Ren'Py - Lust Theory [v0.7.0] [Inceton Games]

Season one:

Positives
Voice acting! I love voice acting so it was a neat feature. The renders and (few) animations are fine, not as high quality as other games but fine. The storyline was tight and the concept (time loop) was fun.

Negatives
The MC is a moron, there is no disputing this fact. The way they integrated nude scenes with their little red button was awkward. I'd prefer a toggle so you can just have everyone naked or in fetish costumes at all times.

7/10

Season 2

Positives
Animations. Lots and lots of animations, yes some are better than others, but overall they're pretty good.

Negatives
There is WAY too much dialogue its just never ending conversations last forever and the story just goes on and on and on. It feels like a chore in some cases. Sex scenes 'speeds' having to press through button prompts is just annoying and seemingly the devs agreed as it disappeared towards the end.

5/10

Overall I think the game is pretty good, but the writing and story have lost their way, not sure how a season 3 would work .

This was my first AVN and while I'm glad it introduced me to the "rabbit hole" of Ren'Py visual novels, I really can't give it a good rating.

The writing is sometimes good, at least in season 1 ; some scenes are very exciting, and the jokes are fkin hilarious at times, which I really didn't expect... but it's also very, very bad most of the time. I guess multiple writers were involved. I wish the MC wasn't such a bumbling idiot all the fucking time (and what's with the dreadful haircut?).

Also I hated the Christmas Special at the end of S1. Pages and pages of pure cringe. At least it's non-canon.

Season 2 was way too long, and the end -which I won't spoil- is utterly disappointing. I skipped most of that excruciatingly boring mess.

I'd give S1 a 4/5 rating, and S2 is 2/5, with the ending at 1/5.
So I'd give it 2.5 stars but I can't, and this game is already too highly rated.

The renders are nice so there's that (Zoe is ugly though. All my homies hate Zoe)

So, this review is mostly for Season One, though it will touch upon part of Season Two as well. If you want review for both seasons combined, read elsewhere, as this isn't (technically) that. I'll explain.

I would give Lust Theory Season One (aka Echoes of Lust) 5 out of 5 stars, I thought it was well-executed, and if you buy the game's initial premise, everything else just flows from there.

I know, some people don't care about story, they're just here for the sex animations or whatever, but honestly if that's all you want, there are easier, less bandwidth and time-consuming ways of seeing that. But whatever, everyone has different tastes/goals, I can only speak for myself.

But for me personally, the only reason to play an adult visual novel is to get invested/engrossed in the story/situation in a way that straight-up porn or animations don't provide. It's the same as playing an adventure game vs. watching a movie (which some people also don't understand the point of, but that's nothing to do with this review.)

The point being, from both an animation perspective, visuals, story, voices, and interface standpoint, I give season one five stars. Some parts here and there were maybe a little tedious bordering on semi-grindy, but not enough to adversely affect the score, and if anything it just makes it that much more rewarding when everything works out properly.

I might have deducted half a star for the MC being stupid on the last day, but I understand that was setting up things for later. Though for being an allegedly good student, he was rather dense at times.

But on the generous scale of "porn game writing", it was fine.

Which brings us to Season Two, aka why this is four stars overall, aka why this is mostly a review for season one.

I give season two 3/5 stars, which is me trying to be generous in light of the fact that I have not technically finished playing season two, because I just couldn't be bothered. So much so that I was compelled to exit the game and come here and see "Is it just me? Or is anyone else a little bored/annoyed by this?" And lo and behold, I was not.

Because I didn't make it all the way through season two, there are elements I can't speak to, that others have covered more thoroughly, so check those out elsewhere. But the short version, and why I stopped playing, is two-fold: one, the MC feels SO much dumber this time around, maybe due to "cabin fever" of being cooped up in events, but he's the one who decided to just slightly vary things. And the "don't have to go there/talk to them/do that" feature of season one, which was fine there, is ramped up here to a degree where I almost wonder why I'm given any choices, because many times there's only one or two things that CAN be done at a given time, so why even have me jump the MC through the navigation/clicking hoops.

Secondly, the LI's from season one have seemingly been rewound in their interest levels. I get that this is perhaps the easiest way to re-gamify progress with them, but it just feels weird when, to use Cosplay Girl as an example, she goes from willing to do all sorts of sexual things with the MC in season one, to not wanting to seem easy in season two.


