VN - Ren'Py - Powers That Be [Ch. 24 - Styling] [Burst Out Games]

I'm just confused by this game. I acknowledge and appreciate the time and effort. They've been updating this game for 4 years. But also in that time, has split their time and attention to 3 other games.

This looks, reads, and feels like a freshman effort. I have not tried any of the other games for comparison. This reminds me of when the "Ready Player One" book came out and was a massive hit. And then EVERYONE started making Pop Culture references in everything they did. So when the sequel to Ready Player One came out, Pop Culture references were so overused and every by that time, that the sequel was a flop. This game has loads of pop culture references but also mixes in characters and dialog that sound like it was written by AI that was trained on TikTok chat.

It just strikes the wrong chords with me. As another review mentioned, these traits and humor are entirely subjective and I readily admit I'm annoyed by "Just a prank, bro!" humor and "HIGHKEY" being used every 4 sentences by the Valerie character.

This game has a similar randomness, chaotic feel to it as shotgun-style development. Experimentation, trial and error, building off of what seemed to work till you hit that one-in-a-million moment does work. Like asking out every woman you come across and find attractive, sooner or later (just based on odds) at lease ONE of them will say "Yes."

Scott Cawthon (the developer of the Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) games) made 71 games that almost nobody has ever heard of between 2002 and 2014(when FNAF came out). FNAF was a massive hit, and they've worked almost exclusively on that IP since then. I just advise players be aware, when starting this VN, they may be, figuratively, starting "Bad Waiter Tip Calculator", which Scott Cawthon made and released the year before he made and released "Five Nights at Freddy's". They can't all be multi-million dollar IPs.

Good Points
+ Honestly, there is nothing good to say about this game...

Bad Points
- The story is not well-written, interesting or enjoyable to read.
- MC is not the really likable guy to play.
- Love interests are not interesting, well-written, or likable.
- Nearly every girl/woman in the game looks either straight-up ugly or kind of unattractive and there is nothing appealing about them.
- Sex scenes are not good, most sex scenes don't even have animations with good FPS values, and are mostly static, and the ones with good FPS values do not really have good physics and look funky & weird along with lacking a variety of positions/angles.
- Visual/Render quality looks old and bad.

For The End
Nothing to say, straight-up bad game, not worth playing.

I think this is a good game.
It is quite large already content wise.
It has good renders, mostly good animations, action, drama, and maybe debatable humor.
It uses a lot of "humor" and while that is really subjective and not everybodies cup of tea perhaps, I liked it.
It makes this a game which does not take itself seriously.
For me it was entertaining and fun to play with some hot scenes between MC and the girls.
And that is why I play these games....to just get some entertainment and that is just what this game gives you.
With all kinds of games out there I cannot imagine why this should be less than a 4 star game....I can definately see some ppl rating it a 5 star too.
I would say just give it a shot....it's a fine relaxing entertaining game for a rainy sunday afternoon.

I can't think of anything good to say about this... so one star it is. It would have been two stars if the option to reject the "love interests" wasn't ignored or delayed so often.

If you're looking for bad writing combined with a simp MC who's involved in some superpowered nonsense while fucking his "niece" and "daughter" in various countries then maybe it's for you.

Now i'll go and drink myself half to death in order to kill whatever brain cells contain information about this "game". Go play something else.. or watch grass grow. Literally anything has got to be better than whatever the fuck this was.

(Review of Ch. 24 Styling)

For starters, I'll admit I'm not a fan of anything that makes a story surrealistic. I can dig horror or paranormal stuff, but mind control easily ruins a story and superpowers have also that ability; unfortunately, here the product is already flawed before even getting into that.

First and foremost there's the jarring writing. Really, some expressions completely ruin the immersion by the way the MC speaks like he's a character taken from some Hanna Barbera cartoon. If this is an attempt at humour, please don't bother. In the same vein, we don't need an endless, pseudointellectual and absolutely OTT conversation in a cafeteria just to justify a quick sex scene in a restroom, either.

