VN - Ren'Py - Reunion [v0.70] [Karabinek]

Well, I must confess, I am also very torn when it comes to the evaluation.

The last four reviews here are in line with what I would say about the game. The graphics are good, the story... well, diffentent story

But what makes me want to give no more than three stars is the fact that the story has very deep plots.

Let's take the main reason for the story of this graphic novel: The main character had to leave the house 10 years ago because of Linda.
So far so good. But: the women in the game should have fallen in love with the main character 10 years ago? If you look at the graphics, the main character is now 19-20 years old?!? So they all fell in love with a child? However, if the character, in order to do justice to the chronological sequence, is now 26-30 years old, then the chosen model is really not suitable for him.

And these inconsistencies unfortunately run through the whole story. Unfortunately. Because the approach is really good, the entanglements of the side characters are well thought out and the lyrics are well written. The story really has potential, if it weren't for these holes in the story.

Therefore 3 stars for:

• very good renderings
• Good looking character (female)
• Good dialogues
• Poor storylines (but some good ideas)
• Often incomprehensible actions of the character
• too many plot holes ( mistakes in the contexts)

Tough to rate this game tbh

To me, personally, both visuals and story have the same importance in this type of game. And while one of them (visuals) is great, the other one (story) is very bad

- Renders look great. Places, objects and characters look natural and realistic. And the animations are fluid and not robotic like in some other games.
- There are way too many characters. Enough to make it impossible to add any depth to them, they're all as shallow as a puddle. Also, there's like one other guy other than MC lol, the dude who got fired and appeared in 5 renders.
- Character behavior is unrealistic, to say the least. They mostly act like a bunch of lonely girls who haven't had sex in 10 years despite the fact that they all look like supermodels. They all instantly wanna fuck MC. Some people might like that, but I don't.

Another game with wasted potential due to bad planning and writing. Dev certainly knows how to make stunning renders and great animations but fails to deliver a compelling and believable story.

There was a line in this game that really resonated with me.

"God what a shitty movie this is. The plot of this film is stupider than in subordinate porn. The main character looks like a faggot, and he was supposed to be a tough guy. He's fucking ugly and all the women around him are wet and horny when they look at him."

I genuinely can't tell if this was the dev poking fun at his own game, or if it was just supposed to be an unconnected piece of dialogue. It's literally the perfect description for this game. The plot and interactions are absurd, to the point of being nonsensical. The dialogue is stunted and immersion-breaking, and the MC acts absolutely stupid most of the time.

The animations are good, and the renders are decent, but the story is hot trash. The guy looks awful with his bowl cut and perpetually-open mouth. Not to mention he looks like a manlet whenever he stands next to a girl in heels.
He wears the same ratty white t-shirt to work every day hires an unknown lawyer on his first day as a "trusted employee". His dialogue sounds like that of a child trying to act grown-up and cool, despite him supposedly being some super-secret military agent with "skills". He decides to wear a plaid shirt and jeans on a date, despite the chick wearing an evening dress. When the other secretary lady asks him what the dress code is, he says, "As sexy as possible. HEHE jUsT KidDiNg!" like that is supposed to be funny. Honestly, I couldn't write a more cringy MC if I tried.

And while the renders are good, the women all look the same. There is no variation in body type and many of the faces look very similar.
All in all, I can say this is not worth wasting time on if the dev doesn't step up his game soon.

0.3:

Feel exactly the same as I did before the update. There are moments of above average gameplay, but only moments. It just feels kind of cheap and even if it was just a "turn your brain off" kind of game, the renders aren't really that fantastic. The characters look pretty plasticy and rather fake and it just sort of feels lazy, amateurish? I'm not expecting anything perfect but that above and beyond mentality just doesn't exist with this dev. So if the story is meh, and the renders are meh, it basically is just at best an average game.

I think if the game got a hard rework it could be a 5 star. But that would take a ton of time and effort that I highly doubt the developer or the patrons would take too kindly towards.

Please also use webp. Your individual image files are wayyyyy too big. 8gb for a 0.3, sheesh.


________________________________________________________________________

0.2:

I can surmise this game by saying it currently has a lot of wasted potential.

The renders are really well done and there are many characters you get to meet in the game. There are a lot of choices you can make to attempt to 'customize' your play through so to say. If I'm totally honest with myself, this is where the game stops being above average.

