VN - Ren'Py - Price of Power [Ch.25] [Pandaman Games]

VERSION: Ch.25
SUMMARY: Story rich, very well written with interesting story.
RATINGS (out of 5):

1. Models: 5
2. Visuals: 4
3. Animations: 3
4. Characters: 4
5. Story: 5
6. Writing: 5
7. Pacing: 3
8. UI: 3
9. Lewds: 2
10. Kinks: 2

Average: 36 of 50 possible points giving a 72% rating i.e. 3.5 stars, however I feel this game is closer to 4 stars.

PROS:

1. Great visuals and models are good looking
2. Characters are very well designed and fleshed out in back story and personalities. A lot of work and depth went into them.
3. The story is very interesting and somewhat surprising. There was a great deal of research that went into it. Its honestly so good that it could serve as an actual novel, if not from one.
4. The writing as with the story is very well done, read great and very professional.

CONS

1. Animations are basic and not really very good, they short even though they are decent quality.
2. Dialogue can get rather long winded and sometime frustrating, though this does happen even sometimes with the best of novels.
3. Pacing is slow, its kind of expected but its not great for me really as I am looking a bit more for the adult aspects of these games which gets lost between such long dialogues. Still its great for what the VN is trying to do.
4. UI is basic and there is nothing to really say about it, for this VN its not really needed that there be much effort in the UI, however I did find the scenes often very dark or very bright making that I sometimes had to adjust my opacity and colour of text to read it well, but also it sometimes caused that I can't see the scene without having to H (hide) the dialogue box.
5. In terms of lewds, there is not much, that which is there is pretty stock standard vanilla stuff.
6. With regards to kinks, some are not IMO really kinks, like harem path, hair pulling and rough sex. While these do exist in the game they are few and far between. Pregnancy does feature simply because it ties into the main plot however its not a kink as the love interests never develop into a visual pregnant state which has its own "kinks"

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Very good VN, emphasis on novel. I believe the developer and writer did what they set out to do, it was good no doubt about that. However I would have opted for a bit more "steaminess" which I could easily have built into this game and its story.

SUGGESTIONS AND SPOILERS:

• Spoiler: STORY RELATED

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• More lewds and kinks would certaintly have made it more fun, sexy and interesting for me.

I don't have any idea why this one got this great reviews!!!!!
The game could be absolute garbage. I'm kinda at chapter 6 right now and the story has progressed barely. The dialogues are unnecessarily long and meaningless.
I don't hate slow burn game, I like them in fact, because it gives the opportunity to develop characters emotions and connections but that is nowhere to be seen.
The screenplay is just as bad. They are conservative society but talks like western people like "blushing virgin" and so on.
Whatever if it wasn't for good render I would give it straight 1 ⭐.
.
SN: Now that I have completed 12 chapters I have no patience left to continue. At the end I'm taking the 1 star for artwork because hours of playing with only a few characters and only 2 females. Just garbage.
1 ⭐

Pretty good game overall. Started out a bit ... I don't wanna say boring, but maybe bland is the right word? Then picked up and become really good, but all in all I feel like everything is a bit too drawn out with too much talking.
Not saying to change the formula, because I like it overall, just pick up the pace slightly and focus a bit more on development of characters and story and you're golden.
Last but not least I felt like the inclusion of the remnants was a bit rushed, but nothing too bad, only a very minor gripe, if at all.

5* for now - starting to slip into 4* territory.

The first dozen+ chapters are awesome, and some of the best of any AVN. It starts to drone on, with neither the plot nor characters developing much in the most recent updates.

Overall its one of the better written VNs, and it has an interesting setting - its more slice of life than plot though. Whatever the plot is, seems to shift around. I guess it would be getting the Remnants to the Island? Would be weird for that to be the plot given that was only introduced in the past few chapters. Not really much player choice other than if you want a LI or not. Graphics and animations are good

Would suggest playing this, but its also about time this game started to get wrapped up. You can tell that its slowly going stale.

