VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Sunshine Love [Ch. 3 v1.01i Extras] [MrDots Games]

When I first played this game, I loved it. Great images, good story, lots of options... nothing earth shattering, but still it was a good time.

After finishing chapter 1, I just can't help but be dissappointed in the story. If you want the MC to fall in love with your childhood friend, then it's a pretty great story, but if you want any deviation from that, it's just awkward. I tried a couple different paths and one of them was to stay faithful to Nicole but no matter what choices the MC makes with his childhood friend, he always ends up messing around with her. There is no way to opt out of those scenes.

The other relationships are also kind of awkward... especially with Ashley and the chapter end with her was just odd... but all the relationships are that way. On one playthrough, I ended up with Ivy and Lily... which was a great scene, but the hookup didn't make any sense. Again, there was no way to opt out of it. Basically, you can chose to fool around with other girls with Nicole's permission or you break up with her. Regardless of the decision, there is very little impact to the story.

It's like it's a harem game but it's not. It's like a true visual novel but it's not. It's like a love story, but it's not.

It's unfortunate because the dev is clearly talented and the story started out great, but somewhere it lost it's way and now it seems to be fragmenting at the edges and has become a little messy.

Anyway, I will continue to check it out, but will probably wait for a few more updates.

I will briefly explain why from my note the truth that the game only has great graphics I repeat GREAT GRAPHICS only that since at the level of history it is poor and at the level of characters it is also poor, especially the protagonist, a rock has more charisma.

I'm gonna keep it short. The game is not bad, the renders are good, the animations are good, there are no bugs, the choices are fun and some do matter but the story is just very very weak, dull, and boring. The biggest problem I have however is the mc. My dude doesn't talk like a human being, starting every goddamn sentence with an "uh". It really kills the immersion for me. I didn't like the game in the beginning and I was hoping that something would change but no, even after so many updates the story is still very weak and boring af.

Another gamer from MrDots definitely shows improvement when it comes to models, although there are still problems with facial expressions looking exactly the same.
Player can chose to romance plenty of nice looking girls and women that thankfully differ from each other physically (body variety should be encouraged in all games) and somewhat emotionally.
Plot is sadly pretty average. MC is suppose to help his half sister relaunch a hotel - one would think something that complicated would call for mini game inside actual game but instead there is a table with tasks which are purely linear with no meaningful choice whatsoever. The whole relaunch plot comes of like a childish game of make believe - MC just happens to meet attractive girls who happily join his hotel crew. Maybe this could work if plot was about some small restaurant joint, but huge hotel that has to compete with less than fair competition? That is just silly.
Of course one could ignore credibility of this plot but then comes the matter of MC and the whole cast of characters. MC is, simply put, a clueless idiot. He cannot read obvious sings of girls being into him (then player has to read this painfully naïve inner monologue where MC wonders why a girl wants to spend time with him, over and over ad nauseum) shows little drive, emotion or ambition besides the the beginning of game. Wooden plank with a smile on it could play the MC role.
The other thing is that characters are almost all friendly with MC and show immediate interest in him. I get this is porn VN and this element is a part of the whole fantasy but again, as with hotel plot is just boring. You have standard arbitral point system which determine if a girl with continue hanging out with you but that's just basic stuff with no depth. This is certainly not something that one could expect from developer that has two (well, almost) full games behind his belt.
Play it for an eye candy but nothing more.

The game is spectacular in every aspect, be it the models that are great and the unmatched sex scenes I hope the game is long-lasting and it will not end soon the last scene of chapter 0.8 was great I hope the MC has more scenes like that with the same model and stay that way without being selfish with the other models.

So, I don't usually write reviews for games but this one has me wanting to.

The graphics are good, the girls are pretty and have their own characters, the hotel story is interesting, I don't know about the H scenes because I've only been playing for a couple of weeks and all I have are one domestic with the gf and some dream sequences which I loathe on principle.

My only complaint is with the script. The story is interesting, the script is turgid, slow, repetitive and meandering. I don't need to know what a fridge is used for in a kitchen. I don't need people to explain three times the same concept or emotion they're feeling. While all in good English, it seems MrDots has forgotten the value of brevity.

Otherwise, I'm learning so much about how to make a good taco, in detail, and chaacters are being pebble dashed with great speed into the story so I'm feeling at the moment like I'm getting flashbacks from WVM, but overall I'm hopeful this turns out to be a good game.

I kind of want to like this game. And I kind of succeed. I kind of like this game. But it also rubs me the wrong way a lot. By which I mean a lot.