Then there's the creepy looking Tilly and the way she calls her uncle "babe" since the moment he accepts to bang her, or the fact that Nika looks like a robot. I can accept a cheap political joke making a Russian girl appear robotic keeping the same facial expression at times, but this is overdoing it. If you aren't giving a character some personality, maybe it's better to omit it altogether.

Lastly, for a guy that's supposedly as smart, mature and wholesome as the MC is supposed to be, he sure manages to behave like a complete moron when pressured by some horny girls. The only time he's in character is when he deals with his ex because it's the only time he actually behaves like an adult, while the rest seems like the typical classic Disney production where adults behave like children and viceversa. Are you targetting children with an adult game...?

I won't comment on animations and other stuff because quite frankly they're totally irrelevant when the basics are this poor.

the sex animation downgraded with each chapter.

the first sex scene is with Tilly, the animation is not good but at least decent with some dynamic animation but after that it went downhill, the sex animations became static, it's literally just back and forth render with no animations at all.

I left the story for a year only to find its quality became very very bad when I return.
It has completely derailed from the original plot. I don't know what to say, just feel very disappointed.
Oh, and the new cover is clickbait.

I have a vague recollection of playing this a good long while ago, I enjoyed it then and I enjoy it now. But I gotta say it's somewhat disheartening to see how little the story has progressed since my last run through.

I did notice additional references being added and the dialogue generally being punched up a bit since last I played, which I do appreciate, but I'm invested enough in the overarching narrative that I can't help but wish there were more of it.

Anyway - in addition to boasting some quality writing the renders are pretty good, though the animations are a bit meh - but fortunately few in number.

Music ain't bad, as compared to the usually abysmal offerings in these games it is at least tolerable. There are some sfx but they're unfortunately scarce, though used to decent effect when they do show up.

All told I like this game a great deal and I give it my recommendation, albeit with the caveat that I have some concerns about the pacing.

With each new update, the story, models, sex scenes, and backgrounds become progressively more nonsensical and terrible, despite the promising start it had. I don't know what the fuck is even going on anymore

It has some excellent writing overall with the use of song lyrics, philosophical snippets, dad jokes, and a lot of funny stuff, and its not finished yet, I hope.
But it does have some non sequitur moments that are a bit hard to follow but may yet be resolved. And the somewhat sparse and predictable sexual adventures are a bit under-animated in the earlier chapters with steady improvement in later chapters, but this remains more a story than a pure porn endeavour.
I don't expect particularly deep dialogues or sophisticated humor in this genre, but a lot of such material here had me laughing out loud .
The story line seems to get disjoint after the Ivan battle but does serve to bring in two side characters that add some fun but left the story hanging.
I'm looking forward to the story moving along, with the inferences about the fate of the mother, what the role of the family is in the grand scheme of things, and where their powers may be evolving to. I really think this is a superior effort in this genre and want to see more!

A fun ride which takes some different direction from the usual "family fun" norms and yet does not take itself seriously never the less.

As a basic premise there is an emphasis on superpowers at core in the story but its done in a way which not only adds the usual antics and fun scenarios that can come from said unrealistic premise but it also enables the story to pick up the slack when it needs to in the good stuff whilst the dev does try and build his characters and story.

On the whole it makes for a fun ride and thus allows you access to a bevy of decent if unspectacular looking ladies to have fun with. The core characters are the MC of course who is likeable yet flawed, a niece who because of seclusion really desires human love and affection and given her powers if projection of emotions means you sorta dare i say organically progress with her rapidly in a sexual and romantic sense and the daughter who is rebellious, outgoing and spunky. The humour in the game is on point and full of meme esc references and throwaway gags which i enjoyed as it kept the adventure light in face of its dark undertone.

If I should be honest, this feels like this is just a side hustle on the side from the developer, throwing everything he thinks might be good at the wall and see how it is, especially the last 5 chapters. You would probably think that with 20 chaps there is a ton of stuff to see ? Nope, everything can be done in 1 ½ h max. Every chap is like 10-15 min.

