VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Stormside [v0.23.1.4] [Atemsiel]

I rarely feel the need to leave a review, but this is a 10/10 experience. Diverse character designs, fun character interactions with distinct personalities, and the way foreign language is incorporated are all top notch.

The only real negative i had while reading was that some of the dialogue cut-offs were a tad frustrating, as it resulted in me having to roll-back to not miss a section of what was said, most notably during the phone conversation with Riley, early into it. I understand the intent, but having half the prompts needing to be clicked-through while the others automatically continued left me unsure of when i was meant to click to progress. Oh, and I wish we had at least one other positive male character to interact with.

Version played 0.1.1 (0.11)

Visuals:
It's definitely a honey select game but the renders are pretty decent and the girls themselves look decent, the MC does not. I do like that the breast sizes and body proportions remain in the realm of reason, with the exception of the mc's dick. Over sized penisses really don't make things any better imo, but that's just me.
Animations are reasonably good.I do however wish the video near the pool suffers from a case of heavy overcompression (video's with a lot of panning / movements require a higher bitrate).

Story,
Pretty good so far, can't say how things develop.

Choices and stuff.
Nothing to note really, doesn't seem like they matter much atm, which is for the best.

Very nice and promising game. Models looking great same for the animations. On top of that cool assets which i havent seen before. The Story so far looking intresting too.
I'am Looking forward for more.

Absolutely great production value. Models look great, animations and other stuff is great, transitions are great. Just great all around, can't wait for more.

Kinda a shame there's no NTR/sharing route planned, as the game is perfectly set up for such a thing, but I understand the dev doesn't want to overstretch/might not be into that.

Well, for a first-time solo developer this is beyond impressive.

Can't say much about the story or the characters, as this is just the prologue, but other than seeming a tad one-dimensional (probably due to how short our time with them is for now), I've no complaints. The writing is good, as is the pacing, the comedy sticks the landing and the worldbuilding happens organically, which I appreciate.

Renders are great, not my area of expertise but I didn't find any problems with them and I've always liked this aesthetic so I may be biased.

While the renders are great and the grammar errors are minimal (a feat that's much less common than one might presume in the visual novel medium), what really blew me away were the animations. Some of the best I've ever seen in any 3D VN, bar none.

All-in-all, truly a spectacular start.

I like the models--they're stylishly presented and very cute. The dev uses ambient animation that is well-enough executed that it doesn't seem artificial, and lends a degree of realism to the characters that might otherwise not be reached. The characters are sympathetic and identifiable, if not too bright. All in all, this seems like a game worth following to see how it develops.