It's clear a lot of work went into this game and I certainly can appreciate that but I cannot pretend it's a 5 star masterpiece in its current state.

The dialogue is so robotic and uninspired. There are shades of different personalities shown by all of the different characters but it's hard to actually see them as separate people. They lack depth and feel lifeless in my eyes. I'll admit, I find some of the characters cute and I honestly think if the game was written better I could really love some of them. But for now it feels like all of the girls are just archetypes; they aren't actual characters. The conversations between MC and these people are just so strange and almost feels like I'm reading a google translate summary of something written in a different language. People don't talk like this and I personally fear for you if you think this dialogue sounds natural. Is it the worst I've seen? Hell no, but it is nowhere near 5 stars in this regard.

Next, the story. The story is alright at best and is leagues above the dialogue/writing but that's not saying much at all. It's extremely far-fetched; granted I don't go play an AVN for a fully realistic story. It's just almost hard to follow though because of it. All the girls you meet just have something fucked up going on in their life and they all keep looking to you to fix it. It's kind of like those porn videos where the pizza dude delivers to some naked girl and they fuck. Yes that is the level of depth I feel this story has. That being said, there's nothing entirely wrong with that but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking the story is anything special.

Another thing worth mentioning, is that the game doesn't feel terribly polished. Some of the choices don't really add up in my mind and feel lazy. The dialogue stays the same, characters often act bipolar, switching personalities like a light-switch. (Yes character development is fantastic to have in a game but it feels incredibly nonsensical and cheap if done badly).

Simply, I think there are a lot of issues with the game and it's very easy to overlook them because there are pretty faces and lots of sex. Who am I to say that's wrong? But, I will say that this isn't a 5 star game in my eyes but I'm glad that this game is doing well. I really want to enjoy it and I even pledged to it, hoping that the next chapter would be a vast improvement over the first release, but it doesn't seem to be the case for me.

I wish the best for this game and I definitely will edit my review if things change in the future. For now, I'd say this is a game worth trying; maybe you'll enjoy it but it currently feels like a "turn my brain off and go for a fap" type of game which isn't really my thing.

I really don't like giving such a low rating so early into the development, as it can be unfair and quite discouraging, but dear lord, the writing needs some serious overhaul.

Right from the get-go, the interactions and dialogues are flimsy and shallow. Sometimes it gets so ridiculous that it sucker-punches you straight out of any immersion you might have had. In a lot of cases, you're just left there thinking to yourself "no normal human being talks like that".

The characters themselves are very bland. Throughout couple hours of gameplay, there were absolutely no defining qualities to any of them. You can look at their bio in the stats menu, but honestly, none of those characteristics ever manifest themselves in any way. So you feel absolutely nothing for these girls. I feel that's in part of oversaturation with girls you have at the start. There are just too many of them.

The MC is a terrible person. Now, the developer is probably trying to set up an idea, that the MC is very devoted to the ones he cares about, and will stop at nothing to make sure of their well-being. That's just not how the story plays out. If you dissect what's being presented to you, you're nothing more than a thugh with a lot of power and money behind you. Almost every girl you come close to, you first exploit their vulnerabilities to gain their trust and "generate favor points", which you redeem as affection. Not once has the MC displayed any wit, tact, humor... So, in the state the MC is right now, a label of "predator" would suit him the most.

That's what in my opinion is wrong with the game right now. The models look great, the UI is okay, the animations are not terrible, so there's no need to talk about it while it's still in development. But something HAS to change about the writing before this gets run into the ground.

Well, this is a nice find!

First I thought this was going to be a bad telenovela-story. But now I'm really excited to find out what happens in the next update! And I really like the MC's way to handle shit!

I was very positively surprised just how much content there is. I mean, it's a v0.1... normally, 0.1-Versions of a game are played through in ... what ... 30 to max 60 minutes? I sat on this for three hours. And now I find out, that the v0.2-update is just about to release, even though v0.1 was release just 2 months ago.

And on top of that, the visuals are great. The Animations are REALLY well made!

Shit like this is why I constantly have to up my set patreon-budget...

