Ren'Py - Abandoned - The DeLuca Family [Season 1] [HopesGaming]

Visual Novel. We use to tag porn games with this label but every once in a while a bright young author comes along and reminds us what storytelling really is about and uprises VN beyond mere lewd scene counter. HopesGaming The DeLuca Family is such a jewel and it is amongst my most appreciated and anticipated games. So far this is just the second game that made me weep for a character and its fate. Do yourself a favour and not skip over the scenes in search of sex scenes - you will miss so much and only end up disappointed. Take your time, follow the characters and go on a journey with HG.

Good Points
+ We had pretty interesting and well-written story... Yeah ''had''...
+ We have well-written and likeable love interests.
+ We have pretty good sense of humor with a lot of funny characters, like Wilfred, Gracie, etc.
+ Luna's past story was quite brutal, sad, and well-written same time.
+ Gracie's and MC's romance was interesting.
+ After MC saved Eiza's little sister and kind of saved her life as well she wanted to become MC's soldier, since he is just lowly Saldato (which makes no sense at all) she couldn't, but Cordia told her she can become his unofficial soldier and we saw some funny and interesting scenes involved with this, like she calling him BOSS, following around, etc.
+ How MC's way of thinking & Gracie's way of thinking can complete each other and they could be very deadly combos was pretty interesting.


Bad Points
- Visual quality wasn't even looking good 6 years ago, and today it looks pretty bad and old.
- One of the problems this game had was having too much text and very little content to accompany that wall of text, like images, animations, gameplay, etc, and this new Text RPG System only makes things worse than it is, in this new system there is a pile of texts you have to read for knowing things about the story with looking blank black screen and it's straight up painful to endure.
- You can't save while you are doing contracts, which is quite nonsense, especially considering those contracts have some story in them.
- The game doesn't have a time-skip button and you gotta skip time by going to your room, opening your laptop, and clicking the ''relax for a while'' button every time, quite an annoying and nonsense design.
- The lewd part of the game is like a big fat joke. MC hasn't had sex with non of the main girls yet even after 6 years of development, and even the ''sex scenes'' are not good at all nor worth watching, some sex scenes have a couple of animations, but they are far from being decent. Aside from certain newly-made sex scenes most of the lewd content is quite bad, and sadly body design of most of the girls is unattractive not help either, we don't have a talented artist here and the game art style looks like at least 10 years old, and make the matters worse even most of fan arts are far better than this game art style and quality...
- In some scenes, MC looks like a 13-year-old boy, it looks quite bad and flawed, the scene where MC was talking with Isabel in Jeweler is a good example of that.
- Journal/Guide is annoying to use, you always have to open and scroll down for some time to see the quest details, etc, I don't get why the design is not been changed for 6 years, it's clear this is bad design, they could at least add sections for every path so we wouldn't need to scroll down over and over again and just click the section name to see quests, etc.
- Your choices don't matter, %95 of the content is forced, and despite MC having a self-inserted name you can't change anything about him at all.
- The existence of Filius Canis just to insult people who criticize the game was ridiculous and cringy...
- MC is someone very hard to like, he has great potential, and time for time he is quite a likable guy, but he acts cowardly, is weak, wins most fights with barely, constantly lying people (even people who knew what he did with straight face) and constantly trying to look weaker than he is so people will underestimate him, not accepting the things he achieved and instead saying ''I just ran, how could I win?'' etc, makes him very hard to like. And his constant ignorance about not killing people, constantly facing life-death situations, and doing nothing and getting saved by higher-ups, despite the story telling us he is a smart guy makes no sense either. Writers keep playing on making MC struggle, act like a coward, let people underestimate him, and then win with the last couple of moves, and it's a pretty cliche anime protagonist tactic used in the 90s! It's ancient style & boring AF, nearly every fight MC is in the same and he is showing no progress at all. His with Quasi-Capo or fight with Fawkes are great examples of it.
- Despete the game developing for 6 years we have no real story progress at all and a lot of things are done poorly. MC had no training, despite things that happened he should have been Elite Soldato, but the max rank we have now is lowly Soldato rank, the story did only progress worth 1 year of development time and it almost feels like this is a newly developing game rather than 6 years old game, after all those years we still know nothing about MC's contract, his father nor her mother (aside from she is one of the serpents) even after 6 years this game has more questions than answers and it's just unacceptable, if things go at this speed this game will never end, and this is probably biggest bad point this game has, development-wise it's big mess and goes nowhere.
- So called season 1 done after 6 years had a cliffhanger ending where Gracie got shot, there was a lot of blood and the event name was ''Death of a Princess'' yeah... In 6 years this game should have ended with a proper ending, but instead, DEV gives a cliffhanger season 1 ending...


