VN - Ren'Py - Seeking Closure [v0.8] [Captain Crystallo]

[v0.8]

This game is a messy pile of misery.

It begins with a warning that "not all events in the game are going to be about fun and romance" but assures us that "a bit of drama and sadness can serve to make the happy and pleasurable moments that much sweeter"

That is a load of horseshit.

It is vastly understating the events of the game which completely ruined every bit of enjoyment I managed to get from the story up to that point. It was hard enough to enjoy the game before all that, since the game is structured very poorly.

The early game is quite awkward, as you are revisiting a location we know nothing about, with a girlfriend we know very little about, and meeting people that our character has a history with that we also don't know anything about. So early choices are made blindly and haphazardly since we can't make informed decisions without any information. It's better on a second run, once you know which characters you like, but that first experience is pretty bad.

Most of the game takes place in a huge flashback segment, which is a problem since the opening shows us that the MC is not with any of the girls he met in the past. So the story essentially spoils itself by making it sure that you know any and all romances you work towards are doomed to fail. Kinda hard to enjoy that.

We occasionally jump back to the present and speak with the present day girlfriend who doesn't feel like a complete character as much as just a way to get some porn into the porn game as fast as possible. The MC clearly isn't all that into her, and his trip with her to this particular location just doesn't make any sense. He even thinks to himself that "it would be best for our vacation if I don't take a trip down that particular memory lane."

The mid section of the game is a standard porn game where all the girls fling themselves at you, sometimes two at a time. But then we get to the "bit of drama and sadness" which is where one of the young girls you are close to is brutally raped and/or murdered"

The entire premise of the game falls apart here. What exactly was the main character thinking? Oh, I wonder where would be the best place to propose to my girlfriend? Hmmm... how about the place where my best friend's kid sister was brutally raped and murdered. Yeah, that's the spot. Perfect romantic setting.

I don't see how that particular event could ever make "happy and pleasurable moments that much sweeter". The unbearable awfulness of that event completely overshadows everything else in the game. I tried for a few different paths to see if any alternate routes were tolerable, and they were all exceedingly horrible.

If the developer was sincerely aiming for "a bit of drama and sadness", then they vastly overshot the mark.

I'm a decent chunk into the game as I type this and am pretty much enjoying it so far. I like the MC has various responses in most dialogue (nothing worse than an almost kinetic novel), the girls are pretty attractive for the most part, the banter can be funny at times, and the story has held my interest so far.

I like the reconnecting with the girls during the MC's vacation in the past and trying to build bridges with them again...or burn them if you wish. Katy and Elena are my hot faves so far but Susan and Denise are...sexy MILFs

The renders are pretty average mostly with the odd really nice one. The backgrounds are a bit basic, but I can live with that if the story is good enough.
The lighting is off on the odd occasion giving the skin a weird tint.

Storywise, it jumps around a bit with the past/present timelines and occasional flashbacks, so it can be a bit confusing at times - like the hospital scene when he meets Julia for the first time - I'd forgotten who she was by then. Overall I found I wanted to pursue Elena and take things up a notch but was torn with how sweet Katy was, so the story has kept me wanting more and as it unfolds I got tempted with Micaela, Susan too. It's hard to pick one LI!

Okay, the not so good...

As much as I've been enjoying playing this, something was nagging me why it wasn't gripping me more...because although I enjoyed the characters for the most part and looked forward to advancing relationships...something is still lacking as I typed this at the end of Ch.3.

The top AVNs on here often have something in common if it's a story driven novel...that's being able to deliver emotional impact at the right moments. You can have the best description for a scene but if the love interest's face doesn't change expression...it really lacks impact.

This unfortunately is true so far in this AVN. I just had the scene where MC tells his once best friend Elena, the reason why he bailed on her...what should have been an emotional kick to the nuts for the reader is spoiled by her impassive face all the way through it...the writing is not enough, show her eyebrows raising..or tear filled eyes...mouth open in distress...in fact in many scenes, the expressions are just bland..non changing. Same with sex scenes...I wondered why I found the scene with Denise - who looks hot! just a meh experience...her face stays like a beautiful blow up doll..

The lack of expressions is why this only gets 4 stars and holds this AVN back from being more special. If that changes in future, I may well revise this review but it already kind of ruined the MC/Elena scene...I wanted to see her look shocked...cry even? but what could have been a real emotional moment was pretty meh.

