Recommending Story-first games

[Slick Bean]

How believable or feedback wothy is your star regimentation of games you have nothing to outright say about?

i understand why it's designed that way

You wanna make it in the star spangled league of players who are human beings who express themselves,
not the trolls or alt accounts of fans or haters, then write something down - be it this message right up there/////

 

[camube]

How believable or feedback wothy is your star regimentation of games you have nothing to outright say about?

You wanna make it in the star spangled league of players who are human beings who express themselves,
not the trolls or alt accounts of fans or haters, then write something down - be it this message right up there/////

i dont want to write a public review. that's different than not having anything to say about the game.

if i have something to say about the game i message the devs directly on their patreon

 

[jufot]

Mr. Georgie of Reunion fame has a new game called No Expectation. It's out publicly on

You must be registered to see the links

!

Well, I just finished the first chapter. It's a simple story, but it's wonderful.

Fireworks... that's what she makes me feel.

Our protagonist, Josh, is a young man attending his best friend Liam's wedding. They haven't seen each other in a while, and he hasn't met Liam's fiancée. Josh has had a crush on Liam's older sister Alice for years, and is looking forward to seeing her again.

At the wedding, we quickly meet most of our cast: Andrea, Liam's fiancée; Aunt Emma, the vivacious and lovable mother figure; Celine, Liam's friend who is being pestered by Dave, Andrea's immature brother; Danielle, a young girl mostly likely on the spectrum who is completely enamoured with Dave; and Camilo, an exemplary man whose role I won't reveal

This intro chapter is about Liam's wedding and getting to know everyone. Like Mr. Georgie's previous game, Reunion, this one is also warm, full of heart, and made me laugh and smile on multiple occasions.

The first sex scene was my favourite, despite being the least graphic. It's the duo's first time with each other, and it felt true to life. The attraction is there, but neither wants a mere lustful hookup. There is a lot of hesitation and conflicted feelings. They check in with each other at every step, stay mostly clothed, and stop without going too far.

Anyway, I'll leave some spoilery thoughts below, but you should all play it! OP has been updated.

Spoiler

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[Mr Georgie]

Well, I just finished the first chapter. It's a simple story, but it's wonderful.


Our protagonist, Josh, is a young man attending his best friend Liam's wedding. They haven't seen each other in a while, and he hasn't met Liam's fiancée. Josh has had a crush on Liam's older sister Alice for years, and is looking forward to seeing her again.

At the wedding, we quickly meet most of our cast: Andrea, Liam's fiancée; Aunt Emma, the vivacious and lovable mother figure; Celine, Liam's friend who is being pestered by Dave, Andrea's immature brother; Danielle, a young girl mostly likely on the spectrum who is completely enamoured with Dave; and Camilo, an exemplary man whose role I won't reveal

This intro chapter is about Liam's wedding and getting to know everyone. Like Mr. Georgie's previous game, Reunion, this one is also warm, full of heart, and made me laugh and smile on multiple occasions.

The first sex scene was my favourite, despite being the least graphic. It's the duo's first time with each other, and it felt true to life. The attraction is there, but neither wants a mere lustful hookup. There is a lot of hesitation and conflicted feelings. They check in with each other at every step, stay mostly clothed, and stop without going too far.

Anyway, I'll leave some spoilery thoughts below, but you should all play it! OP has been updated.

Spoiler

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As a creator, my main purpose is to impact positively on the people who consume my content. I'm so happy to find out that I made it. Thank you for your great review, Jufot!!!

 

[Grimnir098]

Just wanted to recommend Superhuman, even though it's already been recommended before.
The rape tag is for monsters raping the MC, which is optional content (go down the right path if you don't want a blowjob from a shapeshifting eldritch horror).
Mind control tag is for a side character who sexually assaults two characters (forcing them to take their shirts off) and is implied to rape another character off-screen (depending on how you answered his question of how you lost your virginity).

Superhuman has easily one of the most engaging stories I've ever come across, even outside porn games. I've been following development since May 2021 and am always hyped for an update, which I don't think I can say for any other story.
WeirdWorld has a talent for writing action scenes in VNs, they really get your heart pumping. There's a very deep and expansive lore for those who are paying attention, and many of the side characters are interesting and likeable/hateable.
Just give it a try.

P.S. There is actually one scene where the MC has the option of shapeshifting into a woman to sexually dominate a bully who refuses to leave his girlfriend alone, and break his dick.

