VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Lancaster Boarding House [Final] [Daniels K]

Honestly, this one just didn't really do it for me. I guess I'm more in the minority that cares about writing just as much (if not more than) the sex scenes. But I found the story here to be quite frankly awful at times. The amount of out of place "hahaha!"'s that were included in this game are to me too many to count. It's definitely not a "bad" game at all and the renders are still great, it just didn't really hit for me.

[VN] [Ren'Py] [Completed] Lancaster Boarding House [Final] [Daniels K]

I really did not like how the 1st girl (even tho she is the best girl in this EGame you meet is forced to be your GF and you have to cheat on her if you want to romance other girls and this is the core problem with the whole story so it just messes up the whole thing (for me at least) but the endings to some of the girls (if you ignore that Chloe is your GF in the 1st place lol) were done well yet some felt rushed and short. Also some events and the ritual were kinda left unexplored and weird. This EGame had more potential that is for sure...

- Story 2.5/5
- Gameplay & Choices 3/5
- Characters 4/5
- Visuals & Art 4/5
- Sex & Erotic scenes 3.5/5

Overall rating 3.4/5 [4 star, Good EGame]

Its sad to see this series go. The story is very inviting and the character models are amazing and realistically designed. (I don't know what it is about her but Anna's my favorite in both character model and personality) I love how each character has their own lengthy and well written ending. I would absolutely love to see a sequel to this amazing series especially if some of the original cast from this series is included.

The low rating review always gets the weird looks, but hear me out. I can explain.

Spoilers ahead.

First, let's address the elephant in the room. The writing.
When you play the intro, you meet a girl who gets naked in front of you and asks to be your girlfriend in the first hours of talking. What's even worse, you two say you'll "miss" each other for those two weeks without contact. How can you miss someone you barely know? How can you miss something you haven't experienced?
I brushed that off and thought it was just an excuse to give the MC a girlfriend so she could be used as a plot device in the future, but no. It was just lazy writing. Every single character of the game follows the same repertoire. No immersion, nothing to catch my attention. I'm not asking for a wall of text, but simply three or four lines of extra dialogue to explain something, anything that makes me care about any of the characters. This constant desire easily became despair, and at some point I was just reading the rest because I was curious if the VN would ever take a good turn so I could decide if this review would be necessary or not.

The concept was good, a boarding house, but the execution was terrible. This is yet another VN that takes place in a school but feels empty as if only ten people existed in the world. The school is so unremarkable that while writing this review I literally forgot that there was anything related to a school at all. It's just a dorm with horny teenagers who pretend to go to classes.

Next point, the cringe. Oh boy, the cringe.
Besides the whole "I'll miss you even though we barely know each other" stuff, there's even more cringy stuff in this overrated mess. The MC doesn't know how to act near girls, desperately searches for Chloe because she's a few minutes late for class, gets an erection within seconds looking at another girl as an excuse to write a sex scene without any build-up or reasonable explanation, kisses Chloe's butt at any chance he gets, constantly acts like a 14 yo boy with no self-awareness, the list goes on and on, and most of the time it's related to the MC. You know, that character that stays with you for the entirety of your amazing experience.
I thought I was just playing the game wrong because I was always being nice, so I picked the walkthrough up and went for the "manly" choices. That was a terrible mistake.

The choices, why?
Why?
Why would you put choices in-game if they don't matter anything?
When I started from the beginning and picked different choices I thought I would see different situations or reactions, but no. I only got two or three lines of different dialogue and I never heard of my choice again. Choices in this VN are simply the difference between seeing a certain scene or not based on your stats. They have no impact and the MC will still act like a pussy even with the "manly" stat maxed out. The only time a choice matters in this game is with the endings, and that's to be expected because otherwise this would be just a kinetic novel and kinetic novels are only good when the content is at least decent. Don't fool yourself, though. The endings are not a positive point for this game. 1 star is for games with absolutely no redeeming factors, and this is one of them.
The endings are just "if you did this and this, you'll have this outcome". That's not how life works. Life is not a mathematical equation with exact values and results. And no, I'm not asking for the impossible. Many VNs I've played have at least a certain degree of believability when it comes to endings. Also, no, consequences are not always set in stone. You can find your way around your problems and, you know, act like a human being. As I said, life is not a mathematical equation and many other VNs have done this pretty well (even the bad ones).

