VN - Ren'Py - Leaving DNA [Ep. 3] [Impious Monk]

Extremely well written game with some extremely strong characters and some truly beautiful renders, all of the characters and background sets are all S+. Ep 1 & 2 were extremely strong, l I think the only area where the game falls short is the 4th love interest Malena. Her writing is extremely cringey and hard to read at some points, trying to be this extremely mysterious and random girl. Hopefully rejecting her means I'm left out of the future content in future episodes. Other than that loved the first two eps and looking forward to more!

Quite wordy, but the story is interesting, so you don't want to just skip all the talk and get to action scenes. Characters are believable as human beings. Dev's appearance and girls' explanation how patrons can be involved in the game is hilarious. And finally there's an Armenian girl. I approve)

Man, oh man. This is such an incredible AVN. So far the most intriguing story/plot I've ever seen in an AVN, and trust me I've played plenty of story-driven ones.

I'm a sucker for romance, and it is the main reason I play these visual novels, and in most cases when playing I find myself skipping over non-romance dialogues just so I could go back to segments with the love interest, but Leaving DNA is one of those rare instances where I am so invested in all aspects of the story that I did not skip any dialogue whatsoever.

It's never easy to make the story about people that work in highly technical professions and make it interesting for people who aren't well-versed in that particular industry, especially concerning law. I find that some AVNs that do this, get too far with the usage of jargon that it makes it difficult for the average person to follow and thus leading to a loss of interest - at least that's what happens to me. But this one finds the perfect balance. Not too much technical terms used or involved in the plot, but also just enough that you can understand and also tell that the developer knows what he's talking about. It's amazing!

The renders are wonderful, the girls (and even the boys too!) are very good-looking, the scenes are great, dialogue is realistic, the characters actually have distinct characters, updates take a long time but definitely worth the wait.. I could go on and on! There is no questioning why this has such a high rating.

It's probably too early to say, but if it keeps going in the same pace, Leaving DNA is probably going to be in contention to be one of the best AVNs. Here's to hoping I don't jinx it!

Final verdict (heh): 100% recommend.

Good luck in the future updates, Impious Monk!

I think it is more than just an adult visual novel game, because it has a great story and very good characters so I would like to call it a proper visual novel game. The protagonist is likeable and relatable, and the other characters have dynamic and unique personalities. The visuals are also stunning and captivating. However, I have one complaint about the music. It should have been playing for the entire length of the game, not just occasionally. Other than that, I give it a solid 5 star out of 5. In addition, I liked the fact that the protagonist, though quite capable and remarkable in many ways, is not the ultimate man alive who can beat multiple people at once. The game tried to be as realistic as possible, which made it more immersive and engaging. The game also had a unique feature that I liked: kudos to the developer for making all the girls who we can date have their own space and importance in the game. They were not just side characters, but had their own stories and personalities. I enjoyed every moment of it and I am eagerly waiting for the next episode. Good luck to the developer and keep up the good work!

Renders: Really nice renders and sex animations. The models for the ladies are all Daz based and the scenes are well rendered.

Story: Premise is you're working in the local district attorney. And since this is an AVN, you're also a stud with a big penis.

The writing is really solid and is really well grounded in its premise as you're essentially trying to solve a murder. There are other other b side storylines running concurrently that of course leads to various sexual encounters with the ladies.

Gameplay is focused on the investigation, making dialogue choices that unlock scenes, including the sex ones.

There's an interesting mechanic where you can input text prompts when discussing the murder investigation. Thankfully, there's a hint system to make it not as annoying to do.

The UI, music and presentation is solid and puts this above the usual basic renpy look.

Great points:
Writing
The appearance of male and female models
rendering
Personalities matching the atmosphere of the game
MC's personality
Original story
Simple story
Interesting story
Atmosphere
Excellent physiology

Well, for a start if you are just on this side to find wank material you can reduce my rating accordingly. Because on that front not much is going on.

Let's get to the good stuff:

Renders are nice, facial expressions are very intense in you always know whats going on in your counterpart and MC.

