VN - Ren'Py - Knockout Master [Round 13] [MooN]

(Review of Round 13)

I'm afraid this game is a hit and miss at virtually everything. For starters, the script is a roller coaster: it's moderately good most of the time but every now and then it becomes absolutely stupid with characters speaking like robots or the MC speaking sometimes like his IQ suddenly was boosted to that of a fake genius, only to become a complete retard when you lest expect it. The conversation you have in your date with Candy is a good example of cheesy and absolutely out of place dialogue.

A secondary result of the lacking script is the way characters sometimes feel superficial or outright superfluous to the story. In the beginning Violet looks very attractive and an interesting LI to have, but as the story progresses she sounds more and more like someone that is after your money. Rose is kinda forced on you, she's interesting because she's pure and innocent but in the end she becomes a dork totally under the control of her mother; by the time Scarlett "interviews" the MC I simply couldn't stand this crap anymore and dumped her. Congratulations to the developer for making himself and the players waste their time, you absolutely nailed it. I couldn't be bothered to try the other choices because I simply despised Scarlett too so even being a sucker for MILFs I don't give a shit. Again, great work there...

Even the sweet Alice has her ups and downs. She gets pregnant and she's already showing it, you're supposedly absolutely in love with her but you sleep in separate beds and you leave for 2 days without even a good bye kiss to bang your MILF doctor in her cabin in the woods? I mean, sure, in the case of Candy you can decide NOT to turn her into a LI, but if you're writing an harem game you're supposed to avoid this kind of situation where it becomes obvious that you're blatantly behaving like a total jerk. The script is supposed to keep up the fantasy that you're making everyone happy, otherwise why bother playing the f'ing game?!

Renders are mostly good but Robert's expression makes him look like he's stoned most of the time. The MC's eyes aren't exactly great either. Also, several times the character you're talking to is facing in a random direction instead of looking at you in the eye. This is especially infuriating with Alice, who is supposed to be the main LI. Also, all the "hot" models are virtually the same, changing only the face. Violet's abs don't fit her boobs either but who cares, right...?

Animations are generally fluid and pretty acceptable, but the only ones worth mentioning for me are some sex scenes with Alice and Candy; the rest aren't bad, but they feel much more generic and uninteresting and not nearly as good.

Other WTF details include how Candy works at the hospital dressed casually instead of wearing a proper doctor attire, the MC wearing his horrid t-shirt while dating Rose in a fancy restaurant, or the weird implementation of the phone, with a bunch of messages appearing so fast that you can't keep the pace, so you have to wait for the conversation to be over and then retrace to read them all from the beginning. Quite stupid if you ask me.

I'd have liked to rate this 4 stars for the amount of content, a few good animations and some hot and intimate moments with Alice and Candy, but the irregular quality of the script and the less than satisfying character development is a deal breaker for me. Every game I have rated as 4 stars is *much* better than this anyway so I'm only being coherent here.

Game: Knockout Master
English:............6/10
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....6/10
Art:................8/10
Dialogue:...........4/10
Story:..............2/10
Opinion:............2/10................
Avg:..............4.71/10 [2.35/5]

Way back when this initially came out I tried it. From what little I remember, not much has changed outside of adding that DUMB, USELESS feature that is a phone. Do you know what your poorly translated, boilerplate story, fedora wearing MC game doesn't need? A useless phone that is just a stand in for the pause menu. Either make the pause menu a phone, or better yet, don't bloat out the game with a phone that does nothing but say "You did the only thing you could do, good job!" Rant aside, yes, this is a barely passable translation, with milquetoast interactions, an MC that reads like a cringey nice guy "Just ditch the job and live in my mansion because boxers are so wealthy and you don't need to be an independent woman, just drop the act and fulfill my desires." Only make that sound a little more robotic because it should be google translated. This game also overuses the one ImageDissolve they have constantly. Use a 'fancy' dissolve to change scenes, not randomly during a conversation. It honestly feels like for every .1% of effort that a dev puts into UI, aesthetics, or animated sex, the story and dialogue get worse and worse. You cannot tell me that ANYONE has ever talked to another human being the way these robots interact with each other. And you can't tell me "Chill it's just porn" No. if it was just porn, just make sex animations. Don't waste people's time with a story that if it was a soup it'd be boiled ice.

