VN - Ren'Py - The Seven Realms [R3 v0.05] [SeptCloudGames]

TL/DR Lots of Wholesome scene content, an interesting premise and quite few vibe check decisions made this a very satisfying game.

Pros:
~Lots of wholesome romantic moments
~The 'bond' is an interesting narrative piece. It seems to force relationships to some degree, but rather than just being a convenient narrative way to get people to fuck- it is a major plot point that gets discussed constantly by the characters. It also is a really sexy concept.
~It is nice that the author pays attention to the diversity of culture amongst the different monster groups.
~That daddy/LG RP b/t the MC and Naya was really hot
~Smooth animation and pleasant scene writing.

Cons:
~The pacing in chapter 7 when they are all deciding/learning about what to do about the bonds felt rushed. More dialogue options and vibes would be nice. Not sure a MC that had accrued no "assholish" points would be treating Kerros quite like he did there.
~The primary LI has the worst character model out of all the LIs

Neutral / Things that'd be fun to see
~It'd be fun in the MC had some more sexual powers!

Review for The Seven Realms v0.7-v0.19

I saw this game several times, but I just went right on by after reading the overview and seeing it was about vampires. The vampire theme has just been exhausted in books/movies/and games and it's really a turn-off for me. I saw the high rating after 7 updates and thought there must be something good about it, so I decided to try it. Call me impressed.

Story: 4/5 - The story is good, but there are too many fantasy themes mixed together here. I'm worried that the story will either drag on forever or just go completely off-the-rails. [Edit: as of 0.19, there are still a lot of fantasy themes, but what has become obvious is that the story is actually well-planned if not already written. It doesn't look like the author is just making it up as he goes along, and that's a good thing.]
Renders: 4.5/5 - Generally, the visuals are very high quality. Sometimes the lighting seems off and there too much reflection from some surfaces. Sometimes there are background objects in the scene that have really poor models. Still, the render imperfections are minor.
Models: 4/5 - Most of the models are great, but a few aren't. Unfortunately, I think the MC is one of the not-so-great models, which is a bit disappointing.
Animations: 4.5/5 - Smooth movement, only downside is there weren't more animations.
Music: 4/5 - The music would occasionally start to wear on me, but it did add something to the experience. In most games, I just mute the music, but not this one, so that's a big plus.
Writing/Grammar: 4.5/5 - Not 100% perfect, but very few mistakes. There were a few awkward sentences toward the beginning of the game that made me wonder if the author is a native English speaker, but if he isn't, then the writing is even more impressive.
Originality: 3.5/5 - The vampire/werewolf theme has been beat to death in the past decade. There's not too much of the stereotypical vampire/werewolf baggage. It's there, but thankfully overshadowed by other stuff.
Gameplay: N/A - So far, choices don't seem to affect gameplay much.

Vamps vamps vamps! This game has great potential to be one of the classics, it has good models and also good world building+writing.
I’m definitely looking forward to future updates and good luck to the dev
10/10

Reviewed on version: 0.6.1

Since some people consider the rating as a WANK-O-METER,
This VN isn't for a quick wank. (At least not for now.)

With that out of the way, let's begin.

I'm reviewing this VN from these perspectives:

1. Graphical Aspect.
2. Story and Sound design.
3. Overall feel of the product.

Graphic wise, this game is considered as Eye Appealing and not Groundbreaking, Assets flow nicely together. Renders are done properly.
Animations can be a bit wonky, but hey... the dev is actually trying, we should cut him some slack.
Some scene designs can be a bit questionable, but it isn't a dealbreaker.

Getting into the story, the basic of story is kind of cliché, but the implementation is decent and makes you interested.
Each character has time to develop their personalities. (and hopefully a backstory in the future.) Music is nicely emphasis the fairy tale, but personally not a fan of it. There are CHOICES in the game that actually can make a difference. (even 80% of AAA games doesn't offer you this. xd) MC is also not a dunce, which is a plus in my book.

Wrapping up, I truly enjoyed the experience.
This is a quality product worth your time (if you're not specifically looking to chock the chicken, that is.)
The only downside is updates might get slow down gradually because of how vast the story can get, more options and routs = longer time for the story to progress.

Final notes:

Dear developer,
I wish you all the best, and good luck on the rest of your journey.

To the random person who is reading this,
Remember to support your favorite indie developers, they won't make it without your help.

