Ren'Py - My Early Life [Ep.18.01] [CeLaVie Group]

The story isn't that special.
I think the animations are very good.
I think the different personalities are well done.
The change in mood is also very interesting.
I don't like the system for making money and the repair costs, especially at the beginning.
I think the individual focus on women is good, but a bit too fast.
Except for the sisters, the supporting characters come much too quickly.
There is no system where you have to constantly take care of someone and I don't think jealousy is a good thing either.
Jealousy would still be exciting in content.
Overlapping events at the same time sometimes make it difficult and the plot has a clear line but is not always obvious.
If there was still the possibility to play a woman and make it purely lesbian it would be almost perfect.
But there is also no option to continue playing when all chapters have been completed so that you can just have a little fun without having to concentrate on the tasks.

Renders are good. Girls were great, but I have the impression that each new girl is uglier than the previous one. Especially when you compare to previous games of these devs.

Animations are simple, basic, and by current standards not sufficient to be called satisfactory.

Gameplay is grindy af, but thanks to the built-in walkthrough, it is acceptable.

The strongest point (or maybe the only one) of the games this group were beautiful girls. However, instead of getting better with each game, each update, it's getting worse...

This game is okay.

The story is nothing special for an adultgame. It serves it's purpose, and that is okay!
The visuals are great. I like the quality and artstyle.

The only issue i have is the sandbox.
I do like sandbox games. But this games doesnt offer a good sandbox experience.

Sandbox games should show me the struggle to earn ressources and train traits/stats to hit milestone. With milestones I can continue the progress with love interests.

This sandbox game doesnt offer that much. you just pass time, select the locations, and progress can be achieved. sometimes you need a bathsuit, or a dress. for that money is needed, and money is earned very easy.

In general, the sandbox is more of an annoyance, and could be dropped for a linear novel experience. Or, that would be great, the creator invest more mechanics into sandbox.

Well there a lot of problem and it barely not ntr. Some of them his love interest work naked because the mc use it to make money but why. You know i prefer the mc sell the picture of his love interest naked(that is in episode 1 to 3 I think) than making his love interest naked during work(4 and so on). I thought the mc become chad now i think he is a pimp. And sometime i do not even know how you progress the story.

I really love the models in this game. I also like that he is consistent with updates and seems to report what going on often to his paid supporters. I like how in this game there is a hint system in place making it MUCH smoother to progress than his previous games which here unplayable without a mod.

Where I think the game could improve:
1.Would be nice to increase the animation quality.
2. Maybe add sounds to the good scenes.
3.music
4. Gallery in the menu screen.
5. Opening the game still takes to long. I am not expert but I dont think it be to hard to combine the opening screens to cut the time in half to get to the main menu.

First I want to clarify that I enjoy playing grindy games if they have something that pays off, I know what I can expect when an entittled dev puts a warning message, but I also expect that with that entittlement also comes some show of talent, or something to show for.

This game is not grindy cause most of the scenes are pointless, dont achieve nothing, dont give you points, dont progress character development, dont give any visual candy, so you dont achieve a single thing, most of the scenes are filler, the characters will not remember that they kissed passionatele in the kitchen once, cause in the next scene one of them is gonna scream at you for putting your hand in her shoulder, which happens cause the expert in grindy games still can't make a game withhout an absolute broken logic, or maybe he doesnt want to.
There are even recycled events from one chapter to the next that dont progress any further. I dont know if I whould call this ill intentioned or lazy as fuck, but that is not the definition of grindy.

The girls are all 40 year old nuns, they are absolutely passive/curious trope until the dev decides they are not anymore. They react to the same types of stimulation in the same ways (cause the limit is established by the episode) they prety much react to invasions of privacy the same way, and there is even a pool of words and expressions they use, and I could write down, but I dont think the developer cares about criticism.

The most funny is the use of "We are siblings" or "We are not siblings" as attack or defense, that is the only human trait the characters have.

Visually the game is predictable, cause lets be honest, all the girls look pretty much the same, the same type of body, the same size and type and color of nipples, the same small butt, the same flat belly, the same pussy, so there are not much you can enjoy after seeing the same thing 200 times.
And this happens cause "Photography" for the first 8 or 10 hours of the game is a core element, and the most visual candy you will get will be pinups, and of course later in their rooms they wont remember that they were posing topless and will shout at you cause they were showing a nipple slightly.

If you add something in every episode that puts this slugfest to a halt for 1/3rd of the episode, you get something that even I cant take. Anyway TLDR:


The BAD
Playing this game is diminishing returns for 20 hours
Repetitive and pointless filler events.
Predictable in every step of the way scene design.
Characters are flat and look the same.
Main characters are walking memes.
Short low effort scenes with very predictable outcomes.
The conective tissue is very thin and weak.


The GOOD
Visually pleasing.
I like the stats screen
Pinups are decent (But dont expect sports illustrated or playboy)

Grindy games are fine, but having to repeat the same action over and over again and taking away the skip option? Absolutely braindead design decisions. Until that is fixed, this game doesn't deserve more than 1 star.

Models are ok, story is serviceable, the gameplay systems could work if everything else wasn't so grindy, the hint guide is unwieldy and scenes often take too long to progress or alternatively you can quickly reach progress in some scenes, but in others the exact same thing needs another 5 attempts.

- nightmarishly slow story development
- each new episode means that most scenes have to be repeated from scratch before something new can appear. It's as if everything is happening in a time loop and our ‘sisters’ have forgotten what they agreed to in the previous episode.

