VN - Ren'Py - Luna Reloaded [v0.21 P3] [Frozen Synapse]

[v 0.21 P3]

This game is the authors third take on the same concept - hot girl with a blank past (amnesia, etc.), mysterious powers, and a strange "inner voice" is thrust into the middle of some power-struggles, and has to find her way.

The good:

• There's a sense of a larger world that has had some thought put into it. There are some defined factions, they have some goals they are pursuing, etc. The world is not blank slate, you can feel that even if the MC hadn't dropped out of the sky, something would be happening.
  
  
• Impactful player choices are clearly a goal, which is always nice to see (how successful the author is in realizing that goal is another matter)
  
  
• The consistent presence of Jinya as supporting character allows for some interesting character dynamics

The meh

• The writing (i.e. the actual prose on the screen) is...fine. Not great, not terrible. It could certainly use an editorial pass for brevity, as characters tend to drone on and on.
  
  
• The author has a tendency to jump through several very similar renders when framing a given scene. Perhaps the intent is some sort of "dynamism," some sense that the scene is in motion? For me, it simply leads to annoyance and a sense of both disorientation and repetition.

The bad

• The overall plot structure is so needlessly complicated that it could be used as a case study for how to not structure stories.
  
  The impression I get is that the author wanted to write a "serious, mature, dark, grounded, serious story" about a hot girl getting sexed up and sexing everyone else up in every imaginable way (but in a "serious" way!). So you've got a massive cast of characters, all of whom have some super-secret, self-serving agenda that they are happy to share at the drop of a hat - and all of whom start to blend together very quickly. (I swear, there's at least 3 clones of the same "captain of the guard"-type character bumping around in the narrative already).
  
  At the same time, the author wanted his MC to be really important in this "serious, grounded" world - while not having any memories or context for that world. So 5 minutes after waking up from a coma, she's trusted with an critical task for one of the power groups - and 5 minutes later, she's already a Royal Envoy with status...
  
  All in all, it makes for a very confusing pile up of narrative priorities and themes. And that's before we even touch on the whole "I'm a secret goddess and here's my super secret inner world..." business...
  
  
• The dominance/submission scores are very strangely implemented, leading to a situation in which the MC can be either a) a complete doormat who gets sexed up by everyone she meets, b) a crazed maniac who kills people with little provocation, or c) flip flop wildly between these two states.

Placing this game in the context of the authors previous efforts leaves it sitting in an awkward spot. It's certainly "better" than Diatima's Isekai, though that's not saying much. Compared to Luna's Fall From Grace though... this game somehow manages to be both over-complicated and over-simplified.

The plot is over-complicated (it doesn't help that the characters themselves stop to point this out every once in a while), while the narrative mechanics are over-simplified (Luna's Fall from Grace did the dominance/submission thing much, much better).

Conclusion: play Luna's Fall From Grace instead.

This game has no right to get merely six votes and not get a higher rating. (I played v0.20 part 1)

I'm a non-native English speaker, and we all have different kinks, but I'm have rarely seen such a good game get so little attention in all the years I've lurked on f95.

If you're into skimpily dressed female protagonists getting into troublesome situations, and you want a moderate level of choice, this game is for you. In terms of choices, most visual novels don't go too deep because the extra content that gets missed by taking a different route doesn't get attention from patrons and thus feel "like a waste" of ressources. This game at least *tries* to be a game and give you choices, and playing a few routes did feel like I had agency on how the female protagonist turned out, rather than being told.

The art, ambience, sound effects, and especially the female protagonist herself are all aesthetically great. I don't pay too much attention to animations in games, and I thought the scenes here were really good.

I hope the game's storyline goes longer.

I never really felt immersed. The main reasons are very static renders, arbitrary choices (being polite and friendly puts you on a submissive path, being dismissive makes you dominant - why?) and wooden dialogue. There is absolutely no buildup to the actual story, the main character is just lying there and a group of girls take her home.

I guess that's a normal thing in that world but I don't know why. In fact, you are pretty much left clueless as to what is happening, why the world is in the state it is, why you are chosen to be an Envoy literally five minutes after your arrival, like... what? You have sex way before you get any meaningful answers and not even for wanting to have sex, you just agree to a massage. With a stranger. So much for agency.

It was just a very average experience for me all around and I really can't relate to the overwhelmingly positive reviews so far. Three stars are me being friendly.

The old way of Luna's Fall from Grace is reincarnating. Do you want Luna to be a dominant ruthless woman who hates everyone (The Queen), or a horny brainless bimbo, or something between both? Incredible work, a big redemption from Diatima's Isekai failure. The way the game goes there is no way to become bad, it will become a great triumph.

+ Excellent 3D art.
+ This is a real game, not a typical VN. The player's choices affect the story.
+ Good text.
+ Hot events (and there are already many of them, despite the early version of the game).
+ The author has experience with very successful projects.

I honestly tried to find objective disadvantages, but I haven't noticed any yet.)

Pretty good so far. Normally don't really like to review, but I'm a bit stunned this game barely got any. So yeah, here I go.

Haven't played any of the previous games from the developer, including Luna's Fall from Grace (the gallery/screenshots never pulled me in), but this time I liked what I saw, so I downloaded it.

Decent amount of content so far. The worldbuilding is decent, I don't think I am missing too much by not having played the 'prequel', but I could be wrong.

I really love Luna's look in this game, she's hot as fuck and dresses hot as fuck. Her partner in crime really is a looker aswell, with honestly a pretty good amount of charm and characterization.

You can play a more dominant/intimidating character, or a more reserved., less impulsive character. The scenes with which you can end up with are quite different on both paths, even if the story itself doesn't branch so far as far as I know. Not a bad thing per se, having branches in the story (so not the sub/dom thingy) can really hurt a game in the long run.

Animations aren't really good, but I'm fine with that. Playing it for the renders and so far it's a pretty darn sexy game. with a decent story. I did spot some typo's here and there, or if I remember correctly males being referred to as she or vice versa, but I was kinda drunk when playing, so it could've been me ^^,

Updates do seem frequent, but since I only started recently, I can't tell how much content an update has. The dev is on my watchlist now though, so I might sub in the near future if the content keeps this quality.

A sequel based on the bad ass FMC sign me up !

I could write a whole paragraph and the meaning behind that game in this review but this would just be idiotic spoilers and doesn't help out the players in the end of the day - so to make it short, you have either the option to act submissive or dominant as the MC !

(also for those who care you can play that game purely lesbian atm)

Just remember at the end of the day this is a sequel and Luna is a badass as a canon character, so even if you go through the sub path there is a big chance that the next game will have the dom path as canon ( but along the way all those who want a sub path have a lot of enjoy !).

But don't get me wrong the whole idea behind Luna and the forces that guide her is to be corrupted but also deathly !

So yeah if you enjoy corruption but also a rather strong MC you might enjoythis game .. give it a try !

V.13 lol

Full disclosure I'm a full time supporter of this dev. So I already have .13.

Since nobody else will rate this game I will.

PROS:
Everything. Hot MC, choices that actually matter, different paths based on how you play and what you choose, true unique character building experience. If you want a game where you have full control of the MC and how the story unfolds this is it. If you are a female protagonist fan and haven't tried Luna's Fall From Grace, or this one, then you're missing out.