VN - Ren'Py - The Keymaster [v1.1] [Ptypoe]

Reviewed v0.9, - Quit during v0.8 content, spoilers ahead.

I feel this review should be split in two parts, with the first being the Null Stone Saga, and the other the aftermath + continuation.

Part 1 "Null Stone"
It has enough to keep the player invested because of the worldbuilding, lore and story, even if the MC feels a bit forced and underused at times,
Visuals and character interactions are mediocre at best, but again, the story keeps the game afloat for now, but after a bit, the cracks start to appear.

By the time the reveal about Lucy's role happens, the game drops the pretense of being a game and falls down to a kinetic story where player input is reduced to manipulate the sisters and picking how "open" the sisters become (so what to see/lock you out from seeing things)

The "game" asks you if you allow some things, but after a point, the relationship shenanigans turn to hiding things from the MC, and eventually the MC is explicitly told this "My secrets are mine", implying things happen behind MC's back (of course we know they do happen because of the "need of energy for traveling" and other implications about Lucy and certain character's need/racial traits/whatever)

But MC just accepts things as is, just in time to end up railroaded to the end having more or less scenes depending on a few "key" choices that may end up locking you out of content.
Two and a half stars, mostly because of the world, lore and the concept, otherwise I would have to say 1 and a half stars.

Part 2 " The aftermath + Continuation"
I'll focus on story and character interactions; visuals are largely unchanged from part 1.

Now the MC is reduced even further, the game tells a linear uninteresting story beyond the conclusion of the Null Stone Story, with the MC acting as the Narrator/Errand boy,
The only inputs from the player being a repeat of what was done in part one to little sister, this time to the older sister (AKA: "Corrupting Jess")

A bit further I started to wonder that maybe I picked wrong, when we had choices, and I'm being punished for it? Even if it that is the case.... that shows bad design choices.

At this point I almost lost all interest in continuing, mainly because we start to see the other characters having meaningful interactions with others while the MC gets no interactions beyond going from point A to point B, talk, return to point A and "solve" something and move on to the next

Then the oddest story beat happens: Your LI leaves with the other LI (just a bit after seeing them "interacting" with each other, with MC out of the picture), leaving you behind to do .... what exactly?
Let's organize some beach volleyball! Yay! And do nothing while the others play....

Then other than "mandatory" sister scenes (are we forced to keep things in the family? Seems odd, given that little sister does have things outside the family)
After that we go back to.... go to point X, Y or Z, do some gaming at home, paperwork at magic town, talk to people about their problems while the sisters go traveling.... riveting "game"... But wait, let's watch the sisters DO something.

Then the final nail for me: surprise surprise.... "Jess: Ellie's leaving it up to me to decide".... So, MC becomes a background character, and the sisters take the main role?

I should have suspected this when earlier we were told that the Keystone can be controlled by Ellie and that she has magic.... So, is MC redundant now?

If there is doubt, when we return home, "MC" goes to sleep... what has he done in the last days? Walking, talking, gaming, college, taxes, more paperwork perhaps?

I had enough of this "game" at this point... my choices reduced to what others do with the MC becoming an errand boy when he is not narrating or having thoughts.

Dev, you should have stopped with the Null Stone Aftermath and leave the "continuation " for another game where you say up front who is the MC and keep it that way.

Half a star is what you deserve for the mess that the continuation is, for your next project you should plan ahead, and leave when you are still ahead.

Overall (up to v0.8 content) 1.5 stars...

I will split the review into Bad and Good sections, if you dont want to read all of that just know that overall I recommend the game.

The Bad - lets get the bad stuff out of the way first:
- The Render quality - yeah, the render quality is mid at best, not that detailed and quite noisy in the dark scenes. I would say its passable. There are no animations in the game, just a few frames "moving" sometimes.
- The elephant in the room for most - The NTR - thankfully its not the worst kind where a love interest gets stolen away and the MC suffers. 2 of the girls are fairies, fairies like to fuck a lot and they will fuck anyone ( male, female, futa) This is unavoidable ( you can choose to not see it ) but you have the option to not pursue these fairies as love interests and just ignore them. There is also the option for the sisters to have sex with characters besides the MC but this is fully YOUR choice, if you say NO the sisters only have sex with the MC.

