VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Melody [v1.00 Extras] [MrDots Games]

A game that has it all. Laughter, desire, cute bits and a really tough choice in the end. This game got me into the genre and I loved every second of this piece. I most of the games from this developer, but this one will forever be in my heart.

I'll start off by sayingI I played this game Melody out of order, after completing dating my daughter.
I had come across DMD by pure accident and mostly loved that game which brought me to this game only to find out this game is somewhat slightly a prequel, like I should have played this game before dmd.

This game has pretty decent sex scenes and the graphics and animations are really pretty decent.
For the most part, the storyline does a good job at drawing in the player with interesting dialogue, but about 30 or 40% of it was just Overkill and unnecessary. Just like DMD, it's just chock-full of breakfast lunch and dinner dates that drag the game out slowly and unnecessary.

I guess the main reason that I only gave only two stars instead of the four stars that I gave DMD is because
1: some of the side girls barely had any sex scenes compared to others.
2: just as DMD did, you had a choice between a perfect ending where you're exclusive with the main character, or ended with a supposedly"good ending"with melody plus her two best friends.
The only problem with this supposedly good ending, was that it wasn't a good ending at all, and felt like a punishment just like the bad ending would have.
Let's face it, we play these games for the sex scenes, and we want to see as many of them as possible during gameplay.
I paid attention to the walk-through as I played, and broke off with all the other side chicks other than melodies two best friends, well before the ending of the game. At the end of the game I only had paths of Melody Sophia and xianne, hoping for that good ending that was promised.
The problem is is that good ending was a terrible ending, and the only way to get a good ending whatsoever is if you're only on an open path with Melody and nobody else. Don't let the walk through fool you that the good ending is good.

Mr dots is getting a bad habit and penalizing players that come play the games for the sex scenes, with bad endings, which pretty much defeats the purpose of playing a sex game to begin with.
I'm not so sure I'll continue playing anymore of their games because they're probably all going to penalize you, as I've already read about sunshine love and it looks like it's the same scenario

A nicely rendered dating romance story that’s realistic enough though it runs out of steam after a while.

Story
MC broke up with his fiance and was subsequently offered work to tutor Melody (main LI) in music at another town. The story traces the romance between MC and Melody though you do get to fool around with three other LIs and some minor characters.

This is not a harem game and even if you try to keep all the LI paths open, there will come a time when you have to pick one. However only Melody’s story is properly developed, the rest are skeletal BTW sort of paths that don’t really stand on their own.

Game Mechanics
AVN with choices that affect romance score with Melody and availability of scenes. However many of these choices don’t make much sense given their effects are random. For e.g. whether you hug or kiss, the food you choose, whether to ask something etc. can affect a scene and love points 1 week later which is really weird.

Background / Character Renders
The renders are well done - it’s a romance story set in a small town so there are no fanciful backgrounds needed, but the developer harmonizes the backgrounds well and you don’t get the sense they are clobbered up from different sources.

Character models are well designed and all the LIs have slightly petite and sweet facial features even for Izzy who is supposed to be the wildest. The style isn’t cartoonish like HS but neither is it rough like Daz3D which is a breath of fresh air.

Character Development
As this is not a harem game and focuses mainly on your relationship with Melody, half of the screen time centers on MC and Melody with all the remaining LIs and minor characters taking up the other half.

The characters here act realistically so there aren’t any particular storyline or scenes where things are dramatic for the sake of it, but conversely this also means they can be rather flat after a while. None of the characters really play into typical troupe stereotypes nor are they particularly sophisticated.

It’s a laid back game that explores the romance MC has so don’t expect intense conflict, dilemma or attachment within the story.

Sex Scenes
These are mostly well done with nice animations supported by good dialogue and BGM. They are around the B grade i.e. serve the story well but not spectacularly erotic or intense to stand out.

BGM and Sound Effects
As the material centers around music, we get quite a number of light hearted instrumental pieces that complements the story well. There are no sound effects as far as I can recall though.

