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

Are you sick of sex games with 35 characters based on tropes each with one scene and the depth of a puddle!?
This game has a core cast of about 5 girls, each with a shocking amount of depth and development through the game. Tonnes of kinks are featured and even a little bit of horror elements mentioned.

This is hands down one of the best games I have played and I am happy to share it.
(Though admittedly the characters are all tropes but well done ones)

First of all I am going to say that for me this is the best VN I have played on the page, simply because it is the most complete in every way.
Argument 8 / 10: At first the story of the brothel did not attract my attention, but playing the truth is that it is immersive.
Pictures 10/10: Beautiful models of the girls and the stage.
Animations 10/10 : They are worked and very fluid.
Characters 10/10: It has very different characters, including some of my favorites (Mina).

This is the first time I've ever felt compelled to leave a review on this site. While the subject matter tackled in this story is not at all conventional and in-line with what I normally would like, I have a great deal of respect for the story, its characters, and of course, its authors. Each character feels incredibly compelling and has a great deal of depth. Some of the choices are extremely challenging, purely on a moral level. I think this is just a testament to the level of writing found in this story, which is so far unmatched in my opinion. After playing several other VNs (some of the other top ones on this site), I had sort of forgotten that writing can genuinely be this good.

I'd say that one of the best metrics of the quality of some media is its ability to evoke some sort of emotional response out of you. Pale Carnations really took me through the whole gamut of human emotion; I felt disgust, lust, anger, elation, and pretty much everything in between. At points it really had me questioning things about myself in a way that was much deeper than I would have expected from a VN. In that sense, I'd say it was a huge success.

Fantastic game, can't wait to see more.

One of if not the highest quality game on this entire website.

The writing is excellent. Every single girl is cute, likeable, and feels almost like real person. I legitimately felt attached to some of them as time went on and it would be extremely hard to choose just one.

Unfortunate that development is taking this long but assuming they don't somehow completely nosedive the quality after chapter 4 this one is surely the gold standard for all future western VNs.

Really very little to criticise.

The writing is excellent, and so are the scenes.

The depravity of the situation is balanced somewhat by the existence of Hana and Mina as the basis of the relationship is not based on the weird competition. But there are also moments with the others which are apart from the exploitative elements. Even as someone who doesn't enjoy the whole depravity element, I think there is still something here. In the end it comes down to personal taste.

I think the only reasonable criticism is that of body types. Sure, there are some superficial differences, but it would be nice if there was more variation.

All around absolute excellent game.

The story is an interesting concept that's well executed with good writing and compelling characters.

Game looks nice and scenes are well animated.

+Good music and no issues with UI and other basic stuff.

I really like the game! It hits all the good spots and has routes that offer some quality content. The story is pretty good too where I would recommend doing multiple playthrough to experience the different choices and content choices yourself!

The game really surprised me. To implement 3DCG as well as in this game here is not easy. But I was even more surprised by how good many of the characters and their story/dialogues are. The music is also good in two ways, first there are tracks that blend in so well in the background that you don't even actively notice them and then there are tracks where you can directly sense the mood of the next scenes. The decision options and their effects are also good and can only show their effect later in the story. So in many cases it is not a simple: Option 1 leads to the sex scene and option 2 does not and that's it with the impact of the decision. And while we're on the subject, the animated sex scenes are on the same level as the rest of the game. Two points that could be "criticized" would be isolated typos and that the tracks are too frequent in some places.


TL;DR

Story - 5/5
Dialogue - 4/5
Music - 4/5
Characters - 5/5
Style/Renders - 4/5
Content overall - 5/5

Very good animations and character design considering that it is honey select, the story is possibly among the best on this site, you can notice the improvement in how the game progresses, between story, dialogues and renders. Nothing to object to about it, now the bad, the game forces you too much to replay if you want to see everything, it is not that it is bad in itself, the work put into it is noticeable, but it does not feel gratifying, for what it can offer later Another low point is that the soundtrack lacks. a bad point depending on tastes, it can abuse the fetishes at certain times, even so for someone further removed from these topics it can still be enjoyable, they can be given the opportunity due to how well written and set it is. I am still waiting to see how this story progresses, it can definitely continue to improve and it is recommended to try even if it does not appeal to you at first sight.

