VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Three Rules of Life [v0.5.0] [Red Dust]

This is truly an excellent game.
The characters' personalities are well portrayed, and the graphics are also good.
The mysterious elements in the story create tension, allowing for better immersion.
However, one minor drawback is the animation. If only the animation were as excellent, it might have attracted even more attention.

I'd like to push the rating for this VN a bit since I enjoyed it very much. I didn't feel like that from the start though. The first chapter felt a bit shallow and stereotypical. Only starting from the second chapter can you really appreciate that Three Rules of Life does some things exceptionally well.

First, relationships are very fluid and open. You aren't locked into specific paths until you really force it. You can deny romantic interactions and still have plenty of opportunity to grow close and go a different and sometimes healthier way to intimacy.

Second, the secrets and mysteries in this VN are really nicely wrapped in uncertainty. In many games like this it felt unnecessarily dragged out, but Three Rules manages to keep the suspense while leaving you in the dark for a very long time.
Even now (in chapter 3) there are still major secrets to unfold and there is also uncertainty regarding how genuine some of the relationships are. One reason for this captivating uncertainty is spot-on dialogue writing. It doesn't feel artificial for the most part. You really "feel" that people are holding back information and it's not clear whether the reason is benign or not.

Three, sexuality is a means to an end, fully supporting plot and relationship building beyond mere porn logic. It's carefully put in places where it has meaning. Even sexual interactions with seemingly casual characters like Rose felt important and give insight into their personality and desires.

There is rarely any pure evil or goodness in Three Rules. Every character has multiple dimensions, sometimes they act nice and sometimes you tell yourself "Well, that's really a dick move, no wonder the MC is angry". But lots of these situations develop over time, by getting to know the individual LIs and understanding what drives them and what they need.

There is no Chad in this novel. Every character is complex and unique, with strengths and weaknesses, and character flaws. And that is something I appreciate very much and that can only be encouraged. So, if you manage to get through the first and maybe the introduction of the second chapter that can at times feel like it is dragging on, you will slowly experience a rewarding gaming and story experience.

Confused grown-up souls everywhere with mc acting as a fill in for messed up rebound relationships. Didn't like that in particular. Felt unusual and were uneasy of me. But continued for those girls, have to say almost all of them grew on me. And especially Rose, damn she's one piece of art.
Multiple playthrough needed with overlapping scenes which i personally hate more than sandbox.
Did i say girls are gorgeous, fr. Animations are quite steamy as well, loved em.
Rose again have to say stole the show for me.

Underrated this but i need and expect that dedicated enthusiasm, eagerness and feeling of possessiveness from girls the same way mc has been behaving, and should not be taken for granted.
If your feelings aren't resiprocated because you as a grown ass adult couldn't come to terms and need a 19yr old dude to tell you how relationship works at every interactions you have then it gets irritating and dumb.

Three Rules of Life [v0.5.0]

Pros:
The Renders look pretty good and clean
Good Music

Neutral:
Character Models are hit and miss

Cons:
Sex Scenes are mostly boring
Choices don´t seem to matter for a lot of characters, doesn´t matter if you try to side with them, or try to avoid them.

Story/Characters
These are by far the biggest problems with this game. The Story is pretty bad and feels like a bad soap opera.
There is so much corny drama. Everyone is involved in drama and many try to use you and have ulterior motives.
Most love interests use you as a placeholder after their breakup to get their ex's attention.
The MC´s friend (Damon) is irritating as fuck and hides shit from you, and a huge part of the story is centered around him. You learn to hate most of these characters and get annoyed by the storytelling.

Conclusion:
There's nothing in this game that feels interesting or satisfying.
This game is heavily focused around it´s story and I really don´t like the Story or the Characters.
I don´t remember another game, where I hated every character and got annoyed by a game such like this one.

The images are hot, the woman are sexy, and the story is too good. OK so the reason I'm giving this three stars instead of five is the story is the wrong tone for a porn game, i feel too much for the characters to enjoy the show. i feel more guilty than usual about stringing along multiple women so i can't make the choices that get the best scene. and while the story is too good for a porn game it not the type of story id willing read just for the story so not my cup of tea.

This game is a good 3. It's a game with a lot of thought and effort put into it. It's more of a story game than a straight porn game, but it has enough of a balance to level it out. The problems are mostly with the story or to be more specific the characters. There are spoilers ahead so here it the warning.

