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

I definitely agree with a lot of the people here that the game delves heavily into the mundane, with a lot of text describing pretty inconsequential things.

However, the characters, story, and dialogue are so well written that it is engaging for the most part. I personally struggled a bit to finish towards the end, but even then it was mostly enjoyable. I also thought sometimes the game got a bit preachy.

Otherwise id recommend playing this game. Its a well written sort of "slice of life" vn that simultaneously tells a pretty engaging love story/ adventure.

Price of Power complete version review.

Story:

The story was overall great. It was beautiful and sweet, I think it was written well, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I like the theme concept too, the story set in Medieval era centuries after the extinct of previous civilization. It was interesting to learn of the past modern world (as we live today irl) from the A.I in the story. Having the characters not understanding certain words, idioms, terms we used.

One of my favorite aspects of the story is obviously the A.I (the characters). They're done really well, they're helpful and, can't forget about the PowerPoint presentation .

However, there were also couple of flaws I'd like to highlight from the story. First, the lack of choices. For instance, the relationship. I don't have any hate towards Maria, but I wish I'm able to choose Emilia as solo love interest instead of having to choose trouple route to have Emilia or else just solo route with Maria.

Another flaw I'd like to point out is there were too much talking at times. There are times you can see where this or that conversation is going to, boring and meaningless chat and I skipped the dialogues.

Characters:

The MC. I think the devs nailed it with the writing, the look, and the direction of the protagonist. I like that he wasn't a 'playboy' who has slept with many women in the past and not always horny for sex in the story.

Maria, the main L.I. appearance wise, she looks beautiful. At first, she was fine, but later she gets kinda annoying. For example, like in almost every conversation the MC had with other people, she's always snoop in and being busybody. Her insecurity can get you at times like 'girl, chill tf out and breathe!'. And this is the girl that stucks with you whether you like it or not.

Emilia. I think the writing on her was really superb. A sweet, shy and timid girl who deserves the world and real love after everything what happened to her. She has a strong backstory, her feeling and expressions are genuine, again, as I aforementioned, I really wish there's a solo path for her alone. She's just way too pure and kind-hearted. I feel like she's being way undervalued in this story as most of the attention is around Maria. And for me what I think is salt in the wound, we didn't get to see Emilia's baby and to name it like we have during Maria's childbirth. I might sound a bit biased here but it pains me that Emilia didn't get the same attention as Maria.

The A.I, Legacy and Eve. Very well written on these two, especially Legacy. Possibly my favorite side character in the game, likeable, good sense of humor, and very helpful. His lessons from the 'powerpoint presentations' are very enjoyable. Legacy also was very helpful for the MC in every way, such as augmentations, offering solutions, solid advices, he is basically the A.I we all wish we had inside of us.

Render and animation:

The renders, graphics looks very good. I actually took several screenshots of the scenery and the characters with good lighting angles. The animations however weren't up to pass. The sex scenes were rather short and the angles weren't good either.

Soundtrack:

The soundtracks are nice, they suit nicely with the theme, environment, and situations, but it is very limited. Sometimes I feel tired of listening to the same soundtrack that keeps playing everytime when there was a romantic moments or during serious moments.

Verdict:

Overall, I can undoubtedly say this game is quite enjoyable with superb writing in most aspects. I really wanted to give it a 5/5, but the flaws I mentioned is just can't be overlooked for me. While it wasn't perfect, it is ultimately a great AVN collectively.

Final score: 4.5/5

This has to be one of the least engaging games I've ever played. Although the story, characters and visual are not bad at all, THERE. IS. JUST. SO. MUCH. TEXT. that doesn't add anything to the game and you almost never need to make any meaningful choice or have any influence on what is happening.

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."