VN Ren'Py Stray Incubus [S2 Ch.3b] [IP Studios]

[rmz666]

No one cares, go watch a movie, I'm here for sex scenes, anything else is filler and they shouldn't waste too much time and effort on it.

"go watch a movie" - how about you just go to the hub an watch porn? Why are you playing adult visual novels if you just want to beat the meat? You'll never be happy.

 

[Akra77]

Just finished the new update, the new devs' style of writing and pacing is very different from the original dev, but I still enjoyed it. My 2 issues with it right now is not having the rollback option and the slide show scenes, either make them not skippable or just let the player click to progress them. They become a little annoying especially if you don't have the option to rollback. Other than that, I think it was a good first release for the new devs. As they gain experience, I am sure future updates will be better.

About the rollback option, I didn't check the latest update but usually bringing up the console and entering config.rollback_enabled=True deals with the issue. If the code actively set this variable to False every time the scene changes then just enter it again. Of course, the rollback option could be blocked on purpose and changing the variable could mess with the game, so save before this change.
English is not my first language, feel free to ask for clarification if needed

 

[warnik]

man.... what happened to this game?? This was one of my favourite ones( if not the most favourite). I mean, it went from a great experience to a cheap knock-off. It is really very unfortunate. When I earlier commented about not leaking this game until the public release, so that dev can earn some money, a lot of people on this forum were offended. Well, now you have it... enjoy whatever is left of this game...

 

[Deneuve]

I am curious how much was he making on this? I just found this game and it's unfortunate due to the state it's in right now.

Well from their Patreon, if that is the original Patreon, they're making 500 bucks a month.
Patreon (and other sites that do this) takes a big cut, and depending on where they live, that's literally not enough for a job or a living wage.
I just made it to S2 so I can't speak on quality, but that's the problem fucking idiots on this site who endlessly bitch and complain.
Most, if not, 99% of these H-games don't make enough with the work they're doing.
They'll just see that it's making 5000 a month and think that's enough for pay or living expenses, nevermind if they're a team that have to divide that.

Like I look at the quality of S1 and think wow these guys must be getting paid good coz this quality is pretty high for this genre.
Then you look at what they're making and its peanuts.
Then you look at this forum and it's just freeloaders bitching like they're owed the world.
Being a gamedev is hard enough on an official corporate setting and that's you getting an actual contractual pay, but if I was an H-game dev and have to deal with this while making chump change? I'd honestly just load lead and hair trigger on myself with these kinds of comments.

 

[Hasbromate]

Well from their Patreon, if that is the original Patreon, they're making 500 bucks a month.
Patreon (and other sites that do this) takes a big cut, and depending on where they live, that's literally not enough for a job or a living wage.
I just made it to S2 so I can't speak on quality, but that's the problem fucking idiots on this site who endlessly bitch and complain.
Most, if not, 99% of these H-games don't make enough with the work they're doing.
They'll just see that it's making 5000 a month and think that's enough for pay or living expenses, nevermind if they're a team that have to divide that.

Like I look at the quality of S1 and think wow these guys must be getting paid good coz this quality is pretty high for this genre.
Then you look at what they're making and its peanuts.
Then you look at this forum and it's just freeloaders bitching like they're owed the world.
Being a gamedev is hard enough on an official corporate setting and that's you getting an actual contractual pay, but if I was an H-game dev and have to deal with this while making chump change? I'd honestly just load lead and hair trigger on myself with these kinds of comments.

I hope you don't mean that the original dev was making less than the new team that took it over...

 

[we51nat0r]

Been playing since the early in the orig game and I think this S2 is just fine...and if i remember correctly the orig dev didnt quit over money but some harassment from shitty people....keep up the good work new dev I like the updates.

 

[BigCosyStoryFan]

Been playing since the early in the orig game and I think this S2 is just fine...

I only started after this patch (by the new devs), and while the model changeover was jarring, and the writing dropped a bit, I'd say it's consistent enough that it's not the huge deal people are making it out to be. I got over the model change fairly quickly (when I worked out who everyone was), and the only gripes I have are either addressed (animations skipping so text made little sense) or are related to being unable to force-enable rollback (rollback is important to have in these kinds of games).

I suspect some of the angst is caused by people having romanticised whatever was coming next, so that even if it was Flynn's original concept/story, they'd be annoyed at any change.

