VN - Ren'Py - Lycoris Radiata [Ch.7 Public] [Kuro]

English:............6/10
User Interface:.....6/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................8/10
Dialogue:...........7/10
Story:..............3/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:.............6.0/10 [3.0/5]

This is a game that SHOULD be one of my highly rated games. Currently I don't know if this will be 3 or 4 stars, and if the game still has the same issues, it was a simple slam dunk to be a good game, it'll be a 3. If the story still hasn't started by the time I finish it, this is officially a lost cause. Sure, last time I played suddenly MC had a split personality disorder and talked to himself a lot. But it still failed to tell me what the point of the story is. I liked a couple characters, the dialogue didn't make me angry, but I was bored and frustrated at the micro updates. I understand this REALLY wants to do "them anime vibes" I'm honestly a little tired of them, but it succeeds for the most part. It's also kinda funny because the anime Lycoris Recoil came out at the same time this was starting(or updated, I don't know time is a blur to me) and somehow has nothing to do with each other. It also does that "Let's try to be profound" thing that is grating at this point. I think the opening has been changed, I honestly don't remember. If this is the direction of the game now, MC rambling conspiracy theories to a child and making them cry, I'm so done. And if I remember right, MC is some Edgelord Assassin on top of this all. Chill... For all of us.

Like I said, it starts with pseudo deep thoughts rambled in a blindingly bright blue abyss. Then for some reason, transitions to MC talking out loud about weird incel topics to a little girl, making her cry. What you learn is MC has amnesia, strike one. A mystery box sent him a letter about who he was. Somehow his life was so secret not even the world's top whatever-he-is could find out about himself. though I'm sure MC's 'master' shot down his plane and took him in for whatever reason Then, MC acts like a dick to the people he's meeting because MC is a Gary-Stu and doesn't need to be nice. Maeda immediately shows signs that she likes, or even loves, him after he's a complete ass to her. If this trend continues, that's strike two. Anywho, Maeda and Honda show up to pick MC up for whatever it is they're there for. The long and short is: someone found out he is a member of the Yagami family, whatever that means, who knows. MC meets Rei, and continues to be an asshat. And for some dumb reason, another mystery box is thrown at you in the form of MC's mother's name. Why? WE, the readers, DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. But anime does this about moms a lot, so gotta put it in this as well! And after that, you see a summary of MC's life after the crash. The village he was in threw rocks at him to garner sympathy from you, the reader, they all got killed off-screen in minutes, and a guy that may or may not have done it, takes in MC to train him. Then, MC has the audacity to complain about "master's cringe" after being mostly cringe himself. Immediately after, MC has his first psychotic break where his body moves on it's own. I don't get why, from a writing perspective. There's already so many mystery boxes, why add split personalities in the mix at this moment? Neither personality is charming or even a decent character, I don't care about them. Hell, MC barely cares about anything at all. It's one thing to be skeptical and on guard, but to just be a constant dick to people showing him hospitality is not a good look. And I don't care about how "rough his backstory" might be. He's obviously done work in civilized environments, it shouldn't be difficult to be a normal human being to another one.

Chapter two opens to meeting Mirai. A mute shut in that's overly attached to her brother. She's also 17, so for the love of whatever you pray to, don't put her in any adult situations. Sure, they don't explicitly say her age but MC is 19 and she is two years younger. She is a no fly zone. An attempt to be a cute mascot for the game and have yet another character in these adult games that act like they're eight years old. Why? I no longer care to know. Anyway, she was so distraught by MC's disappearance she hasn't spoken a word since. And all three of the younger girls MC has met show up in his room to wake him up because they are all in love with him, because anime. Are you bored yet? They loved him before the memory loss and even though he's a dick and will likely barely ever remember his past, at least for the next 6 years while the writer avoids writng the story, they still love him. Because character writing is hard. Nobume is tsundere, Akira is big-tiddy onee-san, and Mirai is the little sister type. I'm going to assume that Mirai will be every little sister type to fit whatever situation the story needs because writing is hard. And MC does the tried and true "Awkwardly stand there with his hand on his chin, acting as if everyone should stop while his under developed brain assesses the situation" This little tidbit has become a standard, and annoying, trope lately too. Everyone points and laughs, but it's legitimately just a bad writing habit for MC to just tell the reader what is currently happening. If you don't let the reader infer things, they won't have a stake in the world. Children's stories do this better. It'd be like if "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" instead of the boy telling the townspeople a wolf is coming, you get three pages of the boy thinking "And now I will go to the town again and tell them all a wolf is coming. It would be so funny to see them come running but no wolf is coming. I'm such a prankster and seeing them frustrated makes me laugh." Is that good storytelling? No. Then, suddenly, haha reclusive hacker girls that are in love with MC! So original! So Quirky! That's sarcasm, if you can't tell. How many games now is MC a secret agent/assassin/mercenary with a tech girl that's in love with him? All of them I'd wager. And by the scene of MC getting coffee with Nobume, the English disappears, unfortunately. Tropes aside, if the English proofreading was better and MC wasn't awful I'd have nothing to complain about up to this point. The only thing I don't understand, and likely never will this decade, is Nobume's character. It just doesn't make sense to me. She's mad at him for.... Something. And acts like an ass for... Some reason. She's also super strong and fast... For some reason. Maybe one day we'll know.

