VN - Ren'Py - Ripples [v0.7.0 Public] [Jestur]

Brilliant game that is a near masterpiece!

Pros

• Excellent writing
• Excellent storytelling
• Excellent humor
• Fun characters who you grow to love
• Likeable MC
• Excellent lewd/sex scenes
• Excellent animations
• Good use of sound effects

Cons

• Honey Select game - outdated graphics and outdated character models
• Writing gets a bit verbose or drawn out, mainly just a couple of places in the game such as when the MC enters 1999 (beginning part). The game pace can get a bit slow at times (between events).
• Few meaningful choices in the game (I understand that this is a visual novel).
• MC needs more character development. The MC is likeable but I still don't really know who he is at this point aside from mundane facts. We know a lot about his quest for finding out the truth about the power plant disaster but we don't know very many defining characteristics about the MC aside from this. Some of the love interests in the game have the same problem. To the author's defense, many characters are still in early development.

I generally frown on Honey Select games because of the outdated and below average character models but there are a few out there that make up for it with superb writing and stories. This game is a real gem among Honey Select games! The visuals and character models are passable enough to not distract from the story, however there are plenty of games out there with much better visuals and character models.

One bonus for authors using Honey Select is that they can develop much faster due to lower rendering time. They don't have to have a PC with monster specs to render at a decent speed. I've followed a lot of developers and games on this site and those rendering in DAZ usually produce 50% less content per release as opposed to those rendering with Honey Select. There are tradeoffs either way.

The past two winners of the Christmas Developer Contest were Honey Select games. So using Honey Select isn't necessarily a bad thing...

I'm guessing this game was originally called 'Nipples'? The author's F95Zone profile says, "Nipples Dev". I'm guessing Patreon made him change the name to Ripples to fit their guidelines.

Jestur (the developer of this game) goes outside of the normal Honey Select animations and creates unique ones of his own. This is hugely refreshing as I get tired of seeing the same Honey Select default animations over and over again!

Jestur also makes good use of sound effects. It is extremely rare that an author will have excellent animations, writing, and sound effects! This makes the sex scenes something unique and special!

There isn't a lot of sex scenes in the game but the ones in it are done exceptionally well. I greatly prefer games that have good stories AND plenty of lewd content. There was enough to keep me satisfied. I was not disappointed.

There is some porn logic used with some of the lewd scenes but it is done better and is more believable than many other games I've played. The dev puts one foot in reality and one foot in fantasy (which I greatly prefer). The author doesn't take all reality and jettison it into space like I commonly see in other games. Thank you for keeping the game believable and real!

The thing that sets this game above many others is the excellent humor throughout the game! The humor feels natural and not forced which is rare. Too many games out there try to force the humor and you can tell and it often falls flat. This is not the case with this game. The game had me laughing many times! Thank you! It was a big stress reliever.

I'm hoping that there will be a harem option with this game. The author makes you fall in love with all of the the love interests in the game. It is a testament to the brilliant writing but will be very painful if I end up having to choose just one of them!

Thank you for not having a zillion love interests! The game focuses on four girls which gives the game more focus. This also allows the player to form deeper relationships with them.

One common pitfall I see with authors is their inability to develop deep and meaningful relationships with characters in the game. You see this in games where the author continually adds more and more pretty faces (new characters) into the game in order to keep things fresh and interesting. What you end up with is a ton of shallow characters with next to no character development. This author appears to be the opposite of that. Great authors have the skills and talents necessary to develop deep and meaningful relationships!

All the pieces fit together near perfectly in this game. It is well polished and a near masterpiece! I thoroughly enjoyed this game!

I highly recommend this game and encourage others to give it a try!

Magnificent VN. Witty, likeable characters and a storyline that's interesting enough to keep following. Lovely art style, good writing. This is most definitely in my top 5 (out of more than a hundred AVNs played).

