VN - Ren'Py - Rebounding Life [Ep. 2] [SuperWriter]

Closer to 4* at the moment but will leave 5* for now, some of these reviews are unfair - especially seeing as how AVNs typically get rated.

Better than average writing, with an interesting and unique storyline. Semi realistic background as opposed to the MC screwing everything that moves. There is not a ton of content so far, but it has only been out for 6 months.

This is a good one to keep an eye on, especially since the developer has a history of actually finishing games.

Rebounding life [Ep 2]

This one got nice start, got pretty girls and nice writing. Also Mc is not a horny teenager but middle aged handsome man who knows how to control his sex hormones. Enjoyed the pace of the game it's not moving too fast or slow. Enjoyed the plot. Unlike other games which adds sport elements just for the sake this one's not like that sport element plays a key role here

+ Pretty girls
+ Story
+ Writing
+ Sports
+ Pace

Overall i enjoyed this one keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates.

Overall poor but some good elements.

The good:
- A lot of very pretty models have been chosen
- Writing is generally good quality

The bad:
- Absolutely awful girls' names you cant change
- Some of the dialogue is just lectures
- Every attractive girl is always paired with a gross one
- Every girl throws themselves at this gross mc, without cause
- You have kids
- You look around 60 even though you just ended your basketball career...
- MC is also afraid of anything involving women
- Loooong boring scenes trying to sound knowledgeable about sports

I am not one to hand out five stars to first releases of a game, but I was seriously tempted, because some of the early reviews here don't seem fair, so I am myself inclined to be more lenient.

I did decide on four stars though, because if the game continues in this vein, it will earn enough high rating s from reviewers who mostly judge a game by its potential and not what is actually there at the moment they write the review.

And believe me, this game has a lot of potential.
But it doesn't just have that, it is by far the best start to a game by the dev so far.
Strong writing, unlike other games with a sport-centric MC, you actually have the sport topic presented with the weight and knowledge it needs to have, without making it boring and dry.

The women are varied in look and character and actually seem like different people, not just hot woman type A with body and face type B, if you know what I mean.
And it's a nice amount of content for a first release with sex scenes and good character introductions.

Genuinely impressed.

If this continues as strong as it started out, this will easily be a five-star one or two more updates in-

I didn't have high expectations after reading synopsis, so I was positively surpsised by the first few scenes: Interesting perspective from the experienced NBA player, great renders and first very good looking LI. So far so good... uhhh I now wish I stopped playing there, the other LIs seem not only annoying, but also shallow. Locations are empty, the MC is a tough guy, but pretty boring, the facial expressions in this game are weird, the dialogues are below average: you enter college and yet I felt like I was listening to the kids interacting. Tony's character is terrible and I can already have a good guess why he stopped playing basketball, the ex - she is so uniteresting, I already forgot her name - is a hybrid of some blond sexbomb and Nami from SG's and as a result she isn't even attractive. But the worst part is storytelling: I already feel like playing one of those naive games from DanielsK (I think that was his nickname): the inner monologue supposed to show the MC as clever and experienced player, but it's so tedious I started skipping after a while; the storyline: college team's coach posing in her lingerie to the students' pictures, MC's son planning the vacations for fis family + his father's ex and his granfather's spouse; 2 vs. 2 game going exactly as you would expect it. No, this game is just a big no-no to me and I cannot see any original ideas from the dev to keep this project alive for too long

the game itself is cool, the plot is good, here is the surrounding world, the picture could be made beautiful and the surrounding world where houses shops and all that would be nice to look at such beautiful characters, but what the game still lacks is music

Review for Rebounding Life [Ep. 1]
This is undoubtedly a fantastic 0.1 version. Writing, story, characters, visuals, it passes with an A-grade. Are there issues? Kind of. They aren't issues currently, however there are things that can later become issues.
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So, initially I was actually surprised about how much was actually in here. Not particularly in terms of sexual content (there's two scenes if you play your cards right, and they're easy to achieve), but in terms of writing. Each character has a clearly defined personality and understandable goals. You can see the MC's future goals, you can see the steps that (you assume) will be taken. That's a good set up. The dynamics are there. Are they kinda cliche? Yeah. Some cliches can be beneficial in immediately getting an audience comfortable in the environment quicker. The difference is whether we ONLY get further cliches.
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The visuals are great. Really no question here. Models, lighting, water reflections are all great, backgrounds are well done (a few things are a bit off if you pay attention, like the idea of a giant carpet with the school's logo in the middle of the college entrance instead of being in the floor), really nothing additional to mention. Although, I WILL say I hope we get some more diversity in terms of female love interests. I may be in the minority, but I like seeing women of different ages that LOOK like they're different ages.

Now, I wanna side-track a bit to ages specifically. The ballpark retirement age for an NBA player is their mid-30s, so that's the age I'm ASSUMING the MC is in, and that leaves some room to have an 18-year-old kid if we assume the MC retired in his late 30s. Nasira and Faith look quite young, so I first thought they'd be in their late 20s, but then they have older kids so you'd assume they're in their late 30s? This can work for rich people where you assume they get all this skincare done, but I want to see some older or older LOOKING people. Obviously a bit of a nitpick, just I'd like to see older women to help make the world more believable, whether it's the principal or Auri's mother or someone else. A whole game without a woman with a grey hair would be crazy.
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An issue I see possibly appearing, is the lack of choice. An intro being largely kinetic is forgivable, but there's a lot of stuff which restricts the player. An example is the MC wanting their son Troy to play basketball. What if, perhaps, I don't want to be fucking LeBron James making sure my son plays? The MC acknowledges his son has no desire to play, he acknowledges his son has skill in art (one we don't really see atm, more told), but we don't get a choice. If I have to sit through 10 episodes of the MC figuring out the son doesn't want to just do what his father wants and the MC accepting that, I will go insane. That would be intensely reptitive. If we get the choice to either push him or accept his choices, at least that'd give us the ability to just focus on other things.

I'm also curious how much time will actually be spent with the sons. I like that the MC has more supporting characters, but keep in mind an NCAA team has 15 players. FIBA has 12. WNBA has a minimum of 11 on a team. How many love interests will we actually have? It worries me that the story might bloat like numerous others and we'll lose focus and/or it'd be absolute essays between sex scenes.

Great start to a game!

The story actually matters in this game and deals with life and all that comes with it.

-Renders 5/5 Excellent use of lighting and the dev has his own style he sicks with, which is cool to see. Models are very appealing.

-Characters 5/ 5 Each one we've been introduced to so far has their own distinct personality, which is refreshing. It's not copy and paste sort of stuff. They feel like real people.

-Story 5/5 So far everything is well fleshed out and it has a clear direction.

-UI/Production 5/5 It's very clean and fits the game perfectly.

-Animations 5/5 They are quite good, it's clear the developer has put in real work on this part of the game.

People should give this one a try. It's a gripping slice of life game that actually has some real emotion in it, which I find lacking in a lot of other games.