VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Life Happened [v0.4.3] [Kinky Shop]

I tried. Theoretically i finished the prologue, so i am guessing since the story finally caught up to the present, and I really dont think i want to continue.
I somewhat liked only one character in the game so far, and that was Candy. The rest, including the main character who is also the narrator, dont really talk or act like actual humans, and are always just rambling on and on with little to no substance. The renders look ok i guess, but nothing amazing. The story is...i dont even know. There were a few sex scenes, but those also were quite underwhelming.
This is one of those games for me where i just skipped almost all the dialogue because i just knew i wasnt missing anything. The game has potential, and its clear that a lot of work went into it, but it needs serious trimming and editing imo.

You probably hear this a lot but this game is amazing. Far more engaging in story line than most movies out there. I have just finished the prologue and couldn't think of a single thing wrong with it. Trans inclusion is a very nice touch. I look forward to continuing it tomorrow.

great game. from the music choices, to transitions to effects letting you know something's wrong, it's a dream or if it's real, when or where the focus was for every picture. interest immediately goes up as fast as the boner does.

prologue was a bit lengthy for a non reader (trying to be a reader only read like 4-6 novels) like me tho, it was mostly the monologue (with me thinking alright I get it already) which obviously got fixed as I progressed through the game. time was obviously spent here. I always thought comics and novels had to be combined at some point. keep morons like me entertained with images. I mean I draw, but I'm not creative.

if you guys didn't know what you were doing this is one hell of a shot in the dark, because it looks like you fucking know what you're doing. with the writing, the music, everything.

The plot is all over the place. Characters are totally unconvincing as actual humans. What is worse, the writer brings up serious topics they clearly know nothing about. Example: 'the poor are too busy working to suffer from depression'. People who can choose to sit in mammy's basement and play games aren't the only ones with depression. JFC...

PC is the definition of sigma male fantasy. Excels at everything and has "flaws" which are consistently, often ridiculously downplayed or excused by the story. Not treated as serious or damning of his character, and are never introspected let alone rationally dealt with. Everything he does is 'complex' and the story makes him avoid any consequences/repercussions. Everything others do is binary good or bad, depending on whether they're obsessed with his welfare and 100% agree with him, or not. Has a great life but is aloof and brooding bc that's supposed to be cool. Indeed the whole plot hinges on the most sigma male concept ever - being very successful and wanting revenge on a girl for being mean to you when you were a dork... lmao.

I could go on about the crappy story of this 'story-driven' game but won't. Renders start off average then get better. There are a few mediocre h-scenes in the mind-numbingly shitty and long prologue segment. Tbf the game lets you skip the prologue, and you should. The main story has 2 h-scenes so far. The earlier one has one anim and the latter has several. The multi-angle animation work and interactivity in the 2nd one is excellent, and it's why I'm giving this 2/5 instead of 1. The erotic dialogue is very phone-sex-ey but not immersion-breaking if you skim through it. Only major problem is the female's face sometimes looks weird and unappealing.

I'll check back in 6 months and bump up the rating to 4 depending on quality and quantity of h-scenes.

Seriously this is everything i want in a game. Great renders, amazing story by my standards, and just enough lewdness to be considered a fap game.
I know most people would agree that it sucks having to wait so long for updates. However thats what happens when the quality is this high. My only complaint and its more a personal preference is that a lot of the dialoge is "scene setting" but hey whatever floats the devs boat. Either way great game looking forward to more from this game and this dev!

Wow what a game. I start most games with my finger hovering over control since it is usually a boring slog, but this game had me stop that pretty quick. It may feel like the storytelling is getting tangential and confusing like many other games, but the writing and storytelling does a good job of circling back to tie elements and characters together well. You FEEL relationships starting and ending, not just a hump fest from character to character. Storytelling and renders to a great job for the very long but crucial prologue. The later game that I believe is just starting has CRAZY good animations and above average sound effects. I really hope this game can get the support it needs to survive, an abandoned tag would be criminal.

