Ren'Py - Randel Tales [v1.5.14] [Bunis & Rin]

Great game, sometimes you have to grind too much for lewd content and they are a bit limited. I wish the sex scenes would be more complex, like having more scenes. Also there should be more hints, I was relying on the walkthrough guide here.
Other than that, really nice characters with depth, choices during the game really matter which is awesome, there is a captivating story and some wholesome moments during the game

★Chef's Kiss: great characters, all of them diverse with unique quirks/backgrounds; you'll notice each difference between them all (quite rare among h-games)
★Chef's Kiss #2: artstyle has no business being THAT good; it has a way of telling you how cute/hot the LIs are by just looking at the art

Pros:
+ Good writing, a bit corny at times but not too cringy
+ Not everything is hornyland, some sweet and SoL moments in the story
+ Artstyle, again (can't stress this enough)
+ Player choice system (routes)
+ Dev interaction in the forums
+ Uncle Pete

Cons:
- Leans more on writing than on h-content; lacks "content" for the amount of time you spend doing the story, only a couple or so scenes per character
- A bit buggy

Definitely a must play imo for the artstyle alone despite me saying theres not enough content (yet?). Game's current end seems to hint at a future game or expansion so thats a good thing to look forward to

Nice artstyle and story is interesting. Variety of characters. Sandbox is easy. Interesting quests. There is sweet romance too. If you like sweet 2DCG games give this one a try. Story is about the adventures of a boy who's living in Randel. Love interests are fun and beautiful. Overall I enjoyed the game. Keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates.

Good game with potential to be great in the future. Good gameplay that forces player to read instead of holding ctrl all game. Lovely artwork and animations. Love the characters and story so far.
Art 4.5/5
Story 4.5/5
Gameplay 4/5
Fapability 4.5/5
Originality 5/5

If you are not big hater of sandbox types of games ... You will love it ... Even if you don't like it sandbox games ... You are still going to like this types of game

Actually i kind a like this game .... i i know this game is not for everyone... Because of sandbox use .... Everyone hates sandbox types AVNs including me ... But i did play plenty of sandbox games ... So sometimes they don't even bother me .... Yeah yeah not everyone have same taste as me ...
In this game sandbox need to be more clear .... Or better add hints / notes for everything ..means totally everything .... It's going to be best ( or add as options like want some hints or no hints )
I also don't hate animated sex scenes... I would prefer if devloper is not good at moving animation ... Then why not just add more non moving sex scenes ... i i know .. majority of audiance like moving animation
And also i would love to see part 1 proper demon girl fight or Fuck ending

The creator spends a lot of time cock blocking and teasing the player by revealing fantastically drawn women only to have them stop their advances due to whatever excuse comes up.

You do get a cheat mode to avoid the grind, but the game is still grindy because all quests and actions have to happen in the same timeslot (evening). This means you have to spam through several selection screens to skip through the days to get to the next evening to push the action forward. On top of this, you have to perform several story progression pieces several times (3-5 training sessions) seeing slightly modified text.

The story is a bit of a mixed bag, some things are interesting while others are just slogs that I decided to skip right through despite liking the characters... i.e. the elf city arch.

tldr: lots of padding to the story, characters dialogue is nice, art is fantastic, and the story is decent.

Absolute disappointment the game may seem good at first but all this is a hoax because the sandbox begins in the minutes and then where it should shine because the art seems good but it is the opposite for the erotic scenes they are horrible really bad short scenes you throw with another form of art more shabby and ugly the truth is absolute disappointment.

I really like Randel Tales. I think the underlying themes and overall tone(which seems like it's going to change soon) are done very well. I have a few tiny nitpicks about the art, but it's generally beautiful and has a lot of variation. The pacing is well done and it felt like the game was taking it's time with showing you content(which is a good thing here). I sincerely encourage everybody reading this to give it a try, it's almost definitely worth your time.

That being said, I will now proceed to criticize the shit out of this game. I'm not doing it out of spite, I just genuinely want the game to improve and hope the devs take some of this into consideration, while also giving new people a more in-depth look into the game before playing it.

Let's start with the first and biggest problem I have with the game: The writing. It isn't bad, but it definitely needs some work in a lot of areas. Grammar is the more obvious one as there is a lot of mistakes with it but I'm willing to look past that.

