VN - Ren'Py - Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.31 TestB] [Grym Gudinna Games]

[Version 0.5b played]
Karlsson's Gambit is a fantastic femdom visual novel/game. The characters, story, writing, music, and renders are top-notch.

The game is set in the dystopian World featuring an intriguing story with many interesting and mysterious characters. You control two characters, male and female, who can become either submissive or dominant depending on the choices you make throughout the game. Unlike many games, your decisions matter here, resulting in different possible outcomes and endings. It's one of my favourite qualities of this game as it extends playtime and allows multiple playthroughs. It reminds me of classics such as Fallout New Vegas and Witcher 3 in that aspect. I spent many hours in Karlsson's Gambit, and according to a dev, the game is still only about halfway done. I can't wait to play the next episodes to see how mysteries will unfold and what will happen to my two characters.

The game contains many different kinks and fetishes, from soft to very hard. Women in the game are all gorgeous, and I particularly like all the different outfits and shoes they wear. The music is so enjoyable, it's quite varied and fits each scene perfectly. Locations and the environments are beautiful too. Really love renders in this game.

I played almost every femdom-related game on this site and elsewhere, and to put it simply, this is one of the best, if not the best femdom game you can play currently. I think every femdom and even non-femdom fan will enjoy it. And lastly, the developer is very communicative, honest and makes frequent development updates on Patreon. She is a very talented artist and one of the best devs out there IMO.

[v0.5B]
I have mixed feelings about the game, to be honest, let me say that it does have a good amount of content and scenes, they're all fun and enjoyable, the story itself is interesting and I've always found myself interested in what would happen next, the thing I didn't like and bothered me the most, is the story development.
The story allegedly takes place in a dystopian femdom setting however the reality can be quite the opposite depending on your choices,at first I truly believed that and so on my first run I tried to be compliant and docile as in my mind that'll be the only way to survive in such an unfair situation, I also assumed that attitude combined with wits and some diplomacy will be my ticket to try to climb the ladder, only to notice how it's actually leading my character into worse and worse predicaments, I noticed that submition, degradation and humiliation often go hand in hand and are unseparated, characters do not like you when you do their bidding or listen to them, quite the opposite they dislike you, treat you the same or worse and lose interest and respect for you, which I guess is to be expected from one or two of them but not all of them, characters would suddenly change their tone from showing interest in making you theirs or atleast serve them only to lose it all, although it bothered me how severe their reactions and actions were, I attributed it all to the story predisposed to being grim, with limited agency of the player to improve their situation or keep any ounce of dignity they have, or so I thought until I replayed the game with a dom playthrough in mind.
I was shocked to see the tone of the story take a 180 turn, things just go your way and characters behave differently than how their personalities present them to be, some that were absolutely ruthless and even sadistic just swoon over you for some reason, everyone treats you with respect and hand over authority, playing the game felt like an anime protagonist in a harem simulator, the dystopian femdom goes right out the window, from being one of the expendable lowlifes to basically ruling the entire facility in a single jump, even Juliette who seemed to be one of the biggest dangers to the MC becomes a trivial threat if not entirely manageable.
I tried replaying and mixing choices here and there and found that the story takes either two extremes, a king of the world scenario if you do everything right, or a straight-up slippery slope towards the bottom if you try anything else with no in-between, doing tasks properly amounts to nothing, only by ordering everyone to suck your dick can you make it far in this story.
Basically, the overall portrayal of sub/dom dynamics seems to be cartoonish and lacks depth and nuance, you can order dominant and even sadistic characters to do what you want and they comply despite being the ones who actually hold power while expressing the desire to be dominated by a worthy stud (the mc ofc), and if you submit to them all remark how they wish the MC were better to dominate them, this bias shows in the drastic difference in scene numbers between the two [only] routes, with there being more scenes for the dominant MC.
I would still recommend that people give it a shot, if anything the dom path and its scenes are quite nice and fun, however, if you were expecting a proper "femdom" you will be disappointed by how two-dimensional it is.
Still gonna follow the game and see how the story goes.

Review as of version v0.5B

A wonderful Femdom game with 10/10 renders, 10/10 writing, 10/10 music.

Summary: You play as the 2 MCs, a brother and sister combo, in a Femdom world with different paths and meaningful and impactful decisions to make.

