Ren'Py - The Book of Outcasts [v11.20] [Kamti Games Studios]

I grabbed this on Steam and holy cow is it a broken mess. Got several game-breaking bugs that required me to go back to previous saves. The save system itself bloats insanely as the game progresses, to the point where it would eventually hang for 15-20 seconds whenever I clicked anything in the menu.

And that's before getting into the gameplay. Everything that isn't all out visual novel is somewhere between half baked and completely horrible. The exploration, combat, gearing, character progression. I don't have anything good to say about it.

Even the art is atrocious. I think it might actually be made by people, but it somehow still nails that creepy AI feel where everyone looks like their head and body was created separately, and then Frankensteined together in Photoshop.

The whole thing feels like a 10 minute proof of concept demo that they decided to expand to a full game without actually finishing any of the core systems. It might be worth getting for free, if you don't particularly value your time, but don't pay for it.

It is might actually be written well enough in terms of general mature atmosphere and serious characters , but still the gameplay tempo is way too overwhelming, lots of art are unsettling and/or unsatisfying.

Barely playable interactive ai book

Very easy to get softlocked because of lots of bugs and very non linear gameplay, spent several hours of going through frusturating gameplay just to be rewarded with basically nothing in return. Hope the dev can turn it around but right now it's a mess.

All of this must be read considering the game is in early development. It's a mess. A good mess.

There are many positives:
- The game is very fun and feels original
- A good premise, cliched story but a lot of details got me interested. Very cool worldbuilding
- Writing is surprisingly high quality, especially for the H scenes. Lot's of typos and wrong words, but I'm assuming the game's original language is russian so idgaf about the EN.
- CGs are alright. Weird AI feel, like many have mentioned but they serve their purpose.

However the game flow seems completely broken at certain stages:
- You get certain quests after completing them.
- My character was discussing about the vampire lady without having ever met her, because an item interaction was misplaced.
- The "save only in castle" thing I understand, it's to prevent save scumming, but honestly it just makes so many things needlessly complicated. The game should just let you save when you want, and if someone wants to save scum, it sucks but that's on them.
- A smaller thing that really bothers me: The "dungeons" are mapped in a way that seems to bait you into walking right out of them. Also most of them start of by having you go down, which is simply counterintuitive to game design, as you are always walking towards the bottom of the screen, never towards the scenery in front of you. This is nothing, it's fine, nitpicking, but it really got on my nerves.
- I also might just be an idiot but I can't figure out if I can rest. Can I only heal with potions? I must be missing something.
- The game is crashing a lot. To be expected in early development, but worth mentioning.

Overall, I decided to give the game a 3/5. It's REALLY a 2.5 or 2 out of five, but since it is fun and it is promising for an early development, I'm overlooking some things for the grade. I hope the devs will make a brief stop to iron out some of the most obvious issues and question some of the simpler design decisions (Such as the save. Also resting?)

In my opinion, this is a game with a lot of attention to detail, quite complete in terms of graphics, music, and interface.

It would also be an excellent reference for anyone who wants to learn how to make a game in ren'py, how to do things elegantly, at least from the player's point of view.

It deserves 5 stars without a doubt.

Before everything be said, the art of this game is simple beautiful. The dark theme and dark tons of the game set the atmosphere very well. The story is good enough, the gameplay is ok, but there's not much content until now for a v4. Maybe in the future I edit this review and give it a 5 starts, but for now, that's it.
4 stars!