 

[EndlessNights]

Superhuman has easily one of the most engaging stories I've ever come across, even outside porn games. I've been following development since May 2021 and am always hyped for an update, which I don't think I can say for any other story.
WeirdWorld has a talent for writing action scenes in VNs, they really get your heart pumping. There's a very deep and expansive lore for those who are paying attention, and many of the side characters are interesting and likeable/hateable.
Just give it a try.

I strongly agree. In fact, I consider Superhuman to be one of the best VNs ever. I've never played a game with better or more developed lore (how many AVNs have their own

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with over a hundred, some very lengthy, articles?), it has the best visual novel fight scenes I've ever seen, and the quality of the writing and storytelling is excellent across the board. The characterization is surprisingly deep as well, even when it comes to side characters and enemies. Even someone like Klaus, an undeniably twisted individual who is a serious threat to the MC and his friends, is humanized and well-developed. I find it impossible to not develop a slight glimmer of sympathy for him every time I play through his flashback scene despite everything he puts the MC through.

It also tells the best sort of corruption story in my view since it is centered around the potential moral corruption of the MC. How will he use his powers? Will he let them sever his connection to his humanity, become ever more entwined with the world of monsters, and gradually lose all regard for human life or will he try to use the unique position he finds himself in to protect those who cannot protect themselves and the people he loved before he changed? It's up to the player ultimately.

It also has my favorite game community here on F95zone so join us on the Superhuman off-topic thread sometime!

With all that said, Superhuman is a uniquely difficult fit for this thread mostly because of jufot's third criterion that "Sex scenes should serve the plot." In truth, sex scenes in Superhuman are pretty much side content no matter how kinky they might be. They're not the reason WeirdWorld is writing the story and by and large they aren't the main reason players play the game. The vast majority are completely avoidable (and it's quite possible to have a very vanilla run which people might not realize based on Grimnir's post), and even if all were excised from the game it would still be one of the best VNs ever in my view. While in the world of Superhuman casual sex seems to be the norm, some sex scenes still end up feeling a bit random -- you can expect the occasional spontaneous offer of a threesome that seems to come out of nowhere or opportunities to have sex with characters the MC may not know very well yet. Romance definitely isn't the focus of the game. There are a few paths that have some nice romantic moments and I have a couple monogamous playthroughs, but don't expect any characters to get very possessive or jealous no matter how much the MC sleeps around. Harem logic tends to prevail here and that's one of the few areas where the characters don't feel real and true to life to me.

People in this thread also might frown at the exaggerated bodies of the MC and other characters. Weird is definitely a big believer in the philosophy of "Go big or go home." It also might have too much of a comic book feel for some, though I'd say it's a rare example of an inspired work that manages to surpass most of its influences.

So the situation as I see it is that Superhuman is simultaneously far superior to most games on the list including when it comes to story, character development, and writing, but it also probably has little chance of ever actually making the list.

 

[jufot]

So the situation as I see it is that Superhuman is simultaneously far superior to most games on the list including when it comes to story, character development, and writing, but it also probably has little chance of ever actually making the list.

Thanks for going into such detail. It sounds curiously novel.

In truth, sex scenes in Superhuman are pretty much side content no matter how kinky they might be. They're not the reason WeirdWorld is writing the story and by and large they aren't the reason players play the game. The vast majority are completely avoidable (and it's quite possible to have a very vanilla run which people might not realize based on Grimnir's post), and even if all were excised from the game it would still be one of the best VNs ever in my view.

I'm completely fine with VNs where a celibate playthrough is not only possible, but also rewarding. When I wrote that criterion, I was thinking of sex scenes that actively harmed the narrative. Two and a half years later, that is still the AVN norm.

[...] some sex scenes still end up feeling a bit random -- you can expect the occasional spontaneous offer of a threesome [...] Romance definitely isn't the focus of the game. [...] don't expect any characters to get very possessive or jealous no matter how much the MC sleeps around. Harem logic tends to prevail [...]

exaggerated bodies [...] a big believer in the philosophy of "Go big or go home."

Toro 7 is a game I really like. It has numerous sexual pairings, but I wouldn't call any of them romantic. I prefer romance, given the option, but I don't need it. So, that alone isn't a dealbreaker. But harem logic is. Worse still, I don't find the idea of a world full of Aghavnis very appealing

A number of people whose opinions I hold in high regard (I count you among them) are completely enamoured with this game. I'm happy for them! But I can also see that numerous aspects of it are turn-offs for me. I won't say I'll never play it, but it'll have to wait in the lower ranks of my already too long backlog

 

[necromater]

It also has my favorite game community here on F95zone so join us on the Superhuman off-topic thread sometime!

