VN - Ren'Py - Rebirth [Ep.5 ver1] [LikesBlondes]

I like it.

The story is *very* good. It's not perfect (there are some obvious plot holes), but it's written in an engaging way that had me up reading/ viewing later into the night than I should have been.

I got through all 4 chapters in around 3 days.

If you like V:TM campaigns with methuselah rules, you're golden. It reads very much like that.

That said, I pulled off one star for the gameplay or the lack thereof. It's not that there are no choices, and it's not that the choices don't affect the story - they do (or they seem to). But you can't tell how, and you can't tell whether, for example some of your newly acquired abilities are being used to your advantage - or at all - with the exception of the physical ones you can see or upon first use. You also can't tell whether or not previous decisions have impacted the story, because there's no omniscient hints that doing something differently would have let you see different scenes, or a gallery that shows locked scenes so you really have no clue what if anything you're missing.

Still though, love the story and am looking forward to more updates.

Pros:
-Engaging Story
-Interesting plot and world building
-Interesting characters (until the end of ep. 02)

Cons:
-MC is an Idiot and infuriating (from the beginning till the end) so r the side characters after EP.03
-Female leads get annoying or character development is done poorly or none at all in Laurie's case
-Side characters stray too much away from their initial self without any particular explanation/reason
-Flaccid penis plot and no sex scenes at all with MCs love interests and the little sex senes we get happens at the worst times and it doesn't make sense and it doesn't feel rewarding (Ex:First sex scene ever happens shortly after carmen is heartbroken by Gregor hitting her and it's the worst possible time to have hot steaming sex just after being traumatised/ second time u r scared by ur vamp mom and out of the blue u have the gut to take the lead with her and without little to none emotional build up and all powerful she just let it happen/ 3rd time laurie's dying in the other room and u got a ancient vamp trying to get up and out of the blue sharon wants to have sex after ALL THIS BUILD UP she wants to have sex for no reason and it's the worst time)
-Wasting characters with great potential without properly using them at all, so they become unnecessary (ex: Greggor, Elois, nightclub lady {see, can't even remember her name that's how useless those characters r for the plot progression], etc.)
-MCs powers r useless no matter how much he unlocks Cuz, he doesn't use them at all or some r not used at potential moments
-Some choices r useless cuz they don't make any difference

A pretty interesting vampire game held back by an "erectile dysfunction" joke that goes on for wayyyyyyyyy too long.

EP2 also loses something that made EP1 enjoyable.. the main LI becomes less likeable and for some reason you completely ignore that your thrall can't listen to your instructions worth a damn..

I start to play it waiting for an average adult porn game, but i have to say this game really give me a nice surprise, the history is really good, it's a a good amount of play time an also great characters, I really enjoy it every second that I play it. If you want a good history, some mistery and love vamps sci fi, you will love this game.

This is the kind of VN that I am realizing I prefer, I love reading so reading through the dialogues and story is nothing new for me and it's rather exciting. And though I enjoy the lewd parts they aren't absolutely necessary for me. I love Life with Mary and recently played it again. Obviously, this is a newer game so renders are better quality now there is music as well though not animated anywhere but that would come up with time. Now I am waiting for further updates and hopefully, we get the completed story soon so that the mysteries can be resolved.

Excellent story with a setting similar to VtM, including the drama and vampiric political intrigue all of that entails.

It has a story that grabbed my attention and didn't let go until the end of the content.

Characters are enjoyable with growth, and the story takes precedence over the erotic, which is what I look for in a good AVN.

Decisions carry through the various episodes via save game importing so it feels like your decisions really matter.

Good use of sound and music.

Highly enjoyable.
Can't wait for more.

Rebirth is a successful approach to vampire story building, but in parts it takes itself too seriously to be convincing as a visual novel in the wider sense.

