VN - Ren'Py - Pale Carnations [Ch. 4 Up 4 Public] [Mutt & Jeff]

Depravity


The good

• Cinematic narrative and presentation (camera angles, scene transitions, etc.)
• Good choice of music and sound effects
• MC customisation (character traits, stats)
• Distinct choices and routes
• Good writing (characters, dialogue & scenes, proper English)
• Hot lewd scenes
• Some humorous moments
• Already a good amount of content
• Unobtrusive text box with good readability
• Character profiles
• Phone (messages)

The so-so

• Decent renders with a lot of attention to detail, but also some dated looking models / assets.
• Sometimes rough transitions between consecutive renders
• 2-render "animations"
• Interesting, but also exaggerated and almost caricatural characters, which makes it hard to really care for them (even the MC).
• Story / setting is alright, but couldn't really captivate me.

The improvable

• Cliché "nerd with monster cock" MC
• Giant boobs syndrome, which spoiled even one of the more attractive girls (Felicia) for me.
• At times pretty dark & repulsive (humiliation, women being depicted as mere sex toys / sluts and taken advantage of).
• Some choices don't seem to make sense (if you take advantage of Rose, she will dislike you, but if you don't, she will ask why you didn't - girl, make up your mind!)
• Continuity / scripting errors (even if you didn't talk to Mina at the club, the MC will still say "She told me to go away").
• No "rollback side" option
• Obtrusive ornate UI elements
• Typos

The creators of Pale Carnations show a good sense for cinematic style - it almost feels like watching a movie.
The writing is also pretty neat with well written characters, dialogues and (lewd) scenes.
Unfortunately, setting and (overarching) story didn't really appeal to me.
Still, a well made visual novel which you'll probably enjoy more if you are into dark and depraved stuff like humiliation.

I'm really not a big fan of this game. Prostitution, BDSM, humiliation and bad ending stuffs are just not my things.
Nevertheless I can say Pale Carnations ia a real masterpiece.
Gil's rendering is unique and every heroine is really attractive. Animated secens are smooth and great too. I just hope to see some POV H scenes.
TD's writing is exceptional. Although I'm not into main fetishes of the game, great characters and story made me absorbed in the game.

Chapter 1.

An observation off the bat. I get the distinct feeling this is a japanese game translated to english. Or the dev is a lot into jav porn. The fetishizing of the food, the wife ntr aspect, the choice of language in a few scenes, they all point to an eastern point of view. It reminds me of Ochiru Hitozuma, to be honest.

Anyway, the graphics are quite good, easily comparable to some of the best games I've played.
The story is somewhat original, it's a corruption VN with a twist, maybe unique among western games, but quite a few jav games have similar plots. That's not to say it's not interesting, it allows for a lot of leeway when it comes to kinks and characters, while also being believable.
But by far the appeal is the writing. Thought out, enhancing the scenes instead of hobbling them, other devs should take lessons from this game. I could've appreciated a bit more descriptions of the character's inner monologue, since it is all about a dom-sub relationship, but this is just nitpicking at this point.
The sounds are ok, although I never play porn games with music and the audio aspect is pretty low on my list of priorities when it comes to a game.
The amount of content for a first release is astounding. In a scene where everyone releases games with a menu and 2 pictures, it is a breath of fresh air.
I'm going to watch this game. I was debating giving it 5 stars just to differentiate it from other games, but 5 stars is reserved for very good, complete games. This will earn it once it's completed, I'm sure of it.

I don't review games much, because I see it as a conflict of interest because I do walkthroughs. However, anyone who is not paying attention to this game better call someone!

Where do I begin?

Renders - Beautiful 10/10 some of the best looking HS models I've ever seen.

Story - 10/10 Original, well planned and well thought out.

Writing - 11/10 (you read that right) Exquisite, there are few other games that live up to the level of prose that is on display in this game. Whichever developer or both, who are writing this must be well read and educated.

