VN - Ren'Py - The Taming of the Brat [v0.9999] [Viitgames]

far more interesting story and dialogue writing in this game then you would see in a regular erotic VN, this is not a cookie cutter game.
one thing to keep in mind is that in this game you are not playing as *you*, youre not a blank slate, you're roleplaying as character that already existed in this world and has a developed personality.
the MC has a pretty poor model but he is written quite interestingly, he struggles with perversion and alcoholism in a realistic fashion.
the game real good relationship pacing and renders, but animations need a little work.

I've not tried this until today. Major disappointment.

-Backgrounds/assets/models look incomplete with how they're dressed up and "sculpted"
-The characters looks so rigid in the scenes
-Writing leaves something to be desired
-Story isn't bad but kinda... bland, I guess?

-None of the LIs pop out and makes you want to pursue them imho.
-MC looks so bland... Face, hair?, body and expressions are mostly non-existent. Gives of the energy of a pov character from some early VNs on here, but in 3rd person for some reason...

I have a bit of doubt that this is the same viitgames that made Haley's story
but it might just be that I liked the characters better

It might be I'm wrong but animations look about the same as they do in Haley, with no improvements. It was never the strong pont of that VN and it certainly doesn't look like it is this time either.

2 stars might be too harsh, but it's honestly so boring to watch and read. There's nothing new to see anywhere, no fun moments to laugh at, witty dialogue or good adult scenes...
And if realism is what they tried for then mission failed imo. It's like a story from creative limbo

Vitt surely knows how to do the build up leading to intimate scenes ngl.
The only downgrade i saw was mc is such a creepy guy lol, it gets uncomfortable as the story progresses. Has/had alcohol issues and quite a lot chatty with himself.
Girls are handful but they grew up on me. Ellen i think is a sellswomen and her niece also quite a piece of art literally and metaphorically.
I liked the way dev has decided to introduce the intimacy and yes it's creepy but out of the box. Niece probably has a daddy issues and such a riot she's. Ellen has been a good support to mc, one of the nice ones i came across in vns.

I'd like to see monologues of mc toned down a notch and less of him daydreaming like a horny teenager.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the comparisons to Haley. I'll be honest, I didn't like Haley at all. The progression was weird and the MC was a doormat. Compared to this MC, he might be calculating, but he has a deep and complex personality. Even though he is brash, he is always thinking if he's doing the right thing or not, even when he notices other people need his support, his actions are calculated. Like when he monologues that he needs to make Elena laugh.

Another good thing about this AVN is that it takes the trope of the annoying LI and actually makes it enjoyable. I usually hate the typical annoying and bratty LI, but Belle is a blast. She is funny, charismatic and actually not a dickhead. She is indeed annoying since that's her thing, but it doesn't outweigh all her good traits.

Then you have Elena who perfectly embodies someone who's starting to feel old and that she's missed out on life. She doesn't want just a dick and it's made perfectly clear that she enjoys the MC's company and it's what she wants, the sex is secondary. I think the usual AVN player is too used to the white-knighting MC with infinite patience and zero flaws outside of his awkward loser personality.

It's a slice-of-life AVN that doesn't remain boringly mundane and actually has you looking forward to what's gonna happen next. The LIs are likeable and perhaps most importantly, the MC is likeable and he's relatable in some ways. Although I can see how the younger players might not be able to relate to a slightly jaded, flawed adult.

I feel kind of tempted to give 5 stars to fight the completely unfair reviews this game is getting. Yet, it doesn't deserve five stars, just like it doesn't deserve one-star reviews or an average rating of 2,5 stars.

It seems negative reviews mostly fault the game for not being exactly like the dev's first game, and that just makes no sense.
Even if you don't think that variety is the spice of life, you would have to accept that a dev doesn't want to do the exact thing two times, even if people liked it.

Yes, this isn't Haley, and yes, I actually liked that game more as well, but TotB is its own thing and there are actually things to like about the game.
I feel the pace is a bit off, and it does take too long to get to know the more positive traits of some characters, but the writing is fine, the renders are great, and both ladies are attractive physically, each in their own way.

So, if the renders are good, the writing is alright, why the low ratings?

