Ren'Py - Time Loop Hunter [v0.71.10] [Hydrahenker]

A fiendishly clever game that you're either going to love or hate, as you can tell from the reviews. It's a bit like trying to solve a complex four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, jumping backwards and forwards in different timelines with added porn, which will either be your thing... or not.

It felt a bit overwhelming at first and it's no surprise there is a "this is hard!" tab in the help section, but once you get the hang of the dynamics of it all (repeating a day/going back to the beginning to make different choices and apply things you've learned, or skipping to another "timeline" - effectively a save you can load while keeping your progress since) it becomes very rewarding. There's a lot of repetition but it didn't feel like a grind because things keep moving along.

Behind the hugely imaginative game mechanic is an excellent story and some great art. The most I've enjoyed a game in a long time!

Review as of v0.18.x Public
Fun game; great concept and mechanics, found like... only minor continuity bugs after hours of playing. Some likeable characters, specially the sister (Mia) and Dana. Fun to play without walkthrough (although it took me some time to finally appreciate the beauty of timelines). Definitely in the top list of games form this site that I've played. Games like this make me wish I had money to give the creators. Hmm. A feature that I sorely missed is an indicator of the options and interactions I unlocked after leveling up a skill. Kind of hard to keep track of all of them; should use pencil and paper next time I guess...

Puts Korean RPGs to shame with the grind.

The idea is great. But that's where good things end.

This is no intuitive game where you can just figure things out.
This is a game where you progress a little on your own then hit a roadblock so you start following the walkthrough which has close 2000 (that's not a typo) steps, involving only the first 2 days for over 1000 steps. Repeating the same scenes over and over and over again and again (and just for shits and giggles, another ~100 times). For the past hour or so I've been laying on Ctrl to skip all the dialogues and just progress, currently at the 55th "full reset" and I'm not even halfway done.
And the game's still WIP?

Grind is immense and rewards are scarce, and you better pray to whatever god you believe in you don't make a mistake and get lost somewhere because then you'll spend quite some time trying to figure out how to correct it and get back to where you were.

At first I thought the game is gonna be one of those multiple ending renpy games with a simple restart function, but then as soon as I realized that I actually need to reverse time multiple times in order to make progress I started admiring this game!

It's definitely a complete new mechanic (at least for me that is) and a very interesting scenario to play through.
After my 50th time starting all over again I decided to start pledging the creator on Patreon bcuz, after trying to imagine how hard it actually is to, at first create such a mechanic and second how insane it is to keep everything tracked while it intertwines everywhere, I wanted to support such a skilled creator, so he can dedicate more time into developing.

Wanted something quick and simple, ended up playing for four hours. A really complicated and intricate game, nice characters and mediocre visuals but definitely the most challenging adult game I have played to date

The mechanic of the game is very innovative and the game has a nice complexity with a lot of content.
You can revive the same days over and over through a time loop and what you learn in one loop will influence what you can do in the next loops.
There Are 10-15 girls with their own stories which are more or less developped.
It's really awsome from the creator to maintain a global coherence with so many possible events in such a short time (3 days for now).

This is prime example of good idea, bad application.

The principle is simple; you have the ability to rewind time to fixed points (morning of day 1/2/3), all actions you've done are reset but you keep your memories and thus, the cause and effect of actions.

It starts off rather nicely and straight to the point with the first character that is introduced, and then it goes straight into the gutter. To progress the story, you'll have to repeat the same set of actions hundreds of times, and only to see the same events again and again, only with very slight (non-sexy) variations, until you've done enough to suddenly "know something more" to progress further.

The first character shows how it should be; you talk to the girl, what does she like? You don't know, but you can ask and inquire, and use that information the next time you reset! It progresses coherently.

And now an example of what it becomes; you can pick left, right for one character, and then left, right or center with another. You gotta grind your way to the same event 6 times (timeline makes it a bit less annoying), to see 6 very slight variations of the same event.

The only reason I gave it two stars is because of the idea, the application is a definite 1/5. The CGs aren't bad but they aren't that great either, low resolution.

