VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - This Time [v2306] [ApocalypseToday]

This time is an avn that deserves to be counted among the ranks of upcoming great AVNS like Leaving DNA or Race of LIfe, but it doesn't because It doesn't nail "A" part of AVN correctly.
While other famous upcoming game are far inferior against this game in terms of poetic writing meditations on Humanity and general vibe. What makes this game take step back is that its frugal rendering is unable to handle its apparent large canvas of imagination. Too many static shots, where characters talk on and on the engagem,ent is mangaed through storytelling and good writing , i.e, visual element of attention is almost missing.

Moreover character models all feel like a generation old. The worst thing about this game is that it is abandoned. to be honest I FEEL real sad having lost this great game. But I recommend all to atleast play it omnce because what is in here is nothing short of gold (esp dialogues and cut scenes)

Pros:

1. Concept is promising
2. Girls are beautiful
3. Renders are decent

Cons:

1. Pacing needs improvement especially romantic buildups.
2. Writing needs a bit of work up cuz it felt lengthy
3. Need more depth to characters.

Verdict: I would wait till next updates to see better plot buildup.

God the MC is such a jaded asshole its impossible to actually play the game without hating the guy. The art is fine and the girls are interesting enough for a porn game but the constant gross vibes from the MC is just so offputting. I get he's supposed to have some hard troubled past that has made him this way but that just feels like some qualifier added to justify the MC being an ass.

Too slow story progression. Many unnecessary lines and some bad jokes are added.
Visual is good. Characters looks pretty. But the mian Character needed some work. Some scenes are not smooth.
Concept is not bad.

This Time is a so-so game. The graphics and sound are actually good. The story tries to be deep but I found it quite slow and at moments boring.

It also tells some separate stories which at some moment will probably connect but at this moment you just lose immersion when you switch between them.

The girls are nice but somehow they didn't turn me on.

When I first tried this game I abondened it after five minutes because it looked like a copycat of so many over AVNs with subpar dialogue and superficial characters.

Turns out, I was completely wrong about it. There is a huge gap of quality between the early game and the late game (v2303b). The plot picks up pace, the characters get much deeper, relationships feel alive due to a rather unique points system, the story is throught-through with a focus on plot points and not porn.
If you don't give this VN a decent chance you will miss out on a great experience. This Time is memorable as a story, but it also has interesting mechanics and special effects. It manages to create believable drama but is not afraid to write likable characters out of the game. A very solid adult supernatural thriller with great LIs that improves greatly as the game progresses.

Refreshingly different. The characters are rendered well and have not been in every other VN. Some new UI and game mechanics. A bit of walkabout which can be skipped. The story is quite the mystery. I was pained to come to the end of the update. Well done.

Just played the version from this site a bit, got me intrigued then I deleted it and got it from Steam. The renders are great, the story and the fantasy elements are interesting and the premise is captivating enough to give it a try. Hopefully the quality will remain in the future releases and wish the devs to stay healthy and finish the game because it has potential

Game version: [Ch.3.1]

At first glance, everything about this game looks promising, it's just... not very good. Not for a lack of trying though, a bunch of effort has clearly gone into this project. Renders look great, good lighting, shot composition, etc. Presentation, UI, music, it's all very competent (except some of the animations suck, also why would you waste time on animations for pouring wine or walking on a street? But I digress.) It's just not a compelling experience.

The game is the VN equivalent of "I am 14 and this is deep," complete with long, self-indulgent emo poetry segments. It tries to emulate popular Noir and Mystery tropes but the writing struggles to make them work. I think I cringed more during this game than playing some fap-fest incest clones full of Engrish.

If you're going to make a story-focused VN, you need to have a tight story and great characters. This story is just an asspulled "gruff heroic protagonist man down on his luck with tragic backstory randomly gets MacGuffin that gives him time powers and is pulled into mystery plot," while all the characters are varying levels of cardboard cutouts.

The sassy female bartender with a heart of gold, the (INCREDIBLY CRINGY and borderline offensive) Southern Belle reluctant prostitute (of course you are her first and only ever client because other peepees scary, zZzZz.) And your "tomboy" best female friend, though her being a tomboy just means she likes to masturbate and curse sometimes, I guess. And other forgettable females I forget. Naturally there are no male characters in the game except the MC and EVIL ANTAGONIST MAN.

All of this might still work if the game wasn't busy jerking itself off over how deep and meaningful it is and instead delivered decent porn. But it never does. The sex scenes are all pretty short, underwritten (or not written at all, as in "just watch the animations, lol",) bland, without stakes and they happen way too infrequently (or they're ruined by the bizarre choice to have the characters roleplaying as cowboys, what the fuck was that?)