Eventually, MC visits Akira at work. He meets Hashimoto, likely someone responsible for the crash, and, shocker, doesn't like or care for him much. Essentially the place is Stark Industries. Everything's super advanced and there's even a regenerative medicine department headed by Akira. Which you soon learn that his mother cracked the code, MC is likely the results of regeneration. The reason he survived the crash. And a side effect is most likely the split personalities. And Akira can't figure out where their mother's research was headed. Oh darn. Did I figure it out too soon? I guessed all that my first playthrough, 3 years ago. Eventually MC talks to the two obsessed twin techies. They tell him the pillar families are powerful families with powerful connections. Because context clues didn't give that away? And he meets up with a girl he had a fling with to learn... Nothing, again. She's literally just there for a sex scene of some kind. She even verbally states that he is the only person she will sleep with while he can sleep around. Not even trying to hide it. It comes out of nowhere and is unearned. So you learn nothing, get possibly the only sex in the game still, then go to dinner and learn nothing again in the form or Rei's story. Fun. During Rei's story, the English gets EVEN WORSE, so be prepared for that. It's also at this point it dawned on me, Edgelord all knowng MC that everyone likes despite being a shit person, last name Yagami? Death Note. Almost got me, but I figured it out. And then the big shift in chapter three happens when personality 2 appears and you actually make choices. Revealing that I was right because it was telegraphed with a neon sign.

Finally, you learn a little bit, MC is actually Spiderman. Insert Madame Web meme here. MC even does the dumb "Thwip" with his hand after learning this. And after your first choice, the game tells you that you'll be making choices, as if that's a novel concept in a VN. Then, where the last version I played ended, MC going to MIG. MC meets Ruri, his new over-advanced AI that will no doubt fall in love with him. Because the 8 females already in game weren't enough, and the possible 8 more branch family females, lets add an AI! And the worst part is, the "advanced AI that can do it all" pretty much invalidates the usefulness of Diana and Artemis. If Ruri can hack into anything and find any info, what does he need them for? Then, suddenly, his family has mystical abilities and Maeda is now her own mystery box. So there's three or four mysteries going on and the plot has barely started. This will never end. Maeda even develops a personality and adds yet another LI. So we are at either 9 or 17, if the pillar families all have girls his age. After the training session it's clear there was no point in naming MC. Most decisions are Ren or Inei choices and it just feels like any agency I, the player, have is gone. They hard-track their personalites and do things to the extreme of either "Brutish dick" or "Conniving schemer" no in-betweens. On top of that, how Akira isn't related to them is lost on me. I read it a couple times and It just didn't translate well. Second marriage, I guess.