Like an Asperger's, Rebirth has a very peculiar understanding of emotions and personal relationships. They don't feel as rich and varied as you would expect. Human behaviour is flawed and often silly, but Rebirth's developers sometimes come across as just looking down on the silly human squabbles, not even acknowledging them in other cases or treating them like a foreign concept that needs no explanation whatsoever.

The vampire myth in particular though revolves around beings that are immortal. Dealing with their emotions and their coping mechanisms is an elementary part of the myth, at least in the more modern vampire adaptations. What does it mean to live forever? How do I define my relationships and feelings towards other mortal and immortal beings? What do I find meaning and purpose in? Is there a meaning at all?

When the MC and Calisto meet for the first time, it is implied that these thoughts have relevance to Calisto. But in the course of the game you feel little of this. Rebirth is much more like a political chamber play. The exploration of vampiric family trees and ancient mysteries in Rebirth is clearly above the exploration of emotional bonds.

In my opinion, as a vampire VN, it would be more convincing if the personal relationships took on greater importance over the political-religious intrigues. So if the characters were not primarily defined by their abilities and needs as vampires, but what used to make them human. Most of the main characters in Rebirth have not been vampires for long, but all their thinking seems as if the reality of vampires is the only one they know or want to know. The human world, with its human needs, is almost non-existent in Rebirth. It seems post-apocalyptic in this regard. As if the human world had perished and all that still exists are the old gods, the laws of the vampire societies and the power struggles that emanate from them.

This game is really frustrating, because the potential is very clearly there. The story is very good compared to other VNs; the writing is good, the worldbuilding is good, the characters are good, and the visuals are pretty good. All of this is held back by the fact that there's barely any sex or even lewd scenes. And there's no animations.

This isn't a sex game.

Good story for a vampire novel, but 3 sex scenes for 8 go of story ? Meh, the girls are nude all the time but the MC is impotent... Why? Not enough blood, so why didn't he enslave more blood dolls ? No reason.
The MC is not smart nor cunning, he don't even have any sense of self-preservation. HE live for the plot.
Greeeat vampire game...

All in all it's boring. If your kink is to see an eunuch perving on nude girls, then yeah, maybe ?
Or if you're here to read an average story of bloodsuckers, with a mediocre intrigue and worst political stratagems then good reading.

If not, pass this game you will just get bored.

My overall review is very much mixed for this game.

Pros: I actually enjoyed the characters, and at least some of the story beats.

Cons: Almost everything else.
-There simply is too little sex in this game. I know lots of people in the comments on this game are saying that games don't have to have constant sex scenes and I agree, but there has to be something. Right now, in what has to be close to ten hours of text, there are three possible sex scenes. One is non-consensual, one is interrupted by a psychedelic trip and the other is OK, none with any character I think any player will feel any emotional connection with. This for a game that's been in development for three years. It would make far more sense to just dump the sex scenes altogether and make this a non-pornographic release.

To make an analogy as to why this level of content just doesn't work, imagine if, in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, there was an explicit scene of Aragorn having sex with a random barmaid for two minutes towards the end of the second movie. No sex before or after, the scene is short and we barely see the barmaid before it and she's not that important after. That would be weird, right? You'd recommend just cutting that out. That's what the sex scenes in this game feel like given how enormous the buffers around them are.

-Imported save system breaks around half the time. What this means is that when you finish one "episode" and make a save to import it to the next "episode," you frequently get errors. Now, you can fix most of these with patches and console commands but it is very annoying.

-Outcomes are actually dependent on stats and a lot of early stat growth is dependent on random chance. What this means is that you might get bad outcomes in episode 4 because you didn't get a stat boost, at random, from training in episode 1, around 8 hours beforehand.

-The overarching plot is not really interesting or unique. This game is basically just unlicensed Vampire: the Masquerade, to the point that if you know old V:tM rules and lore, you can guess about all the rules and social organization of vampires that you learn about in this game. And a trope in games set in V:tM is the protagonist being sired by an unknown, powerful elder for unclear purposes, getting adopted by a powerful political outsider vampire, forming a connection with that vampire and ultimately discovering that something important involving an ancient buried vampire is happening. That's...pretty much the plot of at least three V:tM branded and unlicensed games, and Rebirth as well.

