Ren'Py - Completed - Of Devotion and Despondence: REBRED [v1.0.3] [Earliestbird]

This game is very promising. Storytelling is great, reads like a book, main girls are interesting and sexy, MC's problems are intriguing. Actual gameplay ideas are nice, combat works well enough, base management with skirmishes keeps you busy until later parts when you build everything, aspects are grindy in the right way. Game gets too easy at the end when you set up properly but I guess it is a problem of limited content when you have grinded too much by the time you do the last quests to see all of it. I am pretty interested how it will develop because gameplay features are good but existing progression doesn't match the scope of the storyline currently.

One thing currently missing is skill points reset - it would really help because at the start you don't know what you're doing and some of LI's traits could really benefit from you actually planning their usage. In general, this game begs for proper tutorial - I didn't have any problems using my intuition and experience in RPGs to make working build (survivalist with CHA focus later on) and not fuck up base management but during character creation and beginning stage you don't really understand how it all works.

Art is great (love me some Bonni) even though sex scenes with main LIs are lacking at the current stage (v0.2.9).

I downloaded this due to the ratings. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't get the hype:

The mechanics are all over the place - it's like the game can't figure out what it wants to be and takes elements from multiple genres without really developing any of them, resulting in an unnecessarily complex, yet repetitive and boring playstyle.

I don't mind AI art - if people get support from using Honey Select/Koikatsu renders or stolen porn, AI deserves at least as much respect, as at least you need to work on getting the right prompts. However, it isn't being used correctly: characters change a lot between scenes, they're deformed -although that's been integrated in the story-, and most importantly: no effort was made to generate sex-scenes.

I'm giving the 3 stars because the game shows that an effort is being made, and it has some interesting concepts. It's just that their execution is pretty bad.

Great art, brisk pacing, believable & unique emotional struggle, interesting worldbuilding, meaningful progression options. Easy to jump right in and start playing. Also nice that the game provides challenges but never punishes you for making a 'wrong' choice - choices have meaning without getting you stuck.

Not your typical game here... Just a nice game overall, I spent more time reading and enjoying the plot than I thought
Art is great, storytelling is great and it's actually an enjoyable experience just to learn about the story and the lore. Scene are a plus to the story

Amazing art, and the Pantheon mini game with the girls is pretty cool. My favorite character so far is Raven, but the others are interesting as well. I think it would be cool to be able to get more residents, and also I think having more to build like building a small kingdom. I am very excited to see where the game goes, and I think having various paths could be cool. Maybe one where you are more of a warlord, and one where you are a king or one where you are not evil and just build a bigger society of residents.

Of Devotion and Despondence is a time-management style resource manager in which you play as an emotionally distant reality exile trying to find his way in a world of man-eating monster women.

I know people have thoughts about AI art. Personally, I feel like a lot of them are very justified. There's a massive number of low effort, quick pay day AI art games showing up on this site. They're all basically the same; bargain bin gameplay, non-existent story, and a handful of AI lewds of popular characters.

This is definitely not those games.

Of Devotion and Depondence has an original world. It leans into the spacey and fantastic appearance of the AI art to present a twisted, dreamlike world in which reality is malleable and the world can warp on a whim. You'll travel from forests, to mountains, to cities, to swamps, to the sea, trying to discover how the world broke and whether you can fix it.

The game has interesting characters. The MC is an exile from his reality, a traveler by nature, always moving on before anyone can get too close. He'll be confronted by friends and foes trying to steal his life force, use him or befriend him in turn. His experiences change him and those around him, for better and for worse.

The gameplay consists of a good resource manager with a solid combat system (after the rework at least). The MC and his companions gather resources and adventure daily, utilizing their finds to construct buildings and develop skills to aid them. It's a delightfully crunchy system all told, though the balance is still lacking in a few areas.

The writing has been good throughout, painting excellent pictures throughout the MC's explorations, whether of the scenery or the characters you meet. There's no animations and few images per scene, but I can't level any complaints otherwise. It's not too good for a quick fap, but there are some excellent sex scenes inside, especially if you're into impregnation or cumplay.

Overall, I feel like Of Devotion and Despondence demonstrates the good side of an AI art game. While there is still the occasional six fingered girl and some people just won't like the way it looks, the story, characters, gameplay, and world design are close to unimpeachable. I'm looking forward to how the dice end up falling.