 

[hoshimota]

Problem #1 is the expectations devs have with these games. During the pandemic, people were throwing shit tons of money at these games for a couple of years (wouldn't you know it, everyone being told to stay home and avoid other humans led to increased porn consumption. Shocking!) Some of the devs were pulling in huge amounts, and everyone got it into their head that they are entitled to make 6 figures from developing a porn novel on the side.

Despite what they would have you believe, I do not buy for a second that 99% of these devs are legitimately working on these games full time. Nor do they commonly have years of professional education and many years of experience in game development and design. They should not have this expectation that it will be a full income, unless they actually form a studio out of it and have multiple successful games under their belt.

Honestly, there are a lot of indie game devs who would be fucking stoked to hit 500/mo in reliable income from one of their early games. At 1, 2, 3 thousand a month... they would be straight up crying tears of joy. And those are games that have actual gameplay, mechanics, complex code, and take months to years of development effort before a single dollar gets earned.

Porn game creators are just extremely greedy. They expect a massive return quickly, from part-time work with virtually zero up-front investment. Don't forget, to all those people crying about how we are all freeloaders here... guess what the devs are too, they are all using a bunch of pirated shit like Honey Select to make these fuckin games in the first place!

 

[Cherubin25]

Funny how some mention this whole transition being a cash grab when the Patreon doesn't even have enough patrons to be remotely profitable for the two devs.

It is not that far off to call it a cashgrab. Or at least it would not be illogical. Because with a new project, you would have it harder compared to taking over someone elses work if you want to make money - you already have a world, you have characters and you have potentially backing and it is more likely that people will pledge on Patreon when they did it before under the old Dev.
However, I would not say it is a cashgrab, I think the new Devs really tried to work on something. And I would also agree, if people are unhappy, they should not pay.

However, I feel like the new Devs already dropped the ball and it will be hard to recover from this. I was skeptical anyway, simply because taking over another project is not easy and bringing one Update is easier than bringing multiple Updates, because the longer it continues, the further it goes away from the original vision. And if people are already unhappy about it, this could mean that the project might not be meant to be completed...

Personally, I will probably not play the new stuff and keep the game as abandoned.

 

[Mr Kris]

Just played the update and I only can say... I don't understand why some people are being so dramatic.

I mean, it was obvious that the new devs weren’t going to be able to maintain the same level of quality as Flynn (if I’m not mistaken, the new devs are newbies). I guess maybe a lot of people got too hyped and were expecting the second coming of Flynn or something like that. Maybe that’s why some are now saying: "this is trash, they should’ve just let the game end when the dev abandoned it" :v

I mean, while the renders are generally ok, there are many things I hope the developers fix and polish:

• My overall impression while playing was that it felt rushed.
• I think there’s a general sense that several scenes are missing renders.
• It might be necessary to add more scenes and dialogues to give context and explanations, for example: why aren’t Yumi and Centoria with them when they meet the crown prince, and instead show up afterward? Or adding more dialogue for the prince before asking him why his guards don’t have weapons… You know… It’s polite to greet first.
• Some transitions feel abrupt and/or strange. Plus, when combined with the lack of renders, it feels off that certain scenes don’t have more transitional renders. For example, a scene of the protagonists arriving at the city, or more in-between scenes during the tournament fights.
• Maybe add more miscellaneous scenes? For example, from what I saw in some script notes, it seems the idea for Illya’s first appearance greeting Centoria was meant to parallel Thorr’s arrival in her city and hers family greeting her. However, as it is now, that scene is pretty forgettable. I would’ve much preferred an animated scene there rather than the animated scene of the elf guard blowing up the training dummy.
• I don’t really know how to explain this point… But to summarize… Improve the characters’ "presence"(? Like I mentioned earlier, there’s no reason given for why Yumi and Centoria aren’t at the audience with the prince, and I didn’t notice until later when some time passed without seeing them. Then, at the start of the tournament, when Illya asks the protagonist and Yumi to participate, I was like "Did the devs mess up and mean Centoria instead of Yumi?" only for Yumi to suddenly pop up as if she "was there the whole time", and I was like, "Wait! She is here after all".
• Also: stop bullying Yumi! She never wins! She’s literally only won once… And that was against Candy >:V
• The facial expressions. Besides the fact that in some scenes a character is speaking with their mouth closed, there are also some facial expressions that look weird (especially with Illya).
• Some scenes are poorly executed. For example, I think they tried to make a meme when the protagonist is asking about the goblins in the palace, but it just came out weird.
• Related to what I mentioned earlier about context and explanations, it would be nice to flesh that out better for character development. For example, with Illya she currently just comes across as extremely friendly, but outside of that we don’t really know much about her—like her motivations or anything deeper.
• Speaking of Illya… Yeah, Illya. I mean, Centoria is supposed to be her copy… And even though they say that she changed her style (like her hair color), I feel like her face doesn’t look very similar at all. In fact, I think her chest size might actually be a bit bigger than Centoria’s.
• And while we’re on that… They should fix the last scene with Illya and Centoria… I mean… Where are our wild ahegaos? And where’s the classic mark that shows up on the girls when the protagonist cums?