One last downside for me is the forced girlfriend at the start. I'm never a fan of that, because if we want to pursue a past LI then we feel shitty for fucking over Julia. It's making this harder because she is a good gf and hot too.The MC has been mentally a mess over the years but she stuck by him where others would have been like cya!, so to cheat on her or end it, I find pretty impossible. I tried with Katy and rolled back a save because it leaves you feeling scummy. This is one time I wished for a harem or throuple route!

Also one other niggle...the hair. Dev why did you make some of the girls less attractive in the present with their hair?
Poor Susan looks like she should be doing the Charleston dance from the roaring twenties! Katy looks...old with her hair style. At least Elena survived the hairpocalypse.

Overall though, still a good game that has kept my interest and makes me want to play more. It just could be even better with some better visual range of emotional expressions to make the chars seem more human and especially the kind of bland sex scenes.

Good luck to the dev, will keep an eye on this one.

Just played the game, current version is 0.6.

The best part of it is that the plot is divided into two segments - past and present. The past is your typical AVN, with lots of girls, goofy friend, and douchy competition. The present, however, is a whole differen beast, filled with delicious melancholy and regret, and the main menu highlights it. This allows for a really unique pace; though, while reading the synopsis, I thought that the plot would switch between past and present more often, but what we have works well too.

The selection of girls is good, and I liked that in the past they are divided into pairs which have a connection with each other: Elena and Anna, Micaela and Katy, Susan and Fleur, Denise and Clarissa. That way, it's simpler to group them and see them all in just 2 playthroughs.

The current GF of the present is nice, and she helped the MC to get through some tough times, so I'm moderately annoyed at him for having second thoughts with her. Also, she's got to be THE best implementation of a 'current GF' I've seen in an AVN, because her being in the present and most other girls in the past allows for a playthrough where you see most of other girls' content and at the same time can remain completely faithful to her.

As for the past, to me, it's won by Elena. She has a very deep connection to the MC, and I absolutely loved her Ch. 6 scene. It'll be really tough to reject her when she reappears in the present, but my MC will follow his responsibilities to Julia. Among other girls, I'd mention Anna. She is great in the past and I love her catchphrase, but she has so many red flags in the present that I'm glad I avoided her path so that the MC can have a simpler time dealing with her later.

Graphics are not the best (the backgrounds for some outdoor scenes are too obviously photos), but are good enough. I especially like how the renders show hair, absolutely beautiful and realistic. I don't care for music in AVNs - I listen to my own playlist while playing them anyway, picking a track that corresponds to the emotions I get from the games, so it's a non-factor to me.

The downsides for me are as follows:
1) The MC is good at acting "here and now", but his indecisiveness over more global matters such as his own life can be jarring. I get that he went through some tough stuff, but still.
2) The characters have a too sophisticated vocabulary in day-to-day dialogue, imo.
3) No minigames. While they can be a nuisance when replaying a game, they can really enrich the experience during the first run, so that the player can take a break from clicking and reading.

So, a solid 4 stars.

Digging it so far! The writing is largely pretty good, though it's a bit of a slow burn. Not in the sense that it takes forever to get to a sex scene, so it that's your primary concern you have nothing to worry about.

But it's obvious there are major events that the narrative is building up to and you are drip fed info on that regard. Personally I am all about the leisurely pace, but if you want big things to constantly be happening you might feel let down.

Otherwise...

Visually the game is fine. The renders are of good quality and the girls are all hotties, as you would likely hope. Some of the animations are a bit jank, but I've certainly seen worse and they aren't so bad as to be off-putting.

Music and sound effects... Are there. More the former than the latter and it's all generic enough that you shouldn't feel bad about muting it if it ain't to your tastes.

But overall the game is great and it has its hooks in me, largely based off the strength of its narrative. I'll be eagerly anticipating future chapters.

