Ren'Py - Stranded in Space [Days 1-19 Elysium] [WildMan Games]

Version Played: 1.81 D1-D17

Well, it certainly took me a while to reach day 17, but here we are at last. For a long time it looked liked SiS could justify a small 5 star rating, due to the increasing quality levels past the first week. Alas, it kinda stayed at a worthy 4 Stars, sliding down into a 3 star rating over the course of the last 2 ingame days. Well, lets get started. Gonna use a simple Pro, Meh, Con approach.

Pros:
- Finally a title where MC is equipped with a large, yet realistic sized wang that doesn’t look like it would cause more pain than pleasure during PIV. (I have a sneaking suspicion that the wang size was increased over the course of the game, but i'm not sure).
- Paige, the AI, does have her good moments, pointing out when MC is being stupid about things and she also ensures that he has a relationship with at least 1 character who isn’t also a target of affection.
- Some of the girls are also good at calling out MC on his bullshit. Love you Camilla.
- Good looking “liquids”.
- A quite diverse cast of heroines in terms of both looks and especially personalities. Other than the diversity, almost all characters are highly likable in their own way and feel like natural living beings.
- Good looking sci-fi scenery and assets.
- Plot can be split in 3 sections as mentioned some older reviews here. The harem shenanigans are the A plot. The Endurance troubles and everything directly related is the B plot. The flashbacks are the C plot. While the B plot didn’t get as much time as it should, it is still a good story, both in terms of premise and execution.
- With the exception of animations (see below in Meh section) the H scenes are almost exclusively great and good. Length, build-up/foreplay, lewd dialogue, it just works out really well.

Mehs (hit or miss):
- It is a bit annoying as a European to not have the character information listed in metric.
- Some of the bra sizes (Ishani and Alina at least) needs to be changed. Their builds are not stocky enough, relative to their height, to warrent a band size 42. Should be 36 or 38 at most. Cup sizes seem mostly accurate.
- Number of characters is too high. Then again, given how many characters there are, they are handled in a very balanced way and you never feel like some of them ends up being forgotten. The laptop convos are a good way to avoid having specific heroines disappear for longer durations. The too-high number of characters is also the main reason why the A plot takes up so much time in the first place.
- Size inconsistency across outfits and just outfits that looks distorted because they were designed for bodies/models with more normal proportions. It's usually cloth that unaturally hugs the underside of larger boobs. Haylee and Ishani are the prime offenders.
- At some point dicks are being mentioned as being more prettier than pussies. That’s preposterous!
- Why is Ariels virginity valued so highly by MC?
- Quite a lot of dialogue with Paige feels like blatant foreshadowing. Almost to the point where I would consider it breaking the 4th wall. This happens with almost every recap and it is a little too on the nose. Feels like MC is self-aware about being in a VN/game. I also get the impression that we are constantly being told what to think and feel.
- I don’t get why the medication MC gets is about boosting semen production. So far, he isn’t specifically trying to knock up the girls, with 1 exception, so what is the point. Biologically speaking, the actual issue MC will face, is keeping up with the combined libido of 16 girls, where general stamina, sore kegel muscles and refractory periods are the limiting factors. These factors are mostly unrelated to semen volume or quality as far as I know.
- Smiling and blank facial expressions in the early game. Around day 10 it starts to gradually improve.
- Inconsistent height of MC? During a scene with Umiko (5’1) he (6’1) is no more than a forehead taller than her while supposedly standing on the same flat surface.
- Animations are very hit or miss. The movements are smooth and the models looks soft and squishy. But depending on the type of movement depicted, they can also look very rigid. Especially movements involving the spine and hips, where a fair amount of twisting and bending is to be expected.

Cons:
Almost everything here is related to Paige, MC and i guess the influence Paige has on MC.

