VN - Ren'Py - On the Prairie [v0.11.0] [The CapnGames]

(v.3.0)
I like this a lot. It's a very straightforward VN, with a few, clear choices, no non-intuitive you-picked-doornumber2-so-it's-gameover-in-10-turns BS. The renders are good, lots of nice variety of composition, and the sex-scenes, though few, are very well done. The female models are a bit of mixed bag, but I think that's because of the effort of keeping it real to the setting. I love the MILF (that's my weakness), and the MC is a little cringy, but way better than most.

The thing is set in the wild west, and there's a good effort in design to maintain the atmosphere. This is refreshing, especially after so many of these things with the same campuses, same bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Yeah, very competently put together VN.

Gosh-darn tarnation, though, the words, the words... Nothing wrong with the English, but we got narration, we got internal monologues, and we got people nattering at each other from Natchez to Deadwood. It seems that every story beat is finished off with a dinner scene with the MC and his adopted family, all nattering at each other like George, Elaine and Jerry in the diner.

I'd give this 5 stars if the dev:
- got rid of the narration
- got rid of the internal monologues. Seriously, the MC is looking up at the sun, wiping his forehead, and he thinks "boy, it's hot." I mean, c'mon.
- cut the dialogue by 50%. Everybody just talks way too much. And the writing ain't Tarentino.
Ask yourself, are these words really necessary? All they make me do is wear out the spacebar.

My opinion on these kinds of things, and I realize that others may think differently, is that Visual Novel is visual first, text second. Too much nattering is one of the most common flaws I see in these things

Anyway, it's early on, so there's time to fix it. And apart from that, like I say, I really like this.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. I certainly don't want to discourage the dev. There's a story here and it's not bad per se. The art is fairly average and the characters are pretty cookie cutter. Also, the dev writes so much text at a time that the text box ends up covering up large portions of the screen. I'd recommend either adding the ability to change the opacity of the text box or at least try not to cram so much text into each individual bit of dialogue.

I'm not going to give up on this one just yet, but there are some little tweaks and changes that could REALLY help this one out. Right now, it's very average.

Not to bad, it isn't rushing headlong to the same old sex route. Looks like it may have a few twists and turns, which will add adventure the game. I guess that the incest part will be between aunt and MC, although it isn't in the true sense. I think he needs to learn how to fight to improve some reality into the game, that would be the job of the bartender maybe?

This is for v0.2.0. Renders are decent. The women are beautiful. SFX are a plus. Animations are good not great but having them is definitely a bonus. Being a western its something I dont think Ive seen in a AVN so its pretty interesting. The story is still heavily in its infant state so its leaning towards relationships without him thinking about revenge at this point but it was a fun playthrough. Cant wait for more.

Review for V0.1.0 Basic

I'm going to be a bit harsher with this review in hopes that things really do get improved. A good western AVN is something I would like to play. But so far, this isn't exactly cutting it for me.

Take away the western theme and this is just another run-of-the-mill visual novel you see so commonly on this site. You would think that after having his parents killed, this would lead to a bit of a tougher MC right? Wrong. The MC acts like all the other basic ones. A simple nice guy who turns into a nervous virgin whenever anything remotely erotic happens. I'm so tired of this. A lot of the choices so far boil down to "Ah my aunt is bending over, should I look?" and when you look, "Ah I shouldn't be doing this, that's my aunt! What's happening to me!"
With inner thoughts of perving on all of the women he sees.

Next the music. Man, if you're going to make a western game, please use music that fits the theme. There is a sequence of events where just this odd electronic music is playing. In a western game. Super jarring to say the least. For the rest of it, some of it fits and some of it doesn't plain and simple.

The renders aren't really bad, but I feel like the standard has gone up lately. This just can't really compare to those. It would be something I could look past if the rest of the game was great, but it just isn't so far. Same with the animations. They exist, but they aren't the smoothest I've seen.

The dialogue and writing feel pretty basic as well. The English is good (beyond a couple minor mistakes I've noticed) but nothing really stands out so far. Also, the weird narration needs to be cut imo. Completely unnecessary and kind of kills the flow. You don't need a narrator saying "A woman calls out to MC" followed by the woman literally calling out to him right after.

Now there are a couple things I did like. The renders do give off the western vibe. I like the character models for the most part too, and when the right music is playing I can see getting immersed in the western vibe.

TLDR - Right now this is just a very average game with a western twist slapped on to it. Nothing really stands out so far. Granted it's only the first version, maybe things will improve. I'll update this review if they do.

If you read this dev, I hope you take what I said into consideration. All I can really ask for at the end of the day. Good luck on making your game.