VN - Ren'Py - Pale Carnations [Ch.4 Up.5] [Mutt & Jeff]

Ch. 4 U1

Nothing overly interesting about story, but for some reason I was hooked on reading.

I'll cut to the chase: Team Mina 'n' Hana. These two...it's just crazy. I'm sure there was steam coming from my nose and ears.

Carnations written interesting and each of them feels unique.

Didn't like Killian's character. Very contradictory person with balance of the scales is leaning to the dickhead much more.

A lot of intimate moments without sex. Not a fan.

Game is pretty big as of now, I've spent several nights going through.

TL;DR: try it, it's good.

PS: Steam release pretty please. Godspeed.

Very Good game. Good animations, nice and detailed faces. The Character Story is reasonable and exciting. Sex Love Drama in a nice mixture. A little more copmplications, a littel more kink puts this game much closer to normal reality (for a sex game) than those smoothe running novels.
Performance is good, no blueecrren or anything

EDIT: Unfortunately this game loses a single star and gets this added qualifier. The latest updates have shifted the focus from grotesque kinkiness to boring character relationships and the main plot. There's still a lot of good here, but it is headed in a disappointing direction.

Pale Carnations may not be the best game on this site... yet. Because it certainly promises to beat its competitions by leaps and bounds. Currently it is a fantastic effort with loads of choice, believable characters (despite the outrageous and hyperbolic premise), extremely hot models and creative sex scenes. Despite all the insane fetishes and lewdness, I find myself remembering the first bathroom sex with one of the female leads the most; compared to most of the game's sex, it's very basic, but it is set up so well and plays into the primary kinks at play so well, it just shows this game's massive potential better than anything.

The game's only weakness is basically that you have to suspend your disbelief at times to make some of the female leads' motivations make sense. Well that, and the stereotypical dudebro "best friend" of the MC. Besides that, this is just a great game which might become my favorite NSFW-game ever once it's finished.

Choices had impact, which made each roadblock of answering a question that much more engaging. The elements that made the game pop is the renders that give suburb ability to judge motion. Having a sense of direction while being realistic enough not to be seen as a over reach of the human frame.

Update 08/26/2023, Chapter 4, Update 3: Since the time of writing, update 2 gave us more Mina followed by update 3's lengthy date with Veronica, and both continued the previous trend of lengthy, well-written, well-animated thrilling updates put out in record time. Everything I've written below still holds, and I'm tempted to call this game the GOAT. While Veronica's scene wasn't exactly my cup of tea, it was still exceptionally detailed and written, from the set up to the pay off to the important moments after, and the same is true of the Mina update prior. Not much else to add. Still 5/5.

TL/DR version: One of the best adult visual novels currently in production. An excellent moral choice system where you can reasonably choose between being a nice guy or an easily corrupted asshole with rewarding adult content no matter which way you lean, spectacular best-in-class adult scenes with believable and lengthy setups with excellent dialogue, gorgeous stills, and multiple stages of high quality animations, all of which are held up by a well-written and engaging story result in this being one of my all-time favorite finds on F95. 5 out of 5.



It's almost unheard of for a game to be accused of containing adult scenes that go on for too long, but this is an accusation I’ve seen levied at Mutt & Jeff’s Pale Carnations. To me, these claims read more like high praise pretending to be criticism. In the latest update (Chapter 4) the focus is almost entirely on one date with one character, and the payoff of three previous chapters of off-and-on introductions, flirting, and courtship. Mutt and Jeff clearly wanted to reward players for following this character’s route and for sticking with the flirtations up to this point with an end-of-date payoff that probably took them months to write, frame, and animate. It seems to go on forever, and I love them for it.



There are already hundreds of reviews saying roughly the same thing that I’m about to write, so I’ll keep this brief.



Pros:

Character design is top notch. Characters are distinct and, after playing through roughly 80+ visual novels, have no equal in terms of rendering quality and design. You’ll never mistake one character for another, nor will you find yourself thinking, “Hey, haven’t I seen her in *insert other VN here*?”



Adult animations are fluid, have a high frame rate, are well-staged, and are bracketed by exceptional dialogue and still frames which connect them. You’ll never find a character jumping from a blow job animation to a missionary sex one, but will have important still frames and dialogue maintaining the flow of the scene. Characters also do not instantly lose all their clothes. Scenes progress naturally as they might in real life, and it makes the payoff all the more satisfying.



