Ren'Py - Completed - Pine Falls [Part 2 v0.5] [Daniels K]

Story:

The story has potential, I like it's concept but alas, it missed it's mark. The story started off interesting, but I feel like the concept of the premise slowly wing pushed aside as you progress.

For example, with all the missing folks, mysterious fog, inescapable town, all this becomes unimportant as all you care about is getting your PP sucked. There's no elaboration on this, I don't know why the dev didn't give this topic more attention, it all became irrelevant. It's as if the dev team just wanted to get this project over with and move onto the next.

At least one redeeming quality is the endings. It wasn't top notch, but it was at least up to par. Some endings are simply sweet and wholesome.

Characters:

The MC was ok to say the least. He didn't really shine as a knight in shining armour as the dev hoped him to be. Personality: zero. Simply put, he's boring.

The girls are done well. Great expression, decent writing and direction, for main girls that is. Side chicks however are horrible, they're all always horny whenever they sees the MC.

Sounds and music:

It was okay to say the least, but one particular subject I'd like to bring out is the voice acting in this. V.A can either elevate or bring down your game depending on the execution and in this case, it was bad. The problem was the inconsistencies. There are dialogues that sometimes it speaks and there are dialogues that it did not. Might as well turn it off.

Feature and setting:

I think it's safe to say that this particular feature is crucial and mandatory for an AVN to have and that is replay gallery and it is unfortunate this game doesn't have this.

Another thing I find strange with this game is why is it divided by 2 parts? Why can't the dev just merge it? Having to download 2 individual parts of the game to play the story fully? Really?

Conclusion:

Overall, it is an AVN with big potential but was executed horribly and took many flaws. I hope the dev team takes this as a lesson and improve upon this.

3.5 / 5

- Really bad.
- I expect a remake the visual novel is really boring so many options to end like that.
- Not a Big fan.
+ Characters as decent.
+ Animations loop it's ok.
+ The choices deppends your actions.

Again, another missed opportunity from the devs. It had an interesting premise and could have been so much better, but it just became average.

Some character designs are nice. Character development for most characters are okay, not great. Scenes are not bad.

Surprise how the TV show FROM feels so much familiar with this story.

Quite good VN
The visuals are pretty good and the story is also quite interesting and probably the best story/VN of the author
MC is also good and the 3 main Lis all beautiful and interesting with their own different personalities
Moreover all three have their own solo endings and paths and also there is one throuple path with its own ending with two main lis albeit i didn't like that path and ending (too much lesbian content in that path, MC became the third wheel i found it stupid)
My favorite girl was Mia ,second favorite was Alice and third Grace
but best solo ending was with Grace Second with Mia and third with Alice
Nonetheless i enjoyed the VN and its worth a play.

I think this game is a missed opportunity. it has an unusual story and the developer didn't make the best use of it. especially in the second part the game ends in the blink of an eye. the renders and animations are not bad for the year the game came out. still, the ending left me unsatisfied.

I would like to reply to the comment below. we are the only men in the game (except for the old, bald and ugly cop) the women in the town haven't seen a man in a very long time and suddenly a handsome man appears. of course they will jump on him. i think this is realism rather than bad writing.

Short summary:


Did not enjoy this one at all. It’s old and it shows. I was hoping the story and characters could pull this through. Nope. Most girls you meet will be horny for you right away, undress very soon, and often fuck you a few minutes after. Lots of orgies as well. Sex scenes are badly made though, so even that isn’t enjoyable



Good Things

• A few of the girls are nice

Bad points

• Writing and character development is bad - everyone wants to fuck you right away
• Renders and environments are dated
• Lighting, poses, are bad
• Bad animations
• Few choices and they are not well done

Game is separated into 2 parts. Story and dialogue is pretty okay. I like the pacing in the part 1 better but once you get started in part 2, it starts to feels kinda rushed, with lesser dialogues and more intimate scenes, endings were also not the best, I do find individual endings with your chosen girl to be the best, with Lilly being my favourite. Story is about MC finding himself in a town where all the males disappeared other than a few older ones, along with various other females.
As you work your way through the game, you start to get closer to the girls, finding out more about the mysteries of the town. Overall I'd say its still a pretty decent game, despite the rushed endings and what not.

