VN Ren'Py The Neverwhere Tales [v0.5.0] [Ceolag]

[motseer]

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Spoiler: Forgive me. I am sinning.

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[Milton749]

I mean what's the point in that? It would just turn two posts into one as playing more of the game doesn't lessen my distaste for the general premise.



You do have quite a bit of options to be cheeky, but it still feels like you're getting janked around like a goddamn toy to their whims however. The chat with Kaiju was cathartic though, I must say. It's better than basically every other game that uses the "overhanging big bad shadow entity" trope but it still leaves a lot to be desired for me.


Yeah I'm not surprised that the thread is split on them, it's one of those things that you either don't mind or you hold abject hatred for it.

And yeah, MC didn't really have much choice which is also a large part of why I despise this trope as it just throws player agency out the window, it's basically a kinetic novel in that regard where it simply doesn't give you a choice at all regarding it. I'd also be VERY surprised if we're given the choice to detach after Dad comes back, game seems to be gearing towards manipulative shadow agency that doesn't give a flying fuck about human lives or anything outside of their closeminded agenda (Templars) vs fantasy turbo racists (Elves) and a third party (Almost certain it will be some sort of random human greedy shitbag that just gets into a contract with Hellspawn and tries to control them and "rule the world").


Yeah, out of the novels that employ this premise, this is absolutely the best of them. It still leaves much to be desired from me but MC's writing when he expresses his displeasure and anger are very well done, I was pleasantly surprised about that. As you said, most of these games that have this premise and choices to express anger almost always feel like a child throwing a tantrum, it's another thing that annoys me with these premises, but luckily this game avoided it nicely.


Now, onto the LI's;

Elea- Probably my favourite character out of any VN I've played thus far, and I play a LOT of them. She's cheeky, she's nerdy, she has no qualms throwing some banter and it doesn't feel forced, it's very naturally written. She has her insecurities with her nerding out over mythology, drives a fucking 69' Charger that's a Dukes of Hazzard tribute car and has specific boundaries she has for herself but seemingly willing to compromise when she find someone she likes. She's very rational and seems to be very caring and have no issue going full extrovert and just dancing at clubs when she wants to. Her banter with "Uncle Hank" was endearing as fuck aswell. 12/10, personally this is a character that I'd love to meet in real life, basically right up my alley.

Helena- Very calm and collected, seems to have a fair few professional boundaries but toeing on that line seems to be almost fetishistic for her given the taboo factor. She seems to go out of her way to help those she likes, she's mature in her view of things but something gives off the vibe that she might have her childish sides as well, not saying that as a bad thing either. 9/10, very solid older woman type character, again very realistically written and I am a fan.

Anissa- Hard to get a good grasp since you don't really have that many interactions with her, but she seems interesting for sure. One of the few LI's you encounter in games that have no issue starting off more casually which is a plus in my book. Seems fairly laid back and easy to get along with. 7/10, will be higher once she gets fleshed out a bit more.

Fiona- Competitive, silly, certainly loves animals. Seems very genuine despite being entirely mysterious and without a doubt connected with Neverwhere, even before she admitted it, it was pretty clear cut that she's into some shady shit as her "hobbies". Undoubtedly carries some trauma, seems to be very lonely.

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10/10, usually don't enjoy "mysterious" characters as they're very frequently written in a way where it feels like the MC is purposely kept in the dark because the MC doesn't "deserve" to know, but she comes off as more hiding things due to personal trauma, which is much more palatable.

Kaiju- No idea, don't give a shit, didn't interact with her and won't give her the time of day.

Non LI's;
Jess- 100/10, absolute hawaiian pizza fueled gremlin and she's fucking fantastic. I'll protect her with my life and support her gremlin antics against the Templars any anyone else for that matter.


Overall; absolutely hate the premise but it's done in about a good of a way as possible. The characters are the real shining gems here, they're all written very realistically, a lot of attention paid towards them having an actual existence and backstory within the world instead of feeling like characters that are just dropped into the setting which is somewhat rare to find in VN's nowadays. They're all distinct enough from eachother aswell which is also a plus, as some VN's have characters that almost blend into eachother a bit.
I am a fan of mythology so it's a bit novel for me to see names like Durendal show up and a lot of the other references, and don't think I didn't catch Sound of Silence in there.

