VN - Ren'Py - Price of Power [Ch.24] [Pandaman Games]

The story is nice, though of slow pacing (and a bit strange regarding the mine, and with strangely ignored gaps regarding Emilia).

The women are kinda beautiful, but nothing special. (I'd say the main LI has her facial traits a tad on the acromegalic side, and her body seems to be rather average.)

The renders look good.

The writing is good, but sometimes a bit wordy (and hence a bit more boring than necessary).

The worst part are the intruding comments from that misanthropic AI narrator. They break the immersion, the mood, they annoy a lot. They are totally useless until the actual Setup scene. They were so irritating that I hacked the game files and removed them up until that moment in Chapter 5.

So I would give this game solid 4 stars, but because of the annoying useless AI narrations I subtract one star.

[Version "Act 1 Bugfix"]

I absolutely love this game, every part of it. The renders are among the best of all that we have here at f95zone. The story is really nice, I especially like how the world unfolds through the story progression and dialogues instead of walls of text dscribing the detailed history of a random fantasy world. I like that the adult side of the story is unfolded slowly - usually in the adult VNs world we players get to see a female character's anal cavity within the first chapter, if not in the very first frame. Definitely gonna look out for further chapters, going to get my hands on them as soon as they are released.

Yes, sex sells, but it is not the only thing that makes something appealing to people. This game for example has a mix of humour, beautiful imagery and a sweet story about simple people in love, and that makes this game very precious. We don't need a sex scene every 5 minutes to keep people engaged, we need a good story, characters we can relate to and care about, and this game has it.

P.S : I will be very enraged if you fuck this up and make it another mindless fuckfest. Please don't do that, I have high hopes for this, and think this could well be a masterpiece.

Chapter 4

Love the game it is very wholesome and sweet, basically everyone seems nice and reasonable.
The worldbuilding, characters, writing, music everything is fantastic. The renders and animations are great. The character models are very well designed .
The game is a breath of fresh air, its unique and captivating.

OVERALL FANTASTIC GAME RECOMMENEDDDDD

The world the story takes place is beautiful and rich the renders are very well done and the writing is fantastic. The childhood friends who were split up for a decade are reunited and pick up where they left off despite their heritage. The way they interact with each other is very well done and I’m really excited about the upcoming chapters.
Check it out you won’t be disappointed and throw some support for this great VN.

Sometimes a game comes along that makes it so painfully aware what you are missing in the sea of samey harem incest games here. This is one such game.

It's so refreshing to have a game start of as a simple love story like that. It takes time to develop the relationship. The story cares for its characters. It's really beautiful. So far. It's definitely not just another porn game.

If I look at the planned tags, I am not sure it'll stay this way all the way to the end and it may actually go down that route still, but for now I really enjoy the refreshing "normal" take on a romantic relationship.

Oh, let me add one more thing: This game has the only male protagonist in recent memory that I felt I could really like as a love interest. He isn't brain dead, overly submissive or dominant or just makes you cringe in a myriad of other ways. He actually has charisma and decent humor. It's a sad state of things when this is such a big selling point, but here it is...

It's well done. Graphically as well as from a story perspective. Try it, enjoy it, support it!

Chapter 4

Love the unique story... its a chilled out, slow-burning and thoughtful VN. I really liked the narrative... the benign narrative entity is well done [not entirely convinced about the entity's image, but maybe that will be explained later] and adds depth... and the relationship between the two main characters is excellently written. Really looking forward to the next update.

Thanks!

[Ch 3], so not too much content yet, and the rating accordingly is a bit provisional.

I liked the story, it is very wholesome and sweet, basically everyone seems nice and reasonable. This may sound boring, but surprisingly it isn't. The worldbuilding is very good, the story interesting, the characters likeable, the writing good (the narrator at the beginning was a bit too preachy, which was a bit off-putting, but that gets a lot better soon.) Music was not too impressive (one track was also in Being A DIK, I think?). No sex yet, which was OK (would not have fit to the story so far anyway).

The game explicitly says that choices will only provide flavor and not impact the outcome. This I find regrettable, but of course understandable given that even the one path must be hell of an effort. The slow and careful storytelling surely requires lots of effort. While I enjoy the pace, I am a bit worried that this way the game development will take ages...

This totally blew my expectations out of the water. The writing is phenomenal and the characters are lifelike and compelling. There is little erotic content so far, but the story is so good that I enjoyed it immensely anyway. I'm generally a pretty cynical and closed off person, but this game actually reminded me of times I have cared deeply for someone, and my own capability for tenderness and love. It was a restorative and eye-opening experience, and I highly recommend you give it a try.

On a more technical note, the art/renders are really really good. The main heroine is unique looking while still remaining extremely beautiful. I suggest playing the game while putting on some medieval music from YouTube or something, as some of the game lacks music.

Based on Ch. 3

***Old*** see below

If you are not afraid of reading A LOT of text, (very) slow character building, the lacking of lewd content ....

You'll get ok renders (3.5/5: too much DOF, sometimes bad lightning, no HD) and an interesting story.

As I prefer a good story over some "fuck them all" setting I will keep watching this.
But there should be some progression ..... soon

I haven't checked the code, so I have no idea if your decisions (there haven't been a lot) matter.

***update***


Based on Ch. 5

The renders don't get better.
It even feels like there are more "put a blurry background in the scene and the rendered picture in front, doesn't matter if it matches or not" scenes.

I still like the characters and the story, but that's not enough for me.

I enjoyed the so far. First things first, this game is a slow paced, story based romance game so if you expect any kind of action, dick-crazed girls, fuckfest etc. better stay away from the game, at least for now.