Pros:
-The models look great. Each have their own personality and identity, and have their own unique attractiveness.
-Endings for the girls are pretty decent and satisfying, seeing where MC and the girls ends up in.
-Lilly best girl.
-The introduction of a new girl, Erica in part 2 is pretty nice. Erica is really hot, but having only 2 scenes with both of them being just blowjobs feels wasted to me. Would love to have at least an additional sex scene with her.
-Render quality is pretty nice, the intimate scenes are great as well.

Cons:
-Some animations are just alternating of 2 scenes and can't be skipped, which is really annoying.
-The ongoing flashing effects during animations is really annoying as well.
-There are some VA's in the game, but its the same voice shared between the girls.
-One of the ending is where you find out about the mysteries behind the town, but it just kinda ends abruptly, leaving with more questions than answers, and hence I find the endings with other LI's to be so much better.

Overall, I'd give it 8/10, 4 stars. Enjoyed my time playing the game, just felt that it could easily have been so much more.

Story starts out great with MC crashing hes car and finds him self in a town he cant leave and as always good looking LIs from this creator so and town has alot of them and supprise no real men other then a couple of older ones, so the setup is there for a good story.

MC is as always a bit annoying with the childish thought process, it makes him feel like a 12 year old very often and it does get cringy reading that stuff, even more so when he thinks like this with a LI you might not like at all.

MCs brain also must have vanished, listen to hes thought about just one of the girls "Alice...She steals and makes things up, but shes also nice and warm and amazing"....so someone that steals from you and tells girls to stay away from you because MC is hers alone, shes Amazing? really?

To give you an idea when hes just looking at the back of a girl in a bikini he thinks "i´m all tingly around her now, all excited like a kid on christmas morning" and thats after pushing her away with choices multiple times,
its sooo damn annoying to read since i dont want anything to do with her due to her personality and treatment of her younger sister and the fact that she stole from MC on day 1.

But game just tries to force her on to you constantly, shes kissing you over and over with MC loving it, its really shitty when you dont want to touch her and yet they act like a couple, choices just seems pointless if game cant take a hint after pushing someone away multiple times, atleast choices does work when its about having sex or not, so you can turn her down at some point.

Truely wish this kind of thought process would be dropped and left out, the readers can think for them selfs we dont need MC to think for us ffs, and its so stupid to read when you already know you will turn her down and tell her to go fuck her self....theres just nothing more stupid and idotic for a story when MC is lusting hard for someone and then turns her down 2 seconds later, it kills immersion and ruins story by alot, which is why that mindset should never be in the game, let players deside what to think on their own.

And as you might have guessed there is also the issue with LIs just trowing them selfs at MC, you been in town for less then a day and someone trows them selfs on your bed asking you to fuck them, atleast you have the option to say no which is very nice and very needed, so just forget about romance and relationship build-up its truely not needed for 99% of the LIs, game is proberly more ment to be a fuckfest game then anything else, and for that it is really good.

The girls are a tuff one, i like the looks but man their personalities are someting else, one is a sex addictted camgirl, others are controle freaks, or crazy cult girls, even though they look nice very few would make for a good girlfriend or even sex partner unless your a bit crazy your self, but there are atleast one, yes one that seems more normal.

But choices really work in this game, your not forced to fuck anyone you dont want to so you can play it as a full fuckfest or just stay faithfull to a single LI, i was truely supprised by that and also a big reason to why i cant give this less then 4 stars.

One thing this creator needs to learn or read up on, he virgin/deflower scenes, it wasent totaly bad in this one but very weird.
MC fucks a virgin, putting it all the way in and fucks in multiple possions, but the girl dosent lose her hymen untill the 4th posssion doggy style, thats just not how it works what would have happened the the second MC puts it all in, not after multiple possions.
But that said it was still a decent scene but also disappointing that none of it was annimated just picture to picture.

