Think the story cohesion is a bit all over the place. The first new scene was actually pretty good as a premise and believable with how the story has developed. The execution was a bit tame and lackluster but still was at an acceptable quality.
The second scene was just out of nowhere. Everything in the elf village just happened with characters we hardly know. Centoria was constantly a tease through the story and then suddenly is just a dick riding slut. Illya looks nothing like her maybe doppelganger, I personally always got the impression that the real princess was Centoria all along and she just wanted to get personally stronger but couldn't as a princess. The entire elf village feels like we only see 20% of the story, a big part of the game isn't the animated fights but the walking around talking parts of the game.
The animated fights did become a big part of the game but by no means was it the starting point. In part one there are fights but they're broken up by long dialogue sections where the girls tease you or story beats play out. Amusingly enough a lot of these parts aren't even animated or enough to be added to the gallery but were good scenes with the characters or erotic enough to remind you that you're playing an adult game.
If the new team wants to actually make a good VN they're going to have to write more compelling dialogue and scenes. Having the princess and guards walking around to shops and seeing elves and goblins interact would have been a good start. Have them enter a shop run by the sorceress where she says some critic shit about this not working. Maybe the MC picks up some glasses or an orb that lets them see through people's clothing. Just to tease the audience, maybe have Illya in that moment being carefree but Centoria gives you the side eye knowing you're up to no good. You could even have such a thing have plot relevance later if the MC buys it like he is able to see through an assassination attempt because he was ogling the girls so he prevents something before it happens. If he doesn't take the lens then he still prevents it by using his powers but he looks worse overall as a bodyguard.
As it stands now the update feels incredibly rushed at the elf village and it would be good for more to be spliced into that section to go from a bodyguard to a sudden threesome. Centoria needs more characterization, the vibes from the original trailer felt like we were getting a dark story but what we ended up with was a disjointed mess ending in banging a princess out of the blue. The elf village should have been a dark section with twists and turns yet it is so disjointed I barely know what happened at all.
Side note- The decision to fight Athena or not is a major event and I'm not sure which is the right one. I want to say narratively it should be the right choice to fight her as you see Nyx and more things happen but it didn't seem like it was a big deal at all either way. We don't even talk to Mercury about it just move on. This was another massive opportunity to have more dialogue and just in general more scenes with the characters. Yet we just... don't speak after. Instead we get a scene where we make an agreement to just be friends with someone when both character obviously have no interest in said agreement.
I... don´t think that´s gonna fix all the inconsistencies or even story breaking elements. Still not addressing the biggest issues, as if ignoring em is gonna help. Yeah... The trust is gone.
Hope at some point they realize that they bit off more than they can chew.
I'm a longtime lurker on this forum, and decided to make an account so I could talk about this most recent update. Stray Incubus is one of my favorite games, not just among AVNs but of all time. It has so much wit, charm and heart to it, and all the characters have become very dear to me. I was heartbroken when I found out it was being dropped, and overjoyed when I learned someone was taking the mantle up again.
Of course, it was to be expected that there would be some growing pains to start. It's never easy picking up someone else's project. I don't know exactly how much material Flynn left behind for the new devs, but I'm sure there were so many ideas and storylines that existed only as vague concepts in his head that are now lost to us. It was always likely that some characters would change or lose parts of themselves in the transition. And hell, it's not like Flynn was a perfect writer either, as awesome as the game became.
Still, it was very sad to see this chapter. It felt like... well, like a betrayal of all we'd come to enjoy. Like it didn't understand the pace, tone, or even logic that had so far been established. The first few chapters were rough, don't get me wrong. I very nearly gave up on the game before Zycris even undertook his first mission, and I'm glad I didn't. But this felt like another game entirely.
