VN - Ren'Py - Naked Ambition [v0.84] [Apollo Seven]

Well, in short words, this is not a game for f95zone.
There is no Role-play elements or H-scenes.
This is just an experiment in creating a game with dual mechanics - the player makes his own decisions, and his character makes his own too. The idea is interesting, but the result is crooked and buggy. What we must to do in this game is match the points of someone of 6 main NPC, firstly. Welcome to grind for nothing. Secondly we must pass through the card game. Well, but what card will be used by Princess in this game is not depended on player's choice (the creator thinks it would be too straightforward), not depended on Princess's personality (the creator thinks it would be too straightforward too), but depended on... depended on WTF himself. Great.

It can be assumed that the ugly pixelated look and disgusting music are needed precisely in order not to distract the player from the gameplay. I think the creator overdid it a lot.

The controls in the game are crooked and strange. It seems that the creator himself understands well how things work here, but he doesn't want to tell the players about it.

ERGO
- as sex game = NOPE
- as strategy/simulator/RP game = NOPE
- as something just to have a good time (art, music, humor, story) = NOPE
- as some experiment with gameplay mechanics = ... well, good luck next time.

Excellent Princess Maker-like with solid moment-to-moment writing, a charming art style reminiscent of early adventure games, and an admirable amount of reactivity and branching. I especially appreciated that this had most of the creature comforts of modern entries in the genre, with a very legible UI and a function to skip seen content that, well, actually works as intended (not always a given in indie VNs) -- kind of a must considering how the game lends itself to multiple playthroughs. Given how professional the whole package feels, I can't imagine why this isn't rated higher, except that it is ultimately rather vanilla, and that people unfamiliar with the games it cribs from might expect more direct control over the protagonist (not to mention quicker gratification).

Totally my type of the game (18+ "Long Live the Queen"), even tho, I'm not really reading all this text.
Gladly it's much easier and simpler than original, kudos to Devs.
It may look kinda outdated, but still totally diggin it.

Naked Ambition [v0.82] [Apollo Seven]

"A royal delicate flower, bloomed into a filthy whore soaked in corruption"

A pixel fantasy filled game of thrones, A retro princess and the pauper which no Disney fans will like.
Lore and storytelling focused nostalgia porn, literally too. Good story with a old school card minigame, a deep system to hone, manipulate and groom your sweet little princess into a shameless tavern squirtcunt.
Very immersive gameplay with amazing pixel art and immersive music.

Gameplay and Mechanics
An unforgiving retro card deck manager added into a VN with many options on how you handle interactions with various NPCs based on the skill check from the stats of the royal cunt, each week you get a new card, and an option to either combine or delete a card from the stack. each card shapes the character stats of the cunt princess, and its upto you how whorey you want to make her. Make them count as the dialogue choices are permanent with no rollback.
There is a cheat menu if you a lazy fuck. But remember not everything will work in your favour and wont go in the way you want to go, mindfucked hoes will be hoes, it is good line to keep in mind when playing the game, and in life.

Story
You play as a horny puppetmaster of the naïve queen regent, through her body, controlling her and grooming her into corruption and depravity, in a world filled with lore, social interactions to win over the ministers while spiraling through political backstabbing. Balance her thoughts and wish that cards fall in your favour throughout the main branching options that will take her up and down in public eye and beds. The story feels wide in the scope but shallower than expected, potential additions to the lore and interconnection of politics will be great for the storytelling.

Characters
Classic princess and the pauper characters with a corrupt subtext, and a contagious lust in the mind of the princess as the rapey advisor vizier grooms and gropes the queen regent borderline raping his barely legal princess, it's probably based on a toxic pervy uncle of the barely legal daddy's princess. There is a stepbro prince, who’s no help with the chaotic mindfucks that his sister princess is going through.
They is literally a whole senate of ministers with unique characters and hidden agendas and not so hidden kinks.
This colorful bunch of NPCs are the core of the games story flow, handle each one of them as you wish and try to win them over.

Graphics and Sound
The nostalgic retro music throws me back into my not so corrupt childhood memory place.
And the pixel art is just refreshing and done right, especially with the little details in each lewd scene.
Simplistic, old school environment and meticulous wardrobe, making the overall atmosphere next tier.

Replay Value
No rollback and branching routes with permanent effects makes this game built to be played multiple times with multiple paths.
One more thing that adds to the complexity of the paths is the cards and the combinations of the cards which will effect your walkthrough and dialogues differently, sealing the fate of the royal whore.

Personal Opinion
A lewd gift from nostalgia town, I personally love games where you get to degrade and corrupt a precious flower, turn those morning dews on the velvet petals into a slimy nasty cum filled postcoitus mist and squeezing the pure nectar out of her soul, just hits right, especially when our princess slut acts like a freshly matured butterfly, untouched by the depravities of the ravenous outside world.
Another thing done right is the role of Uncle Vizier grooming her into a proud sex loving cumslut who uses her body and mind to overcome the obstacles in her path, is disturbing if you look through a young girl's eyes but oddly satisfyingly if you look it through a deranged eye (your eyes) seeing her spiraling down the circles of corruption, her naked ambition.
The addition of sweet lesbian childhood friend is just perfect for a girl with lust thirst for pussy nectar.

Pros:

• Amazing Music that nails the ambiance
• Unique, top notch pixel art.
• Complex strategy driven card management for character traits
• High Replay value, one run ain’t enough for this royal orgy
  
  
  

Cons:

• very vanilla lewdity, No Rapes? damn man...?
• No rollback, with only 3 pages of save slots, welcome to suffering of micromanaging the save slots
• brute force card combination management sometimes
• Story got breadth, not depth where it is demanded

Potential Additions:

• PEASANTS RAPE THE WHORE QUEEN, LET THE CUMSLUT SUFFER A LITTLE
• horseriding instead of just riding the stableboy
• Better card management, hints and explanation menu for potential combinations.
• depth to the story, dive deeper into the twisted political web and scandalous family drama

This game is excellent. I don't know why it isn't more popular.
The graphics are very good, even though some people might not like the pixel art. But they're really very good. The gameplay is far superior to the usual in these games, with many options to choose from, and where what you do really matters. There are some routes that interest me less than others, that's true, but some are really good. And, in any case, the replayability is very high.
For me, the only drawback is the slow development. And it's already close to completion. But for some reason, the developer has half forgotten about it. It's probably because the game receives little support despite being excellent.
For me, it's 5 stars, and because it can't get any more.

Really enjoying this game. Trying multiple routes and each has its own flavour. The corruption of the princess in different ways is fun to watch.I wish some more costumes and extreme exhibitionism was added.And the videos matched with the text.But I really hope it gets the ending that does this game justice. Cant wait play the finished product.

Decent.

The gameplay is frustrating at first, and by the time you've gotten a good grasp on how to work things properly it's too late in the game to steer things in the right direction.

I don't intend to do a second playthrough, but I didn't get very many sex scenes and really felt that nothing went anywhere how I would've liked it to. The game gives a disclaimer of this on the front end, but still I don't want to play through this several times just to hope the roulette wheel lands on the correct cards to see events.

The princess looks a little odd nude, especially the shading around her legs. Seems like a missed opportunity not to give her some pubic hair (what with her being a princess in the middle-ages and all)

All that said, the game is fine and kept me entertained enough to do a full playthrough in one sitting.

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.