Ren'Py - Shattered Minds [v0.18 Beta] [eXtasy Games]

Shattered Minds Review

When Powers Becomes a Thing
Imagine if one day suddenly people got superpowers. And it so happens that you’re one of them, but to not expose yourself, you need to keep this a secret (by secret, I mean only telling your only friend, Bill).

With the sudden powers to control/convince people’s minds, you can do anything! Or with the proper training, since you just unlocked this gift, and with great responsibilities comes great weakness.

Story – Content/Gameplay
Shattered Minds is a mix between visual novel and quest gameplay, where you’ll need to complete quests to proceed with the story.
When I first laid my eyes on this game, I judged the book by its cover, but soon after playing it for a while, my whole view changed to a different angle.

The game begins with a strange, unknown lady speaking to the person behind the screen; she informs you that before proceeding with the game, you will need to pick a few names.
You can go with default names or use customizable ones; the characters you’ll need to name are: The main character, your roommate, and your landlord (one word for her, damn).

After selecting the names, our protagonist will display for us his wet dream, which gets interrupted by the alarm clock. But surprise, surprise, to your awakening you bestow the morning view of your roommate’s titties (within her clothes, ofc) as she has to wake you up before sleeping in... ON A MONDAY.

Once you awaken and disgust your roommate with some morning wood, you begin your morning and introduce the player to his daily life. And explaining the concept of his phone (I'll explain it later).

When you arrive at the school and meet your best and only friend, Bill. You proceed to class, encounter some of the characters you’ll meet later, and see some teasing content.

Later, once in the school bathroom (after failing to talk to your crush), the quarterback of the American football team comes in and threatens you to stop trying to talk to her, as he has been warming her up for weeks to eventually ask her out.
And just as he is about to punch our protagonist's face in, he freezes up. It’s after this encounter that you’ll get to know that you have powers just like you’ve been hearing all over the news of people all over the world have uncovered.

And by finding your powers, you also find the mystery lady from the beginning. It is no other than YOURSELF, or a part of you. Someone who is a piece of you and has been in the back of your very mind your entire life. Her name is Ava, and she is your power; she will help you improve your powers and fix your messes. She’s the smarter half of you.

“Why did they only appear now?” You might ask, well, nobody is quite sure. But one thing is for sure: you can’t go around and make people do everything you want just like that. You need training to improve your skill. It’s like you can’t ask out a girl before saying, “Hi, I am.”

With your newly found skills and your newly found brain parasite... I mean consciousness, Ava. You will improve your powers and slowly and steadily take over the city, corrupting more and more people and making things go your way of thinking. And of course, some desirable lust play was involved with the whole mess.

Phone & Time
At the beginning of a new game, you’d be introduced to THE PHONE, where all necessary access beholds.
The following apps are:
Quest Log – Keeps track of each quest for each character.
Inventory – Explains itself, doesn’t it? (My regards to the protagonist for that line.)
Contacts – Keeps good information of most of the characters that you’ll meet. (Later game content will display a second tab on the people that you have subdued into either your girlfriend, servant, or mindless drone.)
Nilery – Fastest online store, providing drone delivery & arrival within one hour after purchase.
Wallpaper – To of course change the background image on your phone.
Achievements – See your goals and maybe try to unlock hidden achievements.
Find Me! - Allows the player to see specifically where everyone is, if available to encounter.
Messenger – Makes people text you and gives you the ability to text people.
Money – Just a view for your bank account, keeping track of your money.

Last but not least
My Powers – Shows the player the protagonist's power level and the ability to level up minor skill tabs. This app displays after the encounter with Ava.
And
Reports – A tab that shows up after subduing your first victim. Keep track of how much money or exp they earn you.

Time in shattered minds doesn’t count days but keeps track of days and time such as – Mornings, Afternoon, and Evenings – Mon to Sun. And this is connected to the quest app and game's function.

Depending on the time of day, you can do certain side jobs and certain quests, and people will be at certain places at the specific time and specific days.

