Recommending Story-first games

[realjitter]

You might like The Cabin - Summer Vacation. not very far along but seems promising

I checked out The Cabin, but for me it was a little too "family oriented" which really isn't my cup of tea . Apart from that the game is pretty decent. The writing is ok, the story is actually a "horror" type of game. Or at least it seems to become that which is fun i guess. The problem is still that it's an AVN meaning that the "slasher" part of it will never be as impactful as in a movie or a book simply due to the fact that there'll be no "real slashing" since every character is more or less save because they're, well, the'yre all LI's and LI's are untouchable, they're fucking holy, you know?

So at the end of the day the game will never be able to really suck you in or create real tension and suspense because you always know what'll happen anyways.. Mom survives, random hobo dies. Sister lives, random nobody dies and so on... That's the problem with AVN's, they cornered themselves so much when it comes to creativity and diversity, it's kinda scary... Also makes it pretty boring in the long run...

So in short, if you like full on incest games where some random people getting murdered along the way this game might interest you. Good renders, especially the Mother is really well done and has a unique look to her imo, but i'm not gonna continue playing/reading this game..

 

[TheimmortalP]

Superheroes Suck has an update out, and it's amazing! I won't spoil it, but it's now apparent to me that the entire main story was planned out from the beginning, more than 2 years go.

The dev is taking a break from the story and will be focusing on the sandbox stuff for a while, so this is a good point to catch up for those interested

Man, I feel like the intro post does so little to grab my attention, especially with the pictures mostly just being different poses of one girl. I read some reviews, and they mentioned that it's a kinetic novel, but it's sandbox. I am just so confused, can you please tell me more about it? maybe point me to some review/s with some reallly good, tangible informations which really cover what makes it interesting

 

[TheimmortalP]

Great taste. You might want to check out my game
https://f95zone.to/threads/cataclyzm-v0-09-amorousdezign.94464/

Not into furry, but I love your art style.

 

[moskyx]

Man, I feel like the intro post does so little to grab my attention, especially with the pictures mostly just being different poses of one girl. I read some reviews, and they mentioned that it's a kinetic novel, but it's sandbox. I am just so confused, can you please tell me more about it? maybe point me to some review/s with some reallly good, tangible informations which really cover what makes it interesting

It's a kinetic novel with sandbox elements: there are 4 heroines in your Academy and you have to progress all of their stories to advance the main story while you train a bit with them. So far, the sandbox means that you can choose what story you want to advance, but they are all intertwined and in the end you'll have to play all of them to unlock further bits of their stories. It's interesting because the girls have different personalities and issues, your MC is not a douchebag and has to figure out what his powers are, and the writing is witty and humorous, with a well-thought plot. It is, however, a little slow-paced (maybe 'a little' is an understatement) at the beginning, with almost nothing to do aside of training and studying and waiting for Sunday's classes (those sessions do advance the plot, but quite slowly)

 

[TheimmortalP]

It's a kinetic novel with sandbox elements: there are 4 heroines in your Academy and you have to progress all of their stories to advance the main story while you train a bit with them. So far, the sandbox means that you can choose what story you want to advance, but they are all intertwined and in the end you'll have to play all of them to unlock further bits of their stories. It's interesting because the girls have different personalities and issues, your MC is not a douchebag and has to figure out what his powers are, and the writing is witty and humorous, with a well-thought plot. It is, however, a little slow-paced (maybe 'a little' is an understatement) at the beginning, with almost nothing to do aside of training and studying and waiting for Sunday's classes (those sessions do advance the plot, but quite slowly)

Oh wow, the last VN I finished was Melody. It's my second favorite completed VN, but I never wanna play something with its pacing issues again. It felt so slow, and I had to keep taking 1-2 month breaks to really make myself miss it. As a result, I ended up playing a lot less visual novels in general. I never wanna go through that again. To me pacing might be the most important part of anything I consume after immersion.

I don't think it's for me.

