VN - Ren'Py - Luminary Protocol [v0.46] [Jubs Games]

Review as of v0.46

Before I get into the ratings, I will provide bias info and reasoning. A LOT of people have issues with AI assets being used. While I would prefer to support humans, there are limitations. IF I decide to make a game, I would be in the same boat as the Dev here. Don't have funds for an artist. Have no artistic ability myself (besides story telling). Circumstances dictate the battlefield, so you have to use the tools at hand and do the best you can. This Dev does use AI, but you can tell that they push the tech as hard as they can. I really like what they've done with models, renders, animations and the sprites. Should I decide to make that game that I've got rolling around in my head, they'd be a standard I'd measure myself against. In short, I don't mind AI being used. Hell with the right mindset, it could be a positive. Now onto the critiques.

Story 10/10
Engaging to say the least. You lose yourself in the world. Can you nitpick and find flaws...sure. The thing is that you would have to nitpick. There's no glaring issues, no plot holes, no confusion as to what possessed them to write something that way. The setting gets you nice and comfy, then BAM you find yourself having to readjust to new paradigms. Get a handle on that, some shit happens and you have to readjust again. Boredom doesn't happen to anyone who doesn't have the most severe ADHD case imaginable. The Dev's writing style is easy to grasp and flow with the story.

Characters 9/10
Heh. I have to give a -1 point due to someone confiding into someone else that wouldn't confide in anyone, no matter the stress. The bitch I'm talking about is a machiavellian black widow using everyone she can sink her claws into without preamble nor empathy using them until they're dried husks. Should say something about how well the characters are written that I have such a vile hatred for one. Other than her in that one instance, no one breaks character. No one does stupid shit that they wouldn't normally do. The characters are well thought out and have distinctive personalities and quirks. Easily engaging and you quickly find yourself pulled towards your favorites and repulsed by the ones you dislike. Absolutely epic character building (for those that have had the limelight long enough to form said opinions).

Gameplay/UI 8/10
Above average UI and gameplay. Variables being tracked all over the place leads me to believe that even small decisions will have an effect later. Still too early for them to come to fruition I think. As long as they get used, otherwise it jacks up my paranoia for no reason. UI is clean and efficient. No stumbling around a map trying to figure out what to do next. No second guessing whether you've completed everything before moving on with the main story. My favorite part? The codex and bios. Wanna learn more about the world, what something means, character's history? Look it up! Best part is there is an in game reason you have this info! The negative criticisms? Can't see past variable modifications. Did I get +1 or +2 rep with a faction on said mission. The modifications just flash in the upper right and if you miss them, you can see the totals, but not how you got there... Nitpicky, but glaring when you're trying to troubleshoot something. Just because I'm an info hound, I would love to see a mission overview available any time I choose. +1 to a character (balance). +2 to faction (order) +1 to a different character (chaos) +500 money kind of thing. Maybe a sentence or 2 for a synopsis of the mission so you can jog your memory.

Lewd scenes 7/10
This is the drawback of the game. It is self admitted by the Dev that they're using subpar tools to create these. Resolution isn't great, hands passing through bodies, and just normal AI issues. What pulls this score up is the writing. If it was JUST visuals, it would be 5/10, but the writing is pretty far above par and makes the scenes worth it. This is NOT a game that you ignore the writing during the lewd scenes. If you do, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Sound 7/10
It does what it is supposed to. It makes the game more immersive. The looping of sighs and moans could be timed better or just ran through once rather than looping are my only critiques. It happens enough that it doesn't get the high scores of the other criteria.

I gave this game 5 stars for multiple reasons. The Dev welcomes critiques and open dialogue. They see it as engagement and have no problems with people dropping their opinions in the thread. They drop tidbits to clarify things without spoiling the future story. The Dev has open lines of communication. That can't be understated! The last reason is because I IMMENSELY enjoyed playing what I have. That can't be overlooked. Looking just at the criteria by itself doesn't tell the whole story. You have to look at the game as a whole. The bad part? I wish it was finished.

