VN Ren'Py Single Again [v1.24.1] [Clever name games]

[felicemastronzo]

While I don't mind MC's going full perv in VNs, that was never the path for Frank but he needs to make up his mind, whether he acts on it at the same time or not, at least be a more more internally decisive. Like "i'm gonna give it a try with all 3, but only at their pace and their initiation even if I'm gong to hell for it" or something to that affect

in absolute is not a problem, but it must be a conscious choice (like Parental Love to make an example), in many games instead there is a hypocrisy that makes everything fictitious

 

[pgm_01]

I enjoyed the update quite a bit. I was looking forward to fun with Lilly and that did not disappoint.

There is always so much whining about Frank. I can somewhat understand it, but the whining is more annoying than Frank is! While we are seeing this world through Frank, he is not the one in control, Becca, Abby and Lilly are. That is why Frank has such difficulty with his decisions. He loves the girls like a father but also has to admit that he has other feelings too, even toward Abby. However, Frank is not the MC of this game, he does not set up the situations. There are plenty of games where MC is in control, some in fact where MC is so controlling he is predatory. That is not Frank. He is not quite an NPC but he is not really the lead in anything. Even with the lesbian couple, he did not make the first move beacsue that is not Frank. He is not a doormat, but he will go along once the signal is clear to proceed. He is conflicted because he wants to respect the girls but can't figure out how to do it.

To see how a game like this can progress with a more passive MC, I would check out the game Life With Mary. The MC of that game was a bit reluctant and hesitant too but did grow while still debating if he was doing the right thing or not.

 

[giqui]

Lilith doesn't...

 

[kameohawk]

I enjoyed the update quite a bit. I was looking forward to fun with Lilly and that did not disappoint.

There is always so much whining about Frank. I can somewhat understand it, but the whining is more annoying than Frank is! While we are seeing this world through Frank, he is not the one in control, Becca, Abby and Lilly are. That is why Frank has such difficulty with his decisions. He loves the girls like a father but also has to admit that he has other feelings too, even toward Abby. However, Frank is not the MC of this game, he does not set up the situations. There are plenty of games where MC is in control, some in fact where MC is so controlling he is predatory. That is not Frank. He is not quite an NPC but he is not really the lead in anything. Even with the lesbian couple, he did not make the first move beacsue that is not Frank. He is not a doormat, but he will go along once the signal is clear to proceed. He is conflicted because he wants to respect the girls but can't figure out how to do it.

To see how a game like this can progress with a more passive MC, I would check out the game Life With Mary. The MC of that game was a bit reluctant and hesitant too but did grow while still debating if he was doing the right thing or not.

To be fair, the issue with the MC isn't that he's passive, it's that he holds onto that passivity in the face of literally any and all logic to the contrary. Being slow to engage is perfectly normal, Life with Mary is a good example as you said, however imagine Life with Mary but this time the MC, every time he finishes dicking Mary, then proceeds to spend the next 10 minutes telling her how wrong it all was and how it can't happen again. The argument becomes a bit thin when his cum's dripping down her thigh, you know?

 

[MrLKX]

Mixed on this, can't really deny your point but on the other hand, story reasons it makes sense Frank is basically wishy washy about it. A story needs bumps along the way and one of the main bumps has always been Frank himself.

But yeah I get why people would get irritated, but if Frank basically goes : 'Frick it' and we see what we want him to do then there's basically no real conflict that could happen except from outside forces which can be overdone real fast.

I am also a sucker for slow buildup compared to fast one and as far as for sexual content the creator has been generous compared to other games that try to do the same thing (Gumdrop was it?). I mean this update alone basically could have gone: Bj and nothing else. But nope, they went straight ahead which was surprising tbh.

We will see what the next update brings.