To sum up, in the end there are many things that could be polished to make it better. I think instead of just trashing the work being done by two people, it’s more productive to give constructive criticism that helps them improve the quality and make it into something we can all enjoy more. After all, if they weren’t doing it, this would just be another game added to the pile of good ones that got abandoned and forgotten.

 

[Hasbromate]

Problem #1 is the expectations devs have with these games. During the pandemic, people were throwing shit tons of money at these games for a couple of years (wouldn't you know it, everyone being told to stay home and avoid other humans led to increased porn consumption. Shocking!) Some of the devs were pulling in huge amounts, and everyone got it into their head that they are entitled to make 6 figures from developing a porn novel on the side.

Despite what they would have you believe, I do not buy for a second that 99% of these devs are legitimately working on these games full time. Nor do they commonly have years of professional education and many years of experience in game development and design. They should not have this expectation that it will be a full income, unless they actually form a studio out of it and have multiple successful games under their belt.

Honestly, there are a lot of indie game devs who would be fucking stoked to hit 500/mo in reliable income from one of their early games. At 1, 2, 3 thousand a month... they would be straight up crying tears of joy. And those are games that have actual gameplay, mechanics, complex code, and take months to years of development effort before a single dollar gets earned.

Porn game creators are just extremely greedy. They expect a massive return quickly, from part-time work with virtually zero up-front investment. Don't forget, to all those people crying about how we are all freeloaders here... guess what the devs are too, they are all using a bunch of pirated shit like Honey Select to make these fuckin games in the first place!

I think the space has evolved. You can still make bank doing this if your game can cater towards normies instead of niches.

Also I don't agree with throwing shade at developers for trying to pursue a solo endeavor. Games like these for the most part (lower budget) aren't technically intensive to do so the negative scrutiny of adding them to your portfolio is going to out weigh the positive. Making a couple hundred on a game is definitely a milestone most solo developers don't achieve, but there's an expectation to maintain a game versus branching out when you're done. You may have improved and want to develop a new game but it'll destroy your image if you just abandon a game or rush a conclusion, so you can sometimes feel tied down.

Anyways, there's a lot of inconveniences that you aren't giving them enough credit for when they tackle one of these games. No sane person would make these games thinking it's a get rich quick scheme, and those with that mindset don't make it past their 3rd update.

 

[Haggis McMutton]

Been playing since the early in the orig game and I think this S2 is just fine...and if i remember correctly the orig dev didnt quit over money but some harassment from shitty people....keep up the good work new dev I like the updates.

You remember wrong!

Btw: Toxic Positivity has also killed many games.

 

[Cherubin25]

Been playing since the early in the orig game and I think this S2 is just fine...and if i remember correctly the orig dev didnt quit over money but some harassment from shitty people....keep up the good work new dev I like the updates.

As already posted by the user above, it was not because of harassment or anything. But, one big part was that the last few Updates leaked very, very early here, which most likely also caused the Dev to lose a good chunk of money. It leaked very quickly for a game of this size/support, games in this kind of support range really need a bit of exclusivity to survive. I think at some point it got leaked like 2 days or so after being released on Patreon... And it is just not Eternum, which gets leaked in minutes and the Dev over there is still doing great, since their backing is large enough.

It is a piracy site after all, so nobody can really be completely mad about it, but it played a huge part in the downfall.

