VN Ren'Py Strangers on Paper [Ch.2 v0.2.2] [Gloomy Ghost Studio]

[Siver#/Sh]

I've never seen a better written AVN, at least on this site. I don’t even know how to describe it—it just pulls you into its narrative like no other, imho.

I think "Unbroken" might be at the same level or "Zero End" ( (which might be worse in term of writing, but man, this setting), but all of those games having soo much less supporters than the games within university setting and with really good animations and mediocre story. It is what it is.

 

[Canto Forte]

Well ... this is a hugely flavourful game with a rich dialogue and a full host of character building scenes and scenarios where we explore the inner workings of the girls, both in mind and body: a fiancee who is headding to a wedding but is easy flirty falling for the hired help - bar tenders are the easiest of prey for the customers, which is why they are mostly female and seemingly single to attract the males who are hell bent on drinking their sorrows away ... while if you want females, you put MC or his BFF to bartend and ”steal” girls away from their usual predatory man eating habbits: MC is basically the choffeur unpaid chaperone to the little sister FWB, while being the rebound puppy doll male whore to the other lady, who is literally engaged and supposedly headding to her wedding. These are interesting and alluring scenarios that would never happen: the little sister showing the literal best friend of her brother how many FWB buddies she has and how she has to manage their expectations, just like a ”courtesan” or escort tending to her loyal customers.

Spoiler

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The disbelief is surreal, which is why this is a porn game, no question. MC slips literally into their lives at this venue he is staffing, just like any usual James Bond adventure you can watch in any old or new movie about irresistable males who are eaten up by man eating hotties.

Truth be told, though, MC and the best friend do tell and treat the girls, both of them, as high school juniors to them, at least, with MC having cramps and cobwebs all over his lower regions and giving out the most dismay-infused performance for any older dude; if this was even a whiff of realistic, MC would suddenly feel like Superman if he was to bang such a young, carefree, insatiable pansexual FWB hottie. Yet we have this story and this MC. This is still a high school/junior high story with the older male banging the young clueless or literally lost much younger bombshell.

Enjoy!

 

[Andolt]

Well ... this is a hugely flavourful game with a rich dialogue and a full host of character building scenes and scenarios where we explore the inner workings of the girls, both in mind and body: a fiancee who is headding to a wedding but is easy flirty falling for the hired help - bar tenders are the easiest of prey for the customers, which is why they are mostly female and seemingly single to attract the males who are hell bent on drinking their sorrows away ... while if you want females, you put MC or his BFF to bartend and ”steal” girls away from their usual predatory man eating habbits: MC is basically the choffeur unpaid chaperone to the little sister FWB, while being the rebound puppy doll male whore to the other lady, who is literally engaged and supposedly headding to her wedding. These are interesting and alluring scenarios that would never happen: the little sister showing the literal best friend of her brother how many FWB buddies she has and how she has to manage their expectations, just like a ”courtesan” or escort tending to her loyal customers.
The disbelief is surreal, which is why this is a porn game, no question. MC slips literally into their lives at this venue he is staffing, just like any usual James Bond adventure you can watch in any old or new movie about irresistable males who are eaten up by man eating hotties.

Truth be told, though, MC and the best friend do tell and treat the girls, both of them, as high school juniors to them, at least, with MC having cramps and cobwebs all over his lower regions and giving out the most dismay-infused performance for any older dude; if this was even a whiff of realistic, MC would suddenly feel like Superman if he was to bang such a young, carefree, insatiable pansexual FWB hottie. Yet we have this story and this MC. This is still a high school/junior high story with the older male banging the young clueless or literally lost much younger bombshell.

Enjoy!

Totally disagree with you

First

It totally depends on the person. And you don't have to be a 25/30/35 brutal man who comes to a woman and asks about kids and gifts and stuff. We are human beings and we feel things differently. Because we were born in different places/raised by different parents, and I could go on for quite a while. You might ask why I'm even writing this comment if I feel this way, but maybe I'm just a hopeless optimist hoping to change someone's mind

Second - And in this point we will talk about Becca

Yea it started as "basically the choffeur unpaid chaperone" but the story continues and characters grow. And in the end of chapter 1 we find

• Spoiler: Spoiler

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Third. And this one will be about Amy

Here will be even easier. There is one screen that destroy all of your comments about how Amy search for replacement and "is easy flirty falling for the hired help - bar tenders are the easiest of prey for the customers"

Spoiler: Spoiler

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But to tell you the truth, I'm not deluded and I think, at least right now, that we won't get a happy ending for both girls . Unfortunately, that's how life works, and in some part you are right. But in most of it, directly from the game and how Becca and Amy interact with the MC, you are definitely wrong.