Also the Virgin girl story can go off track, since its very easy to miss the virgin scene if you dont do all the choices just right, which mess up story a bit in part 2 since you will fuck her again there and it wont be a virgin scene even though she should be one if you dont fuck her in part 1.

Fog ending which is the main real ending was a bit messed up and not finished, leaving alot of questions open, it feels more like it was done in this way to make a sequel to this game, i wouldent mind having seen that, MC taking over the town or something could be fun.

But it still has decent solo endings with the girls, some might not like that you just dump most of the other girls but they forget its not a harem game, sure you can fuck everyone or no one, but you still have to pick one of the girls to get a ending with one of them.

The voiced thing sounds good when its there, but like other games from this creator its only done as a side thing meaning not all text is voiced but only every now and then and mostly not even the full lines, for me it has to be all or nothing since i either read the text or listen to the dialogs, when you dont know when its voiced you read the text when it hits the screen so when voice pops up your pretty much done reading already, thats why it has to be all or none to me, would like to see a fully voiced game though so you can just relax and listen to it while wathcing the renders insted of reading.

Animations are pretty decent i would say 4/5 even thought they are still pretty short there are multiple scenes which makes up for that, but its also done a bit lazzy or rushed in some parts where animations are skipped and only have picture to picture.

Music is also above average, it has some nice tunes evey now and then and decent sound effects.

Still this was one of the best games from this creator so far, well worth 4 stars but cant do all 5 due to the stuff i explained in the start of the review.
Game is well worth playing and the writting is pretty good to not many mistakes.

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The game is in two parts:

The first is a good sex game with an interesting plot beginning. Which I think is perfect for what likes to play with one hand under the desk.

The second is not a sex game and is more focused on the main plot and the multiple solo endings (much better than the main ending).

Basically, you play for the girls, their very pretty designs, their varied characters, their sex scenes and their endings (perhaps a pleonasm in a sex game) but the rest is forgettable. In fact, I'm surprised that the game isn't a harem, even though everything was there.

On the technical side, I usually say that animations are always a plus, but this one's a bit pointless. Especially since the animations are unskippable. The same goes for the partially dubbed dialogues. It's a good idea, but it doesn't add much, and I think the author himself thought it wasn't worth the effort, which is why the dubbing stops almost in the second part.

I give it a 3* because you can't put a half, otherwise it would have taken its 3.5*.

I recommend it all the same. And since criticism is easier than practice, I'd like to say thank you and congratulations to Daniels K for his work.

Signed Jack Beauregard

Simple game with okayish story, good-looking girls (except one), but animations.. at least they exist, I enjoyed. 5 stars for Grace. So if you want to play a good game you should try it out. 200 chars rule is killing me

It was an excellent game. It had good rendering and graphics. in the last part of the season, It was unexpected. in season 2 when he woke up I thought he had a dream about all those. but in end It was incredible. the endings were also somewhat good. overall enjoyed it. good work developers. keep up the good work.

A below average game that shows potential but fell short.

The story is the first thing that brings this down. It is convoluted and makes no sense, only serving to justify why a guy finds himself isolated with loads of horny girls.
But the story is often not what people look for in an adult game, so how about the porn? It's rarely any better than average. Renders are pretty good though, but the product is boring. The animations are very stiff and I think would have been better as a two render loop. It also has some voice over, which I personally found poorly done and rather annoying.

I always thought it was a shame as Grace is one of my favorite model in any game, but it's just not enough to make a good game.
And to finish with another positive, the menu song it pretty good. Well worth a listen.

This game may be considered average although it presents good looking females and a somewhat interesting plot.

Mostly it's the simplicity of the sex scenes, lack of multiple impacting choices which are in cause.

Also it's divided in two part, and that is accompanied by a break in the rythm of the game.

The game is thus reserved to those who want to try everything. I wouldn't recommend to those who have little time to play games.