Which means nothing is day-limited, and you can go on for 40 days, for example, and nothing big would have changed with the quests or story output. (Except for the gym, they cost around 60 – 100 bucks for a 30-day gym card.)

Note: The gym card is useless for now as all content in the gym is unavailable/coming soon.

Money & Side Jobs
Money is a need in this game just as much as it is in the real world. Money can purchase items from Nilery or be used in quests or scenes.

Nilery is also one of the few side jobs you can earn money from; Nilery specifically sells items. Then you can earn a few bucks sorting the books at the school library. And also create some goofy burgers at the coffee shop.

Visual & Audio
Visuals
Like the game, I judged the visuals too early before getting a greater view over the whole thing.
The environment is bright with brightly colored furniture, a bit too bright and could use some more shaders for a more realistic feeling.

Characters and animations look okay, and so far, I've not even once encountered any characters/clothes or anything colliding with each other.
Intimate animations are decent and seem like any other NSFW visual novel intimate animations. By this I mean it still looks good and smooth, but it’s also nothing special or new but more of a normal/casual style from these games.

All in all, the game looks and runs well, along with the amazing story and gameplay giving it all a purpose in a highly understandable and non-confusing way.

Audio
When the audio comes into the pit of the arena, it’s pretty good. I highly enjoy the music even if all are not original; some I've heard before and they give nostalgia.
The music doesn’t play 24/7. It ends after a while or after certain scenes, and it doesn’t get on your bad side even after playing for a few hours.

NSFW audio for intimate scenes sounds okay; they’re not in poor quality as they have been in other games I've reviewed. The original volume is somewhat loud, or at least for me, and sometimes is repeated, but it is still good.

Of course, I cannot forget about one of the coolest things I first noticed about this game. While in the main menu and hovering your pointer over the menu tabs, the sound of shattering glass plays.
Both are very fitting for the game itself and a neat addon for the menu.

Pros and Cons
Pros

• Story is 10/10 .
• The visuals are great.
• Gameplay & Quests.
• Day & Time system.
• Money system & purpose.
• Skill levels.
• Understandable explanations & Story (hard to get confused).

Cons

• Library Book minigame.
• Animations.
• Gym (Unavailable/coming soon content).
• Unable to sell bought items (like Hidden Camera or Magazines)
• Shading/lights.

My Final Little Thought
Shattered Minds, only by its current content, is already highly recommendable, and it doesn’t matter what the price may be. This is a game that fits both those lustful-seeking bastards and those who enjoy some gameplay content too in a visual novel mix.

I’m sure a lot more are going to agree with me on its release that this game is enjoyable and has an awesome story, even if it’s not everyone’s preference firsthand.

The brought-up cons are only minor ones and don’t mean that much.

Hoping that this could give some insight for the game before its release and interest new players. And that not too much information was given away, as what is written is purely only a scratch of the surface.

Shattered Minds? < Adventure Minds!
Rating: 5/5

Links
Steam Store Page
Website Review

Very good game and the story is also relatively exciting. It's fun to play this game and after every quest you can't wait to find out what happens next. The graphics are also okay, even if they could be a little better, but that's just my personal opinion.

Sehr gutes Spiel und die Story ist auch relativ spannend. Es macht Spaß, dieses Spiel zu spielen und freut sich nach jeder Quest darauf, wie es denn weiter geht. Grafik ist auch ganz okay, auch wenn es ein wenig besser sein könnte, aber das ist nur meine persönliche Meinung.
Warte jetzt nur noch auf weitere Updates!

Best game I've played! Thank you guys for your work! keep it up!
I love how much detail you put in the game the freedom u give the player and the quality of the content. maybe some sandbox freeroam everywhere when u finish the quest(?)

Literally just saw the thumbnail in the latest updates while browsing, typically not a ren py game person, but damn am I glad I clicked on this and dl'd it to give it a chance! Best game I have played on this site in quite a while honestly. Lot of content for new player like me. No bugs encountered. Good models. Decent writing. I played for like 12 hours! Excellent!