Speaking of which, the characters.
I already talked about character development so you know I'm not bringing compliments. They have no personality or traits. They have no hobbies or conscience. They probably don't even have organs for how artificial they look. I know I'm fapping to an adult game but if this is what a character should look like, then I'm better off fapping to a blank piece of paper.
And btw, again the classic "she's a nerdy shy girl" but in reality she's just easily embarrassed and has the same sexual appetite as a horny sexually frustrated 40 yo wife who just took an entire bottle of aphrodisiacs. Can you guys stop doing this?
Not once have I felt attracted or even interested in any of the characters for the entire time I spent looking at the glass screen of my computer. At times I would even turn off my brain and start thinking of other stuff or sing some random song in my head. That's how bored I was. I rolled back to see if I missed something, if I missed the part where the game actually tries, but even though I had no expectations I was still disappointed.

Now, let's stop talking about stupid things like storytelling and character development. Pfhh who cares about this stuff? Everyone knows we're just here for the sexy stuff, right?
Well, that's where I can't help but wonder why this VN has such a high score. Don't mind me, I'm not telling you what opinion you should have, but I also have my right to be baffled.
If your whole motivation is to see the sex scenes and ignore all the unimportant stuff like believable scenarios or decent writing, tell me exactly what you can extract from this game.
Seriously, the graphics are nothing special, the models are the same cookie-cutter models we've seen thousands of times, the "animations" are just two frames, and the dialogue is just unbearable. Holy fucking shit. The sex dialogues. It's just a bunch of random words mixed together in a way that kinda makes sense but doesn't follow any order and sometimes is so cringe I almost feel bad for anyone who still says "I'm feeling turned on" in the current year.
It's not the graphics, it's not the text, so what is it? Just get a CG rip and call it a day. You won't miss anything.
The characters barely speak to each other and when they do, it's all incoherent gibberish.

If you're looking for entertainment, keep looking.
If you're looking for good fap material, keep looking.
If you're easily satisfied and don't care about quality or effort, you can fap to the shapes of an hourglass on Google Images.
I honestly can't give you any good reason to download this game, hence the 1 star.
While I'm writing these last lines I still came up with at least three other negative points that I would like to bring up, but at this point you probably already got the idea.

Very good game. Although not perfect, it deserves a 5 star. Very different characters with different personalities leaving you pursue and try to get the one or the ones that you want. The choise of music and sound effects are good also.

wooow

i just finished this game and it was amazing experience
many girls to choose one of them ...

the best thing about this game is the romance and the only thing that made me play it

many many choices to make and great story with romance scenes
great animation some of them not good enough [specially those animations of 2 frames]
some animations focus only on the action more than the facial expression

i wanted to give it 4.5 but iam forced to give it 4 or 5 so it's unfair to give it 5 especially that the game not perfect

i don't regret playing it [great game]

Overall 4/5 - Very good game, I'd actually say the best game this dev has made due to him turning down the dial on the NTR fetish (though he did manage to sneak some "stuff" in there).

Story 3.5/5 - The game's weakest point, it starts out kinda silly, but fun. It then goes into some interesting paths only to abandon the crap out of them 3/4 of the way through the game, settling for a College Romp game (not that said genre is bad). Some of the endings came across as rushed, and even mean spirited (Ana), while some were cute and romantic (Chloe and Rose), and some were unexpectedly good for what they were (Abigail).

Characters 4.5/5 - the best part of the game hands down, every single love interest is cute and has likable qualities, obviously there are standouts, and slightly uglier ones (Eve) who needs someone to remind here this isnt fallout, and the 40s called wanting their look back.... Rose would be the second lowest girl because despite her looks and personality she does the SINGLE STUPIDEST act of anyone in this game.... Everyone else is top tier !

