Ren'Py - Abandoned - Time for You [v0.26.0] [Zero2HeroGames]

Review for v0.26.0
(as of review game is abandoned)

How Long To Beat: quit playing after 2 hours

Played with incest patch.

This game is the definition of the phrase "death by a thousand papercuts". While most of the elements are passable, the quality hovers just under "decent".

I played this game for the character models. Of the six "main" love interests, I like four of them: Mandy (narrative device woman), the mom, and both of the sisters. I was especially intrigued by Selena, the older sister. She has thick eyebrows, large naturally sagging breasts (I like the natural sag), and reminds me of Jennifer Connelly.



Unfortunately the animations for the sex scenes are perfunctory at best. I lost interest before I unlocked all of them, and their quality (insofar as I played) didn't give me much hope.

There is Music and Sound Design, but the mixing for the sexual noises and voices are bad. The sex noises sound like a strange rhythmic soundloop that's been poorly spliced together. There is some sporadic voice acting, but they sound like they were recorded with a laptop's built in microphone in a cavernous room.

The writing in this game is bad. It is painfully redundant. The narration is overwritten. The sense of humor is groan-inducing. The author has a misconception that annoying characters are amusing to deal with for pages upon pages of dialogue. There is a robot character named ELVO. I hate him. There is a side character named Eric. I hate him. The pacing for the game is terrible because of all the needless exposition. It's bad.

The game tries to incorporate two game systems somewhat unique to adult games.

The first is a stripped down, light Phoenix Wright interrogation system. The player uses items from their inventory to contradict information given by other characters. This is an interesting idea for a game, kudos to the developer for experimenting with it, but it doesn't feel compelling enough to call it Good. So it's successful in that it works, but it isn't fun.

The second is point-and-click adventure interactions throughout the world. There are puzzles which are solved with environmental clues and with items from your inventory that you find through exploring. The interface for this system works well. The issue is, most of the puzzles are too easy, which makes them feel like extra steps for content rather than an actual puzzle. A puzzle in a game doesn't need to be complicated to be good, but it should give the gamer a feeling of satisfaction through a minor "epiphany moment" or an "Aha! moment". If you fail to give the player that feeling, then you are only creating frustration. This game fails to make anyone feel clever.

There is plenty in the game that is passable. The interface is easy to understand; it has unusual systems that elevate this from a kinetic visual novel; several of the models are attractive (while others are not); the character models blink and have multiple poses during dialogue; the music is decent. Unfortuantely the overall experience of this game became annoying.

Better left abandoned.

Don't Play It

Overview:
At first glance, the "Detective Mystery Adventure" might not seem like the game for everyone, especially for those who primarily seek explicit content over story-driven gameplay. However, once you immerse yourself in the world, it quickly becomes clear that it’s not just the eye-catching visuals that make this game stand out — it's the balance of storytelling, intriguing mysteries, and the evolving character relationships. The game offers a solid detective narrative with diverse characters and plenty of twists to keep players engaged.

Gameplay:
The point-and-click mechanics work wonderfully for the story being told. The UI is sleek and intuitive, making navigation through the game simple. It’s a perfect match for the slow-burn mystery elements that play a central role. However, it's not a game where you can skip straight to the sex scenes. The gameplay requires you to engage with the story and uncover clues, which will be rewarded with additional character interactions, including some spicy moments. For fans of narrative-driven games, this will be a rewarding experience, but those looking for something more casual might find themselves frustrated.

Characters:
The game offers a very diverse cast, with a variety of body types and personalities. Whether you prefer the petite or the curvy, the developers made sure there's something for everyone. One character, Ellie, stands out as one of the best features, though her relationship with the protagonist is still a bit mysterious and keeps you intrigued. There's depth here, with complex emotions and motivations that unfold as you progress. The protagonist isn't just going through the motions but is actively building relationships and dealing with the consequences of his actions.

Story:
The story is a classic detective mystery with a twist — it requires you to pay attention to details and piece together clues. Some players may find the pace slow or confusing, especially if they're looking for non-stop action, but if you enjoy games where you're rewarded for your effort, this one delivers. The theme of time plays a significant role, and the game creates a sense of urgency without forcing you into a linear path. You get to decide how you engage with the women in the story, which allows for a more personalized experience. It’s a good balance of romance, suspense, and mystery.

Renders:
The art is where this game truly shines. Every character is beautifully rendered, and the attention to detail is impressive. The environments and scenes are meticulously designed, which adds a layer of immersion to the overall experience. The quality of the renders is excellent, and it’s clear that a lot of thought and care went into creating visually appealing moments that match the tone of the game.