So to begin with, this game is not bad, but I also don't think it's very good either. It floats in this awkward middle, and the reason I think it does that is because of how the girls and the points are distributed. This is not a harem game, so you're going to have to pick one of these girls. The problem is that there's like 12 of them, and there are a ton of different scenes and points and paths and it becomes a mess. Also, you start off the game with a LI who is pretty cool, but the game encourages you to cheat on her with all these other chicks and routes. There are I think only like 3 total scenes with your LI in the whole game so far, so the game encourages you to explore the paths with the other girls but also punishes you for it by screwing over your LI. I also think the overall writing is kind of a mess, there are a lot of scenes that flashback and it can get confusing as to what is going on at present, what is going on in the past, and why things even happened. I get that its part of the mystery of the game, to figure out and find closure on this stuff, but it's driplined to you in a confusing way. Aside from that, the girls look nice, but the sex and everything is nothing you haven't seen before in every other game. It's pretty cookie cutter standard. If you're ok with that then you probably will like this. Overall, the game seems kind of dated and its a confusing mess of flashbacks and different paths and points. The walkthrough mod helps with this, but its still really chaotic.

Interesting and mostly effective mix of drama and eros here. The girls are hot and have personalities all their own, whilst their sexual whims and desires are not all predicated on the MC's every wish. Yes, it is still a fairy tale, where the MC is pretty much the know-it-all, do-it-all, seen-it-all hero; BUT it seems his priapism has actual Consequences, don't ya know! So there are some actual Stakes here, which for me makes for a far more satisfying AVN than harems with no boundaries. And it has wit too! So, good on yer, Dev!!

I just played the game and i liked it a lot.. i believe its of the best ones i have ever played.
Story is very good with a lot of mystery, the visuals to are very good and of best ones out there,all the main LI are extremely beautiful too and the dialogues are also great .
I love that the fetishes are optional especial the lesbian staff (i hate when im playing single path games when my Li have forced lesbian content, or threesome), thanks dev for making them optional choice.

Didn't enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. The renders and characters models are average. The plot and the story is pretty confusing with the past/present bs. Not to mention, whole story makes the MC appear dumb and weird in a way. Worst of all is Mc being in a relationship already just to break up with her for another girl. (I don't like douchebag MC). Choices are mediocore as well like what's point of having multiple li if I get 3/5 mins worth of contents with them every updates? Story so far didn't pull me in, hence it's a bust for me. While the dialogue writing and conversation feels genuine and real but the entire game is pretty lacking when it comes to sexual theme and fan service. I don't think I will continue/play this game again anything soon in the future for now.

A unique premise with strong characters and writing makes this a fun experience I consider worth trying. It is a slow burn but that makes it feel more real and convincing since these aren't the type of girls going to jump into bed with a guy they met 2 weeks ago.

MC isn't a huge douche like some AVNs and I always enjoy a goofball best friend that gives off the wannabe playboy impression to improve your chances drastically (best wingman).

A small detriment and gripe I have is you start with a girlfriend you eventually need to break up with if you like one of the other MGs more which will inevitably make you feel like an asshole, but other than that it adds to the drama of the story which I can appreciate.

The plot is very enticing and looking forward to the next updates!

Story 2/5
I really liked the story up to chapter 4 or so, what annoys me is you go back to the present time without knowing fuck all about what went on, so you have no clue how to react to the people you meet which i find extremly stupid, hell you dont even know if you fucked them or had a relationship with them, like Anna apprently left MC without a word? but you dont even know if you ever had relationship with her.....or even fucked her...you know nothing...so story stops making sense, and if something really bad went on why on earth would MC ever go back to the place...he says to relive the good moments but thats just BS since he should know all he would feel is like shit since he should know it was all hes faulth apprently?.....and it would proberly be the last place to visit with hes girlfriend that he might want to marry....

Another reason story just makes no sense to me is, in those first 3 chapters you meet a ton of hot girls which you can have a relationship with or well you can fuck em anyway but you end up with none of them?, and insted you have a LI forced on you in present time which MC is consindering to marry??? and again you have to blindly either accept her or try to stay away from her, without you as the player knowing fuck all about her........

Its just not fun atleast to me to be playing while being in the dark about whats going on and what happened to MC or what MC did to fuck it all up and to then have to make choices in present time without knowing is idiotic even thought most might be fake choices its still annoying.
The thing is you might pick diffrent choices if you had a clue as to whats going on and i dont like that being a single playthrough player.

Like why he would leave hes old friend he finaly made up with after leaving her the first time it makes 0 sense...and also leaving every single girl for years is to shitty a story since it means MC is brainless and never learn from past mistakes.

