Ren'Py - Completed - Panacea [v0.802 Public] [BC]

Review on v0.54. TLDR at the end.

Intro

I really like this game quite a lot. I've been following the updates for quite some time now but I've been hesitant on writing a review because it's hard for me to put into words exactly what it is that intrigues me so. Thus with my thoughts in disarray, I'll try to write a somewhat cohesive review by debasing myself once again to the formulaic pro-con structure.

Cons

So let's dive into it with the negative aspects of the game which is honestly the more boring part of this review; most of the points that I'll mention have already been chewed out in great detail in other reviews so I'll try and keep this relatively concise.

Useless Sandbox
The dev decided to structure this game into a sandbox format but the gameplay is actually extremely linear. As far as I can tell, they probably had something more akin to your typical sandbox game in mind when first designing the game to possibly have a broader appeal but decided to pretty much abandon any sort of use that you can get from the sandbox structure in later updates because it got in the way of their preferred way of linear storytelling so that any and all player freedom now feels very extraneous.

Bogus Sci-Fi
The science fiction in here doesn't make any sense, the body transformations and all that. Maybe go for magic and fantasy in this instance instead of impossible sci-fi.


And that's basically it. Those are my somewhat grudging cons that I only included because I understand why people might see them as "objective" points to criticize. They never bothered me too much though. The sandbox is useless but doesn't really stand in the way of the storytelling and the bogus sci-fi is... well what do you want? It's a fun body-transformation porn game, we all know that all of this is impossible, that's why we like to live out these fantasies in the animated world where they can come to life.

I debated putting in "people are too horny and there seem to only exist lesbian women in this world" as another con but it falls into the same useless category of whining about a lack of realism in a porn game. So that's the last time I'll mention "realism" in this review because I really do think it's pointless.


Pros

Now come all the reasons for my high rating which took me a lot of effort to put into words.

Characters
I'll start with this point because it feels like possibly the most important one for me. The characters are all, in my opinion, very well written.
It is one of these rare games where the main character, Olivia, is actually my favourite character. She has a really unique personality and is deeply relatable; she's intelligent and charismatic, full of confidence and yet humble when she needs to be. She knows the importance of keeping a cool head without abandoning her principles and considering the consequences of her actions.
But the dev doesn't misstep with any of the other characters either, even those that get relatively little screen time are shown to all be very unique, with their own motivations and desires and personalities and none of them end up feeling like chlichés.
This is quite an achievement for a porn game like this and I'm really impressed how much the dev managed to make me care for all of these characters.

Plot
While it takes a while to get going, the dev really managed to put in a very intriguing main plotline. Our heroine continues to get pulled to two very different sides of a conflict about an experimental pharmaceutical without being able to make an obvious choice.
It's clear to me that both sides have sort of selfish motivations but also good arguments and reasons for defending their position which is just the mark of a great writer; to be able to not debase the storyline to a simplistic good vs. evil conflict. I'm really intrigued to see where the plot is headed and whether or not Liv will come to regret the choice that she will, in the end, be inevitably forced to make.

Sexual Content
The variation, and often absurdity, of the sexual content in this game is, in my opinion, another very big point in its favour. The developer really isn't shy in using their introduced possibilities of body transformation to get into all sort of freaky, kinky shit. And I'll just let your mind run loose with that because whatever you're imagining, it's probably at least on the table in this game (if not actually implemented up to this build).
At the same time, there also is no shortage on tender, emotional and/or passionate sex scenes, an often overlooked aspect of these games. These scenes are important to make the player relate more strongly to the characters and root for their relationships which the dev manages with ease.

Representation
There's an unusually high but deeply welcome amount of positive representation of some groups of people in this game which rarely get a time to shine in any media, let alone these smut games.

Firstly, and most obviously, LGBTQ representation. One could arguably object to the unrealistically little amount of hetero presence in this game but so what, there are enough straight games out there. But what I particularly like about this game, is that the characters are actually unapologetically gay or bi or trans or whatever.
Liv isn't a straight girl who enjoys girl-on-girl action on the side as a male-gazey fantasy, she's just simply gay and not afraid to show it in her manner, fashion style and sexual advances (and so are a lot of other women in this).
And the same goes for the bi and trans representation here, it's just great, I love it.

Then, and it shall not remain unsaid, it's extraordinarily rare for these games to have the protagonist and their whole extended family, be people of colour. And specifically South Asian which is just so deliciously specific, and unique in this sort of setting. And the best part about it: it's actually not important at all in the game.
The characters are all obviously Americans and they are simply that, with no great need to get into the complexities of race relations or Asian-American identity or whatever; the dev could as well have made them white but they chose not to, they thought, why not just make them South Asian? And once again, I love it and I applaud the choice.

