VN - Ren'Py - Nephilim [v0.5.1] [BuuPlays]

[SPOILER ALERT]

I'm just gonna keep it short (not really and it will be mostly about my personal rambling).

I liked this game, seriously. This game is basically like John Wick or Daniel Craig's James Bond but in the fantasy setting, so yeah no guns. Btw, the thing that I like the most from Nephilim is that it has this two "Light" and "Dark" choices along the way. It's more like about being evil or not, but I'm glad most of these choices aren't just an "illusion of choice". They do, in fact, matter to the story. Anyway, the renders are nice, the sex animations are a little bit underwhelmed but overall it's fine by my standard.

"But why did you give this game only three stars if you like it?"

Truth to be told, I was this close to give this game five stars (while making finger pinch gesture). The story was good until that scumbag Taron(?) crippled my future wife for months and I had to sail across the seas for months to find a cure. Well in the end, the cure has been found with a lot struggles. Is there a catch? of course there is a catch. The cure makes its consumer to become a pureblood vampire. Listen my friend, I slayed thousands of them in other games. I showed them no mercy. Remember Serana? the Daughter of Coldharbour in Skyrim? I even managed to convice her to cure her vampirism. But then in this game, the dev put me in a very tight spot and I need to embrace her "new shape" no matter what. Come on man, you can't do this to me....

Yeah sure this review is more subjective compared to my other reviews, but what can I say as a professional vampire slayer? This is a blasphemy!

i got to say the Dev really does know how to tell a story and make it so good i feel like when i play his VN i feel lm either reading a book come to life or a movie or tv show or something it really is something else if they had which i wish they had a VN awards he should get one of the top 3 to 5 of the awards hands down he is that good and talented im sure for some their maybe flaws with this VN but for me i see none i see it as near perfect story telling and renders and everything is top notch and worthy of a sub if any dev on here is worthy of it is is him dude got some serious skills/talent . when you play the VN you can feel the emotions of the characters and the sensations in the dialouge it is really captivating and something else

It took me several evenings to play through v0.4.2: there is a lot of content.

Nephilim is set in a medieval fantasy world with the usual panoply of mythological creatures. One thing that sets the scenario slightly apart from similar titles is the direct involvement of gods in the story.

The MC (I named mine “Creepy-eyes”) is your typical overpowered male-power-fantasy character, that all women love and who can always power-up enough to defeat any opponent. His back-story is told in a series of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks).

I liked the game. It looks very good, has an interesting story, and great world-building.

There are a few negatives which hindered my enjoyment somewhat:

1. Inconsistent pacing. It starts out as a slow-burn, outright telling the player that it “won’t be a wank every five minutes type of game.” It also seems to be pushing the MC towards a monogamous relationship to start with. Then at some point it flips that script, and all of a sudden there are love-interests throwing themselves at the MC left and right with no penalties in sight for pursuing all of them at once, and wanks start coming so thick and fast the MC might as well give up on wearing pants. This feels like a change of course that over-compensated.

2. Continuity errors. I suspect the dev is creating this from a fairly loose outline, as I noticed numerous points at which a character’s actions didn’t quite make sense, or they knew things that they shouldn’t have known (or visa-versa). There were also cases where the same explanation for something was given more than once: though this might belong in the next category.

3. Writing quality. There is always a balance between an author’s prowess as a wordsmith and how wordy their dialog is. A master can keep the audience eagerly reading page after page in a single scene, while someone lacking that skill might barely manage to make the most laconic characters palatable. This author uses too many words for their skill level. I ended up skipping a lot of the dialog, except when it seemed to advance the story.

4. Current Year. Although not as bad as many titles, there was noticeable leakage of modern dialog and standards into the story. A previous reviewer commented on the point at which the MC gives another man a lecture about ‘objectifying women.’ That was probably the most blatant example, but there were other cases.

