VN - Ren'Py - Supermodel: Defenders of Desire [v1.4.0] [Belle]

Review of v1.4.0

The dev was great to outline the major differences between this game and their last. I'll admit, I was concerned after reading them. And, indeed, as someone who generally prefers single point of view and male protag for porn games, I was additionally concerned about the tags. But having played all currently available content, I think my concerns were entirely misplaced.

The additional points of view give excellent insight into the complex character and world Belle has developed. And, perhaps, most important to (kinda sad) people like me, they are, so far, all about character development and not about other sexual relationships. Yeah, I know...

I feel storytelling, world building and character development are the cornerstones of this game. And that's a breath of fresh air. I'm so burned out on VNs that I rarely bother with them anymore. These days, they have to be a good, nay, a really good story first. Porn is now just a bonus. And Supermodel has a really good story. When I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about it and wanting to get back to it. That's about the highest praise I can think of.

Aside from that, the renders are lovely. The only MF sex scene was a little underwhelming, but I'm a person who prefers stills over animations unless the animations are really top notch, and I think I'm in the minority on that. The one F sex scene was excellent though.

The card game is fun and yet completely optional. The only reason to raise the difficulty is to improve the card rewards... which you only need to raise the difficulty... so you can raise the card rewards... You get the point. Despite that, I was finding myself wanting to up the difficulty on some fights. Others were quite hard. But they were still fun. And as VN mini-games go, it's about as good as it gets. The deck builder is badly in need of some user interface improvements like filters and sorting, but I suspect they are coming and, even as-is, the interface is so clean and professional that it's very usable now. I made about 5 decks for the few "battles" currently implemented. When enabled, they are necessary (up until 3 tries) to advance. But I think I kind of regret the lack of an immediate payoff for winning aside from the received expansion pack and being able to continue the story. I'm not sure if there's a good way to implement this without losing the advantages of separating the card game though, so it's probably best left as-is. Maybe just a really short exchange about the success of the photo shoot would suffice to satisfy what feels missing there.

The ability to go back and replay any scene is very well done. However, one side effect of being able to choose scenes, including which new scene you watch next amongst multiple, gives a slightly disjointed feel to the flow of the game. But that's a quibble especially since the user experience is incredibly polished. Well, except for rolling back dialog being disabled. That's a pretty serious problem. I accidentally left-click all the time and several times I had to return to the main menu, restart the scene, Ctrl to the right spot, woops went too far, go to the main menu, restart the scene, Ctrl... yeah that was annoying. I guess the fact that I didn't want to miss even one line of dialogue is a weird compliment. This seems especially unnecessary since the actual VN parts are currently completely linear. However, I suspect it's to protect the card game sections from screwing up. But, wow, I hope that the dev can find a way to protect the latter while allowing rollback on the former. It's a pretty big deal.

As with any great in-progress game, I was heartbroken when I hit the end of the current content. Great job so far Belle. I'm super intrigued by the story you are telling.

Really enjoyable game to play. Nice diversity of the female characters and the card game element was fun and sort of addictive! A pleasant surprise and looking forward to seeing how it evolves over time

I guess this has its audience, but it's not me and I don't think ti will be most people.

The base is an awful card game that I can't see anyone wanting to engage with.

There's kind of a story but it's segmented and awkward and unengaging. The way it's segmented I suppose is meant to seem like a sandbox but it's a mess. It's still basically kinetic the way you need to play it, so the segmenting wasted the last potential remaining after the card game

Review as of v1.1.0 (1/14/25)

This game is a bit unique, there are very few deckbuilders in the AVN space, and none that are quite like this one. The CCG is 1: optional, and 2: highly adjustable in difficulty. I really enjoyed the gameplay of the CCG, though it would be nice to have a forfeit button because it's entirely possible to get into a Turn 5 board state that is just not winnable, and having to play out the rest of the turns is a waste of time.

Characters are decent, both visually and in dialogue. It's a little too early to really tell how all of them will turn out, but I'm rating it pretty highly right now on potential.

It is a pretty slow start for adult content, there is only a female masturbation scene in this release, but it is animated, and done fairly well. That said, it's pretty clear that the MC will be involved with all the women in the title card sooner rather than later.

All in all, a very solid first release that has potential to be top-tier game when completed.