When MC FINALLY goes to school. Because BITCH YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE ANYTHING BUT A CRAP COLLEGE STORY?! Think again. Yeah, the genre of the game suddenly changes to "MC goes to college and all the girls fall in love with him" So I'm even more disappointed by the fact that there's such a long time between updates, the dev changes what the story's gonna be. There's too many layers. Anyway, when MC finally goes to school, the first thing that happens is a girl falls crotch first onto his face. Remember? Anime? Only this time, MC is so big and strong he doesn't fall over. Wow. So cool. It forces him to meet the last branch family member and she is the typical bullied outcast. This section highlights a MAJOR issue with the writing. Reika is now the ONLY character with any sort of build-up or depth. EVERYONE else is just this whacky caricature of an anime trope. She finally has a personality. Akira comes close, but is still so bland. So of the current 10 LIs only ONE is written with any personality or personability. That is not good. And right after the sudden genre change, it adds another thing: Murder Mystery. Are you serious? There is simply no good way or reason to have all these conflicting layers and mystery boxes in this story. My ONLY thought is this was supposed to be another throwaway amnesia incest story and suddenly the writer's interests changed. Then 6 months went by and their interests changed again and again. There is FAR too much going on. If you FOCUS on one of the layers of this convoluted story, I could see something good. But this is just too much. MC is invited to Shuu's office and is now tasked with finding a killer? To which MC stabs the guy over knowing his past? Edgelord MCs are honestly the worst. And after the QTE 2.0 he suddenly develops some new persona calling everyone nicknames? I just don't see any consistent direction in this story. Throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks is not how you write a good story. They legit did this to explain away the terrible character setup at the beginning of the game. I can't get over how annoying this is.

This game lacks focus. If anyone possibly disagrees with this point, they are blinded by "cute anime girls." What started as a boring and typical amnesia/incest story moved to mystery boxes and super powers. Then that added on MC goes to college and meets girls that love him instantly. Then it added crime noir. Then added slice of life gags. And I'm certain the list will go on. If this settled on a theme and stuck with it, this would be fairly charming. Hell, if they got rid of the two non sequitur nude scenes this could be an okay visual novel. (Let's be real this is barely an AVN, and I'm not even one to care about the amount of sex in these things) But as this drags on and on even the STYLE of the visuals has changed at least three times since the beginning of the game. It's weird, too. In chapter six(ish) they suddenly change to using the character sprites... But I think they're still full renders, instead of using Renpy's in-built character image system. So they're not even taking advantage of the engine? Why? And the fact that there's essentially three main protagonists is annoying. He completely changes his demeanor at the drop of a hat. There aren't even choices to do so, like the game said there would be, so you're given even less agency than you already have. I'm frustrated because I should be able to like this, but not even the translation quality is consistent. If "anime vibes" are all you need have a wild time with this. But there's only one sliver of a sex scene, so the horny brigade can't come in to defend this. And the writing is all over the place.

In summary, every chapter, almost every scene, feels like the English was proofed by someone different. There are lines in this I could barely understand then in the first half of chapter 6(or whatever the last chapter is) I forgot it had broken English for a minute, only for MC to eat his tongue and mess up again, eventually. The UI is MOSTLY customized, everything's still in the same place but all the pictures and stuff are edited. It looks decent, outside of the placement of the flower in the background. It makes the sliders in the preferences menu hard to read. The Art is great. Outside the issue of HS having very dark shadows in the eyes and the fact there are three different styles of art used through this, it looks as good as HS can get. The Dialogue, for the most part is really strong. I wish MC didn't think he was "oh-so charming" and the mute sister stuff is kinda just "look at this crazy pose for no reason." But it's not bad dialogue. The story is bad. Every update there's something completely new to focus on for no other reason than it took the writer 6 months to get back to working on it, so they forgot what they were doing. I just don't see a reason to have all these ridiculous layers and so many characters. If this cut back and focused on, maybe, Luna, Akira, Nobume, Reika, and Sakura this would feel so much better. The ONLY character, like I said, with anything deeper than a character trope is Reika. Akira has potential, and Sakura already has her "oh-so-tortured past" hinted at. But characters are already being made superfluous, MC is unlikeable, suddenly there's detective work to be done, and there's already been miles of filler content for no discernable reason. I get you want this to be light and fluffy at times, but it feels like it's forced at best and doesn't belong at worst. You have SOMETHING here, you just gotta find it and focus on it.

Big ups to the dev , this game was super enjoyable!

Good writing, SFX and BGM, as well as renders. IMO, the quality of the game immensely improved over time - the quality of the initial chapters belies the amazing story crafted and shown in the later chapters - so it may be well worth investing your time into this game.

From what I have played, it seems like this game is heavily narrative and story-based (barely any lewd scenes), and I am a huge fan of this.