You are absolutely right and just because he is who he is he fits into Becca's plans. I also have no problems with the fact that he is not as active in the matter as other protagonists in comparable plots, on the contrary I find it quite a welcome change. My problem is that his character development moves in circles and thus he doesn't get any further, alternatively to the circle also square, if we compare his development to a classic waltz, if I let the rascal in me out. I can only hope that the encounters with Abby's biological father and Lili's ex Frank provide the opportunity that Frank shows some backbone and develops, I mean somewhere deep inside he has it in him:

1. in the flashback in Lilith's Longing, when he talks to Lilith's principal.
2. pretty much at the beginning, when Lilith is snubbing him and he can clearly put Lilith in her place.
3. at the judge's office when Shannon accuses him of touching the girls and Frank can react angrily here.

And I think that there is definitely a middle ground between the kind of MC that Frank is (and I like to call a stagnant windmill) and other MCs of this type of MC (type: the creepy one). I think this VN would waste a lot of potential if Frank at the end of this VN was exactly the passive mouse he was with exceptions at the beginning. If Frank's development is delayed even more, I would at least like to see his self-doubt monologues at least reduced, because just when it gets kinky, he tends, and this has already been mentioned, to a certain degree of hypocrisy. In my native language there is a relatively appropriate expression for this: Preach water and drink wine, to translate it roughly. It is difficult to translate as an idiom, but in the end it means "saying one thing and doing another (the opposite)".

Long ago I also expressed the opinion that one of the big flaws in young Frank was that he dated the one who bullied his best friend (Abby's mother). In hindsight and on second thought, that's not so surprising anymore: I strongly suspect that the initiative came from Shannon and she only dated him to hurt Jessica. Yes, she also flirted with him before Jessica arrived at the pool, but the question of how honest Shannon was back then remains unanswered.

 

[Random06776]

To be fair, the issue with the MC isn't that he's passive, it's that he holds onto that passivity in the face of literally any and all logic to the contrary. Being slow to engage is perfectly normal, Life with Mary is a good example as you said, however imagine Life with Mary but this time the MC, every time he finishes dicking Mary, then proceeds to spend the next 10 minutes telling Mary it was wrong and it won't happen again. The argument becomes a bit thin when his cum's dripping down her thigh, you know?

Yeah I get that, but I think it's fine because it makes the moment when Frank finally decides to abandon that process then it becomes that much more evident he has evolved. Buildup and pay off and all.

I prefer this to vn just immediately does them all without a thought process behind it. Of course you got the other end of the spectrum where there's ONLY BUILDUP without ANY PAYOFF (COUGH COUGH GUMDROP). Still this creator does actually give us plenty (sex scenes and all) so I can easily image the pay off will be genuinely great.

Though I wonder if the people who complain about it are the type of people who prefer to skip dialogue and go into the action which is alright all on its own but for this game I think it's better if they sorta do this.

 

[jclosed]

Well - At least Frank should admit to himself that he already passed the border. I do not mean he should go "yeah - Fuck it all I'm going to screw them". Far from that! But now he has passed that border, he should start thinking how to make the best of it. The girls that grew up as his daughters are no longer kiddies that have fluffy unicorns in their heads. They are now grown up women. They still need love and attention, but not in a dollhouse way. How much he want to deny it, that affection has become physical. It's time he start learning his denial no longer protect, but hurts his loved ones. It's time he stops sticking his head in the sand and keep brawling, but start acting the age he has...

As I said before, there is noting wrong with being "real world realistic", but this is not the real world. This is a Visual Novel, and while realism is not bad, there is also a being "too realistic". In a VN realism is used to convey a seriousness and sketch how tormented the main character is. It gives the plreader a certain bond with that character. However - If you overuse that realism, the character goes from sympathetic to apathetic. The plreader start loosing sympathy with the character, and starting to see him/her/it as a looser, a pathetic person. The Frank character in this VN is on the brink of switching from a sympathetic to pathetic character. There has to be an development, and it has to happen fast, otherwise he becomes no longer a contributing, but an irritating factor. And that would be a shame.