There is also some minor good representation of people that usually aren't depicted well or at all in these games, like fat or older women so thumbs up for these as well.


Closing remarks

I could probably say a lot more small positive things about this game that don't really warrant their own pro category (like the fact that the dev puts out very regular updates, or that I really like the art style and the renders as well as the differing body types of the characters, and lots more) but I think I've already rambled on for far too long in this review.

As I said in the beginning, it's hard to put into words for me exactly why I enjoy this game so much. I can see its technical flaws, its need for a very high suspension of disbelief, and so on. But still, I'm always very excited when the next update for this game drops and basically need to immediately download and play it which is not something that many games manage to excite in me.

If you couldn't tell before, I highly recommend this game; people who've tried it but were annoyed by the useless sandbox? Whatever, just ignore it and enjoy the story; people who find the plot to be lacking in the beginning of the game? Just give it time, it gets better; people who have a problem with unrealistic body transformations and lots of casual and/or kinky sex with lots of people? Well, I don't know what to tell you, this game probably really isn't for you.
But other than that, yes, definitely give this game a chance and a go and I hope more people appreciate this little gem in the future.

TLDR:
Great complex and unique characters, intriguing storyline, lots and lots of great sex scenes of huge variety, does require high suspension of disbelief and has a pretty underutilized sandbox game. But all in all, highly recommend!

Panacea is a ridiculous game with a nonsensical story that is further ruined by copious amounts of porn logic. Major spoilers below!

The game revolves around an MC whose mother was raped by an adult when she was 13 years old. MC's grandfather wanted his underage daughter impregnated so he could medically experiment on both the daughter and granddaughter. So, he arranged for an adult to rape his daughter for money. Everyone involved, that is: the MC, her step-sister, step-mom, birth mom, cousin, aunt, friends and acquaintances are at least partially aware of this and the ones who know are all perfectly OK with it. Most of them spend a minute or two with platitudes ("oh, that sucks!") and then immediately change gears into "whatever, let's fuck!"

Yes, every single female character in the game wants to fuck the MC, and most do. Taboos are not a problem in Panacea, everyone involved thinks it's hot, so they just go on with the fucking.

The only upshot to this game is the various kinks and fetishes you can explore with the metamorphic drug the story revolves around. Beware though, there are many, many unavoidable sex scenes so you might experience fetishes that are uninteresting and/or revolting to you.

There are some missing tags as well. Sexual harassment at a minimum, but probably sexual assault too.

If you are in it only for the sex scenes and you liked the fetishes involved, use a scene unlocker. Beyond that, I recommend skipping the story.

Reading other reviews, I often wondered if these people have played the same game I have played ... though some do address at least some of the games issues, but give a high review score regardless.

So here's the reasoning why I'm only giving it three stars:

The renders are decent, but not spectacular by any means.
Most model choices are good. So far, so good.

The story, admittedly, is somewhat original when measured agains the majority of games currently out there, but then again, there HAVE been other games with a very similar premise, so it's not a stroke of genius or something.
It's slightly refreshing, expecially the emphasis on girl on girl and more exotic kinks. Then again, the game heavily features overused tropes, the stepmother and stepsister, the always horny friend etc.
And I don't technically mind using those tropes, but it's not implemented very exciting here. There's no buildup at all.

Oh. My new roommate which I just met for the first time is hitting on me. Let's do it with her.
Oh. My (step)mom is pretty attractive, isn't she? Let's do it with her.
Oh. My (step)sister thinks I'm sexy? Let's do it with her.
Oh. My best friend from childhood days who I haven't seen in years appears out of nowhere and tells me she was always jealous of my body? Let's do it with her.
Oh. The (female) doctor responsible for monitoring my condition seems to be fond of me. Let's do it with her.
The list could continue, but I think I have made my point.
And there's almost no "internal" buildup within the scenes, either. It's mostly "Shall we?" "Sure". The game even has a corruption tag...

Then there's the completely pointless sandbox. It just makes you click around pointlessly, in the few cases where you can do more than one thing at all, it doesn't matter in which order you do it. The stats are useless, too, as is money for the most part.

The few choices you actually get to make (since the sandbox doesn't offer choices it's done in ordinary VN style) mostly have little to no impact.

Anyway, the game is not terrible by any means and definately worth checking out, but it has far too many warts to be considered a five star game, in my opinion. But make sure to read other reviews as well, and if the things I mentioned are not important for you, by all means give the game a try.