For The End
Honestly, this game is a big damn disappointment and a waste of great potential, it had great potential years ago and it could have been one of best adult games out there, but thanks to terrible development of the game and all those bad points I talked about this game couldn't reach that potential, story-wise it has some good details and lore, and if the story was going somewhere and we were getting story content for real instead of getting nothing for years despite shortcomings it could be average at least, but since even the most powerful part of the game is lacking I see no point over wasting time on this game, especially for a new player this is game to stay away considering it goes nowhere. If this was a new game I would say bad points can be fixed with time and wouldn't be this harsh on it, but considering it's developing for 6 years these bad points are unacceptable, I would advice people to stay away from it and not wasting any time with it.

I'm always waiting that game reaches 0.5 in its development cause prior to that we can't give a really objective view.

With that, I don't think I should have been waiting for so long with TDF - this game has "masterpiece" written all over it from the start and Hopes proved he's among top 5 devs in term of quality. You can argue about which game has the best models or the best story but you can't argue who has the most real and the most loved girl of all - there is just one Luna DeLuca.

If you still didn't play The DeLuca Family and, instead, you're wasting your time reading this review, what are you waiting for?! Don't let reliable Luna waiting for you!

I don't usually write reviews, but I feel compelled to write a brief one anyway.

This is not a porn game. That's probably the most important thing to know right off the bat. If you're looking for a brief journey through immediate gratifying sex scenes for a 30 minute jerk-off, this isn't it.

It takes a bit of time to get into the story, and a lot of the content is not quite finished. The mission system is tentative and doesn't have much substance gameplay wise and aside from the two De Luca daughters, not many characters have side quests.

So why 5 stars?
The writing is spot-on. There's a difference between someone who just writes a story and a storywriter. This game really shows the difference between a lot of the amateur writing in games that clumsily try to get the point across and precise writing that really hits your emotions.
The characters are very distinct personalities that really come alive. You'll notice that especially after a certain event.

The artwork is superb. Great character design, high attention to detail, excellent lighting and set design. You can feel the great care the scenes are rendered with. You'll rarely find this quality in a game here.

The music manages to capture exactly the right emotional tones, and help transition from somber to playful to sad, allowing transitions in emotional tones that would break other games' scenes.

But ultimately, the game wins through impressive composition of its elements. Writing, artwork and music just really play well together and create a journey that can get you to laugh and to cry.

There's sexual content, too, and it's moving more toward more naughty content by each update, but the game has a surprisingly good story that is very-well told.

It's not yet a story that'll get you off...but it's a story that'll make you feel.

If you think most adult games are dull and predictable; crave for a good story, packed with action, mystery, and plot twists; enjoy watching mafia movies and series and find their theme interesting; but still want a good measure of romance and eroticism; and are not averse to witness some graphic violence occurring in a dark setting environment; this is the game for you.

If you are too sensible for that type of experience and/or are expecting the typical sex-oriented game, and find the story and gameplay elements to be annoying and just want to skip forward to the sex scenes; this game is not for you.

If you are still reading, that means you are interested, and are wondering about the specifics of what this game can offer. In this case, I'm happy for you.

Features:

- An Engrossing story
- Free Roaming system
- Inventory system
- Quest system
- Mission Contracts
- Dating simulator

PROS: Interesting and immersive story with a mafia-themed plot.
Great music, fitting the setting, environment, and the situations.
Great renders and animations.
Gorgeous models.
Charismatic characters.
Luna DeLuca. :3

CONS: Still has little sexual content, but that will be addressed in due time.

Bare in mind that this game is still under development, but at this time (v.0.05) you can already witness all the effort and dedication put into it, and I expect it to get even better, becoming one of the very best games in this genre.

As a final note, I must warn you that there are scenes that may not be suitable to the faint of heart, as they may be too hard to watch if you get too immersed in the story. But in those situations you can choose to watch a toned-down version of the events. And if it makes you feel, it must be doing something right.

Recommended for all types of players that aren't exclusively looking for sex scenes, and especially to those who don't fear a dark, but entertaining and thrilling story, and also enjoy a fair amount of romance for good measure.

revision of version 0.05

Premise: if you are looking for a game that has sex scenes right from the start, and female characters who hurl themselves at MC, don't download it.

We are facing a well-built story, involving, entertaining and full of twists.
You will really find yourself immersed in a new world, made up of codes of honor and characters out of the schemes.

The characters are well constructed, deep and credible despite all their oddities. The girls, besides being very beautiful, will be able to touch your heart with their feelings and the change that they will slowly make towards you. There is nothing hasty, everything grows slowly, with patience and dedication, to get to the end of this episode where you will want to "enter" the game and kill those who hurted one of the girls.

Good:
Graphics
Story
Music
Texts
Playability

Bad:
Just need more constance in the updates

One of the greatest game I've ever played. The unique buildup and story was really good.Excellent rendering and animations.
It's really exciting so far and can't wait for next release. Each and every character is perfect. Overall it's simply superb and perfect.
Keep this up HopesGaming

One of the best games on this site, with a dark yet interesting story, funny/endearing dialogue, and great game design. I also like the fact that there isn't much sexual content in the game, because honestly there isn't a need for it. Overall I can't wait for more updates.

