Recommending Story-first games

[jufot]

Recommending Ashes of War, a gorgeous sci-fi space adventure by CTStudio. Chapter 1 is complete, and is several hours long. Minor spoilers below.

MC is the commander of a small flotilla of warships. In the immediate aftermath of a battle, he and his group desert the military and go on the run. They go from danger to danger, trying to survive and make a living for themselves while meeting new friends and foes.

The game is mostly a VN interspersed with turn-based space warfare. I like the battles. The system is incomplete, but what's there is well-designed and quite fun. Still, you can skip them if they don't tickle your fancy.

Beyond the beautiful artwork (I'm a sucker for hand drawn 2D art) and good story, there are two things I thought worth mentioning:

- The banter: Humour is obviously subjective, but I think it's well-written and fits nicely for a group of people who have just stopped working for a strict military hierarchy and need to learn how to relax and be a little less formal with each other. Take this exchange between the MC and a junior bridge officer:

MC: Wouldn't say no to a good bottle either.
Coms Ensign: Ah, sorry sir, I'm not sharing.
MC: Refusing a request from your superior officer? Now who's the traitor? I think such insubordination deserves to be punished.
Coms Ensign: Playing rank even when we've deserted? That's low captain. But you have to understand my point of view. When I drink, I have to deal with this buffoon (pointing to another ensign). You on the other hand, probably will invite a beautiful lady to spend the evening. Then I will die from envy and you will have to find a new competent communications officer. So in the end, I'm only doing you a favour captain.
MC: Ah! I see, then I should thank you, shouldn't I?
Coms Ensign: You're welcome sir.

- The relationships: There are a number of potential LIs. MC is long-term friends with some, and mildly flirtatious with all of them. What's surprising is that the game addresses the inherent shittiness of 'playing the field', of stringing women along. Camilla, a potential LI, joins the cast halfway through the chapter. She notices MC's dynamic with the other women and immediately calls him out on it:

Camilla: I knew you were in demand, but this is getting hard to watch. Are there any other ladies you're playing with that I should be aware of?
MC: I'm not playing with anyone.
Camilla: Yeah, no. You're playing with their feelings.
Camilla: First, you've not flat out rejected my advances.
Camilla: For some reason, you're trying really hard not to answer the hints your poor mechanic drops, you seem to get along quite well with the blond shortie that you work with, and now your interaction with this girl?
MC: I-
Camilla: You don't seem like a bad guy. You risked your life for mine, and even if I've not been for a long time, I can tell everyone seems to hold you in high esteem. But that attitude is a bit scummy. What's the matter, you've been heartbroken before or what?
MC: It's... It's of no concern to you.
Camilla: And now you're deflecting.

[...]

Camilla: You alright? Maybe me and this guy said too much, but I thought-
MC: Do... Do I do more harm than good? With all the stuff I had to deal with, I've always been trying to keep some distance with me and the people I hold dear. For them, but also for me.
MC: I thought that if I kept things as is, I would be able to rationalize it more if anything were to happen but... That's just me being a coward.
MC: And it's not like I can really bottle everything up either. I enjoy being with them. The banter we can have. Heck, who wouldn't enjoy the company of pretty women, especially when you know they've got a soft spot for you.
MC: It's a nice feeling to be sought after... Fuck, when I say it like that, I sound like the worst type of people.

This is part of a longer exchange that was ultimately resolved to my satisfaction, but I wasn't expecting it and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Overall, I'm quite impressed with the game and I'm looking forward to chapter 2. The list has been updated

 

[Tlaero]

That sounds awesome, jufot. Thanks for the recommendation!

Tlaero

 

[LadySirona]

Hi I am the housemate.
I am a LIFESTLYE Domme, not a Pro LOL.
But I think it drives home why I am the one writing, LOL. I asked him to see if there was any interest in such stories. I am open to discussion of interests, as there is a WIDE variation and options

 

[LadySirona]

That's a tough one for sure=) That kind of story could only work , in my mind at least, in a more intimate scenario. Probably only involving 2 people at first (Dom+sub). A story where you follow the MC's journey into submission. How it begins and how it develops over time.. Something like that. A bit more of a grounded story where you flesh out all the expects about what makes femdom so appealing for the people who're into it. Highlighting the domination and the submission aspect of it.

Preferably without shock collars


Mistress - "Lick my feet slave!"
Slave - "No!"
-end Quote]


LOL Oh no, not that! Nah, You won't see that in my writing.
I need to learn more about how these stories work; it's a lot different than writing a novel one just reads; with the game aspect, there seems to be a chosen option to it. Like those odd stories where you chose at the end of the page and, with the choice, went to a particular page.

