VN - Ren'Py - The Seven Realms [R3 v1.03] [SeptCloudGames]

I really, really tried to love this VN because I am a sucker for vampire VNs in general. But it's not easy.

1) I don't find the MC particularly attractive. He even looks a bit deformed to me in many renders. I like that he doesn't come across like a stock photo. But the proportions are somehow... wrong.

2) the time jump after MC and Leyala met broke my immersion. The developers seem to assume that I don't need this bonding process between MC and Leyala to be emotionally involved. But in fact I feel like I missed a season of the series.

3) This VN has clearly too little drama and moments of suspense for me. Everything feels very orderly and planned, the MC acts from a position of strength and control, Leyala is the stereotype of a damsel in distress. Her character does not correspond to my image of an adult woman. Other characters who seem interesting have too little influence on the plot and are not given enough time to shine on their own. It feels a bit like all the other characters are there just to emphasise the mediocre emotional bond between Atlas and Leyala.

4) The dialogues are not very emotional. There is a certain sadness that overshadows everything, but it doesn't seem real, not sufficiently justified. The relationships are superficial and there are no ups and downs, but everything is relatively linear and the plot meanders along.

I just never reached the point where I was emotionally involved and it's hard for me to pin it down to a specific reason. But I wish the developers had more courage to really tear the world down, turn the relationships upside down and create real drama that emotionally binds the main characters, not when I am not looking but right in front of my eyes.
Instead, I am simply expected to accept when someone says to me "X loves Y, there is a back story, I'll tell you briefly. Just believe it and move on." But I am sorry, that is not how immersion works.

Let me end this review on a high note though. I appreciate the work that went into the renders, animations, the universe that has a lot of potential to entertain several VNs if done right. Many of the secondary characters have amazing models, there are hints at personalities that I find appealing despite not having the focus they deserve.
If Seven Realms were a TV series, I would probably have said that I liked a lot of it but the main cast put me off. It's just one of those stories that could be so much better.

Version .8 review

I've been playing The Seven Realms since the first update and I recommend everyone give this one a shot.

The devs are fairly new to VN development and as people who have a small amount of experience under their belts, they're way ahead of some other devs out there. The renders are great, the writing is well done, they give the players plenty of choices which allows you to play whichever way you'd like to play. The devs are also extremely genuine. They involve themselves in conversations that happen in their discord server constantly and are always up for discussing 7realms or other topics outside of the VN. Great devs all around and I encourage you to check out their discord server and pop your head in once and a while.

Moving onto The Seven Realms... It's one of the most interesting stories to be released in a long time imo. Tae and Jay do a great job writing the story, creating renders and creating animations. They aren't veterans to this so what we see is from a short amount of time learning daz/coding/etc.

We're given choices for basically every action the MC takes which helps to immerse you into the story. There is one forced scene, but it's relevant to the story and you have the choice to skip it if you'd like (you're crazy if you do). All the models used are all custom; there isn't a character who was just pulled off the daz store and inserted into the story so it's a breath of fresh air. The music is something that's also well done. Plenty of different tracks which all play depending on the scene. And finally, the MC isn't a complete tool/idiot. He's described and written as someone who's intelligent and uses his intellect to aid him. His model is also custom and not one simply pulled from the daz store as I previously mentioned. He's not some 5'2 kid packing a foot long who looks to be out of place around everyone, but he's someone who you could vision would be in the position he's in

Overall, this VN is a breath of fresh air. There aren't many vampire vns out there, but out of the small handful that there are, this one most definitely tops the list. The story is great and so are the devs. I give this two thumbs up

Version played: v.08

Just incredible! I think I have played 2 other vampire theme VNs on this site so far but this 1 takes the top spot. In terms of renders (and characters), story, lighting and music, this surpass both of them. The renders are very nice and the characters look attractive on both genders. The story really had me invested with good pacing and its sex scenes are erotic enough. I was never bored and kept reading eagerly.

I very much recommend this and most importantly I would like to give a chef's kiss to the composer of lucius's theme, its a really damn good piece. Also for those who don't know, the track can be found inside the game's game folder titled-music and the track is called King of the realm.

Game version: 0.8

Another game, that fits into the "came for the fap, stayed for the story"-box.

The overall render quality is superb, the animation/ scene quality is slightly better than average, the sound is good.

What really catched me, though, was the art of storytelling and story writing in general.
There is a consistent plot, that is NOT just focused on banging the hell out of every woman the MC sets eyes on; he is mainly monogamous.

The sexual sharing "kink" is optional (at least I remember some choices leading to non-sharing paths, but did never try them), but is heavily tied to the story and therefore recommended. It's straight forward gangbang, but in an almost understandable way (no spoilers here)

The women look hot, well proportioned and have beautiful faces and individual traits, which elevates their existence to much more than "cumdumps".

