VN - Ren'Py - Naked Ambition [v0.82] [Apollo Seven]

A solid addition to the kingdom management genre. Storyline's good and opens routes for all the H scenes available. In a very oversimplified explanation, you're the vulnerable and inexperienced princess leading a country, and you need to choose who will help you run the kingdom. As we all know, this doesn't come free.

The pixel art style isn't too bad, nothing that'll ruin the game. Scenes are varied with lots of different characters to choose from. Overall pretty good.

Apollo is an excellent developer and this is a great game.

Done in the style of Princessmaker, the game is all about training the Heroine towards stat-checks that determine how she deals with challenges and story-progression. The combination of gameplay, character-building and options that impact the story is what really sells the game.

The art has a unique retro-realistic aesthetic, the content is varied and atmospheric, and the writing is pretty good.

This is maybe not the easiest game to fap to, and the format of the game makes pacing of scenes kind of inconsistent, but the intent and general direction do account for that in most cases.

All in all, an easy recommend.

Great game.

Quite original, very challenging and has a good story.

There are few games like this one that manage to merge a concise story, solid gameplay and decent difficulty. Obviously every game that adds RNG might feel unfair at some times, but it adds a lot into it's replayability.

One of the best female protag games out there for sure! The game has very interesting gameplay and the NSFW content is good and more is coming.

People rate it lower because of the RNG but I think it's a positive in this game. Very well made. 5/5

Naked Ambition is the story of an orphaned princess fighting for the throne, and how her best friend guides her to pursuing that. We play as said friend, and though we do not control the princess's actions directly, we do get to influence her emotional state.

The system is based on dialogue checks, and the story can wildly vary based on our decisions and the RNG. Our goal is to impress the majority of seven judges, who will decide if the princess is worthy of becoming queen.

Flows

• Right away the first thing you will notice is the lovely pixelated artstyle. Characters are static with one animation each, but there has been clearly put much love and care into designing them.
• The biggest boast of Naked Ambition is the many, many ways to influence the princess. She can be a confident ruler, an insatiable slut, a nervous wreck that needs her friend's approval for everything, or a paranoid schizophrenic who expects to be assassinated at a moment's notice. Honestly it's amazing just how much her character can develop.
• Interesting mechanics with the emotional balance. It's a good mix or RNG with choices mattering, although it will result in you losing some of the advisors for whom you specifically spent your precious stats.
• The writing is good.
• Vanilla sex .

Flaws

• Due to the modifier for stat gains, which is based on the advice you give the princess, you usually want to to give her different advice to have more rounded-up stats (it is possible to reach high stats on everything). In other words, while it would be more satisfying to constantly boost the princess's confidence or to constantly make her more reliant on you, the optimal route is to treat her differently every round, and only marginally choose some treatment more than others.
• Getting off the sex scenes is a 50/50, since there is only one animation on repeat with little progress to it (usually cumshots), with no voice acting to help you immerse yourself. The text is reasonably long though, so it might just do the trick for you.
• A few glitches here and there, especially as you near the end-game content.
• Sex scenes lack a bit of spice. Not that vanilla is a bad flavor, of course.

Thumbs up given. Definitely give it a try.

God this game is frustrating. The story is solid, and the animations are alright. But the RNG is really bringing this game down. Even when you do everything right and have the "right" cards during an event, the game can still fail you without explanation.

I may have gotten very angry when I caught up to the released content.

That said.
Damn dude.

The visuals aren't amazing but they are consistent and good for the style they are done in.

The writing is very good. Some of the best I've seen on this site and pretty good compared to books too.


I played it normally first, and died at one point.
Then I tried with cheats and just enjoyed the story.

Not much of a fap game, but very much a good read and good game if you enjoy this style.

As a lot of reviewers already said, the randomness part of the game makes it unenjoyable. What's even worse that the game remembers what random choice it picked so even if you save beforehand you still won't be able to change the decision.
You might have to replay 5 times before the RNG gives you what you want.

Art while not the greatest is still very good. Unlike other h games with hate it or love it art this game has the kind of art that will appeal to just about anyone.

As for the story, it's something I like but again when you can't even make your own choices it's hard to enjoy it.

Engaging gameplay this game does not have.