Brother forgot the soundtrack

And the memes

Superhuman is

XD

 

[BruceBerserk]

Just wanted to recommend Superhuman, even though it's already been recommended before.
The rape tag is for monsters raping the MC, which is optional content (go down the right path if you don't want a blowjob from a shapeshifting eldritch horror).
Mind control tag is for a side character who sexually assaults two characters (forcing them to take their shirts off) and is implied to rape another character off-screen (depending on how you answered his question of how you lost your virginity).

Superhuman has easily one of the most engaging stories I've ever come across, even outside porn games. I've been following development since May 2021 and am always hyped for an update, which I don't think I can say for any other story.
WeirdWorld has a talent for writing action scenes in VNs, they really get your heart pumping. There's a very deep and expansive lore for those who are paying attention, and many of the side characters are interesting and likeable/hateable.
Just give it a try.

P.S. There is actually one scene where the MC has the option of shapeshifting into a woman to sexually dominate a bully who refuses to leave his girlfriend alone, and break his dick.

To back up the homey I don't watch porn anymore but I still play this game because it is simply the best story of our decade, I'll die on that hill, its a mysterious, action packed, and weirdly wholesome adventure you have to try

 

[jufot]

The Neverwhere Tales has a new chapter out.

 

[Vasin]

So I tried Superhuman. I'll preface with saying that I'm probably very early into the game's story and yet... My expectations were probably overinflated by all the praise it's gotten here but I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

It's not anything big, but a plethora of small things that kept grating me while playing. The visual style is, to not offend anyone, amateurish and sub par. I get why the author went for it because there's no way 3dcg would be able to visualize all the things that are in the game, but at the same time it probably would have been better to not go with any images rather than this. Not everyone can be Elvensang when it comes to amateur art and with text only would serve the mood of the game even better.

Gameplay aspect feels like it's actively fighting against the story with how janky and unintuitive time slots and optional stories are. Am I missing something when I choose one option over the other? Some of them become unavailable later and some have effect on main story and there's no way to know. It also hurts narrative integrity of those optional side stories because they have to be written in a time agnostic manner to be playable at any point and they feel irrelevant. Sandbox just breaks my narrative immersion.

The main plot itself is fine. Good, even. But, man, the characters I just can't give more than 0 shits about. I'm probably going to keep playing to see what happens in the main plot, but no joke, my favourite character so far is a fucking dog. The game also struggles with establishing the setting with the world being this weird mishmash of contemporary and some weird half-dystopia that is not clearly defined. There are many cases of fourth-wall breaking humour, self-referential jokes and copious lampshading of the tropes used which is funny... first 10 times.

I think this would have worked much better as a kinetic novel or better a comic series where I wouldn't have to make so much effort. Because the main plot is actually pretty solid.

Oh yeah, and the sex scenes are just gratuitous filler, I don't think they serve the plot in any capacity, at least that I've seen.

P.S. For the love of god, game developers if you read this, please if you have customizable MC name in your game make sure to provide a default so I don't choose a name that is already taken by an existing character that I had no way of knowing existed.

 

[EndlessNights]

So I tried Superhuman. I'll preface with saying that I'm probably very early into the game's story and yet... My expectations were probably overinflated by all the praise it's gotten here but I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

I'll be a little surprised if you play the game to the end and still have the same list of complaints. I hope you'll at least keep playing through the Klaus fight. Superhuman is a game that is a bit of a slow burn in terms of world building and character development, and it also tends to alternate between really intense dramatic crescendos and more laid-back, slice of life sequences. I'm guessing you're probably in a low drama segment of the game at the moment and find yourself waiting for stuff to happen. It will. It definitely will.

It's not anything big, but a plethora of small things that kept grating me while playing. The visual style is, to not offend anyone, amateurish and sub par. I get why the author went for it because there's no way 3dcg would be able to visualize all the things that are in the game, but at the same time it probably would have been better to not go with any images rather than this. Not everyone can be Elvensang when it comes to amateur art and with text only would serve the mood of the game even better.

