VN - Ren'Py - The Coven [v0.9] [Former Flame]

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.

[v0. 6]
Minor SPOILERs
This one's there in my bookmark since the first release but never got the time to play and I'm glad that i decided to try this out & i wasn't disappointed at all.
I love fantasy genre and wizard/witchcraft is just the cherry on top. I loved the banter, the humor was pretty funny, direction is good too so are the animations however they were mostly similar tbh throughout.

Renders/models: are fuckin top level, i especially loved Sura (hopefully that's her name).

Characters and personalities: all of them are likeable, even with some of theirs constant silly pickings. Seemed cute nonetheless. Main character is confused, down earth, no dickhead personality so that's big plus. I didn't like the later half part of gf (ex?), i felt like it was very one sided & tilting towards her when it comes to decision making in their relationship. Don't mind her being cuckqueen though hehehe.

Storyline: starts off with mc knocking out his gf because why not, but seeing her motionless mc called his family to check on her without taking into consideration the intimacy of the moment as well as the embarrassment of it, not even a hint of emotion it's like mom i fcuked her and she ain't moving can you look at her hehehe, but as i played through the game and the way some members were so casual in their dressing sense around mc i think that was understandable, also let's not take someone's life for granted. Some scenes were cleverly done like when he was called up for that combat and the reason behind that, but the immediate copulation (fitting way to describe that) can't be justified and the reason given was amateurish as well as totally out of blue & emotionless for a girl like her, but the relationship progression with her is tingling and in a good way. The almost hot moments with some of the girls were really well done and i like that trait in the developer.

I'm really intrigued about the guy in the bowling house he seemed to be a wizard because some of the professors from witch school and MC's landlady were adamant on the fact that there aren't any male wiz out there, I bet he was she before & had a gender change just to mess up with everyone. Jokes aside i literally got the goosebumps when he lifted those cars while saving that child and i am totally expecting more in the future. And I'm sure it's going to get better and better from here.

Final point to add, there are some facts and scenarios in the game which feels out of nowhere and doesn't add up that I'm sure the developer is going to explain it in future updates, it's just 0.6 and people playing adult games are 18+ which means fully developed human brain having ability to grasp the suddenness without expecting answers on the spot on why the 2+2 doesn't become 5 I mean wait for few, he might add 1 to the equation.

There are a few games that I really look forward to updates for, this is one of them. The writing is excellent, spot on dialogue and humor. The art and character design is really good. The pacing feels right, it's not a sex romp, but it's not dry either.

In this game you have you "household" full of woman you can barely touch, then you have the school where someone gives you sex, adn of course your girlfriend that gives you sex. Scenes are nothing extraordinary they are average.
The rest of the girls pretty much give you first relaease stuff (double meaning pun intented) or blueballs.

I have played this game some time ago, and I cant tell the difference, really.
The MC somehow seems to reject interactions with some girls, he kind of brush off their advances, it doesn't look good for an unfinished product when a character rejects the thing that the player are looking for.
So the player must wait for that to change from a stalling mechanism into a "character arc"
Judging from how much the game changed since I played it first time, that could take a while...

here we have a perfetcly flashed world of magic, with it's consistent myths and legends, with interesting characters, lovely love interests, and good dialogues.
sex scenes might have simpe animations, but even those are well done, touching the right kind of kinks,
TLR : my brain loved the world, my penis cried tears of joy

I found myself comparing this VN to Power Vacuum a lot while playing. Just like with PV, the writing is decent but all the characters have the same sarcastic joking demeaner with each other that eliminates individual characterization. While it's overall humurous and enjoyable it prevents me from getting attached to any of them. Although this is significantly less funny, which is actually a good thing. I've repeatedly laughed hard enough to lose my boner while playing PV so I appreciate not being blue balled that way here. This story is also a bit of a slow burn for most characters. As of version 0.5 there are 5 sex scenes, 2 are with the same character and 1 is a dream sequence.

Where this does differentiate itself is in the number of LIs and in "gameplay". There's a reason I've referred to The Coven as a VN so far, and that's because it has no story altering choices. Your options come down to "do you want to have sex" and that's it. I'd even go so far as to say this is more of a Kinetic Novel than Visual Novel. There's also hoardes of potential fuckbuddies for our lucky harem protagonist. The schoolgirls around you, their mothers and siblings, the teachers, your family, your girlfriend's family, and potentially a world full of witches with no warlock dick but yours available. It's already at a point where I'm not sure who some characters are or what their relations to each other are. Did we meet Raven at all before she joined Riley in holding my towel hostage? Was it ever mentioned that the Headmistress is Riley's mom before we start joking about having banged her? When has Elizabeth ever been shown being cold or bitchy to the MC? I like what's there well enough so far, but with the ever expanding list of potential baby mamas I do have to wonder if this won't soon become too big for the dev.

as a first impression i would say there is not a lot of content for V0.4. but what there is ... Is Very Satisfying!
IMO there are games with better art , better renders, better animations... but this has EVERYTHING! and it's ALL Good. the story is intriguing, characters well fleshed out and believable. dialogue feels natural. the art IS good, well rendered and with clean animations.
my fear is one of not being able to see the end. if i were rich , money would be Flying at the dev, heck even if i had Any income it would be worth it.
{Former Flame} please stay on track and focused. keep that artistic integrity and positive vibe. this is Looking like a True Winner. i know the world is messed up and i hope RL does not break you. and may you gain the support you need.

The Coven [v0.4] review
PROS -
Excellent renders ( amazing visuals )
Hot looking models
Fantasy plot ( magic )
Decent story
Harem and school setting
No annoying sandbox
Frequent updates and good amount of content
Sex scenes are good
CONS -
Main character at the moment seems weak
But in the end game shows a lot of promise with a nice story set in fantasy theme theme with stunning visuals , looking forward to future updates .

Let me start of by saying that yes, I recommend you play this game. That being said, it is a tricky one to score. There's so much promise here, but a number of things hold the game back from being great. I love the setting and basic premise and I love the main cast of LIs (especially Cassie). But the game has it's issues. For one thing, the pacing felt all over the place. The writing isn't exactly blowing my mind either, it feels a bit awkward or stiff at times. There are also a lot of LIs being set up at once, with very little content for any of them so far. MC kind of has a girlfriend, I really like the way the game handles that and makes it okay for MC to pursue others without guilt, rather than just saddling you with a GF you never chose from the get-go like some other games. Further, he lives with 5 gorgeous women, who are clearly meant to be his three sisters, his mother and his mother's partner. I again want to give the game some credit for essentially giving him two moms rather than a dead or absentee father. That's already a large and in my opinion great cast of LIs, but then there are like multiple teachers and a bunch of students at the school where he happens to be the only dude. Which is a cool premise too, but trying to make it both a family fuckfest and a school harem might be a bit ambitious. I fear that setting up too many LIs so early will lead to very little content with many of them for the foreseeable future.

All that being said, I enjoyed my time with the game. I also see so much fucking potential here that I can't help but rate it a bit higher than the current build might warrant. I truly wish the dev all the best and I hope the game gets the support it deserves.