Ren'Py - Completed - Space Journey X [v1.50_15] [y.v.]

Game is one of the better ones here. I love the setting and exploration stuff, even the fighting is kinda fun.
But since it's a porn game I wish there was more stuff to do with the girls in different rooms and different times of the day while you progress through the game. The balance between gameplay, grinding and sex scenes just doesn't feel right. Threesomes don't seem to be a thing but I didn't finish the game yet.
On top of that the actual sex scenes are usually one simple animation which underline this feeling of wasted potential.
Artstyle is unique and very appealing for me.

Man I REALLY wanted to like this, but it just feels unfinished.



Like all other people have said, the art and story are cool but the gameplay and sex scenes are a total mess (and those are kinda important in a PORN GAME).



1. The money making mechanics feel half assed:

-Mining is basically useless when random events like the "help ship" are so much better (and the minigame is too simple)
-Trading and doing errands is just too unpredictable and slow, compared to just going around and killing everything and looting
-Selling android is too much of a pain in the ass and honestly boring as shit, maybe with more work and a change of mechanics it could be better



2. The combat just lacks any depth and becomes boring really fast:

-Just 2 types of enemies, and you deal with both almost the same way
-Map design are too simple (sometimes being completely void of any features) so you really don't have a lot of choices outside of just shooting at your enemy non stop
-Some enemy spawns are random, meaning that combats can go to easy as shit to impossible (and basically making it impossible to make a plan)
-You only have 2 kind of weapons and both work basically the same, with the only difference being that you just use torpedoes to kill a bunch of gruped up enemies (if rng movement makes them group up). Mines exist, but suck so bad they might as well not



3. The corruption mechanic was kinda cool:

Until you reach the point where the dev clearly didn't want to do it anymore (after disciplining all 3 characters) which leaves you with a giant hole in the gameplay where you basically do nothing but go from point A to point B talking to people.



4. The sex is just boring:

No build up, no tension, nothing... you just walk up to a character and tell them "We are gonna fuck" 10 times till you finally do it



5. Ship management is there, I guess:

And I simply don't know why, half of characters can only do 1 thing (again, you can tell the dev just got bored and stopped doing it) and honestly there is no need for it, it doesn't bring anything to the gameplay



6. Way too many characters that do jack shit, and a lot of obviously cut/abandoned content:

-You have 1 scene with the bartender and then nothing
-The shady dealer and the strip dancer might as well not exist
-All the other pirates except the Krell could be deleted and it wouldn't change a thing
-Speaking of Krell, their entire area is a big void of nothing, you can't trade, you barely can stay because your crew mood drops significally day and you can't fight that well because enemies are simply too powerful
-And following the trend, the 2 next zones are simply barren, at that point the game could have just become a VN
-Seraphine could have been a one and done reference to the previous game, instead we have her on the ship and we can barely interact with her
-Same with both the Voros
-Same with the space captain android


There is a REALLY good game beneath all of this, and honestly with just a little work here and there, adding more content and cutting unecesary shit this game could honestly be one of the better ones here, but as it stands it is just a really well polished dissapointment, and the dev clearly doesn't want to work on it anymore and just go to the next project.

This game would be absolutely fantastic -if- the h-scenes were to become something more than just a single simple loop with little to none text/interaction between characters.

Frankly given the quality of everything else it makes the issue even more frustrating. It's one thing when -everything- is mediocre.
But no, we have quality art, pretty hot setting, neat exhibitionism, memorable girls, lots of stuff to do and actually kinda fun gameplay mechanics.

And yet when it comes to sex it just feels so... empty. Or may be even lazy. So many scenes and yet so much wasted potential. I would trade the existing animation for more build up/exposition any day of the week. Just look at "Turning the Page" for comparisson. The scenes there take -forever- but the details are exactly what makes them so hot.

I -really- want to love this game.
But currently I can't. I just can't.

both princess in tower and this game suffer from the same thing - very short scenes with 0 buildup or payoff. Both games start like corruption games, but halfway through abandon the concept.

Instead they seem to focus more on story in the later half, you can really see this when you look at the gallery afterwards.

I would suggest to the dev to write and animate more intricate scenes, that isnt just 2 pumps and cum, and to elaborate on corruption mechanic.