Mind you - I am talking about the Visual Novel world, and not the real world. But that should be obvious I think...

 

[Steven Kimpton]

How do I play the update?

 

[quorkboy]

The update:

I loved a lot of it.

I adore Lilith even more now.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Reflections on the general concept of the MC's reactions and progression:

He's a father. They're his daughters. Adopted or not. They didn't suddenly stop being his daughters when he divorced Shannon (not that Abby could since she wasn't Shannon's.) No magical transformation from "these are my daughters" to "these are available women who are in no important way different from anyone else I might meet."

People keep throwing out "it's not illegal" as though legality is all that matters - if there are no legal consequences to something then there are no consequences. This is false. There could be all sorts of consequences if this came out. How many people do you think would want to buy a property from the man who is fucking not just one, but more than one of the girls that society also views as his daughters. Shannon could claim he's been grooming them for years. Or someone else could make the accusation. Do you think the girls will be believed if they say "no, we wanted this and we started it"? By some people, yes. But enough will believe otherwise to potentially make his life miserable.

Thoughts of legal trouble don't make sense, but concern over possible fallout does.

Even without that, it's perfectly reasonable he wouldn't jump straight into having sex with them just because they want it. If you want to argue something is unrealistic, it's highly unlikely that a) they'd all want him, and b) that he'd give in this quickly, considering they've grown up as girls he thinks of as daughters.

But ... his mental progression is well behind the physical progression. And while I thought it was getting better in the last update or two, in this it took a dive.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

The writer seems capable of creating characters that aren't one dimensional. He needs to figure out how to keep the MC's "loving father reluctantly corrupted" persona without him stalling mentally. What was one of my favourite aspects of the story - that he wasn't creeping on them and wasn't jumping at the chance the moment it was offered, because he wanted it to be 100% consensual and only if it was what they truly wanted with him - has become overdone. I'm not asking him to suddenly switch to wanting to fuck all three all day long and twice on Sundays. Just get his thoughts more aligned with his actions. Move to thinking about how he needs to make sure the girls are always taken care of in this new relationship paradigm; how they're going to keep the secret; is this something Abby wants as well and how will he deal with that if true; and so on.

You can characterise this as whining if you like. I see it as constructive criticism that could take a VN that is I think is above many others, and elevate it a little more.

 

[cxx]

i guess buttsex is out of question or none of girls would be never walking straight again.

 

[Ayhsel]

The past.... 10 odd updates in a nutshell

I know, right?

It is like "please accept this magical unicorn, it wants to be with you, it loves you, you love it, why the hell are you refusing to ride her? I mean it"

 

[Lotex]

Huh, this game turned out better than expected. It doesn't reinvent the wheel all over again, but what it does it does pretty well with a decent story likeable, bug-eyed cuties. Rebecca's chat pic somehow reminds me of Mia Khalifa though

 

[Thrill Flares]

