Ren'Py - Completed - On Distant Shores [v1.0 Final] [Professor Amethyst Games]

A decent game. I would say the story was pretty good. Sometimes it might feel a bit lagging but I still felt you could sit through that. The sex scenes were decent at best.

As many other reviews have suggested the ending was a bit underwhelming. It is all a simulation which takes away our investment in the story. And also it felt like we have seen this plot/ending in various different novels/movies.

I want to give brutally honest feedback after just completing my playthrough.
I enjoyed a handful of the H-Scenes despite the camera angles often being unusual. The character design is honestly well done but sadly the story was a disappointment for me.
I really wanted to like this game and it felt like a 5/5 during the character introduction phase and some time after but then it just stopped delivering but was still promising enough to keep going only to completely fumble in the end.

The writing ends up very messy, it honestly had a very strong, intriguing and promising start but the developer could not carry the momentum through the midpoint and imo delivered a very unsatisfying ending.
You can tell the story was not planned out from the beginning and even with the context received at the end there's quite a few story beats that feel like nonsense retcons. There's also too many characters, all of them being spread very thin with very few having an actual character arc that's not just "this character is now completely different from the last time you interacted with them" or being left without a conclusion entirely. For the overarching story there's just a whole lot of build up towards nothing. The ending of both the secondary and main plot just comes abruptly and is a let down in both instances. Any possible character arc for the MC also seemingly just gets thrown out either immediately or somewhere along the way. Not to mention there's a lot of back and forth internal conflict that leads nowhere, which especially considering the ending, makes frustratingly little sense. We also get a whole lot of "tell, don't show" for transitions between events. I can not really recommend the game and I wish it went differently because it clearly had potential.

Overrated trash.

I rarely drop games in the middle and ok with plot focused games, but this shit was too much for me, I made it to ~50% and gave up.

Main plot 1/5
It starts as a struggle against depression but quickly turns into a lame urban fantasy. Boring worldbuilding, pointless info dumping, deus ex machina around every corner.

MC is ridiculous. First he's mourning his family and weeping about not being able to communicate with people, ten minutes later he wants to fuck every woman he sees, and a few days later he's planning his own harem.

Writing isn't great. Lots of: "I went to get a coffee. The weather was nice. I'm so tired."

LI 1/5
I'm not a big fan of harems but can tolerate it, and this is the pinnacle of harems. Everyone wants to be MC's daughter-wife cos of mAgiiiiC. All LIs are one-dimensional. No character development, no romance development, all happy with harem situation.

H scens 1/5
Avarege game expirience:
Hours of boring plot, no build-up, and then "ok let's fuck", few slides of "I sooooo love you, I belong to you only", outdated silent (no dirty talk, no description) animation, few slides of "I soooooo grateful for your cum". Repite

TL;DR
Creep's power fantasy. No dicent fap content.

Half-assed character development, if those characters were developed at all. Dev made too many girls and spread development too thinly.
Sex scenes were few and half-assed, basically one act per scene.
"Horror" scenes that basically wasted time. Literally meant nothing.
Plenty of plot threads left unfinished, ending was basically "It was all a dream", but replace dream with simulation . These kind of endings had and will always suck. Quite literally the only reason I made this review, would've ignored and move on otherwise.
Theme and concept was pretty nice, but as per the above, ultimately wasted, especially due to ending. 1/5, mostly due to originality. Well, the originality it seem to had before the ending that is.

The characters were largely forgettable, the MC was a creep and the second act dragged on for one of the most anticlimactic endings I've ever seen. Renders are also extremely poor, would recommend playing the first half and dropping

One of the best plots with some of the worst H-scenes

Before launch, the game seemed like a standard harem simulator, where the pornographic content would prevail over the plot, which was added for the sake of appearance. But here it is the opposite - it feels like the pornographic content was added for the sake of appearance, to attract attention to the game.

The characters, seemingly made with DAZ, look attractive, diverse and sexy. But the scenes they participate in are poorly done. Perhaps this is somehow connected with technical limitations or difficulties of the author himself, but I got the impression that the author did not want to work on pornographic scenes: there is no skillful direction, no consistent foreplay, no strong climaxes. Sometimes even the camera shows only some upper body, like in old erotic films. Therefore, I would not recommend it as a pornographic game.