Used to enjoy the plot until it became boring as shit. Too many unimportant topics being discussed in too much details, which is unnecessary. Sex scenes are boring, i don't really care but as a matter of fact, they are boring. Single position, one robotic loop, done. Instead of moving the plot forward the dev explains genetics to the player. I really want to ask: why are you wasting your, and most importantly, my (a player's) time on something i could look up online if i wanted to (if i didn't know basics of genetics already)? Going as far as making albeit simple, but a presentation nonetheless? News flash, people don't read AVNs to become scientifically gifted, they read AVNs for entertainment. It goes for almost everything, dialogues are too long, repetitive, characters overexplain things as if the player/reader is a fucking idiot 5th grade elementary school drop-out. Not worth even pointing out any positives if it's unenjoyable in the current state, so unless that changes i'm leaving negative feedback and 2*.

Edit: the last current 24th chapter was what the game was like before, at least more or less. To be clear, my displeasure about too much details also rises from lack of any action. Something epic, or dangerous, or just interesting going on in between such long talks. It shouldn't just be blabbering for 5 chapters in a row, balance must be kept. There might be a bit more planning-thinking-talking than action sometimes, as an exception, or vice versa, but in general - balance.

The critical reasoning of the plots and the stream of consciousness of the characters along with the AIs might be the most intricate and interesting part of this VN. Even this could stand out as an actual and well-written novel. Everything is detailed and well described in terms of scripting and other textual description. Even the puns by AI "Legacy is excellent and I am still laughing while thinking about "East Island Trading Company". Also, the presentation part is very intriguing.

If someone is looking for a very erotic VN, it certainly not the place. Even though there's some erotic material, it wasn't profusely abundant amount. For example, the clothing are less erotic; I can understand that the Islanders who are very religious would wear something less revealing but the Remnants could have worn something more revealing. It would have been a nice touch as they were more frivolous and carefree.

As for the renders, they are good enough but not out of the world but when we have storyline this intriguing I would care less about that. I always prefer good story to good graphics. I mean there is a lot of VN with excellent renders but incorrigible plots.

At the end, I don't know how much we have traveled on Godsland and Southland but I hope it will be a memorable journey. Good Fortune for the days to
come.

Wow,the game kept me so hooked i played constantly for days until i went from Chapter 1 to Chapter 24, ok so the points below.

1. Sex Scenes very limited but that in no way affects the game the plot and storyline are more than enough to keep you hooked.
2. Models are oh so hot, Maria, Emilia(OMG HOT REDHEAD), Lune and Zaya so far but man they all are oh so fine.
3. Eve the AI damn i wish we could have scenes with her even in virtual world DEV make it happen lol.
4. Plot and story is excellent and gets better as it goes i feel though after the end of chapter 24 that the goal is coming to its conclusion and the game might be completed soon, i hope that this is not the case as it would be such a shame to finish it.

Overall, this has easily become one of the best games i have played on here, where the lack of sex scenes does not divert from the enjoyment. Thank you Dev for the work keep it up and long may it continue.

Overall this was pretty good as of Chapter 24. I do have some criticisms though.

Why does, or more to the point, how does Emilia have a nicely shaved pussy? She found a really sharp rock fragment? She doesn't have weapons. And more to the point an effective method of acheiving that level of sharpness to mess around in the area of her genitalia.

That "presentation" stuff is very annoying mainly because a lot of it was done with white text on a light colored border box with a white background behind that. That was a lot of test that quite literally gave me a headache just attempting to read it. I am diabetic so I already have issues with my eyesight as a result and that certainly did not make things easier. Where there was a darker background behind the textbox everything was just hunky dorey. Just for future reference maybe that issue can be addressed.

I certainly hope that there is an option to save the commoners and leave the nobles to rot from the plague. That would include the cultist leaders. I would love to see Legacy turn the High Cultist Prick's brain to mush as well. Just looking at his face nauseates me.

