Ren'Py - The Last Oasis before Chastity [v1.86] [MissLizzyAnthus]

Foreword
First of all, I'm truly grateful for all the games I can use for free on this site.
I've played a number of games over the past four years, and there have been some real gems and true highlights.

I certainly understand the desire to receive recognition for one's work, including in the form of compensation.

But many people forget that these games and their sometimes hardcore fetishes aren't something that can or should be marketed commercially.

Developers who publish their games on Steam are, with all due respect, incredibly stupid.
It draws unnecessary attention to these games, which aren't just vanilla and are viewed as a scandal by many moralizing and uptight people.

No Mercy was a good example; even in my country, major magazines focused on it, and it was torn to pieces, and the sensationalism is leading to sites like F95zone getting unwanted attention.

Get your money from Patreon or other sites that no one will find unless they explicitly search for them or must pay for.


The Review

Positive:

This game is really good in terms of the UI, animation, and many little details. The "story" (no offense intended) doesn't take itself seriously, and the number of cultural references is brilliant.
Someone my age appreciates that, too.

The hidden secrets are great and There are several ideas for a larger game with more depth.....

The big but.......

The playtime was about 5 hours, and the content was manageable, at least in the free version.
The advertising for both Steam and Patreon was incredibly intrusive.

Wouldn't be bad if a large part of the content wasn't behind a paywall,
and wouldn't said advertising lead to a bug that prevents you from continuing to play, forcing you to skip an event from one of the three small bonus updates.

Real talk to the developer: What you're suggesting will probably get banned even on F95Zone if it comes to explicit scenes.

If that's already a problem here, what do you think will happen on Steam?

So I have to ask myself, is this truly professional game just another cash grab that can't live up to its expectations?

I've played such good games that were completely free.

You have the talent and a team behind it; don't waste it for a few bucks. Finish the thing first and then charge for it, but please not on commercial sites like Steam.

3 out of 5
-1 Advertising that leads to bugs
-1 Expectations that the game raises but won't be able to live up to.

There is no real reason to play this game now, content is minimal story/writing is ok and the most notoble thing in this game is weird insistence at pretending to not be a porn game while also having a loli in the game... like the game asks 3 times if you are ok with incest and that it would be very bad decision, but it also has a loli. Anyway there is just not enough content to recomend this game but the qraphics and ui is very nice so it would feel wrong to give it a 2 stars.

Credit where it's due: the dev behind this pays attention to visual detail. The models and renders are excellent. Animations (that you can actually view) are OK.

That's where the appeal ends. This thing is stuck behind the most annoying pay wall I've ever encountered in a VN. Whether that's on F95 or elsewhere. I'm actually surprised it has almost a 4 star rating. For one thing, the amount of playable content in the "free" version is minimal. I suspect so much time was spent on the UI (and the annoying and random areas you are prompted to click to interact with), and it wasn't really clear just how little content there actually is.

Between being bombarded at every launch to wish list the game on Steam, subscribe on Patreon, and sandbagging the casual players by putting what I can only assume is the decent content behind a pay wall, I hope this results in the exact opposite of what is being elicited. I would not recommend this to anyone unless they have money burning a hole in their pocket. It's a shame, because it has so much potential.

This game can rightfully be called the most disappointing game of the year. It had massive amounts of potential when the first version came out, but then the dev didn’t bother to update the main story any further, instead opting to create some random scenes with characters from movies that have nothing to do with the main story. I don’t know for the life of me why the dev thought this would be a good idea. No one really cares that you have characters from The Ring, John Wick, Rocky, references to serial killers and many others in your game if the main story is at a standstill. The players want to see the story progress and not some kind of weird ‘Where’s Waldo’ but with movie references.

If the dev had been updating the main story instead of adding random crap this game would have been far more popular by this point, instead, the dev is trying to force people to add this game to their Steam Wishlist. If you focus on making a good game more people with want to support you, if you focus on making some random crap they won't and there is no point trying to force them to.

This game has a lot going for it. It has exceptional graphics and the coding doesn't have any catastrophic bugs. Sure there a some mess-ups like the unnecessary clicking where there aren’t any choices to be made or the odd plot points, but no game is perfect. However this game not only isn’t perfect it doesn’t even seem to have a direction at all. I guess the dev thought if you make a good introduction and then start adding random scenes to it that people will like it regardless. Sad, this could have been one of the best, if not the best, games on this site in my opinion.

The writing is just so painfully bad along with the very miss humor the creator tries to instill in the "story". On top of this there's so many unnecessary moments where you have to click on something to progress the story. Sometimes it's just a person they want you to focus on where you might get some thrown in sexy time.

It's just weird and pointless. They're on the run so when their clothes are miraculously stolen while the girls are showering in the next room. The only logical option is go door to door to ask strangers if you can borrow clothes for the girls to sleep in....wtf world would this ever happen?

