VN - Ren'Py - The Neverwhere Tales [v0.6.0.1] [Ceolag]

While this game is definitely one of the better ones I've played.(TBF I've played a HUGE amount) I can't help but feel a overwhelming sense of disappointment and wasted potential from it.

Let's go through the goods. The most important part of AVNs, the LIs are beautiful, diverse, each with their personal quirks, backstory and what they offer to the story and MC.

World building is pretty well done, leans into real-life mythology and tries it's best to fit into modern society and it's timeline.

Production value of the game itself is certainly high. Effort is definitely put into the game, from the UI to renders, music and writing.

While I personally almost always give 5 stars to game I thoroughly enjoyed and bother to write reviews about. The game itself does have a number of flaws.
To start off with, the MC could definitely look better. There's something unnerving about the MC, and while that could be part of the plot, it's quite jarring on the eyes.

Next is the LIs and how the game flows with the interaction with each of them. While it's respectable that the dev made it clear and ruled out incest and harem, I honestly fail to see how that would work with this particular game and how it's developing. Tthe dev also mentioned the story will progress the way it's supposed to instead of being influenced too much by player choices.(Great if you ask me, a solid ending is better than having to wait on 12 mulitple endings with 37 split branches, utter woke nonsense)

That brings me to what I consider a major development flaw. I just don't see how you can progress the story with 1 ending with so many different LIs, especially since each of them provides a different kind of aid that the story and MC could use. This is one of those stories where a harem simply makes more sense than not. Players could have the choice who they want in the harem, or keep as friends to be included in the story But as things stands, you can only have one or another encounter/scene in certain parts of the story, which locks or leaves out certain characters if you make certain decisions.

I could go on about how the MC's extreme reaction to certain plotpoints that doesn't really make sense and feels like it's only there to push the story along. There's seemingly also a large number of variables that can be triggered, and while that's good for the realism of the story, it feels a touch too ambitious and might come back to bite the dev down the road when there's too many things to consider and write, regarding split paths.

TLDR: You can expect a good time if you don't have extreme expectations, but overall it feels like development will hit roadblocks down the line that will upset a group of players or another regardless of how it turns out.
Highly recommended to try out if you like the modern/fantasy combination.
I personally really enjoyed the hours I spent on it, which is a quite a decent chunk of content to date.(V0.6.0.1)

This review is for version (0.6.0.1) released on 2025-05-30.

CODING: Technically competent. I haven't encountered any errors or bugs that were not my fault.

RENDERS: The in-game renders are about the same level as the preview images.

ANIMATION: Only parts of the sex scenes and a few cinematic scenes. Mostly, the animation is very stiff with unnatural movement.

WRITING: The review by War Lizard has a very thorough breakdown of the issues with the writing. I agree with everything they said, so just read their review.

PLOT: If you are a fan of the Dresden Files, stay away from this game. This is some alternate universe fan-fic version of the Dresden-verse where the Knights Templar are now the defenders of humanity instead of the Wizards Council.

Personal Pet Peeve: If you do not have any martial arts, stage combat, or actual combat experience, do us all a favor and minimize the screen time of any training or fight sequences. The lack of experience and knowledge makes those scenes painful to get through. There is a reason movie studios hire fight directors and actors undergo months of training.

It's a beautiful game and the story is serviceable, but in the end it's just that. Given that this is not a harem game (which I appreciate!), you end up with a ton of love interests that you can't really follow up on and the one(s) that you do barely have any pay off. It's just not engaging enough even for one playthrough, let alone severable.

The story never takes off as the writing can be meandering and largely meaningless, so you wait and wait and wait for something to happen, you meet LI that you can't engage and... that's it.

It needs far stronger writing, especially interpersonal depth, for me to care what happens here.

I had high hopes for this game, but it’s just not working narratively.


The game looks good, and it has an interesting premise and there are lots of choices, but the writing is terrible. Other than the elf girl who was killed after a single chapter, and the bartender who is barely in it none of the characters are very interesting or believable and most of their actions make little or no sense. You have to really bend your mind to believe this person would take that action in this situation, on a regular basis.