Art - Excellent, no complaints. Especially CAS.
Story - cleverly constructed.
Gameplay - Very different from other western games. Reminds me a lot of jap time loop vns. Occasionally gets a bit frustrating when you want to find a specific scene.
Misc - Walkthrough is NOT complete/updated. Please don't ask the same question a million others asked on the forum and search for them instead. Remember to use CAS hints.

The game is captivating for a while but when it is almost impossible to make progress even while following a walk-through of 100+ steps something in the design has gone wrong. This game has the potential to be great but really needs an overhaul.

Solid story plot concept on paper (hence the 2nd star), but something I found to be way too grindy and repetitive in an actual real world play through. I mean I've never been one to shy away from either of those in games I've enjoyed here...but this is completely different level stuff. I mean how many times did I have to play though all those same exact day 2 scenes, with very little spacing of real world time between doing them, just to progress less then half way through the walk through...100?. Whatever it really was it was too freaking many.

All of which, and from my own preferences as somebody who has greatly enjoyed grindy games in the past, could/would have been worth it if the sex scenes/animation payout had been worth it. They just aren't though imo.

First non- RPGM game I've sunk any notable time in here (not counting stinkers I downloaded and gave up on comparatively quick) that I just reached that "enough is enough already" point on and uninstalled before finishing what content it had to offer. Which I guess best summarizes this game up in the nutshell.

Great plot, great writing and dialog, really innovative mechanics. This is like Groundhog Day (or a choose-your-own-adventure novel) with more mystery and tons of characters and content. A new favorite, and I'm not past day 2. I can't wait to see where this goes.

This is the first game I found here that covers the common fantasy of being able to rewind time. While it does a good job of using this mechanic to have the MC gather information to give him advantages in the next loop, he could abuse his power a lot better in my opinion. The biggest issue of this game is its difficulty. It is almost impossible to get anywhere without a walkthrough since even the tiniest mistake can ruin your planned loop.

2024 Review (2 stars):

If I can still give praise to anything, at least this game has stuck with a solid update schedule.

I subbed to the Patreon for a couple months out of respect for the hustle and to get the walkthrough, but this game is so far up its own ass at this point I can't recommend it. People have a lot to say about how convoluted the gameplay is, and that's true, but it undersells how complicated the plot is.

The end is thankfully in sight, but the dev has added more and more stuff to the timeline and it's impossible to follow, especially if you only check in every couple of months. A simple (?) story about a university and a car accident has become a convoluted web involving multiple secret agencies, alien parasites, and the mafia.

I tried for a couple days to get back into it without consulting the walkthrough, but the game defies understanding. The same 20 characters get reused over and over: an innocent so-and-so from the early game was secretly a double/triple agent all along, as revealed only on day 8 or whatever. Things of that nature.

I wish the dev could have come up with a tidy, comprehensible four or five day plot, and finished it already. I don't know how much of what was here was planned from the start, but it seems like a goddamn mess.

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Original Review (4 stars):

This is the only adult game I know that's executed well on this premise so it gets a lot of credit for that.

I want to give it five stars for pure ambition, but the sometimes painful mechanics of actually playing it and the slow pace of updates drag it down a bit.

The game takes place over a short time so far but you have a ton of options that open up of how to behave during the two days that have been implemented so far.

The developer seems obsessed with making tons of branches at every point, which is ballsy but can make the game a struggle to actually play.

At one event, you're eventually be given the option for two characters to each either go left, right, or center, yielding at least nine total outcomes, many of which have a significant effect. How are you supposed to remember which is which? Especially after putting the game down for a day? You just have to replay it over and over or check your walkthrough.

Another place, you have the choice of giving a character three costumes. Each of which has a (pretty arbitrary) effect on that character's future story. How do you remember what's what? Maybe check the memories tab, but only after you've followed each path to the end, or maybe check a walkthrough.

I'm excited to see what the game is like when it's done, but it's very time consuming to see all the content in its current form. Still very unique compared to so many other games; I'd take 10 of these over generic dating-my-roommate VNs anyday.

CAS is too much of a mood killer for me. It's like having your senses being bombarded with vomit while your favorite pizza is in front of you. Gonna pass. Seems like a complicated game and a lot of work for any payoff. I might be encouraged to endure, but the disgusting sight of CAS all the time is like a sledgehammer to the crotch. Couldn't take it very long.