V0.42

Despite the CGI or CGA (images or art, but both are computer generated, NOT AI as that is just an unjustified oversell that makes the creators look better than they are) this is not bad visually. a few inconsistencies here and there and the usual weird goings on with hands during animations, but it is not the eyesore many have been and it is still improving. the developer has also been good at selecting which images to use and it shows. less distracting than almost all i have tried so thumbs up for that dev.

the writing is untidy. considering the developers own words in the opening, the writing should be error free but isn't. found that hints at 'careless' given such an admission.
it's a good plot and a pity it is only fairly well delivered.

i am also a little disappointed this is tagged as a VN. this is like a visual novel if you say, read chapter 4 then read chapter 7 then switch to chapter 5 etc etc. oddly, no novel I have ever read is written that way. only game books do that and they are not novels anymore than a car manual is.
i really do wish people knew what was what. amazing the sandbox games and point and clicks that get that tag, which is the same stupidity that leads to comments about games being 'pay to win' or calling a clever algorithm 'AI' despite the lack of qualifications.

my personal annoyance aside, this is a good read. i might have gone another way design wise to keep the reader as absorbed as possible, but it works well enough. lots of nudity to look at so it has teasing down pat. didn't try all routes so not sure how much i missed but only two of three holes got plugged and nothing incestuous as no penetration with a family member, just nudity. another disappointing tag if that is what you also came here for.

I'm a pretty average adult game player who's been mostly sidelined since 'Holiday Island' was new. I've been checking out a bit of the new AI stuff recently, and most is pretty bad to say the least. This one's an exception. The characters are truly likeable, tucked into an entertaining story. Those characters are HOT, not limited to the same models used over and over in real porn, DAZ 3D. etc. The animations have forced me to slow down my gameplay - gotta watch each animation play in full before reading the dialogue! There are small issues with a few of the animations, mostly noticeable when grids are visible on the torso when magic effects illumunate them. Probably the best use of AI in anyrhing I've come across. Try it out. Seriously.

I enjoy this ANV.
Pros:

• The story is good and original as far as I have seen.
• The LIs are mostly attractive and have their own personalities.
• The sifi / magic side of the story is not over welling but enough that it fits nicely.
• The story itself is mostly captivating and keeps me wanting more.

Cons:

• The LIs models seems to change ever so slightly in some images and animations. Enough that in some cases I do not like the model in it.
• There is a ton of internal dialog and can get a bit wordy.

Review of v0.36

There is a tremendous amount of promise to Luminary Protocol already and I'm very much looking forward to playing more. In its current state, I would normally give 4 stars, but it did one rare thing so remarkably well that it earned that fifth star, but more on that in a bit.

The writing itself is capable, there was the occasional typo or grammatical error, and a possible hint of slop (one cannot fail to see the word ministration in this day and age), but it served its purpose well and never distracted me from the story.

The setting, story and characters are definitely the highlights of this game. I'm very interested in where this is going and every character interests me. The main character actually has character: he's likable, interesting and, most importantly, doesn't do stupid things to advance the plot, yet he feels like a real person. There's a hint of his potential power-wise, but it's still a subtle thing. I simultaneously approve of the slow advancement and the tantalizing promise of much greater capabilities to be found in the MC.

The art assets are tricky to review. I've done enough work with genai to be impressed with the accomplishments while still frequently distracted by the limitations of locally generated NSFW art, particularly when animating. But if you accept those limitations, and focus on what you are reading, the art adds much. The SFW art is quite good and definitely adds to the experience. Most jarring is character inconsistency but that's just something we have to accept and you just have to choose to not let it bother you. The dev was clever enough to even have an in-universe explanation for it (glamours). So far the LI focus has definitely leaned towards more mature women (and that's done well and realistically), and there are some potential 18-25-yo LIs, I hope to see some LIs in the 25-35-yo middle ground as well.

I was less fond of the "dark fantasy art", seeing a slideshow of a blend of sex and violence isn't my thing, but I appreciate the need to establish the perilous world into which the main character has been thrust. I simply stuck to the reading and accepted it for what it was.