Great story telling, girls, world building, animation, and rendering with so far great regular updates and nothing but improvement to look forward too. Would vamp and frolic with sprites and werewolves again.

Ah yes finally a vamp harem game where you don't have to worry about the erectile dysfunction due to lack of blood. Story is quite engaging it's neither bores you or blows your mind. The models are pretty and it's harem & you got a cuck queen as your bond so we can expect even more sexy times . I think this game ticks enough boxes for me to not whine about anything.

Gameplay
Controls: Click to progress, occasional choice of options.
Interface: The usual ren’py interface, with an extras tab on the main menu.
Writing
Plot: Big fan, it's something I could see being an actual folk tale.
Characters: Well written, with distinct motivations and personalities.
Typos: I can’t remember any typos.
Art
Models: Good, with different body types.
Background: Exactly as good as they need to be.
Audio
Music: Royalty free stuff.
Effects: Silent.
Voices: Silent.

Review for v0.5

The Seven Realms introduce you to the Main Character, Atlas, with his friends, Zyair and Natasha, whom are vampires. They are having a fun time in a bar when Atlas suddenly smells a unique, familiar, but undistinguished smell.

It's coming from a lady named Leyala. Turns out she is his "bond-mate" and they need to figure out who and what Leyala is. Because its not only Atlas who is interested in her, but other creatures as well, such as wolves and sprites.

--

Story
I always go into stories about vampires while being meticulous. It has been an overused type of world and storytelling that other narrative fall into the pit of not having enough uniqueness and identity to seperate weed from the chaff.
While the story does use narratives from other vampire stories, it does kind of seperate itself by focusing a little bit about who Leyala is and why is she bonded with Atlas. Also by having different creatures to explore, not just the typical vampires and wolves, it gives a satisfying and refreshing vibe.

Characters
While we are still at the early stages of the story with no character developments whatsoever. I'll focus only on the mains.

Being able to pick who Atlas is and going to be is a great idea and has potential. Such as if you pick either him being a Strong or Fair ruler, might have complications in the long run. So, I hope the storyteller gives a payoff to this by having his subjects react on what the players chose him to be. Like being afraid of Atlas if the player chooses to instill fear.
This is also applicable if the player chooses for Atlas to be a gentleman or an a-hole. I think the best characters to react to this are his friends.

When Leyala was introduced, I was hoping to have more of a backstory than just "being in the city" to find about her missing family. We might know more about who and what she really is later, but if you're establishing characters, you have to give more than that.
You don't have to just talk about if she's going to be a mystical creature later on, but you can talk about what she was doing while living her whole life thinking she was human. What happened? What drives her? What is her motivations?
Speaking of motivations, it was spoken that she was finding her family yet she didn't at least had a problem with the idea of just going with Atlas. Yes, you can say it is about the bond plus having wolves trying to kill her, so I can give it a pass. It's still early in the story.
Just wanted something like a scene where Leyala questions the situation and inquire more if going with him is the right call. Then Atlas clears her mind by answering her questions or maybe the bond taking effect where while she is being doubtful... she feels a growing feeling to trust Atlas more and more. Because I think the story just jumped the gun a little bit with the time-jump.

Render
Fantastic. Could be better with a little more post-effects and a little more lighting. But I don't know the timetable for the devs, so it is still fantastic.

Branching
Played 3 playthroughs, and so far it has a lot of potential. You would definitely miss out on some content from your choices. And I think a good VN is something that you can't see the whole thing unless you go through it again and again.

Love the story that's some solid story telling right here!
I truely love the vampire lore. This game reminds me of one of my all time favorites:
-Reluctant Archon: I do hope the dev. Returns to this project soon.
The animation is just something else I love it never played a game with such great animation in a long time. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a good fantasy vampire lore.

This VN is amazingly well written and rendered. I am loving the story that tackles the Vampire genre in a fun and lewd way. The planned renders look fantastic and even though we can't 'love' them all. Getting to have any scenes with these lovely ladies will be amazing.
Story is a solid 9.5/10 for me
Renders are truly solid 9/10
Future of the game looks bright and I am glad to be a proud supporter of Tae and Jay and SeptCloud Games.
I have seen other people say that things are happening in this VN that aren't. So take a few of the comments and reviews with grains of salt.
I will say there is no NTR, sorry to NTR lovers but there is none.
Lastly, I will say this, I highly recommend this VN and you can decide a bit of what direction you want to go. Fair ruler or Feared? Caring and Cold? The choice is mostly yours.
While you can change the name of the MC, but it is recommended to leave it as is for those who can get by playing without changing the name.
5 - Star Rating from me, for what it's worth.
Enjoy the beginning of a journey through Seven Realms.

