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

I would give it a solid 8 out of 10. I like the game, it was fun and quite enjoyable to play. Also liked how there is heavy branching right from the start so even though its only two chapters in I spent a lot of time replaying the other paths as well. Music is good, animations are great. It's a unique game. As soon as I open it I feel like I'm in that games "world", which isn't easy to do but it brilliantly done.

There are some faults and inconsistencies that I wanted to address and hope the dev does see. It's another "destiny" avn. That's not bad but I feel like MC is destined to be all powerful and is like the second coming of the great one or something like that. Your a "Callister and when the mother say's MC's father isnt a carpenter I predicted that quite easily. Wish father's true identity as grandmaster was maybe hidden a little longer and was just revealed as a prominent Templar. I wish it wasnt as predictable and MC faced more challenges in finding out what's truly going on but I cn't fault dev yet as I don't know how long the story will be. Maybe timing fits but if the game is long then the reveal could have been hidden a little longer.

Some inconsistencies. I found it strange that Kaija was told to cancel her current mission and head back to rescue MC when he was under attack instead of the Templars just sending the people they had stationed at the MC's family home. There are about 3 cars and some people Kaija points out are "around". So where were they when the grand templars son was under attack? I understand Kaija is the most talented warrior but sending only her would never happen in reality.

Another fault I found was how MC didnt immediately recognise the tatoo he saw on Cainta's hand a the bar when his gf and friend of several years has the exact same tattoo, in the exact same place. Also the option to tell Fiona everything felt a bit weird. I know it will probably make more sense down the line but found it weird to tell a person you've met 3 times, 2 by chance all this lore about a medieval group you just happened to find out your a part of.

Apart from those I'm glad to see an AVN with a completely different plot idea. Never in my life would I have thought I would see an avn about the Knight's of Templar. It's also really fun, animations, renders and music are done really well. The characters all have interesting personaltites and I'm looking forward to seeing how the story progresses. This could be a really good gem, Wishing the dev and everyone involved the best of luck.

Edited for v0.3, rating raised to 5/5

PROS
- Girls are different from one another (funny that should be a PRO and not a standard), each having unique (though mysterious) background and nice dialogues. For only second release, great job on their development so far.
- Story is a mystery at the moment, which makes sense, being very early in development. It's not mind shattering, but it's intriguing enough.
- Choices - well damn, rare to see a game that has plenty of variety based on choices. As in, choose A and go to location A, choose B, go to location B etc. It does force multiple playthroughs, but it also gives a lot of variety.

CON
- Relationship with one of the girls so far is based on player decisions. And not in a sense "You acted good, she likes you"/"You acted bad, she dislikes you". No, it's "You chose good option - She liked you in the past" and the other way around. It doesn't feel natural.
It feels as if I'm playing both characters. It's not "organic", if it makes any sense.
There is no conflict of emotions to be had that way, it's always very linear. You select you don't love her, she says she never loved you, you say you do, she says the same. Just doesn't feel right.

Minor negative at the end aside, really great start and I can't wait to see where dev goes with it in the future. Highly recommended. And it's short currently, so no reason not to try it.

The changes in conversations being heavily dependent on MC relationship with few people is such an amazing thing. Seeing conversation be either understanding and sad about what happened, or one of pure hatred because of betrayal...chefs kiss.

I downloaded this because the premise looked interesting and I was NOT dissapointed.

1) No harem? Well damn... Initially I was kind of turned off by the renders, but they grew on me quickly. I think Fiona is my favorite with Kaija a close second. Mac's cousin is also gorgeous, and as a "side piece" I'm guessing eventually we can get with her without repercussions.

2) It appears we have met 3 of the 4 main LI's (though the annoying elf Medb may be LI 4 since she had points assigned to her at the end of chapter 2 and chapter two was the way of water).

3) I absolutely have a love/hate relationship with achievments.... On the one hand I am a completionist, on the other I HATE searching through choices to find what I missed... After competing CH2 I have 2 hidden achievments left. Looking at the gallery one of them appears to be tied to a side character, the other is god only knows where. I REALLY don't want to scroll through trying to find achievments, honestly I have better uses for my time. I'm not saying give a walkthrough, but maybe some type of hint system?

4) I echo what has been brought up before, losing points for a playful smack on the ass is counterintuitive. Also, losing one of the very few (at this point in the game) sex scenes is just bad. Especially since Kaija is your current girlfriend who loves you and, if you choose her path, whom you love.Personally I would not penalize the shower sex and, also, I would have added the scene in the Templar HQ even though it isn't "appropriate" inappropriate sex is the cornerstone of any good adult VN!

