VN - Unity - Out of Touch! [v3.36] [Story Anon]

Edit: This review is now pretty outdated. After playing through Chapter 40, I can safely say that I treated this game a bit too harshly. While I still think the game could be paced way better and there are some eye-rolling anime tropes, the writing is really phenomenal and some of the best character work I've ever seen in an adult game (CJ is still not the best though…). The sexual content is becoming a bit more frequent, but it's still definitely not the focus, which is okay; it just means it's not as good of an adult game as it could have been. Moving my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

First thing that needs mentioning: if you're going into this game expecting a lot of sex, you will be severely disappointed. There are some steamy scenes here and there, sure, but they are few and far between and you will have a struggle getting off to this game if that's what you expected to be able to do. So if that's the kind of game you're looking for (and there's nothing wrong with that), just look elsewhere because I don't see this changing anytime soon.

But let's focus on what the game is. It's basically a kinetic novel with very few choices. You're in this for the story it wants to tell and that's pretty much it. If that's not your thing, again, this game isn't for you.

The renders are some of the best I've ever seen, very high quality. The game is very psychedelic with its visuals and that can be a good or bad thing depending on the viewer. Me personally, I didn't really care for it.

The main characters are multi-dimensional and likeable for the most part. Can't complain here. Honestly my least favorite character is CJ. He is absurdly idiotic and while I understand that that's kind of the point (because it's supposed to be funny I guess?), that doesn't take away from the fact that it is incredibly frustrating to sit there and watch him be a clueless dumbfuck about his best friend's gender for half the game. It's a ridiculous plot point in itself and I audibly groaned every time it was brought up and wasn't resolved. It's like something that you'd find in a childish slice-of-life anime, and this game is trying to take itself at least somewhat seriously so there's no excuse there.

There is clearly an intent to make a compelling story, but honestly, it just didn't get me invested at all. It tries to deal with heavy themes and - on paper - interesting ideas, but it does it in such a strange and confusing way. It can be very hard to keep track of what is going on at times because the game is so psychedelic in nature. It will slow down at times and get you invested in the actual main characters that you care about, and then it will go 80 miles an hour on a long tangent about some side character's story that you really don't give a damn for, and you're just left in the dust wondering what the hell is the point of all of this in the first place?

TLDR: There are some things that the game does very well, but the story tries way too hard to do way too much at once, and there are some plot points that are just flat out ridiculous and (quite literally) unbelievable. The characters themselves are good and the renders are beautiful, but the story is definitely hit-or-miss. You may like it, you may not. Personally, I was a bit disappointed considering how highly-praised this game is. And if by chance you're looking for a fap game, don't let the lewd preview images fool you, this is DEFINITELY not it. The dev certainly has potential though and I'm interested to see if they decide to try any other projects in the future. The dev's dedication alone gives this game an extra star from me, I respect it a lot. It's honestly what has impressed me the most with this whole project. I'll definitely be staying on the lookout.

I wasn't a big fan of unity games, but after playing this game I gotta say I don't even know why I didn't like unity games and glad I play this one.

What I can say about this game is that it is one of the best games I played made with Koikatsu, it has a really interesting story, funny and full of references, but even with all that is still one of the few games that makes me go on a feels roller-coaster, the story has some heavy themes on the beginning but after that seems a really nice story about friendship and love, but oh boy how I was wrong the story is much more that it seems and keeps only getting better, Anon keeps introducing twists and always catches me off guard.

About the characters, they are just amazing each girl is unique and also stunning and/or cute, some of them have some real sad background or having a hard life, but I'm sure with the help of our MC, CJ, they will find happiness, with some really nice lewds scenes, although not animated that didn't affect how good they are.

So with all this said in my opinion everyone should try the game, or at least everyone looking for a good story should try it.

First of all, this is an incredibly great story!

