Ren'Py - Secrets of the Family [v2.8.9] [Stiffman Productions]

review v2.8.9

This game is like trying to start an old car in winter. There are moments when it seems like it's going to start, but it doesn't... it just stalls, and you're left standing there doing nothing until you try to start it again...

It's the same feeling. It seems like something is going to happen, but you just go from one place to another, check the quests, and wait for something interesting to happen, but it never does...

In addition, there are several negative points:

Significant bugs that haven't been fixed, and I'm referring to places that if you accidentally enter, you have to roll back to get out, or scenes that don't appear but the text does...

Pretty ugly art. Honestly, I don't know what's wrong with the girls' faces, but they look like plastic dolls that came out of the factory defective.

No correct labels... neither the screenshots nor the labels mention loli content... it should be added to avoid this... thank you... as I said, there's no mention of it anywhere, and as you progress through the game, you see the other characters with this aesthetic...

Boring sandbox, and it's a fake sandbox too. First, you can't leave the house for a while until you complete the quests, which basically involve going from one point to another completing sequences, and then you find that you don't have any money, a job, etc. to be able to move freely around the map, because, surprise surprise, the shops are useless except for meeting other characters... And back to the same thing, sequence after sequence and zzzz....

No variety of options, just lesbians? Boring!!!! At least if you're going to choose that option, add something to make it interesting, like corruption, harem, etc... But honestly, don't expect anything beyond kissing and fondling (I honestly gave up while playing stage 2, I haven't gotten very far, and I'm not going to... but I highly doubt that there will be more interesting scenes later on...)

Anyway... I'm giving it 1 star because I can't give it any less...

The game's story is quite good...perhaps one of the best. The story is not a slow burn and the characters do move the story along The execution is still quite buggy. Events repeat themselves and frequently I was at a loss on what should happen next. The games does NOT help you figure it out either. That said, this one has a lot of promise.

Every time I see that daughter model reused, I cringe with maximum uncanny valley. I don't know what's wrong with her face, but it's not human.

As for the game, even on the easiest mode, the grinding is insane, and boring, because there isn't enough content or variations to make it worthwhile. The mini-games, are similar. Even small variations in scenes would help to suggest there's progress. The lowest setting should be the default setting.

IMHO, this should simply be a VN, rather than sandbox game, as it's too locked down, without enough freedom, making it feel linear anyway, and the wardrobe is yet another pointless, frustrating, seemingly random addition. We can't actually go anywhere, or do anything, until we follow a certain path, and that path requires hours of grind.

Take this from someone that prefers sandbox games, and doesn't mind grindy games, as long as they're good.

It is terrible.

- Girls are CLEARLY underage: Dev can say to any girl she is 18, but if you have eyes you see they are not 18 at all.

- Stupid sandbox: The type where you can go to 8 places, but the 7 of them are "nothing to do here".

- Also stupid choices: What do you want to wear? There are 5 options, and you can only choose 1. The other four are "sorry, I'm not wearing this".

- Locations are also like clothes. There is X place, but you can't go there. Also: Quest says lets go to X place at Y time. Yet you cant.

- The only redeeming thing is Angela and sometimes Valerie. I wish all the underage girls are gone, and we can play with Angela and Valerie only.

I think that the actual score too high.
Renders not bad but not the best. The sandbox system makes it grindy and all the bugs makes it even more grindy. The idea is good but the developement system is completely wrong.

Interesting, good initial idea, but there are some issues with the construction.
The characters are good, even if the supposedly adult girls act like 14-year-olds! The transition from attraction to love is poorly executed! This needs to be reviewed.
The game hesitates between sandbox mode and VN, and that's what creates all these problems in the creation. The developer should choose once and for all instead of holding back because of this choice problem. Personally, I would keep the sandbox mode, enrich the exploration with bonuses, use more grinding to be able to earn money, buy outfits, and finally allow more interactions between the two protagonists and other secondary characters.
It's not all bad, far from it, because both protagonists are very endearing, but the fact of not choosing a type of gameplay and allowing multiple options results in one thing: a lack of content in the end!
For that, I give it 3/5

Great stuff! I am commenting on the V2.8.6 Version of the game and I think it is verty sweet. The game has quite a bit of contzent, the UI works OK, the art is nice and the escalation / progress in the story makes sense. I love visual novels with female protagonists and lesbian content. And since zthis game features exactly that and only that, I like it a lot! I also hope, that this wont change. The game has a lot prepared that doesn't seem to be fully implemented or fleshed out yet. For example, there is a list of characters featuring 6 female characters (including MC). But so far, only three of them have been introduced at all and the content is really focused on the relationship between MC and one more character so far. So, eithjer the others were just a tease or there is (hopefully!) still lots to come. But great stuff! Cannot wait for more content!