I want to be up front: this review is going to be pretty negative. I do not mean this as an attack on the new dev team. I am infinitely grateful that someone picked this game back up and is trying to push it forward, even if they stumbled off the starting blocks. However, there are lots of issues that need addressing. My hope is that they will read this, along with plenty of the other criticisms that have been posted, and know exactly where to focus their attentions going forward. Let's not declare the game dead again because of a fumbled release, but let's also not sit quietly and allow it to sink into mediocrity through inaction.
First, I'd like to talk about each scene of the game, get a feel for what happened in E2C3. Starting with the opening scene.
So now we've discussed the chapter's contents, scene by scene, but there's still a few things left to discuss. Namely, characters. I'm sure you can already guess a few of them, but let's go down the line.
Alright, so that was a lot of whinging, I know. The update wasn't all bad, of course. The new renders, even if they're a very different style, are quite beautiful. I just wish there were more to really flesh out the world. More walking down streets, less teleporting from a courtyard to a throne room while half your party suddenly vanishes. The dialogue needs some work too - it was never Flynn's strong suit, either, but it does feel like the new writer played up the worst tendencies of his character speech in an attempt to mimic the style. We don't need so many ellipses! Let people finish their sentences!
Overall, I think this chapter needs a serious rework before they can move on to chapter 4. There just isn't enough content in this one to be satisfying, and what is there is lackluster. It feels like we missed a lot of steps along the journey - like that Futurama episode where time starts randomly skipping ahead, just jumping from scene to scene with only a vague idea of how we got there. Some plotholes need to be addressed, either by changing certain things or providing explanations in game for them. It's fine if something doesn't meet a built-up expectation so long as the game can acknowledge that the expectation existed and answer for it. That's all I'm asking.
So to the new developers of Stray Incubus, thank you for picking up this project. I know there's been a lot of negativity around this release, but I promise you most of us say it out of love. We want you to succeed, but sometimes that means a firm pushback on what's there. I hope you'll read this and other posts carefully and take the right steps to ensure that this wonderful game continues in the right direction. Good luck.
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.
I'm a longtime lurker on this forum, and decided to make an account so I could talk about this most recent update. Stray Incubus is one of my favorite games, not just among AVNs but of all time. It has so much wit, charm and heart to it, and all the characters have become very dear to me. I was heartbroken when I found out it was being dropped, and overjoyed when I learned someone was taking the mantle up again.
Of course, it was to be expected that there would be some growing pains to start. It's never easy picking up someone else's project. I don't know exactly how much material Flynn left behind for the new devs, but I'm sure there were so many ideas and storylines that existed only as vague concepts in his head that are now lost to us. It was always likely that some characters would change or lose parts of themselves in the transition. And hell, it's not like Flynn was a perfect writer either, as awesome as the game became.
Still, it was very sad to see this chapter. It felt like... well, like a betrayal of all we'd come to enjoy. Like it didn't understand the pace, tone, or even logic that had so far been established. The first few chapters were rough, don't get me wrong. I very nearly gave up on the game before Zycris even undertook his first mission, and I'm glad I didn't. But this felt like another game entirely.
I want to be up front: this review is going to be pretty negative. I do not mean this as an attack on the new dev team. I am infinitely grateful that someone picked this game back up and is trying to push it forward, even if they stumbled off the starting blocks. However, there are lots of issues that need addressing. My hope is that they will read this, along with plenty of the other criticisms that have been posted, and know exactly where to focus their attentions going forward. Let's not declare the game dead again because of a fumbled release, but let's also not sit quietly and allow it to sink into mediocrity through inaction.
First, I'd like to talk about each scene of the game, get a feel for what happened in E2C3. Starting with the opening scene.
So now we've discussed the chapter's contents, scene by scene, but there's still a few things left to discuss. Namely, characters. I'm sure you can already guess a few of them, but let's go down the line.