Do I think that warrants it a 1 or 2 star rating? Nah. Not only because it earns goodwill for season one, but also it kept me mostly engaged through what I'm guessing was chapter 4 or 5 of season 2. (At time of this review, chapter 9 is out, and based on what I've read, I haven't played 8 or 9, and not sure I ever will.)

If Inceton adds full voice acting for S2, then I might give the full thing a go later, because I enjoyed that aspect of S1 (though I realize not everyone did), but until then I'm walking away from this one, with as much of a good impression of it intact as I can.

So, the 4 stars is an average of season 1 (5 stars) and season 2 (3 stars), the breakdown of the latter being graphics (5/5), sound (3/5), animation (5/5), interface-gameplay (3/5), and story (1/5). (So really a 3.4, but that's not a choice.)

Good art. Good characters. Good story at the beginning, but very disappointing at the end. At last updates I had the feeling that the author was simply tired of this game and trying to finish it as quickly as possible. But it's probably better than leaving game in "work in progress" state forever .

Lust theory is a game with great renders and girls. They are beautiful, that is for sure. The clothing is of "always the same" variety but with the "day repeating" setting it is somewhat justified, so again, it's okay.

What killed my interest is two major things in fact
1) the story. A "day repeating" scenario will certainly not be in the most easy and credible story level, and I accepted this premise. Hell I was ready for a "no explanation" option but then came the... I do not know the words to describe it.... "story explanation" in the game, and I was totally lost.

2) the sex scenes. With a scenario like this ("day repeat") I should have known beforehand, maybe, but in fact I expected more still. The problem I felt was that at some point all "vanilla" things are done: blowjobs, handjobs and vaginal sex are most of the scene. Sure, some girls get an anal scene, okay. There is an occasionnal threesome.
But after a while, it's "repeat the idea". I get that there is not a million of alternatives when it comes to sex and that with like 8 girls, there is a risk of repetition. BUT still! I expected some girls to have a focus, or something special.
When I play a game with many girls, seeing all the girls finishing to have the same kind of scenes in a different order stops to be entertaining.


There is a season 3 planned, and I'm curiousabout it so maybe the score I give will go up again if I play it, but I don't expect it afer the ending of s2.

Story is interesting and characters good but theres few things makes this game annoying is that.

Mc is annoying he sometimes acts cool sometimes moronic.

Characters is good too but sometimes they act out character like she wants sex or some other thing but something happens then bam she becomes annoying then you need to do this thing again later thats annoying i am not gonna lie.

One character that ruins party yet MC cant do anything about that annoying prick even with so called repeat thing he always suffers from it and that annoying moron always gets away this is not gonna lie minus 1 star from me.

Harem member or chicks makes no sense sometimes they like mc and sometimes they just like annoying or even beyond annoying to go near their personalities changes 180 sometimes.

Story is too high for to complete not gonna lie and its risky i dont know how author gonna handle it.

So this is bad game ? no its not but some things annoying if not for them i can give solid 5 star to this game but sadly with that annoying things my score can be lowered to even 3 star but still sex scenes and character models good so thats plus for me.

Is it just me or is the writing suffering in the last 1/3 of the game.
It seems it was just one copy pasta of an openai generated dialoge.

intro: tongue battling for dominance (LMAO)
m: "i have byg dyck"
f: oh he has "byg dyck" i must try it feels so goood
f: i coom
m: sweat drops. i coom
m: kkthxbye

and the ending.... oh it was all an ......

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this review, I have only played the season 1. I liked it enough that I purchased it on Steam in order to show my support to the developer/Inceton games.

Review:
A well built adult game with a simple story, fantastic animations, quality voice-overs, and secrets.

Things I liked:
+ Character models/renders
+ Animations
+ Voiceover
+ UI
+ Pacing
+ Hints & re-live system
+ The core concept behind the plot (won't spoil it for you)
+ An MC who actually uses his head (both of them)

Things that could have been better:
- Story was a little weak.
- The MC never really tries to investigate why things happen the way they happen and just seems to go with the flow until he is forced to notice some changes - it would have been nice to know if he was a little more curious (maybe this was addressed in season 2, I am not sure).
- A slight turn off was the unnatural attraction to the MC that some of the "more closer" NPCs have for him (they seem a tad too easily attainable/unrealistic. Would be nice if there were more reasons behind why they feel the way they feel just to make the story more immersive - again haven't played season 2 yet, so it might have something on this).
- This is more of a personal preference, but I am not a fan of rape/non-consensual sex in general, and this seemingly normal MC uses this as a means to get closer to one of the characters. This could have been done in a different way (like using hypnosis or something clever), but it is what it is.
- Could use some more male NPCs, a couple of non-romanceable female NPCs (who are there for story reasons) and some challenging events to spice up the story and expand the world. While I say this, the current setup still works well enough for a fap game.