Conclusion
Melody is an easy dating simulator cum visual novel game that is relaxing to play with - there are no bombastic plot developments, no intense emotional moments or complex game mechanics. It’s well rendered and most of the characters are pleasant if not a little flat. An overall above average gameplay.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

This is my first game review on this platform and I will be using a template from the rules so please bear with me.

Review is based on v.1.00 Extras

Preface
First of all, I have never played any of MrDots' games, but kudos to the Dev team for the great game. At first, I wasn't fond of "old games" as Melody was completed back in 2019. But recently I was looking to try games with different themes and Melody popped up in some of the fansigns I've seen on the platform. Coming from a non-creative background, I liked the overview and the theme so I bit the bullet and tried this game. And oh boy how I regretted not finding this game any sooner.

Story
You play as a late 20s to 30-ish (age not specified, I may have missed it but I'm gonna assume the age range) "fill-in" musician, going on tours for a living. You argued with your fiancee and called off the engagement. She then decided to kick you out, leaving you with a guitar and one of the 2 cars you both own with you taking the "better" one with a trailer for your stuff. You crash at your friend Tim's place for a short while, trying to find a way to start anew while putting up the guitar on sale for cash.

A woman named Amy then bought the guitar from you for her niece Melody, whose guitar is currently in her ex's possession. After a few conversations, Amy then offered you a job as Melody's music tutor during her summer break.

Along with Melody and Amy, you will meet Rebecca who is your redhead neighbor, Isabella who is your childhood crush, Sophia who is Melody's best friend, and Xianne who is a college student working multiple jobs to fund her education. This is the start of your new life in a new town.

Renders and Animations
The renders were decent. But keeping in mind that the game is 5 years old, I would say it's pretty good for its time. Even shaming some ongoing AVNs of recent years. All the girls are pretty, but out of all of the girls, Melody, Rebecca, Sophia, and Xianne are the ones I find prettiest (sorry Amy and Isabella). However, the thing I would like to point out is the lack of facial expressions, with characters only having a couple of them, with the characters pursing their lips being the most prominent one. The animations were only short loops with no variations which is kind of a bummer. But once again, the game is 5 years old so no complaints.

Gameplay
Like your regular AVN, the gameplay is pretty straightforward. You make choices and it impacts the game. some are negligible and have no point, but if you're going for Melody's run, a lot of them are gonna matter as you need to essentially drop everything with other girls just to pursue Melody.

The 2 annoying points from this category are one being the sheer number of single choices that don't matter that are presented to you, something like "answer the phone" and the like. It disrupts the flow of the game IMO, but it can be overlooked.

The other one is you being unable to make optimal choices without the walkthrough as some choices are a bit out of place and are purely a guessing game. An example would be Melody wanting to pick an outfit, and you are presented with "outfit #1" "outfit #2" and "outfit #3" choices, with each of the choices netting you different Melody points. You have no prior information or conversations as to which "better" choice to pick so it gets a little frustrating without the walkthrough. That is only one of the several similar choices you are presented throughout.

Amount of Content
As you may have read from other reviews before me, yes the game is a slow-paced one. It took me 3 days on and off the game but I usually sit and play for hours in one session so it might be different for us. I would say around 20-30 hours of content, give or take according to your reading speed. You can judge the amount of content from the 66-page PDF walkthrough provided.

Love Interests and Paths
The main LIs you meet are Melody herself, Amy (Melody's Aunt), Rebecca (Cute redhead that lives next door), and Isabella (Childhood crush as well as Tim's sister). You can have an ending with either one of them, and no, no harem route. As the main LI, Melody has the most content, with Rebecca coming in second, Amy third, and lastly Isabella with the least content.

The side girls you meet are Sophia (Melody's Best friend) and Xianne (Masseuse attending the same college as Melody and Sophia). You can be on their path, but they cannot be pursued solo.

One of the 2 things that bug me is while you are dating Melody out of love, you can fool around with Sophia and Xianne. While I like harem content, this is not a harem game so it is a bit out of place. You can also be in a relationship with multiple main LIs, but you will be given hints saying that you are treading on thin ice and shouldn't be with multiple LIs at a time. You will be given several chances to end things with the main LIs. The Rebecca, Isabelle, and Amy endings were lackluster compared to Melody's and they will also no longer play a role after a certain point in the game which is a bummer as Rebecca is pretty cute and her ending wasn't so bad IMHO. I certainly would love to have Rebecca around as a side chick.

