Recommending Story-first games

[Dessolos]

What about Pricilla: Chasing Shadows? The thread is pretty dead, it hasn’t updated since August, 2024 and the dev has gone from regular updates to radio silence. Last I heard he was almost done with an update, but that was several months ago.

that one im less worried about cause that dev been more active in discord but yeah it is still concerning to say the least . I think the dev is too concerned with getting a decent update because of behind they got and just kind forgot the most important part keep up with communication. The dev even used to post renders from time to time.

 

[Tlaero]

Yeah, the fracturing of media has led to a situation where we still have tribalism, but tribes aren’t defined by geography - which has led to all kinds of social and political problems. If personalized storytelling ever happens (not to mention personalized music, news etc) then we’re looking at deep isolation. Unfortunately, none of this means we can stop it, even modifying it or slightly changing course means rowing upstream against powerful interests.

Yeah. Individual, AI-run echo chambers are going to be brutal for society. :-(

Tlaero

 

[Pgsurprise]

They'll never be able to fix that, that's not how copyright works. They can bar you from using specific characters, but artists have always mimicked each other and any wildly successful movie / tv show etc has always inspired copycats. You can copyright stories, and characters, and (fictional) settings but you can't copyright style.

The current legal debate is whether AI can use copyrighted works in the training models. The issue is complicated because people can be inspired and even try to copy styles from others, but the nature of AI means it can generate a lot of work that more closely mimics the copyrighted works. People are debating and trying to enact policies that carve out new copyright standards for AI, or not.

 

[yossa999]

What about Pricilla: Chasing Shadows? The thread is pretty dead, it hasn’t updated since August, 2024 and the dev has gone from regular updates to radio silence. Last I heard he was almost done with an update, but that was several months ago.

Isabella: Chasing Shadows maybe?

 

[Jaike]

Sounds like you found a good one. I got into the Tyrants castle and it ended after some nonsense. Maybe it's time to take another look.

Was that when it was still Sparkle and Kayden talking with Sandeep, or after Gab, Wendy and others showed up? I think there was nonsense during both sections yeah.

Thanks for the recommendation Sorcerer was not bad, although sometimes it seems like I'm playing a sex marathon.
Although it's a pity that there are strong plot branches.
I may not have understood Healslut, but I didn't like her, I don't like it when there are constant choices.
I'm already following Eternum, but the rest didn't really interest me.

Hmm, oh yeah Sorcerer limits some LIs based on who you interact with at that clans' ball. Overall Talothral's games have a lot of similarities, and the others don't really restrict LIs like that. TRS certainly doesn't.

As final recs, Tune in to the Show and Vae Victis. They aren't strongly plot driven, the first is more character driven slice-of-life-ish, the second is more episode-and-character driven.

Sounds like you're looking more for KNs. But I can't think of a single harem KN with a good story, a lot of that will be garbage by Miel.

I'm guessing something similar will happen with AI and storytelling. I suspect the dominant form of storytelling in the future will be "AI, tell me a story about a bad ass but broken woman." But I also suspect that there will be a subset people who sometimes want stories written by real people.

I get you didn't mean it that way, but that sounds so dystopian to me. I don't mean the bubbles or "post truth" aspect, but just the idea people in the future will just consoom personalised 100% derivative stories without any intent and originality behind them. Not even Brave New World gets the banal consumerism that dark.

The number of avn according to "LOTR" after this will grow

What we really need is a LOTR-based life action series that's actually according to LOTR and not according to some Hollywood crackheads. No I don't mean the black elves, I mean everything else.

 

[jufot]

Was when it was still Sparkle and Kayden talking with Sandeep, or after Gab, Wendy and others showed up? I think there was nonsense during both sections yeah.

The latter. But it was quite a while ago, I may very well be misremembering things.

 

[MalLiz]

Boy am I late to this party! But apparently, my recommendation has not been mentioned even once in the thread before now, so better late than never, apparently?

Now then, the recommendation in question is Cosy Cafe, and unless I misread the criteria in the OP, it fulfils all of them more or less completely. Which makes it all the more baffling that the game has not been mentioned here before now! Absolutely mad, I say.

Fair warning though, it is still in development, but the creator (aptly named Cosy Creator) is actively working on it, and a fairly consistent presence on this forum in particular. All in all, it is one of my favourites among story-focussed games, if not outright my absolute favourite.

-Mal

 

[jufot]

unless I misread the criteria in the OP, it fulfils all of them more or less completely

Sex scenes should serve the plot, not vice versa. If there is no story-relevant reason for a scene, it shouldn't be there.

In Cosy Cafe you will develop romantic and increasingly sexual relationships with a number of girls, culminating in a harem that eventually becomes a family.