 

[RobertDeadth]

Hey everyone, since I've always enjoyed it greatly when my games were discussed here, I just wanted to let you know that Episode 2 Part 2 of Tune in to the show has been released publicly today, if anyone would like to check it out

 

[ARB582]

Oh wow, the last VN I finished was Melody. It's my second favorite completed VN, but I never wanna play something with its pacing issues again. It felt so slow, and I had to keep taking 1-2 month breaks to really make myself miss it. As a result, I ended up playing a lot less visual novels in general. I never wanna go through that again. To me pacing might be the most important part of anything I consume after immersion.

I don't think it's for me.

The pacing is mostly bad when it comes to the main story, the pacing for the character's stories is quite good.
So if you do end up liking the characters the overall pacing is quite good.

I would suggest to give it a shot.
The story is quite good and you can see that the dev had the whole story pre-planned rather than making things up as time went on

 

[TheimmortalP]

The pacing is mostly bad when it comes to the main story, the pacing for the character's stories is quite good.
So if you do end up liking the characters the overall pacing is quite good.

Well gee, since the pacing is only bad for the main part of the game

 

[ARB582]

Well gee, since the pacing is only bad for the main part of the game

Well the main story is like only 20% of the whole game, it focuses more on the characters.
Its nowhere as bad as Melody, that games pacing was atrocious and it expects you to play multiple times to romance all the LI's.

 

[Hahn1900]

The pacing is mostly bad when it comes to the main story, the pacing for the character's stories is quite good.
So if you do end up liking the characters the overall pacing is quite good.

I would suggest to give it a shot.
The story is quite good and you can see that the dev had the whole story pre-planned rather than making things up as time went on

Yeah must disagree here, the pacing is overall just really bad for superheroes suck.

either for the girls or the overall story... you have to repeat over 50 times (yep no exaggerating here) the "training/learning" and so on... and because of the sandbox you cant just hit the "skip" button.

The hurdle at the start is really high to get into the game... and just nearly out of nowhere you will have sex with every girl, of course after several learning and training sessions, but with nearly no bonding time... in the game you will stay several months in the "training" state until every girls progress is getting to the desired point so the mainplot goes on...

For the mainpart so far... wake up, click on the training or library door, train/learn with the girls, rince and repeat. Sometimes interrupted with a new scene... its really tough to get through that to a point when the story becomes interesting. Dont know why the DEV decided to implement this sandbox system... its a kinetic novel anyways... and yeah maybe its kinda realistic to train "months" but lets face it, after a while you could just make a time jump like "and after several weeks our hero was ready for his first patrol"... if there would be minigame for the training parts, this game would never have any chance to be played to the part where it is getting interesting.

I really had a hard time "playing" this, took me 2-3 weeks overall... i just repeated the ingame-shedule for 15-30 minutes, got bored, and next day i tried again... and finally when i came to the real interesting parts, the game stopped cause the content is at its end for now.

DEV really should consider to cut the start shorter, with less grinding. And just get rid of the sandbox if there is no point in it, and there is none.

Yeah the story makes up for the grind and annoying sandbox a little bit, but not entirely...

 

[TheimmortalP]

Yeah, it sounds like something I should avoid for my sanity.

 

[boobsrcool]

Definetly try Lust Academy. After a long, long time off skipping through "boring and mostly the same" stories gave me a good laugh, and the story seems fleshed out. I honeslty enjoy it very much and the top tier models help

good rec i liked it

 

[Jaike]

Not a game, but I think some of you on the more vanilla side will enjoy the comic

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.

And with no story at all, but I saw some nice

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about Sunstone. Recommended for Sunstone fans.

Hey everyone, since I've always enjoyed it greatly when my games were discussed here, I just wanted to let you know that Episode 2 Part 2 of Tune in to the show has been released publicly today, if anyone would like to check it out

I loved the deep, meaningful dialogues in this update.

Spoiler

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[jufot]

I think some of you on the more vanilla side will enjoy the comic

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.

Looks like there is 12 years of comics there, way too intimidating Like, I've been reading

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for the past 13 years but I absolutely couldn't start it from scratch if I were to discover it now.

I saw some nice

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about Sunstone. Recommended for Sunstone fans.

