Recommending Story-first games

[FatGiant]

I'll just add my vote to The Last Sovereign. It's an absolutely fantastic game with an outstanding story. Also, the main story is now finished, so it's a great time to start playing it!
However, it does take a good bit of commitment: My current playthrough sits at 112 hours, and I have the bigger part of chapter 5 still ahead of me (the last but biggest chapter of the game). I think you'd need to speedrun it to finish in under 100 hours. And I would not attempt playing the game without either help from the wiki, or taking extensive notes.

As for NTR, the characters that do that are Succubi, for them sex is food, and everybody concerned views it as a positive event. It really shouldn't be a problem. By then, the game has drawn you way too deep into its world.
(There is one point early one where you have the option to prostitute an LI for money. It's a big choice with long lasting consequences, neither choice being obviously the right one. Basically all walkthroughs opt to not prostitute her, weighting the LIs trust higher than the money.)

I really enjoy the philosophy discussions in this game, the proactive planning the MC and his allies do, the worldbuilding, the characterization of everybody (MC, LIs, allies, enemies, gods, normal NPCs, everybody!), the amount of agency you have. In my eyes, this absolutely belongs in the list of story focused games.
Yes, there are some sex scenes that aren't needed for the plot, but I'd argue they are needed as examples of the sex-positive world this game builds. And all sex scenes are short, easily skippable through (you can even disable the images), and their duration absolutely pales in comparison to the play time of the whole game.

Damn... you guys almost make me regret the fact that I have standards.

But, no.



The underlined ones aren't complete deal breakers, but, truly non enjoyed by me.
The boxed ones are Instant Deal breakers to me.

The rest, could or could not live with.

I don't care how well done and relevant that type of content may be, I, as in me as an autonomous player, will stay away from.

Please read me right, I don't really care what anyone else enjoys, I can only make decisions for myself, and, that type of content, I don't want anything to do with it.

Peace

 

[Canto Forte]

Look .. everyone ... Friends Indeed is a totally tame little intrigue game anyone can download off Patreon - with MC basically throwing money at every problem and coming up on top -the broader audience version of Friends in Need,
so it is a totally different game with absolutely no tension - every problem that MC encounters during game play, he buys out of, as the single best solution for himself or the people he meets - basically what Bezos or Elon would do if they abruptly exited from all their ventures and lived their lives as literal gods among men due to their fabulous fortunes.

Are Elon or Bezos lives boring to all of you who would censor free speach and free expressions of mind?

Spoiler

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About the sudden literal censoring of player opinion about the ”mostly” fitting of the censoring criteria, in alphabetical order - which means, sometimes, with little to no tension or drama, the games that are listed in the OP:

Little Regina is a better slice of life story about the hardships of small soccer players who would not or cannot take kilos of proteins and vitamins to bulk up and their possible story for still playing professional sports despite their size and perceived frailty in sports.

Spoiler

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[Deleted member 2577953]

Wow, you went to quite some length to review this. I'm glad you liked it!

It's funny, the one bit that didn't quite resonate with you is the artwork, but this is the only VN in so many years that I have printed artwork of, hanging on my walls

Wow, that's awesome!!

Also, yeah, it's been almost a year since I wrote that review and reading it now, even I feel like I was being way too harsh and distant about the art.

(I have no idea what my expectations were back then, but I can tell they were unfairly / insanely high considering I wasn't impressed by those paintings, which look rich and beautiful to me now )

 

[camube]

I’m in full support of you jufot putting whatever rules you’d like to put, now and in the future.

Talking with the people here is what's important to me, the content of the talk is secondary.
To me this is all just discussions.

I'm not posting about Friends in Need in isolation.
The reason why I read the replies of people that quote-tagged me is because it's from the people here. People here put importance in stories, so I read their replies.
The reason I reply to people's messages after I read it is because this week I happen to be free.

