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

[Disclaimer: I wanted to just give this five stars and be done with it, but a review is required in order to do that, so here goes.]

First off, the fact that this is a long game with an actual ending (multiple endings, in fact) is a huge plus. I've only know about these VN's for a year or so, but in that time have seen a ton that are either incredibly short or just not finished. So it's always nice to find one with closure.

Secondly, the escapism factor can be nice, and while there is the occasional dramatic moment, this game is fairly light in tone. YMMV as to whether this is a good or bad thing. Hopefully the visuals and music are enough to let you know the tone this game is going for. It's not gritty or stark realism by any stretch.

That said, the game gives you plenty of opportunities to screw up. Sometimes it's fairly immediate, and others it's a long time coming. As this usually involves the other love interests in the game besides Melody, this can generally be averted by using the Relationship settings options. In fact, I'm not even sure if I could have gotten the "perfect" ending without going in there and just locking out all the other relationships in the game, making it that much easier to focus on Melody. (Indeed, it seems if you entertain the slightest interest in any of the others, whether Melody knows about it or not, or is fine with it or not, it will lock you out of the longer, "best" ending. And the difference between the two is substantial and is not just about points, though that's also a factor.)

Full disclosure, I did the cheat where I played multiple paths somewhat simultaneously just to see where things stood, which meant seeing some of the much shorter endings along the way (typically involving the other women.) Since the game is called "Melody" I guess it should be no surprise that focusing on anyone other than her will lead to fewer story beats.

(And while this may be a bit of a spoiler, Melody's success is directly tied to how romantically involved you are with her. AFAIK there's no option for her to have a successful career where you're just friends, though I could be mistaken. I'm not sure how many endings there actually are.)

My only real complaint with the game, though not enough to lower its score (since it's probably one of my favorite games of its type that I've played thus far) is that some of the decisions seem arbitrary, the results of which aren't readily aparrent, so you'll really want to hold onto save points at even some seemingly arbitrary decision points, in case you need to backtrack. But again, I don't hold that against the game, necessarily, since I've seen plenty of other games do likewise, often more egregiously and with wider repercussions.

I do suggest listening to the audio at times if possible; the music sometimes informs the scene (though not always; some of the tracks are definitely of the "I've heard this jingle before" variety.) The actual songs performed by Melody are pretty good for what they are (considering this is just an indie game and not an actual music album). I enjoyed the voice of whoever they got to sing as Melody, though I would say the voice sounds slightly older than 18/19. I only wish they had actually sung the song in the Perfect Ending portion (instead it's just the lyrics over an instrumental track that doesn't seem to match up.)

Overall it was a fun game and I'm glad I gave it a chance. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're not look for something uber-raunchy* or violent and don't mind a somewhat slow burn (w/ Melody) early on, then I'd say it's worth checking out.

(* - There's plenty of sex, but it doesn't check a lot of the boxes that I've seen in several other games. But other games have that covered.)

"Melody" is one of the best games ever published here.
Slowly developing story, which obviously reqired a lot research or knowledge of the music records industry could easily be a base not only for this VN, but for movie screenplay etc. Bravo, Mr. Dots

The game is quite good but its main topic being music i felt not really "in" (because in real life it's not something i'm really into at all).
The way the paths work was very counter-intuitive for me and after a "good" ending i replayed it quickly to get a perfect ending, which was much more interesting, even if a bit lacking on the "porn" side.

The girls are pretty but only 2 really spoke to me (Amy and Melody). All the others were not really to my liking so it was very easy to bypass their story. Rebecca was quite good but i had some trouble with her face. However her personality was top and in my first playthrough i felt her story to be a bit heartbreaking for the MC.

The porn side is frankly not the best i saw in a VN. I don't know why since the graphical side is quite good. maybe it's the "simplicity", or the "normality" or even the fact that they were often the same position etc. i'm not sure, it's hard for me to explain.

