VN - Ren'Py - The Keymaster [v1.2] [Ptypoe]

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.

When I saw the fromt àge picture i saw 3 characters, but after playing it for a while i notice that the days go by like this:
Small conversation with the sister, and some events, at the begining msotly.
Go to school, talk to Lucy go home and have some enourmous chunk of story with characters standing and talking, mainly Lucy and Mallory.
Small conversation with the sister. Go to school, talk to Lucy, go home. Another big chunk of conversation or story with Lucy and Mallory. Another short conversatio with the sister. Another big chunk of story with Lucy and Mallory.
At this point the MC is not the main character and this scenes happen either in the living room, or in Mallory headquarters, with the same people palcesd in the same way with the same camera angles. This is definetly a cheap work.
There are a lot of scenes totally unrelated that happen without transitions. There is of course fanservice sex with side characters, but since the game seems to be a powerpoint i cant get myself to enjoy it much.

And maybe a WT is needed to achieve a better result since its kinnd of a guess game to know what options you whould pick in conversations to achieve better results.

[v0.3]

I'm not even sure how you can make a fantasy story this boring. It's not even really a problem with the world building or anything like that. I won't even go into the "NTR" because it's not really framed in that way. Casual sex happening everywhere without any real malicious intent is what it is. If you don't like that, well the game is not for you.

None of that matters to me. The issue is that the game is sooooo boring. The writing style is just so drab and repetitive. They just sit there and talk about what happened and what they will do, often repeating the same info multiple times during the same conversation. The choice system is the most boring thing I've experienced in a long time. "Hug her or not" is a choice that repeats like 10 times, possibly more since I quit after being unable to bear the boredom.

The visuals are not much better. Renders are pretty subpar, but more importantly, there is barely any visual stimulation. It's about as boring as the writing. You just see people stand around and talk for a long ass time, barely moving.

Just... boring.

MC is pitiful. He has a 10 year plan to eventually hold hands with girls who are having daily sex with farm animals. In the latest iteration we get to watch him sit on the couch twice watching movies and play computer games. When something sexual does happen it is so anticlimactic it is like watching paint dry. If he was more passive he would evaporate.

The key the secret


I liked the dev's previous works, especially Naughty Magic.
What I didn't like about it was the grind (you had to repeat certain actions over and over to get anywhere with the girls).
I'm glad that the dev has moved away from this tedious mechanism. The Keymaster is purely story driven.


Visuals

The renders are decent, although a bit dated by today's standards.
Posing and facial expressions look slightly unnatural and weird at times - especially when people are talking without actually looking at each other, but staring into the distance.
There are also issues with ugly looking (breast) clothing morphs.


Sound

Unfortunately, there is no sound - which is a shame because music and sound effects (audible spell effects for example) would enhance the immersion a lot.


Characters

The characters are good looking, but except for Lucy I'm not overly attracted to them.
Lucy is also the most interesting character so far.
I like that she's not your ordinary LI whose only purpose is to crave the MC's dick - instead she's a little minx who remains reluctant towards him for now and has her own agency.


Relationships

The Keymaster isn't your typical harem story centered around the MC, but there's also no NTR so far.
NTR implies the MC is in a relationship with a person who engages in sexual activities with someone else - which isn't the case.
However, potential LIs live their own (love) life - if you can't handle this, you should probably stay away from The Keymaster.
Personally, I don't mind this kind of content - I don't need it, but I also don't despise it.


Writing

The Keymaster features a typical fantasy story paired with an equally typical incest story - both which I'm not too fond of.
Fantasy isn't exactly my favourite genre and incest is rarely well written.
While the English is sound (there are very few typos) the writing is sort of a mixed bag.
At times story and dialogue are interesting and sparkling with humour, but there are also segments in between where the story drags and the dialogue is tiresome.
On top of that there's your typical stale adult VN / game tropes:
MC suddenly realises his sisters are hot / have boobs - or choices like "Knock / Barge in". *yawn*
Explicit scenes are hot, yet rather short.


Bugs / Issues

The Keymaster isn't perfect. Some issues I've encountered so far:

• Display of wrong character names when somebody is talking.
• Story inconsistencies (on the first planet Rose needs to have sex to cast a travel spell, on the second she doesn't)
• Single choices

Conclusion

My first impression of The Keymaster wasn't that favourable to be honest, but I'm glad I continued reading to the end of the current version. While some parts of the story were quite entertaining, others seemed a bit too bland and drawn-out for my liking.
If you don't mind the fact this isn't your typical harem builder, but rather a VN with more than one protagonist, you'll get rewarded with an overall decent story and some enjoyable scenes, both funny and naughty.