There are definitely a bunch of us here. The one who introduced it to this thread is suspiciously silent, though

 

[Tarmogo]

A Long Journey has a new update out for patrons, it should show up here soon. The writing continues to be strong, consistent and rational. So far, not one character has behaved even slightly in an unrealistic manner. There are interesting power dynamics at play, and everyone acts exactly how I'd imagine they would in real life.

The game is also visually gorgeous, which just adds to the immersion

View attachment 1934436 View attachment 1934437

Gave this a try after seeing your recommendation and loved it. Writing and renders are both excellent. Was shocked to see it had so few supporters on Patreon.

 

[jufot]

It's been a while, so here are some thoughts on recent game updates:

What a Legend has had its long-awaited update, focusing on Rose! Her story was cool and fits in well with the game's overall humour. The game is developed by a husband and wife duo and, while their output is impressive, I have serious concerns on how long they can keep this up. We're likely not even halfway through the story. Drawing at such fidelity is time consuming and I hope they don't get burned out before the end.

Projekt: Passion is the second game of Classy Lemon, developer of After the Inferno. I've had some misgivings about that game and I'm glad to report that Passion improves upon its predecessor in most ways. The story is funnier, has better pacing and lacks the annoying sandbox. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

The Unbroken has a new chapter out. It's more of the same, really. The game seems to be headed in a this womanizer playboy secretly has a monogamous heart of gold, he's just being bratty because of trauma direction, which sounds... trite. The most interesting bit of story remains the mystery of MC's past.

Summer Scent has also had an update. It was OK. This game is the definition of scope creep. There are 18 (!!!) paths according to the dev, many of them unpopular, so each update has very little content for a given player, despite the 6-month development time. Credit where it's due, though: The dev works on the game continuously and gives detailed updates every week like clockwork. My biggest complaint remains the MC. I haven't managed to find a single path where he is a likeable human being. Either he is a monstrous rapist, or the shittiest cliche of a neckbeard white knight. That scene in the car park with Cassie's bodyguards was pure cringe, I wanted to smash his head in with a tire iron...

Nothing is Forever's latest update has already been discussed here, but I wanted to bring it up again because of the dev's Patreon polls. There are some interesting stats there! Emma and Deb are by far the most popular women, with Lea a distant third. The game's various submissive paths seem to be much more popular than the dom ones, which is interesting and unexpected. I think it's because of the unique way NiF approaches femdom. It's much more realistic and kinder than the usual abusive nonsense. I also like that characters are not player-sexual. You can't impose your own sexuality on them. Very nice to see.

Private Dick: Lipstick & Lies was promoted by the dev here. I gave it a shot. It's hard to write good noir, so this was a pleasant surprise. Fantastic atmosphere with Sin City vibes. The game needs music, and I'm not a fan of the sex scenes so far, but those are minor complaints.

That's it from me. Anything interesting you folks have played lately?

 

[Tarmogo]

It's been a while, so here are some thoughts on recent game updates:

What a Legend has had its long-awaited update, focusing on Rose! Her story was cool and fits in well with the game's overall humour. The game is developed by a husband and wife duo and, while their output is impressive, I have serious concerns on how long they can keep this up. We're likely not even halfway through the story. Drawing at such fidelity is time consuming and I hope they don't get burned out before the end.

Projekt: Passion is the second game of Classy Lemon, developer of After the Inferno. I've had some misgivings about that game and I'm glad to report that Passion improves upon its predecessor in most ways. The story is funnier, has better pacing and lacks the annoying sandbox. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

The Unbroken has a new chapter out. It's more of the same, really. The game seems to be headed in a this womanizer playboy secretly has a monogamous heart of gold, he's just being bratty because of trauma direction, which sounds... trite. The most interesting bit of story remains the mystery of MC's past.

Summer Scent has also had an update. It was OK. This game is the definition of scope creep. There are 18 (!!!) paths according to the dev, many of them unpopular, so each update has very little content for a given player, despite the 6-month development time. Credit where it's due, though: The dev works on the game continuously and gives detailed updates every week like clockwork. My biggest complaint remains the MC. I haven't managed to find a single path where he is a likeable human being. Either he is a monstrous rapist, or the shittiest cliche of a neckbeard white knight. That scene in the car park with Cassie's bodyguards was pure cringe, I wanted to smash his head in with a tire iron...