Highly Underrated game....

Great story, great renders, dev does a fantastic job at describing the scenes...
Most of the time I felt like I was watching a movie, I got invested in every character in this game (even if some of them were only episodic ~@dev - you should at least bring them back for a few scenes in the present if a romance path is not what you're looking for)

I came here for copper and found gold ....... dude i wanted horny story goes deep till i for get about horny if there isnt a scene
hot sex
amazing charachters stories
diversity of kinks to satisfy i think mostly everyone
just I can't think of something bad about it

I've tried twice now to play this game, and I never even make it through the prologue (at least I think it is still the prologue, because there are no choices).

Many games have the problem that they are not elaborate enough, the sex scenes feel flat and boring, because it's basically "MC sticks his massive cock into her pussy and takes her hard." without any flourish, without creating an erotique atmosphere outside the actual renders.
The same goes for the story. Not descriptive enough, just blunt and inelegant.
Then you have games where the writer emulates being an auteur, a genius of the written word, with pseudo-driven, deep and disturbed characters, and overly verbose prose, like they really believe their lousy porn visual novel is a masterpiece of literature.

This game lies somewhat between. It is way too verbose and the scenes and text and dialogue just go on and on and on...
They aren't badly written, but they are a bit pretentious, but worst of all they are just boring, because they seem endless and are nowhere near as witty and as funny and smart as the dev seems to believe.

I haven't played through the prologue, but there were at least female characters and not one of them was particularly sympathetic, except for maybe the whore Candy. The male characters including the MC are not really better either.
Both the MC and his bestie disgust me a little bit and bore me a lot, especially the MC is annoying, as he is also the narrator, and he just drones on and on endlessly, and it is driving me nuts.

IDK, I think this game could be a lot better than it is right now, with a bit of work and some serious editing to iron out these lengths and maybe downgrade the annoying habits and traits of the characters a few degrees, but as it is now, sadly it feels like a chore to play through it.

The visual novel is crime/drama based novel with great renders and visual effects. The quality of the writing and grammar is above average, good even, but there are a couple of things about the story and plot that have irritated me as I read through the novel. Despite the below niggles, I have rated the novel as 5 stars and recommend people to take a punt on the novel. The effort the developer has put in to the renders, the overall story line and some of the characters are truly commendable. This has the hallmarks of becoming one of the great visual novels.

The major niggle I have with the visuals is not the shaders or effects overlaid on the renders, though I do think the shaders are a tad overdone. The major problem is the transition time from one render to the next. I particularly noticed this in the church scene where each new renders takes an age to focus, while I'm sitting there chomping at the bit to proceed with the story. Decreasing/removing the transition time, or displaying text while the transition is happening can alleviate this niggle.

The other problem I had was the prologue and the main character's immediate and unreasonable obsession with Rachel. Soon after her introduction, which in itself was stretched too long, we are introduced to two other (romanceable) women who, in my estimation end up being much more interesting characters. When the main character is railroaded into loving Rachel and Rachel only, I felt like the aforementioned potential love interests were stolen from me. I felt nothing but contempt towards the main character and apathy towards Rachel. My connection with the protagonist was broken and I wanted to stop reading.

That is the danger of railroading 'Romeo and Juliet' love for the purposes of plot, particularly of a nameable character who's thoughts you are intimately linked with. If the reader does not see what the protagonist sees in Rachel, then the reader disconnects from the protagonist (or at least I did).

If a railroaded romance was required, then perhaps introducing the two other women later in the story, once the plot's foundation had been laid, would make the story more relatable. If Rachel was the only woman we truly got to know, and did not see much of Alex or Charlie's personality or their (romantic) interest in the protagonist, then Rachel's and protagonist's relationship would be much more palatable to me.