Fun Factor - 10/10 I enjoyed this game as much as anything I've played in a while. The game is going places, I can't wait to see what happens next.

Content - 10/10 For an 0.1 I don't think I've seen this much content apart from maybe a few other games.

Overall - 10/10 I can't think of anything negative to say about this wonderful content, from top to bottom it is just pure class. A real gem. I'm so happy I found it and if you are reading this download it NOW and just play it!

This was a great first chapter.

The scenes were well written, it's pretty well paced, and the length of this first chapter was welcome after a recent spate that have released with surprisingly little content - certainly not the case here!

My only suggestion to the author would be that, subsequently, they revisit the introduction. At the moment the protagonist's circumstances do feel very contrived, in service of getting the plot moving along very quickly. A little more back-story about the protagonist and their relationship with the uncle would make this a little more subtle and what follows, by association, less jarring.

That said, it's definitely one of the better games I've played in recent months and would happily recommend this to anyone.

Good Points
+ We have a pretty disturbing story but at least we have some non-whore with our game language non-carnation girls like Hana and Mina. It could be far better if didn't join the club tho...
+ We have well-written characters with well-made character developments. Yes, some of the girl's/women's character developments are based on very disturbing events, but still, they are not poorly written at all.
+ Relationship developments are well-written and make sense, especially Hana's and MC's relationship development, and the level they reached with Ch4 Update was pretty good. Their date and after-date content were darn cute and perfect. How they bonded, how she acts when you score some points with the right choices, how her cheeks became red etc was pretty good. Hana is probably best looking Goth Girl I have seen in any game and her character is well-written as well. She is literally perfect, she is cute, smart, sometimes kind of dumb, and sometimes stubborn but in the end, she has a unique character and I just love her. She is the biggest reason why I still play this game despite all that unnecessarily disturbing events/stories.
+ We have perks, traits, and toughness levels that can change and add variations to some scenes but at the same time they can block some scenes, so if you want to see all variations, dialogues and scenes you need to cheat for getting them. But still, the game gives you the feeling of having self-insert MC to some certain extent, at least with Mina and Hina you can actually see that clearly. Especially in Hana's path I really feel like my choices mean something and can even feel I was actually roleplaying as an MC. At least it's how it works with Hana and Mina but in the main story... Sadly you can't get that ''self-insert MC'' feeling at all.
+ We have a pretty good art style and the quality of textures looks good as well. Especially Hana is literally perfect... The artist of this game deserves a lot of praise for sure.
+ We have animations for sex scenes and their quality, physics, and FPS values pretty good are good.

