Ren'Py - Lost in You [v0.12.1] [atrX]

Here it is, the inevitable second coming of Horror Harem Realism clearly inspired by Lessons in Love. And the great news is that it may as well be LIL: Brotherhood because it fixes nearly all the issues with its predecessor.

TLDR: Clickathon with minimal but impactful choices. PLAY IT LINEAR MODE. Great dialogue, well written characters, high quality visuals. Sex is pretty good but nothing special. Has heart, bite, and good pacing. Worth playing.

SKIP THIS NEXT BLUE SECTION IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE COMPARISONS TO 'LESSONS IN LOVE'

I pretty much hated Lessons in Love (though I acknowledged it's quality) because the writing was basically an edgy attempt at replicating everything that High School Harem AVNs do while humiliating the player for liking that kind of thing. That game began as a reflection on the kind of narcissistic person a protagonist of a harem game would have to be to realistically succeed at what goes on in these types of games, but wallowed around for hours grasping at straws for what else to say about it. In a commentary sense, it had a great premise but nowhere else to take it. It simply enjoyed making you feel terrible for playing it or any game like it. Ironically, the only thing actually FUN about that game was the quality of all the elements it was criticizing (the sex and relationship progression). Everything else was a mess.

This dev took the same premise and made something with substance that doesn't waste the player's time and shame them for their amusement. It appropriately shames the protagonist in the ways that realistically he would and should feel bad, and thus we the players feel guilt in a way that actually makes us think about our CHOICES (something Lessons in Love does NOT have, though it pretends to) and the bad and scary feelings are given context because the story in between is actually well paced and has a light heartedness that makes the darkness stand out when it does happen.

While I don't feel that I'm doing the game a disservice by comparing it (favorably) to what is clearly its main inspiration, I did already put way too much time into both playing and reviewing LIL, but looking at it on its own merits, it still succeeds.

The dialogue writing is the star of the show. There are references, gags, and 4th wall prods that, while normally being something I cringe at, work really well because it feels appropriate to these characters. While I never laughed out loud, there is really amusing banter between them all.

While many expected architypes are represented, they are not memes, so when they do or say the things you expect, it feels earned and even endearing. Being a clever writer can be a double edged sword because it can come off that all the characters are overly witty (especially for their age) and just doing a skit together rather than existing on their own, but Lost in You does not really have this issue. Everyone has their own voice and sticks to it. And the characters are realistic, honest (figuratively I mean but often literally too) and unique and their interactions are the highlight.

The sex:
The sex is really the main reason this game gets a 4 instead of a 5. The pacing of the game leads to them naturally and you never go too long between them to get bored, but the scenes themselves are pretty generic. Animations, positions, and situations are good, clean, and effective, just not really anything more than that. Considering how many games I've now played on this site, I would put the bar here for where to aim to surpass to really get people gooning. I have no complaints about it as it does turn me on, but I don't really have any specific compliments to give it. The dialogue is the best part of this as well.

The Gameplay:
I played in linear mode because the other mode sucked ass. I rate the sandbox mode a 2/5 rather than the 4 I give linear.

Linear mode gameplay is standard visual novel with some choices. The novel part is well paced. Almost never felt the need to rush it. The choices have actual impact and knowing what kind of tone it was going for, definitely made me pause and think about them as they came up, but never felt like I was so torn I had to go back and check the alternatives every time. Best you can ask for in a VA really.

The Plot:
The plot is pretty good. It is carried by the excellent pace, the purposeful tone, and the superb characters. The story itself is fine. Not really my cup of tea as I prefer something much lighter and less serious when I'm playing hentai games, but I don't dock it any points because that's sort of the whole thing they're going for. And it works.

The Horror:
Maybe I'm just used to this, but the horror elements don't really do much for me. It's the hardest part of this kind of game to pull off and Lost in You does struggle when it tries a bit too hard in those sequences. The jump scares are a total flatline. I was not even startled because you come to immediately expect them at all times. The most effective stuff is the rapid-fire attacks of images you can't really see that comes at times where it makes you wonder "why now" and "what's going on?" but any time it lingers and tries to get abstract and bizarre, I find it pretty forced. Often the horror is absurd for its own sake rather than using it properly as metaphor. Random gags that detract from the actual horror elements which are the in-universe sequences where characters have to face real consequences for their actions. Fucking up your relationship with one of the girls and seeing their reactions is much scarier than any of the stuff trying to actually scare you, the style of which is entirely borrowed from Lessons in Love's equally ineffective style.