- I got rather tired of MC always sounding like the combination of a stereotypical pick-up artist and B-rate comedian. Barely ever a serious moment with him.
-Size of MC’s dong is brought up too much and described as being huge, when it is in fact just quite large and reasonably so. It also looks like a plastic toy. Unfortunately, I have also gotten the visual impression that it has been scaled up in size over the course of the game.
- Paige often ruins the mood and constantly has her head down in the gutter. As some other reviewers put it, the whole “LOLSORANDOMLMAO” routine doesn’t work most of the time in terms of being entertaining.
SIS would be far better if she only appeared shortly in the mornings, during the evening recap and when commenting on important plot developements, but not goddamn constantly. Also, “X girl is now my favorite”, ughhhhhh….
Everytime we finally get some kind of serious and interesting talk going Paige comes right in and drags the whole thing back down to the dick-and-fart-jokes level. I don't like this humor and it feels forced. Paige is not the only one doing this, MC and a few of the other heroines does it too. It is ok when Sasha does it, as "vulgar comedian" is her core personality trait, but not the only one. However, having the character (Paige) with the second most screen time being highly one-dimensional and literally defined by essentially a single trait was an unsound decision from a narrative standpoint. If Paige had been about 50% what she currently is, combined with 30 % EDI (Mass Effect, sarcastic and diligent) and 20% Glyph (also Mass Effect, a VI, robotic, service minded, polite and objective) it would have made for a much more pleasant experience.
- We are repeatedly reminded that we are stuck on a ship with only women and of the potential for a harem. Always by being explicitly talked about and mentioned by just about everyone. We don’t need these constant reminders. Show, don't tell.
- Paige’s face looks creepy AF. And the hair is ugly. I honest to god have to look at the periphery of the screen image if her face takes up a fair amount of it.
- Give yourself pause and consider what it would actually be like, to have an AI like Paige stuck in your head, supposedly with no chance of eventual removal… It is fortunate that MC is such a weasel-like horndog and thus compatible with Paige. If Paige had been implanted in my head, unless there was a way to mute her for days at a time except emergencies, i don't think i could muster the willpower to go on living. My thoughts no longer being mine and known only to me, feeling observed and all that.
- A lot of the time MC talks about how much he likes x-girl during 1-on-1 conversations. It started out strong, but after a while I was not sold on his compliments at all. Feels more like he is bullshitting his way through the dialogue without subconsciously realizing that he is in fact spewing bullshit and not truth . In a number of days, just barely above the single digits, he has effectively said “I REALLY like YOU” to half the cast in ways tailored to suit the individual girl. He is speaking like he’s known them for months. Emphasis on “you” because he refers to their actual personhood, despite barely knowing them. Too much fake and non-geniune talk.
- Speaking of non-geniune and fake, it seems to me that MC never stick to an opinion or stands by a joke if challenged or called out.
- As the story have progressed I have found my respect for MC gradually eroding away and now that I reached the current end with day 17, I have reached a stage where I just barely tolerate him. My impression of him went through the following phases:
1. Day 1-4. Like him (but not knowing him well enough to commit to this). For being a good sport with some slightly too silly humor and a pragmatic mindset regarding the Endurance situation.
2. Day 5-10. Like/respect him. For being thoughtful while still showing interest in most girls and not getting too hung up on the situation and calmly dealing with issues as they pop up.
3. Day 10-15-ish. Starting to only accept him. It starts to feel like he subconsciously made it his goal to bang’em’all for no reason other than because the situation allows it. I started thinking that he doesn’t have a personality of his own, as he always seems to mold into whatever persona will most efficiently help woo whichever heroine is present at the time and thus accomplishing the bang’em’all objective. Tiffany seems like the only character he doesn’t actively pursue erotic encounters with, but that largely comes down to Tiffany being really annoying towards him and her already instigating all their erotic encounters on her own, meaning MC doesn’t have to.
4. Day 16 and 17. Barely tolerating him. What brought him to this level is first and foremost his arguing with Camilla. Why is he so insisting on forcing the whole “getting along” thing? Why not just keep his head down and let Camilla be, allowing her to come around on her own. That would kinda disprove her opinion that he is a chameleon, weasel and fuccboi all at once. It feels like Camilla's opinions are 90% my own.
5. Future days, probably dislike. Since MC is a defined character and not a self-insert, Stranded in Space hinges on the readers ability to accept the MC as the vessel of experiencing the harem and story. It doesn’t matter how well crafted an H scene or plot situation may be, if the reader comes to clearly dislike the character they play as, any H scene will by default become a turn-off while also not being interested in him being succesful in terms of the story. I don’t foresee SiS changing the direction it is heading in, so I will probably not return to play further upon its completion.

I hail from a culture where brutal honesty is fairly widespread and i am also a bit of a pessimist. At the same time i am polite and constructive. Stranded in Space is very much a quality product and none of the weaknesses i percieve are results of laziness on the devs part. I admire it for the brave decision of foregoing full optionality in terms of heroine selection in order to keep the developement progress going at a good pace and telling a tight and focused story. This is my second review, and like with the first one i find myself frustrated about rounding down my 3.5 stars to 3. I've come to care a fair bit about the heroines and the intruiging plot, but i cannot deny the amount of more negative emotions i felt during the last couple ingame days. it's a shame i lost my connection with MC, it really is.
Good luck with the continued developement.