My biggest issue is with the way the writer is trying to convey everything. It feels like I'm being told a story rather than experiencing it. Let me explain:

• Instead of the characters having a CG or even just an altered sprite of them crying, the writer types "Sobs" which is very... strange feeling to say the least. If they don't want to change some CG or sprites, they could greatly benefit from just telling me what the character is doing, even if it's just from the MCs eyes.
• The writing is very terse. It's pretty rare for the text box to use more than one or maybe two lines which leads to the whole experience feeling a bit stilted, especially during certain emotional moments. One example is where one character says she doesn't really believe in love, explains her reasoning very briefly, and then the MC just accepts that with no further questions. And this is right after he tells her that he is in love with her. It left a pretty sour taste in my mouth because the scene could've been so much more. The girl in question could've went into way more detail with her reasoning, the MC could've(and should've) had way more questions about the whole thing, and the whole thing should have just way more depth in general. That scene really falls flat because it feels really shallow, like both the characters were pre-teens playing cliche rolls where the girl is stereotypical rebel girl and MC is just generic nice guy.
• Another example of this is when MC finds two monster children who can speak and are hiding from him and others he's with. The MC can call Taliya to tell him he's found them or leave them be. When you call Taliya over, there's a short little scene of the goblins retaliating in fear of their lives and then she just brutally cuts them down on the spot. The MC questions if that was the right thing to do for about 3 seconds before saying, "No point thinking about it now." He barely thinks twice and doesn't regret that his actions caused two speaking children to die. Kind of fucking weird unless he has a seething hatred of monsters but he doesn't.

There are more examples I can list but you get the point I'm trying to make. There just isn't enough depth or substance to most characters and the game, and the few times there is(Cynthia namely), just leaves you wanting more like some sort of tease. It's really unfortunate because a lot of the ideas presented are very novel and the pacing and handling of characters is done VERY well. It really does feel like you get close to each character and bond with them(not so much Gabe though).

I think the writing overall definitely needs work, because it just lacks the detail it needs in many instances to really immerse the player. The art already does a fantastic job of doing that, it just feels like the writing lags behind a little bit. Which is kind of a big deal in a visual novel, it's half the experience. If the writer hadn't made everybody so charming and fun to get close to, I would have put this to 3 stars rather than 4. But I genuinely do believe this game has the framework to be one of the best games on this site, it just needs a little more fine-tuning in a few areas. This is the most hopeful I've felt for a project in quite some time. The people involved definitely have the talent to make this as good as I'm envisioning.

Oh and I beg for some Taliya and July content. My favorite designs in the whole game and they don't have any scenes .

A really strong start so far. Art is fantastic and the story is pretty damn good, especially for a hentai game. Lots of gorgeous girls and the sex scenes are hot. Can't wait to see more. Hope more noncon stuff is added in the future though.

Wonderful fantasy game filled with implicit messages that ultimately lead to fascinating twists.

Alright, I don't like making reviews but I feel like this game deserves one (for whatever my opinion is worth). This was written to reflect version 1.0.3.

The Good

• Interesting, attractive, and unique characters.
  • Each character is unique and will hook you (or not, that's the whole point). They all have different personalities, backgrounds, and sense of humor.
  • The characters are all very visually appealing and even have expressions. That's right, you'll see 2d PNGs blushing after you stare at their tits. Nice.
• Main story is actually interesting
  • I'm a sucker for fantasy games, movies, and anime so it is no surprise that Randel Tales immediately earned my attention.
  • The story is explained bit by bit throughout lessons. That's right, you will go to school and actually learn something. Well done dev, this is already better than a college.
• The protagonist has his shit together
  • Don't you hate it when the MC is a weak-minded loser who gets pushed around all the time? Well, not in Randel Tales.
  • The MC has his own ambitions and doesn't fall under any of the most common tropes with these sort of games.
  • The MC is normal: He isn't in an FBI watchlist for being a sexual predator and he isn't a wimp either. I like that.
• Mechanics:
  • There's an interactive bestiary, how cool is that? There are a couple of entries missing (like the "Lelluk" I think it was called) but is still a very neat feature.

The ok

• I made this category just for the music. The music is GREAT but goes quiet (there's no music) in some scenes for whatever reason, which is kinda awkward.

