VN - Ren'Py - The Coven [v0.9.5] [Former Flame]

TLDR: rough and unpolished but a good material at the core.

Gameplay is linear renpy visual novel. Choices seems to only be there to select if you wish to see a scene or not, so far I've seen no consequences from choices. (other than knowingly refusing to interract further with a girl)

Animations and renders are good and above average. Girls are well done, lights are beautifull, backgrounds too. You can tell this is the strong point of this game.

Pron is quite disapointing as of now: very vanilla, climax is often poorly conveyed and quite frustrating, lack of text making the scene a bit mechanical. It gets better towards the later part of the game though, so there is some promising improvement.

Story is the main problem here. The writing is lackluster, confused and confusing. The world is barebone and even the girls have very little noticeable personalities. Just a bunch of babes craving for the D of MC for wtv reason.

Conclusion: core of the game is strong animations. Writting needs a lot of work to really make the technique shine. Right now it is more a succession of random pron scenes rather than an engaging story.

It's a 3.5 as of now (V 0.8) but I believe it can become a 4 easily if some work is put on writing both of the story and in the scenes.

First of all, the story is progressing really well right now, everything about the game is good except for a few minor problems, but what is missing in the game is that the characters are not introduced to us.

and the person who made the game didn't make the mistake in other harem games, whatever you say. In other harem games, mc has to choose between girls all the time, or he can only have a relationship with two of the girls and not live with either of them.
but in this game, mc can hang out with all the girls around him. In the current version of the game, he is not dating anyone, but most of the girls he talks to are given the option of being a girlfriend.

Render quality ✭✭✭ 3 stars - The game hasn't received any more updates so it's 3 stars for now but I'll probably reorganize it and give it more in future updates because the game maker shows that potential

Story ✭✭✭✭✭ 5 stars - The story in the game is usually based on magic and witches. It is not a very common story style, even if it is done, most people cannot progress successfully, but the game maker has advanced the story so well that it is neither too mysterious nor too complicated for now, I hope it continues like this.

MC or Protagonist ✭✭✭✭ 4 stars - Even though everything around him is new to him, he doesn't react much when he learns what magic is. He even knows how to talk to girls and he also knows how to talk to not only girls but also women.
Not much attention has been paid to his appearance, but as in other games, the clothes he wears are not always the same, they are constantly changing.

Character design ✭✭✭✭ 4 stars - You can really tell their age from the faces and bodies of the milfs and young people around you, only some of the characters are too similar to each other, other than that most of the characters are beautiful and hot

The Coven [v0.7]

As of V0.7

PROS

• Model's look good
• Interesting premise

CONS

• MC is unlikable
• Story seems a little disjointed
• Nothing much has really happened
• Forced scenes & reactions

CONCLUSION

Game doesn't know what it is, could've been an all-in fuck fest , a steady romance or a tense me vs them kind of game. It's somehow none of them whilst also making choices pointless ( rapey Sura just won't go away). Too far in to change I think. Wasted potential.

If you go in blind, you might no like the game. But if you can accept:


Then you might have a fun time. Story isn't terrible, but it could definitely be better. My only gripes, taking the above into account, are some scenes cut to the next at a very weird time with no warning, and there is very little dialogue during lewd scenes and it makes them feel more mechanical than hot.

Not a lot of choices. Big ones have been regarding side girl paths (to take them or shut them down).

I wouldn't call this game "the next thing you should play", but it should be high on your list of filler games. If they can flesh out some deeper background in the beginning, and correct the two issues above, I would maybe bump this to a 4 star.

This game is awful and I absolutely cannot believe that people have played this and actually enjoyed it. It genuinely feels like the creator of this game either expected us to play a prequel to this game that doesn't exist or literally be reading his mind to understand any of what is going on. Each scene feels like it isn't connected to the rest and sex kinda just happens. No emotions, no build-up, no nothing basically. The models are fine but so are the models on like 90% of the rest of the games on this site. I stopped playing at the trial of fire. Some person comes out with their arms on fire to fight you but it ends with you fucking them and somehow you passed because thats what you were supposed to do... Yeah that completely killed my interest in the game. If you want a good story or even just a story that is in anyway cohesive to an overall plot avoid this VN like the plague

Great writing, funny and interesting premise, amazing visuals... truly a must play VN.

If I had one minor ask from the writer, I'd love to get a little more dialog in those great sex scenes, but that's just me.

Dont know why the game has so many high ratings.

The game doesnt tell you anything. And yes, exposition dumps are stupid, but there is NO world building. The game even excuses itself at the start for some exposition, but that could be handled way better and that is not helping at all.

You have magic powers, you meet several women, but nothing is explained. The MC just accepts that and that's it.

You jump from location to location, there are timejumps and all that stuff.

e.g. At the pool, the MC says he is tired. - cut- Now it is dark and the GF is coming pack and I think she went shopping or eating with the rest of the girls. Some of them went shopping, but I think that was some time before the MC was tired.

Before that you get dumped with girls and their names, but way to many and to fast. From the get go you have some weird relationship with your ... step-sisters or ex-roommates or whatever they are.

