VN Ren'Py To Be a King [Ch.11] [ITRoy]

[godoff95]

OK, so I got addicted to this game recently and wanted to share my thoughts on it. To begin with, I started playing it because of it's Medieval Theme. I have recently been enjoying another game (Price of Power) and was looking for something else to occupy my time in between updates. While vastly different story-wise, it shared the same Medieval setting and I thought the renders looked pretty good as well. I ended up enjoying it so much I found myself thinking about it even when i was not playing it. I ended up finishing it in a few days. It was actually a lot longer than i thought it would be, but that ended up being a good thing as I am already craving more.

Nothing of course if perfect, so there are a few things I would like to mention. First of all, I was rather disappointed that there was no Animation, especially during sex scenes. That really would have made them much more enjoyable. Of course, if the developer is not experienced in animation then I guess its best if they stick to what they know. I also found the Goddess and her Beer craving assistant to be somewhat out of place in this game. It didn't really seem like it belonged with the rest of the story, although it does explain how the MC gets so "lucky" throughout the game. This is my personal opinion of course, but I do not find the MC good looking at all. I think he should have been better looking and at least somewhat younger. Not teenage young or anything, but maybe more like early to mid 30's. He makes a comment later on that he Older than the queen, and she is certainly no spring chicken. Another thing is I do not really like the Jumping from one scene to the next that started happened in later parts of the game. In the beginning you would see the MC talking to one person in their room, then they walk through the hallway or courtyard, spark up a conversation along the way, then arrive at and knock on the door of someone else's room before entering. Later on the MC just jumped from one room to the next without showing the travel in between. Not perhaps some might consider that travel time a waste of renders, but for me it made it more realistic. Oh and the Festival itself seemed to take forever to actually happen. With as much as it was talked about I got the impression it was happening in a matter of days, but it seemed to take weeks. Lastly I feel like there has not been much of an Investigation into finding out whom is plotting against the royal family. Nobody has really even been questioned, even though the King gave permission to do so right from the beginning. Oh well, minor detail but as I said I found myself constantly thinking about this game even when I was not playing it, so all kinds of things went through my head.

On the plus side, this is an Amazing Harem game. There was so many women to have fun with, and the options just keep growing and growing. Thats a great way to prevent boredom from doing the same girl over and over. Two of my personal favorites had to be the Bar Wench and the "alleged" Prostitute. They were just fun scenes and situations. I truly hope I wont eventually have to choose 1 Princess. It would be a hard choice. I think the eldest would make the best queen for sure, but I find Cassia to be the most attractive. Although Valentina is so obsessed with the MC that I don't even know what would happen if you broke her heart. Luckily she is so willing to share. I also like the balance in the game between the women who will have sex with you immediately, and the ones who make you wait for it. It adds a bit of realism into an otherwise unrealistic harem. I am looking forward to having fun with the Servant, Viking Princess, other Bar Wench and Prostitute's mother in the upcoming updates (and I am sure many new girls as well). I am not overly interested in older women like the Queen though. I am thinking about skipping her questline but I am not sure yet. Still deciding.

Ultimately though, I really enjoyed playing this. I am very much looking forward to the next update. It seems like updates are about every 4 months, so I am guessing the next one might be around December. While I hope its sooner, I want the dev to have enough time to add a good size update.

Oh, and here are my predictions for what is ultimately going to happen:

Spoiler: My Prediction

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Spoiler: That's too kind

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[Den187]

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Happy Friday! It was a fun week. First, thanks to the many of you who have pledged for this month. I've seen extremely nice daily numbers, and I appreciate your support. For at least another week, an audio version of the dev update is included in this post.

If you missed the

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, $5 pledges and up still have time to vote before it closes. It's a close one, so your vote will definitely move the needle.

Tomorrow is the patron-only livestream. If you've got some time, come and watch me setup two special renders that you all voted for. I'll try my best to keep up with chat during that time. Starts at 1PM US Eastern time.

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for the link to it (I'll be posting a reminder tomorrow when I go live too).

On the To Be A King front, I got some fun renders out this week to recharge a bit. The story stuff still has my head spinning as I make sure I'm setup for the final set of chapters. Fitting everything I want in, while ensuring that To Be A King doesn't take up the next 2 years of my life, is a challenge. A wise man told me last weekend to remember that To Be A King was supposed to be a smaller project, so please don't feel like I need to turn it into a 5 year development cycle. Good news is that I'm more satisfied each day with how some major storylines will resolve. Just a matter of dotting I's, crossing t's, and taking time to let stuff marinate in my mind before jumping to finalize.