Lewd scenes are absolutely top notch, there aren't a whole many but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quality. These are among the sexiest animations I've seen in any AVN, and while titles such as ToN may have the upper hand in terms of graphical fidelity, there's something about the lewdness in Ripples that makes it stand out. Not just because the animations are so smooth, it's the sexual creativity that makes it so good (for instance the ice cream scene in the park, omg).

Anyway congrats on a well deserved 1st place in the 2021 contest Jestur and I hope you will be able to create more/similar content in the near future.

This is the most beautiful Honey Select game I've played. It's also probably the most immersive; you really feel like you're inside a world instead of just jumping between a ragtag set of generic locations. The writing is a little generic, but they are done so well that I honestly don't mind. The action/adventure part of the story is my least favorite (and it usually is with these games) but it's at least interesting thus far. The horror elements of said portion of the story aren't nearly as overdone as Dreams of Desire or the like. My preference is that porn games don't show nightmares where my dad dies violently, but maybe that's just me. I appreciate the meta-humor but it is a little overdone in some places. All of the women are hot and have fairly distinct personalities.

Do play with the walk-through mod. It will save you the annoyance of having to rollback when you make an (in hindsight) obviously bad decision. I'm not going to take a star off for it since the correct choices don't lock you out of content, but devs, please stop with meaningless choices. You're only giving yourselves more work to do and remember: if a choice is actually meaningful, you've doubled the amount of content you have to make. Allow the player to decide whether or not they want to pursue relationships with characters or see certain fetishes. Don't present an illusion of choice when the choices are right-or-wrong or there's no functional difference between them at all.

v.Ep 3 Part 1

It's been some time since I played this game, but I remember the story being very interesting and you can do time travel very wrongly, that is very boringly. The characters are pretty good, not just by looks but also personality.

Jestur has crafted an extraordinary game. It is clear from the moment one begins playing Ripples that there was an incredible amount of care involved. The music is top notch. The scenes meld humor and sensuality in a memorable, if not enchanting, way. The girls are all ridiculously gorgeous, especially if you're into blonde LIs: for my money, Daphne, Jessica, Darci, and Shelby are some amazing models.

A discussion of Ripples is incomplete without mentioning the story's framework, the character building/dialogue, and the stunning animations. Jestur has taken clear influence from a multitude of sci-fi movies, and his homages to them are appreciable without being excessive and cliche. The characters go beyond being empty archetypes with a fresh coat of HS paint airbrushed on: Krystal is not just that high school tart that your typical Ren'py game would see her be, Darci is not just a tomboy, etc etc. Their stories are explored and the player's perspective of the characters change accordingly. There is development, which is not common in these sorts of work.

Finally, the animations and visual work: it is plain to see that this is where Jestur puts his heart and soul. It is readily apparent that Jestur's videos are a cut above any other HS1 games. The perspectives are varied and manifold; they are unnecessary, yet Jestur has worked tirelessly to ensure that they are considered an essential part of the game. Other HS games released after Ripples have understandably taken notice and tried to emulate as best they can -- yet despite his name, Jestur is clearly still the King.

I highly recommend Ripples to everyone. The story is fun, the girls are hot, the scenes are awesome. Hope the fanbase continues to grow and the game receives the monetary support it unquestionably merits.

One of my most favorite game that i keep track each day. Animations are really well done and all characters are beautiful that you'll wonder when will they show up again on the story. Time travelling story, so expect some inconsistencies but for me, i don't care about that since this is a fantasy and i'm more than satisfied as long as we get to the ending with the current flow.

For version 0.3.6, Episode 3 Part 2:
This game is a lot of fun, the models, the animations and the ambience music are all very good. I like VNs with a sci-fi ingridient to them, the story is also interesting adding some mystery to it. Without spoiling too much, the time travel is a great twist which benefits the story and the conspiracy behind it.
And finally, the girls, each one has a different personality and it's hard not to like them. Some of the choices will be hard if you like more than one. The lewd scenes are great with the sound effects included. I know they are mostly blonde, but I don't have a problem with that. My favorite is Skylar, love her model and her personality.
I recommend this game for people who like some sci-fi mixed with mystery (with a special weakness on blonde hair), they will not be disappointed.

