VN - Ren'Py - Shackles of Ellswyn [v0.5 May Update] [Two Hot Milfs Studio]

Can't rate this any higher, even though I really want to. Others are commenting on the dev spreading themselves too thin, and I don't think that's within the scope of the review.

For me, the art is excellent, but the pathing of the game felt off. It's a RenPy game with branching storylines, but no real cohesion or meaningfulness to the story is given. If there isn't a game loop and the story isn't enthralling, I feel like I'm just watching really good adult drawings which is not what I came looking for.

Given all the circumstances, I'd advise the dev to work with another dev who specialises more in UI/Gameplay/Story elements, possibly on a different engine altogether, and work the story/characters off of the art.

Regardless, I'm sure this game or future ones may be improved still, so best of luck if that's the aim.

I have no clue if I'm the only blind one here or something but this game is definitely worth more than the 3 stars it currently has. Not only is the art amazing, but the updates and drawings are plenty if you make an effort to play it more than once. The artist did indeed make the mistake of making too many different endings in which he probably wasted time on the main one, but that takes little to the game. The dialogues are a bit simple but this is still a game worth playing imo. Solid 8/10.

Man, I had such high hopes for this game when I first played it years ago (that part is important). Since that time the game has gone from maybe 20 minutes of content all the way up to 30. Updates are consistent but they are so barebones it can't even be called an update. Each one adds maybe 5-10 minutes of content. Meanwhile major complaints about the game still sit unresolved, such as the un-skippable credits, in a game that you are meant to play multiple times. It quickly becomes clear why though, when you get bombarded with ads for the developers other games, which are all having the same problems. These are not games, they are ads pretending to be games. At this point I'm convinced that the dev is doing the barebones work necessary just to make a quick buck selling poor quality VN's. It's a shame too because there is so much potential here. I admit I know nothing about the creator, they could be super passionate and working on these only in their spare time, but if that is the case it does not come through in the end product.

Dev's artistic ability is undeniable. But the problem lies in the lack of choices in the matter of the content in the game. I get it, is about femdom, but femdom is one very comprehensive subject. I don't care about mistreatment, i don't care about futanari (it doesn't disturbs me), but i do care about sharing and public use, for instance. The fact that this game is so well done, makes even more frustrating, being thrown off the vibe because of weird shit like that. Whish that there was a way of stop myself to even discover games like this, but at least i didn't bought it (is this lack of trust that makes me thing twice before supporting these projects...) .

Over a year and still almost zero content. Not surprising since the creator has several other "games" in the works as mentioned in the unskippable end credits.

You get the choice of 1 of 4 railroads in a narrative that seems to have been rewritten so many times that it's not even cohesive from one scene to the next. The scenes also seem like they're increasingly ChatGPT prompts the longer the story goes on. The only redeeming quality of this game is the artwork. The voice acting also seems competently done but is so sparse that is seems like the dev is holding off on it for the copious amount of rewrites they're going to do.

That being said your time would probably be better spent looking at Cubze's work elsewhere in a gallery format or commissioning them yourself.

This game doesn't deserve a full review, I just want to mention that the art is great, but the writing is disappointing because there's almost none! I swear each scene is like a couple paragraphs at most. The whole game is less than 30min, and it's been in development for over a year. It's like 95% of the game's budget is going into art and nothing into writing, and in the end all that good art is wasted on scenes that are barely a few minutes each, you don't even have time to enjoy anything.

And this same dev seems to have 3 (three!) games in development AT THE SAME TIME

Even for a big studio I think it would be a mistake but this is a small dev we're talking about.

TLDR: game is good but come back in 10 years and maybe there'll be enough content to play for 1 evening.

Or not, at this rate I'm sure this project will be long dead by then.

Edit: OMG I just checked out their twitter and THEYRE STARTING A FOURTH FUCKING GAME IM DYING

(lowering to 1 star because of that. There is no way in hell any of these "games", more like demos really, are ever getting off the ground)

0.5

this is current rating not potential. very low amount of content. long unskippable endgame scree. no animation in sex scenes.

but the art is really hot, but without animation and usually only a still picture it's just meh.


the story is a bit dumb but they obviously dont take themselves that seriously so it's fine. it has music, sometimes some voices. with more content it could be like 3-4 rating but with this low amount of content i dont think it's worth to play.

edit: changed it to 1 since it probably never will be finished. and as of right now this game is a waste of time = 1/5.

