VN - Ren'Py - Onhold - Sicae [Ep.7] [NiiChan]

Ep. 5

So far I think the story is very interesting, 4.7 out of 5. The choices are also very simple. But I feel the story per episode is a bit too short, especially the first few episodes.

The rendering is good, 4.6 out of 5.
But for some reason I don't really like Alice's design, it looks too flashy and ugly, in terms of make up and hair color. And I prefer Eliza's hair style when her hair is tied up rather than her hair style being straight and not tied up, and I hope Eliza's hair style will be like that more often.

I really like the fighting scenes, 4.8 out of 5. I think so far, the vn renpy games I've played, this is the only game that has fighting scenes, good job. And I hope that in the future there will be many more scenes like this.

And so far the female characters that I like are Eliza and Nicole

Sorry for my bad English, and thanks for the game.

(Review is for "Episode 5" version. As always, rating and overall review is subject to change until the final version)

...Not gonna lie, I actually prefer this over the dev's other game.

I mean, the story scope is a lot tighter, the inciting plot is a lot more interesting and more focused once you get past the slice-of-life-esque beginning chapters. The characters feel a little more interesting and more connected to the developing plot. Not to mention they're a bit more fleshed out from a design and character development perspective.

I also like that the shared universe thing feels a lot more subdued here compared to the other game that shares said setting. Makes it easier for one to get into this without thinking that one is missing out once the "characters that feel like they're from another game" starts constantly showing up and in spades (which thankfully isn't much of a case here).

The darker tone in the story's atmosphere and overall plot (and right from the get go too, at that) is also welcome...but that's just my personal preference talking, I suppose.

That said, it's not perfect. Biggest issue for me is that the animated fight choreography is...rough. Like "feels-more-like-I'm-watching-a-Tekken-match-than-an-actual-fight" rough. I mean, I get it, dev is trying, he really is, and I can't fault him for making the fights be a bit more engaging than just still images and such. But I'm sorry, I just couldn't help feel disappointed by the fact that the fights don't feel like actual fights thanks to said choreography.

Second is that majority of the sex scenes (barring a few exceptions) feel like they operate too much under porn logic and don't feel like natural continuations to the character events tied to them. On one hand, I get it, it's an AVN, it comes with the territory. On the other hand, I feel like slapping in a porn scene after every heart-to-heart or as a succeeding event without any build-up or tension makes said scenes feel like I'm going through a checklist...which is not ideal and only serves to make it feel unnatural.

Overall though, the faults don't completely detract from the experience and I am looking forward to see how the story develops in this one.

I remember the first time I saw your patreon and those first post renders, I don't remember correctly but maybe that's when Lyk mention you and I saw that, it was great, the first time I see it and I think it will be another great game I gonna play, I have played your old LCC first ep and to the latest ep, I enjoyed it a lot, and now we have Remastered, oh boy. Amazing story, amazing renders, good musics, beautiful and pretty girls, I'm looking forward to your future updates <3.
After finished ep 3, it was a BLAST! Those fighting scenes are epic, fatality, and the famous ending cliffhanger, oh boy, can't wait for more.
And now finally we reached ep 5, we still have much more. The fight, the music, the love are amazing.

The story is all over the place. You're not even familiar with all the characters and it begins to introduce new ones, each one with new storylines, never advancing one part far enough. The MC is supposed to be this badass assassin who first held a knife when he was 3-years-old, but he gets beat up almost every time. He meets some random girl from the slums and gets his ass beat for 3 months straight without ever landing a single punch on her.

Some random thug also easily injures him, then another random thug injures him, and another girl beats the crap out of him + the girl that beat him up for months. The only time he ever wins a 1v1 is against a little kid half his height. He also keeps getting spotted by everyone in the house while he thinks he's some ninja sneaking out of the house. Sorry, but you gotta apply a little more "show, don't tell" here. You tell us that he went through hellish training his entire life only to show us how he gets beat up by a random girl who knows tae-kwon-do, can't even protect himself from sneak attacks and keeps getting spotted by people.

He also casually reveals to a girl that he's an assassin and she's like "wow, that's crazy, let's fuck." Also, literally every single character is somehow intertwined in the story and I get that's a common trope, but it makes the world feel small and shallow.