The only really worthwhile horror bits are the ones where there is clear progression of the mystery or a much more distinct metaphor happening. Otherwise they are a meh, but if you like them I get it.

Overall an excellent game where the good outshines the bad and the bad is mostly leftovers from the game that inspired it. Well worth playing and I'm excited to do more of it.

Played the linear version and by the time I reached the D&D session my interest has cratered. The story dithers along with little to connect the scenes in linear mode barely letting the player get to know the LIs, the MC, or what in tarnation is going on.

The LIs themselves are either incredibly shallow or we're only given the shallowest interactions with them save for a few traumatic flashbacks. The MC has nothing to recommend him and while that seems to be part of the underlying story that has, at best, been given to the player in drips and drabs it means I give not a whit about him.

Very well written, funny game, great replayability Lovely friendly british dev plenty of material for theory crafters to feast upon immersive characters and overall just great design.
Tldr 10/10 depending on the ending, we are nearing the halfway milestone of this journey and it's already my favorite novel. Keep up the great work and Tomori/ Yume best girl ig

Great Art with compelling characters and a "rich", yet confusing story.

Story Warning:
The story is very deep and woven, however it never goes anywhere, we still don't know why anything is happening, we don't know who we are or what we are, we still don't know what is real and is not, we don't even know what year it is anymore.

It is frustrating me to no end, to have a million questions any not have a single answer to any of them.

If you are anything like me and are annoyed with that, wait another year or so, I will give it a couple updates aswell before I try again, so this is mostly for my future self

Great game!
Took me a while to finally start this game, since I thought that "new repeatable events" meant sex scenes, which was not the case, thankfully.
Noticed that some people scream that it's certain game's copy or something. Wrongfully.
Some details (like city name or egg moment, stuff like that) is just a nod to certain game, nothing more. Pretty much easter eggs for those "who know", while otherwise dont even play much role in the grand scheme of things.

Music? Great choice in there. And on that note, some people definitely played RPG Maker games before and noticed that in many of those music is, pretty much, the same. Same problem here. Some of those was used in certain game, which ticked me the wrong way, but it cant be helped, especially since genre is similar. There is only so many great songs out there. And the similar choices are few and far between in here anyway.

Story? It's koikatsu, of course it will be in school. And it's good. Characters are distinct and interesting. Overall plot seem to be in the beginning still, but moves along when it can.

Atmosphere? Yep, starting quite raw, but later it swallowed me whole. Sometimes got ripped out of it because of music though (kokoronashi.mp3, looked it up just for this. Music with lirics in it is a huge no.)

Overall enjoyed the ride, and there is quite a huge potential there.

Great game, people say this is a clone of a certain game made by a certain developer who should not be named. Developer has a huge maid fetish, and that has clearly been shown in the creation of Nami. This game also has some of the best proofreading out of any game that comes directly out of early releases. One thing the developer could improve on is adding more car wash renders to the game.

Do you love games where your choices will be ignored within 3 events? Do you love games that force you to romance every character so that it can have forced and uninteresting tension and drama to prop up it's shallow cut outs of characters? Do you love oooooh spooky moments and mopey edgy characters?

I sure don't.

This game had the potential to become something different, to be interesting addition to the kotatsu renpy suite. But with each update it becomes more and more apparent that it is just the knock-off version of the much superior work it is trying to ape.

I encourage the dev to keep trying, to take a step back and rework what is here before it becomes unsalvagable. It CAN be more, and it would be a shame if it continues to follow in the footsteps of its peers instead of trying something different.

Perhaps Ill update this review as the game develops and i continue to play through, but I'd say that first thing the creator should to avoid comparisons to a certain other work is change a few of the BGMs, there are few very distinctive soundtrack selections that make their appearance very early on.

