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

If Jigsaw made adult games it would be something like this.
"How much are you willing to endure for your release?"

I absolutely love slow burns.
I absolutely love world building, story, lore, fleshed out characters.
I absolutely love tension building through teasing and good pacing.
This though, honestly, this game is just painful to play.
An absolute chore of endless nonsense, nothing, fluff dialogue, full of repetitive exposition, roundups and absurd levels of just inane, trash-filler-chatter that just goes on and on and on about absolute, complete and total pointless nothing.
From the importance of kitchen grease trays to the full 5 step programme for a successful event planning company to endlessly repeating the same details about your history, career, relationships to 87 different people.
Absolutely world class levels of mind-numbing tedium.

As for the teasing it's just bad. In lieu of well timed teases you get these jarring "Peeping Tom" X-Ray vision moments which in my opinion actively hurt payoffs; the polar opposite of what teasing should provide.

All of the above just leads to a incredibly frustrating pace to the game.

It's such a shame because everything else is amazing. I know that sounds crazy after my ranting but it really is a superb game otherwise.
It should be a 5 star game.
This is what makes this so hard to review because whilst the greatness is there you have to be patient and willing enough to endure this absolute ball-ache of a Visual Novel Tome to get to it.
Whether that's worth it or not is debatable, hence the 3 star,
For me I continue to play on (for now) with with my heart saying yes and my brain unable to say no because it's just mush at this point.

I like this game and I don't know why. The dialogue (and inner-monologues) in the earliest parts of the game are repetitive and tedious, seeming like extra text was added to give it the feel of slow burn. In reality there are a load of hyper-specific descriptions of really mundane actions and details that do nothing to advance the story or character relationships. The language is stilted and awkward, vocabulary choices are odd, and most of the characters's personalities are defined by self-description and exposition without any real difference in the way they interact with the the MC or each other.

For a story driven game, the continuity is all over the place and murky. Meaningless details are very specific while major plot devices and timelines are vague and in flux. There is at least one instance where a character casually mentions a major event that will take place long before the event is set up in the story. Some motivations make no sense even after the context for their actions is supposedly explained. Actions and reactions are inexplicable in a lot of places, conflicts between characters early on are contrived at best and seem to only go that way because the script demands they do.

Certain choices have consequences but don't appear to alter the course of the story yet (as of ver 0.6), only lock out certain scenes or play alternate ones. Some sections are referred to as mini-games but are just a set of choices to path your way through. These could be left out and not be missed.

Other than that, models are good, renders are high quality, and animation loops are pretty smooth. If you're familiar with other MRDOTS titles, there will be some familiar faces and cute callbacks, including using the word "eventuate" several times even though normal people don't talk like that.

Objectively this is not great unless you're here solely for the fap. But again there's just something about it. There's a charm here that I can't put in to words. It's at least worth a shot. I mean, you're reading this which probably means you've got nothing better to do.

Good wel rounded game/novel, where the Dev toke the time to setup a solid base backstory, Its also about that story and not just a fuckfest, art work is very nice, as of this writing v0.0.6, Looking forward to the rest of the story.

Gorgeous female models and decent environment work with average-ish story (so far) and passable MC. Atm (v0.6) we're deep into early development (I hope so) and after the "real-no blue ball-deal" starts rolling, we're hopefully in for a treat.
(P.S.: Imho there is/was no reason to slow this game's development with 4th (!!) DMD as that story could've been wrapped up 1, if not 2, games ago. Then again, DMD is decent game itself, so can't be too mad about that anyway ☻)

This is one of the harder games for me to rate. There are a lot of good things that I like about the game, but I don't feel like it's even close to its full potential. MrDott is a good dev and I've liked his stories in the past, but this one is a lot of pizzaz and no substance.

The story is the definition of slow burn. Like trying to boil a pot of water with the heat set to simmer. Updates come out about every two months with 0.6 dropping a little more than a year after the initial release date. As far as I can remember, there have been three sex scenes. Like actual penetration, not heavy petting. But I may have forgotten something or missed something. Anyways, the story is decently interesting. Half brother moves away from his stable but boring relationship and his boring desk job to assist his half sister in reviving the family hotel in a tropical town. There is a defined villain that is trying to buy the hotel and destroy it for more modern developments. How very 90's Disney. You meet several women and reunite with others from your past, and they are all into you! But not enough to bed you... yet... in more than a years worth of updates...

The gameplay frustrates me. It has a lot of potential! But it goes completely unrecognized. It is a standard AVN, and for once, I wish it was a sandbox game. It needs to be. There is this whole mechanic that ranks your hotel 1-5 stars based on the condition and performance of the hotel. But the rating is story-locked. You have no say in how well the hotel is running outside of some social choices (maybe?), so the rating doesn't actually matter that much. Let me free roam the hotel and town. Let me do odd jobs to get money to fix up the hotel to get more stars and to make it more attractive to host events! But no, everything is scripted. And with the girls you make minimal progress in a years worth of releases. I get if the game isn't all about sex, but give us something more than a handjob in every release. The sex scene in this release (0.6) is kind of cheating too because its a flashback to a character that is, thus far, not in the game! You also go long periods of time without interacting with a certain character, so if you really like one you may be waiting one or two releases (2-4 months) for any new content with them. I want to like this game a lot more than I do!

