VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Private Cases - Case#2 [v0.2.01] [c_n]

Great Story Progression and 1st case. Just need to fix the inconsistencies with english language dialogues and probably a parallel flashback sequence as to show in more detail why the characters are so troubled especially the MC.

Decent game, even exceptional at times held back by a few things.

This VN is a lot more mature than most dealing with some dark events which in my case, allowed myself to get attached to certain characters and become somewhat immersed in the story. The characters for the most part are interesting and the models are pretty unique and well done. The story flows well and makes me want to continue reading onwards.

As I previously stated, I believe there are quite a few setbacks which made the game feel a bit frustrating at times. Firstly, the dialogue is mature, in fact often too mature. I'm pretty sure people, especially young college students do not speak the way the novel portrays them. It is all way too formal and really breaks immersion often. All the characters introduced are way too smart, way too formal. It's almost like robots communicating. This is shown mostly in the scenes at the college.

Second of all, the choices that are offered are pretty confusing. If you go one route, Ellie won't trust you enough even if you have similar points as another route. Why isn't she allowed to trust you enough if you refer to her as girlfriend rather than daughter? I think the dev could have done a far better job showing or explaining this.

The game is translated to English, but rather sloppily. I think it needs a lot of polishing as a lot of the game still is French even when English is selected.

The renders often seem clunky and do not really match what the text on the screen is saying. They look very unnatural and portray characters with angry expressions, when there isn't anything in the text explaining why they are upset.

There really is a lacking of any intimacy with characters. You pretty much never have a heart to heart talk with the important people in MC's life and the game feels extremely impersonal at times because of this. You can lock yourself into a relationship with someone and you only see them once the entire game. I'm not saying we need a bunch of sex scenes or whatever but the game really doesn't do a great job relationship wise yet. I feel this is probably the worst part of the game. I feel like my choices don't make a difference. Why go the girlfriend route with Ellie if it only has negative effects? Why start a relationship with another one of the LI's if you never see her again? Perhaps the game is meant to be a very slow-burn or the dev intends to add more in other versions but I would expect to see some differences in dialogue even this early into the game.

I think this game has a large amount of potential but it really needs some hard work to bring it all up to par. The dev isn't terribly active on his patreon or this site which makes me afraid that we might not be seeing much more from this game. I hope I am wrong and I think the best rating I can give this game is 3 stars. Currently, there isn't much setting this game above any other games besides the story at times. Perhaps with some ironing out this game can really shine sometime in the future.

----------Private Cases – Case #1----------
----------Game_Review----------
----------Release_version_rated-\v0.1.05----------

----------Story----------
You follow a private eye and his apprentice. Resolve their investigation and find out what's their story in this corrupted city full of danger.
---Continuation of the story great work

----------Positives----------
- Story, story, story
- Development of the characters
- Path selection, letting you know how it will affect the main characters in story
- Art work
- Good length
- No Grinding

----------Negatives----------
- Not for the hard core sex only person. There is little of it. (I personally think with the story it works great, I am sure later on it will change
- Little flesh and boobs (Ok, I am sure you all know this by now)
- Long wait on updates more often it was a long wait.

----------Rating explanation----------
It is visual novel and a great one at that!!! The writing is well developed. It has a solid story from start to finish and keeps you engaged the whole time.

Art: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Play Ability: N/A Visual Novel
Enjoyment: 5/5
Updates: 4/5 did take a long time

----------Key_Takeaways----------
If you like a great read with a story that engages you, It is a must!!! The art is very eye pleasing. Hopefully future updates have more sexual content. (like to see the 2 main characters get romantically involved) It has the making of being a great series game with all the cases there could be.

----------Lastly Damn we need another story C_N, get a movin!!!! Great luck on the continued Cases and the Game!!!!----------

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Hope you enjoyed the review. I hope it helps you decide on if you would like to download and play or not. Please share your feedback on what can be done to improve or what you would like added to future reviews...