5. Sex scenes. While the game occasionally features some fully-animated cut scenes, the sex animations tend to be very basic, and these scenes are far too wordy. They were also sometimes repetitive and annoying, as when the MC is going to leave, but has to return to kiss his girl goodbye...then do it again...then again...then again, with each kiss being the same series of images, but the player is forced to keep clicking and clicking to finally escape out the door.

I think this could be tightened up and polished into a five-star game.

A one of a kind. Worth to try. Lots of content.
A MC which actually feels like a MC in supernatural environment rather than being a pussy. Awesome girls with different personalities. Great renders and animation. The dev can improve the story and plot adding suprising elements to it.

This game is not that easy to be evaluated but I'll try anyway.
First of all it is very long and has a lot of content. If you don't skip the dialogues, it may take you 20 hours or so to read it all. At least it seemed so to me because at some moment I got tired and started using fast forward. You are better than me if you won't

Let's also admit that the graphics are good and don't feel generic. Visuals are certainly a strong point of Nephilim.

The game has a fantasy setting similar to RPG games. You have medieval world, magic, goblins and other monsters... However in a true RPG game you walk freely around the world, talk to characters, level up, collect loot, manage quests, conduct battles etc. Here, it's Renpy game so you just watch slideshows and occasionally make some choice. So it's just an inferior experience to a standard RPG in that aspect.

Okay, but you may say that this game is not about role playing, it's about sex. So let's talk about sex

Actually early in the game there is very little sex. The game begins in a very soft, romantic way, like it was written by a teenage girl for teenage girls. There is basically one girl, lot of kissing and looking deep in the eyes but not much more.

Around Chapter 3 the game drastically changes. I guess the Patreon backers started moaning for more erotic action so the author changed his style Your chosen girl somehow loses her importance, a lot of new females appear and there are much, much more sexual scenes. The story takes some unexpected turns, like some pirates appearing. Unforunately I got tired at that moment and started skipping the dialogues so a lot of story details were lost to me.

Maybe if you won't get tired like me, you'll like it more.

This game is rough to rate. It has 2 seperate values that i am calculating, and they are pretty balanced. By that, I mean +50 for art and renders and -50 for dialogue and meaningless choices.

The renders are amazing, except for one or two animations that were literally physically impossible and the artist needs to go back to school and figure out how someone who is on their knees cannot physically move back and forward without moving their torsoe, but yet moving their lower body forward and back like his upper half is suspended in air and hes thrusting his entire lower body across the bed, like hes trying to rug burn his knees. *facepalm*

The dialogue is not bad. The story and concept is not bad. I have no problems with the overall story and the love interests are unique and interesting and i like them all. As others have pointed out, there is a huge inconsistency with the MC himself. For someone who was -thoroughly- trained, both in magic and hand to hand combat, (and ninjutsu from a cut back scene), he is laughably weak against a couple of human thieves, yet can sink an entire pirate fleet on a whim. The story makes him strong or weak depending on what it needs at that moment and its ... jarring.

The dialogue is where i get tired. Every sexual encounter is written exactly the same way. I appreciate the romance of it, as very few games even show any kissing, love confessions, or intimacy in general so thats a plus. However, as others have pointed out, he has not once told any of the girls that he has committed to, that he has other women as well. So basically they all think they are his only one.

And then the final part that offput me is when another guy looks at your main LI's ass and the MC catches him. His response: "You dont want her to find out you are objectifying her like that." WHAT??!? This MC has been checking out everyone's asses and tits since minute 1 of this very very long game and he has the balls to tell another guy that hes "objectifying" women cuz he looked at an ass? I die....

In my humble opinion this medieval AVN intertwines elements of magic, weaving a captivating narrative. Its moral compass delineates between the paths of darkness and the path of light. Eliza's romantic arc is hailed as an unparalleled love story within the realm of AVNs. The game boasts visually stunning renders, elevating the immersive experience. And the developer's dedication shines through with frequent updates.
Simply awesome dude!
PS: the music is also very good
ver. 4.1

The subpar writing was struggling to maintain my interest from the get go but it lost me completely when y'all put a flashback inside of another flashback. That just feels sloppy.

