VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Price of Power [Ep.30] [Pandaman Games]

First of all i will be buying this game.
I might replay it after 5 years, maybe not.

In short it was a nice romance VN. I didn't need much drama and i needed a happy ending. My teenage or young adult edgy love for dark-fantasy is shadowed by my adult love for happy endings with much less drama.

Story:
A beautiful story. Romance between 2 or 3 people.
The most sobering moment (which i liked) is the devs-authors approach towards things.
Virginity? Great, crossing the line for the first time is what i would expect for the medieval people. (They were rushing actually, but in prism of reality)
What i learned about medieval romance and chivalry is that men and women had to show their love almost theatrically and at the same time chaste nature due to religion was instilled in them. Not to mention they were 24 and 25 respectively.

What some reviewers bitch about being boring and bad is that MC being depressed over killing someone......Well killing someone is indeed as described in the story is different for everyone and even dependent on situation.
So a hunter killing someone and being depressed over it is quite normal especially if you consider that the whole game is only 1 year. So most of MC's "bitching" about death and killing is quite short.
Most of you would bitch about it for far longer after initial shock settled.

Basically this is a classic "vanilla" love story which might be boring for the most people here (since they want more spicy fetishes and more porn).
And this game-story isn't porn, porn element is only additional spice for a romantic story.
It's like reading a book but mostly and usual books are quite abrupt or elusive around erotic stuff (unless it's smut).

Graphic(renders):
Not the best we saw and can see but appealing all together. It's like reading a book but you have visual aid that decreases amount of annoying description via letters.

Overall:
A strong advice to play it if you want a nice and pleasant story with natural drama. Drama is natural but light altogether i.e. no cheap thrills or illogical rubber like drama.
I do not advice if you seek porn or to get off.
Nor is it some action-romance adrenaline filled testosterone flick. (Thankfully)
Author really tried to put realism and medieval romance here. It is quite different to ours where being a cold "bad boy" is seen as something romantic. The so called "Bad boy" to my understanding is a recent trend and medieval women would likely be turned off by that architype.

I like the story and the well written character, though sometimes it feels like the game is going into too much detail to explain the world. My favourite is Legacy and his Pop culture refrences. Overall a clear recoomedation if slow storytelling and somewhat deeper character are something you value.

Needs significant editing to improve pacing -- too many long-winded conversations, too much world building at the expense of pace makes it feel like a slog. Move 20-30% of the content into a New Game+ version so that the first playthrough feels much tighter.

Also, having the MC talk once about how he regrets he had to kill someone shows he's conflicted. Having him moan about it to every character he meets just shows he's a whiner. It's like that friend who can't stop talking about the ex who broke up with him five years ago. Get over it man, move on.

It's not a good sign when you start to sympathize with the "villains." Just once I'd love to see the scenes play out from the villain's POV:

"Hey, High Ecclesiastical, some snowflake is whinging that she caught one of your priests doing something bad. What do you do?"

1. Destabilize the social order (which is already hanging on by a thread) so that the snowflake can go on a magical journey of self-actualization?
2. Banish that bozo so that you can get back to your day job of trying to figure out how to steer civilization through an upcoming food shortage crisis?

Come to think of it, Projekt: Passion is one of the few games that does this well and makes the nominal villain, Solarin, into one of the most compelling characters in the story. Sadly villains here are sneering cardboard cut-outs.

I haven't even gotten far into Chapter 2 (out of 5, from the look of things), but I HAD to stop and give it a 5-star review when the story gives the option of accepting an offer or declining it - every time you say "No" the "cleArly benIgn nArrAtIve entIty" informs you that you HAVE to say "Yes" to that decision. I said "No" enough times for it to go full Stanley Parable on me, giving me a very hearty laugh!

Captivating story although it does feel very text heavy at times. I found myself regularly skipping through the text, Scenes are short and there just aren't enough of them.

Worth playing for the story which the AI's do make quite humorous.

This is an interesting science fiction story.

The AI angle is fun and our MC becomes a bit of a superhero. The AI personalities have a great dynamic and are plausible.

The love interest count is small and manageable. They're interesting and pretty ladies and they don't cross over into the over-used anime power girl or Zena Warrior Princess realm of silliness.