Oh, it has plenty of other positive qualities. Like catchy chiptunes. These are absolutely great, really hitting that retro vibe. Unfortunately, music is a strong contender for the least important thing in a porn game, isn't it? So what do we look for in a porn game? I'd say art, writing, story, and gameplay. VA, SFX, music, these are just bonuses. It's nice to have them, but a good game can do without. So, what does Naked Ambition offer us?

The pixel art a-la early 90ies stylization is good... when it comes to hitting that nostalgia vibe. 10/10. But as porn, it falls short for me, since it's somewhat plain. Animations are not that great either, they are kinda... too smooth for the visual style chosen? It seems like some animation loops were made by stylizing high fps 3D renders, and to me they look a bit off.

Writing is okay. Good, maybe, but nothing to write home about, pardon the pun. Some errors, but nothing too offensive either. A bit plain, especially when it comes to sex scenes. It should be the bare minimum for a game in an ideal world, but in reality it's above the average you'd get in an adult visual novel these days. Good job, I guess?

Story is probably the strongest aspect of this game, with a novel twist in that you play as the confidante, not the princess herself, nor her lecherous vizier. There's branching, there's bad ends, there's a solid cast of diverse characters, there's a progression of sexual corruption. There's plots, betrayals, cloaks, daggers, and tentacle monsters. It would seem the story of Naked Ambition is a real gem! Oh, but there is one teeny, tiny, little bothersome detail that spoils it all. That is...

Gameplay, the metaphorical glue that is supposed to tie all the components together. And engaging gameplay this game does not have. The best I can formulate my grievances is that the things a player —me— controls the most are the things that aren't really interesting in a porn game. When it comes to corruption, the thing that I came here for, players are mostly relegated to the passive role of observer. All you need to do is select a couple of suggestive dialogue lines in the beginning, and that small action alone sets the princess firmly on the path to vizier's cock. This doesn't feel very engaging, and the random nature of the "card" mechanics makes it annoying to manage other paths (read: other fetishes) since it's difficulty through obfuscation (which is generally a big no-no).

Overall, despite an engaging story, I did not experience a lot of engagement and the porn was hit and miss.

The artwork and the writing are quite good, the animations are... okay. Gameplay is where it falls a bit flat for me. I don't have an issue with the randomness as you can pretty consistently get the princess to do what you push her toward.

The problem is that the game presents a system with the cards where you think there are lots of possibilities for each encounter. In reality, each outcome usually has only two options (pass/fail). The princess will typically 'want' to react a certain way and if you draw the corresponding card then she reacts the way she wants or if you don't then she stumbles through the interaction. This means, that for every given interaction, having cards of a specific type won't change anything. Very early on you get an exhibitionism card which can't be removed and is completely unused until much much later in the game. The same goes for Lust cards.

Much of the game's meaningful choices are baked into which person you have as a tutor, but unfortunately, each tutor is nothing more than a fetish engine. There's the futa tutor, the Dom/sub tutor, the corruption tutor etc, which is fine if you're specifically interested in one of these fetishes, but it feels like unless you care about those fetishes, the game's content becomes too shallow and watered down as a result.

As for the skills system, each night you can gain points into two skills, conversation, strength, fitness, knowledge, etc. These are just skill checks as people know them and work as a pass/fail if you have enough of the corresponding skill. The game tells you to pick and few and specialize, but you can easily pick them in such a way that you pass 90% of all skill checks which makes it kind of boring and easy.

All in all, if you like the artwork and some of the fetishes tickles your pickle, I'd say go for it. If you're looking for a deep management/trainer game on top, you're likely to be disappointed.

Not fap-able.

Too much work for too little reward.

Also, it's not very interactive and has some random factors to it. Slow and unpredictable.

You might enjoy playing it, but not as fap material.

Unique, well made. Another great work by Apollo Seven. Every route is interesting and the gameplay actually exists, unlike many games on here.
The second-person mechanic is interesting and I am glad to see it being fleshed out more.
Will keep following all of A7's work.

This is a Western pseudo equivalent of Princess Maker except with some cards thrown in. You can play this game as "I want to be the queen." I've only done one run where I avoided the erotica section and focused on making my numbers go up. Reading and enjoying the single run was insanely fun and I cannot wait for this game to finish development. Its a romp to struggle and each run I can only imagine progressing the story in ways which are impossible the first run.