There will be a public release later today of To Be A King Chapter 6. Here's to hoping that doesn't cause any issues for me, as the last public release was just fine. If it does, I'll adjust accordingly.

Now let's end on a very weird note! I've been going through a course on focus (not as boring as it sounds) the last few weeks. I've got a week left, but let me tell you that it has been eye-opening. Really getting honed in on the next 5-10 years, where I want to be personally and professionally, and making difficult decisions in where to devote my time have challenged me. As someone who loves trying out new things, it is far too easy to just say "Yes," instead of considering how something fits into my long-term plans and goals. I've made some big decisions, and I still have some other ones to make. If that might affect your pledge in any way, I'll be sure to communicate that here.

I'm off to finish up my workday. The last of summer vacations at my company mean that my Fridays haven't been free for a few weeks. Fingers crossed this is the last week for that though. I've been missing that time to just devote to other things. Have a great weekend, and I look forward to seeing those that can make it on the livestream tomorrow afternoon!

 

[EfontMan]

A wise man told me last weekend to remember that To Be A King was supposed to be a smaller project, so please don't feel like I need to turn it into a 5 year development cycle.

Sage words indeed. There are far too many games already on that or even longer cycles.

 

[Waltzzac]

does anybody have or know of a walkthrough for the newest version?

 

[cxx]

does anybody have or know of a walkthrough for the newest version?

only wt-mod.

 

[Den187]

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Had a bit of fun this morning with a new noir preset I got for Daz. What do you think?

 

[cxx]

very sin city.

 

[ClockworkGnome]

You got my vote buddy but lack of contraceptives hurts too. I fucking laughed my ass off when Valentina said she drank some kind potion that prevents pregnancy.

That's actually historically accurate.

Romans had pretty effective herbal contraception from what we know - they'd use a plant called

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. And then they used it so much they literally farmed the plant to extinction (which is why we don't have it today).

The prose is getting to me. I just feel that it doesn't even try to hide that fact that it is written in an very modern style.

Combine oversights like this with other things, like a casual overuse of modern contractions, just makes the dialogue feel incongruous with the story it is trying to depict.

I kind of just view it as "translation convention", and assume they're speaking in more flowery speech (presumably in Latin), while it's being translated into more casual English for us as the audience to make it more accessible.

Considering the game basically hits you right out of the gate with anachronisms (smashing together chivalric medieval elements with Imperial Roman ones that wouldn't exist within hundreds of years of each other in reality), you're almost better off just viewing it as a separate magical fantasy universe that just happens to bear similarities to real history.

Yeah I don't really get why EVERY single woman wants to pretty much bang him straight away. His looks and personality are a little lacking.

I just assume every AVN MC ever has a magical aura that makes them irresistible to anyone who crosses their path.

I also tend to have the same sort of justification in the back of my head when I play any RPG or game that allows for dialogue choices and interaction with companions, romance or no, porn or no. You're always destined to be the One True Champion upon which the fate of the entire world hinges because you were born with CHARISMA as a superpower. It's why people you just met are always immediately ready to join your team and follow you directly into Hell 20 minutes later.

I note various characters’ remarks about the MC as a major military leader, man of integrity, trust etc……and have the opportunity to play him in the game as a man-whore.

The two aren't necessarily in contradiction. Roman virtues included things like courage, honesty, honor, loyalty, dedication, and personal dignity, but didn't really value things like chastity or marital fidelity. Medieval virtues tended to be more in-line with what we consider "Judeo-Christian" virtues, but still didn't put a huge emphasis on the idea of being chaste (or exclusively loyal to only one partner). At least not for the men.

If anything, the only way sleeping around would make you less virtuous is if you were making a steady habit of sleeping with a woman who "belonged" to someone you owed loyalty to (either a superior patron or one of your own clients). Because women tended to be viewed more as property than people.

 

[ClockworkGnome]

harem is guaranteed but who will be on it isn't known yet.

Personally, I just kind of hope we're heading to an ending where it's more modular, so who you wind up in your harem is entirely based on your own preferences. So one person might have a harem with just a few girls and one of the princesses, while someone else might wind up with every possible LI.

All-or-nothing harem routes work well enough when you've only got a few women to juggle, but once the potential LI list gets long enough, it can discourage people from wanting to go the harem route if even one of the women involved in it is someone they don't like. Or are difficult to "recruit".

I haven't played the game for very long but one thing that is clear to me is that Aristenes wants to die a very painful death. his talking shit is becoming annoying and I would love to take a walk with him around the courtyard and make him disappear permanently. I also feel like he's one of the people responsible for the drama happening around the palace.