The animations and lewd scenes are barely adequate, it's the characters and story that carry this AVN. If the love scenes were better (better animated and posed) then this would have crossed into the truly rare 5 star territory for my tastes. And I don't think I've given any game 5 stars yet.

I won't beat around the bush and sugarcoat the truth. This game is insanely boring. A lot of empty texts and no action whatsoever. At first I thought that it would be just a slow-burn romance with a gradually increasing amount of exciting events, but instead you get a routine and never-ending cascade of boring dialogs, which can put you to sleep better than any sleeping pills. Sex scenes are very mild and super boring, just like everything else in this game. Hell, there are two defloration scenes without any trace of hymen or any discomfort effects on the virgins. It's like this developer added the "virgin" tag just because it might attract attention (or for shits and giggles), but in reality, in those first-time sex scenes with both virgin girls in this game, if the author didn't tell you specifically that they are virgins, you'd never even notice anything. They look like they're not virgins at all. It's just not something I take lightly. I don't like developers who fail to show good defloration scenes with resistance/pain/blood (or without blood if you're afraid of it). All in all this game just does not do it for me. I don't mind slow pacing, and I don't mind more dialogues, but I do mind when you are just stuck in one render and reading text for 5 minutes! It's just unbearable. Not my cup of tea.

Price of Extremes – 4 Stars

A rare story-driven VN that takes risks and delivers. Instead of the usual medieval “old world,” it’s set in a post-apocalyptic future after the fall of modern civilization. The dev takes their time weaving a cohesive, engaging plot which is this game's biggest stength.

Liberties are taken with some technical details, but nothing immersion-breaking. If you enjoy rich storytelling and don’t mind long stretches of dialogue, this one’s worth it.

The Lost Star

Where the game shines in narrative, it stumbles badly in romance and erotic content. Sexual scenes feel awkward and robotic, with poses and expressions deep in uncanny valley.

Things were tolerable with Maria and Michael only, but the harem elements- especially with Zaya and Luna, feel rushed and unearned. The choices that lead to them fancying you just involve encouraging them to get together. That is it. While not out of the realm of possibility, it's highly abrupt. No discussions, no romantic developments. Just "you want them to join while you're fucking your wife and mistress?" At-least Emilia gets some setup, but others jump into bed with the protagonist out of nowhere.

All told, this is a VN worth reading for the plot, but a disappointment if you’re here for quality adult scenes.

I have to say... I expected something else. Yes, that might be my fault, but hell, we're on F95 and the whole game is basically half a book with a kinda boring story (in my opinion). Sex scenes are super vanilla, rare (I think there are like 6 and 3 blowjobs or something) and all are boring and more of the same. Bit of oral, bit of fucking, done. Harem route adds more characters to the scene who not really do something.

The story... Well maybe it's interesting if you want to dive into some random far fetched half fantasy half sci-fi setting. I personally am not reading all that if I want to play a porn game. I don't want to step on the authors toes, it's great he has so much to write about. But it's not for me.

Sec scenes as said, way to boring and not nearly enough. Get some naughtiness in there.

One of the first games I played that I actually didn't mind the (relative) lack of sex scenes. The backstory may not hit for everyone, but I found it quite engaging and humorous. Can't wait to see what this developer does for a sequel!

A lot of the negative reviews seem to be about what people want from the game rather than what the game offers.

The game offers a semi slow paced, romance set in land where religious dogma has taught that "sins of the flesh" out of wedlock is a one way ticket to hell, or banishment to a land where death is a relief from it's nightmares. So no, there aren't immediate orgies and acts of depravity (unless you count hand holding amongst these). The MC slowly discovers the methods and joys of sex with his long time love on an adventure about their bodies, personalities and mysterious history.

It is not yet another anime (un)inspired, action cringe fest that more and more pollutes the pool of good games. It's a well written, well thought out mix of romance, religion, politics, adventure and struggle in a futuristic world reduced to a medieval state.

Had more work been put into the animations this would have easily been a 5 star for me. However they are short and while sweet (most of the time), probably aren't enough for what you most likely came here for. So it's more of a story that happens to have erotic moments than a smut game .