I can understand how I felt interested in this game but seeing as where we stand at the end of the sixth chapter I can't see the appeal anymore.

The story is a typical otherworld, one secret organization aware of this world, multiple races about to burst to war against each other. I would really like to say more about it, and having read 6 chapters, I would hope to know more. This isn't the case. One of the scenes of this 6th chapter being even the Mc asking his childhood friend what is the job of the Templars: the question to ask the first time you hear their existence being pulled on until the 6th chapter to finally being asked. I do not think that there is a better example to feel the deep of the writing and the hopping of an explanation time should have been finished long ago.

Plenty of choices are offered to us, a strong point some may think but they brought their parts of liabilities.
The Mc is a mess. Preaching on saying the truth while lying, burning bridges with people then talking to them, being friend and yet going on a date with the said friend. He does have plenty of others flaws outside the choices obviously, but those came from the fact that the choices must matter while still having a game to keep going on.
Li are one big problem. The game isn't a harem even though it does play like a harem. At first, it was scenes completely taken out, making each part rather short if you were not with the Li concerned. Lately, you do have the scene as if you were "friend", having just the end butchered without the sex. I understand that it allows to have more game time but it is completely stupid to not be interested in the same guy with the same action just because... Choices are supposed to matter?
Conditional scenes are actually few. For some choices matters game, beside the sex you'll see pretty much all or the chance to be introduced to a scene will be here anyway to pull you where the dev wants.

Pacing is awful, going around between otherworldly affairs and everyday life.
Everyday matters are boring and have nothing to do with the story, making it all fillers. The point is that half of the Li are there, and since it isn't a harem you can be pretty sure that almost nobody will be interested in that part. A logical choice would have to simply trash it away and putting all the Li into the otherworld. That is one more proof that things wasn't thought through.

Then comes others flaws all along.
Dialogues felt mostly like preaching/question time or simply the characters weirdly understand inner jokes too much. Li are rather good-looking but the Mc isn't and the game loves shoving his ugly face in our face. The sex is bland, being mostly just an animation with 3 sentences to the point that cutting them out didn't bother me. Development is pretty dumb sometimes, just looking at the end of the chapter 6 makes me wonder how the hell did someone thought it was a good idea to make the sister disappear into a nightclub in the otherworld, which she shouldn't be able to get in, for absolutely no reason.

Between the end of the last chapter and the completely useless everyday part, it is quite tiring to keeping it up with this game. The good parts are few and having that much bad parts prove that it is just a lack of skill rather than coincidental flaws.

Good Graphics.
Good Story
I like that you can flirt with most characters ( i hope you can do more than flirt with them in the future )
I really enjoy the last chapter , it was like you are in a movie or tv series and connect to that world.

As a story-first kinda guy this ticks a lot of boxes, and I feel like it gives me plenty of reasons to get invested and care about what's going on. I actually quite like Kaija too, despite how divisive the character seems to amongst the playerbase, I found her circumstances quite rooted and believeable in the context of the story. Without saying too much, choosing the Kaija route and going through that journey of re-building felt good.

Re-playing the game to experience the different paths is a bit of a chore, but IMO it's worth it (especially as you can hold the skip key until you get to the route-specific content). I understand why the developer didn't want to go down the harem route like a lot of other AVNs, I think it keeps things grounded somewhat, but this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea.

The Neverwhere Tales (as of 0.5.4p)
Bad start, not gonna lie. Struggles to find it's footing and leans too much in to some cliches and tropes. Doesn't handle the LI introduction well (too much, too fast) and especially Kaija - the "reveal" does little, because we as the player just met her, so we give little fuck about her beyond her being gorgeous. The LI's themselves are interesting and charming, but it takes some time for the player to see it.
Picks up at a decent pace after Ch2 both in story quality and in writing quality. Some genuine marvels in there.
Visually it's gorgeous with tons of animations and attention to detail.. MC is ugly, tho.
Sexually it's.... boring as fuck. You ain't playing this for the porn, my man.
Bold choice for a chapter 5 end, even if somewhat expected. Still, got the feels rolling.
All in all - starts meh, but gets better and better. 4.5/5, but I'm gonna round up. Can't wait for the new chapter.

