VN - Ren'Py - The Roommate [v0.12.02 + Special] [togs]

This one seems to have gotten away from the developer. The original description reads

"The Roommate is meant to be less "linear" than many other games and there are factors outside a player's control that may affect the path the story takes. And you don't get to shag your mom (or your sisters), but there are plenty of other fish in the sea..."

Click to expand...

But at this point it's pretty linear. I think the only real choices are who you want to screw and, occasionally, how you want to define the relationship and even that is going away. Even if you're on a Kari solo path (Kari is "the Roommate") there are three non optional lewd scenes in recent updates with women other than Kari (one is a threesome with Kari and her friend.)

Any other decisions such as business and financial decisions are largely made for you. You are supposed to be a CEO but the only business decisions are things relating to staffing and raises that would really be handled by human resources, not the CEO. The last few updates have also been slow in coming, small and buggy.

I may give this another try when/if it's ever done but for now I'm going to stop following.

Well, what slick97 already wrote I can only ad to it that it started of good with an interessting storyline but soon becomes so utterly boring as you cant realy build the connections to the charakters thrown at you ...

The dev should have made it a plane VN and put more time in the "lewd" scenes as they are all so disappointing, like there was no passion while creating/scripting them.
I wish I would have dropt out sooner as it realy was a waste of my time just teased by the good start and good visuals/models.

Make it a VN, straighten out your story and get the people that are in for a somewhat mediocre detective story and ramp up the lewd scenes -by a lot-

Before getting into the reasoning behind such a low rating I want to preface that the first 50 or so days of the game are genuinely enjoyable to an extent. However, I'll end up shattering even that bit of goodwill in a moment...

Where to start...
The story starts off relatively strong with variations from the get-go depending on your desired personality for the protagonist. The key issue though is that certain decisions are locked out, forced, or impossible to achieve without modifying values as the dev implemented:

• 6 variables for tracking traits (intimacy, submissive, etc.)
• 3 variables tracking sex related events
• 2 variables for tracking a relationship (relationship/status)
• and various superfluous variables to slot into the broken calendar/phone "features"

This issue is worsened by the dev "updating" / "fixing" variables every couple of in-game days, so half of your decisions are nullified.

Additionally, the dev even implemented a phone and calendar system, but you'd never know that they're functional since they're not used until much later (day 50+ IIRC). Instead you have a cluttered UI in which the phone and IRIS icons don't function, and the calendar is arbitrary due to the lack of sandbox elements - which is why half the garbage exists detailing dates, days, time of day, etc..


From "Sandbox" to Kinetic...
As mentioned earlier, the dev spent time building up an intricate system for dates, times, and various other sandbox style elements, only for them to be abandoned after day 60 when you have a rapid decrease in player agency. Actually, for this part, I'll just give a bullet list of examples!:

• Kiki - the girl from London - can be hired on as a receptionist or your personal maid. This is false, she's brute forced into your Personal Assistant role regardless of whether you wanted her at all.
  • Additionally, Kiki is forced into a "submissive" role despite variable checks for a "Mistress" title. This is never an option, and Kiki is forced into a submissive/slave role.
• You're given the option on whether you want to go along with the whole "cow" dynamic with Mallory. This decision is arbitrary, you will always treat Mallory as a cow.
• The choice of monogamy is ignored from day 41 onwards. The only consequence is locking you out of Lois content temporarily.
• You cannot prevent Lois from undergoing surgery.
  • This decision makes less sense if you did not choose for her to go on LactoMax since she just lies to you without a valid reason.

There are a few other examples, but the list above is the more frustrating examples.

The slow transition from player agency to kinetic is the primary reason for the rating. It's frustrating spending the early parts of the story meticulously building your character and his personality/relationships only for it to not matter after a certain point. It leads to the Frankentstein's monster we have now in which the story suffers as the dev tries to narrow the path.

Final Thoughts
The combination of broken systems, cluttered UI, and meaningless decisions culminate into an infuriating experience. The issue is worsened by the uncanny models, reused sex scenes, and brief animations with few positions.

I cannot recommend this game to anyone, even those who have specific fetishes. Genuinely a disappointing experience.

DISCLAIMER: I am a hard scoring when I review, so don't be afraid of 3 stars. This is a good game, but...

In most areas this is a really good game for anyone who has particular fetishes, namely heroic MC, big bewbs, milking, sluts, and baby making. The biggest lack is if you do not have these fetishes. This would normally allow for a fourth star even though I'm not into any of these, except you are given options out of these paths and that seems to lead nowhere. In many areas it even feels as if those cancelling choices are ignored or forgotten.