The Good
- NO BLUEBALLS - I know games which started development at around the same time as this one and you get a BJ at most if they are not abandoned by now. I will take an average render of a pussy over a high quality face after years of development. There is a lot of sex in the game , with the fairy sluts, with mage main girl, with various fantastical girls, and especially with your 2 sisters ( multiple threesomes)
- The story is actually alright, nothing that will blow your mind but enough to keep you reading
- While the render quality is kinda poor the actual character design is good, the girls are sexy , the big tits are not comically large, and the sisters actually resemble each other, something which somehow totally escapes most incest devs.

I really like this one. Has an unusual story which adds some entertainment value over the usual 'fuck it because it's alive' thing we usually see in VN's.

I like the renders and some of the characters look really attractive. They're all different and have their own purpose.

It's not a typical harem game where you get a bunch of girls all happy to be a spare wheel as long as the mc glances in their direction once in a while. While the main story is fixed, choices actually take you down very different paths wrt the females.

I'm disappointed to see people complaining so bitterly about Lucy cockblocking the MC. That's actually explained as the story progresses and she quickly becomes friendly once the issue is resolved - guess some people have an incredibly low attention span and couldn't get past that point.

Actually disappointing game. Started of great with strong story and plot, but the character development and the MC is so lacking that it becomes frustrating.
Renders and CGs are outdated and not blended properly to the background. The variety of different characters are welcoming, but the choices make it - do you want to fuck this character yes or no. There is not a lot of meaningful choices to make in the game, most of it is skip scene.
With updated renders, some polishing on the choices and UX the game would be in much better place.

I guess this will be my first one star review on this site.

Why? Renders are more then outdated, many vn´s from 2017 have better renders and animations. Wait: animations? No this vn doesn´t have any animations.

This vn has netorare in it´s features. Well, i don´t think there is netorare at all considering the rules here, because the mc doesn´t know about it, but you, as the player have only the option to skip sex-scenes but they still happen in the game and you as player know it.

I tend to identify myself with the mc, therefore to the player (not the mc!) it feels like netorare.
Well the story itself is not too bad and the writing is ok i guess, so i decided to add another star but thats as far as i go.

A good game with a interesant storyline, the artwork is fine, a world of magic, travel between worlds , dragons, fairys ( i like Rose, lesbian content too ) and others different species. Eleanore, the sister from the MC had a good path with Rose and Lucy. Futa content too but you can decide which route you like with this storyline. The sexscenes are good imao and i think i like the Eleanore storyline , a innocent girl which have fun with her girlfriend Rose.

Hmm,i read a reviews about Lucy and i dont understand this. Lucy and the MC are cursed and if the MC cheatet Lucy it is not a problem , why ?( welcome in the 21century ) The game is a lot with realionship with other and so sex too so you can have sex with some, but it is a can, not must have sex, you decide.

The game is a perfect blend of fantasy and reality. The character designs are absolutely fantastic and the dev too gives regular updates. Ellie is my favourite character, and all the netorare fetishes are optional and yo wont find them mistakenly.T he story is already interesting and I hope it becomes great in the future. Good luck to the dev.

Jesus Christ Lucy has to be one of the most frustrating characters I have ever had the displeasure to come upon, constantly lying and trying to cockblock the MC but goes around fucking around like no tomorrow. Like I wouldn't give a fuck if she went around doing her own thing while leaving the MC to his vices but she acts like a selfish bitch constantly and cockblocks and the dumbass of an MC doesn't question the constant bullshit. I really tried to give this a chance but dammit I can't stop getting frustrated.

The Keymaster [v0.6] review -
Renders are grainy and female models doesn't look appauling like in other games , story is nothing extra ordinary and character and dialogues are boring and some of the choices feels kinetic atleast it doesn't have sandbox gameplay and sex scenes are not animated . So probably 1 to 2 stars not a great game and not worth playing, will check again once it gets completed to see if it gets improved and change my review accordingly .