Another one is Melody's development in regards to sex. Sure she is a virgin when she meets you but she masturbates and plays with Sophia at times, while being reserved towards you. But after taking her virginity, she shifts into a sex maniac, becoming more daring and essentially being constantly horny and wanting to jump your bones anytime, anywhere. While I don't mind it, it seems like the dev wants to cram in as many sex scenes as possible for Melody, seeing that she is the main heroine so to speak. Her development is too sudden and too quick. You don't change from a prude to a nympho in a day just because your boyfriend popped your cherry. I would prefer it if the development was a bit slower to build the intimacy between MC and Melody. But I appreciate the number of scenes between them.

Conclusion
Melody is a slow-paced but wholesome and heartwarming AVN for me. As someone who has no prior dating experience, I dig the sweet, lovey-dovey experience this game gave me, and I surely can feel the love between MC and Melody as if I'm the one falling in love with Melody. While I agree that Melody is not groundbreaking so to speak, it sets the bar high enough for me. I believe it will be hard for me to enjoy other AVNs after Melody. Melody will remain in my game folder for some time along with other AVNs I cannot bring myself to part with, and I wouldn't mind going through it again from time to time just for the sake of the warmth. If you are looking for a more fast-paced AVN, or just not a fan of slowburns, Melody may not be for you. But I would push you to give Melody a chance. 11/10 would recommend.

Story 2/5
If you deside to play this one be ready for a bit of an extrem slowburn, i normaly like the slower ones but this one is pushing that limit a bit to much.
Also some routes seems a bit weird like they shouldent be in the game, mostly thinking about when you go after Melody solo but let her play with Sophia in a lesbian act before MC and Melody gets together, she will do more lesbian scenes even after shes in a relationship with MC, so in other words cheating on him and we are talking all the way to the very late game.

Melody even says she knows its worng so it dosent really get more clear then that, it is NTR sure it is easy to avoid since you do controle if Melody is bi-sexual or stright, but it dosent change the fact that it is in the game and should have the tag no matter if its optional, it happens even if your on a 100% solo Melody route and has Sophias route locked meaning not on her route and when MC finaly walks in on the two having fun he simply just accepts it? so you dont even get the chance to dump her after that which really fucks up that hole story and thats just to shitty considering it is the main girl and has a route broken when playing a 100% faithfull route as the MC.

You got to remember MC is a faithfull type guy, no matter how many times he had the chance to be with someone else when he was with hes old ex he never cheated, not once so theres no way in hell he would ever accept Melody cheating on him and lieing to him, it really just broke the hole story and backstory, all MC says is "look Melody no harm done here" i mean fuck me thats awfull, shes lieing and cheating on him and he says no harm done, are you fucking kidding me......then he just invites her to hes room to have sex and forget everything about her cheating.....

To make it even more idiotic, when Melody talks to Sophia later Sophia thinks this "It seems like she has no idea that MC and me have slept together" which never happened since i turned Sophia down every single time.

And funny enough MCs ex ask Melody is she truely loves MC and she says yes and that hes the best thing that ever happened to her, but apprently thats not enough to stop cheating on him behind hes back or come clean about it to him.....

Also i felt like 90% of the game is about Melody so iif you dont like her, you should proberly skip this one, most other LIs has very little screen time.

Game also feels extremly kinetic even though its not due to having diffrent relationship routes, but it pops up with soooooo many single choices which really has no point in being there, like "open the door" or "take off shirt" "take off panties" and you do that first for your self then for the girl and in sex scenes its clicking "kiss her" then "kiss tits" then "lick pussy" all single choices and its even more weird when you start being in a relationship with Melody and whenever you meet her it goes "kiss her" then "touch brests" then "touch ass" then "expose brests" and this is even in the middle of the streets? it just feels way off point.

