VN - Ren'Py - Radiant [v0.6.3] [RK Studios]

Ok, I am flabbergasted. There are probably two dozen or more games/VNs here that impress and/or entertain me, but I think this is the first time I have been truly...awed.
Visually - The best renders I have ever seen. More depth and realistic perspective than I honestly even thought possible, or at least practical. The animations may not be quite perfect, but they are at least among the best ive seen. The models are equally appealing though that is, at least in part, subjective.
Characters/Plotting - I usually play all paths, in any VN worth its salt. I like to see the variance in content and just see how much effort was put into the project, and its usually interesting to explore the "darker" paths and kinks. I found myself in the very unusual (frankly, unheard-of) position of earnestly not being certain I even want to see "darker" paths here. That is, in my estimation, solely due to how effective the situation and characters are, and how realistic it feels. From my perspective, that should be the primary goal of any writing, including "porn games". So, in that context I could not be more impressed and satisfied with the project thus far.
Overall, this seems to be an evolution of the genre, in all the right directions. F95 just may have a new sheriff in town.

Excellent to outstanding initial offering, and one very much worth trying out. Definitely looking forward to seeing where the Dev takes this going forward.
The story is OK, and the writing is clean. The choice system, as some other have mentioned, is a bit confusing and at this point does not seem to matter. Single choice 'choices' really aren't a choice though, are they? Could do without those, imo.
The artwork is delicious, and the female characters are all beautiful. Good variety among the female characters as well.
The animations here are outstanding as well.
Looking forward to seeing more. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.

Quick review for version 0.1:

For a first release this is a good start. Not excellent, but good. With more than 300+ mostly positive comments in less than 24 hours of the release is a good sign, and hopefully the devs can keep up with what they started.

The amount of renders/animations and story to have for a first release is just - wow! There already has been put so much effort into this game, that I hope people won't get disappointed once new updates will have less renders/animations per release than this first one, because I doubt it's possible to keep this quality and having regular, for example biweekly updates - and people will start demanding them, guaranteed!

I like the characters so far and the story is a OK. The animations are average at most, only a few looping frames per animation is just not enough to qualify for a five star rating. The renders are good, but not excellent either. I don't know why so many 3D artists ignore some basic rules of photographic composition , i.e. the "Rule of Thirds". While the lightning is well done in most of the renders, the visuals could be more pleasing to the eye if the main object isn't always in the dead center of the image. And the addition of some "depth of field" (without overdoing it) would greatly improve the images as well.

There are some additional "features" I don't understand, most of them already have been addressed already: why is there a narrator, when there's also an inner monologue of the MC? Why are there "choice buttons" if you don't have a choice at all? And why are there different text sizes (the smaller ones are really irritating)?

Don't get me wrong: in summary this is a well designed game and a good start! If this wasn't a first release I'd gave it three stars, but because it's a first release this has to be a four star rating! I will patiently wait for future updates and see how it continues, and I wish all the best to the devs!

tl;dr: I'm cautiously optimistic, but there are some writing and systems issues which concern me.


Pros:

The images and animations are well-done and the girls are attractive.

The premise is interesting.

There aren't many spelling or grammar errors.

There's an option to toggle the textbox on or off.



Cons:

The game uses color-coded flashes to indicate important choices. There are better ways to do this, such as just noting that it's an important choice in text on the screen. Making your readers remember which color means what with a periodic release schedule doesn't make sense. It's also a problem that you don't see these flashes if you skip transitions which I am. Not to mention color-blind or epileptic players.

The game makes a point of telling you you'll be making these choices largely blind, but you should just choose however you wish. This doesn't feel good as a player and tells me I'll probably need to use a walkthrough eventually. If you're giving me a choice, I should have some idea of the repercussions.

There are quite a lot of no-choice choices. IE, there's only one option and you are forced to click it. Game devs, please stop doing this. It's annoying both for people who use enter or spacebar to advance text and for those skipping dialogue such as when replaying to make different choices.

When you actually should have a choice, such as whether to put your cock away before waking your topless, sleep-walking daughter, you don't get one. Which wouldn't be so bad if the automatic choice wasn't to leave it out. I think the MC was supposed to not know it was out, but come on.

There's a huge over-reliance on ellipses (...). There're everywhere... Like... I don't even know...