Cheers,

Pros

• Well written.
• Interesting characters, if somewhat cliché (but that's more or less unavoidable if you're doing a porn game and playing to certain fetishes).
• Interesting plot that's shaping up.
• Nice looking characters (remains to be seen how much they differ in body type range though).
• Nicely done sex scene.
• Many different choices and ways to react, sometimes with only subtle differences.

Cons

• First animated sex scene is clunky and doesn't look so good.
• Low sex to non sex ratio, but that's ok in the beginning. The player should be able to pick up the pace later though, if it's to work as fapping-material for most people (but ok, I guess there is a crowd who love the slow burn through and through).
• Extremely opaque choices, which deserves a whole own section:

As already stated, there are often several different retorts in conversations, and the difference between them can be quite subtle. Many times they amount to the same thing, the difference is only in the wording. That's in itself not a bad thing, but some times the reaction from the other character is the same regardless of what the MC says, making it very difficult to gauge what a certain response actually signifies in the game. This would perhaps not have mattered that much, if the consequence of a response/choice came more or less directly. But it doesn't! The effect of the response/choice can come at a much later time. Even worse, the effect doesn't have to be tied to what is said, or even who it's said to! That makes it virtually impossible to plan ahead and if the game continues in this manner, a walkthrough will be a must for anyone actually wanting to affect the outcommes in any meaning full way:

Case in point (Spoilers), the second sex scene, with the prostitute. In order to trigger the sex scene, the MC must

1. Not claim that his apprentice is his girlfriend, when she bursts into the room as the MC is talking to the first client. This shouldn't matter at all, as the prostitute never heard that, nor is the apprentice established as the MC:s girlfriend, as they agree that that was just something he said to explain who she was (and even if they were a couple, shouldn't it be up to the player to decide if the MC would cheat?).
2. Hug or kiss the prostitute as a greeting. This one at least makes some sense, and most players looking to hook up with the prostitute would probably go down this route by instinct.
3. Choose the "not interested in shopping" answer, when discussing the apprentice and the prostitute shopping together. This is completely random, as both other answers *also* amount to the exact same thing, ie the MC doesn't accompany the prostitute and the apprentice as they go shopping.

Based on the above, how is the player to know how to get to the sex scene with the prostitute? As there are multiple choices that has to be done right, and at least two of them have no apparant connection to the sex with the prostitute, it's extremely easy to miss the sex scene if not already knowing that it is there (even so it's quite easy to miss, as the first choice comes way before the player is even introduced to the prostitute).

So, this would be an easy five stars if it wasn't for the opaque choices. As it is now, I'd give it three to four stars. As it's early and plenty of time for the dev to "mend his/her ways", I end up with four stars. If the problem is fixed going forward, while overall quality is upheld, it will easily go into the five stars category.

One of the best new games I have seen in months.
Good renders.
Great characters.
Animations are close to being good, but could use a bit more refining.
No bugs.
Shows a lot of potential to be a top quality VN.

My Rating of this Game (v0.04 ) is:

Pros:
+ Fantastic Renders
+ Easy Playing
+Active Play
+Nice Closeups
+Mystery Setting
+Beautiful Women

Cons:
-Some spelling errors
-some scenes are completely in French

Conclusion:
The Ladies look great.
what I also like is that the Story has a different setting then alot of Games here,and I love Detective stories.

Damn worth the Download.......

Great start to a new game renders are great nice sound dident find any bugs at all surpising because most new game have some but not this one.
Love the story and i see alot of potentciel in this game.
story is great charaters a great looking and it has a bonus some comedy here and there.
the only thing i found that looked bad was some of the font colers that was making it vary hard to see like the pink.

But auther then that game was fun even for a new game i can see this game going far and i have alot of hope for this game Mystrey and a bonus investigation allways love those kind of game
Keep up the good jod and i see this game becoming one of the top 5 here on this site