VN - Ren'Py - Single Again [v1.25.02] [Clever name games]

Great game, you have to give it up for stories like this one that can provide the player a chance to experience a range of emotions. Exceptional grammar and excellent renders with nice character development; Lilith is a standout. Nice mix of adult scenes without compromising the story. A must play.

This is a weird one. Usually if you look at the decisions a dev makes you can get a sense of what they are going for, regardless of how well they execute it. But I can't do that here. The overall collection of decisions made about how this game works is just all over the place. Each one individually is fine, but taken together they just weird. I have a hard time trying to pin down what the game is going for. It's almost like the dev has two very different visions in mind and each time he has to make a decision he just flips a coin as to which vision to follow.

Just as a basic example - the sex scenes. The game starts off with that cliche "don't play this if you want sex" warning. (Side note - I usually see that as a big red flag for what so often are fairly low effort games with a dev that has delusions of grandeur. Thankfully that's not the case here.) That warning isn't wrong. The sex scenes are pretty slow in coming. Except. Occasionally it shoehorns in sex randomly. All of the sudden you just get a full on scene of "imagination" with a porn star. Yeah. Even compared to games that just move from sex scene to sex scene, this is impressive. But then it actually cuts off the last bit of each scene. As soon as the MC cums, it's immediate black screen. There is no single image to actually cover that moment. It's just middle of sex scene, dialogue for cumming, black. This is impressively unsatisfying. I'd go so far as to call it blueballing.

So, just to be clear. The game moves real slow on the sex and is up-front about that. Fine. Then it does imagination porn star sex. Then it blueballs you after giving you like 99% of a full scene. It's enough to give you whiplash.

And this happens *constantly*. I would describe the entire game like this. Even the text. It's a story-focused game that is written at a native-speaker level. A good amount of care and effort has clearly gone into the game. Except it's fairly rare for "you're" to not be "your." There's not many other mistakes, but that one happens constantly, but not always. Occasionally you also lose capitalization. It's just so weird for these, and only these, errors to be so frequent.

I could go on and on. This extends... to almost everything in the game. Even just really basic attitudes towards things. Trying to think about this game or why it does what it does just leaves me extremely lost and confused. I've written various amounts about several other topics, but it's just more of the same. I can't make heads or tails of it.

But it's enjoyable if you don't try to analyze it. I would suggest the walkthrough mod though.

No, it wasn't love at first sight, but yes: sometimes it pays to dig deeper. I mean, seriously? Who would expect a really good story while looking into a bunch of baby doll faces? Even if some dialogs were drifting around a roundabout, it was fun to read them trying to find the right words in time. And up to v0.10 some baby dolls really grew on me. Can't wait to see more! Recommended to play (OFC)

The most ethically sourced not-quite daughter harem you will ever have happily endured 10 hours of reading to get a tiny taste of.

I have some concerns that people might get the idea that you can sell/buy something for $1 and have no tax consequences, but that is literally my only complaint.

Inspirational.

Okay, here is my brief little review. (Possible spoilers ahead, be warned.)

~ Art? 4/5

I don't have much to say here as the world around the characters looks pretty solid, nothing groundbreaking in terms of quality, but just solid all around, thus the 4.

~ Character Models? 3/5

I was teetering between 3 and 4, but, in the end, I couldn't justify a 4. It's not even the big heads or eyes, although they were pretty odd/jarring at first, I got used to them pretty quickly, and I think they have some unique charm.

So why the lower rating? I mean, the characters just look off. I don't have a better way to describe it than that.

Each of the sister's heads looks disproportional; too big at the top (maybe 'cause of the eyes?) and too narrow at the chin, making them look kind of like bugs. Vanessa is pretty normal, though her partner Beth suffers the same syndrome as the sisters, only way worse. Her head looks like an upside-down triangle. And as for Meiko? I'm sorry, but she looks messed up. She not only got the big eye treatment, but her mouth is obnoxiously small making her proportions look even more out of whack than the others.

~ Sound? 0/5

I mean, the game is dead silent, not much to say here.