The remarkable thing, however, that earned that bonus star was something I think is truly special. He thrust a group of people who cared about each other into a dangerous, unknown situation. And each of them are capable individuals each with different strengths. This develops a wonderful us against the world dynamic that I absolutely adore. While I selfishly still kind of hope for the MC to be a step above, I never want the reliance between the five of them to end. They may let select others into their circle of trust, but it's clear that this must be done carefully. And, like the MC, they are all sensible. I like rational, hard-working main characters and these people are. Their love towards and dependence on each other is the story's greatest strength.

Outside the game, I'm also impressed by the thoughtfulness and candor of the dev. They seem to know their capabilities, where they are inexperienced, some of their and their tool's limitations, and what sacrifices they need to make in some aspects of the development process to still produce good overall quality based on their strengths. I feel this shows maturity and a sense of focus that should aid in seeing the project completed.

Some lag between CG scenes, but overall a well thoughtout game, just enough tease to be interesting, Not sure the boob wobble coefficient is quite right, but who the hell cares!

Interesting storyline, appears to be a few of this genre coming through now, though LP is the best of breed IMHO.

I'm not really fussed by the occassional matrix style glitch, though understanding when a animated scene is coming up so I don't accidentaly skip before it's started playing would be great.

TLDR: more of a technical demo of what AI can do nowadays with vid creation, but not a very good game and even less a good adult game.

I'll give this quite a hard rating because of the overuse of AI.

The story is the only thing allegedly done by a human and even that feels like it lacks personnification. Most characters are bland and transparent. And the AI images doesn't help to give them an inch of tangibility.
The story itself is a lazy isekai full of tropes, not much to say.

Graphics are Ai generated, so expect empty eyes, the usual blurs and weird effects and A LOT of discrepencies from one scene to another.

Plus point for the visual SFX, they are nicer than most games.

Adult action is almost non existent and not very compelling.

this game has amazing potential.
the modelslook well polished and you can see the dev improving while you play the game. the setting itself is interresting and story is well written.
characters are all destinguishable in personaly and behavier and how they talk and act feels grounded. You can tell, for a nsfw vn there went a lot of care in the story itself.
still eary on but if dev continues like that, this could become something very beautifull

Wow! I really enjoyed this. found myself torn between reading the text first or paying attention to the amazing animations.
There were a few missteps, consistency of characters, some AI-specials - for instance the legs of the donkey and horses - that scene possibly didnt need the animation though...
But in the end the story is fun, the girls are FINE... and the animations makes me remember those glory days of baywatch!

v0.28 Review

As of now this is a 3⭐ but is heading in direction of a 4⭐.

First time trying this found the whole intro and plot setting quite annoying. Minimal setup to the characters and plot before throwing the reader right into it. An isekai is already a far fetched narrative alone, the world building here only making it less believable. The justifications for how this world functions holding about as much water as a colander.

Pushing past that aspect what saves this for me are the scenes and interactions with the other characters. Albeit with many substantial time jumps that would have been better filled with additional world and character development. Writing in general is fine. Nothing stood out particularly good or bad either way. Three is some adult content but not the primary focus.

For the visuals not a fan of AI used this way. I appreciate art isn't a talent everyone has, and don't mind AI being used as a crutch. Especially when the focus is on the story. But there is a LOT of inconsistencies in character design, and too may pointless animations. Waste of dev time IMO. With backgrounds sometimes completely different than their description. Most women in brothel attire from the 1880's and men wearing anything from D&D cloaked leather armor to 1960's 3-pc suits. Design is just all over the place.

Starting in Chapter 2 looks to be headed in a light sandbox system. Too early to tell hos it's going to be implemented. If there is going to be some time constraint to your available options then this would be a con for me. Forcing multiple playthroughs to experience content is just a hassle IMO. At least doesn't appear too grindy.

There's enough here to come back to and see how this progresses. So far there has been improvement with each update. The sub-par AI art and isekai plot essentially saved by it's characters and side content.

