Ren'Py - The Big Beyond [v0.09b] [Tjop]

The Big Beyond [v0.04] review

What it is: Hand-drawn 2dcg game with point-and-click expolaration mechanics.

Positives:
+ Gorgeous art
+ Good writing

Negatives:
- Awful grind. Enough grind to make me quit the game outright before even getting to 50 % of the visual content. I can handle some grind, but this is definitely much too much.
- Boring combat, and lots of it.
- Walls of text. It's like the game can't decide on whether it's a book or a visual game.

All in all, art is 5/5 but gameplay is 1/5. It ends up being just average. It really saddens me to se a good visual artist's work squandered like this. Maybe you'll like it if your tolerance for grindy gameplay is very high

I'll check back on this when there's a grind-reducing mod available. I suggest you do the same.

Nice artwork, gameplay and story. Not enough explicit content though (0.04). There some nice erotic scenes but it takes a long time to unlock it. The artwork is beautiful. A few bugs which is normal for a very early access game.

Version Played:0.03

The gameplay seems to be in homage to the old early 90's PC classics, the setting is intriguing and the art is absolutely gorgeous. This might be my favorite original art I've yet seen (in no small part due to the glorious bush). It's not all perfect, of course: the gameplay is a little janky and I really cannot be arsed to read long place descriptions as I slog through the titular "Big Beyond." The English also needs a bit of work.

Positives:
+ AMAZING, ORIGINAL ART!
+ Though slightly cliched, the setting is fun and interesting
+ Varied body types and ages of the LIs
+ Dev is active in comments and seems to be very kind
+ BUSH!

Negatives:
- Gameplay is not really fun, but it's not a major impediment to progress. It's more of a neutral element at this stage
- Characters need to be fleshed out more
- English needs to be proofed
- Not a lot of content currently

Overall, this game shows tremendous promise if you like the art style and setting and is now in my top tier of watched games.

Note to Devs: You have something really special here and I cannot wait to experience more! Love love LOVE the natural bodies on the ladies and the bush! Please spend more time developing the personalities of the ladies. Also, see if you can find someone to proof your English grammar. I would be happy to do it (for free) if you cannot find anyone, so feel free to PM me as necessary.

As others have said, the the style and quality of the images is really amazing.
The game design doesn't feel that refined at the moment. Some things like navigating in the beyond and ocasinally bugs still throw you of.
While the implementation is still a bit clunky I really like the setting and the premise of the beyond. The dialog is also surprisingly good at keeping it light and entertaining and doesn't come across as akward as some games in this category tend to do.


Overall: Love the theme and visuals all that is now needed is more content and improving the system.
Stay with it man with consistency and some expirience this will be a Banger!

A game with great visuals, beautiful rubenesque body types, a heavy emphasis on exploration, and endless potential. I'm looking forward to seeing how this game pans out and wish the artist luck in his endeavors.

I am incredibly optimistic about where this game will go in the future. It's obviously a bit light on content right now but with high quality original artwork and thoughtful game design this could be one of the best projects of the next 2 years.

Here's hoping.

To Tjop: I know you're getting some criticism and such. Please stick with it. This will work out, but it will take time. You've really got a lot of potential here. I hope you stick with it.

I am reviewing this as of the 0.2 version. This game has such amazing promise, the core gameplay mechanic/loop has enough content sprinkled in that I did not find it to tedious. The art and characters have tons of charm and substance and I am really looking forward to where this is going. It is a little bit grindy and quite sandboxy. I am not the hugest fan of this but some people are.

Huge potential, will be looking to adjust my rating in the future, well done creator! Consider me a fan!

Good start hopefully rest will be as good if not better
it seems like this is your first game (i may be wrong) if it is all the props to you my friend can't wait to see what will you show us in the future

Simply. Wonderful. Can't wait for updates! so far what you have and the story is interesting, the characters are all unique and have a natural body ascetic. In love with the fantasy aspect of the game. This has huge potential overall and is very well done.

By the time I am typing this it is currently version 0.01 and I do hope my opinion shall change. Read the conclusion at the bottom if you wish for a short summary.

Story: From what is presented the story is very confusing, well from my perspective you are just dropped in your room without any backstory or such and make your way through life as is which is not only hard to grasp since there is no drive on why you should see a tomorrow but the characters presented through out discovering them are not exactly interesting considering the little they tell you. Nothing much is said on the current time or land the main MC is resided so I can't say anything. You find a letter during the prologue of the game and something about lying to the keeper then going to the beyond for something. The pacing isn't smooth and sometimes you may need to see other characters to progress or see smut scenes. The story is short despite a handful of side quest that must be presented in dialogue. (2/5)

Gameplay: I will try my best on trying to explain how infuriating it is with this game on literally everything related to gameplay from my experience. I'll start nice with the pros, guidance throughout the game is elementary which is perfect considering the progression in this game is really confusing also the UI is unique with the setting blending in really nicely also music despite not needed is surprisingly here. Now the cons. Navigation is almost terrible considering how entering and exciting areas are really confusing despite it not contrasting to the previous area you resided in. For example the secretary room has a door which you thought will return to the main hall but leads to the outside training grounds but like they say doing the same mistake over and over again becomes a habit and the exit the room to the hall is on the bottom of the screen hovering dangerously close to the skip etc options. This is a reoccurring thing but that's more of an inconvenience the really infuriating part is the combat adventure system. There is no way back home unless you use a scroll or you find a troll on the bridge or the common one. You die. Combat is terrible considering it is more RNG than skill especially when you finally scrap enough money to train your attacks sometimes do decimal damage which will inevitable make you die even being full and an enemies you've beaten before example: Boars, harpy, imps. Now on my save I've upgraded my character 3 times and still struggle with normal encounters it is infuriating spending almost 1000 hard to earn gold on training. Now the navigation is as normal which set up camp and directions which is simplistic and nothing more there. Lastly which is the most problems if had with this game is money, when you die you lose all your money from what I experienced, you can gain it by killing enemies in the beyond or sell items. IMPORTANT: I also found out late in the game there is an option for the secretary to bundle something to get huge amounts of money. I hate this high risk low return method since it just makes the game grindy and less enjoyable. (2/5)

Scenes: Finally a redeemable factor. The scenes from what I have seen are superb, I only encountered 1 smut scene which is a blowjob from the witch after finding a emerald somewhere around the beyond. Excluding the ways to see it the art is amazing and the land scape during different times are eye pleasing. Characters are well drawn and the amount of details presented within locations is spectacular. The art is good but the lack of smut is a problem sadly.(4/5)

Conclusion: Read this if you want a short summary. Almost 1 GB and literally fuck all to see. This enrages me considering the Story is so vague it might as well not exist but Gameplay is worse considering the combat and navigation is a literal hair puller in contrary the art is amazingly well done. Either wait till it gets better or not this game isn't good but isn't bad since it is beatable after numerous trail and errors. (3/5)

P.s I wish good health upon the players and dev and try not to break something when playing-Justapervert