This one was fun, but I wanted to love it, and I didn't quite get there with it.

Honey Select seems to be very limiting, as all of the models manage to look the same, which is no fault of the Dev, whom is clearly very talented and passionate about the project.

The game is very sex-driven thus far, and most of the characters seem to be horny 24/7. Could be a plus for players looking for a quick nut, but I was lowkey hoping for a slowburn type of thing with heavy sc-fi elements.

I just can't immerse myself in the "girls throwing themselves at the nerdy MC suddenly" or Harem type stuff.

The sex scenes are really good, a bit vanilla aside from some lighter BDSM, but hot.

The dialogue itself is funny. Darci is hilarious and the (not) Sister character was refreshing because the Dev avoided the "bitchy Sister" trope, which made me so happy.

Overall, there is a lot of good here. And a TON of good for players wanting a quick nut. It just wasn't for me.

3*

After seeing the high overall rating for this game and taking a look at the preview images, I decided to give this game a try. I took the hour and ten minutes to download the game (yes, my Wi-Fi is that slow), so I left feeling slightly more disappointed than usual when I found out the game wasn't all the other reviews hyped it up to be.

Firstly, let's get the good out of the way. The saving grace of this game, in my opinion, are the animations. Holy shit, are they amazing. Out of all the HS games that I have played (a lot, trust me) none of the other games come close when it comes to attention to detail in these animations. If you can get off to HS and you're just looking for a quick fap, this game is perfect for you. Lastly, I can say for certain that the models I saw before the deleting the game were all unique, especially the mom.

Unfortunately, that's where the pros end for me. When I first started the game, I literally got five minutes into the story before closing the game. After thinking it over, I figured I was just being salty about my slow ass WI-FI and taking it out on this game. Boy was I wrong. I opened up the game about three hours later and started over, just to be safe. Same problem. I can't fucking stand the dialogue in this game. From the moment the game started up until I stopped playing (grinding scene with Jessica's friend, Krystal(?)), almost every single line that came out of someone's mouth was complete and utter cringe. The scene where I stopped playing the game (Krystal(?) grind scene) even has the MC acknowledge how cringe-worthy his own monologue is. And it's not even like he stops, HE KEEPS TALKING. Bro, you have a 10/10 beauty grinding on your cock and the only thing you can say is something along the lines of "you should get a gold star for that." SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Moving on from that, my main problem is Darci. At the beginning of the game, to get exposition on the type of person she is, the MC comments on how she beat the shit out a six-foot, grown man who said mean things to her. I'm not going to talk about how impossible that is, so I'm just going to dwell on the fact that everyone around her thinks she's the coolest person ever for having a short fuse. I guess the vibe I'm supposed to get from her is that "she's a badass who doesn't take shit from anyone." It sure as hell doesn't feel like that. To me, it seems like she's a short, loudmouth who has anger issues. And if this isn't the only instance, which it isn't, it just further proves my point. The cherry on top is how after seeing each other for the first time in years(?), she immediately starts lusting after the MC. Even after shutting down her kissing attempt in the bedroom, she still thinks it's funny to grab the MC's junk under the table while we're talking with the mom. Like...what? I don't think I've ever disliked a character who you're pretty much forced to interact with so much.

Anyway, I've been rambling too long. I wish the dev the best of luck with this game, but it's not for me. I was stuck between a two or three out of five, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 3/5.

Ripples Ep3 Part 2

Pros

- Great graphics,animations and UI.
- The story, so far, is interesting and has a lot of potential.

