VN - Ren'Py - Taboo University [BookTwo v1.2.13] [ViNovella Games]

One of the best.
Good Graphics with great kinks.
Hope for more game like Fetish locator or this one .
I enjoy that you can choose what kinks you like and even not straight ones like trans , even gay after last update ( nice surprise , it could be as good as fetish locator).

I really loved their previous game which was a 5* for me so I had high expectations.
The game delivers kinda, the girls are a great variety, there's many, and look great. The sex scenes are good. I love the depth of the scenes, there's discussion and playful communication not just mechanical sex or minimum basic lines to advance the plot, which makes it good.
The story is a bit meh, not the most inspired, let's say it works for the most part.
Another criticism is maybe the women are just way too perfect. I like a bit more realism in the variety, I mean really supermodels faces and shapes and makeups for most...? The milfs look way too perfect and young, a woman doesn't need to look like that to be attractive. But then I'm the kind of player I would do the lunch lady if I had the opportunity and that can be sexy as well depending of the interaction, if she acts like age appropriate (not too bitchy, not too girly, not too insecure).
What seems to be the worst part is the writing in some cases, there's a lot of over-analyzing emotions by the characters and the MC sounds like a bad stereotype of a psychologist. It got me wondering, is it a woman writing these? It's just too much sometimes. I get it he's mature and considerate, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but this MC seems a bit extreme sometimes. I just watched the scene between Zemfira, Nia and MC discussing their threesome and man the cheesy lines are really facepalm in this one. MC in general has often really bad lines that sound like they are from a psychologist from a badly rated movie. Must say Nia sometimes has even worse lines but fortunately generally the girls are not as bad as him.
Also, I get it that it must be explained from the story perspective why the guy can get away with screwing so many women, I do like that aspect of these games where you can do it and it's largely unpunished because I do want to see all the content I can, I mean it's a porn game, but some of the justifications are just weak, like how girls easily explain that a manwhore that cheats on them is exactly what they prefer. Fuckbuddy status may work with a teacher or someone that really doesn't seem to be relationship type at that stage of their lives, but it doesn't feel realistic at all with the more innocent type of girls. Either explain it better, or give a plausible possibility so they don't all know of each other so easily maybe?

All in all it's a very high quality production with very sexy girls and I'm glad these exist, so I really struggled between 4 and 5* as the bad lines of MC really ruin the immersion quite regularly. It's far from perfect really, but it's still a very good one so I'd consider it a weak 5*.
There's some favorites like Delphia (love her really), Josie, Lara, I enjoyed the milfs like Hellene, Diana, or Kara, but I like most of the cast really. Mostly the bad girls though i'd do the pregnant lady too if i had the chance.

i have seen a lot of games..games who progress with the time.. especially 3D Games shooters roleplays in the last 30years..and also some adultgames Lula 3D, Leisure Sweet Larry , Thrixx 3D and so....these adult games had a role only on the third street or a stay as a shadow beeing...
in my opinion adult games have just getting startet in the last 5 years to walk out of this shadow beeing...that means we are walking in a bright future..with implementing VR....oh that AI Girls. i see this as an appetizer...!
So with playing COBD , BEADIK, Fetish Locater, Betrayed.. and the new version of Babysitters version 1.3 /Animations i see this first signout of this shadow from the past...
But most of all what have impressed me is this Taboo University Game..
These Characters looks adult. The intim scenes are very good and always differnt...exciting and ready to expect new things--
The grafic set the new bars..especially this pool scene is so well done with rendered and lightning / illuminated , voice acting /voices...
so this game is the groundwork, for more whats coming up in the future!!!
My big respect to the developer´s....
Looking forward...and go on make it better and better......
5 Stars...

Based on 1.1.14
"Customizable story with many paths"... yeah... until it's not. Promise never delivered since, at some point, you're forced into certain chick. "Many paths", indeed. "Customizable", indeed. To be worse, it's done in a schizoprenic way, because that's chick which you, as a player, rejected multiple times before and then all of sudden you're cudling with her in bed, having sex, confessing profound love and what not. At first, I thought next scene will be something like, MC waking up gaspinng in horror what a nightmare he had, but no. It happened for real?!
That also speak volumes about quality of writing, so no need to add anything else. There is plot and there are holes. A lot of them.
From visual aspect, game is not bad. Renders and models are not top, but they are above average.
Slightly bellow average when it comes to personalities of characters.
Can't recommend to others.