The writing is extremely juvenile. I've seen far worse openings, but the way people act isn't believable and the dialogue is terse and more amateurish than is typical for these games. It gets somewhat better as the episode goes on so we'll have to see how it develops. The opening could use a major rewrite though.

There's a "narrator" which feels strange. In theory, the MC is "me," so it's odd to have someone narrate what "I'm" doing. Internal dialogue would be less intrusive, but honestly just not tagging such text with any character name would feel ok.

I hesitate to mention this because it's so common in these games, but it's weird to call people "Miss <first name>" in English. There are few situations where it's acceptable (such as by servants in the UK to address second daughters or in parts of the southern US to address familiar elders), but it's almost always incorrect to do so. Use "Miss <last name>" (or Ms. here since the speaker doesn't know her marital status) in a formal setting or "<first name>" with no honorific in a casual setting.

Good first release. The story is very interesting and the characters are unique and likable. Writing is good, It's understandable and simple, Each character has his own personality, approach. I love when a game starts with some emotional stuff. Music is also very pleasant to the ear. I often play games without music but this game has really good melodies that are perfectly compatible with the scene or event in-game.

I love this game!

Super Cute girls? Check
Engaging story? Check
Great Animations and Renders? Check
Long 0.1? Check (1hour & 20 minutes of play time for my personal playthrough)
Optional Cherry Blood is the Cherry on top (pun intended) for me

An absolute stunning game that I recommend anyone and everyone play

Great Job Alorth & Sir Dammed

Great game! It upsets me that we didn't have an option to go and help the mother (for a possible stay true route) but this also does help the story progress and you are doing an amazing job with that. I cant wait until the next version of the game, keep up the good work!(Prox)

Review based on 0.1

WHOW - just tried, and all i can say is: well done.
The renders are top - the animations are awesome. No issues found so far. Oh - and i fucking LOVE freckles, red hair and green eyes But personally i don't like to be crashed emotional right at start , but i know why the dev had to do it that way. It was necessary to set up the plot - but made me sad though

definitively worth to play and to keep track on it!

As it is a starting version im going off what ive played and maybe ill revalue my score later to date.

Game play and replay: overall its not restricted to one playthrough which is good. Choices and UI are good for how it is set on renpy but could be better with optional customization for individual characters and personal play tendency. Has multi path choices and multi ends so that's a huge plus. +2

Graphics: Very well done for renpy engine so I'm happy its visually appealing. Character expressions are fluid and animations are not fugly so great artistry work has been put in. Some lighting looks fuzzy but nothing else makes it bad other than that. +1

Story and length: Has a very long thought out first chapter so as far as length this game is VERY long. Telling of strong emotional display on par with NON porn works like some of the top 100 dramas in modern day arts ( maybe even better than some by Dick Wolf lol). Has more to come so not able to grade overall. +1

There have been some big name releases for AVNs recently but this one is definitely my favorite.

The story tugged on my heart strings and the models, animations, as well as the writing is superb. The game certainly is written maturely which I love to see. Although it is very early in the story, it is clear the characters will feel real; they have personality and in time I'm sure we will learn more about them. They won't just be pretty faces which is essestial in making an engaging VN. It also seems that choices will matter going forward and this probably means there will be quite a bit of replayability.

I can't wait to see more from this game and definitely recommend trying it.

I loved this. This was a very well thought out beginning to a game with great potential.

Characters: The characters are great! I was a bit skeptical at first due to the intro but after that, it was nothing but greatness. The 3 girls, in particular, are all gems that need to be protected at all costs. Very likable, all with their own quirks and feelings, feelings that you can't blame them for. I can't pick a favorite yet, but they're all very entertaining so far. The redhead, Olivia, is easily the tamest out of the 3 so far, with the brunette, Maddison, being the most hot-tempered, but is probably the one with the biggest heart, while the blonde, Allison, is the most carefree and bubbly of the 3. It's a great contrast and mix of characters so interactions don't feel stale. I love them. They're very much grounded in reality, but they project enough emotion and character to keep you interested. And boy was I interested.

Dialogue: Again, it was a bit iffy at the start, almost cartoonish, but it got much, much better and felt like real people talking as time went on, real people with sometimes exaggerated quirks for entertainment sake, it again, it works.