You really need to use a walkthrough if you want to get everything right since alot of it just makes 0 sense, one girl you first shake hands then hug then kiss, but other girls you just go stright for kissing when meeing her for the very first time. theres also mini-games well quizes is more correct but you will proberly need a walkthrough for those questions as well since its all music related and not the most easy questions.

Also some LIs arent LIs since they dont have solo endings which is a bit weird but oh well.

Pregnancy is a big fail as well, only a single girl can get pregnant and only if you fuck up her life long dream.

Girls 3/5
I wasent really a big fan of the girls, they look ok but none of them really did much for me due to their personalties, you got Melody which is the main girl and found her a bit bland and boring, then you got Isabella tims sister which was my favorit really, then you got the standard shy girl which wasent even a virgin and you get told all about her ex-boyfriend and how she lost her virginity to him, its way to much information that no player wants to hear about, then the the girl working everywhere but shes apprently also a whore and which im not into and also bi-sexual, Sophia wasent bad but she already has a boyfrind and is also bi-sexual, then theres Amy which was just meh.
There is a bit diversity in builds.

Animations 3/5
The first animations are pretty bad, not only dont you see anything but a side view which does nothing, but it also flashes with a black screen constantly even though its for less then a second it was a bit annoying, later animations get a little better.

Music 2/5
Its mostly just standard background stuff nothing really special other then a few short times where there is something with lyrics buts it way to rare and way to short, so its a little disapointing considering the term of the game being about music.

Choices 2/5
Just cant rate this higher due to the 5 million single choices that was constantly annoyinig me, but you can pick turn down any girl you want including the main girl so thats really nice atleast, also having broken routes with the main girl is just not good enough.

In short its really not above average due to the story is just to long and to much of a slowburn with so many pointless dialogs and single click choices plus all the other stuff i already rated above and having broken routes with NTR or no tag also hurts overall value, stuff like that just shouldent happen.

[SPOILER ALERT]

So, I don't make a lot of reviews lately because... well I got writer's block or something, I guess? but anyway I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and decided to review this game.

First, I just wanna say that I regretted myself for not playing this game sooner. I wasn't interested with Melody because the game was released in 2018 and completed in 2019, so the game is fairly old. I've played Mr. Dots' first game (Dating My Daughter) a long time ago and I didn't manage to complete it for some reason and it became one of the reasons why I've been avoided Melody. But then boredom struck me, I didn't know what to play. So I've browsed multiple completed games and this one was on top because it has good ratings. I'd say "fuck it" and downloaded it despite knowing the dev behind this game.

Anyway, in Melody you start as a 30-ish year old guy whose job was a touring musician. He just had a fight with your soon-to-be ex-fiance and decided to left his old life to find a new purpose. To survive, he sold his guitar to a woman named Amy, she bought it for her nephew named Melody. After a few chats with her, she offered him a job that he couldn't refuse, tutoring Melody during summer break. What could go wrong? is it going to be the best choice you've made or could it be a disaster?

Talking about choices, Melody has plenty of choices you can choose. Few of them are useless but many of them aren't (if you decide to pursue a relationship with Melody, more than 95% of the choices matter a lot).

Now let's talk about the Love Interests. There are four main LIs, first is Melody herself, second is Amy (Melody's aunt), third is Rebecca (a redhead beauty who lives next door), and last is Isabella (your childhood crush). Melody, Rebecca, and Amy are the only ones that's worth to be pursued, while Isabella is... no. I'm not saying she's bad, ugly, or something, it's just that she has very little content. I wish Mr. Dots made her appeared more often. There are also two side girls, Sophia (Melody's best friend) and Xianne (a masseuse who's also attending the same college with Melody and Sophia). Too bad you can't pursue them solo, but if you're a horny bastard who can't be satisfied with one woman, those women are for you.

Now here comes the main appetizer, the sex scenes. I was thinking since Melody is an old game, its sex scenes probably kinda choppy or maybe even worse, but I was wrong, like really wrong. For an old game that was released before 2020, Melody's sex scenes are top notch, hell even much better than many underrated AVNs out there that are still in development (*cough* I'm looking at you, Intertwined *cough*).