 

[Armo99]

bitching however seriosly decreased his motivation

 

[bporn123]

Quick question about Season 2's story

Spoiler: story spoiler I guess

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Also at what point did IP take over the story?

 

[Deneuve]

Ok, I caught up with the game, so I'm gonna assume the new content starts when they get to the Elf village stuff?
Coz I noticed the fights are more slide-showy now, again in my other comment I did say it's probably impressive that the original guy was doing animation fights since Eternum does it too and that takes what I'd assume most of their dev time and why it takes so long. So I don't blame the new guys for trying to lower the bar.

So my only main concerns going forward is the sex scenes. I'm to assume that before that one sex scene with Centoria and Illya? Everything else is from the original guy? So I have to say its disappointing that the latter half of the gallery were main girls' scenes blueballing MC with no actual sex+creampie. The first half of the gallery with Torr/Tamara and Steph/Candy are top tier tho.

Onto my only real big problem, the new sex scene we got, I feel like it could use more life?
A main draw of the sex scenes in this for me was the girl's literally just look like they can't handle MC's dick.
And when he cums, the shining light of lovefucking or corrupting them or whatever, shows.
A core part of the original, to me, is that the sex focuses more on showing how they look like they're getting broken by MC fucking them good. It shows on their face, the ahegaos are very expressive and that's important.
And the sex is very rough, and hard, even when they're trying to be sensual.
I don't wanna sound like a misogynist but the sex scenes felt hot because MC feels like he uses them as toys in sex scenes.
Other one is animation, new ones feel stilted, which again I'd assume its on-hand with the animation that also applies to the fight scenes.

Again, I'm only basing this off of how the very last sex scene in the gallery is way different than the others, so it'd be cool to know when the new guys took over.

But you know, room for improvement and all that.
So I hope the new guys do well because this game has really had amazing sex scenes in S1 and so far most of S2.
Don't get me wrong story is good too, its like Caribdis' Eternum and stuff, but you have no idea how many H-games' sex scenes are a MISS, and these ones HIT. Not a lot of people like the fucked silly/ahegao stuff but Ive lived long enough in this world to know its a top kink for me when done right.

 

[Mezz3]

Quick question about Season 2's story

Spoiler: story spoiler I guess

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Also at what point did IP take over the story?

a well written critique i 100% agree with

 

[cubba]

Ok, I caught up with the game, so I'm gonna assume the new content starts when they get to the Elf village stuff?
Coz I noticed the fights are more slide-showy now, again in my other comment I did say it's probably impressive that the original guy was doing animation fights since Eternum does it too and that takes what I'd assume most of their dev time and why it takes so long. So I don't blame the new guys for trying to lower the bar.

So my only main concerns going forward is the sex scenes. I'm to assume that before that one sex scene with Centoria and Illya? Everything else is from the original guy? So I have to say its disappointing that the latter half of the gallery were main girls' scenes blueballing MC with no actual sex+creampie. The first half of the gallery with Torr/Tamara and Steph/Candy are top tier tho.

Onto my only real big problem, the new sex scene we got, I feel like it could use more life?
A main draw of the sex scenes in this for me was the girl's literally just look like they can't handle MC's dick.
And when he cums, the shining light of lovefucking or corrupting them or whatever, shows.
A core part of the original, to me, is that the sex focuses more on showing how they look like they're getting broken by MC fucking them good. It shows on their face, the ahegaos are very expressive and that's important.
And the sex is very rough, and hard, even when they're trying to be sensual.
I don't wanna sound like a misogynist but the sex scenes felt hot because MC feels like he uses them as toys in sex scenes.
Other one is animation, new ones feel stilted, which again I'd assume its on-hand with the animation that also applies to the fight scenes.

Again, I'm only basing this off of how the very last sex scene in the gallery is way different than the others, so it'd be cool to know when the new guys took over.

But you know, room for improvement and all that.
So I hope the new guys do well because this game has really had amazing sex scenes in S1 and so far most of S2.
Don't get me wrong story is good too, its like Caribdis' Eternum and stuff, but you have no idea how many H-games' sex scenes are a MISS, and these ones HIT. Not a lot of people like the fucked silly/ahegao stuff but Ive lived long enough in this world to know its a top kink for me when done right.

