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

Version: [v0.3a]

Beautiful art that suffers greatly from a not great sandbox execution.
This is gonna be short as there's not much to delve too deep into.

The art is really really nice, 2d art that is done well is a pretty rare find and it was the reason I lasted as long as I did with this one.
The writing is okay, nothing special if I'm being honest but definitely servicable.

As a game it is pretty bad.
The game is very laggy, the menus are honestly annoying and moving around the mansion takes too long and feels too bad (a way to move to a specific character instead of a location, 1 click move from the maps instead of changing floors etc, would be really nice), the phone should not exist as it does right now.
The text appearing in the corner of the screen as it does in comics is pretty pleasing thematically and visually, but is kind of uncomfortable in practice.

The gameplay is, as usual with sandbox games, bad. you spam boring interactions to build up stats and wait for events to trigger, even if they wouldn't take an eternity to trigger (randomly, of course), the mansion feels too empty, large, and pointless to justify the sandbox aspects.
Changing the cloths the LI's wear, as is often the case with 'Null Hypothesis', unintuitive, cumbersome and finicky. I gave up on it after a few minutes.
Well, after a couple of hours I saved and closed the game. when I came back I found out I lost around 20 minutes of gameplay, which consists of befriending X-23, and other seemingly random events proccing, and at that point I had to wonder, why do I even bother? so I closed the game and deleted it.

To sum it up - great art, serviceable writing, awful sandbox execution.
I'll be honest and say that my experience felt more like a 2/5 than a 3/5, but as I dropped the game without finishing all the available content, I'll round up.
Might check back in the future as it seems from the change log there are plenty of things that are changing and the dev is still figuring things out, but as of right now there's a lot of work that needs to be done.

I went into this game with low expectations, but it truly took me by surprise, exceeding what I had anticipated. The overall quality of the game is remarkable, especially considering its early development stage. The comic-book theme, the captivating setting, and the impressive environmental artwork contribute to a refreshing gaming experience.

Despite being in its early stages, the storyline remains engaging, and each heroine possesses distinct and charming qualities. The developers have introduced a character progression system involving classes, training, and studying, which I find particularly enjoyable. Although the mutant power system is still evolving, I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing its development.

There is a lot of potential here, and the game seems to be heading in an exciting direction. If you're hesitant about trying it out, I highly recommend giving it a chance. There's much to look forward to, and the game already demonstrates promising elements that make it worth exploring.

There are some bugs...and some issues with repetitiveness and grinding so far but it's not intolerable.

If you've played Oni's rogue like evolution, this is that but with a meaningful story and fleshed out characters. Yes at the end of the day there are still grindy mechanics, but that takes second place to a very interesting story that makes you invested in the characters. Unlike Oni's game, each of the girls feel unique and have their own specific "fetishes". The art style is very unique and the whole comics aesthetic is something you don't really see. The rate at which content is released is very fast and the devs are responsive. My only gripe is that some of the models look kinda janky especially in the sex poses. Wardrobes and the story aren't all that fleshed out yet, but that is to be expected.

*As of V0.3a
Pros:

• Great animated 2D art, which is a pretty rare find outside Japanese games iMO
• Not much story yet, but the characters are written pretty well, and they do feel pretty alive, which helps cut the grindiness that some players have an issue with
• Sex minigame is decent imo, reminds me of the 2000-2015 Japanese trainer games.
• Enough mechanics and flavor to not feel like a copy paste VN
• Some people say it gets laggy, but I've reached the end of the content for this version, and never got any while running on a M1 macbook air.

Cons:

• Quite a few bugs as of this version, at least in the Mac download, but nothing game breaking.
• Can get repetitive, especially since the story isn't far along yet.
• Can be grindy to some players, but not as bad as many Twine games
• Some optional goals/events are hard to trigger.
• Can use more body movements, especially in standing art and facial expressions (makeout and orgasm reaction, etc)

Additional Notes
The game has great potential, and hopefully production runs well, since that is a bane of many of these games, and please don't resort to AI art...