I get the story will reveal all of it later in game but whats the point of doing it that way, then you will already have fucked up a million choices by then, since your clueless on everything doing those choices....worst of all it sounds like its all MCs faulth which would just kill the story for me, i just dont like brainless MCs and its pretty clear that he left everyone again, guess MC is really only thinking about him self and no one else.

Story just feel to much like a big mess, and when its impossible to make sense of whats going on due to whatever reason dev has to hide it all from the player only results in making gaming pointless and unplayable, its simply just not fun to make choices when you have no clue if its right or worng.
Also it started to feel like its trying to make some weird twist with people getting told/invited to go do the resort again and maybe give Anna a reason to leave, like blackmail or to protect MC or whatever but it just dosent suit the story.

And for the virgin fans theres not really much to come for, atleast not yet theres one virgin scene for now but its a bit weird since the girl has apprently deflowered her self with toys guessing its to avoid blood in the scene, but she still has pain? which she shouldent have when she used dildos before and she also gets sore fast? i dunno it just feels like a pretty shitty scene that dosent really make much sense and has no virgin vibe really.

Girls 5/5
Well to me 95% are all hot LIs, so not much else to say about that.

Animation 4/5
They are pretty good most of the times.

Music 4/5
Its decent music that fits the game.

Choices 2/5
It really is a mixed bag, game almost feel pure kinetic since 95% of the choices are fake choices leading to the same result, but a few choices does work i belive when it comes to some relationships where you can turn down someone.

It was really tuff for me to deside but i ended up giving it 3 stars which is very rare for me to do with a game that is full of fake choices and a story i dident fully enjoy, but the animations and alot of hot LIs made me go one up.

I will revisit this once it has the 10 chapters done to see if story will ever make sense but i just cant find a reason to why MC dident end up with one of the girls from the start or any reasons as to why he would ever leave ALL of them behind but mostly Katy and Elena right now that feels to idiotic and if it was that bad it simply just wouldent make sense for him to ever go back there.

I personally think that the dev created too many beautiful girls and most of them are girlfriend material, with different personalities and are totally fun. It was hard to chose one. There would've been enough of them for 2 VNs. Not a complaint, more of an observation. Keep it up!

I like the concept of the novel very much, I am not so sure about all those pending horrible events and would have been happier just with simple enjoying life stuff without all the drama.

Writing is very good, the jokes and character dialogues are so cool, had quite a lot of laugh reading. Light and witty.

What i seriously disliked is that in the present all my favourite short haired girls grew ordinary boring as fuck hair and Fleur from looking freaking amazing became just usual.

Katy was mess-ish in the past and became even more of a mess in the present without a much promise of normal relationships. So her long hair wasn't too much of a bummer. But Fleur was a breath of fresh air even amongst so many cool girls, so please get her haircut back in future episodes of present time!

Also about Katy -

not a poorly made game, but just completly average. I doubt I will revisit this. most of the girls just look the same with a diffrent hair style.
this game Is what I would expect a game to look like 2 years ago.

again not BAD, just bland

This is a well-rendered and well-animated game with a cookie cutter plot and an MC with the personality of a doorknob.

There's an annoying white knight complex that's inserted into the game by introducing like 4 male characters that solely exist for the MC to shut down and score brownie points with the LIs. This does not include MC's best friend, whose character is one of the worst tropes on this site - the sidekick who's obsessed with sex. His dialogue is BRUTAL and kills every scene he's in.

This VN didn't do it for me. I tried it following the very good ratings and was really open minded regarding the plot and the character design, but after playing it for quite some time it all felt very tedious with an MC that is acting like a Chad, often at the expense of his best friend. Seb is not really a likable best friend, to be fair, but the way the MC puts him down verbally and in front of potential LIs, baffled me at times.

I mean, if you have to apologize for your friend during every single interaction with a woman, is he even your friend in the first place? Is this a healthy relationship?
And why is the MC the only reasonable male in the entire plot, why is he the solution to every and all problems? Why, why, why.
I don't want to badmouth Seeking Close, since it takes time to develop relationships, leaves them open to explore different angles, every character has a unique motivation and different reasons to get closer to the MC. So that is all very good ingredients for a good VN.

But for me personally it falls flat, mainly because there is no real overarching plot to speak of. It might develop in later chapters, but especially in the beginning it's just summer camp, moving from A, to B, to C. Dialogues drag on, nobody is revealing anything, it's just all a giant tease but without hinting at why it's worth to keep sticking around.