Ai Art: 5/5
The art is very nice with a fantasy theme, could be better, but it's ai, so for ai it's much better than in most other games. The best looking scenes are the fighting scenes with blood and effects.
Story: 4/5
The story is good, and it explains a magical fantasy-world, with politics, countries, and so on, so it's high-end-fantasy which is very difficult as a story.
Story-telling: 1/5
The story-telling is very boring I maybe skipped 70% of it, because it were simple fillers that didnt'matter for anything in the story, or even for the relationships, you can just ignore it. It also takes unrealitstically long, instead of travelling further they talk about a stone for 1 hour, nobody would do this. The story is like this, breakfast, talk to every single character, lunch, going to the town, going to school, breakfast, going for a walk, going shopping, etc, and the story didn't progress in this time. In chapter 2 the story progresses in one quest with around 50 images, and every image is exactly the same, it does not make any sense and it is just confusing, it would be nicer if it's shorter. I think as a sandbox-style game it could be easily 5/5 with more, and shorter paths, it's really annoying that there are so much forced visual-novel-style paths.
Gameplay: 3/5
It's a visual novel, so not much choices, but when there are choices, they are ok, there is a chaos/balance/order-system and you can get relationship-points in chapter 2, not much, but it's ok.
Scenes: 4/5
There is only one real scene with a slightly older woman. It is good, and you can not find good written scenes like this in many other games, it just takes maybe 10 fillers to get there, but the scene is good.

great game, art is great and i originally thought it was real life. a cool twist to the typical html games using twine. ofc using fantasy in a real life porn images style would be next to impossible as the use of ai shouldn't bother you.

Its well written and the incest is awesome! Need some animations next especially idles.

It's too early to "play".
Storytelling 5/5
All others 2-3/5
Family time travel not so original but good written. May be it's too good written in details for common vn. Mostly it's kinetic novel with a few choices.
Strange, loud and changing sounds of expressions by same characters, videos overlays on top of pics with borders, even with windows panel line on bottom, changing polished faces and bodies, model look of every character, bodybuilder type of main character it's all scare away.

A very good start. Story is incredibly original and intriguing! Female chars are gorgeous and the animations and gameplay will surely increase as dev gains more familiarity with tools.
I encountered this gem at Ep. 2 dev status and will keep an eye on this. If next episodes show same originality, I may just have to support this developer.

Images and Artwork are great. However that was all that I liked. Animations? Nah? Who needs em apparently. Its a friggin confusing mess of jumping around images on the screen. Did not even bother to finish the first 10 minutes as it had already turned me off. Especially when I read the Dev's comment about the lack of sex as it was just too difficult for him. Ummm. Ok? Its an adult game with no sex? Nah! Big ass No in my book! I don't give a damn how good your story might be if it has no Sex it aint for me. And then toss in the lack of proper animation as well and this quickly became a run for the exit.

Very impressive on the opening with the clips and the writing telling the story is also great, however more work is required transforming the action described by the story telling; by images and clips., eye lids & mouth opening to express life. Hugs and kisses with animation would be fantastic.

As this the Developers first game release I rate as 5 star to encourage you. You doing great and don’t take this low IQ nebbies self centered commends and focus on your goals. Great work for a first timer.

I like this game so far, with some reservations. The story is a familiar trope -- family is mysteriously transported to a different realm where fantasy elements are real -- but the writing seems good so far with dialogues and other interactions flowing pretty well, developing relationships in natural progression. My hope for the future is that the dev improves their rendering to feel less wooden and better reflect the actions described in the story. For example, having people actually hug when that's what's described. I will be following the game with hope for improvement of the graphics while maintaining the quality of the writing and storytelling.

This is the game that I expect to be updated soon with the greatest impatience! Interesting basis and wonderful images of the characters. I hope the author will keep all this and make regular ones. With time, he will probably gain more experience and clean things up more.

First impressions: I'm not a fan of AI graphics in games, but I was pleasantly surprised by the image quality, and I have to say that the story flows quite well, too. One small flaw is the text, which is occasionally flawed. Overall, I liked it, and I'll be following along.