Had the talks continue to next week I most likely would not reply cuz I probably would miss the posts that tagged me.
The other side of that, had people moved on, there wouldn't be that much of a discussion to begin with.
So the discussions would naturally end by this weekend on my side.

This is putting aside whether or not I play that specific path. I don't.
And isn't that partially why this whole thing became a long discussion?

I don’t even play 99.8% of AVN games because it has sex in it, or for seeking release. Contrary to that, I view AVN to be a really roundabout way to seek release.

I like human stories. I play AVN medium because the playtime is usually short so I can read human stories that is inside AVN in short burst. That’s also why I read this threadm to find more of that.

The thing I dislike the most about AVN update development cycle is the time it takes to make the intercourse animations. If it were up to me, I would rather there is no sex animations and sex renders in all AVN games. Just texts is enough.

I replies to you all not because I’m defending this game or that game. It's because the tagged posts came from the people of this thread, cuz it came from you all.
Where on this thread we share a common thread, liking stories. So I read it about whatever the content is, and happen to be free enough to made replies.

So I’m supportive of Jufot putting whatever rules they think is best. There is no need for discussions about rule additions.

I do agree with moskyx though, I don’t think it will be moderated by the forum team.
The only thing we can do as regular readers of this thread is to be respectful towards each other whether it’s by moving on when people post it or by not posting about those to begin with.

Anyway, recommend me good stories.
The past few days I was free that's why I played three games I talked about here in burst.

Y'all have great games for me to play (that preferably is Renpy), let me know, I would put it behind EndlessNights Supernatural recommendation because I think that would be a great game to read.

 

[camube]

To change the subject a bit how do you guys feel about game of hearts. At first it did seem like it was going to be story first but then the lewds gets real tiring and kills my enjoyment of it. Still kind of curious to finish it eventually in hopes it will eventually have some actual story in the future cause it does seem like it could be interesting if it ever moves forward. Granted I have yet to finish it. Surprised how much I dislike it tho considering how often I see it's name thrown around on the 1 of the AVN sub reedits.

I like the fact that Game of Hearts is interactive. There's a score that is tied to what you choose, and for the Julia event, we can either be successful or not.

But at it's core, the writer is so good at painting with words I wish the game is not 90%+ about sex between the MC and other characters because other than the fact that it has it has a score and interactive, that's not what's I'm interested in at all.

I want to know the story of the guy, the 2 girls that was from his past, and the war. Not Meredith, Meredith, Meredith scenes. I don't know how long the game would go on because we're at Chapter 4 and it's barely beginning, exactly because development time is dedicated towards sexual scenes.

I wouldn't say the game frustrates me right now, but I would say I've given up on hoping the game is something else that is more my preference by now.

I do still play it and I do greatly enjoy reading it because of the writer's skills, but it's also a game where I'm ambivalent about it's future. If it find success, that's great because the writer deserves it.

The game to me is like Summer Heat in the sense that if it's out I'll play it, but if it's not out, that's okay too.
BGM is great though. I really like their choice of BGM. It really fits.

I tried Along the edge last year, after seeing it on Jufot's recommended list.

Spoiler: Some boring prelude

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As always, thanks for another solid Recommendation, and without further ado.

Here are my thoughts on the game. (I hope the text is readable enough.)

Spoiler: Actual Review

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If I were your patron, I would like reading that Ari.

There is a dev I patron that recommends comics they read and tell the patrons what's the theme and why they like it. I like reading that, generally speaking i like reading patreon posts from devs even if it has nothing to do with game development.

Some time ago when I still subscribed, I wish Capella posts more often on his patreon even if it's not about game development, and among the games I've played on F95, it's really sad that Mad World did not find financial success, at least so far. I really like the world. I don't know about the characters, they're okay but I like Capella's world.
So if you posts often on your patreon Ari, there might be some people that are like me, that are okay with you posting anything you feel like posting on there.