Conclusion: I guess I would recommend this game if you like Vampire: the Masquerade and you use a walkthrough/mod so you don't get screwed and you know there's no sex to speak of and you are willing to wrestle with the save import system. Otherwise, I'd recommend skipping it. I mostly regret having picked it up.

Imagine you are watching a halloween movie and screen time of Michael Myers is total of 2 minutes.That’s the best way to describe this game.Almost 20 hours of playtime and i have seen only 4 sex scenes.I have had sex more than 4 times in my life and this comes from a guy who plays porn games so that should speak for itself.

Now i will be honest with you i hate fuckfest games i really do.I hate it when the game starts with a sex scene or females jump on mc,i believe the concept of sex should be a supporter factor in the game.Now this game has an engaging story,nice renders,interesting characters etc.However(this is entirely my own opinion)devs don’t believe this would be enough to make this game shine so they add ‘sprinkle’ of pornografy and voila you got yourself a golden laying goose.

If devs trusted their own game they would release it on steam without any of sexual stuff because it’s clear that they want to tell a story.And i’d be totally ok with it.But instead they chose to advertize it as something it’s totally not.

Review for Ep. 4 Update 3

Rebirth is fine as a regular VN, but it kind of sucks as a lewd one. Fair warning that my review is going to contain a couple smaller spoilers.

It's weird for me, since I highly value good writing and typically enjoy slower burns. But I just found myself losing interest in most of the characters as I played.

The MC is just boring. I played through the first 3 episodes and couldn't really define his personality beyond being a bit cocky sometimes. The one interesting thing he has going is the fact that he was turned into a vampire by someone strong and mysterious. Beyond that he doesn't really have much of a background. There's just a lack of anything deep really going on I suppose.

As for the love interests, they sort of suffer from the same thing. Funnily enough I find the male characters more interesting than them. Laurie might as well not have a brain. Shannon comes across interesting enough at first, but her weird naivety for being as old as she is made me question why she has any respect among the vampires. Carmen turned from an amateur vampire hunter to a babysitter for a mind broken weirdo that we keep around for some reason and not much else.

The main plot is actually good. Getting our own territory, mysterious elder vampires, the whole Nos aspect, etc. I liked it, and I think it accomplishes the vampire vibes well. But this just feels lacking in most aspects beyond the story.

There's a lot of teasing and nude shots, but I think I ran into 4 sex scenes total? Apparently male vampires have erectile dysfunction since they don't have enough blood in them to maintain an erection (weird choice for a lewd VN I would say). There's no animations for them, and the dialogue during them wasn't enough to make up for that imo. They could have used more angles/positions. In the same vein the renders aren't bad, but certainly nothing amazing when comparing them to other AVNs.

I just feel that beyond the mysterious vampire story going on, there's not a lot here that's interesting or compelling enough for me to want to see what happens to a lot of these characters. Maybe this is just an extremely slow burn that will have more payoff later, but after three episodes it hasn't got me hooked.

A game with engaging characters, a compelling story, and a deep appreciation for world building. Rebirth is the game I look forward to the most each month, and I support the developers on Patreon. I wish there were six stars to rate the game.

This is a great VN, and thus it gets 5 stars.

The bad things:
- not a game. VN with very few choices.
- no fapping. Nearly no sex (Vampires do not get hard without some overdose of blood).

The good things:
- very good story. No need to skip stuff, because it is not too much text per image.
- Vampires. Love that.

If you've ever played Vampire: The Masquerade, and wished for something even more adult, then this is perfect for you. The first episode alone already immerses you into its world, regardless of whether you consider urban fantasy your thing or not.