Simply put, this story is meant to go in one or two particular directions even though the choices appear to allow for more. If you are a fan of the above fetishes, then this story is perfectly fine. If not, then just don't bother. You will have a harem of big bewbed women who will dress inappropriately* for a tech company.

*You use that literal word to describe the dress code, and it doesn't change at all.

If I were to make a suggestion to the writer; do an overhaul to remove the verbage that seems to cancel these fetishes and do a better lean in on why the MC is expected to take the route you are employing. You DO have a good in-story reason, but those of us who like the itty-bitty-non-slutty titties are just being led on

Pro: Aside from the eyes (more on that later), the character renders are fantastic. The game features some of the most beautiful female characters I've seen in a game.

Pro: there are some very erotic scenarios presented.

Pro: Plenty of "be the guy that fixes everything for the women in need" opportunities.

Cons: the sex scenes are way too short. Actual sex takes quite a while to arrive fora game like this, and when it does, it's typically an image or two and then it's over with very little description. At one point, your girlfriend tell your submissive to kiss her...and then it just says "twenty minutes later." COMPLETELY SKIPS WHAT HAPPENED. WTF is that? Very disappointing.

Con: the game reaches a point where half the content revolves around pregnancy. It's technically optional, but if you opt to go the non-pregnancy route, you get far fewer sex scenes, characters disappear, certain lines of dialogune make no sense...it's very clear that stuff is being skipped.

Con: I touched on this above, but the character renders - at least the females anyway - are absolutely fantastic...except for the eyes. The eyes on everyone are just wide-open, soulless and unnerving. The MC's are PARTICULARLY unnerving and distracting.

The game provides an enjoyable experience overall, with good graphics and a story that starts off with a promising complexity. But as the plot progresses, it begins to lose its unpredictability, becoming more...well... predictable (See other reviews regarding sudden shift in domination dynamics). This shift, while somewhat disappointing, doesn’t completely detract from the experience. I personally care more about the *eh herm* graphic content. But still, the inconsistency in pacing and development feels slightly frustrating.

The scene involving the dog and the cop stands out, but it fails to fully deliver on the anticipation created by the tag. The lack of deeper "interaction" in this moment makes it less satisfying than expected. On that note, the barn scenes hint at potential that could justify the special tag, and it would be worth exploring these further in future updates.

The game also introduces several characters who could benefit from more screen time, particularly the sisters of the main female character. Their relationship dynamics offer fertile ground for further development. Similarly, the connection between the main female character and the secretary has potential for growth, adding depth to the story. I'd love to see more \happen following .

Despite these "shortcomings" (if you can even call them that), the game kept my interest throughout, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves in future updates. It definitely didn't feel like a waste of time playing this.

So, I have a lot of similar issues to what everyone in previous reviews have. A lot of story telling devices that come out of left field and a game that largely goes kinetic somewhere between Days 50-60. Normally, I like KNs, but the story has to have some consistency. Giving a player choice, letting them choose a path and then transitioning into a kinetic story that is largely incongruent with the path they've set is pretty much a no-no in storytelling.

My example is that I'm playing a relatively normal MC. He's not into particularly wild stuff, he's generally looking for longer-term relationships but he's not the definition of monogamy, however he can be a bit of a hothead at times. That's the sort of character I've "designed" based on questions the game itself asks of you; to help develop your character at the very beginning, before the very first image is thrown on screen, to determine your "hound" and "macho" variables (effectively, womanizer and hothead, respectively).

The first sign, to me, that the developer was going to start tossing spanners into the works was my MC suddenly putting Kiki into a dom/sub relationship in the office where my character had never incited such a relationship. Now, unlike other players, I suspected this wasn't malicious because of some coding reasons (I was going to bore you with a long spiel in a spoiler tag, but I won't do that now, reasons incoming, first spoiler section). I figured on fixing the developer's code, suddenly the game making a lot of relationship checks make more sense.


Outside of stupid developer things, I really do like the game.

Graphics are fantastic. Some of the animations are a little janky early on (3-5 FPS animations? oof). Zero audio, not really a negative, just a mention (put on some easy listening Spotify playlist, you'll be fine).

Almost entirely because a developer couldn't help themselves--throwing player choice out the door--I'll stick this game at 3 stars.

This game started out strong. Like, really strong. Then the Dev veered off the path and listened to only his high paying Patreons, and they both screwed it up. The Love/romance path has been dead for 7-8 updates and now all we get is NTR, sharing, whores, BDSM and now beastiality. Good luck on the slow death of your game, Dev.