The first part of Pine Falls was really solid. The story was interesting and I liked most of the characters. Part one gets a 3.5 or maybe even 4 out of 5.

Part 2 started off interesting enough, but soon fell really flat. The story seemed super rushed and each of the girls endings was basically the same. Them escaping the town and living together, woohoo?

The "true" ending, or whatever you want to call is honestly pretty bad. They had been hinting about some "goddess" the whole time, but the entire interaction with her was super short and didn't really explain anything. Then it just ends with the MC just being gone for 8 months.

The characters say the fog left and never came back, but then they also say that another car just came in with the people vanished. What happened to the MC? The "goddess" was either going to relinquish the town or give it to him. I wanted to like this story, but the endings left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

I played the latest version of this game.

This game has been sitting on my watched list for a long time, and for good reason. The overview and the screenshots do a good job on catching your attention.

But once you actually start playing, you are quick to find out that the game itself leaves a lot to be desired. It presents itself as a simple VN, so there is not too much to call out. But what there is a to call out is significant enough to me to write this rating.

The good:

- The models look great for the most part. All of them have something attractive about them, and none of them look like they are out of place.

- The render quality is very nice when it comes to stills.

- The variety of girls to chase after is not really there, but that is not a problem since 3 of the main girls are redheaded.

-Lilly. She is undoubtedly the hottest girl in the game
The bad:

- The animations in this game are... of poor quality. I'd rather have this game without them implemented at all. this goes double because you cannot click past it on some occasions, 'forcing' you to sit there and wait until the animation is over.

- The VA in this game is of poor qulaity, and fairly cringy. But aside from that, it is also not uniform. some lines have VA, while others do not.

- The plot is not all too interesting, and fails to grab me like I had hoped from way back when, when I put this on my watch list initialy. If I am going to be honest, I would say that you could just skip part 1 and head into part 2 immediately, since you can make the major choices of part 1 in part 2 anyway. avoiding the tedious and unnecessary story parts that you will find in part 1.

- Alice. super bratty and annoying. No idea how anyone could stand her.

Overall I will rate this 3/5.

I recently got intrigued by the setting and the mystery of this game.
I would call the music and the character writing as far more competent than many other 3D pre-render western made games out there.

There is a huge BUT, and it's sadly the main ending to part 2.
They reveal the whole thing, and this vn pretty much falls apart at that point.

I will go on to spoil what happens, but it will be put into spoiler tags for those that do not want to know.


4 / 10

Pine Falls is very loosely based on the Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch with some light touches of Stephen King's The Mist.
The MC has an accident with his car and wakes up in a strange town that is surrounded by a mysterious fog which prevents the inhabitants from leaving the town.
The small town is almost exclusively inhabited by young and attractive women, most men have mysteriously vanished in the past few years only exception are the sheriff and mechanic, both are old men however and apparently all the girls in town have no interest in them even if they are all craving for sex, but of course they are highly interested in the young and handsome MC....

Pine Falls' story is equally split between finding out more about the mystery of the town and the pursuit of the various love interests.

There is Alice, the very pretty and flirty blonde who tries to secure the MC for herself very early in the story, an offer few will probably refuse.
Then there Is Mia, Alice's younger sister, she is the petite, shy and innocent virgin (who looks a bit like Anne Hathaway's cousin or so) who will gradually display her interest in the MC.
Then there is Grace, a feisty redhead who used to work as a camgirl and thus has a lot of experience and is in in a competition with Alice for the MC (neither of them know about Mia as a potential LI).
And finally the MC can also pursue Lily, the girl with the tattoos and piercings who at first displays some tsundere tendencies, but eventually warms up to the MC.
The MC can also get in a relationship with Alice and Grace for the genre typical throuple, but well developed solo paths exist for each of the women. Each woman is entirely optional and you can also opt out of any of the women in part 1 - but who would do that.

Apart from those four main love interests there are various side characters. There are options for orgies and threesomes if anyone wants that. Again, all of that is entirely optional.