Don't expect what is not being provided, you wouldn't go to a shop and demand your apple should taste like an orange.

I thought this vn was off to a good start, with the shy commoner boy stuck in a society where his beloved friend is too high-born to ever be an attainable love interest, which we can predict will change over time. They end up in an exciting adventure in the forbidden lands and there are interesting things going on while the main character and his main squeeze realize their love for one another among moments of near-death peril. What could be better?
Then they discover an ancient AI that becomes part of the MC, and the whole freaking story grinds to a pace slightly slower than cold molasses.
I really like reading fantasy action-adventure books like Mark Lawrence's _Red Queen's War_ trilogy, in which the MC introduces himself as a coward and a cheat in the first chapter, only to be thrust into a series of challenging adventures punctuated by various dalliances he chances across as the story progresses and he gradually learns to be a better man. (All of Lawrence's other trilogies are just as good.)
I thought this game would be a fantasy action-adventure. The first few chapters felt that way. Then the action stopped happening. The challenges faced by the MC became downright mundane, and the solution to them way too predictable. I've given up on following this one because it has moved from inconsistent pacing (exciting at the start to incremental shortly after) to having almost no progress at all. I guess I kind of expected the introduction of the AI to lead to more-interesting turns of the plot, rather than the opposite.

It's not a bad game but its just so boring. Idk why the developer is so afraid to take risk. Told myself to keep going and maybe something excited will happen but its still the same. I get that this is supposed to be wholesome but come on, its a game. Take some risk, add in some dirty scenes, dialogue, or just about anything else besides the basic sex.

This VN is really good, but not perfect. I have been following it for a while, and purchased it on Steam when it became available. While I've been playing the steam version since then, I'll make sure to update my review here.

This VN starts off really slow, and seems like a relatively simple medieval world at the start. However, things get a lot more interesting and a lot more complicated as things progress. Overall, I really like the story and the overall world building. They are the main highlight, and what is keeping this up at a 4/5.

The visuals area also good, but super choppy. There almost never is any sort of transition between slides, and it makes going through the story very choppy. You get used to it after a while, but after playing another VN and then coming back to this - it is really evident. This is the main reason it doesn't get a 5/5. There is also no real background sounds or music, very minimal animation, and I find minor grammatical errors fairly consistently. While this doesn't take away from the story in any way, it makes the whole thing feel cheaper and less polished than some of the true 5/5 bangers that are out there. While it isn't in my top ten games in terms of mind-blowing scope or quality, it is a really solid VN with an interesting premise that I have no problem recommending to anyone.

Well written, coherent and entertaining story. Memorable characters and models. Fun gameplay. Has music at the right places. Has animations at the right places. Funny at times. Emotional at times. Overall a solid experience. Give this one a try I believe you will like it.

I loved this VN when it started. The beginning is extremely strong and the bonding between the two main characters initially is among the best you'll see in any VN here, but unfortunately it's all downhill from there.

The story pacing is completely off. The writing (when it doesn't lean into the relationships) is poor and consists mostly of preachy exposition vomit. I am kinda impressed the Dev dared to include PP slides into his game, but... it did not pay off.

The other women (outside the conflict with the "witch") are shallow, they all just walk through the props and talk about stuff that's largely meaningless. The sex scenes are wooden and soulless and then... it ends leaving the player with an odd "So what?" feeling.

It's a shame, but this VN can't keep what it promises at the beginning.

Superb story, a beautiful, well-constructed adventure, and it's long, so it's good. ^^ A pleasant discovery. This deserves a sequel without a doubt!
The characters are excellent, the girls are beautiful. I'm waiting for the ending, announced for 2025.
The scenes are beautiful but a little too short and "cold."

Very good storytelling. The character motivations make sense, the world building is interesting. The MC and the 2 main love interests have good chemistry too.

The only thing holding this back from 5 stars for me is that the sex scenes themselves are pretty basic. To me personally it is also just unsatisfying that you don't actually see the MC creampie his girls, especcially considering the fact you are at some point impregnating them.

Conclusion: Didn't get to fap but the story was interesting enough for me to want to finish it.

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 ⭐