More of a review of the actual gameplay which is absolutely in the top tier of all the management games on this site,


First of all SJX actually has gameplay and not just sandbox w/ conversations and occasional stat checks


The Bot building/prostitution money making minigame is engaging and it's satisfying to see progress as your bots go from earning you pennies to millions. It felt good in the midgame to scavenge alien ships for bots and then deconstruct them for new/ rare parts for your own bot pro ring. Unfortunately the fun peters out in the endgame where it's just more efficient to skip days refreshing the store for the exact right part; but overall great management system.


I recommend adding more lewd scenes to this part of the game which is already engaging


The Combat is somewhat strategic and definitely not too easy but it is painfully slow unless you are already way too strong for the encounter. Each enemy ship takes their turn individually so in big encounters you wait a lot. Early on the strategy comes from maneuvering but later becomes about efficient turn use, making the combat even slower. The damage system (where health lost results in random destroyed ship modules) is just annoying because it wastes a lot of time in trying to find replacement parts. The result is you'll want to avoid all but the super easy encounters.


It is a fine system overall, but just takes up way too much time which in a lewd game should be spent on something lewd, or players will want to move on to something else.


the girl's corruption mechanics started off very standard with just dialogue, gifts, and repeat lewd events to train them - but the new punishment system added recently does make you engage with the gameplay; and I hope this part will continue to improve,


There are a few other mechanics but I don't really have any major complaints or compliments; other than to say that as you reach the end of the current content it feels like I'm working harder and harder for very little, but that's to be expected.


Overall the games is in great hands and I'm confident it will improve; just hope the game will become even lewder

Normally I skip Sandbox games, because I prefer continuous plot or storyline. However I really like this one for a strange reason. It is very well balanced and keeps me interested with everything that's going on. It is crtainly grindy , but only for the start of the game where you have to build up the cash to develop further. After that it's just good management that keeps you afloat / aflight.

PROs
entertaining clicker
kinky outfits
cash mgmt + minigames
lot of content in game time
visually stylish
good sandbox

CONS
still a sandbox
characters could have more depth
lacking on story
a bit grind-y
repetitive and limited lewd content

Despite the cons I still reserve a special place for this one. It is clearly made with love and is aesthetically very pleasing.

You have to grind a lot, but the art is good, and the story is getting better. Lol, I hope for a lot more story, more women, more sex and more adventures. The art is better than in Stationmaster. It is pretty original. Too many recycle art from other games.

It is a great game with several key aspects to take into account. The progression has been taken into great care, there's a lot of content in the form of quests that are well mixed.

Combat is quite simple once you get to understand it, but it grants satisfaction when you are progressing and killing those crafts that previously where demolishing you.

The sexual aspect could be improved in my opinion. Even though that the unlocking/progression is quite nice, the actual scenes are severely lacking in erotism. This also makes the characters and their relationships fall quite flat. In any case, I guess this could always be improved.

As it is, I am having fun and I haven't even finished the content.

Love the game i actually spent a lot of time in it. extremely entertaining for me.

Gameplay:
Solid gameplay ,mechanics might be a bit grindy ,but over all breaking that threshold the game is really appealing. The combat is entertaining, money is well balanced to some extent, and adult content is good too.

Story:
The story is very consistent, funny at times. It matches the porn scenes. I am personally not a fan of ren´py games but this one actually made me read the story for once.

Art - CG:
Renders look extremely good. Would love to see a bit more animated cgs. Background places ,cities ,ship, and the others are easy to understand where are you standing.

BGM - Sound:
Sound is descent, maybe a bit flat in some cases but it matches the esthetic. Personally i would love to have some voice actors but is not that the game needs it.

I quite like this game, as a TL;DR I'll say that the game has good presentation. it makes the most out of RenPy's rudimentary framework. Although the models are a matter of taste I find them appealing, unique and with a good amount of eroticism. Writing is above average for these type of games. And the cherry on top is the Dev's work ethic. My one pet peeve however is with the porn side of things which I'll elaborate further down.

Presentation
Dev puts great effort into making this look and feel like a proper videogame, menus and interfaces generally feel snappy and have distinctive flare, you can tell right away that thought and care was put into them.

Gameplay
Probably one of the more divisive parts about Space Journey X, I think the game systems play off each other well and don't overstay their welcome, as you recruit crew you can delegate tasks to other people and hold more of a management role which I quite like, do keep in mind that I'm quite tolerant for grind and for me this game is almost right on the edge of being annoying but I enjoy it for what it is, I find it gratifying when number go up. My one minor complaint is that I wish it was a bit more integrated with the narrative, mainly how the crew involve themselves with the gameplay and the story, which there is some of that but I wish there was a bit more.