Cons

- The girls have a variety of body types but lack character. Most of them fall under porn games usual types (The shy one, the slutty one, a mom and sis with no personality, etc).
- Every girl in the game is attracted to the MC, this wouldn't be a problem if the MC had really good qualities, but so far he has none.
- The pacing of the game is a bit off considering that everything happens in a few days.
- The choices are useless right now. They only consist of "Do you wanna bang x?".
- Very porn driven, the first 10 minutes of the game is one girl after the other throwing themselves at the MC with absolutely no reason to. Especially considering the MC was a virgin until the game began.

Overall, Ripples is game that has great quality compared to other games made in HS, the story is interesting but is plagued by one-dimensional characters and hit-or-miss humor, i have hopes for the overall story and i am looking forward to revisiting in a few updates but as of right now is nothing special.

Edit: Gave it another try after a few updates and what i can say is that this is a compilation of everything bad about HS games.

The cringe weeb humor, the worthless pop culture references, the dialogue written by someone with very limited real life interactions
with people. Your interest in the story vanishes after a while and what you're left with are a bunch of scenes with useless choices that could be translated to "Do you want to watch this next sex scene?" and if you say no the game continues on as if you said yes.

How this is so highly rated is beyond me, but i think you'll love it if you spend over 8 hours a day watching anime.

A well made game.

- Graphics
The graphics are really nice and good looking. They aren't the best in the market but are a 100% at around the top.

- Storyline
The storyline of this game is nothing revolutionary but not many other games in this site(at least with the games that i played) use the same main concept as this game. The story is presented extremely well and has a really nice pace as nothing is rushed and all characters are presented well. The story is the carry of this game. The dynamic bewteen character interaction and the main concept of this VN is really good. The story is interesting.

- Animation
the animation isn't the most spectacular but it is much better than the average but not the best. But having an animation is a plus as some games don't even include animations.

- Characters
There are a wide variety of character and the VN is adding more as the story continues. Overall most of the characters interaction don't seem forced and fit well in the story. But the VN could possibly ruin it as i feel one trait(instantely being sexually atttracted to the main character) is being forced on all characters. The trait is not bad but because too many share the same trait it makes each character worse. This would only fit in a game where the main charcter has like some power to sexually attract people but this VN is not about that.

Ripples is pretty awesome so far. This one is definitely more on the fun adventure side of adult VNs for now.

My only concern is how this game will eventually be paced with all the moving pieces. ATM, the pacing is very solid.

All the girls are very attractive and feel distinct amongst themselves. Since it's only been like... a few days in game, it's hard to really say how the characters will pan out overall. Darci is obviously the most fleshed out for being the MC's best friend and also aggressive.

The premise sounds really intriguing and fun, and I am excited to see how the "ripples" play out. Take a relative generic idea, and add some very interesting plot points, and you have yourself Ripples.

Yet, what really makes this game "pop" is the UI and presentation. Ripples *feels* like quality. The UI at the start is distinctive, the textbox (while simple) is different, the animations are high quality, and the H scenes are a lot of fun.

Best wishes to Jestur! Hope to see this one really take off!

This is a pretty good VN, lots of potential here but it's pretty short as of now.

Pros

• Good music/audio
• The characters are hot. There are an abundance of skinny blondes, which is just my type so I'm not complaining
• The Hscenes are well done and very sexy. They aren't the standard honey select animations so that's a plus
• Interesting story, I'm definitely interested in how the story will progress.

Cons:

• The dialog can be very cringey at times
• the VN is short as of now, Each chapter is a day so there are only 3 days in the game as of Ch3. That's with over a year of development, so I do have concerns about how long it will take to get to the end of the story.
• There's some heavy-handed commentary about marijuana legalization in the story. It's fine that the developer wants marijuana reform but putting that in a porn game comes off very preachy.
• Some of the animations have frames missing, this can be easily fixed so hopefully, the developer re-renders some of those animations.
• There are a few animations that only have a few nodes moving. This isn't really that big of a deal, but because only part of the girl's body moves, she looks very robotic. Kinda like a Chuck e cheese animatronic. Once again, really not that big a deal, but just wanted to point it out.

