VN - Ren'Py - The Gilded Ladder [v0.1.7] [Sanguineangie]

I think this game has potential and the progression but there's not enough of it yet to give it 4 stars. The LI's are okay but most of them could be improved with better looking models. There are some issues early on with glassy dead looking eyes, inconsistent thickness of hair and facial expressions, particularly faces when side on and or smiling. I understand that this is a first time dev but this is the 3rd or 4th update I've played and although they are getting better, the issues are still there and the older ones have not been updated. Why not go back and sort it out, its not a very long VN. Its particularly bad early on for example in the lunch scene with Chrissy her hair is full on both sides, then only on one side, then back to full again. Its odd. The prostitute's hair also thins out in the close ups too. It repeats as a scene later but doesn't improve. It gets better as you go on but it almost made me stop reading and I wonder if any others have looking at the reviews. It would be a quick fix to go back and improve it for the dev but its been a few updates and nothing so far. Joseph's eyes are often dead and glassy but you also see this at times on the MC (and his eyelids are really odd in the yoga scene), the receptionist and the boss, Divya. The receptionist is a bit of a waste of a character with odd yellow grey colour, odd hair and not good looking with a sour personality. I'm not sure why the MC would want Soumya's phone on the underground, when she's wearing such a ridiculous outfit. I understand she's meant to be rebellious, look whorish and the opposite of Divya but she looks awful and certainly isn't sexy. Why isn't there a choice here to say no? Or simply have Soumya in a more normal summer dress that's shorter than normal and low cut, anything really that's less trailer trash teenager. The same story effect but sexy and less 'I don't want to catch what she's got'. There are some really strange choices for clothes in general. Why would anyone wear a microkini (?) on in an office, even in the toilet!??? Also what is the bizarre 'jean suit' outfit Branka is wearing when we first meet her. Why is everyone wearing so much grey in the office too. Why, just why.? The clothes choices in the VN are just so odd.

Overall I think we could do with a few more beautiful characters / LI's possibly through the MC's life outside of work as I don't think anyone is amazing so far. The side characters who could be developed so far, the prostitute (is too realistic), Farah and Andi are meh but the girls on the train / restaurant and Maria are ok but there still some strange hair choices.

I would love it if you had a option to turn off the x-ray thing. I've never though they add anything to a story but I guess someone must like them. I guess its easy to skip each time but to me it appears a lot and became annoying.

I find it really interesting that the dev is trying to appeal to all sexualities, as what is attractive is so wide spread and varied. Not many dev's try this as I think this is incredibly hard and I think it can only work if it is backed up by a great story. Unfortunately, while I think the cosmetic company concept is really good there's not enough to judge this yet. I would like to see more of the MC working on his inventions, even as a few montages with some info as to show what's going on. There just not enough story here yet. I think the story is in the cosmetics rather than the slice of life office relationships. It just doesn't stand out enough otherwise. At this stage it feels more like a demo, with a few obvious faults and a full release to come after the end of week two when the cosmetics storyline is up and running. I get this this is all subjective and some will disagree but the dev is trying to do something really hard here and I hope they are successful.

(v0.1.5.1)

TL,DR: Good, but has room to be more, worth to watch the development and the updates.

BIG-ASS RANTING BELOW

I... wasn't expecting much tbh, glad I was wrong lmao.

When I saw this at the gay/yaoi category, I had this thought of this vn being one of those with 95% women, 4% futa, and the 1% being either an unnoticeable route that you'll only see through guides, or a femboy that looks "womanly enough" for the st8 male readers, or the one ntr route which we get cucked and turned into a sissy. And I'm so glad that the game broke my expectations over that.

Story-wise the game is alright, it reminds me from some other TF HTML game sometimes, not a carbon copy from this game, but in some aspects it looks similar.

The designs look great for me, and my phone's internet thanks for being small in memory terms, at least so far.

Gameplay-wise it's your standard VN format, you met some characters, see who's hot for you, then go bang them or have an alone moment, but you can also stay alone at least, so far, if you didn't liked any of the options.

It's a 4 out of 5 because is good, but still has room to grow, it's worth it to see more. Good job dev.

Very little content for now, the entire gameplay for 0.1.5.1 is done in 15 minutes at most. Models look a bit weird at certain angles, and some facial expressions are outlandish. The "X-Ray" thing could be removed. The script is a bit sketchy and could do with some work, the worst parts being the absurd behaviour of the boss and the receptionist.

The game lets you select your kinks in the preferences but it also asks as part of the gameplay; this is redundant and only serves to reinforce the impression that the whole point of the game is to let you fuck a certain character ASAP without bothering to develop any kind of relationship. Summing up, an average effort for now.