-Games story is an emotional and highly romantic one, happening in a fantasy universe. For anyone who love this, Price of Power is a well addition to library. Dialogs in the game are well written, I never felt like "Why this character would say that in here?" Character backgrounds looks solid and they behave according to that background (Although for now we have just 3 character)
-Musics are well integrated in the game, background music is always sompatible with the scene you playing. Up to now we dont see diversity of situations to be honest but after playing too much game without any sound or playing same annoying music over over again for whole playthrough, Price of Power was a good change. I really hope this become a tradition for this game.
-Characterr visuals are on another level, I really enjoyed looking to Marias face. But for the majority of the game there are just Maria with changing backgrounds and changing expressions. It is understandable because so far game is just starting and tell you who is Maria and what she means to you.

If you are looking for some hot and heavy action, look elsewhere. This is a slow burn romance based game, not a harem builder or and incest fest. The MC is focused on one girl (as of 0.3) and the story revolves mostly around these two characters.

The story is nice, but it's not a VN like we have come to expect. I'd classify it more as a kinetic novel because there isn't a ton of choice and as of now (0.3) I don't think there are game altering decisions to be made.

The renders are very nice, there are only a few frequently shown characters though so the sample size is small. The writing is good. I assume the authors native language is english because the game is void of those grammatical mistakes that translated games have. The dialogue is realistic for the most part, I can believe that this is how people really talk to one another.

I've said it before. I'm a sucker for medieval stuff, and there seems to be something more going on blow the surface in this story.

A good game and a refreshing break from the norm on this site.

It's been a while since I've rated anything, but I must say I simple couldn't help but rate this one. I don't play many games these days due to my workload, but the visuals alone were enough to make me curious if the rest of it could live up to them.

I can honestly tell you I believe it did. The story knows what it wants to be, it's not cookie cutter. It makes it clear without saying it this is a love story and it going to be a slow burn. I have no problem with this at all. I'd much rather read a coherent story with no sex yet, than a sex fest with no meaning. If you are looking for a straight fap game this is not for you. However if you are looking for an actual experience that feels real look no further.

Story - 9/10

Visuals - 11/10 (is that possible, Idk, but they blew me away)

Sex Scenes - We don't know yet, but I'm alright with that.

I'd recommend this to anyone who is not looking of your standard fair, and wants something engaging. Like I said it's not a fap game, but not everyone of us is here for just that.

The story has an interesting start and is very well written, the characters are interesting and believable, and they feel real.

The renders and animations are great. The character models are very well designed and Maria especially something else entirely. Another point I'd can't emphasise enough about the renders is that every 3 screens of dialogue or so whoever you're talking to moves ever so slightly in accordance to the script. For example during talking to Maria she'll blush, she'll move her head, she'll let a little smile etc instead of having a static render. It may sound stupid and unnecessary, but it adds so much more depth to the dialogue, the scene at hand and the characters themselves.

As for lewd content, it doesn't have much as of chapter 3. And it doesn't need to imho. I'd rather have the story developed and the characters fleshed out than having the mc in a constant fuckfest. For the sick perverts among us Panda has added a lot of hand holding.

The only negative I can think of about the game is that it's not finished yet.

All in all, brilliant game. Can't recommend enough.

Handholding is there, that's all you need to know. Probably one of the most wholesome games on this forum. The characters are well designed and the story is at a good pace in respect to other slow burn games. But let's be honest we all played it out because of handholding. Well done dev

Great start, renders are top notch, great story and well written dialect, we all love a bit of romance / slow burn from time to time and this is the perfect setting. Awesome work Panda, keep it up 5 stars from me

Ok, I had a blast with the game.

Laughed out loud a lot, especially on the narrator. Loved Maria, the story seems interesting.
My historical knowledge got really irked on a few things - mainly the stone buildings and the constant talk about hours and minutes (people rarely used exact time before the portable clock became a thing).
I love the theme of exploration, especially post-apocalyptic exploration, so... well, I am hopeful.
Overall, great work! Love it! Can't wait for the next part!

Very nice storytelling, and I really like the relationship with Maria. The characters are rich, deep, interesting... The setup also is great, with a living world around and lots of stuff going on. I loved it, it's very promising.

Review based on chapter 2

Good game so far. No lewd scenes yet (kissing, no nudity).

Very beautiful renders in a medieval fantasy. Nice to see someone who knows how to actually render the outdoors the forests look great normally authors go all out on characters and forget the setting (not that t he characters aren't beautiful).

Alternative medieval fantasy setting that takes place in some sort of earth type land (references to christian bible/bubonic plague but so far no real world locations and alternative historys) a genre that is sorely lacking. The setup for the heroes story is interesting and definitely leaves you wanting more.

Writing is about 4/5. The authors interjections are a little jarring at times though I know why hes doing them it could be more seamless and less 4th wall breaking.

VNs love virgins but for once its nice to see characters in an a medieval setting actually recognize the value of virginity in the time period (beyond the fact that yeah a virgin is sexy).

If you could rank games with half stars I would say this is a solid 4.5 and I'm interested in seeing where the author goes with it.

I enjoyed this. It's not the usual corruption/seduction pattern that commonly appears. The characters already want each other. You as the player don't need to do anything to change that and I don't think you could if you wanted to.

Instead the game gives us innocent/restrained flirting with a focus on the characters, while slipping small bits of information on the world into dialogue. I really appreciate that the thoughts of the other characters aren't shown/exposed directly.

With only three (four?) main characters introduced so far I don't dislike any of them. They all feel substantial and significant.

The main character feels more like another character in the story, and not something I control. Making me more of an observer. Normally I hate this, but it seems to work.

I suspect some drama will be created to shake up the relationship, but I hope it's not anything too frustrating or involving a rival man/woman. I really enjoy their innocence.