Well, this one is turning into a complete cluster fuck and I've now lost complete interest. A bestiality tag now, really?? What next, futa/trans, scat, gay, necrophilia, sissification and maybe furry while your at it? I used to enjoy it when the story actually made some sense but for whatever reason the dev is making weird and dumb decisions every updates and turning it into a huge turd and a complete waste of time. So I'm adding this one to my ignore shit list and moving on. Not gonna stick around for the sinking.

This game is so bizarre, and I'm abandoning it. It's on the verge of being great, but the dev keeps making bizarre decisions. For instance, the MC discovers a sex cult that sees him as his master. In addition to being an odd curveball, I'm many hours past that and I haven't had a chance to fuck any of them.

The various girls also don't have much of a distinct personality, making them all melt together. This seems partially due to your actions determining if they're your employee, girlfriend, mistress, whore, etc. As a result, the dev doesn't give any personality traits that could make any path not make sense. This is another example in a long line of cast explosion with too many LIs. In the end, the women are all boring and all throwing themselves at you for no reason.

Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way... this game is extremely NTR-coded. While you can disable NTR in the options (and I did), every other scene still has men walking in on your LIs changing clothes, LIs wearing see-through clothing in front of other men, LIs saying they're excited by the idea of many men fucking them at the same time, or exposing themselves to other men. I probably would have finished the game, as I have with other mediocre games, but I hated this aspect so much.

VERSION: 0.11.05
SUMMARY: Not bad but not great either

PROS:

1. Models are decent looking and plenty to choose from.
2. Dialogue is decent and written, structured well. Pacing is also not too bad.

CONS:

1. Pretty dull story for more, not much intrigue going on that keeps me the player engaged, its very drawn out.
2. Too many faces, too many characters which gets confusing as fuck. Rather than adding so many characters, focus on half as much but make then twice as fleshed out. Spend more time on dialogue, story, character development and renders.
3. Game is very drawn out, impregnating is an option that you never see has any effect on the love interest. Same with some of the crazy medical changes, its there but just takes ages to actually go anywhere, which looses the player interest IMO.

TLDR: Decent, but drawn out too long, doesn't go anywhere and looses the player attention with basic and vanilla lewds. The concept of less is more is lost on the developer IMO where more attention to fewer characters would make for a better game.

I'm just getting started (day 11), but already think this is going to be a great game. I like the fact that there is a challenge in juggling things like how the girls think of you (intimacy, confidence, etc.) as well as balancing your checkbook (or whatever the kids call it these days).

I am a bit confused about the purpose of the calendar. It seems to be of no value, and is stuck on the first week of the game. No scroll bars and does not respond to the mouse wheel. And it is empty, so yeah, that's worthless. I wish there was a way to check on the characters and their points. Keeping "score" off-line is a pain in the neck. But maybe that will be resolved in future updates.

The renderings are great, but there is no voicing, which is a nice luxury, but would be a great addition. Haven't seen any animations yet, so can't comment on those. Hope they're smooth. I am looking forward to seeing how the plot develops (such as it is). Also will be interested to see how new characters and developed and how their relationships play out. Already looking forward to breaking Mrs. Jakes. Ha.

I think there is room for much more utility from the phone interface. So far it's fairly useless, but hoping that comes later in the game.

Update: As of game day 78, I see that the calendar is starting to be populated and keep up with the accurate game date. Still seems a little unnecessary, since the days' events are announced each morning, but I suppose it makes it easier to schedule ad hoc events like seeing Ashley. The phone still seems pretty much unused. It is rarely available. That could (and maybe is) improved in subsequent releases. Money seems to be no object, so I'm not sure if there will ever be any need to make economic choices. We will see. The characters are mostly interesting, although naming 5 of them Kiki, Kira, Kara, Kiri, and Kari is confusing.

good game, i just wish kari would talk more and move a bit she acts like a human-robot, like half ot the time she just stands the same way no matter what the situation. Also there shouldve been more scenes with the barista like especially after you become her sugar daddy, its like you paid her for one night only they couldve milked the whole sugar daddy-baby dynamic, wouldve been pretty interesting. The models and renders are AMAZING and very unique especially kari plus Lois'submission path is pretty enticing, the animations in the latest releases are pretty good but from what ive seen the scenes in all the paths are pretty much the same and only the text has been changed and few extra scenes here and there and i guess thats why the size is only 1.8 gigs even though there are 80 days. To round it up i feel like the theme of the game is AMAZING i love the whole office theme, i just wish there had been more scenes with the barista and that one office employ who was jealous of kari but great work by the dev keep the updates coming! GOOD LUCK!