Lots of work have been put in to give the game a polished look. Crisp menus with sounds and really, really good renders.

However the game falls flat where it actually matters. Storyline, Plot and Pacing. Especially for what the game apparently tries to achieve in the long run.

*Mild Spoilers*

MC is at some point short of maybe 50 Bucks ? After all he had prepared and pre-planned ? Come on ! That must be one of the weakest Plot devices i have seen in my life given the context.

Then the pacing. After an unnecessary long stretch of something that is the typical "slow burn build-up" with a strange back and forth of "getting quests" and making them fall flat a second later. You suddenly get a super-fetish hardcore scene thrown at you for no apparent reason other then being a male that happens to be there. Suddenly changing the vibe to "Quick-fap fuck fest" and pressing the brakes right after that again.

Not to mention the reason why you run into that scene is triggered by yet another stupid Plot device similiar to the missing 50 Bucks mentioned above.

At some point the plotholes become an insult. Two stars for effort, admirable effort, but please get a writer or at least someone proof reading the basic plot.

It is okay wanting to build a "slow-burn", but you seriously need to decide and get your plot straight one way or the other.

This game is annoying to say the least.

Here are 11 ways that this game is annoying. EDIT: Actually, 12 ways that the game annoys me. I thought up another reason later on in my review.

01.) The game starts off super loud, blasting your speakers, alerting everyone in a 10 block radius.

02.) Dragging the sound volume sliders all the way to the left has no effect and you will continue hearing really loud sounds. The only way to fix this is to just mute everything.

03.) Immediately upon starting the game you will be presented with a huge window blocking your progress telling you that you can pay to play. Then you are presented with some choices of how you want to play the game and immediately after you finish choosing you are once again presented with the same huge window blocking your progress telling you that you can pay to play.

04.) Then you are asked to name your character. Apparently, when naming yourself or other characters your name has to be all caps. That is not something that I appreciate. I like names with a capitalize first letter and lowercase other letters.

05.) Then the game gets really confusing. There is a graphic icon of a man and two females with the word "CONTINUE" underneath. I thought that the graphic icon and the word "CONTINUE" was one and the same button. So when I clicked the graphic icon, I got stuck. I spent three minutes trying to figure out how to get into the game. It just showed the male character and black silhouettes of the two females that can't be interacted with. And nothing else. No "CONTINUE" button, etc. Finally, I figured out that I have to keep exiting out of all those screens and go back to that aforementioned screen and click the text below the graphic icon.

06.) To make things even more annoying, when I'm exiting out of the Character screens, trying to get back to the screen with the "CONTINUE" text, it takes me to a menu page with Home, Settings, Save, Load, etc. Like, why in the world did I get sent to THAT menu page when I was just trying to get back to where I was before?

07.) When naming the two daughters, I am not allowed names with spaces in them. Why be so restrictive? It's a game. Let people have more freedom when creating names for characters.

08.) Then I got prompted THREE TIMES to change my name because the developer doesn't want me to roleplay as a "blood related" character. Like seriously, the game has already been so inconvient and annoying so far and I get prompted three times to change my name when each time I click "I want this name" and you STILL prompt me again?

09.) Anytime that I right click to go to the Save screen, I don't end up on the Save screen. Instead, I end up on another screen where I have to do an extra click to Save. This is inconvenient and undesirable behavior. On default settings, Ren'Py sends you to the Save screen AND YOU STILL have those other buttons like Home, Replay, Settings, etc. on the Save Screen. So you get everything from one screen. But the way the developer did it, you have to do extra screens. Very inconvenient. Plus I don't even like how this screen looks like. It blurs out the render images from the game and it just has a bad blurry look to it like "something is wrong" because of all the blur.

10.) Then when I click on the SAVE button and click on a save slot, there is a two second delay before it is saved. I've played hundreds of Ren'Py games and I can't remember that sort of delay in any of those games. I don't like the delay. I want things to be very speedy. Right click, click a slot, go back to playing. But the way this developer has it, I have to right click, see a blurry screen, click on a SAVE button, click a slot, wait two seconds for it to save, go back to the blurry screen a SECOND TIME, and THEN I can go back to playing.

11.) You have to click on X's on the top right or bottom right of the screen a lot. So like you get prompted to click "look at" something. Then you have to click out of it by clicking on that corner X button. Other than that, this X button is present on other screens too. Like when you get forced into the menu screen instead of the Save screen. And other times too. It's so annoying to have to click that X button hundreds of times within five minutes of game.

Okay, now that I vented about how annoying this game is. I will discuss the game itself.

The renders and lighting are great. It really feels like real life with the lighting. When you drive into a motel parking lot, it feels just like the movies or like you are driving into a real motel parking lot. The lighting is superb. The models and scenery look great too.

