Ren'Py - Rogue-like: Evolution [v1.6h] [Oni]

Review for 0.994g.
TLDR
One of the best classic 2D animation games with cartoonish characters on RenPy. It sure has its flaws, but the level of complexity in this rather simple game is not what you would expect.
Good points:

• You will not surprise anyone with sta stat system in such games nowdays. But this game takes it to the next level. When the best thing you can say about the game is the stat management, the game is either very good or very bad. This is the former case. So, what to expect from stats:
  • Stats control everything. There is no event or action which triggers no matter of stats and which outcome is not based on stats. This way, once the stats are known, the player always knows ehat to expect. There is never some stupid randomness or wtf-logic the player cannot control.
  • Stats increase and decrease depending on the player's choices. For every player choice there is an option to quicksave before and rollback to it in a matter of seconds just to see what the outcome will be.
  • The player never knows the exact values of stat checks, so it adds some doubt "whether I have enough" to the gameplay and promotes slow and methodic approach.
  • All stats do matter. There is no stat which does abolutely nothing. There is no dominant and secondary stat.
• The sprites are mostly well made, what is aspecially appealing is the amount of facial expressions and "lust meter differences", all of those depending on the stats of course.
• There is a couple of clothing options for girls, from which the player can build different outfits and save them for different occasions (sleep wear, gym clothes etc)
• Up to 7 "main events" with each girl, first being introduction and the following 6 are related to 3 of the main stats, 2 on each, and give different behavior for girl as an outcome.
• There is nothing forcing the player how to play. I have played the game several times, chosing different approach each time, and was pretty surprised how the behavior of girls change according to my approach.
• There are currently 6 girls, each being unique in own way, and despite every approach is applicable to every girl, some girls may fall for some approaches faster than others and benefit from it more. Anyway, it is always good to experiment on what you can do.
• There is actually a lot to do with each girl. About 20 primary actions, most of them can be coupled with offhand actions and pose switching.
• The timeline is split into 4 timeframes, but each action takes a certain fraction of the timeframe it is performed in. F.e. studying takes up whole remaining timeframe and can be started even in the middle of timeframe, but chatting with a girl only takes up like 1/20th of a timeframe and it is realistic.

Bad points:

• The performance. From such lightweight game one would expect pretty fast scene change, area load etc. But no, not the case with this one. I have no idea how it happens, but the game really struggles even on Ryzen 3950x with massive cache and fast overclock speed, aspecially when in "skip mode". I have no idea why is it so bad. I do not really see this impacting my gameplay, but I do keep in mind that not all of the players are running cutting edge hardware, and it should work for everyone smoothly. It doesnt.
• Some of the sprites are outright bad. There is a lot of critique every once in a while when new sprite is added, and it seems like almost noone is satisfied with it. With a simple redrawing of 2-3 sprites the game could have been improved a lot.
• Some of the sprites are low res, which ruins closeups in certain events because it is visible.
• Bugs eventually appear here and there. Most of them are fixed, but a whole bunch of small bugs remain, probably not noticed by the developer. And those are not fixed for years.

Summary:
Almost perfect by design game, has very well made game mechanics allowing for a smooth and varying response based on player's actions, surprisingly great attention to details you rarely see in such games. Only downsides being low developement speed, performance being lower than expected and small occasional bugs. However, these disadvantages are not crucial and allow the player to fully enjoy the sandboxy gameplay of this game.

Slow updates but it's a damn good game. You can progress however you want and interact however you want, with enough combinations of events and scenes that offer a lot of replayability. So yeah very customisable.

What a great game, I recommend not downloading right now because it doesn't have that much content and it will only leave you wanting more and I hate that feeling, maybe you like that kind of feeling, and if that is the case go ahead play it.

Cute art, but terrible gameplay.
There's no story and the characters don't say anything interesting at all. There are no scripted events outside of meeting the characters. It's just a nonstop grind of flirting with everyone you come across for hours until you hit a magic number where they will undress for you.

If the grind was fun or varied then it might have been interesting, but it's the exact same action over and over.

This game is a dating simulator with many activities and a simple but complete system with a lot of content and something else to come (the creator of the game "oni" is somewhat lazy but is very good).

Dating VN with a couple super heroines.