A shame since the renders were fine and conceptually at least I was into the narrative.

It's nice game overall. Story is neat, characters are likeable, and renders also look quite good. But the stars definitelly need to be subtracted from max score, for having the worst transition between romance and harem I have ever witnessed. I already mentioned this in the comments on the game thread, but this definitelly needs to be also described in my review. Let me say at first, I could see couple of other, smaller issues with the game, like MC despite his training using abilities only when author wanted him to, and not in moments that would have most impact and sense story-wise, or like him being bested by some random thiefs, not thinking logically, etc etc. But those things could be glossed over without paying much attention. Yet the huge issue I have with chapter 4 is main(or more accuratelly, the one and only) cause of me rating the game this low. And sadly, it doesn't have much sense without actually telling what happened, hence the spoilers below.

This game was pretty wholesome experience during chapters 1-3, but then chapter 4 hit it very hard. All we had so far was this one, quite perfect romance and only few others potential interests were introduced so far, but no options of pursuing any of them, the most there was some lewd comments here and there. And then... we have suddenly options to start multiple sexual encounters and romances, one after another exactly right after your supposedly most important person gets paralyzed and all MC thinks (or at least all he says he thinks) about is helping her recover?

It was also perfectly fine to not having any 'serious' lewd scenes, but do dev really had to add the very first one with actual sex in it literally hour or two after MC brought his wounded GF back into bed and rushed to try to find the cure for her? And with basically random stranger, who had about 5 dialogue lines in entire game before??? Really? REALLY? And all those sexual/romance choices in CH4 do not come from those few already introduced and established characters, but completelly new ones.

Also let's get back to this situation, because it gets worse, (at least this involved one of already stablished female characters). When MC comes back to the inn, after the sexual encounter in the spoiler above, the best friend is lying in bed with the main LI, to keep her company. Your poor paralyzed beloved sleeps and best friend is watching over her. And what does the author do? In this very moment, when MC goes to lie in bed next to his seriously injured GF, whom he deeply loves, there is option to start romancing the friend, to promise to take her on a date, and even some slight kiss if I remember correctly? This is absolutelly horrible behaviour for any human being with conscience and I really fail to understand why in the world author thought that this could be a good idea.

If even all above wasn't enough, to rub in this absolutelly disgusting transition even more, after this situation MC goes travelling to get cure for the LI. I mean it's just an excuse to expand the harem, but at least bevievable one. BUT after few days there is mini time skip of the travel, and to show that passage of time we get to see slideshow of repeatative images consisted of MC playing with naked women in the water, romancing some of them and getting his dick sucked by other, while his main LI, to whom he does all that for, is crying alone in her bed, because he left her there. You sure this is how you do light path? Because that was dark as fuck.

And while further events kinda washed away the way this episode started, this doesn't change the fact this abomination should't even happen in the first place. Not in the way it did... So yeah, it's 3/5 now, and if writing won't fall like this again, I could change my grade, but so far it doesn't deserve it. Especially because if it happened once, the same mistake could be repeated.

Great game! Engaging story, stunning and interesting LI's.
Cool chad MC, not some weak, sissy wimp.
Beautiful renders, good music.
Pure, innocent, loyal and virgin LI's its good thing, i have enough skanks, sluts and whores IRL. At least in video game i can taste love, affection and innocence.
I cannot wait for implementing harem/pregnancy features in the game.

Overall easy 5/5. Keep up good work, looking forward for more

This one is the best AVNs ever IMO
+++
*medieval story with elements of magic
*moral system: evil / dark path / revenge / recklessness
vs light path/ kindness / forgiveness / composure
*best solo romance all time in any AVN - Eliza
*balanced mc
*really nice renders
*very hardworking dev - update times are very decent
*this avn is only 1 year old and already has 6-8 hours content

---
*no objections- ver 0.4

Take care, Yo.