Even though the idea of mind control isn't new, this game's story presents it in an interesting way. I've read a lot of stories like this, but most of them didn’t have a strong foundation, so they ended up feeling boring. This game is mainly a sandbox, and while you shouldn't expect Shakespeare-level storytelling, that’s actually a good thing in my opinion. The developers clearly focused on the sandbox aspect, which pays off.

One problem I see in many games is that developers can’t decide whether to make a sandbox or a visual novel, and switching between the two usually ruins the experience. But in this case, the developers stuck to one style and slowly built on it, which makes the game more enjoyable.

Also, the overall quality is high, especially compared to many other games. The animations are impressive, and you can really see how much effort went into making everything.

Most importantly, the writing is solid and easy to understand.


In conclusion, this is a well-made sandbox game, and I definitely recommend it.

This is a top tier game if you are are a story driven sandbox game.

Warning, if you don't like incest, mind control, harems, and pregnancy then this game will not be your jam. Similarly this game is a sandbox with some grind. If you don't like that again this will not be for you.

I want to start off praising the dev here. A lot of adult games develop in a slow trickle bouncing around characters and story ideas which leads the game to feel disjointed and chaotic. Since this is a sandbox things can be done out of order but it's smart enough to maintain that certain things have to be done to progress the overall story or a particular character. Due to each patch being a focus on 1 love interest it means the story feels complete and fleshed out which is a real plus. Similarly it feels like scope creep feels limited here which is another huge issue for most games on this site.

The characters are well designed and likeable enough, with some being particularly interesting. No one overstays their welcome and due to it being a sandbox story it doesn't feel the worst when you don't interact with someone for a while. The only negative here is you can easily blast through a character's content you really like and then they are in their post game state for a long while. I think it's fair to say most love interests are secondary outside of your family and a few others as they don't feature much in the overall plot (which is totally fine).

Sex scenes are good with a variety of poses and good animations.

Overall story is engaging too. No complaints. Its interesting and does the job of setting up sexy scenarios well. Mind control is an easy I win button for writing as the love interests clearly don't have the mental leap of why they are happy being in the world's largest harem.

This is a very good standard for sandbox story games to meet.

Reviewed version: 0.17

This game is right up my alley! Incest (or not, if you so prefer), pregnancy, beautiful art with hot animations (some can even be viewed from two angles), a nice variety of girls (both in appearance and personality) and an intriguing main plot full of twists.

The game also becomes more and more of a sandbox as you progress, which is exactly what I like.

Not only that, there is already a huge amount of content for version "0.17", and the developer seems to be very professional about keeping the updates coming as promised.

Bought it on Steam and also became a supporter!

What is there to criticize? Not much, tbh, but no game is perfect:

• Once "subdued", most girls become rather generic. I would suggest adding some (potentially repeating) special content for each girl where they approach you with suggestions, or can be assigned to manage some part of your real estate empire, etc. They also need more lines about their pregnancy status, babies born, the other girls in your harem, your main plot progression, real estate empire, etc.
• The minigames are generally not very fun and should either be simplified/cut or reworked.
• Some "side" girls (like Leah) are way hotter than most main girls and should be developed further.
• Sofia (your mom/landlady) needs more fleshing out, both as a person and in terms of general impact and usefulness to you.
• Some key people in town (police chief, mayor?) should pick up on your ongoing corruption of the women and your growing daycare brood, with associated storylines.
• When a pregnancy is completed, you should get more information about which girl gave birth (or produced mind points) , and she should react to it at least to some degree, at least the first time(!)

Anyway, in my book, this is one of the top 5 porn games in existence (not counting modded mainstream games.)

This game was really fun
Sometimes a little repetitive, it would be cooler if there was more contact between the girls
But it's really cool to master everything
I hope they release more games like this
200 characters is a lot

quite Amazing! I didn't know this game can be so much mind control. I believe it will be better if more girls are included. Some tits are just too large, making them hard for some people to stand. Anyway, keep up the good ones, hope there will be more.