The writing: This is the highlight of the game. The female characters are all very interesting and unique. There's an intriguing plot going on. But the writing in the sexual scenes is chef's kiss, truly wonderful stuff.
Let's not forget the branching paths for each MC. Your decisions affect the fate of your MCs and the scenes that you do see.
Tess is a great author, and I can't wait to see the following chapters.

The renders: I enjoyed the character models, backgrounds, and how the scenes were put together and choreographed. There isn't a single female character that I didn't find stunning. Top-notch work again.

The music: The music was enjoyable. It fit every scene well without being distracting and was easy on the ears. Great work!

All in all, I am very glad I played this game as it unlocked fetishes in my brain I didn't even know I had. Looking forward to new updates.

UPDATE 2025.05.25
Reduced the game's rating from 5 stars to 2 due to the unreasonable cuts and partial removal of content of the Dom route, due to the dev regularly breaking her own promises made previously, and due to her disrespectful/unfair treatment of those players who choose to play the Dom route.

I'll start by saying that I'm far from loving femdom as it is represented in the game. Simply put, I don't like Female/male domination. Well, you might say, why do you torture yourself and play this game? Of course, it's all the "fault" of the reviews that convinced you to try the game because of the awesome story, no matter what. Okay, let's get started.

I went through the game as a Dominant, to minimise the impact on the MC by the sadistic female characters. The involvement in the game was gradual (yes, there should be a joke here about the stages of acceptance - denial, anger, etc., but there won't be one, sorry). The first game play has left a mixed impression - on the one hand, it really has a stunning and fascinating story, tangle of intricate intrigue, the struggle of perverted minds and really want to untangle the whole tangle and get to the bottom of it. On the other hand, the constant background of femdom kept you from fully enjoying the game.

Things changed a bit on the 2nd playthrough when I got more information on the fact that almost all the key characters, from Alexander's daughters to Alexander himself, had been through similar ordeals (to one degree or another). Fair enough, I thought, twisted but in its own way fair to give similar trials to the MC and his kin. Did it make me love this kind of femdom? No, I didn't, but it did help smooth out the sense of unfairness experienced on my first pass. Well, okay, I said, and started going through the game again. I ended up going through it 4 times (by the number of Alexander's daughters) in the dominant route. I really enjoyed the game. The plot is one of the best I've ever encountered in an Adult games. Each character (especially the sisters/daughters) have their own charisma and personality, you want to interact with each one and learn more about them.

If you compare this game to Estate Dominate, I would definitely prefer Karlsson's Gambit. First of all, the developer here is more honest and, for players who aren't fans of this variety of femdom, it gives them the opportunity to minimize their exposure, which is something that is not yet present in ED dom route.

Back to the wishes. I'd like to see longer sex scenes (in the future), I'd like to see more content with girl domination over girl. Male domination for the dom route line would look logical (there's not much of it now, hopefully in future updates for those players who choose this path, there will be more of this fetish).

In summary. The developer has created a utopian world, but even here the player has been given a choice and that is a good thing. There are many moral dilemmas - whether to remain human or succumb to the vices dormant within us. I'm grateful to the author for a great and intriguing story, for memorable characters, for quite deep dialogue texts that are a pleasure to read and comprehend. The developer has not alienated that group of players who prefer other types of domination by keeping the game comfortable enough for them, for which she offers special thanks.

v0.5B General

A visual novel that is laser focused on femdom content, with two POV characters who can be shaped more submissive or dominant based on your choices. I enjoyed that aspect of it, but found the models and the writing to be otherwise fine but not great, and not compelling enough to see it through. But I absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in femdom stuff because there will be a lot here for you to enjoy.

This is excellent game . One of the best game present on line. Waiting for the new episodes. Graphics are very good. Story is excellent . Girls are beautiful . Slaves are little slow . I can give this game 90/100 .

This game is very complicated and sophisticated. The plot is so deep that it hasn't fully disclosed in EP5. It is planned carefully from the beginning.

This is a true multiple protagonist game. The choices of male MC Kane and female MC Olivia really matter and dynamically change the game flow and scenes.

Kane's paths
* Sub Path is about survival. You are setup to fail. Can you navigate it through?
* Dom Path gives Kane more control. If you suddenly gain power, what type of person are you turning into?