As of Part Two, Episode 15:

Okay, so let me start off this review by saying: If you are not into a grind, this game is NOT for you. One of the things I respect about this dev is they are very honest about this up front. So if you play it and get mad, you were warned in advance. That being said:

Artwork/Animations - 5/5

The girls are absolutely lovely and the scenes and animations are too-notch. I have no complaints here. The dev put a lot of work into it, and you can tell.

Storyline/Dialogue - 5/5

I thought of putting this at 4/5, because (and I could be wrong), I don't think the dev's first language is English. How some of the dialogue and words come out make me think this. However, the reason I am giving this 5 stars is because most devs whose language is not English don't put work into making their dialogue make sense; this dev does. So A for effort here. And the story is actually good.

Gameplay/UI - 5/5

Okay, so I struggled with this one. Like I mentioned, the game is grindy, and it is very difficult to navigate if you don't pay attention to the dialogue. And the in-game hint system is far from perfect; it is missing tips to activate some scenes, and I don't think it's by design. Good news is, as you play, you kind of get a feel for the game, and can start working without it IF you're patient (took me until episode 6 xD). So why am I giving this 5 stars? Because I like the fact that this is such a slow corrupt game. You really have to earn what you get. And once you get there, it's worth it. If you make it to the later episodes, you'll see why. I didn't think I'd find this game addicting, but I did.

To recap: Again, if slow corrupt games with some grind isn't your ticket, this game isn't for you. If you're into a game that rewards the patient, this is for you. Do I think some areas like the hint system need improvement? Yes. But overall, this is a great game that more than makes up for its shortcomings.

Final score: 5/5

Radical Dreamer

I don’t think I’ve ever written a bad review on these boards, but I can’t help myself with this 'CeLaVie' game. It’s an unrewarding grind, where grinding has replaced actual gameplay. The hint system is abysmal, and some past chapters are just broken, preventing progression. After over 10 chapters, you finally have the chance to develop a relationship with a character, but even then, it’s not possible. The gameplay lasts about 6-7 hours, which might seem like a good thing, but you’ll be doing the same tasks repeatedly because of the game's obtuse triggers—specific hours, specific days, and specific locations. Worse, the trigger might even be something like "do the same thing five times and notice that two lines of text changed". Again, the hint system is absolute trash. I do not recommend this game

Gave the eldest (not)sibling 32k for her personal use and she got furious that I asked her to call me her brother in return. The girls are c**ts even though you let them live in the house your father left you and they call you a pervert from the start with seemingly no reason.

That aside, this game makes a mockery of your time invested and the developer punishes you for doing anything but grinding what little actual content there is, to make it seem like there is more content (same scene different colour outfit (not even a different outfit most of the time just changed pattern)).

I have no idea why it is not at most a 2 star game. If it had a gallery I might give it two stars but unless you are a glutton for punishment, stay well clear of this.

*edit* scrolled through the images folder and whilst tedious there is some raunch for the more voyeuristic among us. Still won't raise the rating though as dev vs player base is not something I will encourage.

Author is aware of the bugs. Author doesn't want to spend the few minutes it would take to fix it.

One example is that the guide shows that there's a trigger in Bob's room at 8:00, but the trigger is at 9:30. It would take the author 5 seconds to open the file and change it to 9:30. He didn't and won't. Same with other bugs.

Following the ingame guide is annoying because of things like this.

Reviewed at chapter 12

The good: The game has pretty good renders and animations from what I expected. Yes it is very grindy, but I think that makes it also rewarding. I also thought the setting was more believable and relatable then on other games from the same author.

The bad: Very buggy and the guide is not very good. The author has commented that the version of the game here is pirated and altered, so I don't know if it's because of that. I REALLY recommend using the Universal Renpy Mod to save yourself from some of the grind and to diagnose some bugs.

BTW if you are in a rush, the hottest content beggins on chapter 7. Personally, I'm glad I waited to start the game now that it has been further developed.

Ep. 12 release but review of Ep. 1-11 download. Played through Episodes 1-5.

Good renders, okay story, terrible gameplay. Rating it an IGN 3 but, overall, would not recommend.

What really is disappointing in this game , besides all the grind, its the rewards system. Even if you are in the last episode its still not worth it, a waste of time with not even one scene animated, the story it's not even good. The only one good thing about this game it's the corruption gameplay but not the best tho. But seriously, some much time to reach something and the develep only put frames, with no animation? Geez. If you only enjoy pictures goahead but it's a complete waste of time

The female models look good but that is the only thing this VN has going for it.

There needs to be a good balance between grind and reward, this is completely out of balance. There is almost zero reward. Things have barely progressed at all. It takes slow burn to an unpleasant extreme. It simply isn't entertaining to play.

Also I'm confused why it has an incest tag as there isn't any at all. A clear case of bait and switch which to me is unforgivable.

Not worth the time or energy.

Good game nice picture and a good story. There are not many games like this one, because this game make you want to have more and maybe be in the place of the main charachter. So if you like this kind of games you have to play is good story good pics and good sex

Overall story and not bad, the images as usual, nothing to say. Some bugs on the right and left but overall it's okay. The big flaw of the game is that you have to constantly repeat the scenes to move forward. you have to tell between 30 minutes to 1 hour to unlock 1 episode, these are just too much.

Nice models, but it's an absolute grindfest and ultra slow pacing.

If you hesitate to play the game i will give an exemple : you can only kiss the girl on the front page at episode 5.

And you have to burn 5 hours of your time to pass just one episode and with the cheat mode applied. I can't imagine to play without , you ll have to spend twice your time on stupid game mechanics.

A game with great models and a fairly good story.
There are some flaws with the hint system as you can expect from a beta game but it doesn't usually interfere with the playing.
The story gradually builds up (with trust and money) and includes more people after a while. The moneymaking system is good as you can focus on building a bank or progress story.