VN - Ren'Py - Recall Destiny [v0.2a] [Saffron River]

PROS
+ The game has tons of animations for non-sexual stuff, and their existence is kind of immersive. Sexual ones has good FPS, along with not bad physics as well, and we have lots of animations for different positions for sex scenes as well.
+ Art style, and character models looks kind of alright, they just need some work.
+ Music is pretty good, especially that dance club one was prime.
+ Your choices kind of matter.
+ MC has kind of funny, and bit cringy talking style going on, I guess it's kind of fun to have MC with personality instead of one of those cliche blank ones.

CONS
- Even tho we have tons of animations their quality, and physics needs some work. There are some clipthrough problems as well.
- Art/Visual style can use some improvements, like face of women, etc, for example their neck looks bit short, fixing that could be good way to start. Visual quality needs improvements as well, especially some of scenes like Lux's first sex scene has renders with very sharp bad looking edges, and the game needs better lightning as well, in most scenes game looks bit too dark.
- Choices kind of matter, but matter with worst way possible, the way it will make you lose some content with other women/girls, so you need to create multiple playthroughs, and we don't have ingame walkthrough kind of thing either, and that's bit annoying as well. And worst part is intended, bug, or not, there are some parts where the game acts like you did something you didn't choice, like when you stay with Lux you punch a random dude in the club, but even if you don't choice that, and leave in later scene dude says you cracked his jaw at the club, which is quite nonsense.
- Quick Menu at the bottom has bigger font than the dialogue text, and that's bit distracting, making it smaller than the dialogue text would be far better.
- Previous & Next buttons on save page is bit smaller, and it's easy to miss click 9rd save slot instead.
- The game is almost 3 years old, but doesn't have enough content for that, and only got two updates in this 3 years, and it's way to short, even shorter than some demos I played.

VERDICT
Honestly the game seems potential, but the current state is bit poor, fixing the CONS can make this game good or great game for sure, hope that developers do better job with next updates.

You ever feel like you're reading a story and you can hear the author in the back of you mind saying, "Oh this is gonna be so cool, you don't even know!" over and over? That is this VN's writing. Edgy people saying edgy shit nonstop. Then you sprinkle in over powered female characters because of course you have to be the bitch in this power fantasy until the mcguffin (probably your dick) is revealed.

Like lets take this update. Dev gives you the option to say no to this chick and immediately she grabs you by the throat and you fold. It changes nothing. Do the math genius, you're alive so she needs you so. Don't fold like an under powered old wallet, push the issue. Point that shit out. Act like you have brains or a set of balls. Nope, just go back to bitch mode. Why even give the option? Easy, to make her look badass and you look weak. I sense a theme brewing and its as stale as any other time the troupe is used in modern media. She just killed a bunch of dudes. We get it, she's dangerous. She also did not kill us. So she needs us. This isn't hard.

VERSION: v0.1b
SUMMARY: Fair to decent start with mediocre visuals.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

1. Models: 3
2. Animations: 4
3. General Visuals: 3
4. Characters: 3
5. Story & Pacing: 3
6. Writing: 4
7. UI & Gameplay: 3
8. Content (amount): 3
9. Sound & Music: 4
10. Fetish & kinks: X

Average: 30 of 50 possible points giving a 60% rating i.e. 3-4 stars.

PROS:

1. Writing is pretty good, its got a weird almost Cyberpunk vibe and lingo going, which is not obscenely over-the-top or filled with some much slang and colloquial bullshit that you can't understand it, and still remains unique and fairly decent.
2. On dialogue, conversations are per above point, has some clever quibs and witty retorts that I like as long as they done in moderation. So fun and clever dialogue with a natural flow it is good. Provided it also stays consistent in the game (time will tell)
3. Animations are pretty good and leave the normal renders wanting. This is sadly also a con because the general renders are the majority.
4. Sounds and music are pretty good. Music stands out, sounds less so but some are present.
5. Story is interesting, a bit chaotic right now, but hopefully it will make more sense later. So far interesting though.
6. Choices shape the outcome of events, at least within certain parts of the game e.g. who the npc ends up spending the night with.