Have recently come upon this game and played it more or less straight through to the end of v0.6 (on the Mallory path).

I'll certainly be watching out for the next update, because (after a slow start) it has the most important feature of any VN - you want to know what happens next.

Pros:
- Good story
- Characters you care about
- Literate text

Cons:
- Some of the female character models look as if they have had a bit too much cosmetic surgery around the mouths, especially the two sisters.
- The MC model does look a bit too moronically lustful. Appropriate in a way, I guess, but he is supposed to be developing a bit of depth through all of this. Isn't he?

But the pros definitely outweigh the cons. There are many VNs with better models than this, but I eventually stop playing them because I don't really care what happens next. Story is everything.

This one has become one of my favorites. The Dev does a great job of providing choices on how you want the story to progress,

It's nice when you get one where the models are realistically proportioned and the MC doesn't come off as a total creeper. I'm a romantic at heart so I like the relationship between Ellie and the MC particularly. Keeping my fingers crossed for a pregnancy option for the girls.

I was very tempted to give this game five stars, because it has so many absolutely unfair ratings.
Yet, I wouldn't be comfortable with that, as the game, while fun, also has some flaws which really detract from the enjoyment.
Though, again, not in any way as much as others have claimed.

Before you play this game, you need to know a few things.
For one, this story is about magic, and not only is a lot of it sexual magic, many of the magic creatures are also enjoying sex in general a lot and are very promiscuous.
Which means, if you are someone who only wants to see the MC and his LIs have sex, you are going to miss out on a lot of content here.
It is very much optional, you can skip seeing the scenes if you want, but they will still happen in game.
That is also something that Ptypoe makes VERY CLEAR at the start of the game, which makes me so angry about some of the reviews, because if you can't stand something like that, why play the game?
Of course as players we want agenda and if we get it, that's fine, but we also have to respect that the dev is trying to tell his story.
And wanting him to remove parts of the story, which are part of the basic set-up of the game's world, that's just ridiculous.

To be clear, I haven't seen a single case of NTR, because in no scene was the MC forced to watch his LI have sex with someone else and be humiliated by it.
That being said, one of the characters, Lucy, really goes quite far, not only does she try to cock block the MC, she also lies about her having sex and uses lies to influence others. For me, even with an explanation, that's too much, and I have pretty much no interest to play her route as well.

And what others have mentioned is true as well, it takes a long time for the MC to really get some good sex going (on the non-incest route there is a lot of casual sex, but actually fucking the sisters in the incest route only happens in the latest chapter, same with the main LI, it will take several chapters to fuck her), so again, if you have a problem with that, it might be better if you pass on the game. Personally, I didn't mind, because I could see a development and I don't mind slow-burn.

The game starts out very slowly and repetitive, and it drags on, so I admit, I did use the skip button a lot in the first two chapters.
It gets a lot better afterwards. This is pretty much a leftover from the dev's previous game, where you had to meet certain values to unlock new content. Here it seems as if it is just part of the story, but that doesn't really make it better.
Also, there are quite a few single-option "choices," which I personally found annoying, but not to an extent as in other games.

So, you might think that is a lot of complaining, for a four-star review, but there is also a lot I like.
The incest here is done well. There is an initial attraction, between the MC and Ellie, but they both act slowly on it and gradually go farther.
There is also an explanation as to why the usual boundaries are weakened, even if it is just magic again.
Both sisters look fine, especially Ellie, really is a cutie and also has a sweet personality. Mallory is also a nice GILF (she doesn't look it, but you'll understand once you play the game) and actually has a pretty sweet personality as well, once the romance begins.

