Ren'Py - The Null Hypothesis [v0.5b] [Ron Chon]

v0.5b
I went in with low expecations, "just a knockoff copy of a famous game" I scoffed to mysellf...
Well, I was proven wrong and was instead very pleasantly surprised.

Fantastic writing. Genuinely good story, characters, and pacing.
Sandbox does not feel onerous nor grindy. sure there is some stuff to rise but overall you are playing and interacting with characters.
Very sexy.

The interactive sex scenes are well executed FOR interactive sex scenes. but are still somewhat tedious. in fact they are the most tedious part of the game. I much prefer the scripted non interactive sex scenes.

High polish. This game looks professional.

A very promising and intriguing fan project.
Honestly can't rate the H action coz I just played it for a story and characters interaction (yes, i know, a weird flex).

1. Visuals 7 - some AI is/was used at some point BUT the team clearly has actual artists who maybe use it to draft and storyboard). Everything looks clear, the arts style is pretty consistent, nice backgrounds with variable lighting, even cute weather effects. Dont know the limitations of RENPy, but maybe some particle effects would look very cool (e.g. some dust specs in the light rays in the hall)
2. Sound/Music 8 - (some truly bopin tracks done clearly by a person who cares. Seriously, I sometimes use them as background during work, study. The game clearly lacks some special effects sounds and ambient sound, but I'm pretty sure it's because of the early stages of development
3. Writing 8 - comparing to other fan projects of 18+ is pretty nice. The characters are believable and not just cardboard cutouts of their original counterparts. The story is pretty intriguing and clearly follows comics-like beats so here's hoping for more cool twists

Going into this project I did not expect anything special and was very pleasantly surprised. Now I'm something of a fan of the game myself. Here's hoping for more cool quests, interesting interactions and bopin tracks.
Thank you and good luck!

At the time of writing, there are 149 reviews, with an average of 4.5 stars.
While another review is clearly not needed, i am still so in awe of this VN that i want to praise it regardless.

The production value here is so damn high. The art is unbelievably good, with an amount of portrait diversity i have not seen before. The amount of clothes, hair styles, facial expressions and how they are integrated in the story is phenomenal. Why, of course the appearance changes depending on season, activities like training, showering and so on, or if they went sunbathing lately. And of course you can buy new clothes and change their clothes setup. Oh, and the lewd scenes are animated too.
And all this is just the art and the relevant background systems alone.

Coupled with well written characters you feel for and can influence with certain behaviors, and a generally light main story, i would have given 6 stars if possible.

Really looking forward to new updates.

Art is excellent, and I do mean excellent, the girls look top tier. Animations are good in some parts, basic in others.

Only things that let it down really are the triggers for quests and the serious grind time.

I am a completionist, so games that give you side quests that fail to trigger when you meet all the criteria for ages, like over an hour at one point, really grind my gears so star lost for that.

Then there is the story, pretty well written, but the writer is obviously trying for the porn game award oscars and it keeps telling you the same basic information but in different ways, over and over at some points.

After approx 8 hours gameplay total, it actually just got boring so stopped playing.

Some tweaks here and there, it might be a 4 to 5 star game for me.

The girls are amazing, each one of them has a unique and well-written personality.
The intimacy progression is great too, nothing too quick to feel 'unrealistic' (not earn) but not too grindy either. The game has a good flow. The sandbox is the icing on the cake. For example, is such a small nice touch. In summary, a perfectly executed sandbox game, rich in interactions and surprises.

This is exactly what Rogue-Like should have been. There are less characters but an actual story that's well-written and interesting. Characters who are fleshed out and interesting. I wasn't just skipping through the same dialogue pop-ups to get to the sexy times over and over, I was engaged in their story and their development.

Helping Laura out of her shell and helping her make friends was honestly the best part for me. This game is only on 0.5a as of writing this so there's still a long road ahead, however, if the story and any potential new characters are as this rich and fleshed out, it will be 100% worth the wait. Unlike the near 10 year development of Rogue-Like.

Less is definitely more in this case. If you're looking for a good story and some well-earned sexy times, this is it right here chief.