I am giving only 2 stars for the following reasons :

1. All girls ( except the stewardess ) are dressed when supposed to be casual and not only, like porn stars, see scene on street in front of the hairstyle shop, those heels you see only in porn movies. It's like a cheap porn movie where all women are filthy whores. Sandra in her home is wearing shorts and 20cm heels...wtf. But whatever, somebody may like this way...

2. Mc is a real dumbass in relation with Sandra and the secretary, why in earth to accept all conditions from a lawyer you don't know ? Seems like a pussy to me, opposites with the sweet brother ( or you know and we don't know that - see the miltary background and that Mary girl ).

3. Somehow I found those tits really oversized ( Sandra, Linda, Jennifer ), but well...I prefer naturals and well defined.

Good points...well, except the renders can't find any...

Maybe Karabinek will find a way to make this more realistic, not a cheap porn movie scenario.

Many are upset over a first game by the dev(s) or of sounds and every detial of the story..Well the art and animation is the hardest part that alone is worth the cost if it was a game already say in steam or whatever.

Anyways this is brilliant you defend your family's company and patch up feelings with love ones after almost being killed..Very pretty girls and good sex scenes..Im a bi girl even i was wet by playing this beta..Love it keep it up on updates <3

Had and still have high hopes for this game because it is visually phenomenal. Has some issues but I am willing to give the developer a chance to work on them before being too harsh.

-The story and dialogue is bonkers right now and not always in a good way. For example: MC goes ballistic about the people who raped Sandra but turns around and assaults Clara Maybe, with future updates, some things will make more sense in hindsight.
-Dialogue is pretty stilted but I'm guessing that's a language barrier thing so it's forgivable.
-Listed as a harem game which, to me, means the members of the harem know of each other and are ok with it. I don't mind at all if the women want to sleep with MC right away, but if he's just running around behind all their backs it's a different kind of game in my opinion.
-Can't say it enough- the game is amazing visually! All the girls are super hot in my opinion. Maybe if you prefer small breasts there is not as much on offer for you.

Good Points
+ Most girls/women look hot.
+ We have an interesting plot, but the execution of the plot is not that good.
+ We have animations for some of the sex scenes, they are rare, and like they are being rare is not bad enough they are not that good either.

Bad Points
- Characters have a quite weird and robotic look on their face most of the time, and their facial expressions are not that good either. Especially what's wrong with MC's face? Why does he always seem angry even when the dialogue is not about he is being angry?
- Most of the sex scenes are not animated.
- The game has translation problems and because of that most of the time dialogue feels distant and weird.
- Animation and render quality needs to improve. Better physics, better sex scene positions/angles, and quality are needed.
- Some girls like Lisa (especially their face) need some changes, currently, they are not looking good at all.
- MC literally pulls girls to himself like a magnet but he is not cool, handsome, or stylish enough for this. Changing his drawing to someone more handsome and cool could be far better and fix this nonsense detail.
- At this point, there are nearly zero love interests who didn't get raped or not abused by other people and that's just straight-up weird... And weirdly nearly every man in this game except MC is pictured as a corrupted terrible person, even cop friends of Veronica tried to rape her, and this whole thing makes no sense at all.
- You can't reject girls, and it's not okay, especially with having ugly girls like Lisa... As a player game literally forces you to have some girls even if you don't want them at all...
- Every version comes with bugs, even creating fresh saves won't save you from getting errors, etc, and if you wanna use your own saves from old versions then good luck, you are going to face a lot of bugs.

For The End
Well at a certain point, this game had the potential to become a pretty good game, but instead, the game became less and less good and today all I can say is it's good for nothing...

Just a quick review.

It is mediocre with less chance of rescuing the story if it stays on this path.

Renders are good. That's it.

Story is crap. Not even cheese good, just not good. Just a bang sim.

No sound no music.