One of the teachers is talking to you and spreads her legs to show u her panties and neither of the two is mentioning that or reacting to that.

Maybe the game get better, but at this point (after the pool) I am already to bored to play any further.

Most of the girls look nice, but some facial expressions and poses are weird.
With some re-writing this could be fixable I guess ... currently it is just confusing and boring.

I like this game a lot. It tells an interesting story. Sometimes even funny and unexpected.
The grafic is full of pretty girls and women.
I would be happy if the updates would come more often, but I understand that it take time to prepare this huge amount of pictures and text.

V 0.7 review -
Definitely top tier game and 5 stars from me . Excellent renders - some of the renders like casting spells are awesome and stunning female characters , fantasy setting ivolving witches , spells and magic , count me in and animations are great . Writing is also well done . By conclusion a nice fantasy game . Highly recommended , looking forward to the next updates .

Gotta say as I continue to play the game I'm loving it more and more. The renders are great.. not all of the girls are cookie cutter.. I mean look at Sura.. nothing like the other girls.. the older characters are good looking.. but not over the top.. Just a wide range overall. The story might meander a bit.. but hey I am enjoying the ride. The MC is learning about himself as he goes along.. I can live with it. In a nutshell.. good renders.. good writing.. good story.. and 5 stars from me.

I don't like to review often but the fact that this game is sitting at 3.5 stars right now is criminal, considering the characters and writing is a step above most of the games sitting at 4.5+

The renders aren't amazing or anything, but where this game shines is the cast of characters. Every girl has a unique personality that makes them very desirable. Instead of girls whose personalities all start to blend together, here they each stand out in their own way. This dev has done an especially good job with the girls in the family.

I'd like to see what this dev can accomplish with more support, so I hope to see this get the attention it deserves.

Definitely 5 stars. Very good story, models. renders, animations, and whatnot. This is not the run-of-the-mill VN you would find in 99% of the games on this website. I really don't understand why it doesn't get the same attention as many other games that do not deserve it. Give it a try.

What can I say. "Top notch" is the short version.
The longer one begins with the story. Intriguing, unconventional and lets say to some extent even fascinating. For sure with a lot potential! ^^
Further more the sight of the flawless, non ´standard´ location renders. You can see how much effort went into them. Next come the character models. The dev got his hands on the best ones. The most beautiful ones, the hottest ones, the cutest ones and the Milf´iest ones Heck, even the animations are very well made - in positioning and flow - all in all this game is "Top Notch", A+ , premium class - call it like you want ^^

Really enjoyable game. Though there is a lot of teasing, you don't jump to straight up fuck everything in sight, so there is a nice build up in the expectations. The models are great and the girls are likeable, tough they could have more work done in their personalities.
Needs some small corrections in the writing and punctuation, but is not too immersion breaking.
Some events seems a little disjointed in the story telling, like the younger sister randomly appearing at his school and he never bothers to ask her what is she doing there (later she volunteers that info).
As some other reviews say, the sex scenes could have more input from the mc as to what is he feeling.

Honestly i just love the game from the story and the funny ass moments in dialogue that arent too over the top but is what youd expect from a guy when responding to certain scenarios one of the shower scenes dialogue is fucking comedy gold as hell i couldnt stop laughing for a solid moment and had me in tears. The renders are good quality with a good story balance between students acclimating to the character, and it has the right amount of story to sex or romantic episodes that keep good balance to where you wont be bored by a long winded story but also it is good for those that enjoy a good story without it being only a constant fuckfest to the point itd be better to just watch porn. This Dev has their shit right and id like to buy them a drink.

The story is pretty good, only guy in a school for witches, like the setup isn't unique it's something we've seen a lot (only guy in a school full of girls) the difference is the execution is done good here, all of the characters seem to be well written and they all seem to be into the mc (he's spraying good smells) but if I had one thing I dislike in this it's the teasing, I don't mind slow burns but God the teasing is pretty unreal, I've been playing for around 3 hours? Maybe longer and the MC's had sex with 2 girls (I think) like I said the story is done good but the teasing needs to be shot in the ass and thrown out the window, it's hard to choose a favourite so I won't

I subbed to his patron but I might wait until update 10 before coming back to this one

P.s don't make violet? A side girl, she's one of the more interesting girls so far, just my opinion, she'd be better as a main instead of a fuck buddy, fuck buddy's are really frustrating and I can feel there will be romantic vibes between them later but only teased, idk

v0.6
As of v0.6 this AVN is average at best but worth your while if you are into magic, college girls and a very casual experience.

For me, the game lacks in 2 areas, quality of the sex scenes and story telling.