But the game has another side - the plot. And it is really twisted, intriguing, and fascinating. It vividly shows self-flagellation, reflection, and in some ways the game's narrative is reminiscent of Dostoevsky's style. It is also clear that the author has deep knowledge of philosophy and religious studies, these topics are well played out and presented. Closer to the end, there were moments that gave real goosebumps.

Unfortunately, the last day seems a bit crumpled, although it is a logical conclusion. And yet, I would like to see not only an open ending, but also a detailed epilogue, at least in pictures.

In summary: this is an excellent plot-driven visual novel that does not need pornographic material.

8/10

I really wanted to love this game due to the story. Overall, it is well written and well thought out but the MC is lacking in just about every aspect possible. I understand that perhaps that's the main point of the conflict (a subpar dude getting hot chicks and saving the world) but after the first half of the game, it began to wear on me to a point of annoyance. Granted, the MC is literally struggling with an inner demon, but that does not excuse the amount of sniveling and fretting the MC does which is more akin to a inexperienced teenager rather than a grown middle-aged man. There was this incessant need for assurance from every other character around the MC (even the demons if you can believe it). The MC began constantly asking for advice and guidance that began to get redundant and unnecessary leading to paragraphs of repeated info. It made the MC into a feckless douche rather than a hesitant hero. I felt it was almost a planned delay to the climax of the story or so it seemed at several points.

That being said, the models/renders were good. Not breathtaking or top notch, but good enough. The girls were a good mixture of different ages, appearances, personalities and body types to keep the H scenes interesting. My gripe about this is the actual H scenes. Plenty of opportunities for some serious dicking and the MC is like "oh just jerk me off" or "use your feet" which was a real letdown. The H scenes are also very short and limited as though the Dev was more interested in writing than animating, which is fine but WHY put 20 girls in the game and then limit the H scenes? Why not just cut down the number of LIs so that the H scenes could be more numerous, longer and better developed without interfering with the story? A large portion of the game was wasted on spending time with and getting to know the excessive LIs since there were so many of them.

The MC having a healthy case of "horndog syndrome" is pretty much the norm for every guy on the planet, particularly when young (sometimes maybe even too young), fit and attractive women are practically throwing themselves at him. I didn't see the need for all the guilt tripping before and after the H scenes (again, wasted time and wasted writing). If the guilt thing was going to be a point of contention, then why bother giving the player a choice? The MC should just kinetically go through with the lechery and feel guilty about it after. As a player, if I make a choice to go for something, I don't wanna hear the MC whining about how I possibly made the wrong choice or to try to make me feel guilty about it. I mean, who's really in control of the direction the game is going, the player or the MC?

I won't waste time on the ending. Be prepared for a big let down. I was very disappointed. This game could have been a home run but fell short towards the end. 2.5/5

Pros: not terrible. Written well enough that I could see how some people might like it.
Cons: the women are magically compelled to go mad with desire for the protagonist. All of them. And if you feel strange about taking advantage of that, and try to reject any of them, they break down, and you're made to feel terrible. Or, you can take advantage of them, and induct them into the harem you're building. I'm fine with harems, if the girls are given an actual choice. In some games, there is a dark ending where all the girls are magically drawn into a harem, and magically forced to feel happy. I'm 99% sure that's the good ending for this one, albeit under different circumstances (the protagonist doesn't have the choice to just let them live their lives.)
The plot is a bit out there, in terms of how it relates the mystical/supernatural with the human. The two realms don't feel well integrated. I can't really put my finger on why.
The other big con: the protagonist's brain. For starters, he isn't really dealing with "survivor's guilt", he's dealing with masquerading as survivor's guilt. So, it's not actually about human psychology. It's about which I find less connection with, being an actual human. And I have a fair amount of experience with shitty thoughts, (although not the survivor's guilt type,) but this is something else; it bears no resemblance to my experiences, and is super unpleasant. I'm not saying my experiences are the only way to experience shitty thoughts for which you need therapy, but despite my history I feel no resonance with the protagonist's thoughts. Which would be one thing, if the story were about therapy and healing. Instead, it's about magic and just ignoring stuff until it disappears. I’m fine with protagonists with (figurative) demons, that they need help to conquer, but their demons, struggles, healing, and setbacks need to seem plausible. These don't. I'm not a psychiatrist or a therapist, so I can't say with 100% certainty that there aren't a significant amount of people who experience things like this, but going off of my own experiences, it doesn't seem well done, and it doesn't make this a compelling product. In my imperfect human opinion, I don't see it helping many people who, being real humans, actually have to work for their healing - and not just have healing and pussy handed to them by magic - and I certainly can't see it helping a well-adjusted human understand the nature of shitty experiences for those of us who struggle regularly. Maybe my opinion is wrong, but, either way, the nature of the protagonist's demons and healings detracted from my experience of the game. Not that it would have been 4 stars even if they hadn't.
I didn't like the sex scenes.
I don't like the protagonist. He's a lecherous creep, who gets women solely because of the aforementioned magic, instead of through charm and quality. He's doesn't seem like a bad person, but he doesn't do much to earn or deserve the good things that come his way, and following along with his lecherous thoughts feels pretty poor. And they don't stop, even when he starts getting laid. It doesn't seem like he does much growth or healing, at least as far as I got. There aren't a ton of choices in how this plays out, at least as far as I can tell, so you're basically just along for the ride. And he is really not someone I enjoy riding along with.
Despite all the negatives, I'm pretty sure I should give this three stars. I feel confident that it's better than a two star game.