I just played the update and have to say this game is gem.
Luna's backstory story moved me i can't get it get out of head.
During luna's backstory i dint even felt like i was reading words it felt like i was actually witnessing it hatss off @HopesGaming
Everything in this game is perfect (at least for me) Dialogues,Storyline, Characters Even the small girls in Luna's backstory have better Character building than most main girls of other games.
I'm glad that dev is not rushing to give lewd content I know this adult game sites But with proper story and character building the lewd scene becomes mmuch more hot.
Only negative is delays or rather i say irregular updates other than its great game
Hopes man you won my heart. I just wish you reach your goal and make this game full time job.

There are very few games on this site that really transcend the genre.

This is one of them.

All good stories are built on amazing characters, and that is the secret behind the staggering success that is The DeLuca Family. Getting to know these people, especially the sisters, is such a rich, rewarding experience that I often forget the sexual aspects of the game and end up jolted out of my mesmerized focus when the MC starts groping someone's tight ass. Though I don't blame him.

Hopes, keep writing. Keep making this little piece of magic. You tore my heart out with this last episode.

That's when you know it's an amazing story. When it hurts. And you love it.

Can't wait to see where you go from here.

The story amazes so much. Good times, bad times, sad times and a little erotica making a complete amazing story. I cant wait to see much more of it. Every Character is perfectly worked and everything fits to make this game great.
The Characters are lovley and the rendings have a very good quality.

This game is pure brilliance. Sure, the bed action and the naughty scenes are one of the core aspects of the adult games, but for me, I always think if the game isn't supported by a great story, the rest becomes meaningless.

The story in "The DeLuca Family" is simply fantastic, and draws me in, and the characters are written beautifully. In addition, action is great, and the naughty scenes are good too.
I basically love everything about this game.
Fantastic work by @HopesGaming, and I really look forward to the future updates, and where the story will take the MC.

utter masterpiece. 10/10. this game has so much character and a plot I care about and I want, nay NEED to know and have more. the characters and the plot just grip me in this way that makes me adore it. A must play, Luna best girl.

The perfect game!
Outstanding graphics, and a game with some of the best story writing/telling I ever read in my life!

He got himself a new patreon!
We need more people to suuport this epic game on patreon!

+ Quite a good visualization. Not perfect, but good.
+ An interesting and fresh idea.
+ Good humor.
... And these are all pluses, in my opinion.
- The plot is blurry and inconsistent. The author is engaged in graphomania, stuffing comedy, tragedy, detective story, love story, erotic, thriller and some kind of fantasy into one plot.
- There is almost no adult content, and the one that is present is added simply as a fan service, and not part of the plot.
- Not a very large amount of content in each update.
- Very long time between updates.
- Awful interface.

Maybe the author will be able to do something specific ... in a couple of years, given the speed of updating. I will hope so with all my heart.

rarely does a lewd game's story stick with me after I finished playing it, but I will never forget those three words: "I'm not broken." Very happy I didn't wait for this one to be finished before trying it, can't wait to see where the story goes. The character design is also right up there with the best I've seen, and I don't just mean within the lewd gaming community. The amount of grinding isn't excessive, I felt I could easily stop doing it after a few in-game weeks without having to worry about money later in the game.

Firstly thank you for coming back to continue this game. I have been patiently waiting for the next instalment as I have found it captivating so far. But this update was on another level. A literal emotional rollercoaster. Was chuckling and laughing with the story based mission with Gracie and Joey stealing the show.

Then we came to the background to Luna and not being "Broken". My god it was heartbreaking and I will admit crying with Sofia and Lucan's deaths and the complete hopelessness felt and experienced through the recollection Luna provided. Wanted to kill everyone of the bastards part of the child kidnapping and mysterious 6.

Have no idea how you will progress the story from here with hopefully some retribution gained.

Hope you are well and keep going with it.

Holy shit! This storytelling stands out high above most of writers, whose games can be found here. Mix of black humour jokes, romance, friendship, mafia background and very dark fate of our heroes is definitely something worth of try. There are not sex/porn scenes (yet), but I don't mind at all. Render quality and image postprocessing is at very high level. Thank you @HopesGaming for this beautiful little gem

Come one, this must be a joke, right?

TDF is plain incredible. a unique diamond lost among zircons. It's impossible for me to understand how this game hasn't yet thousands of patrons.

Hopes is so talented that it's not even funny anymore. The guy has the writing skills of a Stephen King, and is at Tarantino level at staging. Could be a Hollywood director easily. There is simply no other game that gets to this level of emotions transmitted to the player.

And if I was to take last update into account, there is no other MEDIA that ever had such an irresistible, overpowering impact on me. It's going so deep into the human mind that you can't help but feeling angry, helpless, joyful, delighted, euphoric, Hopes pulling strings to make your soul dance at his pace. Metallica would crown him master of puppets.

Anyway, whoever didn't try it yet has to, and be prepared for quite the journey!

The DeLuca Family is not only a game with outstanding graphics, but a game with some of the best story writing I ever scene. The game will draw you into the story, and touch you soul. I wish I can give it more then five stars.