For the a porn game the characters seem really fleshed out, if you're here for a nice experience and not for just beating your dick then you'll enjoy it i guess.

If you're here for the sole purpose to beat it or whatever then you can find better material elsewhere, it takes some time to get any meaningful action, but, I don't believe that that's the point of the game.

Rarely do I actually give a shit about the characters in a game like this, but god damn, it seems that I kind of do. Probably helps that the art is super well done. Super interested to see where this one goes in the future.

A real good time. love the art and characters, Laura's my favorite out of the girls. hoping we get more fight scenes with the MC, he's got a couple loss's he needs to make up for. All in all love the game

(0.4.B)

Good:
Relationship-driven game with fleshed out character fitting goals of chapter based structure & erotic payoffs.

Bad:
Art ambushes. Coherent art, then BAM you've unlocked a disjointed police-Photofit-feel sex pose.

It's great! Pretty much Rogue-like: Evolution but brought to modern day with vastly improved graphics and an actual story. Progression can be a bit grindy, but so was RL:e so if that bothers you, it might bring down rating to 4-stars.

Good luck to the developers and hopefully we'll see finished project some day.

A lot of work went to technical aspects like interfaces, character interactions and animation at the cost of performance.u
Story events and characters usually sticks to the og material as far as the community discuss, and they participate a lot so devs get constant feedback.
For the future I recommend keeping the same girl count, flesh out those interactions, grind and optimization for a more dense dating sim experience, like actually seeing eyecandy jogging or training sessions, that would keep the pacing on track while also rewarding players for taking part on the events.

This game hooks. It's a spiritual successor of Rogue Like with similar mechanics, but also a decent story progression system, visuals, etc. Really promising. I hope the author adds ATM dynamics, and improves the relationship complexity among MC's spouses.

So I played v.0.5a having played an earlier version previously.
Really enjoying this. Very well written and the art is stunning.
I'm going to play again a v.0.10 or so and if it continues progressing at the same rate it'll be a great game by that point.

Good visual novel with well written characters. In Rogue-like you get 0 progression, mostly stuff like perversion/submission, here you get character progression and interesting plot.
Also this game a bit "grindy", you need to repeat some actions many times in order to progress, but it's worth it, I guess.

It keeps getting better and better, you just have to be patient. I deeply enjoy playing this game, it makes me feel oddly jealous that people are so creative when they have a passion for things they like. I can't wait to see this game go further beyond what we have experienced thus far. If you are new and are still considering playing it, there's no better time than now.

Overall it's an amazing game, with such rich girls and graphs, the grind is a bit tiring, but its all worth it, i suggest more tasks and maybe more interaction with nightcrawler and the others.

Either way, i have some really high hopes for the next updates and incoming content, i really liked the way the chapters and story progress, i hope for more options and a bit of weight on the choices during the the story and combat. Of course there are things that need a polishment and all, but it's amazing and early, high hopes for the future updates!

Very Similar to the game its inspired by with better art assets and stable code.
Honestly its impressive as hell but I'll admit I am aprehensive to how it continues.
Currently the gameplay rewards are sexy outfits to dress up girls in and some sex scenes in multiple positions. At this moment the game could go two ways, expand the roster of girls ad infinity, or increase the depth of the girls and the "Quirk" system.
My hope is this game will go for quality over quantity but time will tell.

Love the graphics, nice story and great premise which look like will grow over time. Each girl has a unique story and personality.

I am looking forward to what they do next and how the bring more girls into the story.

Extremely polished visual novel, based on X-Men comics. Character visual design is very good and praise worthy. Some sex animation, does appear to be work in progress. Storytelling is engaging, nuanced, and true to the source material. Excellent entry in school harem genre.

Economy is grindy like all visual novels, but the income source does scale. Money gets you toys, outfits, and items to quickly gain points toward leveling the cast.

Giving 5 stars, but would like to see quality of life tweaks to UI navigation (main menu but costume menu in particular), tweaks to item economy pricing, added sfx audio during scenes, and many more chapters that take from other X-men storylines and characters to play with.