Honestly, even with me hating the premise, I'll absolutely follow this and wait for future updates, the character writing is more than good enough to bridge the gap of my disdain for the premise.

You left someone very important of your LI's review. You do NOT want to piss her off.

 

[Dessolos]

You left someone very important of your LI's review. You do NOT want to piss her off.

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unless you her to be your Dommy Mommy then piss her off

 

[Ciaran8023]

You left someone very important of your LI's review. You do NOT want to piss her off.

I'll be honest, she didn't even come off as a potential LI to me, and I don't think I want to get involved with fantasy turbo racists. Call me weird but I sort of draw the line at supposed LI's that have no qualms committing racially-fueled genocides if they wanted to.

 

[Dessolos]

I'll be honest, she didn't even come off as a potential LI to me, and I don't think I want to get involved with fantasy turbo racists. Call me weird but I sort of draw the line at supposed LI's that have no qualms committing racially-fueled genocides if they wanted to.

I think she will come across as a LI more in the next update. If I recall correctly next update mostly gonna be about her and lore of the elves. From what I recall her sister / the Queen is much worst but yeah you dont like what you don't probably won't make things better if you already don't like her. I'm waiting to see for me it's way to early to judge / have an opinion on her personally.

 

[Milton749]

I'll be honest, she didn't even come off as a potential LI to me, and I don't think I want to get involved with fantasy turbo racists. Call me weird but I sort of draw the line at supposed LI's that have no qualms committing racially-fueled genocides if they wanted to.

She is one of the confirmed LIs.

 

[Dessolos]

She is one of the confirmed LIs.

she makes me question being Faithful to Kaija Medb best looking model for sure. I might have make a Kaija save and cheat on her with Medb just to see if anything happens in the future. The hair is best part about her I wouldn't change a thing at least in that render

 

[Ciaran8023]

She is one of the confirmed LIs.

Interesting, I had no idea. She definitely didn't come off as anything close to an LI at first impression.

I think she will come across as a LI more in the next update. If I recall correctly next update mostly gonna be about her and lore of the elves. From what I recall her sister / the Queen is much worst but yeah you dont like what you don't probably won't make things better if you already don't like her. I'm waiting to see for me it's way to early to judge / have an opinion on her personally.

Yeah, I don't think my view on her will change at all, but I'm interested to see the character writing atleast as it's something that sets this VN apart from many others, the character writing is generally very good.

 

[Milton749]

she makes me question being Faithful to Kaija Medb best looking model for sure. I might have make a Kaija save and cheat on her with Medb just to see if anything happens in the future. The hair is best part about her I wouldn't change a thing at least in that render

If you were caught cheating on Kaija with MedB or vice versa and they both found out. There would be nothing left of your remains to identify whether you ever existed at all in the first place.

 

[Dessolos]

If you were caught cheating on Kaija with MedB or vice versa and they both found it. There would be nothing left of your remains to identify whether you ever existed at all in the first place.

which is part of the fun potentially getting my dick frozen off or my throat slit in my sleep plus has the added benefit of those Kaja hates of making her cry

 

[xapican]

Helena, Anissa, and Templar Milf, Nightingale, and the Bar girl seem to be side LI`s
The Confimred ones are Kaija, Fiona, Elea and Medb so it seems.
for me it is still to early to get into details, I expect some plot twists later down the line.
One thing is clear nothing is what it seems to be in Neverwhere.

 

[Tulrek]

Here are the officials LI:

It is on the menu guys !

All others are side girls.

 

[Grumpy Old Aussie]

I'll be honest, she didn't even come off as a potential LI to me, and I don't think I want to get involved with fantasy turbo racists. Call me weird but I sort of draw the line at supposed LI's that have no qualms committing racially-fueled genocides if they wanted to.

In the dialogue with the Queen, the Queen says Medb has a softspot for humans. So it is unlikely she is racist towards humans. The elves we have met so far have severe issues with the Templars. I don't recall the elves hating all humans, but its been a while since I played so I don't remember everything.