Plot: The plot is extremely heartfelt. I love stories like these that tug on the heartstrings and give you something to protect, in this case, 3 girls. Other games have done this, but I tend to have issues with those games because the MC is almost always a Gary Stu. He always knows martial arts and can always defeat the bad guy with ease and a coolness to him, always knows the right words, never feels pressure, I can't get behind someone like that. At least I can't get immersed in that. We make mistakes. We say the wrong things, we feel negativity. This game ALLOWS us to be angry. It allows us to feel negativity because that is human nature, and I absolutely love that it doesn't deduct points for wanting to be honest. The game WANTS you to make choices that correspond with how you feel and we don't see that enough in games. In any other game, if you speak your mind or try to be realistic, a relationship point is deducted. This game doesn't want you to form the perfect relationship. It wants you to form YOUR relationship with these girls and if this first version is ANY indication, we're in for something special with this one.

Renders: Look for yourself. They're great in my eyes and animations are very good as well. Very crisp game.

Music: Music is also very pleasant to the ear. I often mute the music because games with sfx or tracks don't normally do it for me because they don't aid the story or the tone of the scene. The tracks compliment these scenes very well and they're also great to listen to. I'm glad.

Am I leaving anything out?

I haven't run into any bugs. It might be hard in the future because this game is very much tailored to your being. It wants you to be you, of course within reason, so it may get hard to keep track of bugs in the future considering, but right now, it's clean.

Overall this was an extremely fun experience with a heartfelt story and rich characters. Happy times and sad times ahead and I can't wait to see more of this. 5 out of 5 wtf did you expect after reading my essay?

v0.1

It's a nice start, the graphics are really good, the girls are very pretty, the story is decent but it could have been better and the music is a very nice complement to the things that were happening.

Games with choices that matter are my thing, but some of the questions here are a bit rushed and i would have preferred that later and let everything flow in time.

Other thing that it was rushed to me is the relationship between the MC and Gracie. Giving the responsability of taking care your 3 daughters to a guy that you met for one night doesn't make sense, yeah she didn't have any family left, but what about any friends that she actually know?. So, for me, it could have been better if this chapter had been longer to show more a relationship between the MC and Gracie and not only a one-night stand.

7.5/10

Great story, beautiful renders, and characters that feel well fleshed out. This is an excellent first release and probably about an hour of content already. While the girls are all gorgeous, I must say that I actually felt protective of them after the intro, so I honestly hope there are routes that focus a relationship on others while just being their father. Regardless, a very nice start and definitely one to keep an eye on.

What can I say about this fantastic first version? I love the story and how it just hits you like a freight train straight to the heart. All the girls are very beautiful and the animations are amazing. I can't find one thing about this VN to complain about and very much look forward to the future of this story! I don't want to go into detail about the story in my review, all I can say is read it for yourself you won't regret it.

Great story, beautiful renders, and characters that feel well fleshed out. This is an excellent first release and probably about an hour of content already. While the girls are all gorgeous, I must say that I actually felt protective of them after the intro, so I honestly hope there are routes that focus a relationship on others while just being their father. Regardless, a very nice start and definitely one to keep an eye on.

I give this game a 5 star rating because, in my opinion the writing is far above average, it's great actually. Art and models are great, character personalities are sweet and funny.
There's a good bit of drama already, setting up the basis of the story, a bit of an emotional roller coaster too, having its sweet moments, then sad moments, followed by more sweet and sad moments.
And I also like the fact that through important choices you can shape up the kind of person MC will become as the story progresses, and what kind of relationship he'll have with different characters, so it's not all cut in stone.

I definitely became a fan, all I can say to the devs is that keep up the great work, I'm eager for more!

The first part of this review was based on the original release which received 5 stars. But below that is my current rating updated for v0.2.1 and my current opinion. I will be keeping my original thoughts intact below. In a new section will be how I currently feel after the updates. Considering it is getting a lower rating. It felt right to update this review, if the star rating had remained untouched, I probably would of left it alone.

Original version
A coherent story which is refreshing. It restores a part of your soul when you play a game like this, compared to some which are released here which sap the very life from you as you try to grasp what is going on.

Nice renders. The story makes sense which is a bonus. All I ever look for in games is to show some logic and stick to the rules they lay down in their world and story building. Just an effort really which is what this game exactly had.