rating as of completed game

been following this one since the beginning. the story has always captivated me and drew my attention for being a good representation of how ones thought process goes when they feel insecure about life, love and themselves! there were several parts in this story that hit home for me and even through some of the text heavy portions of the story i felt i had to keep going to find out what happens next!

graphically, it looks nice but its not the must hyper realistic game models out there. on the other hand the renders are done well and the models posed in feasible realistic ways that add depth to the experience! the lewd scenes are nice but mostly static images with a few lower quality animations added! this isnt to say the scenes are terrible but just average for what you would expect in other games!

where this game shines is the story! you get multiple characters that fit into an overarching mystery of whats really going on. like most story driven games it starts out rather slow and there are points even later in the game that seem a bit text heavy, but if you push through you get more tidbits of information about the plot as you go along! characters are developed well and unfortunately some get more spotlight than others but i feel this leads into a development in the story later on! at the end i was a bit disappointed at how it seemed like some of the plot points didnt get wrapped up or explained and you are left wondering what happened to certain characters! (this is as vague as i can be without giving away the ending) i know its another plot point, but was also a bit disappointed that the MC never got to be with Breanna physically! she was the only member of the harem that seems to have been left out! i know it would have killed her powers but i feel like they deserved to have at least one intimate scene before the end of the game!

im getting off track here. next up is music, the games music and sound effects did a good job of adding to the atmosphere of the game and the only thing i have to complain about there is that the music was loud! that could be turned down in the options menu so ultimately that falls on me. this game is a long one however so be sure to strap in for a long ride! there are lots of choices in the game and not sure how much weight each one has on the final ending but there are some decisions that will keep you from adding certain characters to the harem which i never chose but might affect the ending you get!

overall, i would recommend this game for the story and the lewd bits as a bit of extra icing on top! just go in knowing your gonna be in for a long read and you shouldnt expect lewd scenes around every corner in this one!

(P.S. if the dev is reading this review, id like to humbly request a small epilogue update or something to let us know how things turned out after the ending!)

I enjoyed the storytelling and the characters. I wish the game were longer but overall it's a good game that kept me entertained. I would really interested in playing a sequel that continues the story.

So, I've decided to push through and finish the game.

All in all, it was a cool experience. I didn't dislike the ending like so many disliked, I think the ending was pretty cool and I was kinda expecting it from the beginning when the MC said his job.

However, I think this game tried to hard to be something that it wasnt. At the end of the day, this is a porn game and putting so many cool and sexy characters and kinks and not exploring them was a big fail.

Specially in the end, when girls were literally disappearing and were in a position to have sex with the MC, but then they would say "its not our turn". Honestly, if you dont want to render that scene DONT PUT THAT ICE CREAM IN FRONT OF US. Like, it's okay if you dont want to have 5 or 6 sex scenes per day, but dont tease them and say "cant, because its not our turn", its super annoying. If you are going to deny it DONT TEASE IT.

The kinks with the Nicole the doll girl and the sub/dom with Tien was barely touched. The same with Misha's body modification kink, what a waste of an excelent model. The Daddy thing with Audrey was cool, but I always felt like the sex scenes themselves were lacking. OH, and things with Breanne never actually took off, which is a fucking disaster.