I won’t go into details about the story as that would ruin one of the best parts of the game. You’re a somewhat nerdy college student who agrees to help out at a high end brothel during a time when they are hosting a rather brutal game. Several contestants are subjected to various humiliations in front of a crowd once a week with the promise of their (usually) financial debts being settled. You can either help out somewhat half-heartedly and play as the nice guy in a tough situation, or you can embrace the humiliation and even make it worse if you so desire. Do you want to lovingly masturbate a voyeur on stage while whispering sweet nothings that bring her to a spectacular orgasm, or do you want to roughly rail her against a beam before tossing her to the ground in front of the audience? The authors clearly have a destination in mind and put a great deal of time into writing a compelling story. The adult content comes organically from the story rather than feeling tacked on, and it makes a big difference.



Music and sound effects? Hooray! Background music is well-chosen and sets the mood for scenes, with some of them gaining some fame in the community as being a signal that an adult scene is about to get to the good part. There are numerous sound effects, but the one for cumming? Perfect choice. Not too cheesy or over-the-top but just right.


I began playing Pale Carnations over a year ago before Mutt & Jeff had begun using animations, and it was a 5 out of 5 then. I initially criticized their switch to animations as I found their use of dialogue and still frames were more than enough to get the job done, but I’ve since reversed that position. A great story, good audio, and well-written and animated adult scenes that check all the right boxes. Throw in a moral choice system that is equally rewarding to the nice guy as it is to the corrupt asshole, and you’ve got a solid contender for the GOAT.



5 out of 5.

Yet another porn game where I don't even feel required to have my cock out, simply because the story and characters are so good I don't NEED gratuitous smut to keep playing.

But for real, these models are my absolute favorite for porn games, and these girls are definitely beyond attractive, Veronika and Hana in particular. Yum. I also love that the MC isn't some giga chad, and you get to sorta shape him as a character, not many games like this give you that freedom. I really appreciated a game where the goal wasn't 'sex up everything' but actually feels like you're taking part in an unfolding narrative, making the story the focus instead of the porn. Very brave, and it definitely works.

The biggest thing I appreciate about this game is that, while most games with choices I feel like playing the 'good guy' angle, in Pale Carnations I didn't feel like there WAS good or bad choices, and even when you take a negative hit with a character all it does is take the relationship in a different direction.

So yeah, there's SEVERAL serious topics in this game, a lot of which I think are meant for we, the players to reflect on even as we enjoy this game, but the smart and witty writing, realistic personas and gorgeous art all wrap into a very enjoyable package.

My only complaint would be the animations. The few that there are, are most definitely rocky...but nothing that truly detracted from the game.

EDIT: I take the last bit back. The animations take a CONSIDERABLE jump in quality in the later chapters. Like night-and-day.

This might come off as pretentious but tbh, I don't know any other way to respond this game lmao.

The Meiko Kaji avatar, the Fulci reference... Those who reject this game out of hand due to some tags they might disagree with are missing out. This is probably, at from the visual preferences that guides me in choosing a game, the only well-written game of its kind. Even disregarding the transgressiv performance of the narrative and its parts... The pacing is on point, the ebb and flow of the interactions, the retreats and pushes, not letting the electricity of touch come its full conclusion, playing around the erotic, slowly tracing a path toward its implosive moment. Pure lust, pure eroticism.

The explicitness of the show juxtaposed with the personal, the two parts of the erotic, of its wish to be as close as can be, of pushing boundaries and thereby reaching a fulfilment of a person, which is the breaking of the taboo. I couldn't bear to finish. I stopped in the middle of the Hana scene, after just having cried and laughed at the same time. Both because of the reminisence it evoked, the very real feeling of that moment in a distant past. Especially that sequence when the MC urged Hana to release her grip, as he wanted to resume control, ringed so true, that primal moment of pure eros, if wanting to become one with the other which is so incredibly real, which drives these relations... Very well-done.

Really, even if someone balks at some of these tags, at least give it a go, skip through Carnation events and the "NTR" or whatever you want to call it, and relish in the more normalised events. They are for sure without comparison in this space. If they don't evoke memories of your own, know that they are true to life in a way that nothing on this site comes close to.

Easily one of the best porn games I've played. The renders and animations are stunning and the writing is excellent. If you like S&M and overall debauchery, this game is pretty much a must. I can't wait to see it continued, I don't think any other porn game has ever immersed me to this degree.

Edit: Bumped up to 4 stars after playing 0.4 + exploring a few other paths. Although I still stand by the points I made, after spending more time playing 3 stars felt a bit harsh - its a solid 7/10 for me right now and with future updates I see it going up to 8-9/10 in the future.

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I feel conflicted about this game because there were parts of the game I really liked and other parts that I found boring to the point where I wanted to read as fast as possible so the scenes end.