Music is on the original side, fitting the scenes and hightens the emotions.

And now to the best part:
This VN has a very superior writing in story, dialogues and character design. I would daresay it is easily top ten here in that regard.
It plays like a very good movie about crime investigative work with a conspiracy coming sneaking along the longer it goes. And this is not the mumbo-jumbo of other VNs here with secret science stuff turning the MC and/or his friends into super humans along the way. This VN is very grounded and believable in that regard.

There is not a ton of girls, but this is fine if they are written that well and diverse in their behavior. Two are more on the tough side and two are more on the sweet side, which one being diabetes sweet and one being though as a coffin nail. Still they are all very well written and not once I thought "phew, dev overdoes it here WAY to much".
So it's 4 girls you can pursue and I daresay it will never be a harem game. This would make zero sense here as much as throwing more LIs in the ring.

Every character from MC, to love interests, to even the supporting roles are very human. No one is perfect, everyone has their weekness/demons like real humans do.

Let's come to the things some (here on F95) might not like:

1. As written there is very little sexual stuff going on. My MC didn't score at all until now, not sure if there is a possibility to have sex yet.
2. Check the tags and don't complain if the one sexual fetish you can't do without is not in there.
3. Don't mind reading, a lot.
4. Choices are pretty rare.
5. Some scenes are pretty though. The disgusting parts are not shown, but you know what is going on. And they hit (at least me) pretty hard sometimes. You get one of those pretty much in the beginning - so you know what you signed up for and if you can bear it.
6. Keep in mind that the release of Episode 2 was roughly a year after Episode 1 (original release). If you cannot stand long development circles stay away for now.

TLDR: This VN is like playing a pretty good movie. If you are into the themes of crime investigation and (light) conspiracy you cannot, imo, find anything better here. Give it a go, I am pretty sure you have a good time.

Thanks to the dev, for this awesome work.

€: fixed some typos. Pretty sure there are still some in there.

A very interesting and beautifully made VN. The storytelling and plot narration is spot on, great job development team, screen writers and dialogue / script writers. Renders are good enough and UI interface is efficient. There's a point check mechanism for unlocking H-scenes which I personally don't like, however it's understandable when devs don't want harem in their production. I still wouldn't mind watching all the scenes before decision making on potential LI especially the school faculty one felt a bit too strong for me. Anyway all models look good, I especially liked both teddy bear girl and military girl design.

There's fun, hypothesis, career and criminal cases going on in the background while our single MC tries managing his life socially. His backstory isn't properly revealed yet, however it's established that his mother was dead (cancer or not) when he's six and his grandfather also died before he was teenager. He's lived a life of rejection and abandonment growing up from his foster homes. In the meanwhile, a military personnel is loose committing crime on women. Also, military service is busy covering up this criminals tracks instead. These people have some connection with MC's father probably his mother's death too. The final scene for episode - 2 was rather interesting, also Mr. Clay character is rather intriguing. Overall VN has a charm of both thriller and comedy, keeping this balance is quite important in such heavy emotional and criminal story plots. We have a "bear guy" in MC's vicinity so I'm least concerned.

To conclude, storytelling and plot narration is the strongest point of this VN, thriller and comedy comes next, renders, modeling and posing is good enough and H - scenes follow behind. Overall very positively interested in this project, I'm and hopefully we'll see more wonderful work progress on this VN. Thank you and keep up the good job. Wholeheartedly awaiting for an update. Adios.

Really, really good for now. The four main girls are unique but not stereotyped just to make them unique: they act like real people (at least for now, until the end of chapter 2). The writing and the mystery of the murder case + the military group are on point. It doesn't take a genius to follow the clues, and it also doesn't feel like the author is treating you like a moron (it happens even on the most popular mystery-themed TV shows, heh). But the best, at least for me, is undoubtedly the protagonist. Not only is he not a hormonal retarded teenager, but he has a personality and oh boy what personality does he have. He is charismatic but at the same time he is somewhat cold and not so emotional because of his past, and although this may make him look like a gary stu, the writing and the way he acts take him away from that. Kudos to the dev. Since I live in Argentina, I don't want to pay for patreon per month, but if this game ends and is put on steam as a one-time purchase, you have my money. Also, I'm sure the game would work perfectly without the porn scenes.