The visuals are the real draw here. The renders and models are done so well. They aren't hyper realistic and they don't attempt to be. It is the MrDott style of animated but anatomical models. The MC is kind of bland. He takes off his shirt and the girls say "ohh look at that!" but then you look at it and there is nothing to look at. Nothing at all. Just slight pudge, no muscles to speak of. Do you like almost non-existent breasts or huge ones? One or the other, there really isn't an inbetween here. The women are pretty. I can't really point to one (that is a love interest) that isn't visually pleasing. They all seem to have their own personalities too. The twins are a little too similar but hey, they are twins after all. The girls that I like the most seem to get the least screen time which is a bummer. There is a decent amount of representation of race here too, but not bodystyle outside of breast size which seems to be linked to how old they are. The models fall into that thing where 18 year olds are still prepubescent but 20 year olds have massive tits and asses like the milfs. Its bland and unoriginal. The locations are pretty, but some of the backgrounds are animated and others are blurred real photos which is jarring for a game so stylized as this one.

The writing and grammar are pretty good. I did notice in this last update there were major continuity errors not stemming from choices. An event happens one morning, you go to bed, and at the end of the next day they talk about those events happening that morning, not the morning before. It was a little weird and should have been avoided with proofreading. There aren't many lines spoken that make me roll my eyes and say "people don't talk like that" but there are a few.

I was excited for this game after the conclusion of MrDotts last game. But this one seems to be spinning its tires a bit. I can't say I feel that the story has really progressed in the past couple updates. For a two month dev cycle, I know the update is decently long, but how is the story not moving at all? I am not saying don't play, I think you should give it a shot, but don't come here looking for sexual gratification or fast paced story development, because this game has very little of it.

good story line, character modeling beautiful and realistic, specially Minx and the step-sister, animation smooth and sexy, MC also handsome
Maybe on purpose of author to make it so few scene in game, respect him work to focus on love but i still waiting for more scene of the step sis and Minx in future cuz they are all the attractive of this VN and deserve more spotlight haha
good work author, the game did well so far

this game is not done well

story is really boring and confusing at first and it just gets more boring

Characters are made of plastic they look great but they dont have soul or personality

f these dialogs

skip the whole thing until sex scene and be done with it
dont play if you are expecting a good story

SL is like a pretty present you get, but after opening it you realize after a while that there isn't really anything in it. It's just pretty packaging.
Dots needed to come up with another VN after Melody and had everything in place for it. The graphics, somewhat improved animations, he was good to go.

Just no story. Which any kind of novel sort of requires.
So he quickly stitched something together to fill that empty box before firing up the renders. Now we're cooking!

No, we're not.
While SL has a couple of nice moments, it still isn't something that needed to be told. Pretty packaging won't save it from being ultimately boring and predictable.
And using dream sequence sex shit is just the lamest form of writing, Dots.
Just gonzo style sex, thrown at the unsuspecting reader.

Anyway, SL feels like an assembly line VN. Solid, but boring.

This has got to be one of the worst games I've played on this site. Yes I was drawn in by the stunning models. Unfortunately, everything else about this is a major letdown.

1) This thing is so boring. It is just line after line about the most mundane minutia of daily activities. Most of the time I was in DFC mode (don't fucking care). You keep hoping for seductive scenes or hanky panky, sexual flirtation, teasing, all those good things that get the motor running. But they are completely void in this game.

2) Choices are inane. I honestly don't think the writer understands humor or much of anything. If you decide to make a joke, it's not funny. If you decide to flirt, it is basically non-existent. The game awards you relationship points for choices that the LI can't even notice.

3) The intro is unbelievably long and unnecessary. You end up reading for about 10 hours before the MC even starts thinking about the hot women around him.

4) The MC is the worst. He is a wuss. to the point he won't even let himself admire or look at other women, because well...he has a woman back home in a relationship that is on the rocks. Where is the fantasy? The risk, the reward? All he does is pine after his fiance at home. You just want to reach through the screen and slap him.

5) If you want a game that spends hours on describing how something is cooked, or the history of something, or proper management techniques, or any other assortment of boring mundane pointless conversations between people, then this is the game for you. If you want an adult game that makes keeps you interested, then this is not for you.

6) Lastly, the only real adult content you get to see is from finding easter eggs or a couple snippets of dream sequence. Just the idea that you have to keep looking for these 'doughnuts' or 'peeping toms' in order to get those pictures keeps you from paying attention to the dialogue. Normally that would be a bad thing, but since the dialogue is such boring drivel, it ends up being more of the focus. And that in and of itself is a perfect example of how sad the situation is.