The split story lines are very good and a novel idea. The way the story proceeds from various perspectives is also unique though it can be a bit confusing at times. Artwork is good and pacing may be slow (sex scenes take some time to get to). Looking forward to the development of this game

Supermodel 1.0.0

At it's core, this seems to be a story about superheros that have very human problems/weaknesses (and I assume eventually helping them overcome them) which, while not exactly breaking new ground, is usually a template I like when executed well. After the playing through the introductory 1.0.0 release I've got very mixed feelings on the game. The (fully optional) collectable card game aspect I found to be well polished, fun, and addictive. Everything else just was just disappointing. The renders look dated, the characters are mostly uninteresting, and the writing/story has a laundry list of issues that made most chapters a painful slog to get through. This is a story that really wants you to think about it but simultaneously requires that you turn your brain off to have any chance of suspending your disbelief due to the way things are written. I really hope this is just a case of a poorly realized and overdone introduction because the ideas and the card game both have tremendous potential. I'll likely check it out again once the story is further along to see if it improves but for now this is a great card game attached to poor VN which I can't give a rating of higher than average overall. Do check it out for yourselves though (especially if you've ever played a CCG or think you might enjoy the card game aspect of it) as I think the writing style and story will still appeal to certain people and the author isn't someone lacking in skill or innovative ideas.

More detailed breakdown (includes some spoilers):

Interesting game.
More a 3.5 but i rounded up since there is actual gameplay here.

You have a somewhat unique superhero urban setting.
After a sectioned character and plot introductions you can play the card game against 2 of the fem. characters.

The card game has a 10 turn ramp up structure. You have to make the decision between setting cards in limited spots and upgrading them for ramping resources or using the same cards to negate the negative modifiers the "opponent" puts down.

Its neat but if you dont get your set-up going by turn 4 there is no come back.

The girls look good and its intriguing.
Its not really a porn game but a game with (a little) porn.

It says 1.0 but this is more 1.0 of the proof of concept.
I downloaded for the red haired nurse but she has no content as of now

edit: Oh yeah, one thing that i think could be improved on is the writing structure. Head voice + exposition should not be more than 15-20% of the overall writing. It is way more than that here. Feels less engaging to read "about" stuff than to see, or characters to refer to stuff in dialogue.

+Version - 1.0.0
I like card games and I am bias. So, I give this 5 stars because the developers actually put some effort into the card game itself.
Feedback for the gameplay, I feel like 10 turns are way too short for each match. Maybe 12~15 turns depending on the difficulty would make the game a little more enjoyable.
Other than that, VN and the story is ok.

You know what this is? It's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

It's like a mix of AVN, a collectible card game and a tv show script. And like a peanut butter sandwich, it depends on how well these parts are put together.

If you're not allergic to any of those elements, then here's my impression of them:

CARD GAME (10/10)
The card game minigame is good and hasn't bugged out on me yet. It's got several difficult levels and plays like a digital collectible card game. It's optional and becomes skippable if you fail enough times.

STORY (8/10)
If you're one of those people that 'play for the story', well there's an actual story here. None of this landlady nonsense.

1. It's very well written, and reads more like an actual novel or tv show script. I say that because so far, there have been zero choices and I do not think the dev intends to implement many. Expect a kinetic AVN and very little choice in the direction of the story.
2. However, it's told in a non-linear fashion, where players choose a character and see the story from their point of view. But don't expect this to affect the story.
3. The story takes place in New York and there's real fly by footage of the city that's been included to add to the feel of the story. The music really adds to the feel as well.
4. However, I'm not really into any of the characters. There's not much established about them yet and it's still very early in the story. They could all be killed off in the next episode and I wouldn't care.

Overall, it feels more like one of those superhero tv shows from a small streaming service.

VISUALS AND UI (7/10)

1. The menu and other interfaces look nice and work well.
2. The renders are ok. The lighting used is sometimes way too bright in the renders, like the janitor replaced all the lightbulbs with 100000w super LED bulbs. There's also very noticeable noise in the renders as well.
3. The developer also presents most of it like a Japanese VN, where the renders are just characters standing like a floating sprite in front of a background. It feels like there are less renders than the usual AVN.

WHAT ABOUT THE LEWDS?...WHERE'S THE A in AVN? (2/10)
Nothing worth writing home about on this. And don't go in hoping for a dating sim or romance either, given the lack of choices in game.

1. Currently, there's just one showing one of the ladies masturbating. The animation quality was ok. The lighting was more subdued and natural looking.
2. But there was no money shot, no actual footage of the kitty being pet. Instead, a tasteful angle was used, like this was a tv show produced in LA and the actress had a 'no vulva' clause in her contract.
3. Given the story's focus, I'm not keeping my hopes up for this area to ever improve.

The developer describes the game as a intricately crafted erotic thriller. So far, I'm just not into any of the characters.

You may find that disappointing, but ask yourself this: would you event want to jerk off using a peanut butter jelly sandwich?

tl;dr Play for the card game, avoid if you just wanna fap. 5 stars because of card game.

(v1.0.0)
Excellent first release. A few rough spots, but the card game mechanics are solid, the writing is good (other than a couple odd word choices that stood out to me), and it's a decent amount of content for a first release. Definitely worth playing, and with the dev's pedigree I'm pretty confident this will get even better with updates.