Good graphics with nice models, pretty average power fantasy story and very slow buildup.
The feeling of the story is great but the dialog brings it down over and over again.

Many times i think the dialog is too long and filler like. The characters are very naive, chatty, predictable and pretty boring to be honest. Very much random talk and thoughts that doesn't really bring anything new to the story, the characters doesn't really develop. It doesn't really help with the character building as they go on in the same style and in the same topics over and over again.

The romance dialog is banal and it seems like it's made by someone with no actual romantic experience. It's like if a love smitten teen wrote it and it's overly repetitive.

The characters are very immature for their age.
The MC trained and traveled the world for 10 years, still he's oblivious to most things and has the social capability of a trout. It's like he learned nothing but fighting from his mentor and his surrounding while he traveled.
The first LI, Eliza, had a rough upbringing and is portrayed like a survivor but she is also oblivious about everything. She should be a street smart girl with a little panache but she's mentally like a toddler with a crush. It feels like she brainwashed her own personality away when she met the MC.
The childhood LI, Alice, behaves pretty much the same as Eliza. She looks like an ogre though, I can't really stand her.
It seems like all the characters mental development stopped when the MC got taken away in his youth, while their physical skills did continue to develop.
The characters would make more sense if they were in the beginning of their teens.

There's still a measure of quality in the game but prepare for long boring periods between the highlights. I wish the story and dialog was much more focused, tighter and realistic.

As of 0.4.0

Not great, not terrible.

The good:
A lot of story. There is hours upon hours of VN. Great for a 0.4 release.
Good renders and ok animations.
If you are in to it, it's an interesting blend of western fantasy setting meeting anime style story and characters.

The bad:
Extreme inconsistencies in the story and setting: Traveling at the speed of Plot. MC being just as strong as Plot demands. Pointless choices (Save the girl or not? Yes - save the girl, not - save the girl anyway, but here are some red points).
Horrible prologue. My god, the "childhood" scenes almost made me drop the game. Almost reads as if it was written by another person.
Every chick wants to suck the MC off at the moment they see him. Just boring.
The Dark path is what 12 year olds think being Evil is and as stated - the choices don't matter (gets a bit better later in the game, where it's more about the MCs internal state and not about his actions). No "neutral path, as far as I can tell.

The Waste
Honestly, I would be ok, with the bad sides of the game, if there wasn't a ton of waste in it.
Wanna hear how the MC gushes over the girl next to him? Oh, you will. Regularly. Again and again. I am not one to complain about internal monologue but in this case, my patience was not enough. Something like 1/3 of the text in the game can be cut out and you won't miss anything. Worse, the game essentially has "romance" and "friendship" mode (ok, fine, cool) but the different romance modes don't acknowledge each-other. In all fairness it gets better over time, but the dev directly comes out and tells you "yes, there is a harem path" and then the MC doesn't ever mention he is involved with two girls at the time... but he will comment on how cute they are 5 472 966 times.
Similar stuff for renders, to be honest. Lots and lots of waste.
At the beginning lewd scenes are very rare. At the end, they are used to just extend the run time with at least on scene just copy pasted in the span of 5 minutes.

All that said, the dev seems to be improving and what i call waste (especially in the visual department) others might call attention to detail. Game has the potential to get much better as time goes on.

In the end, I think the best way to describe the game would be: How do you feel about Naruto?
You like Naruto? Download this game immedietely!
You can tolerate Naruto? Game is a fun time-waster while waiting for others to get an update.
You hate Naruto? Don't touch this game.

I want to rate this higher but...

Good stuff
- Main story is interesting.
- There are some hot af women.
- Protag's powers and how they improve.
- Legit good/evil choices with consequences.

Neutral stuff
- You can decline women that you ain't interested. Great! Problem is; the game keeps the women you decline in the game and repeatedly asks you if you're interested in em. Like dude... I turned this bitch down 5 times. Why you keep askin?