One of the things I liked about this game is the development of the male characters which surprised me because in these types of games, the girls get all the attention. That is not the case in this particular game the main character's evolution and how he comes to adapt to the situation he is in is very well done. The game seems to offer you the option to either stick to your values or slowly take the MC down a darker path (however just how dark things will get I dont know - there has been no payoff for this yet).

The other standout character to me was the MC's best friend Ian who is a deeply flawed and hedonistic individual - on the surface he is just another rich and good for nothing douchebag however there are hints of a good person in him. I love flawed characters and I love the way he is written.

I also want to briefly mention the visuals - while I dont think this game is the best looking game out there I do think that a lot of thought and care has been put into the smaller details from Hana's shirts to the expressions of the characters.

The real focus of this game is the brothel the MC is employed in and sadly here is where I feel like the game falls a bit flat.

I am not the biggest fan of the villains so far. Kathleen the MC's boss feels a little one dimensional to me - the game does a great job of showing how evil she can be but I feel like being evil the the only personality trait she has which makes her uninteresting to me. I have liked characters like her in other games when the actions of the villains were directed towards the main character and we were a bit more emotionally invested in their actions however watching from the sidelines where she does her thing does not make me as emotionally invested in her actions - yes she is ruining the lives of the carnations and is slowly corrupting the MC however it is not enough for me. I have also really liked villains in other games who do stuff in the sidelines however most of these villains had a bit more nuance to there character where being evil was not their only personality trait - the best description I can think of for these types of villains I can think of without mentioning other games are more evil versions of Ian - deeply flawed individuals whose actions are interesting to watch. The other villains (Chuck, August, Warren, Abel, club patrons etc) are interesting but they do not have enough screen time for me to have a solid opinion on them.

I also did not like the club events very much - this may be a matter of personal taste but the sexual content (specifically the sex scenes in the club) were boring to me. The problem for me is that I feel like the carnations/whores are not emotionally invested enough in the sex for it to be appealing to me. The emotional investment comes from the situations they are in but not the sex itself. They are simply putting up with whatever happens to them because they need to do this to achieve their goals - there is little to no passion to it.

I have played other games with similar themes where the sex scenes worked for me however some of the reasons these senes worked for me was because: 1) The MC in those games was more emotionally invested in the characters - for example Victoria being a carnation would have a lot more emotional impact than three strangers the MC just met. 2) The scenes were either more taboo, more kinky or more disgusting in nature - Veronica's scene where she was forced to consume things was one example of a disgusting scene that worked however everything else was a bit tame in comparison. If the game showed warren beating up Emma or a patron abusing a whore to the point where she could not work for a month (events that happened offscreen) then that would have worked too but the scenes we currently have with the exception of the veronica scene are not enough for me. 3) The kinky scenes involved happened either without the consent of the participants or the participants were doing it out of their own volition and not because their circumstances forced them to do it - in this case the carnations have consented to whatever is happening to them and are just putting up with whatever happens to them. The renders and the situation involving Sophia (a side character) are far more appealing to me than anything involving the carnations because she is not being forced into them.

If the MC was female and a victim of Kath's games the sex scenes would have worked for me but as a third party observer watching three girls simply put up with what happens to them I am not as emotionally invested in the sex scenes.

I do not have this problem with scenes outside of the club though - the scenes involving Mina, Hana and Felicia that have nothing to do with the club are great.

The above summarizes most of my thoughts for this game. Given that the game is still under development my opinions are likely to change over time. I have a feeling that assuming the game is not rushed, towards the end I will like the game a lot more as things get more intense and when it does, I will change the contents/rating of this review. But in its current state the game is between a 6-7/10 for me.

Pale Carnations is a VN in which you play a poor student attempting to pay his way through school by working at an extremely exclusive brothel.

It's a game about corruption. The MC and most of the main cast of girls are stuck on a slippery slope where they're all constantly asked "how far will you go for what you want?" As a result, you get to know each of the characters quite well, their histories, their goals, their personalities, just about everything you could ask. It really lets you see the cogs in their head turn when they're confronted with another challenge.

I think the MC and the circumstances are what makes it a cut above most other VNs. While the MC isn't necessarily the deepest or most interesting character, you're constantly pitted against interesting choices who help define who your MC is. Will you placate your domineering bitch of a boss and help push the girls into deeper depravity, or will you act in their best interests, despite risking your job? Will you abuse the women around you to help them win the game, or restrain yourself, gaining their appreciation but risking their futures? There is a constant push and pull in the various relationships in the game, and there's more depth than simply "do people like you" or "will people fuck you?" While big pay-offs are a little sparse as of yet, I'm looking forward to advancing the story and seeing how my choices affect the plot.