The story is cool, there are some very cool moments but, if we remind ourselves why we are downloading this game, I can only give it a 2 out of 5. It had the potencial to be a 5 out of 5, you just needed to actually commit to the perviness and the kinks and less to the depression.

It is an 8 out of 10 game, and here is my review of it.

It might contain some mild spoilers, so be advised.

First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so I cannot judge the writing.

The graphics and renders are pretty decent, and the animations are good too, especially considering it was made by just one person.

The story was one of the best I've played lately, though unfortunately not until the end, so let's get to that.

The message at the end with that girl hit me hard. As someone who has been struggling with depression and life for a long time, unfortunately, I have had more life inside the VN than in my own.

The story was captivating and very interesting. I really enjoyed the pace of things and the way they were going, BUT a little more control over certain choices and possibly different paths would have been awesome. The religious concept and the idea that God abandoned that universe were amazing. I was really excited to see a happy ending where I would finally be able to deflower Breanna, but sadly, that never happened </3. The ending was bad for me, but that doesn’t mean the game is. When you have a depressing life, the least you can expect from some games is to have a happier one.

Sorry if my review sounds a little off. Again, I am not a native English speaker, and sometimes I struggle a lot when trying to express my thoughts and feelings. Your characters were really good and well-constructed. I grew attached to a handful of them and really wanted to help them and give them a happy ending.

That said, I thank you for this game and for the time I enjoyed while playing it. You don’t have to, but maybe in the near future, you could revisit the game—perhaps a remake? If you manage to have a small team in the future to help with it, that would be awesome. More choices and endings, more renders, and more time with the girls. I am looking forward to your next works and wish you all the best and good luck. Thanks for the game. I also hope that in the near future, my life will change and give me the possibility to support your next games.

Hands down one of the most anticlimactic endings of an AVN that I have ever participated in. I enjoyed the story very much for the most part. The animations were decent, the models were pretty good... I had planned a 5 star review until that ending. I can't discredit the rest of the work done though. Kept me wanting more. Garbage ass ending.

what a fucking story! Extraordinary! First of all I want to say that I totally disagree with those who described the ending as abrupt. I found it perfect with the final explanation. What other ending could there be? Certainly not a final overview of what would happen next (as so many games of this type normally end). I don't want to make any spoilers, so I won't explain what I mean, but for me after the final explanation the ending could only be like this (I've played all the endings). One thing is for sure: at the end I was 10 minutes in front of the screen crying overcome with emotion. Real tears. The whole game had me emotionally involved from shortly after the beginning. I found the story very well thought out and constructed. I recommend reading the whole thing without skipping parts even in the parts where the action slows down.

I went into so much detail about the story because I think that's the main thing about the game. Yes there is also the erotic and pornographic part... but it's completely secondary. It even annoyed me at times because I wanted to continue in the story.

What else to say... the characters are really well constructed. Each character has his own characteristics, his own personality, his own fetishes. The dialogues are hardly stupid or unrealistic.

One small flaw: there were some paths that were opened and were not continued (e.g. Sarah). But it was impossible to finish all the open paths before reaching the end. It would have taken years and the game would have lasted far too long.

The animations... as I said before, this part is completely secondary within the game. In any case, I found them adequate and they serve to do what they are supposed to do.

Writing: I also liked this aspect a lot. I'm not English and I have to say that I learned dozens and dozens of new words.

I can't wait to see the first releases of this author's next game which I will definitely start supporting. Great work!

To sum up, since I can't give 10 stars I'll just have to give it 5.

Interesting story, beautiful art but the ending felt so rushed and did not provide any closure. So much build up for everything and everyone just to literally fade away.
I look forward to the next story.

I first downloaded this game because I saw that it was complete and I really get tired of the play-stop-play routine of unfinished games. I was also a little wary of the "horrible accident killed your family" premise, as it seemed to be used and used again. However, I liked that there was a supernatural element to it, so I fired it up.

I am so glad that I did. Wow!