Bad Points
- Hana joining the club feels unnecessary move. We already had a lot of girls involved club and we didn't need Hana to join the club as well. She is not Carnation but still, this action can open some doors to unnecessary disturbing stories for the future and that would be a pretty bad decision considering these Hana and Mina are the only non-carnation girls we have. And Hana actually joined the latest club event as a judge and literally have to watch everything MC did to girls.
- As I said before our story is interesting but it's not for everybody. As an MC you are like a moral supporter, a trainer like a guy for girls who were named ''Carnations'' for doing lots of disturbing things... With time you will learn these women's stories, you will understand their character, they will grow in you, you are going to have intimate scenes with them, and you will feel like they are your girls with all these things you learn and happening between you, but in the end, you are going to see their intimate scenes with other people, you are going to see them show their body and sexual act to a room of perverted men, you are going to take their photos and videos to give those perverted old men's for their sick collection, etc... And it still feels disturbing because of how they grow in you with their whole character development and because of this you are going to feel awful whenever you saw the girls you like a lot in positions worse than common whores... If DEV wanted people to enjoy these scenes he should make their character development less detailed and with less drama, so people can enjoy doing a normal job, like an actual sexual act instead of sick perverts using some people's weaknesses against them and doing perverted things to them... Honestly, Felicia is not a that bad example of that, she actually suits a carnation role and you don't feel bad about her and that's mostly the reason why I make her lose in games...
- Like I told MC is self-inserted and we have control over his actions in Hana and Mina's path or in some scenes with other girls but when things come to the main story and events you actually have no control over MC and he even does some really nonsense things he normally shouldn't with low-level toughness etc. The best example of this should be Rosalind's exhibition porn scene how MC talks about her daughter, how she will react to this porn video etc while he literally has the same situation in his real life. The situation itself is f*cked up enough and for bringing up her daughter you need to be a total asshole, and if your toughness level is low you should be nice if it's actually working but even if your toughness is zero you still act like an asshole and that makes zero sense. The whole stat literally means nothing.
- Exhibitions are full of disturbing and f*cked up scenes and I'm not talking about just old perverts watching or fucking girls, no because it's not good enough for our DEV. He needs to use Carnations daughters and their families etc as well. CH. 3 Update 4 exhibition was fully about bringing up the Carnations family into this shady thing and shaming them. Especially Rosalind's exhibition was just plain disturbing. She is forced to make public porn because of her husband's debts, MC can't stop what's happening to her despite her mother having kind of the same fate before, etc... Honestly, I can't understand what the writer wants to do with this f*cked-up story, why to make things more extreme with every update and give zero choices to players about them...
- Some character's stories are disturbing as well like the story about how MC's mom raised him without any father figure and she forced to become a porn star to look after her child. It could be ok if DEV was explaining this story with just some texts while MC just thinking about it but no, instead DEV literally show up with detailed pictures. Every time MC is lost in thoughts about her mother we are seeing how she is fucked by pornstars, double-penetrated, ganged, etc, and see her face, and her emotions in those scenes... Or bearing Katherine's jokes about her all the time... Or after some time MC starts sharing this with people and as a player, we have zero choices over avoiding any of these... And there is Rosalind and why she is doing these things despite her cute, un-whore, innocent character only because of her dishonorable husband... Or how married women/mothers, etc do those things because of only sending their children to good schools... Those things are so comfortless and disturbing. It could be better if those people weren't doing these in those situations. It could be far better if they are like Felicia but they are not.
- As you already understand you can't avoid anything major, your choices don't matter at all for major details and you are forced to see the story the way DEV is told, so if you don't have a specific extreme taste for these types of dramatic and very disturbing stories this is no game for you and this is a pretty bad point. This is not a game for the common audience while it could be with more diversity and mattered major choices.
- Opening the save screen is pretty much painful and annoying... Literally, all games use the left mouse click and ESC button for the leading save screen as a base screen, so this game should use that as well.

For The End
I dropped this game 4 times and started over and over again by giving it a chance again... I can easily say this game is not for common/normal people who can make empathy. Great art, great animations, and Hana's and Mina's existence are the strongest suits of this game and the biggest reason I keep coming back. I can say they do worth it, but if you have a powerful empathy feeling you can have a very bad time with this game, so consider before starting because this game is not for weak hearts...

No surprise that I'm giving 5/5 for this VN... it appeals to me on my male dom side too much. Its a light-hearted, kink-button pressing game fulfilling male fantasies, and its so well done.

LIKES
The INTRO where you can define yourself
The background stories about MC's mum and best friend (Ian) which I think the author(s) will exploit really well
The club setting and Exhibition are very good ideas which will be implemented well based on what we have seen
The choices (see below)
The "interludes" between chapters/days showing high quality wallpapers of the girls are extremely well done, and the music is a good add
The overall art/renders are very good

The CHOICES
I found that there are enough choices for me to keep that part of the game interesting and key at the same time... however, I do think that some of the choices could be better described which could add some emotional twists for the player.

Excellent start!

A start actually nicely filled and looking very promising. Good looking renders and designs, with characters that makes you wanna play the game. I wouldn't be surprised if this game becomes a personnal favorite.