Nothing is Forever's latest update has already been discussed here, but I wanted to bring it up again because of the dev's Patreon polls. There are some interesting stats there! Emma and Deb are by far the most popular women, with Lea a distant third. The game's various submissive paths seem to be much more popular than the dom ones, which is interesting and unexpected. I think it's because of the unique way NiF approaches femdom. It's much more realistic and kinder than the usual abusive nonsense. I also like that characters are not player-sexual. You can't impose your own sexuality on them. Very nice to see.

Private Dick: Lipstick & Lies was promoted by the dev here. I gave it a shot. It's hard to write good noir, so this was a pleasant surprise. Fantastic atmosphere with Sin City vibes. The game needs music, and I'm not a fan of the sex scenes so far, but those are minor complaints.

That's it from me. Anything interesting you folks have played lately?

I most recently played through the new The Unbroken update you mentioned, as well as A Long Journey like I said above (thanks again for the rec!).

I took a break from playing anything for a while, so I have a back log of other updates I still need to get through with Leap of Faith, Hillside, and City of Broken Dreamers. I'm also going to start Isabella: Dark Paths for the first time after hearing about it here quite a few times.

 

[boobsrcool]

It's been a while, so here are some thoughts on recent game updates:

What a Legend has had its long-awaited update, focusing on Rose! Her story was cool and fits in well with the game's overall humour. The game is developed by a husband and wife duo and, while their output is impressive, I have serious concerns on how long they can keep this up. We're likely not even halfway through the story. Drawing at such fidelity is time consuming and I hope they don't get burned out before the end.

Projekt: Passion is the second game of Classy Lemon, developer of After the Inferno. I've had some misgivings about that game and I'm glad to report that Passion improves upon its predecessor in most ways. The story is funnier, has better pacing and lacks the annoying sandbox. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

The Unbroken has a new chapter out. It's more of the same, really. The game seems to be headed in a this womanizer playboy secretly has a monogamous heart of gold, he's just being bratty because of trauma direction, which sounds... trite. The most interesting bit of story remains the mystery of MC's past.

Summer Scent has also had an update. It was OK. This game is the definition of scope creep. There are 18 (!!!) paths according to the dev, many of them unpopular, so each update has very little content for a given player, despite the 6-month development time. Credit where it's due, though: The dev works on the game continuously and gives detailed updates every week like clockwork. My biggest complaint remains the MC. I haven't managed to find a single path where he is a likeable human being. Either he is a monstrous rapist, or the shittiest cliche of a neckbeard white knight. That scene in the car park with Cassie's bodyguards was pure cringe, I wanted to smash his head in with a tire iron...

Nothing is Forever's latest update has already been discussed here, but I wanted to bring it up again because of the dev's Patreon polls. There are some interesting stats there! Emma and Deb are by far the most popular women, with Lea a distant third. The game's various submissive paths seem to be much more popular than the dom ones, which is interesting and unexpected. I think it's because of the unique way NiF approaches femdom. It's much more realistic and kinder than the usual abusive nonsense. I also like that characters are not player-sexual. You can't impose your own sexuality on them. Very nice to see.

Private Dick: Lipstick & Lies was promoted by the dev here. I gave it a shot. It's hard to write good noir, so this was a pleasant surprise. Fantastic atmosphere with Sin City vibes. The game needs music, and I'm not a fan of the sex scenes so far, but those are minor complaints.

That's it from me. Anything interesting you folks have played lately?

