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

One of the best games I ever played. The art and character designs are nice. The scenes and animations are fantastic. The sadism angle is what I played the game for and it does not let down. Looking forward to upcoming updates.

This is..damn, I've been sleeping on it. If you are like me, and feel it's too early to check out a game only 4 chapters in - well, don't. It's easily hours of content already, especially if you check out different choices(there are plenty of meaningful ones, but writing is good enough that even checking out flavor-based options is worth it).

As opposed to lot of other games, which give you bunch of render numbers or lines coded, only to boil down to 1 or 2 in-game day with 15 minutes of gameplay, chapters in this one are plenty juicy, structured around main theme of the game - exhibition weeks.
The amount of scenes only becomes bigger, as amount of meaningful characters grows and relationships deepen, which is bittersweet - slower updates, but more impactful events and branching happening.

Anyway, what surprised me the most is how strong and believable writing is :
this is not another fantasy escapism hero journey story, no-brainer harem romp trying to hide shallow foundation under tsunami of sex, or tired mafia/criminal world drama.

This is more about exploring the depths of human psyche, and the effects of power, money and sex on it. The story about "nobody" stepping into the whirpool and learning to swim on merits of his own convictions and darker impulses stewing within (heh, my pale attempt to give credit where it's due).

A pretty, simple, yet refined Adult Visual Novel...like a pale carnation.

• As an AVN, the developer really nails the writing, which can’t be said for most of the AVNs on here. It gets your attention right away and is well paced so far and the choices you make feel meaningful.
• It excels at characterization, particularly the Main Character and the feelings of delight, guilt and shame linked to sexuality (and in this case, exploitation). Not saying it's Shakespeare, but it basically is in the porn game genre.
• The love interests are also quite nice. The 3D models have an anime/hentai based look with these bigger heads and eyes…if that’s not your thing, you may struggle enjoying this one. The sex animations are well animated and fit well with the anime/hentai aesthetic. There are some ‘ahegao’ over the top orgasm faces from characters getting tongued in their ear canal…
• The presentation aspects, such as UI and music are decent. There’s a mix of classical, Spanish guitar, bossa nova style ‘background’ music. The menus and navigation are nice and simple and there's no mobile phone interface besides a few texts here and there.

Overall, the game elements are simple but effective as they call come together to form a great AVN. The dev is disciplined, not hamfisting a complex narrative or minigame into the game just for the sake of it.

Hope the game grows and gets more support and recognition from here on out!

The best way i can vouch for this game is to just tell you this is the only game in this site that genuinely gets me excited when a new update comes out.

I dont even care how long any of the updates take i'll wait with anticipation and a smile on my face, because everytime it's worth it and exceeds expectations.

Superb game, if i can rate it 10 stars i would.

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.

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!