CONS:

1. Honey select...while not atrocious, I have never been a fan of this engine, the characters all look like cartoons that are spray-painted to have a glossy sheen to them...
2. Renders are sometimes not bad, but other times just not great, this is noticeable during H-scenes and also the NPC hair which clips and is often not smooth.
3. While music is decent and there are some ambient and general sounds, there can be more and lewd scenes should definitely get them to add to immersion, which this game needs since its visuals are not the best.
4. Some of the dialogue is a little weird though, like the MC in the club says "...buzzing tonight. Way more than usual. Just wondering." This makes no sense. I assume he is saying he is just wondering around not wondering something in his head. Either way, there isn't context for that statement either...? Bit weird IMO. Small gripe.
5. Per animations, which are good, they do look exaggerated and fake like watching the NPC walk by, she does not walk smoothly, natural, but stomps excessively causing all the "fat" to shake and jiggle, which is great for us pervs but can be a little bit over the top for me.

FINAL THOUGHTS & SUGGESTIONS:

• I am not overly fond of eastern influenced games, as far as models, and game engine go. Don't get me wrong you get beautiful people in those regions, but there is a stigma to games that use that style and I always associate it with some skinny chick with huge eyes and tits, long hair, swinging a sword 3x her size and yelling in another language something in a high pitch voice. This is my personal gripe and so the honey select engine and its style is not my thing...
• Some review claim that the H-scenes are quick off the bat to occur. I think the developer did this the right way, the setting, circumstances and context of how it all takes place is natural and not forced, the player does also get a choice in the matter of how to respond and nothing feels forced. So I am fine with the pacing that the initial sex scenes occur. Even with the "friend" there is history and its not like they breaking new ground here either.

Overall not bad, interesting or potentially interesting story, told relatively well. Sadly the game engine is not visually to my standard of fidelity and leaves the game hovering around mediocre at best.

In its Current State i give the game an Overall: 4.7/10. I rate overalls based on 4 Weighted Categories: Story 40%, Sexual Content 25%, Renders 20%, and Character Models 15%.

Story 4/10: im on the fence about this game, the story seems like it could be interesting in the future but right now im just not sold on the game. Nothing really stood out to me and impressed me. I do like the dystopian scifi world but from the characters and the writing nothing capture my attention.

Sexual Content 5/10: 3 H-scenes for a demo though is really good, they are your typical Honey Select animations. honestly though the amount of buttons for different povs is sorta annoying but its not that big a deal tons of games have it.

Renders 6/10 : Nothing Special Borderline Average HS renders.

Character Models 4/10: they are just not my typ, raven is the only character that i like. The rest are pretty low quality and are have this werid shine to them.

Recall Destiny [ v0.1a ]

I liked the visuals and models. Dev surely put a lot of effort to it. There is music. What I loved the most is renders. Story seems interesting but nothing is revealed here. Seems like it will be a nice story think so. And about the sex scenes ofc they happened fast but one is with stripper and another with Mc's friend. It's don't happened with a character you just met and fucked her fast so it's good in my book. Hoping we learn about MC's past and relation with the friend. Loved the bounty hunter. This version is short but it ended with a cliffhanger.

Overall I enjoyed the game. Looking forward to next updates keep up the good work dev.

Review for v0.1a

Hate to give lower star ratings on fresh games, but I really do have some mixed feelings about this.

While the renders aren't the best honey select ones I've scene, at the least there's some real effort being put into this. Action scenes, music and sound effects, transitions, and some decent animations. The devs clearly have a vision and want to tell a story.

What's really bringing this down for me though is the dialogue. Not to sound like a dick, but it does feel rather amateur. It's not clicking with me. I don't find the humor very funny. The MC kinda talks like an idiot. The sex scene dialogue is lackluster. Just all around not really working for me.

The pacing already feels way too fast as well, like nothing is really being built up. The two sex scenes for example happen almost immediately with either a stripper or an apparent friend we as players know nothing about. The intro has failed to really get me invested in any of the characters, and because of that, the story as well.

Something to keep in mind though is that this is both a first version and a short one at that. It's a bit hard to judge when there's relatively little to go on. If this finds its ground and improves with future updates I can see my rating going up. But if it continues as it is I'm not sure I'd come back to this.

Best of luck on your game anyway, devs.