7) I got to the part where he finally 'breaks up' with his fiance' and gets invited inside for sex with Victoria (yay! finally some action) and the skip the scene. The dev literally goes from you entering her doorway to them laying in bed afterwards and then him going home. A literal WTF moment (yes I know you get to see it in a flashback but come on who wants a flashback?). That was the point I deleted this. It has claimed too much of my time.

usually I tollerate a lot of shit when the main girl is nice, but even this sister can't save the game...
the story has plot-holes comparable to sarlac pits, with characters doing illogical things and reacting in exagerated ways over nothing. When the story's urgency demands haste, they spend time leasureably, Most characters look suspiciously prepubescent (the 3 clones especially) unfortunately the game forces us to spend time with them more than it's necessary to build relationship points. unfortunately we can't turn down a kiss .
did I mention relationship points? oh yes, the game awards and deducts relationship points in a totally arbirtary way. That part wasn't thought through; for example in the last update MC goes through his sister;s phone (it awards RP) and finds some pictures, wanting to see more will get you more RP, but if you go through and see her naked selfie, you lose RP.
The dialogues; we're faced with a gargantuan amount of words for a simple scenes written all in perfect English, but that's the problem... each character speaks the way without flavor nor personal quirk or peculiarity...
combined with the extraordinary total of 4 faccial expressions (happy, sad, angry, scared) and the reuse of the same character model we're basically playing Clone Wars, unfortunately no sith/jedi to put us out f our misery..

the art is a visual vomit of bright and pinkish colors and the musi... oh those few tunes should be used as torture against war criminals...

My main complaint about this is that MC is basically FORCED to like the sister. This is particularly irritating to me because the game has a point system, but that point system doesn't apply to the sister in the same way for some reason. The storyline loses absolutely nothing if the incestual feelings are optional, and yet....... I HAVE LESS THAN FIVE POINTS WITH THE SISTER. FIVE. That should matter. If not, then there's not really a point in the points. This is particularly frustrating to me because the sister's personality gets on my nerves, so to be forced into the romantic (or at least, sexual) interest in her really bugs me. And don't even get me started on MC being molested in his sleep by said sister in the most recent update... It's like... the more I read, the worse this shit gets. In the most recent update, the redhead loli girl is also somewhat forced onto MC too, who I ALSO have less than five points with. So again, wtf is the point of the points?

I like some aspects of this game, but holy shit, enough is enough. I'm deleting this like... now.

I am updating my review for Sunshine Love after playing v0.7i Extras

i liked:

- outstanding graphics and animations
- scene replay gallery
- good story and nice pacing
- i enjoy how the MC and his sister's relationship slowly evolves to something more
- i love sis, veronica, ashley and the twins, makes me wish for a harem route.
- the player's choices have an effect on how the story goes
- the player can choose whether or not he wants to have a romantic or sexual relationship with other female characters
- hot sex scenes coupled with dirty talk

i did not like:

- i cannot think of anything that's not to like about this game aside from a very few minor grammatical issues that can be easily improved.
- choosing whether to go with ashley or sis at the later part of this update. as if life choices aren't hard enough, and now this!

This is one of the best incest stories out there and it comes with outstanding graphics and animations. 5 stars for me.

Amazing job. Very high quality models, the girls are beatifull and thos teens.. very very nice work there.
I am even more a fan rigth now..
keep going and update it a little bit faster if possible, the waiting is killing us.
thanks

The visuals are amazing and I like the story as well so far. Not the biggest fan of the new character but there's plenty to choose

It feels pretty natural to go over the story and pick whatever you like and create your own.

I'm a fan of the inclusion of the previous MrDots games aswell or some references for the players.

Great visuals and setting. As expected from MrDots. Just dont like the slow pacing and the bloated cast of characters here. In my opinion, the cast should be limited enough that you can at least touch upon everyone in each update even if you focus more on some specific ones only. Or else you would even forget about a character because she didnt appear in the update and time between updates is long. Also what this does is it provides for very shallow interactions with characters due to the huge cast and not enough depth which has never been a problem in the previous games.

You wont find images more beautiful anywhere on this side. The characters are just stunning and even though I dont like all of them I dont have to because everyone can decide for himself whom to get close to. Sometimes I feel like there is too much text but overall its really enjoyable. The one thing that makes this game different from others is the music.

Good animations, nice models and decent story.

There's honestly not much else to say. A decently wholesome game that gets close at mixing story and lewdness.

Can't say that about a lot of games on this platform to be honest, most of them are uninspired and have terrible animations and story, which this is a breath of fresh air from. It's not as good as being a rockstar or being a DIK, but it's close.

This crosses into japanese visual novel territory where it's just endless walls of text with very little action. All this world building, silly drama and inner dialogue is just a boring click fest.

There's supposedly some back story about what's going on in Sunset city and evil men wanting to take over the hotel but if they don't directly involve the lead characters but just tell it through endless exposition it's just no good.

The game does looks gorgeous though and the few sex scenes are pretty good but with immediatly introducing 10 or so women to win over and progress being so slow it'll be another year before we see anything worthwhile with most of them.

Nice story and hot model, so far so good, keep up the good work Mr.Dots.
Just hope that we don't have to wait too long for updates between DMD and Sunshine Love. Super excited for this update hope next update will come much faster. Thanks

This is a fun game. Despite being yet another harem game which displays indistinguishable mother and daughter renders it is nonetheless high quality gameplay which we have come to expect from Mr. Dots .

Looking forward to development of this project