I SMELL HUGE POTENTIAL!!
Plot seems realistic and engaging and characters act life-like which increases immersion. MC seems very mature and matches the lawyer personality along with his upbringing. He acts life-like unlike most avns where MCs are just having a inner monologue of railing anything that moves and breathes. MC is also good looking. Game is only two chapters in so not too much in terms of lewds if that is your pull. For me it's all about story and the writing is done at a good pace to keep unfolding plot and also giving time with npc. Main LIs are very very pretty and unique from each other. The animation is very playfully rendered along with the entire avn. I would have liked more music but that will come with time and more support from patrons. Heavy topics are discussed respectfully.
Goodluck Monk, hope you are proud of making us smile and feel

This game is fun. It actually has an interesting story, instead of the normal rinse and repeat. The main character and the main LIs have good backgrounds and personalities. Good, but simple branching, as well.

The story, as of EP 2, is 5 stars all the way. Good twist and not a boring basic story that we get with a lot of AVNs. This is more story with adult elements. The humor is wonderfully done to keep the serious nature of the story from being too overbearing and sad. It has been really well done.

The graphics are good. Not the absolute top tier, but very good. What wins here is the facial expressions, which go perfectly with the bits of humor as well as the other emotions of a scene.

Not a ton of "action", but what is there is well done.

Very much looking forward to where this goes. It, along with a handful of other stories, are a great change of pace from the large amount "wam-bam-thankyou-ma'm" stories here. Don't get me wrong, many of them are great too, but sometimes I want a great story as well. This does that.

Well, this review is currently for Episode Two:
There are tons of adult games out there and tons of porn games. the Big difference between these two are the characters. at least in my opinion, Sure story is a big-ass factor but come on, half of the games that people like a lot is just fuck by a horny teenager. some devs give the teenager a one single personality and BAM, People go like " yeah one of the perks of this game is the character of MC and ... No, it's not, you just want some dick in a pussy for a bullshit reason you call story in your mind to convince yourself.

1. Main Character: MC, a grown-ass man with a respectful job, a respectful career and a good future ahead. He has a fucked up past, Walls around himself so not a horny teenager who lust after every women he sees.
2. Main Li: At first, I was against the idea of limited Lis, but this game every Li is lovable, and I mean it. All of them are attractive, maybe three of them if you keep the blonde one to the cute category. All of them have unique personality, unique body, unique job. One is a friend from teenage years of MC, one is ex, a good ex I suppose, two of them are friends.
3. The story and world-building: Writing a good story is hard enough, but a story which revolves around mysteries and murders and police cases which I should tell in this game the case and story is Deep.

This VN is a masterpiece. (Reviewing ep. 2.)

The characters personalities, dialog, and facial expressions feel real. I’ve yet to see any other VN that uses facial expressions to help tell the story as well as this one. You don’t need an internal monologue to know what a character is thinking when their face says it all.

The story involves a mystery that appears to be very character driven. You get to type in clues, which makes the player really think through the evidence. It‘s a clever minigame mechanic that’s a lot of fun for those who like solving mysteries.

If you like romance, complex characters, and a good story, you’ll love this VN. The immersion factor is second to none.

I’d love it even without the lewd scenes. It’s that good.

(Update for ep. 3.) This one gets even better with the latest episode. I can't rave enough about the depth of the characterization here. This is one of the best written VNs of all time.

fleshed out characters, natural dialogue with interesting girls AND guys (to talk to - don't fret!). in short: natural environment!
great graphics with a lot of attention to detail and facial expression.
if you are here ONLY for the porn, you may find better.
if you are here for good storytelling, you won't!
it's as simple as that!
go, play it. buy it!

