Ren'Py - The Big Swap [v0.1.7] [SagTA]

At long last, a MTF game where the PC's prior identity and pronouns are kept intact and his acquaintances are aware of the change. I don't follow the whole gender debate but still prefer that physical changes, well, stay physical without affecting the mind. It makes no sense for a non-trans person to suddenly start identifying as she/her overnight, that diminishes the transformation to just being a character swap.

With regards to the art, good by AI standards. Gameplay is decent though I'm a little apprehensive about there being like 6-7 "activities" from the get go, which is sure to slow down development. Fingers crossed for some exhibitionist love.

For transparency, I did not finish the game and only managed to make it a little bit of the way through. I felt it was too frustrating to continue.
I'm giving it a 2/5 because while the positives made me think I would enjoy the game, the negative basically made me rage quit.

Briefly, the main thing I liked in what I saw was the interesting premise to a story, especially if there's the option to go in whichever romantic/sexual direction you want. I think with the right backbone, it could allow MC to really go down all sorts of unique routes.

Meh:
There are character stats. Don't know what they mean or what they do. But given what follows, I'm not sure if it matters.

The Negative: The Writing

I don't feel the need for porn games to be 100% realistic or be completely logical, whether that's scenarios, dialogues, character motivations, etc.
That said, I found the writing for the characters in this game to be completely aggravating. The MC tends to stand up for himself with words but not actions, the step-mom character is blithely disrespectful of the MC's autonomy, and characters swap between being intelligent to being naively ignorant or just incapable of doing anything.
This leads to manufactured conflict and frustrating gameplay, where your intentional actions might be un-done by the MC's scripted inaction.

Here's some examples:
1. Prior to the change, MC gets into a spat with his step-sister and step-mom after a long day at work. There are exchanges like the step-mom effectively telling MC to get out more and flirt, then immediately try to create a roleplay scenario for him to pretend she's a girl that he's trying to flirt with. It's a situation where MC is getting dogged on, receiving either insults from one side and getting treated like a middle-schooler on another; he's not going to respond well to it. However, at no point does he take any actions: he doesn't leave the situation, doesn't ask for them to stop, just sits in the situation and makes quips until he's been sufficiently berated and embarrassed.

2. Depending on what you wear to visit the doctor, you get approached by men. Remember, this is still a man's brain, with all his experiences and expectations. MC knows the men approaching are trouble; MC earlier makes a comment about these clothes and "trusting weirdos not to fuck [him] over" being the reason why he's in this mess. But regardless, MC just sits there and argues. At no point does he try to fight, walk away, kick them in the balls, or anything other than sit in the situation and make quips until he's groped. This seems to happen often, where the MC knows someone is trying to take advantage, but then does nothing. Not because of a commentary on how society treats genders, but because he's written to not do anything about it.

3. The step-mom character is unbearable. Perhaps she's just dense, selfish, and incapable of realizing the gravity of the situation. There are things that would be plainly stupid to do in her situation but does them anyway and does not seem to realize why it's a problem. She seems to tell everyone she knows about the MC's change (without asking), she sends pics of MC in her underwear to all MC's coworkers and boss (does not understand why that would be embarassing or detrimental at all), makes next to no effort to consider or care about MC's feelings or how MC is handling the change, and treats MC like a child (makes a comment about how MC is her second chance to get to play dress up with her child, keeps making comments that MC articulates s/he doesn't appreciate). The sending pics to the coworkers was the one that really stood out -- in most other instances it could be attributed to nervousness, or excitement, or something else. But the fact that there's zero recognition that her actions were, at best, extremely foolish and detrimental to MC is incredibly frustrating. But maybe worse is that while MC expresses frustration at her actions, s/he leaves it there. There's no consequences for the step-mom because MC is written to not do anything about it.