All in all, a game worth your time if you are looking for a pleasant but private distraction.

Just played season 1, and I have to say, because of the voice acting, the game is so much hotter.
All the tags hit perfectly, from corruption to sleep-sex. Hope season 2 is as good.
Will start playing season 2 soon, if my score changes, I'll update it

Season one with the voicing is the absolute best game or at least the game I'm coming back to the most. I just wish season two came with voicing and I would give it all my money. If anyone can recommmend other games like this I would be filled with joy.

Before you start reading this review, take into account that it will be filled to the brim with spoilers, so if you wish to avoid that, don’t read my review.



Before I start, a little shower-thought about Erotic Visual Novels, and why they are better then random 3D images. Context, background, characters and story are very powerful aphrodisiacs if used competently. Each person has his/her own fantasies that elicit a response. Some have a thing for teachers, others for older women and then some that have a weakness for incest. A Visual Novel has the power to immerse the player in that erotic fantasy and unlike a book, guide the player through images and choice.

Lust Theory makes use of this in abundance. Being in a story were your day repeats itself repeatedly, the player – you – can live out a series of fantasies, from seducing your sister, teacher, best friend, alienated friend, new friend, mother and so on. I would go as far as to say that the power of this Groundhog Day game is that the mission of the MC is to break trough the character’s taboo walls to finally sleep with them. So – more than other games – the focus of this game is the characters and how you can manipulate their characters to get the ultimate award: to sleep with them.

And this is important because nothing else really matters. As the day repeats itself, none of your choices are remembered, the day repeats itself and you’re back at square one with all of them. The idea that you did finally what you wanted to do is what makes this game for me so enjoyable.

So, the last thing the writer should definitely NOT do - in my honest opinion – is to create an ending where your previous mission does not matter at all. Ergo, the reason all these people became attracted to you was not due to some immersive story telling but because some kind of simulation was crashing and they all became increasingly horny for you. If so, then why would I play? What is the value of the story, of the interactions with the characters if all they are, are badly programmed simulations?

And that’s why – the moment he could clap and double himself – I just skipped it all. The scenes looked incredibly well made. However, I simply was not invested in it anymore. Everyone is just a mindless doll with another haitcut.

So that’s a bit my two cents: Why do we play Erotic Visual Novels? Immersion and choice. If your game takes away choice and makes any decision moot and then follows that up with not just removing all immersion but making you feel stupid for being immersed in the first place, you basically give the player no more reason to play.



That being said… This game overall gets good ratings, so what do I know, right?
Still two starts because I enjoyed the humour thoroughly, and while the writing is inconsistent, until the Season 2 epilogue - it was pretty good

This is a pretty good game, the story is pretty fun not the best time loop porn story I have played but that is mainly due to the MC, he is in a word an idiot. So annoying but also just makes bad decisions even with all the experiences he had along the way. I hate that the game forces you at time to just be a fuckup and there is nothing you can do.

Otherwise the lewd content is great, I really enjoy the mom, best character, but just the MC at time skills it for me ands second thing that is annoying is that some stories are definitely padded with too many contrivances that force you o repeat the loop to the point that I am just space barring to get it done and not really enjoying the story. Some cock blocks are fine but when you have constant events happening and you repeat the loop like five times or more then it gets old fast.

Those are the main reasons I don't reate the game higher, everything else is pretty good quality.

Pros:
- Good Animation;
- Sexy Girls;
- All girls have their own personality;
- The game is very funny, and make you laugh a lot;
- It's a very original plot;
- You can rape your mother and sleep rape your teacher (but the scenes are skipable, in case you are a fragile person);
- You don't get lost in the game, there is aways some tips for you there.

Cons:
- Non repeatable scenes;
- You don't fell free, despite being an open world game.

The game had a lot of potential, but it ultimately fell short. The sandbox gameplay while not terrible was very hard to navigate and repetitive, and the story was poorly executed because the plot twist in the final segment changes the meaning of the whole experience. The graphics were great, but some characters were not very appealing to look at, especially the "mother". The sound design was bland and uninteresting. Overall, I was disappointed with this game and would not recommend it to others. If season 3 somehow justifies the changes and has an interesting direction I might change my review, but so far I don't think I'll ever download this game again.