The only hiccups so far about this game is when you get confronted by Steve and Bethany in the alleway. If you're not on Melody's path, the choices feel so weird and I feel really bad with Melody's future, all because of her guitar that was a gift from her deceased mother. One more thing, if you're not a fan of slowburn AVNs, I think you might dislike Melody. Well, at least the good outweight the bad in this game so I'm just going to let it slide.

Also, did you noticed that Melody is Mr. Dots' most approved game? It's sad to see that he has made four games so far and most of them scored below 4 stars, but at least I'm glad this one exists to cheer me up. By the way, Melody's and MC's daughter is so cute, I want to pinch her lol.

A truly affectionate, beautifully portrayed novel about an inseparable love in the music business. With lots of details about music, instruments and studio work.

If you go the pure melody route you really experience a feeling of true love.

However, I have to say that without a walkthrough mod I would never have gotten to the 400 points for the perfect ending.
It's a shame that developers never include a walkthrough mode, especially for the first playthrough.

I'm really going to miss Melody. But there are still some LI to discover that I left behind, this time without a mod.
But first I have to let my feelings sink in again. It's been a really intense few days with the game

The most boring game I've ever played. Boring and incredibly drawn out dialogues. The erotic scenes are also incredibly boring and with a lot of dialogue, I don’t know who is having philosophical conversations on abstract topics during sex!

Animation and artwork is supurb as is the storyline! The singing is really good as well. This is one of the few games I have replayed just because the story hooks you in. Multiple endings also keep you coming back for more to see where your story goes.

The game's main love interest (Melody) and scenario of being her music tutor is adequate but not nearly as interesting a scenario as the last game (Dating My Daughter).

Rebecca and Sophia were the best Models (and maybe character too) in the game. Amy was good to (because she's basically Olivia Wild) and also Melody (thankfully) but ultimately were not my favorites. The ex (Bethany) and best friends younger sister (Isabella) were to me the weakest models in the game.

The dialog though really well written is just on that side of taking too long to go through. It's not so bad as to be transparent filler but I still bet that's it true purpose.

Overall I say the game's not as enjoyable as Dating My Daughter but It's still worth it to see the scenes with Rebecca and Sophia. I went to the path that gave me the most threesomes and I was happy.

More like a 4 to 4.5 star quality game in terms of writing/model quality, but its solid enough and was finished (with non-rushed endings) in a reasonable time frame which is a bonus point given how many stories get stuck in the mud. Good amount of content (and polished), few different paths, and the story is not drawn out an excessive amount of time unlike this developer's other games.

One of my favourite VNs.

The first VN that made me explore the multiple different endings that were possible.

This set the bar so high that I struggled to enjoy other titles for a while.

Solid story and interesting characters.
Renders are on point too.

Well done to the developer!

A nice story, especially if you are into music (and if you aren't, you should be). Superb graphics (how do you do that?). Realistic (at least in my dreams) characters, the main women are at least gorgeous.

A masterpiece.

The story is simple but it fits the game. The dialogues are simple but kinda believable. Graphics might not be up to the most modern standard but they are made very well.

So why a masterpiece, why 5/5?

Because of Melody. She is so damn sweet.. This is a romance vn and it delivers exactly what I expect from a romance vn. A wholesome story and a sweet love interest. Sooooo sweet. :O

I love this game so much it is far from perfect i could come up with a number of things wrong with this game but i just adore the MC and the Melody Perfect ending path this will not change the way u think about AVN's but if u want a incredible love story than this is the game for you i wont comment on paths other than Perfect Ending for Melody its not worth goin through the game that many times Melody perfect ending is all you need

Rating based on v1.00 Extras

First of all, I have to say that I don't think the rating in a 5-star system is accurate enough. I would give the game a 7/10, so 3.5/5 stars. I think three stars is too low, but then again, neither are four stars. I chose three stars because I always find too high ratings more useless than too low ones.

