VN - Ren'Py - Move the Chains [v0.2 Bugfix] [MissFortune]

TLDR, writing is solid, characters are well-built: they behave as you would expect given the circumstances. There's a lot of drama and the story is quite serious. Renders are a masterpiece, the 3D art of MTC is very solid. A lot of care, attention to detail and love has been put into this game.

I'm not a fan of Football. TBH I've never watched a single game from start to end.And here I am, writing a 5-star review. So even if you're no football fan either, just give it a try.

I will not be surprised if this game will reach the big leagues in no time.


WHAT I LIKED:

The story is deep, and as other people has said, feels real. Characters speak to eachother as if they were real people. The dialogs have lots of background that you will uncover as the story progress. It's not like one of those netflix mass-consuming productions that everything is chewed up... you may need to use a few braincells to follow up certain parts, and be patient until things unravel. This is something I appreciated a lot.

The girls are, most of the times, gorgeous, and their bodies are believable. Other games tend to have clones, or body that seem to appeal more the player than the real narrative of the game.

The 3D is top-notch. I have not seen many games with such quality. You can appreciate the hard work behind it. All scenes use very interesting camera-shots and DoF. The animations are also well-made. Hot and enjoyable.

THINGS I'M NOT FAN:

Some pictures look dark. I think it's because the scenes don't have any fake ilumination (If there's a dim light in the scene, that's what you get. I didn't notice extra lights to stand out the charcters). This is most likely due to the style of the developer.

I'm a comedy person. This game is as real as life itself, and that creates a lot of dramatic situations. I'm not that much into drama.

Disclaimer: I had the pleasure of exchanging a few messages with the developer, MissFortune, and he's one of the good ones. Very responsive and approachable.

I don't like this game, the story is boring, the same as the personalities of the game characters, nothing there except's renders did not impress me, and, ...
The renders are great quality, but they were too dark and you can barely see anything. How can one enjoy that, when you can barely see what is actually happening?

TL;DR: Tremendous production value dragged down by poor dialogue and lack of meaningful choices.

There are some great moments. Perhaps the peak of this game is that little scene with Lael. His regrets and doubts about everything he did for the community, wishing he could've done more, wondering what will happen if he stops. That all felt pretty fucking real to me. Then, as true as a man who spent his life doing good and helping others, he shows his wisdom through really good advice for the MC.

I appreciated that one preaching, but oh god, there's a lot of that in this game and not all of it is good advice. The one with Lael was done well because it tied into his own lifestyle and his work for the community, but the rest? Not so much. Unsolicited advice almost always comes off as pretentious and condescending, it's even worse when the advice is pure cookie cutter bullshit. I'm talking about the after-sex talk with the teacher, god that was awful. I was there reading wondering what's next, they beat the bad villain with the power of friendship?

I swear, every new character does some preaching. Lael, the teacher, the mom, his friends, that girl Kara. Somehow this is alright, but the MC has to eat shit the one time he does it. It's like regular societal rules only apply to the MC in this game. Aside from that, the repulsion this dev has against "cancel culture" is pretty obvious and I don't disagree with everything, but this is not how you push your ideals through writing. I know many not like it when an author tells you how to live, but that's what a story is, an author telling you how you should live your life. Whether you agree or not is irrelevant. The thing is, it's usually done seamlessly, with subtle hints, subtext and leaving you to put the pieces together.

For example, the movie Scream is about sensationalism and how the media can ruin lives, but it doesn't keep telling you all about it in every single line of dialogue, it's the journey that tells you what the author believes. This game is like that infamous line almost at the end of Interstellar that tells you exactly what the movie is about, except that line is spoken repeatedly throughout the game.

Now, more importantly, this is an AVN and AVNs are known for writing your own journey by making choices, but this one will go the way the author wants it to go. It's pretty clear you won't be able to reject some girls, such as Yuna. Choices are always a plus, but they seem irrelevant.

EDIT: I was informed that you will be able to reject the girls. Not enough to increase my score, but maybe in the future.

For being 0.1 it has quite a bit of content. I give it a 5 because I think is worth to try out. And because you cant rate 4.5, so 5 it is.
Interesting "origin story", nice and non-absurd models, and the scenes are very well set up( the poses and all that). So in short, it is of the higher quality sort.