V0.11.03

it was nice for a while but seems to have lost it's way. for a game meant to be less linear it has become very linear. the factors outside a player's control are the direction the developer is taking it. updates have become rushed, with in-game time skipping by with emptiness, and sub plots have become lost (what happened to all those women underground? background noise now).
even the adult scenes have become very bland to look at.

story had a direction at one point but has just become a muddle of whatever passes through developers mind this month, rather than structure for the whole game. you can be well into one character and getting hot and heavy and then *poof* out of existence for them as thoughts go elsewhere.

art is average to poor, with adult scenes now becoming hollywood/soft core porn. pretty short and dull stuff. erotic if banging your tool against a chair leg is your thing.

writing delivers....just, but with no real direction it is just lip service. got an advanced AI and an underground harem of beauties, women left right and centre, bulging boob drugs and a disease that will kill the MC unless he breeds breeds breeds, which many women clearly want to do and an ever aroused MC and THIS is the delivery of all that?
beggars belief

whole thing seems to have become a chore for the developer as passion is no longer on display.

This is an ongoing and developing story which I am thoroughly enjoying. The developer teases the reader with suggestions of things to come whilst satisfying immediate needs with fairly frequent sexcapades of the MC. 4 stars because the artwork isn't Rolls Royce, but it's perfectly acceptable especially considering it's the dev's first outing. Low star ratings are the result of the mean spirited and impatient, ignore them. This story is fun, implausible perhaps but this is porn for Christ's sake, what do you expect, James Joyce!

This game had a promising beginning with a sexy and a straight forward plot : You get to choose how to use your position to get girlfriends, mistresses and sugar babies.... It was about a guy being promoted in a big company and he could us this new position to get girls...

Now the plot is all over the place, and I have no idea what is going on anymore. The dev inserted ridiculous sci fi plot about cloning and crazy science experiments... Just why?

Also the dev inserted many characters to the extent you lose track of who is who, and many rape trauma behind the girls and forced girls and forced scenes....

Overall a prime example of a story that started well, up to a certain point.
Lovely characters, an entertaining narrative and light-hearted conversations.
It was a little bit on the slow-burner side, but that actually benefitted the climax point of the first sex scene in my opinion.
Would I rate the first half of the game, it would be a 4-5 depending on wether you value highly advanced sex scenes.

But then the P.A. switches. I really felt that at this point the developer decided to take away player agency and started to implement fetishes that catered to a minority.
Former decisions were ignored, multiple LIs were either forced directly onto the MC or pushed into existing relationships.
You're forced to share one of the main LIs with another girl, including cheating if you deny her fucking with her without you.
One side-LI gets taken away by a lesbian without any player agency.
Half the "sexy conversations" stirred from possible player interests to tales about gang bangs (-rapes), bukkake, sharing, whoring etc.
Even tho the developer already acknowledged the abundance of players concerns about these topics and claimed to redo at least some of it in one way or another, it kept getting worse.

My hope lies in the rework coming with 0.12. including an overhaul of Kiki, removing forced content ( both existing and planned) and implementing choices for LIs, especially for the overused forced lesbian content.
It would be a shame to see this game with all its potential going down to a chain of bad decisions.

Edit: Although the latest update promised to give the player the possibility to avoid sharing by selecting it at the beginning, even a complete fresh run had exactly the same forced content. It changed nothing.

Updates have continued a downward spiral of shorter length, dumber logic, worse pacing, and increasingly unavoidable content (perhaps to make it feel like the updates are longer by preventing the player from skipping content). It feels like the developer has checked out... and so shall I.

Pros:
1) Good animations
2) reasonable conversations
3) Sexually arousing situations

Cons:
1) I've had women "roommates" before and its not that complicated, if you're living together, its either going to happen or it IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. There's no middle ground.
2) Grindy, grindy, grindy
3) Kari goes from offering her self up for sex to absolutely nothing whatsoever, no kissing, no massage, no cuddling, who the hell does that?

A lot of good, kinky ideas wrapped up in an execution that doesn't do the ideas justice, at least not consistently.

The art is serviceable, and gets noticeably better as the game progresses. Character designs are varied and good.

The core concepts are interesting, the overall plot is fun, but the pacing is terrible, especially in the early game. Too many plot threads get thrown to the player, and because there is so much going on, no one thing gets focused on long enough to really become developed. This is a game that would benefit greatly from a sandbox mode, so the player could choose what to focus on.

That being said, this did manage to keep me interested all the way through it's considerable length. A lot of good potential here, but would benefit greatly from editing and streamlining.