You mean to suggest that not only there is a harem, but it exists for the story, and it all makes sense narratively, and that the sex scenes (where the women willingly share the protagonist with no issues and for perfectly legitimate reasons) serve the plot, and aren't there for porn?

If so, congratulations because you found the one anime harem on F95 that is unlike all the others!

 

[MalLiz]

You mean to suggest that not only there is a harem, but it exists for the story, and it all makes sense narratively, and that the sex scenes (where the women willingly share the protagonist with no issues and for perfectly legitimate reasons) serve the plot, and aren't there for porn?

If so, congratulations because you found the one anime harem on F95 that is unlike all the others!

Yep. I sure did.

...Though to call it "anime" is ridiculously reductive, and betrays a highly bigoted and extremely elitist view on...just about everything. Just saying.

-Mal

 

[jufot]

Yep. I sure did.

Well... as sceptical as I am, I'm glad you have such high praise for it.

...Though to call it "anime" is ridiculously reductive, and betrays a highly bigoted and extremely elitist view on...just about everything.

I'll accept the elitist label, but at my age, I'm not nearly flexible enough for the mental gymnastics required to apply bigotry to cartoon characters.

 

[Rhinoisliquidjuice448]

Boy am I late to this party! But apparently, my recommendation has not been mentioned even once in the thread before now, so better late than never, apparently?

Now then, the recommendation in question is Cosy Cafe, and unless I misread the criteria in the OP, it fulfils all of them more or less completely. Which makes it all the more baffling that the game has not been mentioned here before now! Absolutely mad, I say.

Fair warning though, it is still in development, but the creator (aptly named Cosy Creator) is actively working on it, and a fairly consistent presence on this forum in particular. All in all, it is one of my favourites among story-focussed games, if not outright my absolute favourite.

-Mal

i guess it deserves a shout with how the harem structure and kinda meet the criteria it worth giving it a try jufot

 

[Tlaero]

I get you didn't mean it that way, but that sounds so dystopian to me. I don't mean the bubbles or "post truth" aspect, but just the idea people in the future will just consoom personalised 100% derivative stories without any intent and originality behind them. Not even Brave New World gets the banal consumerism that dark.

If F95 is any indication, it's already happening.

Consider the extensive use of tags, as well as the frequent arguments over them. People get really bent out of shape if they see a tag that doesn't match what they think it means. Ie the people who complained that Toro 7 had a trans tag, but the trans character didn't have a dick. And I frequently see people saying, "I'm not going to waste my time on a game that doesn't have this tag set."

Then there's all the threads where people try to convince the dev to add a particular kink to the game, even if it doesn't make any sense to the story. Some even go so far as make mods to the game that add said kink. Ie the person who made a patch to Mortze's SW game to add incest even though none of the people in the game were in any way related to each other. Ie2 all the threads that go to hell when "the NTR people" show up.

Imagine a form with a bunch of checkboxes and an "Generate" button. All they have to do is check the boxes they want and it makes a story that fits those requirements.

What percentage of the F95 audience wouldn't go for that?

Tlaero

 

[Pixillin']

Imagine a form with a bunch of checkboxes and an "Generate" button. All they have to do is check the boxes they want and it makes a story that fits those requirements.

What percentage of the F95 audience wouldn't go for that?

Tlaero

Especially if that game generates its own images on the fly as fast as the player can progress (no waiting for updates). Can be modified on the go (the form can be changed if you change your mind); The game can be modified at any point (if there's a scene you don't like it will roll back and change it); Characters can be modified at any point (if you don't like the way she looks, the AI will fix it); the result of your decisions is always what you'd like it to be and any restrictions on the kind of content that can be produced are effectively eliminated.

 

[Pixillin']

You mean to suggest that not only there is a harem, but it exists for the story, and it all makes sense narratively, and that the sex scenes (where the women willingly share the protagonist with no issues and for perfectly legitimate reasons) serve the plot, and aren't there for porn?

If so, congratulations because you found the one anime harem on F95 that is unlike all the others!

Cosy Cafe was one of the first games I tried, and I found the writing / story especially unbelievable - it was entirely an ego trip for the main character/user. People who hated him ended up in his harem remarkably quickly, the families of the girls seemed alost excited about them being in the harem if it meant they had a part-time job, and 80% of their personality vanished as soon as they experienced the magic of MC's dick.

 

[Rhinoisliquidjuice448]

Cosy Cafe was one of the first games I tried, and I found the writing / story especially unbelievable - it was entirely an ego trip for the main character/user. People who hated him ended up in his harem remarkably quickly, the families of the girls seemed alost excited about them being in the harem if it meant they had a part-time job, and 80% of their personality vanished as soon as they experienced the magic of MC's dick.

fair summary

 

[Pgsurprise]

If F95 is any indication, it's already happening.

