VN - Ren'Py - Serenity [Ch. 2 v0.4] [N2TheFire]

Reviewing Serenity v1.3 Chapter 1 Final (on Android via JoiPlay)

Below is a 1 to 5 star rating on parts of the game, from my amateur perspective, that I feel contributed to my overall rating.

Graphics 3.5/5 ⭐ - The graphics definitely get better about one third the way thru but the background and landscapes need some improvement. Adding some depth-of-field when appropriate would help alot. Composition and camera angles could use a little work in a few scenes as well, but overall a good looking game.

Models 4/5 ⭐ - Alot of beautiful ladies here with models that don't look familiar to me. A fair variety of sexy body types, this isn't one of those games were every girl has overly exaggerated features. I do wish that the tails did look a little more natural instead of just pasted on.

Animations 3.5 /5 ⭐ - The animations are short and sparse, but just as good in quality as the static scenes. I would have liked to see a better variety of animations during sex scenes.

Story 4/5 ⭐ - I was going to rate this lower but in the end the game delivered an interesting story with a narrative that was simple for me to follow. The pacing, especially in the earlier parts of the game, is quick and sometimes erratic but gets better as the game progresses, except at the very end where it picks up quickly agian. Narratively this story, as it is right now, could be expanded out to be a much longer experience; the first couple of story beats happen in quick succussion, a lot more content and dialogue could be added to make each of these beats a chapter of their own. Also, to me, it seems like the MC is earning "things" with little to no work when the story/dialogue suggest otherwise.

Lewdness 3.5/5 ⭐ - There are plenty of sexy girls wearing northing or next to nothing and quite a few sexual encounters but I feel like there are quite a few missed opportunities. I kept finding my asking myself why the MC isn't having sex right now, especially with the core premise to how the magic works in this universe. The sex scenes are short with almost no variety except slow, fast, and cum. I would like to see a few position change options with each sex scene and more foreplay options as well.

Overall I had fun playing Serenity and would suggest it is worth a play thru for anyone that enjoys a fun and sexy fantasy story...and who doesn't enjoy some time with a sexy neco girl.

This game has been a wonderful ride from start to finish. I'm a sucker for "feel good" VNs. I'm a "sweet bitch" if you will and this game is sweet moment after sweet moment and I found myself smiling alot playing this game. I love the characters and the fantasy elements. Every time a new girl was introduced I was excited to see what her transformation was like anf what her powers were. I also appreciate the cameos of characters from other games as well. Graphically this game is gorgeous, the girls are beautiful, and the scenes are fairly varied too. And I may be a minority on this opinion but i'm glad there wasn't any incest stuff. If it's written well I typically don't mind it most of the time but I feel like it's the low hanging fruit when it comes to VNs lately and I appreciate that this game stands well on it's own without it. Overall this was a fun experience and i'm excited to see where Serenity goes with it's next chapter!

Review aside, i'm truly sorry to hear you've been having a rough time. I wish I had more to offer other than positive words but hang in there!

yes its basic fantasy fulfilment, although it has yet to have a kink I expected the girls have great artwork and individual personalities, you grow into your new position as the game advances ( more vn than game) the storyline is both holsum( for a porn game) and quite fun I can't wait for the next chapter to be released.

Having played this game since it's first release, I gotta say, I have had a great time watching this game evolve, both in it's visual representation (N2 switching from AI Shoujo to HS2) and in the pacing of the story and character development. Friends of mine turned me onto the first release as they know my passion for nekos, and even though we didn't get to meet them then, the intro was interesting, between our first meetings with Trina, Kat, eventually Morgan and Karen, seeing the first renders of Serenity, the fact that N2 actually created the instrumental piece used for the Main Menu, and wanting to help support it, it had me, so I was a Patreon as soon as I finished.
Were there issues, sure. Grammatical issues that needed a bit of work, not to much, a few glitches that, as a patreon, I got to help in beta-testing weed out before it ever hits public, did the girls fall for him to quickly? The Serenity girls themselves: Jas, Lena, and Rin were created that way, by the MC's Mom! The others...
I have gotten to see N2's growth with story-telling, and him managing to "slow the pace" a bit, but in a place/land that feeds off of Love (granted, almost typical plot device, so I'm really interested to see how things go with his next project without it) and the MC as the Focal point OF said energies... I've seen worse!
The fact is though, the MC never has let it get to his head, and from the beginning has questioned it all, from his time with Trina in the office, to even when Kat was confirming after he goes "home", and even when they go together to Trina's Office. Morgan even uses his lack of belief against him to trap him with HER Powers on Day 2, a feat that IS repeated on Day 5. Even though he is told, shown at times, that he has all this power, he still maintains his humanity, and often, he has a hard time acknowledging what he is capable of doing, such as when he asks Fade to help him "Find" Cam on Day 7. Even now, in 1.2, he is still figuring out the extent of his abilities
I was really thrilled to see Trina get added in, because I was concerned she may not, especially due to her initial dialogue with the MC, later changed, so when the end of Chapter 6 came up and I saw her looking for something, I was to the moon, as I really enjoyed her scenes at the start of the game! I was also amused when her change ended with her becoming foxy! Nicely played! I've also found it fun to watch as N2 goes back and reworks some of his older scenes, touching them up where needed, making Serenity look less bleak-deserted-island-esque when the MC first gets there, as well as changing out the old AI scenes with HS2 scenes. It brings the whole game together in detail to look less like you are looking at it through two lenses.
It may not seem like I have a lot of negative points to bring up, but then again, I am a Patreon, and active in the Discord, and get to talk to N2, so if I see an issue, or have one, I can generally give him any feedback myself. I love that this game is a gold-mine of Nekos, and a Foxy...I have enjoyed watching it's evolution as a story, and I am looking forward to what the future brings, and I hope that others will give this game a chance!