Overall, I honestly wanted to give this a 4/5 rather than a 5/5 because there are definitely flaws in the game. But I'm going to give it a 5/5 because there is a lot of potential in this game. Hopefully, the updates don't take too long, but I'm interested to see more from this VN.

Review of Ripples Ep. 3 Part 2

While I love the HS girls dev created, that's probably the only great thing I can say about this. Dull dialogues, plots that are trying to be many things at once. Reading the description, I was promised a sci-fi AVN but it's not really explored other than undermined time traveling stuff. 5/10 but open to change my mind since I'm planning to revisit this after like 4 future updates.

Ripples is an ambitious project, with top-shelf execution.

It starts pretty much as an ordinary, good visual novel. As the main story evolves, it gets intriguing and darker, a really good kind of dark. Characters, including the MC, evolve into their subplots, tangling their relationships to a larger, growing pool of characters. Most of them are pretty believable and deep, others are just promising at the time of this review; while there's still a handful of mysterious characters that add up to this enigmatic story, that will have you looking out for clues in every little detail in it's mind-twisting sci-fi plot. There's a decent amount of choices, though it is unclear for me how many of those are actually consequential. It's exciting to see how relationships quickly develop different kinds of kinks, fetishes and role playing.

Renders are top quality, girls are each uniquely beautiful, and their acting, gestures and positions are spotless. Recent episodes present insane, state-of-the-art animations, with lots of balanced bouncing and jiggling. Scene backgrounds are well crafted, and it's cinematic cutscenes are very enjoyable. Sound effects are immersive, but not distracting.

This is a no-brainer choice. I can't think of a single reason not to give Ripples a top rating. And I just can't wait for the next update.

I love a VN with good writing, an intriguing plot, compelling characters, and a solid quantity of extremely hot H scenes that keep building and teasing at even better yet to come.

Ripples checks off all of these boxes.

To discuss one aspect of the plot, I may have to include what could be considered SPOILERS, so just fyi, some may be below:



My one hope for this game is that it continues to spend most of it's time in 'present day.' Stories with time travel can sometimes overuse it, and if this means long stretches of time without the characters the reader is most invested in, it can be a detriment.

I see no evidence that this will be a problem for this game, or that the dev couldn't pull it off, their writing has been top notch so far, but it's really the only nitpick I could come up with, so I thought I'd mention it.

At any rate, kudos to the dev, I strongly recommend people support this project.

Ep.3 Part 2 v0.3.6 Public

Fantastic animations. Just head and shoulders above all the other VNs I've played in that regard. On top of that it has an interesting premise and great characters. The writing can be a bit uneven sometimes but overall it's pretty solid. A new favorite.

To be honest, this is probably the first VN I've ever played and I went in with no expectations whatsoever. But damn, the story got me intrigued. The visuals and animations are pretty good so I'd say it's a good combination.

I've gone on to play other VNs, some with better renders but so-so stories and vice versa but Ripples is one that I'll be waiting to complete. Go give it a try!

What a fantastic game so far. It's not a realistic game in terms of drawing out sexual tension and encounters, but it has enough fun and heart to make it engaging.

The characters do feel unique and bring a lovely flare to the game. I can see this being one of the better ones simply by how beautiful the girls are and how well done the sex scene are.

Hard to say how this game will eventually pan out, but I can say the tone is generally upbeat and pleasant so far. Drama has been added, but I don't know how that will play out.

Really, a fantastic VN with a lot going for it.
- Many beautiful models
- Characters with depth and variety
- Amazing animations, some of the best I've seen in a VN
- Interesting, complicated story
- Personable, interactive dev with an active Discord community.

All in all, this game is one of the best and promises many twists, turns, and lewds in the future. Well deserving of the high rating, I'm really looking forward to what Jestur has in store for us.