So, anyway...why do I like this title so? Well, I find "The Keymaster" to be a simply intriguing adventure. It incorporates a very credible (for a fantasy) storyline and moves along at a steady and logical enough pace. Its relationships, as I'll try to illustrate later, match the logic of characters' circumstances, roles and emotional and, er... you know, other "interests". The storytelling employs a fascinating, yet never stifling or overly elaborate, lore and the locations are unusually diverse and far-ranging. The female models are top-drawer attractive and sexy (to my rheumy and bloodshot eyes at least) with standout features, especially the front three('s fronts) and, on top of all that, TK offers up a fairly liberal sprinkling of non-standard sexual proclivities (including even bestiality! ...rare, that one...though an eeuuww from me personally.)

My personal favorite out of the girls happens to be the mc's babe-y sister, Eleanor, although Lucy possesses a killer bod as so does her womentor Mallory, of course, though with a different emphasis and in deliciously different proportion.

Given the perilous gravity and the potentially catastrophic consequences involved, complicated by the customary iron-fisted possessiveness of a woman (who believes herself to be) desperately in love, Lucy's devious manipulativeness and wholly deceitful behavior is, to me, under such extreme circumstances, totally credible, especially as she is forced to do and act upon her plotting completely on the fly.

For those of us true bloods who are firmly in Lucy's corner she is nothing short of heroic. After all, aren't the lengths to which she will go to gamble that she can thwart the seeming inevitability of Destiny itself and in order to do so buy enough time not only to help save the universe, but also, once that's out of the way, still retain enough breathing space to win her man is surely awe-inspiring.

Review of V0.2

I like fantasy/magic games and I'm glad I found this one . It’s had some negative reviews because its style doesn’t appeal to a particular subgroup on the forum. But I realised that some of us have different views and can appreciate this game for its many strengths

• Production values – Not perfect, but a shitload better than a lot of other games
• Dialogue – intelligent, funny
• Lots of attention to the main storyline, plus subplots. Clever mix of our world and other worlds.
• Characters – The MC is a nice guy not some alpha douchebag. The girls are hot and varied in character. Eleanor is beautiful and Mallory is super sexy.
• This is a visual novel with player choices. I’m guessing the choices build confidence/respect and more sexual activities as the game develops.

The game is a bit leftfield, in interesting ways.

• There is a lot of development of the main female characters, including scenes without the MC. Lucy in particular she’s a strong character with a healthy sex drive. Sex and magic are linked in this game and this affects her actions. She is also under an external influence that causes her to act out of character, which is confusing for her and the MC. A few players seem to struggle with this. As for me, I look forward to seeing how this subplot pans out.
• A couple of female characters have sex with males other than the MC. Scenes are totally in context for the game’s parameters and actual sex scenes are avoidable. Absolutely zero impact or pain for the MC (who doesn’t even know for fucks sake!). So thankyou to the dev, for finding another way to show sexy girls having enjoyable, harmless sex in an adult game.

What would I like to see in future releases? Animations would be good. And more scenes with MC now that the plot and the characters are set up. But for me it’s a great game as it is. Bring on the next update!

The Keymaster V0.2

This is an amazing game being trolled by people who get hurt by ntr. Thus far I am not sure if it even is withing the definition of ntr given the plot design.

Pro:

1. The narration, banter, and plot portrayal is perfect. I haven't seen much better.
2. The characters are lovable. Maybe too lovable... (See cons)
3. The graphics are good. I have seen better but it does well with posing and beautiful settings.
4. The game uses basic renpy settings without a lot of extra icons or snazzy fades. This is still a pro as far as I am concerned given how many games mess up the game with "special" game elements.
5. The choices don't go on 20 different paths but the choices that are there give the user the ability to skip scenes (scenes still happen some times) and move the main character toward a character type.
6. There is a ton of content for a 2nd release. It has more content than many games that have gone for years.

Con:

1. As mentioned in the pro column, the characters are likable. This is also true of the mc who has a soulmate connection with a girl that is a free spirit when it comes to sex. (She is introduced as such and is thus far the reason for ntr). I prefer less likable people being the whipping boys I guess. The characters are not romantically or sexually connected but they talk about each other and think about each other (narration) - anyway, not my favorite way to use ntr.

