VN - Ren'Py - The Neverwhere Tales [v0.5.0.4p] [Ceolag]

When this was first released, I was worried this is a ripoff of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (one of my favorite books), and in some ways, the basic concept of Neverwhere is... and that is a city beneath a city. That, however, is where the similarity ends. This is truly a unique fantasy/sci-fi story and it's wonderful.

If any of you have read any of my other reviews, I am often pretty harsh and rarely give out 5 stars, and to be fair, there are some parts of this AVN I could pick on. Some of the LIs for example, are pretty standard AVN fair. You have to tough LI who can kick anyone's ass and has been keeping secrets from you, the nerdy LI, and the mysterious and foreign LI who is your token AVN ginger. Oh, and let's not forget the perky sister... who at the very least is NOT a LI. Despite that and a number of lighting issues, none of it takes away from this AVN.

I will admit, if you are just here for the fapping, while the scenes are good, this is a story driven AVN. In fantasy/sci-fi the stories are filled with unfamiliar things, so there is a lot of exposition so the reader can know what is going on. This AVN is pretty heavy on the story, but it is really well written and all the characters have depth and I found myself fully invested.

I am reviewing this as of the 5.0 update and this last one was just amazing and I can't beleive I am going to have to wait months before the next release. Additionally, it looks like they are prepping this for Steam so it is possible it will be a long while until there is new content. So that sucks. Regardless, this AVN has rocketed up to my #1 spot. Normally, I have a pretty fluid top 10 but this one is so clearly better then most of the AVN crap out there it is going to be hard to knock it off.

Admittedly, this is an AVN for those folks who want a good story with some hot characters. If you are just here for the fapping and are not into reading a lot of detail, then this one is probably not for you. If you love fantasy/sci-fi and you love and AVN with a good story, come on in... the water is perfect.

Best of luck to the developer.

What can I say I've been amazed so far. Story is well written ,graphics,renders,animations have are excellent you can tell this dev takes time and pride in his work. He communicates well keeps everyone in the loop of where the game is at even on here if your not a patreon. But on another note the work he produces doesn't get the reward it deserves so I would suggest if you don't want it to vanish just donate what you can now and again or when the update is released. It would be sad to lose another great game again

Pretty awesome game. Came for the hot girls and stayed for the story.

We have a pretty good plot, the depth of the LIs is well made and renders are really good, we can see many emotions.

There is a lot of work on this game, many different paths that have real impact on the discutions and the characters reactions.

Only dark point, is the MC have a dick face but I can live with it.

Keep the good work!

I recommand this AVN to people who like story driven AVN. But if you are only looking for sex and FAP material this it not for you.

An interesting game which seems to struggle with some hangups.

One of the biggest issues in my mind is the MC, who is a complete melt. His face is a bit rough but really I found how he's written to be a bit wooden. Like at times you're not 100% sure if he knows what's going on. Now... some of that can be explained by the plot of the game. He's having a lot thrown at him and he's having to learn quick but it seems like he's processing it badly. I think there was a scene where some lassie says magic exists and he reacts like a dog being shown a card trick. Like... I can understand him being amazed by it but it seems every time he's told something new his first response is to think they're playing a joke on him. As if everything he's been told before never registered. Thinking magic is made up just after you're told the Templars exist and Elves and Succubus are a thing... dude have you been listening?

Another issue I have is .... it's hard to know what story the game is trying to convey. Like there's a big deal spent on talking up this world of fantasy that exists which the MC never knew of, while at the same time there are scenes where he goes to bars with co-workers. Genuinely after being attacked, nearly killed, finding out his dad has been abducted, his dad is the big lad in the Templars and his girlfriend is a plant to protect him his next thought is "ho boy better get ready for work" and we then get a few scenes around that. Does the dev really think the player cares about office work when the whole premise of the game has just been introduced? Even with some of the characters introduced you're left wondering what's the point of them. The game would certainly benefit from taking the time to breathe and pad out some of the characters, and sort out the MC especially because I get the impression that the dev is trying to suggest there's more to him than meet the eye, but he comes off as a proper plum.

It's a mixed bag with this game.

The pros:

It's an engaging overall story. Even if it's the damn Templars again (doesn't anyone know of any other church sects?) it's still presented well and has space to develop.