To start off, I had high expectations. Mr Dots made one of my all time favorites with Melody, and DMD's first two chapters were good. Let's just pretend 3 and 4 did not happen just like there never was a sequel to The Matrix.

To start my review off with the standards: this game works. There's no bugs, no hundreds of typos in a single line, the renders are professionally done, good lighting, you get the idea. The story has an overarching goal in saving/growing a hotel, so you're not just hunting down girls just to hunt down girls, which is a huge plus in my book. I could go into all kinds of details about the central mechanics but the bottom line is: it just works, nothing to complain about.

There's a couple of typical MrDots quirks which I do not particularily like, like the introduction of character sheets and a "hotel development" page which feel like your decisions matter on this but will just go forward in the usual style of a VN so there's not much more information than how far you went along in the story. There's a "task list" but unlike in a sandbox you cannot do anything to advance specific tasks, it just happens by continuing the story, so in essence is meaningless. Well, this is not unlike the "corruption meter" in DMD or the "still a virgin" character sheet entry in Melody. Not too bad. But it is more of it than in those games, which brings me to my main criticism, and I would have written it earlier if I could have pointed my finger.

This game is "overproduced". Most of it is just too much of whatever it is. It isn't bad individually, on the whole however it just doesn't flow for me. Posing of characters often does not feel natural but seems to be done for the "camera". Texts are unnecessarily over informative. You don't say "I'm gonna ask her whether her mother will come over", you will say "I will use the messaging app on my computer to ask her, Shortcake, whether her mother, Trisha, will come over to this location, which is here." (Not an actual quote but an amalgamation of three. Yes, the "messaging app on my computer", the unnecessary names, and the explanation of "this location" all do exist in the game. Within 10 lines of dialogue or so.) Every render, every line of dialogue is trying to grab your attention. Of course they should somehow grab it but it feels too obvious here, it's just not natural.

This pattern continues with the music. Since the game is overproduced you have skip forward and back or choose your song of around two dozen songs. But they're not chosen to complement the mood of the scene, they're just on a rotation, often attention grabbing as well, especially when they include actual singing. That's not game music, that's a greatest hits album running in the background of a movie without care about what the movie is about. (Edit: the tracks with singing were removed in a later update for this reason)

The next thing is the characters. None of the girls has any major depth. They get some backstory and some characteristics, so it is not all bad. Then again, there's not much beyond some cardboard cliché. Innocent virgin (including all kinds of overdone "No that cannot be" reactions by MC). Self confident helper who "has been around". MILFs and 18 year olds galore, rarely inbetween. Every girl serves her purpose - but that is all she does. There's nothing unique.

Similar the MC. Some have described him as a weak simp or other non flattering remarks. I tend to disagree - for his backstory and similar he performs reasonable, he isn't supposed to be some alpha gorilla. However, that is all he does. If he gets challenged (talking like he is an actor here) he is out of his depth. When confronted with the personal background of a girl he is cringeworthy. His (justified) breakdown in one situation is acted out in a way that would make regular porn actors decry the lack of believability. He is incredibly stiff and whenever shown has the most artificial smile imaginable.

Yes, a lot in this game is right. There are choices which matter and it's not just scoring points, it's also "Do I want to go route A or B?" stuff. And it is logical. But in the end it just doesn't gel for me. For months I have been loading this game, playing a bit, and found me tabbing out to read the news because I couldn't bear the plastic artificiality of it. Just as I am writing this review right now out of the need to get away from the game. I want to like the game. Some of the girls tick all the boxes I want. And yet ... it always is off, in an uncanny valley kind of way. It just doesn't feel natural.

Then of course there's the "Peeping Tom" hunt and the "Donut" hunt, where you can get extra scenes/images by finding the correct spots. Which are a nice idea but distract from the actual proceedings. Also they will give you lewds of girls you haven't lewded yet which I consider a cheap cop out. And to unlock all, well, let's just say there are twins in this game but you can only date one of them - with identical scenes apart from the dress color and the name. But you'll have to play through both of them.

It isn't a bad game and I see myself continuing my pattern of loading it up and playing for 15-20 minutes only to save because I've had enough. This game does everything a VN needs to do, but it lacks soul. There are a few games out there with bad renders, loads of typos, unlogical stuff happening, but they have a certain je-ne-sais-quoi which makes you care. I don't feel it here. It is extremely polished but it is lifeless.