I honestly only review games I enjoyed alot, so I'll be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this.

So why still only 4 stars you may ask? Well, there's the obviously perplexing decision to include choices to lock out routes of certain girls.

I understand that's a big part of games in general, to maybe have a bit of decision-making, to feel like it's a game instead of a story. But it doesn't help that the game is completely linear except for the said decisions of "would you prefer THIS GIRL or THIS GIRL?" You literally can't choose what kind of character you want to be, or change any dialogue through the game, or how you want to interact with the girls. Add that to the fact that the choices are compounded decisions instead of forks. So you can't save at the certain point and go back after seeing that route.

You literally have to play the game multiple times. Which let's be honest, includes alot of spamming of the left click and holding on to that Ctrl button, instead of sitting through the game again and again. Not really an ideal situation. Don't get me wrong, linear games, or visual novels, are one of my favs. Because I get to enjoy the story based off the perspective the author and dev wanted to create.

That would be less infuriating if this was a bad game. Because then I can just drop it and move on to the next. But it's not, that's why I'm venting here while continuing the game.

All the negatives aside, this really is a pretty good game. Despite having a unrealistic amount of LIs in the game, each of them is pretty unique, their characters and back story shows the amount of work put into the narrative. You get attached to the girls one way or another pretty fast.

The cast of course means you get to enjoy a wide variety of girls, personalities and body shapes. Interactions between the characters are pretty witty, most of the time it'll at least incite heavy exhalation from your nose.

There's also the completely optional laptop, which adds abit of flavor lore and minigames if you're interested in those. Pretty clear UI and instructions. A lot of love was put into this game, and I appreciate that.



But seriously, I want someone to explain to me who thought it was a good idea. It absolutely blows my mind because I don't understand why there's route locks in a linear game.

First of all i real like this AVN really good but ..also characters back story is awesome and Feels like Devloper have Fully planed how to end the story by adding piece by piece of clues , hints and story .. but but.. I really really hate that u added an option to choose between Two sisters... And also if did added those paths .... Even if i want play other routes or paths i have to waste my lots of time ... Which i probably don't wanna waste ... And I have a huge request from developers that if possible can u add skip option in chatting with character in laptop... It's is worst part that i have to just press "Continue" a lot really lot and MC is gonna use laptop for more then 13 or 14 days while chatting with everyone.... Because my weak finger will probably broke and u know i can't be able to play other routes because of this ... So if possible please add an skip option in chats alongside with continue with character... It probably be very helpful and lastly this was an awesome but bad thing is that .... I don't want choose between both the sisters... I want threesome between them ... But sadly i wouldn't be able to see that why dev ... Why ... Dev u have Maken a story... nice enough to be able feel attached.. to character... And seeing loosing both character is not a pleasent feeling... I have enough anxiety and stress from real world... I don't wanna more anxiety and stress while playing Adult visual novels ... Don't worry i still gonna play to the end ... And i hope u do something about skip option in laptop chating menu along side of continue though i can give justice to other routes for other characters

Pss, Ignore my bad grammar and English

[Days 1-16 Elysium]

I'm not a review guy, I never reviewed any games here before .. but I found this game to be really interesting I felt I have to do it.

Very VERY few games here I played managed to grab hold of my attention and interest from pressing "Start" till reaching the end
Amazing story that made me really focus while reading it and eager to know what is next
The H-scenes are done with great care
I don't even remember if there was any misspelling apart from intentional ones.
I found every single character to be interesting, I found even the similar characteristics (between the characters on the ship and the ones from the flashbacks) also very interesting

And I'm a huge fan of Mass Effect series, so I really appreciate all the little details here that are inspired by it.

I hope the dev can keep delivering the same level of quality (if not higher) all the way of this game life.

One of my favs so far. The writing is some of the best I've seen. Some of the characters can edge a bit too far into "lolsorandom" but overall I'm interested in seeing how the story develops.

Personally I also appreciate that even the "smaller" women aren't anywhere near being something that makes me worried whenever I hear a siren outside. Even the "young innocent" LIs are still clearly adult women.

