VN - Ren'Py - The Way Love Goes [Ch. 26] [Naughty Skunk Games]

I followed this game for a long time and am very disappointed with what it has become. I enjoyed the plot and characters at the beginning and had some good growth. However at this point there is little to no movement on anything. The conflict has had small sprinkles of stuff but no real movement. The relationships are ungodly slow moving full of teasing and some foreplay when by this point you should be fucking at least one of the main LI's on the regular if not multiple of them. Hell you don't even really get side action. Updates also seem to be getting smaller. Play at your own risk. If you like extremely slow burn games then this isn't bad for everyone else I would advise to play one of the thousands of other games with similar tags on the site.

Nice renders and beautiful girls, but way, way, way, way, way, way too much blueballing. Teasing sucks. There is literally no real sex with any of the LIs YET in the 14th chapter. WTF???? Only blowjob/handjob which is boring. Teasing is extremely boring. Too much yakking, too. People play AVNs for the sex part which should happen by the 3rd or 4th chapter (REAL sex - penis-vagina or anal.) How long do we have to wait for anything good? ETA STILL no actal sex with LI's chapter 19. This is another total blueball fest like AWAM level. Totally wasteful.

(CH14)
With so much competition on f95zone, there's simply no reason to ever play this game. It doesn't excel at anything. It's extremely subpar across the board.
The "choice" system is shit. I'm not sure why this was glossed over, but it's basically a matter of "do you wanna have content with this character or do you wanna make the choice that clearly means you won't?" No real "consequence that I can detect, except for perhaps being locked out of scenes, but see above as to why no one will care.
Picture Quality - Average, sometimes horrible with heavy grain.

Sadly this VN is a waste of time.

[Ch. 13}
As far as visual novels go, this is a pretty good one, so far.

While some of the writing might be a little on the odd side, with the constant 'he he's and the 'okie dokie's, the writing is pretty solid with not much in the way of spelling errors. The writing in general is pretty good as far a the story is considered. It seems to have meaningful and heartfelt dialog.

The renders are also exceptional and express the situation perfectly. That being said, the animated scenes are a little off. I like the effort but they seem to be a little off sometimes. (Example: the couch swing kiss animation. They're clearly not on the swing. It's not moving at the same rate.)

Again, I like the VN and think it's a suggested read. While there's some fault with the execution at times, that doesn't take away from what the story brings.

Good story, hot girls all throughout this. Milf is crazy hot can't get enough of her. Also the music matches the scenes well. Would hope to see more of Megan's coworker/friend too she's seductive as hell

A hidden gem on this site

Finally had a chance to playthrough this today. This is a slow-burner for sure! So if you're more into plot buildup into payoff scenes then I feel this would be more up your alley opposed to those looking for just a quick fap.

Although the textures are a bit dark at times and the plot took some building up to do, I feel like this game definitely found it's foundation and is building on it on it's latest updates!

Without spoiling to much I would say post-change up of the main setting in the story, this game definitely took a turn for the complete better side of things Models are great, plot is in a great mystery arch as of now, I feel connected to each of the LI's in different ways as well. And although goofy at times I think the MC says the right things in the more serious sides of conversations.

Wholesome game that also has some very sexy scenes in it as well
5 stars for me

Everyone acts DTF from day 1. Basically, an incest game without the taboo aspect that makes that kink attractive. What's the point?
Extremely mundane slice-of-life. I didn't think anything could top The Visit in this, but this game managed to do it.
The MC with his massive 14-inch dick. It looks ridiculous and no players can relate to this. I'll never understand this kind of wish fulfillment.
Way too much 'he he ha ha hi hi' going on. Not sure where the jokes are, but the player seems to be out of the loop. Please just stop. The dialogue seems like it was made by a 14-year-old due to this.

Sure, the dev picked decent models for characters (that we've all seen a thousand times) but didn't put much effort at all into making decent renders.
With so much competition on f95zone, there's simply no reason to ever play this game. It doesn't excel at anything. It's extremely subpar across the board.