This VN is awesome, simple as that, I'm reviewing after reading that there's another 14 to 15 days possibly planned which is great, can't wait to try the next game from N2 hopefully it follows this games feel good vibes, and of course maybe some Neko harem

Version 1.2 Public

Pros: Likeable MC, that even if he had much shit happen to him earlier in his life, he still acts both bravely and nice to his harem. The harem girls are so sweet with all their different personlaties, (Neko )! The story is good, still has some flaws, but much better than most others here. As I've said before, I'm not here believing I'll find writing of Noble prize quality. (And some of those writers are boring!)

Cons: The animations of the lewd scenes could be better, still not so bad that the game loses a star.

So, if it continues like this (or better) I'll keep the 5*.

So a harem game with good story, beautiful models , wholsome moments that melts my heart, a nice MC who is not a wimp and hopefully incest in the future updates. What do you need more?

Of course, it has defects like the fast-paced relation build up or the bad writing sometimes, but every game have those. The point is, do those defects deducts from the enjoyment of the game, IMO no.

Pretty good game.. renders/animations are okay (and get better the further into the game you get). I actually liked how different the story was and that the MC isn't an asshole. Gets 3 stars just for having so many cat girls

I genuinely have no clue why this game is rated so highly. The only reason this game has more than 1 star for me is because the models are sufficiently cute and there's a decent amount of content.

I knew this game was gonna be bad from the first minute of the game. I’m going to analyze the first couple of scenes in-detail so there will be minor spoilers, but all of this happens in the first few minutes so you won’t be spoiling much.

It literally starts with you going to read your mom’s will after she died, and the lady who’s there to help you is dressed like a stripper with a ridiculously short skirt and an open blouse. Then she proceeds to tease you and have her breasts completely fall out of her shirt.

Listen, I get that it’s a porn game, and even in real life I’m all for people wearing what they want. But you’re literally going over your dead mother's will and talking about how she was a great woman and how much you both miss her and the dev just couldn’t help themselves but have this woman dress like a prostitute, flop her tits out mid-conversation, then masturbate as soon as you leave because of how hot the MC is.

Like bro, just chill. And it’s not even like the dev should feel like he needs to put ecchi stuff in there right away so the game has h-scenes in the first few minutes since the MC literally gets his dick sucked in the shower like 2 minutes later.

The weirdest part is that this character, an old friend of your mother’s, drops some insane and unbelievable info onto you about how the stuff your mom writes about comes true and the MC just… believes it?? Like basically right away? The premise is fine, but maybe make it so the MC already knew about his mom's abilities but maybe just didn’t understand the extent of it until this scene. At least that would make his acceptance of the situation somewhat believable.

Then of course, once you arrive in Serenity, all your catgirls are there and they are all immediately in love with you. No seducing. No courting. No nothing. It really takes the fun out of the relationship when you don’t need to work for it at all. The MC even wakes up the next morning and has cutesy little nicknames for a bunch of the catgirls like they’ve been friends for months or years. It feels completely unearned.

Even the first relationship that you have to “work for” with Morgan is resolved like what, 5 minutes into the game? There is absolutely no build up, tension, or anticipation in anything that happens in this game. Conflicts arise and are immediately resolved a scene or two later.

And that’s literally just the prologue.

The game has barely started and there are already so many fundamental issues with the writing of this game.

And it’s a shame because the models are cute and the premise is actually interesting. I think the idea of someone who can write things into existence like this is very neat. But it’s squandered on a game with juvenile writing and nonexistent relationship development.

If all you want are hot scenes with a variety of girls, just play Honey Select or something and save yourself the trouble of skipping through all the inane dialogue in this game.

First of all, the sheer amount of content present as of today is quite impressive. It took me many hours to go through it all! Passion oozes through the seams. The girls are gorgeous, there wasn't a single one I disliked, altho I did have my favourites. Fade is the cutest imho, I love her face and design, and Cassie has an alluring mature beauty. Morgan, Andria, Kathryn... all of them were great, so many to choose from! Kudos on the keen beauty eye.

