VN - Ren'Py - Mind Control [v0.22] [specialmind]

Another game with beautiful graphics, but with a regrettable story, the MC has powers... great, but he uses them to give others an advantage, just another story where the MC is a dumb idiot who no one respects.

This could easily be presented with a revenge game or as a game where the central point is how corrupt the MC becomes thanks to power, but no, basically with or without powers the MC is a pathetic submissive... but HEY it is Avoidable (of course).

Wonderful game! I think all the scenes are really hot and the story is interesting. I wish you could choose to sway mum and dad away from a relationship but maybe you can do that later. Having the option to cheat stats if you wanted would also be nice or a mode to turn off stats. Love the game though and looking forward to further releases.

Very realistic handling of an unrealistic situation, that is many young men's dream. Dialog is very believable, which increases immersion, and if mind control has any kind of appeal, the immersion also increases fappability. The characters are well made, with villains you really love to hate, and damsels in distress made to drive the plot towards use of the powers. Sure, there'll be people who isn't interested in a religious girl-next-door type, and who wouldn't see her as worth corrupting, but others will be forced by their conscience, to corrupt her for her own good.

[v0.1]

I normally don't rate v0.1 games, but this one has enough content to warrant a rating.

The story is apparently intentionally made very simple: teenager starts hearing nearby people's thoughts and discovers he can also telephatically give them orders, which they will follow almost unconditionally (there appears to be personality/mind issues if an order is given, which the person would be totally against).

Total cliche, a clear cut powerfantasy harem game, but the important part, as always in such games, is execution, which in this case is excellent. At least so far.

The MC in this case is NOT an idiot and NOT a wet blanket, which two things are major turnoffs in a lot of power fantasy games.

MC has stats 2 major stats (domination/submission and "cleanness"/"lewdness"), which can be pretty maxed out by the end of the play. He also has minor stats of virility and stamina which seem to be quite OK with default values for the playthrough.

However, the major stats mostly don't seem to hard lock your options, they just give you % chance to make a choice, so if you have let's say only 25% domination, your options to choose some dominant option work, but with only ~25% chance.

On one hand it is superflous, as you can rollback and try the choice again, until you succeed. On the other hand, it turned out for me that I kinda like it much better than the hard locking of paths usually seen in such cases.

So, you can still mostly do whatever you want, you just have to spend some time to do it, if it's uncharacteristic for you. Weird, but actually works well for me. Better than having to replay whole paths from start in order to unlock a particular option.

So. Ratings:

Plot and Personalities: 5/5 -- very cliche, but very believable. Normal teenagers, different families, normal people in normal settings. European (apparently French) high school, where pot and alcohol is not some huge issue, is a welcome change from the American sitcom-style high schools portrayed in AVNs so often.

Dialogues: 5/5 -- YES. I know there are LOADS of spelling errors. Especially grating are the frequent mistyping of "he" vs "she", as well as some directly translated words from French that simply don't make sense in English. Nevertheless, it's made OK for me by the actual things being said. Again decently normal teenage/family dialogues. Very believable, especially when you can hear the thoughts. There might be needed some suspension of disbelief on the ease with which characters reveal their sexuality (MC's sister and her new-to-be gf), but that is addressed sort of OK, imo. Definitely better than a vast majority of games here.

Models, Renders & Graphics: 5/5 -- Good renders, lighting and backgrounds.

I like the fact that there are different bodytypes; that MC's first LI is not a thin supermodel, but a very attractive just exactly right level of plumpness girl with slightly wide hips and large (but not comical) breasts. One of the others *is* a rather thin girl with small breasts. Etc.

A special note and bonus stars for MC. Starting from the fact that he looks OK, not a creep and not a supermodel, and main thing -- HE HAS NORMAL SIZE DICK. Thank goodness for an adult game at last.