As for the plot, it's nothing we haven't seen before. It takes a lot from anime tropes, but even fails to implement some of them. The MC is the typical edgy protagonist who's secretly a badass, but unlike a regular badass anime MC, this one does not have the approppriate display of badassery. We're just told he's awesome and we're supposed to believe it even though his displays of force are pathetic. Bonus point for the good renders, animations and music but can't give more than that.

NiiiChans quality of making great +18 games is just... ugg, im in love with both of his games. They are both freaking amazing and its really cool how both games are from the same universe.
Characters, renders, dialoges, story, music... there is everything and in top quality. Humor is also great, i love it in both titles too...
Did i already mention how great both titles are? lets gooooooo

Review for Episode five
Amazing experience and very excited to see whats about to happen to the story. The story started of a bit basic I must say and I wasn't too impressed. However the story does get a twist real fast and it is actually quite unique and exciting. The MC is interesting enough, you know the basic porn dude who is akward as hell. Theres actually way more to him then what meets the eye. The love interests in the game have unique personalities and if I remember correctly they also have thought. Their feelings towards the mc clearly develop, so there is romance and character building in place.

Can't complain about the graphics either. Really good graphics, the girls look good as you can see from the preview pictures. And animations are used, those animations are straight up fire. Good job done on those.

All in all cant find anything really negative to put in this review so I dont see how I could give this game anything lower than a five star.

Very Good game . Mystery around everywhere . MC mystery and Yuna mystery makes me curious and the game plot is also very interesting . Claire character also quite interesting . Very scary and dangerous character . She is very strong . After remaking the original game . You prove this game is far better from the original . Story looks so promising .

I'm a big fan of Nii Chan's works and I have to say that both games are excellent, but let's take a look:

1- plot:
The plot of the game is well above several h games, the plot so far has no flaws or plot holes. For some, the game Sicae can present themes a little heavy due to the story it covers but the dev manages to balance the moments of humor, romance and the parts that have action / violence.

2 - MC:
well the mc is the typical anime character, his skills would make many characters from other games cry, but for the mc not to be 100% badass and to show that he is the human, the mc suffers from the loss of someone. So, due to a balance between the mc's skills plus his problems in his personal life, I would say that he is human enough and for most of the public to accept.

3- setting / graphics / soundtrack (technical issue):
There is nothing to complain about, all technical issues are well done.

4 - sex scenes :
It uses honey select 2 as a base and in my opinion they are well done that way, however currently (episode 5) there aren't that many sex scenes, if your goal is purely sex scenes (I believe you are looking for a game with a story if you came here but anyway ) maybe it's better to look for another game.

5 - Characters:
each character, whether male or female, is well done with unique visuals and personality, so here there will be no teletubes syndrome, which is when the person has the feeling that they are seeing the same thing several times.

6 - conclusion:
Sicae is a game that will provide the player with moments with good recorded scenes of romance, sex, action and violence, each update leaves the player looking forward to the next one due to the excellent quality put into this project.

Coming into this game I had played NiiChan’s other game in My Bully is my Lover and while a plot focused story which I like it never really gripped me (Personal preference) obviously good erotic scenes so I would’ve given that a 4. However I think the positives I found in that game got me interested in this when I heard it was a remake with a good amount of content I could indulge in from the get go. (Didn’t play the original one) Also after I learned about the plot got me even more interested. I will say going in I was hopeful but it even exceeded my expectations. First let’s get the visuals out of the way. I like all the character’s unique styles, not only them looking great but making most of the characters memorable. I also got to appreciate the creator for even trying to sprinkle in animations such as fight scenes to bring life to the game especially when you think about how this more than likely is made by a single individual and probably took some effort to get done. And let’s get it out of the way obviously erotic scenes were good but that’s what I kind of expected going in due to his other game.

