Recommending Story-first games

[jufot]

After more than a year, the final chapter of Mythos: Book One is out!

 

[boobsrcool]

After more than a year, the final chapter of Mythos: Book One is out on Patreon!

Even though the ride is over I'm still calling you jufot nelson

 

[Vasin]

So I finished Mythos, after last having played it back when it was only 3 episodes.

I... can't quite say it met my expectations. The writing is the same as it has been, but the whole story sort of gave me this "promo issue for a series" thing, sort of like a comic book where there's just a lot of hits, winks and nudges towards larger things in universe, but not much *actually* happens plot wise and none of the characters have any meaningful development (that I noticed). Episodes 1-2 are setup, episode 3-4 is just bumbling about with a twist that uproots the entire plot and 5 is 90% fake endings.

And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.

So, it works as a setup for a better story in the world, but I do wish book 2 gets some *actual* plot and character conflict and development that isn't off-screen.

 

[Tlaero]

It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride.

I haven't played Mythos, so I don't have a horse in this race. But this line makes me think of Agatha Christie, who was infamous for writing Mysteries that you couldn't solve because she gave her detective critical information that you didn't get.

Tlaero

 

[Vasin]

I haven't played Mythos, so I don't have a horse in this race. But this line makes me think of Agatha Christie, who was infamous for writing Mysteries that you couldn't solve because she gave her detective critical information that you didn't get.

Tlaero

Yeah I totally see what you're saying, but in this case it wasn't even that characters had some kind of information that the player didn't have, it was more like they just made a wild guess and it just happened to be correct. Or rather, you're presented with more than 10 options and eventually you whittle it down to the correct one.

A lot of the details that the game gives you end up being nothing but fluff exposition and there's nothing that I noticed that can be considered as a conclusive *hint* in favour of villain being who they are. (Overall worldbuilding is great though. It's a game that's worth checking out imo)

I would be completely fine with having a guess at the villain and finding out I was wrong, but it was more like nobody had any motive or reason that wasn't extremely far fetched or equally unlikely.

Also I don't think it's quite fair to compare books and interactive fiction in that regard. A very infamous example of egregious misdirect that comes to my mind when dealing with mystery in interactive fiction is "Heavy Rain", a "Saw" like kindapping story where you literally control the serial killer and can see his thoughts yet somehow they appear completely normal to you just to avoid spoiling the plot sooner.

 

[kotte]

And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me

While I am a lot more positive than you are when it comes to ther earlier episodes (I still believe Mythos stands out as a quality product), i was also disappointed with the endings. Throwing in a bunch of fake endings made it feel like it wasn't real. "Didn't like this ending? Try that one!" It's breaking the fourth wall in a way that removes my emotional connection to the characters in the story.

Going Agatha Christie on us, with a solution that we couldn't have known as readers, was no issue to me, though. I'm fine with Mr Poirot explaining the murder to me, as long as the journey up to that point has been enjoyable.

 

[jufot]

And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.

This was a very disappointing end to a previous favourite of mine. When the last chapter ended with the corkboard where everyone could legitimately be a suspect, I was really excited. Finally, someone who could write a proper whodunnit that couldn't be meta-gamed.

Well... Turns out, all the meta-gaming rules still apply:

Spoiler

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And there you go. You have the culprit without bothering with any of the clues, none of which pointed to Cecil anyway.

I skipped more than half of the "endings" and I struggle to understand spending more than a year on an update where 90% of it is narratively irrelevant "hahaha jokes, memes!" fluffery. And after all that, it doesn't resolve anything and just leaves it up in the air for a sequel.

Oh, well...

 

[Lynava]

I'm interested in games where the story takes precedence over everything else. My personal criteria are:

• Well-designed, internally consistent, coherent story with a beginning and an end - i.e. no games where the devs make shit up as they go along.
• Characters that are actual human beings, with lives, personalities and interests outside the MC.
• Sex scenes should serve the plot, not vice versa. If there is no story-relevant reason for a scene, it shouldn't be there.
• No Engrish. Non-native speakers are fine (I am one), but the dev should at least use Grammarly or LanguageTool.
• No cheap tropes (e.g. every woman lusts after the MC's magical dick).

Also, since some people clearly can't play nice and/or are seriously disturbed, here are some additional criteria for this thread. Please don't bring up any such games.

• No sexualization of minors. No games that have - or should have - loli/shota tags.
• No non-consensual sexual violence intended for titillation.