Graphics 4/5 - very good graphics, liked the feel of the boarding school, the ancient mansion, even the town... the sex scenes were good for the most part, and the very few animations were hot and WITH SOUND !!

On the plus side there's the setting, renders & music and the beautiful girls (athough in my opinion the hairdos of some of them look weird).

Being forced into a relationship with Chloe was an early letdown (either stay faithful and ignore the other girls or be a jerk and cheat on her, meh).

The writing (dialogue and story) was sort of okay in the beginning, then we got introduced to a half-baked mystery plot before it all degraded into an uninspired and boring fuckfest with nothing but cringy and wacky filler dialogue ("Haha").

On top of that the 2-render sex "animations" seem rather annoying than arousing to me.
There are also some real animations which are actually pretty good, but unfortunately rare.

The endings are a mixed bag - some are okay, some feel rushed and end abruptly.

I see a lot of wasted potential here, especially in terms of writing (characters, dialogue, story) and animations.

I want to start by saying I think this game is substantial and certainly worthy of a playthough, but, unlike a lot of games that are greater than the sum of their parts, this game falls somewhat on minor details that just add up.

The varied and significant (in a story sense) endings are top notch. They provide a realistic and satisfying conclusion for each of the girls that has an ending. Sadly that does not carry over to the main plot of the "ritual" as that is just left up to your imagination. The boarding house also feels like just a school stand in that really could have just been any actual high school in any other game I've played, it played no part in the story besides providing some tension as you're all sleeping on campus.

The models in this game are great but almost every single character in this game is your standard "girl next door" stereotype with one extra personality trait tacked on. While that's my favorite type of girl in these sorts of games, it just felt weird with so many in one game. Most of them were so similar that the main difference was how they looked.

I also wasn't a huge fan of how little everyone cared that you were sleeping around. The choices were less consequential and more along the lines of "who do you want to fuck?" There's a "perfect" ending for the girl the game sets you up with at the beginning but instead of a perfect ending it feels more like a secret one because she never hints that staying loyal will reward you in any way, and given how little her personality her differs from the other girls, it almost seems weird that she's not okay with you seeing other chicks.

Overall, this is a very solid game that I think many will enjoy with a lot of choices, but very few consequences, and that might be disappointing for some looking for something with a little weight to it.

Just excellent all around. Only issue that bothered me was that wasn't able to skip the animations if wanted. But that wasn't enough to drop the vote to good from excellent. Extra mention for the tattoos on Eve, really, really nice touch!

Review of final version

Lancaster Boarding House has a lot going for it. Nevertheless, it was sitting squarely as a three-star game in my head as I played. It did, however, win one more star out of me by the end. Let me explain the journey.

WIthout a doubt, the best element of LBH is the art. The models and renders are lovely! It even has a good number of high quality animations that were really great. While I'm generally fine with the choice to avoid showing the MC's face too much in a game like this, I do feel it had the nasty side effect of often not showing the female characters faces as much as I'd like in the sex scenes. Otherwise, I don't have any complaints about the visual aspects of the game.

The story was an interesting one. The world building was a bit contrived (particularly the what and why of this boarding house). But otherwise I think the story was a worthwhile one with some interesting twists and turns.

However, within that story lies the game's greatest weakness, the dialogue. The dialogue is truly horrible in the early chapters and only becomes, at best, tolerable towards the end. The female cast were lovely and varied, and yet I could not form any significant emotional attachment to them. I felt so apathetic by the end that I actually wondered if I had simply burned myself out on these games. To test this I decided to start playing another popular VN around here immediately after and, nope, my sense of immersion and empathy were working just fine. So I feel LBH really dropped the ball on this point.

Particularly bad was the MC's dialogue. I consider myself skilled at adjusting to MCs that say things or make choices that I disagree with without losing immersion into the character, but LBH pushed me WAY past that threshold. The things he says just don't make sense coming out of anyone's mouth. That, more than anything, curbed my enjoyment. I also urge the author to indicate much more emotional context as well as facial and body language in the text in some way (e.g. *blushes*). The incessant "hahaha"s were the closest attempt at this but they were just annoyingly unnatural.