I don't like how this game injects loli content. Because of the realistic lighting and clear renders and this tough guy MC, playing this game is pretty much like going to a theater and watching a Blockbuster movie where a movie star character like Sylvestor S. escorts little girls around and pees in front of them and watches them pee on the side of the road. And then goes on to take these little girls to a motel where there are even more little girls. You'd never see the real Sylvestor do that, and it is just absurd. The girls in this game should be older, 18+, to make this an okay game, because they don't match up well with this tough MC or the plot scenario. This "do whatever you want" with these non-related minors in any public setting "just because" doesn't sit right with me. In other loli games, it's less offensive because it's just some silly, family incest game where the guy lives with a perverted family and every character in the house just wants to get it on in the safety of their house and usually has nothing to do with being hunted or hunting other people or going to motels. The characters in those games already have a great deal of familiarity and closeness and comfort around each other. Whereas this game is like going to the gym and finding the biggest, most muscular, strongest guy and placing that tough guy in a lewd situation with some random minor female and expecting that to be interesting and something worth paying for. Oh, that reminds me of the 12th thing about that game that annoys me. You keep getting prompted to pay to unlock VIP scenes. Hmmm. A game with hidden content is definitely worse than a game with visible content. So maybe I would be slightly affected if the VIP scenes were already included and I could see how it changes things. But here is the deal. This dev isn't too bright. I think that I read somewhere that he aged up the youngest girl to meet Patreon standards. But one, he should have never had the younger version of the girl in the first place. Two, he should have never used Patreon for a loli game. And three, even after he aged her up, she still looks 6-7 years too young. Which brings me to four, he should definitely not have this game on Patreon or Steam and it is bewildering that it is being allowed there where there are much better games featuring legal age females that get rejected on Steam - like Monolith Bay and Taste of Seduction.

I had all these complaints, and I never once thought about complaining about paywall content. But just as I am finishing up my review, I have to say, that bothers me a lot too. I think that developers are capable of getting subscribers without releasing games with locked away content (hoping to get people interested in paying). I think that they would actually garner more interest with unlocked content and less "Pay to Play" prompts every few seconds.

I honestly don't ever want to download this game ever again. But I have to admit, if a Patreon version was uploaded and someone informed me about it, I would probably DL it, skim through it, delete it, and never play it again. Basically just want to peep what was locked and missing. That is the only temptation. If the content is always going to be locked, then from what I see, the free parts aren't not my cup of tea and I won't ever play this game again. Chances are, it wouldn't be my cup of tea with the paid parts, but at least the idea of there being something I wasn't allowed to see existing piques my interest enough to have me tempted to give it a second look.

UPDATE: I read in the thread comments that the paid VIP version doesn't have any new content, like missing sex scenes or anything like that. It just shows the existing erotic scenes from a slightly different camera angle. Really boring. Also, I read many complaints that this dev has only released "bug fixes" for the past year or longer, and that there is no actual real new game content. Maybe some bonus content, but not main game content. One person said that a year ago they got to a scene where they were in a laundry mat and talked to someone named Creed and he said now, after a year later, he can still only progress that far and there is nothing new. So the developer is also milking this game and cheating people out of money. What a shame. I would rate this game -10 stars if I could. I'm glad that I did my research. Now I know for sure to never give this game another glance ever again.

The game is also on Steam, but this is F95zone.

For some people (actually for a lot of them) the game won't start and asks to be added to Whishlist on Steam.
The X button is (deliberately) unclickable, so skipping to MAIN MENU is impossible on some versions (doesn't matter if compressed or not).
Sb must've uploaded a deliberately paywalled game.

People who did manage to actually start the game complain about a patreon paywall or something.
These who follow the game for a while complain about rare updates (with little content).
Some say it's to make them pay longer (milk them dry - not in erotic way).

There were ways to go around it like unpacking a specific renpy file (not easy) or actually allowing to add to Whishlist (as if I would allow a porngame to mess with my steam account in any way). But I didn't bother.

After said experiences, I decided to block the game and won't bother with it.
You should not too.

I didn't enjoy this one, and was actually somewhat annoyed after playing it.
Pros:
The graphics are pretty good.
It's clear the dev put a lot of effort into this.
The potential for a good game is still there.

Cons:
The story is dullllllllll. Extremely bland.
You'll average roughly 1 lewd scene per 6 hours of gameplay (I'm exaggerating, but it legit feels this way).
Did I mention how excessively long the dialogue is? Not because it is "slow-burn" and building up a relationship, but because of uninteresting/pseudo-dramatic BS.

Honestly, it doesn't feel like an AVN. It feels like a regular "action/adventure" VN that the dev decided would make more $$ with some porn. The story just isn't very compelling, and given how much of the content is dedicated to propping up that plot (and not to people doing sex stuff, lol), this one simply isn't worth your time.