~ Story? 2/5

In one word? Cliché. It's just an average story, and while there's nothing wrong with that per se, there's nothing really good about it either.

I'll be honest; I feel like the story is a little on the boring side. It's not even the lack of H content; I love a good story-based game. I just feel like there's nothing that ever happens in this world, just same-old-same-old dialogue after dialogue. It gets a little dull after a while.

I was tempted to give the story a 1, but after the divorce scene with the Judge, I had to bump it up to a 2. As a guy, I know how rough it can be for guys in real life when it comes to divorces, so seeing the author make a scene like that was pretty satisfying.

~ Characters? 3/5

I'm leaning toward the negative with the MC. He has his moments where he's alright, but then there are others where I want to smack him with a pipe. Despite me writing this at v0.10.1 he has had next to zero character development, he just waivers over the same stupid crap over and over again, and just when you think he's finally made some progress, he starts having an inner monologue about what he did or what he thought isn't right and we're right back where we started.

And can I just comment on the inner monologuing for a second? The MC never shuts up. It's like, I get it already, enough with the monologuing,

And one more quick note on the MC before I move on - spoilers ahead - there is a scene where the MC sniffs Abby's dildo, yes, her dildo after she'd just finished using it, and it has to be one of the crepiest, most disgusting scenes I've ever seen in a lewd game. My stomach actually turned a little.

Anyways, as for the female characters, I guess we'll start with Abby, and I'll just come out and say it. I don't like her. I get her character is supposed to be the naive, sweet, nice girl or whatever, but the author – as so many do – took it way too far, and she just comes off as intrusive and annoying.

Also, and this isn't really her fault, just how the author wrote it, but I hate how the father turns into a spineless cuck whenever she's around. Around any other character, and he has a respectable level of backbone without coming off as a jerk, but with her, it's "how may I please you, mistress?"

Anyways, I just don't really like her or the interactions she has with the MC. I even started skimming through dialogue that has her in it 'cause I'm just not interested.

I – surprisingly – like Lilith. Usually, I hate her type, the 'bitch for no reason' kind of character. And she is a bitch for no reason. I can understand having daddy issues; from what we are told, she idolized her real father, but even still, the MC hasn't done anything to warrant the shit he takes from her.

Despite that, however, the rest of her character is really well done, and I enjoy seeing her on screen.

Of the three sisters, Becca is my favourite. I mean, what's not to like about her? She's a little vixen, which makes her interactions incredibly fun. And I love that she tries so hard for those around her, helping Lilith with her confidence – even if it makes them argue – and then with the MC, helping Lilith warm up to him. She's just a really sweet girl.

Hiro, Tomo and Meiko are okay. The author went pretty hard on the Asian cliché's, but it's not too big of a deal.

Vanessa and Beth are great, a couple of fun-loving women and a nice addition to the story.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the game. Hope it helps someone!

Slow burn progression with the three main girls but the teasing between the MC and them make it worth it. Plus the side girls take the edge off when you start to think the MC needs to "de-stress". Interesting story, nice character designs for the girls, the MC is pretty bland but tis a personal opinion. Just wish we can finally get some sexy times with the three main girls.

Solid foundations and there are good moments.

But at version 0.10.1 this project is in desperate need for fresh air. If the story was an airplane it would come crashing down in a stall. It feels like every update now you get the same thing again and again. And the repetition is not erotic content either, which could provide a small excuse. One could make slow-burn eroge, but it is a much harder task than simple smut because if you don't rely on naked skin then you rely on the story. At this point the game is not sexy or otherwise engaging enough.

I do hope one day I get to edit this review for the better.

0.11
Level 1 handjob, level 2 blowjob... This kind of progress is such an eroge cliché, and unless it's a story about characters just discovering their sexuality it is very poor plot design. MC is supposed to be old enough to be their dad and even the girls have been around long enough for this timid approach to feel very out-of-place. For a "dad" character MC sure acts a lot like 15 year old virgin without any backbone for himself. I wouldn't expect some always-alpha bullshit, but this guy is like a wet paper towel.