Story: You don't want me to spoil anything. If you want to enjoyed some pure debauchery and delicacies, I recommend you download it now and throw 2-4 hours at this first release.
Dialogue is amazing and truly shines when you meet each character and their personality. Makes AAA games look like Marvel Comics.
5/5
Art: This is the best looking Honey Select game I have played. I thought that once I moved on to DAZ projects all HS art would look shabby by comparison. This game proved me otherwise. Though you are a bit limited with facial models the Devs make up for it by making the girls themselves unique and the backgrounds even more so.
5/5!
Gameplay:
The game says that choices will matter and within the first update you can see that they do. Branching storylines are the best kind in any VN and if this game follows through on its promise I wouldnt be surprised if it becomes the most immersive HS game here.
Only detriment is that we can see but not feel the story as other than clicking a few buttons we have very little to do when it comes to gameplay. But if those few button clicks truly change the game then its all we need.
4/5?
Overall:
5/5
Play it!
NOW!

What an excellent start. The characters and their models, the UI, the build up, the dialogue, they're all very well done. Kudos to the dev, it's really fantastic. It's crazy that this is just the beginning and it has more content than many other games at their final version. I'm very eager to see more of this game

Damn, this is just off the charts crazy freakin good. The story is kinky, sexy and wild. The writing is superb. The writing is super clean....I saw one lone typo that had no impact on the readability at all. The artwork is delicious, and the girls are surface of the sun smoking hot. The MC is conflicted, but not a wimp. The choices seem to matter and make a difference.
Sexy AF. Fun and witty. Beautiful artwork with uber hot babes.
A must down-load and try! And I am joining the dev on his patreon page.

I'll confess that I never try out 0.1 versions because it's usually extremely short and it's rare to see an update, but reading the comments here made me curious.

Damn I'm glad I tried it out. The game has a LOT of content, the renders are very good and the story is very interesting. I can't wait for next releases

Edit: Well, the next release certainly didn't disappoint! Top tier game for sure

Have to agree with everyone else so far - this is an awesome game. Great story, dialog & models. I really like how perverse some of these scenes get, and the different personality types really add to that.

Really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

First release review:
This game, with its first iteration, is already mile beyond some other threads found here that have had more time to grow.

The art is nice, the scenario is nice, the characters are well written. The only cliche thing about MC is the model, otherwise it avoids many of the repetitives pitfalls that are so common...

Will follow, strongly recommand

Initial release review here.
The art is excellent and the story is well written. Huge amount of content for a first release. Its possible I won't play too much of this game though depending on how goes in the future just because it looks like its going to tell a story that may not suit my particular tastes. I expect it to tell such a story very well, if the current quality continues. But simply given the nature of the story and what the characters are going to be going through, my self-insertish tendencies will, I expect, make it difficult and potentially unpleasant to grow attached to them.
We'll see what the future holds, but this was an excellent first release and even if this particular game proves not to be to my taste, I hope these devs have a long and productive career.

Character design/personalities are great, environment is good, story is funny and interesting. The sex isn't absolutely forced upon the player and there's buildup which is actually a very nice feature. It's a very enjoyable read.

This may be the best 0.1 debut on this site. There's a level of professionalism here that's evident as soon as you boot up the game and see the care that has gone into just the presentation of the main menu.

The impression that this is a product on a different level than most of the stuff on here continues as you start the game and get to customize the main character's backstory and personality which will affect your options going forward. There's a great degree of roleplaying here, lending an immersive quality to the game.

The quality of this product continues to impress going into the game proper. To my knowledge only A House In The Rift rivals this game when it comes to getting Honey Select models to look this good. The writing also stands out, being strong in both narration and dialouge. The characters are good too. The MCs best friend being a particular stand out. He initially comes across as the typical asshole but it's soon made clear that he has a level of nuance and depth which makes him more interesting and explains why the MC would put up with him.