All in all, i spent like 16 really interesting hours but i don't think i will ever play the game again.

I try to immerse and lose myself in each game. Melody kept kicking me out, fighting me every step of the way. These games often require some suspension of disbelief - usually accepting that the MC is a super-stud with a refractory period measured in seconds. Melody (v1.00 Extras) challenged my suspension of disbelief at every moment.

First there's the premise: musician gives up his career and relocates to teach a college student music for 1 hour a week. Teaching for 1 hour a week isn't a career, it's a hobby. But that also makes everything around it unbelievable too. Melody complains that her summer is ruined and she won't have time to do anything fun? You have 1 hour of lessons a week, what are you complaining about! MC says he's too busy? Doing what? You need to de-stress at the end of the week from your grueling 1-3 hours of teaching?

Then there's the lessons themselves. A college student and music major who plays guitar is asked to identify a French horn, a kazoo, and a bassoon? Is asked to try playing the flute and cello to expose her to new instruments? Is this elementary school?

Then there's the writing, which is frequently poor. Grammar mistakes all over the place, occasional typos or wrong words, and terrible, stilted, artificial dialog everywhere. Here's some examples I came across most recently (not the worst, but still pretty awkward):

MC - "I don't want anything in return, just having your company is more than enough."
Girl - "As do I."

or

"Oh that's cool, I'll make sure to have a feed before I see you."

or

MC - "What's the matter?
Girl - "It's nothing except... I really want to take you up to my bedroom. But if I were to do that, I'd do so knowing that we can't have sex. You know, because of what I said this afternoon?" [The afternoon issue was not having a condom. It's now late evening, hours later.]
MC - (I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell her what I have on me...)
MC - "Yeah that's a tough one. However, what if I were to tell you that I may have solved that particular problem?"
Girl - "What? How?" [Yes, however can one solve the problem of not having a condom, given mere hours of time in which to solve it?]
MC - holds up condom.
Girl - "Oh my god!! Where and when did you get that??" [Yes, wherever could one get a condom from...? Their apartment? A drug store? A grocery store? A convenience store? A vending machine in a movie theater bathroom?]
MC - "I hope you won't think I got it just to try to force something to happen between us tonight. But when I went to the bathroom at the movie theatre... There was a vending machine in there. I figured that I should probably have one on me, just in case you know?" [Ah, movie theater bathroom vending machine it is. Mystery solved.]
Girl - "Oh, well that makes sense I guess." [Does it??? Does it really? Because this is not how humans talk and behave. Is there going to be a plot twist that reveals that you're actually all aliens from another planet, masquerading as humans? Because that would actually make more sense.]

Click to expand...

I'm guessing the writer is not a native English speaker - and, if so, I give him a lot of credit for writing as well as he did - but as a native English speaker it just made all the characters seem very artificial.

Good writing is supposed to show instead of tell. Melody's writing can't stop telling, and telling, and telling. It's constantly in the characters' heads, telling you how they feel, leaving no room for uncertainty or imagination. "Should I tell her about this? And what I was thinking of at the time? No, I don't think I could talk to her about that right now."

The inner monologues can be exhausting, particularly when they go off on minutiae. "My phone is ringing. Who could it be? I guess I better answer it." "I need to get ready for bed. I should go to the bathroom to pee. I can brush my teeth while I'm there."

Sometimes the writing is unintentionally hilarious. One scene complementing the room decorations had me laughing as the background showed a white room with white curtains, completely devoid of decorations.

Then there's the gameplay. You're constantly interrupted by meaningless single non-choices. Your phone is ringing? You have to click, "Answer the phone." A knock on the door? You have to click, "Open the door." These are not choices, you have to click the one and only option to proceed. It's effectively a "Click to continue playing" message that pops up all the time.

On the flip side, things that I'd think are choices, like agreeing to go to dinner with someone, are often not choices - your character just agrees to it because that's what the dev wrote.