As another said, this was one of my favorite games up until the last update. It really felt like someone just gave up on the story, but wanted to keep the checks rolling in. For the entire game, there was great build up. Interesting scenarios and great renders. (Still are I'll give it that) But the last upate went entirely off the rails. Just an excuse to have non stop sex with zero reason, and only the most minimal and uninspired plot shift to explain it.

Such a disappointing way to what I presume conclude an otherwise brilliant VN/Game. It seems that Inceton knows how to create fantastic VN's, but have no idea how to properly finish them. Or perhaps don't have the desire to conclude the revenue stream after starting a new VN. Just so incredibly dissapointed.

For most of the lifespan of this game, I loved it! It was easily one of my top 10 for the interactivity, renders, kinks, and storyline. It was one of the few games that I liked enough to fork out money every month to support the development.

Then came the most disappointing update I've ever played through. Not an "there's not enough content" kind of disappointment, but a "they ruined the game for me" disappointment.

I'm all for devs taking their games wherever they're inspired to go, but one of the things I like about sandbox games is that you can generally avoid the kinks that wilt your dick. If the dev has a fetish that not everyone is into, they can hide it behind choices that you as a player make. It's part of the immersion, which is important if you're an immersion type of player. If the MC starts engaging in fuckery that you'd want no part in, it doesn't just turn you off, but it ruins the fun of playing.

Specifically, the update in question had the MC duplicated as some sort of sci-fi glitch, then proceeded to take you to each girl and have you share her with your clone. There were no choices. There was no navigating the map. It was just a series of scenes one after another of the LI's getting spit-roasted. The 3-way scene we had been waiting for with the sister and her friend was instead a 4-way with 2 dicks, ruining all the build up from the prior updates. The girls who you had been gradually corrupting were now cock-hungry sluts who wanted every hole stuffed simultaneously, completely accepting of the whole magical clone thing.

If you're not into sharing, then that update did nothing but trash the game for you. And, no, you can't say it's not "sharing" just because it's a magical clone. If I got duplicated, I'd be no more inclined to let my clone join me in a fuck than I would anyone else. If it's your thing, fine. But at least branch all that bullshit apart and give the player some choice. It'd be the same as if during a long-awaited sex scene the girl all of a sudden has a monster dick and you have to watch her ream the MC. Or if she suddenly hopped up on the MC's chest and took a shit. People are into that, but the ones that aren't are going to stop playing.

Altogether, that one update dropped my rating by 3 stars

One of the best incest games that I ever played.

very hot models, very good animation, not a bad story, and really a lot of content that is amazing! "i fapped too many times xd playing this game"

I don't see minuses I really like this game and I hope won't be stopped

Ok, so: the graphic quality of renders and animations is one of the best, but the overall game mechanic is pretty lame.
I mean, the whole idea of the day repeating is good, but the MC never truly learns from his experience.
I mean, if you keep all the memories of the previouse cycles, you should learn how to get what you want from the previous mistakes, instead of fuck up always ina a different way.
Moreover, if he manages to have his way with a girl, he shouldn't be surprised everytime he succedes in the next cycles.

Review of S2 E9

Imagine this game like a preparation of a cake, you can see every ingredient that is top quality.
The flour of amazing renders, the milk of fluid writing, the eggs of an interesting plot, the sugar of voice acting… you get the gist of it.
You can’t expect the chef to ruin it, you are there looking at the perfect potential vn…
And then the chef starts smashing the eggs into the bowl with the shells, he throws the entire bag of flour in it, fricking goes “Howtobasic” style, spilling the milk all over the kitchen and putting the entire mass of half worked materials in the oven at the maximum power, and then the oven explodes.
The result is a burned coal, flaming, overcooked, indigestible piece of hazard waste.
And watching that unrecognizable mass of Lovecraftian elements, you ask yourself: “What the hell happened?”.

That’s Lust theory, a game that had all the keys to be if not amazing, great and memorable, but too many elements ruin the fun and enjoyment.