Story/Writing
• I’m having a hard time accepting the juvenile language posing as mature and refined.
◦ Example: “Vampires would revolt if their prince were to kill one of the high rankers…”
▪ This is a poor choice of words, grammatically, and since this is part novel it matters.
• Conceptually, the story is cool. Vampires and werewolves, good and evil (which is which is subjective). The damsel in distress thing isn’t very well-executed in my opinion. There aren’t a ton of vampire-centric VNs, at least not popular ones, so there is a missed opportunity to make this story compelling and rich. For me, for as far as I got, it's a flop.

Characters
• MC can be good or a dick, I always appreciate that. Whether I play through a second time remains to be decided, in order to experience the “other path”.
• Leyala has a pretty average, mostly confused, guarded personality. Nothing spectacular or compelling in terms of how she’s written.

Visuals
• Animations are just OK. I always appreciate them being present vs not, but these are mostly lackluster so far; they have that loopy-carousel feel to them where a motion or series of motions just loops, even if it looks unnatural or awkward.
• Average models, nothing fancy.
• I think that the MC’s face is weird. Maybe it’s just me.
• Leyala’s character model is actually quite pretty...until she’s animated. Something weird happens here, can’t quite put a finger on it. Her static renders are attractive, though.
• Actually, most of the characters’ expressions come across a little...derpy.
• Also not a fan of the wardrobe choices. Let’s be honest: visually, we’re drawn in large part to characters based on their appearance. This includes a clothing fit and style that are flattering and at least somewhat realistic. MC’s shirt looks straight up rubber, and when he offers Leyala a t-shirt? Why does she come out with an exaggerated sweater?


Gameplay/Mechanics
• I like the background music. Helps set the tone, although it hints at medieval times despite a contemporary setting, so that is a tad confusing.
• Big props to the main menu screen visuals, and again the music. This is a visual representation for a start screen that is highly unique.

I’ll be honest, I quit playing after MC’s first night with Leyala. There are just too many things taking away from the experience for me to want to keep going. I think this game has potential, but is squandered by either being rushed or a lack of imagination and lack of resources. I wouldn’t presume to take on the task of creating a VN on my own, but if I decided I was going to do that I would take lessons from the greatest ones out there and use that to guide my process.

I started this game with doubts in my heart, since the premise made it look like another vampire game. How wrong I was. For starters, the writers actually talked to at least one woman and knows how to write them.
The story is the strongest part of the project, but I'm certain that the renders will catch up to that level of quality.
The dynamic relatioship between the characters, and the consuquences of player's choices is something setting this masterpiece aside from the average game we have available.
There's a vast number of romancable characters, going from the 3 main girls to random bonus encounters, and the player's choices will determine how those relationships go. Who knows, there might be a traitor among them.
I love the amazing sex animations, but I'll have to repeat myself. The story, world building , the intrigue, the mystery and dialogues are why I'll be sticking with this game past it's completion.

Good Points
+ We have a well-made and unique art style with pretty good visual quality.
+ We have animations for lewd scenes and they are not just one-second loops, which is quite good but I can't say the same thing for their FPS value or physics. I mean they are hot that's for sure and choices of positions/angles are looking good but physics and FPS values need to improve.
+ Story seems interesting and well written with a lot of lore behind it. And especially the bond thing was interesting, it was something I do like to see in a game like this. And Leyala's past has a connection with this bond, she wanting to find the unconditional love of her biological family was quite fitting as well.
+ Glossary feature is a good little addition and it feels necessary with a lot of detail about the story and lore and DEV should add more info there.
+ Your choices matter, which is something these types of games always had and a pretty good point.
+ Male Protagonist (Atlas or the name you gave him) and Female Protagonist (Leyala) are pretty cool, learning more about them and seeing their interactions with each other is pretty enjoyable as well. Especially MP's sense of humor and his joker type of act against Leyala and others is pretty darn fun to watch.