Options are certainly one of the strengths of Pine Falls, nothing is ever forced upon the player (other than anal sex in one entirely optional scene), you can always reject someone or reject a scene and just walk away or say "no".

The renders are all pretty good, this is your typical DAZ game. The females, with one deliberate exception, are all very pretty and all quite varied, there should be a preferred type for almost everyone. However, fans of big busted "milfs" or ultra wide hips won't be happy, since all the women are young and have normal proportions and look more or less like actual human beings. If you prefer that Pine Falls will give you all you want in that regard. I very much appreciated the more naturalistic approach.
Animations are ok. Nothing noteworthy though, the animations are a bit stiff maybe, but it's alright, if sex scenes are what you are after Pine Falls may disappoint with an almost exclusive focus on vanilla. Generally speaking the relationships you can have are all wholesome and romantic. If you want kinks you will not find them here. But if romance and wholesomeness is what you are after Pine Falls has a lot to offer.

The game features partially voiced dialogue, ambient sound effects and music. The music is "ok", but was not really to my taste, but since this is entirely down to taste I will not say more about it. The main love interests and the mechanic have a few voiced lines. But quite honestly, it's not needed. The female voice is very pleasant, but the performance is a bit flat. And of course each girl has the same voice. It's a nice touch, but since only a small fraction of lines are actually voiced it's more or less superfluous.
Part 2 has almost zero voiced dialogue other than a "hello" or so and some laughter and some moans during the scenes with the women.

The central mystery of Pine Falls is pretty good, but a far cry from what you get in the Wayward Pines novels. However, depending on which ending you choose, the resolution can be pretty disappointing.
You will either be able to escape and find out nothing about the mystery or you stay behind and learn a bit more. But I found that particular ending quite silly and absolutely nothing I wanted to see really, it was the most disappointing path for me and I much preferred the ending with one of the main LIs.

My advice for the ending is to pick your main love interest early in part 2 (you get a dialogue option for that) and then to escape with the main LI at the first opportunity given to you, this is the best ending for the MC and the romance partner. By far. Even if that means you may not get to see 100% of the content. But you miss very little of actual worth.

Pine Falls is split into two parts, there is no save game transfer between the parts, instead you have to answer a few questions (all interwoven into the game as dialogue options, so it' s not obnoxious) early at the start of part 2 that will set the appropriate variables.
However, that also means that while in part 1 you had the opportunity to pursue all love interests at once to see who your favorite is, part 2 will make you choose and you have to select a solo path for your favorite woman. There is no way around that.
You will only get interactions with her in part 2 and zero (sexual) interactions with the previous love interests, other than Lily whose path only becomes available late in part 2. She only has one scene, and then one scene at the end if you choose to escape with her. Of course there are still several scenes with optional side characters if you want that. But overall I feel it's ok that you have to pick and choose in part 2, since part 1 gave you the opportunity to explore all love interests.

Part 1 is overall the better experience, part 2 is shorter and focuses more on the mystery than the girls really. But it almost seems the developer lost the will to further develop the story, since the central mystery is either unresolved in any of the solo endings or is cut short and really quite silly in the alternative ending.

The story could have been so much more, especially when you think of the major inspiration behind the game. I think it would have been better to take more cues from Wayward Pines, but of course this would have been a daunting task for a VN since it would have required a much longer game.

All in all Pine Falls is ok, it looks nice, the women are all attractive (other than Millie who pursues the MC at several points in the story but can always be turned down), the MC also looks alright and is neither a creep or a complete pervert (depending on player input though) and the central romance with any of the potential LIs is sweet and wholesome.
But the dialogue is only average and the story is very undercooked. And when you find out more about the mystery in the alternative ending chances are you may facepalm since it's very lame, in my opinion.

At least Pine Falls has a proper ending and in the solo paths you do get one longer scene with your main LI after you escape, but there is no marriage, pregnancy or any of that, the MC is just in a loving relationship with his favorite woman, but it's something at least.

