VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Sorcerer [v1.0.0] [Talothral]

Update to the completed version:

Went back and played this completed version as my original review was very early on. Shouldn't have. My original review stands, an unemotional boring ride. Sex scenes are boring, many of the LIs are not attractive and the sex scenes are some of the most bland creations I have seen in VN/Game. The story itself was longgg.... and not really that great, and became meh...time to skip. The characters themselves were just dull, no real attachment to anyone.

I will leave the 2 stars for completed, and the effort the dev put in. In no way can I see the high rating this game has received, this will be one of the ones I will not understand the other reviewers. Heck I even like the kinks in this, I like GILFs in games, don't mind the one leg thing, love the impregnation bit, so it wasn't the kinks...its just so dull.

Original review below.

Gave this a try due to the high ratings..usually that pays off for me, not this time. The dev is trying to write an epic story or something, but, it comes off as weird, odd, and completely deviod of excitement.

I played thru this update, didn't hit the couple of branches that were available, but only found two sex scenes. One old, and ugly granny, and a chick with one leg. Nothing agains either, but damn the dev made them ugly.

The lead up to the painfully rare sex scenes were so blah...no emotion, no ...jeez nothing! The scenes were happily very short, since they were horrible to begin with. The story this Dev is writing is long, and eventually you get tired of it and after about 200 clicks later you get to the end of this version.

Art was ok, except the female models are blah, some are ugly, others are completely uninspired. The MC is boring, and so cool and badass, that its just devoid of emotion and any sense of ...really anything. "I'm cool, tell everyone to fuck off, and hey this Granny wants to have sex with me, sure whatever...thanks lady, ya we can do it again, you were great, but hey I was better, cause I am so cool...now I gotta go, do some secret mission, with my awesome gun, great haircut, and tell everyone to fuck off again." The Vet thing with banter I get, I am one too, but he is an unemotional twat.

Would work if this was a parody of some spy 007 thing or quasi constantine magic thing....but its not a parody, it comes off as just blah.

Rare that I bother to review bad games, usually giving the benefit of the doubt to games in development and give them time to get better, usually I review good games that I want to shout out for...had to review this.

An Engaging Fantasy Story with Excellent Character Building

The character development of MC is just so astounding .
A straight up guy who is wholesome and kind and has the qualities what a person should aspire to achieve in one's character and it compliments so well with the MC being in late 30's as he has his life figured out and knows what he wants and what kind of person he is.
Also a great job done building this wholesome character up.

````````So in my opinion one of the best if not the best main character ever created in a VN

THE DOWNSIDE OF THIS VN IS THE FEMALE MODELS I THINK DEV GOT A THING FOR SHORT HAIRS AND HAS SOME ECCENTRIC FETISHES (old granny, amputee, midget all the while all of them being short haired)
Not my thing and i really don't find any of them appealing but i'm playing this for the story and the thrill it exudes so far it is good for a fantasy story

The story and writing are just great also it's engaging as the dialogues are never boring and repeating always something new to keep the reader engaged in. Not to mention there is enough humor to keep you entertained.
````So excellent job at writing.

The renders are good but can be improved a bit whitish i think the lighting and shadow have issues i'm sure dev will improve overtime not an issue for me looks more than good enough for me. There are variation of models that are new and not generic. The MC is different too not the same identical twins of 4200 other games.

I like the slideshow style its a new approach to scenes in the game it's good for the scenes that aren't erotic with cliche dialogues and saves you the clicking.

Highly recommended if you like fantasy or supernatural stuff
Do try it you won't be disappointed.

What you have done so far is an impressive piece of work I hope you keep focusing on story and keep on surprising us.
Keep up the good work. Goodluck.

An excellent story that has a few sex scenes but focusses on the main overarching story that features a modern monster and magic story. Very enjoyable story with an excellent cast of characters that you will grow to like and know. All the characters are unique in their own ways and all feel somewhat believable despite the more fantastical elements of the story. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes and am hoping we get a lot more from this world and characters.

GOD I LOVE IT.

