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

This game is a perfect example of how really good writing can elevate a really good game to a GREAT game. Even without the immersive story and character building / development, I would probably rank this game fairly high, due to the gorgeous renders, way above average HS models I think. However this game has a story that grows on you. My opinions of the characters changed universally thanks to the character building. I started off (as most probably do) really only liking Mina and Hana. But after interacting more with the other girls (mostly Felicia, and even Veronica) I have to admit I like them as well. That for me is the sign of a good story, when I become emotionally involved in the characters. This game is in my top 5 on F95. I friggan love it!

I'm going to try and keep this simple and sweet but over anything else, I want to encourage people on the fence to try this game!

The biggest con I want to say right up front for me - to get it out of the way - was first seeing the male protagonist, because I have seen him in other games so I initially groaned at this discovery. And most other games I have played with this same male were games I would rather forget for the most part so I already had some negative associations with his face so to speak. I'm also a female, so all things being equal, I'd like the male character to be really hot! (he's...ok...the dev used the word passable in the game...that's the perfect word)

But I quickly turned around on the game. Why?

The writing and atmosphere really sucked me in, and in particular, the characters appear to have very thought out and delineated personalities and narrative arcs planned for the game. I love protagonists that have to deal with choices that deal with real inner conflict and one's own morality. This is very much the case here with a protagonist that initially is a classic fish out of water and he finds himself in a new and unfamiliar environment where all of a sudden certain degrees of power are readily available. What would one do in this kind of environment? Give in to one's baser desires and go all in with this new reality? Or perhaps walk off into the sunset at the end with one true love? Or so many possibilities between that?

The two updates are HUGE. Like 3700 images! Seriously, how many devs working on a game for 1...2...YEARS don't have this much content. I think the girls look great, I am pretty sure men will agree with my assessment on this one. There are lot of choices that have real impact and different scenes so you can play it again and see what you missed.

I'm not totally into some of the sex scenes that I predict are coming, but I think a particular scene with the protagonist and four females will make a lot of men happy.

From my perspective, my favorite sex scene was the male in a bathroom err picking up a women with great force and being a little strong, I don't mind that, hee hee.

I'm really not great at writing reviews as I overthink everything, so let me just boil it down to saying that this is one of my favorite games on this site, and this is coming from a woman who really wouldn't necessarily be into the fetishes in this game so easily. I hope people try it, that's it!

I have only a vague idea what this game is about, but the graphics are outstanding. It' s a nice combo of quickies and slow burns. All the characters are busty and beautiful. The creator has good taste and I highly recommend this one based on the graphics alone - definitely get the mod.

Very impressive first release. Great writing, good and varied characters, nice overall art design, very well done GUI -- including things like transition screens (something that tend to not be a thing, but I feel I have to mention here) and some nice sex scenes. Though the threesome scene was pretty disappointing. Then again, it did show that characters have some personality. So on that front I felt it was well done.
Ah, almost for got to mention that there is an impressive amount of content for a first release. It's not some half baked demo, simply to check for interest. It's a real (and beefy) first chapter.

One of things I liked less -- though still wasn't bad by any means -- was some the character design. The game uses the same software as 34236 other games, so the models also look very similar. It's also pretty clear that the authors love BIG boobs.
Overall, I'd say that character design is still good, though not very special and in quality a bit below some of the other things this game has to offer.

Another things I didn't really like, was how at some point the game takes away a lot of agency from the player -- and even the MC. Now I like myself a humiliation/submission scene, but in the second part of the game, you as the player are pretty much just the audience; looking at scene after scene. While the scenes were great, pretty much non of it had much to do with the MC. And sure, it's more realistic that not EVERYTHING happens to the MC and EVERYTHING has the MC involved. But still... I felt it was a bit poorly paced and just to much content that doesn't really involve the MC/the player.
In the first half of the game, I also felt the story was going more towards where the girls would be scenes like that (maybe even in the background), and the MC would interact with them in between those events and/or prepare them for what's to come. Not just straight: you're hired. Now go sit down and watch.

But again: overal a great game -- or maybe I should say 'visual novel' instead. In my opinion one of the better ones on this site

A very well-made adult VN that is focusing on some sensitive adult themes and even if your not interested in some of them the game is very well worth checking out just for the sheer quality and competence it is made with.

