VN - Ren'Py - Shards of the Past [v0.3.1] [Garou24]

Impressed with the quality of the renders. Definitely a five-star game visually.

The strength and consistency of the narrative is a bit hard to judge as yet. But it is at least literate.

Preventing rollback at decision points is not a good idea, irritates the player and should be abandoned with the next release. It's actually a great deal more disruptive of immersion to be constantly saving.

But this is a promising start, I'll definitely have a look at the next update.

Updated after playing 0.3.1. This is developing well, with plenty of mysteries being set up for future resolution. Preventing rollback is still a bad idea, but I will buy on Steam when it becomes available.

Very strong opening for this VN, really good renders, the lighting was actaully the first thing that caught my eye, writing is also strong. And thankfully the MC seems to have an intact spine and personality ! The introduction of elements was a welcome surprise. Congrats on the first release and great job !

Pros: renders are beautiful along with the whole environment, writing is decent, Music is delightful too, currently only about 15min content but seems to have potential cuz left on cliffhanger. Possible LI is very cute too.

Cons: towards the end of chapter, diff music would have been good due to cliffhanger so some kind of thriller or suspenseful music would be great there. Also, more lore would be great.

Verdict: Definitely give it a try! MC seems mature enough and the plot has many ways to go alot can happen!!

(Insert Palpatine Voice) We will watch your career with great interest...

This is a really good start.

We don't know too much about the plot but it's an enticing start for sure.

The overall quality is good: good renders (no animations so far), good attention to details like sounds and fitting ambient music and a lot of branching in terms of choices with different outcomes.

I'm giving 5 stars for the moment but this kind of detailed work require a lot of time and patient, I hope the dev keeps up the good work!

[Reviewed: v0.1.0]
This version gives us the first chapter in the protagonist's story, and already there's a number of choices that affect the game play, but otherwise it's really just enough to introduce the main character and a few others. We don't even meet all the folks pictured in the main OP image.

The renders are all very nice. It would be nice to have an indication when we're going to be given a brief "slide show" or when the game's waiting for the player's input. There's more than a few typos in the text, "lets" for "let's", "it's" for "its" (and the reverse) -- a proofreader would bring the text quality up to that of the rest of the game.

The story starts with the main character walking through the woods in the dark, and we're given the choice of whether to respond to a cry for help. The game makes note of how you choose and doesn't force one on you. That doesn't mean we won't end up meeting the same characters eventually, but his choices will affect how these characters feel about and behave toward the protagonist. You can also decide whether to get into a tavern fight, and your choices, if you opt in, can have you winning or losing.

So far in the story, there's nothing lewd beyond peeking at a woman changing. Seems like this is going to be a slow burn. There are some score points maintained as well, paragon/renegade for example.

I've rated this 5 stars (excellent) but that's only based on what's there so far. I'm looking forward to how the story continues in future updates.