So lets get through the story. MC had rich parents and wants to box. The end. He has a FWB named Leah and wants more but likes how things are. She obviously wants a relationship because subtlety doesn't exist in this world, but also is a bottom bitch cuckquean that want MC to have other girls too. Every character you meet belts out their innermost personal desires and thoughts at that exact moment. My little "Nice guy" speech in the intro paragraph is an actual event that happens with Leah right away. And she counters it by saying she wants to be independent but wants sex. Do not get me started on the sex talk, it is laughable at best. It almost reads like terms and conditions it's so dry. After date night with Leah, MC meets Alice. A damsel in distress that as of that moment literally has no home, job, ID, or life of any kind and falls right into MC's lap. She's a blank slate and now her only existence is thanks to MC. It's a little weird. They have breakfast and when MC asks about her she says nothing about herself, just that she quit a job. And they have this so in-your-face psychology where MC has this monologue about how he loved his dad but they only spent time together watching boxing. So she chimes in with "Maybe that's why you wanna be a boxer!" And he says "Hmm never thought of it that way." Who COULDN'T come to that conclusion? No one was smart. I'm pretty sure a trained bird could make that assumption. And her retelling how she was attacked reads like a court statement. It's pretty fresh, she should be shook up and dishevelled. And the whole time MC just comments like "I would NEVER leave a woman to fend for themself. Your Ex is a coward and dumb and not as cool as me." Then before the fight, MC goes to sleep. I want to point out this is day two of the story and MC has gone to sleep at least three times. Time can just pass, MC doesn't need to sleep. And Alice, his now captive, wakes him up before the big fight interjecting with I'm assuming it's supposed to be alluring talk wanting to "connect" with him. And MC robotically blurts out he wants one special person, so she equally robotically says "That could be me *twiddles fingers*" If I rub my temples any harder I will poke a hole in my brain I'm so frustrated by this writing. I'm still in the first "round" and already have this nightmare of a paragraph, to whoever reads this, I'm sorry lol.

Onto the first fight. Once again, every character you meet has to verbally solidify MC's importance to their lives. And not even just to him, each other as well. You meet his manager and they gush how perfect MC is almost completely instead of introducing themselves. If you need to be coddled this hard, I honestly feel bad for you. MC's first opponent even looks like he's in a weightclass or two below him. You know what would make this story even remotely better? Doing the opposite. Make MC have a tough fight, seeing as he's had his life handed to him on a silver platter. But no, two punches thrown. I'm honestly surprised MC got hit at all. Alice rewards him with breakfast for dinner. Partly Im assuming because they had like cooked chicken for breakfast. It's all backwards in this world. Then MC "Um Actually"s Alice when she says he's rich. Bro, we DO NOT care about how little you don't wanna be called rich. You're rich, shut up. And Alice doesn't want to be called a gold-digger to which he replies "I would NEVER" YOU DO NOT KNOW THIS WOMAN. She was robbed, coulda been staged, and nothing else. This simp/white knight attitude he has is laughable at best. Then, the issues in writing don't stop there, Alice's ex somehow shows up to MC's house and begs for her to come back. MC continues to buy her stuff(expensive cocktail dresses, not actual clothes) and they return home... To continue bashing the ex? To be fair, they were assaulted by two people in the middle of the night, and the ex was chased off. They could have had weapons or even more friends. But now, suddenly, he's this piece of shit that never did anything good? But MC is this altruistic philanthropist that could never harm a woman. Also he's rich and a great boxer(as long as the other guy is 50-100lbs lighter than him) Come on.