Great game. One of the best for free roam, satisfactory quests and nice variety of girls. Walkthrough implemented if u stuck, cheats as well if u struggle. Highly recommended for new and experienced players. Quite addicting in my opinion.

I found the first 15 minutes of the game boring, but when I learned the game system it only got better. The game hooked me like few others have, I like the story and I like the character design, it's a fairly long game with many sub-plots.

The only downside I could put is that I miss longer and more varied animations.

Highly recommended

Review 0.17

TLDR :
Honestly this has some nice ideas, like different personalities for the LI's depending on your choice, inviting them to live with you, pregnant and breeding....but it's just mind blowing boring, grindy and the story is neglectable.

Longer version:
There's barely any main story, what is there isn't all that interesting either.
The LI's don't feel interesting in any way, have not much of a personality and their path/story are not particular interesting either.
In some cases the story just stops in the middle, like with the mother, than you can grind to raise her corruption and suddenly she jumps on the MC's dick...she has so far the worst storyline from the LI's.

When they are corrupted you can choose between 3 personalities, which make barely any difference (like there is just a few words difference between gf and servant). Really a wasted opportunity.
Overall when you have finished their paths and they are corrupted, there really isn't anything interesting happening, or things you can do with them.
You can call them to have sex and see the same 3 sex positions over and over and over again that's it.

You can also invite them to live with you...so you can see them at your home, no new events or scenes thought.
Also the LI's aren't really interacting or acknowledging each other.

The sex scenes are short, have like 2 angles per position and there isn't much talking or anything.
Sex scenes are unlocked along their paths, when you have corrupted them you can replay them as much as you like.
There are like 4 of them per LI, hj/bj and missionary/doggy/cowgirl that is the same for all girls, thought the scenes are a bit different.
If they are pregnant you are limited to one position like cowgirl and hj...when they have a big belly you can't have sex anymore....like man, big bellies are the appeal if you like preggo sex....

Just to make it clear, i didn't unlock all LI's, after 5 i really lost all interest to play further.

There also some ''side girls'', or more like random girls, like the one in the coffee shop. You can corrupt them too, which takes forever and is rewarded with a sex scene (like 5 or 6 renders, no animations)...

Overall a really boring game, with a lot of annoying and unnecessary grind.
The good ideas, like the personality system or breeding sytem are pointless at the moment. There is really nothing to do with the girls after you corrupted them either.

This has got to be the most braindead game I've played in the last 8 years.

The game starts off decently, you get a believable house and family members, they look decent as well. But that's where the positives end.

There are like three parts or stages of your progress.
The inital start and build up with the characters, mainly the mom and sister, promises you, but the more you play the worse it gets. For example, once you finish the first part of the mom storyline, which is basically where most of plot ends, you get a sudden block, where you you are locked from continuing by another character, the sister. You have to finish her questline and entire story so you can continue even corrupting the mom. Now in the 2nd stage, you have to corrupt them... By doing the same thing over, and over, and fucking over again. The scenes while doing those aren't even worth anything, just the most basic 2 lines dialogue with a basic scene.

Then once you fill the corruption bar (as the game says) the last "stage" starts, which should be the best part since up to this point there aren't any sex scenes with the mom. Well... You get to fuck her but it's one of the most basic "oh yes my son" line one pose and nothing else. Furthermore, once you you finish that scene and their stages/corruption is fully done, there's about ONE sex scene, and it's the most basic ass sex animation with 0 dirty talk or anything, it is, by all means, garbage and not worth the "grind" at all.
This goes for ALL the characters I've played with.

Now for the "grind", you get to waste your time for absolutely no reason or fun. That's absolutely it, there's nothing more to it than just "make this number +1, sleep, repeat". Absolutely dreadful. There are no enough events or balance so the grind feels a little lighter.

The minigames all felt very shoehorned, and in most cases you should skip them and save your time and sanity, there's really no point in doing them. If you really want just play some good old flash games.