Models are pretty good, not too unnerving like others I've seen in the scene, Yui and Hina's blush bothers me a bit though. Brevity is a strong point, though a few less LOLrandom4thWallBreaks may be in order. Sandbox... is there, it's not as egregiously cryptic as others in the space, has built in hints and whatnot. The fact that MC isnt an amnesiac and actually has history that he's trying to build upon is also a plus. Characters are likeable, remains to be seen what greater depths await. Glitches are interesting enough, but haven't quite connected with the story yet, remains to be whether that changes...

3.5 atm.

I'm going to rate this game a four, because without the meta-lore it could be considered that, and I don't want to reduce the number score by rating it low because I want people to play this regardless of said meta-lore.

There is a line between paying tribute and ripping off. This game is generally on the bad side of that line. I don't want to be too hard on it since I get the sensation that this is passionate fanwork instead of malicious plagiarism, but like damn. For as much as it is inspired by the OG, there's only one scene so far that gave me any amount of pause.

Despite shadowing the GOAT, the writer doesn't seem to have a handle on what makes a line hit, and what makes the work this is based on interesting. I really want more of the pain people associate with denpa, but every punch feels like it's coming from underwater. The girls might be flawed and we just haven't seen it, but so far they're all saintly little sweethearts with different flavors and a couple minor quirks that are more endearing than anything bad. It's just the mc that is a cheating dick. Hina is the only character that has done anything wrong other than the mc at time of writing. Even then, it still reads like the story is going to pin it all on the mc.

I'm not saying you need to have bad or questionable people to make this story good, but maybe I kinda am? Humanity is inherently flawed, and cute girls cannot be an exception to this rule if you want them to feel real. Being tsun doesn't count because it's just additional cuteness tacked on instead of being a real detriment in any way.

Beyond this, the dialogue is just sweet as candy. I mean it's really hard to imagine two human beings talking in such a universally pleasant manner, and that's how nearly every conversation is between every two characters. The only argument that happens being effectively a misunderstanding that gets resolved within the same event, no hard feelings at all. Even when one girl realizes the mc is either trying to cheat or leading her on, she just kinda cools down on her own without anything major happening. Part of this could be said to be ramping up for when the girls find out the mc is a douchebag, but like, then it'll all be righteous anger instead of a conflict of opinion or circumstance. There was almost going to be a conflict between mc and the other dude, at least in max douche route. Then the emotional payoff gets completely put on hold, for an indefinite amount of time.

With all that said, there's definitely something charming about this game and I don't think it's impossible that the writer finds their wings at some point. I mean even Big Bro had to go back after he found his niche and rewrote/replaced the whole early game.

This game gets a three for me, because it's a reskin/reimagining of a five, and because it's still early enough to not say conclusively which side of the coin this will land on. There is definitely room to improve though, so I guess we'll just have to see where things go from here. If you are the single solitary person that doesn't know what other game I'm occasionally referring to throughout this review, you can consider this a four because my complaints are something of a Flowers for Algernon situation.

0.6.0

If you are here, you should already be familiar with a certain other VN. And this game is definetly a clone: plotwise, characterwise, even soundtrack is apropriated. However, despite it is usualy a big red flag, this game is suprinsingly better than original

And the main reason I rate it 10/10 is writing. Those who have played other novellas of the subgenre understand the importance of brevity. This game is not short - well, actualy it is, but for sixth release it shows a lot. This game does not rush. This game is not inattentive to detail. This game is brief and this is what makes it a masterpiece.
Characters are also good. They are unique, they feel alive, the only thing is they haven't grown much during the game. But it is okay given that character exposition is just ended.

Sound. Not gona lie, I had the best expirience across all VNs I played. If there would be AVN oscar, I'd nominate LiY for best sound effects. And music familiarity actualy helps with immersion.

The only potential problem I can see in this game is enormous amount of references to the source. They are hilarious, but you should have prior knowledge to understand a reference when you meet it, and if that jokes made like 20% of my enjoyment, would it mean that new-to-genre player would receive 20% less? I don't know, but this game is so good, that I think it would worth solid five nonetheless

10/10, defintely would replay it

Lost in You[v0.6.0]

Just completed till the latest version. Really a top tier VN with cute LI's.
The mixing of whole heartedness with Suspense and Supernatural elements are really great. There are a very few scenes with dark undertones, but nothing too heavy.