Bad Points And Suggestions
- I like the story and generally world design but having a better prologue would be better, currently, it feels kind of too much stuffed with a lot of things happening right away, and we (players) know nothing about it. I mean we didn't even get that classic little explanation about who or what MC is, which is a big bad point for storytelling. And it creates a couple of dilemmas like how we gonna act against Lucius. His act against Effie was unacceptable but did MC had a great sire-heir relationship with him? Which things did they share? We know nothing, but the game still wants you to a choice whether you can forgive him or not, and it's a big dilemma, I literally stopped in that choice for 5 minutes and think about it, but like I told we know nothing so I couldn't find anything, all I can think was an imagination of mine around things I know and they were not enough for making that decision.
- Laureen's attack happening like that easily and MC not leaving Tasha or Zyair with Leyala anymore makes zero sense. They already knew there was inside with the last attack, how can they trust anyone except our trio? That just makes zero sense and literally feels like a plot hole after everything happened.
- Right away after the first scene we saw MC fighting against 4 guys, which is quite interesting but it's kind of ruined by giving zero control to players. This is VN so we don't need big gameplay mechanics but having timed choices with some sound effects could be good. A lot of VN games out there use them and it's a simple but good feature to have. Even just a timed button (not different 1-2 choices like dodge, block, attack, etc) for doing that action could be good enough. I mean it's a game with a lot of supernatural existence and we should have at the basic mechanic I told.
- Like I told we have animations for lewd scenes, they are hot and we have well-chosen positions/angles for them but their FPS value and physics are not good enough. We need more FPS value and better physics for animations for sure.
- We have cool musics but even after 2 hours I was hearing the same music over and over again... So... We need more musics.
- We can't use the space button to go forward with dialogues, it's something nearly all games have and honestly a lot of people use space instead of space, it should add as a feature for a better experience.
- When characters talk in another language then English at first game writes ''In Italian'' etc and then you click again to see dialogue, which is quite annoying in long conversations. They should be united and when you click you should see the whole dialogue and not need to click over and over again for ''In Italian'' etc.
- It's not a that big bad point but our game uses British English spelling and it's kind of odd for people using American English, especially for people like me who don't even use English as a mother language. Like I told it's not a that bad point but kind of odd and sometimes can make things hard to understand.
- I was hoping DEV improve animation physics and FPS values until this point but we got a v0.7 update and animations still look robotic and unattractive. If you thinking play this game for lewd parts just don't, this game's sex scenes are not attractive and they are not good for that type of thing.

For The End
When I played this game's first version I told the game is great but the animations need improvements and I gave the game 4 stars and said I hope DEV will improve them ASAP but even after v.07 update our sex scenes still look bad because of physics and FPS values and sadly I'm gonna drop my review to 3 stars, if this was not an adult VN and it was just a VN game with the story I would keep 4 stars but at this rate, this game gives you nothing for lewd content, sex scenes look robotic and they are not attractive at all. Still, I wish and hope DEV will fix this issue with upcoming updates and I can change my review back and enjoy the game more.

Writing is OK. Story is OKish. Renders and models are fine. My problem is that I could not find the characters relatable or interesting, and I disliked the blandly overpowered MC (you play this incredibly powerful and cool and smooth vampire prince right from the start, and i did not feel any tension or anything interesting in the setup. Also, I found this soulmate thing silly and offputting... )

Wow, absolutly amazing sofar! v0.3

Even before trying i had a good feeling. Seeing the organized DevNotes make
it seem like the overall base of the VN is already thought out. So much
detailed information there.

Nice start, MC look takes a bit time to getting used to (just personaly) but
is so much better than your average 13yo looking college guy.
Main Li is not only beautiful but also looks normal. I know "normal" doesn't
sound that good but it's the bigest compliment i can give in VN.
I liked the writing and the dialogues and i loved that the characters didn't
act "childish" and talked like adults. In VN's you often think "not even 12yo
would talk/act like this".

Lewd scenes (especially the first of them together): No cheap fuck scene.
Positions, facial expressions, how she looks at him, him holding her cheek,
the passion, the talking (no "pound me, breed me ect.) this was perfectly
in sinc with the scene of them drawn to each other by the "bond".

Also the realy nice and fitting music, the good animation and the detailed
skin textures... everything adds to this being so good.
I like the bit "over the top" look of the Vampires. I love this in media, like
in the first Underworld Movie, the Vamps at the Mansion.
I like that most of the time the fangs are shown, it sets them apart from
humans and it looks sexy.