Game as of Ch 12

Visuals

• I feel like this is another very, very misleading posting in F95. When you stumble across the thread holding the deets, you see a banner atop that promises smooth lines, impossibly sexy hourglass figures, and rich, vibrant renders. Until you stare longer. Open each full image, you'll see insane compression. Either that, or they're super fucking low-res. I'm not sure why that is, because this game could be a flagship for hotties if the devotion were there.
• Obviously, you downloaded the game because all 3 women - yes, ALL 3 - are appealing from the banner, and perhaps even the preview images. But part of you is thinking, "Is it me, or are they kinda half-assed?" It's not just you. They're half-assed. Promising character models that would otherwise be oh-so-boner(or moistening?)-inspiring. Play ANY other hi-fi rendered VN, and come back to this one, you will immediately take notice and have a womp womp moment.
• With the above stated, it also goes without saying that the environment renders are also completely lacking in detail and refinement. The lighting is horrid, pretty much across the board i.e. characters are noticeably darker in appearance in an otherwise well-lit room.
• The character thumbs are also not kept to ratio; they're squished hot-dog style, so it looks like they fell into a garbage compactor a la A New Hope and didn't quite stop it in time.
• If you can get past all that (I unfortunately cannot), Megan, Lily, and Nina are hot as fuck.
• Bella looks like she is mid-exorcism in the eyeball region.
• The animations are just one speed setting shy of being such; a series of images meant to simulate motion kinda like the old flipbooks you could manually create a moving image with or recreate with a Post-It pad and a ton of spare time. In other words: don't get your hopes up here, either, kid.

Story

• Not gonna lie, I played this from start to Ch 8 sometime back in May '22, then shelved it and either didn't see or didn't download Ch 9-11. Picked back up as of Ch12 in Sep '22. I don't remember anything about what happened before CH 9. That should tell you all you really need to know about the value added for the story.
• The "choice" system is shit. I'm not sure why this was glossed over, but it's basically a matter of "do you wanna have content with this character or do you wanna make the choice that clearly means you won't?" No real "consequence that I can detect, except for perhaps being locked out of scenes, but see above as to why no one will care.

Dialog

• This is actually where the game shines. No idea what other games Naughty Skunk has made, and I don't care. This one is rough in every conceivable aspect EXCEPT the dialog. I am constantly pining for well-written, English-predominant dialog. This one (mostly) delivers. It's not poetry, it won't leave you feeling like your heartstrings have been tugged on. It probably won't even be memorable overall. What it will leave you with is the satisfaction of not having to stop, tilt your head, re-read constantly, and go, "Dafuq?" I appreciate that characters openly swear, albeit with some reservation on some occasions. I'm sick to death of devs writing ADULT VISUAL NOVELS that lack adult language except by "playing it safe" by resorting primarily to inner monologue for that. It's annoying. Either the player is an adult, or they are doing some adult shit they don't want their parents to know about by playing these. Either way, I appreciate a realistic, sensible amount of profanity, blasphemy, and crudeness. I'm almost positive this is the only VN out there with the line, "Holy shit biscuits!" Than you for that, dev.
• I don't know if it's the OG dialog or the "taboo" patch, but it's kind of annoying that we know Megan is MC's aunt yet he pretty much only refers to her by her first name. If I pulled that crap with any of my aunts as a kid they'd have either taken offense or put a stop to it.

Overall, I just can't recommend this one. If it were redone, visually, from the start...yes. Visual is half the components in "visual novel", so I have higher than average standards given how saturated F95 is. Yes, I'd probably do a shit job if forced to make one. Actually, no, I wouldn't; I'd be so consumed by perfectionism that I'd end up like Pinkcake spending hours toiling over little details and convincing myself I need multiple systems rendering 24/7 just to meet my own standards.