Then at the bar, suddenly Liam is a drug dealing kingpin that beats his girlfriend and she's aware that he was gaslighting and manipulating her. You know, things that you'd need YEARS of therapy to discover. Nope. She knew all of that was happening to her and just let it happen. She also said "I was completely reliant on him" You know, exactly what's happening with MC? He is now her home, provider, job, and wallet. Leading to a week long time skip saying "MC and Alice hung out and got closer." YOU the READER still know nothing about this woman. You know more about Leah and she solely exists to be a sex scene and facilitate a harem. Nothing happens until MC gets attacked by Liam, the ex. SUDDENLY Alice is so distraught she can't speak. Not when she was about to be beaten and raped. But when MC is bonked on the head. He also got a long running jump before the assault. She'd know his face, being so traumatized, and seen him coming a mile away. But no, Liam teleports to hit MC. Then, as per usual, the game stagnates. Between the attack and end of "season 1" three things happen, Alice is or isn't pregnant based on your choice, you finally meet Violet, and Rose dumps MC. The rest is N O T H I N G. Some fights that are nothing more than 4 images going back and forth. MC gets dizzy due to a head injury and because Rocky had it, it's gotta be in this. Oh, and that useless phone mechanic eventually halts the game to read text messages that take over a minute to get through. Fun. If my review ends here, it means "season 2" is more of the same and I chose not to continue ranting.

All I have to say about season 2 it's a slog to get through with all the hard pauses added. That and every time there IS a hard pause the cutscene is hilariously grainy and we wouldn't notice if we could skip them. No one needs a "Two Weeks Later" wipe with baby's first tree in blender taking up the screen. Or an establishing shot of a dumb coffee store. Also, it's been two weeks but Alice has a baby bump. Why? But really, nothing happens, outside another attack that puts Mike in a hospital. THAT should have been the end of season one for a much better cliffhanger. But no. And 'round 12' is SUBSTANTIALLY longer than all the rest, at least it felt that way. If that is to be justified, the writing HAS to get better. If I want to waste my time doing nothing, I'm better off watching paint dry.

The English is almost there, I guess. The UI is partially customized, and the UX is cut down a bit from the dumb phone gimmick. The art is decent. Some grainy renders and stiff faces, but not bad. The dialogue is brain dead robotic, and it's written like some red-pilled fedora wearing women hater, I don't think anyone should hold it in high regard. And the story doesn't exist. Stalker ex that's suddenly a crime boss wants MC dead in S2 because S1 was so boring and empty. Woohoo. The Dev also discovered how to add shitty hard pauses in season 2 so you have to see the non-animations static on screen for however long each one is. But No one wants that. If it's a fully animated cutscene with dialogue and effects and effort, sure, I'd get that. But in-between frames and transitional movement? Stop. Whoever writes this needs to not. If this is a solo dev, fire yourself from writing and find someone else because this is just bad. If you enjoyed it, great, if you're reading this before you play, run, if you made this story, do better.

Wow. That was not good.

I expected something more from a game that has managed to last a whole season but the lack of engaging characters and the underdeveloped dialogue has made me question what the plot points.
Several times you are introduced to a good looking character only for them to open their mouths and completely break your immersion by quoting some meme or saying something completely ridiculous.
After 4 years of development you would have expected something to actually progress with the plot but other than progressing the fetishes everyone of the characters seems to be circling the drain.
The renders are fine but they need to be attached to something else because the overall product is disappointing for one of the oldest games on the site.

[Reviewed on Round 11]

It's unfortunate that a game with such clear effort put into it just doesn't have the quality to justify playing it.

Aside from the fairly good (if very samey) models and renders, everything else in Knockout Master is very substandard. The writing's overly descriptive in places yet scarce in others, the grammar is odd, the pacing is horrendous, the plot is uninspired, and every interaction is inauthentic and devoid of charm or eroticism.

Put simply, it's not worth the download.

This game seems to have been written by a horny robot. The dialogue is oddly formal, but with the occasional goofy idiom thrown in. it's especially noticable when the MC transitions to "Gym Guy" and starts using gym slang seemingly scraped from listicles online. Real weird vibe all around. Disappointing in a very unique way, so i guess that's interesting, at least.

Based on S1, this game needs WORK!

Pros

• I love the design/construct/mechanics of the game. Being able to strategically fight in a ren'py game piqued my interest.

Cons

• Lack of Diversity (why am I still begging for diversity in 2023? do you not want people of all backgrounds to enjoy the game as well? Then just say that i guess )
• Lack of Physical Attraction (Compared to other ren'py games, it's mid. I was trying to avoid sexual choices with alice which leads to my next con)
• Lack of Choice (Meaningful) (Quite honestly, I hate playing ren'py games without choices and if you are going to give us choices, make them meaningful. I hate that i couldn't avoid sexual interactions or avoid certain events period. For example, when i chose to ignore alice getting "hurt", I MEANT IT lmao I didn't want to continue to fight AND have her move in.)