Pros:
Good idea for a game
Somewhat decent art

Cons:
Super boring gameplay
Very bad progression system
No soundtrack to speak of
Build in cheating as if it somehow could help solve the game's problems

Game has potential, but needs a lot of reorganization to make it a fun game worth playing

My review is 1/5,
but i really enjoyed the earlier version years ago so i must give 5 stars.

So the game from 5 star turned into 1 star mostly because the addition of new characters art are so inconsistent and look out of place.
The dev should have kept 'X-Men: Evolution' series look for the new characters.
Imagine it like you are watching good movie, but all of a sudden at the half of the movie there is big cut, the producers ran out of money so the other half of the movie was filmed in a backyard with a few homeless people as the stand in actors.
So first half Rouge and Kitty +5 stars, the second half with homeless Jean, Emma, Storm and x-23 -4 stars. 5-4=1 star

In my eyes this game has been abandoned a long time ago.

Let's be honest. This game has been functionally the same for at least 3 years now. It hasn't changed one bit in concept or execution. It's been bogged down by "technical improvements" and the very occasional reskin that passes as a new girl.

The storyline has "progressed" only as a formality, because progressing the storyline seems completely arbitrary and random with no distinct cues. Technically, some new girls have been added, but your interaction with every girl is functionally identical. The gameplay loop is still a terrible and uninteresting grindfest of trying to work up six distinct stats. Plus, it's a "harem" game where you can't even get more than 2 girls on the screen at the same time, and even that is a major pain in the ass.

The renders are basically simple cartoon drawings on generic doll poses. There's no interactivity to the scenes themselves, with basically every action looking the same regardless of who it's with. You have a daily schedule of "classes" that you're supposed to care about, but it's hard to because nothing of note happens in them.

By now it's blatantly obvious that the developer has no real intent of finishing the game. Progress towards any kind of conclusion has all but stalled, and he's now fixated on "backend improvements" (with no corresponding benefit to the horrible gameplay loop or clunky UI) and the occasional adding of a new girl (basically just a reskin of the generic doll models they have already).

If you really like X-Men and enjoy the idea of meaningless, mediocre renderings of virtual sex ad nauseam, go for it. Otherwise, don't bother.

4/5 (v0.993m)
Great setting and characters.
Excellent artwork and animation.
Excellent concept for modular interactions. However, some issues with implementation:

• Clunky interface. Too many mouse clicks to navigate sub-menus. The UI could stand improvement in this regard.
• Repetitive interactions. When starting with a new girl, every progression is essentially the same. It would be nice if the progression varied with each girl based on their personality/preferences.
• Limited scalability. What is the point of a harem-style game if you cannot ever have more than 2 girls on screen?
• Inability to 'get rid' of girls you don't want to interact with. e.g., I have no interest whatsoever in lewd scenes with Storm, and while I can ignore/leave in each encounter, I still need to do this hundreds of times throughout a play session. Apparently, there is a way to do this, at least temporarily ...
• Bugs. Counters (e.g., addiction) that go infinitely negative, or infinite interactions in some encounters, inconsistent/random reactions, etc.

Other issues that prevent 5/5: unclear progression (not enough narrative hints at various points), unclear mechanics (inadequate tutorial), grindiness for various perks, etc.

Would LOVE to see more from this game - lots of unrealized potential.

I have put more hours than I wish to confess into this game. The creator puts a lot of love and effort into this game and it shows. My nostalgia boner kicks up every time I boot this game up. The UI is easy to use and not over cluttered. Characters do not feel two dimensional and the art is wonderful.

Lets be honest here, the game is good, but it's pretty much the same it was 2 years ago, with only two more characters, one full, Jean, and Ororo with only the HJ.
The 3some is more or less, could be better.
The game now is just a way to get money from the patreons, that's it.

Excellent overall, one of those games you can keep on playing for a long time.

There are some minor issues and flaws:
- Getting money to buy clothing/go on dates with girls takes waaaay too long.
- You can speed this up by leveling up (spending time in class/the danger room), but that too is very slow and has a maximum limit.
- Some interactions are glitchy, e.g:
* Trying to level up a girl's stamina after she already has 9 for the first time will fail but still deduct a skill point. (This doesn't really make a difference though)
* If a girl initiates sex with you in public, she then may get annoyed/lose affection if you continue.
* After a threesome where you switch between girls, you may have to exit the sex menu 4 times.
* If a girl starts sucking your dick in bed, telling her it feels great reduces her affection.
- Menu system is clunky due to the number of options. In particular, navigating the outfit settings has issues.
- Pacing seems a bit weird sometimes. You'll be stuck for a long time only being able to occasionally flirt, but then after massaging her a couple of times you'll be able to progress very quickly through the sex acts in the game's expected order until you've unlocked everything. Then you'll be grinding her again for a long time until you max out. (Possibly this is intentional for realism?)
- Finding the exact right interaction options, mainly the Prof X interactions for Storm and Kitty, can be frustrating to achieve.