Like I said overall this is not a bad presentation and I only had a couple gripes. They are out there now. This can easily be turned into a 5 from me with just a bit of tweaking of things. I am not a fan of the Dev's Atheist viewpoints but I am not going to let them get in the way of enjoying what was an actually very thoughtfully and in depth piece of work created for our enjoyment. The story has been fantastic so far and keeps you interested. Not a lot of games on here can say that. There are a few out of several hundred that can claim that. Not going to name any out of respect for this Dev. How would you like it someone came in your house and bragged about your neighbors home?

Do I recommend you playing this? Absolutely!!!! This is a work that honestly deserves to be experienced. You will be surprised just how fast you go through all the chapters because you just keep reading and reading to find out more. Enjoy, I know I did.

Oh I guess I could also gripe that the very far apart spaced sexual content could be fleshed out some more as well but really that is a minor thought in the big picture. However that would certainly ensure a 5 if it happened though.

Very difficult game for me to engage on, I've heard the term 'slow burn' associated with this title but to me the pace was "glacial". MC is ok, nothing outstanding and in no real story comes off as an actual MC. Maria might be the least attractive in personality of any main LI of every VN that I've ever played. Just meh IMHO.

Price of Power: The Wrong Way to Make a Slow Burn

A game with decent graphics and an okay starting point, this "AVN" is what happens when a creator thinks themselves to be more clever than their audience. While the start of the story is a little weird with the narrator, it makes for a decent start to what should be an epic fantasy story. It is really misleading. I'm giving it two stars for the graphics since they are actually decent though many night scenes are a little too dark. The big offender, which is why I'm giving it such a low rating, is the characters. There is no real character development for over 20 chapters cause they just move in circles plot wise. A character issue that might be solved in chapter 3 will come back again and again. No real growth with delusions of grandeur not understanding that heroes have to sacrifice to save the world but they are too cowardly or selfish to do so. Adult scenes are so far and in between, I'm at chapter 19 and the main character has only had sex like 3 times. For anyone wonder how long that is, in my experience almost 16 hours. It's not a slow burn, it's glacial drift. Another bad thing is the MC and his party are betrayed at every turn by the government, but they refuse to try to make waves to help others. It's insanely infuriating see exactly where the plot is going but they act like it's this giant revelation.

TLDR: The graphics are okay, but the writing reminds me of someone that like to brag about how clever they are. Length does not equal quality

This game was extremely promising, I have been playing it since about chapter...I want to say 5? It's been awhile and I'm finally pulling the plug.

The premise is good, the setting is good, the main love interest is beautiful, the mc is a superhero but not like, egregiously, it had a solid foundation with a slow burn being warned about in the first place. Here's where the first issue lies.

To say this game is a slow burn would be an insult to slow burns. This game powers along at a snail's pace, and the worst part about it is the goddamn main AI in your brain. My god, the author's self-insert here is so obvious it's like being bashed on the head with a mallet. I'm tired of it, I'm tired of things happening in the story, and then having to read through about a chapter's worth of dialogue from a smarmy AI. The reason why I didn't rate this lower is because of how good I thought the start was. The start before the AI, the introverted hunter who misses his dream girl. This was the game I enjoyed most. The story has gone too far off the deep end but I want the author to know that he has chops if he can keep the story more grounded.

Long winded doesn't even begin to describe this game. Every time anything happens, the game grinds to a complete halt to give power points and check in on how every emotionally unstable rambling prone character feels about it.

Even being as fair as possible by not treating it as an erotic VN (very little low quality adult content), this game just doesn't know how to tell its story. You're always just stuck reading filler. Wishing these basic characters would shut up with their group therapy sessions and chemistry lessons long enough for the story to finally advance.