Now we only need level 3 boobjobs and level 4 thighjob and I'll call time of death on this one. A real shame, there are some really heart-warming scenes.

0.12
Finally takes a turn for the better. There are still parts with a lot of words and little meaning. Especially the dreaming sequences feel like pointless fillers. I suppose they are trying to hammer in the state of the MC and his reluctance to accept his desires. As if we needed any more hints that the MC is a level 99 paladin defending his virginity.

Still I must say I enjoy half of the characters and I am tempted to give this a higher score. I will let the next patch tell if this was a one-off event or if the story actually takes a meaningful turn for the better.

Very nicely done game. Story isn't anything new, but it's done well. Aminations are good, renders quality as well. In version 0.10 is already quite a story so if you are fan of good story-based VN, I'd recommend this to you.

Before starting the review know that I re-read the novel 3 times and made all possible choices.

The proposal is interesting, few things bothered me in the game and these things all ended up being explained by the story at some point ... One thing I found funny is that the game punishes with "game over" who tries to advance things with the characters before the story progresses to that point.
All the characters were well developed, the pace of the story is good (considering the subject matter), I had no bugs. Moral choices are a middle ground in this story, some can radically change the situation leading to a game over, while others are almost irrelevant to the route, varying just a little bit of the story and taking the same final decision, such as: (spoilers) The choice about sleeping in bed or not ... Some may not like it because it takes a long time for the "main character" to have sex scenes with someone, but honestly, that wasn't a problem for me because the story entertained me, but I know that not everyone will be like that. A difference is that the story revolves around 3 characters that are almost protagonists, they are not considered protagonists because you player does not make moral choices for them, but only for one of them, but other than that, you know what they think and what they do when the main character is not around and I liked that.

Considering 10 the highest score for each category, I classify it as follows:

Graphics: 10;
Animations: 9.5;
History: 10;
Plot: 10;
Character development: 10;

Verdict: It is very worthwhile to give this novel a chance, if you like history in this niche, this is for you, but if you only want random sex scenes, this work may not be for you.

This game is all about the daughter for me. It's definitely a slow grind, but there's enough content at this point to start following imo. The content that's there is plenty hot. Love the art style - the animated scenes are also generally excellent.

Almost all the characters are the same. If you look at the pictures, you'll realize that to. Our first wife and 'our' 3 children are all the same and this is not good, not at all.

There's like 5 characters in the game : our 3 children and lesbian couple. When this is the case, you get bored of seeing the same faces inevitably.
And the situation is getting worse because these three girls are the same.
And let me remind you: these girls are not triplets.
You can see the differences in terms of personality, but it is not enough for me.

I think this game definitely needs new faces. The game keeps turning between these characters. Having the people you can relate to will add the innovation it needs to the game.

Review as of V 0.09.1

i am enjoying this game.
The story thus far, the characters; their seperate personalities and design, the writing and the overall feel of the game.
The characters feel a little off in the beginning due to their oversized anime eyes but given the dialogue, it actually helps with the facial expressions.
A plus for me is that unlike many games with harem and incest tags, the MC isn't predatory. The MC is actually a very decent person. A dad trying to do his best for his girls.
The character design and writing is good with each of the girls having their own distinct looks and personalities.
Sex scenes are very well rendered.
The only downside is the MC's horse dick. Seriously??!!
Looking forward to see how the story develops

At first, I was a little put off by the style of rendering the women with large heads and large eyes. But after a short time, I got used to it, and it gave the story a unique character. I enjoyed the game very much, and found that it was very well written, and very much worth playing.

One of my favorites! I've been playing (and supporting) this game since v0.03 and the story is growing on me more and more with each update.

'Single Again' does not excel in originality or beautiful visuals, even though both are far better than average. But if I'm honest, I've seen many games with higher quality renders and more detailed characters. And also the setup (single dad taking care of one or more daughters) is not the first and definitely won't be the last in its kind.

What does set this game apart from others however, is the writing. Specifically the build-up and the realism in character personalities. In my opinion 'Light of my Life' is the only FD incest game with a more realistic plot, and I think 'Single Again' is a close second.