I will be upfront with you. I only downloaded it because of the bad reviews. I really needed to check it for myself to see if it's true or not. Yeah I'm a bad madafaker ask you mom.

And yeah the bad reviews speak for themself as I experienced them myself, with only two small differences:

• The annoying meme references seemed to dim down in the last 3 chaps.
• Annoying, childlike speech seemed to dim down in the last 3 chaps.

However, for the majority of this “humour” it outright shot itselfs in the foot multiple times it deserves multiple facepalms.

I would have also mentioned that the constant talking about every girl having sex with other guys in the past got dimmed down in the last 3 chaps, but since the chapters are so short it feels like they just said that 10 mins ago so that's that.

Overall it's not for me despite having the option to flip off the cheating hoe ex-wife.
But the models aren't to my liking, the lack of sex scenes, the lack of story and the absurd concept of the powers and characters is a temptring challenge to start drinking while playing it.

Don't see how this is a harem since 60% of the focus is Tilly, 25% Valeri, 10% blond and MC boss, 5% MC hoe ex-wife. Can't blame since the ex-wife looks ugly and she is a hoe. I played both paths where you forgive her, ups I mean be a complete spineless simp and even let himself gaslight accusing himself of being at fault for it as also it was ‘never about the sex’ imo get the fuck out of there. Or outright ignore her but sadly it's so bad it's not satisfying since there is this common ground where MC still is around her and she still tries to explain it but since there is no redemption arc for her it's bad.

It only gets worse with ch.18/19 when something happens with her… and I guess this is why it doesn't even deserve a 2.

I was really split on this game and want to give it alot better review since i did enjoy the story but its just lacking in to many things.

The story about a dad with 2 kids and a ex wife was really nice doing the first half or so of the game, then it does a 180 and turn into a full out marvel superpower game, which i dident mind i still thought it was good fun.

But this is supposed to be an animated game but yet sex scenes are picture to picture and thats just not good enough for a so called animated game, first scene with Tilly has one small animation, and Vals first sex scene was all picture to picture, and if i remember right the Tilly one is the only one in the hole game.

Music is pretty decent nice and relaxing but not mood setting in any way.

Alot of choices dosent really matter, you will be forced to be with Tilly but you can avoid being with Val well mostly anyway, and some choices just the same outcome no matter what you pick.

A few choices does change how Tilly acts, if your the forgiving type she wont kill the big guy, but if your not forgiving she will destory him so keep that in mind personaly i liked it when she showed no mercy since shes way to forgiving with the russian girl that bagstabbed them.

Also not really sure why both Tilly and Valerie has both been fucking other dudes since they wanted to be with MC since they where kids and through out high school and growing up and so on, just makes it even more weird none of them are virgins, really a missed opportunity and a poor choice in the story.

Story 4/5
I enjoyed the start with the girls and i found it fun when it took the 180 into a pure superhuman story, the political texts are a bit to much and isent needed in this game, i hope it will be turned waaay down in upcoming updates.

Girls 2/5
I dident find any of the girls hot, and its a bit disapointing that none of them is a virgin, and game reminds you of this as well telling you how many guys the girls has fucked, thats one information i just dont want to listen to.
Also a bit disapointed that there are 0 virgins, even Tilly has been fucking around and she was in a coma for some time to.....

Animations 0/5
Cant call a game animated with just a single animation, and that one wasent even good in any way.

Music 3/5
Its decent but not mood setting and ive heard better in alot of other games but its still better then a silent game.

Updates 2/5
Each chaper is very short and the dev is working on 4 games where one is on hold, i am not a fan of this type of milking since it means it will take 4 times longer to finish just one game, i say concentrate on one at the time if people like the games they will follow and support on next games as well, doing it like it is now has a much higher chance of people not wanting to support.

There is little negative to say about this on my end.

It starts out a little samey for a VN about a man and his close young girls and their every day edging closer together.
But it changes as it goes, eventually evolving into a larger plot that is genuinely interesting.