All in all, bland and mediocre.

Look, the game has awesome renders and models. The practice and overall route the developer is going is discouraging to say the least. More work is done on bonus content rather than main content. Looks like the main objective here is to milk the game for as long a possible + release on steam.

Update note 1.86. The game was very good, good graphics, a good story, funny and hot moments. Nothing for several months, rework corrections, no content. The developer has taken the wrong path, that of dragging out the games to win more, this will cause his downfall while he has a rough diamond in his hands.

Locked up on start up, can not progress to main menu. Just has a screen telling me to goto steam and add to wishlist. Not sure whats going on, maybe it needs internet, but I keep my porn on lock down so guess I will have to look into disabling this screen or deleting the game.

It started off very well with all those fancy stuff & character build up than you have 2 teenagers who i accepted as daughters instead of bodyguard .
MC is physically built as ex military or Agent . real solid.
The story telling is great 5/5 .

However the thing thhatt really turns me off, is those ugly wiered characters in the hotel rooms . Most ot those young girls are more less 18 which i believe will become MC lovers . [MC looks 35 or 40} does not fit into normal life. Few older women there all fatty & not appealing at all.

i can see how the story is going to turn out and it suck based on characters added . Not interested at all unless the Dev turn his ladies model around to fit with the MC character and built .

[v1.85b]

These points aside, the game is a fairly decent start so far. It's effectively one chapter in total right now, of what is likely to be a story containing at least 10 chapters if it's actually going to get anywhere at it's current rate. Very little occurs story wise thus far in-game.
- If I were to give it a version number based on the amount of content (in-comparison to your average game) it's actually more along the lines of v0.185b, then it is v1.85b.

Like I said, a ton of effort is put into this, and in one way is worth checking out. However, there are many aspects that will inevitably cause the down fall of what it currently is. This dev has clearly not considered the line they have crossed with all of the copyrighted music, and the couple of intellectual properties they have infringed upon. If this game, suddenly got released and sold today, they would be sued out the wazzoo.

I'm reviewing the free version of the game since it's what 99% of people will play. Great game overall as mentioned in other reviews (renders, production, plot, characters, etc.) but I'm deducting 2 stars for camera angles locked behind a tall recurring paywall. This may not seem like a big deal, but the non-VIP camera angles tend to hide the NSFW bits from the player (i.e. and upskirt shot with the pussy just out of view). This happens often enough throughout the game to make you feel FOMO for not being able to see the all content from all angles, and it was enough to diminish the overall experience for me.

This game is a masterpiece. Everything in it - the visual style, interface, music, jokes, dialogues, writing is state-of-art. I just love it. It is not for those who want a quick fap (though there are naughty scenes in it) but for those who enjoy a good story and good clever humor.
One of the best quality AVNs that I've played (and I played many).

There ain't a lot there right now but what is there is very good imo. The production values are a step or two above what is average for these kinds of games and I appreciate the use of "licensed" music.

Aside from presently lacking content my only complaint is some wonky grammar - the issue is especially prevalent in the games sex scenes.

I don't think I'll be touching the game until a good chunk more content has been added, but I'm very much looking forward to it.

TL/DR: It almost played like a fervor dream...and I was mostly here for it in spite of that? Because of that? It's weird. It's campy. It's cringe levels of meme. Buuuttttt....I loved this shit. Chad tier father figure takes his 'wards' on an escape into the desert and his escape plan putters out in town full of nutters. Beautifully rendered with a clean UI. Buffet type choose the routes you'd like to do harem game.

+ Lots of good one liners.
+ Tons of UI elements.
+ Lots of in game variables
+ Fun splash screen art for character intros
+ Shit is kooky in a good way.
+ Lots of hot gals
+ Great variety of gals
+ Some routes are very weird
+ MC looks great. Love watching him fuck.
+ Nice Musical score. Prob put together by someone born in the mid 80's TBH. Hadn't heard that NiN song in a long fuckin' time.

- The meme humor and cultural references are sometimes too heavy handed to be funny.

This is an interesting but strange VN. Which isn't bad it's just that the story is kind of all over the place and feels really short. Honestly, I laughed at the Thema and Luis reference and even appreciated that fact that the dev even thought to give the choice for the MC to go along with them and forget the two girls. So far it's a fun ride and I'm here for it. I may even purchase the game from itch.

Good scenes, interesting, weird and that is why I am checking it out.

That said however, I find that the extras and bonus are (all to make more money to unlock more content), really a pain in the ass. The game is very short and while you can continue, it becomes totally disconnected for me from what was going on with the MC and ends up just being frustrating.

I reckon wait for a year and come looking again at this, its not worth it right now.