Great game!!! loving the new series of the dev it can only get bette. theres a huge selecttion of women and different kinks to choose from, it should be higher on the rtings list. the fact theres a cult in this is huge then a fighting ring, its amazing that so much can be made in this game

I enjoyed this devs previous game Fetish Locator, but I had hoped that they would improve on some of the shortcomings that game had.

They didn't.

The main issues I have with both games are the poor plotting and the forced LI's.

This dev has a real problem with writing a compelling plot. They do a fantastic job making us care about a wide variety of characters, and then whip up the most dogshit, sophomoric plots possible. The gang shit and the doping stuff is so fucking dumb it's laughable. Sometimes it reads like teenagers first YA fanfic. This sucks because I find the characters to be pretty well done in general.

The second problem is the forced LI's. Now, I understand that sometimes forced LI's are necessary for plot purposes. But this game will give you a bunch of opportunities to rack up negative points/reject these forced LI's only for you to still have to end up with them. On top of that, they are probably the most boring characters in the game. I think every single non-forced LI is way more fun and interesting (roommates, iona/delphia/fleur/anyone else). I do hope in the future we can focus more on the girls we actually like.

Despite these pretty major flaws, I still really enjoyed the game. There are some characters I really like, and a ton of good scenes with a variety of content. I do expect more taboo stuff in the future cuz rn this game falls far short of Fetish Locator in that regard.

(btw Iona/Delphia ending pls. cant get enough of insane nymphos).

VERSION: 1.03
SUMMARY: Great looking game with interesting plot if not oddly weird.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

1. Models: 4
2. Animations: 4
3. General Visuals: 4
4. Characters: 4
5. Story: 4
6. Writing: 4
7. Pacing: 4
8. Content (amount): 4
9. UI & Sounds: 4
10. Fetish & kinks: 3

Average: 39 of 50 possible points giving a 78% rating i.e. 4-5 stars.

PROS:

1. Models are really nice looking and not all look the same as is often the case with many games using the same, similar models.
2. Animations are very good, including the style and how some moments are captured in small animations.
3. Story is pretty interesting and makes me curious to see how it all ties up and ends.
4. Many potential love interests
5. Characters are often complex and interesting with own back story, issues, desires and agendas.
6. Writing is very good, reads well and is not filled with a bunch of bullshit or nonsense, there is purpose behind what is written.
7. Sounds are good, interesting how they are done with voice bits but not fully voiced, its actually a good balance as many fully voiced games just are poorly done or the AI does it poorly. Sexual sounds are also very nicely done.
8. UI and interaction are limited but good, the way the investigation board is nicely done, but the player is limited as its all linear, still impressive.
9. Good amount of content, though at this point in time I would expect nothing less, still, I have played games that are longer in development and have half this content and not nearly as decent.

CONS:

1. Linear game, mostly kinetic and hard to really say there is choice as often choosing the only other option forces a loss to many H scenes and I think since we all here its pretty much a lot about those scenes...
2. Per above being linear (kinetic) is that certain kinks like transgender characters are not totally avoidable. IMO LGBTQ should be optional as they cater to a significant minority of our population.
3. Not many fetishes or kinks TBH, strange if you consider the games name being Taboo, there is not much at all of this going on. There is suggested pregnancy, but it would probably be only a small part of the game and as such I hardly feel its worth mentioning, same with any other kinks, they all fairly vanilla for many normal sexual encounters by today's standards.
4. Per above, basically there are not many kinks or fetishes nor family related sex so incest is out, which is a significant taboo, but again nothing of the sort is really happening in this game, if anything it lacks the taboo and fetishes.

FINAL THOUGHTS & SUGGESTIONS:

• So far I am impressed, however per above points, cons particularly, I do feel here is a missed opportunity.
• There will no doubt be much more to come, though I do feel the dev has held back on the kinky stuff for later, understandable, however I feel some of the stuff could have been introduced already to keep it extra interesting like watersports or urination even anal sex is not yet a feature...
• As far as the plot and story goes, the way the developer strung it all together, is very well done. I appreciate the thought and effort that went into making this, its not some simple plot either, so well done.