As to the circumstances, the sexual situations in the game are basically fire. While there's a pretty large number of girls, each of them gets at least a little bit of focus if you invest even a modicum of attention towards them. The circumstances themselves, especially the exhibitions, are absolutely wild, though strangely not my favorite scenes. Regardless, I can't recommend this game enough for exhibitionism fans.

The renders themselves are absolutely gorgeous, and a lot of attention is paid to the girls outfits as well. I have absolutely no complains about the appearance of the game, and have gotten a little lost in various girl's eyes an uncomfortable number of times. I can't tell you how much of a game's appearance is the software versus the dev, but Pale Carnations looks better than any other game I could name on this site.

Overall, I have a lot of difficulties coming up with complaints about this game. It's by far one of the best erotic VNs I've played. If you have any appreciation for VNs whatsoever, you owe it to yourself to play the game.

The writing is great. Every character is unique, really distinguishes themselves from one another. There's always an air of mystery in the story leaving you hooked. It deserves its spot among the top vns. By the end of it, you will have developed a fetish for older women lol. My favorite is Felicia. The way she is so unabashed and unashamed about her libido works so well in this universe.

Some of the scenes are pretty kinky. But nothing too much if you've been in the internet long enough. Sex scenes are pretty long for the most part which I appreciate. And a lot of them are animated.

Make liberal use of the save slots. Because you will definitely miss some scenes while progressing through the story.

All in all, it's a 5 star for me. Funnily enough, I ended up being more interested in the scenes outside the actual exhibition day.

This is the best AVN I've ever played. I give it a 10/10.

Story: 10/10

An excellent character driven story that's psychologically compelling and highly immersive. It has very intriguing characters, and mysteries associated with all of them. It artfully plays with your heart while tackling various aspects of the human condition, including moral dilemmas, value systems, will, emotional scars, innate desires, authenticity, love, compassion, and interpersonal relationships. The core premise is very interesting and lends itself well to the devs' unique brand of eroticism. The pacing is great, and there's little to no filler. There is a nice balance of XXX content and slice-of-life. The overarching plot is also nice, though as of version 3.4, it is mostly trivial and in the background. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next release to see what happens next.

Characters 10/10:

There is a wide variety of characters, all of which are extremely well crafted. Your mother, your substitute mother, your crazy substitute mother, and many lesser archetypes. The characters' behaviour, motivations, and relationships are nuanced, highly believable, and a pleasure to see harmonizing or conflicting. You will remember all of their names, you will slowly understand who they are, and you will care for them, regardless of whether your intent is benevolent or degenerate. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next release to join them in their lives once again; this includes male characters, which is pretty impressive.

Art 10/10:

The art is beautiful and sexy as hell. High quality renders, creative positions/situations, great gestures, and highly detailed/realistic in all the right ways. The framing is perfect, and you'll never complain about a bad viewing angle. The expressiveness of the characters is off the charts, and a joy to experience. It blends with the writing flawlessly to evoke every emotion a scene possibly could. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next release to jerk off to some of the hottest artwork around.

Writing 9/10:

The writing is flawless, and filled with subtleties. It also varies based on your choices, and the different flavours are very well done. Each character's parlance differs and fits their personality. The tones also adjust appropriately, taking all relevant factors into consideration. Combined with the artwork, and the story, you'll read exactly the right words to experience every emotion you could in a given scene. There's high quality tension, heartfelt exchanges, entertaining comedy, and critical moments where a single sentence can send you flying over the edge. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next release to feel some feels and fly over the edge. The -1 point is due to the differing parlance of the characters not differing enough at times, there being a bit too much to read at times, and lines being uncharacteristically or undesirably formal at times.

Sexual Content Quality 10/10:

The best I've ever experienced. Outside of the slice-of-life scenes, there is an ever-present circumstantial eroticism that varies in its psychological roots. Your knowledge of all of the characters' lives and situations give most interactions an inherent gravity, and this is expertly exploited through the artwork, story and writing. Through this, an otherwise simple conversation can be incredibly erotic or perverted, and explicit sexual scenes can be elevated even further. The explicit sexual scenes are extremely hot, creative, and sometimes deviant. They are also entirely unconstrained, and don't relent to appeal to the lowest common denominator, which is highly appreciated. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next update to enjoy more of this, because I'm addicted.