Such an awesome game. It has a unique setting and style. The characters and the interactions between them are simply brilliant. The sexual content is also really good. The models in the game are very creative and diverse for an HS1 game, which was a very nice surprise. Honestly one of the best games around here in my humble opinion.

This has got to be the best VN in this type of art style. It's an actual well written story with well written and fleshed out characters. The MC is also more than a blank state but a real character with his own back story and several motivations to commit to the acts that are presented to him in the story.

This game is amazing. All of the characters are well fleshed out and the menus look very polished. This game has a lot of fetish stuff so it might not be your cup of tea, but even still I still think you should play it for the story alone.

It's hard to make short review for this game without "wall of text" but I'll try.
Main theme of corruption and depravity is deeper and stronger here, then in any other game I played, not a childish one.
Deep and proper character personalities is the strongest part here, players can't see what other characters think and slowly trying to reveal "Who they are". Multiple layers of Character personalities make it quite realistic and very interesting.
Story about underground VIP brothel is original and very interesting.
Plot is dancing mainly around moral choises and it's consequences is also deep enough and totally not boring.
Dark theme of the game is really strong, still there hope and love if You want it.
Visually game is very good, (highly modded) HS renders stopped Me long enough from playing, cause I played a lot "Illusion" games my earlier days and got bored of that graphics, but really amazing work with that.
And... I'll stop here, though still a lot to say, but again "wall of text"... deserved 5/5 for sure.

First ever adult game where I actually cared about the story and found myself immersed in it. The choices actually matter most of the time and shape the story, the characters are very interesting and have clear development. When playing adult games, I would usually pick the option that would give me the next sex scene but in Pale Carnations, I actually had to think about the decisions and put myself in the shoes of the main character. Very immersive and incredibly well put together piece of art. 10/10

Wow man I'm out of words for this game. As a med grad I am jealous, never had that much of action. Just gonna make a checklist to summarize!

Excellent renders, check!
Excellent animations, check!
Girls with varied gorgeous bodies and round personalities, check!
Outstanding LI character writing, check!
Round male side characters, check!
Original and interesting plot and setting, check!
Choices somewhat matter and define MC's personality, check!
Good and never boring pacing, check!
Satisfactory kink and fetish variety (but not out of place), check!
AA production quality, check!
Marvelous lounge music soundtracks, check!

As at most a mild kinky guy, some of the scenes were too much for me and that's a good thing. I like that LIs and MC are conflicted in their inner selves.
Hope this game doesn't end at the end of week 4. Such a masterpiece. The cherry on top would be a little bit more SFX during the scenes, but may be I am asking too much

I can't stress enough how good this game is.

I had some minor nitpicks with this one in the beginning, specially with the art style of the face of the girls, but after playing it, I got so, so attached to the narrative and the girls that I'm actually morally questioning myself multiple times on various decisions in the game.

Should I continue with Hana and have a solid relationship? I like her, this can have a future due to our circumstances, but I also love Mina, what should I do? Never thought a game would get me thinking about the side-characters as much as this one does. It's not on the same level of Mass Effect for me, but it's pretty close. I want a happy ending for my character, but idk who I want by my side.

And for a game to make me care so much about the ending, while being in the middle of development, that speaks numbers for me. Really good game, excelent animations.

May be a pass for those that don't like BDSM and other similar contents, and also wants all the action on the MC. Aside from that, one of the best ones I've played yet. Looking forward to 0.5

Review of Ch. 4 Update 1 version. Given it's set in a brothel I was hesitant to try this, but I was totally wrong. Don't let this stop you, it's a great game!

A really cool & entertaining game driven mostly by the alluring LI.

What i loved the most are the backstories as it gives a lot of depth & complexity to the characters.This helps to emphasise the saying "never judge a book by its cover".Best eg is Veronica who looks definitely like an amazonian with a fierce never back down personality but as u continue later on u find that she has nothing else left so is just giving this her all.
Not to mention this game has the best bro Ian i mean he definitely is the most complicated character ive seen in an AVN cuz he is a womanizer who goes after every pussy that comes his way including his postmenopausal maid inspite of having a cute model GF but when it comes to MC & his mom he is a freaking Angel

Gorgeous renders & phenomenal sex animations enhances the whole experience tremendously.

