VN - Ren'Py - Summer Scent [v0.6.6a Steam] [The Naughty Captain]

TL;DR: Fairly well made AVN, choices actually matter, good branching. The story is okay and so is the writing. Horrible MC, mid LIs at best. Basically no audio. Outdated renders.

"3,5⭐ not great, not terrible." - Dude in Chernobyl.

Yet another AVN with a virgin, loser MC... I will never see the appeal, or why anyone would make/want an MC like this. If you can stomach that. it's a fairly well made AVN with good branching, but the sex animations and renders are nothing special. Personally i only found one of the two LIs attractive, but even that one is not that great. I'm not saying this because the LI's are not the usual big tit big ass AVN girls, but because they have terrible hair, bad clothing, and hard to like personalities. If you don't like insane branching, this game is definitely not for you. Falls behind almost every AVN i played so far. This one excels in the branching i guess, but what good is branching if the AVN has super mid LIs, a horrible MC, and only an okay story and dialogue? Basically no audio at all in the game, which is also a huge negative. I didn't have a bad time playing this, but i didn't have such a great time either. It's just a filler AVN while i wait for other AVNs releases/looking for the next gem.

I don't know how far I got, but I quit the game during breakfast because the dialogue was terrible. The main character is so pathetic that he can't even tell someone they might be lying. Instead, he says, "Uh, maybe you're not lying." It's just awful. You have a choice practically every minute, which is also annoying.
I regret not reading the reviews before downloading; it's a waste of time.

I really tried to like this game but just kept disappointing me...
To begin with, let's be honest, the premise of this AVN isn't interesting at all since the beginning... and the story doesn't improve either, the renders are outdated, the LI aren't attractive, neither visually nor in personality, so it isn't worth reading this AVN...

But the worst thing about this AVN is the choice system, what's the damn point of making a multi-choices AVN but blocking certain options? Why do you put the options if I can only choose one? The Dev encourages you to play the game without walkthrought but if you don't collect certain points it blocks you from certain options... Duuude!!!

So well written, with some exceptional good dialogues. The renders are pretty good and the world/environment looks believable with great attention to detail. The 'spicy' sceens could - imho - be a little more spicy, but they match the story and the drive of the story.
Well done developer!

Good writing, good renders, but I feel that there is too much variation in the available paths, that it takes too much time to produce an update, and each update only progresses each path slightly. Once finished, it should be very good, but that wait is going to be long. I understand why, as the game seems to have changed from it's much simpler beginnings, and as it progresses, the complexity of those paths likely increases too.

This VN has been drastically changed over time. For a last couple of years, dev modified its story from maledom/femdom to a melodrama which is not interesting to me. I guess the change may be financially oriented and I respect his decision. But I felt that current story lost its all edges and deleted the game from my hard drives.

Not that many devs undertands the importance of good writing, the way the each character is fleshed out even if it lack a bit of nuance is developed in a cohesive and interesting way. The renders are appealing enough to keep you going forward with great care on the expressions and lighting; theres a special kind of charm on their design since they're good looking enough but not overly gorgeous. The incosistency in the background music can be distracting so I hope that gets fixed. The branching in the choices is interesting but at times can feel frustraiting if you get stucked so an improvement on the hints the game offers could be a good point to work on. There's a good build up to the sex scenes and even with the lack of animations the dynamic camera angles make up for that. Overall this AVN is a joy to read and I hope the dev keeps their vision and completes the story.

I don't understand the hype on this one, its not terrible but the built in walkthrough is dogshit and this AVN needs a better hand written walkthrough IMO first playthrough I didn't bother to play more than a few minutes. I gave this one another shot bam bad ending.

LI's are not that attractive. At least you do have a taboo factor which helps. ALso it seems like there is 18 paths or something batshit insane with only 3 LI's? Way overboard IMO. I'll probably play this one through when I have nothing else to play

OK here is my Review Rant

3/5 (maybe 4/5)

I did a blind playthrough (As advised by the game) and the game turned from pleasant into a nightmare in an instant.

To be on the safe side, I'm going to put the rest of my rant in spoilers

The game is actually not bad otherwise.
The girls are awesome.
The graphics are good
The story is interesting.