Make a comment if you can think of others that fit the criteria. We're a friendly bunch here

Games I've already played that - IMHO - mostly fit the above criteria, in alphabetical order: (last updated March 2025)

• Acting Lessons
• A Father's Sins
• Along The Edge
• Alpha Omega
• The Artist
• A Long Journey
• Ashes of War
• A Summer's End
• The Bite: Revenant
• Best Friends
• Blackberry Honey
• Bride of a Dead God
• Callisto
• Camp Klondike
• Cardinal Cross
• Chrome Lifelines
• Corporate Culture
• Deviancy
• Divergence: Beyond the Singularity
• Dreamy Planet
• Elsaverse games (Omnibus first, followed by Nightmares, Transitions, Chasing Beth, and Gemini)
• Elvensang
• The End of an Actress
• The Entrepreneur
• Fragile Feelings
• Halfway House
• Hillside
• Intertwined
• Isabella - Chasing Shadows
• Leaving DNA
• Life Changes for Keeley
• Mad World
• The Missing Part
• Mythos: Book One
• No Expectation
• Nothing is Forever
• Oathbreaker
• Oathbreaker 2
• Occultus: Daughter of Darkness
• One Day at a Time
• One Night Stand
• Penny for Your Thoughts
• Price of Power
• Rebirth
• Reluctant Archon
• The Rest of Our Lives
• Reunion
• Rivers of Astrum
• Salome's Kiss
• Seers Isle
• Sigh of the Abyss
• Shards of the Past
• Short Sad Stories
• The Silver Lining
• Simple Beginnings
• Sorcerer
• Strangers on Paper
• Summer's Gone
• Terminus Reach: Sentinel
• Three Rules of Life
• The Warrior's Heart
• Toro 7
• Zero End
• Zia

Maybe should remove abandoned games from the list ?

 

[Lynava]

By the way I'm surprised Heart Of The Woods isn't on the list, I finished it in the summer, but the story is still in my head.

 

[jufot]

By the way I'm surprised Heart Of The Woods isn't on the list

Only games I've played, enjoyed, and think that match the criteria are added to the list. I haven't played this one, but from a quick look, it seems to be a fluffy/cutesy anime romance, which isn't usually my thing.

I'm glad you liked it, though! People make lots of great recommendations on this thread, the list doesn't really matter all that much

 

[GokutheG]

Maybe should remove abandoned games from the list ?

I don't think that's necessary because the dev can either come back or someone can play it since it's recommended and be inspired to make their own story.

 

[evileeyore]

Only games I've played...

Maybe this gets answered in previous pages and I missed it... but have you tried Heavy Five or Light of My Life? Both excellent story games, H5 has more "game play" elements, while LoML is 100% story game.

H5 is in a "waiting for chapter five" to drop pattern, which should be any day now... while LoML is damn near done.

 

[jerf1]

jufot
Could you recommend which games on your list have the best (in your opinion) story/writing, while at the same time having good sexual content?

The same question goes to anyone else who played the majority of the games on the list.

Thanks!

--
Going a bit further, it would be great if there was a tiered list of all these story-first games, with every game rated on two separate accounts: how good is the story/writing and how good is the sexual content. But that's probably too much work...

 

[jufot]

... but have you tried Heavy Five or Light of My Life? Both excellent story games

I've tried Heavy Five on several occasions and bounced off each time. It has far too much gameplay, and it's all very obscure. When your early-chapters game has a 45-page walkthrough that explicitly doesn't cover everything, I'll wish you good luck and move on

Light of My Life is incest and I'm not into that.

 

[kotte]

Maybe this gets answered in previous pages and I missed it...

You can find a compilation of all games that have ever been mentioned in this thread here (or its prettier pure-html counterpart

You must be registered to see the links

). There you can also see if a game thread is marked Completed or Abandoned.

 

[realjitter]

I also got a new potential candidate for the mighty list . Game's called High Desire

A bit of an oddity if you ask me, it's like the polar opposite to something like Race of life... There are 4 things in particular who stood out to me.

1 - The overall approach to street racing

Just the way it's shown to us from that first TV news report that we get to see up until the point we're getting introduced to the team later on is just very nicely done imo. It's not soley focussed on just the racing part of it, it also a tries to look at it from different angles and different POVs.

The MC himself starts out as someone who did some legitimate track racing since he was a child, which makes it pretty easy to buy into everything that follows. Even though the whole underground racing community thingy feels more like a GTA version of it rather than the real deal, but that's ok. Kudos to how it's done regardless, which brings me to the next point.

2 - The MC

While I would agree that he comes across a bit edgy at times, more so in the 2nd half where his swear count goes up by a lot, but he stays, for the most part, away from the usual tropes concerning MC's in AVN's. He ain't a player, neither is he overly cocky or an imbecile or anything, which is something you'd usually expect in a game with this kind of premise. I liked that he's written in a consistent way and it doesn't take you long to get a feel for who he is and what he's about.