Then there's the Melody score counter always on the screen, tabulating your progress and making you feel like every choice that doesn't increment the score is the wrong one. There's a meaningless "Main Goal" listed for each progress level which has nothing to do with the actual game (I passed the "Be honest with her" level without ever having to actually be honest with her). I usually play without a guide for the initial playthrough, preferring to let my choices naturally lead me to an outcome, but gave up on that early on once I realized that the choices you have to make to progress are sometimes completely arbitrary.

For a game about music, the early weeks are surprisingly devoid of music. For the first 4 weeks you just have one or two generic background tracks on repeat - it's not until the end of week 4 that you get something that isn't generic background music. If my friend hadn't told me that the music gets better, I would have muted it long ago and missed everything. The music starts to improve in week 5, but it's still plagued by having one background track on repeat forever. With how long and slow each week is, the 1-2 background tracks just aren't enough - if I could disable the background music without losing the lesson music I would.

Then there's the length and pace - the game feels way too long, and way too slow. I made it to the start of week 6, and feel exhausted. I don't know that I can slog through 9 more weeks of this. It almost feels like the other women were included to distract you from the realization that the main path with Melody is agonizingly slow.

Since I've so far focused on the negative, let me highlight some of the positives.

Some of the music is legitimately really pretty. I particularly liked the piano piece at the end of week 4, and the "Sheet 1" guitar piece in week 5. The music starts to improve in week 5, though there's still a lot of repetitive background music - I would grow to hate each week's background track.

The renders are also really well done - though sometimes oil is applied, and that throws the characters right into the uncanny valley. Overall the game looks really good. The animations are less well done - sometimes they're good, and sometimes they look like robots or sex machines jackhammering away. It's particularly incongruous when the text says one thing and the animation is something quite different, such as "Nice and slow. We [we?] don't want to frighten her..." being accompanied by an animation that is anything but slow.

Lastly, we turn to the elephant Melody in the room. For being the main love interest with the most screen time, I found it really hard to care about her. Practically everyone else - all the characters the game dismissively labels "Other Girls" - are more interesting. It probably didn't help that Melody's model looks 16 at most, which with the much older MC gave me creepy pedo vibes throughout.

A noted step up from DMD.

Adorable characters, with an (for the most part) easy going plot.

Sex scenes won't blow you (heh) away, but do their job just fine. And you feel as if you've earned them once you finally get there with Melody.

Mr. Dots Games has always done casual romance very well. I feel as if he's created his own style with this entry and DMD as the ground work.

Good stuff.

Not going to write a long one. I had a romance itch after playing Summertime Saga (mainly because of the Eve route) and needed something to scratch it. Melody did it. Went for the Melody only route. Was not disappointed. Good game.

Played one ending, Melody - Family Ending, and will sometime in the future play it again but seeking another ending.

The renders are good, the girls are different but sexy in their own way. The sex scenes is the only thing I don't give 5*, still everything else is so great so my 5* is just natural.

If you want quick games, this isn't your game.

I absolutely adored this game! This one was well put together by the developers. Melody is without a doubt the most beautiful 3D rendered model I've ever seen. They made a lot of great original character-oriented music that is worth hearing on its own. Fantastic game with excellent storytelling and plenty of opportunities to try out different paths. It's pretty enjoyable because most things or situations appear to be natural. I had a lot of fun going through the different endings and seeing how they all turned out. The whole thing was a lot of fun for me.

Preface: When it comes to Adult Interactive Fiction (AIF) I look for more than just masturbation material. I, generally don't even do that. The primary thing I'm looking for is a story that draws me in and makes me care about the characters, first and foremost.

Review for 1.0:

Story: Melody is, by far, the single best AIF visual novel I have ever played. It has a very slow paced story, focusing on the growth of the MC and his student, Melody.

