VN - Ren'Py - Completed - The Taming of the Brat [v1] [Viitgames]

I played this game in its entirety yesterday. I went with the threesome route by juggling both girls' points, until I think I was at 25% of the game after which it never came up again and only asked 3 times to reconcile and that was it.

I have to say though, I have no idea what the hell happened at the end but it seems to me that a big issue came up with the author/artist because the game ends so abruptly out of nowhere. Really felt like a rushed ending with no closure on anything whatsoever.

On the love front it's nowhere, as there was never any real closure. Why did your friend for so many years suddenly fall in love with you out of nowhere just because you've suddenly made some advances, even though for years nothing happened between you two ? Was it really that easy and it only took a few passes ? Does Belle actually love you or is she just having fun ? Cathy also goes nowhere after having a threesome one time. No idea what would have happened in the future as there is a 200% likelihood of Belle's mother, Elena's sister having a fit after learning some things but nope, game just ends. The main character also seem to have bipolar or something lol. One scene he clearly doesn't give a shit about any of the 2 girls when you read what he's thinking, but a few scenes later he's being tender out of nowhere.

No closure on the Art front either ... I really thought after getting together with both girls he was going to try that last piece again and it was going to be a masterpiece but nope, again, game abruptly ends.

I had this game on my list for years because it was made by the same person(s) as "Haley's Story", but it's bafflingly huge downgrade in every single possible way. Now I'm seeing the 3rd game on the list and I don't have an ounce of desire in me to try it after what this one turned out to be, I'll decide after that one ends, if it ever ends, and after seeing the reviews and the comments on it.

Again, this game isn't bad by any means, it's just highly disappointing whether you've played "Haley's Story" before or not.

Also, since this is the review version of my comment, I'll add that the grammar is noticeably below average and there are quite a few spelling errors that you can't help but notice.

Well i did like some of the story but its just a bit to much of a slow burn, theres so much meaning less text that could have been removed or used to make a better story or better ending.

I went with Belle since i found her the most fun and got a 3 some with her friend as well, but some stuff feels forgotten or left out like Belles friend and her mother, nothing ever happens with the mother and all the dick paintings so not really sure why its even in the game other then being more meaningless text.

What really killed it for me was the endings, like i said i went with Belle and when she moves in with MC and they tell the aunt about it and go back to their/MCs appartment it just stops out of nowhere, theres not even any text saying they live happy ever after or Belle getting pregnant or them getting married, Belle just jumps in MCs arms and bam your out in the menu, its just an awfull way of making an ending and leaves wondering wtf just happened.

Grils look good but theres really only 2 LIs Belle the brat and the aunt Elena, so theres not much to pick from when it comes to LIs.

Animations looks decent enough theres just not much of them.

Music is pretty standard background stuff, noting with lyrics or anything.

Choices are lacking meaning theres simply just to few and nothing really game changeing other then who you end up with at the end, but being with Belles friend in the 3-some dident change anything to her ending you stil end up with Belle alone and get told nothing about her friend.

It really feels like they just gave up and rushed it and desided to just finish it out of nowhere, so cant really rate this more then 3 stars since theres just a bit to much lacking and no real ending.
Also leaves you hanging with Belles friend about what was going on with her and her dad and the dick paintings and all that, its like they just dident care to finish that part of the story either.

Positives:
+ Belle as a character, very vivid and witty writing of her nature and behavior
+ Few but at least unique locations
+ Elene + Belle possible
+ Belle + Cathy possible

Negatives:
- Rather few decisions to make
- Story takes a very long time to progress, if at all
- Almost all female characters have the same haircut
- Poorly developed reactions of MC to various situations
- The ending (all paths) is abrupt and unsatisfying as a real happy ending (lack of info about the future)
- I find the MC kind of creepy, blonde hair with black eyelashes that are longer than the eyelashes of the women in the game

Final personal thoughts:
I find the way the MC sometimes reacts to things quite irrational.
SPOILER Example: MC gets a picture via text message from a woman in nightwear who wants to know if the sexy outfit she's wearing looks good on her and he replies “oh already late, see you tomorrow then”. As a player, I think to myself - how late, it's a text message, why don't you reply, you've just been on the phone and texting her! wtf!?

It's also a shame that too much time was spent pointlessly eating in the game instead of working on more profound things during this time.
SPOILER For example, I would have liked to know more about Belle's situation with her father. Sometimes I got the impression (judging by Belle's statements in fragments) that she is abused by him when he is drunk. (I could be wrong) But a deep conversation never took place to clear this up.

There is also a lack of clarification about why Elene and her sister don't get along and why her sister doesn't call her daughter by her name and many other things related to this.

Last words:
An epilogue about the future of the endings is definitely missing.
I also recommend playing with walkthrough mod and taking all paths (Elena (saucy), Bella (saucy) and Cathy) , it doesn't really change the outcome of the game except (who is still in bed at the end and -) that you experience more pleasure while playing than if you don't take these paths.

Wow, just wow. I mean for a porn game and for a game in general. This was amazing; I wish there was more, to be honest. The story was so unique that I actually found myself following along with the story and stopping to read the dialogue rather than skipping through the entire game. This was an amazing game, and I honestly think this is one of the top three for me. Ive played hundreds of porn games, but this one in particular really sticks out. The story is so interesting and amazing; it's about a person trying his best to stay sober, and being an artist helps him do that. The art that he makes is amazing, to be honest. I mean, it was incredible, even though they were just sketches. The pure feeling and raw emotion that went into the art of the MC were bewildering. 10/10 RECOMMEND TO ANYONE PASSING BY.

