Ren'Py - Lunar's Chosen [Ep. 2 v0.1.1] [PTGames]

This is the first game in a while that has me hooked to the story and characters from the get go. Even at this early stage there is a lot to like about the game and the way it has implemented everything so far. Each female character feels and looks unique. The writing is good and even when it goes into lore and background info, it doesn't bore u like many other games. The graphics are also good, although the scenes by themselves don't have the smooth animations seen in some games. Even the futa char is well implemented and it offers a fresh take on it. The character is also very likable and u get a lot of choices, which is always a plus.
Overall this is a game that has the potential to be one of the best, provided the developer follows his vision and finishes the game.

This game still in early development but yet it has alot of potential , the story is very interesting many cool characters whith different genders and a lot of kinks , the renders are well done , i can see it become one of the famous games.

This one has quite a bit going for it, but it's still early in development and hopefully the dev won't run into problems and abandon it.

Pros:
1) Doesn't use the same 3 girls every other game seems to - if I see Dotty getting naked again, I'm gonna break something.
2) Doesn't totally insist on giving all the girls fake balloon-tits. One of the girls does have enormous tits, but she then explains why she's got unrealistic boobs. The other two with big knockers just have large nicely-modeled boobs, without having the immobile cannon-tits that we so often see in other games.
3) The plot is cute and fairly fun - I enjoyed reading what there is so far.
4) The dev has actually made the house map thumbnails actually show if our main girl is in one of the rooms - it's so often in these games that we'll get thumbnails and have to randomly click around the house anyways to find a girl.

Cons:
1) The town map - OH MY GOD the map is terrible and is hopefully just a placeholder until the dev finds the time to make a nicer one.
2) As nice a job as the dev did on the girls, he has (just like nearly every other dev in the genre) given them clothes that somehow stick to their boobs - the one girl with unrealistically huge tits explains why her outfit looks painted on, but the other girls just gotta live with it, and while I can appreciate that we're all a bunch of horndogs just here to see tits, that's just not how clothes work.
3) The choices don't really seem to matter much - they're more or less just tickboxes to take us further into the storyline, as opposed to changing the story at all.
4) The game isn't even remotely complete (as of v0.4) - it's nicely done, but there's still a very long road ahead. If you're looking for more than an hour or so of game, then you're SOL, and if you are more into just holding down the "skip unread" button to get to the next batch of tits, then this game will take you all of 10 minutes to finish.

Comments (neither pro nor con):
The dev has dropped a whole pile of kinks into this one - we've got femdom, footjobs, futa, big tits, small tits, wide ass, no ass, you name it - the most trigger-smashing of the lot is futa, and thankfully the dev has thrown a decision dialog in that clearly explains when futa content becomes available and then immediately offers to disable it - most people likely won't play that far before throwing in the towel if they're anti-futa (as they'll see the tag on the game page and skip the game), but it's very nice of him to have done it. That having been said - if you aren't into feet, or (light) femdom, or small tits, then you're just gonna have to go through the scene and hope the next one is something you like. If the dev reads these reviews, I HIGHLY suggest that he moves the futa yes/no choice right up to the beginning of the game, so that people who are uncomfortable about it can throw the switch right away and not get invested in a character that will they will not even want to look at later because of the potential futa-ness. I personally don't mind futa content, so I left it enabled (and got the whole storyline thus far), but I can imagine being terribly dissapointed if I'd gotten invested in her story and then had it shut down after throwing the switch. If the dev is feeling sufficiently motivated, I'd suggest writing a second "magic awakening" for that character for the non-futa folks to play - she's a nice girl, I'd hate for people to miss out on her.

Nice game in its early stage of development. Models looks good and characters seems well written so far. UI might still be improved as some things are sometimes a bit hidden or rooms might exist without use at the moment, but it is working in progress

The visuals: Seems fairly good but I'm not the best judge. That said, some unique backgrounds, the characters look well done. Some stuff that we've seen in a lot of other VNs but not as bad as it could be.

The UI: Standard renpy with rendered and downscaled images. The town map is just a bunch of rectangles and stuff. It serves its purpose overall.

The story: Fairly standard with the exception of the MC being a demigod, other than that, "MC needs to move to a new place and stuff and things". The story's narrative hook seems to be finding out that you have magic... Which you can read in the synopsis. I don't find this story about magic particularly inventive or interesting, it's then bogged down by the gameplay loop of "go to X and do Y" all while reading some pretty good dialogue and setting up the story... That still fails to be interesting. MC starts with a decent dick, but it's a porn game, so we can't have that, make it huge! The story fell flat for me very quickly because I find it unengaging and fairly boring. Nothing's really going on. The story is further dragged down into the abyss by the gameplay.