This story is BRILLIANT! I'm amazed it's gone on with such little recognition, it's quite captivating and is written on the same level as other high-profile adult VNs. Great renders, great scene and transition choices, great choice in soundtrack, and fantastic comedic timing.

You're a main character who's a touchy slightly-off-his-rocker badass who has amnesia. The story slowly unfolds with unexpected turns and developments with his family, with plenty of eye-candy women supporting.

However, there's very little direct sex - it's more of a sexy setting than a book describing sex. I personally found this to be just fine and enjoyed it anyway.

Also, as someone who has a hard time reading in general, the way this text is broken up makes it possible for someone like me to read, which is highly appreciated.

Definitely worthy of 5 stars, it deserves to be a super-popular contender up there with the other popular adult VNs.

I couldn't decide whether the game deserved 4 or 5 stars... Ultimately, I gave it 5. Overall, I think the game is good—the story flows well and is interesting. The graphics are impressive, and the dialogue is engaging. I still need to get used to the whole split personality aspect, but I can definitely see it working, as long as we can actually choose sides, whether that's between the characters Ren and Inei, or simply good and evil. And i for one, acutally hope we CAN become more on the evil side. I like that idea.

Nope, this thing has more EDGE then a medieval torture device.

I was lured in by the great renders to be smacked over the head with edge and writing that tries to hard.

After reaching chapter three and the reveal of the MC's "condition" I was more then done. The hook at first is interesting but gets boring the more the story progresses. You get to sit though infodumps that are just way to long and dry to enjoy or care about. And then there are the mini games/QTE ... just NO.

And the reason this is a ADULT visual novel in ONE scene that is softcore and not in the oh it's vanilla sense, no in the it could have been aired on TV.
You get a bit of boob and ass that's it, also no animation despite being made with Honey Select.

After chapter three i started skipping and the length the school scene took astounded me. But at least that's where the choices start and the mini games/QTE.

So why one star? Normally I would give two for the renders, but DEV decided to get lazy and startet using sprites in chapter seven.

Tips:
Cut the fluff/padding down
Remove mini games and QTE
Decide to be a AVN or VN
Remove some edge

Excellent anime style AVN, with interesting premise and interesting characters.

I absolutely adore the Ren & Inei duo (prefering Inei ) and it makes this AVN really special in and out.

It is clever, badass, thrilling, action filled and endearing to read and enjoy.

One of my most liked ever KURO and thanks for doing this :3

Story 3/5
At some point it get a bit more interesting but there's just too much for not a lot and the beginning is.. so deja-vu. It looks like it's been written by a young person, I got difficulties to read everything, a lot of fillers and cliche situations.

Sex scenes 1/5
Sex scenes can be count on the fingers of one hand, it's very vanilla and no animation... Damn.

MC 1.5/5
Super edgy dark MC who is super powerful, super handsome, super cool, super good at music, super fun, super know-everything and super.. yeah you get it. The dual personality thing is a bit less "1head" so +0.5 AND sometimes there's a bit effort from Dev so I'm gonna add a +1.

Girls 3/5
They're all look beautiful (exact same face with different hair colors/eyes/makeup), but sadly their personalities are like a harem, mostly simple, and obviously they all more-or-less love MC.

Music 3/5
Good enough, nothing to say about that, it does it's job.

UI/Gameplay 3/5
QTE is a bit more fun than usual Renpy games even if sometimes it doesn't look like I lost or win, the little menus with the characters is cute but not very usefull.

Players barely have any meaningful choices, just a linear narrative.

The women all have the same face and look exactly the same, except for their hairstyle and eye color.

The all-important sex scene also has nothing special about it.
There are no sexual fetishes, no passion, and no romance.
Few and short scenes equal nothing.

I deleted it after "reading" Chapter 4, it was no fun.

Top tier One.
Osm story telling, totally different and fesh premise. Beautiful and variety of models, high quality renders and animations, not a weak-ass pussy MC rather a strong and intelligent one. And there's more like the story is so interesting that sometimes one will forget about porn, lol but it has some sex scenes too not that a lot but as said the story narration never feels rushed and one can feel the build in relationship with gals.

this is truly one of the best games in term of story that I have played truly a master piece I truly fell in love with it and can only hope for more updates
P.S : I love the three stars and hope we can see more fun events with them

first of all visuals are amazing, that's why i got here in here in the first place. the characters look fantastic and each with unique style to them. the concept of death and birth through "that" is refreshing and honestly suprised that it worked for me. finally, i always appreciate the spiderman references.

edit: p.s. qte is nightmare for laptop users like me

Review of Chapter 6.