 

[Dessolos]

In the dialogue with the Queen, the Queen says Medb has a softspot for humans. So it is unlikely she is racist towards humans. The elves we have met so far have severe issues with the Templars. I don't recall the elves hating all humans, but its been a while since I played so I don't remember everything.

that's what I thought too but didn't want to say anything as I cant recall very much so im glad my initial thoughts were the same.

 

[ImSenjou]

In my eyes, Fiona is the only LI.

 

[nitkonikic]

I'll give it a look through later, I don't think it will sway my opinion at all since I just have a core principle to not entertain people who are dishonest or betray others, and she kind of managed to hit both.
But, I'm always interested to check out the writing behind it as it's been solid thus far.

Kaija will get no redemption in any of my saves, but I highly recommend at least going for "true friend" route, so to speak.
Technically it's love route, just don't kiss her or tell her you love her, otherwise be friendly.
There is quite a lot of different dialogue to be seen and even some scenes play out differently.
Avoiding spoilers, but there is ingame event where she can outright reject what MC wants to do, or do it, despite knowing she shouldn't, giving small extra scene, which is very nice.

Otherwise, hate her guts and wish MC would break all ties with her once trouble is gone.

 

[Maviarab]

You left someone very important of your LI's review. You do NOT want to piss her off.

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He also mentioned a girl who isn't a LI in his LI list...whatever, already made the list.

 

[DevinHesi]

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Hey everyone,

before you get excited: No release date (yet, but soon. Need to check the calendar first ;-) ).

This post is about how the upcoming releases will be handled.
With Chapter 5 being the first Chapter released on Steam, I basically have to paywall the game from now on.
That means no more free versions on Discord or anywhere else except the demo version (up to CH3) if I decide to put it up again.

In the future, there will be two ways to get the game (from me at least...):
Steam and Patreon (

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is a special case. I stopped selling there but I'll try to provide the updates to those who bought the game there).

The release schedule in general will be:
Patreon Chaplain tier (and above) will get the new version as soon as it's out of Beta.
After that, I'll work on the Steam-specific stuff (code adjustments, images for achievements etc) and will release the new version ~2-3 weeks after the Chaplain tier (depends a bit on the workload).
Mercenary tier will get the new version the same day as it is released on Steam.



Additionally, all Patrons who have a lifetime pledge of at least 13$ can get a Steam key for free.
That's true for all tiers, and yes that means if you stay 13 months at the Grunt tier you can still get a key.
You have to contact me for that, I won't just send out keys to everyone because I have to request them from Valve and I want to make sure (at least as best as possible) the keys get used.

Chapter 5 will be a special case because the Steam release will be in September and I won't make the Mercenary tier wait until September.
Chaplain tier and above will get Chapter 5 around the end of July and Mercenary tier will follow ~2 weeks later. The exact dates are to be announced


I hope I didn't forget anything important. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.
Cheers,
Ceolag

 

[SamualHand]

I don't think I have ever seen Medb looking so vulnerable, sad even. Maybe there is a soft beating heart under all that ice afterall. I volunteer to comfort her.

Maybe she has seen the MCs dick?

 

[Ciaran8023]

In the dialogue with the Queen, the Queen says Medb has a softspot for humans. So it is unlikely she is racist towards humans. The elves we have met so far have severe issues with the Templars. I don't recall the elves hating all humans, but its been a while since I played so I don't remember everything.

Having a soft spot for humans doesn't necessarily mean that she views humans to be on the same level as her, it comes off as being a lot more towards how humans can have soft spots for dogs and cats for example, that she views them more like pets when every other elf seem to regard them as pests.

While most of the "elf hates humans" lore dump came from Templars, elves in general seem to be vehemently hating humans from what we've seen thus far, as in fantasy settings the views of the people tend to mirror that of the monarchs and the one Queen we do come across from the elves seem to be.. let's say less than accepting of humans existence.
Plus, it's basically a fantasy staple at this point to have elves hate literally every other race besides themselves, as nearly every expansive fantasy setting have them view themselves as superior, which seems to also apply well to this VN.

Of course, there's still a lot we don't know about them, but I would be genuinely surprised if they weren't incredibly racist given the fact that they kidnapped the head of the one organization of humans that they have somewhat contact with, demanded them to be disbanded and went "lol your problem" when finding out about Hellspawns.

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