Critiques:
One potential issue for some players is the frequent interruptions in the flow of the game, particularly the narrator's pop-ups that often feel like they disrupt the immersion. The text-heavy sections, especially in the early game, might feel repetitive, but for those who stick with it, the payoff is a rewarding experience. There are also moments where the pacing slows down, and it might feel like you're being bogged down with too much exposition. This can turn off players who are looking for something more fast-paced or action-heavy.

Conclusion:
Overall, this game is a solid choice for players who appreciate a well-crafted story, engaging characters, and a mix of mystery and romance. The slow-paced detective work may not appeal to everyone, but those who enjoy unraveling mysteries and building relationships at their own pace will find this game rewarding. The quality of the renders and the depth of the characters elevate it beyond a simple adult game, making it a must-play for fans of narrative-driven experiences. It's a game that improves as you go deeper into its world, and if you give it a chance, you'll be hooked.

This game is dull and boring. I couldn't force myself to reach the end of the release. The storyline is basically non-existent. It's basically boring content with shoehorned sex-scenes. It feels like a total waste of time. I wish there was an actual story behind.

I can't seem to find enjoyment playing this game. At the first glance everything looked ok. Models look decent, initial gameplay idea was ok, but the more I played the less I wanted to continue. Because trying to find things to click when there is not much logic behind what is interactive and what is not, gets boring pretty fast. At some point it becomes pointless to play without a walkthrough and that's not a good sign.

Also I think trying to bring some initial negative emotions for Akane to bring more drama backfired. The question whether I should give her a second chance left me dumbfounded, why would I even consider doing that? After how she was portrayed as an evil scheming manipulator without a single positive thing? Why would I even care about her?

As for the sexual content, most of it is based on incest, which is a heavily overused theme every other game tries to include, so for people that are not into it, or maybe for those who had enough, there is not much left.

Also the fact that many of the scenes are just dreams doesn't help at all. Gaming is all about having control over actions and dreams are incompatible with that. I understand it is a way to put some scenes that otherwise wouldn't fit the story, but dreams is where I usually ctrl skip.

Overall I couldn't force myself to finish the current content, which is a very worrying sign for any game. Something is really missing here.

Absolutely gorgeous models. Especially Selena, most beautifully designed character I have seen in a long time. Engaging story, good graphics. Overall an excellent game for me. Would love to explore its potential and see what becomes of this. Thanks a lot creator.

I'm really sad to give this game just two stars...
Great renders, and all-around settings of the game, but just graphics are not making good game. It is hard to explain, but I got annoyed playing this game.
Not sure, is it narrator popping-up, non-stop, and killing flow of the game, or bunch of repeating text. You just start getting into game, and POP, long explanation, and again, and again. Strange feeling, really strange feeling. I stopped playing after cleaning father's office.
Again, great graphics, good idea, but play was for me, no fun at all. I hope dev will turn down with "narrator's" breaks, I would like to give it one more try

review based on 0.26 version
i saw "sandbox" tag and i took the bait... there zero sandbox, this jenre 20-25 years ago was named "quest".
PRO:
- good cg/animations
- story is not_bad/almost_good and unusual
- lots adult content
CONS:
- "sandbox" tag... sanbox- its not walking around and pixelhunting.
- somehow 80%+ inerrogation was bugged for me. i mean- i click on right item and then "my mistake" instead normal reaction... interesting- selected_item.iname has right value... if u got that- read code and then use console like selected_item.iname = "Bloody Cup Note" and then jump sc10_interro_pre_phase2
- unavoidable puzzles- no "puzzle" tag and no way to easy solving that w/o reading code. dev, plz make a button "skip that ***", cuz many players not like puzzles
- fights... time based- for what reason that here? dev, if u think thats help against save/load abuse- u r wrong, cuz i used that to break trogh that ***
- to many ***talk with damn elvo... plz cut 70-80% that ***, cuz its useless and annoying
- playability... w/o w/t player ll miss some art/scenes and/or ruin gameplay part. also player may stuck... its not normal, also "official" w/t outdated- near 30-40% content have no w/t

WAY too much filler with irrelevant explanations that don't pertain to the story. I'd say that at least 70% of the game is you talking to a robot or a magical narrator NPC that just does nothing to further the character development. At one point I turned on "skip unseen", set the text speed to max, and held CTRL for about 10 minutes just to skip past all the narration stuff. It's probably 500 screens of talking to a robot.

