VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - The Nighrest [Ep.1] [ChouderTales]

Short summary:


This is a promising start. For now there is not much content, but creator managed to craft an interesting horror story and an excellent atmosphere for it. Though how well he can deliver on it is a question, since writing is pretty bad, especially outside of the horror segments.



Good Things

• Atmosphere is excellent
• Genuinely interesting horror plot
• Decent renders (not stellar)

Bad points

• Bad writing
• People, especially MC are prone to overreact
• Girls have very similar faces
• Not a hint of sexy content for now

09/01/2024 __ EP 01

It's like the dev said, there is no +18 content and it doesn't even seem like there will be, the mc shows no signs that he wants to get involved with any girl, even when his mother asks this, the mc makes it clear...
personal opinion here... I don't really understand why some devs have this no-sex policy on f95...
However, the game has extreme quality even in its initial stages, I must say that the terror he put into the game has a lot of quality, really got me into the horror mood, and what kept me going was exactly that, as what kept me in the game changed from "girls" to "horror".
If he focuses on this it will be perfect, but as it is at the very beginning of development there is not much to say beyond that. just that the rendering is of good quality and so is the ambience.

As of Ep.1 - this is a story with typical horror slasher vibes and setup: some secluded island, some sudden disappearances and paranormal mysteries around these and some ominous female 'entity' called "The Nighrest".

While visually appealing, technically quite solid and decently delivering the fitting mood & atmosphere with music and sounds, this story has one huge issue: the writing.
Writing falls flat and is sometimes clumsy and wooden as hell, as are conversations between characters. In addition, it desperately needs a proofread for interpunction, spelling and proper use of words. I've certainly read worse (socalled 'Engrish'), but it harms the whole story substantially and disturbs immersion nevertheless.
- No good story-driven AVN without the proper writing skills! - should be a common rules for all VNs that attempt to build up on story instead of porn. Even more as long as the dev isn't sure about including lewds yet. And tbh the whole story setup here isn't that special, creative or inventive at all to be an exception.

Visuals - even decent or great renders - only support to a well-written story, they don't create a good story by themselves. Neither do attractive character renders.

That's why this AVN is only 2.5 STARS as of now for me. Due to the current lack in writing and complete absence of nudes/lewds it's not worth any positive recommendation... may that change in the future for the better!

(5/5)Plot - One of the strongest plot that you can find in the AVN now. Really intriguing and Chez guns are pleced in the right spots of the story. So even from the first episode you will get a lot of mysteries, question, interesting encounters and chemestry between characters.
(5/5)Music - Very and very good. Appear when it's nessesary and the most important it's higly connected to the story. So when you need suspence there will be this music. and when you need to relax the music will be right away.
(4/5)Background Rendres - Not the strongest part of the game but that doesn't mean that they are bad. Nothing like this. Just if we compare very good plot and music the redners is 1 point behind.
(4.5/5)Сharater renders - I think if this game will continue and have big audiance Haze and Tina will be in the top of the most beatufil chracters in the games. They are realy gorgeous. Especialy Haze.
Poppy, Jecky and Heazer and looking good to but no compare to previous one. Kat is just ok(i think it can be some interesting story behind her. Because if he will be just a whore then she will be the most boring character)
(3.5/5) UI/UX -
1. Let's start from the pros - realy nice dialogue choices that doesnt overlap any important info and are well suited to the game's gamut
2. Nice detection when(the chacter will remember it(let's just hope the chracter "will remember it")
3. And there is only one cons(maybe only for me) - we are reading from left to the right(people itself) and it's uncomfortably to see the load on left and new game on the right. And it's wiered that exit button is located on the center of the screen(it will be better to remove it in the right bottom corner). That's how it can look better and easier to navigate
(4/5) Bugs - There is only one bug that is already mentioned(when you speak with your friend his text is skiped to quickly)
Summary - It's very decent project and i hope that the developer will continue to make this game. (i can even suggest that this game now can be release in steam as demo version to gain an audience but it will be dev decission)

I am very impressed with this game for several reasons but chiefly the following stood out:

1. Visuals, the are impressive and characters look good and unique, time and effort was spent in the design.
2. Audio, normally I never play these VNs or such with audio on but this game does do it very nicely but also not in an invasive or annoying manner. It fits well into the story and helps create the eerie undertones.
3. Story is so far intriguing, its not ground breaking in any sense of the word and we can guess what the overarching story would be probably but its interesting and this is something very few adult VNs do imo.
4. Not just fap material, the game seems to have more going for it and the first episodes sets the stage (somewhat)

Cons:

1. Very short, hardly any content here. Since its the first release the jury is out on how many updates we can expect, when and how much content there will be in those updates.
2. I am hoping obviously for frequently and fair amount of decent content, however to maintain the level of detail and story currently, I can assume it will need time or several persons going at it to produce content at a reasonable pace.
3. No clear indication what affect game choices will have, so far it doesn't seem like they have any, but its early days so the effects may only be found later. I would recommend putting notices in for key moments

This one I will surely keep an eye on, lets hope the developer gets enough support to keep it going at a decent pace.

Cheers