VN - Ren'Py - Not Going Back [Ch.3.1] [Cicada]

It's the classic formula of dude goes into freshman year and hooks up with a bunch of hotties. Models are great, scenes are hot, and it does the genre well. Main girl is a little boring but Tegan and Bobbie are GOATed. Also leaves some mystery to the other girls so there's something to look forward to.

Great job

I'm afraid this one is a miss for me, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. The main reason for it is the story: to be honest, there are too many games here about the university full of tropes that just repeat themselves. First few scenes: go to the dorms, get bullied by the rich kid, meet some hotties, play bottle... It just has been done way too many times to keep any interest for me. May be different for you though. Choices do matter which is great.

Render quality is really good to be honest, and the character models are great and really hot with diverse bodytypes and so. No animations though, not even for the sex scenes, which is currently below standards in the genre. Sound is not present at all except for the main menu song (an atrocious version of a marvelous song, btw). And at least in my playthrough I found no bugs.

So, all in all, if it had a different story with a different take or something the grade would be higher for me, and it may be higher for you if you are not saturated by this tropes being done again and again in the same way. Since I am, for me it lands somewhere in the middle.

Genuinely enjoyed playing this today. Usually I delete a game as soon as the scenes are like slideshows as I much prefer animated but in my opinion it's obvious that this game is being made with passion.

I like the MC, not a pushover nor a dick, at least, I played the honest/open up route and I think it's good. The MC felt quite relatable to me on that path.

Alright replayed again, changing to 4 stars really liked a lot of the LI's and that is honestly what changed my scoring here I feel they are more complex than I originally thought they were minus Imogen which I already knew she was complex.

Original

Too Many characters In my opinion, too much going on here seems like a branching nightmare. Alex seems like a toolbag of a roommate. Kai looks like a douche

Its decent but its kind of boring even though there is a lot going on if that somehow makes sense. Lots to play through for branching purposes but dev cycle is gonna hit that branching hard

Lauren is ugly as sin too BTW

Exellent little college game! There are a lot of college games in this in the nsfw-game world, but this one truly stands out. This is one of those games where the writing really carries the load. The renders are good, the girls look great, but there are unfortunatley no animations. The game is not perfect, but the author is fairly new, and has huge potential. So if you place story, characters and good writing at the top of your list for playing games, give this game a try!

PROS
- Nonlinear, your choices matter. Its nice to know that there are many paths instead of everything being thrown into one harem route.
- The characters are interesting enough to pull you in for more. Idk where the line between main & side girls is yet as there are a lot of girls.
- So the plot has something to do with MC's past as the game would constantly tease you about it but not reveal too much yet, I'm guessing its something tragic. Otherwise, its the usual college AVN with the party and frat lifestyle.
- In most AVNS, the MC and his female LIs are central to the storyline while the vast majority of male characters are just extras or background noise besides a few token males (your dad or the guy you cuck or the overly goofy college bestfriend). I like that the male NPCs feature a bit more and play a bigger role here outside of the usual tropes, I appreciate the efforts of making this game seem realistic.

CONS
- Lack of diversity. So idc that all the LIs are white girls. My issue is with the body proportions. Almost all of the girls are thicc and curvy. Which is a weird critique cause thats actually my personal preference lol. But too much of the same thing is always bad. It kinda feels like everyone has the same body with a different face.
- The sex scenes can seem a bit 'transactional' and lacking a bit of passion/spice. Lemme figure out a way to describe this. Imagine your watching porn, they're doing it, and the cameraman zooms in on a specific body part. And then he pans away and zooms into another part of the body. My guy, can you please step further away or at least ZOOM OUT. I'd like to see more angles capturing the entire body and more interaction between the characters.

Ch.3

It is college drama. MC does try to fuck everything and that is pretty much the plot. Conversation options do have a meaning and that makes the story somewhat interesting.

Writing has too much meaningless and useless chit-chatting. College games feel boring, unless you get exited about possibility of seeing random tits. There are a million characters, so don't expect much depth in character development or anything like that. But conversations do feel authentic.