Maybe the above criticism is unfair as the developer wants to tell a different story. That's fair enough. Either way, keep up the good work and hopefully there is much more to come!

v 0.4.2
Despite the good reviews I had bad hunch about that game. After lots of hesitation (fap time is precious) I finally decided to give it a chance.
Unfortunately my hunch proved right. The game is simply boring.
The lewd content per MB is insignificant. I didn't find any anal scene despite the tag - false advertisement? The first 30 min or so - there is nothing remotely erotic.
Maybe the dev is exorcising some inner demons yet I don't see any reason to waste more time here.

Programming: 4 stars (gui seems to be from 'Deliverance' - what's up with that?)
Graphics: 4 stars
Story: 3 stars
Erotics: 0 stars
Overall: 2 stars - cause this is supposed to be a porn game

Freakin' fish sticks, this is something else! I didn't really know what to expect but this game is simply amazing. Beautiful renders, superb storytelling and a cast of fantastic characters.

A fair warning: the game contains some pretty heavy stuff. If you're just looking for a quick happy fappy, this isn't it. The atmosphere is dark and the story is very extensive. The prologue alone could be a game on its own. Emotionally it hit me harder than most movies or books do. (speaking of movies, the game reminded me of 'Once Upon a Time in America', both in terms of setting and storytelling)

Visually this game is top-notch. With beautiful movie-like renders and very realistic and sexy characters. Not your standard Ren'py models, not even the male ones. The build-up is sublime and the sex scenes are super hot and provide several different kinks and lots of dirty talk. No animations, that's a shame, but just a very small one.

Looking at the quality and the amount of content, this game has far too little support. Well, at least it has one more supporter now. This one is special, it's one of the few games that I would rate 10 starts if possible, highly recommended if you haven't played it yet!

As of v0.4

I loved this game when prologue came with nice renders and I loved the story with nice characters where no sharing / NTR was hinted ( and after a couple of updates it takes a wild turn and sharing / NTR seems to have more priority / content than non NTR .
Avoidable sharing / trans content but still having dialogues mentioning them it is a hard no .
This visual novel would have been success but the way the story progressing it is highly unlikely .

This game clawed its way into my personal upper echelon of AVNs. It sat for a couple months after downloading because it really has a slow beginning. How worth it it was.

The story is spelled out in the description, but for everyone's benefit I won't indulge the details. I will say, I love a good revenge story. This game follows the same beats as "Vincenzo" on netflix (which I recently finished, loved, and highly recommend if you don't mind subtitles). It manages to make me care about the characters. There isn't really complexity in their archetypes. We know who is good and who is bad (as of now) but it makes great use of the anti-hero role which isn't used enough in these games. So far it's a straight forward VN. There aren't any sandbox/free roam moments. You get choices the have their consequences spelled out for you, and they are mostly (all?) based around your relationship with women.

The models are fantastic. You get to see the chubby little boy that is the MC become a very good looking dude, which in my opinion is very important. There is an issue of the MC being the most devilishly handsome man in the game though, every other male character looks a bit dopy outside of one that is used in like 10 frames thus far. The girls are diverse and lovingly made. They aren't recycled models that are in every game that I can tell. This game even does something so few other games do: body hair. I was blown away. Not just a beard, the MC has realistic looking chest hair too. But one of the girls is also a bit hairy. I saw some fuzz on her arms and thought it was super charming. But then, I'm unsure if it was intentional, she also has leg hair. Nothing against it, it was just distracting for a moment. Lastly, these women feel like more than sex objects, which I can't praise enough.

The writing is good, I don't think it's native english, but that doesn't stop it. I think there were a few grammatical/spelling errors but I just shrugged them off because they weren't so overt it became distracting. There are some super over the top lovey dovey, Romeo and Juliet moments while the MC is professing his love to someone, but I can't say it's unrealistic or too much because they were high schoolers and I have known a few to talk like that. I may have been one of them. Even he sex scenes aren't just quick dirty talk and climax, one took me like 20 minutes to get through. There is emotion and reason behind the sex, it's not just mindless romping.

I appreciate a good story with a good coat of paint. I won't claim that this is an overly complex whodunit or a political thriller. It is an emotional rollercoaster that will ask you to suspend your disbelief at times and just enjoy it for what it is. And what it is, is a great game.