4. There's a scene where MC visits the doc (Mia), who is giving a lesson to these 3 horny boys who are obviously trying to take pics/vids of her. So obvious, that MC comments on it to himself multiple times and calls them out on it ... when Mia isn't around. The openly talk about it. The boys then turn up the heat to get Mia to take some clothes off, which MC doesn't seem to pick up on. Like he does, but then is like "weird, why is it so warm in here?" The boys have a spiked drink -- something that is made clear to the reader -- and MC has the option to decline the drink because "Something is Seriously off." Does MC actually do anything about it? Nope, only vague comments to Mia who doesn't seem to remember anything odd happening. MC doesn't express his concerns, or even mention the contents of the picture the boys showed him of the aftermath, or anything. So, even if you select the options that would try to thwart the boys's plan, it doesn't matter because MC is written to not do anything about it.

When the character knows something is up, or someone is trying to take advantage, but then fails to either do anything or even recognize at the last second that it's happening (oops you grabbed my boobs, must have been just helping), it makes it so you can't trust any choices you're given.

In a game that states "eccentricity rules and decisions count," the "eccentric" so far seems to be logical dissonance and the "decisions that count" don't necessary equate to the decisions you were making.

Maybe these things change later on, my guess is that it doesn't.

Bonus Minor Gripe: There's a lot of repetition in the writing. There are a lot of sentences in a conversation that are the same comment ("you've got a great body!"). It gets to the point where I found myself no longer reading because it seemed like the dialogue was in repetition land and not working to provide new info, move the plot forward, etc.

Bonus Tiny Gripe: Typos, man.

The AI art is indeed very good (could be a bit better with more customization given it should be easier/cheaper to produce). More generally my one complaint is the lack of choice.

The intro takes a while to get through, and while it makes sense for the MC and others to be surprised and have a lot of thoughts/opinions about the instant TF from the perspective of the player it's all been done before. We know what's going on, so a lot of the writing feels like padding.

After the intro you get access to the town and some activities, again very little choice when you go somewhere and do something.

The game is still in an early phase of development, so it's more of something to keep an eye on and see if it gets not just deeper into the plot, but wider with more choice along the main plotline.

The AI art is playable, some characters are very attractive, but the guys all looked the same to me and I hate how everyone is a pervert.

It has a lot of fetishes but the lack of choices when you're about to do something depraved just feels like wasted potential. edit: updated my review to 4 stars since you get some choices later in the game that I really liked for some scenarios, maybe the dev is planning on doing the same for other scenarios.

The story and writing are decent. The only character I liked was the sister. There’s also a pretty good amount of content for v0.1.6. All in all it's worth playing if you're into transformation.

I can easily say that this is one of the best game here that utilizes AI. The story is good as well as the branching. Considering that this is a game that uses AI, it's consistent to it's renders. The sandbox is well thought. There's mini game too.

Pro:
Very, very, very well done...
Amazing and varied works of artificial intelligence.
Good dialogues.
Varied plot.
It is clear that this game shows promise.
If you add that the number of games that include the Gender-Bender (TSF) Tag is really scarce, this title deserves the attention of all its fans.

Cons:
A little bit too focalized on the maid plot.

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Anyway the title just started, I expect great things!

Great start, surprised by how well done most of the elements of the game are done. AI art is well executed and is varied, relevant, and looks good. Writing is good so far, save for some spelling and grammar issues.

great game, art is quite good but i wish there was more consistency in body proportions across all the pictures (its AI art so this is harder to control). The default picture looks great but some pictures have insanely thick legs or much shorter legs than normal which I hope can be improved. The story and writing is good and not full of filler dialogue.

I was gladly surprised with this game.
This is something different, something new. Not only the way MC manage the gender swap but also a different playthrough.

This is still an early release but already managed to open different scenarios offering a lot of options for future releases.
Also, put some pretty hot characters.
They deserve the five star because not only because is a really fun game, also is very unusual to find something new and this gives a very big point.
I hope upcoming progress manage to satisfy my high expectations.