Visuals are ok. Graphics quality (tits and ass) and artistic style make the game visually pretty boring. Too many zoomed in pictures. Sex scenes are bunch of random pictures from random angles. Best part is that girls have pretty faces and big asses.

Well i just finished the first 2 chapters in one sitting, i dont usually rate games this early but this game is very good indeed.

It has vibes of another great game but it also has some intrigue (one bit freaks me out is the eye render popping up out of nowhere).

Models are seriously smoking hot all different personalities etc.

excellent renders as well

There is only one thing it is missing and that is animations i mean this game would be a page 1 top rated game if it had them in it.

However i wont knock a star off for that as i still got engrossed in the game so well done DEV.

Overall it's pretty good so far. This is a slightly more low-key college AVN. Don't worry you still live that frat star life most people come to these games for, but it's not as boisterous, and with an MC that's a bit more quiet and contemplative (without being a pushover).

The renders are nice and there's a good selection of LIs on offer although we're still early on. Honestly the only significant drawback is the lack of animations which I understand is a deal breaker for some, but if you can look past that I think this one of the better college AVNs out there at the moment

So far so good, 5 stars for now because I hope it will continue to get better. There are a lot of characters, so many that I don't know if they're all gonna be relevant to the story later. The dev may want to consider adding character bios so we players can check if we forgot them. Also the option to see if the decision made has major effect on the story or not would be appreciated.

I've been following this thread for ages and finally got around to playing. In the beginning I was worried there were so many names being introduced... but honestly I guess that's what it feels when you start college anyway and it created this really believable atmosphere. I like how each character feels different, not all of them want to jump on the MC immediately, and how there are paths for all types of players to indulge. I can see someone really going all in on Alice or Ellie for instance, whereas I am not that interested in them.

It also really felt like choices mattered. There were so many of them and so many different little paths. It reminded me of another famous college-themed AVN except I somehow liked this one better. Kudos to the dev for creating such a believable little environment, for the beautiful models and chill MC.

On the constructive side, it would be nice to see more animations but I'm sure those are hard to get right and probably super time consuming. It would also be nice to have a few more wide angle shots or third-person view of some of the scenes. But 5 stars either way!

It's a good game and there's a lot to like about it. Lots of hot and interesting LIs, a story with some mystery and a beastly MC.

On the downside, there's a little too much drama for me (e.g. MC's past, PED, evil guys who won't take no for an answer, Chloe/Nathan, etc) and what's up with a LI who expects you to eat her out to orgasm but won't even put your dick in her mouth. Why would this be a problem for a woman in a porn game? This is an AVN right? I was going to give 5 stars despite the excessive drama, but I had to deduct a star for giving Mia such a bullshit phobia and having her cause a scene (it's almost like a porn star that won't give a BJ lol...fail).

Version Chapter 2.1

First of all I want to say I enjoyed the hell out of this game. For me it's a 5 star purely because of how much I enjoyed it but I feel it's still too early to give it a 5 star.

positives

• likeable characters
• characters have personality and are interesting
• good looking characters
• world feel alive
• so far nothing really feels forced for the sake of adding X
• hot renders during sex scenes
• I actually look forward to future interactions with every character instead of a few like other games

Things that might be a con to some but not to me

• no music
• no animations
• alot of characters

I mentioned there is no animations. While that is true , I thought the renders / sex scenes were hot as hell and don't really need them. But would be welcomed if they ever come in the future.

There seems to be some trauma / deeper problems with the MC and some of the other girls in this one. From what ive seen so far all of those issues for the characters just adds to them and makes them real interesting. Unlike some other games were there issues are just there to give character arc's or deveolopment but besides that they never felt like they had personality. Well it's the complete opposite in this game.

About the part that there is alot of characters, in this game it only adds to the game's world and makes it feel alive instead of how most games are centered around the 5 - 6 LI or whatever. While not all the characters are main girls or LI , which can be a negative if you really like a certain girl but isn't a main girl. It really isn't that bad either because I haven't found 1 character I didn't like so far. There are plenty of other options when it comes to LI.

