Ren'Py - My Early Life [Ep.23.05] [CeLaVie Group]

I really like the slow pace, hard to earn rewards. The grind is not a boring grind, there is usually some small reward between each repetition and it makes sense in the story. I like the female models and the overall gameplay.

I am currently at aboutchapter 8 or 9 I cant remember and about 9 hours into the game. And I have basically only a single gripe that I dont really understand why it is in the game.

Why are there 3 female characters, where one is a mom character. She has the personality, and the role, and the actions,and the lifestyle, of a mom character but for some unknown reason its not a mom milf model. Thisgame would be so much better with an older woman in that third girl role (Anybody who plays this knows which character is the mom character.) I even renamed it to mom, just because it makes more sense than the current characters name. Then it breaks when the game keeps calling her sis. But still.

This would've been a near perfect game, even getting around the concerns about implicit incest with having that sister a milf.

There's grind and there's whatever this is supposed to be. I actually usually like a slow burn, but the amount of "hunt the small difference in this event that happens after 10th repeat" is insane.

On top of that, progress is 2 step back then slooowly 3 step forward during the chapter. Repeat for each chapter.

Add to this events that doesn't seem to work, hard locking you (and good luck figuring out if you're hard locked or just need to see same event you've seen 10 times 5 more times to progress)

Playing this feels like the Dev hate you

I'm only giving it two stars because it has good renders. Unfortunately to get to those renders you will have to slog through some of the worst "gameplay" to have ever been created.

No amount of ranting about how you have to have patience will excuse this "gameplay." How is it bad you say? You will have to repeat the same sequence over and over again with only some slight change. Some changes so slight that you will struggle to know what was different. What makes this even worse is that you cannot use CTRL to speed through the parts you have already seen. Yes, you read that correctly, you have to click through the repeat sequence every... single... time. That is the game play loop. Don't worry though, once you've completed a sequence the appropriate number of times you'll be given... yet another sequence to complete. GAMEPLAY!

This "game" needs to be completely reworked before given that title, otherwise it's just busywork for the sake of extending play time. Utter garbage.

Consistant dev, both on updates and updates(once a month).
Interesting to play almost each episode. No story, but who cares(was in S2 actually), when game has nice detailed events.

S1: 4 girls, noice, S2: the previous ones + 4 new

For 3 season:
Short version:
By 23ep - Leveling fixed less dressesDead ends feel very nice now

"Long":
I actually liked 19-20 dead ends, but would felt MUCH better if it didnt need a confirmation from a 21:00 web call. Coz you have to molest and harass Thea(and after a call she will agree to your move) So it was both unnatural/was breaking the immersion(esp. in 21) and mega hard to figure out, even with the guide system. It would be nice if you would need to find her these bad reactions, and go try different ones where she will allow you(i re-roll back the bad ones usually) Like it actually was in 23(especially in the shower, in the end of 22 at pool)

And above that was unexplained dress "bar", (+ where you have to peep that she changed the dress) which also felt nice in 23(but with much less dresses after 20(alas)(after 20 you're in charge of changing her dinner dress only)

I would bring back dress choosing for 3 events(for future girls) (but without requirement to peep and consult via web calls + for previous used dresses, something like turning into grey, for less confusing)

First of all, this game is interesting because it's quite long and the female characters are pretty. The MC is a benevolent manipulator, shall we say, and the humor is present!
Many complain about the excessive grindiness of the game; this isn't entirely fair because we're warned about this from the start.
However, the problem stems from a few errors and bugs, and to play relatively smoothly, it's advisable to use cheat mode, which has a debugging option when you notice that the game is no longer progressing through the event series. BUT YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT
because that's the point of the game.
The story is fun and evolves well; the "grind problem" improves significantly after the second season.
On the other hand, episode 19 leaves me extremely frustrated because after so much time, we find ourselves with a different MC (Uncle Bob) and different protagonists. It's disturbing, and I dare to hope that this is just an interlude in the original story because after all this time, we want to see the MC and his sisters and their conquests again.
We can also dream of a possible pregnancy; that would be excellent news, as well as a refocusing on the sisters.