This game deserves FAR more praise and support than it gets. I hope it continues to grow.

I feel the lack of support may stem from its slow build and lack of sex every 2 images. But there are plenty of games for that around this site. This game feels like it wants to be more and I think it is succeeding.

If you want a good story though with really nice art and direction, you really should try this out. And don't worry. There is plenty of sexy times in it as well!

It is just getting started and I can't wait to see where it goes next!

Art: Excellent
Story: Interesting is the best word for it.
Execution: Extremely poor.

This could have been a great game if the developer didn't take themselves to seriously. It feels like they are trying to make a masterpiece to shame all other games, but fail spectacularly.
I mean the writing reminds me of when I first started writing my assignments and projects for college and would try to use "sophisticated" words and prattle on for pages only to get average marks. If anyone is impressed by the story, you are far more patient than I am or my teachers ever were -- and good on you.
Best of luck to the Dev.

v0.4.2
This here is a story which touches on some serious topics and captures it's audience with some deep emotional shit. Don't download this game with your dick out. Take a seat and enjoy the story, once you've done that I recommend going back to enjoy the sex scenes at your leisure. The reason I say that is because the tension during the story is quite high as they play out initially. If you're able to rub one out during the prologue you're one tough motherfucker and you need help, and that's a compliment.


NTR fans:
There is NO NTR. As of v0.4.2 it's definitely just sharing content equivalent to hotwifing content or maybe "watered down" NTR to some. The content, however, is still hot enough if that is your main interest. The girl(s) say some kinky shit ^^

anti-NTR dudes:
There's NTR.

The characters:
Top quality. Nice variation. Personalities vary and even shift based on the era. You know how the nerdy girl with the glasses grows up and gets contacts? Not this guy. The girls with glasses in this game stay hot throughout, glasses intact. One girl you can even see arm fuzz... why was that hot? Who knows. MC is a boss. I didn't know how tired I was playing as a skinny hairless dude until now. Oh and Alex?... nom nom nom nom.

Criticism:
At first I was frustrated with the pacing. I attribute that to being conditioned to downloading insta-fap material all the time. I feel like the sex scenes are too drawn out as well and need to be more deliberate.

Rating:
Why 5 stars? This shit here is best-in-class. Read the story and try to compare it to something similar that does a better job, buddy. Where it lacks in content volume, it makes up for it with a developer who interacts with the community. If I were to rate this game based purely on fap material it would be a bit lower, but this here is a "story first" game with adult scenes from what I can tell and I rated it as such.

Great job and good luck.

This game started nice with a good prologue, the prologue was long and with lack of choices since it was his past and dev wanted to make is past set in stone so you can't really change the mc, even being a long prologue I still think was nice but after the end of prologue the game turns is side to a cannon story of sharing(never hinted in the prologue) and very first update the game gets goes for ntr/sharing .

Now dev gives a choice to disable trans and sharing content but if you disable trans you lose one LI when he could make a few renders more with her without a dick and we still have one more LI but no the important is waste time in sharing,

If you disable sharing you will not see but you will still see dialogues and references about that, talk about double standards right???

The second update comes as story progression he says but that story progression is basically a long phone call and blue balls for the non ntr folks, we are talking about more than 6 months since released folks.

Renders are good.
Story could be nice if you aren't forced on some things that a bunch of people dislike.
Only non ntr scene we have with dana is horrible, there renders, scene, lightning, position all goes down to the flush with how horrible it is.
Seems for the mc the only possible way to get info about his enemies is whoring is LI's to them, that's creative *chuckles*.

This game could had been a success but with the direction it goes after the prologue i don't see it anymore.

Must thank the creator, this game inspired to write a series of 4 interconnected stories. The game had a few problems in v0.1 but hose were some minor error or experimental error. The storytelling and also the story itself is very good. Never thought a 40 yr old man can initiate such a engaging story.
Kudos to the game, kudos to [Kinky Shop].