It's good. I tend to worry about the supernatural AVNs because they can sort of fall of a cliff into their world building and all the character and relationship development just kind of gets lost. This one does a very good job of keeping a drip of world building and exposition going at a steady pace, while maintaining a focus on the characters/relationships.

BRAVO,

I found myself carried away by the story even if it is sometimes a little messy. The author aims very high, it shows. The girls are superb and endearing.

For the moment Medb is my favorite but I will miss Finnabair and that is a shame. The MC's sister is also very very well done and I dare to hope that she will have a role to her measure especially among the Altar. It is clever to use the known legends as a plot and I say once again BRAVO.

On the other hand, the adult scenes are really not numerous or great and the lack of control of the character is a cruel flaw that should be reviewed. On the soft eroticism side, great!

On the aesthetic and son side, it is very very well done.

Personally the Alfar world is perfect and I want more.

So I am impatiently waiting for the sequel and congratulate Ceolag for this great work.

Please Ceolag don't kill too many people around the MC; already there I really had a big pang in my heart (I won't say anything to avoid spoilers) and I could already see my MC as a future Dad.

Can't wait to see the rest of this AVN which is a gem for me.

dayum good game it is, i rarely play any avn despite all previews after an hour of installing cuz I want it to be interesting and immersive but this is one of those few games I binged played, amazing story , good scenes and of course branching elements based on choices any relationship with characters, kudos to dev and hope to see more cuz I want finnabair back , I ain't ready for her namaari, damn that was totally not what I wanted.

One of the rare avn's that reels you into the story so much you stop caring about the sexual content and just want to experience the amazing story. Really loved this one and i cannot wait for the continuation of the story. Ceolag is an amazing writer and the level of storytelling and visuals shows that this is a pure passion project of his

Story 3/5
Hate to rate this as low as i have since i did love the story, but the LI selection is simply just to poor and its not fun playing an AVN if there are no LIs to after.

There are only 4 main LIs in total and 3 out of 4 is bimbos and i just dont like big tits dident like their faces or personalities either and the 4th one which has a nice build in my taste is a whore, why dev dident make it atleast even aka 2 smaller builds 2 bigger builds i dont know but its annoying.
Sure there is side-girls like Kate which i would have gone for but shes not a main LI....2 of the main LIs are also normal world LIs meaning if you arent on any of their paths theres pretty much nothing to do there which makes for a boring AVN, also why the 2 normal world girls are LIs i have no clue.

The reason i dident go for Kaija the girlfriend that was perfect in build and face is due to her being a prostitute/whore and you have no clue how much of a whore she truely is but the potential is there if you think about it.

Shes been working for the templars from back when she was very young and her bosses gave her the main goal of getting close to MC and she surely did just that, she went into a relationship with him while only thinking of him as a friend, she fucked him while having 0 love for other then as a friend and that would in by far most eyes make her a whore being paid to fuck MC.

The next problem is at one point she will tell ya how shes been in brothels to collect information, ofc this is not an NTR game so it wont tell you how she got information but its not far fetched that she sleept her way to atleast some just like shes sleeping with MC, she would apprently do anything for the templars which is shown clearly from her lieing to MC for 15+ years

Even if you do get enough points with Kaija in first chapter and goes love route not much will really change, she would still have lied for 15+ years and she could still be a whore doing anything the templars tells her to do, theres just to many questions that are left out about her and what shes been doing to make her a valid love interrest, maybe if she didnet enter a relationship with MC before he knows about the templar world it might have worked since she would then live her own life and not hiding shit while in a relationship with MC.

Funny enough i kinda liked the hole Kaija issue from a story perspective, so i wouldent mind dumping her ass and the idiotic templars first chance i got, but then games becomes bland and boring when no other main LIs are in my taste and thats really one of the main problems, i did go with Kate but since shes a side thing she rarely gets any screen time.

Also they put in a pretty hot redhead aka MCs sister but theres no incest so she not an option either which is something i will never understand when it is a AVN, i dont care if games has incest or not but dont put in hot girls if they have no real point being there, it would have been better for her to have been a brother and no one would complain about lack of incest and so on or atleast i think so and why would dev show the sister nude to the player? isent that to idiotic? "here you go look at this hot girl that you can never be with" ? really?

