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

I will start off by saying I did not enjoy playing this game very much - it is not uplifting, it deals with depressing topics, you see corruption/abuse/exploitation and only 1 of the 5 (6?) main girls feels like a proper romantic interest. It is heavy on genres I typically avoid when I play VNs. I found some scenes disgusting, others cruel and yet others just sad.

But despite this, I cannot give this game any less than 4/5 stars.

The character writing is probably the best you are going to find on this website. Everyone from the main character to the random patrons from the brothel feel like a real person. They are complex, have distinct personalities and have their own motivations - this is very different from a lot of VNs where characters feel one dimensional and have cardboard personalities. The renders use HoneySelect which has a very distinct look. However a lot of care and attention to detail has been put in them which even people who dont like how HoneySelect looks will be able to appreciate.

In terms of overall plot, this VN is very character heavy. It feels like a story of self discovery for the characters where the game asks what happens if you put this character in an extreme/depraved environment? How will they react? How will you as the player influence them? There seems to be hints pointing towards a greater overarching plot - something involving illegal drugs but that seems more like a background story than anything else at this point - maybe it will be expanded upon in the future. If you like character driven drama you will probably like this game. If you are looking for a grand overarching plot this game has very little of that right now.

If like me you are not into hardcore fetishes, sadism or exploitation this VN is a good starting point assuming you are looking for something different. Even if it turns out you dislike the themes you will still end up playing a high quality VN that is worth your time so I encourage you to at least give it a try. If you are into hardcore fetishes, prostitution etc you are probably going to love this VN - it is a work of very high quality.

Very good NV!!

There are a lot of erotic scenes and they are well integrated in the story.
The girls are very endearing and that's what makes the strength of this VN in my opinion.

Only weak point: Sometimes the dialogues are a little too long for the purpose of the conversations. The narration can sometimes be long.

But this VN still deserves 5 stars and I recommend it.

Version: Chapter 4 Update 2 Public

One of the best AVN I have ever played. Pale Carnations does an amazing job at excelling in pretty much all aspects of what makes an AVN great.

The writing for PC is amazing. They put a lot of thought and effort in giving the characters life and personality. The five LIs are the highlight of this. It is easy to to be captivated by any of the five LIs because they all have such unique personalities, motivations, and backstories. The MC does have his own backstory, but his life and personality is really something you develop with your choices throughout the story.

The design and art of the LIs all look beautiful too, each with their own distinct style. You definitely will not have trouble finding at least one LI that suits your taste. I do not know if it is related to honey select, but I have always found that the AVNs that use HS female models are able to show so much more facial expression if the artist chooses to do so, and this game definitely does. I love being able to see the LIs face change when you are interacting with them. These little things really help bring the character to life. The animated sex scenes are great too.
The males are basically what you expect from honey select models, they are okay, not the worst.

There is a good amount of content at the moment and it is definitely worth starting now. You can separate the five LIs into three groups:
1. Three LIs in the club competition
2. One LI related to the club
3. One LI outside the club (Mina)
Because the plot revolves around the club, you will find the most content + sexual content from 1 > 2 ≥ 3. Which can be a bit frustrating if your favorite LI is Mina, like me, cause she has the least overall content at the moment (still a good amount though).
Currently the MC has at least one sex scene (with penetration) with all LIs, except one LI in group 1.
You can enter a romantic relationship (BF/GF) with only one of the LIs at the moment.

The game has a lot of branching paths based on your choices and they are all well developed. It really makes you feel the impact of your decisions and gives the story life.

The story can get pretty dark, especially for the LIs in group 1. This game is probably not for you if you do not want to see them get degraded, humiliated, or worse. It was a real struggle for me to get through these parts because they did such a great job at developing the LIs' character and making me care for them. I do not think I could have gotten through this if the writing for their light/love path was not so damn good. They were able to find the perfect balance, where they offered just enough light/love to not let the dark parts consume you, while not offering you escape from it. This might be why I am so drawn to Mina's route. It is the brightest path, but is the light just hiding the darkness at the end? I hope not, because I really love Mina's character and route, but I will see it through to the end. This struggle and fear just shows how captivating the story and writing is.