Prior to the second update (Day 9?) I'd have rated this game at 5.
My only reason for that is this game is extremely dialogue heavy.
After day 10 or so, some scenes are so long that all interest in anything related to the scene has dropped by the time it was finished. Especially the Paige recap scenes, which are maybe 2-3 renders over the course of what feels like several hundred clicks, which were all basically the main character summarizing things and Paige acting like a teenage boy while rarely giving useful imput.
Days 1-8 took around 8 hours of reading, and outside of the non strip club related backstory scenes and the maybe 2 hours of actual reading I did afterwards, the game took another 8 hours to finish even while skipping unseen text for 90% of the content.
After a bit the story started just kinda blending together and the only bits I was interested in were the main characters past.

Not recommended for anyone who doesn't like a slow burn visual novel. A large portion of the even remotely graphic content is locked behind various long time consuming puzzles or guessing games related to the newest feature that was added to the daily laptop grind that's a good 15-20 minutes of reading text and the occasional moral dilemna or question related to something a character said hours prior.

Current Buid: Days 1-16

It's been a long time since I last checked this game out. The game only had 3 days completed, when I previously tried it out. I am currently on day 7, and I am loving it. I am legitimately impressed, with how solid it is. The humor in this game is top-notch. I cannot remember the last time, I've laughed this much at characters in a game. The witty banter between them is worth your time in itself. The humor alone is worth the 5 star rating, in my personal opinion.

The character models are beautiful and diverse. Personally, I hope a few more ebony characters are added later (if they are not already in the game). But that's just a personal preference, I love black women. The story is unique, and the MC is actually a decent human being. Not just another creep without morals.

I'm looking forward to future updates, and will be keeping a close eye on this game.

This is a pretty good game. It has a lot of nice looking women, and it's set in space, so that's a bonus.
It seems that the sex is the A Plot of this game. There is so much of it. LoL.
And the story of the Endurance slowing down and the malfunctions are the B Plot.
While the amnesia seems to be a C Plot.
I tend to play games for the plot. But this one seems to be pretty good even with the plot being second fiddle.
As with most things I rate, I gave it a 4 because there is always something that could be better. But, all in all, a pretty good game.

It has a good premise for an interesting lighthearted harem type game, but the dialogue and characters are so annoying that it ruins the whole thing. So much false wit and charm, along with fake unnatural drama. The whole thing basically reads like it was written by a bad pick up artist. The game looks very nice in general, and there are parts of the dialogue I don't mind, but the whole experience leaves me so annoyed that I can't continue.

Really impressed by the ambition of this to go with so many different characters. The writing is good, the characters are well realised. The renders are nice, and overall it's a really well executed game. Thank you to WildMan Games

Very entertaining game. The renders are excellent. The dialogue is humorous (although sometimes VERY long and VERY silly). The story is mysterious and sexy, the characters perverted, horny, struggling to keep their defences up against the protagonist's blunt, sexist charm. Lots of psychological games play out between the protagonist and the growing number of ladies that enter the gameplay. I enjoy it very much.

I don't usually write reviews, but I really enjoyed this VN. The humor and the characters are awesome. Taking a quick peak at some of the other reviews I can see how yes, there aren't a ton of decisions, but each one actually has bearing on the story, so that already sets it above quite a few other VN's that I would also rate highly. Very much looking forward to more from this dev. If you're on the fence, rest assured this one is a good pick.

TLDR - A top tier VN. The scale and quality more than making up for infrequent choices.

Pros

• A lot of unique and interesting LI's
• Fantastic writing
• Interesting plot
• Lots of content
• Impactful decisions
• Good animations

Cons

• The intro is a bit too long
• You don't make decisions very often

The game is a very good harem game. But the technology and space elements seem unnecessary and blunt, probably the author's personal preference.
The laptop interface is shit. It doesn't mean anything to the story. There's a lot of text that doesn't fast-forward, which is a disaster for non-native English speakers like me.
I hope the author will keep this game simple in the future. Some unnecessary interface and design will only cause trouble to the player.

TL/DR: I was unable to overcome my distaste for playing as a protagonist who looks like a child with facial hair in this title. There are some nice component to it such as a pretty UI, lots of gals with diverse personalities, good writing/humor ect, but it is too porny / aimless to overcome this short king protagonist. Didn't make it all the way through- content wasn't hot enough.

Pros:
+It is cool to have a character with Vitiligo.
+Plenty of dialogue to get to know the characters well.
+Some nice art assets for the outer-space themes.