The final and perhaps most important quality of this game to impress me was pacing. Here's a philosophical question for you: why would anyone ever jack of to a porn game rather than just a gif of some attractive people preforming whatever sexual act you might prefer? It's context. It's not just the act itself but also the circumstances around it that people find aurousing. If it wasn't porn games wouldn't exist.

Despite this a lot of games features very flimsy scenarios in order to get to ''the good stuff'' more quickly, undermining that very good stuff in the process. Not so here. Pale Carnations is not afraid to provide a little build up to it's sexual acts. My favorite stretch of this first chapter is when some of the characters goes out clubbing which leads to a rather long, reactive and evolving scenario ending in a satisfying climax (pun very much intended).

This is one of the most promising games to ever debut on this site. If any of the themes and fetishes it focuses on is appealing to you you owe it to yourself to try it.

What a blast it was ! I really did not expect this game to be this good already especially looking at the HS models and premises that are not that engaging.
Even if you are under that impression, I recommend you to give it a try, you might like it afterall has it has a lot of good points that can't be seen on pictures. Now, to be a masterpiece, it might need some improvement on the animations, but otherwise it is already very solid.

- Renders are good, girls are cute & sexy, more than what you usually expect with HS engine, the MC is the typical HS male model tho'
- The characters are fun
- Music is well chosen and will fit with the situation most of the time
- Writing is really good
- Story doesn't seem very original, but the pace is good and the dialogues are engaging
- The gameplay is fine, mostly VN with some freeroam from time to time to change the pace a little. Also at the start of the game, you can customize the traits of the MC which will affect some possible choices later on. The devs knows what to do to keep the player entertained
- Sex scenes are good eventhough there are almost no animations, that might be the only negative point I can find at the moment
- Some aspects and fetishes are portrayed, it seems you can avoid most of them if you don't like brutality, degradation or BDSM, but it would be a waste, those scenes are quite well done, with good dialogue/music/atmosphere
- Contents are huge for a first realease
- The UI is neat and unique

---- Chara Design :
---- Renders/Graphisms :
---- Story/Writing :
---- Background/Atmosphere :
---- Animations :
---- Sex scenes :
---- Gameplay :
---- Contents/Updates :

review for chapter 1:

It's late so I'm not going to go into to much detail.

This is an amazingly polished first entry for a game. The production value is rock solid. The renders are all top quality. Though there wasn't really any animation, the variation of the still shots were done so well that I never felt like anything was missing.

I like pretty much all the girls, even the one muscly girl who I initially thought I wouldn't.

The writing is really good. Perfect English and compelling scenes. Good build of tension and even a few times where I found myself laughing along with the characters on screen.

I can see the subject mater being a bit hard for some people to read simply because this is not the type of game for people who want a harem where you're the only one who gets to touch a girl. Usually that's the type of game I like to play, but what I've seen here is enough to pull me out of my comfort zone and still enjoy it.

The gameplay is interesting. I'm not sure how much the opening traits you pick in the story will actually influence the flow of the novel, but it does grant you different choices you can/cannot make. And it seems as if the choices you do make in story aren't trivial... though it's uncertain at this point if it's possible to completely lock yourself out of a route with a girl or not.

All in all, this is one of the most polished western VNs I have ever played. From the renders to the UI everything looks like a finished product, instead of a first chapter place holder.

The only reason you should not play this game is if you absolutely cannot stomach the idea of girls that the protagonist might sleep with sleeping with someone else. (Note: this is not NTR. The protagonist isn't in a relationship with these girls either.) Also if you hate BDSM, then probably not the game for you. (Though so far they've focused on the humiliation part of things more than causing pain. I don't know if that will continue).

If none of that is a deal breaker, absolutely play this game. If you're on the fence, try it anyways.

Such a good start! There is a lot of content in first chapter. Dialogs are interesting such as story. Yes, the plot is very promising, can't wait for second chapter. Renders are quality made. Abilty to watch a characters profile is a good idea. 5 out of 5!