Absolutely love the pixel art and gameplay of this game as its a love letter to the 90's RPG style in its own way. You can have fun in so many ways, so have at it.

fantastic story with many branching paths, interesting yet non-intrusive game mechanics and the art is very charming with frequent nsfw scenes to not leave you blueballed.

it ends very abruptly right now though cant wait for an update

With good rhythm and graphics that remind me of my childhood, Apolo has been building one of the best games I have played to date with a female protagonist.
I love that simple but not complicated point system.
I'm still waiting for the next updates.
I wish you luck friend.

Solid RPG meant to be played across multiple runs - one has a fair amount of control over the protagonist despite not actually playing as them, but the challenges are such that usually only a few routes are possible each run. Good mix of gameplay and smut

When I first saw and downloaded this I didn't think I'd enjoy it nearly as much as I ended up. The game is unlike any other I have played on this site, in which it is a semi-rouge like porn game in which you help advise a cornered princess via cards that alter her personality. There's a ton of variation in Naked Ambition and I'm looking forward to future updates.

This is one excellent game.

Mind you, it's not a porn or fap game. If you're looking to get off quickly, you're better of looking for something else.

But if you're looking for a game with porn in it, then look no further. The game mechanics may seem unintuitive at first, but after a while, you will grasp and then you will be able to take princess on a path you desire consistently.

Don't be afraid of trial and error. As author says, as long as the princess is still alive, you've got a shot.

The retro graphics work very well in my opinion. I guess I may be biased because I've actually started playing video games at a time when such graphics were commonplace, but I think I can state with a fair amount of certainty that it will grow on you after a while. It is a breath of fresh air compared to almost all other games here.

Perfect art, perfect plot, perfect strategy sim, nice 8 bit crack program music, compelling characters, dark nipples, corrupting a sweet princess and pixelsex! just the perfect combination. 11/10 would fap again.

Needs more NTR and less tentacles tho

Overall pretty good.

Very nice, gradual corruption. Surprisingly nice art.

It actually manages to be a bit of a game, not just a wank fest.

However.

Couple things.

1. The animations I've seen are pretty bad. Still images would actually be preferable in those scenes.

2. The RNG means casting a wide net is the ONLY way to do "well". Your goal is to convince certain members of the council that the princess would make a better ruler than her brother. You do this with a combination of randomly drawn cards and learnable stats. Each member favors a couple of each, but each can also occasionally require different stats or cards. (WHY?)

The real problem is who you talk to in a given week is random. So, you may try to focus your cards to sway a particular person, but A. You may not get that person more than once or twice, and B. Even if you do, if you get an unlucky draw, you'll still lose favor with them.

For example, one playthrough, I tried focusing on the "Trusting" card. There was a specific member who relied on it a lot. However, I only got his events twice, and bot times, the trusting cards didn't come up.

In order to have a chance at the theoretical end of the game, you have to have a wide variety of cards available to handle different situations. So you can't really focus on one thing or another.

3. You don't really get a lot of meaningful choices. Your responses are generally decided by the cards you draw, but that doesn't work the way you'd expect.

At least not how I expected.

When a situation happens where the cards are drawn, there are two possible outcomes. Pass and fail. Pass happens if you draw a card of the required type (or multiple later on), and you fail if you don't.

That's it.

I expected you to be able to respond to different situations in different ways. For example, handle a dispute through Aggression, Thoughtfulness, or Lust. But that's not what happens. If an event occurs, it can only be resolved if you draw (for example) an Aggression card. If you don't, you just fail the event.

4. Stats only really matter early game. By late game, as long as you're balancing your stats, you'll pass most skill checks. My last game I didn't have a single stat under 80, and the highest skill check I saw was (i think) 70.

And again, stats don't actually branch the narrative, they just penalize you by making the council not like you as much if you fail the check.

And again, again, just like the Cards, the only way to do well is to balance everything. Meaning you have level up in every area. Just like the cards....


There's a good deal that I like about the game, but its not as nuanced as it first appears.

Edit: I played the game again a couple times (doesn't take long, you can skip most of the dialogue on subsequent playthroughs).

The RNG is a BIG problem. In my last game I build my character almost perfectly balanced, and I still failed almost every card check in the latter part of the game because of repeated bad luck.