However, my first start was finished after not even 30 minutes...
My second start barely lasted longer....
After a long break, my third attempt came and it "clicked" in my brain! The story totally captivated me and I spent an entire weekend with this masterpiece.
The graphics along with the incredibly awesome music, the special humor as well as the excellently written characters more than thrilled me!
While reading I had several times "Brain.exe doesn't work anymore", because I just couldn't follow the multilayered story and the mass of characters... Must be because of my age ;-)
In retrospect I only noticed that there are practically no decisions to make, so practically it's a kinetic novel and there's not really much sex to see either.
Mind you, after I reached the end so far I had only realized this! I don't know how else to describe it, that the story captivated me so much. Am I missing this content and possibility? Did it bother me? A resounding no! I was more than compensated by all the other content!

Probably this work of art is not for everyone, but those who can get into it will not regret it at all.

Came for the hot models.

Stayed for the story.

Because, my gawd, there is actually one: A good story, that is. It starts a bit slow but this is one VN that rewards patience. Sure, some of the prose is too purple, but that is more than made up for with the fact that plot events are consistent.

Did I mention how hot the models are again? Cos they are hot. Play this if you are based. Cos I too am also based.

This fucking game, man....

I'm not even sure if I should call it a game, it's basically kinetic, but it sometimes gives you a choice how much you want to read about the characters and the world. It starts a little differently, but by the end of chapter 27 it's basically a kinetic visual novel. And what a novel it is.

I'm not gonna lie, I almost stopped the game within the first 15 minutes because it was too boring and didn't get me to care. It doesn't do a good job at first to make you care about the characters, which soon after becomes one of its strongest points. The whole story actually, the game is about mystery and thriller and, maybe for me personally, philosophy. It's difficult to write about, because so much happens in the game, it has a great amount of content and tells its story in an interesting way. Often times new characters get introduced, often times it's at first not clear whose POV you're reading things from, often times it's not clear what characters are even talking about and often times more questions get raised than answered. But it's so intriguing. Things do get answered just enough for new questions to keep the suspense up.

One of the best aspects of this story is that the characters all feel meaningful. In essence, when it comes to the characters, it's a game about learning what everyone struggles with the most and how they deal with it. It's beautiful. And it's very diverse in that regard, they don't feel like tropes. This is a personal point and I know that, but the way they are written makes me feel things. Many things, difficult things. And I love this story for it.

Most of the time I wasn't sure if this game actually has a place on this page, because the sex scenes were far inbetween and are not very well made in terms of pure sexiness. They do exactly what they're supposed to do to develop characters and relationships, but as a porn game it wouldn't be great. That's probably my biggest negative point, because the models are great and very attractive (subjective, I'm aware) and well animated and fleshed out sex scenes would definitely elevate this game a lot. Without that it's "just" a great story, one I couldn't stop following.

Today was Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker release and I couldn't stop playing Out of Touch until I got to the end of this version (1.77), do with that information what you will.

This VN has one of the best stories I have yet to come upon on this site. The characters are believable and relatable, with almost no cliched archetypes that happen in most games. The dev is one of the most communicative devs I have met on this site as well. Super nice guy, and super involved in the communuty.
Also the H scenes in Out of Touch also feel organic and central to the plot. No random bone jumping without any lead up or purpose.
I highly suggest checking it out if you are a fan of interesting, unique storylines and character development. I promise you will not be disapointed.

Big fan already having just finished what content is there, started off just skimming dialogue like usual but found myself pretty quickly slowing down and actually playing the game as intended, the memes throughout are hilarious and I found myself dying the moment Chad came out, can't wait to see where the story goes from the current patch this was posted on.

This is a masterpiece. It's a very good visual novel without talking about anything else, and it looks like we're getting into more combat/gameplay which seems extremely promising. The sexual content is also extremely good, added to by the incredible writing of each character and overall narrative.

This is the best game in the "Adult Game" genre currently, but even outside of that it would still be considered excellent.

Playing Version 1.70
First of all, Out of Touch is an amazing experience that I have enjoyed tremendously over the past couple days, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where the games goes in the future!
Now for some specifics.

