Serenity
TL;DR: this is a slightly more critical view beyond the unique draw of a fantasy catgirl harem, so if that’s all you want feel free to ignore this review, however there is potential here with some more refinement and polish
Gameplay - Minimal
There is very little interaction in this VN and whatever decisions you can make have practically no impact on the story being told. The developer has decided to tell a story, the reader is more-or-less simply along for the ride with some minor bumps along the way.
Story - Very rapid, Poor development
The MC proposedly goes from a 20-year-old reclusive in-home carer for his mother to suddenly being told magic exists in the form of dimensional rift-forming through arcane storytelling which he somehow didn’t know his mother was partaking in making his very own catgirl harem. He only learns of this on the day of the will-reading from his lewd lawyer and, for some reason, he requires very little time to accept this as a fact.
There is no explanation as to the socio-economic background regarding the world these characters live in in which entire dimensions can be created through a secret writing technique. Does the world take place in our modern society, or is it an off-shoot in which modern computers and arcane syntax exist? Are there any other abilities beyond what we learn of demons and “light” and “dark” storytellers that are capable of breaching stories which will, for currently unknown reasons, give them power they otherwise couldn’t make for themselves? It’s difficult to be invested in the stakes of the story when the reader has no clue what these factors actually mean.
Honestly I feel that the story advances too rapidly in order to keep the audience’s attention and/or tell the story the author actually wants to tell. The MC could have slowly learned about his mother’s abilities over the decline of her health rather than suddenly being thrust into a strange artificial world. When the MC does arrive in the book Serenity, he could perhaps require a longer period of isolation before figuring out how to access areas that don’t exist because he doesn’t believe in them, such as wandering around for hours, really wanting to sit down, and then suddenly he sits on a fluffy chair instead of the hard ground. It really could use a longer burn time in order to help bring the reader along with understanding this new world as both they and the MC discover and understand things together.
Characters - Rather bland
There are, currently, as part of the main cast, three catgirls and two humans, consisting of the childhood friend of the MC and his departed mother’s best friend and lawyer. The best friend, (Kitty) Kat, who has heterochromia (a very nice touch and not done often enough, quite frankly) and the baseline-level personality, is very affectionate, very understanding (“dimensional portals exist in written format? understandable”) and becomes jealous of the catgirls the MC’s mother wrote for him. The three catgirls are almost indistinguishable from each other besides hair colour and their dominant personality trait (yeah I know, they’re written characters, but the writing was supposed to take place over 5 years), being playful, mature and fiery. I cannot, for the life of me, tell you their names despite playing this a couple of days ago. The lawyer, Trina, has a thing for her deceased best friend’s son and is probably having difficulty processing the loss and using affection as a coping mechanism (interesting, keen on knowing how that’ll develop).
There is also a “demon”, Morgan(a), who used to be the lover of the MC’s mother but got in a fight and was written as a demon instead of a human, as such she has her own issues when the MC shows up which she really doesn’t deserve to be put through. She is the most interesting established character by far as she gives insight into the creator of the book Serenity and how the world was created, and I think it would improve the story by quite a margin if the catgirls also got the same treatment. There are also some actual demons who aren’t explained very well (perhaps more in the future) and a couple of spoiler characters that haven’t had enough time to see how they develop.
Maybe I’m taking this too seriously for something that’s done in good fun, but it grabbed my attention and I’d like to see it succeed.
Lewdness - Fairly common & Animated
The MC is dropped into a world designed to be his personal harem along with his best friend who wants to bone him so bad, so it’s safe to assume that there is a tasteful amount of nudity and everyone gets a turn on the pogo stick. Considering that he’s supposed to be an inexperienced virgin, for someone dropped into a fantasy world he sure is living a teenager’s fantasy world (go figure, right?).
The sex is nicely done, it’s consensual, there’s actual dialogue between the characters before anything actually happens which is absolutely a nice touch, but the previously mentioned slow-burn that the story should get definitely would help make these interactions considerably more erotic.
Artstyle - CG Renders
Considering limited resources, the characters look… fine. The catgirls look very similar so it can be difficult to distinguish them if you only focus on their facial features, whilst the human and demon characters have enough of a variation to not be distracting. The lewd scenes are certainly quite nice though, however some variations in the body textures or meshes could do wonders, such as moles, blotches, scars, piercings, tattoos or even vitiligo (yes yes, fantasy world, ideal body type, but variety is the spice of life).
There are some issues with the lighting of the scenes, especially early on, however the developer seems to be improving on those matters. However, it’s currently more important to add to a story than simply going back and fixing things that could otherwise be improved later with a bigger budget and more experience (and improvements have been announced to be in development on the patreon page, so it’s very likely I’ll be eating my words like the pleb I am).
Sound - Music, no Sound
The developer has used some soundtracks for certain scenes in order to change the overall feel, which is preferable to some VNs out there which simply have some tracks on shuffle. Overall I can’t give much of an opinion as I have my own background noise playing whenever I’m reading, however credit where credit is due. There is music playing on the main menu, so headphone users beware lest Ren’Py blow out your eardrums.