If you use the patch, there is incest content and romance with the younger sister and to a lesser extent with the older one.
You will also have to choose one main LI apart from that, either Mallory or Lucy (choice wasn't really hard, for me at least)

The sex scenes are written well enough and for me, there are also enough renders used, to keep it entertaining, there is lesbian sex as well, which is a plus for me, especially because this will definitely lead to a threesome with both sisters, but this content is pretty much optional as well (again, you will lose out on a lot of content, though).
The same goes for FUTA, some of the girls can grow a magic penis, but you can disable that kind of content, if you want to.
I would have liked to have a few more ins and outs to that, for specific characters, because while I don't mind a futa nailing a girl, I don't want it to happen with the family and the main LI.



To sum it up:
This game is a fun incest game with magic, it's well written and has some nice LIs, it does have flaws, but it is nowhere near as bad as some reviews suggest. You can't play a game which doesn't cater to your tastes, and then rate it abysmally, just because you don't like it, you should have known that beforehand and just decided not to play it.

This game deserves a better rating.

Unlike what has been said in other reviews, the MC does have sex, quite a bit. Up to v0.5 the male MC has sex with 12 girls, including the two main LIs and both sisters.

BTW the game has multiple MC, so, technically, they all have sex right from the beggining.

However, the progress with the two main LIs is slow, with the sister it's not, if you're into it of course.

The story is good and well written.

The renders aren't bad, but they're outdated.

I see no reason for such a low rating. It's not an exceptional game but it's far from mediocre.

I rarely review a VN this early unless it's exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Sadly this one is the latter.

Writing is sound. It's technically proficient. But all of that really quality work is dedicated to get everyone but the MC laid.

Female on the LIs. NTR. Futa on the LIs. One of the main LIs turns out to be a cock blocking, jealous, cunt who won't fuck the MC but is determined that no one else does either.

In the game thread I complimented the devs for presenting such an attractive VN that I didn't bother to read the other reviews and, to my great regret, got sucked into the blue balling farce. Don't waste your time, as I did.

This is a wird one . Tbh I dont understand why there even is the choice between Mallory and Lucy when we literally fuck everyone else unless someone chooses not to. As mentuoned b4, game feels like it hasmultiple protagonists as not only we see thoughts of other characters but also decide for them. overall this game has to many of choices where most of them feels meaningless uless its to have sex or not. Most of the scenes at a begining is just watching sex between 2 other characters from 3rd persons perspective which is just wierd. Gets better further in you are.

This game falls into the same traps as the dev's previous game: Naughty Magic did: a story that gets dragged out because ...

'Magic'!

Players of VN's are more know with this term as 'blue-balling-for-arbitrary-reasons-because-the-dev-says-so'.
And then there is the 'ntr' crowds having a fit <sigh> Look, I don't care about any of that, I just don't mind it.
But the game has you playing a guy who isn't getting any either. You, as the player, not the MC, just watch other people have (somewhat lame) sex scenes. It's like knowing your neighbours bang sometimes.
This game skips some of the repetitiveness that Naughty Magic had and the render quality is better but the rest is worse. Skip this one!

Hmm, this game has a lot of unavoidable scenes in it that basically remove player choice from the game. most of them are NTR scenes, and some futa on LI scenes that you can "skip" but they still happen off screen. The Main Love interests constantly Lie to the MC, have sex behind his back, and cockblock him, and as of 0.3 the MC on has 3 scenes while the other characters have over 10 scenes, what is the point of having us play the MC when he barely has sex, and most of the content is scenes between his Main LI and other men and futas, some of which are EVIL characters.

Not only does this same LI that is going out with EVIL characters constantly lies and manipulates the other LI's into having sex with her, and with other men... She also claims to be soul mates with the main character but does this anyways, and all of the sex is unprotected too (to add insult to injury)

Honestly the game gives no player choice where it matters, and skipping scenes, is just choosing to ignore them, and not actually changing the story. Also the MC has barely any sex in a story about him. And the LI's constantly egg each other on to sleep around. The most annoying part, is that the Dev didn't put ANY of this in the tags until he was called out for the bait and switch. Honestly, if you read one of his prior novels, the main character is LUCY the LI who is doing all the bad things, which makes more sense as to why she is so prominent in this novel, its basically a continuation of her novel as the MC, but this time she is a LI instead of the MC in name, even though most of the scenes revolve around her anyways. Basically, its really a female protag harem game pretending to be a male protag harem game..