Now talking about the writing which I think is the vocal point at least for me. There was a message from the creator saying that some things might come off as cliche but honestly it never was overly apparent or bothered me at all so in my personal opinion that isn’t an issue. The overall plot is what made me write up this review to show a bit of appreciation this way. In the realm of erotic visual novels this is a really interesting story which will bring me back for each update moving forward. Read a comment saying it was set two years before the events of MBIML makes complete sense with the cameos from that game in this one as well. When NiiChan makes a erotic game version of the MCU universe then what. Jokes aside, I love the characters in the game. I find a lot of them very unique and a lot of the interactions/scenes a lot more realistic and natural in comparison to most games in the erotic game genre. I genuinely enjoyed the sprinkle of comedy thrown in their with the interrogation scene the story not taking it to serious keeping a good balance. I don’t want to get to into the plot of the story and spoil but i’m really looking forward to what’s coming next. Even with the possible bro character in Ken who had a reveal on how he’s connected to the overarching plot. Looking forward to future updates!

I am positively surprised.

Went into this game expecting nothing, just to try it, turns out it's actually quite good.

Character models are good, girls are fun, story is interesting and...wait a second, this storytelling and art style really reminds me of utterly horrible game about bullying being ok because others are bullied worse...give me a sec...

Oh, it's same dev.

Well f*** me.

After (and I swear I didn't know before starting the game) noticing this is from same dev that did that bully game, I'm even more impressed by this one.

No horrible life advices, no philosophical topics (badly done), just a good story, great girls and exciting H scenes. Kudos dev, I like this one. Definitely staying for the ride...or until MC decides to forgive a girl who did unforgivable because she's hot.

I was now able to finish Sicae. I did remember some things from a former playthrough of LCC, but that was quite a time ago. Because of this and knowing there were some changes to the first 4 chapters, I played through everything from the beginning. And I do liked it again! Man, what to say, it was quite eventful until the end of chapter 5. Not many devs here are capable to write a decent story and pair it with decent renders. Most of the time one side lacks or both, and in some cases there is drama added for the sake of drama without making any sense. But NiiChan, well, NiiChan is on top of that. Not only are the renders top, the animations, too. You can argue it's just HS, but take a look at other games, not every HS game has such clear renders and animations. They're often grainy and feel empty. Models often look unnatural, girls with overly big proportions and MCs and other males look dumb and ugly and would be better left out of the picture. Here we have a decend looking MC and the girls vary in looks, too. Some with a slightly bigger some with more petite proportions. And then the story, man, we have everything: drama, violence, love, sex and a fuckload of beautiful girls. And the most important part for me is, that it feels organic, not forced. And no forced love rival or atagonist "to spice things up" as many other mediocre (and below) writers try. As we can see, there is no need for such thing. For everyone, that played the latest installment of MBML, we have quite a few characters, that are already known, but in their younger selfs. I found myself quite a few times looking at the "Who's Who" guide, that Bacienvu88 provided, to refresh my memories. Thank you for that guide, very good work and very helpful!! It shows how dedicated the fans of the NiiChan games are and how good the games are. Nothing we see all to often. Last but not least, the story is the main focus, and that's very good in my opinion. I would even go as far and say, this isn't a porn game/VN, it's a story driven VN with some lewd elements. Something that keeps people including me to come back and enjoy the journey. After all that is possible because of the big updates everytime and the good writing. I look forward to the next updates of MBML and Sicae! Keep up the fantastic work everyone involved and thank you for sharing these captivating stories!

Plot is 10/10 - the story building is very good
Characters 10/10 - the characters are very good
Art 9/10 - The girls are all very good, could have been 10 but the mc face sometimes looks like a butch tomboy, though i like his face when he was younger he looks like levi from SnK
Music 10/10 - very good
Animation 10/10 - very good, this is my first VN that has actual animated fighting scene, not only that it's very smooth and cool af

Overall - 10/10 EPIC easily my top 1

Reviewed version: Ep.5

Great world building with lots of interesting background detail. There are several different factions battling each other in the shadows with shifting loyalties. In addition there are factions within factions as well.

Good story that is well written. Great attention to details. Good story structure with lots of twists and turns.

The game can be pretty violent at times with rape attempt, several murders, battles and so on. Combat is so far mostly hand-to-hand martial arts. This is nicely shown with fairly long combat animations, making the combat sequences exciting.

So far there isn't much of actual romance with dates and flower-giving and so on. Instead it is mostly for the LIs and MC to come to a point where they can acknowledge that they love each other. What is really good however is the backstories of the LIs. They are all well fleshed out and tie in neatly in the main story making. They are also mostly independent from the MC and have their own strengths and goals. This makes the LIs belong in the game setting.