The MC's transformation from being broken to mending himself with the help of the LI's is shown really well. Every LI are unique with each having quirks which I find cute and adorable.

I really can't say I have a favorite LI since all the girls are great, even the Side girls are good.

The update really ended in a super cool cliffhanger, really looking forward for Chapter 2 and how the story moves from here.

There were quite a few 4th wall breakers in this game, but they don't annoy us so its good.

Overall a really good VN.
Master Piece in the making.

Consistent writing, characters have depth.
Renders good, and the characters are well designed. I think this game is good and has the potential to be better then what it is what right now I hope this game breaks out of it mold and becomes something more.

From the cast, plot, soundtrack, and pretty much 90% of the framework is a blatant ripoff from another popular VN of the same genre. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery mediocrity can pay to greatness I guess

This is so, incredibly, painfully copy-pasted from a different game I cannot give it any more stars no matter how much effort has gone into it.. and you know EXACTLY which game I'm talking about.

Not to shit on the dev's efforts, but.. really? Everything from the vfx, sfx, story elements, expressions, music, events, (rooms looking the same, etc), general idea, like.. everything. EVERYTHING. Matter of fact, it is so painfully obvious that you could genuinely mistake this for a side-project from the same dev. I don't see this getting any kind of recognition or praise from the koikatsu community if it ever does get popular, because it is so.. ugh. I'd understand if you took inspiration but it just feels like I'm playing the same game in an alternate universe.

The only real thing that stands out to me as "different" is that this is more sandbox-y. You don't have to go through as much mandatory story to get to the content with a girl you want. Again, if the dev keeps this part of the game solid without shoving story down our throats then.. great? I guess? Idk, I really want to like this game because I'm a huge koikatsu fan but I just can't. It feels like you ripped everything from someone else's work, put your *SLIGHTLY different* idea in and bam - here we are.

You could argue that a lot of these games are similar and yes, there are only so many ways you can make a porn game unique. But going to such lengths to not stand out at all is just downright sad. Good luck to you if you ever decide to start incorporating something unique, although considering you've already put so much effort into this I don't see it being anything else but something being done all over again by a different dev.

Consistent quality writing, characters have depth and differences.
Renders are also consistently good, and the characters are well designed.
The plot is still in early stages but is intriguing without being too strange or creepy.

Incredible game my favorite ever. It has all the necessary emotional plots while also containing a good bit of humor and whatnot. I think the character development is also great and actually has meaning unlike most other games. 10/10

Edit 2: As of 0.10 the game has become so obviously and painfully derivative that I can no longer recommend the work. Additionally, 0.9 was my least favorite of the updates, with 0.10 being better overall but with my least favorite sequence. There is a decent game here, and if it weren't a clone it would deserve some praise. However, I can not rate this game higher than 2.5 stars if the dev continues to commit even harder into being a clone.

Edit: As of 0.8 the game has increased greatly in quality. The storytelling is improved, the menus and functionality are improved, the writing is improved... Quite a good game across the board. The game certainly wears its inspiration on its sleeves far more than I'd like at times, but generally improves on the formula in most ways. Linear mode was a nice touch, removing any remaining sandbox grind if desired. Compared to the current average state of h-games, I would now rate this game 4.5 stars.

Highly polished, good graphics, somewhat derivative ideas and gameplay. Would now recommend.

===========

3.5 stars at the moment, with potential to soon reach 4 stars.

Another decent yet average school KK VN. In many ways this follows the same formulaic high-school story as many of its competitors, though the angle of being a student allows for a bit of freshness. The entire cast falls almost immediately for the MC, leading to a very-rushed feeling for the game. Music is decent, though only takes on more uniqueness over time. Writing is generally decent, though nothing to write home about. As of 0.4, the game feels on the precipice of perhaps coming into its own, but has generally failed to stand out from the crowd thus far.

I would overall describe the game as something nice to play if you are craving school games in the KK art style and have exhausted the more popular (and, as of now, higher quality) options, but would otherwise consider waiting a little longer to see where the game's first chapter goes.