In short, this is one of those games I wish I'd discovered around chapter 10, someone would have an achievment guide, there would be plenty of lewd scenes in game. Right now, only a few days have passed since the MC found about about the crazy shit behind the curtain and it's rather frustrating.

Anyway keep up the good work, your story telling is excellent, rendering above average, I notice no significant plot holes (which is nice) and things seem to be progressing logicially. Well done.

Going to copy/paste this to game review.

SPOILER REVIEW

Overall 5/10 (This may seem low but very rarely do i give new release a high score, i take into consideration Story, Sexual Content, Renders and Character Models when rating most new games fall short in the middle 2 due to being early releases.)

Story: So far the story isnt bad, whats been given is a decent read. We've got a regular guy working a regular office job with a promotion on the way and a girlfriend. Sounds like a typical office romance, and for 95% of the first episode it is essentially that, until the mom bombs us with some truth about our dad and how he is connected to a secret organization.

Now normally this would be fine if they had gotten to this part earlier, it simply spends too much time building this office romance vibe to just suddenly destroy it. For example i simply dont see Elea or Helen fitting into this story, unless of course they are also secret agents like our GF. I have a feeling they will be forced in this story in some weird way and im not really looking forward for that. Fiona already has that secret agent vibe so im sure she will fit in the story fine.

The Characters themselves arent bad, though the dynamic between the MC and his GF is kinda off, especially because of the way the dev has the points/variables set up.
This game needs to be careful, i can easily see this game failing due to bad story direction if the dev is not careful. Now like i said earlier I'm not saying the story is bad, what's been shown so far was a decent read. Albeit not that much content so far.

Sexual Content: so far there is only one scene and thats with the GF, its an okay scene, the quality itself is fine but not spectacular.

Renders: Pretty average renders, with some noticeable grain especially around the character models themselves. The lighting could use some work, some of the scenes were way too dark i could barely see anything at all.

Character Models: The quality of the models are decent, not all of them are my type if i had to rank it would be Fiona, Helen, Elea, Katja, Kate, Jessica. For Kate and Jessica due to the lighting i could barely see anything.

This looks like a really promising game. Only Chapter 1 is out so far so there could be a lot of changes but the first impression of this game is really good. The game looks overall nice not amazing but definetly good enough. Even tho none of the girls you met look amazing to me they look pretty nice, i have hopes for the last girl, the one you will meet in chapter 2.
As for the Story there isnt too much to tell so far but it looks definetly promising, some hidden society, secrets, danger and mysterie. I just hope the MC wont turn into some all powerful superhero because of some training he had in his youth or some shit. I really hope for a satisfying character arc and the way the game is so far this might even come true. The writing is great, the conversations feel genuine and are nice to read.
As far as choices go this has me a bit worried because in the introduction it says that the choices affect the game, but this doesnt have multiple endings which sounds to me like the choices are just flavor choices and to choose the girl you want to be with. But we will see even if it is like that if the storie continues to be interesting its still playable.
As far as sounds go it says to keep the sound on but there was a lot of silence in the beginning of the first chapter which i really hate. Either put sound and music everywhere or atleast mostly everywhere or dont bother at all because i will mute and play other music anyways. In the end of the Chapter it started to cover everything and i hope it will continue like that. It really enhances the gameplay in my opinion and the sounds that were chosen really fit the game.
So overall i think it definetly got potential and is worth checking out. Im looking forward to seeing where this will go.

For a chapter 1 it's shorter than I expected. Felt more like an intro or maybe half of a chapter.
You get a lot of chances to flirt with other women even though you're in a relationship. Sadly there isn't going to be any form of harem. So you're either cheating or it's just a ruse about being with other female characters.
PROS
Models are decent enough
CONS
No harem even though you can flirt with other women
MC is bland.
Story is another, your dad has been kidnapped plot
SUMMERY
The MC has a routine job and gets offered a better position, but he feels that it is to fast and then(without getting to actually chose) accepts the offer.
MC's gf is distant right from the beginning. Has to go to work for days at a time.
The MC comes off as pushy with her, then gets mad if she doesn't text him, the you get to chose to either be caring or not when she shows up out of the blue.
Seen this story plot in several other VN's out there. Just gets monotonous after the 10th time seeing this plot line.
I'm still recommending this VN because others will find it interesting. I'm just burnt out on this kind of story/plot so I'm going to pass of future updates.
Good luck to Ceolag with the development of this VN

