VN - Ren'Py - Over the Moon [v4.2.3] [Lockheart]

I have inadvertantly followed this series of games about Petal, Bliss and now Moon, with increasingly bewildered delight at the storytelling of the creator.

Ok for the boring stats people, graphics great, models perfect, animations more than satisfactory, some of the background story a little sketchy but honestly who cares in the grand scheme of things.

But the dominant storyline linking the main and important characters together through the series, and promoting them each appropriately in turn, is masterful

And permeating it all, is the wonderful Suzi, and her presence and social commentary on the concerns over the advance and place of Ai in our world pantheon. Here, the creator has their finger firmly on the pulse of whats important - it may not be what politicians or IT "specialists" owning the billion dollar companies fuelling Ai development concern themselves with, but rather what us in the streets should be considering

If Amazon, Netflix, (God forbid) Disney (fuck sake theyde have Grande as Harmony) or any other streaming company had the balls to pick up an original story with taboo subjects, then its right here with Lockhart

The final chapter in the Rose Garden Trilogy.
I really like the trilogy, and this is the final installment.
I like both the main characters and side charachters in OTM. I wouldnt say that this is my favorite between the three games in this story, but It is still very, very good.

The renders are great, and I like the fetishes, but the dialogue is unbearably stupid, and the story is dumb too. Keep asking why a girl is even talking to the mc, and I'm never sure.

Also the main menu is pretty well done.

What the hell, man? The main character doesn't learn anything from his past. He is as dumb as can be, making the same mistakes as before and failing to understand his daughter's feelings before kissing her, which is just plain stupid.

Last installment I believe of a good VN Series

Pros:

1. Story follows nicely on the last two
2. Models are good as always

Cons:

1. MC is actually pretty stupid, makes some choices that no person in their right mind would do, it makes him highly annoying.
2. Feels rushed, hard to explain this, but my feeling is tied to the MC making poor choices that keep driving his daughter away, its too much to be normal, feels forced and that makes it unrealistic in a game that has dabbles with real life issues, emotions etc.
3. The disconnect between the MC and his daughter are also not realistic really, especially when they are given a week to try and find some reconciliation which the MC destroys more than anything.
4. This is not helped when the daughter acts completely nice to the MC after showering him with disgust and contempt, just to switch over and be fine. Then just as you think its going better, the MC screws himself again with his ignorant, selfish and arrogant behaviour.

I would rate this game more, but its too early to do that

While Lockheart's previous games were hardly perfect, they showed signs of steady improvement.

This one, though? It takes all of that and throws it out the door.

Outside of vastly improved rendering of character models, there's little to be happy about. The premise is a mess, characters act in absolutely stupid and illogical ways.

The basic premise is that due to external pressures, Moon is forced to spend a week with her father, supposedly leading to a reconciliation. How years of resentment, if not hate, are to be realistically handled in a week, is beyond me.

What makes it worse is the MC - who has apparently learned nothing from the past.

His hubris seems to have gotten out of control, as well.

He arrogantly assumes he knows exactly what Moon's issue is, that

Three stars for the renders, and because the author may still be able to redeem this story.

Dev is back at it after all of the domain and project transfer drama. Second chapter is mostly great - no explicit sexual content but it sets up a lot of stuff that will obviously happen in the future.

Not sure I liked the "twist" at the end of the chapter, but Lockheart is a good enough author that I trust he's taking it somewhere.

If you like Lockheart's other stuff, then you'll like this continuation of the story, it feels different than the first two while still being familiar, if that makes sense. A bit heavy handed on some of the characterization, but it's a porn game, so.

And with him being back on the project with a relatively quick turnaround on the second chapter after stating he'd be back, I have high hopes that this will be finished: he promises as much as well.

Dev refused to abandon Patreon after it ruined his first game. Unsurprisingly, Patreon didn't change its policies so now another game gets killed. Hopefully he learns something. I doubt it. It's a shame. He's talented. Was my favorite developer but clings to a platform that has now killed 2 games. Lockheart, you are an outstanding developer and I enjoy your characters and stories. Patreon is just not a compatible platform.

Edit: Dev took a stand and stood by his work. Will finish the game. Rating changed to what the work deserved.

This review is for this update only.

Too much of the Suzi character, it adds nothing to the story.

And the entire episode felt like the Dev has just ran out of ideas. So we get this scattered mess that goes no where. Which is why we get the Suzi story. Pasta thrown at the wall with the hope it sticks. with a meaningless cliff hanger at the end.

I used to sub, to this dev, 3 minutes in to this update I just turned it off. It has taken me this long, 2 months to even bother to try and finish it, I missed nothing . Hopefully he finds his way back, his stories have always been a bit whiny with the MC but the story at least moved forward.

This felt like a place holder for the missing inspiration lacking in this update.

Lockhart is definitely my favorite creator, I'm totally hooked on this story. Definitely five stars, and the characters are every bit as beautiful as the writing. Started with the rework of the first one and saved A Moment of Bliss with a permanent spot on my phone. The attention to detail is really amazing, and I can't wait for the rest of the story. Hope this makes sense I don't often leave long reviews and Google constantly writes other than what I say, lol.
This is seriously some of the best visuals AND writing I've seen together.

Top shelf VN. Almost a 5 star. But I hate… and I mean HATE characters (in game and IRL) like Moon. They’re the “OMG are you gonna help me or WHAT?” type as if ME helping THEM is THEM doing ME a favour. Sadly, this kind of character is popular so, you’re probably gonna like her.

I know it’s not fem-dom, but it’s fem-dom’s little sister. No tag for that. And… she’s in the fucking title… … she’s got that “ward” – “guardian” relationship… so… unavoidable. Still… I’m sure the dev will cap their series quite well.

At the end of day though, solid Lockheart game, as we’ve come to expect.

I have played the two previous games and this one continued the trend to rise above my expectations. Not only the story and graphics are top notch, but the story holds your attention making you want to read every line. Lockhearts games are one that I will keep to replay over again in the future.