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

(BASED ON FIRST CHAPTER)
*posted in discussion as well

What a great first start!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this first chapter. The story hits a lot of familiar beats to anyone who plays these types of games, but there's enough of its own flair to easily help this stand out from the rest. I enjoy the Phoenix Wright/Danganronpa style gameplay for the interrogations. The only thing to keep in mind is that unfortunately it's easily exploitable thanks to the rollback feature, however, that's more of an issue with renpy as a format. The character design is very competent and well done. Despite some of them obviously being the DAZ models that are used frequently, they still carry some unique elements that give them some personality in regard to their looks. As characters, there is some meat still needed for maybe the mom and son as both are at the moment kind of just the basic archetypes we see in 'cest type stories. That will probably change though as we get more time to see them, and on the same note, Mandy stands out nicely with a more fleshed out personality.

Some of the things that didn't connect with me would have to be the lighting, animations, and sandbox elements. Your composition is very strong at times but I think it's a bit undermined by some flat lighting (especially in full-body shots). It's definitely not a mood-killer or anything, but I think your scenes (both lewd and non) can have a stronger effect if you had dramatic lighting that complimented the mood/setting. The animations also leave a lot to be desired. I know these are arguably the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of developing, but the results can make a difference. For me personally, I'm not looking for super-detailed movement; but at the moment I'm somewhat taken out of the scene during them because the characters move so stiffly and are noticeably separated from their environments/backgrounds. The other thing that I can guess a lot of players will be torn over are the item/sandbox mechanics. I didn't really have trouble finding items or navigating the space, but I can see how search elements can come off as tedious to some players, especially since many tend to not like sandbox elements due to a good amount of VN's using just ways to pad time. A hint system or something might help with avoiding too much frustration, but at the end of the day, it's your call. As I said earlier, I personally didn't have too much trouble and found some of the internal monologues during them to be refreshing and funny.

Overall, I think this game is definitely worth looking over and I hope it gains traction. Looking at this plus your website and social media accounts I can see that you and your team are really putting your full effort and care into the project and that speaks volumes. A majority of my criticisms really only come from the fact that this isn't the most polished game out there, but that doesn't make it a bad one. In fact, it's far from it. This whole project just screams passion and initiative, and I can only see improvement from this point on. I'll support how I can and I can't wait to see what's coming next.

I love the animation, story telling, kinks, and play through of this game so far! I'm excited to see things continue and hope they happen sooner rather than later. The only things I could think of that I would change are Selena's and Ellie's breasts (I'd like them a little perkier and bigger). Other than the esthetics, I can't wait to see where this game goes!

It's a good start cant wait for future updates. Tutorial is a bit long winded, but has potential. Really like that there isn't many grammar mistakes. Played through all of Chapter one and there is no mention of where MC sisters are.

Absolutley loved this VN/game. Harem, incest, no ntr (hopefully, sorry not my thing) good characters so far, good writing and quality graphics. Truly looking forward to future updates.

Whaaat, I'm the first one to review this? That's a first for me

Anyway, reviewing v0.10.0 for future reference.

Pros

There's really not too much to criticize here in this first chapter, it sets up the story pretty nicely and there are definitely a lot of interesting beats to the story so far and a lot of intriguing lingering questions. The story somewhat breaks with the usual conventions of Ren'Py games like this by suggesting more of a sci-fi reason for the attraction between related characters rather than having the characters just somehow starting to feel attracted towards one another for no clear reason other than it being the start of the game (like so many of these other incest games).

The renders are also very good overall, I love the skin details in Vanessa's milf character, she's much more believable to be a somewhat older woman than all these 3d animations where older women are pretty much only recognizable by their larger breasts and hips that they all have for some reason.
The sex animations might still need some polishing, they seem somewhat robotic as of yet, maybe that'll get better in the future, but I still count them as pros because they're really not that bad and the smoother character introduction animations, short though they might be, promise something more in the way of better sex animations. So we'll see.

I feel like the gameplay is also pretty well thought out with a mixture of elements that you might see in other games as well but in a pretty enjoyable way.
The free roam parts aren't too frustrating mainly because you're just straight up told when you found all there is to find (thank God for that) and even get bonus rewards for it.
I couldn't discern too many important choices as of yet, other than possibly completely rejecting the mom character as a love interest, so maybe the story will be more straightforward, which I'm pretty fine with.
And the interrogation mode is also pretty fun and original (have only ever seen something like that in one other game) but it might be a bit too easy, at least in this chapter. There's really not much skill required to figure out the right path there and you could even rely mostly on guesswork when factoring in possible rollbacks. But still, it's pretty cool.

Cons

All that good stuff being said... The main reason I can only in good conscience give this game 4 stars is that it's still in many ways a rehash of the hundreds of other games where the "regular dude" just suddenly finds all of his female family members super attractive and wants to have sex with all of them; yeah the reasoning for it might be a bit better but it doesn't really change the basic story.
The characters are also all so painfully clichéd, they might as well be named for the clichés; you've got the kind-hearted mom rediscovering her sexuality amidst a loveless marriage, the innocent, caring sister unaware of her own attractiveness, the more playful "dangerous" sister ready to tease the MC at any given point, a mysteriously but helpfully missing dad figure, and of course the "regular dude" MC with a personality so bland he doesn't even get a face by the animator.
Serah and Mandy are a bit more interesting, to be fair, but also don't stand out that much yet, but that might just be because we haven't really had much time with them yet, so they might turn out to be much more interesting characters than the others.

And while I can live with incest, the necessary clichés of these characters always make me wish for more LI's outside of the family; so far 4/5 of the women we meet are your family members so that's maybe a bit heavy on the incest for my taste.

It's also a bit annoying to see all of the lampshading the dev does on these issues either through the MC or by breaking the fourth wall; lampshading doesn't fix problems, it just highlights them and the fact that the dev is aware of them. Just a weird way to avoid criticism.

Aside from these points, I thought that the introductory tutorial was a bit tedious and heavy on the exposition. That could be cut back a fair bit and only explain the absolutely necessary parts while explaining the rest of the gameplay elements as you get to them; something which the dev does to a degree, but going by that principle could still cut back a lot on the long-winded tutorial right before any sort of gameplay.

Conclusion

So I got a bit ranty in my cons, but overall, this seems like a fine new entry in this somewhat worn-out genre; the story is interesting and intriguing, you have a few different fun gameplay elements that cut back on a lot of the typical sandbox problems, the models are all pretty hot and the renders are good. So what more could you want? Well, fewer cliché characters, but other than that, there's not much standing in the way of this becoming a top-tier game, well done.