was a piece of shit and the way he accepted it, I cant see why she'd let him get away with so much shit after that. Unless he died not too long after that, it stands out as ronny having the opportunity to help others but not doing it because reasons.

Because of the power of the script and because Veronica has her dark side too.
You would think that with her intelligence and all her inventions, she could have ignored the dead father's plans and nonsense and taken over the Empire by force, and even more so when her inventions provide security for the whole system. So if she can't control everything, she can at least free everyone and provoke a revolutionary chaos.

 

[Maviarab]

Because of the power of the script and because Veronica has her dark side too.
You would think that with her intelligence and all her inventions, she could have ignored the dead father's plans and nonsense and taken over the Empire by force, and even more so when her inventions provide security for the whole system. So if she can't control everything, she can at least free everyone and provoke a revolutionary chaos.

Two issues there:

1. She doesn't want it...
2. She'd never risk her place at the top of the food chain (not once daddy dearest gone at least, it was really quite a hollow threat at the end of the day)

 

[YuNobi1]

Veronika shouldve had Alexander by the balls as soon as it was revealed that the threat to turn off Collars would be so effective. Yet the only thing she did with said threat was to get him to stop torturing her half-dead sister. Admittedly a noble goal, just figure that she really could've helped a lot of people by either neutering him or having him removed.

IF we're assuming that she is being consistent (which I agree with Sharpshooter that she's becoming ever less so), we then must assume that she did the calculus of secondary and tertiary results if Alexander were removed, and determined it was better to keep him in his position than to oust him. She may have predicted him leading a revolt from within if she "neutered" him (i.e. appeasing Juliette, who feels that Alexander never gave her enough attention, to break against Veronica, whom she despises for stealing all of Alexander's attention) and ousting him would then give him all the time in the world to hunt down Astrid and finish the job.

I would say we have 3 major stories going at the same time - personal stories of Kane/Olivia/Seth, the feud between Karlssons and DeKocks (with New Paris having to choose a side eventually) and the state of the planet.

Spoiler

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[MilesEdgeworth]

Callista the worlds smartest woman: Yes, I've kidnapped your kid as far as you know and denied you the opportunity of having seen her grow up, so lets leave the safety of this cave and walk on a dangerous assed bridge

 

[PickerLewd]

Two issues there:

1. She doesn't want it...
2. She'd never risk her place at the top of the food chain (not once daddy dearest gone at least, it was really quite a hollow threat at the end of the day)

You may be right, I thought if she freed everyone she would become some sort of messiah and be safe with the sisters dead, but she could also be the first to be impaled.
Besides, if you kill all the tyrants new ones will eventually arise .

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

You may be right, I thought if she freed everyone she would become some sort of messiah and be safe with the sisters dead, but she could also be the first to be impaled.
Besides, if you kill all the tyrants new ones will eventually arise .

She also loses safety and likely the technology necessary to keep her sister alive

 

[YuNobi1]

She also loses safety and likely the technology necessary to keep her sister alive

She definitely needs the funding for the research and technology needed to prolong, and eventually heal, Astrid, and that funding comes from the "products" Veronica makes and Juliette "markets".

 

[LAKueiJin]

Okay, so I've played through the episode 5 times now as K9Junko/Dominique, K9AllEvil, K9Veronica, K1GoodKane/EvilOlivia and SecretSub. So here are my thoughts on overall quality of the episode, the state of the world and the characters.

The quality of the renders varies heavily from scene to scene, the lighting is the biggest culprit (way off in the beach/cave scenes and some others), the camera position could be improved in some shots, but overall it's quite good. There are occasional misspellings and typos, but nothing game-changing. Some flags, however, are bugged (like the one Sancho described earlier) and hopefully will be fixed in the future.
I absolutely love the dark red dress Olivia is wearing, it's lovely. Frankly all the outfits are really great (except Kane's new business executive suit, it feels too bulky, I prefer the tight shirt one). The music seems to be on point as well.

I would say we have 3 major stories going at the same time - personal stories of Kane/Olivia/Seth, the feud between Karlssons and DeKocks (with New Paris having to choose a side eventually) and the state of the planet.

Spoiler: The State of the Planet and the Gambit

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Spoiler: Characters

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Amazing summary and observations! As someone who can't stand maledom and avoided ever getting higher that K4 on any of my playthroughs, (got promoted to K5 in a previous episode, and I hated the new scenes so much I just went back on the save and purposely had Kane score an own goal and do worse, football puns unintended) this has revealed several things I could've only found out at the price of my gastrointestinal stabilty, so thanks!

On a somewhat unrelated note, I just finished part 1 of chapter 8 and found these two lines by Otto particularly funny:




You mean, like all those thousands of slaves both of you guys (DeKocks) and the Karlssons keep? It's kinda fun when characters in this dystopian universe suddenly decide to have a selective moral awakening for 1 person they're biased towards - why should Cole be more deserving of sympathy or freedom than all those K2s and K3s in the mines? "A man has been wrongfully imprisoned for decades" - try many thousands of men and women, (I'm not saying millions, because the populations in New Paris for example, which are mentioned by Charlotte in an evil Olivia femdom scene, seem to be very low) not "one man". Literally these few oligarch families are tyranising what's left of humanity worse than Genghis Khan did the Eurasian steppes, and yet they're still morally indignant at someone they like/value getting the lite version of the same treatment?

Neither him nor Kiyomi should really be moved by Cole's predicament, (unless Cole has some personal connection with Otto I'm not aware of?) as both of them have certainly brought far worse fates upon many others on behalf of their employers...

So yes, I would add Otto and Kiyomi to the list of somewhat inconsistent characters - all hail Mistress Juliette! She wins in both consistency and in kaning Kane the hardest of the whole cast!