The "encounters" in the subway are a nice touch, staring at the old lady gave me a good laugh

Choice driven office narrative with some twists. Lots of juicy love interests. Great renders of each girl. Last updated offered sex with 2 hotties (Soumya and a futa girl called chrissy) and male char. Dialogue is great, choices and story are well done, and the renders are top-shelf. 5/5

I've played through this game about 5 times and I just can't get enough. Soumya Xhiang Divya and chrissy 4 life. I just want moreeeeee. great story, interactions, love it. Can't wait to see what you have planned next.

Great renders well written, great line up of different characters. I really like the new thick girl and chrissy. Good amount of content in each update, and the choices. highly recommend this to anyone!

0 content, not worth it for it seems like another 4 years lol, not sure why this would be posted and theres barely anything at all. Its a glorified demo. graphics ok, grammar is good. but beware of zero content besides one or two scenes.

I like where this game is going, it's touching all the type of action I like in game. The only negative I got here is that I'm looking for more!! The updates are 1-2 minutes of extra gameplay. I'm thinking it's either because they're looking for added fund to get their groove going and I wish them the best. At this point I'll wait a solid year of developpement to get a much deeper play through.

=== Graphics ===

I see several comments about grainy images, maybe it was fixed in the meantime, because I didn't detect any.
The models are ... enough. Not that interesting, but not too bad. The only ones that stand out are Chrissy and Divya. The rest are run-of-the-mill. It can be excused for a 1st project and beginner Dev.

Someone above mentioned the facial expressions, it is indeed a problem. The faces look more the result of caricatures than "persons". To the Dev, go a LOT easier on the sliders, really a LOT easier.

=== Story ===

What little there is, isn't too bad, but, at the same time, not really intriguing or suggestive enough to "grab" me. I may play the next release, if it continues this way, I may even forget that this game exists.

The only time anything interesting happens (and it is almost NOTHING) is in the day dreaming sequences. By the way, you should warn that you can only see one, unless you go back or do save scumming, this is NOT a good omen of what's to come, because without warning you lock content that will make us resort to trickery to unlock. Not a good option and to be honest decreases my trust in you as a Dev.

The tone is so far very much into sex adventures in an office. I assume this may be considered riveting, but, it is also very much done and done. I know, we are in early stages. Yet, if you don't know that the first page of a story MUST make us want to read the second one, then I really don't know if you can take this further.

You may consider to tone down April aggressiveness, also consider to tone down Kelly excessive flirting ( she comes across as a sex addict, nothing wrong with that if it's the intention ).

Of this cast of characters, the only one that actually made any strides into being interesting is Xhiang. Why? Because she was brief and detached. The rest, well, could disappear in a cloud of smoke.

I will NOT consider anything seen in the Daydream scenes. I really hope that this was the only time that such thing is used in the game. Not only it doesn't advance any part of the plot, they are completely meaningless.

=== Game ===

- The overly large White text box, should GO to hell in a hand basket. Ugly. Pointless.
- The daydream sequences should go back to the choice menu in the end and have a "Continue" option in the bottom. There's no objective reason to only play one. Especially since the choice is meaningless.
- End of content MUST be marked as such. Just a Dev logo isn't enough. Warn the players. Communicate.

=== End Notes ===

Not a great start, but a real good effort.

It needs more depth, some similarity of a story, that isn't just a sequencer for sex scenes.

At this point, ver. 1.1, there isn't much to be positive about. There are some worrying signals in the way some choices are implemented (Day Dream) with the intention to lock content. Apparently the "Play multiple times" mentality is motivating this. While at the same time, not giving ANY reason to play more than once.

To be clear: Make the choices MEAN something. Just having them to escape the Kinetic Novel Tag is even worse. I'd rather play a KN than have locking content choices that mean nothing.

The LAST image, or the End of Content Warning, MUST be clear. Let's hope that your next version don't make me thankful that you didn't give me a warning to Save.

Veredict: 2,5 * (It goes to 3, because 2 is unfair)

(It should be lower, but, this is me hoping it gets better)

This one was a bit short but what was there was nicely written and enjoyable. I like that there are a lot of kinks being set up and looks like there will be a bit of something for everyone. The renders are decent quality although you can see these were made by someone who is just learning. Dev if you read this, you can remove the black from the corners of the eyes phenomenon by changing "optimization" from "auto" to "speed" or "memory" in the render settings. I noticed this on at least one or two renders. Overall though, it made an impression on me and I'll definitely check out future releases.