(Should be 2.5 stars, but rounding up to three)

I'm going to keep this simple and hope this helps people to decide whether or not to invest time in this game:

Do play if -

• You like playing games in the "Mr. Dots" universe
• Your primary reason for playing games is to see well-rendered sex scenes with attractive models

Don't play if -

• The quality of the dialog matters to you
• The story matters to you
• It bothers you when none of the characters behave the way a normal human would
• It bothers you that the MC is a wimp that starts almost every sentence with "uh"

The thing that puts me off the most is that the MC doesn't even remotely behave like a normal human male, even a really shy guy that doesn't have a lot of dating experience. His behavior is more high-school sophomore than law school graduate and, while I don't expect him to act like Don Juan, he often seems to be pathetically resigned to the cruel fate of having hot women want to fuck him.

It's tedious, it takes people like me out of the immersion that the game should provide and it's just not enough fun to justify wasting time on.

I'm not going to bore you with a big review of this game. I'm going to focus only on what I don't like, which is not much, because I love it... so far.
The "only" thing I don't like is the presence of children as love interests. As I said I love this game and I would give it 5 stars as it's in my top list of favorites along with no more than 10 others.
So yeah, my rating is based on the presence of children as LIs and because they annoy me as hell.
You might ask: Three stars for a game you love? Yes. Punishment for saying children that look no older than 14yo, at most, are 18, 19 or 20. Not much else I can do besides exposing and underrate it.

Thank you and good luck.

mr dots best work so far. The characters are diverse and well written and there's already so much content and it seems to be less than halfway done. The writing is obviously good or the characters wouldn't be so amazing. They all have their own unique voice and style. That said i think a lot of the humor falls flat but i just blame it on the protagonist being unfunny

This VN introduces some game-like elements which are infinitely shallow, but i like them. They're nice And I really like the structure of the story. Feels like it has defined arcs which is very fun.

Ok this is one of those games where i cannot wait for the updates, and once they come i end of blasting through it in one sitting and then left waiting again, but this is by far one my top list of games. Other Mr Dots game are also in my top list he is a talented creator, Melody is awesome, i played that a few times through, this will be another one that will be played many times.

Awesome music, models are amazing, animations are great, but i fear than my MC will end up with nobody because he is such a dick going around shagging them all he is going to get caught soon and have his dick chopped off by one of them.

Please keep the updates coming and thanks so much for many many hours of fun playing this.

Ch2 .06.1

Game really is better then the last time i played

Renders are good
Sex scenes could be better with some girls
There was a emotional scene in the story I see not much devs dare to put in
No bugs
Story is good not perfect
Renders are good
I love how the game has some character renders from the dev his other two games

I think it is currently the best game from Mr. Dots. DMD become more and more annoying with every update it get. Here we have a good written story...well quit unlikely to the RL. But I have fun and I love the characters.

Valeforish really hits it right on the head.

Very weak story with characters that feels very far removed from how anything human would speak or interact.

While the renders are of high quality, the characters all look alike sharing facial expressions and body form, this coupled with the art style that oozes "plastic fantastic" results in making the characters feel even more inhuman.

Hopefully this won't be another marathon game like their first work, and they will move on to something better in a not too far flung future.

Excellent game with more to it than sex. You feel for the characters, and you want to help them succeed. Can name a couple of the characters yourself, and choose your own name as well, which is always fun. The story is realistic in comparison to some of the others you often see in these types of games. All around good game with lots of good contents so far, and much more to come!

Excellent game. A bit of a slow burn at first and the MC is a little easy to manipulate, but the setting and renders are gorgeous, and the animations are top notch like we expected from Mr Dots, i really love that he understands that boobs are supposed to bounce while having sex.

Amazing Game. Best female character (The Sis).
I love this game and the main female character too. She is the best character in this game or any other game. I would love if the developer will add more and more scenes of her.

i like it tbh. some people may not enjoy this game because it's somewhat lengthy (personally i didn't even notice it until i see some comments pointed it out). but i've always enjoyed reading in general, not just from visual novel games, but any kind of novels (online or printed). i actually think the long writings tell the story better. it makes the characters less shallow if that makes sense, because we get to know how they feel in certain situations or about certain decisions, how their thought process looks like, etc.

weirdly enough i'm more invested in the issue with the hotel (how MC and his sister is gonna make it successful, how they're gonna deal with the enemy trying to steal the hotel, etc.) rather than the relationship between MC and each girl lol. it's a good story, simple but still good nonetheless. hell i'll consider paying for it once the game is fully finished and is released on patreon (actually no i'll definitely buy it). i've always kept a list of which game is worth buying in the future once it's completed and which one is not, and this game certainly fits in the former category.

