This is a very interesting series and I hope we'll keep getting more titles in the future. There's two episodes, so far, so I'll address each of them.
Rebellion: The Beginning
- makes for a relaxed gameplay, full of sex, where you can choose whether to play a faithful Carl and resist temptation, or dive into ancient Roman promiscuity, without negative consequences whatsoever. It feels like shaping your character, which gives the game a good roleplay vibe, not always common in a VN. You can be cruel, protective, lustful - however you choose it, the story still moves forward. In the end, your choices mainly decide which characters will move on to the next chapter. The ancient Roman historical details are mostly accurate and the architecture is spot-on. Renders are top quality. For me, this was an enjoyable story, not a blockbuster, but consistent and engaging.
Rebellion: Rise of The Damned
- the follow-up begins with a questionnaire where you tell the game some paramenters about part one; while this is practical and cool, it would feel that your part one gameplay would have been more consequential if you could simply import the savegame, leaving no chance for picking the wrong answers.
The MC's wife acquires a more central role in the story, with NTR and sharing coming up as possibilities to spice things up. Both are optional and the premisis are generally good and believable - like if your MC is a complete asshole and doesn't want to come back to ancient Rome with his babe, it's fair that she finds another way in.
Along the game, however, I hesitated with some choices because the way they're framed, it seems like some times you're actually pushing your wife to have sex with others, at other moments she's making the suggestion herself, with no teasing or tension. This could easily be improved by adding some dynamics to the characters: the wife wouldn't go from prude to slut in a moment's notice. Perhaps giving her thoughts a bit more relevance along the first scenes where she watches you fuck other girls would help justify her curiosity; instead, she seems a bit detached, accepting your lovers as the rules of the Roman world, without any apparent conflict. She takes a caring interest in the former Roman wife that you impregnated, and that is one of her most interesting traits. But the introduction of sharing content happens in a rather matter-of-factly way, with her invocating a petty excuse for bro-bonding ritual in order to sleep with your buddy. There could be more sexual tension between them in the build-up, she could be more teasing, less rational. The MC could have the option to oppose or enjoy, and his dirty that scene would feel more grounded if there were an atmosphere of mutual teasing, otherwise it feels like he's sincere about his insults. The waking up scene is cool, but could have been more explored. I understand the challenges of having optional content in a story that otherwise attempts to follow a single main path - and, to be honest, that's my preferred structure.
These are details that may be ironed out in the future, as the story is currently in development. I hope for more sharing content, maybe involving other NPCs as well, but a better framing. If the second part maintains the same consistency in writing, as the first part, it will definitely improve.
I like the linear story, with optional flavour. Sometimes ambitious branching out makes for projects becoming too wide for the developer's resources, or too shallow as a consequence. This game achieves a good balance, my only suggestion, regarding part two, being that optional content were better connected with the main story. If the common content had more of Clara's thoughts, her reactions to the roman ways, her impressions of other characters, some of the optional content would feel more grounded. Sharing included: being optional is perfect, imho, but suggestions that lead into it could be more playful and teasing. It feels strange that the MC would "choose" to put his wife in certain circumstances. These choices could be presented with more pros and cons, otherwise it feels exactly what it is: a prompt to the user to choose which content they want to fap to.
The early part of the second episode maintains the same visual quality as the first episode, but further in, some renders look a bit more rushed, especially sex scenes at night where you only see characters posed against a pitch black background, and some renders with a natural landscape, which don't stand up to the richness of detail you see in the more urban settings.
It's a great game that I'm eager to see the development of, and my final star will surely be awarded as the result of the second part merges with the consistency of the first part.
Rebellion: The Beginning
- makes for a relaxed gameplay, full of sex, where you can choose whether to play a faithful Carl and resist temptation, or dive into ancient Roman promiscuity, without negative consequences whatsoever. It feels like shaping your character, which gives the game a good roleplay vibe, not always common in a VN. You can be cruel, protective, lustful - however you choose it, the story still moves forward. In the end, your choices mainly decide which characters will move on to the next chapter. The ancient Roman historical details are mostly accurate and the architecture is spot-on. Renders are top quality. For me, this was an enjoyable story, not a blockbuster, but consistent and engaging.
Rebellion: Rise of The Damned
- the follow-up begins with a questionnaire where you tell the game some paramenters about part one; while this is practical and cool, it would feel that your part one gameplay would have been more consequential if you could simply import the savegame, leaving no chance for picking the wrong answers.
The MC's wife acquires a more central role in the story, with NTR and sharing coming up as possibilities to spice things up. Both are optional and the premisis are generally good and believable - like if your MC is a complete asshole and doesn't want to come back to ancient Rome with his babe, it's fair that she finds another way in.
Along the game, however, I hesitated with some choices because the way they're framed, it seems like some times you're actually pushing your wife to have sex with others, at other moments she's making the suggestion herself, with no teasing or tension. This could easily be improved by adding some dynamics to the characters: the wife wouldn't go from prude to slut in a moment's notice. Perhaps giving her thoughts a bit more relevance along the first scenes where she watches you fuck other girls would help justify her curiosity; instead, she seems a bit detached, accepting your lovers as the rules of the Roman world, without any apparent conflict. She takes a caring interest in the former Roman wife that you impregnated, and that is one of her most interesting traits. But the introduction of sharing content happens in a rather matter-of-factly way, with her invocating a petty excuse for bro-bonding ritual in order to sleep with your buddy. There could be more sexual tension between them in the build-up, she could be more teasing, less rational. The MC could have the option to oppose or enjoy, and his dirty that scene would feel more grounded if there were an atmosphere of mutual teasing, otherwise it feels like he's sincere about his insults. The waking up scene is cool, but could have been more explored. I understand the challenges of having optional content in a story that otherwise attempts to follow a single main path - and, to be honest, that's my preferred structure.
These are details that may be ironed out in the future, as the story is currently in development. I hope for more sharing content, maybe involving other NPCs as well, but a better framing. If the second part maintains the same consistency in writing, as the first part, it will definitely improve.
I like the linear story, with optional flavour. Sometimes ambitious branching out makes for projects becoming too wide for the developer's resources, or too shallow as a consequence. This game achieves a good balance, my only suggestion, regarding part two, being that optional content were better connected with the main story. If the common content had more of Clara's thoughts, her reactions to the roman ways, her impressions of other characters, some of the optional content would feel more grounded. Sharing included: being optional is perfect, imho, but suggestions that lead into it could be more playful and teasing. It feels strange that the MC would "choose" to put his wife in certain circumstances. These choices could be presented with more pros and cons, otherwise it feels exactly what it is: a prompt to the user to choose which content they want to fap to.
The early part of the second episode maintains the same visual quality as the first episode, but further in, some renders look a bit more rushed, especially sex scenes at night where you only see characters posed against a pitch black background, and some renders with a natural landscape, which don't stand up to the richness of detail you see in the more urban settings.
It's a great game that I'm eager to see the development of, and my final star will surely be awarded as the result of the second part merges with the consistency of the first part.
