VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Shaping Her Future [v1.0] [Ellaraia]

NOTE: I've noticed others praising the submission part of the game, but I'm not into that. My review is based on the romantic/sexual route. Also, if you plan to try this game, I advise you read the forum and the walkthrough. I couldn't figure it out without doing so.

I found this game to be unplayable without cheating. It takes hours to accomplish anything (whether story-wise or lewd scenes), and is the first adult game I have ever had to give-in and cheat while playing (which should never be a necessity).

Everything repeats in a cycle. Same dialogue, same options, same scenes, same routine, every single day (except movie night, yay) - to the point where it is not coherent or logical in anyway. It is way too much work to get the stats up, and when you do... be careful! Otherwise you'll waste those earned points on a scene you've already witnessed, and have to start grinding all over again. Rinse, repeat, frustration, rinse, repeat. Best of luck figuring out how to get the new scenes. The diary gives directions in a general way, but gaining the scenes often requires such specific circumstances that I wasted all kinds of grinded points trying to find them.

The "mini-game" is literally: "can you read?", "okay, good, can you click?" over and over again, 12 times every single in-game day. Apparently the xp gained from that leads somewhere, but I couldn't bother with the boredom after over a week of it (even with skip on).

The model is super adorable looking (she is literally the only good thing about the game so far), but the animations are average (though I only saw 4). Maybe one day in the future this game will not be so broken and repetitive.

Great, great renders, but the game mechanics is way too complicated. If I hadn't read the forums thoroughly I'd never have seen a sex scene, and even after reading I have no clue how to get to see the remaining scenes of the chosen path (I know there are more, having seen the pics in the game directory).
Either this need a serious rework, or a very detailed walkthrough.
Too bad because the girl is absolutely stunning (I would have liked some pubic hair but besides that she's WOW)

One of the games truly exploring submission and has a lot of content for a beginning game. This game has the following it has choice, a focus on a single character, and the ability to be as dominant or nice as one wants so it's replayable.

Nice Start - some cool features -will keep looking for updates as and when- hope the dev keeps the slow burn, blue balls are ok just not 20 episodes worth - could be another DMD type success - loved it so much decided to join her patreon - really cool that you can use discord to chat directly with the dev .

The character is well designed. Even for static images she's got great emotional responses to some of the actions in game. The scene lighting is bright and cheerful and well balanced, which is something important to me.

Some of the drawbacks are some of the furniture is a little primitvely made. The characters eyes look a little dead without a sharp specular map capturing a glint of light in them (or even photoshop some shine).

Since the game is still in development I'll reserve any judgement about the other scenes in game (Bar, gym, park, school, etc.)

Overally I enjoyed my first playthrough and look forward to seeing how the rest fo these stories progress; hopefully with a lot of little kinks.

what a strange game.
first off, i wouldn't recommend this game!
tbh as a game shaping her future is pretty terrible:
bad ui,
terrible gameplay,
horrible pacing,
grind,
lack of content,
character progression that feels random and unorganic,
no animations,
below average render quality,
weak story that throws the player just in it. hard to get invested.

BUT i wont lie, the h-scene(s) were really fucking sexy, and the girl is really cute. so the game is fapable!!! the game has about 4 or 5 different routes atm. not the biggest fan of it tb,h but i know many players here LOVE optional content and so on (i like linear games). the routes do feel very different and have a huge differents in content.

e.g. spoilers: love route all you can do is become her "bf", but she doesn't want to have sex with you, the most she does is lay her head on your legs while watching tv.... so love= no hcontent at all. while lust route already has all out penetration sex.

so yeah, weird game. but as i said, cant really recommend it.

Well the multiple routes right off the gate is a strong point for this, provided with constant updates I can see this game reaching a favorite position among many people's list, also the writing is pretty solid each path's dialogue is well thought out and the changes each path induces in Sara are a real treat to behold looking forward to more content in the future.

As for the flaws while I realize nothing is perfect I have to say the lack of any integration as of Version 0.02.01 of the other places available on the map are kind of off putting and the snark about the gym is while funny also frustrating each time hoping something new comes up while it can't because of lack of implementation but I'm not being too harsh on that as it is too early for this game to criticize anything.

Overall rating is here:

Characters: 3/5 (Design for Sara is generic hope to see some improvement in that not bad but not great either)

Gameplay: 3/5 (a little grinding and reptitive but not too much as the stats level up quite fast)

Images: 4/5 (Throughly enjoyed the interaction of our characters and liked the images hoping to see more)

Personal Enjoyment: 4/5 (Enjoying the multiple paths didn't felt like too much grinding needed)

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs...


(02/16/2018 - Original Review - v0.01 Demo)

Not much to this visual novel/game as it is more like an extremely short intro/game play shell...