When you finally get to the story of the family, it's truncated down to "I'm your mom, we can't do that.... ok, I'll give you a blowjob now." It's probably about 20 minutes of actual gameplay. Chapter 1 is interesting and has a decent buildup. Chapter 2 is like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron remastered it with special effects, unnecessary sci-fi, convoluted irrelevant bonus scenes, and just completely lost the plot.

I'm really sorry Zero2Hero because this is a really good game but it's so complicated. I mean time jumping between scenes are too often and too complicated. It's so obvious you tried to give everything piece by piece so the plot will be more tense but it did not work. It's like game trying to be complicated by not telling stuff on purpose.

Early in the game there is so much inner thoughts than actual dialogue. And the way Mandy appears on the screen to say stuff or the way of breaking the 4th wall takes away a lot from my connection to the story.

Again with the plot, game leaves the player with so much question marks. You kinda expect few of them to be answered but in that time, lots of more questions appear.

This is a beautiful game. Art, animations, renders all great. Women are different. Characters are interesting.
Plot is not well-handled but well-detailed.
Interrogation scenes are smart and funny. I really liked it.

I seriously can't name any other game that I loved and hated so much.

So far it's. [v0.24.0].
When you look at the date of updates and the Dev's plan of making this 12 ch. thing, it feels like this game will not be completed in 4-5 years.
If the game is completed, (I fucking hope so!) I will come back and give it an another shot.
But thus far it's an unfortunate no.

I honestly can't even finish this game. It's just soul-suckingly boring.

The developer clearly fancies his work as much more interesting than it really is, complete with tons of wasted panels on poorly timed and even poorer executed jokes. He breaks the 4th wall for no apparent reason, introduces a sassy invisible (imaginary?) robot companion just to add pointless and terrible snark, and even adds in some horrible voiceover that the game would be better without. There's endless exposition dumped on you with little to no reason to actually care. And a cascade of annoying "dialogue" that you have to sit through with no recourse.

The entire premise of the novel is overcomplicated and wildly over the top to begin with. Time-traveling, rule-bending bullshit permeates throughout the story, which reduces any player investment right off the bat. Without a consistent set of rules in the universe, no one is going to care about the consequences of the story, because often there aren't any. The developer can't set the stage for a game where the consequences actually matter. There's no framework for immersion because the 4th wall is being broken every other scene, and random weird half-baked sci-fi tropes invalidate whatever decisions you actually get to make.

The game tries so hard to be some kind of weird Sherlock Holmes video game/LA Noire hybrid where you "catch out" people in a lie using some overcomplicated item/evidence interrogation system. But it's (mercifully, maybe?) used sparingly throughout the game, and most of the scenes play out like an ordinary visual novel full of railroaded choices. Except now you have the added nonsense of a point and click adventure where you have to click on every cabinet to maybe find what you need; and you have to do some kind of nonsense minigame where you navigate the clunkiest inventory UI known to man.

And forget about actual choice in this game. You're railroaded into the plot, and it hums along no matter what choices you actually make. It's worse because most of the plot instances would be totally avoidable if you were actually allowed to make decisions in this game. The game intentionally forces you to play as a massive moron so its goofy ideas can be actualized. Except, in order to see the next increasingly absurd plot point played out, you have to go around and click fifteen boxes first.

You have no choice but to follow and fuck a knife-wielding weirdo corporate crazy (who would've imagined that could go badly?) and it somehow results in you getting framed for murder (under the flimsiest of premises)? That the game doesn't even give you the option to not follow creepy psycho lady into a dark office is bad enough. But then the outsized and over the top result is exactly the kind of rubbish that permeates throughout the entire game. There's no choice because you're forced into doing it. There's no sense of consequence because the consequences are absolutely ridiculous. And the resolution is unsatisfying because the entire thing is fucking stupid. This sadly persists throughout the entire game.

Oh, and almost every scene is dark for no apparent reason.

The core premise the game tries to promote ("everybody lies") is just bizarre. Not because it isn't true, but because people in this game aren't written as lying for any particular reason. Character motivations are dictated almost entirely by the plot. And the game is one of the worst cases of infuriating obscurity for the sake of trying to draw out even simple mysteries. People forget to communicate key and very natural/logical bits of information. The MC neglects to ask about critical information. People get interrupted right as they are about to reveal something important, and for whatever fucked up asspull of a reason it just never comes up again. It's all the worst aspects of, "wait, I can explain!" instead of actually explaining, all rolled up into one annoying "game."

There's no satisfying feedback loop even when you finally solve anything, because it's either telegraphed obvious nonsense, something that makes zero sense whatsoever, or some breadcrumb towards the next bullshit plot advancement of the story. The writing in this game is so abysmal and utterly devoid of any integrity or consistency that it essentially eliminates any enjoyment you might get from the usual gaming experience.