The main gimmick of the game (or what SHOULD be the main gimmick of the game) of "Do I use my newfound time stopping powers for good or evil?" never really gets explored apart from "tee hee hee, do I stop time and look at this girl's panties?" and a super random full on molestation/rape that doesn't get commented on further in the narrative (????????????). The time ability is literally the story element you should have based EVERYTHING around, instead it feels like a handwaved afterthought that's just there to make the lame mystery plot happen.

And I get that you wanted to get out of the "can't show MC face, so have to spend two hours trying to figure out render angles" trap, but now that we see his face your original choice seems a lot more justified. Like, what the fuck is that face? He looks like an ethnically ambiguous mongoloid 16 year old. I can't overstate how far apart my head version of the MC was from this abomination. Why would you make gritty, gruff, Noir man retired ex-Firefighter look like a teenager with developmental problems?

Also, could have really done without the lecture about how all religious people are close-minded idiots and everybody in the southern United States is a bigot. BUT HEY, THAT IS JUST THE CHARACTER'S OPINION AND TOTALLY NOT A DEV SELF-INSERT, HURR DURR.

Honestly speaking this game deserves more attention. Good renders and interesting story. And a nice Mc. Story is interesting from the title you can guess what it is about. This one is story driven but it also gives importance to lewd parts. Honestly this one should be labelled as a VN because it ain't grindy sandbox. Just free roam events. Loved all the girls in the game each one have their own story. There is sound and music that gives more ambience to the game

About sandbox

Sandbox games are big no for many. But no sandbox in this game is not grindy where you have certain stats to unlock some events. Where you have to reach on specific locations at specific time to progress the game. It's just freeroam and actually it's pretty fun and easy

About mini games

Why adding mini games in this kind of games isn't it ? That's why I also thought first and mini games in certain other games are frustrating. But I enjoyed mini games in this one. Guessing the lock and maze is interesting and fun.

Overall I enjoyed this one. Looking forward to next updates, keep up the good work dev. Like I already said man this one surely deserves more attention.

+ Renders and models
+ Interesting story
+ Animations
+ Sound effects and music

played till chapter 3 and so far awesome on every aspect, great plot, great story, great decisive moments that could change the outcome of the story....congrats on the great work! keep it up, will for sure follow up and help out on patreon when able.

This time Chapter 3 review -
Excellent renders and time control watch set up which is kind of new to play and gorgeous female charecters and a likeable main charecter with nice background music which is nice while playing the game . Mini games involving watch are fun to play . And for an optional harem game it seems like we need multiple playthrough to see all the scenes , thankfully with the mod it was easy to play without involving multiple saves , I just hope in the future there won't be more choices deciding who to spend time with between harem girls . The only con would be free roam which was not enjoyable to play with no hints to what to do next and nice to see an option to skip annoying mini games .So overall promising game , looking forward to future updates .

This Time

Wow! I am speechless. What an amazing experience I just had (Ch.3) I am truly baffled at how underrated "This Time" seems to be. I have seen it come up a few times, but was skeptical because a good chunk of the reviews are negative, but I am glad I gave it a proper chance.

Pros:

-Insanely good renders and presentation.

-Good animations

-Enjoyable and mysterious story with a unique twist of time control.

-MC is cool and likeable

-Very attractive and likeable love interests

-Some nice music added for ambience and to fit the scene.

-Writing is pretty decent, I could actually understand everything without stopping and scratching my head.

-Even though the story starts with a faceless MC, a bit later on it starts showing his face. I am always a fan of when the MC is shown, it's more immersive to me than awkward POV shots, especially during kiss scenes etc.

-It has a character point tracker implemented which I feel should always be present. It's nice to know how you are doing with the girls, and since the walkthrough mod didn't work for me, it makes this even more useful and appreciated.

Cons:
- Minor con, the free roaming segments can be a little bit tedious. You can skip them, but at the sacrifice of backstory/lore. I am not sure why developers feel like they have to add gameplay to these visual novels. I am here to enjoy the story and characters, and of course the sex. I am not after any gameplay elements personally. Having said that, some of the mini games are actually pretty quirky and fun.

Seriously though, people are sleeping on this gem at the moment. I am so glad I didn't. The renders are incredible, among some of the best I have seen (even surpass a few of the big boy VN's in my opinion) the story is very interesting and engaging, the girls look amazing and have distinct personalities. What isn't to like!?

Amazing job apocalypsetoday. 5/5. This is another VN added to my "can't wait for future updates" list.

I've never written a review for a game on here before, but this is absolutely fantastic. The renders and animations are done very well. Not rushed at all and the animations are not in 3fps which is a very nice touch. This guy clearly knows what he is doing, The writing is good and I like games that keep me engaged. Not just oh time to bang this girl and this girl 40 times throughout the game and throw some story in. While at the time of chapter 2 there is sexy time it isn't forced and actually feels organic to the plot and makes you want more. And the main plot is unique and a very welcome change from the run-of-the-mill plots. I will be adding to my watch list to stay updated.