The art is a hugely divisive issue in the Superhuman community. It's probably the number one thing people who don't like the game complain about. The good news for you is that WeirdWorld changes to a more mainstream style later in the game which you might like better (he plans to slowly update the entire game's art).

Personally, I can't say I share your criticism because I actually really like the original art style. It has a lot of character and personality which to me is more important in art than verisimilitude or technical perfection. I suppose it's a matter of taste at the end of the day, and I know many people will drop a game entirely if they don't enjoy the graphics so I would understand if it's just something you can never get used to.

Gameplay aspect feels like it's actively fighting against the story with how janky and unintuitive time slots and optional stories are. Am I missing something when I choose one option over the other? Some of them become unavailable later and some have effect on main story and there's no way to know. It also hurts narrative integrity of those optional side stories because they have to be written in a time agnostic manner to be playable at any point and they feel irrelevant. Sandbox just breaks my narrative immersion.

I tend to think of the time management aspect as less a puzzle to solve in the most optimal way and more of a roleplaying opportunity. What people does the MC like to spend time with? What does he like to do? In other words, what sort of person is he? I don't recommend never training, but other than that have fun with it. The advantage of this gameplay approach is that if you don't like a particular character or a particular storyline you can avoid them to the extent the main story allows.

I'm not sure how far along you are, but some game days don't have every choice to spend time available. That doesn't mean it won't be available again later on necessarily. It's a more flexible and forgiving system than it might appear to be at first.

The main plot itself is fine. Good, even. But, man, the characters I just can't give more than 0 shits about. I'm probably going to keep playing to see what happens in the main plot, but no joke, my favourite character so far is a fucking dog.

Shadow is a hugely popular character in the fandom so you're in good company. There are some great moments ahead for her so you already have at least one important reason to keep playing.

I can understand feeling neutral about most of the characters in the early going, though I'm a little concerned if you really have no opinion whatsoever about Ella. Superhuman tends to develop its characters slowly. You get their backstories and learn who they are gradually over the course of many conversations and often flashbacks. For instance, Liz and Amber are two of the characters you meet first in the game, but they've had a few of their best character-building moments in just the last few updates.

The game also struggles with establishing the setting with the world being this weird mishmash of contemporary and some weird half-dystopia that is not clearly defined. There are many cases of fourth-wall breaking humour, self-referential jokes and copious lampshading of the tropes used which is funny... first 10 times.

I'd say these two takes are purely early game impressions and I really don't think you'll continue to feel this way as you play through the game. The world building is quite intense and detailed, and you'll learn a lot about the setting later on. Quite possibly even more than you ever wanted to. I enjoy WeirdWorld's sense of humor, but the tone will grow grimmer, the atmosphere will be more intense, and there'll be fewer jokes as you go along.

I think this would have worked much better as a kinetic novel or better a comic series where I wouldn't have to make so much effort.

I strongly disagree the game would be better as a kinetic novel. A big part of the reason I enjoy it so much is that it gives the player such stark moral choices. Characters will live and die based on what kind of person the MC is. Many fights can also be lost and the consequences for that can be extreme. One unusual aspect of the game is the existence of a multitude of dead ends -- these often give a lot of information about the world and the characters and tend to be very much worth playing. Being able to see what happens if the MC fails is fascinating in itself, but it also underscores the extreme dangers and the long odds he faces. (It's a good idea to save often.)

 

[Tlaero]

P.S. For the love of god, game developers if you read this, please if you have customizable MC name in your game make sure to provide a default so I don't choose a name that is already taken by an existing character that I had no way of knowing existed.

The right solution there is to not allow the player to pick the name of a character in the game. That's what I did in Toro 7.

Tlaero

 

[necromater]

good girl Shadow in the house XD

 

[EndlessNights]

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good girl Shadow in the house XD

Brother, you're living life on the edge a bit here. This is probably the least meme-friendly thread on the entire site, and I don't know if we're collectively ready for change. After two years, I think the closest we've come to a meme of our own is that every now and then someone kids jufot about his shocking (alleged) bias against college VNs.

You might have noticed I tactfully avoided any mention of Superhuman technically being a college VN...considering the MC has pretty much dropped out now anyway, I felt like I should pick and choose my battles. Luckily, my secret is safe because jufot never reads inline spoilers. Whew, that's a relief.

Actually, come to think of it, our lack of memes may be less about thread culture and more about Raife just not being confident enough in his Photoshop skills yet. If someone gets the right book for him as a Christmas present, our world may never again be the same.