I would comment more on the art, renders, or lewd scenes, but it basically doesn't matter at this point. If your mind isn't frustrated into submission and your eyes haven't rolled into the back of your head by the time you get them, you might enjoy the three panels you get at the end of another painful point and click obligation.

But if you have any respect for your time or sanity, don't play this game. It's terrible.

Time for You has a problem with wasting your time.
First of all the overall story is interesting and actually has a pretty solid chapter one when it comes to pulling you in to its mystery, after that however the writing and gameplay begins to become bloated. Dialogue becomes tedious to read as characters begin to just endlessly dump information on you, unfortunatly the story has not grown out the characters enough by this time for you to really want to stick around and read it all rather than just skipping.

The sandbox gameplay unfortunately becomes convoluted as the story goes on, needing to check one of 10 possible things in a scene every time you enter a room and even with a guide you would wonder how someone would do this on their own without just spamming. The interrogation aspect of the game is the better aspect compared to the open world, listening to their story and providing evidence when things dont line up is simple and fun.

Where this game does deserve praise is in the girls, all of them are well modeled and great to look at, side characters as well as the main love interests. This game does go heavy on the incest (even to the point where a non familial charater wants to do brother sister roleplay) so if you overly enjoy that you could look past the above The still renders are quality but the annimations do suffer some serious awkwardness during some points.

Overall, Time for You has a solid story premise with beautiful character models but fails to make the gameplay and writing match it.

a lot of glitches like cant hide ui/text, weird story, cant skip mini games, quality is just fine, animation is average but I hope for more scenes with akane she is like himiko toga from boku no hero academia I hope this game will be better in future and u will add also more chars

Initially I didn't think that this game was for me, but that goes to show you why you should always go on your opinion and yours alone.

Gameplay:

I felt that the game thus far has been well done and efficient. Haven't encountered any bugs or none of that. The UI is gorgeous and easy to navigate. It's a point and click style, which goes well with the type of story that the Dev is telling in Detective/mystery. If you're just hoping to skip straight to sex scenes without reading anything, then you're probably not going to enjoy this.

Characters:

You can't say the guy didn't offer up a diverse cast of beauties to choose from. Because it's there, as is the a variety in body types, which I respect. There's love for petites and curvy women. I've yet to discover the real reason why Ellie, one of the best features in this game(imo) hates us but it's coming, hopefully.

Story:

It's perhaps confusing to some but then again SOME don't really like to read. As I mentioned the Detective aspect, which consist of finding clues and other things may turn others off but giving that I enjoy those type of games on side I love it. I like that I'm rewarded with extra renders and sex scenes for doing my due diligence, I look forward to it now. Aside from that the aspect of time is the theme, obviously. And I have theories but I'll keep them to myself, the romance is in full effect. You're not forced into relationships and can purse or not purse any woman of your choosing.

Renders:

Stellar work, just great detail all around. The Dev has great taste.

To sum it up, it's a game deserving of more praise and supporters. I've grown to enjoy it and if you ignore the comments, especially early on in this thread and play this game for yourself, then so will you.

I've seen enough.

This is the game that keeps on giving, from the good, great build up and plenty of beautiful women. This is a classic to me, all around I'm impressed by what I've experienced so far, I went from hating Elvo to enjoying him. This game deserves more recognition and supporters than it has. Probably a top 5 game in my life, I think I might take up a collection plate this Sunday at church, I'll tell them it's for a good cause.

If your looking for a remotely immersive game go somewhere else.
battled through the first chapter of the game hoping the story would come together and start to make sense, then the future girl and the cringe robot thing appeared and I gave up.
In saying that I can see the creator has talent in writing dialog and interactions between characters and renders are ok.

WTF DID I DOWNLOAD? This game is sucks. The story is sucks, characters are sucks. Above all gameplay is sucks. 95% of the game is roaming around the map, asking and answering pointless stupid questions, and solving puzzles. what a waste of time. Dev didn't even think about character development.

I love selena . I rarely post something about the game here but man the robot is hilarious. Keep it up man I actually enjoy this! Ellie was is top notch but so is Selena's lol I hope there's ass eating.I can't wait for the new update, this is taking so long

Don't waste ur time ! toxic sandbox + to much bullsh8.