The bad

• The game feels very incomplete.
  • The game is a sandbox and just like most sandbox games of this genre, the world feels big but empty. Take the Adventurer's guild for example: There's only like 4 quests and after that it becomes a dead place. Same with the Academy.
  • Multiple spelling mistakes throughout the story. I'm not expecting flawless 10/10 writing but some mistakes are just hard to ignore. Trust me when I say this, you WILL notice the mistakes when playing. There's not many, but still.
  • Many questlines are not finished (some didn't even begin). I don't know if this is intended or not but it's truly a shame since the characters that interested me the most didn't have a questline.
• The grind
  • I hate grinding in these sort of games. However, Randel Tales does offer a "cheat" mode to skip all that. Yeah, it didn't really help tho.
  • Most stats feel useless as there are only like 3 skill checks throughout the whole game.
  • Leveling up skills takes a lot of time so you better believe I used the cheat tool (thanks dev).
• Empty choices
  • There ARE choices in this game that will get characters killed (including the MC) at a later point of the story.
  • However, most choices fall under the typical "doesn't matter if you're an ass or a boob person, you ain't getting none anyway". For dummies, what I'm saying is that most choices don't matter. Most.
  • I will say though that the impactful choices were very cool as the author usually hints the player with implicit messages and expects you to not only pay attention but also make observations and conclusions of your own. Very cool.
  • Unfortunately, the sense of responsibility after fucking up is little to none existent as you can always go back or save scum. I personally don't mind as I don't usually fuck up, and when I do it's just to see what would happen. Those "what if" scenarios really do deliver in this game.
• The combat
  • This game features 3 type of variables in combat:
    • Choice selection (very cool I like this)
    • Stat checks (very cool I also like this)
    • QTE (fuck you.)
  • While the QTE aren't difficult, you gotta understand, I play with a controller, laying on my bed. Yeah. Not cool.
• The quests
  • All quests are very entertaining. However, they don't follow a flow-chart.
    • This means that you could view a scene with a character at the end of the game that was supposed to be viewed earlier. It's a bit trippy.
  • A lot of quests take place at the same time of the day, which means that you will have to choose who to do first (if you catch my drift) which leads to a broken flowchart.

Overall, Randel Tales is a very enjoyable game for comedy fans and fantasy fans alike. I know I wrote a lot under "the bad" category, but that's just me being nitpicky. Honestly, while I rarely do this, I will honestly admit that if this game were to ever be released on steam (in a much later date) I would buy it in a heartbeat. Very great game, I look forward to playing it again in a year or two. It is a very ambitious project that not only delivers but also has plenty of potential to milk.

Q&A:
What's the playtime, you ask? About 2 sessions of 3-4 hours (I was hooked. In other words, about 6-9 hours.
What's scene/per hour rate, you ask? About 2-3 scenes an hour but only after you are halfway through the game. Before that point it's more like 0 scenes per hour.

If you like reading (to some extent) or are a fan of fantasy stories (with magic and shit) and cute girls, then give it go and consider supporting it. I promise you that it's a pretty cool game (I am not to be held legally accountable for this claim).

Psst, Dev ,if you're reading this, don't take the cheat mode out on the final release. Thanks homie I knew I could count on you.

Unique art takes most of the credits of 4 stars..
Also promising sandbox, diversity of chicks, storyline and substory of characters has a good foundation. Option to keep each chick in hand is cool. The game can be developed someting marvelous.. I think, to achieve that more sandbox options are needed... maybe improving your home etc for micro management or repetable guild quests and combat system or some kind of management in guild like sending people for missons and improving the guild attract more guild recruits etc... Creating a living economy makes it a little bit rpgish insatead of visual novelish .
in a nutsheel its "highly promising"

One of the best h games out there. I became immediately invested in its characters and art and left hyped for future content. My only real complaints are that it can be grindy and repetitive at times, wait times for quests are excessive to say the least, and there's not enough h scenes with each girl. There are a decent amount of scenes in the game, don't get me wrong, but really only a couple for each love interest. Also, there are no buttholes in the game witch always bothers me. That being said, this is still an excellent, stand-out game that got me invested to a degree I no longer thought possible. Well worth your time.

You said your game can't be at the level of Summertime saga, but actually, I end up enjoying Randel tales way more.
The way you build the world, the way we interact with characters and they interact with others are so lively and interesting.
+Hilarious yet very deep storytelling
+Cute and lovable characters
+Pleasant music
+If possible, adding voices and sounds would make the game incredible
-A bit confusing about the traits and stats but they don't really matter
Protect Thea at all cost!

It's... sweet.

