VN - Ren'Py - Soulmate [Ep. 3] [The Gentlemen]

Had to stop playing pretty early, so I won't go for 1 star to give this game the benefit of the doubt... From what I saw this is:
- Follow the story (don't think about it, follow).
- Click choices for porn, not the other ones that could make sense.

A lot of times in reviews I can read "dialogs are weird.". And for me, it's not most of the time because I'm not an English native speaker... In this game, it's like there are no human interactions. It's almost human...

You're in college, and on the first day, your sister is being bullied because of her handicap... By 2 guys that sound like they're 12. Not saying that it's impossible to find people like that in college, but it feels very weird.

First day at your job, your "boss" knows there's a ghost in your room but doesn't care at all, but to be honest, the MC doesn't mind living with a ghost, so... I guess it's normal? Or it's not, but it is anyway? ... Anyway, give me a foot massage... Yeah, that's basically how the conversation goes...

Next, you go find something to do, hear sound in the changing room (mixed, of course)... And sure, an attractive girl is masturbating in the open... Peep? Don't peep? Doesn't matter! If you choose don't, (like, to not get fired on your first day you never know), well, the MC can't move because... And if you peep, you of course don't hide yourself... And the girl wants you to fuck her.

I know that "porn logic" is a thing... But you must add some logic to it!


Maybe it gets better later in the game... But 1st impressions in those games result in a "skip or quit" situation and after that, improvements are irrelevant. If the game cares to improve, EP1 needs a rework.

This game is different, its funny and the images and script are good. It's worth playing if you want to step aside from the usual game in F95 but also is sexy with nice models like all good games here. Kudos to the developer and artists!

VERSION: EP.3
SUMMARY: Too much nonsense and poor story to bother reading, just watch the pictures.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

1. Models: 4
2. Animations: 2
3. General Visuals: 3
4. Characters: 3
5. Story: 3
6. Writing: 2
7. UI & Gameplay: 3
8. Content (amount): X
9. Sound & Music: 2
10. Fetish & kinks: X

Average: X of 50 possible points giving a X% rating i.e. X stars.

PROS:

1. Models look decent and MC doesn't look like a total wimp either.
2. Visually the game looks good, decent renders and overall world looks good.
3. Some profound writing, like "sister" being picked on, dealing with her disabilities and cruel people, but thats pretty much where the "story" pros end.
4. You get some lewd scenes early enough in the game, however they short lived and vanilla.

CONS:

1. Spelling and/or typos, while English may not be the native language for the dev, I suggest getting someone to proof read the script that actually is English or versed in it.
2. Animations are just still images on loop and then only 2 or 3 of them so not great.
3. The story has too many unbelievable bullshit in it that come together just too well to be coincidence.
4. No other sounds save for music, no ambience or lewd sounds.

FINAL THOUGHTS & SUGGESTIONS:

• Right off the bat, the story is weird, that simply because there is no preface, no context to what is happening, we can get behind the scene, but the world? Do vampires exist? Or is this just some joke between colleagues? I find such writing frustrating and the reader/player should not need to figure out such basic and fundamental information, plot points and such yes, keep the player/reader in suspense but not like this, it screams lazy writing to me.
• Minor detail, but Jason has a Sheriff uniform on, but he speaks to the Sheriff, are they both or is he a deputy? Minor detail, not a gripe, but his badge should reflect what he is.
• The ghost interaction is weird, my bullshit meter goes too much into the red especially when the MC bangs the ghost. I mean while the ghost is pretty, the MC who seems to be such a nice, sweet, honest and wholesome dude, just simply sticks his dick in a horny ghost like its the most normal thing and the "protest" if you can call them that or whatever you call the lip service bullshit he says to avoid screwing the ghost is just that, bullshit, which just emphasizes this part of the story being bullshit.
• The MC seeing ghost is one thing, but the manager seeing them and being completely fine about talking about it, like its the most natural thing, like the ghost is just part of the furniture, like a squeaky door that everyone knows about is just too much, its a bit annoying.
• Not sure if this is known, but dev, Sadie is squint, her eyes are in my opinion wrong, like she is looking at the bridge of her nose, it one thing to do that when you reading with poor eyesight, but naturally? No...
• I am personally not a fan of this kind of "Ghost" story, the ghost is not a ghost, its corporeal meaning the MC can interact with it like its a normal person, but basically invisible to anyone else. Im sorry, but that is not a ghost at all and this again ties into silly writing for me, you didnt even have to make a fun sexy ghost who doesnt wear panties during the day and sleeps in lingerie at night...fml such bullshit, oh and don't forget a ghost that eats too! So what the fries are floating in the air and disappear down some mystical hole? You could easily stick to normal people and use a specter or actual ghost, avoid sex and physicality (which is impossible with a ghost) to the MC. Im fairly certain though that the way its written ties directly into the game story, the relationship between MC and ghost, but i am not a fan of this kind of story.
• Ill be honest here, after the squint manager just drops the ghost convo like its talking about the weather with the MC and then promptly asks him for a massage and immediately its a domination foot fetish thing that ensues and 1 slide later the MC drops his pants and starts to jerk off I just lost it. I speed through rest and more bullshit came about that I just could not get behind and I closed the game. Its simply put REDONKULOUS
• My biggest gripe is the story, the developer chooses to ignore fundamental concepts, knowledge and pretty much facts and distorts it all to fit a very silly narrative (the story). Sadly just because the developer has a strange skew perception of story telling, doesn't mean we all have. I believe the mechanics of the game, how it was built and designed are good, but the story, in particular its execution and how its all strung together by bullshit scenes and dialogue after another...is just horrible and ruins its for me.

A good start.
The story is quite interesting,.

The MC is one of those rare species that are actually likeable. Sometimes he seems a little bit overwhelmed, but in a cute way

All LIs so far are intriguing. The choices lead to different scenes, not sure yet how that influences the overall development of relationships.

The English is ok. Some sentences are a bit clunky or weird worded, but overall bearable.

Overall: 3.5/5 - It's above-average and worth downloading and playing. Some work on the English translation would make it 4-stars. Hopefully, updates will be more frequent due to the lack of animations and higher image compression.

Story: 4/5 - Definitely better than average. There are some contrived and stereotype situations, but not too many. There is an unusual mix of western (American/European) and eastern (Chinese) cultures and lore. It's definitely original and it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Writing: 2/5 - Poor English translation. Sometimes it's OK, but sometimes it's really bad.

Renders: 4/5 - Female models are very pretty, but their faces and bodies are all too similar-looking. Resolution and detail seems a little low, and renders sometimes look a little grainy. The game size is very small, though.

Animations: N/A - no animations in the game. The game simulates animations by alternating between two or three renders when you click during some scenes.

Content: 3/5 - The amount of content seems about right for a first release, but the quality of the sex scenes is a bit lacking. In the existing sex scenes, the girls jump on the MC too quickly. There's not enough relationship building.

Gameplay: 3/5 - The gameplay consists of infrequent choices. There are exactly 11 choices in the first episode. Choices change the content you see, but it's not clear if there are other effects.

Bugs: 3/5 - I encountered a couple of bugs, but nothing game-breaking.

• The clickable hotspots on the Load/Save page are both overlapping and not aligned with the graphics. I.e. if you want to click on the page number to go to a specific page of save games, you have to click on the empty space below the number.
• While in the library, several lines of dialogue were spoken by the MC but attributed to Molly. There were a few more of these in other places, but I didn't write them all down.

WTFs and other weirdness:

• The car where the dead parents were found 16 years ago is contemporary with cars of the present day.
• Molly the Ghost can feel pain and pleasure, feel tired, eat food, change clothes, and even have sex. Does she also poop? Where do her clothes go when she takes them off? So far, the only things that make her different from a regular person are that she can float and only two people in the game can see her.
• Meave sees the MC having sex with Molly, who is invisible. Meave sees MC's cum squirt, which wouldn't happen if Molly was "solid" so that the MC could feel her. Yet, in the scene where Molly eats some French fries in the middle of a crowed entranceway, why can't other people see the French fries in her mouth?