Also during lewd scenes you can feel the personality or even get a little bit of character deveolopment with these characters. The dialogue during the sex scenes aren't boring.

I feel this game is trying and succeeding to make things comes off as natural as possible. So far to me none of the lewd scenes has really felt forced or rushed just for the sake of having a lewd scene. Sure some are quicker than others but I felt what lead up to them felt better than alot of other AVN's that have quick lewds.

Here is a bit of my thoughts on the subject

I typically not big on LI that are easy to sleep with or this quickly in a game unless it's a harem or something. Yet with all the interactions or character deveolopment we have gotten so far I didn't mind one bit in this game. As the sex scenes felt like they came on pretty naturally and not because they are glued to the MC's dick. As it felt like the LI that did sleep with him had a genuine like of the MC because of who is and his character and not because of the MC. If a game is gonna have early lewd scenes that isn't with a side girl hell even if they are with a side girl this is the way to do it. As I was already invested or liked their character where the lewds were welcomed even if I would personally like to take things a bit slower haha.

Not sure how extensive this game will be going forward when it comes to branching but there is some small branching, I missed 2 lewd scenes on my first playthrough because of my choices.

Really like the game, this long of a game play and it is only chapter 2. Would really like it if there was a walkthrough for the choices u can make then it would be even better, hope it only gets better can’t wait for the next chapters. keep up the good work.

I really do like how the game starts out so far. It has many interesting characters which have the potential to become quite complex.
I guess many are reminded of another quite large game with a similiar setting and immediately compare the two.
And though there are differences for sure. "Not Going Back" is definitely worth playing, especially now in it's early stages.
The groundwork has been done . We have a main character with "dark" unknown past, we only see glimpses of. We get introduced to a lot of character with the potential to build deep connections with during the progression of the game.
My personal feedback would be the addition of animations and a differernt hairstyle for the protagonist, but that#s a personal preferance.

Can recommend to give this a try. I am certainly interested how this game will progress in the future.

This looks promising.

I appreciate the effort invested in the first chapter. You get to know a bit about the characters and the relationships between them; which rarely happens in a VN this huge. Yes, the graphics aren't something to write home about, but definitely not horrible - they're expected to improve over time. The dialogs are a bit long but it's understandable, most times when you see all these characters they're pretty shallow and you only get depth with heavy dialogues and slow burning.

I am definitely looking forward to see where this is going.

The production values are beyond bad. The assets used look impossibly cheap. The stock characters; the drab clothes; the empty interiors; the exteriors, which are just plain blocks with old, ugly, white brick textures applied. By the way, speaking of white, there's a general lack of color throughout the game, which makes the renders ugly, and dull and just constantly pull you out of the game.

I'm sorry to report the characters and the dialogue don't fare any better. None of the characters talk or act remotely like real people. They simply exist to connect one thing to the next, and most of them don't have a single identifiable personality trait, never mind a full-fledged personality. Which is kind of good, since anytime there's an attempt of infusing them with some flavor, the end result is embarrassing.

Fantastic start!
There's a decent range of looks for the girls, which is always a treat. The posing in the renders is good. I didn't notice any awkward "acting" at any point. That's something that's hard to get right and I think they got it right on this one.
I was very impressed by the writing. It feels like it was written by someone who has actually attended a college in the United States, which is refreshing. All the characters feel rounded and real in a way that's unusual for a first chapter. Even the MC has an interesting backstory, giving him a little bit of an excuse for being a blank slate. The dialogue is sharp and make me chuckle aloud at multiple points.
Not much erotic content in the first chapter. I managed to grope a boob in the shower but maybe I'll try playing through again and making different choices to see if there's anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Imogen in future chapters!

A good start.. the renders of the girls are great.. nice writing.. also a decent amount of content for an initial release. Looks like the DEV has thought out what he wants to do and has a plan to bring that to fruition. Enjoyed the diversity of characters introduced so far. Looking forward to more.