Some of the best renders, best writing and highest quality graphics on the entire site.

This game, Sylphine and Healslut are absolutely the gold standard for porn games that could be considered good even without the porn.

This one is for fans of high quality, check the tags to make sure your thing is in it


Dev, if you're reading this: MOAR FEET

Loving this so far, the story is really good, its different from anything i have played before, its got an interesting subject matter, writing is pretty good (only a few mistakes). Characters are sexy (apart from a couple that were not my taste). MC for me is perfect.
I love what the dev(s) are doing with this and a big thumbs up for their originality. Cant wait for the next update

version 0.51
There's nothing about this game I didn't like. The characters are well designed, good quality models, good writing, lewd encounters are frequent but don't wear out their welcome. Very good amount of content for only a year and a half in development, well worth a playthrough or two. Ticks a lot of different fetish options too, all of which (as far as I could tell) are avoidable if something's not your thing.

Refreshing game, not the typical storyline! i also like the freedom of choices you can make (gender), graphics are above standard would recommend for those who are in to games with some dept and freedom. 10/10!

So I just finished playing through the current version, and I won't bother going into too much detail about what others have already said. The models are great (though there's a few collision errors in some poses and Trayi always looks like she's smelt something really bad), there's plenty of high quality sex scenes with something for everyone, the story is pretty interesting, and overall everything is pretty well done. Now onto my issues.

• There's quite a few grammatical errors. This seems like a common issue among porn games and I know that English isn't everyone's first language, so it's not really a huge deal.
• The decision's don't seem to really matter besides a few times, and there's a few times where I feel like there should be a decision but there isn't (the MC basically just picks and chooses who she wants to seduce without any input from the player). Additionally, the roommates frequently ask about your input on their transformations, but it doesn't matter. For example, JJ asked what the MC wanted of her body and gave the options of muscular, skinny with big boobs, or thicc on two separate occassions. Despite picking thicc both times, she went with skinny and big boobs.
• I like the idea of transforming the MC, but if you want to provide a sandbox experience I feel like we should have options to permanently transform our bodies.
• Speaking of sandbox... The sandbox elements are really lacking. Your energy and mood are meaningless, and I've never had a moment where I was too low on either (more often than not the MC wants to sleep or be sad even though both stats are nearly at 100). There is no reason to work or have money as there is really only two sex toys that you can buy and they are both fairly cheap. Time is meaningless as it skips around and stands still whenever it's convenient without having to wait around besides the three scenes with the roommates. Finally you don't really have any freedom to do anything besides follow the story. You can't do anything at any location unless you need to be there for the story and the journal tells you exactly what to do anyway.

In conclusion, the game is coming along great, but it feels like a linear VN rather than an actual sandbox. If the dev doesn't plan on fleshing out the sandbox elements more, I think it would be better to just cut them out completely.

Came for the female protagonist fingering and licking all pussies but stayed for the story.

Seriously when i started playing i was expecting just Liv to go around poking her roomates. Sure wasn't expecting all the conspiracy involving a miraculous drug, Child drug testing, child prostitution, human farms with bodies used as CVD vats and surprise incest.

Plus all the backstabbing between Dr.Shaw and aunt Trayi. And now even Mayor Rose is in the middle of things too.

Quite a good surprise.

What a great game! Tons of content already, a deep, intricate and very engaging story with some twists. A LOT of fetish are also already in the game and there is potential for a lot more with all of the crazy body transformation

I must not have looked closely at this before trying it because I rarely am interested in games that are nearly solely lesbian content. I have to say though I am very glad I did!

First off the game is good look at. The backgrounds are well appointed and the characters are very well designed. They're all very attractive without falling into the trap of being too good or predictable. Also good representation across ethnicities too.

The game claims to be a "sandbox" and technically it is, but it's mostly a linear VN with very few meaningful choices which is fine for me. It has good flow and progression. The story is solid and the relationship building is great. I'm already emotionally invested in these characters and that's a good place to be.

I spent a large chunk of a couple of days playing through version 0.5 and I'm hooked much to my surprise. The content here maybe outside your usual comfort zone but I strongly suggest you give it a try.

As has already been mentioned, there are incredibly few choices for us to actually click through that affect the plot....other than to chooose to enable some fetish content or not. It's essentially a sandboxy kinetic novel so if you're looking for a plot driven novel you can influence, this is not for you.