It seems very interesting tho and I am very intrigued

 

[LadySirona]

I'm new to this whole format. Ironically I am not a gamer. I couldn't get Mario up on the damned mushroom. He and I are both SciFi, movie, and book geeks, but the games are his territory alone. However, I got suckered in when he bounced plotlines and ideas off me. I have written fanfiction: BTVS Erotica and Star Trek Fan Fiction. I love the art and I adored the referred Art, thank you!

 

[Dragon59]

That's a tough one for sure=) That kind of story could only work , in my mind at least, in a more intimate scenario. Probably only involving 2 people at first (Dom+sub). A story where you follow the MC's journey into submission. How it begins and how it develops over time.. Something like that. A bit more of a grounded story where you flesh out all the expects about what makes femdom so appealing for the people who're into it. Highlighting the domination and the submission aspect of it.

Preferably without shock collars


Mistress - "Lick my feet slave!"
Slave - "No!"
Mistress - "Excuse me?" (activates shock collar level 8)
Slave - "Fuck, stop it please, stop"
Mistress - "Then stop being a little bitch about it and do as i say!. Lick my fucking feet!"
Slave - "I..i..i, fuck. Mercy please"
Mistress - "I'm running out of patience over here. So what will it be slave?"
Slave - "I..i..i"
Mistress - "What?. Did a cat bite your tongue?. Are you stupid?. Answer me!"
Slave - "I..i..i"
Mistress - "Alright, thats it!" (activates shock collar level 10)
Slave - "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
................................
Mistress - "Hmm, looks like i've fried his puny little brain this time...."
Mistress - "Whatever, off to the next one.. Got a couple more of those losers downstairs in the basement...

Honestly, that doesn't sound like a Femdom BDSM scene so much as torture and murder from a mentally disturbed serial killer, not unlike Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

That said, both she and I have done electrical play so anything we write will potentially have some e-stim play at a reasonable level.

 

[Dragon59]

I'm new to this whole format. Ironically I am not a gamer. I couldn't get Mario up on the damned mushroom. He and I are both SciFi, movie, and book geeks, but the games are his territory alone. However, I got suckered in when he bounced plotlines and ideas off me. I have written fanfiction: BTVS Erotica and Star Trek Fan Fiction. I love the art and I adored the referred Art, thank you!

i will probably use the story-first list to help give her a crash course on what the standards are for a good AVN.

Tonight, we spent hours (probably too many) talking about some of her ideas and the ideas her ideas spawned in me.

What should I show LadySirona fiirst?

 

[realjitter]

Honestly, that doesn't sound like a Femdom BDSM scene so much as torture and murder from a mentally disturbed serial killer, not unlike Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

You'd be surprized how many femdom AVN's on this site are mainly based on nihilism . It's either that or forced submission.. But i guess it kinda makes sense since this isn't a pure fetish forum.

What should I show LadySirona fiirst?

Well, the AVN "Nothing is Forever" is certainly worth a look since it combines alot of different things (including some femdom)

 

[boobsrcool]

La fille de la zone (The Girl in the Zone)
This has to be one of the strangest VN's I've played. I'm not sure I actually recommend it, but it is very interesting in many ways. Set in a zombie apocalypse, MC is trying to find his sister and lots of stuff happen on the way.

The game is in french originally and has a not very good English translation. Knowing some French is recommended. I played the English version but with the original french .rpy file next so I could compare.

Not much sexual content but there is plenty romance.

Fantastic recommendation!

 

[Mravac Kid]

Man, if someone would take on a Sunstone game they'd be an instant hero

 

[Dragon59]

Man, if someone would take on a Sunstone game they'd be an instant hero

Such a developer would definitely need to work in concert with the artist....

 

[Vasin]

Recommending Ashes of War, a gorgeous sci-fi space adventure by CTStudio. Chapter 1 is complete, and is several hours long. Minor spoilers below.
...
Overall, I'm quite impressed with the game and I'm looking forward to chapter 2. The list has been updated

Played this one, thanks for the recommendation, well deserved spot so far. Also great amount of content for a first chapter, really impressive.

I do feel like the story is a little bit let down by it's surface level background detail, I would really like to know more about the conflict that MC defects from, the sides, the entire premise of it is glossed over, whether out of authorial disinterest or, hopefully, to be discovered in future chapters.