 

[Maviarab]

Callista the worlds smartest woman: Yes, I've kidnapped your kid as far as you know and denied you the opportunity of having seen her grow up, so lets leave the safety of this cave and walk on a dangerous assed bridge

Hey now...the Karlsson's appear to have kept it maintained

Amazing summary and observations! As someone who can't stand maledom and avoided ever getting higher that K4 on any of my playthroughs, (got promoted to K5 in a previous episode, and I hated the new scenes so much I just went back on the save and purposely had Kane score an own goal and do worse, football puns unintended) this has revealed several things I could've only found out at the price of my gastrointestinal stabilty, so thanks!

On a somewhat unrelated note, I just finished part 1 of chapter 8 and found these two lines by Otto particularly funny:

View attachment 3404707
View attachment 3404709

You mean, like all those thousands of slaves both of you guys (DeKocks) and the Karlssons keep? It's kinda fun when characters in this dystopian universe suddenly decide to have a selective moral awakening for 1 person they're biased towards - why should Cole be more deserving of sympathy or freedom than all those K2s and K3s in the mines? "A man has been wrongfully imprisoned for decades" - try many thousands of men and women, (I'm not saying millions, because the populations in New Paris for example, which are mentioned by Charlotte in an evil Olivia femdom scene, seem to be very low) not "one man". Literally these few oligarch families are tyranising what's left of humanity worse than Genghis Khan did the Eurasian steppes, and yet they're still morally indignant at someone they like/value getting the lite version of the same treatment?

Neither him nor Kiyomi should really be moved by Cole's predicament, (unless Cole has some personal connection with Otto I'm not aware of?) as both of them have certainly brought far worse fates upon many others on behalf of their employers...

So yes, I would add Otto and Kiyomi to the list of somewhat inconsistent characters - all hail Mistress Juliette! She wins in both consistency and in kaning Kane the hardest of the whole cast!

Can't really disagree with much of that either lol. They are both a little hypocritical for sure.

 

[Maviarab]

btw, can any of you guys explain to me what the "secret sub" path is and how I would be able to get it? Because I think I might've missed it completely because of my aversion for maledom... Is it, as I suspect, a path where Kane can climb to the higher K rankings, actually get to make a couple decisions and still be sexually submissive in secret? And, if so, who can he be submissive towards on that path, and how would I get on it? I wouldn't mind a spoiler about this path, as it could be interesting, but I'm not sure if I want to start a whole new playthrough for it. (if it's mostly maledom scenes with Kane submitting once or twice to Olivia for example I probably won't bother)

Sure.

Follow the dom path until you meet Olivia for the first time at the facility. Alessandra will join shortly afterwards. She will ask you to massage her. Make sure when you have the options, massage her feet. She will comment on it...follow the obvious choices.

This is basically a full dom path, except you are sexually submissive to Alessandra behind closed doors. She does not treat you well, tell's all her friends, invites them to play with you, tells Olivia...any dom scenes you have with Alessa and Celeste are now SecretSub scenes instead.

Going forward, there is supposed to also be Elena and Eloise Chastain Secret Sub paths also (T2). Whether you have to be on the Alessa path (T1) or not is unknown currently however, it is possible to get on these paths by going the SubK5 route too. This entails leaving prison at K4 and meta game so at your first appraisal/review, you will get promoted to K5. This is now a full sub K5+ path (Alessa SS route will start automatically here btw but you can get out of it)...currently this path can go to SubK7. You are a sub, on the dom path/routes. This path is a little disappointing in all honesty, I was expecting more from it...however that could change in the future I guess.

Edit: One thing I did forget that may or may not interest you is:

On the SubK5+ route, there is a special points system you can accumlate with your pod assistant. As I said, this path then effectively turns into a dom path where you are submissive sexually. With either Mia or Desdemona (depends who you pick as your assistant)....on the SubK5+ route, when you first meet them, you have the option to be dominant or submissive to your assistant.

How that will play out...could be interesting going forward.

 

[LAKueiJin]

Sure.

Follow the dom path until you meet Olivia for the first time at the facility. Alessandra will join shortly afterwards. She will ask you to massage her. Make sure when you have the options, massage her feet. She will comment on it...follow the obvious choices.

This is basically a full dom path, except you are sexually submissive to Alessandra behind closed doors. She does not treat you well, tell's all her friends, invites them to play with you, tells Olivia...any dom scenes you have with Alessa and Celeste are now SecretSub scenes instead.

Much obliged. It's kinda interesting that

Spoiler

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Edit: added the spoiler tag

Edit 2: Ok. Sold me on the "full sub on the dom path" concept that you mentioned in the edit to your post - I definitely gotta start a new playthrough now! Thanks a lot! I think this didn't exist in the early versions of the game (like 0.2/0.3), cause I started my saves a long time ago and I don't remember this being an option.

 

[Maviarab]

Much obliged. It's kinda interesting that

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Edit: added the spoiler tag

I extrapolated my first reply to you btw. You might want to read the extra info I wrote.

Ehhh....honestly, it's kinda both lmao. He does submit to her willingly, but can fight against her somewhat. It's important to note on her SS path that you can be nice or awful to Kane (Alessa choices). If you are nice to Kane you start gaining Alessa Love points. They don't do anything yet...but surely they will at some point change the dynamic of their relationship.

For note though, she does tell Celeste (the Alessa/Celeste Dom scene is very different on the SS path heh)...she also tells Alyssa and they visit you and well...you can imagine how that goes lol. There are others she tells too but nothing happens with them as of yet (not done my sub saves yet for new update)...so...so much for it being secret