I have long thought that visual novels have a lot of potential as a story-telling medium, and I am always on the lookout for one that might realize some of this. So I was not put off when I heard that this one didn’t feature any overt sex scenes. Sex is a part of adult life, and a novel for and about adults that doesn’t even recognize the act would seem odd these days: but it doesn’t need to be spelled out (or shown) in great detail to tell a good story.

So how well does this do? It looks good, and the story is interesting, though not particularly original. I found the text somewhat boring at times: I think the dev either needs to step up his skill as a wordsmith or trim it back a bit. The tone of the novel is not very consistent: sometimes it plays as a straight drama, other times it becomes a slap-stick comedy. Both are done well, but the clash between them reduces the impact. There were even some mini-game-like elements thrown in to disrupt the story.

Overall I enjoyed the game, and would be interested in playing it if it is ever completed. I am not sure that I would bother to follow along from update-to-update, though; and I suspect that the lack of overt sex scenes might be a factor. There is always a little dopamine rush when the viewpoint character we are following gets laid (maybe a big one if the player faps to it). It provides a reward that counteracts what might otherwise be frustration at having the story interrupted yet again. Here the reward comes primarily from the story, and won’t be fully realized until it is complete.

It might be worth taking a look, if the lack of sex-scenes isn’t a deal breaker to you.

10 out of 10.
Initially, I was a little afraid that this game would turn into a cringe fest (Japanese names, an MC with that kind of attitude, etc.), but surprise, the engaging plot and endearing characters made me forget about my reservations.
I've been reading a lot of VN for a while now but this one I can't stop reading. The tale is captivating, the dialogue is excellent, I adore every character, and the action scenes in QTE are incredibly well rendered.

A true gem; I'm excited to see what the developer can accomplish with it.

- An interesting story is being used here. Unfortunately, the original didn't have any
lewd content, and the dev hasn't figured out yet how to cram that in. Probably should
have picked different material for this game to begin with.

- That whole japanese naming convention for people is somewhat charming for about 2 minutes.
After that, it's just fucking annoying. Half the time I didn't know who was doing the
talking and to whom that person was talking to. I'm not that invested into these games
that I'm willing to make notes about who is who. If you make a game for an English speaking
audience, then keep the character naming simple, dev-san. Sensei-dev? Dev-kun? Fuck you!

- Graphics are average HS style at best. There are games with much better HS graphics, where
the lighting isn't all flat and the textures used are much nicer.

- All in all not a bad VN, but certainly not 5 stars. Not even close.

Story is unbelievably good, even without any sexual content, the plot, the mc's unique set of characteristics and art still carries it.


The Art is fantasstic, as you have already heard, the design of each characters may be ssen in other games, but it doesn't really put you off that much.

Mc though IS funny, not putting a humor tag on this one screams confidence on the developers side.

The player interactivity and choices is not lacking too.

Definitely one of the best games that is for everyone.

1-This is a story-driven type of game that doesn't focus on sex

(not Recommended if you're someone that wants to see sex scenes ,or plays this game for that reason only)
but it's great, it has an interesting story and cute/good looking characters (especially mirai and reika) the MC's kinda hot too
Good humor ,nice music and sound effects

The only problem that i have with this game is the lack of choices ,it feels like a kinetic novel sometimes

Overall , i pretty much Enjoyed the game

the story seems interesting so far
-the characters look good(4.5/5) it would be good if some of them had different body sizes tho, but it's not that deep
-the QTE seems easy(i'm not saying to make it harder)
-somehow i'm liking MC's personality (i guess i just got tired of Wimpy MCs)
-It has a good music
-Good Sound effects

The thing that's kinda bad:
-that forced scene with Luna, but since I'm starting to liking her I'll let that slide,hopefully we won't have any forced scenes in the future
That's it

This game is probably good for people who don't care much about sex , and are interested about the story

Looking foward for the next updates

The story is pretty good, its a mix of alot of stuff like playing a MC whos lose some of hes memory to find out hes familie is pretty much a maifa thing, its not called that in the game but yeah thats what it feel likes.