I think it's fair to say that Rebirth is the best vampire AVN at the moment. The main reason for this is a strong story and lore that even after three episodes makes you feel there are endless possibilities of how the story could evolve, how the protagonists could develop in terms of their personality and the stakes involved. I enjoy that the MC is not the center of the universe and that there are forces still unknown after all this time, to keep things fresh and allow a sense of mystery and obscurity.

If you thought that being a superpowered immortal vampire was a power fantasy, you are wrong. MC is a bitch throughout the entire story, you are basically given fake options, that result in the same thing just 2 scenes down the road.

Ok i dont know what it is about this game, but somehow it got me hooked. Besides its many flaws, to which ill get later, i cant stop playing and really want to know what happens next. Maybe its the unique kind of story that just interests me, its the setting i find really inttriguing same with The DeLuca family. Its just something different and i kinda want to know how it plays out. The Game itself looks pretty nice with good graphic and the music is great.

Now to the "flaws" i mentioned, meaning the things this game does diffrent and in my opinion worse than others:
1. Already mentioned in other reviwes i think is the fact that this game has very little choices to be made, it gets better in the end of episode 3, but i dont know weather its a temporary thing or a trend the game developer is keeping to follow. The Choices impact mostly the skills your character has (Stealth, Charisma and Power) or the way you behave towards the main character. It still feels like you dont really have much say in how your relationships develop, which you do i guess, but it doesnt really feel like it. A plus tho is that the MC is atleast not a huge idiot and you have to endure that for the whole game like in some other games.

2. The actual Sex scenes are there, but pretty rare and not animated. Meaning theres quite some nudity, but i only discovered 3 actual Sex Scenes, ofc i couldve missed some, but anyways they are not animated like you know it from other games, just frame by frame, like the rest of the story. Somehow that didnt bother me too much, because in my opinion the story made up for it

3. There is not too much choice on which girl you want to have a realationship with because there arent that many girls in the game. That combined with the few choices you get to make in the game anyways, just plays more into the feeling that your relationship is predestined.

But lets come to a conclusion. The thing that bothers the most is the lack of desicions you get to made regarding the way you behave which i really hopw will change in the next episode. Nevertheless the Story with the musical ambience is still very much to enjoy. I guess you could compare it to reading a comic, but u get to make a few choices and have atleast some impact. So if you keep that in mind you can still enjoy this game very much, which is why i think it still deserves 4 Stars. Its not the best, but its good.

This vn's Story is extremely well-written, has a very adult theme and there's lots of nudity, but very few actual sex scenes.I really like the story line, the character building, the lore and the romance this VN always delivers. I can never stop reading the story and always wants for some more to come and unfold. Please keep up the good work

Game version: [Ep. 3 Update 8]

Jesus Christ, this game deserves the kinetic novel tag. It technically has choices, but they are so few and far between that you can get cramps in your skip finger before the next one finally shows up. And the choices that are there rarely have any consequences outside the current scene.

The MC is a wet blanket ("good guy") who's constantly saying and doing shit that annoys me and since there's rarely a dialogue choice for you to make you just have to take it. There are one or two occasions where you get to be "evil" or an asshole, but again, this has pretty much no consequences and just clashes with the MC's writing in the 95% of the game where you don't get to make choices for him, so if you pick those choices he just comes off as schizophrenic.

There's barely any sexual content besides some nudity and teasing and the first actual sex scene you get is hours into the game, with a random, incredibly unattractive side chick. And any time something halfway interesting is happening that bald fuck with the sunglasses shows up to cockblock you and move the lame plot forwards. Can't have you actually spending too much time alone with a girl, you might get the idea this was an adult game. Also, I never thought Sharon was "all that," but after an eternity of blue-balling and having to listen to her incessant blabbering I don't even want to fuck her anymore.

Basically this is just way too verbose Vampire: The Masquerade fan fiction with some tits thrown in. Which is great and all if you're into that kind of thing, but it's barely a visual novel, let alone a porn game.