Cons:
-Protagonist acts like a tough guy / sex god; but looks like he could be removed from the census by a light breeze.
- Plot isn't doing much- it is mostly just the characters chatting.
-Very little narrative tension outside of relationship drama.
-A lot of the content seems a bit contrived- such as the ladies praising the MC for being so "big" and so manly/irresistible when he really just looks like a 5'4" manlett with a 7 inch prick. It was very difficult to imagine every woman in this narrative just falling over the lil' fop. Game claims the lad is 6'1" but he definitely doesn't look like it.
-The female models are somewhat homogeneous. Very Barbie doll body shapes on 95% of them.

the game's crap, sorry to be blunt but there you have it. Nothing in this game is new, everything has been done before a million times better. i do however like the MC . The premise is kinda cool, stuck on a ship with hot chicks but i dont know... I havent fully finished the game so if it improves I will come back and change my rating.

I downloaded this game on the Day 13 update, and I am not really sure how I missed it before then. But I just have to say, this is a must see gem of a VN! The writing is off the charts hilarious AF. Seriously. the writing makes this so much fun. The girls are gorgeous, varied, and very interesting. The MC is likeable, and PAIGE is a total riot. I am on Day 5 so far, and this has become one of my favs. Well done WildMan Games!!

UNBIASED STRANDED IN SPACE REVIEW

PROS
-Lots of girls and all kinds of horny, some great dialogue that builds sexual tension really well.

-nice models, very nice renders and design, there's only so much one can switch around on the same women models and wildman has made some really beautiful ones here and this game is definitely kinkier with the sexual tension and build up.
Something very few VN's get right and facial expressions. The milfs in this game are wild. Great job

-In terms of content, pretty damn beefy.

-Dialogue is its own bane but it is really amazing sometimes and truly one of the few games that make you form a personality of the characters in your head. Wildman tier

CONS
-unfortunately the conversations in this game can sometimes be too damn long. In fact your arms will give out trying to click away heaps of it.

-Some of the chicks are too much of a MC magnet, didn't expect even the tough ones to turn so quickly, the satisfaction of winning over someone indomitable is less rewarding. A small nitpick

-Puzzles are the only other reason why this game gets bad reviews. People don't want to be locked out of bonus renders just because they don't want to spend hours on a VN. There should be at least available mods or options to just get the renders and unlocks. Seriously anyone who says they like the puzzles are just pretentious.

*Day 18 is out and honestly really well done on Wildman's part, he as delivered despite 17's rough launch. Lots of quality of life improvements too. If anyone is reading this again I believe he deserves the support. The legit way

Five stars. This games deserves no less. The setting is a bit strange, for who in the future would send a females only mission to a distant planet. But then once one accepts the premis as fiction, the game becomes one of the most enjoyable on this site with numerous opportunities for witty dialogue, sometimes vulgar, often sexual, and on many occasion, sensible and sincere.

The diversity of charaters, and I am not talking here about the models (albeit that is a really nice bonus), adds depth to this virual novel. Their background stories, well presented and now available at any point in the game through the profile is a unique characteristic of this game. I have nver encountered a game like this, with incredible well thought and implemented interface and bells and wistles. In most games, you keep encoutering the dreadful "under construction" sign when you try to navigate numerous place-holder locations that never get use or functions that never get implemented. This is not the case here. Take for example the profile, the email, and the chat. Nothing there is presented unless it is complete. There is a feeling of perfection and respect for players. which as I have written many times, a rare trait that i highly appreciate from any developer who demonsrates it.

Progress is very ballanced. Every single update has several noteworthy scenes carrying the story forward for almost all characters.

This is a well thought and well implemented game/novel.

Well done WildMan.. hats off.

(Reviewed Days 1-13 version)

Really enjoying the progress of this game -- a ton of content, top-notch renders and tremendous diversity of girls. The story is fairly unique. There are a few flaws but they are minor in the grand scheme of things. Not exactly "one-of-the-best-games-in-development" good, but very solid and worthy of more of a 4.5 / 5 rating.

The Good ()

• Huge diversity of girls with different personalities, body types and overall looks
• Well-done renders and environments
• A good number of H-scenes -- typically 1-2 per game "day" (currently through Day 13)
• Lots of story content
• An active mystery that has some real intrigue
• A harem game, but there are narrative choices that lead to cutting off certain options, so decisions actually matter and carry some weight
• Really well-done "minigames" -- daily chat room, escape room

The Not-So-Good ()

• Some scenes are super text heavy, and you end up click-click-clicking through without wanting or needing to read everything
• A bit of a cliche "MC is the messiah and everyone has fallen in love with him" setup, but evidently this is part of the narrative so hopefully it ends up with some payoff

Having played and followed this from the start, I'm still enjoying this and excited to see where the story unfolds.