You rock jufot thank you for the updates

Didn't know there existed paths like that in SS thought the bad ending was as bad as it got

Glad you liked Projektassion, very hopeful for future updates

Played Stranded in Space its a bit of a slog early on but it gets much better once the characters and world are established. much better than expected from looking at the page on here giving it a generic first impression. MC comes off as a niceguy weirdo at first but improves upon accessing memories of his past behavior

 

[realjitter]

It's been a while, so here are some thoughts on recent game updates:

What a Legend has had its long-awaited update, focusing on Rose! Her story was cool and fits in well with the game's overall humour. The game is developed by a husband and wife duo and, while their output is impressive, I have serious concerns on how long they can keep this up. We're likely not even halfway through the story. Drawing at such fidelity is time consuming and I hope they don't get burned out before the end.

Projekt: Passion is the second game of Classy Lemon, developer of After the Inferno. I've had some misgivings about that game and I'm glad to report that Passion improves upon its predecessor in most ways. The story is funnier, has better pacing and lacks the annoying sandbox. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

The Unbroken has a new chapter out. It's more of the same, really. The game seems to be headed in a this womanizer playboy secretly has a monogamous heart of gold, he's just being bratty because of trauma direction, which sounds... trite. The most interesting bit of story remains the mystery of MC's past.

Summer Scent has also had an update. It was OK. This game is the definition of scope creep. There are 18 (!!!) paths according to the dev, many of them unpopular, so each update has very little content for a given player, despite the 6-month development time. Credit where it's due, though: The dev works on the game continuously and gives detailed updates every week like clockwork. My biggest complaint remains the MC. I haven't managed to find a single path where he is a likeable human being. Either he is a monstrous rapist, or the shittiest cliche of a neckbeard white knight. That scene in the car park with Cassie's bodyguards was pure cringe, I wanted to smash his head in with a tire iron...

Nothing is Forever's latest update has already been discussed here, but I wanted to bring it up again because of the dev's Patreon polls. There are some interesting stats there! Emma and Deb are by far the most popular women, with Lea a distant third. The game's various submissive paths seem to be much more popular than the dom ones, which is interesting and unexpected. I think it's because of the unique way NiF approaches femdom. It's much more realistic and kinder than the usual abusive nonsense. I also like that characters are not player-sexual. You can't impose your own sexuality on them. Very nice to see.

Private Dick: Lipstick & Lies was promoted by the dev here. I gave it a shot. It's hard to write good noir, so this was a pleasant surprise. Fantastic atmosphere with Sin City vibes. The game needs music, and I'm not a fan of the sex scenes so far, but those are minor complaints.

That's it from me. Anything interesting you folks have played lately?

Interesting facts about NIF. I read that the game will end up having 8-10 chapters so there should be alot of progression within the next couple of chapters. I guess we'll find out soon how good this game really will be because the game, as of now, is still in the early relationship forming phase with no real "romance" in sight yet. Not to mention that alot of the characters are also still in more or less steady relationships. It'll be interesting to see how the developer will tie everything together in the end. Should be challenging to say the least.., but i have faith

As for the femdom part, I do find it interesting how people who have no clue about this subject experience/describe femdom. For example, i've read a review from someone who interpreted the whole orgasm denial angle with Deb as being sadism...Which was kinda funny, but also, again, interesting. To be fair though, the game is overall pretty kink heavy and it can catch you off guard when you're going in blind thinking that it would be a traditional/vanilla AVN which it clearly isn't.

Regarding Summer Scent. I do agree with the scope creep. A couple of days ago i did read the last 2 updates for the first time and there was very little movement on the 3 individual routes i play. Which obviously has to do with the massive amount of different paths. I also did play a new route which was the "double dom" one and it was pretty messy to say the least. I couldn't quite figure out what that path was supposed to represent since so much weird stuff was happening that didn't make alot of sense to me. From my perspective the game could definitely drop a couple of routes in favour for the more popular ones to be flashed out more/having more content. It's just a bit too much at this point. So yeah, i'm gonna read it again once it's finished i guess. If i'm still around then that is...