The only thing I don't really like is the proportionality of the MC's body himself. His head looks much too small for the bulky, almost hulk-like body, which makes the overall aesthetics weird and unsatisfying.

27/07/22 - V0.8

This game became one of my favorite.

Pros:
*Good story
*Nice models
*Music that fits it

Negative/Neutral:
* Story can feel rushed at times
* Missing tag pregnant

I would recommend this game to all who like a story drive AVN.

4 stars, for now, 5 stars is for me a perfect game. (that does not exist yet)

Dude, why is this story so good?? The game's supposed to be trash filling around big tits and swinging dicks, why am I skipping sex scenes in annoyance to get to the story??

But for real, this could be a goddamn book if you just took out the porn. It's crazy how much thought has gone into the lore of these mythical creatures, lore that is both unique but familiar to the usual mythos surrounding them. I'm definitely sensing a lot of Masquerade vibes, too, and I like that.

So yeah, definitely a great game, though anyone looking for just straight-up porn might not like it as there is quite a lot of text...however anyone who loves a good story on the side will find nothing wrong with this.

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.

Updated review with feedback based on a playthrough up to Pt 3 v.08

I'm revisiting this VN after initially trying it and writing it off as mostly boring quite some time ago. In doing so, not much has changed, though I have forced myself to power through the beginning so I can see how it has developed.

Visuals
I'm going to preface this section with a clarifying statement: nearly all observations/gripes below are limited to parts 1-2, and by the end of Pt 2 into Pt 3 we begin to see improvements.
I still feel like the renders are very low quality and grainy. I really wish they were better; this is the kind of VN and story that - if well-executed - could easily become the de facto "vampire vs werewolf" saga of AVNs.
To me, the MC is an ugly dude. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, but you DO have to see his face a lot more than in other VNs which tend to favor first-person perspectives.
Leyala is attractive, and she does have a great body. Where she - and others - fall "flat" is any scene with animation; she suddenly looks disjointed/animatronic rather than having natural, fluid movement.
Expanding on animations a bit, through Part 1 they're pretty bad. There's a lot of clipping, and in addition to being cyclic, they're just not fluid motion. Some of the outfits are just plain odd (Zyair's oddly long yellow shirt). Again, also not something that really matters, but I'm including it as honest feedback.
Corners cut unnecessarily. A TON of missed opportunities for lewd angles; an ass closeup here, an underboob closeup there, etc. Not to mention casual outfits could easily be more scant. In fairness, I will say that as of Pt 3, this feels like something that finally occurred to the dev and we begin to see more intent behind some of the poses, outfits, and render angles/perspectives.
I wish there were more diversity in the body shapes. Every woman has the same body, with slight variances in breast size and complexion: Slim waist, average-to-ample breasts, small round ass. Would have loved to see some thicc women, tall women, short women, etc. Hell, even lolli or optional futa.

Characters
MC's character is dynamic, which is good, however I do feel like there's a bit of an illusion of control. Though there are choices, and you can opt to be more of an asshole or a kind ruler, in general the aspects of the MC's dialog you can't control are largely more kind than assholish.
Leyala starts off being mostly cliche and annoying, but this does evolve into her being a more unique figure in the game as time passes. She remains the most attractive LI.
Kali is OK, she's neither a compelling LI nor a complete bore. I would say the same of Naya.
Overall, if I'm honest, I found myself skipping a lot of dialog because things get wordy and monotonous. To me, this is more a reflection of the characters you interact with than the story itself.


Story/Dialog
The dialog itself, as-written, is above average. Very few grammar or punctuation issues exist in any kind of consistent manner. This is always welcomed. This does not mean I think the content of the dialog is perfect
Why would we see an entire 6 months go by from when Leyala has her first sexual encounter with MC, only to discover Sometimes the dialog gets very juvenile, something I've seen quite a lot of. It sometimes comes across like a younger author is trying to both seem mature while also being oblivious to their use of phrasing that seems wildly out of character for whomever is speaking. Example: (This comment speaks both to the visual aspect, as well as the story) Multiple missed opportunities in terms of pacing; we often see dialog going on and on when it doesn't need to. Conversely, there are scenes like The lewd scenes, overall, leave a lot to be desired. This isn't one to play if you're here to fap; it's very much story-driven, and lewd content takes a backseat. It will start to feel repetitive and monotonous pretty quickly.