The overall premise and plot was creative and convenient, allowing for quick setting changes. Perhaps too quick at times, but still, pretty clever for a porn game. Ruler of a pocket realm harem is in essence, the perfect VN protag ^^ Leveling the girls up through sex, hehe... smart indeed. Speaking of that, very good work with those animations! Smooth af.

The music deserves a special mention, especially knowing some of these tunes are composed by the dev himself. Thoughtful and soothing, they definitely enrich the journey, you won't get tired of them. A cut above the rest.

All in all, a very enjoyable and wholesome experience. A nice and cozy escapism sexy story with some feels in it (oof mom) and a remarkable first work. Big kudos my friend, keep those ascensions coming... literally XD

This has been a really nice and pleasant experience so far. It's gosh darn wholesome. I actually like the lore too! It's simple but also very cohesive, and I appreciate that. All the girls are pleasant, which is pretty sweet. Those petting scenes are blessed.

Disclaimer: I'm a story-first reviewer.

I ran across N2TheFire's Serenity a few months back and at the time hadn't really done any non-DAZ AVNs or for that matter, 'kinetic' visual novels but N2's art was captivating (Kat so I gave it a try!

And boy was I hooked! I thought I'd miss all my different saves for each path but really enjoyed the story N2 crafted and quickly forgot about pathing. And there is a lot of story here! It just kept going and going and going and I enjoyed all of it immensely. Do I wish there was more story development in the beginning - sure (and I will always ask for Side Stories since I want to know more about the characters) - but it did not detract from my enjoyment in the least! There is a LOT of story here and I was hooked from the start!

N2 has woven in some nice bonuses (e.g., visiting LIs from other AVNs) that fit very nicely with the world-building. I really enjoyed the latest update's meta-content as well addressing harem AVNs - quite funny.

Now the ladies! Seems I like Nekos. Don't really know what else to say but N2 has made a harem of lovely LIs in Serenity and with each update N2's skills continue to get better and better and it shows in all aspects of Serentiy. I personally enjoy seeing N2 work in slight 'cosmetic' changes to the characters’ visuals (in the context of the story); nice to see the models evolve with their characters.

Overall, N2 has created a vast world with lovely ladies and a remarkable story that sucks you in! I cannot wait to see where it all leads and eagerly look forward to further works by this excellent creator!

pretty good renders and sex scenes morgan looks pretty weird in the beginning almost like they did not plan on keeping her and just kept low poly renders of her in till something in that decision changed, however the writing for this story is pretty bad, idk why so many devs on here feel the need to write nothing but bad things happening the mc's in their story buts it's exhausting to sit through, and by the third really no this is supper terrible bad thing I'm actively hoping one of the bad guys wins just so i don't have to deal with hearing about stuff going wrong every other moment.

the dev should probably look into smoothing out the story so that it feels less opressive and do a touch-up on early renders, but will probably be a good time if you have never played anything on this site before.

i not gonna lie .. when i see monster type games i almost never try them .... there is one that caught my eye not long ago ... not this one .. but it help me see these types of games just might be something i could enjoy ... well Dev.(s) ? .. i gotta admit this one makes the second monster girl type game that i thoroughly enjoy .. and love they story ... well written .. the renders also not bad at all .. some a little dark ... but thats cool i still was able to makeout what they where ... so congratz and a game well done
and now i await your updates .... if i wasn't retired with a limited budget i would add to support what your doing

I found this to be a great game with very likeable characters and an exciting fantasy-style story. It was fun to see the graphics and animation evolve throughout the game. Has the potential to be a top ten game on here.

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.

WoW.... Just wow. As of 0.7b I am inlove with this story already. Just so many cutie pies. The story is just wonderful. A little sad to start but overall wonderful. It picks up quickly and is just a joy to see all the cute nekos. I for sure am looking forward to seeing more from N2TheFire. Great job!
If you are reading this and enjoy the game after reading it please help support the development of the game!
Girls 10/10
Story 10/10
Renders 10/10
Animations 10/10

Even if you are picky, it is impossible to find at least one weak point in this game. Absolutely all the girls in the game are amazing, very cute and loving, and it's impossible not to love them. MC is a good guy, and I really like the plot and how it develops. This is an absolute five stars.

Totally love this game. Sure it's a story where the MC has all the girls ending up falling for him, but the story and the renders are beautifully made. Each girl has her own uniqueness to her. I was never a fan of Neko girls, but the developer has changed my mind. Love where the story of your recently deceased mother created this book where you end up living all your fantasies. Can't wait for where story where the other girls get their next level super powers.

I really like the main conceit behind this game and may end up stealing it for my own use later.

The characters are a bit 1 dimensional at times, but that's alright, it's allowed to be a bit shallow early on as we are still learning about the world we inhabit. I'm hoping that we get to see some hidden depths from the characters.

It's a fun bit of escapism, would recommend.