I'm not really sure how I'd describe this story. Boring, perhaps? Uninspired? It's strange, because there's a clear level of effort and care that's put into this - which is commendable - and yet it seems to be unfortunately wasted.

The biggest problem I had was that it was written like a telenovella. There's certainly drama, but the drama feels entirely inorganic, as do the characters. I can almost picture the over-acted crying and exaggerated hand movements.

There's certainly nothing wrong with the models, and so long as you can handle the aforementioned writing inadequacies, you'll enjoy it. However for me, when I get to a point where I'm just skipping most of the dialogue to actually see if there's anything worth looking at...well, that's my sign to give up

Knockout Master [Round 10] [MooN]
I just started playing this (again) because it's one of the few games that ticks all of my tags and it's not ntr but....

1. Dialogue is incredibly mediocre, tons of text with little of substance and relevancy.
2. The choice seems to be "do you want to see content? yes/no"
3. Rose. Her whole plotline, from A to B is f garbage. I was looking forward to the interactions with her (cause she looks cute), but now I hate her and her mother with all my heart. get lost
4. Sometimes self-jerk is too much, I know it's power fantasy, but have some f decency. At times it feels like it was written by 12 years old.

Even so... I'll still play it because, models MOSTLY look good and generic.

What a shame!!

I'm still dropping a very generous 3 star rating on the title regardless, because I feel that the creator has the talent to put together a much stronger product/story, sadly, just not in this title. BUT, I'd recommend you pick a format and stick with it. Either go with the total harem angle, or the aspiring Rocky angle. not both! It's like trying to mix oil with water! I'm not quite certain what the motivation for turning a very promissing MC into a walking slut ready to hump anything, but it's not working, not for me at least!

The time and technical know-how presented in this Novel shows and proves there is talent driving behind the curtains. Sadly it's the hormones running rampant that are preventing the creation a jewel of a VN. Maybe in a few years still?

Really agree with the review from narcizze. The Forced Rose path is so cringe.
Like in my playthrough MC gets alice pregnant and then both decide to go forward with it and then next scene he is texting Rose for second date!!! like wtf???
The game has romance tag, so i thought we will be given a choice to take the relationship with Alice to like girlfriend, but no, knock up the girl and then start lusting over some 18 yr old???
The story has not something extraordinary, but was still playable before that.

Graphics are fairly nice but the story is not my cup of tea. I found myself just fast forwarding all the time. Also, this is not really a game but a lot of CG with very few choices, which are also not really meaningful afaik.

Manwhore because Reasons?

Remove "who will you choose" because you don´t give the choice.

To start of I really liked this game, the first updates until the part with Rose were painfully obvious that you couldn´t skip. Until that day this would have been a solid 4 star game. This game was really good until this forced choice.
I have no interest in a bland inexperienced teenager when you have two knockout women to play with. Why is she forced upon you?

Renders are good not amazing but good overall. The story without the annoying Rose is really good and the sicko with the rock should be enough for a compelling story. But Reasons, no we need more intrigue and we need 18y old's always.

He has 2 girls which are more or less completely okay and aware of each other and there role with the MC and still he want one more? Leah and Alice are knockouts both of them, why would he ever a grown ass man want a kid? Why would the MC ever want Rose? What is his motivation? This is never explained. She is just bland and probably because of being a virgin extremely boring in bed so why? (Both Leah and Alice has shown not to be boring in bed) does he have a fetish for inexperienced girls? okay, but you never explain that this is the case. So just bad writing? And obvious that this is the girl you want the MC to date so write a novel instead of VN with choices.

All the forcing of Rose upon the MC drags this story from a solid 4 to a 2. This is so infuriating when everything else is really well done.

You get the feeling that the MC has somewhat a moral compass but that is shown that that was just for a night. This also is poorly executed one day he has morals and then next nope. Again bad writing or the inconsistency just a fluke because of Reasons?

