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

Version Played: Chapter 6

Time to Complete: 4.5 Hours

Disclaimer: The developer has contacted me regarding my review for Chapter 5, which could best be summarized as "it's good but I am weary of the future." While I have tried to minimize the effect this has had on this update to my review, I have also added additional information from them where applicable.

TL;DR: This game is in a state where it can go in either a positive or a negative direction. Although it is yet to be fully seen, I am optimistic.

[4.5/5] Story: This game tells its story in a manner which can subvert expectations. The first 2.5-3 hours of the game are spent as a slice of life with the only two characters being MC and the LI. While the bonds between the two develop rather rapidly, the relationship is a slow burn that is incredibly wholesome and cute to watch. Chapter 5, however, is a completely different story. The storyline evolves into a much more worldly drama with some characters being added, removed, and with time skips to get past the "boring parts." Fortunately, Chapter 6 is a partial return to the earlier chapters, with the primary focus coming back to the MC and LI, however it still retains some drama and the shake up that occurred in CH5 continues to leave me weary for the later chapters.

Regarding this, the developer has assured me that although Chapter 5 and 6 stray rather heavily from the earlier chapters, from 7 on they'll return much to the "original intent." He states that while "the story is always going to be primarily focused on the wholesome romance," there is a larger plot in place.

[4.5/5] Renders: The renders in this game are very good. There is no grain in either high or low light, and even in the darker renders you can still see clearly. The characters look good, with the LI simply being adorable and with that you can find yourself simply getting lost in. None of the characters are the best models you'll ever see, however they match the overall quality of the renders in general so nothing looks unusual or out of place.

Please add the sci-fi tag.
First 4 chapters (i think) are excellent, renders are nice and well done, but then...
Had high hopes for a medieval low fantasy story but instead after quite some time i got some scifi postapocalyptic thriller?!? The hell? Then the promise of shitty fetishes in the future "interracial", "group" freaking "ahegao". "WhOleSoMe" indeed. Complete 180. From swords and bows and rustic medieval setting to shitty scifi with robot dongs and orgies,
and this annoying 4th wall breaking (as you later realize) "AI".

This review is for the current Act I - Bugfixes update.
Just finished with what is currently available here, and to be perfectly honest, I loved it.

Amazing story with quite a surprising twist/reveal at the end of Act 1. It sets the stage for so much more, and there is just so much potential here. I can't wait to see how things develop from here.

As far as originality goes, this one is definitely an original story and the story is the main focus of the game, as it should be for any visual novel. 10/10

Everything that happens is related to the story, and those bits here and there that don't make sense right away will all make sense by the end of the current update. I can't say more about this without spoiling the reveal, just know that everything will make sense by the end of Act 1, and the questions that remain will most likely be addressed in later acts. Storytelling here also gets another 10/10.

As far as visuals go, they're stunning, if the screenshots aren't enough to prove that on their own. The overall quality is definitely among the best I've seen of the games here.
The animations are smooth, and the still renders are all of the highest quality. 10/10

The only thing that I noticed while playing were a few instances where there were minor spelling or grammatical mistakes, but those can easily be fixed before the game reaches its final release. 9.9/10

Overall / Total: 39.9 / 40
I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a game with great story-driven content.

This is a great game if you like great renders, an interesting back story and two people who are obviously destined for each other.

Renders: 5/5. Assuming you like the style, the LI's eyes just draw you in. Proportions are nice, thank GOD no enormous breasts! The MC even looks like a decent human being!

Story: 4/5. Well written, my only complaint is I'm not personally a fan of Religion and social position suppressing free will of women, but the LI is overcoming that quite nicely!

My only complaint is that I actually like the other female character a slight bit more than the LI (I'm a sucker for red hair and green eyes) and this does not have the harem tag. Still the LI is hotter than hot and has that shy, sexiness of a girl next door vibe going on.

Well worth playing and I am looking forward to more!

The game is impossibly good. Even though the First Act is just a prologue, the world-building is top notch and the atmosphere setting is amazing.
The models are beautiful, you WILL fall in love with Maria just by staring at her eyes.
The romance is wholesome and at a perfect rythmn. I anxiously await for the next Act!

I'm enjoying the wholesome vanilla in this one! Definitely a different pace as a result. I was a bit weirded out by a silvery looking character. I think given what they are, they could probably make themselves an object instead of humanoid. Maybe like a cube or sphere. Might make it more lovable as a result.

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.