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I noticed most of that too.
Where has the iconic incubus magic effect gone when filling up the girls? In the recent update it was noticeably missing.
I always assumed that it was more than just visuals (Incubus magic, duh) and has an actual meaning wich has not been disclosed so far (or I forgot).

 

[Versace217]

I noticed most of that too.
Where has the iconic incubus magic effect gone when filling up the girls? In the recent update it was noticeably missing.
I always assumed that it was more than just visuals (Incubus magic, duh) and has an actual meaning wich has not been disclosed so far (or I forgot).

Stephanie addressed this in a class and said it's basically a much stronger version of Charm.

Edit: On second thought I don't know if the womb one is charm as well or is it a fertility boost for breeding between different species. Cause if it is, then Misty could also potentially get pregnant

 

[Versace217]

I found this game in recent updates and thought I'd try it out. Saw it was decently rated but didn't read the reviews or the comments which is standard for me really.

The starting story immediately hooked me in and although the lack of any erotic content did blue ball me for a while, the story and character building kept me entertained. There was visual representation of the animation getting better across the chapters and the songs with environment sfx were nice. Only thing I wish they could've added were sex sfx as it would've made the scenes 10x better.

Now I'm not very knowledgeable about Greek mythology, I just know some of the gods/goddesses and some artifacts I guess but the story itself was okay. I thought it was going to be a fight versus Zeus as in the start it was mentioned that Zeus was the one who ordered the attack on the underground city but later it was revealed that it was Athena(apparently?) or was that just the attack on Sirius and Sol.

The animations were good and progression was consistent. Then we arrive at Season 2.

We get some revelations, some more back stories and we also learn of the plan of attack on the ninja village by Axius. And then we arrive at the Elf Arc. Now do understand I had no idea what had happened behind the scenes.

I started noticing the issue almost as soon as the team arrives in the elf city. They are watching a duel for some reason and the sound of the swords hitting each other is a single sound on loop with no variation. It seemed odd to me at the time but I ignored it. Then came the princess....oh boy. Centoria is supposed to be her body double and as such she is required to mimic the princess at all times. Meaning the princess is supposed to be a reserved and shy person like Centoria and should also have an unapproachable aura like Centoria did before she warmed up to the MC.

The princess we're introduced to is a complete 180 of the character personality established for her and instead of being a replica of Centoria she is shown as a completely different character, effectively erasing the role of Centoria as a body double. There are several instances where things just don't make sense.

1. The princess suddenly says "They are my friends". Excuse me what?? We JUST met! If she had said something like "They are friends of Centoria so I consider them my friends as well", it would've been much more easier to swallow.

2. In the mage fight where Illya gets injured, the MC after defeating the enemy team, yells "NEVER HURT ILLYA"...bro what? You don't know her. You're her bodyguard sure but not her lover. I absolutely cringed here and this was where I knew something was dastardly wrong.

3. During that same sequence where the MC picks up Illya, he's shown to be bleeding. At first I thought I was seeing things but then I looked closely and I was like...why is he injured and why does he have red blood? It's like he's a completely different person now.

4. Right after point 3, Illya asks if the MC has used magic before and the guy says "No, but I'm a quick learner." WHAT??? You literally used lightening to contain the lazer aberration and you've already used a bunch of other magic like Illusion when you were trapped by the Astral nymphs.

The sound effect issue again reared it's head when you're heading to the tournament and instead of swords clashing, it sounds like someone is using the anvil to make a new sword. And again with zero variation. This is also the issue in later fights as well. The kissing sound effect also does NOT need to be on loop. Just one kiss sound for everytime they bring their lips together is perfect. Similarly, having the music and sound effect on one slider needs to be changed.

The absence of animations also threw me for a loop and it took several seconds before I figured out what was even happening. It was so disorienting especially during fight sequences where the MC is teleporting and you can't really make sense of that happening.

God it was like everything except the renders took a nosedive straight to the pits. I came here to find out what happened and found out the devs had changed. I mean I am happy that someone picked up an abandoned project but don't sully all it has been built on. If you're gonna change existing elements then it would've been much better to start a new project altogether. Or at least polished your skills on an independent project before continuing an existing project.

I hope to god the new dev gets better and fast. It was really starting to feel like I was playing a game that was sort of nearing the level of Eternum before the Elf Arc.