Conclusion:

This is a great game with great sex scenes, settings, and characters that suffers from a small group of trolls which is ironic because there is a literal troll in the game.

SHORT REV
The Story has potential and is appealing but needs serious development specially I love the concept of traveling to different worlds without worrying about language but there are 2 main problems. One Tom is Mc not Lucy and she seems to have most sex scenes + dual genitals for double fun and also playing the MC and Ele. Second a proper tag is missing for cockblock/ntr

Suggested Improvements
I have played more than 35 renpy games and 23 of them are fantasy so this comes from a good place
- Introduce a love/hate/lust system which we can view
- Give some powers to MC that is TOM not Lucy
- Put in proper tags
- Give MC some guts I mean Lucy says Rose is offlimits so I will obey the mean woman who is known to prank me...pffff..... what a sissy
- Give the players a chance or option to get back at the manipulative blonde bitch by teaching her a lesson like putting a magical chastity belt that only TOM can open and not let her have sex for a month so she can beg for it while making her watch all the sexual adventures of TOM the actual MC.


LONG REVIEW
The Good
- Characters have room for growth
- Dialogue and script writing is decent
- Story has potential

The Bad
- Lucy the manipulative bitch (see next section)
- The art can be improved as well
- There should be a tag like NTR or Cock block
- The creators fail to understand TOM in the MC not the cock blocking hypocritical blonde bitch (more in next section)

The Ugly
- Lucy gets to enjoy double the fun but MC barely gets laid.
- If I have not stressed enough about proper tags and Lucy being a duplicitous bitch let me do that again to emphasize the point.
- She deserves no hugs and her being under some spell explains her not wanting anyone but her to sleep with MC but she goddam does nothing of it.
- She thinks herself a bitch for doing it but that is no guilt that is a thought not even a frickiin indirect apology to MC instead she has the gall to be mean to MC

Bad all around, really.

Nonsensical "plot", unlikable characters ( MC's sister is "fine" I guess, even if completely one dimensional sweet, innocent thrope), simp MC that makes Mr. Dots typical protagonist seem like a raging Viking, poorly written dialogue with characters, excessive use of monologue, meaningless choices ( so far ).

Usually VNs that offer both NTR and Love route use relationship points and split storyline in two separate arcs: in this case, it mixes them and ultimately fails at satisfying players of either "camp".

It's a poor NTR game, as MC plays the part of "Chosen One" and the girls are still attracted to him.

It's a poor romance/harem game, as none of it feels "earned", there is no deep relationship development, and they're still screwing other LI's behind your back.

And reading monologue from both main characters makes it worse...male MC sounds completely pathetic non stop simping after girl that treats him like garbage, while in her case makes her look like hypocritical bitch.

This needs either a complete rewrite ( easier done with only one main character), or different narrative direction ( "Nice guy"/full NTR, Assertive/Femdom& Harem path)

Updated:

The game did improve a lot with recent updates, with MC having more agency, characters more depth, and plot is a bit more interesting.

Have you ever wanted to have 100 choices in a game, just to have the only real choice that means anything be whether you want to skip every sex scene that doesn't involve you, only just to realize that you skipped 90% of the game?

Well then this is the game for you.

Do you like characters that are completely nonsensical in the way they act and make decisions? Or a MC that doesn't really do anything at all and is kind of just pointless to the story? A MC that could just kinda not exist and the game would be better off for it?

Well then what are you waiting for? This is it, Download it.

On a more serious not this game just isnt that good, in really any regard. You have a weak MC (weak in the sense that he doesn't do anything and just kind of exists), and a deuteragonist that actually does stuff but is unbearable and is most of the scenes. It really feels like this game was made about Lucy and the actual MC was shoehorned in at the last second. This might work if the MC was more of an observer, but no, you make choices for how the MC acts every bloody 5 seconds, yet he doesn't do anything. Its just so unfun

The story itself isnt great but not terrible. Pretty standard fantasy stuff. I mean it really hasn't had time to develop much, and most of what story is there is ruined by Lucy or Rose every 5 minutes. Its not bad though.
~However the writing in places is just ridiculous. The motivations, and means some of the character use are just dumb, Lucy being the biggest Contributor. The ending of 0.2 sealed the deal on that one, such a bad character.

The art would be good if it was 2016, currently its serviceable, but not a good enough reason to download on it own unless you've played most everything on this site like me.