All this oversharing adds neither character depth nor relationship development. The constant emotional and expository diarrhea needs to be edited down by at least 75%. The current 23 chapters should not be more than 6 or 7 if told properly. And only then can we figure out whether these characters are as boringly one note as they appear to be when they're unloading textwalls of feelings at you.

it's a big L, lack of lewd scenes.
sex scene was very, very poor, especially Emilia's sex scene.

And it seems like all sex scenes intentionally avoided showing pussy, WTF?
story was alright, but there were a lot of dragged out dialogues.

not much adult content.
but it was relaxing adventure with some likeable characters.
girls other than emma is annoying. it is a bad think for avn. but it felt better for plot. but too bad we are here for both girls and plot soo 3.5

Review as of Chapter 22. Do I enjoy the story? Yes. Are they stuff that I really dislike? Yes as well. Now I really do enjoy the story. In fact, I enjoy it quite a lot that sometimes I didn't even bother much about some of the H-scenes in the game, just clicking through them to proceed with the story. Not saying the H-scenes aren't great, they are pretty well done, with some animations as well, albeit being a little short. The art is great, music is great, and the background is amazing as well. And while we kind of have the main LI being forced on us, I really don't mind one bit as I grew to love Maria a lot. The main issue that I have with this game, is that you really don't have a choice in terms of the other girls in the game. I for one wants nothing to do with Emilia, being friends sure, but not in a romantic way and what not. On the other hand, I really like Lune, and would love Lune to be the other girl in the Harem route or something, yet there is really only 3 paths in the game being Maria only, Maria and Emilia, and Maria, Emilia, Lune and Zaya. Come-on, firstly we already have Maria by default that we can't choose (not that I mind), but now I have to pick up Emilia and Zaya if I want to have a path with Lune? This by itself greatly affected how much I can enjoy the game, which is a pity since I really do enjoy the story.

Pros:
-Good plot
-Lovely looking girls
-Animations are decent, could be longer and better though
-Pleasant music
-Funny

Cons:
-Some draggy dialogues
-Planned Harem Route. I wanted to pick Lune after Maria, but to get her YOU MUST have Emilia and Zaya along, which is kinda sad to see in an AVN, given not everyone is gonna like all the girls in the game. This really does affect my experience in the game.
-Not much choices in the game

Overall score: 4/5

I'll begin by stating that this VN, despite having nudity and sexuality present, clearly is not a sex game or sex VN. It's part philosophical questioning and making a case for/against human advancement, undergrad-level anthropology and general science lesson (I mean, I had to look up Torricelli's Law...for an adult VN!).

It was definitely a very mature, philosophical treatise on human technological and societal evolution masquerading as an adult VN. Which I'm here for, ya know, as someone who's major character trait is overthinking and asking, "but why?" to a lot of things!

So I'm not going to really comment on the sex of it all like I have in other reviews (ya know, if I actually had an audience for those reviews? ). There was never much, and what little there was was very tame compared to most of the VNs I've found and played on F95. Not that the models use or animations were bad, just that they weren't really the point which is fine.



All in all, I thought the philsopical questions asked during the VN were interesting, and how the characters reacted to those questions being asked and then answered was good. Their interactions and relationships were also done well.

A slow slow burn which was actually fine at first as the plot was actually progressing, but now the plot has stagnated for at least 4 or 5 chapters. There are two main problems. An infertility plague, which inadvertently spread due to a lack of knowledge. Now this has been a priority, but the AIs are handling most of this in the background so for now most of the actual actions have been directed at finding metals. The only problem now is that the church has been less than honest and very problematic for the MC. Yet for the last few chapters it's been going between do we compromise with them or push them out of power outright. This indecision just made it feel like these last chapters were longer than the rest.

22 chapters, with stats selections, explain as not beeing plot breaker or changer, but implying many impact on the way the MC act and react. Truth is only physical stats have some impacts. All brain augmentations looks totally useless, the MC is still unable to process informations even if you choose this augmentation. What the point to let us choose what to improve if by the end the "superhuman" brain augmentation makes no sense.

