VN - Ren'Py - Novak [v0.1] [TreiKo]

Eternum, Once upon a Life Time, Unraveling August, City Devil Restart, Between Humanity, Dream Link and now NOVAK..... My lovely list of awesome animesque AVNs keeps growing.

So far this seems to just be an introduction of the things to come but I am already hooked. I am looking forward to how Treiko will expand on the characters and how the plot will develop taking into account how the prologue ends.

This is one of the good ones boys and girls.

Review for v0.1

I haven't played an AVN this thrilling in a long time and it's only just started. This is GOOD so far. Obviously it's early, and there has yet to be any sex stuff, but as far as first impressions go I am more than hooked enough to come back to this.

The game starts with a heist, where we are sort of introduced to what I'm assuming are the love interests as it progresses. I already like how competent everything feels. There's clearly a lot of thought going into the writing, and already a lot of twists that I didn't see coming. Though we don't know much about the girls, they all seem pretty unique so far as well. I actually love the way the connection the MC has to the cop character was revealed. It's a pretty interesting bit of info fed to you that starts to get your mind churning.

Building on that last point, it is a very show and not tell style so far. This is a good thing and allows you to make your own inferences and theory craft, or in other words actually feel engaged. Yes there are a lot of missing details the game is choosing not to immediately tell you, but I never once felt lost. Engaging is actually a great word to describe this so far.

There are some choices present, but right now I can't tell how much they actually matter. I have a feeling based on some testing that all they are really doing is influencing a potential hidden point value for how much girls like you. There's a couple minor changes to scenes based on choices, but nothing significant. Even the cliffhanger seemingly shakes out two different ways but once I thought about it I realized it's going to merge you right back on the same path.

Beyond that the game looks great as well and feels very atmospheric. Good use of sound effects, the girls look nice, etc etc. No music but I don't think MOST areas have needed any to be fair. Game feels pretty quality so far, though again there's no sexual content in this version so I can't speak on that yet. If I had one piece of feedback outside of some grammar corrections it's that I think the game could have expanded a little more on the setting and city you're in, but not a huge deal.

Just a very solid start so far, surprisingly so honestly. As long as the quality of the sex scenes matches everything else I think this game is going to be a banger. Definitely keeping an eye on it.

An interesting start. Maybe more mysterious than it needs to be. Show not tell is good, but so is a basic understanding of what is going on. It's kind of a James Bond beginning with an action sequence and then some filling in of details, but not many details, you're still kind of at a loss as to who you are, let alone the people around you. It was still a pretty good start though and I expect the details will be filled in. There's a lot of potential here, but you'll be figuring a lot out yourself until there's a lore dump at some point. It's not a bad ride though, honestly pretty good.

Safe to say I couldn't connect with this game nor with its characters at all. The game begins and gives a series of choices. At the moment these choices present little to no emotional impact on you as the player because each character (LIS) has no history or meaningful introduction into the story. It's as if they are thrusted into our faces. Like "Here are these characters. and I expect you to know who they are already, even though this is the first release...GOOD LUCK!!" They aren't interesting, and I felt confused throughout my playthrough. I wish there was more focus on worldbuilding and trying to showcase the characters first rather than just presenting them to us makes because each interaction with them felt bland... therefore the game felt bland as a whole. The characters and renders were delivered pretty well for V 1.0, and I hope that it stays consistent throughout.

For the future I hope the focus is on developing the narrative and world a bit more and I might change the rating depending on the outcome.

Pros:
Visuals: 4/5 (Clean renders)

N/A
Animations: N/A (Not that many animations yet)

Cons:
Narrative: 2/5
World: 2/5
Content: 3/5
Characters: 2/5