So well conceived and complex and the girls are nice, too. I hardly see how the game can be completed as each new story path adds so many other possibilities to be accounted for.
I like puzzles and find the gameplay rewarding. If you don't enjoy puzzling things out, then perhaps a more straightforward visual novel would be a better choice.

The core concept of the game is pretty cool, you can rewind time, find stuff out about other characters and use it to your advantage in the next loop to trigger new scenes and so on.

The characters are fine, your companion isn't too generic, and there is a lot of stuff to do, in fact, too much stuff.

The problem with this game is the grind, and I personally hate it when games are too grindy, but for some reason I couldn't stop playing, I wanted to find out what the consequences of my actions are going to be.

A walkthrough is recommended just in case you get stuck (there is a high chance you'll get stuck, so just keep the walkthrough handy).

Amazing game so far. Writing is decent, characters fine and implementation of the time loop actually works. Can't wait for more content (though right now there is already quite a lot). Oh, and non-generic companion/guide character is a big plus.

edit: unfortunately the game lost it's focus after a while and timelooping instead of cool superpower became a nuisance.

Nice looking girls and thats all good in this one, I get more then 1 gb of this and even cannot progress after some events, have liitle interest in dialogs, mess gameplay and bugs, dont wast your time.

Review based on v0.9
Short review: This game starts with an interesting story that involves repeating same days, average renders, but soon the player gets into this terribad grind gameplay that kills the game for the sake of being longer ?

The gameplay in short is a huge number of choices that lets u unlock new info and new actions by repeating the days, which is taken to a xtreme degree of grind that kills the game/makes it obtuse (just take a look at the walkthrough and were only with 2 days playable right now...).

I see that the developer tried to fix this by adding an option of u saving part of the time loop but that only proves to be most useful when u following a walkthrough and even then the game still feels 2 grindy and obtuse.

The solution to this problem is very simple and focuses on 2 points:
1- Drastically reduce the number of steps needed to advance each story (if ur just going to add grind with little to no fun/reward maybe better tone it down...)
2- Add significant content for each few steps so it is actually rewarding and fun

Time loops are fun, fits the natural method of play of most games where you wind up quick saving and going back repeatedly anyway. Huge potential for expansion and I like the way that discovery works as well as having actually meaningful decisions that make sense and are intuitive (you don't have to use a guide to find all the shit.) Unlike games that advance time and run out of content and have pacing issues the system lets you advance through the world at your own rate and in order of your own interests while still requiring you to figure things out to progress and unlock new content.

Increasing the clarity of the options once you've "discovered" them makes it easier for players to recognize new and old routes and as more days are added planning out what decisions to make and what things you need is a great form of gameplay. Especially since it keeps the player focused on the story, allowing the game to be lengthy without being grindy which is a problem for most of these games.

Having factors that reset every loop (events, story, relationships) and factors that don't reset every loop (skills, memories, information) is fantastic.

This is a cut above the cookie cutter 3d games where the way events can play out in a relationship or scenario is far more limited because most story scenarios/events in a normal game will not (and logically should not) be repeatable forcing the player to save scum or play the whole game again.

Complaints:

15 days is actually a ridiculous amount of time with how this is going to be played, i'd actually prefer a small number of days with a lot to do, being forced to choose between specific events and routes that change as you unlock stuff is what makes this good and dragging it out across a longer timeperiod makes it hard to give decisions the same significance for the same reason that CYOA games run out of content really fast.

Exp is a ridiculous grind right now - i'm pretty sure this is because it's balanced around a more finished version of the game but figuring out routes just to grind exp is no fun. Maybe big exp bonuses for discovering certain events, secrets, and lines of dialogue would be a better progression system as repeating the same events to generate exp damages the exploration aspect of the game.

There's a serious risk of over-complicating what's required to unlock content because there are so many numbers to keep track of. If you wind up looking up a guide to figure out what to do all the other stuff this game does well is worth next to nothing. The memory system is a great way of dealing with this problem but right now it's ugly and not very clear, polishing the interface and forcing the player to run into it in some way as gameplay progresses would help people from getting stuck and failing to find new content.