The plot, it’s a typical groundhog day style plot, the day keeps repeating from scratchc with some other shenanigans happening.
It’s fairly common trope now, but if executed well can be really fun.
It isn’t fun, the game takes a linear turn where instead of actually understanding what’s happening by your own logic, makes you keep pursuing the event till you get laid.
Meaning that you’ll see the same event with different flavors and different parts of knowledge but you cannot act if not with some scripted “right” answers.
And so the sandbox element (that isn’t even grindy), and multiple routes are all fake choices to believe you are doing something, but in reality you have no choice here aside from some small ones elements.
So it’s an half kinetic game with some railroad elements that doesn’t really let the player be free, but that’s fine if the game can give me an interesting plot and fun dialogues.

It doesn’t.
The MC other than being a pervert or a sociopath (two common tropes I see) it’s also a genius… and a complete idiot when the plot needs him to be.
He’ll either resolve the enigmas with actual interesting solutions or 90% of the time with the most ridiculous ex deus machina I have ever seen in a videogame!
Talk about logic or actual solutions!
The MC just needs to show his magnum gun or penis to half the women to win or use the most stupid solutions ever.

And let’s talk about the penis situation for one second.
I am tired that basically half of the situations here are resolved by the MC giant reproductive organ, whenever a female sees it, now she is under control of the lust, thinking about “how is so big” or “I want to taste it” or other clichè phrases that destroy every conversation or build up.
It’s cheap, it’s the cheapest way ever to make a character to fall in love(?!) with the MC.
And this happens more than twice.

Writing is smooth and has some funny jokes here and there but when you have characters that aren’t close to have a cardboard personality, it’s all useless.
The little sister is a little sister but horny, the best friend is an ignorant degenerate, the mother is a depressed and horny milf…
It goes on, some characters save themselves like the Teacher, but you are thrown into a sea of mediocrity and unmemorable personalities.

Also don’t expect character development, especially from the MC, it’s a rookie mistake, and if you believe there is hope for the second part of the game, boy you aren’t going to have a good time.

There is voice acting in the game, but trust me after a while I just turned it off, it felt really weird sometimes and the VA seemed kinda bored, especially with the mom.

To talk about the incest, as another reviewer said here, it feels terribly fake.
If you came here for the incest you’ll remain deluded.
It doesn’t feel like a family, but like a couple of half strangers that really don’t feel emotions for each other, pretending to role play a family.
It all feels off, beyond the boundaries of reality, this is what probably a couple of aliens would do if they wanted to play “human family” while stealing cows with ufos.
(Sorry for all aliens out there btw).

Yeah graphic and models are really good, you can see how realistic or high detailed some faces, breasts and other stuff are.
Even if some movements are kinda robotic it’s pretty solid.

That’s Lust theory for me, do I recommend it?
Sure if you wanna kill time or understand how bad writing or decisions can affect an entire game, but I don’t recommend it, if you truly believe this could be your next masterpiece of porn games.

The story started off decently interesting in S1, though it dragged on a little. But towards the end of S2 the story just fell off a cliff.

They spent the entirety of S1 and 7 episodes in S2 slowly developing the character relationships with barely any sex, so slowly that sometimes it felt like they were intentionally blueballing/teasing the player to build up the sexual tension.

Then in S2E8 suddenly everyone starts fucking out of nowhere, not by leveraging those relationships that were built up, but because a glitch made everyone horny out of their minds for no reason. The characters didn't have any agency in releasing the sexual tension so it doesn't feel fulfilling or gratifying at all, it feels like they basically used a plot device to skip a bunch of steps in the progression of the character stories.

S2E9 doubles down on this with the orgy that was so long that it was actually boring, none of the orgy scenes with each character felt intimate or special cuz they're all just mindlessly fucking, they might as well be interchangeable meat dolls - indeed the tail end of the orgy explicitly made them interchangeable. After that you get intimate stories with each character but without any sexual payoff, so that was kinda boring too.

Feels like a complete waste of all the buildup from the first 17 episodes, they should never have gone with the "everybody horny glitch" storyline, and instead used the character dates to lead into intimate sex scenes to bring their individual stories to the climax. Then after that maybe the glitch causing a huge orgy would feel like it was the proper course of escalation.


I was sure the devs were getting tired of the series but didn't know how to progress the characters' storylines to satisfying conclusions, so the whole horny glitch storyline was just them giving the players some sexual gratification after blueballing us for so long, before washing their hands of the series. So I was really surprised to see this is going into season 3, in which case the pacing of the writing just makes no sense at all.

The models are still pretty, but not sure if I'll keep playing since the story is so unengaging that it made the sex scenes boring.