Story:
The game describes itself as a melodramatic comedy, and that description holds up. The cast is made up of a group of teenagers who all have a deep friendship with each other and the main man, CJ. This is also one of the few harem games where it truly feels like these characters are all in a relationship together. All of them, girls included *wink wink* Don't worry though, CJ will be the only dick in the mix, for those who might be worried about that. Also, if you don't like teenage rom-coms, this one's probably not gonna do much to change your mind on that. For me, this was a story that sucked me in and would not let me go from the start. It goes to some heavy places though, so for those who don't like content with discussions of you might not enjoy this.

Art:
Fantastic. This games general vibe and aesthetic is right up my alley. The scenes and characters look great, and the music. The MUSIC. Vaporwave tracks, 80's hits, even some OST's thrown into the mix, it makes playing through the scenes a real pleasure, and is another aspect of the game that kept me going through. There's even a Youtube playlist with most of the songs used in the game that I have been jamming to for the last two days. Seriously good stuff on there, if you're into those genres.

H Content:
This may be the only thing the game is slightly lacking in, purely from a numbers perspective. Anyone coming in here expecting to see harem shenanigans right from the getgo is in for a rude awakening. I would say it takes a good couple hours before you even get to what I consider the first true sex scene, so be warned going in. But the bonus of this is that all the sex scenes that have happened have mattered. Some actual plot relevance given to the porn, shocking, I know. But after playing so many games that just throw scene after scene at you, it's actually refreshing to have a game that holds its cards and knows when to show them. I know the creator has stated that there will be more sex in future updates, so it's likely that as the story progresses we'll see more and more of this stuff in the game.

Overall, this game deserves a look for those who like some good, thoughtful drama with a good splattering of comedy and sex thrown into the mix. I give this game a big slap of approval!

A very interesting game, graphics are well done, and the setup is great. The writing is good, and the characters well portrayed. The drama was crafted very well, it's so rare to find a game where the tension isn't feeling forced and make your eyes roll, though it wasn't handled very well with the "side character" IMO, there was no room for the tension to breathe, meaning: there's the revelation->it creates the drama->1 minute later the mc talk and that character does an immediate 180.. it really feels to rushed and a missed opportunity. The game has practically no sex scenes yet (but i've not finished it yet) but nevertheless it interested me up to this point, unfortunately "this point" is the battle scene, unnecessary, boring, hard to understand (for me at least). Another critique is the mix of genre, I've got nothing against it but here is not well implemented IMO, it doesn't feel organic. The teenage drama part is well done and it's emotional, so the paranormal bit with the father felt really out of place, in my opinion it could be handled way better.
Anyway, overall it is a good product, I hope to find the will to overcome this silly combat bit and that after that the lewd part becomes more prominent.

Beautiful art style.. Beautiful and unique girls.. a very interesting and fun story.. AND CHAD F'N THUNDERCOCK. One of those things might not seem like the others BUT damn if it doesn't somehow work in this amazing game.

Two things to warn you about with the first being that fairly quickly the MC is going to feel like he's going down the 'not a nice guy' route but don't let that turn you off the game! The MC may be a bit out there but he's really just an example of what happens if 'Mr. nice guy' also has supreme confidence and doesn't let himself get caught up in over thinking (or thinking at all on occasion).

The second thing to be ready for is the period where the story takes a weird ass turn and you get hit with the fire hose of trouble/scariness. The game definitely threw me for a loop with a lot of bad stuff happening within a pretty short time but it's all for the greater purpose of getting you into the actual story line.

This is definitely up there on my favorite game list!

Hello everyone. I put this grade to the game cause the next critics (Pros, neutral, cons and the worst)

Pros: The soundtrack (Specially the A E S T H E T I C ones), But there is a one tiny story part that was really "OOFFF" if we talk about music, but that is going the consreasons.

-Jamie, Kieran/Cro and Sarah. The best well-written characters.

-The different body styles of this game. I love that most of your friends have petite, normal and thicc bodies. Most of these games only show us two paths: "The lolita" or the "GG cups"

Neutral: The story didn't change in something despite that the game offers a lot of options about your differents friends. I know that the author wants show us a main plot, but that your characters didn't change some mindset after your decisions is a bit lazy in my opinion.