Also story dosent make sense at times, like if you play like i did and hate Kaija, MC acts way to nice around her laughting and shit when he really should be pissed like no other, he shouldent be nice as he is but treat her as someone hes forced to work with, it almost feel like your supposed to be on her love path which isent good for those playing hate, they wouldent want to see her constantly or ever, so on hate route game and story lose alot or value, also choices like "breakfest in paris" or MC lusting for her when she puts on sexy clothes you get the choice "you should wear that more often" it should not even be an option when you broke up with her and hate her, it just dosent fit the choices made.

And the hole base setting makes no sense of hiding everything from MC, the templars gain new people from recruiting family members and not just that MCs father being the leader makes it make even less sense since they cant be so brainless that wouldent expect their ennemies to target the leaders son, so hiding everything can only result in putting him in alot more danger which makes the hole setting weird and stupid.

The story and choices are proberly some of the best made ones ive seen where you can be pissed in most cases, even though doing story MC acts way to nice at times compared to choices made if you got "hate" route towards Kaija and the templars and it rarely if ever forgets about things when those conversations goes on where you have choice options, like talking to the parrents he does bring everything up, including the hole Kaija issue and even better is that you can tell the parrents to fuck off, i truely loved that freedom, its rarely made this good in games.

Girls 2/5
Even though i love Kaija there wasent enough main LIs and really poor diversity in builds for main LIs and sister not being a LI i found idiotic after dev shows her nude in a shower scene, did like Kate but side-LIs dosent to much for the story.

Animations 3/5
They are pretty decent but they are most very short and no talking while animation goes on which makes em feel a bit meh and make them a single click to stop which isent optimal.

Choices 5/5
Cant complain about choices, you can pick who to be with and there are a few side-LIs you can play with if you want as well.

On a side-note i would proberly have loved this game if Kaija was written better in chapter 1/2 where she would have been in a relationship with MC BEFORE ever joining the templars, that hole thing about her lieing, backstabing, being a puppet, being paid to fuck MC just killed it to much, even on love path you just cant trust her and a relationship without trust just wont work, maybe game could have been saved if the LI selection had more diversity then 3 bimbos or sister being a LI at the very least.
And i hated to hate Kaija she reminds me of Cece from my favorite game... proberly same character design if i remember right, so yeah.

For new players i would give one advice, make up your mind if you want Kaija love route or hate route right from the very start and use walkthrough to make sure you dont even see the part you dont want, that would make for alot better game then getting her whore/hate route like i did when loving her as a character, it made me so pissed that quit after the very start of chapter 2, it wasent untill i saw that there was a love route possible in the forums that i gave it a second go, still think her story could have been so much better without her hiding so much from MC then i could even see it as a 5 star story truely.

I could have gone 2 stars just as easy as 4 stars on this one, it has a great story that i love, but fails by alot in the adult part of a AVN due to the lack of main LIs and diversity in builds, so i had to place it in average aka 3 stars.
I would recommend this game but read my advice above so it dosent fuck up your experince on the first playthough like i did for me.

Pretty much everything is above average but not quite 5*

Writing is good, models are solid, plot is interesting (starts off cheesy but gets better). Solid amount of content for how long its been in development

Player does not have much choice, i.e. the best LI (IMO) gets killed off regardless of choice in the latest chapter. Dev is upfront that choices dont matter much outside of flavor which I can respect, avoids branching becoming too much of a impediment on progression, but is something to bare in mind

Overall a good game and would suggest

Let me ask you, what do you need from a porn game?
Stories?
Visuals?
Plot?

Well, I can find everything in this.

It's very good that we get to see a unique storyline, well written, but a bit fast paced, could have been a bit slower with more sex scenes in it, as the art is really fabulous.

I like this art a lot, graphics is really crisp and talks about quality, update speed might be a bit slower but, that's fine, just that the story seems 80% at present, it would have been better if it lasted longer, but whatever.