 

[365 others]

it's really sad that Mad World did not find financial success, at least so far. I really like the world. I don't know about the characters, they're okay but I like Capella's world.

I see it's tagged as Abandoned. Is the story good? The description gives a small glimpse but doesn't sound particularly enticing.
What were the things you liked most about this game?

 

[Birdnman993]

Look .. everyone ... Friends Indeed is a totally tame little intrigue game anyone can download off Patreon - with MC basically throwing money at every problem and coming up on top -the broader audience version of Friends in Need,
so it is a totally different game with absolutely no tension - every problem that MC encounters during game play, he buys out of, as the single best solution for himself or the people he meets - basically what Bezos or Elon would do if they abruptly exited from all their ventures and lived their lives as literal gods among men due to their fabulous fortunes.

Are Elon or Bezos lives boring to all of you who would censor free speach and free expressions of mind?


About the sudden literal censoring of player opinion about the ”mostly” fitting of the censoring criteria, in alphabetical order - which means, sometimes, with little to no tension or drama, the games that are listed in the OP:

Little Regina is a better slice of life story about the hardships of small soccer players who would not or cannot take kilos of proteins and vitamins to bulk up and their possible story for still playing professional sports despite their size and perceived frailty in sports.

Spoiler

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After reading this I can only say, What The Fuck???

 

[camube]

I see it's tagged as Abandoned. Is the story good? The description gives a small glimpse but doesn't sound particularly enticing.
What were the things you liked most about this game?

I'm not really sure it's actually abandoned. It's just f95 abandoned. He did have problem with his PC some time ago and he doesn't receive that much support, which suck.

He's very good at choreographing fight scenes. Way better than Eternum. Eternum is just my Mad World cope.
That's probably his biggest strength to me.

I also like Mad World because there's a clear deadline for his MC's situation so there's a sense of urgency to the story.

I like reading stories with nuances to it's characters.
I find that most AVNs, even the story-based ones, the one thing that it lacks, is that it's characters lack nuances.
But AVN game writing, to me generally speaking, is not that deep. The characters doesn't go beyond templates because they lack nuances. It's fine by now, I accept it but, writing nuances in characters is how a character goes from Nameless A in Game A to actual person I memorize long after I play the game.

Related to that, I like reading AVN where the developer take chances by having characters that is not the average person. Whether it's someone who is physically not normal, or disabled, or having some sort of gender issues, or in Capella's game case, a mute.

I like that he introduced a mute character in his game. I wanted to see more of how he write Mad World crew and how he handle the mute woman.

His story has superpowers / paranormal element. And to me it's not that easy to make that kind of story. The good ones should ideally be able to have it's readers have to buy into the system and believe that the system makes some sort of sense in that world. On all the stories I read that has some sort of power system, there aren't that many that I actually buy into. The average are just "okay, there's a system, this is the explanation of said system".

I think, maybe, given a better opportunity, Capella perhaps may be able to develop a convincing system for the powers in his world. I perhaps would never know. But the potential of what could have been is why I'm sad over it's lack of support and development.

I realized that AVN game bar, story-wise, is pretty low. I've played a lot of games by now to the point that I'm running out of story-based renpy games, and among those, Mad World is definitely up there.

 

[Deleted member 2577953]

If I were your patron, I would like reading that Ari.

There is a dev I patron that recommends comics they read and tell the patrons what's the theme and why they like it. I like reading that, generally speaking i like reading patreon posts from devs even if it has nothing to do with game development.

Some time ago when I still subscribed, I wish Capella posts more often on his patreon even if it's not about game development, and among the games I've played on F95, it's really sad that Mad World did not find financial success, at least so far. I really like the world. I don't know about the characters, they're okay but I like Capella's world.
So if you posts often on your patreon Ari, there might be some people that are like me, that are okay with you

Thank you It's nice to hear that some readers might be interested in these kind of stuff too.