Gameplay : ✭✰✰✰✰
Story : ✭✰✰✰✰
Spelling : ✭✭✭✰✰
renders : ✭✰✰✰✰
Animations: ✭✰✰✰✰
Potential : ✭✰✰✰✰
Overall : ✭✰✰✰✰
History -✭✰✰✰✰
Graphic - Render of the girls are good
Creativity - There are people who like to shoot themselves in the foot.

Aside from the very annoying interruptions and very tough scavenger hunts early on I really warmed up to this game. Yeah never wanna break immersion doing games, some Devs do it when they’re trying to be quirky or funny, but sometimes it can be much.

I do like mysteries and detective type themes so I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I warmed up to it. After I got the hang up everything I was good to go and began enjoying that part of the game. Games involving the time theme never really interest me before, so I figured I try something new and so far I’m still here and enjoying it. Some of the annoying things that rub me the wrong way have been corrected so that’s what I care about. The Cast of women are hot with a couple of steamy scenes that well worth checking out. The game isn’t perfect, however it’s still better than a lot of the games out there.

Great game concept, I like this type of game, but so far the ones that I played have more annoyances than perks, and fail miserably at execution.
I just see that this one is also the case sadly. First of all, Im wondering what is the intention, what is this aiming for?. Others offer at least decent lewd content and sex scenes.

As you play the >>tutorial<< Lead by the Tutorial girl, you have these constant notifications of items you get, and in my opinion, once the MC talks about the item, you understand that you got it, but you get the notification and you need to clic it to discard it. These redundant notifications will be inmersion breaking in the future.

Tutorial ends and story begins:

After meeting the girl from the tutorial once again and having some exposition thrown at her (well at you) you know that The background story is the "My Dad kicked me out, for some reason, and I lost all contact with my mother and sisters and now he stopped being an obstacle and I returned home." type.

You get home and the MC hugs his "mother" adn talks about her jugs pressing agaisnt him with her breaths, cause he forgot about the works of the diaphragm...(why writers keep doing that?)
And after this you get a boobs close up for like 20 lines of dialogue and later some ass closeup for another 20 lines of dialogue where you can notice the checkered pattern, which means that someone maybe tried to make some sort of transparent Yoga pants and didnt succeed, but the render was kept anyway. (LAZY)

After this totally amateur render on display, the mc promotes the dev webpage (You chose the best moment to promote your work. Well done!! LOL). And then you get another chunk of >>tutorial<<.
A little plot and a puzzle later you get another >>tutorial<< and when you finish you get a HANDBRA DREAM RENDER, and more notifications.

I have to talk about that important part of the game (as Stated by the mistery tutorial girl). Lets talk about the IMPORTANT phone...
There are 8 Icons in the Mainscreen and of those 8, 4 are for game purposes, and the other 4 are for promoting purposes like Patreon, Subscribstar, Instagram and Zero2herogames.
The patreon Icon is in the upper part mixed with the gameplay related icons, and the Messages icon is at the bottom part mixed with the Promoting related icons. This is a dickmove and doesnt end there.


Well lets proceed with the BAD:
The story seems to be separate bits, it lacks a sense of continuity, a thread that connects things, its basically poor effort in writing.
-I believe i have seen every girl of this game already in another game, another better game.
-First 30 minutes of the game being constantly interrupted by notifications and tutorials. One girl in charge of that, which makes her irritating but you are awarded with lewd stuff from her. Personally i didnt even look at those rewards cause she is the opposite of likeable.
-Setting is older than Jesus. Father kicked you and now you return home with your "mother and sisters"
-There are 2 characters who dedicate themselves to promoting or tutorials, absolute inmersion breakers, which is bad for any story. And the gameplay was already sufering if you have been reading.
-Notifications could discard themselves automatically, they are way too invasive, and there are tons of them.
-Mouth made sound efects, so so cringy that Gutmann deleting the game may not be enough satisfaction.
- Way too many rewards disconnected from the actual game that you need to go look elsewhere.
-Player can see other characters dreams? ...The power of fanservice!
-Sex scenes are BAD. for instance: Straight UP and DOWN for a sex animation, you can do that in any program in 20 seconds, its 2 keyframes and selecting a curve to make the movement steady.(LAZY)
-There are many somethings that have no explanation like game elements rushedly done or poorly desgined or planned, followed by some barely believable explanation or some joke about it.

-Despite the above Dev cant stop selfpromoting every 10 or less minutes and making himself present in a lot of places, and moments hindering the gameplay even further, which the game cant take really cause it is already draggy. It is way too intrusive, even in the message section you get notifications from him.

Dont play this unless you reaally really like some specific part of it. I dont think curiosity alone will get you through. I will see if i can find something at least decent that makes me feel like the time invested was worth, but no hopes.