Even with these small problems, this is still one of my favorite games on this site. Why? Because:

++ The art is great and sexy.
++ The girls have a variety of different outfits, with some of them being very fitting for their character design.
++ Different outfits are worn for different occasions, e.g. working out, sleeping, showering, swimming, daywear, teaching (Emma and Storm).
++ Whole variety of sex scenes.
++ Natural progressions towards each girl becoming more submissive and sexy.
++ You can customize each girl's outfits for each situation, once you romance her to a certain point.
++ There's a surprising amount of customization for how each girl behaves, e.g. what she calls you, whether she talks dirty, whether she invites you to go with her when leaving one area, whether she comes up to you and tries to initiate sex, whether she can masturbate etc.
++ A lot of different options during the sex scenes. Several of these are not animated, e.g. rubbing her breasts just shows a semi-transparent hand icon, but it's still better than not having them.
++ Threesomes with you and two girls.
++ Location-specific scenes, e.g. skinny-dipping at the pool, showering together, girls swimsuit tops coming off while swimming, Rogue feeling you up in class.

Generally the atmosphere of this game is super-sexy, and you are almost always progressing with a girl's romance. Even with the clunky dialogue system, some of the girls' confessions, while short are truly endearing.

The unique interactive sex mode is the best thing. No adult game can actually be compared with that. The art is really good as well, although I don't like the art design of Laura's doggystyle pose. The only thing I dislike is the quantity of sex poses and maybe some more characters. But all in all it's my favorite adult game.

Perfect. The art for the girls is great, the writing for the scenes is very well done, the game is easy enought that you can pretty much do whatever you want, and you'll still get to the good stuff, which gives you the possibility of roleplaying, something that's not very common in this sort of games.

Really Love the Parody to the Characters, this should be well liked to the fans of xmen, like the art and sex script it has high potential but looks like it is not much given attention of the developer sooo it has very slow updates half a month if you are lucky still a good game to enjoy. really a shame it is near finish while they can still put a lot of content and script to it.

Pretty good stuff! The character designs are swell and the scenes are nice. The progressions for the characters can get a bit formulaic. The attack plans are a cool touch, but it seems there's a natural cap on how useful they actually are, meaning you won't even really have a reason to use more than a few of them, it seems to me.

it prefect. 3 different factor that can base your relation. ı like this side of the game. and choise of 5 different girl. ı wish it would be more. ı would wait for more to come. by the way some times their lust (or what ever was that factor ı dont remember) efect rise can couse your domination relation ship was never happend. like ı want to return to be master slave relation but other tipe relations become more effective.

It's a really good game
And I like to play it a lot I need to spam now cause I've said all I can say
I LIKE YA CUT G
ZA WARUDO TOKIWA TOMARE
ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA

I've been on and off checking the progress of this game for around two years (I think), and I probably should have left a review sooner. I always forget. I think this game is great. I've seen how it's progressed the past two years, and I love the game.

The amount of variety in choices in order to give my character more personality is great. I'm not great at reviewing, but at least I can say I'd definitely recommend it.

As for any criticism, I have absolutely none. All I have are some preferences as to how the game could be better that don't matter. And really it's only that there isn't more "Main-story" content beyond the first scene after arriving at the school. I'd have liked being able to see the character using his abilities for more than getting laid or things like that.

Regardless, I'm very happy to play the game and plan to follow it still, and support it on the various sites as soon as I can.

This game has extremely good progression mechanics and a great story to match. If you pick the wrong choice, it doesn't punish you by setting you back 20 minutes of work, instead it's a system where picking the right choice feels good and the wrong choice doesn't hurt as much. Graphics are pretty decent especially for a RenPy game and the dialogue is well made.

I only issue I have with the game is the menu system during scenes and wardrobe changes. It's sometimes buggy, slow, or unintuitive but most of the time it does it's job.