CJ: Maybe he has the "I can save everyone/GaryStu syndrome" and although that is polarizing in anime/cartoon/Literature plots, I like when he brings some kind of comedy even in the most disheartning moments. However I believe all girls have a lot of patience and love about someone being so oblivious, specially Jamie.

The Cons.

The battle attempt between CJ, Sarah and Cro was really maddening. I'm ok that you want "Thing outside the box" about defeating a villain, but that music and the poor quality design for the battle and not real skills or techniques is a waste of time. I recommend put a lot of effort ching that or simply erase the battles in this game.

Victoria and Leah. Look, I like the design of Victoria being the most "Blessed" of all girls, but the story raping CJ and after Leah discovered that moment and treat Victorias as the worst trash/human/cunt in the world and after that being the BFF in the same day, It's really a bad construction of guts for a real human. These two girls must being at least enemies or neitral after that conversation.

The worst.

Most of people love this, But the "Wholesome" content in this story and after those "sacrifices" of Matoi, Hayat and Kieran, nothing happened and all your harem is ok was a real waste of time. Per se I was expecting a game where you're a dumbass and you treat yout harem as your harlots, the author give us content for tearing some hours, and learn about being together along with your beloved each second. But everyone survived, your friends continue with the "Happy joy club" and nobody is spiteful despite that all the drama is really big the charaters enough motives to be spiteful, specially Victoria and Kieran.

Conclusion. I gave the game 4 stars. The pros are present for most of time in this story, but the cons are really, really bad and maybe the authors should change the focus for future updates. "The worst" critic that I gave is maybe really personal and I know that most people really enjoy this kind of story, but I hope that author doesn't fellow that for uture games. I'll give future critics and if the game improves a lot at least "The cons" I can give five stars and even being patron in the future.

Keep your job to this kind of work.

V1.70

So far this is a decent, fun Visual Novel. I'll leave any mention of combat system out of this review. Reading the thread it's seems that combat the system is not completed yet, and this is not yet a complete game. Fair enough.

Renders are top notch. It's done with that Kokiatsu (something like that) game/engine. Same engine used to make Lessons in Love, and High School Tutor. However the dev here has better control over that engine, and his results just look better to my eyes. Better than the other games I've mentioned.

Story seems to be trying to strike the balance between Serious V/N, Horror and also not taking itself too seriously. It's mostly successful in that regard. But that's a very fine line to ride, and i'm not sure how anyone could manage such at thing without some "wierdness". In my opinion a final edit, once over when the game is complete, could probably tighten things up a little.

The point of view changes at times feel both jarring and almost pointless, i think i'd prefer a single narrative focal point, more of "Show me, don't tell me" and less "internal monologue". But then again this is a visual novel at it's core, and internal monologue is kinda embedded into that VN ethos.

The "sandboxy" choices, where you get to "free roam" feel out of place. As if nothing you do or chose in those sections has any real impact to the story. It makes them feel more cumbersome then interesting.

Overall it's enjoyable and worth a good playthrough. The dev is engaged in the thread, and it's shaping up to be a good project. although at times it can be a bit unfocused, and could be a little more streamlined.

v1.70

That game me cry twice.
The story is very original, quite funny yet very interesting. it got me thinking about life itself and the purpose of being alive multiple times.
The H-Scenes are actually part of the story instead of having just H-Scenes with a story as an excuse.

The characters are relatable and varied.
The fact that on of the MC lacks some grey matter yet is still loving and always here for the others is very cute.

Truly an amazing experience that I recommend!

Writing is a nice blend of silly and very serious, got me to laugh harder than I have in a while, it's definitely got me looking forward to seeing where these characters go from here. Also has probably the best looking koikatsu models I've seen, both in terms of whatever mods are being used (I don't really know how koikatsu works tbh) and also just their character designs. The soundtrack also hurts my soul.

v1.62.5 Public

Out of Touch starts off as a visual novel about a young man who is separated from his friends by his bitch mother and sent away for five years wherein he learns the value of self confidence and vows to return, after which there are some twists and turns and changes in perspective along the way. The writing is difficult to follow, full of memey internet references and switching between melodrama and absurdity so quickly it gave me whiplash. The character models are straight out of Koikatsu and not too interesting. The gameplay is mainly just clicking through the VN with the occasional options to talk to people or examine your surroundings, so slightly more interactive than a click-to-progress VN but not much more. Overall I couldn't get into it though a lot of other folks enjoy it, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Version 1.62.5

At the present state of the game, it's a definite recommend to try it out. I say "try it out", because I think at this point if you played from the very start, it's probably at least 15-20 hours long assuming you're not skipping all of the dialogue and you're probably going to know within the first couple of hours whether it's for you or not.