I think this game is very under rated. The story line is ok but the characters are very beautiful. I recommend the download and giving it a try. I really enjoyed it. For the dev, I think developing the characters a little more would help. Also, more scenes with the “younger girl” would be awesome. She definitely made the game!

So much conflict in me for this review. Edit: no more. I dropped from 3 to 2 stars finally.

For good point, I love the girls. Yes I'm a sucker for those model types. So very much it appeals to me, i'm not even sure i'm not just forgetting a lot of bad points.

I like the "story" so far (ch11). (There is none really it's just a pretext to see the girls)

Now... there are a lot of bad points which would have been worth a less than 3 stars review if not for the good looking main girls.

1) "your" in spelling mistake. It's so frustrating that a non english speaker as myself know it's a bad mistake so everytime I see it in a game, i'm pissed.
2) why does this game use a "mini talking head" next to the text? it's useless when you have the name, besides it's ugly because ingame models have evolved but the "mini head" did not, so there is a reminder of how bad MC looked at first for example (i'm not sure that MC looked bad, but the change of model during play is rarely due to story purposes...)
3) except for the Main girls, too many girls want (and have) quickly sex with the MC... that's killing the pacing. Happily the main girls do not fall into this category. Teasing and all, but not sex, so at least it's not a killing bad point.
4) almost no choices. And some choices do not really matter to the story but just to a scene.
5) so much use of "hihi", "hehehe", "*munch munch*" sounds and onomatopeias.
6) it's also a game with little attention to details as the "feet enter ground" issue is quite common or some clothing do not make any sense for those who wear it... Or another example: beach scene, with girls on the sand. Any feet print? no of course. And in the next scene, volleyball match. Do we see some prints in the sand? of course, no. The girls and MC just magically moved there.

The model proportions are all ridiculously overblown (I know that's not all that uncommon). There's also no choice who you 'seduce' though. Those two things combined lead to some really vile scenes. If you try and avoid some of the grossest (falishia, the old mum) then the dev hard codes a game over

The scenes are well crafted and the renders are at a decent quality. If the dev didn't force you into their fetishes, then it would have a lot of potential

You can hate me for giving 5 *,but game is not that bad how the stars show. True ,is not story wise quality but is not fast fap crap either. Babes are great, ieasy going story and we still didn't bang any of them. Kinda cheaper version of Grandma's House where also everybody is falling for MC whatever he does. We had so many similar VNs like this one,but TWLG is still going strong and often updated, when others (similar quality) are dead or 3-4 months wait for update and is usually disappointing.

Sadly this VN is not to my taste.

Story - Weak, VERY weak clichè without any surprise you can't see comeing and nothing you didn't see in 132546536 other novells like this.

Picture Quality - Average, sometimes horrible with heavie grain - try a denoiser for that - my advice.

Also the "hehe" at the end of nearly every 2 sentences spoken are tireing and annoying after some time - but thats only my opinion of course.

To sum it up - if you are in for the fap and a very light story - go for it, you may enjoy it, its not bad per say, but not good either.

If you are looking for a good story with plottwists and deep character design - look somewhere else.

Hehe
Ha ha
*Wink*
Hihi
He he he
*Blush*
Haha
Hi hi
Hahaha

Are you annoyed yet? Because you will see one of those, on average, every 10 lines of dialog. Did you know that RenPy has a default narrator that you should use to elaborate on stage directions or descriptors? Instead of asterisks with a smile, blush, or wink, WRITE ABOUT IT. "Trying to be cute about it, she stifled a little giggle before replying." Not only is that less cringe worthy to deal with, it pads out your boring story to make it seem like there is more to it. And I wanna make it clear, I don't hate this. At this point, it's your typical pizza guy porn story. And I'm gonna start making a checklist for these games if nothing else to show how run-of-the-mill everything is.