Sound
Serviceable, doesn't stand out in a negative or positive way. The music and sound effects fulfil their purpose and they add to the overall presentation

Visual Art
Models look good, they are unique and I like the lewd costumes the cast wears, especially the default starting ones. Nudity comes rather quickly and abruptly, I would've liked it to be a bit more built up, but that's just my preference.

Writing
Story follows a typical space adventure set up with a comedic tone and it's fairly consistent in that regard, it's very cliched but I think that's a good thing, it's fun to see how the erotic beats tread on familiar territory. In western erotic games sci-fi is not done that often so I appreciate seeing it when it does show up. Writing's biggest strength however is how it reads with no issues (like it was written by a native speaker or someone with very fluent English) which is always nice to see. My one complaint is with characterization (mainly with the female crew), although the girls have different personalities they share common traits, they are all somewhat taciturn and they express themselves in a very similar manner

Porn
I think porn scenes are y.v.'s biggest weakness as a creator and the one thing holding him back from being a top 5 developer (in my eyes). I'll start with the good, I enjoy the light BDSM theme that the game has, I feel indifferent for it most of the time but I can enjoy it sporadically, out of everything I think this is the one thing he really excels at. I enjoy the transactional and emotionless nature of some of the scenes... up to a point. The scene structure usually goes something along the lines of: MC convinces girl to do sexual act -> Sexual act starts -> 3 second animation loop back and forth -> MC cums -> End, this makes it feel like you are watching a guy fuck a blow up doll which is also something that happens within the game, so the contrast is more stark when the girl has the personality of a dead fish throughout the whole thing. There are a few exceptions to this and these are the scenes that I like the most where there is a set up, different scene transitions, dialogue between the characters, different emotions, etc. I'm the type of guy that prefers still images with dialogue and writing to carry the scene and in this case the animations are not that spectacular to carry the scenes alone

y.v. as a creator has huge potential (imo) he has made huge leaps from his past game and even in Space Journey X you can see growth between each update. Whatever direction he decides to take I'm eager to see what he has in store in the future.

Story isent bad but there really isent much, you could proberly read all the text in 10 mins if it was a normal novel.

To me the grind is just to crazy, it takes forever to get anywhere with anyone, first you get them to use one dress and make them to 50 things to then move on to another dress where you again need to do alot before getting to do a ton of handjobs then a ton of bjs, then force the one virgin into a fuck machine to get used to being fucked before MC gets the chance, i know there is no virgin tag but tris comes from a planet where they never have sex....so yeah....missed the chance of making a virgin scene which could have been a fun one, with her getting her very first orgasme experince and so on, but shes calm and just takes it like its nothing but a job.

Getting the AI cores for the ship always takes forever, everything just takes to long.

It proberly has something to do with the lack or personality since shes a clone of spock from star trek which is also meh, out of the 4 girls 2 has that kind of boring personalilty.

Then there is the sex scenes where the animations are just really boring and very short and camara position is really bad in most scenes, so you play for hours with little to no reward....not even the girls show any emotions when they have sex, it just so very weird.

Then where there finaly is a princess aka spoiled brat, you get quest to bow down to kiss her feet so she can have her bathtub and a servant????????
please someone explain to why MC dosent punish that bitch and put her stright like he does with all the other crew.......so bad.....and just a very poor attemt to put in femdom in a game that souldent have femdom...idiotic.

The girls are close to the same build seen one nude seen em all, i wasent really a fan of the looks either not ugly but not hot either, i did like Nimhe a little but thats about it.

Also its the absolutly worst kind of sandbox quest wise since quests are tied together so skipping the ones you hate which would be most in my case is not possible and having that granny bot on MCs bed was a huge turn-off and being forced to do sex shit with people you hate is a brainless move from the devs part, it could so easily have been avoided since sex scenes in this game means nothing and would mean nothing if they werent tied to questlines.

So the general premise is pretty good. Like it's a fairly understandable story.

The only issue I have regarding the story is when the story updates and I have a bit of a time looking at any thing I might've missed or seeing quests that aren't finished - but the game is updating quite readily, so you can't fault it in that aspect of the game.