There's too much text, and the choices in the game only affect whether you get a sex scene or not. There are too many characters, the game is overloaded with them and every female character is ready to jump on the main character's dick.
There are too many scenes. And yes, it's bad. They are monotonous and boring. There were a couple of interesting femdom moments, but otherwise it all boils down to the fact that someone sucks the main character, and then he fucks her. If this is a Taboo University, then where are the depraved fetishes? But there aren't any. Almost, there was one scene where a girl fucked another guy with a strap-on. And why did the game completely forget about Josie? We were given one scene with her. Why do I need a bunch of female characters, I need Josie, she's much more interesting.
This game is literally a step back from Fetish Locator.

Interesting story about an undercover investigation at a university/college, with a three pronged approach into different groups/cliques. Decisions seem worth making considering the story is rather intriguing. The web of threads and characters is a nice touch. The character models, personalities and cast itself is fabulous. The kinks/fetishes touched upon are diverse too, with a little of everything for everyone. The sex scenes as well as interactions are well made. Definitely a game worth playing!

Kinda interesting setup even though no one would send a rookie on an undercover mission. But in any case a nice twist on the school setting.

What I liked
very nice to look at, nice diversity in the girls, animated scenes are quite good and they don't distract from the main story lines.
Fleur made it easily into my list of top redheads and the other ladies are very appealing as well.

What I did not like
Audio consists of music that I mostly did not care for but that was not a huge issue. However, every sentence that you read on the screen is accompanied by some kind of exclamation or grunt from whoever is speaking at the moment. That made me mute the game entirely because I found it very annoying.
I did not quite understand the design choice to disregard 1 out of 3 suspect groups entirely. Not sure it increases replay value because in any case you will get a full repetition with one of the other groups and there are no significant branches there to explore either.
As choices go that was mostly it. You can decide to not engage further with a group or a character but mostly the story only plays out in one way.

Overall nice game with plenty of content at the end of book 1.

It's frustrating... For its production quality alone I'd want to give this game 4 stars. Its renders and animations are flawless, the music fits in nicely, the voices are... well, you can mute them so that's okay. Every part of the game's presentation is nearly perfect, including the UI and the general feel of playing.

BUT.

As perfect as this game is presented as stale it is to actually play. I love detective games and I'm (still) alright with college settings if they're authentic. But there's nothing to investigate here for me, I only watch the MC doing it by himself. Now, I know, this is a VN, but give me some sort of involvement at least. At no time during this "Book 1" did I actually look forward to finding out more about the underlying case and until the last chapter I couldn't even guess who was behind the obductions/murders. And finding out who the suspects were left me without any form of surprise or satisfaction.

I liked Fetish Locator, but I think the authors fundamentally don't understand why that game was successful. It seems to me that they're trying to be more "mainstream" with this release. There's a bit of kinky stuff, but it's subdued and every other sex scene is formulaic and... just not sexy or erotic at all.

Watching 3D models having sex is just not arousing by itself. The strength of AVNs is the story factor and the creation of exciting/taboo/kinky settings. You'd think that the makers of Fetish Locator would know this, but apparently they don't. All sex scenes in this game that I have encountered were boring and way too short without much or any means of interaction.

So, in the end, 3 stars is all I can give this game. Based on the presentation of this game and its production quality, you could create a 5 star game out of it. But Taboo University isn't that game. It's shiny mediocrity.

V1.03

to my mind, a real VN is indeed just that. visual novel. not some thrown together words but structure. a read that includes imagery. you don't buy a story driven game and then expect no story, unless your a bit of a twat.
Taboo university seems at first glance, and indeed with that name, to be yet another college fuckfest that will have fappers strengthening those wrists, but it is much better.

the plot and writing are mature enough that all signs point to thought and rewrites being used to create a full story pre-production. the characters actually dialogue as young adults and not the early teens most write them as. this leads to an easy read that is interesting, if not outright intriguing for some, and very immersive.
there are a few moments i thought MC would update with someone that didn't happen (avoiding spoilers) that had me scratching my head, but i already look forward to the completed tag and my consequent purchase on steam just on the writing's strength alone.

the imagery is better than their previous game. not a strong one for the imagery side of things myself, i have little to say on the subject, but the imagery was pleasing on the eye. no weird stuff going on and didn't in any way detract from immersion with odd poses or hollywood movie angles with the intimate stuff. all solid.

very surprised at how good this is. perfect design choice as nothing pulls me from the read, and with this being a very well structured and delivered story, a hat doff for the lack of design shenanigans others punt for.
fair enough if the writing is lacking but when it is this well crafted, it doesn't need the distractions.

my initial reservations/expectations were knocked into the stands for a six leaving me humbled.
looking forward to seeing this on my steam library list

I feel this game is pretty good. I was a huge fan of Fetish Locator. When I saw they were working on this game I followed closely each updates until 0.5-ish. Then I kind of got bored. I re-downloaded it and I have to give flowers where it's due; the story telling is very deep for an erotic adult game. It's certainly a game I feel may perform very well with some true visual novel enjoyer.