But I feel that a bad ending, especially that bad, should not be caused by one wrong (And not very apparent) choice.

For me it's just bad design.

There's a solid (not great) game in there somewhere, burried beneath a lot of baggage, mainly the overcomplicated branching.
It's just utterly confusing and nonsensical, even with the mod. Another big problem, due to the excessive branching, the game is ridiculously short. The path I played, there was no actual sex after 5 years of development. And sex aside, the story also didn't feel like it has been in development fur such a long time.

The other issues mentioned in other reviews (like the moronic MC, subpar writing etc.) are also true, but what ultimately put me off this game is the prospect of having to wait several more years for something to happen on the path I'm interested in. (both the plot and the sex). It's really a shame imo, because that little that was there (Eve Sub?/Cassie Love?) was really not bad and worth playing imo.

Technically solid (in terms of lighting, posing and renders), even though I have some issues with individual models, expressions often seem off, and the sex scenes (such as they are) are often either perfunctory or just disappointing.

But even with those issues, I'd still give this 4 stars if it weren't for the writing. There's not any Engrish going on--more typos and stilted dialogue that likely has more to do with a lack of editing than any lack of knowledge of the English language--but the MC is absolutely maddening. As the story goes on, we spend way way too much time getting to hear his internal flagellation as the women in his life either freeze him out of most discussions (girl talk! you're not wanted!), berate him for the choices he makes (often to protect them), or treat him like garbage in a manner that I guess is supposed to come across as teasing, but instead just feels like they're all raging bitches. And the MC just takes all of it, often followed by even more internal recriminations about what a horrible person he has been and how guilty he still feels. He's a doormat with a supposed big dick who apparently has never watched porn and isn't particularly good at sex. To say nothing of the fact that every girl in the game is apparently bi (probably to allow for the different routes), and they all seem to enjoy watching his best friend Steve's video sexploits with some exhibitionist he picked up on vacation. I'm sure others won't have any problems with some or all of this, but it's not my cup of tea. Some guilt or recrimination is to be expected given the setup, but the MC being an absolute loser doormat toward everyone that doesn't have a dick is not.

Eve is an attractive model (even if her expressions don't seem to match what's going on a lot of the time), there are some brighter spots in the writing when it gets away from the moping and the lecturing, and the main plotline is hackneyed but reasonably compelling (although Cassie morphing into the perfect rich Machiavellian badass is hard to buy). Still, the relationship writing (on the Dual Love route) just doesn't work well unless you want the least fantasy version possible of a throuple, one where the MC feels superfluous and largely there to be kicked around.

3-stars because I at least acknowledge that the criticisms here are just my personal tastes and preferences, but I definitely won't be playing future updates.

Disclaimer
what follows is my own personal opinion. As such it holds no objective truths and I try to refrain from categories like "good" and "bad".
I appreciate the creativity and work that the dev put into this game and I wish them all the best hoping that they can continue and finish their work.
Also possible spoilers ahead.

What I like

. there are 3 love interests with very different looks, all of whom are pretty, and personalities. They have secrets that you can uncover and it takes some time and effort to do so.

- the lighthouse mode. It gives you a direction to achieve one of several constellations with the LIs without taking you by the hand all the time. I did blind playthroughs first and would definitely recommend doing so.

- the branching leads to very different outcomes. There are key choices that are not obvious but that's where the lighthouse mode helps without taking all the fun out.

- the writing works for me. The three girls do represent certain types that are common in games but the details about their past that come to light piece by piece make their actions believable. Well, as believable as we can expect in a fantasy (not the genre) where the default mode for all girls is to swing both ways.
But the plot works for me and makes me care enough about the characters to want to discover their stories. It makes the bad ending that I encountered in my first playthrough hit very hard, because I came to like them.
Bonus point, it is actual English. There were only a few very minor instances where the language was a tiny bit off for my taste but not immersion breaking. Boy, was I immersed.