So you play as an MC going through a breakup and his mother and father deciding to just take off out of his life. Most of the time the MC is around one of the LI's doing stuff for them or talking to them or his best friend Damon. There's a bit of a mystery going on around all the time and everyone seems to be more in the know than the MC is.

The best friend knows more about EVERYTHING going on and does not fill you in until you start happening upon clues of things yourself but it's not too hard to figure out what's happening in most situations yourself.

As for the LI's..... They mostly suck. This is the problem. You're pretty much playing fill in simulator with all of them in some form or another as you're filling in for an ex, or an unnattentive partner, or something. Most of these girls aren't into the MC for him but rather they have ulterior motives. The MC is not really excused from this as he is still pretty torn up about his ex as well. The only one of true Value is Mira. She is pretty much the only LI I give my nod of approval to as she's not using you AT ALL unless something changes in the future.

The story is loaded with drama from EVERYONE as EVERYONE seems to be going through something, hiding something, or a part of something else. The game takes a lot of inspiration from another very well known game, but unlike that game this dev doesn't balance out the drama with other things very well. It's a heavy dose of drama, then a break from your own drama to focus on someone else's drama, and then back to your own drama. I don't mind drama or story based games but there has to be some reprieve mixed in there and I'm not just talking about sex, because there's even drama in some of the sex scenes as well.

All in all the game is pretty decent, with a lot of care put into it. Animations are okay, better than average but nothing special when compared to the games that focus heavily on that. They're serviceable. The renders are good and not the average you'll see everywhere else so kudos for that.

The story and the characters fall flat if you're not already invested or trying to make yourself invested. If you pull yourself out and ask too many questions you'll be able to poke holes in logic all day in some of these characters and the plot. So it's not particularly strong. The effort is there though so have to give credit for that.

This one is worth a play imo, but idk if it'll truly be one of the special ones when all is said and done, and that's okay. Out of 10 I give it a solid 6/10.

(Version Reviewed: v0.5.0)

'Three Rules of Life' is a game that I could've enjoyed if it had a competent writer for the story.

What I enjoyed:
+ Music. Definitely enhances the story as we read the VN.

Meh:
= Art. It's a pretty unique art style. Feels like a crossover between 3D and 2D art. The mouths of the characters looks odd though. Ada and Rose look very beautiful in this art style while Mira looks very odd.
= Animations. Looks kinda robotic, but it's nothing worth complaining about. I've seen worse.
= Premise. The story is set in the modern world where our MC's mother has abandoned him out of the blue and his father is a workaholic who sunk himself further in work to avoid the embarrassment that his wife abandoned him. Our MC gets depressed which is understandable and ignores his girlfriend at the time as well as his studies which led to his failure in the final year of high school. His best friend chose to fail with him to keep him company. MC's friend tries to push him into making friends as he hides certain secrets from our MC. MC starts to make new friends among the super hot women that he meets. Pretty standard set up.

What I did not enjoy:
- Storytelling and Romantic Interests. Our MC is depressed. He's not ready to move forward for a relationship, but he's forced to do so. Whichever girl he ends up with, he still keeps being depressed about not being with his ex. Most of the girls that he dates are hung over their exes (Ada, Danielle) or pining for her bf's attention (Rose). Our MC knows that these women aren't ready to date him, yet he pursues them while being sad about his ex. Overall, you never get a satisfaction of being in a good relaitonship whichever path that MC takes.
-(x100) The Friend. Almost half the story is covering for MC's best friend. Whether it is to help out the friend's friend or helping out the friend's ex. Yet the friend keeps ignoring our MC and keeps information that ends up hurting our MC. The friend is irritating and a good portion of the story is centered around him.

Overall - I'd rate it a 5/10. It's dead average and the only reason that I did not rate it at 4/10 is the unique art style, even though it doesn't look great all the time.

Version: [v0.5.0]
Three Rules of Life could have been a really good VN with its great renders, great sex scenes and decent dialogues, but instead becomes tiring and plays out like a Turkish telenovela.

In 'Three Rules of Life' you play as a young adult that deals with the struggles caused by his mother leaving the family and the crumbling relationship with his ex.