Keep it up, Dev

Very well done for a fantasy tropey game, with the 'secrecy' very believable that those with power and money would want to keep their connections a secret at all costs. Well storied LIs and a compelled story about a neutral party that is just trying to navigate a clusterfuck

I really enjoyed playing through the first 5 chapters of this game. All the models are good looking. The lighting is top notch, which isn't something I know a lot about but I feel like a lot of games don't use it well and end up looking really gloomy and lifeless. Not the case in this game. Outdoor scenes feel bright and vibrant, indoors are well-lit and don't drain color from the models like in some games. The story is a pretty standard "PC discovers he's the only one who can save the world with his newfound powers" but the worldbuilding and writing are good enough that I don't mind it being a bit predictable. Sex scenes are pretty few and far between currently, especially if you close off certain relationship paths, but I much prefer that to having too many sex scenes that all feel the same and/or are with girls that there's no underlying relationship with.

My first play was with the release of Chapter 5. I completely enjoyed the experience. The story is very compelling especially if you are a fan of fantasy power trips, like I am. There are 4 main LIs and each one is interesting to the point where I made separate play throughs to focus on each one as this is a romance game. You do start with a girlfriend which I tend not to like but it is handled well, where the story gives you an out if you want it. There is a modest amount of adult content. In my opinion it is a good pace. I was completely pulled in by the story. The renders are also very nice. The girls are actually well proportioned, no massive tits and asses. Very athletic well proportioned women. Harder to find than I would like. Cannot wait for more of the story to be released!

I stumbled over this one via a signature in another game I liked. Being currious I game it a try even if the "overview" was a bit cryptic and didnt tell much. Well, in order not to spoil some of the plot the "overview" is as it is to avoid spoilers.
Anyhow, I really liked the different chars and LI the MC meets and that they are written and designed in a more "realistic" way (as realistic a adult VN can be of course). So in case you like unrealistic big boobs and rediciulous looking females the game wont be something for you but in case you like a well written and acting char then you can definetly go for it. Also the plot and its unfolding is very nice, even if the disclaimer at the beginning tells you about magic and stuff, it is really really well implemented into the game without loosing it or becoming extremly unrealistic. Nice story telling. Something I also like is that it unfolds slwoely and you dont get from one sex scene to the other.....ok some may like this.....but I think its also well placed in the story. So not too much unreal how the girls react (as far as its posisble in a visual noval like this).
All in all Im looking forward to the next updates which hopefully come soon.

version Chapter 5

Story 3/5
Graphics 5/5
Writing 2/5
Characters 2/5
Audio 3/5
UI 4/5

The Neverwhere Tales is a story about what happens when you go to the mythology section of the library, take all the books, throw them all in the cauldron, add a few James Bond novels and the Venus Delta, and set it to boil for an hour.
The story follows young MCallister, a young customer insurance call center employee that counterintuitively gets all the ladies. He expertly uses his call center skills to doink and bamboozle the sexiest women on the planet.
Eventually he finds out that he is the son of the Templar Grand Pumpkin or some such, that his sexier-than-Jesus girlfriend is a templar ninja samurai MMA shaolin monk assassin, and that his sister is an annoying cunt. Then he goes back to work as an insurance cuck.
If you find it difficult to imagine the thought process here, you are not alone. I'm not sure what drives a man to prefer office work in the insurance business over a saucy adventure with bouncing tiddies in every direction, but I suspect the thought process would make Cthulhu recoil in horror. MC does not have his priorities straight, and jumps with equal enthusiasm between saving the world, cheating on his girlfriend, lecturing others on morality, handling customer support for insurance claims, and throwing angsty tween tantrums. As you can imagine, MC is a complicated individual with a faceted personality.