 

[Raife]

Actually, come to think of it, our lack of memes may be less about thread culture and more about Raife just not being confident enough in his Photoshop skills yet. If someone gets the right book for him as a Christmas present, our world may never again be the same.

Grasshopper, I first started using Photoshop to prep images that we developed in-house, scanned, and printed and then physically pasted (on paper with glue, caveman-style) before they went to the professional printers. It was a half-digital, half analog world populated by genzennials... picture steampunk, and you won't be far off. Us old fogies had to live both online and IRL.

No smartphones OR social media: it was paradise on earth. To entertain ourselves, we had sex... LOTS of sex. With no memes to distract us, there were other fun activities to enjoy.

That said, when Microsoft finally eliminates the snipping tool hotkeys, I'm screwed.

 

[camube]

The changes in Patreon are even worse for Creators. Getting the information I need and communicating with Patrons is harder now than it used to be.

Tlaero

i just realized today that if a person is at low-tier level, then that patron does not see higher tier posts from the devs on their news feed.

On the contrary to that, if that person is not a patron of the devs and seeing the dev page from the outside, they do see posts of all the tiers from the devs with greyed-out lock.

That's just SCREWING OVER DEVS.

Why does patreon do this? This is so stupid. Extremely stupid.

Say a person is a tier 3 patron, say they happen to be checking the dev page and see a greyed-out tier 2 or tier 1 post, maybe they happen to want to read that specific post and maybe they are willing to pay for higher tier at that instant to unlock that specific post?

As it is now, that's not even a possibility.

Cuz as a lower-tier patron logged in into patreon, I wouldn't even know the dev is posting to the higher tiers. Unless I'm currently not their member, or perhaps logged out

That made me wonder how many $ have devs missed from Patreon doing things this way

 

[Slick Bean]

i just realized today that if a person is at low-tier level, then that patron does not see higher tier posts from the devs on their news feed.

On the contrary to that, if that person is not a patron of the devs and seeing the dev page from the outside, they do see posts of all the tiers from the devs with greyed-out lock.

That's just SCREWING OVER DEVS.

Why does patreon do this? This is so stupid. Extremely stupid.

Say a person is a tier 3 patron, say they happen to be checking the dev page and see a greyed-out tier 2 or tier 1 post, maybe they happen to want to read that specific post and maybe they are willing to pay for higher tier at that instant to unlock that specific post?

As it is now, that's not even a possibility.

Cuz as a lower-tier patron logged in into patreon, I wouldn't even know the dev is posting to the higher tiers. Unless I'm currently not their member, or perhaps logged out

That made me wonder how many $ have devs missed from Patreon doing things this way

When you run a business based on long lists of subscribers, like any other internet vendor, you do the client relations and you send out the news you want to everyone you want ... or you are a bum who treats Patreon like a tip jar
and are just as obnoxious to your subscribers as a street bum might be to the passers by.

You can even paddle flip flopping between the two models, it is all on you, as Patreon is designed
TO KEEP SUBSCRIBETS LOCKED IN THEIR TIERs SO THEY NEVER UNSUB ... rather cativating tacic.

 

[Raife]

Why does patreon do this? This is so stupid. Extremely stupid.

As a sponsor, it's extremely annoying. I support circa 30 creators, so the old feed made it easy to track new posts. The new feed makes no sense: if I want to see older posts, I'll click through into the creator's page... I don't need to see them grouped into the feed. I have completely missed a few important updates after the Patreon 'refresh.'

I'm genuinely confused about what they were trying to achieve. Whatever that was, the end product is a mess.

 

[Raife]

As a creator, my main purpose is to impact positively on the people who consume my content. I'm so happy to find out that I made it. Thank you for your great review, Jufot!!!

Finally played through your first chapter... and it's lovely. As I said in my review, there's a large dollop of wisdom smuggled into the narrative, particularly on how some men misconceive relationships or idealize women without really knowing them. Bravo.

Your first sex scene was extremely hot. It drove home something that I've mentioned before: kissing, or even simply touching someone where the level of mutual attraction is off the charts... is a revelation. It's not comparable with anything else. At one point, the MC wonders 'what's wrong with me... why can't I stop!?' That hit me right in the feels.

Your difficulty, Georgie, is that the maturity of your perspective on life will almost certainly alienate some immature, incel players... as much as it gratifies me or jufot. But it's beautiful, nonetheless.