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

The TLDR version for my review: it is a very pleasant experience with Stormside.

I particularly enjoy the sound effects in the game, which have been done beautifully - these little things make the game much more immersive. Of course, that is besides the diverse cast both in terms of looks and personalities and good elements of the story.

Really looking forward to see how this goes with Stormside in the future.

Nice game. Models are really nice. The characters are interesting. The story is simple (which I think is a good thing) and has a lot of potential to turn out really good. The renders and animations are stylish, and try to think out of the box often, this just goes to show that the dev is talented and has a creative approach to some scenes, which I like.

This game needs more attention. A lot of good things to point out.

The good
- Characters are good and the game has humor without overdoing it. No one is unbearably annoying, even Olivia will be fun to interact with once we get to "discipline" her.
-Animations and sounds are nice. Ambience and music always make games feel more fleshed out.
-Renders are good, nothing crazy
-The punishment aspect (especially the interactive ones) will be really fun. Being able to change the severity of punishments and having that change the story is something I am really looking forward to.
-I like the interactiveness with the phone. Being able to track the girls stats and change their outfits adds a layer to the game.

The mehh
-The introduction of the MC's ghost hands kind of just dies? Doesn't feel at all relevant to where the story is headed now.
-A few sentences throughout the game are missing words that lead to choppy grammar. It doesn't happen all that often, but it is a flaw.
-Game can be a little buggy at times. I was crashing at a few of the clock transitions and picking up onions makes the screen flash black and white sometimes.

Despite the flaws this game is a 5 for me, good work dev.

Stormside offers experienced AVN fans something that you don't necessarily find on every corner. This includes a technically flawless presentation, both in terms of sound design and visual presentation. The animations are really good, the facial expressions and body language of the protagonists convince me and the dialogues are entertaining and sometimes really funny.

The story contains superhero elements, tropes of a scientific social experiment and gradually develops into a corruption AVN. There seem to be two moral poles for the player to choose from. Either you live out your own perversion and corrupt your fellow students as much as possible, or you are the responsible, protective hero who stands up for your friends and puts the bad guys in their place.
At the same time, I can't yet say exactly how dark the narrative will become. At times I feel reminded of one of the most popular games on f95, which takes a really dark turn with a gaming show where the women are utterly corrupted, but at other times it leans towards lighter forms of entertainment.

The creativity and the technical quality is there and if you are patient enough to get through the slower early stages of the game, you'll find that Stormside doesn't have to hide from any AVN competition.

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.

I really enjoyed the initial release, well done! The art is great and the tone of the story fits really well.

I'll be back further down the line to see how the game is progressing.
For people who are unsure – just give it a try.

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.