That being said, it's still a solid click through game. Renders and graphics are pretty solid and the sex scenes are both aplenty and enjoyable to experience. There aren't any animations which is a bummer but never something I will hold against the dev. Plot is intriguing albeit with twists that are a bit too convenient

As long as you know from the start that you won't be making a lot of decisions, you should have a good time playing this

In the beginning of this game I was not sure if I like its sandbox system, but meantime I do love it. I like that it have a very good helping tool which brings the story forward without loosing too much time running headless around. The story become better and better. It have its ups and downs with a few side turn, but so far it makes me keep on thirsty to keep on playing it. The only negative part of it: I would like if the MC (Liv) shoes become more feminine too. Seeing her often running around in heavy winter boots looks a bit strange. Anyway the graphic is top. I do love this game. 5 of 5 stars.

v0.43
This was my first game as a (almost all the time) female protagonist and it was a very good surprise.
- Nice story with some twists and interesting general plot.
- Good writing. Funny lines and emotions finely conveyed.
- CGs are good, even if not the best, but ladies are cute with nice shapes.
- Many kinks mostly revolving around lesbianism but presented in an interesting perspectives, not gross as sometimes seen in some other games.
- Sex situations keep entertained but are somehow very short.

CONS:
- The frame for the dialog ui is way too big. Hides like the 1/5th of the screen, of course, the best parts...
- Too few real choices that impact the story in the long way.

I'll keep an eye on it and see the future progress.

Linear and boring. No real choices except whether you want pee content. No drama. Gave up after a couple of hours. Author introduces elements to make a dramatic arc but then leaves them lie in favor of getting the protagonist laid.

One of the best games on the site with unique story and fetishes
haven't finished the game yet but renders are high quality story is fantastic and build ups reasonably characters are lovely the only negative point that I can think of is the font and UI of the game. It is really hard to read dialogs and the bar around the dialog covers a lot of screen and it is not transparent enough UI is not great too but since there are not many thing to do with it's not as annoying as font
overall the game is a must-play!

RECOMENDED:YES (for those who love the lesbi kink)
here goes nothing, actually want to give 4 but its like not approfiative(bad gram) cuz story n art si fine
5/5 for art, i love the model of mc i though for first it she will come bald forver after his cancer cured but NO, and for other girls its also same love her sis n step mom not the real mom cuz its like need more light i means for my eyes its little bit black not dark [actualy love dark skin girls but prefer got tanned(full body not half)] for the characterism i love all the girls except the fatty girls but as long the story its got shape Keep it up i love devepling like that

5/5 for story, as i mentioned on top its fine i means really good not to rush to slow to, but thers one plot its like idk either i like or not when story goes mc knew his mom i think it to rushbad english again maybe for the next up will get a revamp for that step, like mc step by step knowing(means enjoying her real mom) not so socked n overeact

3/5 this is why i mentioned to give 4, cuz when ever open the hints cant auto close when i click the outside box, i means i do really need to click the "cross" buttom. maybe dev will considering again for this ui, well for displayed i think its fine it neat(transled)

A very entertaining game with good characters, fun story, and fine writing. As you might guess from the themes, it isn't trying for too much realism, and these aren't the deepest characters you'll ever meet, but I found them enjoyable. There isn't much "game" to this (which isn't a problem). At various points you make scene choices to pick which content you want to see now and which are gauging your preferences for future scenes/transformations.

One minor con is that there are a few half baked features that might distract the player. At this point (0.41) , money/working in the store is meaningless. Also, the time of day stuff is almost meaningless; it just makes you skip time for a few hours to get to a few of the events. The way time passes (or doesn't) based on what you do is inconsistent and mostly irrelevant. The original presentation might make it seem like one of the games were you need to use your time/money wisely, but currently that isn't true.

One clarification: I don't think the lack of "gamey" features is a bad thing. Probably the best direction would be to remove the incomplete time/money game mechanics entirely and focus on the choice driven story.

Easily one of my favorite VN games so far.
Great writing, with interesting characters.
Amazing renders and character designs, especially MC and Cammy.
Body transformations are really well done and it's nice that if you want to play as a pure lesbian, you can avoid the dicks, making sure to tell that you don't like them, etc.

Love, Love, Love this one!

Our girl (Liv) in this one is coming to terms that she is gay while also being used as a guinea pig for experiments with injections that can enhance breasts, muscles or even add male characteristics.

We can pick domme or sub path for mc, I picked domme and really enjoyed her strong personality...she took no shit - yeah go girl!
Best part was when she took down another domme that was abusing her sister...so satisfying.

The story is a good enough twist to be original and has nice sexy moments spaced through it. Other house mates are interesting chars and you can even decide if one keeps his little cock or goes full on womanhood.

This is definitely one of the better lesbian themed games on here and I will watch for future updates. Good work dev!