VN - Ren'Py - The Roommate [v0.12.11] [togs]

The story starts somewhat semi-believable but then drifts off completely into pure ridiculousness.

In the beginning you are a very young exec at a company and living with an intern of the same company. You strut around doing basically nothing all day and then become CEO. It then devolves into random spy cybertech and completely unbelievable goofy tit milking experiments on a corporal level... the story is just so unfathomably bad.

Choices seem to have an immediate effect, but are not remembered or reused within the game. Example: You sleep with office slut. Later when you call her in as CEO everything plays out identically whether you fucked her earlier or not, very disappointing. Another example is making a deal with a sugarbaby that the game then completely forgets about it and never mentions again. Just makes choices seem kinda pointless and the entire experience is rather kinetic.

Gameplay is simply reading and occasionally clicking on choices. No mini games or anything else. There is a money counter displayed but since MC literally becomes CEO of a multi billion dollar company within a few minutes I found there to be no need to pay attention to it ever. I always choose the biggest money spending options and never ran out. Energy and Lust meter are completely pointless too. For Lust simply jerk off when game offers it, otherwise you get to hospital with a game over screen.. The Energy bar changes nothing from what I could tell in 2 playthroughs.

There is no sound in the game at all. No background music, no sound effects, no moans or any other sound.
Scenes are mediocre, pretty vanilla with slight animations, nothing to write home about but I've seen worse.
Models are pretty good. Writing is average. Story becomes ridiculous.

Overall:
+ models
Ø scenes
Ø writing
- gameplay
- choices/consequences
-- no sound
-- story

There's unfortunately not a lot going on in this one, unless you like scenes of the mc reading paperwork on their sofa and rote mystery box style writing. A conspiracy involving breastmilk and super-advanced magical AI is doled out in tiny teasers, and the romances with vulnerable, big-breasted orphans move at an even slower pace.

Choices don't seem to have much impact. Early on it seems like you might be able to mould your character a little with how you act (stern vs kind) but in the end you're just the same helpful niceguy regardless, and the choices turn out to be pass/fail for more exposition/mystery box clues.

Crude animations. Limited sexual content. Story that isn't half as clever or original as it thinks it is. Disappointing as early updates showed promise.

It's strange why i like this game. Compared to many other games with really great renders and young girls, harems, incest and so on this is just a straight forward love story with an interesting main story line.

The renders aren't the best let's be honest, but you can see time and thought were put into setting them up. Lighting can use work, so camera angles but still things are clear and the women are beautiful. Nothing over the top just straight forward sexiness.

Why do I like it so much? The feel good factor and a MC that is a straight up good guy yet doesn't allow people to walk over him. Out of the box good MC. Kari of course and Lois are just super hot and deserves the play time. Also Mallory... just yummy.

So if you after as i said feel good, good story and some love options then definitely give this game a go.

Reviewing v0.4.7
This is one of perhaps half a dozen adult VNs that I would rate as elite. Some have complex game mechanics, others stunning graphics and animation, others glorious word-smithing.

While The Roommate is no slouch in any of these areas, it is the story that sets it apart from the pack. There are so many elements to it, and the plot is revealed in such a masterful way that I actually gasped "Aha!" out loud more than once.

A good story needs great characters, and the interview scene shows off this facet, both in terms of model design and character. Just as I was beginning to think a character was a bit of a stereotype, she would make it clear that there was a lot more depth to her. More generally, I continually found myself on edge about who to trust - I would not be surprised if any of the characters is involved in the conspiracy.

Ratings at a glance:
Graphics: **** (vary from passable to brilliant)
Models: ***** (something for just about any taste)
Animations: **** (decent but rare)
Mechanics: ***** (always tricky for a largely linear story, but it is possible to make meaningful changes)
Story: *********** (like Nigel's amp - this one goes up to 11)

Congratulations and thanks to the dev(s??) for this.

This story is a great one...and thankfully, the babes are hot as well. The mystery surrounding the MC's inherited company are playing out nice and slowly, as is his conquest of some of the hot babes. For me, if a VN has not got an interesting story, I am not that inclined to keep following it. So for me, this is worth following.
The Dev's pace of showing us both mystery and hot babes is just about perfect. That is why I rated this five stars.

So far it's a strong 4*. The plot isn't the common one, no yoga scenes as an example, and I like it. Not much sex yet, I had one scene and skipped the other (not interested in that LI). I like the girls, they are different in both looks and behaviour. I like Kari a lot . Waiting for next update and
As some has mentioned earlier is the graphics getting better, so keep that up Dev!

Playing "The Roommate" was an entertaining experience. The story is interesting. The writing is pretty good. There is some remarkable craziness sometimes, especially in the helping the widow episode.

So the scenario is good. Not perfectly polished, and I thought sometimes that some opportunities could be developed further... But I guess that shows how engaged it made me.

The renders and models are mostly of "OK, but nothing special" class. I'd like to see more of Cassie though (and I guess she would be there in future updates).

For now, there are not many sex scenes, and they aren't very exciting (unless maybe you are a fan of cow-sized boobs and lactation).

So it's solid 4 stars. Not perfect, but interesting to play.

Quite a bit better than I thought it'd be. It has a bit of a rough start. Writing is a bit uneven at first and as mentioned the poses early on are a bit wooden (esp. Kari) but it picks up fairly fast. I really like the pacing (it's not too fast, so don't expect a lot of sex scenes early on).

I like the MC's tone. He's adequately arrogant when appropriate. Also Lois is a character I can really identify with, so that probably clouds my judgement a bit.

All in all, a very worthwhile game off to a promising start.

This is an early review and based on v0.1 Preview

Overall I am liking the feel of the game. The interactions and story are fairly basic but not too basic and good. There is enough context to make it believable. The graphics are good and like the look and feel overall. It is obviously still just a preview, so cannot go in-depth yet on story, but I am looking forward to future releases.

The only complaint I have is the routine is a bit too routine, but that is something that could be due to it being so early in the story development.

Keep it up XDR! Solid start for a first VN.

First thoughts on this:

English was good! Overall story was ok too.

Graphics very basic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The posing of Kari was a bit weird though - like she was a doll rather than a person. Would be better if you can make a more natural pose, especially if you are going to repeat the same one over and over.

Money mechanics was interesting but not really explained. Feels like you will always have lots of it, so why bother?

Overall, I thought it was ok. Nothing revolutionary, but as this is a preview, that's perhaps expected.

Good luck!