VN - Ren'Py - Natsumi Love Story [v0.4.6] [Steradianfauns]

Natsumi Love Story [v0.4.6]

My rating: 4.5 but rounded up to 5.

Enjoyed the game very much. Characters are cute and distinct, story is a bit basic but the well written and in places mature dialog (though sometimes a bit too weeby, but that is just a personal preference) carries it nicely. Sex scenes are numerous and hot (the yandere in your face scene is just *chefs kiss).

There are only few minor nitpicks: some imperfections in the games english, but nothing that wold make it not understandable, and some of the goofiness is a bit on the nose, but its really nothing that would detract heavily from the game.

A very good thing is that the dev is constantly improving the game based on feedback. Many of the shortcomings mentioned in some of the previous reviews are fixed now.

There is a bit of controversy here about the confusing beginning and I will admit, that when I booted the game for the first time and played it for a few minutes, I got put off by it, closed the game and didnt play it for a week.(mostly due to confusion and being introduced to a bit too many characters at once) Then I said to myself "dont judge a book by its cover", opened it once more and what do you now, played through its entirety in one sitting.

Do not make the same mistake I did. Its is not worth to pass on this game because of one confusing scene.
Keep it up dev. Looking forward to more of the story.

English: 6
User Interface: 5
User Experience: 4
Art: 7
Dialogue: 7
Story: 5
Opinion: 6
------------------------------
Avg: 5.71/10

There's really no reason for this game to be rated so low. The issue is not with the writing, story, or themes. The issues are the people that play this and can't let a story happen. "THE DIGITAL GIRL THAT ISN'T REAL MIGHT NOT HAVE SEX WITH ME." This is the braindead reception the Dev is getting for writing a story with actual conflict. Do I get that thought "How will they write this so she doesn't cheat on MC?" Yeah. But I'm also interested in how the story will play out. And the other dumb take I see is "forced sex" with [X] character. It's a porn game with anime weeb characters, the only real difference between characters is hieght and hair color. And the main love interest is forced upon you, anyways. Calm down. The dev even goes so far as to not include rape content by making a rape fantasy be consensual. The only true issues with this are the micro updates, converting to a crap sandbox, and side stories. If the game doesn't get the 30 seconds of story update, its a side story that DOESN'T MATTER. What should happen is the side stories should be in addition to, not instead of, furthering the story.

Speaking of story, it's pretty basic. MC and sis fall in love. The end. Really the "mystery" is which girl did the sister marry? But you'll never really know because this now has a sandbox and 50 side stories that ad little to nothing to the game. It starts at Natsumi's wedding and MC and his wife essentially say "she's getting married but we're still having sex." So then it goes back to where it started. Natsumi gave him chocolates so they have sex. Then literally nothing happens for 2 chapters, they just gush about how in love they are without saying anything. Then MC and Natsumi get caught having sex in school because they're idiots, and they deal with it by having the blackmailer get raped by a dude. It'd be a little funny if they didn't sidestep the rape fantasy from earlier. And after that, there's been NOTHING.

I would really like this if it ever moved forward. But every time I come back to this there's no new content. The English isn't great, but it's serviceable. The UI has minor changes and you're greeted with the chapter select... after each chapter? Just continue, damn. The art is pretty good for a Koikatsu game. The dialogue is good for the most part, minimal meme references and mostly situational humor. The story is bland and stagnant, but inoffensive. If the dev ever moves forward and gets an editor I will gladly come back and rate higher. But we'll see I guess.

Really more 3.5 stars, but I rounded up (and I'll explain why).

Firstly, the game itself (leaving the elephant in the room for after). It's pretty fun. Renders are nice. Animations are nice. LI (if you like yandere) is nice. Hot, too. MC isn't a pushover. Dialogue has some very minor issues that are easily overlooked.

What I didn't like is there were some forced sexual scenes involvingthe mom. I can't tell you what happens because I skipped those scenes and any subsequent scenes involving that character. I dislike forced sex scenes, I hate M/S relationships, and I loathe the combination of the two. This was -2 stars.