But if everything ends well and we have a happy ending, that would be the best gift for all fans.

 

[yossa999]

So, what's in the box patch? Steam achievements?

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Pervo]

I am a sucker for good stories. I play visual novels for the unique and quirky narratives people come up and its an overarching ambition to write a story myself one day.

As someone who is so inclined, novels like this are a gem. The pacing is steady, the characters are lively and the story is strong. A bit of an inception moment with the author writing a character who also strives to be a successful novelist but its interesting to see how the creative writing process for the MC is something that could provide a window into the author's motivations and limitations as well.

The visuals are interesting. The colour palate chosen is certainly portraying a vivid popping vibe. The music is a big surprise. As someone who almost always mutes the games he plays to sub it with his own playlist, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear music that fit the respective narrative scenes very well.

Its not perfection. Yes if you look hard enough, you can find imperfections and tropes that are not to everyone's taste. But really, nothing that should detract from what is a very solid opening effort with a very beefy follow up salvo.

How will it continue? I can't wait to find out.

 

[Andolt]

So, what's in the box patch? Steam achievements?

You must be registered to see the links

Yea. Maybe there was more but thing that easy to see it's this achievement. It trigger when open Credits

 

[incest enthusiasts]

What's up with the renders they don't seem to have full scale.....

 

[BobTheDuck]

Hey gloomyghost - just thought you'd want to know that the game on Steam is flagged as 32 bit and 'might not run' on modern macs. I bought it and it works fine (I'm on macOS 15.3), but you might want to update the mac requirements - some people on steam might stay away thinking it's incompatible with modern macs ie it IS compatible with macOS 10.15 and higher unlike the warning it has in the steam store.

 

[MrDude1977]

Wonder how long the story is going to be? 2 updates in almost 2 years is not very much. depending on how long the story is going to be this will take years to complete.

 

[Meiri]

Wonder how long the story is going to be? 2 updates in almost 2 years is not very much. depending on how long the story is going to be this will take years to complete.

4 Chapters + an epilogue is what they have planned.

 

[eightypercent]

Totally disagree with you

First

It totally depends on the person. And you don't have to be a 25/30/35 brutal man who comes to a woman and asks about kids and gifts and stuff. We are human beings and we feel things differently. Because we were born in different places/raised by different parents, and I could go on for quite a while. You might ask why I'm even writing this comment if I feel this way, but maybe I'm just a hopeless optimist hoping to change someone's mind

Second - And in this point we will talk about Becca

Yea it started as "basically the choffeur unpaid chaperone" but the story continues and characters grow. And in the end of chapter 1 we find

• Spoiler: Spoiler

  You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Third. And this one will be about Amy

Here will be even easier. There is one screen that destroy all of your comments about how Amy search for replacement and "is easy flirty falling for the hired help - bar tenders are the easiest of prey for the customers"

Spoiler: Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

But to tell you the truth, I'm not deluded and I think, at least right now, that we won't get a happy ending for both girls . Unfortunately, that's how life works, and in some part you are right. But in most of it, directly from the game and how Becca and Amy interact with the MC, you are definitely wrong.

But if everything ends well and we have a happy ending, that would be the best gift for all fans.

You can't change people's minds, but you can nudge them towards a different path, a fork in the road that they may not have yet considered, be it ultimately one of their own choosing. And there are two fundamental approaches that work, the first being open, truthful with oneself and others, and to present reasoned argument and debate, and the other is by playing to people's fears, spreading lies and deceit while pointing the finger at the root cause, a target of your choosing. It's the real struggle, the one between good and evil, the light side and the dark. Look around you, and who do you think is winning?