And this is not mentioning how bad the story is, the way it starts is decent like I said but 10 minutes in, the whole corruption is dependant on a lotion bottle... That your superpower fairy made... That for some reason can't simply make again and now you are buying it off the dark web... It is this bad.
This was one of the first games I've actually felt the line of "porn plot" to this degree.

The game is really top among all harem sandbox games, but there is still something to work on!) I was very surprised that the side characters, for example, in the cafe, during intimacy there is no animation, only pictures. And this noticeably worsens the quality against the background of the main harem, where all the girls have animations. The most beautiful girl is Ava, and so few functions, fortunately the author still made interactions with her) well, at least cowgirl. For each update, 1 girl is added, this is not much, but if you imagine the difference at the beginning of the game from 0 and now - the game has grown noticeably and turned into a super top harem, with variations of poses, animation, POV, which unrealistically raised the game to a new level.

i really like this game, for a 0.16 theres a LOT of content. Each girl are different, variety of boobs/butts and personality. most games are ALWAYS have the same girls 3D model but this game is different. Kinda rare to be honest. Minigames are fun too, you can earn more AND you can skip it to get a fixed rate. Quest are great, good pace. Not too soon not too far.

v0.16

I feel like this game could be so much more... there is a lot that I like about it. Like the ability to make girls live with you after you corrupt them, choosing their behaviour, not too horrible leveling system, actual visible pregnancy... and the models are mostly decent, if a little flawed.

And yet I can't help by feel disappointed by it. The sex scenes are just... not satisfying. They are robotic, unimaginative, have only a couple of poses and camera angles. And what's worse - when you get the girls to live with you, instead of unlocking new poses, you just get to repeat ones you already did during their storyline. And when the sex scenes are the least exciting thing about your game... why is it even an eroge?

I do want to see this game when it's fully out, and I want to hope that it will get better, because it has a generally pleasant gameplay and a decent story. But right now, it is what it is. After corrupting every currently available girl, I just felt like in hindsight it wasn't worth it.

The game is okay.

Story is decent enough but writing is average.

Mind control aspect is always fun but very dissapointing here.

Models are mostly good.

Soundtrack generic, but fitting.

Gameplay is a bit too grindy the minigames, aren´t good they are either just boring or way too long, I liked the burger mingame because there are the most disgusting burgers I have ever seen which is fun but it´s just way too long. But it´s nice that you can skip them and still get money/experience but would be better if I had fun and didn´t even want to skip them.

Sex scenes very dissapointing, the animations are too robotic, and the sex scenes are way too repetitive.

Characters, I didn´t really care for them but I didn´t hate or find them annoying either.


I would recommend it, if you want a mind control game that is vanilla.

As a mind control lover, I see dev made this game better since I experienced it when it public, just finish Sarah route, one of the girl I like in this game.

i hope the other girl's route is so good, also before completing the game i will vote for 5/5, they are on the right track until now, this is the second mind control game i like the most. good luck dev.

1 star for no gei
1 star for mechanism and genre of mind control
1 star for sanbox
1 for diverse stories and character
1 for encouragement

This is one of the few games where the map is well organized. As for the story, I can only say that I never trusted Ava. I've always been suspicious of characters who, like her, share their bodies with the protagonist and give him some advantage but have their own thoughts and opinions. I just want to see how he's going to deal with her. Another thing that can be seen is that the protagonist didn't even need to use his power to conquer some characters. I don't think he realized it yet, but the interactions he had made him more charismatic and confident. So if he lost his power, he could still use that confidence. Anyway, it's a really good game, it's worth it.

I want to like this game, I do, but it's essentially a glorified scene collector. There's a decent amount of grinding in order to get scenes with the various women in the game as well as a bunch of minigames and an alternate world section? (I didn't play long enough to know if we go back).

There's a pregnancy system (sort of), that involves a loose fertility system and once you get the girls pregnant, their models change but I didn't find any other interaction (either with them or other people) so all in all it was a little dissapointing.

Average game with mostly decent models, and quite a bit of (repetitive imo) content.