The dialogue and story are well written with a wide variety of dialogue choices some of which alter scenes and events as well as relationships with a very interesting and compelling cast of characters. The visuals are excellent with distinct and good-looking characters as well as set pieces and plenty of well visualized and written sexual content.

Overall a very good start for the game and it shows a lot of promise.

For a first version this has got to be the closest to perfect I've ever seen.

Hell, it's even got a decently entertaining story and characters. The script, visuals and renders really are just seamless. Music and sounds effects are good too.

Really not much to say other that this hopefully picks up in popularity and support, they've got my contribution.

Pale Carnations is a Japanese h-game inspired non-Japanese non-anime game. You take on the role of MC, who finds his way into a job at a...umm...talent agency due to his friendship with his rich friend who already lives there.

Your role becomes to evaluate talent and help them succeed...at what...well...you'll find out.

MC is a neutral good character who you can make more debaucherous if you so choose. There are simple story tree elements, proceeding down one path can cut off other paths --- it is not a free for all "unlock all CG in one play" game. I can't speak for the devs, but it seems to have been storyboarded from end to beginning already --- an advantage of having someone who exclusively does the writing.

Usually in these kinds of games I skip a lot of dialogue. In Pale Carnations, I am actually interested in what most people have to say and rarely skip --- another reflection of having a person solely focused on the writing / storyboarding /pathing.

This was a great alpha release, and the the reason why I became a patron! Give it try and see if you like it!

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.
+ 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.
+ Relationship developments are well-written and make sense, especially Hana's and MC's relationship development is pretty good. Their date and after-date content were pretty cute. And I should say 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.

Bad Points
- Hana getting involved with the club feels very unnecessary move. We already had a lot of girls involved club and we didn't need Hana to be involved as well. She is not Carnation but still she joined the events, she was there as a judge and literally have to watch everything MC did to girls, so things are already in motion, and this action can open some doors to unnecessary disturbing stories for the future and that would be a pretty bad decision considering Hana and Mina are the only non-carnation love interests the game has.
- 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 MC's love interests with all these things you learn and happening between MC and them, 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, which honestly makes literally zero sense, she could have done any other job, sell the house, etc, and don't do that job, in the story there is no logical reason to make her pornstar, but DEV has clear view on the things, and that's why she has that job instead of fixing the money problem with all other different ways, so to look after her child she becomes pornstar. And even tho it's not really logical, It could be ok if DEV was explaining this story with just some texts, and not writing too much scenes about it while MC just thinking about it, etc, but no, instead DEV constantly writers scenes where MC remembers her mother porns, and shows up those scenes with detailed pictures. Every time MC is lost in thoughts about her mother we are seeing how she is getting fucked by pornstars, double-penetrated, ganged, etc. What worse is these scenes at first shown as couple pictures, then becomes longer scenes with more pictures, and the more you play you even start seeing animations made for MC's mother getting fucked in porn, etc, and that makes the whole thing even worse. 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, and aside from that nearly always your saves got bugged by some visual problem like save picture looking like menu instead of scene you saved, and you need to save again, etc, sometimes it's really annoying.
- In Ch.4 Up.5 MC met up with one of people his mother made porn, he didn't remember the guy right away since he aged, but he felt certain familiarity from him, then remembered... And honestly this whole thing was big bullsh*t, wasn't all that disturbing scenes about MC's mother's past enough that you even need to make it more disturbing with making MC met with people she made porn with? And again like this is not enough we learned Chuck knew MC's mother was a pornstar, in fact he even told to Grace, and she knew for years as well, and when MC's mother got angry, and wanted to leave Grace called her ''We are not finished, whore!'' and bluntly teased she will blackmail her unless she play along with her requests... And because all of these she got sad, cried, got drunk, had to come out, and tell the MC things she did...
- Most characters, especially males are *ssholes, but what worse is DEV keeps poking those mfers into MC's zone, like Warren coming into MC's home, then touching Rosalind out of blue, calling her slut, etc...
- MC mostly likeable guy, but sometimes he just acts like pathetic idiot, like the Mina x Pete scene, and how she reacted, how late he was, etc.
- At rock stage thing Mina, and some club members like Jacob, August, etc, met each other, and doubt anything good gonna come from that...


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 have powerful empathy feeling. 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. But writing is really annoying, and disturbing most of the time...

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.