My only problem with the VN is Tasha ;P
I saw the first preview pic and based on the header i (sadly) knew she would
not be a Li but i hoped for a harem member. But she is the mate of the bro
I'm kidding it's perfectly fine ("he said while a single tear was runing down
his cheek, showing his pain and agony").
It's not realy about Tasha, even though she is by far the best looking Vamp
with the best personality of all VN's here for me. It's more that i hoped for
more female Vampires in his harem and maybe even one as a Li. But based
on the pictures in the header, it will not be the case. I hope for some Vamps
in the harem.
But in the end, that doesn't matter for me if the VN stays as good as it is now.

Also there are a lot of different good looking facial expression.
And something i noticed at the scene when the MC asked Tasha about
"testing the relationship bond" is that this VN has also alot of different
poses. When Tasha was sitting there with her elbow on her leg and her hand
holding her chin together with the different facial expressions looked so
natural. It's not something you see that often, it's more or less the standart
poses you see in alot of VN's.

I'm realy looking forward of what we will be seeing of this amazing VN.

I am going to be lazy and just post my comment on this thread as a review but I really doubt that people actually read the posts on a thread they don't watch -heck, most of the times they don't even read the game description! Here we go!

I was holding off from giving this a try since I was waiting for it to get a little more content but I have to say I am glad I caved in.The renders are beautiful and crisp. The models are attractive and they are unique enough to stand out. The animations are fluid and add a nice flavour to the game(even though they could be clearer but I am certain that this a matter of resources and not skill). The v0.2 build, at least when it comes to my playthrough, is stable and bug-free. Thus far, a pretty decent experience.

However, the aspects of this game that truly make it shine - and I especially enjoyed - are the story, the relationships between the characters and the world building/lore(I am not very good with these technical terms but I think they are the same-ish?). Basically, everything that is in the writer's realm - see what I did there? - is simply marvelous. They really managed to captivate me and, after having played through the entirety of this release, are the reason why I am looking forward to the next release.

One minor complaint of mine is the fact that if you pay close attention to how the story unfolds, you can notice sections when there is a change in the quality of the game.For example, if you compare the scenes of the first release with the scenes of the most recent release you can tell that the latter are just objectively better. They are more coherent,the transitions are better, the interactions feel more natural, the reactions of the characters to the unfolding events match the expectations of the reader more uniformily. Not by a lot, but they do. This is definitely not a deal breaker and is to be expected with the dev team improving as they become more experient but as of right now it is there. Maybe the devs will consider revisiting those scenes in the future and reduxing them? Once again, it's not a big issue -if even an issue at all- I just reckon that it would improve the experience.

All in all, as of yet, this is a well-made and really enjoyable VN with the potential to easily be the best vampire/werewolf/fay/mystical beings game in this site. So, congratulations to the dev team! I wish their hard work pays off in a tangible manner and I hope to see more of them!

P.S. The fact that the dev is active in here is always appreciated- at least by me. So, thanks for taking the time!

An amazing start to a game. The story is very interesting and mysterious I can't wait to see where it goes. It also seems like you'll be able to develop the MC multiple ways and feel I'll l have multiple play throughs as the game goes on. Visuals look great and can't wait to meet the other LIs. I'm also a sucker for a romantic tale and this looks like it could be an fantastic one if that is your kind of thing. However, if it's not your thing it seems like you are able to choose how the relationship will evolve.

This is for up to v0.2... Writing is excellent. A few grammar mistakes here and there but not enough that it will ruin your playthrough. The renders are really good. The animations for the lewd scenes are not too shabby and highly appreciated. The story so far is shaping up great. Cant wait to keep up with this VN Good Job dev

This review has been made at the release of 0.2.
This game is fantastic so far. The renders and animations are nice - the character models look great and the characters seem interesting and actually interact like real people and friends and not like fucking weirdos as you often see from these kind of games.

On this update it is around an hour and a half into the game, but you can see that the foundations for the larger story are being laid, the scope of this project really excites me and as I have seen by looking at their website, they seem really serious and passionate about this. Their Patreon benefits also look really good for such a new dev.

The future girls look great and I am interested to see the backstories planned for them. I really like Leyala so far, she’s exactly my kind of girl and the other two love interests look awesome too. The character models also don’t feel like the same reused daz ones that so many other games use which makes this game feel much more unique.
Honestly, I don’t have a bad thing to say about this game yet, I hope that this one gets the support it needs to grow to be one of the big ones because wit support I can see it thriving. Good luck Sept.

One thing that I can say about this game is a masterpiece... It gives you a new fresh perspective on the story of werewolves and vampires I love the render, the animation and many more. .
I truly recommend this game.


God speed Septcloud...
Can't wait to see what you got in store for us