A very curious game.
A great idea for a dev to stop time.
And for the first time, mini-games do not annoy me, but they are breathtakingly made.
The girls are not amazing, but they are made "lifelike".
The text of the story is literate and interesting.
For the first time in a long time, you really do not scroll through the "pictures", but carefully follow the actions and choices of actions.
Good luck)

Render quality is quite good. Writing not so much. Most characters act quite strange in my opinion. Hardly anybody feels natural to me, which makes immersing into the story quite hard.
Dev also seemed to try to fit in as many tags as possible into his game description, no matter if they actually fit or not. Just something to keep in mind if you want to try out the game. You might wait forever for the content to appear, which the game promised to have.

In summary it might be a good game for some guys looking for a quick fap, who don't care much about anything else but nice renders.

I know it's really early to do a review, but I was pleasantly surprised and thought I would share my initial thoughts.

Right off the bat I thought we were in trouble with some crazy time travel story, but I was wrong about that. The idea of the watch/stopwatch is not original as it has been done before in movies and books, but it is new to the adult genre. Plus, the story starts off with a MC who is emotionally beaten down and wondering what he is doing with his life. Some of the characters a little bit predicable as well; hot bartender, quirky female BF, etc. So, there are definitely some common tropes being used.

Regardless, the story and writing are good enough to make these things seem fresh and different. The story is totally enjoyable, and the content is pretty good and realistic based on the setting and relationships.

There are some problems. The amount of things you can do with the watch are stretching things a bit. Some of the mini games are good, while others are just... not good at all. There is also a bit of breaking the 4th wall, which can be good if done right, but when it takes you out of the story, it doesn't work for me. Finally, I hate the hiding of the MC face, but it looks like that will be different moving forward.

So again, nothing here that really wows me, but I think it has some really good potential and I found myself anxious to know what happens next. Let's hope the dev stays committed and they get some support as I would love this see this one take off and do well.

2/28/2022
version played 2.5

----------------------Things I Liked---------------------------

1. The story thus far has been pretty interesting and im looking forward to more.

2. The art has been glorious,
good job on that keep it up

3. The variety of body types with the female models, ranging from small/petite bodies to the big tits and very round asses with decent thigh meat type of bodies. it was nice to see such a variety of women so soon into the early stages of this game.

4. The personalities of what appears to be the 4 LI (Love Interests) while they're some what commonish they still feel distinctive from each other.

5. The reasons for the LI's liking the MC (Main Character) are also distinctive from each other. Its not just all ZOMG de MC smiled at meh itz mayking mah poohzie wetter then the silty mud at the bottom of a lake

6. Being able to skip minigames. Yes i confess i never even played them in this game so i have no idea how difficult they are, but as i've played them in other games i generally tend to skip them when ever possible as they generally tend to be more hassle for the player then they are worth. so that is certainly a +1 in my book.

7. The Chelsea Remote scene is very nice and highly recommended

8. The MC actually looks like a ADULT, he's not some short chibi looking child with a 3ft dick.

9. The MC's personality seems to be pretty decent, He doesnt come off as a hero of justice nor does he come off as a cum dripping monkey that just discovered masterbation. not to spoil but he certainly has his demons and for good reason.

-------------------Things I didnt Like---------------------------

1. While the Sandbox elements wasnt over the top, i found it annoying to navigate especially in the GYM.
i also spent quite a bit of time trying to see if i could go to the left in the Alley at the T intersection. Maybe having the directional arrows always be visible would help a great deal in these elements of the game.

2. Also maybe a checklist or some way of knowing just wtf we are supposed to be doing in the Sandbox type areas of the game would most helpful. I openly admit im not the sharpest knife in the drawer so im sure that added to my frustration in those areas of the game.
( slight edit to points 1 and 2 the game developer has stated that they are looking into options in reguards to points 1 and 2)

3. I didnt know till much later in the game i could leave the Opinion/Lust thingy open all the time till i was just about done with the game. Maybe add another line of text at the splash screen that describes what those are, that would tells us we can do that if we want.

---------------------Things to just nitpick about------------------

I didnt get to fuck Mia =( , cause she looked tasty as fuck =)

----------------------------Side Notes----------------------------

The Dev appears to be a active member of the community (at least at the time of writing this review ) and appears to frequently give feed back about their game and lord knows we have a ton of games here that would benefit greatly from such interactions.

Well thats about all i can think of at the moment. if you decide to play this game i hope you find it as fun as i did.

Fantastic game with a really unique time stop system, while time stop is nothing new, it certainly hasn't been done in VNs from what I know.

There's little decision making so it's mostly story which is great since IMO there's a ton of time wasted in VNs wandering about. Where as this mostly gets to the story.

The only reason I knocked off a star was because the animations are piss poor at times. While the models are fantastic, the animations like in the case of doing time stop on the nude person to give them an orgasm was like looking at really bad stop motion.