I like how everyone who is calling the MC a "weak little bitch" put a lot of "thought" into understanding the thought process of the MC...... Now that sarcasm is out the window let me explain a logical point of view why the MC is acting, as the entitled fart hats would call, a "weak little bitch." When it comes to Pushing away the mere idea of a sexual relationship with Abby its cause of her mother. Abby looks like her mother and so everytime he looks at her or thinks about her it's hard not to think of her mother. I think he partial regrets not being with her sooner. So it may weigh on him. Also when he got in a relationship with Shannon (the first time) he and Abby's mother(can't remember her name) stop hanging out or even talking. Then when Shannon dumps him the day she moves(not telling him shit about moving till the day of) who gets him back on his feet later on? Oh yeah Abby's Mom. It possible he feel like he may have betrayed her to go out with a witch who kept talking shit about her cause of jealousy. If he were to get into a sexual relationship with Abby it would be like he betrayed her mother (again), but in this way it would be a betrayal of trust. When it comes to Lily and Becky? Have you paid attention to the story? They are clearly crazy. Becky is a manipulative sociopath and lilly is impulsive (partially demonic) little nymph. Doesn't a saying come to mind? "The Apple does not fall far from the tree." If they are this crazy how tf are we quantify Shannon who even Becky calls a "cold hearted bitch" She has already have gone and accused him of molesting Lily and Becky. So it could be argued he "might" have manipulated (groomed) them from a young age. Also just cause you (Lily and Becky also) would say fuck what anyone else thinks, society as a whole does not like age gaps that are that big. He is old enough to be their father. That is why this is a incest taboo game. Just cause they are not related by blood does not negate the fact that not only was he married to their mother, but he is old enough to be their dad. This may be a porn game but its a lot more realistic than most porn games and has more psychology to boot. That's why I don't bitch and complain like a entitle little brat as if i deserve the MC I want. Seeing the story, the characters, and the psychology is mind blowing. Its easy to complain then it is to understand. It like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He is ugly with hunchback. (probably a cousin of Igor) Its easier to see him as a monster cause of how hideous he look then to think he might actually be a good guy with a good heart. Quick assumptions lead to more complaints and troubles then taking a second to be understanding.

 

[ArmoredCascade]

I keep losing track of who's the girl's mother is for a while it says that Jess was Abby's Mother then now it's Carol and that Arron is her father where at the start it said that the MC and Jess had Abby and brought Abby home from the Hospital

 

[Thrill Flares]

I keep losing track of who's the girl's mother is for a while it says that Jess was Abby's Mother then now it's Carol and that Arron is her father where at the start it said that the MC and Jess had Abby and brought Abby home from the Hospital

Jess!! That is it...Well her nickname. Her name is Jessica to be exact. Carol is someone else.

 

[ArmoredCascade]

so why did MC say it sounded like Carol was Abby's mother by saying she left and disown her when she was pregnant with Abby? and that this Arron fellow is Abby's dad? I'm just saying it's a bit confusing how many women did MC sleep with after Jessica passed away?

 

[Mmushy]

Dude, your reading and comprehension needs work.
The Abby's mother's name is Jessica.
Abby's maternal grandmother's name is Carol. That means Jessica's mother's name is Carol.
So when MC said "she disowned her" she was referring to Carol disowning Jessica when she got preggers.
A quick synopsis - Carol called MC to tell him Abby's biological dad ( I can't remember the name) wants to get in contact.
Later on Abby's biological dad ( I still can't remember his name) calls and MC flips out on the phone.

...that's why I think that letter regarding a will probably came from Abby's biological paternal side.
(Hope I didn't confuse you further with the last bit)

 

[ArmoredCascade]

Dude, your reading and comprehension needs work.
The Abby's mother's name is Jessica.
Abby's maternal grandmother's name is Carol. That means Jessica's mother's name is Carol.
So when MC said "she disowned her" she was referring to Carol disowning Jessica when she got preggers.
A quick synopsis - Carol called MC to tell him Abby's biological dad ( I can't remember the name) wants to get in contact.
Later on Abby's biological dad ( I still can't remember his name) calls and MC flips out on the phone.

...that's why I think that letter regarding a will probably came from Abby's biological paternal side.
(Hope I didn't confuse you further with the last bit)

you didnt when at that part i read it wrong

 

[MrLKX]

What do you think Becca's way will be to involve Abby in the whole story?

We know that Lili has to be present as well, because she clearly threatened Frank if Frank would act on his own in this direction (Ha!) or at least she would have the impression. Consequently, Lili must also be present.

A possible scenario would be as follows: Frank and Lili are going at it. In the meantime, a drunk or at least pretending to be drunk Abby comes home and joins the two. Preferably she starts her offensive with Lilith, because it can't be excluded that Lili delivers less conflict that way and her worry that she could lose Abby in that direction is dispelled that way.

I also don't think it's impossible that Becca deliberately brings Abby on board here and plans the execution with her.

 

[Vombalk]

has the gallery mod been updated to the latest version?