I dont like to review games that catch themselves in controversy like this game, but for some reason I felt compelled to download this game and see what was really up, and regret it. I'd give this a 3/10 if I could, a 7/10 if Lucy was the MC. And Im not to sure this game will get better, if anything worse if history repeats itself, because 0.2 was much worse then 0.1

I played the 0.1 version. Not much there yet, but I found it very promising. The main factor for giving 5* is that the dev dared to have female characters with a sex life not exclusively centered around the male protagonist. I found this a welcome difference to the standard situation.

In addition, there is an interesting modern-fantasy setup; a protagonist who actually is a good-looking young man; a very cute younger sister (who has personality beyond that) and a gorgeous mysterious sorceress. No real NTR.

Edit: I've now played 0.2. Still great. Still no NTR. Characters actions make a lot of sense, provided you actually pay attention.

The art was fairly basic. The characters were unlikeable, except maybe the little sister... sometimes. The story wasn't super original, and there were no actual choices other than to reply as a passive aggressive simp or a compliant simp... neither of which actually made a difference to the conversation or plot. I'd have been annoyed by the fact that the forced ntr, acceptance of horrible love interests, and extremely stupid choices were present... but by the time they showed up I had already lost interest in the story.

This is a pretty decent start. The story is intriguing enough and the character cast is alright. I can see this either becoming a really good game or flopping hard/getting abandoned.

The story is pretty good, but its the second 0.1 game that I've played this week that revolve around a magically gifted chosen one. I get it, like I said in the review I gave that game, its a popular trope for a reason. The lore seems pretty well established, though it might be piggybacking off other magical mediums that I'm not privy to. I wish the visuals did more in some areas. Like the MC starts having weird dreams after coming in contact with a magical artifact, but we don't get to see anything. They are just grey screens that say "I had a weird dream". Show us some blurred image or something to at least create intrigue. The tags also label incest and its easy to tell that its planned. I hope there is a choice there because they aren't "friends" or "roommates" they call each other brother and sister. Witch, I know they are actually related in those other games, but labeling it as brother and sister just removes that thinly veiled excuse and makes it so much weirder for me.

The main cast can be counted on one hand, all characters on two hands. It's a small cast, and you may think that's normal for a 0.1 release, but its a long release. The male MC is alright looking, I don't mind the long hair, i just wish it looked better kempt. It is strange because this might be the first game where no character is dying to get into bed with the male lead right off the bat. In fact, he isn't really a sexual object to anyone at first. You do have the choice of making him a kind soul or an asshole which I like. His sisters look like sisters and have individual personalities that aren't tripping over their taboo lust for their brother which is nice. The female MC is pretty, but she's written kind of poorly I feel. The game introduces her and is like "oh yeah, she loves sex. She's such a slut! But wait, we have a reason for that!". The last main character is a typical cougar, but she's a magical cougar! I think the characters need work because so far they aren't shaping up to be a group I root for.

The visuals are okay. There is a slight grain to them, but it's not bad or distracting unless you have just come from a super crisp game. Real life photos are used as some backgrounds but not all and it is really jarring. The dev blurs them to hide that fact but it's still really noticeable. Especially when there are animated set pieces also in the shot. The models are static for several frames in a row while conversations are happening so it feels like a slog a little bit going through some of the more wordy sections. The girls are attractive, but the FMCs breasts are gravity defying and it made me laugh the first time she took off her top. Overall, nothing to complain about, but nothing to sing praises over either.

Overall, it's a good start. The first release is long enough to be worth a playthrough, but it ends in a very weird place that felt unsatisfying. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger or a temporary conclusion, it almost ends mid-thought. I'd say if you're into magic and fantasy, give this a shot. If not, keep an eye on it and maybe try ot between releases of your prefered games.

The Keymaster has a somewhat unique premise and it's a solid start, story-wise, but renders seem to be lacking. I'm not sure this game has a clear identity just yet, so I'll be keeping an eye on future updates to see what direction the author takes it in.

For an introduction, I was not expecting this much of the plot to be set up but I'm definitely not complaining

Flow and pacing works well and dialogue is nothing too much out of the ordinary. Renders are ones we've seen before but still hold up all things considered. All look attractive

Only minor con is the constant need for the "single choices" to create the illusion of making more choices. If only one thing needs to be clicked on, just incorporate it into the story. Don't keep having us continually click through that

Overall, a good beginning demo to the game that I'll keep an eye on. Story looks interesting