So far, you can prevent the LIs from having sex with other males based on your choices (although there might be unmentioned off screen sex, as one LI is married and one has a boyfriend). Female (LI) on female (LI/Other) cannot be avoided for group 1 LIs and neither can their exhibitionism (sexual acts will be shown or performed to a crowd). There is also an unavoidable bukkake event for one of the LIs in group 1, based on your choices, but you do not have to watch it happen and can just skip the scene. If any of this bothers you, then you probably should not play this game.

Crab game hentai royale madness.

Okayish scenes, good dialogues (!!), poor music, game allows some choices that will lead to different scenarios (not very descriptive, but still), nice made characters by both lore and visual criteria (and thanks for not using koikatu), but the story is... something different. Really didn't want to continue it nor to see what will happen, it's crazy.

It's very confusing to rate and I probably should not even rate something I'm not into, but yeah. Didn't get out of 5, not for everyone. Searching for something new you should be careful what you wish for.

Pale Carnations is the best AVN I have played to date. The writing and visuals are both top tier in quality and combine to keep the player completely engaged in their playthrough.

First, the writing. Characters are at the heart of my enjoyment of a visual novel. In PC every character comes into the story with personality, history, and motivation. None of them are static. They are depicted well, with their traits, inclinations and motivations shown through action in scene rather than exposition. The MC's narrative helps to frame both what's going on in the scene as well as make the MC sympathetic to the reader.

The scenes are well thought out with the characters motivations creating natural conflict and subtext for the reader to engage with. There is very little wasted screen time, which is unusual in an AVN. The pacing of the scenes - from sex, to setup, to tension, to payoff - is done remarkably well; this is the first VN I've read where I never felt a lagging of my interest at a slower part. The lewd scenes are easily the best written you'll find on F95.

The branching elements allow the player to tailor their experience to their MC - in the first date scene alone there are a number of endings to the night and they all path back into the main narrative.

Second, the visuals. The characters all have very specific looks, from their model, clothes, and even down to their expressions, making them feel very alive as the story progresses. The way Chuck laughs or smiles is not the same way Hana or even Ian does. The posing is fantastic: detailed, drawing the eye, and perfectly showing what the character is doing or experiencing, the posing keeps you engaged and constantly comparing it to what's been said.

The various scenes have details in the background, placed with care and an eye toward composition. These, combined with the camera angles, bring a lot of emotion and information to the reader, keeping you paying attention instead of tuning them out. The girls are also a constant focus, with the blocking and framing doing a good job of showing what we're all here for. When you're playing PC you will feel like you're watching a movie, that's how engaged the visuals get you.

The tone of the novel presented by the writing and visuals is matched by a simple, clean UI (the notification sound is dope) and musical score. It does so many things at a high level that the overall experience is unique.

If you're here reading reviews and you're on the fence about playing, play the damn game. You won't regret it, even if the story does not seem to be your normal fare.

This game is the best AVN game I have ever played. I have played almost all the well know AVN's out there and I am awestruck with the character depth this game provides. The writing is like a well written novel, the choices are vast, the scenes are top notch, wide variety of genres, highly lovable characters, there's nothing done wrong with this one. The devs of this game knows what they doing and man are they doing a great job at it.

Holy shit this game has beaten all my expectations. This is truly a gem. The effort put in this game is insane, all hats off to the creator ffs.

The story is well written, characters are magnificent, graphics and animations are top tier, the possibility to change the game with own choices makes the player hella invested into the plot

Even tho it might be kinda wicked for some ppl it still provides some good vanilla shit. The game is totally worth playing.

I would kiss creator's hands for this masterpiece.

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.