 

[jeans0910]

I like amy very much, she seems to be the evolution of Sage

 

[Draim]

Damn, the game seems beautiful, but I'm not interested in reading it at all. I've already tried 3 or 4 times.

 

[Machete]

The tags are very vanilla, but i got the feeling it's going to be a very good story. Did i fool myself?

 

[Meiri]

The tags are very vanilla, but i got the feeling it's going to be a very good story. Did i fool myself?

The story is pretty good, but so far the sex is indeed pretty vanilla, it is more focused on story and relationships than sexual content.

 

[NoX Productions]

This was pretty good so far. I only did Becca's route so far and it was pretty good. I appreciate focus on story and even though i wouldn't mind animations in sex scenes lack of them didn't diminish the experience for me one bit. Characters are pretty cool and relatable in many ways. Honestly one of the better written stories i have seen on here so far.
I will do Amy route next and i expect it to be just as good.

Got a question though, could one pursue both do you have to go for one? Asking since in CH2 i could again go for Amy scenes if i wanted to even though i went with Becca in CH1. I think i would like to try do also put in a playthrough where i try to tackle both at the same time and see how far i can go with it down the line

 

[Canto Forte]

There are two chapters. To achieve the story cliffhanger with any of the two girls, you need both chapters invested in that girl. You will not get anywhere past banter or flirting kiddy stuff filler if you wanna invest one chapter into one girl and another chapter into another.

could one pursue both do you have to go for one?

Becca has the only scene in the game, her chapter 2 end scene, the only saisfactory scene, the scene that players only can get if they invest both chapters into her storyline .
Amy has just fluff now.

I only did Becca's route so far and it was pretty good.

You did it successfully with Becca. Sure you can replicate the fun with Amy.

So better to just chose one and stick to it

This game is advertised and the game is designed to make players choose only one girl and her story in each chapter. There are no do overs.
The fox running after two wabbits gets the wombat.

 

[NoX Productions]

There are two chapters. To achieve the story cliffhanger with any of the two girls, you need both chapters invested in that girl. You will not get anywhere past banter or flirting kiddy stuff filler if you wanna invest one chapter into one girl and another chapter into another.


Becca has the only scene in the game, her chapter 2 end scene, the only saisfactory scene, the scene that players only can get if they invest both chapters into her storyline .
Amy has just fluff now.

Ok cool that's what i was wandering. So better to just chose one and stick to it

 

[Hicks233]

Picked up the game on steam. Beautifully lit renders, sensitive writing and the inclusion of the guide/walkthrough functions in game is really nicely done.

Looking forward to seeing how this continues. The bakery would look really nice with the yellow/orange walls as well.

I'd laugh if "Lilith" turns out to be Amy as well.

 

[MWPA78]

Very nicely made optics and talented writing. The people feel much more real than in most AVNs. Sadly thats not a good thing if you don't enjoy the person. Amy was endearing at first, seeming like a good girl pushed to do stupid stuff by her evil sister - but getting to know her dreams and problems quickly changed that. 'Young marriage is lame and more "experiences" will make you happy' is getting old. That we as the MC are meddling in an engagement 'because other guy doesn't love her enough' is uncomfortable. Becca is cute in the moments she is small and feminine, but that is 2% of the time and otherwise it feels like we are competing for who is the more masculine man with her. MC has some good back and forth with the girls, but in the end it still feels rather friendzone-ish than flirty or erotic. What girls go for when they are ready to 'settle'. Still, well done. Listening to all the trauma and problem dumping made me feel like watching a show for women, though. And the conversations about all the writing and music are boring. Thats why guys don't enjoy being friends with women lol. Why put that in a game. The sex scene was erotic to a degree, but felt like a gay hollywood movie for women at the same time with the not showing of the fucking and the bypassing of the MCs orgasm. And why not show the shower action afterwards? I don't listen to all the talking to then have the sexual stuff skipped. Then I can just watch a stupid rom-com. Also didn't like the shilling for the gay couple and the frequent subtle trashing of religion.

In summary I'm really confused why men enjoy this game. The romance didn't catch on with me at all. Neither did the sex scene.


Overall, strong case of well made game that absolutely does not fit my taste. Don't give rating therefore.

Still good wishes to the devs and fans of the game.