Alright, so that was a lot of whinging, I know. The update wasn't all bad, of course. The new renders, even if they're a very different style, are quite beautiful. I just wish there were more to really flesh out the world. More walking down streets, less teleporting from a courtyard to a throne room while half your party suddenly vanishes. The dialogue needs some work too - it was never Flynn's strong suit, either, but it does feel like the new writer played up the worst tendencies of his character speech in an attempt to mimic the style. We don't need so many ellipses! Let people finish their sentences!
Overall, I think this chapter needs a serious rework before they can move on to chapter 4. There just isn't enough content in this one to be satisfying, and what is there is lackluster. It feels like we missed a lot of steps along the journey - like that Futurama episode where time starts randomly skipping ahead, just jumping from scene to scene with only a vague idea of how we got there. Some plotholes need to be addressed, either by changing certain things or providing explanations in game for them. It's fine if something doesn't meet a built-up expectation so long as the game can acknowledge that the expectation existed and answer for it. That's all I'm asking.
So to the new developers of Stray Incubus, thank you for picking up this project. I know there's been a lot of negativity around this release, but I promise you most of us say it out of love. We want you to succeed, but sometimes that means a firm pushback on what's there. I hope you'll read this and other posts carefully and take the right steps to ensure that this wonderful game continues in the right direction. Good luck.
I downloaded Stray long ago and redownloaded it when I saw it on latest updates, and picked up from my last save and I was wondering if Zycris was a name I came up with or it was a preset name.
Coz a lot of these H-games give you the option to name your characters and its been decades that I stopped naming them after myself and just either made up names or used nicknames lol
Its like in Harem Hotel when the posts about the robot character gets posted and I'm confused why they call her the robot or a different name and I forgot I named her Shiro-01 and that wasnt the default name.
I'm a longtime lurker on this forum, and decided to make an account so I could talk about this most recent update. Stray Incubus is one of my favorite games, not just among AVNs but of all time. It has so much wit, charm and heart to it, and all the characters have become very dear to me. I was heartbroken when I found out it was being dropped, and overjoyed when I learned someone was taking the mantle up again.
Of course, it was to be expected that there would be some growing pains to start. It's never easy picking up someone else's project. I don't know exactly how much material Flynn left behind for the new devs, but I'm sure there were so many ideas and storylines that existed only as vague concepts in his head that are now lost to us. It was always likely that some characters would change or lose parts of themselves in the transition. And hell, it's not like Flynn was a perfect writer either, as awesome as the game became.
Still, it was very sad to see this chapter. It felt like... well, like a betrayal of all we'd come to enjoy. Like it didn't understand the pace, tone, or even logic that had so far been established. The first few chapters were rough, don't get me wrong. I very nearly gave up on the game before Zycris even undertook his first mission, and I'm glad I didn't. But this felt like another game entirely.
I want to be up front: this review is going to be pretty negative. I do not mean this as an attack on the new dev team. I am infinitely grateful that someone picked this game back up and is trying to push it forward, even if they stumbled off the starting blocks. However, there are lots of issues that need addressing. My hope is that they will read this, along with plenty of the other criticisms that have been posted, and know exactly where to focus their attentions going forward. Let's not declare the game dead again because of a fumbled release, but let's also not sit quietly and allow it to sink into mediocrity through inaction.
First, I'd like to talk about each scene of the game, get a feel for what happened in E2C3. Starting with the opening scene.
So now we've discussed the chapter's contents, scene by scene, but there's still a few things left to discuss. Namely, characters. I'm sure you can already guess a few of them, but let's go down the line.
Alright, so that was a lot of whinging, I know. The update wasn't all bad, of course. The new renders, even if they're a very different style, are quite beautiful. I just wish there were more to really flesh out the world. More walking down streets, less teleporting from a courtyard to a throne room while half your party suddenly vanishes. The dialogue needs some work too - it was never Flynn's strong suit, either, but it does feel like the new writer played up the worst tendencies of his character speech in an attempt to mimic the style. We don't need so many ellipses! Let people finish their sentences!