Definitely needs the kinetic novel tag, as it doesn't really have much to play. You can choose between 3 sets of slideshows as of version 0.5

Either fall under the Queen (willing) with some "minigames" (aka choose between one outcome or other, that's all)
Become the Guard's bitchboy or unwillingly join the Queen (you get to see a couple more scenes)

While the idea of integrating a JOI/Chastity roulette into the game, a la faproulette, seems really novedous and interesting, allowing for replayability in the future or a more engaging gameplay (if you know what i mean) its implementation is quite poor and lacking, with orders throughout the game, varying depending on your choice of storyteller. Still, there aren't that many of them nor content to make it engaging.

I think you'd be better off searching for the artist (Otto Cubze) every now and then in your favourite porn site and calling it a day. The game, as it is, is still light years away from a fantasy game you'd find in TFG or Milovana, the only positive being the quality of the art.

Hope this game ends up improving over time, really ^^

Firstly this game is way to short. There is almost no content at version .5 which is very disappointing. The art is very good. The game doesn't have much choice either. There is not a lot to do. To recap the art is very good but lack of content ruins the game.

Well....
Lets be objective first.
The graphics are good.
Non-male characters does have voice.
A bad choice in music.
The game itself is shorter than the Mc's 'Joystick'.
This game itself is for male cumdumps and futadom maniacs.
It is highly offensive to any one else!!!

This game has fantastic art and could be an interesting thing when fully released, at the moment there really isn't enough content to be worth the time.

Some of the "cons" i currently have;

• Unskippable First-Time Intro Scene
• Unskippable Credits (I would be more okay with this if there was more content before running into it or if it was only unskippable the first time)
• Unskippable Ad for their other content.

The story appears to be going MtF route which is something I am personally uninterested in.

its not 0.5, i wouldnt even say its a 0.005 version unless the entire game will be 10 minutes long. It legit downloaded for me longer than i "played" it. Sure it looks nice, art is really top notch but what of it? Dont wase your time on this shit, clicking through the "youre leaving f95 zone" is more entertaining than watching the credits for 15th time wondering if you held ctrl and skipped some part of it and got a dead end. What a fuckin joke this is.

There is very little content in Shackles of Ellswyn so far, but I don't think I've ever played a game that has more potential and promise than this.

If development continues and on a good pace, it could very likely topple Futadom World as the king (or queen ) of dominant futanari games.

5/5 for me, I think it should be rated for what it is now, not a low rating for what it could be.

Great idea, immersive challenges, and an interesting narrative. I am a little sad I found this game so early in development, but I have high hopes for the future of this game! I hope there are some in-depth game play mechanics that can be implemented later on so the game will have more variety than most Ren'py "novel" games. I hope there are also some other races like orcs, goblins, dwarves, or other fantasy archetypes that could be used to introduce more characters. Keep up the great work!

I personally see a future in this, but wont bet on it. I find the releases/updates and even info to be a bit too slow in progress, even on social media like twitter/itchi.io and that is the only reason i'm rating it 3/5

Excellent start to a game with a ton of potential, love the content so far. I'm supper exited to see more of this game as it release more content. Everything looks clean and the interactive elements are great.

There isn't much content however the direction they seem to be going is very promising and unique. They seem to want to integrate JOI-style porn within a game.

For anyone into futanari as well as buttplay this is a game to keep an eye on.

Giving it 5/5 because I'd hate for this game to not see the light of day due to early harsh reviews.

Very promising , with hopefully more animation though out the game and addition of more characters the game can go a long way.
With more fetishes down the line this can shape up to be a fantastic game.
Hope it continues developing, the art is fantastic.
Keep up the great work.

V0.1

Fun idea, but this game has almost nothing going for it right now. The writing is just alright, the art is pretty nice, but the actual amount of content makes this more of a proof of concept.

The lewd scenes are lackluster, short, and are essentially just a single image each. One of the scenes is just you seeing a still image of someone else getting railed, and then game over.

Yes, this is an early build, but all we've got is a look into something that isn't overly passionate or unique. Single image sex scenes are an immediate red flag for what's to come, especially when this is their debut. Usually, games get lazier as they go on...so a lazy start is rough.

Might be worth keeping an eye on, but not an overly promising start. Just feels like one of those dime a dozen titles that starts nice, but gets abandoned after a few patches.

Everything about this game is high quality: art, writing (kinda), intro, etc. BUT, as of now (v0.1) this is just a short demo, around 5 minutes of content depending on how fast you read.

Good:
- everything
Bad:
- only 5 minutes of content, there are only three really short scenes - all of the content for v0.1 can be seen in the screenshots in the OP

V0.1 is definitely not worth downloading, but for now i will still rate it 4/5, only because it doesn't deserve 3 stars and below, just wait for more content.

Edit: As of v0.3 the game has around 10 minutes of content, considering that each update has added 2-3 minutes of content I'm lowering the score to 3 stars, I will get it back up to 4 when they add something interesting to the game.