What make this game interesting is the possibility to combine and cross path between Kane and Olivia. It creates many combinations beyond most games offer.

Graphic is excellent. Tess uses gesture and facial expression and facial expression to tell the story beyond words.

In many games, the stories are twisted to make sense of NSFW scenes. What make KG different is the scenes are carefully crafted to fit into the main plot instead.

I admire Tess’ creativity. There are so many scenes that I can repeat in my head even after finish playing.

The graphics are great. Worth noting that the costumes of the characters are beautiful and very elegant.

The story of the game is fascinating. First of all, there are often some psychological dominations in the story. I like it! Secondly, the plot of this story has a suspenseful color.As I play, I always feel that someone will stab Oliva's knife behind her back.

My favorite characters are Katsumi, Alessandra, and Juliette because they are very evil, very bitchy, and at the same time take pleasure in ruling the mind and body (especially the mind). So bitchy, and I have no resistance to such characters!

Thank you, Tess! I will support you

Today it is very difficult to choose which soap opera to follow and the variety of stories is huge, but I must say I have a weakness for bdsm it gives a touch more of reality and of course cuts a little romance for something a little more raw

As of 0.5 update Karlsson's Gambit is my favorite storyline on this website and I'd rate it equal to professional mainstream RPG games in terms of character development and story pathing with decision trees. Specifically, it reminds me of KOTOR2 in terms of immersive storytelling.

It's a game about power dynamics, family struggles and operating in a difficult world with incomplete information. Sort of a corporate mystery puzzle box featuring one crazy family living in the shadow of a dead man.

There are three rough levels of reactions I have to 'mistakes' in plot on this website:

-apathy, because I didn't expect much anyway.
-disappointment, because I thought they had a better quality level.
-paradigm shift because I trust the author's internal consistency.

This game is on the third level.

A note on the femdom/maledom tags. Karlsson's Gambit is not a game created in service to a specific fetish. It is a story about powerful ambitious people in a juiced up world of depravity and exploitation featuring plenty of both of the above tags.

Good luck! Keep your head on your neck, and when you find out who the daughter is in the opening scene of the game send me a PM so I can find out too!

I was hesitant to play this game as this isn't my normal niche but I have found the game to be awesome with an amazing over arching story. Your choices actually matter in the game. It affects how you and others are treated and assuming where your character and other characters end up not just which beautiful women you will end up with. I can't wait to see what will happen and strongly recommend it even if it may not seem like your thing at first glance.

I am in awe over the storytelling in this game, a rare treasure.
Having said that , the main tags of the game is actually something I have been avoiding . Until now that is, and I do not regret downloading and exploring the various paths. Great game ,fantastic renders and real solid storytelling!

Karlsson's Gambit is already a gem even without the bdsm content. I played the game to discover my deepest desire but end up hooked by the story itself.

• Intriguing story, beautifully designed and rendered characters;
• Well-planned structure, multiple paths/branches at each episode, and each might reveal a tip of the iceberg of the whole story.
• A variety of great creative bdsm scenes. Though fetishes are very subjective, at least I have found my Elysium, and I hope you do too.

Review on patch 0.4

So to begin with I played alot of femdom/bdsm games recently and have a good overview about the current games on F95Zone. Writing this review I didnt even playthrough all content available but I am already convinced that this game is an exceptional beautiful diamond in this genre!! There are soo many trash games (subjectively the rpgm games/hentai games) but this game was just soo enjoyable to play. The developer just knows the kinks of true subs/doms alike , its awesome!

All in all you get:

+ pretty good/high quality renders
+ an intriguing story
+ hardcore femdom but you can lighten it up depending on your decisions
+ awesome unique characters (each with different kinks and level of bdsm)
+ nice setting
+/- you get some nice ambient music but could be more in some scenes
- I think the intro of the male MC was a little bit rushed and confusing in the beginning

I really love this game and wanna see more of this! keep the good work up developer!

PS: might have to rewrite some aspects when I played through the current patch

I just wanted to give my perspective as someone who HATES femdom.

I fucking loved this game.

Let's get the general stuff out of the way- absolutely top notch presentation. A huge cast of hot characters with very different styles and personalities, plenty of music and well posed scenes, and most importantly- AMAZING SETS. Jesus christ, these locations made my dick harder than any of the sadistic thots in this game. There's a huge, huge amount of choice in this game, with not just one, but three protagonists that all have unique stories, personalities that you can shape, and relationships with the rest of the cast.