The so-so's

The English is good and the dialogue makes sense, but it's frequently wooden and stilted. The art is great for the scenes and meh for the girls. The story renders can seem static as the dialogue unfolds at times, making it seem clunkier than it needs to

The bad

The MC is an ugly doofus. He's whiny and has a slight sense of entitlement. The girls have identifiable individual personalities because we're told that they do, but they all sound the same and rather than have organic differences in personality are given different roles so that we'll know they're different, rather than being different people. I'm not expressing this well, but there's an undercurrent of sameness and honestly the women are boring. Most importanly, the dev tells you in the introduction that no matter what path you decide to take you're going to end up in the same place, and that it affects how the story unfolds rather than how it ends. He proves this by offering up largely meaningless choices with largely overlapping storylines, so essentially you can pick a girl to cozy up to but for all intents and purposes the other choices are meaningless, and that's how it feels. That's also a lead up into one of the most annoying things about this game. All you're doing is clicking along, following the story, and "achievements" pop up, for literally doing nothing and for making no decisions. The "achievements" seem utterly meaningless and there only because they're expected to be there, rather than for any actions or decisions from the player. It feels patronizing and silly.

Overall, this is a timekiller. It's not stupid or irritating as some VNs are, and the writing isn't bad, but nothing about the game excels, not the dialogue, the writing, the humor or the art. I'm less about the sex than the story and personalities but there's not much there either. There's a lot of room for growth and improvement, and the game is ok, but it's not going to be one of the ones that you're jonesing for an update to either.

its a fine game. story is good sometimes i felt conflicted of what to choose but so far so good. no memorable scenes even though already four chapters., like no adult scenes whatssoever. 4 chapters and nothing, kinda sucks. story is interesting tough and the women are hot. cant wait for update

Definitely a top tier game. Top notch renders and nice story. Nice girls with personalities. But not a harem game. Jessica is funny but since there is no incest sadly she isn't a LI of MC. All other LI's got their own charming personalities. Even with the high ratings this one is still underrated, surely deserves more recognition.

If you love playing good story game with nice renders this one is worth trying. Keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates

Some times you wade through a lot of porn junk on this forum to find a good VN. Occasionally, you find a title worth reading because it has a great adult story. Even more rare is discovering a VN that jumps out and grabs you. This is one of those VNs.

Story 5/5
A little fanciful in places but I don't care, the story is engaging and draws you in. The characters are intriguing and you just want to know more and more about them. You can go through this game loving everyone or being angry and inbetween. There is no real antagonist yet (as of ch4), just people with their own agenda and that causes plenty of drama within itself. This has joined my handful of very special VNs.

Art work 4.5/5
No complaints.

Choices 5/5
This VN is refreshing and not only is it a fantastic story, the choices are what drives this VN in to my handful of elite VNs. All too often the choices in VNs give you the illusion of choice, but in this VN you get real choices and ramifications for those choices. The most obvious example is Kaija, you can love her, hate her or be indifferent and Kaija will respond to you in kind and the story reflects that choice throughout. Well done dev.

It's early, but it's off to an excellent start. I really don't have much to complain about, aside from the lack of a scene replay gallery, which means I don't have much to say. The girls are interesting, and varied, and good looking (although I wish Kaija didn't have tattoos). This could go a lot of different ways, in plot and in quality, but I have a solid expectation that this will remain excellent.

The story got me hooked in. Its a blend of medieval fantasy and bladerunner experience. The renders are great and the animation are well done. The character models are beautiful and the overall art is great. If you are looking for fap scenes there are not many since the relationships are just developing but overall its very enjoyable experiance. Looking forward for more.

As negative points I would say:

I don't like the way some decisions work. Sometimes you have to be a dick with other guys to gain points with the girls.

Also, sometimes the decisions don't make sense, like an spank to your gf that can change her whole personality in the game, or decisions where there is no way the girls would know what did you do.

Other bad thing for me is the big number of scenes where we should see something, but instead we get a wall of explanations and descritions before hand. It's better to show it first instead of ruining the surprise!

Talking about seeing something, some scenes are dark asf, even so there are light sources. So the scenery can't be enjoyed. I hope MC gets night vision gadgets..

And finally I'm worried about the lack of spicy content, there are just a couple of scenes. You can flirt and check the girls, kiss them and make promises like getting ready for marriage, but their legs are still closed for us.


Leaving the negative aside, I'm enjoying the story, the renders and the multiple references. The girls are interesting too, so I wanna see how everything turn out in this VN!