There is also a forced sex scene with your possible future wife, but I don't think it's canon so not a huge deal.

Now for Dumbo. There is no NTR in this game, but the dev sure does come close. Hating NTR is a big point of this game, but in the fight against NTR you do take a few blows which some people might not be comfortable with.
- So far there is just one LI the MC is involved with. She's yandere. Do I need to explain more?
- The MC/LI are caught having sex in school. The NTR guy then tries to blackmail the LI into having sex to prevent a video he took from getting out. He also is NTR'ing a character we have not met yet, but we do meet the GF of said character who then helps NTR guy with setting up the LI. That being said, if I never see that character again it will be too soon. Forced or not, she helped him, and I won't forgive her because she knows what he was capable of.
- During the major scene of Chapter 4, which is the big "fight against NTR", the NTR guy tries to inject the LI with something to presumably knock her out and rape her. SHE STOPS HIM AND BEATS HIM UP. As the Dev said, HE DOES NOT LAY A FINGER ON HER. AT ALL. So what happens to him? People the MC got to help them with his situation rape the NTR guy. You don't get to see it, but you can choose to listen to part of their conversation. Honestly, this alone earned .5 stars, though I wish I could have seen him suffer.
- Most of the story takes place 11 years ago, but in the present.. the first scene shows your main LI getting married. But we don't know to whom. Not even to what gender. The second "present time" scene shows you naked in bed with the main LI and her wife. They wanted you there, so they seem to both be part of you harem. Not sure why they get married, but I'm sure we'll find out. This is also the same time that we see the forced sex scene.
- Before the main story takes place, you hear about how your old crush Risa turned you down for someone else. You have since more or less moved on. As it turns out, she is in an apparently abusive relationship (emotionally) and not happy and supposedly has feelings again for MC after catching him and LI having sex. Not real NTR, but will you feel jealous about it? Maybe. Will you get to steal her from him? Probably. Will I? Definitely not. I'm not a consolation prize. The grass is always greener, but she can stay on her side of the fence.

Some minor clipping issues, but nothing that ruins anything.

Overall, if you get SUPER jealous about shit, or think you're Genghis Khan and that women exist solely for your own enjoyment, this game maybe isn't for you. Not sure about where the Harem is going, but seems people are fuming about your LI marrying someone who is likely also a member of your Harem. Some traditional Harems also sometimes included Eunuchs, but I doubt any of the "Harem Purists" are okay with taking a gummer from a Ken doll. Personally, I like knowing the women of my Harem fuck each other. Who knows if they even will in this story - it's yet to be seen.

Came here from the other game the dev made.

I feel somewhat like I repeat myself a lot with my reviews, but anyway...

I enjoyed this. Good scenes, good character design, etc. The story isn't anything too special, but it serves its purpose and I don't think this is particularly aiming to be too heavy story wise. If I look at it purely as a game targeting certain fetishes, I think it does its job perfectly well, and I can appreciate that.

I've seen a few complaints about the beginning. I'll admit, I can understand where they're coming from, but it didn't bother me nearly as much as seems to have for some other people. I definitely don't consider it a reason to pass on the game completely, but to each their own. Honestly, I wouldn't be too surprised if it ends up being one of those misleading situations that's aimed at riling people up. Nothing wrong with that, but I guess it might not work too well in a game that isn't released completed where you can see the actual ending.

Anyway, good game dev. I did genuinely enjoy playing through it. To be honest, I didn't realize I had a crazy girl fetish until just now... so thanks for that I guess? I wouldn't mind seeing a similar character in your other game.

Thanks for the content!

Played: Natsumi Love Story [v0.3]

Rating: 4/5

Quick Summary: A good introduction to a forbidden* love that gets you to the good stuff (sex) relatively quick. Sprinkled through there is backstory and history between the characters to show that this wasn’t spontaneous like it is in some games. Writing does a decent job of setting the mood. There are plenty of sexy scenes with one (main) character (No other girls yet unless you include fantasies). However, this is clearly being setup as a harem game, but as the game title suggests there is a main girl that the game will revolve around. Anime troupes abound. Light yandere included (More damn it more!). The start of the game may be a bit disconcerting for some as this may cause the reader to jump to conclusions, but the author does appear to like messing with the audience slightly to elicit emotions of panic and/or cause feelings of jealously in the reader. Might want to wait a few more updates if you are interested in the harem part of the game to surface.