- sex scenes work for me. This is a story with sex in it, not a sex story. You have to work for them. Also considering how young the involved are, the mix of eagerness and dread during sex is nicely depicted. There are other games with an abundance of sex scenes in them so a lack of sex scenes is mentioned on the forum. That is a matter of perspective. There is a build up on the nice paths that is plausible for the involved persons on the "playing it nice" paths. The actual action may be perceived as short and too infrequent by some but for me it works. I don't need the option to decide on which body part to come to make a scene enjoyable. The kinks don't do much for me but they don't disturb me either.


What I did not like

- mc is not very smart nor very likeable. Perhaps that is age related but I was facepalming quite a lot.
- magic dick syndrom. It is much less offensive than in some other games that come to mind but still. Once you show off your junk, the female population of this world looses their mind. Ah well, it is an adult game after all so I can tolerate it.


tl;dr
Overall great and very enjoyable game. You can feel that a lot of work was put into this. Can't wait for the story to continue.

Dunno how I would rate this nonsense higher than this.
Graphics are neat, but that's it.
The story suffers from over branching and frustrates
immensely without and even with walkthrough.
The MC is one of the worst written characters I ever
encountered.
The sex scenes are disappointingly short if you
are even able to get to them.
A complete overhaul of the MC, getting rid of half of
the branches and hidden triggers, and maybe this
has a chance to develop into something playable.

Was kinda hooked by this game at the beginning but since some time it feels like the spark is gone. Renders are good, story feels more or less okay (though MC might be not very likeable for someone) and kinks are kinda hot, but the biggest issue which negates all pros for me is branching. It'd be much better to have one or two solid and well writen story paths instead of that insane amount of branches which give mostly nothing but frustration because of a bunch of unobvious choices which kinda hard to follow without walkthrough mods.

Good enough renders, but way too much blueballing - for me any blueballing/teasing at all drops the rating. Unfortunately, another one only working on one path at a time, and takes LONG to update, so people can wait years until anything new on their saves.

Rubbish game with immature MC who behaves in schizophrenic manner unbefitting of the MC age or the age of those around him. He treats the woman like colleague and work mates, with utmost professional like respect, then he sulks back to his room and laments how miserable and how much of a pervert he is.

Confidently written and wholesome to boot. The skin details are unique and add a lot to the characters. The focus on a relatively small roster works for the benefit of the game. Choices have actual meaning.

This game would be so much better if it had a good protagonist but the guy is just insufferable, he is a stupid moronic parvert without a shred of charm or humor wrapped up into an ugly looking body with a big peanis (i guess that makes up for everything). The game fully acknowledge it but it doesn't bother to do anything about it, to develop his character. What's even worse is that a solid 60% of the game (perhaps even more) is just reading his blabbering thoughs about everything, its gets tiring very quickly and it never stops.

The LI's are all interesting and i like spending time with them, but MC makes it very difficult to enjoy it.

Truly worth playing. Loved the LI's seems like there is more branches so played using sanchos mod. Nice renders and loved the chemistry between MC and his sister. Yeah this one deserves this high rating. Waiting for next updates. Hoping it will be worth the wait

It is not your usual harem incest game it got nice pace. Keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates

If you choose the 'good guy' path, half of the game is the MC alone in his bedroom/living room thinking about how depraved, miserable and stupid he is; and the other half are very professional-like interactions with the female characters. They all talk to each other as if they were workmates. Teenagers are generally more immature, stupid, and fun. The MC is kind of a simp; most times, you get to decide to whether compliment girls or not, but there are other situations in which the MC just does and says whatever the hell he wants, which are mostly superficial and cringy comments. The game description says your choices determine how the MC will handle everything, but after two different playthroughs, it seems the most important choices are predetermined, your choices only have an impact on the relationship with the characters, not on how things develop. The events that lead to the characters having their sexual interest piqued are very scripted and forced, Imo. Easily preventable or remediable at the moment; but no, the MC just stands there being “incredibly embarrassed” while covering his face. I think the most obvious thing an 18yo would do in those situations would simply grab the phone and release the call. The story isn't bad at all, I was intrigued to know who the bad guys really are and was kinda in suspense that they would try something at any moment. It's funny that the game intro tells you the MC is an egotistical bitch, but the guy actually has very low self-esteem and 0 confidence. The game is less boring if you take the domination/corruption path, but I'm not into that, and all paths should be equally interesting.