I want to rate this game higher, I really do. I think the premise is interesting and the story has a lot potential but there are some things about this game that I just find so fucking annoying.

1. Lets get this obvious one out of the way. MC is one ugly looking SOB. He is one of the ugliest MC's I've ever seen in any game. Idk what it is about his face but it makes him look like a snarky little manlet. He looks like a bully.

2. Instead of TELLING us just fucking SHOW us. The game (characters) spends a lot of fucking time explaining things instead of just showing it to us. With the whole knights Templar thing and then the actual neverwhere. It's all explained through words instead of actually being shown. The whole evles being evil is explained through words, never shown one of them in practice. The whole neverwhere, it's civilizations, the morality of its people, even it's public transport system, everything is explained to MC before he even has a chance to enter the damned place.

3. Most LIs are not really that captivating. You cannot tell one personality from the other, all of them are semi-flirty fun loving type of girls. None of them really stand out.

This was a lot of fun and I am very excited to play more!

Beautiful renders, I'd honestly say this is the first game with mature women that actually look their age, yet sexy. I feel like that's a very hard balance to hit, but I think the developer has done a great job in this!

Very interesting story, but I may just be a sucker for this kind of setup. Secret organizations, parallel worlds.... Love it!

I have only done one playthrough so far, but I feel like the points system with the girls are well done and I look forward to exploring it more.

This feels like very early into the game story-wise, and I honestly hope it is. Because I feel like there is much to tell here, and the pacing is great so far.

Keep up the amazing job!

Well well, this is a hidden gem for sure. So much potential, so much delivered. I will say this has the potential to become a full-fledged visual novel but in the transition zone between an adult visual novel and a full-fledged visual novel, just like "Neverwhere." But let me clarify, I am in no way criticizing it; I am satisfied with the length, the story, the characters. But I see much potential here, so I will not just say something vague and waste this chance to give it constructive criticism.

Let's start:

**Pros:**
1. Everything, I mean literally, as a whole package, it is now one of the topmost AVNs developed.
2. The realistic character interactions - no nonsense incest all the time. I don't dislike it as a fetish, but it doesn't happen in real life, and that made your story grow, immersing us into it.
3. The beautiful renders of the characters, especially the female cast; the varieties and possibilities are quite large. While I don't necessarily prioritize renders over the story, it's not a downside. In this case, it added in favor of the story.
4. This may be my most important point: the world-building, this story, while quite coherent. I feel like these are like big chunks of ideas stitched together, and they somehow work in a continuous fashion, making it a beautiful and engaging story. What I mean to say is, this is not a continuous thing. If I can give an analogy to make my point more sense, your story is like a mosaic art vs. most other stories are like a melody. I know it may not make a lot of sense to others, but it does to me because I have tried to create some stories as I have ideas, but they are chunks like this. The thing I am missing is how to form them coherently together. You did, and it works like magic!
5. The consequences of the choices - full points to you!
6. The story took some time to engross me fully, though I won't lie. But when it did, it sucked me into it like a "succubus."

**Cons:**
1. The music, while I liked it, is missing in some places. Please look into it to not break immersion.
2. You can create more drama in certain situations, like the disagreements of the nobles while discussing. Also, where the truth comes to the MC, I think he handles it pretty well. I'm not complaining because I would have chosen to be calm and composed all the time, but we don't know how the protagonist is before we started to play him. Though we get to know him a bit before the reveal, we still haven't seen him get tested much in a tense situation, and so we must consider more human-like emotion from him. Again, it may be the will of the author to be that way.
3. One of the major factors for me, which separates a good AVN I have seen with all-time best, is this: most have a good cast of males. Again, it may be from the part of the author for it to be that way. But I would urge the author to seriously consider this. The story is quite good, but it still feels like an adult game, which it is not trying to limit itself towards. So, a good and large cast of males will be one major step to alleviate that.
4. I think you can add more relationships in the world. The MC doesn't have to be the only active male. I am not saying to fetishize this, the so-called NTR - I hate it. So please don't think I am asking for it. What I am asking for is realistic life, since this has avoided so many tropes used in most adult visual novels, it looks fresh, and at this moment, it is realistic enough. Why not go full at it? Yes, many may feel, "Wait, that girl is so beautiful yet taken." Well, that's life for you because you also avoided the most generic trope or a trap really to break immersion from the story - the harem.

Cons are not criticisms, just my personal suggestions, so take them lightly, dev. You did a wonderful job! Eager for the next update and seeing what's up in the next chapter. Best of luck.

