Ren'Py - The Inn [Ch. 2 v1.01.03] [Lykanz]

It's got an endearing sense of humour (and makes sure the narrator joke falls to the wayside before too long) and the characters have got me aching to see more of them.
So far, this game has only reached the second part of its intro, and it's already set to be one of my favourites.

This wasn't a bad little game. It's an interesting enough premise, the MC isn't trying to nail family members (I know, right?), there's a little bit of romance going on, AND Linda Mae is just as cute as a li'l ol' button. (Don't ask me, I'm FROM the South and never understood that one either...) Linda Mae is just adorable in appearance, personality, and quirkiness.

The 4th wall breaks weren't as bad as other people made them sound- they did break up some of the immersion, but they were interspersed well, they were relevant to the plot, and a couple of them made me chuckle. I did like the nod/homage to "House Arrest", that was pretty cool too.

Great game so far. Story is funny and interesting.when i first played the earlier releases i wasnt that interested but afterwards with the new updates this game has quickly become one of my favorites. I love the character design and the funny memes. will definitely be on my must download and will be willing to donate once a few more updates come out.

For v0.02f1DL (eg, there's no much here yet)

The visuals are fine, the writing is fine. A lot of people comment on the narrator interjecting comments a few times as being too much, but that didn't bother me. These games could use some personality.

What did bother me and is most of the reason for this score is that our MC is an asshole. He doesn't think a single thing that makes me like him. A stranger gives him a fucking house and he just talks shit about it. And then he forgets it. How the fuck do you forget that someone gave you a house, especially when you think your life is so shitty (because we all know that being given a free house is super terrible). The player shouldn't be rooting for the rapist, but if that guy had broken the MC's face, I probably would have given this 5-stars (not really, but I would have been tempted).

Once we finally get past the intro and to the aforementioned house, the next problem shows up. The dialogue is really wordy. This is a fairly common problem in these games, where the game maker actually seems to want to be a book author, not a script writer. Dialogue needs to be tight and to the point to keep things moving along, especially in the beginning when the player isn't hooked yet. More 'tv show', less 'epic fantasy novel'.

This may become fine once things get established and the game portion of this game shows up, but for now all it succeeds at doing is pissing me off for forcing me to play a douche.

Great game so far. Story is good. Can't wait to see what comes next. I love the design of her house. Detailed and smooth. Really stretching out that engine. I love it. Waiting to see where writer goes with this one.

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.02...

There is a lot of narrator non-sense during the first 5 game days that I was kind of glad was missing from day 6 and beyond... There are some other over the top things that I'll also go over...

The visuals of the characters and backdrops are done with Honey Select, so they have a sort of hentai inspired feel to them... Many of the initial visuals were very dark, and hard to really see, which I assume was the intention... The whole narrator with meme's (mostly of movie/tv stars faces, and I'm sure they are used without permission) for his head was WAY over the top and just felt unnecessary and dumb... I'm guessing they were an attempt at humor, but I didn't find them funny at all... The whole narrator shtick could have been left out entirely and the VN/Game would have been better for it...

The script is decent, with only the occasional spelling/grammar error... The whole southern draw of the young farm woman felt over the top and not befitting of the characters looks... It got a little better once they went to her house, but it still felt exaggerated... The plot revolves around a male protagonist who works as a bar tender, and meets an old man who gives him a key to an old house... After the protagonist gets fired from his job, he decides to go visit the old house...

There he meets a young woman who seems very friendly and trusting, so trusting that the protagonist begins to wonder... Once he enters the old house he discovers some money and a note from the old man, asking that he fix up the house and show his family (sort of as a redemption for his past decisions)... From there the protagonist decides to spend a night at the young woman's home, where things get a bit interesting...

There are a few moments when I began to wonder if something else was going on... Mostly because the protagonist notices some snacks had disappeared from the table... Along with him getting an earie feeling at times... Guess we'll need to wait and see if the story is going to go some bizarre direction or not, in future content...

Overall, I didn't like the whole narrator non-sense during the introduction, and some of the other characters I felt had over the top personalities as well... Such as the guy in the field who was super over the top rude to the protagonist for no good reason, and the weird towns folks talking non-sense... Or the sign leading into the town... I just don't get the feeling that the developers are taking their crafting of this VN/Game all that seriously... Sure, they are devoting a lot to the visuals, but the story and text doesn't feel right sometimes... It feels like a normal story one minute, and out of place the next... Guess we'll need to wait and see how the development goes... Beyond the non-sense, the story premise seemed interesting... Will I revisit this one? Maybe, have to wait and see...