All in all, I enjoyed the story. There were no major plot holes, but there were some inconsistencies in the behavior of the characters. That bothered me a lot at some points. It's just illogical that MC is in a committed relationship with Melody with obvious sincere love, but on the side is screwing around with her BFF and a masseuse who is also a friend. He doesn't seem to have any real remorse, although MC is presented to us as someone who always remained faithful to his last partner, even though the relationship had obviously broken down and he no longer felt any love for Bethany.

The graphics are still very good from today's point of view (2023), but you can tell they are from a time when you were much more limited in using DAZ. It would not be fair to evaluate the graphics from today's point of view. You have to see them in the context of when they were created (2018/19). For the time, they were really very good. Melody is really beautiful and most of the other characters are nice to look at as well. What goes for the graphics must also go for the animations. For the time, it was good work and even if they are not outstanding, they are nice to look at.

What really bothered me about AVN, however, and had a lasting effect on my rating, was the mass of one-choices. What's the point? That has no added value for the player at all. It simply interrupts the reading flow and is annoying. That alone gave me a whole star deduction in the rating. The same goes for the fact that it is virtually impossible for the player to make optimal decisions in the long run without a walkthrough. Best example: Melody would like to know which song she should play best. The possible answers are "#1", "#2" or "#3". For the "correct" answer you get points. But there is no clue at all in the whole game which answer would be the right one. So it is a pure game of chance. It's the same when Melody asks which movie you should watch or if it's about musicians. It's fantasy names that exist there as possible answers, and there's no conversation in the whole game that gives you clues to help you choose the right answer and get points for it.

Another minus point is that the sidegirls Becca, Amy and Izzy simply disappear from the game after a certain point and no longer play a role. However, they are presented to the player as LI's, so the player should also be able to follow their routes. I do realize that Melody is the main character and the game literally revolves around her. But if you bring other LI's into the plot, they should play a role as well.

My last major criticism is the fact that Melody's development in terms of sex is not comprehensible. First, she is a virgin who is sexually open-minded and masturbates regularly and also experiments with her BFF. So far, so unspectacular. She is correspondingly reserved towards MC at the beginning. Typical slow burn. That's okay. But as soon as you have popped her cherry, she turns into a maniac and apparently wants to do it always and everywhere. This does not fit together. Of course, there are women who develop from a shy duckling into a sex-hungry beast. But that doesn't happen overnight. One got the impression that the dev just wanted to accommodate as many sex scenes as possible. Probably to satisfy the players at the time, who probably complained about too few scenes. I don't know if it was like that, but it's been seen more often in other games, so I think my guess is likely.


All in all, though, it was an AVN that I enjoyed. At least from the time when I used the walkthrough and also held the code on my second screen next to it myself from time to time.

I can only recommend this AVN. My three stars should not obscure the fact that it is a good piece of work. As written above, it's a 7/10. I'll definitely play it again at some point. It was fun and a nice change of pace. I did, of course, pay the dev accordingly for his work.

Please be fair and support the dev with paying for the game if you can. Even if my review doesn't look like it if you only sees the rating, he deserves it.

A really slow-paced game, that is probably only minus of this game. Other than that it is very good game, animations, characters and narrative are great. Other characters are also nicely done. Recommend it to play this game.

I'm forcing myself to give this 3 stars instead of 2 just because I like to avoid the "hater tag". This game is nothing but plain. The characters, the story and pacing... It's just really boring. The amout of one-choice moments it's quite annoying for me as well. It has some nice renders and I guess if you're about suggary storylines and LI, go for it.
Since I still feel like a hater giving such review, I'll suggarcoat it for the dev saying he did put way more effort than I ever will developing a game for us. Cheers for that!

As a musician, I can say that i enjoyed very much the game. It has a lot of references to rock and music in general. The soundtrack is a plus, as the game it's obviously a VN focused on music.

The animations and graphics aren't bad, but you can find games with better ones.

I would give a 4/5 to the story. It's not revolutionary or has big plot twists, but it makes you feel attached to progress on the game. Gotta make a 3rd run to get a freshier impression, but I recommend this game to every AVN player.

One of the best games ever! Loved the story and the interactions, especially with Melody, such a well developed protagonist. The artwork is also incredible, the developers should be very proud of the result.