This is to me the peak of what Adult Games can be. It blends the story of a typical Visual Novel with more interactive features, its characterisation of fan favourites from its chosen franchise work perfectly and the art is beautiful. One of the few games I've played that truly feels like a passion project.

A skip button would be nice and obviously the content is far from complete (albeit plentiful in its current state) but it's the only true 10/10 I've ever found on this site. Amazing job guys I can't wait to see more.

Basically, a remake of Rogue-like.
The better: The girls have actual personalities to them, and they are different and fun, unlike Oni's paper thin ones, There's a semblance of plot and it's not a glorified gallery
Now the worse. Visually, it's not as good. Girls have the same body type, and the art style has something really uncanny about it, and it shows especially in the sex scenes.
It's somehow laggier than rogue-like, and that's an achievement.
The menus are cumbersome and annoying to navigate, especially bad in the sex scenes and clothing.
Grindy, both the visible stats and the "hidden" ones require a lot of dull repetition of the same events with no variation.
The sex scenes became over complicated, with a multitude of redundant options and menus, generally poorly planned.

And having the third update of the game remove content while adding fluff is not a good indicator for the project's health. Cautiously optimistic, but I'd keep hopes down.

Half a year later, this has become worse, with a terrible drip feed of microscopic updates, uncanny art and new bugs of previously working things.

This game is way too good for how early it is in development. There's plenty of hot scenes, and the story and writing is really in-depth. It's also fun to change-up the characters outfits. Also, the art is excellent too. Lots of inspiration here from Rouge-Like evolution. Really looking forward to seeing more characters and more art/poses. Well done.

Longtime lurker, I've seen games come and go. I've seen the memes, the shitty games, the god tier ones too. I've seen devs do nothing and soak in money, I've seen them working their asses off to get updates regularly. I always figured didn't really need to put in much input because someone else does it for me.

This game changed that.

Every character if fun and with the new update we get to see more of them besides the normal dates and few lines of repeating dialogue. Each one of them actually feels different which was always one of my few complaints about rouge like.

Also the MC actually feels like a person instead of just a blank slate to insert yourself in, adding with the archetype feature I feel like I can actually immersive myself into this version of the x-men.

I'm extremely looking forward to the potential of going on missions and learning more about Null's powers and seeing where the plot goes. Farouk being a major antagonist makes me wonder how Storm will come into play.

The artstyle itself is some of the best 2D art I've seen on the site, like ever. Like the artist makes each girl feel different. Like I don't see a single different sameface.

The only complaint I can think off is the sex minigame can be a bit tedious but its not even the worst one I've seen on the site.

I want this game to be big, it deserves every bit of praise it gets.

This game is gonna be up there with some of the all time greats or I will eat my entire x-men collection mark my words.

The game's nice for an easy-going dating simulator. Mechanics-wise there isn't many sophisticated layers, in fact now come to think of it its kinda a bit simple. But the story setting and character interaction just barely compensates the downsides, along with great visuals, made it a pretty relaxing game to play. Would love to see more diversity in daily mundane tasks, and increased interactions between the girls. Strong foundation, now just gotta build on top of it.

For the record, I'm usually completely opposed to anything that looks like an obvious knock-off of another game.

This one isn't.

Sure, it openly acknowledges being heavily inspired by Rogue-Like (and it is), and could easily just be a boring re-hashing of that game.

This one isn't.

What it IS, is an excellent sandbox-style trainer based upon the same Marvel character as Rogue-Like, but it succeeds at greatly expanding upon gameplay and enjoyment. In fact, at this time the only facet in which it hasn't improved upon its inspirational predecessor is in the variety of girls to mess around with. If you are a fan of Rouge-Like, you're going to be quite pleased with this slower-paced, graphically-enhanced successor.

Give it a shot, it's some serious quality game design--much more so than the average fare. I'd give it a sixth star if I could.