My,my, now this was a surprise. This is really well written, the plot is also good, our hero looks like he has had a bad day at the coroners, but all the others look great. I wasn't really expecting this when I started to play this game through, but I am glad I have. Up to now I have enjoyed myself, and can recommend it to anyone looking for something with a bit of fantasy in it.

Version 0.4.0

I would play this for the story alone and be happy with no lewd scenes at all. It offers a cohesive urban fantasy setting that is explained through action and characterization rather than endless exposition. The story also presents multiple mysteries and begins resolving some of them early, which leads to a satisfying story progression (so far).

The writing and characterization are top notch. Love it.

The animation is top notch. There are animated action scenes and animated facial expressions that really enhance the story.

The downside for the moment is that there are very few lewd scenes so far, and the ones that do exist aren't terribly interesting (though they are well executed). This is not enough for me give it fewer than five stars, but if you are looking only for a good fap, this is probably not for you, at least at this point.

If you like well written urban fantasy with gorgeous graphics and are willing to wait for significant lewd content, download this VN now. You can thank me later.

This is a difficult game for me to rate, for a multitude of reasons. I feel like the premise is sort of interesting, and if developed well it can flourish into something genuinely good. I have no qualms when it comes to the writing itself, though I believe there's a serious issue when it comes to this game's pacing. Things are really slow to get going, and I figure it's because of the different branching paths with the LIs which severely alter the dialogues and sometimes lead to different minor happenings in the story. This is a bit of a red flag, especially considering that not all of the LIs have been fully and properly introduced as of v0.3.0 yet, so things are bound to get even slower.

Speaking of the cast of characters, I want to get my main gripe with TNT out of the way, although it is more a cry to the heavens than anything else: devs please, for the love of God, stop with the overuse of the third person perspective. If you're seriously determined to go down that path, you should at the very least make sure that the MC doesn't look repulsive. This guy's face is unbearable to look at, and to make matters worse I found his personality to be quite unlikeable, especially in the earlier scenes. Having to constantly stare at his ugly mug didn't help temper this sentiment in the slightest.

Now the LIs on the other hand are all likeable and seemingly different enough to satisfy everyone, and at the same time warrant checking out all the different routes, since for whatever reason this game plays like a Harem despite the dev's purported intentions. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether each of those routes will be adequately fleshed out and whether it will take its toll on the game's pacing. On a side note, what's the deal with the female boss not showing up as a genuine LI on the recap screen at the end of every chapter? It might just be me, but it feels kind of weird not having her there. If she's supposed to be a mere "extra", that's a bit of a disappointment.

TL;DR: slow pace and mc's awful looking face notwithstanding, TNT is a game worth checking out. Although for first timers I'd recommend waiting at least a couple major updates before doing so.

I really like the story, but I think a huge misstep is changing the nature of the relationship between Kaija and the MC depending on certain innocuous choices you make in the beginning of the game. She is either; your girlfriend and in love with you, a close friend, or you are a job to her. Considering this isn't a harem and you will need multiple playthroughs to get all the content with all the girls, this completely changes her personality. I think one background would have been enough. If you choose to not want to stay with her, then have her be hurt. Depending on your choices, she could either be upset that you want to call off the relationship or just not care at all. Was this done to make it easier for the player to reject an established relationship (which a lot of players don't like)?

When you have the ability to be nice or an asshole, I don't think you need to add further variables like this with other characters, and especially LIs. It can make her character wholly unlikable, which your feelings towards her may bleed over into another playthrough (and if you read some posts here, obviously does with a lot of people).

It's my only real critique of the game, but I think its a rather large/important one. Other than that, I am interested in the story and most of the characters. Choices matter quite a bit here, but there also seems to be continuity errors - but then again you can't really expect 6 different variations to 1 scene based on your past choices... even though it could make sense.

On good scene where his girlfriend rescues him from an ambush, nothing exciting in the latest update. Story movers slower than sloths. Protagonist looks almost deformed, his face is so weird. Just cannot stomach any more of this abuse! Too bad, the fantasy world implied in the concept would have been worth playing, but not taking 3+ chapters to even begin to get there.

I just love the game, awesome story line and great renders... Can't wait for chapter 3 and more .. Not so sure about the fact that we can only have one relationship but still in my opinion this game is just so good that i can absolutely play it as many times as needed to experience all the romance paths...