But speaking of scope creep=). I also read the latest Summer's gone update which suffers from the same kind of thing, but in a different way imo. Last time i've read it was like half a year ago and i didn't really remember too much of it other than the beginning, rugby Bella and the ending of 3.5 . So i started again from the very beginning, going for Victoria this time because the other routes are either ,as of now, too underdeveloped or simply not my thing. I vaguely remember going for Bella the first time i played, but i ended up dropping her route because.. i'm not sure... I think she made some dumb racist comment about asians or something like that amongst some other things...(don't quote me on that!). Same goes for Mila who also seems to talk alot of nonsene imo.. The dialogue in general, especially in chapter 1&2, is servicable at best. Too much usage of words like cunt & retard for my taste which is a little cringe.. It gets a little better later on...

The overall absence of lewd scenes, which is discussed to death in the SG thread, isn't bothering me. If you look at the game and where the characters are it makes sense up until now. And judging by the way things go, i'm sure they'll all be banging like rabbits in a couple of chapters from now if that's what you're looking for... Timing is everything especially when you try to tell a more "realistic" version of a porn game and SG is doing a good job so far. But the developer also cornered himself a little going forward with how he wrote the MC. Him only being able to get hard when he's truly in love with someone... I'm curious how he'ill explain the MC having fast sex later on with some "side girls" when he needs to get heavily emotionally invested...

Well, the biggest letdown in the latest chapter for me was the DnD session. Mainly because it felt more like they're playing a VR game rather than doing a DnD session. DnD is all about constant decision making all the time, but there was like none of that?.. It felt weird to me.. It did look good though, not gonna lie...

So ultimately i'm not sure what i'm rootiing for in this game. It feels to me that you have to like all of it in order to get something out of it. But that's not the way i play these games... I still like it, but at the same time it's not like i'm sitting in front of my laptop, biting my nails, waiting for the next update to be released.. Way too many characters, too big of a scope for me to really immerse myself in it. Not to mention that i'm sure as fuck won't see the ending of it, knowing that it'ill go on for another like 30 chapters..

On the other hand, the developer seems to be german like me.. So gogogo mr developer, milk em dry=)
(I know he isn't milikng..) Hab die Meeresrauschen referenz nich ganz gecheckt, aber ok...

Gotta check out Projekt Passion, Mythos or One day at a time next which are the last ones i wanted to try. After that i'm basically done? I'm not really sure yet what that exactly means...

 

[schinoize]

Nothing is Forever's latest update has already been discussed here, but I wanted to bring it up again because of the dev's Patreon polls. There are some interesting stats there! Emma and Deb are by far the most popular women, with Lea a distant third. The game's various submissive paths seem to be much more popular than the dom ones, which is interesting and unexpected. I think it's because of the unique way NiF approaches femdom. It's much more realistic and kinder than the usual abusive nonsense. I also like that characters are not player-sexual. You can't impose your own sexuality on them. Very nice to see.

Ngl for the longest time I was put off by the description ("sexologist" uhu). After it's been repeatedly recommended here, I gave it a try yesterday. What can I say, it's been a while since I've completely lost track of time playing an AVN. Thoroughly enjoyed it, so thanks for the recommendation. The skill system is interesting. Once you learn to just keep your points until you really want to spend them, you're fine.
Emma, Deb and Lea are my faves as well for now (Lea not a distant third though, esp. not after chapter 4) and I agree. I don't have a lot of experience with Femdom and it's usually not super important to me, but the way it's handled here it definitely appeals to me. Emma is probably my #1 and I'm curious (and low-key can't wait) to see how her path continues, esp. since I didn't go for the humiliation part and so there was no lewd scene in chapter 4.


I also recently played the newest Summer's Gone update. Hard to say what to make of it. Beautiful renders, no doubt about it, esp. reworked Chapter 1. Content-wise, nothing too exciting. Felt like the time spent on DnD would've better spent elsewhere. I really like Nami as a character, but the relationship with MC doesn't click for me. Zara and especially Vanessa are obviously intriguing, but adding them as LIs now gives me power creep vibes if you know what I mean. In some ways, they overshadow the others. Also, did we really need more LIs?
I agree with the above statement that you have to like all of it to get something out of it and I don't. In fact I liked it less than the first time I played it. MC's antics were bothering me more.
I've been unsuccesfully trying to structure my thoughts, so I'll just leave it at that. Too big, too much and for that, progress too slow, at least for me.