In these games, the father character is not some incredible sex-craving maniac who suddenly decides he wants to have sex with his daughter(s). Instead, the MC acts like an actual father, but is slowly being corrupted by his daughters, instead of the other way around. I really enjoy this different perspective because even though the build-up is slow, it feels much more 'real' and is therefore much hotter when something does happen!

That's also why I don't understand the criticism on the character of the MC. Does not wanting to have sex with his daughters right away make him a loser? Why is it called 'corruption' if a female character needs to be persuaded, but if a male character acts somewhat realistic and doesn't want to fuck his own daughter he's suddenly a 'simp' or 'celibate'?

I actually found that this was very refreshing in comparison to the dozens of games where family members just fuck each other because their mom/dad/brother/sister 'looks kinda hot'....

And the real fireworks have yet to start!

What a god awful experience, what is supposed to be a story driven VN turns out to be 5 hours of mediocre grammar, poor writing and an "awkward father that doesnt want to fuck their daughters" cliche.


I would say more but the game is in early development. I gave it 2 stars because although the main character is the most forgettable character in VN history, he has a good heart... he's still boring tho.

This game has everithing to be great, but the MC, I like the girls a lot, all of them, and I like the pacing, although slow, I like the story so far, and I like the renders, and although I don't like the MC so much, I understand why he acts as he acts, or better, thinks as he thinks, my problem though is: although the Mc thinks like a celibate that doesn't like the though of him wanting to touch his daughters innapropiartly some times in game a cognitive dissonance happens and you get the option to touch them innapropartly just to be thrown in a game over, these choices don't make any sense, both because of the characters personalitty and because of some of the reactions, thre shouldn't be an option if it isn't something that character would actually consider, at least not yet, maybe soon after he finally acepts that he wants them, they feel uncessessary and out of place, not the game overs, at least not most of them, but the choices that lead to them.

edit: The unskippable incredibly slow mini-movies bothered me enough to knock 0,5 and the way the MC sees sex work made it go down another 0,5, I'm afraid of where his personality is going, I hope I won't have to drop this game

Great characters. Fun flirty story. Charismatic art. Pacing is refreshing and the only downsides so far are the standard male protag fighting his own nature and his own instincts in a tedious manner to artificially prolong the journey to the inevitable and relieve the guilt over the incestious themes. Reminiscent of DMD in that we, as players know what we want, but the relentless inner monologue of the MC is slowly evolving towards acceptance. A fairly necessary trope of this niche, but the main girl is charming and clearly knows what she's after. Author throws in some daydreams and insta-lays to keep things from getting to slow. Good so far. Keep up the updates .

Review of version 0.08
This is a very cute game about the budding romantic relationship between MC and his "daughters".
The MC-s long struggle to not see his daughters, who become more and more flirty towards him, in a sexual way make a much better story than the usual MC suddenly realizes that his family member looks sexy and immediately becomes a perverted creep we see is a lot of games.

This slow buildup however means that even if the game offers many hours of gameplay, there is barely any erotic scenes between MC and his daughters.
There are some side sex scenes and some scenes that happen during MC dreaming or fantasizing which are actually not bad but in the current version at the time of the review the maximum that happened between MC and the girls is seeing them naked and some kisses.

There are some issues why the game didn't receive a full score from me however.
I have no problem if the graphics are not top notch in a game or if the style is not very realistic, so this is not the issue. My problem is that the game uses a mixture of models with different graphic styles. There are some characters that look close to real life, like MC or Vanessa for example, and there are the daughters who look more like characters from a Disney movie.
There are also some characters that might use a 3rd style which is also very "cartoony" like Beth for example.
This is not such a big issue normally, because game is POV so MC is not shown much together with the girls but looks extremely bad with Vanessa and Beth, who often appear together.
A very important plot device is that the apartment where MC and Abby move in at the start of the game has only one bedroom and one bed. In other games using the same plot device the MC-s family is usually forced by some circumstances to live in that specific apartment and cope with the situation. In this game I don't feel they had no other choice and therefore the whole conflict seems fake. Yes, they don't have much money and no other place to stay, but apartment is in a well situated area and is in a very good state. MC was renting it out before. From this money they should be able to find a somewhat worse apartment with 2 bedrooms. Also MC seems very hypocritical about this conflict when he always sleeps in his underwear which is part of the reason he is not willing to sleep in the same bed as Abby. Don't tell me he doesn't have a t-shirt or some other pants he could use other than his suite!
Some things with the timeline seem off a bit. According to her Bio Shannon finished high school and then met her first husband, but Becca was born when she was only 16, so she should have been still in school. Also the timeline barely leaves enough time for her to get another guy after breaking up with MC. I also don't know why dev had to make the timeline so that Abby's mother started having sex at age 12-13 according to the story which seems to be a bit early. I'm not sure whether that was a mistake.