Bad stuff
- Romance writing. It drags on and gets very repetitive. Reading similar compliments and banter each time you interact with girl a, b, c, d, e, f... etc gets tiring.
- Lewds. I couldn't get off to em.

Really enjoyed this game more than I thought I would and am excited for future updates. The premise isn't exactly unique and includes lots of fantasy tropes, but I haven't seen that taken to the AVN medium and appreciate the dev for trying something like this and succeeding in making it an enjoyable experience.

The LIs are some of the most compelling, interesting, and convincingly written characters I've seen and you become emotionally attached so quickly that it genuinely surprises me. Highly recommend giving this a run for your money if you're a fan of the fantasy genre and appreciate a good romance story alongside it.

tldr; Solid 2nd page AVN for me, lots of content already and likeable characters. (Eliza is amazing)

First off, i was amazed by the amount of content this creator has managed to crank out in a year. I always make my own gallery by making saves at scenes I want to remember, this way I do not need to replay the game after each update. I am on save page 203....

The rating might be a bit biast, as I like these kind of high fantasy AVN's.
The renders are decent and the share amount of content makes more that up for i will not deduct a point for that

I agree with some of the continuitie problems, however within the realm of AVN's its okay, I like the main story and premise more than to deduct a point for that.

You should give this game a try

An average but enjoyable game. Nothing sticks out as particularly fantastic, but there are no major flaws either.

The renders are average. Characters are decent but the environments are poor.

The writing is serviceable. Nothing special and I skip a decent amount of it, but there aren't any major issues. Some characters are better than others. Overall it feels like the author is inexperienced but putting some effort in which I can appreciate.

The biggest flaw would be the continuity issues, which are relatively minor.

If I was to give some feedback, I think the plotting/story structure needs a ton of work. This isn't really something you can just fix, but instead improve upon going forward. Having the first half of the game be entirely focused on one characters romance, and then having the MC go off and potentially cheat/fall in love with a different character with 0 thoughts about the first feels bizarre.

If you are going for harem, it makes more sense to either introduce a few of the main LI's at the same time, or at the very least have the MC think/explain/rationalize why he is pursuing multiple women. It really cheapens the scenes where the MC expresses his undying love for a girl, and then does the same thing to someone else like a week later and doesn't think twice about it.

Great game with a nice high-fantasy story and likeable characters.
Graphics are fine, story unfolds nicely in an exciting manner and the medieval-esque fantasy game world makes the playthrough a pleasant experience.
The gameplay is composed of rather good storytelling and decision making.
Apart from being a fantasy story in the apropriate setting, the games story comes in a believeable fashion and the erotic parts are integrated really well, giving the feel of being part of the setting, just happenening and not the usual, ok here are a bunch of xxx-scenes - let's come up with a bit of texting glue, doesn't matter what, noone cares.

Imho a great addition to the games immersion would be interactive turn based combat, maybe skipable, instead of just having the action as text and image sequences, which would turn a great game into a sort of full fledged, engaging RPG. I think that would fit quite well into the MCs efforts to become stronger and his depiction as a powerful "combat machine".

Nephilim is more than just a coming-of-age story; it's a tapestry woven with threads of destiny, power, and the ever-present tug-of-war between light and darkness. Stepping into the shoes of a young Nephilim, poised at the precipice of adulthood, is an invitation to explore the depths of self and the weight of untapped potential.

The storyline shimmers with an alluring ambiguity. From the outset, the enigmatic wanderer who shapes your youth casts a long shadow, leaving behind both a legacy of rigorous training and an open path for you to forge your own destiny. This open-endedness feels less like uncertainty and more like a canvas awaiting your unique brushstrokes. Will you embrace the darkness that whispers within, or will you strive to be a beacon of hope in a world desperately in need of one? The choice, thrillingly, is yours.