Ren'Py - Porn and Cards [Part 2] [OPT Studio/Salty01]

Review for Part 2

A decent auto battler with a cast of colorful and quirky characters. You play as a bull-man (with a human dick) in a backwater western-style town working at a burger joint. An opportunity presents itself for the MC to learn this card game despite his misgivings, and with the "influence" of a bossy friend, you're going to use the power of this card game to turn this dingy town into an... amusement park for some reason. Well, your friend wants to and you're just kind of along for the ride I guess.

The gameplay itself has you forming a deck of units that you further enhance with equipment. The plot gives way to a series of incremental card battles with the townsfolk where each win awards you with a new unit or equipment. Honestly there's not a ton of strategy given it's relatively linear and everything just scales as you go, but it's fun enough for what it is. Usually a lewd scene at the end of those battles as well.

It's a bit funny to me that the game leans into a more sexual tone in a lot of moments, but it actually feels rather tame despite that. Kind of like if you only ever played non-lewd games and came across this it would be scandalous, but compared to other lewd games it's on the less carnal side for sure. For example, one of the first scenes is just a girl bathing but all the naughty parts are covered with soap. The MC contributes to that feel I think too, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Just something that stuck out to me.

The art is a definite highlight of the game for sure. Fitting music and all that as well. Wouldn't really call this a romance game? But rather everyone is just horny. Sex scenes themselves are fine and animated but I don't think they'll blow you away either.

If you're into auto battlers I think the game is enjoyable. The idea of Patreon locked content scares me but this is a pirate site after all. Besides that no major complaints.

very polished game with excellent artwork and the workings of a pretty good card type game

im not really here for the game so i wish it would let me click thru the pretty start and finish animations a little quicker

story wise it feels well thought out but if it goes the harem route hopefully everyone will be less jealous about it cuz i dont want to hurt any pretend peoples feelings

it loses a whole star for being filled with only blond women

you got a type i get it but come on

Writing as of v0.3

The art looks good and the characters are interesting. The game is only a short demo at this stage, but it has definitely laid the groundwork for a solid game.

The characters each have their own motivations and interesting personalities. The authors have also left some hooks for the story development and I'm interested in seeing what happens next. I also have to say that the protagonist starting in a relationship and having healthy personal relationships is a breath of fresh air.

In terms of gameplay, the card game itself is "okay". It's somewhat disappointing that the biggest weakness is the card game itself. My main issues stem from a lack of depth and a very easy difficulty.

In regards to depth, the 2 lane system is okay but felt very limiting. I found many turns would simply be spent passing as there was no more space on the board to play.
It also felt very simplistic in strategy, with no more than put the melee in front and the archer in the back to win fights. I expect this to change as the game develops and more cards are added but worry that the existing system will run into design constraints.

Another issue I felt this was that the amount of information available isn't sufficient to determine what you should actually do. The turn order is not viewable by default, though thankfully there is an option to see it. Lots of other details are missing as well, such as things like how the turn order is effected by new units, what the range of your cards are, or even the abilities and effects of them.

On the plus side, I did think the deck building element is interesting. Each card (unit) can be equipped with a variety of items to strengthen it. Right now the items look only to be stat boosts but there is definitely a lot of flexibility here and would allow for many unique customization options. It would be nice to be able to unequip items from cards, but I could also see that equipping items is permanent as a solid game mechanic as well.


With all the being said, this is an early release and overall I think the game looks very promising. I'm going to give it a high rating based on the potential shown.

Pros:

- Good fun story
- Good art/visuals
- Card gameplay is only mildly boring

Cons:

- Animations are kinda clumsy
- Ver 0.3 is too short
- No horse/tauren/bull cock (like wtf! I was expecting it)

Fantastic for the first version. Actually feels like a game instead of just pointing and clicking. The art looks great as well. The game within the game is fun but there will definitely need to be a lot more NPCs before it can become really good. Looking forward to more updates.