Adult conversation, right to the point. An MC that ist not thinking with his
dick only. The Graphics are quite good, not as High Quality as I normally
like them. But the story and the MC make it worth playing and enjoying it.

Business talk at the beginning was a bit distracting and I must confess that
most of it passed my brain unreminded.

If you are a sucker for great adult stories, and adult is much more than just
showing sex in all varieties on my counter, want to feed your brain and
have a whole experience rather than just fapping, GO FOR IT.

So far (update v0-9-0) so good, I saw two reviews that were negative, one complaining about the slideshows, and that had bothered me as well, but for that reason, after I mentioned this the Dev made a mod that fixes that, it is called "Pause mod" and it is in the OP, and the other one is not even worth talking about, I just mentioned the first one because it is a "problem" that has been fixed, now for the game:

So far I really like everything about it, the Mc is an adult and not an asshole, which is a huge positive in this type of games, the only problem is that he has been through so much that his personalitie is set, there is awelweys space for grouth but still, he is his own person and not an avatar, for some this is a positive and for others a negative, for me it normally would be a negative but I actually like the Mc's personalitie, as said by others he is a decent person, and because of his past he tends to help others withoth having to think too much on it, the game does let you have a voice on how much you help but in the end, it is part of his personalitieto help, he is a decent human being, which again it is a plus for me, but at the same time he isn't a push-over, he is an adult and had a rough life, so he has a somewhat strong personalitie and at the same time he lacks life, this is just how the character is "Stoic" I believe is the word in english, so be warned.

The game is very good looking, at least to me, the renders are pretty nice and with the pause mod I enjoy it very much, the sex scenes are interesting, they feel short but at the same time not, I think they could be extended a bit with maybe some position changes and dialogue, communication is sexy to me(yeah I know I'm weird), some kissing as well, but again so far so good.

The story is interesting so far, I like the idea that the Mc is not born into this supernatural world and discovers it at an older age, it gives the entire premise a very refreshing look and feels, he isn't a 20-year old that doesn't know the thirst thing about life or a teenager full of hormones, he is almost 40, and that makes this game very interesting, I love how the plot has developed so far, and that Fairy Dragon is my favourite thing ever in a VN so few actually give a "pet", in this case, more of a companion, and because of how the Dev approaches the game with the "show don't tell" we can make our own conclusions about where things are going.

The characters, we have many that I feel are important, I'll not mention names because I legit don't remember but that is on me I'm bad with names, there is the boss which we know little about( but I have my own theory about him), his son which is the Mc's best friend, the secretary that seems like it will be an interesting relationship of either friendship or something more akin to a character in the Dev's other game, there is the Asian beauty that is the catalyst to the story and seems like a fierce woman, there is the girl best friend that has a war injury and seems like a strong person, there is the old lady that is into the occult and the coworker that I don't know too much about, some honourable mentions are the two homeless girls that we can help and the rest of the Mc's friends, but those will probably be explored later.

Not much left to say, I'll say though that I hope the Dev will take their time and fully flesh-out the characters and relationships, I'm not into the whole Secondary characters thing, if you show me someone please make sure to explore their full potential, I would love to have time to just enjoy conversations with these characters and help them with their problems or have them help us with ours, The action is great and I love it, I'll love absorbing every little bit of lore I can find in this game, but for me, the personal relationships are the best part of VN's but to strike the right balance is hard, I do trust that the Dev will be able to do it though.

Story is alright. Though I did not get very far. Because of the needless slideshows. Not animations, just a bunch of screenshots that are so far apart in where the character is that it looks very jerky. Got tired of watching slow frame by frame scenes skipping through which can cause you to miss some dialogue and if you go back you have to watch the snail's pace slideshow again. No thanks.