I was interested from the beginning to end and actually read the story with fascination. The main characters feel fleshed out for the first outing of the game and feel like they actually have souls and personality. I really have no need to go into the story at all, will let you enjoy it as it unfolds if you play.

Would recommend a play through. I played this time of review v0.1. If you disagree with this review, no issue here, always form your own opinions. I will update this review if more is released and I play it.

Updated review Version v0.2.1 Contains spoilers
Disappointing, for what, seven months of a wait. The story and structure seemed like a half baked follow up. Some things were creepy or unsettling. The new character cop, who all of a sudden seems to hate you in the space of a few days in his beat up car and is really upset there are people in your house, all over the course of what, a day of them living there ?? The cop seems forced and mega weird taking pics of you for no good real reason. His granddad owned a pretty new mansion that you now live in and this is his main driving force. I don't know. Hope there is more to this story. What is he doing living in a rich neighbourhood if he is poor or so it seems, hope that is explained in future updates. No cop just takes your ID and you just hand it over in your driveway so he can take it to god knows do what with it or give the info to god knows who, he looks like he is not even on duty.

It feels the dev got lost and did not really know where to take the story and may have been surprised at how popular the game became and how it took off. The story already had a mother of the son you killed turn up the same time you take in your daughters. That was coincidence enough and stretched believability, now the next day a nut job cop upset you live in his grandfathers mansion turns up and is taking pics of you, seems you are just looking for too many layers at once.

The mother of the son you killed also wants to meet up with you and asks to stay in contact. Then you meet for coffee and she makes it seem like you are the one which was chasing the meeting. A scripting oversight ??

O, your daughters seem totally fine walking around naked in front of you now, and just in general the tone and class of the script seems a lot lower, it is kind of just falling into tropes. How is the cop also towering over your property taking pics to blackmail you with without you never noticing that property and also he lectured you about the property you have and its size, yet his must tower over it. I don't know about that one.

I only just now got time to update this and it is quick touching on key points as much as possible. Hopefully this game pulls it back together. Really disappointing it did not continue to hit the high notes. I am bumping it down to three stars and will see where it goes with future updates. But the pace of releases will hopefully improve also. I always try to be as honest and truthful as possible and I am always open to dialogue if anyone ever wants to mail me on my reviews. If you like the game or feel different, great and enjoy.

i know one of the devs, did not really not know the other but this game is making me check them out too after playing this new game, really a fantastic partnership they have made.
I love this type of games and i certainly recommend it 100%.
Vanilla & Harem type of content
great animations
good looking girls and renders, the writing and choices add for replayability aswell, so my 5 stars to those 2 devs for making this awesome game.

Well Well Well, let's start.

Story
The story is well written, it might not be for everyone but i enjoy these kinds of stories without too much drama. As far as my English knowledge goes there aren't any glaring mistakes. It's your standard wholesome story that patreon oh so loves to see :^).

Renders
The renders are really well made. attention to detail is also really nice. you can even read a part of the game in the renders. All the girls are really cute and i haven't really seen the models in other games before. The animations in the game are also really well made, they really flow well.

Game
The game itself is bugfree from what i've seen. There's also nice music in the game that you don't see too often. You also have choices that are gonna decide how your character behaves in the game, gotta see how that turns out, but knowing their other games this should work out fine. For a first release there's a good amount of content, it took me about 1h20m to play through the game.

All in all, the game is really fun and has some tearjerkers in it, it's well made. If you like "these" games with "those" tags, you'll definitely like this one. So give it a try :^)

Normally i do not do a review for a 1st release but this has a good hour to it(if you actually read) so it's worthy of one...and i know both dev's and know they wont disappear suddenly.
Render:Very good though not unique...we've seen the models before but they are done to a higher level than usual so are elevated well..the 3 main girls are adorable AF and everyone will latch on to a fav fast..almost like they were designed that way :O
Story:very good..well written except for some generic hokey early on(guess they hadnt found their flow yet) but it ramps up into a genuinely good story with feels and immersion.
Gameplay:standard vn easy peasy..some single choices "choices" early in that are useless..meh...but later in there are actual choices with important effects to the gameplay..so chose the ones that suit your pornsonality.
5/5 must play..sub now!!!