While the AI generated and fixed images look really nice, I just feel like this is basically a pretty generic kinetic/visual novel with some gameplay gimmicks.

The characters are nice, unique and feel real like, but other than that there is not much going on.

Story is that usual overly lewd different world, encounters are usually walls of flavor text that don't really matter and don't really set up the scene since you can see the scene in the art (what is the point of 5 pages A4s of text that describe what to imagine, when you can clearly see it?), it's more like the game was made text based only and then quickly slammed AI art in.

Gameplay is a gimmick really. At first it feels good, but then you find out it's literally just about selecting one part and spamming attack, maybe some counter here and there that even then costs you more than it's worth anyway.

Sex scenes are really descriptive, but there is no developement anywhere, they feel pointless. It feels like the game would work the same without them. You basically meet someone who wants your seed and that's it, every single time.

3 stars for the gorgeous art, characters and idea. Since it's done using AI art, I would have expected way more images, especially the sex scenes that are mostly just a single image. Might suit your tastes better if you like or don't mind typical VN "games".

June 25th 2023
This game have very high potentials. Good story telling so far, main character ACTUALLY have a brain, able to breathing and thinking at the same time and not thinking only with his dick (well sometimes he does but not all the time lol).
Please keep up the good work!

Has a great foundation and builds it on well, with the creator balancing aspects of the game often to make the journey more enjoyable. The only thing that it is missing is simply more content, which will be added over time

I was expecting a boring incomplete game,
INSTEAD, I found a triple H with better picture and sound,
maybe the format of the game doesn't bring out the full talent of the artist and a collaboration with TF card battle would have led to the best "Magic the porning"
or even make it similar to Nutaku's "Chick Wars" in single player EVERYONE wants.
What to say the sound in painting the "pantheon" is definitely pro-masturbation propaganda.
The characters are in Path tracing with photo realism <3

An excellent first job to approach the world of H

I've been putting off trying this game for a while now, and I'm really glad I jumped at the chance.
The basis of the story is really interesting, I'm a big fan of fantasy and here I'm served.
On the other hand, the ways in which we're brought into this world, its history and its inhabitants are described in a rather peculiar way and should be reviewed because certain elements arrive far too late to stay properly immersed.
I found the art incredible, but I would have liked to have seen even more of it, to better understand and immerse myself in this universe.
I found the resource system boring, it deserves to have some additions, like the collection points that you can sometimes find on the map, but permanently so that you can adjust your needs yourself, especially at the beginning for building construction.
The equipment system is really rudimentary despite the overhaul and I don't understand the point of setting a timer before changing pieces of equipment, I find it pointless and illogical.
The principle of skill points etc is good but it should be possible to reset them to 0, just like the companions' liabilities.

In short, I'd normally give it a good 4/5, but I'd give it 5/5 to encourage the devs because we've got a product that's still in its raw form, but which has the potential to be magnificent!

The presentation is pretty slick that I didn't think was possible with Renpy, and the writing for once I decided not to skip and actually read through.

While AI CG characters have some limitations but I want to say the AI Backgrounds are a perfect fit for the setting of the game and really elevates the game and gives it an immersive atmosphere.
The enemies and events also fit well enough.

We are truly living in a New AI Era, although that is more because this game decided to play to the AI's strengths instead of it's weakness.

The Resource Management, Game Mechanics and Combat are not too shabby even if simple and there are potential ways you can screw yourself and lose from time to time.
And it does require some thinking and decision on how to progress efficiently.

Pretty good writing, good story and great art I especially like Raven, would like a bit more for each character but that's hopefully coming in future updates. The combat system is fairly unique with the attack zones and the gameplay is engaging,

Captivating story with great writing and characters; even the MC. The AI generated art is made into a strength instead of weakness with the uncanniness of it fitting with the world's mechanics. The setting and premise is reminiscent of Corruption of Champions, though more serious in tone. The bodily-transformations here aren't as shamelessly fetshized as in CoC; still arousing, but in a deliberately disturbing kinda way. Very interesting to read and play.

I would say the gameplay is not that bad, somewhat fresh and different from other games, maybe the writing and the story is kind of okay too, but the visual side is very concerning.

