VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Stargazers [Ch. III] [v1si0n4ry]

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE QUIRKY
Now three chapters into the story, some feel for the plot, pacing, etc., of this game can be had. It's still too early for a review like this really to be fair, so keep in mind that this is with limited knowledge of what may yet come. This information is current as of Chapter III of the game.

THE GOOD

THE BAD

THE QUIRKY

In conclusion, Stargazers is an interesting game with some solid aspects. It steers clear of many tropes typical of science fiction and delivers a fair amount of creativity, something often lacking these days, especially in adult entertainment. The game is far from perfect, though, lacking a fair amount of reworking and polish that could really make it something memorable. My actual rating is 3½ stars, but since there are no half-star ratings, I'm leaning on the positive side and giving this 4 out of 5.

Played from the scratch and was really very pleasant. The story is well developed with a good peace, isn't rushed at all. I'm sure the characters will be deeper as the updates go by, the cliffhanger already gives us a hint of that.

Certainly the plot isn't corny, it's an adult game and some twists of the story are needed to go to porn, don't feel as an excuse and fit flawlessly.

The renders and animations are very good too.

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on Ch. III...

The visuals of the characters are decent (mostly) for this being a Science Fiction based story line VN/Game... The backdrops are rather static and in keeping with a sci-fi theme... The tentacle monster looked like a 70's throwback Claymation baddie with that B-Rated Sci-Fi flavor... The first sex scene with Vex was one of the most bizare sex acts I've ever seen, and I'm not even sure it was possible for a persons body to move like that during sex... It actually disturbed me more then anything... The remaining sexual content was a mix of robotic like animations, and the one ejaculation scene in chapter 3, although it would fit in with a low or no gravity situation, the ship had gravity, hello... So it was a bit on the unbelievable side...

The script is easy to read for the most part, but it is riddled here and there with grammar errors, a few missing words, and the tiniest bit of broken English... The plot revolves around a male protagonist who is assigned to play diplomat aboard an exploration ship filled with nothing but females, of various species... The story telling is a bit fantasiticle, and moves at a very rapid pace, through all current content... The whole premise of the plot revolves around a race, who's queen can cause any race or people in the vicinity to immediately begin mating... She is kidnapped, and the idea is that they must find a bunch of artifacts to help save her and possibly the rest of the galaxy... There is an interesting twist at the end of chapter 3, but I'ld rather not give it away...

The characters personalities are a bit hollow, in that most of them are highly promiscuous and they run around the ship half naked or even fully naked, half the time... It's hard to explain other then to say that it all feels like a B-Rated Porn Sci-Fi, with poor actors, a shallow plot, and a script that moves through the story at an incredibly quick pace... Riddled with lots of erotica and/or dirty thoughts mixed into most of what it going on a majority of the time... I've never seen a plot move by so quickly, in anything other then what you might see in Real Life porn movies made back in the 60's through to the 80's...

The description claims this VN/Game has a deep story with some intrigue... While the intrigue stuff might be present, I can not say the same for the deep story... There is story, but it feels poorly written and is throw at you very quickly, and doesn't always feel well presented... The plot is more like an excuse for the porn, rather than it being a meaningful and deep story, told with rich and multi-dimensional characters...

A production issue I recommend they fix, is how they end prior chapters, instead of just rolling onto the next one, they end each chapter almost as if that was the end of the current content, with screens that feel like ending credits... With recomendations and so on... The only time that should be present, is at the end of the current content, which is, in this case, Chapter 3... When they add another chapter, move those credits to the end of the next chapter, and not leave them where they are... Just a thought...

Overall, yes it is a Sci-Fi themed story within a Sci-Fi environment (for the most part), but to say it's something I enjoyed reading... Not really... I did chuckle when I saw the tentacle creature, but not because it was done well, but because it was so out of place with the rest of the character graphics , and it so fit in with what I felt this whole VN/Game was... A B-Rated 70's porn flick... It's not a completely horrible VN/Game, but I just expected more, based off the description... And the character visuals along with mostly good looking backdrops, just can't make up for the issues with the plot holes, very fast story progression, stereotyped character personalities, and corny story telling... Best of luck to the developers... I will most likely not be revisiting this one, but only time will tell... Perhaps with this one being so early in development, it might improve some time in the future... Who knows...

Version (Chapter II): Very promising beginning with original characters. For now, we find: Galactic quest atmosphere, spaceship that I like and different species with whom we can upgrade our relationship ;-)
For the moment, 4 * encouragement that will evolve good or bad with the following

The story is solid and laying a really good foundation for the characters and the plot. The art/BG's are very detailed and vibrant- could be in a mainstream VG. The Characters- OMG, ALL of the women are rendered beautifully- each one is as stunning as she is unique (in personality and physicality). I definitely would love to see more Prie and Arisa (together and separately), but I'd really just like to see more of all of them- more Amara, Chloe, Vex tbh (even the burlier-than-the-rest weapons expert Sigrunn)...just more.

Well, done v1si0n4ry- keep up the great work!