The big positive points at the moment are:

1. The story. It is simply a well-written game that very much lives up to its description as a melodramatic comedy. With the chapters and story arcs so far, it plays out much like a TV show in how it sets up its plot points and drama and then resolves those or dangles unanswered questions. Despite some of the harder-hitting themes explored, conflict does tend to be resolved in relatively light and positive ways and although some people may find "defeating the big bad with The Power of Love and Friendshiptm" to not be their tastes, personally I don't think every story has to bury itself in a grim reality. Outside of that, it's worth considering that the story so far is almost entirely kinetic, following a set path with optional side stories that develop individual characters further and the only real choices you have in the main story so far are intended to be whether or not you become romantically involved with certain characters.
2. The art. For a game that uses assets from Koikatsu particularly the character models look much better than any other KK game I've seen.
3. The music. The soundtrack, if the YouTube playlist is an accurate indication, is up to 77 licensed or original songs and has been put together very well. It's a rarity to notice/be able to comment on the soundtrack of these types of games and this is very much a stand-out that adds to the game.

There are a couple of things that might be considered negatives that are also worth mentioning:

1. The combat system. At present, there is only one instance of combat in the entire game and, to be fair, whilst I didn't have a problem with it, some people have found it clunky/confusing. As far as I'm aware, combat in the game is currently having a complete overhaul before it's rolled out to any other part of the game (and I understand it is the intention to add more combat to the game) but in its current state some people may find that one encounter a drawback.
2. H content. Compared to the current story length, there is not a huge amount of sexual content in the game. It is very much not a game that you're going to enjoy if all you're playing it for is porn and, particularly for some people on this site, that might be a deal-breaker.

This game is definitely a one-of-a-kind.

TL,DR: Clever, deep, and self-aware writing, some good Koikatsu work, and wonderful characters.

The writing! The characters are so endearing that I went from "ok, a new character" to having feels about them faster than any other game I can remember. The plot is convoluted and a little messy, but it has enough internal consistency that it works. There is a lot of humor, and it's a good blend of over-the-top and subtle nods.

Smut: It's a slow burn-- there is a ton of lore, world-building, character development, and plot to chug through. But the content really does deliver. Top-tier writers of H-games tend to be very adamant that their game is a Serious Game, not fap fodder, and the porn is just there because the plot needs it. Well, so be it; porn being secondary to plot is certainly true enough for those games, and for this one as well. But I get the vibe that this game is not ashamed of being sexy, and is willing to have a lot more fun with the h-content. That's a huge plus in my book.

Technically, the game is remarkably bug free and runs on what is best described as a nearly-full-featured RenPy engine built inside Unity, complete with a robust save system, rollback, ctrl-to-skip-already-seen, etc. This lets it have some things in it that you couldn't pull of in RenPy, mainly a so-far-little-used, but interesting, combat system.

The downsides: Like with most KK games, the quality is a bit spotty in a few scenes, especially in close-ups. There is a large (but not huge) cast, and all of them have multiple names, so you get a lot of information pitched at you early. (Fortunately, the characters are visually distinct and have memorable personalities, so this is not as bad as it sounds.) None of these flaws are big enough to deduct a star, though.

Wow, don't usually write reviews but sheesh, this game is something else.

Not a lot to say that hasn't already been said, the characters are great, the retro vibe is incredible, and the writing, man, stellar.

From the plot, to the titbits of background info you get from checking everything, you can tell this project is made of passion. Can't wait til next chapter, I'm here for the long run!

Also Jamie is a treasure, need more.