This Review is based with my personal experience with the actual Version 0.1 of the game , with my specific opinions and feelings .
I've never made a review of a game after only the first release because I usually prefer to wait for some more contents , to understand if the developer is reliable in next updates with quality and contents. But this was not the case for two specific reasons : the first is because this game completely strokes me for the so high quality of the graphics and second reason is because all this so big quality work was made by the developer with very scarce resources and with really insufficient hardware . This really not only wonder me , but immediately bring me the decision to pledge him and to give trust on his project.
The Story of the game it's pretty original and interesting and to underscore the plot during the game it's really nice . To discover what really happened in the past of the protagonist and of his family it could be really interesting

Pros
-Plot: already since first release you can see the potential that this work can have , the connection with the memories from the past and the actual time line , give to the plot the necessary depth also for next release
-Characters : all girls are absolutely beautiful warm and original , completely different between them not only in the physic expect but in the behavior ; also the sex aspect will be so different with one girl that with another
-Choices : The choices have a good impact in the story since this first release ; some choices can open different paths and different sex scenes , with others one you can chose to avoid some contents , so the player have a complete freedom in the game to make what he likes more
-Graphics and Renders : only one word : AMAZING! This is without doubts the best part of the game ; a player can stay completely astonished from the big quality of all renders and from the skills and abilities that the Dev shows in this work

Cons
-No kind of cons : this is the first release and the first work of the Developer and it's one of the best i've played till now

Overall
What I can say more ? Are you still reading my poor words and you are not going immediately to pledge this project ? This first release has completely conquered me for all reasons I wrote before. For sure the dev have some skills in photography and immediately you feel it ; at the same time you can feel the passion and the love that he is putting in his Opera.


This game it's not only worth to play but it deserves a full 5 star review ; I'm so eager to see next release and to see in which way the Dev will be able to raise the bar of is quality more and more .

I can't believe this game got so many 5 star reviews.
They are absolutely undeserved.

There is one good thing about the game and that is the renders.
The girls are beautiful, but that's all.

The dialogue is not only simple, the flow of the conversation often makes no sense, but with that at least it fits with the story and the way characters behave, as it is all over the place.

It's like watching a google translated soap opera, that's the best example I have. The dialogue is so cringe-worthy and the women, even if they just met the MC go from complete strangers to "If only he would fuck me." from one moment to the next, divulging their traumas and their deepest desires.

And the MC is the same, at best he sounds like a bad gigolo, at worst he sounds like an idiot.
How this wimpy guy, who looks like he hasn't worked a day in his life and never had any hardship, is supposed to be some sort of tough guy whose successful company obviously has something to do with security or investigations, is completely, completely beyond me.

Every woman in this game dresses like a hooker, from secretaries to lawyers, to top manager. It's a joke, really.

The story is mixed together from several other games, so that's also no place where this game could score.

IDK, I might have graciously given this one three stars, but for two reasons:
1. The urge to bang my head against something hard became stronger the longer I played the game.
2. With all these completely unwarranted 5 star reviews, you have to judge this game hard, so that at one point we might actually get a review score that isn't completely baseless.

The game isn't completely hopeless, the renders are good and a story doesn't have to be original to work, but the writing and characterization have to become better and tbh, I doubt the dev has the skills, so he should consider teaming up with a better writer.

If you are just looking for solid renders and hot girls: this is for you. It is why I gave it 3 stars because everything is just bad
If you want interesting characters, a believable story to go with said hot girls and the pretty pictures: start look elsewhere!
At some point I just set the option on for skipping unseen text, and just skipped through all the dialog until something sexy flashed by on the screen. The one animation I found was alright. Sex scenes have multiple still renders. It all looks good on screen, just do not read dialog: I found it to be juvenile, not bad, not good, just too simple for my taste.
The game tries to instill drama and depth and just fails at every turn. The MC can go from yelling at someone in one scene to hugging and cuddling them in the next scene with that person, suddenly acting like best friends or lost lovers, without any mentioning about their previous arguments about life changing traumas from their past....yeah, sure! /s
The game hints it is also going to be about a somewhat 'mysterious past', (which the MC ofcourse can't talk about because arbitrary reasons, WTF!?!)
I'd recommend the dev to drop any pretense about the story and just make the harem game and keep it lighthearted. Get that revenge-fuck with the step-mom in there and get chugging!

-UPDATED FOR SECOND RELEASE-

**UNIQUE DISPLAY OF ELITE 5 STAR POTENTIAL FOR A FIRST RELEASE...THAT QUICKLY DEGRADES INTO YET ANOTHER GAME WITH A TERRIBLY WRITTEN IN HAREM APPROACH**


Early impression pros:

- Top of the food chain type blend of many different sexy as heck skinny/big breasts girls that doesn't get too exaggerated crazy with the boob size if that is your cup of tea (it's mine).

- Clear writing without any engrish.