That's probably why I'm giving it a score this high. I hadn't realized how rare sweet romantic stories have become. The main thing about Randel Tales is that its protagonist does not come off as a pervert (Sander fills out that role). It's not that he's not horny, but horniness does not make up an entirety of his character. He has other aspirations. As a result, this is a slow burner, which is totally fine. The girls and the —somewhat branching— story matches this tone, as does the art style. The girls generally have a soft side to them, which makes them quite loveable. So, yeah, summing it up in one word, it's sweet.

That said, there are some big issues that made me seriously consider lowering this score, to three stars.

First is dialogue, which is not stellar at times. The author should open script files, hit search for "hehehehe" and slap themselves for each instance found. And then rewrite it to something like "She chuckles a bit ruefully". Basically, this needs one good editing pass.

Two, speaking of rueful chuckles. Needs more facial expressions, which aren't exactly hard to draw, not compared to full scenes. The game relies heavily on the somewhat "cutesy" art style, and lack of diverse and lively facial expressions during dialogue undercuts it heavily.

Three, fill out the damn free roam part of the game. You can't have like just two history lectures, and then play the second on repeat. You can't have a bog standard dialogue "Hey, you want to talk about something? No, nothing? K bye!" for every character in the game basically at all times. This really makes the world of Randel feel lifeless and artificial. Have some goddamn random filler! Your characters will feel much more real if you do that. There's also a need to do some QA on consistency, particularly when and where each character is approachable for small talk.

And finally, QTEs. Fuck I hate this shit. I mean, okay, you can have minigames to determine your success, but then you can't have your grindable character stats. As it stands, I already worked to have the sword skill of X, therefore make a damn stat check and let us move on. And if you're really that enamored with QTEs, ditch the stat grind. You can't have both, it is really annoying.

TL;DR: four stars because I liked romancing cutely drawn girls that have a soft vulnerable side to them. But gods the game's sandbox part needs some TLC.

Great game with quite an engrossing story line. I really admire when a game has a good plot to go along with the usual expectations.

You will generally like the characters and root for the MC, and there were actually times when I actually cared about what would happen to the MC next. I think this is a deeply underrated game that is worth a shot to anyone considering.

v0.7

Very charming story, worldbuilding, and characters. The waifus in particular are wonderful.
The art is fantastic and sexy.
The game is a little grindy but only a little. And even that can be easily avoided by just using cheats for stats. Just make sure you say yes when it asks you if to enable cheats (not mandatory).

Randel Tales

Version reviewed: 0.6 Public

Positives

• actually has an enjoyable story and worldbuilding - it feels like a raunchy DnD session
• the art is simple but endearing, it has animated scenes as well
• good cast of characters (can't wait for the forest girl to show up )

YMMV

• all around it's pretty vanilla, which fits the tone of the game, but you're not gonna roleplay Devil's incarnate here
• girls are not concerned at all with getting pregnant or the protagonist banging other girls (their storylines are pretty much independent, which breaks immersion a bit given how "grounded" the game otherwise feels)

Negatives

• a fair bit of minor spelling errors, etc. (nothing that breaks the game in any way)

Fun game! Still early but a lot of fun content already and genuinely enjoyed the characters and interactions. Great art style and dialogue!

Scenes are super hot. Appreciated the cheat mode to avoid the grind.

Hope to play more soon.

Edit from 14.08.2022
Bunis returned, and he brought all of the deleted content back with this update! YES!!!
Now the good and evil choices actually matter again.
As promised, joining your patreon starting today. Keep up the good work man.

Pros:
+++++ Nice, hand-drawn art style
+++++ Plot, characters, and worldbuilding are all pretty fresh, honestly
+++++ Pretty into all these competent, decently-written, attractive women, tbh
+++ Optional rape. Which could be skipped, I guess, but I'm personally glad I don't have to. We ain't all into it.

Cons:
- Lacking visual polish, particularly with the UI
- Minor typos. Whatever.
-- Kinda grindy in gameplay

Summary:
Them's some big pros and three very minor cons, from where I sit.

As far as visuals, it's not the prettiest game in the world, but it's visually distinct and compelling in a kinda webcomicky way. Plus hey, none of the usual, weird uncanny valley models lumbering around. Plus plus, pixie cuts make me feel some kinda way.

As far as writing, beggars can't be choosers and MAN does porn make me beg for it, but this is pretty damn decent. I appreciate the effort and skill that must take to execute alongside everything else. Also, unpopular opinion: good characters are more attractive.

This obviously could use some polish down the line, but it's a sight for sore eyes.