I mainly stopped playing because the arc of suspense ran out of fuel and that's not good as far as writing goes. The MC has an interesting conflict of his own, but like every single character he avoids explaining in detail what the problem is and how it affects his day-to-day interactions. He is just walking around impressing everyone, so there is not really a problem, is there?
I really think the pacing is off and there is not enough to chew on, nothing that really keeps you on edge and to want to know more. Apparently, something serious happened, but there is not even the slightest hint at what this could be and how it came to happen. Just this A, B, C grind every single day.

And that is why I found the experience unsatisfying. I will try again when the game is closer to the finish line and adjust my rating. But right at this moment I didn't enjoy Seeking Closure nearly as much as I thought I would.

Really great character work, visually strong. Plot is interesting and mysterious. Immediately a new favorite. Promising future for this one!

Favorite LI so far is Elena by a lot. She's wonderfully written. Micaela is great, but it would be nice to show more depth to her than her stress/ dread and complaining going forward, even if it is very understandable why she is the way that she is. Haven't been grabbed by Anna and Katy yet.

I would love the inclusion of a gallery!

Pretty damn interesting project. I find it really cool how the player is faced to deal with changes and gives it a free hand to deal with them.

I find the concept cool, someone you've been dandy with early on in the relationship might change for someone undesirable later on, and acquaintances whom got ignored might turn into smoking hot and successful temptresses, making you reconsider previous choices, or something like that. Stirs all kinds of emotions, kinda deep.
Truth be told, Katy needs to keep her hair short :I

This is a hidden gem of a game where you cannot wait for the next update and have a hard time picking which Love Interest to be faithful towards. There is very few negatives I have to say about the game. Honestly this game probably made it's way into my top 10 or close to it.

Story : This game has basically 2 stories in one a past and present. As of this update most of it is in the past. But in the last update when we went back to the present time after spending so much time in the past this game starts to become a rollercoaster of emotions and heartbreaking for one specific love interest..
Characters : Honestly this another one of those games that's hard to decide on which love interest to be faithful towards. All the characters are great in their own way.

However there is one negative I have to say about one character. In present time we are with our girlfriend. While it makes sense in the context of the story why we are together. Because of all the chapters in the past i cant really feel much of a connection to her yet and because she is a forced relationship going to feel awful to break her heart. When we know this story is just gonna keep getting more and more sad as we get updates.

Renders and animations : Renders looks fantastic. Animations feel natural

Writing : I don't judge writing as I noticed almost everytime someone mentioned a game having bad writing I just don't see it. As I usually find it enjoyable since it's not something I think about as I play and enjoy said games. Also it's very subjective /opinionated if it's good or bad.

Excellent renders, decent amount of content, pretty natural character introductions (meetings in VNs aren't always relatable) but atrocious writing and complete lack of choice for the player.

It's not the grammar or spelling but the opinionated style and shallow pseudo-analysis. The cringe monologues and comments from characters about third persons standing right next to them are like something featured on r/niceguys - and it's over and over again, not just one scene you can forget after.

These same nice guy ethics (tm) mean your choices have zero impact - the character has to end up with his preordained niceguy thoughts and when he doesn't override your choice, the other characters will by chiding mc

Everyone fawns over the mc, yet he seems like a gen-z kid who has never to have interacted with a real live woman before. For those of you not familiar, niceguy does not mean nice.

This game is a gem. Nice, engaging, interesting and well written story, when I'm playing I feel that "mistery/suspense" book vibes.

The characters are well built and interesting, each one in their own way. It's a good visual novel to play and enjoy. The lewd part is fun and (mostly) well built.

Very good amount of content as of version 0.4. Beautiful renders, but ok animations/scenes (but usually the build up is so well done that one can forgive that). Really looking up to what will come next, but you see so much care in the way the game is written.

Really enjoyed this. I played version 0.4 but this already feels like a substantial effort, with a good amount of content and a well-developed world.

The story is engaging - the conceit of being able to make choices in the past, whilst keeping the mystery of what happened a secret, works well and raises the stakes nicely. The characters are likeable, the models are beautiful and feel different. The dialogue and general quality of the writing is good, at times very good. There are some really good music choices, too.

More than anything you get the sense the dev is in control of what he's doing with the story and that as a player you're in good hands. Easily one of the most promising games I've played in the last year and one I'll be following closely from now on. Recommended.