Yet another VN ruined by a trash, poorly written MC. Terrible personality, thinks he's a lot funnier than he actually is, and will not fucking shut up with his goddamn inner monologue. Not to mention his model looks weird af! Can't exactly put my finger on it, but he looks borderline retarded.

Gave up on it before I reached the 2nd "naughty scene" (if it can even be called that). Thankfully, I have the gallery mod, so I can just check out the scenes that way w/o having to force myself to read any more of this terrible writing.

Only reason I am giving it 2 stars is because Elena is pretty damn sexy, and Belle is pretty cute too.

I'm 20 minutes in, and I like the direction of the story. MC is an alcoholic artist on the wagon, having trouble creating art without inspiration, muse, or chemical modifier. MC's art dealer Elena is looking to be an excellent friend and business associate in spite of her problems at home. Elena's niece Belle ("the brat" of title infamy) is both a hilarious piece of work if you're a fly on the wall and "problems at home" if you're a frustrated aunt.

From there, the MC goes through trouble trying to find inspiration for his work. Eventually, with some suggestion from his sponsor (he's an alkie on the wagon, remember?), he starts some new sketches and accidentally puts familiar faces to the canvas while musing in his work: Elena on the first sketch, then--after putting the sketch aside as a good, but failed first attempt--Belle on his second sketch. Well, if nothing else it appears he's found inspiration and muses in lieu of the chemical modifiers.


Graphics are good. Scene choices are great. Renders are a little sketchy, but not awful. Men are a little broad and chesty, as if they were physically ready to go 12 rounds. Elena's rivaling Angelina Jolie in the lip department, and it's clearly not just good profiling with her makeup kit as even when the MC catches her on a day without makeup, her mouth is no shrinking violet. Not a fan of the MC's shower. Streams of water look like perfectly smooth metallic or glass rods (wouldn't want to get hit with those).

I don't think music is native to the game (playing with a mod that I know incorporates music). As a general rule, I won't take away stars for a game's music or lack of music unless there is music (or sound effects) that detract or take away from the game.

Unless the developer takes this story and flushes it down the proverbial toilet, I can't see this game having earned less than five stars. I likely won't come back to this review from this point, it'll likely be bad news if I tack on an edit below this, so enjoy the game.

Mid game that could have been much better with just a little bit more effort.

Loses a star for teasing Anal and never delivering.

Renders look nice, and writing and dialogue are pretty decent.

MC is a dial tone, and his constant inane inner monologues get old very fast.

Also resolves pretty much none of the issues for the individual characters, and the endings feel very rushed.

Needs sexy sounds in the lewd scenes, but I have seen worse.

Worth a play is you are desperate for a slice of life AVN that is really nothing special.

As games go..... there's not a lot here.

I think one of my main problems with the game is the whole premise, and I know that sounds absurd but really it's true. You are an artist who's basically having a hard time of it. You simply can't get the creative juices flowing that is... until you get some inspiration from a friend and you stumble upon some muses in the form of a friend of yours and her neice.

Which is fine and all but the game acts like it's all one big taboo and there's absolutely no reason for it. The MC seems embarassed at the prospect of using a friend as inspiration and other people seem scandalised at the idea of the MC using a college student as the basis for art..... but why? There's no reason given. College student perfectly capable of making her own decisions and an artist doing what artists do. It's absurd. Firstly the MC wouldn't give a fuck, he'd probably announce to anyone who'd listen what he's doing but why his friend acts the way he does is weird.

And it basically goes downhill from there. You've got the choice of what woman to pick, the friend or the niece but really both are puddle deep. The friend seems to have a drinking problem which is odd cause the MC is a recovering alcoholic so it seems absurd he'd hang about with her and the Brat in question seems to be just that, maybe she's more but the way she acts around her aunt is a weird red flag

Visuals are ok, the cast is small which probably helps the game somewhat but the MC is a bit of a melt. I appreciate he's got issues he's working through but it seems the anxiety is artificial cause why would he be anxious at all?

As much as I want to rate it 3, I can't. The story itself is not bad and while a lot of it is missing, the dev definitely has a right idea where the series was going.

Elena and her business struggling with new competitor and her new-found drinking problem, a nice idea that ultimately didn't go anywhere, her business turn out fine and drinking problem was never there.

Belle family struggle with alcoholic father and her mother which is hinted a lot but never really explored on, especially her mom which supposedly secretly care about her or how she is struggling studying and caring about college skipping a lot of class, but somehow it was never a problem.

In side character we have Marc who says Elena face was similar, but we never know how he actually know Elena face or Cathy whole ordeal not going anywhere with her weird family.

The game has a lot of delicious crumbs, but there is ultimately no bread in sight.

The early part of the game was definitely the weakest by far, the introduction of the character was fine, but it's more incline to meh than nice,

3/4 9/8 ultimately the story was alrigh

Ok, given that Haley's second half already went into this direction, it's no surprise that this game turned out like this. It still managed to disappoint my low expectations.

There's literally nothing happening. At all. There's no tension, story arc or anything. Now, that's ok if you have chemistry between the protagonists when they develop their relationship. But that's not happening either.

The MC is completely devoid of characteristics. There's literally nothing interesting or attractive about him. It's completely unbelievable that anyone would fall for this muppet. Also the art remains largely static and devoid of emotions. It's more like someone doing play-pretend with a bunch of stick figures.

So, where does that leave us? Nowhere really. They go through the motions. It's like reading an accounting report on a Friday afternoon. Given that the sex scenes are mechanical and soulless, it's unlikely that even they will rouse you from your slumber.

Disappointing.

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.