Firstly, a short essay on sex scenes.
What we got: Animations, above average quantity of renders, MC that can make a girl cum without having to cum himself (yes it is possible, I know right, what a novel concept)
What was missing imo: there was no meaning to the sex, since the characters were mostly very superficial about it. There was little emotion in it, no character motivations, goals, thoughts etc. The MC never gave us thought about why he was excited to fuck a girl, he never was internally hyped about how good she feels, hot she is, stunning she looks etc. Also there was little to no descriptive text during sex scenes, no nothing about for example the mood in the room, smells, sounds, how characters feel, how they feel to touch etc. The amount of "dirty" or just sexual talk was also rather limited.
Also, no music, even the standard free tracks kinda hurts, I just got to accostumed to music at this point.
To the games credit, the amount of renders was above average, but the lack of text kinda offset that fact, resulting in for my standards quite short scenes (in actual gameplay time duration)
If you don't mind these points, you will enjoy the sex scenes a great deal, for me they sadly were "only" good to get me hard.

I disliked parts the storytelling in this one for the following reasons:

• A lot of stuff just happens and then isn't really explained or followed up later on
• Often scenes just end and new ones start without a transition, which makes it feel a bit jumpy. While playing I thought "this could be cleaner"
• the use of magic is not great. You learn spells but don't really use them, this was underwhelming for me

Also I dislike the MC, he is so not hyped that he is able to use magic and is not very pro active. Stuff happens and he is just along for the ride, he doesn't take things into his own hand.
Its literally: hey MC go there and to X.. MC be like: Ok will do.

The spells that are used look very nice tho (fire fist fighting was cool)

Characters models looks great, story sounds solid, lot of possibility that could come from it.
really nice so far even though there are no real challenge in the choice (which is fine to me at least) - let's see where the dev will bring us in coming releases

Originally had this as average in the first instance but I'm actually putting it down to 2 because quite simply it is starting to annoy me the more I play.

Quite simply........ I have no fucking idea what's going on. The MC doesn't know what's going on. Everyone else does but the game simply doesn't care to share what's going on. So you're talking to people who hate you, or want to ride you or anything and you're left going "I've no idea who you are, I've never met you before"

There is NO preamble to the game. There's an initial info dump around your "Landlady", her wife and their kids but that's it. From there you're thrown right into the game but what the hell goes on is kind of just...... ignored?

The game starts with you and your girlfriend. You basically have sex with her and she blacks out. Turns out "yer a wizard MC" and you've got magical sperm. Good times, always wanted that, but anyway. So you're a wizard, and that's rare as balls and you need to go to a school. But there's no explanation of what the school is. It seems your moth... landlady knows what magic is but there's nothing really shown to suggest you do.

The game plays as if it's a sequel and it expects you to have played it. The game's overview says "you will be invited to join the Black School, a secret college tasked with the training of witches" But it seems to be so secret the game doesn't even explain what the place is. So the intro literally goes;

MC: I had sex with my gf and she's now unconscious
Random person who I've never met and no idea who it is: Hmm, looks like your magic sperm knocked her out
Other random person: You will need to go to this school
MC: Ok
Other random person: You start tomorrow
MC: Ok, this is perfectly normal

That's it. You then meet people who seem to know you but the game doesn't explain who they are but it even gets absurd. There's a bit where some teacher says "whatever you do, don't use magic around muggles (or whatever the game calls them)" and you're like "oh aye sure". Bitch what magic do you think I can use? The game's not told me anything, how can I use powers I've never shown that I have?

The game is CRYING out for exposition but it seems to just go "na bugger it, here's some tits". There's no explanation over the world you exist in beyond witches exist, there's nothing to say what magic is, who goes to the school, why you'd even WANT go to to the school. There's not even anything mentioned to what happened to the girl you basically dicked into a coma. I mean... I hope she's ok? Maybe I'll find out later after the MC finishes his double English.

[v0.6]

Decidedly average game. It's not doing something terribly wrong to the point of creating a bad experience. It's not doing anything spectacular to get you invested either, though.

Perhaps the biggest strength in the writing is the lore and word building. It's not anything super original or expertly crafted, but it is interesting enough and above average for porn game standards. At the very least, it sets sensible rules that govern the society, magic, motivations and doesn't break them.

All other aspects are either pretty average. While there are no issues with the grammar, the dialogues are pretty stiff and soulless. The sex scenes are also pretty routine and feels like it's just there because it needs to be there to fulfill the porn game criteria. It lacks the eroticism and build up, as well as the execution to even give you a boner.

The characters are more or less alright. The sisters have decent chemistry with the MC, but most other characters don't get any convincing development. The set up itself makes it quite easy to naturally create that safe space harem, so it could have done without some of the more egregious cases of safe space dialogue. Like do we really need the explicit reassurance that the ex-gf is not interested in the guys at her new school? Do we need to hear that Chair hates male groupies? These things can just be assumed by their actions or context clues.

The pacing is a bit off, but not the worst I've seen. The transitions between scenes could use some work though. It lacks finesses and just jerks you from one situation to the next.

As for player agency, the coding is very light. So far, there are a handful of rather unimportant flags set and a few points for various girls here and there. Noticeably, I don't see any variables for the MC, which could mean that we have very little control over the MC's disposition. There are some narrative reasons and potential set ups in place that could enable a power hungry MC route, but I am not convinced that this dev will develop that route (it will be a substantial extra work). It seems more likely that the MC will be on the rails as a typical do gooder harem dude.