Oh, and what a lovely father he has, doesn't he?. What a piece of human trash... There's no coming back from that, ever. I would rate this game 0/5 if the MC's going to forgive him at any point in time until the day he fucking dies.... Just despicable.

3 - LIs

Without wanting to spoil too much, but usually in an AVN you're represented with mostly oversexualized LI's. Which of course makes perfectly sense in a porn game, but here it's more grounded with who they are and how they're represented. You can hook up with one or 2 of them already, but it never felt out of place or weird. If anything, with the way it's done so far, i'm more interested than usual as to how it's going to progress going forward. It's a good mixture of people you'd expect to see in such a game and some unusual ones.Same goes for the lewd scenes who're also done slightly different from the usual.

4. Music, animations, atmosphere

Not very often that I have to point out the music, but here the developer did a good job with his retro, low fi approach. A lot of scenes get elevated by it..., loved it. There's also a large amount of video animations in the game who're all done exceptionally well and do enhance the overall atmosphere of the game. The game comes across very mellow and dreamy at times.

5 - Verdict

Well, even though i'd like to go into more detail about certain, mostly smaller, things, i'm just gonna leave it here. I did call this game an oddity and that's mainly because the developer cleary did his own thing, which I apprechiate. You're probably going to be disappointed if you're looking for a new, more traditional AVN, but otherwise, check it out.

Not perfect by any means, but I really liked it.

Spoiler: Screenshot

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[Vasin]

I also got a new potential candidate for the mighty list . Game's called High Desire

Well, that was interesting. I'm somewhat convinced now that there's a conspiracy going on between the devs of Beach Glass, Strangers on Paper, Missing Part and this game to make other AVNs look like absolute crayon level rubbish.

The visual production of this is impeccable, the angles, lighting, color grading, animations, poses, everything just shows that the author clearly has experience in the field. A+ grade style, the amount of effort that went into it was clearly insane. Soundtrack is good too, atmospheric but not overbearing.

Writing I'm less enthused about, it's not bad and the dialogue flows naturally enough, the story itself isn't contrived or anything, characters are acting in a manner that is believable. That said, the plot isn't something groundbreaking and goes in pretty much exactly the expected direction and the character are basically tropes, albeit well done. It's still very early in the game though. I would go to call it story first, I haven't seen any gratuitous porn, and actually my fav scene was the bar one where the chick roofies you, that was an interesting subversion of expectations.

Definitely worth a playthrough.

 

[realjitter]

my fav scene was the bar one where the chick roofies you, that was an interesting subversion of expectations.

Ok, so that's what happens when you decline, makes sense. Yeah. I mean, that scene is great for many reasons. I just really liked the aftermath of it when

Spoiler

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I also liked that scene when he "breaks" into his old home to get the certificate. Also pretty impressive from a visual standpoint with how the lighting is done.

 

[Finuee]

I haven't played Mythos, so I don't have a horse in this race. But this line makes me think of Agatha Christie, who was infamous for writing Mysteries that you couldn't solve because she gave her detective critical information that you didn't get.

Tlaero

I was just about to say that exact same thing. It's the one thing that always made me dislike Christie's mysteries.

 

[jufot]

I also got a new potential candidate for the mighty list . Game's called High Desire

Well, even though i'd like to go into more detail about certain, mostly smaller, things, i'm just gonna leave it here. I did call this game an oddity and that's mainly because the developer cleary did his own thing, which I apprechiate. You're probably going to be disappointed if you're looking for a new, more traditional AVN, but otherwise, check it out.

I would go to call it story first, I haven't seen any gratuitous porn, and actually my fav scene was the bar one where the chick roofies you, that was an interesting subversion of expectations.

Finally gave this a try. I agree with just about everything you two have said. The dev seems highly into street racing and it shows - you can tell it's a passion project. The race scenes gave me early Fast & Furious vibes (when it was just about street racing) and I enjoyed that.

I'm not sure if there are any LIs. There are a few casual hookups, but nothing romantic. Which is good! It feels real and appropriate for MC's life.

I have two minor complaints, though. The prologue was a bit too clichéd, with cancer mum, asshole dad, and angsty rebellious teenager. I pondered quitting, but I'm glad I pushed through because episode 1 was an improvement. The other thing is that I'm not sure there is a story just yet. There are hints of it, sure, like the white car's history, but the game needs conflict and soon. Otherwise, it risks becoming a series of street racing vignettes, and that'd be a shame.

Still, I liked it! Let's see how the next episode goes.