A game that is dressed up with the faux image of quality.

The story is dull, boring and written by someone who appears to have no idea how normal people actually talk to each other. If nothing else the game is worth trying to see how awkward the dialogue is. I cannot get over that!

Renders are well produced, but not nice. They've been too harshly made, too edited. Every character looks fake and plastic, like a sex doll. Speaking of sex dolls, they all share identical expressions. Anyone that's tried this game will know what I mean when I say: "Thin lips and a perked eyebrow." The dev uses the same few expressions for every single character (including the male MC) and (partly) because of this every character blends into the others. That's without mentioning that almost all of the women share an almost identical face, with minor tweaks like freckles, eye colour, hair etc. But they're all the same! I can't believe a dev with this much experience is so lazy and uninspired.

Oh, and for some reason there's a carbon-copy of the Dating My Daughter female lead. Not sure why, but whatever.

The music is a playlist that just runs through the game. Nothing is tied to scenes or moods. Easily the weakest implementation of music I've seen in a game.

The other tidbits like the "hotel progression" is a waste of time since it's automatic. Why make a popup about it if it'll happen without me doing anything? The donuts are nonsense.

I can't believe this game follows after Melody. That game had its share of problems, including the dialogue, but at least the characters looked real, the behaved like normal enough people. Sunshine love has none of that.

Truly one of the most disappointing games I've played on this site.

Review of v0.0.7i....

3 1/2 stars...

SPOILERS!!!

The first thing that should be noted is that this game is a very slow burn. I was playing it for a couple of weeks and probably sunk in 30+ hours (no joke) and only had a handful of sex scenes. I like a slow burn as long as the story and characters are good. I’ll get to this in a minute.

The writing is fine. Some spelling and grammar errors peppered throughout, but it reads fine. I liked the beginning where the characters start out as kids. It gave a bit of context and background to the overall situation and history of the characters. I like the world building, but a bit of the dialogue did seem repetitive and tedious.

The lewd animations are well done. Some of the sounds could have been done better. The knocking on doors sound is rapid and repeats itself. It got annoying before too long. The kissing sound should have been more simplified instead of the long moaning kissing sound that’s used. Most of the other sounds are done well.

The character models are hot. Mostly realistic bodies with various breast sizes. The scenery and backgrounds were all gorgeous. It’s a very pretty game.

I didn’t like the Peeping Tom and Doughnut modes. I thought they were frivolous and a distraction. You can turn the Peeping Tom mode off, but it’s set to enabled by default so you have to disable it every time you start the game. You can’t turn the doughnuts off though. It’s easy to ignore them though since I’ve forgotten many times that I was supposed to look out for them. I understand the devs wanted to add some extras to the game, but I imagine there were other less intrusive ways to do it. This is all just my personal opinion. Some people may like these modes and that’s cool. I just found them distracting.

Also, there is a mention of Danny Trejo and a minute later you see Victoria’s father and it’s a model of Danny Trejo. That made me cringe. The dev probably thought that was funny, but I thought it was cheap and cringe. There is also a running theme where all of the character’s fathers are dirtbags in one fashion or another. Sigh.

The MC is a bit of a beta. He internally sighs to himself all the time giving you the impression that he’s constantly irritated at every situation or conversation he’s in, but then goes along with it anyway. It becomes rather tiresome before too long. At one point the sister tells the MC that they need to take a break from each other, and instead of becoming rightfully upset at her for treating him exactly the same way his girlfriend did, he just says “Oh okay”.

He also seems a bit inept at times. A lot of the girls, especially Ashley and Trisha, try to seduce him throughout the game. It’s plain as day hat they are doing, but the MC monologues to himself wondering about intentions. Like a virgin whose never talked to a woman before.

I’m not sure how much I like the sister. She brought the MC to the hotel under false pretenses, she suddenly disappears on the MC after the wedding for four days (which is something she hates her mother for doing to her before), and whenever the MC tells her something she always wonders to herself if he’s telling her the truth. It’s almost like the sister is bi-polar.

Ashley is the sister’s mother. The situation after the initial “early years” part is the result of her leaving the MC’s father. I wasn’t sure how much I would like her at first, but I start to warm to her when she finally explained the situation and the circumstances surrounding her leaving the nine years earlier.

The rest of the characters I liked for the most part. I liked the idea of a rival business owner that you had to deal with constantly causing trouble.

I'm seen other reviews mention the slow updates. I sincerely hope this game is completed.

I would say give this game a try. Especially if you don’t mind a slow burn.