It might not seem anything fancy, but I made these "booklets" with a lot of love and admiration towards the vns I was covering in them. And so, naturally, I'd love to do more of these on the side.

Hopefully, when I have the free time again, I'll be able continue this

 

[jufot]

Please just stop. This is not the thread for this shit.

 

[365 others]

On a completely different topic, I was reading some post in Reddit about VNs and was wondering about something that seems to be fairly common in VNs:

Are there any games (within this list) where the MC's father is:
- Alive
- Healthy
- Not evil/scumbag/douche
- Has a good relationship with MC (and maybe his other relatives)

Or even outside of this thread's list.

I was trying to remember at least 1 game where the father is alive, present, and being a positive influence in MC's life, but I can't recall any.

Edit: now that I think of it, I remember MC's dad was present (and being a good guy/monster) in Monsters College, but he is shown just in the first scenes.

 

[yossa999]

On a completely different topic, I was reading some post in Reddit about VNs and was wondering about something that seems to be fairly common in VNs:

Are there any games (within this list) where the MC's father is:
- Alive
- Healthy
- Not evil/scumbag/douche
- Has a good relationship with MC (and maybe his other relatives)

Or even outside of this thread's list.

I was trying to remember at least 1 game where the father is alive, present, and being a positive influence in MC's life, but I can't recall any.

Being a DIK
Neil is the best AVN father so far!

 

[365 others]

Being a DIK
Neil is the best AVN father so far!

I completely forgot about Being a Dik! Tho until I stopped playing (due to my 2-3 releases custom) he had just a few scenes.

 

[yossa999]

I completely forgot about Being a Dik! Tho until I stopped playing (due to my 2-3 releases custom) he had just a few scenes.

Well, there isn't a lot of content with him compared to other characters (although by reading his mom's diary, MC learns a lot about his dad and how they met.) But all the scenes of interaction between MC and his father are very sentimental and show how much MC cares about his father and how much he appreciates his care and help.

 

[Canto Forte]

You literally have just him at home in the first chapter ... then MC meets a literal horde of other dudes and dudettes he has to make a life for himself with them at the university.

I completely forgot about Being a Dik! Tho until I stopped playing (due to my 2-3 releases custom) he had just a few scenes.

Do you want another chapter at home pining over Josy, crying on dads shouder?

 

[camube]

On a completely different topic, I was reading some post in Reddit about VNs and was wondering about something that seems to be fairly common in VNs:

Are there any games (within this list) where the MC's father is:
- Alive
- Healthy
- Not evil/scumbag/douche
- Has a good relationship with MC (and maybe his other relatives)

Or even outside of this thread's list.

I was trying to remember at least 1 game where the father is alive, present, and being a positive influence in MC's life, but I can't recall any.

Edit: now that I think of it, I remember MC's dad was present (and being a good guy/monster) in Monsters College, but he is shown just in the first scenes.

yes, Our Red String for one

 

[dreamchaser]

Damn... you guys almost make me regret the fact that I have standards.

But, no.

View attachment 3689267

The underlined ones aren't complete deal breakers, but, truly non enjoyed by me.
The boxed ones are Instant Deal breakers to me.

The rest, could or could not live with.

I don't care how well done and relevant that type of content may be, I, as in me as an autonomous player, will stay away from.

Please read me right, I don't really care what anyone else enjoys, I can only make decisions for myself, and, that type of content, I don't want anything to do with it.

Peace

Ok, I'll answer you once, but I really don't intend to get into a longer discussion over tags. If you don't want to play the game, for whatever reasons, that's completely fine. I can totally see not wanting to commit that much time, not wanting to play an RPG with fights, not wanting to play a game with loads of reading and only a few scene images, not wanting to either have to think things through (puzzles, decisions) or needing a walkthrough.
I just think that deciding not to play the game based upon those tags is moronic.