- Extremely promising overall pacing approach with the sexy time stuff. Seriously, this game deserves major kudos for this. Great execution job at throwing the player that early high quality sex scene bone that gets the blood pumping about what they can expect to come, but while doing it in a mostly isolated and story-driven manner that didn't at all leave me believing this game will morph into a typical zero chase meet&screw sex romp with most of the other characters.

- I like the the general approach of not being afraid to mix dark and light themed general storylines surrounding the girls.

Early Impression cons:

- Some plot holes written into the story that don't add up. The use of too young looking character models in some instances, starting with the MC, also adds to this.

- The at the core and taking a literal "do you want to join my harem?" approach to character progression is basically written for a 13 old kid. With all the typical extreme loser "every girl is immediately wet for me. yay!" fantasy bases covered. Which on the flip side to all just ultimately serves to cheapen any chance of a more realistic chase aspect surrounding pretty much every girl.


All in all one of those rare games that might come along a couple times a year that shows legit 5 star potential coming out the gate, and then gets dragged down by a too terribly unrealistic relationship building approach, and your typical dev misconception that completely catering to the select crowd of people who fevorishly cheer you on in the process of such ends up anywhere but with creating yet another "great girls, poor story" game.

The girls alone make it worth the play and the 4 stars though.

This is the update from my original review from May of 2020

PROS
The story is interesting
Characters are dynamic
Renders are good

CONS
Writing needs some help
Tiddies are lopsided a lot

Summary
The story is pretty interesting. You've got this big mystery going on, and then you have all of these smaller issues orbiting around the main plot. It is both interesting and frustrating at the same time. It pulls you in, spins you around and leaves you wanting more.
The characters are dynamic and all have their own things going on. I just wish you had more choices to really assert the dominance you're lead to believe you have.
The issues with the writing are sporadic and mostly consist of misspellings and other typos. Nothing that really takes away from the story, but they are noticeable.
I will recommend this VN. Karabinek is doing pretty good work with this story and even though it's been almost 2 and a half years, there is enough content in the 12 in game days to keep you interested and leaves you waiting for the next update.

My, my this game has taken my breath away for just a 1st release.
I love to see some hate story revenge and it was about time to get one, the writing and pacing of the story are very well done.
The renders are pretty good quality.
The animations are good.
The girls are pretty hot.
The game is set for harem and as seen in this first release is not going to be blueballs all the way so it is a must if you enjoy such games.
The only I can say to the dev is give us some milfs not only Linda.
100% Recommended and pretty sure it will reach the top games if this keeps up and the updates come regularly.

Game is realy good and not short like other games first release but i just can only hope future Lesbian content not forced for lisa because after pool scene it's kinda seems forced i hope dev. give players a choice about "join them" or "not"
Other then that game starts realy good and MC is not an pussy or beta it's making this more perfect.

It is average which on this site is a three star rating, for me. The set up to the storyline is poorly implemented and some really stupid things occur which just happen because they have to happen or are half heartedly explained. I don't want to be too harsh because this is the start of this game, so it is getting a rating of average and hopefully the storyline will be tightened as time goes on with its development or better still some rewrites of current content.

The renders and models look nice, really nice, no issues here with that, What falters or stutters is the set ups and storytelling.

As with most reviews l do, I will go into detail in the spoilers what I did not like and explanations behind my feeling with reference to the story. But this is the first release of this game, so that is all that will be covered in the spoilers. It is all early game stuff if you are worried about looking. The above is just a brief overview if you want to go in blank before playing.


Well hope I expressed most of what I saw wrong and how I felt in the spoilers, maybe it is a bit lucky to get three stars. But it is only the start. If you read my review and want to correct me, feel free to message and I will hear you out or you want to say something. I will update this review if more is released and I play it.

But all in all as usual, if you play and feel differently glad you enjoyed it and everyone can have a different opinion. This was just mine.

Another exelent game that i highly recomend. Characters and renders are both great. Story is also very interesting. In some aspects it reminds me on ''Where the Heart is'', but nevertheless its great. For 1st release it shows so much content and characters. Usualy i don't give a chance to 1st release ''Demo'' version, but 2GB that tells you something. Any way, i can only hope more from this dev and if you are capable support him/her.

Characters - 10/10
Renders - 10/10
Story - 10/10