If i would have been acting like this when I was a GM or DM my squad had stood up and left.
You need to be able to guide the story without forcing it. When you have choices almost always, but not when you interact with Rose it becomes so blatantly obvious that this is the character the MC should lust after. This is really bad writing I'm sorry.

Will not recommend.

Great game, good renders and animations. The story is very interesting. Some choices in the last update are very amazing.

The only pity is that MC's face is not very good-looking, and the female characters are not more beautiful than other games. But they are beautiful enough.

This game is definitely underrated because there are not many supports on Patreon.

I'm looking forward to Season 2.

Excellent Game!

Everything about this game is awesome. Character are so beautiful. Unique and Very Loving story,I loved how mc help his friends and LI.Not like most of the game this game has huge impact on story regarding choices you make.Beautiful scenes
Awesome and smooth going story,One of the part I like the most is that player have lot of control regarding story. Overall this is the best game I have played till now I can't wait for new update. Thank you the game developer for this game.

in the firt place,the story is decent the scenes are striking in terms of its quality on average to be fair.
As for the waifus they are well designed for my own taste renders are fine with shadows in the right places and smart lighting

Biggest positive i felt from earlier updates is the animation. Got real smooth comparatively. Seen some orgasmic expression ladies gave in the later episodes which were lacking earlier.
Pretty ladies, some unique some weren't. Liked Rose more though.
The story i felt wasn't up to the mark tbh. Interactions and dialogues were mostly hit&miss (80:20).
Where do i like to see some improvements going forward.
>need some more focus on mcs boxing career, eat beat repeat ain't cutting the cake every update. I'm not saying he shouldn't beat, don't get me wrong, i love that on the contrary, but need focus on how much dedication it requires to win those, behind the scene and all, more focus on his cunningness because he looks like a walking meat without functioning cortex.
>more creampie; need them.
>some MILFs I'd love to fuck hehehe. There's one but she's way too protective of her daughter, paranoid? Yes. What better way to break her than to break her literally and she needs some loving too. Another milf (hopefully) I'd think of is trainers wife (karen?) didn't introduce yet but in future.
>need some more work on romance part. I mean pulling your pants down and exposing your dick to girl in front of you isn't enough. Need some proper dialogues that would make you feel like you're in steam bath.

I stopped playing this but when this latest version popped up, I couldn't remember why... So I thought I would try it again.

It's a decent enough story. You can't really call it a game or anything as your choices are limited to things like where you a going to shoot your load or which LI you are going to spend time with. This is a harem game, and the MC will bang everyone he can and you don't have any real say in it.

Ultimately, this is my problem with it. The MC is the tough, decent guy that had a code of honor and wants to take care of people, yet he is a man whore. For example, Leah and Alice both know about each other and there is a kind of unspoken acknowledgement between them, but then he meets Rose and all bets are off. None of the other girls knows about her and Rose thinks they are exclusive. IDK... it just seems out of character for the MC. (MC does come clean with Rose later, but she dumps him. I am sure it is going to be one of those things where she goes home to think about it and then accepts it. Oh, and after she dumps him, he goes to a strip club. Lol.)

As far as the content, there is plenty of it. Most of it is stock animations you have seen in other games and the dirty talk is decent and the scenes are longer than most, but there is nothing really new or amazing about them.

The LIs are all attractive and most of them are well written and developed. The writing is solid but a little awkward in parts, but nothing that take you out of the story. Finally, the story is pretty good... not great, but pretty good.

At the end of the day, I like a little more complexity with the relationships and I really don't understand the whole harem thing. Not knocking the kink at all... there are some that I like, but this style where the women all just seem fine with things never works for me.

Anyway, if you like harem games and lots if content with a decent story, you should download and give it a shot. If you like lots of choices and discovering different paths, then you will probably be disappointed, but you will still enjoy a playthru.

The story of this game isn't too shabby, the scenes are hot, and I got a thing for redheads (game has three my dudes). It's not a AAA game like some others on this website, but for the budget it probably has, it's well done.

As of version 8b, I feel that the VN could be so much more than it is. I can see from the animations put in that the developer is spending time and effort, but maybe it would be more impactful to spend time on the script rather than the animations. The good and the could be improved are listed below:

The good

• The women are well designed and dressed. They look great.
• The renders look realistic enough with shadows in the right places and lighting smartly done. The renders are still a bit flat but much better than the average VN.
• The English is legible and clear: you know exactly what the developer wants to tell you. Excellent work on this!

