VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Something Trainer [v0.2f] [Mr. Placeholder]

I dont want to repeat what others have already written. I am going to add what I wish I had known before playing. As of now, I would give it 3 stars. This is because I am a big fan of SU but get kinda frustrated with it's limitations. It appears most of these are corrected in this game. What wasnt clear was that this game has VERY little content so far, compared to the original (although I still think it's worth the DL). So I give it 3 stars for what it is currently and for all the reasons others have mentioned and added an extra star because I would like to see this progress, although I fear this is extremely ambitious and may take quite some time.

Fantastic game. In my opinion it has a much better premise than "Something Unlimeted"
A
though I'm not sure I condone you ripping from another game unless you got permission. Like that's not cool, but also, better game? And more content for the layman. Still I kinda hope the stolen background atleast get recollored EVENTUALY. Though I get game makeing and makeing your own OG art is tough. And snagging some backgrounds expedites the time.

Over all the GAME is good, longer than I expected for v0.2 , I'm excited for future updates. Please god dont let this die

The game doesn't have the sheer breadth of content that SU has, but there is a solid difference in having a large sheet of crunchy thin and quickly finished content as opposed to a well that you can go back to. It doesn't hold your hand as often or basically do all the work and make all of the decisions for you. If Placeholder continues to create content at this level then I'm all for it, as it's nice to see the artwork from Sunset I enjoy being put with some actually decent writing.

We need more parody games in general.

Pros : No chuck shit, as the MC, the main draw is the training the girls to be your personal harem members.
Cons : Still have a lot to click through to progress
Art : Anyone that wants to make a game big as SU is in for a challenge or how the original author put it "crazy".

This is actually really good, a but lacking on content, but it is fairly new. The writing for the characters are closer to how the actual characters act than in Something Unlimited, and I might even say that if it keeps developing like this, it might even be a more complete game than the game it's assets are from.
One sorta problem I have is the use of moderately loud sound effects in select scenes that scare the fuck outta me almost every time because of the lack of BGM or other general sound effects.

Who doesn't want a faster nude rate for DC heroes and villains trainer which is different from SR7 which is more focus on the story for each of the characters. Let not condemn this creator just because he used the contents from something unlimited, we should be glad as there are more things to fap to.

It's not great. At first I was excited about the idea, despite the recycled art assets from Something Unlimited. After all, the original game from Gunsmoke had a lot of issues with pacing, grinding, and so forth. Having a reworked version with different gameplay could be really enjoyable.

But that's not what we got. What we get is is basically the same, just... less of it. So we still need to wait for the days to pass in order for the Glamour Slam to make enough money for us to buy upgrades, and we still need to upgrade the legions/glamor slam/devices to get new things. The only thing that is improved is that we don't need to go through the process of setting the schedule for the dancers, or fiddling with the device upgrade menu. It seems like just an incremental step, when the best thing should have been to just do away with all the money and upgrading mechanics to begin with, what even is the point.

The same thing goes for the progression with the girls. The original SU has a lot of grinding in that you need to repeatedly visit each girl to unlock slightly more content, starting with dancing and then stripping and then more explicit acts. It can get tedious and repetitive.

Now, this would be the main draw, the big thing that would place Something Trainer over Something Unlimited. If the whole point would be to make this more of a focused trainer game, the training aspect need to be more robust, more interesting. Maybe some more stats, breaking down the resistance of the girls, definitely more dialogue and reactions. And we do get a bit of that, to be sure, there's a few dialogue options, asking characters opinions of other characters. But it needs expanding. I would say that rather than going for LOTS of chars with shallow interactions, like the way SU does, it would be better if there's only a few characters but lots of in depth interactions. And not all of it needs to be sex, given we're only working with a limited supply of art.

The writing and the UI are not as good as in SU. One of the big disadvantages of SU is having to click around endlessly to move from room to room, and to advance to the next day. Something Trainer does not fix this at all.

For instance, you're given the option to have some conversations with Batgirl, ask her opinions on the villains she fights. This is an interesting addition to the game that was not something in SU. However, to access this dialogue menu we need to first click into the cells where Batgirl is, click walkies to take her to the club, then click champagne room, then click "spend time with her" and only then can you reach this dialogue menu! How ridiculous is that?

With the writing, there are a few grammatical errors, in particular with punctuation and capitalization. There's also a lot of parts that lack detail. For instance, in SU we get several lines of descriptions when characters strip or dance in their cells. Some more than others, and they will start to repeat, but they're usually exciting on the first go.

In this trainer, I've come across several dance/strip scenes right near the start where the description is basically just one line of "Girl takes off clothes." It's not really a good mood-setter. I know that the art is limited to what is provided us in the original SU, but writing is one of the key places to differentiate these two games. Having some better written smut would be a big boon.

Credit to where it is due, I really do like the things this trainer does that are not in the original at all. In the previously mentioned example of Lex talking to Batgirl, I thought Lex's characterization as pretty on point for arguing about how he does very similar things as Batman, and his whole argument against Superman being too dangerous. Batgirl on the other hand though feels OOC, a bit too weak-willed, it would've been better with a more lengthy period break down/discipline period.

All in all, I appreciate the ambition but a lot more work needs to go into this to be anything more than just a mediocre cover-band version of SU.

[Rev @v0.2b]
VERY nice for an early version.

Art's great, but I don't feel that's fully relevant since this is [n authorized] re-use of existing assets. Still, fappability > legalese and that's definitely here.

Writing is good. It's an early version and that shows; more polish is needed in some of the dialog and the Ren'py timing commands; the odd timing with some dialog box transitions + the same colors on some names can make it unclear who's saying what to whom.

Dev's got a good first stab at corruption pacing. I feel both of the two capturees progress too quickly in the early portion (IE give in too easily) but mid-to-late is handled well. My main grouse also hits on my kink preference; I have a strong distate for anal sex and personally don't like it when it's treated like the penultimate proof of having corrupted somebody. There're so many other fun kinks to mindfuck a goody-goody into; exhibitionism, group sex, bi/lesbianism, having THEM be the seducer for random plebs or their mentors, or sickest of all-- romance. So many other paths, yet it's always BJ -> vaginal -> anal.

Nothing was bad though, and I'm eagerly following the thread hoping for more.

I've played the game it's very enjoyable so far and the fact that you can soon play around with the starfire/blackfire sisters will make this game go from an enjoyable experience into something quite unlimited... unlimited fun, if you know what i mean.