Really what I dislike is it feels like it is meant to be a very long story, which makes it likely to be done poorly or abandoned.
Currently this is not the case (Ep 19).

Art: 4/5
Models: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Plot (tropes etc): 3/5
Sex: 3/5 (very vanilla)
Lewd frequency: 2/5 (not enough imo)

Enjoyment: 5/5

I recommend it.

This one started off fine but lost it's way.

Visually it's not the best but that can be overcome to some extant with good storytelling. That's where this particularly falls short.

The dad character is pretentious at best, he really needs to not try and throw in speaking in other languages every chance he gets. It's off putting and hurts the flow of the story. The daughter is annoying, even worse is the daughters Russian friend. She is the embodiment of annoying. The lack of characters who are likeable or relatable hurts.

The over use of slang also hurts, it feel forced in and disrupts the natural flow of dialog. It comes off as a middle aged person trying to act like a teen and failing hard.

If it had stayed a story of Tilly who has an ability and romantic feelings for her uncle this might have had a chance but it simply goes off the rails and becomes too ambitious for it's own good. A good start that ends up failing.

Would say this is likely in my top 5 VN's played.
Normally I am not a fan of games that have short chapters but the dev did them right, I wasn't left feeling confused how the chapter fit into the rest and like it was unfinished.
The dev most certainly put time and effort into polishing the many different aspects that go into making a VN entertaining.
While there are areas of the game I would prefer to be different all those come down to just personal preference and none game breaking for me.
The dev is really able to give the characters individual personalities with just tiny bits of similarity, but they capture the similarity we would likely see in real world situations where people close to each other for years have a language register that is personalized to their group.
Love the use of the in game language translation.

This game is a blast. The animations are a bit dated and I have seen games with better graphics. However the story is fun and hilarious.

I like the pull from pop-culture and other areas to make the story fun, despite having some serious parts to the story. Do wish it had a bit more sexual fun as well, but that is about it.

I am always happy when a new release comes out.

No idea why this only has three stars. The renders are great, as are all the 3dCG characters. The story is a decent length at this point. It's absolutely hilarious at times, which is pretty great. I've burst out laughing a number of times, so yeah... I'd recommend this to anyone.

It's clear to say, the dev of this game has officially given up. What the fuck is this game even supposed to be anymore?? Can someone enlighten me??
You look at the banner, you read the synopsis, and you think to yourself. This looks like a fun little incest game with really crappy meme content, I'll give it a try, NOPE YOU FOOL. This game for reasons that baffle me, has gone full bullshit, it's now about politics/Superpowers and wannabe Marvel garbage, why is that the direction you thought would engage readers??
Lets talk characters a little shall we. The Father characters, AKA the main character. Do you like playing as a pathetic, weak willed punching bag that has no spine and zero testicles? well now you can, because this MC is fucking stupid. The other character that I'll talk about is the Daughter, AKA the one most people wanna bang/fuck. She may be the contender for worst written incest char on all time. She's a hypocrite, stupid, slutty and has the charisma and attitude of a 50 year old drunk sailor with aids. Yay, I really need to get her on my dick....Nope stay away monster..... This game sucks.

Every single female character in this game either is currently a slut and ONLY talks about sex and previous sex friends, or was a slut in the past. This basically ruined the girls for me, since the game reminds you at every turn that they are not good long term partners, and can't really be trusted...

Story: 2/5: interesting story about super powers, ruined by constant talk about the girls previous affairs or sex stories.

Characters: 1/5: MC is WAY too forgiving of a person considering that he has been cheated on multiple times, and had to deal with a lying cheating wife, and a druggy whore daughter.

Renders: 4/5 renders are fine, not amazing, but not terrible

Models: 2/5 the female models range from really good looking, (The ex wife's model in her 20s) to not good looking (Tilly)

Overall 2.5/5: rounded down, because every scene the author talks about how many times the girls have had sex before you, or comparing you to previous partners... Its not NTR, but I don't want to be reminded that you were the town bicycle every 30 seconds.