I think there are several reasons, apart from what I already mentioned.
For one, the MC, so far, is weird. He switches between being an absolute dick, to being cold and calculating, to slowly accepting that he develops real feelings for the LIs. I am not quite sure if this is intentional, if it is, I think it is working a bit too well. People like to watch characters like this, they don't really like to play as them that much.

And then there is the update size, while the updates come regularly and dependable, they are really small, maybe it would be better to wait a bit longer and release a bit more of content each release. Yes, you can wait, but if you just want to play each update as it is, it is very piecemeal and if you play on either single girls routes, sometimes basically NOTHING happens in an update.

Yes, these are flaws and yes, this isn't a perfect game, but I see the five stars reviews games with mammoth sized jumbo tits plastic doll characters, with faces that look as if they were hit by Homer Simpsons' make-up shotgun, in almost completely not understandable Engrish get and then look at the writing and characterization here (because even if you don't like the characters, the characterization is done well), you really can not justify that this game gets rated so low.

As for me, I am convinced that we will come to like these characters far more, and maybe it's just the old pervert in me speaking, but damn if I don't want that hot aunt and niece duo in the MCs bed together.
For me, it is worth waiting for that.

Is it a work of art? Ironically, no.
It is entertaining enough? It is.

The animations are a bit mechanical and seem to lag a bit. Renders are okay.

I never played Haley, so not sure what everyone is comparing this to, but on its own its a fine game. Maybe not at the top of your list, but I wouldn't put it too far down.

Haley had an appeal, a hook, kept you engaged. Whereas this is just an endless series of monotonous dialog without anything interesting going on. I feel no affinity with the MC, the girls are kinda boring. I just don't know how you can go from such a brilliant VN as Haley's story to this.

The static renders are good enough and the story is interesting.
The animation can be better, some of them seem too mechanic.
The problem of this game in my opinion is that is too slow.
For a lot o time at the beginning of the game you just have some kisses and some spanking. At the start the only sex scenes happen only in MC's mind.
You have to wait a lot to have sex "for real".

Okay, nice, I can sense here a good vibe of abandoned "My sweet neighbors".

I have no idea why many people are so toxic about this VN.

It's a little naive, a little weird, a little boring, a little silly at times, but in general pretty entertaining story with good renders and decent writing. Funny at times, though I'd say rudeness in dialogues is not really up to my taste, but I can partially explain it with overally complicated relationships and backstory of characters.

It's not like it can cause a "wow" effect, but you will most likely have good time playing it, and future updates as well, if they will be at the same decent level.

3.7*-3.8*, will give 4* in advance and to balance resulting ratio for this game as I feel like it was undeservingly dissed, for whatever reason...

Gl to dev doing it, will put this one in watched for sure.

Ok, I am not writing reviews often, but seeing recent reviews I felt like I had to.
First things first: is this game a fantastic gem that will change your life?
No, it is not. What it is, is a very nice story, limited in scope, but that allows it to actually concentrate on the main cast, with a flawed but believable main character who is neither a beta male nor a huge macho straight out of 80's movies.
This believability continues on to the other characters, I like both the aunt and the niece, they have genuine character, motivations, flaws and strengths.
The story is a slow but not too slow burn, with real advancement from update to update.
And the updates are actually quite regular, not a matter of course here, like most should know.
So, is it a five star? Well, more four to four and a half, but it pushes some of my buttons just right, so I will give it an upgrade.

Edit:
I am also genuinely baffled about some recent reviews.
One star? Really?
Either people did not play past the first 40 minutes and/or never actually talked to real people - because dialogue here is actually realistic, compared to 80's porn movies one many games here have.

fcking hell
playing this is freaking annoying, like finish 1 task then move to another
goes to start painting instead goes to uni to meet his friend, comes back tryna draw, but instead of drawing goes to his other friend, like what kinda mental shit is this, finish ur shit before doing other shit
like what level of adhd u must suffer for u to act like this
also playing for 20-30~ mins yet no actual content, i would get it if was story building but all i learned about this game till now is the mc is failed artist going to sleep half the game and wasting his time other half

Oh my god, the writing is too awful. The characters' dialogues are unnatural. The branching path gameplay is as boring as it can get. I can see they did try hard with these renders and man, they know they're not good at this but they force it down their throat anyway. My advice will just be reestimating your resources for better allocation.