Had to rate this. You take any element of the game and they have excelled in it (epi-2). I loved the detailing and mature storytelling. Feels like quite the effort they put into story and it's consistency.
I loved the main character design as well as his personality. Love interests are quite the catch as well. Romance and intimacy is yet to get significant but the glimpses are juicy, especially when Jammie gets jealous and humps that teddy bear to death lmao.
The one with Armenian hotty i feel need to clear some smoke, they were couples and still going strong or trying to but that build up wasn't there leading to sex, I'm sure things get more clear between them as story progresses. Can't wait to see how story unfolds..

The potential for this game is astounding, and every character is believable, except the author decided to make the MC run a Sub 4 40-yard dash but we'll give it to him because why not, Malena being introduced in episode 2 totally threw a wrench in who my end game girl was, which is great because it subverts the expectations set up in episode one, I can't wait to see what happens in episode 3.

This is wonderful.

Characters are consistent, plot elements work around them without compromising their integrity (this is a big issue with many, many VNs, adult or not. Writers force events they want to happen regardless of whether or not it makes sense for the character they are using to be involved - awful internal consistency).

Dialogue is well presented and I caught only two instances of speech sounding like written word (a bug-bear of mine - for how much dialogue there is, having only two is absolutely incredible). Presents a hypothesis about incest in a brilliant way by having legal pros debating it while tipsy in a bar (although that scene did overstay its welcome, Armin's story was funny, but it didn't half go on).

Overall, it is really clever. The characters are great, they feel like real people (always something that should be strived for, even in the most porny of games), the mysteries are handled well and I have confidence the author knows where they're going and how best to reveal them.

I'm just really impressed.

The art is decent. It's not the best, but it is better than all but the tippy-top 1%. Aghavni and Jamie are really hot, and the preview of the muscular girl in the title screen looks great too. I'm a bit iffy on the blonde, but that might just be my taste.

The only real con is the audio. Some of the music didn't jive with the scenes they were playing in for me (subjective) and there was inconsistency in the use of sound effects, and their quality - they sounded very low bit rate. Audio is really important and usually ignored so I appreciate the effort, but at the same time, sourcing some more appropriate tracks and better quality effects might make all the difference. Obviously that costs money so I encourage everyone to sub to the patreon when they can, because I really want to see what this developer can achieve with resources.

Normally I don't care for VNs with lots of exposition but the writing is so fantastic I actually enjoy reading every word. I've finished Part One and there is very little sex thus far but the story is so captivating, I don't mind waiting. If you're looking for a quick fap, look elsewhere, but if you want to enjoy a great story, try this one out.

Ver: PartOne Rating: 4.5*

The only reason I'm not giving this a 5* is that it is so early in development, but this is as assured a first release I've ever seen. The story is well put together and makes sense so far, but there are lots of secrets to be delved into in the future. The LIs (2 so far) are very good and are both someone you want to end up with. There are supposedly 2 more to come, one which we glimpse in passing, and another unknown one. The world the game exists in has obviously had considerable thought put into it.

Okay the renders arent up to Ocean's or Kentyrr stardards, but are very well done. Lets be honest no one can really expect god tier renders right out of the gate. The MGs are particularly well done as mentioned earlier. As far as lewds go, there is only one, and it is a.... weird solo scene involving a stuffed animal. It was fine though. It appears like this is gonna be a slow burn type of thing by all appearances. Time will tell here.

I'm looking forward to the twists and turns to come. Honestly there have been a good half dozen new games released in the last year really worth playing, perhaps we are looking at a golden age of AVNs. This is a fine addition to that new tradition.

Great opening. There are lots of things I love so far.

- The Renders are really quite good. Nicely composited. I also enjoy how the renders are used to tell parts of the story, as in visual storytelling, in a VN? I know! Like intro to the MC, love the way the office is introduced. Very nicely done.

- The girls look good. All the characters are well done. Jamie however, takes the cake. Red hair, green eyes, short and cute! Love all the subtle changes in facial expressions, really helps build the characters and make them feel like actual characters, rather then bland flat people.

- The writing is very well done. Good English. Engaging story that seems interesting so far.

Looking forward to seeing where this one is going but already is making my list of must plays on here! Definitely give Leaving DNA a try!