I'll just comment on the tags you boxed, since they seem to trigger you most.
cheating: This one is straight up wrong. No LI cheats on the MC, at all. Where succubi have sex with others, that is never hidden from the MC.
swinging: As I said in an earlier reply, this is a sex-positive world being portrayed (actually being build by the MC and his allies), and some of the LIs are succubi, for which sex is food. Yes, they will have sex with other people where that makes sense. No, the MC has no problem with that at all. The game spends a lot of time explaining that world view succubi have, and it's a great strength of the MC that he is able to learn and internalize how they think (they have fascinating discussions about it, and there is a whole segment of the game where a theological congress argues about the place of succubi, sex and celibacy in the church!).
mind control: Yup, that is absolutely there. But the MC is not mind controlling any LIs. He spends quite a bit of effort making sure that he is not unduly influencing anybody he has positive relations which. Instead, there is an ally with mind control powers, and the group uses this as a tactical and strategical tool against enemies, as an alternative to killing (it's a limited ressource, and you make decisions at certain points whether to mind control or kill somebody). If you are willing to play games where enemies are killed, I don't see why you wouldn't play one where sometimes mind control is used as an alternative to that.
rape: There is precisely one place where you have the option of letting a rape proceed or stopping it. It happens against an enemy, and doing or not doing it will influence the relationships with your LIs. Stopping it means a tougher fight, so I found it an absolutely valid option (I decided to stop the rape). There is talk about other rapes, because there are wars being fought, in which sex is used as a weapon. None of those rapes are done by you or your allies. (There are questionable scenes in the prologue, but it is very quickly very obvious why that does not count.)
slave: At one point in the game, the MC becomes enslaved. It is an unusual situation, and does not stay that way. There is one enemy who is a slave, and instead of killing her, the MC takes over her slave contract. That is definitely a questionable moral choice, and there are multiple discussions about it with other characters. Yet I absolutely agree that the MC made the right call here - killing her would have been the only other choice. Apart from that, slavery exists in the world, and is a problem the characters grapple with, and try to combat or improve upon.

Overall I want to say that while the MC does make some hard choices which can technically fullfil some of these tags which trigger you, he always does it from the point of view of wanting to improve the world. There is no mindless evil conduct by the MC. Every questionable choice is reflected on after the fact, and has appropriate consequences (e.g. in relationships to allies). And none of those questionable choices are done as cheap thrills for the player. It's always the MC acting as he thinks best, and even he is doing it out of tactical or strategic consideration, not because he wants to get his rocks of.

Over and out.

 

[365 others]

You literally have just him at home in the first chapter ... then MC meets a literal horde of other dudes and dudettes he has to make a life for himself with them at the university.

Do you want another chapter at home pining over Josy, crying on dads shouder?

Well... woudn't hurt to have another one. Maybe this time bringing Maya as well?

 

[camube]

Ok, I'll answer you once, but I really don't intend to get into a longer discussion over tags. If you don't want to play the game, for whatever reasons, that's completely fine. I can totally see not wanting to commit that much time

yeah i read that Sierra Lee is an inspiration to some people who then themselves became AVN devs. On top of that I see it being recommended here and there from time to time. So The Last Sovereign is definitely on my backlog. Maybe in 3 years or so. If it has a renpy version, I would play it but RPG generally needs a big time commitment

 

[_SomeOneElse_]

[..]

Are there any games (within this list) where the MC's father is:
- Alive
- Healthy
- Not evil/scumbag/douche
- Has a good relationship with MC (and maybe his other relatives)

Or even outside of this thread's list.

[..]

Another one, that doesn't match to 100%, may be The Seven Realms ...
- If Undead is also somewhat alive ...
- The MC's father is not his original one, but if we count given vampire blood as some degree of it?
- The criteria of the character is a harder one, as a Vampire and the Rule of the Seven Realms, he is stearn / dominant / violent but as far as the current story goes, not against MC / his relatives ...
- Healthy (mentally? / physical?) depends on the story progress ...