A decent and fun story that differs a lot from the usual AVN. The MC is soso in the beginning, but he gets a backbone the longer the story goes on. Still not a dickhead, just a likeable guy that know what he wants.

The girls are pretty, but a little inpersonal (the reason for 4* instead of 5*. They are very sexy though and you really want to fuck them. Especially the brat!

I see a some low ratings but thats life. You can't please everyone. Still I think 1* or 2* is unfair compared to a lot of shitty stories with higher ratings.

It's a slowburn but now it starting to get some action.

This one was close to being rated as a 1 star for me. It gets 2 stars cause I like the look of the girls, and the writer does seem to have a grasp on giving the girls individual personalities. But the MC comes across like a shitty clueless idiot, shortly after the party and kissing both girls I could no longer tolerate the interactions and the cliche clueless thought process of the MC so it was a hard skip of dialogue to see if anything interesting happens...
This story could be really good but falls way short.

EDIT.
well, after checking it again (v0.83) the game has became considerably better in above mentioned negative aspects...it is slow burn in every department one could expect, yet it has been reached some decent levels in characters and plot buildings with relevant choices that make it worth to play.
it isnt at the level of his first game, yet i fully expect if the current development continues it will be there soon enough..fingers crossed.
p.s.
gonna change the review, again, if the need arises.

I originally gave TTB three stars but, as I initially said could happen, they have finally dropped to two in this 0.6 version. First off, it should be labeled as a kinetic novel instead of a VN because there are very few choices and they don't seem to matter at all. The storyline is also very predictable, with very few characters that makes every day feel the same (scene with usually both girls, maybe with the friend, slow advancement on each girl on her scene... repeat next day) and since choices don't matter, I ended up being very little involved in what was happening.

Render quality is pretty decent though not nothing mindblowing. Animations are very few and poorly done, with music being very repetitive.

So, all in all, wanted to like the game but in the end I just don't think it's worh the time.

I don't understand these kind of games, this one barely qualifies as erotic. Loads and loads of text with few PG-13 llike scenes in between. Renders are mediocre at best. Perhaps the story got better later on but after reading boring texts for while I really don't want to keep reading and just skipped through the rest.

As a big fan of Haley, this game is kind of a mixed spiritual successor to me. What I liked about Haley was that there was no forced MILF content. Elena is MILF and you can't avoid all of it.

The strength of this game is Belle. What I liked so much about Haley was her playfulness. This made her character very authentic. You don't find this very often in games, not even in AAA games. And Belle is very much like it, even more playful.

MC, however, is more like an asshole. He's not the loving kind like the MC from Haley. There is too much focus on spanking and on controlling Belle. It's not like the loving playful relationship between Haley and her MC. I agree with the previous review. MC needs to drop his sociopathy, it's creepy. It's like the author thinks that the only way to develop a relationship with the desired playful, taming, spanking tools is by having a natural sadist and a natural masochist. But that's not authentic imho. I think their real personalities should be loving, just like Haley and her MC, while their playful sides should be role play. It should be a mutual understanding between Belle and MC when they get into their playful roles. Besides, there is a difference between erotic spanking and sadistic spanking. Haley had some erotic spanking and I liked it. This, however, is just too much. I don't want to sociopathically "ruin" a wonderful character like Belle. Taming should just be a mutual game between them. Belle should remain Belle. I don't want a tamed doll at the end of the game. The idea creeps me out.

The decisions only filter content but don't really give you an alternative path with alternative content.

I'm a bit disappointed. But the game is still in development. I won't give up my hope.

Version 0.45: For some reason this game gives me the creepy vibes. The MC kind off comes off as a sociapath . The characters are not that interesting and the brat was also quite easily tamed imo.

The graphics are pretty decent but also not out of the ordinary. This game is definitely not terrible, but three stars is the most i can give it.

I have no idea why this is rated so high. Renders are average. I don't think there are any animations or if there are they definitely weren't memorable. The story is one of the worst I have seen. Lastly the worst is you are a complete 100% asshole.