Now, let's discuss the good things.
The renders are high quality and pretty, the models are beautiful, and the music is a nice touch. the sex scenes are well done, pretty hot stuff, decent setting with great animations. they are very vanilla and most of them are pretty short, but they are very enjoyable overall.
When it comes to writing its sort of a mixed bag, the dialogues feels mostly natural and flows well, the different characters are interesting enough, but the story is... well, both extremely uninteresting and presented in a way that should be somewhat mysterious but doesn't feel like that at all.
People keep mentioning prop 88 the mayor (the father of MC's best friend) supports without really explaining what it is, but it is heavily heavily implied its some anti-LGBTQ thing, It's also heavily implied MC's best friend is gay, which could be a very interesting topic to present but it somehow manages to be laid out pretty thick while refusing to actually mention it, which feels pointless and even mildly annoying as the 10th random stranger goes on and on about prop 88 without actually revealing anything about it.
As said MC's mother has left the family, which once again this VN tries to turn into some big mystery that keeps being mentioned without it actually providing any benefit to the story or progressing anything. I didn't care about her and it was pointless and annoying as there's so much pointless blueballing beating around the bush text about her.

Now, for the big (really) bad thing about 'Three Rules of Life'.
I don't know why it is the way it is, but almost every single interaction between characters is extremely tiringly and pointlessly over the top dramatic, I'm talking tears, heartbreak, fainting, fights, long gazes across the room. I overdosed on it and kept closing the game after lasting about 3-4 minutes in every session as I tried to keep going over multiple days before I dropped it. It's too much! some drama is nice, all drama all the time is simply fatiguing.

The potential is 100% there, the visuals and audio are great, the characters are interesting and could be really likeable, but the overall story is a very very weak point and the constant forced drama that takes place in 95% of the time spend after the first 30 minutes of the VN just taints the experience.
Unfortunately I really can't recommend it as of right now, but I really do appreciate the obvious effort and love put into the project. there's plenty to like, and with some rethinking and rewriting of the story, reducing some of the forced drama and maybe adding some non-dramatic content in between to let players breath this could be a very solid VN.

A standout contribution to this genre. A bit disjoint at times and has the usual amount of typos and apparent non sequiturs probably related to too many LIs and the logic to manage them but overall the story is engaging with emotional impact and is somewhat atypical. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to future updates.

Good game minus a couple of annoyances

REVIEW of v0.5.0:

I would have probably given this a 3.5 rating if i could, as its too good for a 3 but doesnt quite make a 4 for me, however i rounded up as it is def deserves better than a 3 star rating.

Lets start with the good... Models are varied, Rose, Ada and Danielle are the pick of the bunch for me.

Lots of lewd content, and a decent enough story/premise. Not overly wordy (mostly) and i did find myself reading the story, and not hammering the skip or enter buttons to fly through the dialog.

Animations are decent enough, def seen a lot worse on this site.

Unfortuantely there are a few annoyances/inconsistencies which prevent this from being a top tier game.

1. Lack of save naming - Without installing a mod you cant name your saves. This is required for a game like this as its not a harem game. It will force you to make choices and not see all lewd scenes with every character so will require multiple playthroughs to go through the different LIs, but as the branch points are littered throughout the game you need to make multiple saves at different times... hence the need for a named save to remind you which one is which.

2. Story inconsistencies. despite not being a harem game, you are forced to see some content even if you dont want to. and the points system doesnt seem to make any difference, if the dev wants you to see a certain scene with one of the characters, no matter what "choice" you make negative or positive you will see the scene regardless.

Overall tho, i did enjoy playing this game which is why i rated it as a 4. Just a couple of small things preventing it from being truly top tier in my opinion.

This game is absolutely beautiful to look at. Amazingly hot women with varied bodies, wonderful. Unfortunately the story is awful, like an over melodramatic day-time soap. Everyones always sooooo sad and spends their time crying on each others shoulders. When the women are at their lowest ebb the MC comes along and says "there, there pretty let me fuck you and all will be better" lol Either that or his whining about his mummy leaving and trolling for pity fucks. This game needs some humour and a better animator because that's another problem stunning sexy women in scenes with robotic animations. Loops with a visible beginning and end. Poor angles and a lack of understanding of what makes a good loop. It is not 2 or more movements in the same loop, that does'nt work. I love the models, especially Penny, Rose and Danielle, unfortunately I found all the sex animations a great big turn off.

I give ratings to games only when I like something very much or something makes me angry, here we have an example of the second.

The review contains spoilers!!!


Let's start with the girls.

Mira, her model gives the impression of being "pasted" in several places it looked like the author used a model from a completely different program.

Naomi, the plastic with which you are forced to watch sex scenes, most of them as memories with choices, but even when you go on the negative you still end up the same.