Consider the extensive use of tags, as well as the frequent arguments over them. People get really bent out of shape if they see a tag that doesn't match what they think it means. Ie the people who complained that Toro 7 had a trans tag, but the trans character didn't have a dick. And I frequently see people saying, "I'm not going to waste my time on a game that doesn't have this tag set."

Then there's all the threads where people try to convince the dev to add a particular kink to the game, even if it doesn't make any sense to the story. Some even go so far as make mods to the game that add said kink. Ie the person who made a patch to Mortze's SW game to add incest even though none of the people in the game were in any way related to each other. Ie2 all the threads that go to hell when "the NTR people" show up.

Imagine a form with a bunch of checkboxes and an "Generate" button. All they have to do is check the boxes they want and it makes a story that fits those requirements.

What percentage of the F95 audience wouldn't go for that?

Tlaero

Are you going to take all your posts about AI and add renders for some dystopian story? Lol.

 

[Tlaero]

Are you going to take all your posts about AI and add renders for some dystopian story? Lol.

No. That would be too close to home. I prefer to write fiction.

Tlaero

 

[Pixillin']

No. That would be too close to home. I prefer to write fiction.

Tlaero

The big threat is the development time. For AI it's literally seconds vs days/weeks/months it's close to instant and, as I said earlier, infinite "paths" without adding extra dev time. Instead of choice A) B) or C) you literally just tell it what you want to say or do without restriction.

As an experiment - to test it's flexibility - I created a character who is a notorious assassin/hit man for the mafia. So well known that he's whispered about outside of mafia circles, his enemies just vanish but he has police on payroll and there is never any evidence - no blood, no body - just nothing. He's a total sociopath, except for his wife/girlfriend who he worships, he has a strong jealous streak and a short fuse when it comes to anyone messing with her. Then I took this character and plugged him into a few NTR / Cheating games: Totally different experience, I'm sure, from what the creator intended - but the AI had no trouble with it.

 

[jufot]

Well, if you are looking for good dialogue and "interesting things to look at", would you consider RPG/VN hybrids?

Winter Wolves has a series of games released over the last decade (including very recently) that all take place in the same universe, with good worldbuilding and many interconnected, recurring characters. Together, the games cover a time span of decades. They were not released chronologically, but I will list them in my recommended order:

- Cursed Lands (The beginning of the story, and an introduction to several major characters of the Aravorn universe. M/F protag, 2 LIs each)
- Loren The Amazon Princess (By far the biggest, most well-known game in the series. A full on RPG with team building and combat. 12 LIs (M human / F elven protag, 6 LIs each!)
- Tales From The Under-Realm: Hazel (Takes place decades before Cursed Lands. A darker story about a trio of women and The Nameless God. F protag, 2 LIs)
- Tales From The Under-Realm: After Midnight (Another Nameless God game, also quite dark, with many references to Hazel. F protag, 2 LIs)
- Tales From The Under-Realm: Lilith (The third and final Nameless God game. Takes place quite a bit after AM. F protag, 4 LIs)
- Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf (Takes place before Loren, in a distant part of Aravorn but with many references to other characters. Slavery themed. M/F sibling protags (you choose one) 2 LIs each)
- Tales of Aravorn: An Elven Marriage (A political marriage / palace intrigue game. Continuation to Loren. M/F protag. 2 LIs each. You can continue a relationship with one LI from Loren, or choose a new LI)
- Amber's Magic Shop (Potion crafting game / VN combo. Provides some background to After Midnight, but not really necessary. F protag, 4 LIs).

These should keep you occupied for several months

There is a new game out in this incredibly long-running series and I'd like to recommend it:

You must be registered to see the links

As with its predecessors, ToD is set in the same universe and timeline. It takes place shortly after Seasons of the Wolf but with a new cast. It's fully self-contained and can be played independently, but you'll enjoy it more if you've played the earlier games and can recognize recurring characters and plot points.

Like Loren The Amazon Princess, ToD is a full on RPG with team building and combat, but for the first time in the series, also introduces guild and city management. You play as a small-time thief establishing a Thieves Guild in the city of Dingirra and work your way up to overthrowing the long-time rulers of the city.

Romance is there and is quite varied (M/F human/elf protagonist, M/F LIs, and one M/F/F triad) but also quite minimal (and softcore) like most WW games. The LIs are not player-sexual, so they are not available to both genders. Keep that in mind during character creation.

The gameplay is fun and as challenging as you want it to be. It's absolutely brutal at higher difficulties, but you can play on "easy" if you just want a taste of battle without the challenge. You can also select "VN mode" to skip all battles, but you still need to play guild/city management.

The story is great. It builds on the already well established Aravorn universe, staying consistent with the lore of a series more than a decade in the making. It's no small feat! If you've liked the earlier stories, you'll enjoy this one as well.

 

[Darksoul6565]

Guys, have you visited the corporate culture thread recently??