I love the characters and the way they interact with each other. It has a sort of sensuous loving quality to it that a lot of VN's and games completely miss out on.

Having said that, it does suffer from one thing that affects all sandboxes to some extent - half the time I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing next. Even the 'guide' that tells you what you need to do hardly helps when you do that thing, over and over, and nothing changes.

It's worth persevering though, there are some really nice scenes once you actually manage to stumble on them - mainly through luck.

Storyline is good,exactly the game i was looking for....
Can't wait for the next updates..
I'am stuck a the moment there's seems to be no more actions to be completed.
Some of situations to be bugged,so don't if it's me or the game, but definetely a good story idea.
We need more of this type style/story/subject games.

One of the most beautiful sandbox games I've ever played.
Passion and conscience in constant conflict.
Anyone who keeps their secret and suppresses their feelings despite the pain it entails.
Society despises it and yet you find support in your family.
The work that goes into this game and how much thought has been put into it is simply fantastic.

I can't believe how game this linear can be so unclear on how to progress further. And the bugs, oh the bugs... Not only parts of the choice interface will stay on screen after selecting some option like the skip minigame options that I can't get rid of, the "quests" aren't even completing properly and often require do-overs. And while I'm on a topic of quests, what a mess that is. One quest requires the other and that requires another and that requires another and that other is either bugged, or is missing a proper description. And if this is not enough, add a sandbox and time of day based events and you have a perfect kick in a teeth. Now to say that I'm only here to complain, love the concept, the characters are interesting and the renders are pretty, shame I won't get to them but I can hope that one day it will be bug free.

Really disappointing as renders are pretty good, and basic concept is fine (only reason it gets 2 stars).
Extremely poor implementation of sandbox. and weak story development ruin its potential. It just is a total clickfest/timewaster/teasefest.
Gameplay if you can call it that is nonsensical and impossible to figure out what to do without proper feedback. Pretty hard to screw things up with basically just 2 characters and being in a small environment but dev seems to be determined to make it a mess.

This could have made a straight up good VN.

Those giving this game a rating of 4 or 5 are out of their minds lol. Suggest dev scraps the code and redoes this as a VN as they have no future developing this as a sandbox game.

I don't understand the high score, this is a mess. Usual meaningless sandbox with grinding (this could easily have been a VN without the extra clicking through the clunky UI and repeated scenes), crappy writing, bland characters with no personality at all, and even the models are ugly (MC looks extremely uncanny). The first few seconds of the game that tries to summarize the totally incomprehensible background story of the characters tells everything you need to know about this shit.

I love lesbianism, I really appreciate games catering to this niche even if they have some faults, but this is a garbage, sorry.

This is an initial rating based on the initial and first update to the game. If there is further development, I will endeavor to post an updated rating and review of the game.

Character Development - 3
Overall each character's development has been regular yet non-essential to the progression of the overall story-line. There is very little background for each character and their behavior changes incrementally, although not enough to push the narrative by itself.

Setting - 3
Standard setting. There are no significant setting options that would push the player to explore or believe there is anything beyond the encapsulated world in which the characters exist. The render environment is average and lighting is good enough.

Suspense/Conflict - 4
Given the nature of the developing relationship and how the player is never explicitly shown what is coming next this creates enough suspense to keep the player wanting more from the plot and character interactions. At this time there is no significant conflict.

Plot / Story-Line - 2
There is very little that would set this apart from any other incest story (other than it being two women) a bit of a trope at this point so we will see if there is any development here and whether it pushes the suspense and/or conflict further along as well.

Vanilla / Kink / Fetish - 3
This includes a higher than average amount of vanilla - there are no significant kinks or fetishes with the light exception of Incest (lesbianism is mainstream at this point)

Models - 3
Models are attractive yet basic. No parodies or caricatures of the human body; e.g. hot-air balloon sized tits, asses that look like overstuffed couch cushions and lips that appear as though there was some disgreement at the Botox clinic and the women are being punished by a sadistic plastic surgeon) - cute, yet average for VN porn - there are no weird poses where the characters look like robots, or contortionist that got lost on their way to a party with Vecna.

Difficulty - 4
Easy to play. The decisions aren't hidden in some bizarre sandbox Scavullo Hell where you have to have a degree in applied physics and precognitive abilities to decipher what the next step would be - thank you! You have a fairly good sense of where to click to go where you should.

Grinding - 2
This would have been a higher score except there is NO WAY to know when you are done with the events in the game. This leaves the player clicking and choosing, clicking and choosing, clicking and choosing, clicking and choosing, clicking and choosing, clicking and choosing...seriously. If you don't have enough events completed then don't blue-ball the player, have some sort of system in place to let them know "this is all for this version" so they can go and fap to something with enough content.

Unnecessary Choices - N/A
At thsi point there aren't enough to choices that don't impact the path, outcome or story in any meaningful way so this is not being rated at this time. In other words, there aren't those messed up choices were there aren't really any choices...