Ada, was supposed to be a bad girl, if you are interested in her know that it will be awkward because she loves another ah and she rides a motorcycle and her brother is a nerd from your school, original... xD

Danielle, if you like being pushed around then this is the girl for you, probably the only pretty model in the whole game.

Teacher, I skipped so I didn't even remember the name, she just trying to seduce mc, even if you turn her down you get another scene and another and another, very annoying

Rose, engaged to ada's ex(the one ada still loves and he loves her) unfaithful bitch she just want to fuck.

Then there is our friend's therapist who suddenly shows up at our house and starts asking questions about mc life after which she tries it you know what, even though you kick her out of the house you then meet her many more times and she keeps trying. Annoying yes.

And then there's our great friend Damon, at first he seems like a cool guy, but the further you get into the game the more you just want to piss on him and have nothing to do with him because he lies to you, exposes you to humiliation but the game doesn't allow it and so you run around like a retard and try to help him.


Complaining
A rather weak story
Already after the couple interactions with Dion you guess that the friend is hiding the fact that he is gay, he confides in a girl he met two weeks ago, but not his best friend(MC)

A point system that doesn't matter at all, I followed the scoring and in literally not a single place did I notice a change in the narrative / scenes of the type if you have more than two points then or minus etc
Instead there are a bunch of variables that matter, so if in the second episode you decided to romance some girl then even if you change your mind during the game(and believe me you will change your mind as you see how the girls behave) you have nothing to say because you already love her anyway xD

I'll give you an example, I chose to have an affair with Mira, it turned out that in the club she pounced on me and ran after my friend after a while it turned out that you don't have access because your friend forbade you and the bartender doesn't let you into the place where he talks to her after a while a exgirlfriend with a friend shows up and they humiliate you in the middle of the club. Its turns out that your friend setup thi. You can get angry at him later about it, but you still end up thanking him for, on top of that you get set up by this girl too who pounced on you, you can get angry and play for minus points later, but hey, you chose romance in the second episode so you love her anyway xD

In fact, stupidities like the girl you pay for art school because she doesn't have money in return invites you to a movie at the theater and says she'll pay, there are many more.

Even if you are not intrigued by girls you still go on dates with them and keep seeing them, not counting one time you don't have a choice whether you want to go somewhere with a girl or not.

One girl even asks you twice to pretend to be her boyfriend in front of her parents and her ex, nothing strange about that? She's in her 30s and asks a guy from school to do it.


Good enough because I could go on for so long despite the fact that from a certain point on I just clicked lmb and sometimes stopped to read something.
And NTR doesn't occur even though not counting one girl I've been going hard minus with all of them, well unless ntr is one guy going on a forced date that you don't see anyway.

What can I say about this game? Tons of cliches, lots of routes that dont make that much sense, very predictable, not the funniest, cleverest, sexiest...

...but 5 fucking stars for how it just feels like a real story. Honestly, one of the most immersive games on this website, I think I can only name one other game that's ever drawn me in with a fairly generic 'slice of life' story. Fresh, pleasant, just a nice playthrough.

It's one of those games that's about as much worth as a NOVEL as it is a VISUAL one.

The plot is like some bad 70's movie. The solo routes force the mc/player to basically abandon everyone except the girl of choice, the homophobia is extreme for some of the characters, don't want to spoil anything but one character who is seemingly interested in helping MC is basically lying to him from the beginning but he seems to care about her while being betrayed by her and almost everyone that is important to him. That being said the art is good quality about all the game has going for it.

[v.0.4.0]

Definitely an above average VN! A pleasant surprise and an all around good read! While not perfect by any stretch, Three Rules of Life does a lot right that other VNs just can't seem to grasp. The basic soundtrack does enough to elevate each scene and the characters are diverse enough to keep things interesting. While the story doesn't particularly shine all that bright, it's definitely more than enough to keep my attention and keeps things lively! The scenes themselves range from average to beautiful depending on the importance of the scene. (Also bonus points for the LI's actually meeting and knowing each other.)
There's not a lot to praise, but very little to dislike either. The only times I didn't enjoy reading were when a character I didn't particularly care for was taking the momentary spotlight, but on the flip side of that, I cherished every scene with the characters I did enjoy. It's not mind blowing, but this VN is a nice little package that can serve as a cute distraction from the world.

Version played: v.0.4.0

I am very impressed by the amount of work and detail put in. The renders are very nice and the female characters are all individually very attractive. There is also ambient music which makes the overall experience better.