Maledom: 3,5/5 -- as it is of interest to me, I always put in a rating. So, currently you can be rather dominant, and actually sort of enslave people sometimes (up to the point of last 0.1 scenes, where you can directly tell somebody to be your slave).
It is tempered by MC's attitudes towards the people in question, he is not at the moment trying to make everybody his toy. As well as he does these things mostly on the go, and has no good scheme for correct orders for everybody. It is also somewhat inconsistent in that he can be harder on somebody he knows well, vs can't imprint his will on a stranger (eg. Joyce).
Nevertheless, there are decent options, and while the achieved domination is not very much expressed now, it looks something that can definitely be expected in future releases.

All in all a very promising start. I wish luck to the devs, bring it on. Perhaps in the next version the MC will be used to his power enough so that he starts to actually think what he wants to achieve with it.

Minor gripe: The stat values are in white, and can't be seen when the scene has a light background.

A lot of errors in the writing and below average renders.

The story isn't too original and quickly becomes tiresome. Main character is generally unlikeable and looks like a creepier George McFly.

Even suspending disbelief with it being a super-powered porn story, it gets into eyeroll territory with how horny everyone is.

I'll give it another look in the future. For now it is in the reject pile.

This is the best game in a long time! The character, the story, the sex scenes, the art style. All of that is 5/5. I am looking forward to seeing where this is going. It's definitely my favorite game atm. Really good scripting as well.

The system of how those stats affect what you choose is unique, and it makes the importance of stats more immersive. It gives me a D&D feeling,.

The characters are attractive in a realistic way, and that makes the game so much more believable and appealing.

The flaw of the story is great because it kind of makes sense of things unfolding even tho the situation usually does not happen; it still feels like it could happen.

The only thing that I whis was better is the way MC looks. He looks very unpleasant.

The potential for this game is insane, it just needs some heavy polish. The translations are really poor, especially for the UI. Also, I think it might be better if the stats were just either for flavor, such as personalizing how you want to play. Since it's just a random % chance of working right now it just means you have to scroll forward and back until you get the outcome you want. If it was personalized I think it would be a lot better. For example, more points into being dominant opens up options towards being dominant that would otherwise be greyed out. I think that would work better. Also I think there needs to be some better information to the player. Sometimes choices were greyed out. Why were they greyed out? Some options seem to be an instant fail state that skips the scene but others seem to progress the scene. For example, with Rosie in the movie theatre, you can just straight up whip your dick out and she denies you, but if you finger her she's ok with it. Why did one work but not the other? That information needs to be clear so we can pick the choices we want to pick. Other than that what's here is very good so far and I'm glad it's a proper VN and not an annoying sandbox. Keep up the good work.

I don't know anyone who hasn't at one point fantasized about making the object of their affection return their lust and/or affections, if only for a little while. That conceit alone is enough to sell tickets, put asses in seats and keep the lights on.

But at the end of the day/game, it's the execution that matters most. To the Dev's credit, we (via the MC) learn the rules of our newfound powers rather quickly. While I can accept the downsides that come along with said powers, on too may occasions that weakness turns up when we need our powers. Once we learn of our powers limitations, it's overkill to purposely steer us into a narrative corner just to move the proverbial plot train to the next station...

I also have a problem with the illusion of choice. The Dev knows who and what we're going to want use our powers on, and to his or her credit there is a good variety. But it's merely window shopping, as we don't really get to choose.

That said, the MC is a total perve yet gets weirded out about his sister's budding sexual curiosity about him. The Mom is presented as needy and in a bad relationship situation but nothing can be done and no choices are offered. Yes it's the first release, but just like our powers, we need to establish rules and at least get some hints as to the possibilities.

In summation, I feel manipulated. We're literally slaves to the narrative, only able to do what is necessary to move the plot forward as written, and not as we'd have chosen. Case and point, there's a girl who we use our powers on for sexual favors. But dig this, we can only get an hj out of it. Did the rules change and I miss the memo? Did I need to recharge first, recite the green Lantern oath?

Speaking of GL, this would be oh so much better with a little more imagination. The sky should be the limit, we should be getting busy with the mean girls, the head cheerleader that thought we weren't good enough or the hot MILF of a friend. We should certainly NOT be reduced to mind pushing Lesbians --okay, that was fun.

A fun but somewhat frustrating start to this one. Oh, what could have been... yes, I'm looking at you weird roulette wheel response options.