The art is pretty alright, I feel like the animation could be smoother or something, but the nsfw bit feels like it doesn't get sidelined and is actually a part of the gameplay and story itself and, generally, fits kind of well into it.

And, for some reason, even though you can't repeat saves in the game, I'm actually pretty content replaying some content and even, on occassion, grinding back a chunk of my stuff if I don't use the item-save mechanic in the game.

It can be better, sure by a bit, but the fact that it's still getting updated so fast makes it worth a better rating in the near future.

Space Journey X is an extremely frustrating game to play, because it feels like one of the biggest displays of wasted talent on F95Zone.

There's so much skill on display in the art, programming and to a certain extent even the writing here, that it makes the central issue of the game all the more glaring: the sex-scenes are perfunctory, anodyne affairs which run directly contrary to the themes of the plot as well as the conventions of the genre.

Space Journey X is, ostensibly, a trainer game. The structure of the game is the same, with the main character progressively corrupting the crew members into wearing ever skimpier uniforms and engaging in progressively more involved sex acts - standard trainer game fare. The main character also refers to training the crew members multiple times, making it clear that this is the intended thrust of the game.

However, the heart of the trainer genre is just that - corruption. The progression of the characters is such that they come to enjoy and even desire more "depraved" acts as the game goes on, demonstrating the effectiveness of the training from which the genre takes its name. However, none of this is ever present in Space Journey X.

None of the women in this game ever express any actual affirmative interest in sex. The "main girl" T'riss views it exclusively as a scientific endeavor or a chore undertaken to further her mission. That's a very reasonable starting point for a corruption plot, but practically speaking, the character never progresses in her training. As the game goes on, the main character manages to convince T'riss to engage in handjobs and blowjobs. She also is put into an "autotrainer" - a sci-fi fucking machine that's supposed to cure her frigidity (in service of the mission of course!) and then later submits to "Krell pet training" - but it never amounts to an actual change in her character. Even after training her to the full extent that the game allows, actually having sex is still rejected by default as not advancing the mission.

Further, almost all the "good stuff" in terms of the training happens either off screen or completely interactively. The autotrainer stuff happens without the main character's input at all, and amounts to exactly one animation of T'riss in the machine with no dialogue. For the Krell Pet Training, she's literally sent off the ship at the start of the day and comes back in the evening, then refuses to tell you anything at all. The only indicator of progression we get is an integer for submissiveness increasing.

The sex scenes that do happen on-screen are, as mentioned, very perfunctory. They generally involve the girl dispassionately giving a handjob or blowjob, or getting in the position and saying "I think you're supposed to move now" or something to that effect.

At no point in the game do any of the women verbally express any sexual desire or pleasure. It's implied that they do have sexual desires - many of the characters have dildos in their cabins of the ship, and one of them frequently masturbates and even does self-bondage on the ship. But during the sex scenes only the main character ever expresses pleasure by going "aaaaaah" like fives times then jizzing all over everything.

This is a big issue for a trainer game. The gameplay loop of a trainer game is to do some gameplay activities in order to increase corruption, which then rewards you with character progression. The trained character falls gradually into corruption, and the dialogue reflects how the training has changed their view of the things you're doing. Without this progression in the characters, the game becomes essentially the quest of one guy to find progressively more convoluted ways to pester women into having sex with him until they reluctantly agree with a sort of disinterested shrug. This very much undercuts the enjoyment of playing the game, end leaves one feeling kind of cheated at the end.

The developer's last game, The Princess and the Tower, had the same issue of the main girl just never really seeming into any of the sexual stuff in any meaningful way.

There is one exception to this in the later updates of the game which added a discipline minigame which does, at least in principle, address the women in the game enjoying sexual acts. Gameplay-wise it asks you to balance sexual pleasure with stress in the disciplining. This is a common conceit in games like this and works well, however even here there is a missed opportunity. The women only comment with a single line at the end of the disciplining, and only one of them ever expresses approval, no matter how high the pleasure meter goes.

Even so, having the disciplining game does provide a ray of hope that the game could come to actually incorporate the women in the game as actual characters with sexual desires rather than hard done by sex dolls just trying to go about their day and handing out quick blowjobs to the annoying ship's captain so they can get back to their work as soon as possible.