Other
The game menu in parts 1-2 lacks a clear distinction between when something is selected/deselected.
It would be nice to have a textbox transparency slider. I hate having to hit "H" on occasion [this is resolved in pt 3].
When you first begin the game, the "Path Builder" concept is not clear. If you are starting for the first time, shouldn't the Path Builder option not appear in the game menu if you chose not to use it when starting a new playthrough?
The "Continue" option during animations is useless. It does absolutely nothing except reset the animation sequence you're already watching; you could just keep watching it until you feel like ending it and click whatever the other option is to (actually) continue.
When we begin Part 3 of the game, right away we can see both some minor improvements to the UI as well as some sacrifices. For example: why is the quick menu permanently affixed to the bottom of the screen, with no option to hide it? With this layout, the dialog box sits above the game quick menu, at about a third of the way above the bottom! This is severely distracting, and detracts from the visual satisfaction of being able to see scenes behind the UI. Also glad to finally see a toggle for the pulsing moon icon. That thing served zero purpose to the player.
The music is excellent! It genuinely feels like this game has a "score", and makes me wish there were accompanying voice or other sound types incorporated (at least through the end of Pt 2).

Final thoughts (as of Pt 3 v.08):
The game is better than the sum of its parts, and good thing too, because there are so many frustrations I have with it.
If you can power-through the rough portions of Part 1, you can overlook the inferior poses and renders, as well as animations there.
By Part 2, you will see notable improvements. The story really gets deeper, with some interesting choices and a satisfying level of depth to the lore that results from those choices.
Overall, though, I find myself frustrated at how incredible I imagine this game could be. With a less-intrusive textbox/quick menu in Pt 3, with Pt 1 being redone visually, and with all of it having more sexual allure, it would leap to new heights. When we see at the end of Pt 2 the level of devotion to the cutscenes and even the stills, it shows what this dev is capable of but often seems to have chosen not to work toward in this game. I will continue to follow its progress, and intend to play whatever the final version looks like.

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.

PROS
+ MC & Leyala are pretty good characters, and couple, their relationship, and interactions are; cute, funny, and interesting in a lot of way, especially scenes where MC messes with her, and she looks like mad lil child are soo damn funny, like that drolling scene.
+ Even tho sex animations are especially bad at Realm 1, generally sex scenes has different positions, and angles with animations, so they have some variety going on.

CONS
- Things constantly going bad for our heroes, Laureen's attack happening easily like that, people like Ophelia being a powerful witch, and not just a vampire, no one discovering that, she destroying their life from shadows, yet they can't see anything at all, getting played like puppets, Ophelia using her magic to make Lucius cheat on Effie until she dies (she faked her death tho), how she controlled things from shadow, constantly drained, and aobsorbed his powers, send Crimson Pack after the Leyala, later attacking with them to thake the throne, powered Crimson Pack enough to take on very powerful vampires, even weakest omegas, which is bullsh*t she having this much power meanwhile MC or Lucuis being this weak, and stupid to can't see sh*t happening behind their back despite we have been told how powerful or smart they are, it's explained Lucius wasn't himself because of broken bond, but that doesn't explain MC not releazing anything at all, can't save anyone when he wants, how weak he is despite being centuries old Prince, a powerful vampire, he really doesn't live up to his name, especially with all that training he had he is still not even close to be powerful as Lucius, and now even girls are catching up with him after only months of training, and will surprass him after couple years of training vs his centuries of training, so writers wasts/fails his potential as MC, then there are things like existence of the Sun Blade, or how disrespectful other realm leaders to the MC, or Lucius, like Queen of Witches refusing to give traitor Ophelia (We learned she was demon + witch, and transition to vampire later on, and she was niece of the Witch Queen as well) to the Lucius, and the MC, literally risking a war with Terran over Ophelia, or how they didn't told about her to Lucuis despite knowing what she planned before all this stuff happened, if they only talked with Lucuis all this mess wouldn't even happen, Effie would be fine, ream wouldn't be in chaos, twins would grow with their family, etc, as well. Honestly the whole story is big f*cking mess, there are some interesting stuff going on as well, but amount of nonsense, plot holes, and problems are too big many to ignore.
- Existence of Mikel, how he acts against Leyala, etc, is seriously annoying, and it makes no sense at all.
- There are some cut/removed content like twins content removed from the game, which is not nice.
- There is a icon constantly blinking at the end of every text/dialogue, and especially after a hour or so of reading it becomes very annoying.
- We have 6 months of time skip right after MC & Leyala started to know each other, and that's really nonsense, maybe a month would be acceptable, but 6 months? Defiitely no, in fact it doesn't even feel like 6 months passed considering almost nothing happened. And this is not the only one, the story lots of other time skips as well.
- Especially at realm 1 art style looks old,visuals look low quality, and characters looks average or bad, their skin texture is weird especially in animations, and they could have looked way better with some small changes, like Kali, her nose, and facial expressions are really bad, or how Tasha's face is unnecesarily long, and could look amazing with changing that, what's worse is some of side girls looking way better than the main girls, like Gina, she looks way better than all the main girls, and that's really nonsense. Same goes for animations, especially at early parts quality-wise they don't look good at all, and their physics or FPS value are not good either. It's especially big CON for a new players since they need to endure those parts, and it takes lots of hours.
- There are some bugs exist like lines with original MC's name, and not the one you chosen.

VERDICT
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... )