This is a remarkably high quality game. The art is excellent, the storyline and character development are surprisingly deep, and the sex scenes are interactive, bringing a level of realism that is often lacking. The women will respond to your relationship level, so if you try to do something more than they aren't "ready" for then they will deny you... until you convince them

I am quite pleasantly surprised to be honest. I had very low expectations, but I was proven wrong. I will definitely be following this game.

My only wish would be to see the girls from more angles, and to allow the same progression system to continue for things like threesomes, new love interests, etc.

Also, the trust stat grind is a bit much.

This game is excellent. I expected the visuals to be better than Oni's game, but I did not expect the story to be better... Especially when I saw the story was written by the not-so-illustrious "Buttholder". But the story *is* better. Good job guys - keep it up.

THe game has a nice story telling, the interface is streamliend and clean and the drawings of the characters are of high quality. It does not reinvent the wheel but so far quite solid. I hope they continue it

It's great this is everything what I wanted from rogue like evolution this has actual romance and the characters actually have depth also I like the humor and the male characters are great aswell.This is simply a superior version of rogue like evolution better art an actual story better character depth and personality.Also the hint of combat being there is great what kind of mutant would the mc be if he can't fight.The only problem with this game might be the sex minigame it's way too Grindy apart from that I got no complaints

Review of current version. v0.3a
I tested out this game when it first got released, let it cook for a bit, and came back to it, and I have to say, I am quite surprised, artist knows what it's doing, developer does so, and the inspiration from Rogue-Like evolution is all over the place, so if I make comparisons while you read this, don't take it personal...

Pros:
- A lot of Music sound and design here was put out...
- Visually very appealing, and I don't mean only the heroines, but also the enviroments...
- Plot rich, story driven narrative...
- A skill tree that lets you develop a bit of skills...
- Nightcrawler is a real homie...
- Vast amount of events (the majority non sexual) to progress and get attached to characters...

Cons:
- Currently it is very, very grindy, and I don't mean to level up only particularly, but rather to increase the stats, on this game you have only love and trust in Rogue-like evolution, to get this on par, you have an addiction gauge that increases if characters get physical contact with you, as you can also abuse this to force a bit of intimacy here... It's much more focused on slowburn and romantic development, not something I oppose but rather would enjoy, if it focused a bit more on some spicy events, or if the addictive touch from Rogue-like was added here too, it was developed a bit more in depth (Laura going fully into heat and using you as a living dildo if you left her go full dommy on you, Jean going full "big sis" roleplay on you, Rogue going all submissive, hell we even being able to buy her a maid outfit and teasing her about wearing it, are some choices)...
- I would, personally, put the skilltree option from the start (regarding levelling up the stamina)...
- While you're free to "spend" your time as you please,
- The way the game seems to be going, seems to potentially hint at combat which would separate it quite a bit from Rogue-like...
- Current major lack of events, this is something I'm sure it'll be adressed very soon, so I'm not worried...
- It's quicker to increase Love gauge than Trust gauge, either give a few events that increase Trust gauge as much as those that increase Love, or oomph it up a bit to be on par (or give the same values)...

Personal opinion: I am enjoying what I've been playing so far, I did my best to give constructive criticism, and while the cons list seems big, it's just things that all of them can be worked on since the project seems to be still getting made up and early on it's development, let the dev cook, I'd say, they seem to know what they're doing, what I do hope, is that their passion isn't falling, because there is a lot of passion and talent on the narrative and story being told here. Take your 5 stars, I expect to see more of this, and to review it on the future again...

You are doing justice to rouge like evolution both games are fun and 5 star worthy i cant wait to see what else comes out for this game i have already sunk quite a few hours into it and have enjoyed every second

If you've played Rogue-like Revolution, you'll immediately notice this game takes heavy inspiration from many aspects of the gameplay and locations, with some comic book themes and stylistic decisions overlaid on top. That's all fine.

The strongest differences between the two games are the main girls' personalities, which are well defined and different enough from Rogue-like (though the baseline stereotypes are similar).