The saving grace for me was how well the author did with the endings. They were numerous and varied and very well fleshed out. I don't know if I've seen another game that accomplished this quite so well (maybe [name redacted due to reviewing rules] but even then LBH's were more numerous). Big kudos to the author for this. And, yes, one of the endings was so hot that I couldn't resist awarding a bonus star.

In summary, I feel that this author has a lot of potential even if this game fell flat for me. They just need to drastically improve their dialogue writing (or partner with a cowriter). I really feel they did everything else at least well and generally very well.

The game seem like it was cut short so the story was never fleshed out. The ritual was never really explained and all the endings were abrupt. The music was good but the 2-3 frame animations was a let down.

I liked the game a lot at the beginning and it had promise and potential but it quickly diminished into vanilla territory which is not bad but in my opinion the developer is better when he does what he wants to do and it is not straight vanilla story.
The story it self build on a good foundation, we have a mc who comes to a new place finds a girlfriend and has temptations with other girls. The problem for me with many vanilla games is that mc has it to easy with girls they just can't resist him and want him. To be honest I think only Lisa did not like mc from beginning but mc's actions helped her developed feelings for him. What does not help the story is the amount of characters, too many of them and not all of them get flash out as good as Chloe or Rose. The ritual story is interesting but it has no resolution, so is just useless.
The end of the game is rushed and it feels like the dev wants to move to a new project. Hopefully he will do what he wants.

excellent game.one of my fave games. with awesome pictures. good story line. and girls are like angels. once you play this game, always will be a fan. try it and I guarantee you are not gonna regret. 5 stars for this good game and tnx to developer.

a game that didnt take forever, got beautiful renders, no oversized parts, no rubbish speech/story and is actually finished within under 2 years. biggest applause and respect to this guy. i mean its not that huge to go through, but has enough turns to keep you interested.
highest respect emblem to him, to be that one guy who finishes his supper after starting it .

If you're a fan of 3DCG porn, this game is a must play. Lots of scenarios to experience and choices to make, and with a great cast of varied models. The story takes more of a backseat for the sake of just bombarding you with sex scenes, but that's definitely what I'm looking for in a VN anyway.

No major typos and all of the dialogue is coherent, if extremely cheesy at times. Animated sex scenes are a nice touch, and the music is actually decent as well.

Excellent Game with nice looking Girls. Different Choice, different Endings and well written. Little downside on the Animations, but the Rest is top notch.
Looking forward for the next game of Daniels K.

Cutest girls are out there !

5 stars mainly thanks to the holy cute chara design

--- The chara design :
By far one of the best, at least to my taste. Chloe and Anna are top notch.

--- Story/Dialogues :
Enjoyable with some fun moments, the story is what it is, but the build up is good enough to make you follow the script, now to be honest the story and setting is not very original, but I did not mind as the characters are likeable.

--- Renders/Animations :
The renders are good, the animations are not so great, but the quality of renders and the sexy girls makes up for it.

--- Gameplay :
The gameplay is pretty simple, it is a visual novel with some choice, at least it is not boring nor frustating.
The music fits quite well

Well usually I would give 4 stars here, as the game is not at the same level as some 5 stars one (especially on the story or gameplay aspect), but I give an extra point for the chara design that is my favorite so far. So it's 5 stars at the end.

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This game is fun, with a good sense of humor. It has a nice quality of individual characters with different personalities. It also has enough sexy moments to keep people interested, even if you are faithful to Chloe.

My one concern is this so far: This game had the potential to LAST a while. School with a dorm setting, lots of room for stretch material. But it's like a week and a half into the summer of this game, and we already have 2 (3) endings available. Every ending also involves leaving the School forever and forming a permanent commitment with that person(s). I was at least hopeful with Rose's ending that there was going to be some "school" content during her ending sequence, but there wasn't.