Lost in You is another game clearly in the genre inspired by a certain "famous Koikatsu VN" (can't name it due to review rules regarding cross-promotion), sharing aspects of denpa horror, a traumatized protagonist, and sandbox-lite system. Based on my past reading and review history, I clearly have somewhat of an affinity for this type of VN, but that's not to say I've liked all the ones I've tried reading (I don't typically review games I don't like, as I don't usually even bother finishing them) - this one does manage stand on its own as a good read.

Many aspects of the game could be described as "lite" relative to "famous Koikatsu VN" - however, this is not said as a negative of the game, but rather a contrast, and most aspects of the game are done well in their own way. The protagonist isn't traumatized and unlikeable to as extreme of a degree, and is a peer/friend to most of the heroines as opposed to their sensei. There is no amnesia/isekai situation, and the denpa sections tend to be a bit more whimsical as opposed to dark/edgy/grotesque (though there is a bit of that too). It doesn't create the same sense of looming/impending dread that some VNs in the "famous Koikatsu VN" genre go for. As a whole, you could say Lost in You currently leans more towards the slice-of-life aspects, rather than the horror/nihilistic/fucked-up-world aspects of this genre, though the latter still do crop up and are interestingly written. I personally enjoy the current direction and pacing of the story for what it is, but it could of course change in the future depending on the direction the author intends to take things.

The cast is diverse enough and well written - I could probably guess which character is speaking based on a couple lines of dialogue alone, without any name given or scene shown, in most cases. I actually prefer a more focused cast, rather than having many characters and having the story and writing diluted and progress slower across them, so I hope the development continues mostly depth-wise rather than breadth-wise.

The renders are excellent for Koikatsu. Not much else to say here - some people like Koikatsu, and some don't. For those that do (like me), better visuals are about clean, cute, and unique models and outfits, without issues like aliasing or (unintentionally) weird lighting, and some diversity in the backgrounds/environments - this game pulls it all off well. There aren't too many H-scenes so far, but they're serviceable where they exist - the situations and angles are all set up well, but the animations are the typical ones seen in most Koikatsu games (not highly custom ones like seen in a few Koikatsu games that distinguish themselves in this aspect).

A good chunk of the music is exactly the same as "famous Koikatsu VN", especially early on. Not a bad thing necessarily, as the tracks are mostly catchy and suitable for the situations they're used in. This does change a bit in some of the most recent content, with a bunch of new tracks, most of which I haven't heard in other VNs.

I'd like to give a particularly big compliment to the implementation of the sandbox-lite system. I personally prefer non-sandbox VNs, or at least games with a separate option for a VN-mode. That said, short of a separate mode like that, this game has the best convenience features built-in of any games using this system that I've played. There's an easy-to-use hint system for each event (that even has direct links to other events referenced in the hint) so you never will be completely lost as to how to trigger the next event, and a progression page clearly showing how many events you've completed/have left for each character and event type. Other devs making VNs using this style of sandbox system should be taking notes.

Overall, it's a solid VN, and one which I look forward to keeping up with the latest releases of.

Review for the version V0.3.0

Pros -

Beautifully presented : Mos HS or koi games look like dogwater but this one has really good color accuracy and enough variety to make me think locations matter

Good models : I am a con... you know what kind , hence gg.

Decent plot so far : Bit lost on the details at the moment but i think it's good , needs better pacing.


Cons : Too many angles , might be a problem later in paths.

Not many risks taken so far.

GG otherwise.

I just want to start off with saying that I wanted to go into this game with the best intentions. Given how much effort was put into the page and the style, clearly effort was put into it but clearly it was too much effort in the wrong direction.

This game feels like it is copying the style too much of another game without understanding why it works. There are way too many similarities between the game and its character that makes me feel like this guy wanted to try to copy a success story without adding much of personality to it.

I don't want to give this a low review and discourage the developer from trying something else or rewriting this game into something better but it needs some uniqueness to it. Effort is clearly put for other aspects of this game to make it look good and give it quality and it deserves points there but its writing is just mediocre at best