Now, for anyone who came here, like I did, because of the "male domination" tag, but didn't see how the hell that could work with a premise like this- it absolutely does. The thing I hate about most femdom games is that you're forced to play as some total loser cuckboy who just collapses the second a woman's toes make contact with his tiny dick. Fuck that. But in this game, you really are allowed to be a complete, dominant, takes no shit kind of hero/asshole who is struggling against a broken and unfair universe.

It feels extremely rewarding to navigate the correct set of choices to avoid being treated like shit- and you can avoid almost all femdom content if you play right. Hell, by the end of the game, I basically felt like I was playing your typical BaD style harem game, and it was so much more satisfying because you have to work your way up to it (just with way more complex writing).

There aren't too many sex scenes if you play as a dom so far (although there are a few), but if you're into the idea of being a dom more than the actual sexual act, then you'll enjoy this very much. However, if you just want to fap to some maledom porn, then you're probably better served elsewhere.

With that in mind, and the control over three different characters, it can at times feel like you're just playing a really well written game-of-thrones esque VN (last seasons aside), trying to help this family weave through this world of psychopaths with their morals intact (or not). I didn't even give a shit about the porn anymore, the story, characters, and setting are just that engaging.

Brilliant game.
Lots of Femdom, but there are paths were the MC is dominant too.
Beautiful renders and choices that actually make a difference.
Multiple paths present, and a good amount of content present.
Can't wait to see how this progresses!

Well put together, great story and choices galore. If your into any of the themes then I highly recommend it. The animation and writing is top notch for this type of game. I don't know what else I can say that other fans have not.....I love it and hope it continues into a full long meaningful gaming experience .

Wonderful game in which you play a male protagonist in a dystopian world. It gives the player the option of shaping the narrative and gameplay around how they like it. Want to be used and abused? You can! Want to be dominant? You can! I love games like this which are choice driven and have dystopian settings.

If you're into femdom this game is basically perfect. It's certainly a unique experience in terms of AVNs. I like that it has multiple paths and that the MC can be a dom in a world that treat men like garbage. The premise is interesting and so far choices seem to matter. I can't complain about the renders like others have before. I think they are good, and the models all look unique to a certain extent.

As someone who is not into femdom this game was still fun to play. The overall story is intriguing, but I have a really hard time sympathizing with any of the characters. Every single girl is either sadistic, evil or straight up a psychopath. There is some extreme cruelty in this game. I don't particularly mind it since the world is set up this way, but it gets very one dimensional and almost tacky the more you progress in the story. Some more nuance here in the future can help freshen up things.

The dialogue also suffers at times with a little too much exposition making some interactions feel robotic. Some scenes are also overly bloated in terms of dialogue on mundane things that don't really progress the plot. I appreciate the dual protagonists and that you can shape both of them based on choices, but so far I feel that this design choice slows the story progression a bit too much for my liking.

All in all it's a well developed game and I recommend trying it. If femdom is your kink then this game is a 4 star experience, but as it's not really a fetish of mine, I can't give this game more than 3 stars.

Okay so at first this game had me feel like it was gonna be kinda meh, the jokes were kinda bad at first and it seemed to try and be a little too much at times all those worries kinda stopped once MC actually leaves prison for what the description of the game describes as "a special inmate rehabilitation program".

And I felt the game would offer me next to no Maledom (which i prefer) and instead focussed on Femdom (which it does) it still managed to make you have control over the amount of Femdom you're actually exposed to so if you're into Maledom you can expect this game to deliver on that in future updates.

As of right now I'd say in the sex scenes there is not really any powerplay if you decide to go the dominant route but like I said I expect that to change over the coming updates.

As for choices I think this game is one of the best games out there, whilst I wish the game wouldn't remind me about having to "please someone to get what you want" all the time (which I'd prefer finding out on my own or having that been told to me once) I do really enjoy having to think for a second what the possible short term AND long term outcomes it would result in.

I'd say the game offers about 8 hours of gameplay if you take as long as me and about 3-4 if you rush through it as it stands now.

but i'm for sure gonna keep my eyes out for this one.