The game brutally exposes flaws of AI generated images as a representation of what happens in the game. While the random women often look beautiful it's just that, random images of beautiful women and nothing more. Raven from one image does not look like the same Raven from other images, other main girls have barely any content, there is basically no consistency in how they look.

The limitations of AI become very apparent once you get to the temple where you supposedly have some sexual action with the temple girls, like getting a handjob, blowjob, thighjob or whatever. And what does the game show you? Images of beautiful woman. Putting cum on them or showing them pregnant is the most you can get out of that AI.

This is probably why the game introduces mechanics like pantheon or card collection because it's the only way to put some new content in the game as they are simply images of beautiful women. I can't see how the game can proceed from this point except for things that can use more random images of beautiful women.

Overall 3/5, mainly because some images are really aesthetically pleasing, but I don't expect much more to be coming in the future.

I enjoyed this game alot more than I expected. The characters are well written and their stories make you want to learn more about them, and the world building is something different. I'm interested in following to see what comes next.

The game is a bit grindy (which as noted can be fixed via save edit for the most part), and UI is a bit unwieldy.

Solid visuals with great text - other games often make the mistake of skimping/cutting on the text component which can derail an entire scene.

Gameplay can be a bit grindy but thats easily fixed by editing your save stats or cheats.

I thought this use of AI would open up more possibilities or be a useful tool to allow for a better focus on story, gameplay, or other areas; however, it's just another example of AI being used to replace the need for talent, which this game desperately needs.

Graphics - 2/5
Everything is generated by AI. Scenery and women look absolutely beautiful, but the AI is utilized ineffectively when it comes to the latter. Too many variations between images of the same character, and edits are atrocious. (i.e. The image of Raven's hands painted over, her head being large making her look kid like, and her eye lids having a bloody swollen look to them). My advice is to not use AI beyond generating scenery and portraits.

Story - 2/5
Linear story, choices don't matter. There's some genuine effort into making the story, but narrative is too long with few choices made in between. The UI is a nice difference, but doesn't look good nor make reading any more interesting.

Gameplay - 1/5
Basic RPG elements. Resource gathering/grinding. Uninteresting combat system.

Characters - 1/5
2 main lady followers, occasional event but the inability to interreact with them and generate dialogue makes them as bland as any other NPC.

Music - 0/5
No music beyond menu. Some SFX.

Eroticism - 0/5
The only rewards are AI generated images of naked women or women slathered in copious amounts of cum, and one blowjob image. I expected way more with AI being used as a tool, but got close to nothing. I have been cucked by an AI, and I must scream.

Really a great start to a text based game that rewards users with great graphics in the course of the story. It's great that the creator makes a coherent new world and works on character development. This game has so much potential and could really be extensible enough to expand into a whole universe of possibilities. Although the gameplay can be somewhat grindy, I like how you can go back and play as different protagonists with different skillsets. This game shows a lot of early promise.

This is one of those games that makes me feel like I'm missing...everything? The plot is weird and, at times, incoherent. This is a pretty big issue because the game itself, which is very much not a porn game at its core, is incredibly intent on telling its story. It's uncompelling and very poorly presented.

The game's engine is terrible, and the presentation is equally awful. For whatever reason, all the text is one one side of the screen and seems to mimic reading something on your phone. The text comes up slowly and in chunks, which is only mildly annoying at first, but grows old quickly.

The art itself is just god awful, the typical garbage you'd expect from AI generation, but with...quirks. I will give credit for this part. The dev seems to use the AI's horrid generator and disfigurement of characters as part of the plot, which would honestly be cool in better circumstances. In this, though, it just looks bad and lazy.

The porn is...borderline non existent, at least within the first hour of tedious, annoying grinding. The combat isn't awful, but it's not smart, either. It's just something that is there, and shouldn't be. The game clearly wants to be a VN, but can't commit to being so linear, so they added combat. If you get lewds after losing, I genuinely don't know since I didn't lose any fights. They take zero forethought. What porn I DID get was...potentially written by an AI, now that I think about it. It was soulless and bland, feeling in every way like it was churned out by a robot. Yikes if that's not the case.

All in all, waste of time. Ugly UI, uglier art, and very weak porn.