The game's first part was not so enjoyable for me sometimes even irritating. MC constantly napping like a narcoleptic (in hindsight this might have been because of his nightmares but as this wasn't explained at that time nor was it important later on I find it meaningless), Lily's constant but justified bitching (MC seemingly couldn't learn she doesn't like he calls her that in the 10 or so years they lived together), the repeatedly shown nightmare sequence (that later turned out to be important with the appearance of fairy Abby but first you had to go through it 3 times seemingly pointlessly as MC didn't even remember it) and so on but the game becomes better as the story goes forward.
In later parts the relationship with the girls seems to be advancing nicely, some looming dangers (divorce, telling Abby about her father) were relatively successfully avoided, hopefully non of the future traps will turn into a depressing overly dramatic plot that takes a long time to resolve and the relationship between MC and the girls will progress further without major setbacks.

This is a great VN which I have really enjoyed playing (this review is for v0.08) so far.

The main storyline with the daughters is a fantastic slow burn. As a testament to the great way the story unfolds, I now almost have a fetish for the body type of the main daughter Abigail (big bottomed).

I love love love this VN, but if I had to point out some flaws, they would be:

• grammer. Lots of your/you're issues
• quickie side plots: the main storyline is a slow burn, but the side character sex scenes are by contrast a little too fast and unrealistic ("Hi I'm the daughter of the judge. She told me a lot about you, step into my office so that we can have sex")
• The character model skin texture of the woman in the lesbian couple is too yellow. She looks weird compared to all the other models.
• MC is meant to be 40ish, but his model looks like a 25 year old.

Highly recommeded

I was saving it and got dissapointed. I thought it was a slow burnning but as times passed i noticed there was nothing burning actually.
Theres text and text and text, and "meaningful" events have 1 render
So far yo see more times mc masturbating than any other action. For moments looks like the story is not about the mc, who is a mood breaker all the time questioning things, second guessing and stammering like a nerd boy.

Thats the thing with not having point system. if theres math involved theres some sort of rules. This way dev sets the rules so he can come up with this bullshit mc who refuses everything by default.

Not mentioning how convenient and ridiculous is that both fathers of the girls left, and the mother that is alive is a bitch.
But even though the girls are always close, takes so much time building god knows what, im guessing the character arcs or patreon subs, and then you get to have sex with a random girl that you met once, and is a lesbian (this one you can chose not to) and a random waitress.

Again it is like the dev knows the game is bullshit and just gives filler fanservice sex. Whats the target audience here? im reading mixed signals.
It is what it is. Right now the story is not worth it.

Art is unique, but the girls have the same square face, the same nose and the same eleyashes and eyebrows. Lighting is quite dull so the result is average i would say.

EDIT after one year:
The dev says there is no NTR, but he writes an open minded girl who talks about liking sex a lot, and she has a boyfriend, and a date with him. Maybe the actual thing never happens, at least onscreen, but that thing called writing has already established that there is 100% chance that she actually fucks her boyfriend. If a writer doesnt understand those basic rules, maybe he sucks. And the worst part if you like NTR is that you wont have the actual thing, so congratulations pissing off everyone.

EDIT2:
Afterplaying till the end of 0.13 im gonna put things in order to tell myself from the future if i sshould play this game. There are slow burns and then this. A slow burn is a candlein a stormy night when power has gone down. This game is a campfire in the night in a tropical Island, and its a stormy night, but hell is coming down from the sky, so the campfire is 100% water.