Things I liked/loved about this VN:

* Gripping, intelligent storyline. I wanted to keep coming back to it even though I was knee-deep in another VN when I started
* Beautiful characters, each with their own unique personalities
* Unexpected twists
* Amazing endings - I recommend a save so you can see all that the Professor had in mind
* The music was awesome - not the canned music bits that often show up in different VNs but well-written and well-produced original music that really set the tone of the scene

Things I didn't like about this VN:

Well, nothing really, but some parts were so heavy that I was at times overwhelmed with emotion. I won't reveal any spoilers but I am sure that anyone who played through to the end would easily identify the half-dozen or more places where Professor Amethyst skillfully manipulated me into a near-profound sadness. I tip my hat to the powerful storytelling and look forward to the next one.

BRAVO!

Oh wow. I wasn't prepared for this to be such a long (!), intricate and profound story. Before I get more into that, let's discuss some basics:

- This is a VN. There is few choices and they don't ultimately matter for most of the game.
- This is a Harem game (urgh), but while other games spend time trying to sell you the idea of a completely unrealistic concept like this, the implementation here is sound and perfectly reasonable. It's also an integral part of the story. This is really well done here.
- The H scenes are ok... ish. They are serviceable at best, but given the strength of the story, it doesn't matter much. There's enough of them to please the discerning "customer" of F95zone, I am sure.
- The MC is growing over the course of the story, but for most of it, he's annoying in his self pity. At first it feels warranted, but as time goes on, his relapses get annoying, given what happens around him.
- As a MAJOR plus though, the MC is not a creep (beyond being annoying single minded at the beginning) and has socially well adjusted relationships with all minors in the game. It's depressing that I have to say this.
- The overall story is strong, but it suffers from being too tame in terms of the darkness it tries to display. Tien is a good example as the "Whipping Girl" the author's idea of hard sex / BDSM / Punishment is so laughably vanilla that it is hard to take the idea seriously. At the same time, there's a number of unique kinks (dollification?) that you probably won't see elsewhere.
- While it is commendable that it is completed, it sort of just... ends? Given the slooooooow build up, I can't blame anyone to be disappointed by this. If an ending is important to you, this one is as poor as it can be.

So, what it comes down to is the STORY. And what can I say, it's an actual story, it's the heart and soul of this VN and the reason to read it is that alone. It's engaging and fairly deep and unique. If that's what you are looking for, you won't be disappointed.

What a let-down… the story was great, I was even taking some notes, update after update, of the different things to remember, all for nothing, 3 years of taking notes for a 2 minutes ending (Krista’s ending is even worse with its unique render).

Well, don’t get me wrong, I don’t criticize the ending itself, it’s genius, it’s the kind of plot twist you only see in great movies, it blows your mind, but it’s horribly rushed, like if the dev was already starting a new project and didn’t really care about this one anymore. The ending consists of 2-3 renders, the famous 5 choices (useless in the end), and you immediately get a black screen congratulating you for reaching the end of the game. It’s frustrating because the whole concept of the story and the ending twist are great, but it leaves you with nothing but emptiness, not even a last look at all your Lis, not even a look at your wife and daughters, just nothing but a black screen.

3/5 for the nice voyage over the last 3 years, too bad it ended so abruptly…

So I really fell for this game early on, but the last few updates made it clear that the dev either lost passion for this project, or was just rushing to be done with it. We all knew the of the MC early, and we all accepted that, not everything needs a "happy end". But the final release was so rushed, and had such an abrupt ending, it made every decision feel meaningless, every connection to the love interest pointless, we got no sort of conclusion for them.

The lack of effort shown and how bad the ending was done bumped this from a 3 to a 1 for me.

This might be the best game I have played from this site. Story was amazing, I even shed a tear here and there, especially towards the ending.

Story 5/5 - Mostly top notch. Almost nothing about it felt unoriginal. It felt like a new experience. Ending felt a little bit rushed with a bunch of loose ends.
Characters 5/5 - Characters felt like real people with real emotions, flaws and wants.
Writing 4/5 - Writing was really good. I reduce the grade by one because of excessive reading. Often it feels like there's just too much unnecessary text that doesn't drive the story. It could very well be condensed a bit.
Renders: 2/5 - My main gripe of the game. Girls mostly look unnatural and weird. Their faces are not believable and they also doesn't seem follow a style, they are all over the place. The bodies are very samey porn bodies except from a few outliers.
Animations: 2/5 - Sex scenes are spread far apart, very short and mostly consist of 2-3 short loops. Don't play this for a wank. Really don't!.

Overall 5/5 - Even though it has many flaws the sum is beautiful, just like it's characters. If everything i nag about was fixed I would need another star to give it.