Over 6 years of players VN games and my taste has truly changed. Fetish Locator was dipping in a bit of everything and hence, I thought it was super fun for that reason. When I saw a lot of the same tag for this game I was pretty excited.

Here's the truth : I want more sex scenes, little less text. It's text heavy but it's good stuff! Well written, better than Fetish locator. But those games for me are more a stress relieve where I don't want to overthink what am I missing. I wouldn't be surprised if there's 16 different endings/path.

What would make me change the rating to much higher rate would be if we had 1 playthrough option that allowed you to not miss any of the content. For me going through this large amount of stories to review all the other option ends up being a thing that makes me frustrated. If I was newly introduced to adult VN and this was my first, I feel I would be super excited! But yeah, it's a classic "It's not you, it's me" moment for me.

The game overall is good.
The story is interesting.
Took two stars off for not having any actual anal in the whole game that is called Taboo University. And it has the anal tag.
It literally has everything you can have a trans person, but no anal with a non-trans person.

The initial trailer was promising. But, gradually, this novel trying to depict the depth of the plot, became overgrown with only empty, boring and stretched dialogues and the same characters. Lewd scenes are implemented average and with the same characters. Among other things, there is non-skippable futa/gay content here, which ultimately undermined my interest in it.

Game has an interesting premise and starts off strong story-wise.

However, it eventually becomes a mindless fuckfest as every female character throws themselves at the protagonist.

Furthermore, there is no thinking or investigation despite what is advertised - the only choices you really make are whether you want to bang a character or not.

In fact the protagonist makes some absurdly boneheaded decisions which you cannot influence/stop, and ultimately this is what drove me to drop the game. There is no player agency for anything that really matters story-wise - the decisions are already made for you, making you (the player) a mere spectator.

Finally, the animations are nothing to write home about, and the models are decent.

Cannot recommend.

Definately my top 2 game of maybe a thousand in this forum. Great renders but the most important a nice plot, well writen. This investigation story is very captivating. I liked the most the gang and the winners club paths. This game is way better than the last one Fetish Locator. I think the only thing which makes this game my top 2 and not 1 it is the sound track could have more songs which matches with the moment of the game. The actual one is not bad, but could be more diverse.

i like games like this with investigation, beautiful girls, good story, nice characters, ngl i want more i m so curious about what happened to the missing girls and i hope not sandbox on future ... please just dont !
one bad thing for me its the scenes not sexy enough only this !

I give it +1 star, cause rounding, but it's more like 1.5/5, only thanks to above average technical execution.
Interesting design of the way we progress story and nice unique interactions depending on the order of choices + lack of other technical issues is sadly the only thing I can commend.
Renders and models are quite boring, nothing to remember really. They are fine, but there's nothing original.

As for the content - actually lemme drop that +0.5 star, it goes back to 1/5 with it's awful approach. Beside how it is borderline transphobic in both design and writing, and it has walls of text with zero interactions, it's almost maliciously twisting every single femdom path into maledom scenes.

Disappointed after the previous trilogy that I enjoyed a lot.

- There is no fetish here. No urination, no female domination which I enjoy
- There is very little choice in what you can do. You can go with a girl or skip her. In the first chapter you could dominate the girl silently or choose to badmouth her. In the later chapter you don't even choose anymore, you call every girl you fuck a slut
- Overall feels like a generic fuckfest with girls hungry for your dick. Fully maledom all the way. get sucked and fuck (or "ravage" like the mc likes to say). There is some pussy licking at least)


On the plus side the story is interesting for a porn game, and the renders are super high quality. If you're into slapping asses and showing that you're the boss then you might be in for a treat. I was looking for a wild fest of fetishes and strange stuff and did not find it.