VERSION: 0.9.1 (NTR Disabled)
While research appears to indicate that audiences prefer linear narratives, thus accounting for their common nature across all forms of media, The Tyrant seeks to buck this trend by employing a genuine sandbox element; the extent to which it accomplishes that feat is debatable.
Fundamentally, The Tyrant offers very little that is new or fresh in the genre, relegating gameplay to the typical grind of repeated scenes in order to arbitrarily increase a character's affection, love or corruption points. While certain scenes provide the ability to skip them once viewed, others must be played in their entirety every time... this includes assigning a name to a character in one particular event at the gym. It's impossible to stress how odd it is to name someone only to return the next day to do so again, although it can be amusing to impart them with a personality disorder by altering their name on each unique occasion.
Similar continuity-based errors are so commonplace as to scarcely merit attention, an understandable result of the game's sandbox nature and hopefully one that is addressed with the development of additional content, though several are particularly discordant. By way of example: after progressing with the mother such that she's comfortable providing the protagonist a handjob in their living room, the player may encounter her in a repeated scene at the gym where they aid her in stretching and inadvertently achieve an erection in the process. When her feet touch their swollen member, despite having done so earlier that morning in a far more intimate and voluntary manner, she now becomes instantly outraged.
The lack of content also manifests in the partially realized clothing system, which allows the player to choose how several of the female cast dress. A fine concept, even if it feels somewhat "gamey" given that the options are restricted based on corruption/love values; numerous scenes lack renders appropriate to the desired attire and, as such, the models appear either inappropriately dressed or nude with a red error message over their body.
Core mechanics, such as relationship values and gift-giving, are also prone to flaws that nullify the player's actions. Relationship values drop sporadically and without justification, the mother's typically decreasing by 10 each day regardless of how or even if the player interacts with her, whereas others register no change whatsoever. Furnishing any given woman with multiple gifts, at the single opportunity the player is afforded per day, will invalidate all but the first turning every other gift into wasted time and money.
The primary flaw that consistently derails the experience, however, is the script itself. The writing is awkwardly formatted and indisputably composed by someone for whom English is a second language, with strange idioms and elementary spelling mistakes.
"You'll call her mom, but it's need when others call her."
"You go back upstairs to your room. Your brain full of fucks."
"...when she try's to impress me again."
"Thru this playing there are some people who don't like us."
"That's nice, loud laughing was really amusing."
"He'll loose her to me, hahaha."
"Yes, but they gave him a chance and he took it, for the best of our family."
"You're really need to know them."
"So I hoped you would join our play as the son that would fit in with a father in this playing."
"He could even take advantage of one of my sisters, even if I don't think he isn't into young girls."
"I'll make some boiled dinner."
"Yes, it's cheap to make and makes us sated."
"Shit, I'm just like my father. Leeching her sexy boobs."
"That's your opinion now, but over the time you'll follow your heart."
"Yes. You're right. I choosed you."
"Then I'll slinding it inside me, slowly and gentle."
"Like when you give me more sperm, it would overpower the anti baby pill."
"Perfekt to caress and grope."
"Shhh... Sometimes each gentleman fail <giggle>"
The most consistently odd of these is the use of "
hihihi" in lieu of "hehehe" as onomatopoeia for laughter.
On a more positive note, although the developer chose to include some extremely divisive material, such as NTR (which involves aspects of both infidelity and humiliation), they elected to allow players to disable its appearance. A wise choice and one other developers ought to emulate.
Graphically, the game compares favorably with many of its contemporaries despite being far removed from the cutting edge. A number of flaws are present, such as render-related artifacts and odd black scribbles on the mother's forehead, but overall the presentation is consistent and attractive. Very few animations exist, but each has a surprising degree of fluidity courtesy of a decent frame rate and some artistic finesse.
Even so, the sheer amount of content that seems half-heartedly developed, broken or simply missing begins to pile up as the minutes pass, creating a tower of mismatched blocks that threatens to crumble at the slightest breeze. The bumbling charm of the dialogue becomes lost in its inadvertent defects, reduced to so much incomprehensibility. The frequency of inferior graphical assets increases, including the most disturbing model of an infant imaginable that resembles a clay figurine carved by a blind man.
It was at that sight, having already been tempted to quit, that The Tyrant supplied a particularly apropos bit of dialogue which accurately encompassed my thoughts: "
I'm out of here, you fucking me up!"
GRAPHICS ----------------------------------------------- 6 / 10
+ Renders are of consistent quality and decent composition.
+ POV shots are a nice touch and fairly unique in the genre.
+ Quality animations with fluid motion, though extremely limited in number.
- Certain models are of distinctly low quality; several items appear to be two-dimensional images layered atop the render.
- Background and general environment art is mediocre.
DIALOGUE ----------------------------------------------- 2 / 10
- Grammatical, typographical and formatting errors in ludicrous abundance. English fluency is abysmal.
- Dialogue is often choppy and, at times, borderline incomprehensible.
- Overarching narrative is nonsensical and irrelevant to the core experience.
GAMEPLAY ---------------------------------------------- 4 / 10
- Grind is unavoidable and necessary in order to progress with any relationship.
- Event skipping is inconsistent, necessitating entire scenes be replayed. Dialogue in several is repeated unnecessarily.
- Core relationship mechanics are poorly explained and prone to loss without discernible cause.
- Gift-giving mechanics often fail to register a change.
INNOVATION ------------------------------------------- 5 / 10
+ Genuine sandbox aspect allows for an extreme degree of freedom.
+ Ability to disable certain fetish content (NTR) is a welcome addition and allows for a wider potential playerbase.
+ Character-specific attire based on relationship values is a pleasant, if contrived, addition that fosters variety.
- Sandbox is poorly implemented and largely bereft of content. Placeholders abound.
- Continuity errors are frequent, often interfere with progression and occasionally demand repeated player input.
- Numerous missing texture and exception errors. Engine seems ill-suited to the task.
SCORE ============================ 17 / 40
DEMANDS CONSIDERABLE DEVELOPMENT, UNWORTHY OF YOUR TIME
The Tyrant's ambition is commendable yet does little to excuse the pitiable state of its development. Too substantial a portion of its purported content is unfinished, haphazardly composed or absent, to say nothing of the flaws that checker what has already been released. Further development may alter its fate but, for now, an impartial player cannot help but dwell on that oldest of dictums: sic semper tyrannis.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUE: Consult an editor, preferably one with at least a native-fluency of English, in order to amend the various errors throughout your script. Consider removing placeholder flags and locations until they are replete with content; better to avoid adding something that may never be filled (as with so many of these projects) than to risk incurring potential backlash. Plot your narrative, I would recommend draw.io for this purpose, such that you can anticipate any potential continuity errors; address those errors immediately as they otherwise derail the experience.