*Not by degenerate F95 standards.



Pros:

-Decent character designs. Natsumi is cute.

-Impregnation dialogue for those that like it (I do). Can be turned off if you don’t like it.

-MC is nameable

-Plenty of animations for those that like it, but for the most part pretty standard Illusion stuff.



Neutral:

-Cannot rename other characters. Though this is probably for the best in this case.

-At the start of the game you choose impregnation ON or OFF and dialogue is set accordingly. Nice if you don’t want to think about it. However, I also feel this takes away some perceived character interaction to decide where to finish (Inside/Outside).

-Chapter choice is a mixed bag. I feel like it ruins the flow a bit (There probably should be an option to auto play chapters and side-chapters in order). However, this does allow the creation of side content/more exposition that can be easily skipped for those not interested.

-Somewhat linear. In following up with chapters, I feel the game is a bit kinetic (v0.3). While there are some choices and dialogue can change as a result, because of the way the game is setup it pretty much feels like a straight course. The game description sounds like we, the player, should be making decisions to guide to a better future but I don’t know if this is just rhetorical.

-Some of the side chapters were very short. Honestly cannot make up my mind if they were better off not being there or any content is still good content.

-English is readable, but there are minor mistakes scattered about that may cause some distraction for a native reader. Not that I judge too harshly (Look at all the run-ons in this review!)

-Weebness may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I enjoy it but I know some can hate it.

-No NTR by most metrics. I personally like where this story appears to be going. No NTR, but your character will be fighting to prevent it (and appears guaranteed to succeed in that regard). However, even for some vocal people this may be too close to the flame for them. So, I am sure there will still be some complaints.


Cons:

-Can be confusing what order to play side content in (I think some is not properly labeled in v0.3). Game may need an auto play or traditional play feature for those that want to go in the ‘correct’ order.

-Only one developed love interest so far (Though we already know there will be more and who, but we aren’t there yet).

-Struggling to come up with cons. The game probably still needs more development before more problems (if any) become apparent.



Random Thoughts: I played chapter 1 when it was released and felt the game was too short with that introduction. Not to mention the introduction could create a feeling of hopelessness as it felt like everything was already decided for the player. I’m not a fan of starting at the ending or middle and then going back to the start. Still, that is a matter of opinion, and I did my best to ignore it. After coming back and playing chapter 1 through 3 with the side content I have a better idea of where the game is going. I feel that the game may have been a bit better received initially if chapters 1-3 were initially released together, but development isn’t easy and that is not always an option.


I really feel like the creator has some talent and I am interested to see where this game goes. While the background is somewhat generic, I feel like the overall package may be put together well enough to make it a rather enjoyable experience. However, time will tell.

[note: this review refers to version 0.2]

quoting the words from this post from user look-see ;

“the opening is a little worrying. it starts off with the sister going to her wedding and apparently it's not the MC. then it goes to 11 years earlier.
she's probably getting married to another female member of the harem to cover up the relationship but eh who knows;”
I would add: beyond worrying, it’s quite boring.

the storyline is built on several time instances — the Present, over a decade in the past, and so forth —; further, characters’ memories push those instances further in the past while the story itself evolves into the present time.
confusing — i know.
also, there's no element of surprise here: the plot itself is quite predictable, the attempts to humour are childish, the characters' personalities are flat and superficial yet vague.

a Visual Novel is composed of two rather explicit aspects: the visual (graphics) and the novel (the writing).
in my understanding: sloppy graphics don’t make a poor VN; yet, bad writing does.
that’s the case with “Natsumi Love Story:” it has the potential to become a good VN, but it lacks a solid writing.

cheers, all.