Between his bio at the very start of the game and the music that kicks in the first time you meet him, my immediately response was "Oh, so you're the Bad Guy then." Not helped by the fact that he pretty much talks exclusively in Bond Villain 101 veiled threats.

In a fully sandbox game where every choice and action was possible, I'd have been arranging an "accident" for him pretty much the next morning. Lots of stairs in this old castle, after all. Lots of places where an old man might trip on his robes and fall down, breaking his neck. So tragic.

Of course, in a very clever game, he's perfectly innocent and ultimately on your side, and he's a massive red-herring for someone much less obvious, who seems far more trustworthy... And I have my suspicions on that score as well.

 

[K18]

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Dev Update #34
Twas a good week. I turned off a ton of notifications, deleted some time-waster apps, unsubscribed from god knows how many email lists, and tried to channel a competent writer. Rough drafts of all but a handful of scenes for Chapter 7 are done. A bit over 20 scenes were written in the past week. All that is left is to finish writing those last scenes, hopefully on Sunday, and re-read and edit the scenes for Chapter 7. Likely a few more days of work, but it is nice that things flowed again when writing the initial drafts. Because of a ton of changes in my plans for Chapter 7, you'll see a new progress graphic where it looks I lost progress. Fear not, because this is only due to this massive restructuring.

To Be A King has been a bear to get the final chapters outlined. I kept coming back and redoing things regularly, as nothing felt right. Tossing it all out for what feels like the 10th time, and then stepping back through it with new ideas and a new perspective seems to have made me feel that I have a workable story on which to end that should satisfy most players. I say most only because there are always going to be a handful that are displeased with the choices I make here. As much as I would love to give you a story with 100 different possible ending combinations, I am only one man, and I want to finish To Be A King before I die. Turning into George R.R. Martin with my release schedule isn't ideal. Will I end up tossing all this out when I start on Chapter 8? Stay tuned.

Oh, and did I mention that about 3/4 of the scenes I had written for Chapter 7 got tossed? Good times, but better to just kill it than live with something terrible and release that. And yes, if I could have reworked those, (which nearly every scene I did leave in got reworked in some form), I would have. Starting "fresh" is usually the best method. Just ask the many Fiona models that I worked on for

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' Last Call visual novel.

With the focus on writing, I haven't touched Daz this week. Mercifully, all but 3 of the renders, besides customs, are setup and just need to be rendered out and put through post. Because of the re-org of Chapter 7, I will have no new models that are needed and no new environments for that chapter. Simply marvelous. However, with the re-work of the final chapters, I will have a few more environments and models that are needed than I originally planned. We are going do some traveling in the final chapters of To Be A King. Should be fun!

Ideas continue to run through my head as far as what comes after To Be A King. Probably because I am looking forward to that fresh start. I just jot those down and move on. To Be A King has my focus until it is completed. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

 

[cxx]

again that kitty.

like i said earlier if that doll would be available in real world it'd be quite a success.

 

[Den187]

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Another fun render. Love this environment.

 

[Sorrow85]

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Spoiler

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Thanks to all of you for your pledges! In case you recently arrived, we held a poll in September when I crossed $1,000/month pledged here on what special renders I'd do for hitting this mark. I promised two 4K renders for the two top vote getters. You all are getting eight! Even Queen Helena had to sneak in and cheer for her daughter.

As a reminder, here were the poll winners:
- Kaylan and Cassia as sports stars
- Eliana and Aelinia as Triss and Ciri (Witcher 3 Cosplay)

I hope you all enjoy these renders!

$5 and up patrons will get October's special renders (which are also cosplay, because - Halloween) here soon. They are done, but just want to let those sit a day to ensure I'm happy with them.

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[NukaCola]

am I the only one think the girls in new banner render look worse?

 

[weirdscix]

am I the only one think the girls in new banner render look worse?

Yes

 

[cxx]

am I the only one think the girls in new banner render look worse?

ToTaLlY

 

[NukaCola]

ToTaLlY

Are you being sarcastic? The lighting is clearly oversaturated. Its a bad image compared to the old banner

 

[cxx]

what does it matter how banner looks as long as it's game related?

 

[NukaCola]

what does it matter how banner looks as long as it's game related?

I mean when I browsing the internet for a new games or movies. The cover image is what usually attach me to click on them. In this case is the game banner on F95 latest update page. Having a good banner/cover will help attach more people.

 

[cxx]

I mean when I browsing the internet for a new games or movies. The cover image is what usually attach me to click on them. In this case is the game banner on F95 latest update page. Having a good banner/cover will help attach more people.

sure but it isn't bad either and there are screenshots too in op.