People who like VNs that focus on story and a wholesome romance with some completely optional somewhat more spicy elements (orgies with multiple women, some lesbian content, threesomes) will most likely enjoy Pine Falls.
Don't expect too much from the story though (especially if you have read Wayward Pines) and part 2 feels weaker overall and also a bit more rushed. The overall experience is fine though, but the game lacks that certain extra to make the romances more memorable and the central mystery ends with a whimper.
So I feel 3 stars is an appropriate rating. For more it would have needed a much stronger part 2, a better resolution and more interactions with the main love interests.

Had I never played any of the recent exemplars of the medium (BaDik, CoBD, etc.), then this would have about met my highest expectations for an AVN. The writing is unobtrusive, there is plenty of sex that is varied enough to stay interesting and satisfy a few kinks here and there, and there is enough story to motivate a player to get to the end. I think that all adds up to a fine porn game that doesn't need to be analyzed with too much depth. Some basic, surface things to review then:

Pros
- Endings for all the main girls. It's a bit mechanical, but it's still satisfying that we get to see where each relationship can end up.
- The sci-fi-ish premise actually makes the game feel less ridiculous. Giving the girls some context for their behavior makes the game feel more immersive.
- Feels like there are consequences to choices, but enough pathways and scenes that it's okay to commit to a path and not worry about seeing everything.
- Looks pretty good, sex scenes are decent. Occasionally animations (2 alternating frames) go on too long.

Cons:
- While the girls look pretty good, everything else looks pretty cheap. No interesting backgrounds or art assets.
- There's some story, and enough writing for a sense of consequences, but still a lot of the text feels pretty skippable. A lot of it sounds the the same.
- While the girls look good, in both design and writing, they're not particularly memorable or differentiated, maybe with one exception.

A huge step forward from the previous game, Lancaster Boarding House, and a lot of the cons listed here are again hugely improved in the author's next game. All in all, a totally decent way to spend some time or get off. Like a 70s sexploitation movie, it's low budget, pervy fun, made with enough craft and imagination that you don't feel embarrassed for yourself or anyone involved.

Good looking characters, interesting plot. Truth be told not a lot happens but its still enjoyable. Not all that long, but no sandbox crap either. Good little visual novel thats actually finished recommended for sure

Review as of Part 2 v0.5 (final) (some spoilers)

I'm rating this game 3 stars and I must state upfront that 2.5 of those stars are just for the extremely attractive character models for most of the girls. Mia is stunningly svelte, Grace is a tiny curvy cutie, and Alice and Lilly are also really great. In fact a side girl, Erika introduced only in part 2 is perhaps the most striking of them all. Having played Lanacaster Boarding House and now Pine Falls, this dev clearly has abundant talent for creating relatively unique, strikingly attractive character models for LIs.

Unfortunately, there are also other common themes running through this dev's work. Lack of proper character arcs and and an intriguing mystery premise that remains unresolved or gets abruptly resolved in a haphazard fashion. The most prominent feature of Daniel K's work seems to be to create harem style gameplay where you easily bang everything, that leads into lazy non-harem endings.

The way I see it, an AVN can either be a harem game where the dev puts atleast some work into making all the characters eventually OK with the MC's promiscuity; or it can be a non-harem game, where your rampant promiscuity has reactions, slight or severe. If you bang everything that moves, at worst you must face conflicts with some of the LIs, or at the very least get sufficient amount of interactions and reactions across characters when all is revealed.

However, Daniel K's games seem to have a bus-stop style of character specific endings. You sleep with everyone you want, and at some point, you start getting off at various bus stops representing various character specific endings. However, these endings suddenly ignore any potential reactions to your choice from all the other LIs that were not chosen. You get templatized slides / sex scenes for each LI in their respective ending. The LIs that were not chosen are suddenly ok with your choice without as much as a whimper or they might even be forgotten completely.

Lancaster boarding house had this ending style done in a much worse manner, where out of the blue, Chloe had a deux ex machina ending, and then dominoes started to topple for all other LI endings.

The dev is trying to build a shared universe for his games which is admirable, but the individual games seem to be suffering for lack of satisfying closure.