Money Grab Potential - 2
Unfortunately this appears to be a very slow developing game and has the signs of being a "money grab" - with only one release in nearly half a year and very little new content (fappable content folks - that's why we are here) there is money being made with very little to satisfy the average horny player.

Fapability - 3
While the money grab indicates little content, the content included to this point is of decent quality and lends to some naughty-bit tingling.

I really love the story with a female protagonist.
The sandbox mode is very nice though it has potential for a few improvements. I am really excited which way the game takes and when the bugs disappear it will be one of the best games here on f95.

Um yes! got to the end of what you have, reeeeeeely looking forward to more so hope this goes somewhere. Good luck and nice change of pace to what is mostly in this genre on F95. The rest shall be filler since they hate short reviews. Oh and had occasionally a bug where mom is there needs help cleaning I think in the living room and freeeeeeked out on me.

v0.1.1 beta version review.

It's good with pretty renders and a sexy build up that's not to slow and not to fast. There doesn't seem to be any actual sex yet in this version but there is some groping and kissing. It's very early and has about 20ish minutes of gameplay.

The game is open world with a focus on lesbian incest. The writing is alright but nothing special. Based on the areas and amount of things not in the game but planned their is the danger of bloat.

It is true that the point of incest between mother and daughter is a risky bet. I think that developing it has not been easy, because there are not many references. This game shows all the effort put into the game and my full support. A good script, normal but very very nice bodies, no bimbos or exaggerated things. A really close story. Congratulations

The game is really promising so far, and I want to provide some constructive criticism. Also be warned this will contain some minor SPOILERS of 0.1!

So the writing and especially the pacing improved a ton from the last game, but there is still room for improvement. I like the slower pacing and the erotic build-up, but at some point it gets a little bit confusing. When things starting to get serious, the mother says she wants to take things slower, and do heavier stuff "later". Its just weird that for example kissing and touching boobs is OK for now, but other stuff is for preserved for later.
I think it would make more sense if the mother would simply refuse to go further, because they already went too far, this needs to stop now. In a nutshell I would expect more resistance from the mother's side, and you could ephasise more the taboo nature of incestiuos relationships. I think trying to maintain boundaries and prevent further escalation, but slowly giving in is a more understandable motivation, than "taking it slow" and what not. Also resistance is sexy, and overcoming obstacles is empowering!

The set up and the story is okay so far, the mothers past is a little bit weird, but we will see where it goes.

The gameplay is fine, and the grinding is tolerable on normal, however some thing are out of place in the progression. For example in one activity you might kissed your mother, but in another looking at her breasts is too much for her. I think the multiple progression routes could use a little bit of fine tuneing.

The renders are nice, the models are fantastic!

Some personal remarks: The mother looks 10/10. HoweverI find the daughter a little bit ugly, looks a little bit sickly, she is more like a 4/10 for me, but thats subjective. Also I really like the mother-daughter genre, especially without an as***** male protagonist to spoil it, so this game is kinda like an oasis on the desert.

Overally I think at this point the game at this stage is a light 4, but I see a lot of promise in it for the future, so I give it a 5 for encouragement.

Giving this 5 stars straight off the bat, even though it's so early in development because:
1) Mother/daughter lezcest
2) See above
3) See above

Also, the mother is gorgeous, the daughter is cute (not perfect though) and the interactions between both or sooooo flirty and hot. I like the writing. It's never too wordy and lets the player read between the lines. I think for this style of game, the writing hits perfectly.

I figured some would be upset on the sandbox style of gameplay, but I think it will become much more rewarding as the dev expands on the map and characters. Regarding the latter, I beg the dev not to get too out of control with other characters. The last game suffered because of this.

If I could have my cake and eat it, I would like to see a little more corruption before Angela starts responding in-kind to Rayne's advances. I think that's where it's headed after a brief exchange with the author on Patreon, so I'm hopeful.

Unfortunately at this stage in development, many scenes don't trigger, the mini-game and other bugs make playing this a bit challenging. I still give 5 stars because the dev is clearly interested in working through the bugs and I'm confident a smoother product will eventually come to fruition. I don't see he/she as the type to abandon (knock on wood).

So my final comments to the dev:

1) Slow down the seduction with Angela even more. She is a supermodel so Rayne needs to earn that shit. Maybe Angela needs to be corrupted a little into the idea at first? Just my two kinks ;-)

2) The backstory needs a bit of work. Most of it honestly seems unnecessary, but only you know the bigger picture. Just please don't overcomplicate things. The magic is in the simplicity.

3) Don't let any haters bring you down. Most of the people bitching on this site wouldn't toss you a nickel of support anyway.

If this game continues on the track I believe it's on, it will be my GOAT. Thanks for the hard work on this!