Grindy but decent game mechanics. However, the grind is simply not worth the reward. There are few sex scenes with penetration, and they're WAY too short (few seconds, one angle, one position) . If you're looking to fap, this game isn't it atm and not sure if it ever will be as sex content doesn't seem to be a priority

Good:
- plot
- graphics
- gameplay
- no bugs

Bad:
- very, VERY grindy
- combat is rather hard, requiring to use lots of expensive consumables - making for more grind
- the price of some items is very high, again, making it even more grindy
- sex scenes are very brief
- older save games not compatible - this is a big NO, NO (even with the quick start option at beginning of game)

The lost on a spaceship start is a bit tropey but the game has plenty of great plot threads and each character has its own interesting story. Space Journey plays like a trainer but with a ton of gameplay systems and progression to break things up.

[v0.9c1]

I really liked The Princess and the Tower, and this follow-up builds on that for a game that is more ambitious in almost every way. A lot of effort has clearly been put in, and there a lot of good parts (the unique graphic style being the standout) and nothing that's particularly bad. It's a competent and professional production.

And yet… for me it does not come together as an enjoyable game. I think that comes down to three or four things:

1. The gameplay loop isn't super fun, with a lot of different systems to learn and things that need to be upgraded by grinding before you can play effectively. Then once you get a grip on things, a lot of it has already become irrelevant because you're earning so much money that you have no need for it any more. (An example is Transport Missions: I don't think there's ever any time in the game when you have the capability to carry them out and they're still worth doing. Another is the sex bot designer: you can spend hours messing around with it, but by the time you can access good components and have figured out how to get the most out of them, there's no longer any point.)

2. The story is pretty unfocused, without clear stakes. The basic premise is that the MC is stranded in another galaxy and wants to get home, but there's no indication what makes this galaxy (which has humans) different from ours, and he seems to be fitting in just fine and living his dream life, so why? Anyway, most of the game is only very tangentially related to this goal.

3. The sex scenes are extremely brief (literally just a couple of seconds in many cases), emotionless and robotic, and several seem to reuse the same animation. They almost all follow a format where you pester or bribe some woman to have sex, she says OK, there's a single loop of pumping, a cumshot, the woman asks if you're done, and you go on with your day. Not particularly sexy. (A small handful of scenes that tie into the story are more rewarding.)

I think a lot of the problems come down to the fact that the characters are very thinly sketched (the MC is a blank slate with zero personality), and there aren't a lot of personal interactions between them, so the sex scenes and story developments feel meaningless. The Princess and the Tower, with its smaller cast and more streamlined story, took the time to build fun dynamics between the characters, which Space Journey X sorely lacks.

Space Journey X, as well as Princess in the Tower (same developer), are absolute gems. I thought I was ambivalent to this style of game until I tried these. The gameplay system is easy to get used to and understand. The characters are phenomenal - they each have their own personality and intrigue that draws you in and you really feel responsible for their “progression” and ultimate fate. Also the art style is just super clean and appealing. Everything from the actors, textures, backgrounds, down to the smallest objects feel like a cohesive part of the game’s stylized aesthetic. On top of that the developer is an awesome individual who creates every aspect of these games and posts detailed dev tracking logs while developing projects and has helped give me some tips when I reached out.

Great game. The sci fi nature of this one has opened up all kinds of imaginative mechanics that make the story progression super fun. 10/10, I’ll play every project from y.v.

I normally do not write reviews but I just had to for this one.

Game Concept:
At its core a trainer game but on the surface an well designed space exploration, trading and combat gameplay loop. A complex sexbot construction minigame keeps you motivated as player even when the main quest/content is done to get that one awesome sexbot that has eluded you so far.
If you want gameplay on rails with just a string of sex scenes this game is not for you. You actually have to play the game. And there is a lot of game.

NSFW
Animations are rather short and seem to use looped frames, but are well placed. Excellent renders and unique character designs loosely based on existing sci-fi lore. Reasonably challenging training mechanic with attributes to raise and humorous dialogues leading up to the "event". Niot to forget the lewd uniform trope being used gratuitously...

Stability / Design
For the complexity it is offering very stable despite its regular content and gameplay updates.

Summary
All in all a game I have been looking for since the days of playing content like Elite and X.

The concept allows for many more quests and alien races as the crew travels towards home and I sincerely hope it will use this potential to the fullest.

Great Game!

This would be a 5+ stars game and could actually be fun to play.

But.....

-With the walk-through and grinding/repeating actions in specific day time and place you'll manage to proceed.

-Without the walkthrough (and even if you take in consideration the hints inside the game)... good lack unlocking the quests.