If sex or nudes is what you look for, then pass on by. Only one adult scene in the game. Ther story was worth the time though. I found it very entertaining, only lacking adult scenes. The game does have sound, which made for some extra entertainment but even the action was not till the end and then it was fast and over with. 3.5

A little early to express an opinion but, this project begins with a truly original story, with twists that stimulate you to follow it dialogue after dialogue.
As you could guess from the changelog, quite content in this initial phase with good renderings and animations.
A definitive judgment can only depend on how this project will take place in the future (I repeat: with good potential) especially for the timing / regularity of updates and plots relating to sex scenes, the latter no less important considering that in this sector they concern one, if not the first, of the most important aspects.
We'll see ...
Congratulations to the dev and thanks for the game.

I don't have an awful lot to add that hasn't already been said previously, but I will try anyway.

Really awesome and promising start with loads of potential here...The girls are all interesting and have unique personalities and are likeable, look really good.

MC is pretty generic as far as looks go, but he isn't a total push over like most and as a player you seem to have some actual agency over his actions so I am appreciative of that.

Renders are pretty nice. I found the showdown near the end of this chapter really impressive, you don't see those kind of sequences too often. Well done.

The writing is pretty good as far as dialogue goes. It feels natural for the most part, but during the bar scene the word "mon" was thrown around a couple of times, I have no idea what that word is but...fair enough.

I am apparently also in the minority that is very glad the developer isn't going the typical harem route, it always hurts the game from a story telling perspective that the love interests are all just okay to share the MC at the end because that's totally how things work...just no thanks. Stick to your guns, dev.

Great job Ceolag - I am looking forward to seeing where this goes next.

So far so good Intriguing plot, great girls, environments look nice and diverse, dev is focusing more on plot and story telling, etc. Whats not to like? Looking forward for more. Game ended on a cliffhanger right when we were going to get a bunch of answers to things, and there is still unknowns characters to meet. Keep it up dev

The game is good from the start, At the begging the story is slowly moving toward the ordinary average boring VN plot and then suddenly wham! bam! An action! And you exhale just at the end of the episode, cut at the most interesting moment. It definitely baits me to see what will happen next.
The renders are at the high quality, the plot is catching, the female characters are interesting, the big challenge is waiting for MC. What else would one need from the decent VN game?

1st thing to say.. Great Job.. and someone who finally cares enough about their game to actually spend some of that time on a logo that looks good.. a start screen that isnt boring and characters that seem pretty cute.. that being said the ones from the f95 screen could use a touch up as there a bit of a bad example of the actual characters..
Interesting story and looking forward to see what comes next.. good luck

Additional Comments - If your looking for a story that has a surprise element to it this is it.. The EPIC scene towards the end of the 1st chapter was gripping and so well done.. Kaija is a badass and a character i cant wait to see more of

Not even going to comment on the nice renders.... Just going straight to just how professionally this one has been made. I've ran across so many Dev's that should click on this and start taking notes. Great beginning to what should be an awesome game. Can't wait for more.

This game has a lot of very solid potential. I have just played [v0.1.0] and I was thoroughly into it.

The writing is very well done. I found myself genuinely interested in where the story was headed. There was no big exposition dump, just a naturally unfolding story. The character interactions were very organic and the dialogue options all felt very natural.

The renders are all competently done, with attention paid to composition and camera angles.

The character models are really cool in my opinion, they are all attractive without being supermodels. Just messed up enough in the right way to be really hot. Also great realistic bodies, attractive without being too over the top proportionality wise.

Animations are there, a little mechanical but I have seen far worse.

The overall polish of the game is excellent, there is a full working gallery and an unlockable achievements.

For a first release this game shows a lot of promise, I am really looking forward to seeing where the story goes and am very eager to engage more closely with a work colleague.

The only criticism's I have so far is the lighting and renders could be more consistent and the sets are a little bland. In relation to the lighting, I found some of the scenes to be very well lit, whilst some not so much. A few of the renders could have been left to bake for a little longer.

Overall a really solid addition to my library and I will be looking forward to the next chapter. Solid work.

Chapter 2 played.Renders are good and story seems interesting. Hope that the game has more choices than 2 to choose and that the choices have impact on the story and the relations with the girls,dont make the girls slutty,the letters of the dialogue and of were is the quick save need to be a little bigger, there is more side girls than LI that kinda weird (kate should be a LI,the character design of our sister is very good but it should be for a LI or side girl) and i think the dev should add more girls to LI, the face of kaija could be better. Its has potential to be a good game.