What you get in this game is:
Cheap lesbian scenes, masturbation, dream scenes wher girsl are turned into fairies and ocassional fanservice sex with some sex release side character. Those scenes i dont know how they are, cause when i get mad i ignore side characters, cause i know they are there for that purpose.
Adn you get sex scenes when you masturbate and the mc imagines tins with some random girl. The problem is the same mentioned before, and it is that i dont care about sex cenes without context, when there is 8K 120fps porn out there. (sorry devs, your random fanservice 1fps sex scenes cant beat that)

You start the game and you have 3 daughters, one i think is a real daughter, with this one you can tell is a slow burn, (i may reluctantly agree to that term), the other one that hates you and has daddy issues, and the other one, that is the smart one that wants the family "united" in a very literal way. With those other 2 there is no slow burn, there is character development, in the case of daddy issues girl, and a lot of teasing from the last one. both of them are not related, just daughters of the exwife.

Sounds good. The thing is, there is so so so so so very much to read until you can notice any pattern that makes you think this may be and adult VN, that is really hard not to skip some conversations (many fo them serve little or not purpose). For instance there are quite some conversations about topics that repeat, for instance Abby haircut. Conversations about being hungry, or covnersations about something being wrong that go on and on and on. This last type make the MC look like a beta, and a hypocrite
For this and the actual pacing this game has a serious issue building up interest, it is so empty that in your mind you dont see any hint that something interesting may happen for the next 3 years of development. This is a big issue cause almost makes your brain shut down and disconnect from the game, and once you disconnect, the things that may happen have less interest.
So things take a lot lot lot lot lot of time. You may have to read like 6 or 7 hours of text before getting a handjob, a real meaningful handjob that has an impact on the development of relationships.

Being fair, eventually the game offers payoff for the bullshit, is not wnough in 0.13 and sex scenes are not the best, not even close, but at least they are realistic. The girls are more mature than the MC, he is the tenager here.

Fixing the pacing a bit and offering something meaningful, or toning down the MC fake morals that are dragging everything, would improve my rating.

Edit for 1.18
More dreams, more memories, more fantasies, more "she is off limits", when Abby has actually any screen time, more and more side characters. Now Lilith and Becca are confirmmed Nymphos.
The MC is still weak as fuck, it doesnt look like he had 3 daughters, he doesnt even look like he had sex, ever.
Masturbating in dreams? Dev is desperate to offer something with Abby without actually offering anything at all. I hope this lie of agame stops and give as anotoher virgin to the altar of virgins. Too many years and a main character is off limits.

Visually and storywise is not worth playing it more than once. Every time deducts 1 star, is tedious. Final rating is 1.

Another edit for 1.23:
More and more dialogue, more updates, and in some of them, the main hcaracter disappears from the story, and when it gets back into it, no matter the situation, nothing will change with her. Any progression is stalled from that first day she wanted to shower together, It is more like it regressed.
That has a clear negative point, and it is the build up, cause right now there is no anticipation, cause YOU AS A PLAYER are aware that the story it is being designed that way, artiffically to achieve results that don't progress that main character. The main character is not moving from his mindset even the tinest bit, he is not easing into it, nobody is trying to actually convince him, not even the super manipulative Becca, so the design of the game it is too obvious when everything else is almost an unavoidable fuckfest. For instance I play with the playthrough picking always the wrong choices for meiko, and in the end I find myself with single choices where you can not avoid stuff with her.
With other characters some times you pick an unrelated and harmless option and you are done.
In one of the latest updates the dev went as far as making you have sex with the main character in a fantasy, Well done!! I still remember those old times when you would hear the dev bragging about the slow burn and all that, and now you see the game full of lesbian dream fairies, and have the first sexual intercouse with a main character in a dream/ fantasy sequence. Well, the Mc is still spineless, only when it is convenient.

The only decent thing is that ther was a couple of updates to some designs, but the writing is still conveniently trashy and dialogues are too,too, tooo long.