The could be improved

• Please, please, please, let the visuals do the talking! The narrator does not have to say everything that is going on screen. Sometimes this gets so bad that I think that I am reading the developer's notes on the VN rather than the final novel. Examples of what I am talking about:
  • Right after a fight won, you have a visual of the coach running on the boxing ring. The text says: "You did it! You did it!" He yells as he runs to the center of the ring.
    • You don't have to tell me that the coach is running towards MC, I can see it in the render.
  • Line when Rob is driving MC to hospital: 'Rob parks the vehicle and asks about Liam'
    • What is the purpose of this line? You don't need to tell me this information, I can see the car is in a parking lot. Just have Rob look at MC, take his hands off the wheel, and start asking about Liam.
• Remember, whenever you have the narrator say something instead of using dialogue between characters, it slows down the story and pulls the reader out of the immersion. Use dialogue between characters to convey information, don't use the narrator's voice.
• The character personalities are unfortunately quite flat and one dimensional. Each character has exactly 1 dream: the MC's is boxing, Leah's is being a restaurant owner, Alice's is working in the movie industry. Why do they have these aspirations? What inspired them? What character faults and personal struggles do they have?
• Similarly, the world seems to revolve around the MC. Every woman he encounters likes him immediately. Leah, Alice, and his friend (Michael I think) can only talk about what a great guy MC is. Is this realistic dialogue? Where is the drama, the conflict? Why does no one comment on MC establishing relationships with Leah, Alice and the third girl (I forget her name) at the same time?
  • Another example of the world revolving around the MC is when he turns up in front of the doctor an hour after his appointment. The secretary and doctor 'forgive' him and see him almost immediately. Would this happen in real life? What message was the author trying to get across by having the MC turn up late? Why did Rob, the guy who drove him there, not comment on being an hour late before they arrive at the hospital?
  • By the way, MRI is famously not an X-ray technique, but involves imaging through magnetic fields, which is why metal objects are not allowed within the machine.
• The characters, particularly the male characters, are usually glassy eyed and expressionless, which makes them look like mannequins. I believe spending time to fix that would serve the story more than adding animations.

I hope this was constructive criticism and helped the developer understand what I feel is holding the VN back from being exceptional. Wish you all the best for the future.

This one is pretty good, I'm not a big fan of having to choose one path over the other and miss content but it balances out so for instance one night you spend with Leah then another night you spend with Alice, so the points you gain can be evened out and there isn't a set relationship yet with any of the woman but I've spoken to the Devs who by the way is extremely nice on patreon and he/she ticked all the right boxes, no NTR, Sharing and just so people have a lot of incentive to try, it will have a harem eventually, I don't know how given where the relationships are and with the choosing woman to spend time with along with the point system but it has been confirmed, also pregnancy is a bonus, just hope it's not used as an ending, I want to spend some time with my baby man!

One other thing, some people don't like the time skips and neither did I at first but I think its extremely necessary, unlike other games where it's day 1-10 then all the characters fall in love, this one has a more realistic approach by skipping even if you don't see what happens between one week to the next but it gives a reason for pacing in the relationships in my opinion, like you've know Alice for a few months now and it makes more sense that yous are both physical, but for gods sake their living in the same unit and banging regularly so why aren't they sleeping in the same bed! Ahhhhhhh ok I'm sorry I'm sorry it's my spooning nature to say that

Ok I'm done

Good luck Devs can't wait for round 9 still gotta finish 7 n 8

P.s the sister thing, I was with everybody else at first thinking ok why the hell is she not gonna be a LI but then the realisation hit, she's not even in the game! I seen one image and she's hot but she's also already got a lover, then again if that doesn't work out and she does have a big part in the game then MOONS gonna have to change that stance on incest, sorry but not sorry mate, just call her friend for patreon, I suffer with camilia in serenity already, please don't tease me with that in the future moon! Ok! Please?

(These attempts at being funny are not condoned or tolerated by the idiot that wrote the review ie me)