Other differences are the art style(it's fine), and the game does have story progression check points, which is a nice touch and keeps things moving.

The main issue is the gameplay does not innovate on the original, and you generally have a single approach(Love and Trust stats) to get in the good graces of the girls to progress the sex options. Rogue-Like used a combination of the Love, Submission, and Exhibition stats which allowed different approaches and variations to scenes.

Creating outfits doesn't feel as easy as the UI would make you think. Besides a general laggy feeling, the girls have an exhibition score that defines how 'risky' an outfit they are willing to wear, which I found was usually between 200-500, but for the life of me I couldn't get a risky score higher than 20/30 without it jumping to 1000+(because they were essentially nude in their lower or upper torso). I may have missed something but I didn't end up playing around with it too much as it didn't feel great.

The body types all feel similar except Laura who's got the same body type but ripped(still sexy).

The MCs background and character progression are great but have no impact on gameplay except as a general measure to how far you can go with a girl.

It's fine, if you want a more romantic version of Rogue-Like with a deeper narrative then this should be up your alley. If you want deeper mechanics but more shallow personalities, you may want to check out Rogue-Like.

It is grindy tho, damn. Consider using cheats/console.

Review For The Null Hypothesis (v0.2b)
I can't stress enough how incredible this game is! Even though I've played everything the current version has to offer, I still can't get enough. The developers' passion for the x-men universe shines through in every aspect of the game, from the amazing comic book vibes to the captivating storytelling.

Right now, there are only three romance options, and I have a feeling Storm will be the final female option. But who knows, maybe there will be more in the future? Despite having just three love interests, the developers have done an outstanding job integrating them into the story and making them blend seamlessly with the main character.

It's been a while since I've read any x-men comics or watched the movies, but this game truly immerses you in the x-men universe. Laura is hands down my favorite character, and I appreciate the attention she receives in this game.

The dating system is almost perfect with a few things that can get improved on, and the user interface is easy to navigate. Building friendships with the girls and progressing your relationship by hanging out, training, and studying together is a major part of the game, and it never gets dull. As the main character discovers more about his overpowered powers, he becomes stronger, and the girls are always there to support him which is something I really liked.

The game is still in its early stages, and the story is far from over, and I'm eagerly anticipating more exciting developments. Currently, most of the game revolves around spending time with the girls and deepening your relationship with them. Once you meet certain requirements with all the girls, you progress through the story, which includes thrilling sections where the main character uncovers something new about his powers and confronts some badass marvel villains. (The "I'm the Juggernaut" moment had me in stitches, as it reminded me of the original video. I'm grateful that the developers included that joke.)

Now onto the best part of the game that I absolutely loved - the interactive sexual scenes. To be honest, I believe other games should take notes from this game because the freedom to explore various choices and ways to have a good time with the characters was fantastic. What made it even better was the fact that you couldn't just jump into bed with them automatically. You had to establish a genuine connection, earn their love and trust, and then unlock new actions which made the experience truly feel rewarding.

The game's progression wasn't too tedious either, and depending on the time you invest in this game, you could complete everything in just 1-3 days.

Considering everything I've mentioned, I genuinely hope this game doesn't get abandoned because it holds immense potential. Honestly, it's one of the finest Marvel parody adult games I've ever experienced. So, if you haven't given it a try yet, what are you waiting for?

Making a game with good immersion needs both optimum level of coding and artitistics. It's like putting ingredients and flavour in jambalaya, too little or too much spoils the whole dish, they have to be in balance. Devs have hit to a sweet spot and create great ladies with seductive essence and somehow refreshing flow that kept this old wanker playing. This is fun and horny.

Great art, great game. I haven't liked a game sinci this one for a l,ong time. Hopefully, this game wont be abndoned like many.

If you are wondering should you play this gmae, the answer is yes.

Biggest gripe with the game is how messy and clunky the phone is. I also for the life of me do not know how to hcek the amount of money I have.