0.8.0 and all i can say about it right now is "lame". Someone was discrabing MC as "BAD ASSS!!!111" here, well he is not. His is just some caricature, the simplest to-do list on how to "make MC good". He's just lame, artificial, i cant sympathize to him as hes is unnatural, flat.
I can discribe him in a sarcastic way as "savior of the disadvantaged". Not a human, but a flat piece of cardboard. Right now we have like 8 straight updates, and what do we have? 3 sex scenes, one is granny, the second one a legless, and the third can be counted as normal one. Not the "disadvantaged", moreover there is one more "sexy scene" but we got nothing, only chess in lingerie. Da fuck? That is idiotic as hell not to say more. Idiotic in every possible way, as a story plot, as a charcters even the idea behind it PAYING 25 GRAND SO YOUR WIFE COULD PLAY IN LINGERIE BEFORE OTHER MAN. Again, as MC picturing her, the one that loves her husband and no one more.
MC is an SJW hero, constantly saying that he dont fuck drunk woman, that he dont want to fuck teens, as they "not into it as kinda lesbians", helping everybody becouse he can and so on and so one. This is porno game, not a story about mythical ideal Red Cross representative. The porn game with magic and i had not seen any proper magic even now. Only talking about magic. So yes, this game is lame.

GREAT MC So happy that it isn't a creepy looking kid!
BAD ASSED MC Who doesn't want to take the part of a bad ass?
Interesting story!!! Very and highly!
Girls are very appealing and I like that you do not start off as a Man Whore, though I could easily see the transition lol
Just overall a very engaging story!

The strong point of this vn is the story, which is very well made the characters id say are a nice blend of different personalities and the mc is a refreshingly decent person all things considered.
11/10


the graphics are good, maybe not the best but definitely not slumming it and it seems to be improving as iv been playing the devs previous game and there's some serious learning going on.
9/10

as for improvements to be made, maybe get a proofreader or something. while there's definitely less mistakes than the previous game there is still the occasional missing word.

all in all id give the current 0.8.0 version a 9.5/10

Off to a good start.
Good looking models, but the real strength is in the story. If it gets as interesting as the Dev's previous work we're in for a thrilling ride.

Sadly, good writing has a harder time gathering fans than bloated bimbo's but I hope people will still appreciate it none the less.

Edited and updated review:
Sorcerer is a strange animal. I liked the many different characters, I liked the obvious harem approach, the fantasy setting, the variety of types of LI and the quick development time.
The writing in my opinion has improved, with one thing I have a problem with, to which I will come back later.
Renders are still nothing great, but perfectly serviceable.
All in all, considering a game with a very similar premise, which was very popular seems to be stuck in development hell, Sorcerer is a great alternative to that.

Okay, now for my little discourse about what I perceive as the one remaining flaw (and this is definitely just my personal preference, not a general problem).
Sorcerer is basically told only through dialogue and visuals, like a film. There is no narrator, there are no descriptions, you see what happens and the characters talk. In itself, I like the concept, it is kind of an unnecessary limitation, considering that even films and theatre plays find ways around it, if they need to, but it certainly is something that I can appreciate.
Sadly, it is also the one thing that I find really negative about the game.
It's the sex scenes. There is of course very little dialogue and a lot of them are just repeated, simple fuck animations, not in itself bad, but also not outstanding or anything. Now, a good descriptive narration for a sex scene can be the most erotic thing for me and certainly make up for any flaws in the visuals, but of course there is none here, due to the way Sorcerer's story is told.
What a pity, I would probably give the game five stars by now, if not for this.

But this is definitely a great game, well worth playing, actually finished and with plenty of LIs available and given how diverse they are, everyone should find a few that he or she or they really like.

[Rev @ v0.4.0]

Like it a lot, but it's in dire need of an editor.

Art's nice, if simple. Character models are appealing and I appreciate not seeing Max for the millionth time.

Writing is of mixed quality. The scenario is familiar but not irritatingly so. Narrative and characterization are strong and have me wanting to see more of this project. I really like the MC thus far. The moment-to-moment writing voice is confused and choppy and really needs an editor and/or proof reader.

As of the current version the only NSFW content was a brief fully nude bath scene. I did appreciate the authoral restraint shown by not immediately having two complete strangers start bumping uglies.

I dislike the sequences of silent slideshows in place of narration; they're jarring and disruptive to click through and disappear entirely if the Ren'py skip command is engaged, leading to some WTF moments.

TLDR: Current quality straddles the line between 3 and 4 stars, with the potential on display tipping the balance. Godspeed~