The art alone is amazing. The writing? Definitely kind of fun. I really enjoyed this, a whole lot more than I thought I would

Mostly? It's the characters. I love my main character Alex, I love that we have a -say- in how we react to things (many places at least). In all games, I believe Choice is King (I hate when the story goes in directions I might not like, without having a say in the direction. In short? This game is Hot as Heck

Great bones of the game and good first scenes with a lot of plotlines excited to see where it ends up. Curious if the beginning has a true effect on the ending or path you take. Great animations and artwork in general.

Very promising. Its AI but its so well done that it doesnt rly matter. Story is simple but the characters are pretry good, which is the most important part. Its still in early stages but you can see the glimpse of a great game

i don't usually do reviews but man this game earned it.

for the first release, it's important to get your base right. and the big swap did just that. some of the best games I've played started rough to get through and got my attention after some time.

this game on the other hand got me hooked right off the bat, wether with intersting dialogue, funny(ish) moments or just some simple refrences.

the art is appealing, even tho ai (and inconsistent throughout different characters) it's not too lazy, and the sexy moments really do their work.

the story starts well, good written dialogs with a nice sarcastic humor, good looking models and interesting characters, looks like a promising start.
I hope the whole thing delivers what it promises, but so far it looks very promising.

This game is pretty good. I've subscribed on patreon as well. Let's get behind this dev, guys. The writing is good, the art is amazing. The slow burn is paced right.
Eagerly looking forward to the next update.
Hopefully the update cycles are quicker since it's ai art.

seems very promising thus far - hopefully the dev receives enough support to make this work out for them - not a heap of content so far but the framework for opportunities within the future development of this leave a strong first impression. hopefully the dev keeps going with what they're seemingly promising so far.

The game has a lot of potential. I'm really enjoying what is there thus far. The art is pretty nice and while the transformation comes early it's not a "oh I turned into a woman guess I'll just start taking dicks today."

So far the dialogue and english are great. Id have to see more of the game to give it a more accurate review, but so far so good.

Hoping to see this protagonist suffer so I can get my sadistic jollies off.

I'd love to see more animations too, even simple ones.

First updates are critical, they have to have to hook you, which is why I hate when a review mentions potential.

The Big Swap is long for a first update, it not only gets through the initial prologue that sets up the scenario, but also introduces around a dozen different plot threads and even more characters for the future.

It gets all the basics right, good to greatlooking characters, decent writing, a bit of sexy times and it delivers on its core fetish of a man transformed into a woman who is now troubled by the situation they've found themselves in as people want a piece of that curvy body and whether or not they should let them have a slice.

I really enjoyed this initial update, there's a good bit to explore and look forward too, I would say the only thing going forward is that with this many threads, will they balance them all. Also bring on the incest patch.

Wow, this game is impressive. Was just expecting a standard Renply game where you play through by just clicking on the next image with maybe a shacky cam to give some action. Just the intro of this game blew me away. How the animations on all the women are animated. A huge improvement in this kind of game. And the SONG! Wow, that was also great. How it perfectly lets you know what kind of game you are getting into.

Also really like the Game of Thrones reference. Yeah, a lot of people die in GOT. It was a brutal show that felt like a real war was taking place in said story. The quality of the grammar is also good. I fully believed the two perverts making her character are real people who would argue like that when designing Lady Boobslayer.

While the ladies are definitely the focus, also like how well the men look in the artwork. Toro does not look like a nerd but just a cool dude to hang out with. Calling the other two out on what they are doing but not maliciously. Ryan, yeah, he is pretty accurate. And the main character Ro is also great. A scrawny nerd who looks easy to push around.

Though after getting further into the game after the transformation, did not find myself all that invested into the game. Thought with such a great intro at the start, the game would have a lot to offer me. This is where the game is just the initial release will be playing a role into my review. This is more a slice-of-life game where you go into unique situations as a girl where I thought the game’s narrative was building up to something bigger. That there is magic in the world and now the MC must find out what that magic is. What curse was put on her and if there are others with similar curses. Or maybe some combat or magic where the story takes inspiration from Sailor Moon that now the MC can fight demons and other dark entities.

Also does not help that there are no other animations throughout the main part of the game.