Sexual Content Balance 9/10:

Excellent balance as for version 3.4. The -1 point is because there has been some filler creep to appeal to certain players who enjoy certain characters who take up too much time with non-sexual or uninterestingly sexual affairs. The next update also aims to focus on one of these characters.

Game Design 8/10:

It's great, the game doesn't punish you for playing, and the devs aren't pretentious or narcissistic in how they go about doing things. The player is put first, and it shows. Text can have different flavours depending on player choices. There are many choices to be made, but most are short side branches. The game in incredible in how it makes you feel like you're making meaningful choices all over the place, while still allowing you to see most of the game regardless of the choices. Stat increases and decreases from choices generally make sense and are intuitive and consistent. Many scenarios also make sense in their flow when determined through player choices. That said, the -2 is because many choices aren't intuitive in their invisible effects, and some stat checks are a bit tight.

Music/Sound: I don't really care/10

It exists.

Good thing I foundout this game last week. This game easily rose to my top 10, probably even top 5 among like 20+ adult vn I ever played from finished, uncompleted to abandoned one.

What I love the most is it's not get too crazy in character expansion like many vn nowadays which tend to focus on create more additional characters with shallow to no memorable story at all. The game focus on several main characters only and each storyline is captivating.

Imo the game cover lots of fetishes, have perfect amount of story writing especially one to spice up moments, nice amount of story branching, and transition between event/moment is smooth, unlike some games where I felt it's kinda forced, short, or sometimes doesn't make any sense.

Hope the game story writer have more spicy story up their sleeve for another brilliant game like this. Kudos for the great game.

Well, I sure wouldn't have guessed that I'd come out the other side of one of my filthy smut games a more empathetic human being but here we are.
This game actually kinda got me out of a rut I was in, not sure how exactly but I just felt fucking better after playing it, just better.
10/10 for the writing.
OH also...
10/10 for the filthy smut.

This game kinda broke me by how disgusting it can be, so many choice that you will eventually succumb to lust.


I am sad for Hana and Mina that they have to be in that universe.

Great game a lot of content already, I hope that we can get good endings with Hana and/or Mina, and please no NTR bs or make an option to deactivate that crap.

Very impressed by the amount of work that you must have put in this game.

i'll keep it short; the writing here is like nothing i've ever seen in any other adult game, and let me tell you i've played a ton. to the point it made me question my own damn self just by reading mc's thoughts and seeing how he handles certain situations that are linked to his past traumas. amazed me in so many ways, can't wait to see more

Hard to top this, characters are very well written, scenes are hot, your choice really feels like it has an impact and the renders looks really good. My only complaint is that the MC is ripped as hell but he was struggling to squat 135? This is why you don't skip leg day kids.

Version Played: Various, up to Ch. 3 Update 4
Full disclosure: I'm an active Patreon for this game

This is the holy grail, and setting the standard for all H games for me. Great art, a great (so far) story, interesting relationships, a good variety in characters, good update pace. It's a genuinely great sign to me when you aren't sure why you play.

A lot of games I play for the sex scenes, a few for a story thread - not generally much else - and I have to be in the mood for that particular thread in order to play them. Not so Pale Carnations. No matter what I'm in the mood for, this is the go to. It covers multiple bases so well, and feels less like an H game than a solid game for adults. That's high praise for me.

Positives:

1. Story is really great, easy to get invested in, always leaving you interested in where it's going next.
2. Art is top notch. One of the best looking VNs I've played.
3. Update schedule is pretty good and consistent, and the creators are pretty active with dev updates and the like.
4. Polish - from proofreading, to art, to graphics, to UI, everything about the game feels polished and done with care.

Negatives

1. There is not yet more (i.e. none).

Well it lives up to the high rating it has got. It certainly proves that a porn could also have nice story if done right. All the characters are nicely written
and the art style is unique . Certainly a must play Game.

Absolute masterpiece, cant lie. After playing Artemis I thought i should give games with this kind of graphics (which I've always avoided) a chance. As this game is the second best rated game on this whole website I thought this would be a good 2nd step.

I was defintely suprised with this game. I myself would not rate it as the second best game on the whole website, but I do understand why it is.

Storyline is absolutely amazing, what a great great look into the prostitution world. The character are all very intersting, almost everyone has a interesting story and thoughts. It really kept suprising me how depthful these charachters are. Even later in the game (Ch3. Update 4) we get introduced to a couple of prostitutes, even they seem more interesting than as I first thought.

The characters are also very hot, and I felt very disgusted about some of the things the girls had to go through which means that this game is succesful in provoking you in a way. I could not really find any faults in this game. Five stars well deserved.