I liked side comic relief characters on the bridge, wish they had their own sprites, but it can just be a placeholder I guess. Main cast is pretty good, although, lampshaded or not, constant rescuing of hot women is implausible at best. I rolled my eyes at the first one, but second? So far we've got 4 love interests and 3 of them I find interesting, mechanic girl being the blandest one. Smuggler's interactions are funny, at least on congenial route, I wasn't trying to be a dick to her, not sure if she works as LI that well, but I can see her being attractive to people specifically because she isn't overtly trying to jump the MC. There's also no baggage with her being MC's ex underling like the girls that originally served under him.

Speaking of jumping the MC we have the scientist. On one hand I like the fresh take on the "direct" character, but then there's directness and there's this. She felt the least like an actual person to me and the most gratuitous. (ed: At least she didn't strip. *wink-wink*)

Spoiler: The conversation you mentioned also did not resolve to my satisfaction, since her solution is basically

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I fully expected a sermon about monogamy, so yay for subversion of expectation I guess.

The best character I feel is the pilot, maybe it's because she gets the arc that challenges her, and that did not go the way I would expect it to go in modern times at all. And even before that she has the most believable undercurrent of tension with MC. Very good writing. Her moment also was the only time where game's art sort of jarred me, being somehow almost a bit too cartoonish, it fits most of the game well enough though, with anime style space kingdoms and all.

P.S. Also I really liked space battles, they feel like a nice diversion and a good way of breaking the monotony of clicking through the story without introducing convoluted choice mechanics or anything like that.

 

[jufot]

Agreed on all points!

I do feel like the story is a little bit let down by it's surface level background detail, I would really like to know more about the conflict that MC defects from, the sides, the entire premise of it is glossed over, whether out of authorial disinterest or, hopefully, to be discovered in future chapters.

I'm pretty sure the story will be expanded in the future. The hooks are already in place. That ace pilot old man, his brother, their connection to the Kingdom etc. all feel like prep work for pulling our gang back into the war.

Spoiler: About Camilla's 'solution'

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P.S. Also I really liked space battles, they feel like a nice diversion and a good way of breaking the monotony of clicking through the story without introducing convoluted choice mechanics or anything like that.

Right now, losing a battle doesn't have any consequences since the systems aren't all in place. So I think it'll get slightly more convoluted, but hopefully not too much.

 

[Vasin]

I'm pretty sure the story will be expanded in the future. The hooks are already in place. That ace pilot old man, his brother, their connection to the Kingdom etc. all feel like prep work for pulling our gang back into the war.

I didn't read it like that, mostly due to, again, lack of detail, neither side is well described, aside from that bit mentioning how omnipresent union embassies are, so you'd assume they are big, but then there's the kingdom that whoops their asses, so that must be at least big enough to pose a serious threat. I don't think it's the kind of conflict you can stay aside from for too long. I also think it would be cooler if MC absconded not with just a run of the mill cruiser but some kind of advanced prototype or something, that would make both sides actively search for him, not one just because he accidentally threads on some toes. On the other hand, while competent, he doesn't strike me as the Navy's finest. A bit to mopey for that.

About Camilla's 'solution'

Spoiler

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Right now, losing a battle doesn't have any consequences since the systems aren't all in place. So I think it'll get slightly more convoluted, but hopefully not too much.

Funnily enough the battle with the old man where you're supposed to just hold out I almost won and then the plot was like "we're almost dead oh no", but the fight for the space station I nearly lost because I missed the upper half of the map and 2/3 of the enemy force. "Why is the battle not over?" I was thinking finishing off last ship on the screen only to have 10 more descend from the upper half of the map.

 

[jufot]

I didn't read it like that [...]

All fair points. I wasn't aware of the "no routes" thing. That could be concerning.

For the battles, my strategy is keeping all ships at the edge of the battlefield and within flak coverage of the cruiser and firing missiles at everything from afar. If anything gets close I use the PDTs on the fighters since you can fire 3-4 rounds per fighter per turn. It hasn't failed me yet

 

[realjitter]

That's exactly what I do with JOHN How does it compare to that game?

Alright I finally finished Jessica O Neil... So how does it compare to Love, Honor, Betray?. The answer is they don't imo. JOHN is more like a classic corruption tale while LHB is something more in between. LHB is more relaxing to play i'd say and the overall scale is also alot smaller. With being more relaxed I mean that you don't have fend off 100 creepy guys all time like in JOHN. Seriously, at some point I started skipping some scenes in JOHN because the outcome was pretty obvious. Basically everytime a new guy enters the scene either Jessica wants to flirt with him or vice versa. Which brings me to my main "beef" with JOHN which is Jessica herself. Her thoughts are all over the place for the most part and I found it hard to "roleplay" her. I did follow the "lesbian route" (I went for Blake), but now after i've finished the whole thing i'm more inclined to think that I shouldv'e went after basically everybody based on Jessica's behaviour... She wants it, she wants it hard and she wants everything .