I'm giving it a 3/5 because Episode 19 is an unpleasant surprise, and the usability of Chapter 19 is less good than previous versions, in my opinion. Otherwise, the rating would have been a 4, since I very rarely give a 5 before a game is finished or fully developed.
On the other hand, the girls are superb, and the sisters are each magnificent in their own way.

This game is terrible. It is a grind hell and even, if you put hours into one game you can get bankrupt and than this game is over and you start over. This was the biggest wast of time I have ever played. I have played a lots of grindy games and I usually like them, but this game is terrible.
Also you cannot manipulate save games for money. They get flagged as corrupt and you also have to start over.
The grind and the loseing hours of gameplay for nothing makes this game unplayable. I only came to episode 8.
I don't know what the dev smoked, but this game is not fun. The dev should pay me for the wasted time.

It was a decent game up until episode 18, then all of a sudden, Episode 19+ now playing as Bob's grandpa as MC, and sexual stuff with a girl because the young MC wants his grandpa to be happy?

The game is very grindy in early updates, with repeating the same thing over and over to progress to new scenes.

Halfway through the game gets better because not as grindy
I was enjoying the story between Episodes 12-18, and now I'm just going to stop playing

Why did the dev change MC all sudden to horny, man child old man?
wasted all this time playing it just for a change in MC

This game is beyond just being a ridiculous grind, hell, it takes 45 seconds just to get to the starting screen of the game because of ridiculous unskippable load messages that occur EVERY time you load into the game.

Wonderful game. With very good graphics, engaging and not boring.observations. There should be fewer repetitive scenes.For example, just dresses are boring. You should make it so that, for example, the girl gets angry, or goes out to a bonfire in the evening.There are also 4 episodes missing sex scenes and no scenes even with LIN.There is a lot you can do when creating a game script like this.and it doesn't necessarily have to end with sex scenes.This game has great potential.

The exagerated grind made me stop playing after 30 minutes. I checked on the potential rewards looking at the images folder and I decided without any hesitation to delete the game folder. Model are good but the game... Good Luck.

was roller coaster ride of grind , to much grind in my opinion for very little reward , get to chapter 18 thinking 19 will be better only to find new game with more grind and playing creepy old bastard, don't have the energy to continue!

PROS
+ Character models looks good.

CONS
- The game is grindy AF, and even tho nothing can justfy this much grind it would be better if at least the grind is rewarding enough, which is not.
- Sex scenes are not animated.
- Hints are all over the place, and not clean at all.
- Most scenes are pointless.
- Story, and characters are poorly-written.

VERDICT
Not worth wasting time on it.

this game is a huge grind fest. It seem there are a lot of hidden triggers that are extremely frustrating to figure out. I do not recommend this game for the feint of heart. I couldnt make it past a single episode without skipping t least 2 events.

Excellent models and renders and the dev has improved things chapter by chapter.

It's a sandbox and yes it has grind but I don't think it's quite as bad as people make out. Those who have played other CLV games will know what to expect.

The feature that I think make most people complain about the grind is the way the girls demand all your money for anything - but this is only the first chapters, the dev soon listened to feedback on that issue

Writing is good quality, no real engrish and an effort is made to have an overarching plot with individual details per girl - that's already plenty of content

Played the game a bit but i had to skip a few chapters. There's so many problem with the game:
Awfull grind,
hints are all over the place to get to the next step,
And to top it all, there's no scene replay available...

This is why 90% of the time sandbox game are just not worth the time. And this game is not the exeption.

First time reviewing in this site, just to say that this is the most unsatisfying grindy game ever.

After all that grinding and you dont get a single quality animation, the mods are making this a lil bearable but it's still so grindy.

The appearance of the model are good. I like it, but its not worth a grind, I quit at episode 9

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.

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.