As of v 0.3
Starting with cons of the game as they outweigh pros in this game -
A game of multiple protagonist to be precise it is more of a female protagonist game where she enjoys sex with random people and have more sex scenes than that of a male protagonist who is more of a beta male who is constantly cockblocked by the female MC though she loves him and have sex with others than with him and a boring fantasy story with some horrible writing and dialogues added to it and choices which doesn't make sense and need a walkthrough to play the game .
Finally pros of the game are rare to find except for some good looking models and renders . I don't recommend playing unless you are into beta main character who enjoys watching others having sex or like to play a dumb female protagonist game .

I don't write reviews often any more, they stress me out when trying to be fair. However, I think the overall score here really isn't representative of the game, and that might be why I'd not tried it before now, but I actually rather liked it, so wanted to address that to some degree.

The big thing here is that the women in the game fuck other people... the dev is upfront about that at the start, if that's not your thing then fair enough pass on by, if you're not bothered then you'll probably have fun.

Pros:
-Good English
-Good renders
-Quite a few women and variety to them
-Reasonable story
-Nice corruption of the sister
-Quite a bit of game time per release, there was much more than I was expecting for a 0.3

Cons:
-Seems like there's some path restrictions already coming into place (that don't really make sense in some cases)... I have a feeling that might get pretty annoying later.
-Story is a little predictable (?) so far, I'm hoping it'll have more twists and depth as we go.

[Review of version 0.3]

This games sucks ass. There is almost zero sex for the MC and you have to see possible love Interests have sex with other people by see you can "skip it" but you know it is happening. But the dev was 100% up front about that so my complaint isn't that it happens in the story but everyone else gets more sex than the MC does. Oh there is some fuck off plot reason for it but what the fuck is the point of creating a porn game where the MC gets cocked blocked by a LI only to have that LI have more sex with other people than the MC?

At the start of V0.3 the dev goes on and on about the sex the MC will have with multiple characters only to NOT deliver. I could find only one sex scene for the MC[EDIT: there was one person with two sex scenes. i miss wrote saying one sex scene should have said one person] and none of that was with the two possible LI the dev specifically said you could have sex with.

There are no animations and the sex you do see is over very quickly and because of all the bullshit with the cock blocking these sex scenes fall short And this assumes you want to watch NTR adjacent content and it assumes you want to watch futa content.

If you don't like NTR content DON'T download the game. Lucy has sex with people possible LI, Rose has sex with people possible side character you can fuck. There is no toggle to remove it, you can choose to not see the scenes play out but you don't remove the story elements. The only reason i am not giving this one star is because the dev was upfront if a little vague on this would actually mean. It means if you pick a LI that love interest will fuck other people including men and get more sex than yourself. There are more sex scenes with other people than the MC.

The game doesn't use animations and the sex scenes are short, in 2021 a game with zero animations is at a major drawback compared to all the games with decent and some with spectacular animations. This game lacks them and it shows.

The story seems more of a contrived excuse to cock block the MC than to actually tell an interesting story. For a story about magic there is a surprising little on display. Woo teleportation and clothing manipulation that is mostly it. i get the impression the whole point of the magic is to give an excuse why other characters are fucking everyone but you.

I am not even sure NTR fans will like this because the story is kind of crap and the reasons why the MC doesn't have sex much and the the woman having sex with other men have little to do with the MC being cuckold. This feels like a dev trying to have NTR with out it being NTR so he can keep both fans but in the end I get the feeling most fans of NTR will be disappointed and people like myself who hate NTR will hate the game because it is NTR to most non NTR fans. The very thing that people who don't like in NTR this game has. So no one is happy.

Poor story
The NTR toggle is poor as in it doesn't remove the elements from the story
No animations
very little sex for the MC which i guess ties into the whole NTR adjacent nature of the game.