Another thing that got on my nerves were the neighbours, Heather and her boyfriend. At first I went after Heather, but she became so annoying after a while. The only things she ever talks about is either her or Jessica her sexlife.. Or their external appearances or whatever.. There was a scene at a restaurant later with Jessica and Heather in which Heather starts flirting with some guy and they end up fucking in the bathroom with Jessica following and watching them while masturbating to the sight of it... I just had to restart the game after this point. But guess what.. Even when you try to avoid Heather like the plague you still end up with that scene.. It was just so fucking frustrating . Heather's like hardcoded into the game to be Jessica's friend no matter what you do...

Spoiler

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Yeah, right Jessica...

Anyways.., I think, to my surprise, my favourite character was actually Connor her fiance. He seemed like the most "normal" person out of all of them. But I stopped Jessica from having sex with him as soon as possible simply because I wanted to see if the game has the balls to let him cheat on Jessica which didn't happen yet... But chances are good that he will with Jessica's (also annoying) sister.

All in all, the game never really clicked with me. I was constantly thinking about stupid stuff that was happening.. I don't know. It's by all means not a bad game, but it's more suited for real corruption fans i'd say. Here you can really go all out if you want to. Wanna hook up with fat Bill clinton? an 70 yo geezer?, with a young virgin boy? hardass tattoo boys?. They're all there in JOHN, but yeah....

I personally liked LHB better. It's more relaxed, better atmosphere, better lewd scenes. better MC. LHB leaves alot of the characterizations to the player's imagination which I liked... The lesbian and straight routes are also more straight forward...

Well, that's at least my impression after playing both games..

 

[jufot]

Even when you try to avoid Heather like the plague you still end up with that scene.. It was just so fucking frustrating . Heather's like hardcoded into the game to be Jessica's friend no matter what you do...
[...]
All in all, the game never really clicked with me. I was constantly thinking about stupid stuff that was happening.. I don't know. It's by all means not a bad game, but it's more suited for real corruption fans i'd say. Here you can really go all out if you want to. Wanna hook up with fat Bill clinton? an 70 yo geezer?, with a young virgin boy? hardass tattoo boys?. They're all there in JOHN, but yeah....

I think this is where our disconnect is. I don't care about the non-Connor men at all. They are never lecherous with Jessica because I don't give them an in. I just never pick the flirty/leading options with them. They are all minor, inconsequential background characters to me.

The lesbian route is much better. I absolutely adore Heather! She's a horny woman in an open relationship and all she wants is to give orgasms to Jennifer and expand her horizons. What's not to like? Shani, the mayor's assistant, is also delightful. That pool scene was pretty great. I liked that she is just a lesbian, not bi, and wasn't interested in Connor. As for Blake, I'm not a fan honestly. The whole blushing virgin cliche just isn't my thing

I personally liked LHB better. It's more relaxed, better atmosphere, better lewd scenes. better MC. LHB leaves alot of the characterizations to the player's imagination which I liked... The lesbian and straight routes are also more straight forward...

Well, that's at least my impression after playing both games..

Thanks for your thoughts! I'll definitely check LHB out.

 

[Tlaero]

JOHN is the game that starts out with her waking up and masturbating in the shower to "get some release" right? If so, this is the one that first made me think, "She's not a woman. She's a man with breasts." I couldn't get through it.

Tlaero

 

[realjitter]

I think this is where our disconnect is. I don't care about the non-Connor men at all. They are never lecherous with Jessica because I don't give them an in. I just never pick the flirty/leading options with them.

Me neither, never approached anybody except Heather at first and later on Blake. I think we just simply experienced the game differently

As for Blake, I'm not a fan honestly. The whole blushing virgin cliche just isn't my thing

Again, mine neither, but I was out of options at that point . So it was either her or nobody... When they went to toilet stall I was like "Let me guess, she's a virgin.."

"She's not a woman. She's a man with breasts."

She's certainly a very horny girl. But it's a pure porn, corruption game so it kinda has to be that way?. Idk... She's written like some guy's sex fantazy which isn't necessarily a bad thing for this kind of game, but there also wasn't much to her in my opinion.

 

[bacienvu88]

Love, Honor, Betray

Ok, tried this one but I just can't get past the blackmail. If there had been an option to not go along with the blackmailer I could have accepted it. I'm sure it is a good game, but not for me.