Played through 0.1 and while it was interesting, I'm not sure this game is going to be good. The best I can describe it is an edgier, darker version of Friday Night Lights, tonally like a prime time soap opera, edgy and adult like Melrose Place and Mad Men, but full of teen drama like One Tree Hill or Dawson's Creek. How you feel about the game will depend on your affinity for such melodrama.

You've got the Sean McVay / Eric Taylor, young wunderkind "everything for the team, football moulds young men" coach and your sleazy used-car-salesman-style Buddy Garrity booster. The MC is some combination of murderer-Landry, criminal Santiago, all-talented Vince. We saw our entitled blonde woman yelling in the Dean's Office (?), hard-luck Asian girl whose father is dying, stuck-up dancer who prejudges the MC, and her rich douche boyfriend, crassly gay foul-mouthed entrepreneur, clutzy Japanese fashion designer, inscrutable lawyer lady, neighbour single mother teacher widow with a young son who loves football, the gym owner with a heart of gold who tells the MC to get out of the ghetto and never look back, the (gay?) aggro teammate who is mad about the MC's freelancing on the field...

It's altogether a fairly interesting, diverse set of characters. The problem is that they're all turned up to 11. I played through the game without getting offended, but even still, I was considering the snowflake patch just to make the characters less abrasive. Many of the characters you'll see on screen for less than 5 minutes and by the end of those 5 minutes, you'll be asking, who talks like that to people they just met? A former teacher, in her 11th line of dialogue, is talking about "extremist agenda"s and "LGBT propaganda." (And then you bang, of course.) Gay entrepreneur, in his 9th line of dialogue, is offering to "blow you to heaven" and then talking about how he likes them "small, submissive, and breedable." Asian fashion designer, in her 9th line of dialogue, is talking about "soft westies" and the "Rona-Rona." (She also falls down, twice, upon entry and demands to know the size of your junk, using racial stereotypes as measurements.) Half the characters in the game seem to have come straight from The Wolf of Wall Street set.

It's not just the dialogue and lack of filter that is turned up to 11 either. A trans character who outs herself to the MC within 2 minutes of appearing on screen (and then you bang, of course). A father figure dying of cancer. Our MC has tattoos from a legend in the tattooing community. Even the in-game option to creampie a character in a sex scene has the text, "Stuff The Thanksgiving Turkey." This game comes at you hard and fast and never relents.

Along with the edginess, there are also a bunch of obvious heart-of-gold characters. We've got the stepmom who drives a beater because she sacrificed everything for the MC, a stepsis who never gave up on MC (and is probably secretly in love with him), the neighbor widow, the sweetly self-doubting tattoo artist, the outwardly brassy LI with a soft sensitive inside, and her dying father who makes MC promise to take her away to somewhere better. Between the edgy characters and the sappy characters, there is little middle ground, and the game can feel like it's jerking you back and forth between those two polar extremes between scenes, though for now much of the sappiness seems just set up for later.

More than any other game on this site, this game and its characters are exhausting. Even games with organized crime, genocidal aliens, twisted time travel loops, runaway AIs, family incest secrets, and government conspiracies won't feel as dramatic as this game is from minute-to-minute. Is the game going to keep up this non-stop high drama for 10+ chapters or will it settle into something more mellow and breathable? Will the characters get fleshed out and better grounded? Will everybody continue to have all their conversations at sunset and will they be able to afford to properly light their homes and offices? We shall see.


Addendum: To touch on some other reviewers' comments, it's not actually that clear to me what the developers' political position is. It seems more that they are just pushing every button they can find to provoke a response. In one sense, the writing is "mature," in that it touches on mature topics... in another, it is very immature, in that it attempts to briefly touch every mature topic it can without actually saying anything substantive. Like a parody missing wit or satire, for now, one can only ask what the point of all that was? E.g. a couple of throwaway lines about the coronavirus and masking and "soft westies" from an Asian-American (?) tertiary (?) character, who also happens to be the only character in the game to be seen wearing a mask: What was the point of all of that? Was the developer even trying to make a point? Is the point to come? Was the point just to make people uncomfortable? Would anything of value have been lost had those lines just been cut?

Review for version 0.1

First of all, thank you dev for so much gameplay on the first release!