MC returns to family member after X years away and suddenly find them attractive - Check
Mother-type character that's been lonely for no reason and thinks she's unattractive - Check
Older sister-type that is a little bitchy but loves MC - Check
Little sister-type that acts like she way too young, too innocent, and is very handsy - Check
A lot of scenes where MC just looks at his own penis - Weird... but Check
Shower peeping scene - Check
Mother-type holding herself back from touching MC in his sleep - Check

Do you see what I mean? And the other reviews confirm that we're all pretty bored of the same thing over and over. And we as readers don't need the MC's thoughts popping in to say "Damn, she's so good looking." Every time he looks at a character, we can infer that in fact, that character is good looking on our own and MC is annoying as sin. He was kicked out at like 14 or 16 for being lazy, meets his Aunt after 10 years and... Resumes being lazy? Any time he offers to help out all he does is bitch and complain. Then when a woman is forward with him, he gets weirded out but does the same thing to all the women in his house.

I do wanna say I think it's hilarious that the "taboo patch" is literally just changing one character's name to "Aunt Megan" and maybe 15 more lines of dialog shoehorned in to appease the incest clowns. And I'm always weirded out when the little sister-type acts like a child. Not even childish, just like an actual child.

A lot of the renders have very inconsistent quality and some I'd go as far to say they should be redone because the lighting is so blown out or it's grainy. But other than that the models are fine, the eyes seem a little dead but fine, nonetheless. And I woulda tacked on one extra star but Default RenPy UI rears its ugly head. Do something about that.

TLDR This one is very middle of the road, won't really offend anyone but you won't remember it. Looks fine, dialog is not great, with a little elbow grease a lot can still be improved.

Not a fan of image quality nor artwork, story is okay but nothing too exciting. Also has a couple of typos here and there that really need to be cleaned up. Would need a whole rework of the images for this to get worth playing.

really nice concept with hot mcs just the story line is kinda all over the place like the cousin admits to being in love with him 3 times and each time he acts like he didnt know and he goes from a perv and peeking on her in the shower and grabbing all their asses to scared and contemplating if he should kiss them like bro how you gonna go from big perv to pussy to nuts of steel back to a pussy like she admitted she wanted you to touch her and asks you why you would you want to touch her friend when you have her and you say youd rather have her and then when she asks for a kiss youre like idkkkk like yeah id eat you out but idk about a kiss and then you say you would owe her big and when you guys get back she asks for another kiss like bro you couldve asked him for anything.... but yeah all in all good game just gonna wait till ch 20 atleast for some action with the 3

The good:
There are a few cute faces.

The bad:
Grammar.
Poorly written dialogues.
The story is a poorly executed collection of porn cliches.

I don't skip text usually, but in this game I mostly skipped. The experience was not really interesting.

[Ch.8]

The choices are meaningless. The player has no control at all over what the MC is like, no control over how the MC feels about any of the characters, and little control over which scenes happen. This is a comic pretending it's a game.

The plot moves slow, which is a good thing because it's a little silly and not in a good way.

There's good effort on the content and renders even if they're not amazing, which kinda redeems the game.

The story is good, the LIs are beautiful and they have differnt characters and body types. The MC is agreable and someone that isn't just an overthinker regretting everything he does. The graphics are also good, so all in aall I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Some of the early reviewers gave it an unfairly love ranking. I always wait!

Edit: After Ch 8 I still can't understand the low grades. The story is nice and easy, the LIs are great and the MC a funny and thoughtful guy that don't back down from the lewd scenes. So far a slow burner, but I don't mind that.

Overall average game so far in my opinion. Nothing really stands out too much.

Animations and models are decent at best. Storytelling lacks any real depth and much flavor really at all. Some wholesome scenes but I'm sure we were all hoping for some more layers to this story. Maybe the dev doesn't have the means to improve the quality of the visual components, but if they get there eventually or get a lot of support behind this game it could help it and improve it a lot obviously.

Is this game just average as of right now? in my opinion yes but could it get a lot better? of course it can as most games can.