Overall, I think this chapter needs a serious rework before they can move on to chapter 4. There just isn't enough content in this one to be satisfying, and what is there is lackluster. It feels like we missed a lot of steps along the journey - like that Futurama episode where time starts randomly skipping ahead, just jumping from scene to scene with only a vague idea of how we got there. Some plotholes need to be addressed, either by changing certain things or providing explanations in game for them. It's fine if something doesn't meet a built-up expectation so long as the game can acknowledge that the expectation existed and answer for it. That's all I'm asking.
So to the new developers of Stray Incubus, thank you for picking up this project. I know there's been a lot of negativity around this release, but I promise you most of us say it out of love. We want you to succeed, but sometimes that means a firm pushback on what's there. I hope you'll read this and other posts carefully and take the right steps to ensure that this wonderful game continues in the right direction. Good luck.
The Princess not looking like Centoria might be the thing that bothers me the most.
It's just shows the carelessness of the devs and also a certain disregard for Flynns work, imo. Honestly, I'm starting to get the feeling they only skimmed through the game, decided it was trash and that they knew better.
Also there is this:
I'm amazed, actually. I didn't have any expectations whatsoever for these new devs and they still managed to disappoint me.
They could have easily gotten my support if they made a half-decent release and at least tried to honor Flynn's style a bit.
But I guess that was too much to ask for.
Instead they wasted 9 months on making all characters look worse and then released a buggy mess, as if they were some big AAA-dev.
They've also threatened to rework Flynn's chapters. So make sure you don't erase your copies of the old version!
This entire thing pisses me off. I'm gonna go outside now.
So after getting tons of backlash and AFTER getting ppl banned from Discord for voicing their opinion and ridiculing them for even suggesting a rework (mind you, it was Itsnt himself who said it´s just too much work) NOW he decided in all his wisdom that MAYBE it´s actually better to rework it like it was suggested?
I'm just disappointed that the Change slides from new to old that we saw were not in the game. the game looked rough compared to the examples we were given to compare. or maybe i am to used to the old that the new ones just look bad to me.. its confusing.
I don't really care about the visual changes or animations, I just hope they write better scenes and dialogues and do not butcher Centoria and the princess as they did in this update
Well, lets see how he´s planning to salvage this trainwreck. with a first release this disastrous and him acting like a petulant child when confronted with constructive criticism, i´m not gonna count on anything worth my time or money.
Oh, and don´t forget that he´s still working on his own game. So good luck with upholding the quality if they already fucked it up once
EDIT: Speaking about his other game... Judging by the comments over there, the future of SI seems pretty grim. Yeeeah... No thx
Well, lets see how he´s planning to salvage this trainwreck. with a first release this disastrous and him acting like a petulant child when confronted with constructive criticism, i´m not gonna count on anything worth my time or money.
Oh, and don´t forget that he´s still working on his own game. So good luck with upholding the quality if they already fucked it up once
EDIT: Speaking about his other game... Judging by the comments over there, the future of SI seems pretty grim. Yeeeah... No thx
Yeah, I'm not really convinced, either. Maybe if they do a really great job on the rework.
Ironically itsnt is also reworking his own game after releasing only one half of a chapter.
I think I see a pattern forming here
Honestly, though, I doubt they are going to stick with this.
They only got 14 new members since release, bringing their total to a whopping 89. So the game only earns them 550 bucks a month. Itsnt game is faring even worse at 13 members.
So I'm expecting at least one of them to cut and run at some point.
If they don't, I'll readily admit that this is an actual passion project for them and not some soulless cashgrab.
They would have to drastically increase quality, though.
Well, I'm glad they have taken all the feedback to heart and are going to rework the chapter. I hope it fixes the issues we've all presented and brings the game back to some semblance of its past glory. Good luck to the devs. I'm still going to hold off on committing any money to the patreon until progress has been made but, to the devs if you're reading this, please reach out if you decide you need beta testers to avoid this kind of public backlash in the future.