Ok, necessary premise: here we have a top tier project, there is no doubt about that.

Yet I don't feel like giving it 5 full stars.

I thought a lot about why I kept feeling like something was missing during my game.

I think what's missing is a little bit of personality. Something that would really define this game as unique.

It is clear that the author is a fan of AVNs and has played quite a few and in fact he takes so many positive aspects and influences of other works and masterfully transposes them into his story.

I think what is missing is just a pinch of originality in writing, a little more "pathos" (not necessary but probably appreciated would also be a significant branching).

Having said that, I reiterate that we are dealing with a very well done project and which, I am sure, will leave something in all of us players.

Review for v0.1

This is one of those games that you can just tell from the very first few moments of playing that it's going to be solid. A lot of effort has very clearly gone into making Move the Chains, and it really seems to have paid off. This was a great first version, one of the best I've played in recent memory. This is a game with potential.

The games writing, in a sense, feels reel. It's not afraid to touch on and delve into some more... lets say touchy topics. It's pretty heavy on the sad backstories, gritty moments, and general drama. But its also got those more light hearted and fun moments mixed in that keeps it from feeling too exhausting. I'm invested. Characters feel natural as well, and it's especially impressive considering the game already has a pretty big cast that I'm sure will only grow.

And speaking of characters, god damn. The dev has nailed the character models. Personal preferences aside, some of the most unique I've seen in Daz. It really is refreshing. And if it wasn't immediately obvious, the games renders are stellar. Sex scenes have been fine so far if a bit short, nothing to complain about animation wise. I can be very put off by scenes that happen quickly with characters we barely know, but the ones present so far feel more natural in how they happen.

Protagonists are often one of the biggest sore spots for me. Glad to say I'm enjoying this one. Has the occasional corny joke or cringe moment, but overall I'm liking him. Sure beats playing as the college pervert with half a brain.

I do have criticisms. First one I'm going to borrow from another review because they put it perfectly: "What takes me out of it is that periodically, the characters visibly become mouthpieces for a couple of axes that the author has to grind." and I completely agree. There's a couple random lines that just feel directly like the author speaking to make some weird joke or something. Regardless of intention, they were just strange to read more than anything.

Second, I wish we were given more choices in how to respond to people. There's a couple moments where you're given options to essentially either be a dick or a nice guy, and I wish we had more of them. There were a few moments where I was like man this guy (MC) is kind of a dick, wish I has an option to change that like the other times. Not a huge deal though.

TLDR - Extremely good first release. If the quality keeps up, I have very little doubt this game will take off and be considered among the top tier. You do not get AVNs with this level of effort and care often. If it caught your interest, don't sleep on it.

This is a well-written VN with a solid sense of style, good character work, and a talent for cinematically arranged scenes and images. It can even be touching; the conversation in the hospital's particularly well done, if melodramatic.

What takes me out of it is that periodically, the characters visibly become mouthpieces for a couple of axes that the author has to grind.

Your character's old high school teacher abruptly rants about other teachers spreading "LGBT propaganda," and now that I'm thinking about it, the first episode's about escaping to Texas from (a shitty part of) California.

Most importantly, a big part of the first episode is about how your character's been "canceled," and how that's causing issues for him and his loved ones.

The point's clearly to put the MC in a position where he's on the back foot and his reputation's been dragged through the mud, so he's got something to prove, but then you spend the entirety of episode one talking to all of one person to whom it matters.

Further, when people do talk about it, they don't talk like normal people. Somebody even hits the r/onejoke attack helicopter line. It comes off as an excuse for the author to rant through their characters about their perceived political opponents.

I don't generally care about politics in my porn unless they're truly repellent (The Hard Way), but Move the Chains works them in with the subtlety of a brick through a window.

It ends up as about 65% story of this guy trying to overcome a bad childhood and worse temper to protect his loved ones and move on, 25% porn, and 10% center-right polemic. The 90% is good, even great, but it's a real shame about the 10%.