Perhaps the 1 thing that is giving me positive agony (lol what) is that its really hard to decide should I make my MC out to be a playboy, like segs all the girls since they all kinda just come on to him. Or try to stay faithful to 1 of the new girl and just friendzone his old love? I believe this is 1 of the few VN game where I literally restarted a few times now because I did not want to be a two-timing MC. Oh Lord help me.

Overall I highly recommend this and sure the story is by no means perfect but it has many other stuffs going for it and the standard is definitely higher than a lot of the other games on this site.

Excellent Models.
Excellent Animations.
Most choices actually are choices where you can't solve everything and you have to choose.
Story despite some small issues, is one of the deepest on this site.
This game is made with a lot of attention to detail, there where many situations where story had deep moments between npcs, usually all games ignore anything else in these moments yet, the characters greet mc not being oblivious. That requires treating each character as a real person which most games forget to do.
Also, great music.

Three Rules of Life [v0.4.0] [Red Dust]

I recently had the opportunity to play "Three Rules of Life," and I must say that my experience left me with mixed feelings. While the game had its moments of enjoyment, it also had some notable shortcomings that I couldn't ignore.

Let's start with what worked well. The romantic encounters with characters like Penny, Ruby, and Daniele were undeniably the high points of the game. These scenes were beautifully crafted with engaging dialogue and a depth of emotion that made it easy to become genuinely invested in the relationships. These moments provided the emotional core of the game and were its strongest aspect.

However, my enthusiasm waned when it came to the characters themselves, particularly the protagonist. I found it challenging to connect with or even care about the protagonist. They came across as passive and strangely detached from the events happening around them. It left me yearning for a more fleshed-out character with agency and depth.

Damon, the loyal best friend, had potential with his charisma, but the friendship between him and the protagonist felt disappointingly shallow. I wanted more substantial interactions and conversations that would deepen their relationship, but it felt like they barely scratched the surface.

Mira, on the other hand, seemed like a character forcibly inserted into the storyline. Her constant reliance on the protagonist for financial support was frustrating, and it made it difficult to form a genuine connection with her. Additionally, the inconsistent descriptions of characters, especially in terms of their attractiveness, were distracting and disrupted the immersion.

The political subplot, which initially intrigued me, turned out to be confusing and seemingly irrelevant. Characters kept pushing me to take action, but their explanations for why I should care lacked substance. This left me feeling disconnected from what should have been a pivotal part of the story.

While the visuals did improve as the story progressed, it felt like a case of too little, too late. The game's music, while decent at times, lacked consistency in its impact and failed to create a cohesive atmosphere.

In conclusion, "Three Rules of Life" had the potential to deliver an engaging and emotionally charged gaming experience, but it fell short in execution. The protagonist lacked depth and agency, supporting character relationships needed more meaningful development, the political subplot was confusing, and character descriptions were inconsistent. However, the well-crafted romantic scenes offered glimmers of hope. If the game undergoes significant revisions to address these issues, it might have a chance to redeem itself. As it stands, it's a mixed bag of emotions that leaves much to be desired.

Okay, so negative things first: Face quality is very varying. While Rose and Ada are well done, especially Mira triggers uncanny valley hard.
Sex scenes are decent, nothing special.
Where this game shines imo, is the story, the personality of the characters and the writing. Dialogue is very natural and realistic.
I really enjoyed this game and hope for more updates soon.

A boy who thinks about his ex every day - an ex who looks uglier than the new girls.

However, because this is an erotic game, the plot forces him to meet many women in a short period of time.

It's funny that when such a "pure" man meets a woman for the first time, the option that appears is often "peep or not?"

Could it be that the player playing the MC will also be loyal to the "ex"? And not interested in the new girls?
But when you start relationships with new girls...MC starts thinking about his ex again.

The most ridiculous thing about this game is that the MC has the developer's preset thinking.
Players play MC but can't choose to "get rid of her" and "move on" early, you will always think of your ex.

MC wants to get back with his ex every day, but this game forces him to be around women, and even a few women take the initiative to seduce him, such as the female teacher who seduces him all the time.

Now the whole plot is:
- I like you, but I always remember my ex.
- Because you love your ex, you must be a good man, so I like you too.
- I fuck all the women, but I think about my ex all the time.

A very idiotic script.

It is recommended to remove the plot of recalling the ex, I will give it 5 stars, currently only 3 stars.