The Gameplay: Ugh... Another open world. Click around in the house at all times of day to ensure that you're not missing anything... Joy of joys. The introduction of this also didn't put its best foot forward at all, with having to travel to the park... Click "Walk around", simply to forward the time. After my return home, knowing that this is an open world sandbox game, of course, I have to click through all of the rooms so I don't miss anything... And then we go back to the car, now we can advance the story. Completely pointless. However, later on, you'll see when Katie is actually in a room... Maybe. It's so small and as such a bit difficult the first time. This is, of course, a lot better than most VNs which means that, apart from the abysmal first impression, it'll be easier because you don't need to click everywhere, at every time. I'm still leaving my first impression in the review though because I believe a ton of people will feel the same. It's also incredibly annoying that you can only do one substantial action per day. Study at the library from Morning to Evening. Miss the afternoon stuff required to advance with another character. The game just drags like most others of this kind. Also, it's the bog-standard "Catch Katie at this specific time and date to advance her story". Of course, that's the last thing you do with her storywise.

The in-game hint system which you can access through your PC is a massive +. It's cool that the dev also included a lore page, not sure I approve of having to go to the PC and click through menus to see what my progress/affection with people are, although, it is linear and I've yet to encounter a choice. So perhaps there's no way not to progress with characters and still move through the story.

Animations: None. No sex scenes and only a few "lewd" scenes.

The characters: Better written than your average game, seems like they actually have personalities and motivations although towards the halfway mark I was just so bored that I don't really know if the writing felt off at any point.

Overall: Very bog-standard experience. The well-written characters don't really do much when it's in a story that I personally don't really find interesting or engaging. The gameplay, however, drags the game down a notch as it's just your typical "Click through menus and stuff and do one thing a day". So after every action, you have to go to sleep so that you can do the same thing tomorrow. A silver lining is that there are no stats for you to worry about.
It just straight up is another open world porn game. With no sex scenes and a few lewd scenes.

Whether or not you enjoy the game in the slightest, will likely be determined by whether or not you're jaded from all of the other games of this kind.

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on v0.1...

The visuals of this VN/Game thus far are alright... The characters look decent, and the backdrops are a mix of unique ones and others I've seen used in other VN/Games... The navigation system is a slight bit tedious, having to select a "NAV" button first before being able to switch rooms in the house... It would be easier if the navigation bar just stayed at the top of the screen while you were in the house, removing the extra step... Not sure the extra long penis is really necessary, it was the right size for the protagonists body frame, before it got altered... It always amazes my why these things always want to go for super natural sized penis' 9.5 times out of 10... The navigation map for going outside the house is rather basic, but works good for it's purpose... I would definitely suggest placing the text based navigations (that deal with the story) onto the map instead (such as when going to the library for the first time and so forth), because it sort of makes the map superfluous...

The script is decent, for what little there is so far... There are a few grammar and spelling errors, but it's not a lot... The premise of the plot, for now, revolves around a male protagonist who leaves home and decides to stay with a childhood female friend... He ends up being granted magical abilities, which he has to learn to use, with the help of another magic using female character... There are hints at possible intrigue later, but for now it's just foreshadowing... Currently, there really isn't much content, as it's just getting off the ground with it's development... The story progression, for now, is completely linear...

There is a Hint system on the protagonists PC that points out any story still needing to be experienced... But there are also a couple really quick things that can be experienced outside of the Hints... Not many, and they are very quick and have nothing really to do with the story progression...

The game day is broken up into time frames, but you have no option to skip time manually... Time flows during story content, but you have no direct control over skipping time... Which is something normally available in Navigation style game play with these VN/Games... Perhaps it just hasn't been implemented yet...

Also, it is not a Sandbox as tagged... Having a small set of rooms to go into in the home, and a couple of predetermined places to go on a city map, does not make it a Sandbox... Sandbox games allow for free roaming and the ability to alter the gaming environment... This is a progression based VN/Game, with a small amount of choice based navigation, not a Sandbox...

Overall, it is a bit of a cliché story premise of the protagonist having magical powers which are hinted at making his sex life better and/or more informative.. But it's still just too early to tell what exact direction this VN/Game will go... Will it be a porn fest, or have a deeper and meaningful story with rich characters and development? Only time will tell, but for now, it's just teasing some sex acts surrounding magical abilities, all within a slightly perverted young man... I can guess where it might be going, but probably better to wait and see... I'll most likely revisit this one again a bit later into development, to see if my slight reservations are warranted or completely off base... Until then, best of luck on it's development...