So this is a thing review 0.1.
Played it through and for a first release there is sooo much going on, it has at least 1 hour content allready if reading through it.
What this game does deliver is awesome renders, a good amount of characters that have their own personality, and the girls are pretty all the way.
I think the dev really made a daring move with making Ivy a first love option as being a trans girl fully packed so to speak but hey I'm all for that
The animations...well despite an earlier review...I thought it was pretty decent, not your 2 frame back and forth, but was smooth all the way.
And the writing is also decent, there is actually a story behind it all, and sure we can debate about how good or bad it is, IMO it is pretty good.
And I'm not that great with focusing on story telling in a porn game, but I did not use the "text skip" option once.....trust me that is saying something.
I hope this will get more updates, the start has more content than some games which are sort of half way.
I'm really surprised in a good way with this game, and I would suggest to at least give it a shot.

Great first episode with lots of content. We get a good feel for MC and background through showing rather than spewing expository stuff.

Renders are great, I think even a step up from We Were Just Kids.

The writing is first class in my opinion, mature and feels like MF knows the subject matter. Both things usually lacking in the majority of VNs here. I even appreciate some of the life/philosophizing content, feels appropriate without being overly navel gazing.

My only concern is too many females but hopefully MF can pull it off. It’s hard to fault having so many beautiful females with unique personalities, but makes me a little nervous seeing so many and then keeping up with them fully, especially with so many apparently falling for the MC easily.

v0.1

4 stars

Not lying to myself nor to others on this site. I'm here for porn firstly. Sure, a lot of devs MAY think they're Shakespeare or some of the players think so, but the truth is that the quality narrative is present in couple-several (stretch, no ?) dozens games out of thousands that you can find here.

I'm sorry, my thought went sideways. My only whim with this game is sex animations. It's just too much in this game that screams how hard dev worked, but for one or another reason corners had been cut with animations. Perfect examples in my humble opinion - visible face and penetration at the same time plus several angles on each pose. It's surely sht ton of work. Suggestion above without additional angle on each pose will work great as well. Without girl's facial expression whole scene losing all of its charm and sexuality.
Also, scene with teacher was a slack. Very short and that awful and extremely loud sound of MC's hips hitting the table.

I liked everything else, except couple of rap or hip hop compositions. Not all of them were bad, but several are just urgh...

So the writing. Very mature and addictive. Some hard topics present. I have the only one question. MC's sentence. Was it for alleged rape or killing in self defense ? Because in flashback and later he clearly confirms he killed the guy in cold blood. In conversation with a guy he knows not even 5 minutes. Very confusing part because there's not enough clarity from dev atm. I mean 1 year sentence is kind of light thing. Idk about law in US but a murder is a murder.

Very good amount of content. I'm average speed reader at best, don't skip. Took 3+ hours or more.

I liked Diana's character the most. Very strong, loving and caring person. Can be funny and takes no shit from no one.
Alaina was warm and pleasant.
Didn't like Yuna much at start, but at the end of the episode she interested me more.
Very curious as to where Kara will lead us

Best part - it's harem game. You could've say so. Double-edged sword. This whole episode is an introduction. Every character gets 10-15 min of screentime. And usually only a few show up in between new acquaintances. A small downside maybe. Idk how it will unfold in future, but I surely looking forward to girls interactions with each other.
Speaking of which, someone was very jealous at the end of the Episode...

Overall, I highly encourage you to try this game. The only thing I fear if it will be finished. Dev worked on two games previously. One Abandoned, one On Hold. Doesn't inspire confidence.

In any case good luck to dev. I hope to see this candy on Steam when and if it's finished.

Peace out.

I've been reading VN's from this site for nearly three years. I've read all the good ones and half the bad ones but, there's never been one like this. This story is top of the pile on first release and that is rare. The writing is stellar. The author knows the subject and sets the scene so well you feel like you are there. The characters feel real; no bimbofied bitches, MC is a stud without being a Chad. Overall it's immersive as hell.

Move The Chains is an absolute must read. I could go on and on about great renders, animations and posing. Just trust me when I say:
It. Is. All. There.

This is better than it has any right to be as it is only part 1 so far. The story is good. The renders are good. Character motivations are pretty understandable. Even got some trans content in there, which was hot as hell (not even my thing). Yeah you get a bunch of women throwing themselves at the MC but its not so much out of nowhere so based on history with a bunch and the others clearly his status level at the new school. All of the women are different which is a blessing and now I'm just wondering when I'm gonna get a crack at that sister.

Hopefully the updates are consistent and don't take a year. It's a great start though.