The base plot is really interesting, but deep inconsistencies make you loose interest on what is said. What the point to follow a story if 10 renders later what was explained is not what they do ??? I'll give 2 exemples :

1. After they know they are infected and might infect everybody they decide to isolate themself into the MC house. Then just as they arrive at the said house it turn like if they choiced not to isolate but to go exploring the Southland again.
2. It is pretty well explain by the AI during a discussion, but normally "Eve" should transfert partially to Maria to kill the infection and rebuild her wombs. Then afterward do the same to Emilia. But what happen is only she transfert to her so there is more interactions, Eve never do anything to fix Maria and out of the blue they find a way to make a cure and cure Maria. But it's very far from what was explained.

There is also the fact that normally the MC should inherit Jacob Dalton, and they should fight it with the eclesiarchy and with other nobles. But nothing happen, timeline on this part is totally incoherent. What is explained to take a while to do seems to be resolved in a couple days and we have nothing to beleive it happend. There is the preparation of the duel, the duel then they leave, but how can they manage the familly internal affairs when they are never there and they never have a meeting with people in charge of the familly affairs. But for me the way things were presented, and the way things happened, the Dalton familly, while they are exploring as been taken by the eclesiarchy, they already have been judge as heretics without beeing able to defend themself.

To resume it all, this game feels like all important maters are avoided, and whatever was explain is irrelevant as the writer can change it on a whim. And the 22 chapters focuses on spending time on talks, repeats of the talks, a lot of thinking (repeat of the thinking as talks) and a bit of doing. Sure walking is doing something, but too much walking kill the walking...

When I started this game, I felt like I found a really good and promising game. You can feel real improvement from chapter 1 to 5 then it starts to collapse little by little until you reach a stagnation point. Even with the cure and the genes parts you don't feel exited. Seems the dev promise answers for chapter 23, guess I'll see when it come out, but if it stays the same it'll be the end for me.

As far as visual novels go this is actually really neat. The art is good, the backgrounds are amazing. The reason I dinged it 2 stars is the simple lack of actual porn in the porn game. I skipped through it to make sure I wasn't crazy, but there is a huge amount of text for about 12 real scenes.

So disappointed… this VN is getting awfully boring since the last 4/5 chapters, nothing is happening, they’re only walking and talking, and thinking too, MC thinks a lot, he thinks while he’s walking, he thinks while he’s talking, he thinks while he’s f… well, you get the idea, he spends his days thinking and the dev enjoys showing us those useless thoughts though they add nothing to the story. So, they walk and they chit-chat, that’s all. Well, sometimes they fuck too, they have to because they need to entertain the readers, but they do it like they have a chore to do, no build-up, no foreplay, just one position and it’s already over.

I used to really enjoy this VN to be honest, it was in my top 20, but not anymore, I now have to skip MC’s thoughts all the time and even some long and boring discussions because they are just some idle chit-chat about life, pregnancy, parenting, power, ecclesiarchy, etc. Chapter 22 is when I skipped the most, it was just a repeat of what they had already discussed before, and it ended up with yet another boring missionary sex scene which was supposed to be the MC taking the virginity of one of his two LIs (yeah, don’t ask me, after 22 chapters there are only 2 LIs, the other 2 girls are interested in each other only).

Don’t get me wrong, we still learned a few things over the last chapters (only a few though, the rest are just theories), but what we learned was definitely not worth 4/5 chapters, everything could have easily fitted into one single chapter. I ended getting the very bad feeling that the dev was trying to build way more chapters than he intended to at the beginning, filling them with useless and boring talks and thoughts (and very few renders). It’s sad to see that this VN had a great potential but is now in the wait-and-see category, the category we don’t expect anything anymore from, the category we don’t impatiently wait for the next chapter to be released anymore.

I just hope Pandaman Games will wake up soon from his lethargy and make his story captivating again and also make the MC more involved in it because at this point he’s just a vegetative human-being who spends his days listening, thinking, and waiting for the next day to do the same again and again.