Ren'Py - Shoretown Saga [v0.54] [Dan1228]

It's an okay start to an overall nice-looking game, but as of 0.21 there just isn't enough to do that actually matters. You just do house chores over and over and over again for essentially no reason because there is nothing after that point in the game yet.

For a comparison: lets say World of Warcraft comes out brand new, but there's only one class available, and only a handful of quests you get to do over and over again so that you can earn money, but you can't use that money to buy anything except various potions to help you do those quests.

There needs to be a reward or at the very least a gameplay change in response to the grind and endless tasks to make those tasks worthwhile. That is how you make a proper gameplay loop.

I liked the game, good implementations of the surrounding world and interaction with it. The characters look more realistic and it's cool, Evelyn especially liked it, rendering looks great. In general, the game is good and has potential.

2 Stars for the mom model.
Gameplay is trash, the dev just try adding endless grind for extend gameplay time and hide small content.
For writing, I am not a native speaker but it's just poorly even for me.

Advice for the dev;

- Remove bullshit grinds like "eat food", "take a bath". (Even AAA games don't add that kind of grind)

Obviously an homage to the 2dcg sandbox game of our hearts, it nevertheless tries at the moment to add a lot of unnecessary fluff to the gameplay. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if they were properly balanced.

Energy for washing dishes is 15, half of a workout session. Weird dishwashing flex but ok.... but then walking to school which takes 30 mins of time, takes just 6.
Hunger and thirst drain is pretty ok, a liiitle on the fast side, but hygiene is rock bottom after a third of a day.

All this takes away from what should be the main game loop, improving stats and then getting some. Also I cannot comment on the fighting, cause I wasn't a complete moron to pick a fight as a wimpy, twiggy, manlett MC, with a guy who breaks tree trunks for shits and giggles. Maybe after a lot of training sessions, which btw should be VISUALLY represented on the main char. (Nothing more annoying than getting to, like, 50 strength and looking exactly the same)

So to recap, poor as of now, busy and not in a good sense, which takes away from the main gameplay loop. On the plus side, I like it so I hope the future versions improve

There are sandbox games, and then there's this "gem".

If sandbox was not enough to steer you away from this, then let me tell you what to expect (at least in version 0.1)

You have to manually eat and drink. It's not enough to get to the kitchen and just "eat and drink", no you need to actually press the food to eat and then the glass to drink.

So far this is a sandbox in name only because it doesn't even give you the freedom of going/doing what you want. You are forced to go to the path the game chooses for you. And the hint system is... let's say trolly, because that's the only thing I can think of describing it. One time it says "You need to go to school" and once you find the exit, it says "You need your wallet and phone" without actually telling you where it is.

(Edit: There is a hint system, but for me it blended so much in the background I didn't see it first time around. Fair is fair, it's there but not visible at first glance)

And once you find that you get a message from "mom". One would think that it would be enough to open phone and then just see "unread messages" or something, but nope, you need to open the phone, click the contract icons, then click the mom where you finally find the new message button, and all of that without the game telling you anything about where to look for it.

So over all, if you like micro managing in your porn game, this might be for you. For me however, I like porn in my porn game so this will be a skip for me, unless it changes heavily going forward.