VN - Ren'Py - The Red Threads [v0.3] [Astelius]

Unsure if there is supposed to be a game or a story here somewhere.

So far you can:
- either take or not take pills that may or may not do something
- drink or not drink coffee
- read some inconsequential nonsense in the library
- walk around the city in the same two locations with 50\50 of either feeling better or feeling worse
- randomly "hang out" with 2 people (no significant information of who they are) which consists of a single render and a single line of text
- take a look at your traveling bag with the same result every time

And no, those ugly red blots around the screen are not really going anywhere.

To sum it up - can't recommend.

Review for v0.1

As the dev has stated, it's an "adult visual novel dating sim with Lovecraftian horror aspects." Surprisingly I've played a few different AVNs with similar concepts, but I think where this stands out so far is that it's really playing more into the horror elements than usual.

The game opens with you essentially getting sexually assaulted by a heavily twisted/mutated(?) monster "girl." Now I'm into what I sometimes call true monster girls, where they actually look like monsters more or less. I think I gotta draw the line here though, given that this particular monster girl has teeth in her vagina that the game makes sure to tell you about. Yucky.

That was probably the point though, in that it was supposed to make you uncomfortable rather than be sexy. This feels very true to that Lovecraftian aspect in that it already feels like there's all sorts of fucked up shit lurking in the shadows.

Honestly not a ton more to say given how short this first version is, but it did its job in hooking me enough to come back. It creates enough intrigue for me to already start wondering and asking questions in a "man I wonder what happens next" kind of way. The writing feels competent which is always nice. Couldn't tell you much of anything about characters yet, just not enough there.

My one complaint is that I kinda hate that sort of overlay on the sides of the screen. I think it's done to represent the MC's partial blindness and general trauma, but I'd much rather just have the screen as clear as possible. An option to turn it off would be great.

I'd 100% say wait for more updates before playing. It's cool enough for a mini demo, but much too early to get anything really meaningful out of it. Still, going to keep an eye on it for now.

Excellent art/character style, story seems interesting and I'd definitely say game feels "compressed" (not in a bad sense) - lot of little background details that I assume the dev is intending to make use of. I'm not willing to put out a 5 star on an intro but as dev continues I'd definitely be willing to increase this assessment if it is worthy of a 5-star.
Currently some sex scenes but nothing major given how little content there is yet, but that's not really an issue as I assume the dev probably just wanted to put something in there.

TLDR; Very, very good art style, definitely good horror so far, very early development-wise though.