Sometimes on this site you stumble upon an absolute gem of a game when you least expect it & this is the Cullinan Diamond.
Writing & character development are top notch & I love the fact that even the incidental characters also have varied backstories so you always have the feeling that loads of different scenarios are bubbling away beneath the surface.
If you haven't played this game yet, please do. You won't regret it.

This is a review for Ch. 4 Update 1.

Pale carnations is a game about a student aspiring to be a doctor getting a job in a high class brothel thanks to the help of one of one of his rich friends. Over the course of the game, you can define the MC's personality where he either tries to be a decent person or falls into the depths of depravity and becomes an asshole. Most of the time I played this game I tried to make sure the MC was a decent person however the game does the corruption of the MC really well too.

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Story and Character Development

The story so far is not too complicated - the main character needs to help with running an event in the club and manage three participants who are prostituting themselves for the duration of this event who are known as the Carnations. These are women in desperate situations who will win a price of their choosing should they win. There are hints of politics between the club owners and illegal drugs however as of Ch. 4 Update 1, this is not deeply explored yet and the plot remains simple.

While the story is simple the characters are not. Most of the characters are very well written from the random patrons of the club to the whores to the carnations themselves. The two characters that stood out the most to me are the main character who is struggling to keep his decency in the midst of all the depravity around him and the MC's best friend - a deeply flawed individual that acts like an asshole but has some redeeming qualities.

Given the above you would enjoy this game if you like your games to have deep character development with well written characters and are fine with a plot that is not too complex.

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Renders and Romance

The renders are very well made with lots of details to them. While I think there are games that use different engines/rendering software this is one of the most impressive looking Honey Select 1 games I have played. The developers have put in a lot of effort into the visuals and it shows.

In terms of romance, you have five major characters. You have the three carnations and two other girls. One of the two is your best friend's naive girlfriend and the other is a co-worker in the club who works as a bartender.

When it comes to romancing the carnations, there is not too much of it. The main character has sympathy for the girls in the good guy route but his feelings do not evolve into anything more. He does not think of them as romantic interests and does not have other complicated feelings (such as jealousy) when they are forced to perform for the club. I feel like the game goes to great lengths to avoid making the player feel like they are being cuckolded if they choose to try and get closer to the carnations and I am not convinced that this is a good thing. To me it feels like as long as the game keeps doing this, there will never be a deeper connection between the MC and the carnations and they are not really love interests but rather girls the MC fucks because thats part of his day job. I think jealousy and negative emotions when seeing a girl you care about used by others is natural and I dont fully understand why the game goes to such great lengths to avoid it.

The best friend's girlfriend is cute, naive and very likable. Many people make mistakes when it comes to relationships and she has clearly made a big one. It is interesting to see how she puts up with the abuse her boyfriend puts her through (such as flirting with other girls) and the 'I can change him' attitude she initially has just like most people on their first relationships. The inevitable break up is also handled quite well. The only issue with her is that she feels a bit out of place compared to the other love interests as she is the only one who does not have ties to the club. As a result she has very little screen time as of Ch. 4 Update 1 and while her romance until this point is good it is not fully fleshed out due to lack of screen time.

The romance with the last girl - your co-worker is very well done and she is the only girl who at this point feels like a real love interest for the main character. She is the daughter of a former pornstar and one of the club owners. Her mother is sick with Huntington's disease and requires expensive treatment. Her father is a mob boss who was absent for her entire life but is now going through a mid life crisis and wants to bond with her. He ends up making her work in the club as a bartender in an attempt to get closer to her by agreeing to pay for her mother's medical expenses if she works in the club. She and the Main character have great chemistry together - they start off at a relatively equal footing and the romance develops very nicely as they go from coworkers to people who like each other to people who want to date each other. When her father finally tries to make her an owner of the club (a place she despises) the MC is the only person she can trust. The romance is very well done.

To summarize, the game looks very impressive for a HS1 game. In terms of romance, I feel like there are some very touching/heartfelt moments with the 3 carnations however the romance itself is lacking. The romance for the best friend's girl is done well enough but she suffers from lack of screen time and feels a bit disjoint from the rest of the game. The romance with the last main girl - the MC's co-worker is extremely well done.

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Overall I really like this game. I do not play too many games like this because the sex scenes can feel a bit cheaply written but this was not the case here. It is a very well written games with some great characters and I would recommend it to most people.