The visuals of the one character are decent, and the backdrops are a bit plain for the house... The visuals for all the locations on the main navigation map look like real life photo's... Not sure if those are place holders or not? Navigation and interaction in the home is a mixed bag... While the navigation is basically turning in circles via side arrows, the click interaction is not intuitive at all... You can basically try clicking on objects and characters, but nothing highlights when hovering, so it's basically a ton of guess work as to what can be clicked...

The script, what little there is at the moment, has a few spelling/grammar errors... The plot is a bit confusing at first to figure out, but it revolves around a male protagonist and a woman who breaks into his home... Here is where the confusion begins... This woman breaks into this guys apartment, and depending on choices you can try and go a more "what the hell" kind of route or a "oh, i know you, welcome to my home" route... Neither choice tree makes a lick of difference, as it all circles back to the protagonist just welcoming her in... It may affect some stats maybe?

After the brief encounter with her breaking in, it very quickly begins a grind fest game play motif... With various stats for the woman to work through, based on interaction choices with her... These range from Love/Lust to Obedience/Submission to Neutral and so on... There are also some other stats for her as well as the protagonist... The grind is broken down into time and days... And for the moment there are not many interactions available with the woman character... There was one random event as I was going from room to room, where you catch her masturbating and you get some choices, but not much else... Money and rent are a game play mechanic as well...

There are several bugs... Such as the game throwing errors when clicking on the washer/dryer... Ignoring this error just sends you back to the main menu... Or how sometimes the time doesn't progress when sitting close to her on the couch and doing interactions...

Overall, this feels much more like a stat grind game, perhaps leading into some scenes and/or story later into production... There really is not much in the way of any deep story that would make this anywhere near a visual novel, outside of the very short intro of the woman character breaking in, and the occasional extremely short dialogue when she's sitting or laying on the couch... I wouldn't really call this a full on demo, since not everything works correctly and the grind doesn't really open much up... It's more like a very brief introduction and/or basic game mechanic tech test...

Now, it is very early in it's development, and the plot concept, even though it need some work, does seem sort of unique... But the grind mechanics, we've all seen a hundred times before... We'll have to wait and see what further development shows, once it gets some more content... Then I'll be able to give a better assessment/review of this game... I'll try it again later down the line...


(03/03/2018 - Review Update - v0.02.01)

I can definitely see a lot of improvements, as the story is a bit more clear and the errors are gone that I ran into with the Demo version... There are still a few spelling/grammar errors here and there, but that can be fixed with a bit more proofreading...

It's a lot clearer now that the male protagonist as well as Sarah have both experiences some things in their pasts, which have lead the protagonist to change his name, and Sarah has had something traumatic happen to her in the recent past...

The game has some grind elements for different stats, just as before... With the current content ending once he witnesses Sarah masturbating... It looks as though the game play will work several different ways, depending on choices, which is a bit clearer now...

And although nothing is originally revealed that Sarah is a student during the introduction, it is clear that she is since the protagonist can help her study each day...

Overall, with the improvements to the introduction, it's clearer now what is actually going on... And even though it is still a grind based game, the mechanics seem to work good so far... Have to wait and see what the future holds... I will check back on this VN/Game a bit later down the line, after some content updates, to see how it's progressing... It shows some promise, so I gave it 3 stars instead of 2... Once it progresses some more, I'll revisit it for a review update...

I'm getting mixed signals from this one.
I understand that the whole plot was changed in a rush when Hatreon banned some types of conent, however the story, while I believe it has potential, is sloppy at best.

I realize that we are talking about a demo here, however we can infer a few things. Judging by the map, whether a lot of locations and events are planned or the dev just added them in a "will see" manner. the interactions between the characters are very limited and repetitive. At this point at least, it looks like a grindfest. Renders are nice and the graphics are above average. Interface is a click-orgy of zigzagging left and right to move to another room and move time forward. I believe that when a lot of more events will be implemented and the need to skip time will lessen this will improve somewhat. The cellphone gig, as the dev itself has stated, is overused lately in similar games. As it is now, it would help if an info message popped up when you set on a path, thus making easier to understand why the relationship stats changed. All in all, I am not happy but not disappointed either. The game has the potential to become something good (assuming that it goes further than just having an housepet to play with), and the dev seem committed and very active. I will follow this for a while I think.

GUI: 3/5
IMAGES: 4/5
PLOT: 2/5


0.2.1 UPDATE

Pop up messages have been added. now when you gain points a text pops up in the bottom right corner of the inteface (above the text). Buttons need some work, but if it is used also for events and not only point, will contribute to a smoother gameplay.

0.3.3 UPDATE

Lighting on the models has improved. the play runs smoothly and lightly. I am not very happy with the popup colors but they are noticeable which is what matters. The scenes are nice but they would benefit from some extra renderings in-between so as to match the dialog progression. All being said, the game improves with even every minor version. Good work!