Story
The story is standard in creativity and application. Granted, standard on F95 is not great, but around half the VNs here are carried by character development between MC and LIs rather than high quality storyline arcs, and as such only one of those aspects need to be great to make a great VN.
The story is founded on throwing all the myths and legends together in a modern setting making something elegant and new out of it: templars, elves, the usual elemental magic schools, celtic stuff (presumably), demons/devils, magical realms, magical swords, and pocket dimensions; combined with normal every day stuff like trains, ballet practice, ice cream, insurance claims, and a day at the beach. This works decently as a backdrop but it's not quite sufficient as a main story arc. No aspect of the mythical is prominent enough to ground the world created in rules or expectations, and as a result it doesn't feel immersive. This could be a result of the writing, or it could be because it feels too generic to enthuse interest in the world. When everything can be solved with a deus ex machina, there is no reason to invest in the drama. If the story had more humor, perhaps the journey alone would be enough to enjoy it all, but the story is quite serious in tone. The main story arc does move forward at a nice pace most of the time, and the introduction of two main LIs at odds with each other does set up for a fun and explosive finale (unless MC uses his insurance call center skills for a diplomatic MFF tiddy party at the end).

Graphics
The visuals are top notch, and the animations are excellent. While some people do look like they are using a tiktok beautify filter, it's hard to find any real flaws. The animations with Finnabrae, or whatever the blond elf maiden was called, are amazing, and even better than the rest.

Writing
This part is the most important aspect of a VN, and it is unfortunately not as good as one might wish. Conversations will either run long with exposition, or feel wooden to the point of reading a mathematical theorem, or both. It's a shame that with the wonderful graphics this VN sports, they aren't used to show the reader what's going on instead of telling the reader what's going on. The audience does not need an instruction manual on how to interpret scenes (and this is actually provided in a few places).
Every character talks in a similar way - unfortunately it's not like Captain Kirk or Morgan Freeman. The points of interest for every character also converge, which in some areas feel a little silly (the mommy conversation with the sister about swords feels almost disturbing in surreality). The revelations and conclusions drawn from various events are flabbergasting, which while not unique to this VN still comes off weird, and MC jumping all over the place in personality does not help either. All in all, the writing is the weakest point of this VN, and I hope it can improve.

Characters
The characters are a bit too similar in personality and presentation for my taste. They will all explain topics in an attempted logical flow of detail, frequently focusing on things that serve little purpose to drive the story forward or develop characters/connections. The sister is probably the most distinct of the bunch, though she is also the most annoying one, and the one designated as the joker. Unfortunately she's too silly for the role. This is a standard flaw of trying to fit a joker into a serious setting but not tempering the character to fit. A silly story needs an absurd joker, a serious story needs a serious/realistic joker. Putting a silly Jessica into a serious setting (the daddy hand off) takes away from immersion and gives the reader the sensation that nothing matters.
MC is the by now classical schizophrenic, as should be expected of an insurance call center psychopath. He's the horny teenager, the lifelong experience logical teacher, the devoted boyfriend, the oblivious cheater, the experienced Casanova, the moral idealist, the apathic pragmatist, and the oblivious entitled brat. He is enraged that his everything-in-one girlfriend potentially lied (she didn't) to him, but it's fine that he cheats on her. He is outraged at his parents for not telling him certain things yet it's fine when he does the same. On one hand he will get his girlfriend to interject herself into a fight between unknown people because it's the right thing to do, on the other he will magically turn into a confident casanova and blammo into her colleague without even asking if she's on the pill. He spends time watching the sunset with his girlfriend (with lewd handholding), and the next moment he bing bing wahoos in a stranger. He's complicated to say the least.
If the choices open to the player weren't so discordant with MCs personality it would have worked, but as it is MC behaves like he's taking crazy pills off camera. He turns into a completely different person with none of the moral concerns that would come from such a change. I thought it would help that he for most of the time talks like he's narrating his own life (the autism might explain some things), but unfortunately that part is just as discordant when his entitlement comes out. He is basically Gary Busey on a good day.

Audio
The audio is so and so. Several scenes mesh poorly with the music, but most of them give a general sense of what the author wants to convey.

UI
Works fine most of the time, and the end of chapter summary is great, but it would be enormously handy if the points gained / lost with the main LIs could be shown whenever choices are made. At the very least I would like to be able to see where I stand with the main LIs whenever I wanted (such as a main LI tab in the options) so I could follow a certain path. This would come in handy during replays.

Summary
While graphics are majestic, they are insufficient to remedy the poor writing of this VN. I hope it improves, because graphics this lovely deserve to have an equal match in writing and I wish the devs the best of luck in achieving that.