The MC is a thirty-ish year old session musician who has just had a breakup with his girlfriend of ten years, Bethany. After being kicked out of the house, the MC takes his things, including a guitar he gave her as a gift that she never used and stays with a friend of his, Tim, to lay low. The MC lists the guitar online where a woman named Amy quickly contacts him to inquire about it. She is searching for one for her niece, Melody, who has had her guitar stolen by her ex-boyfriend. They meet up and she offers the MC a job as Melody's tutor.

Melody is a 19 year old college student with aspirations of becoming a singer-songwriter. Her mother, Melissa, passed away four years prior and the guitar Melissa gave her is the only thing she had to hold onto. She is a rebellious young woman who is prone to speaking her mind and making things difficult for those around her.

Over the course of the novel, the MC's relationship very slowly goes from student-teacher to being friends to being her manager to becoming her lover. If you want some action quickly, you will not get that here. You slowly grow her trust in you. It would take in the area of five to ten hours to get to the point where he and Melody start exploring their lust for one another and another couple of hours for them to start having sex.


Gameplay: Your progress is measured on a scale of 0 to 400, with seven piano keys being specific points where their relationship changes.during the course of the story, the MC has the option of pursuing a handful of women. Tim's sister, Izzy; Melody's aunt Amy; Melody's best friend, Sophia; the MC's neighbor, Rebecca; and a young woman named Xianne whom he meets during an evening out with Melody. Interestingly, the game sometimes has you making choices for the girls when you are in pseudo-control of them. Examples include Melody taking tests or her choosing to be intimate with Sophia.

I have only ever played through Melody's route so I cannot speak for the other relationships. Regardless, the story is extremely important and highly satisfying to experience.

Visuals: The renders are top notch, in my opinion. The characters look great with the women ranging from large A-cups to C-cups. There aren't any outlandish proportions and the girls feel natural. The MC is of average build. No outlandish penis size, nor is he walking around looking like Adonis. The female characters actually have a wardrobe. Every new day, Melody has a different outfit, as do the other girls. I found this very refreshing and immersive as most VNs have characters wearing the same outfit all game long.

The story is told from a first person perspective for 90 percent of the story, with it moving to a third person perspective for sex scenes, several kissing scenes or when the story pans to sections with the MC not being present. You never see the MC' face with the back of his head or his mouth and chin being all you see. Your romantic progress with Melody heavily hinges on your choices with other women. I tend to always go with the faithful to her route.

Audio: I tend to play video games muted so I cannot comment on it here.

Content; The content is pretty tame with standard stuff being the most common. Male/Female, Female/Female, Male/Female/Female(choice dependent) , Vaginal, Masturbation, Cunnilinguos, Analinguos, Handjobs, Blowjobs and a lot of foreplay. Exhibitionism also happens infrequently. Anal happens extremely late in the story and there is some footplay but that is minor. You have standard positions including doggy, missionary, spooning, cowgirl/reverse cg, sixty-nining and standing.

Overall: Melody is most certainly worth the time for at least one playthrough. I have, personally, played it four times and I love it. The character interaction and build-up is top notch. So much so, that it is the one VN I always have installed. I vehemently encourage you to give it a go, especially if your looking for a story-driven experience. If I could give it more than five stars, I would. It will take some time to complete if you don't skip dialog. If I had to guess, you would be looking at fifteen to twenty hours of story.

The game was great, I enjoyed most of it. The story was good and the characters look great. The game's biggest flaw is the writing. The grammar was very good but the language was weird and felt old in a way. I'd give the game 4.5 if I could but I'm rounding it up to a 5.