For once i love how MC acts and thinks atleast in chapter 1 and most of chapter 2, but for a game that should be about choices i just hate that it forces you to have sex with someone, i wouldent want to touch Luna with a 10ft pole and yet MC is happy to fuck her, sex in this game is very rare so it only makes it that more annoying when you dont have a choice.

MC knows how much the 2 twins hates Luna as well but apprently MC couldent care less about them, personaly i wouldent want to risk anything to lose the twins, it just makes for a shitty story and if one LI is forced the posibility of it happening again is there and thats enough to kill the game for me, i dont play kinetic stories for the same reason i hate forced relationships/LIs.

What makes it even worse is that its not even a harem game so why on earth would someone be forced on you, thats like game-over.....

Later in game you can pick Ren/Inei path cant say i was a fan of that stuff either, after you pick your name will show as Ren or Inei alot of the times instend of the name you picked, it kills the immersive feeling.

As for sex scenes just forget it there really arent any, 6 chapters in and the is one very boring forced sex scene in chapter 2, and one bath scene with twins but they dont really do anything so you just see some tits, and that it.....

Story 3/5
Starts out nice but gets a bit boring and with the Ren/Inei paths i just lost interrest.

Animations 0/5
Well there arent any which dosent help the game.

Sex scenes 1/5
They are boring and you never see a dick or a pussy, its really not a AVN, its not even good enough to be called softcore.

Girls 4/5
They look good so not much to say about them.

Music 3/5
Its pretty standard background stufff nothing special.

Choices 1/5
For a game that should have choices there really arent many, and most are pointless so its nowhere near a choice driven game so think more of it as a kinetic story with the odd choice every blue moon.

Chapter 6 ver.

I'd give it 3.5/5
Review contain minor SPOILERS.

Strongest side of this project is writing. Maybe I was bored today, but in any case I enjoyed reading.

Weakest side - sexual content. Currently game has decent amount of text. I think I spent at least 5 hours, but prolly closer to 7 hours, to finish it from start. For this amount of text there's 1 half assed (sorry, not sorry, dev) sex scene with gal who leaves much to be desired appearance-wise and small lewd scene in bath. Scene was short, boring, cold and has no animations.
Although game tries to give a small possible excuse for this lore-wise, it still feels like bs, because of sex scene we "already" saw.

What I don't like most - Lock of LI in future updates, depending on Ren/Inei path. To change scene, to get a different, but still lewd scene - okay. But to completely shut down. No can do.
Dev, what is canon ? Ren or Inei ? For obvious reasons, I play Inei path.

Anyway, I hated similar shit with Cyberpunk so this case isnt too different. The only way this game will have an enjoyable ending for me is "fusion". Getting rid of Ren or Inei would feel off. This game doesnt feel like drama at all. May have some features but it isnt. It's pretty light aside from stuff like that pedo dude and Sculptor (very glad that for some reason dev added this intrigue in plot, let's see how will it unfold).

I loved background music and I used Shazam several times. Good job here.
Some funny sounds also lighten my mood multiple times.

Girls design is well made. Only exception (I'm sorry I dunno how to say it in English) - pouches underneath the eyes of some characters. Especially Sakura. There were more examples, just too many girls to remember.
Shion is an eye candy. Face, hairstyle. Very hot.
Sumire is definetely doesnt resemble Luna from another famous game.
Mirai is super cute. Same with Reika
Maid is...yes.

With such a huge amount of plot already thrown in I'm scared about dev's ambitions. Just checked, game is in development since Sept 2021. Roughly 3 chapters per year. What I can tell is that if we get 10 chapters - it will be rushed ending. Rushed as fuck. Something closer to 15 sounds more realistic. BUT ! It will be ~2026 year. Sad, but nothing nothing we can do about it. I also want to see some good and quality lewd scenes, hopefully with animations.

Great game if your primary reason isn't to jack off. There's no teasing btw. Very rare

This is such amazing game and great to see MC that is ambitious, have skills and doesn't let people walk over him , but instead walk over anyone that cross him. One of my favourite AVNs, can't wait to play more of it.