• Render : Great
  • not the best but still good
• Sex Scenes : Good
  • they're animation so don't worry about playing stiff scene that is filled by pictures but you need to pass many dialogues
• Model : Not too unique
  • some characters having a same face
• Story : Well-made story
  • if you are looking for a game by story wise this one might be suited you
• Control : choice based game
  • so you can play it easy but chose wisely. the mini-games are trivia question so internet will be your bestfriend

I don't know why but to me some of the conversations are low key sharing stories from Being A Dik. Thanks MrDotsGames

Sometimes I seek some extreme emotions from the game, some new experience. That game is not like that. It is a pretty simple story of true love, but the warm feeling from the game is so good, that I felt sooo good playing the game. Sometimes you just need a simple kind melodrama and it is that kind of a game. If you are feeling yourself bad and want something bright in your life, play that game.

The game was great despite the cgi not being the best the story make it worth playing, I think one negative is that it's main focused on Melody, there was so much effort on her that most of the times you don't feel like going with the other girls. Overall it was a great experience and I definitely recommend it if story is your thing

I definitely enjoyed this gem. Beautiful character models, Gorgeous sex scenes which are very well animated, interesting story,Memorable cast. Definitely 1 of the best so I highly recommend it.
My most memorable scene was when I was dating 2 of my fav characters (Melody & her aunt Amy, well actually 3 women if u include Rebecca also) at the same time discreetly obviously . 1 day Melody says she got a surprise for me & takes me out to lunch where, upon my arrival I realise that the surprise is none other than Aunt Amy where Amy reveals that MC is dating her then Melody also says but I'm dating him & both of them look towards me & I'm like "oh SHIT I'm definitely Fucked!!".
So friendly advice choices have consequences here so choose carefully.
PS almost forgot to mention I'm glad I finally found a game where the MC has a normal dick for once(this makes it more realistic hence a more immersive experience) . Every other game I tried the MC is bestowed with a giant horse dick that almost extends upto his knee.

Loved this VN game!
Great story with beautiful girls and excellent music.
Took me almost 2 weeks playing a couple of hours a night to finish.
You never actually see the MC's face which adds to the overall immersion of the game.
Worth playing first without a walkthrough to see what kind of ending you achieve using your own decisions.

Honestly, the sexy bits are a sideshow to the amazing writing and effort that was put into this game. I couldn't bring myself to stop playing it. Sure some of the dialogue, particularly the inner dialogue, can be a bit cheesy or repetitive ("We should go to the car to go to this thing we're talking about. I better get going to the car now" kinda thing), but the story that it tells and the relationships are second to none from all of the VN's I've played through. The models, renders, and animations are top notch. Don't know what else to say; it's definitely worth at least one playthrough if not multiple. Props to the creator!

I fucking loved this game! The creators did a fantastic job putting this one together. Melody is possibly the most attractive 3D rendered model I've ever seen. They created a bunch of excellent original character oriented music that is worth listening to on its own. The supporting cast is equally engaging. Maybe someday creators of visual novels will bring in some voice acting.

Wow, what an experience this game!!
I guess I'm at half of the content, but I can say this is a very different game from the most in this site. There are fewer lewd scenes, even if there are anyway many, but it's more a "romantic story with lewd".
Almost all the Love Interests are very likeable (I could absolutely fall in real life for an Amy, or also for a Becca), and the story is at the same time funny, interesting, and makes you think.
Just in Acting Lessons I had spent almost all afternoon playing.
I hope the DEV will work at other projects like this one, because he's really good at telling a story.

You probably heard that phrase: "it's about the journey, not the destination". Well, Melody defies that, here is about both. A great game from start to finish; if you're a story lover like I am, this is a must play.
It's freaking inspiring too, goddammit, I've became a better person because of this game. A lot of times I thought I was playing "A Star is Born".
The only downside I would think of would be that the other girls narrative falls short in comparison to the main storyline, but nothing that would negatively impact the game.. it is called "Melody" for a reason.
The second VN I played and kinda ruin them for me, because inevitably, I'm comparing other games to this one and it's avoiding me to enjoy much of this site's content.. screw you, MrDots.. damn.

One of the best. Choices are meaningful, character developments are great. The story has some beef to it but not super lengthy. One of the rare few games where you don't get a bunch of misspelled words.