Applicable to: [v1.0112] [COMPLETED]
I just had to write a review for this game because it cost me 150 hours over a whole month, something that I'm actually truly ashamed of. And it would've cost far more but I cheated through the last 30 temple-puzzles!
If ToN was a TV show it would be La casa de papel, no doubt about it.
Ups
At first you'll think "OMG this game is great, the production values are fantastic, look at that gorgeous 3D modelling, hear that voice work, look at that fucking, OMG OMG!" but after days and days of playing the same repetitive formula again and again and again and again you will get bored and frustrated about not being able to just get it over with (heh).
ToN has some major strong points, the 3D rendering quality being the biggest. Without a doubt this is the future for porn games and even though hand-drawn games are already a niche, 3D quality of ToN level will only become easier to produce and will eventually just drown out hand-drawn games.
3D movement in animations is also decent, not mocap level but OK. The amount of animations, though, is simply mind numbing. It has almost 4 hours spread across thousands of clips. This really makes the game stand out because many animations are skilfully used as cinemagraphs (i.e. short animations deceivingly looking like a still image at first glance except there's subtle looped movement in there and that makes the scene pop at you). The idea of using cinemagraphs is excellent and something I long desired to see in a porn game simply because it really helps to make the game world seem more alive while only requiring a reasonable amount of effort. Voice-work is also used very well, again with a great idea of recording only a few intro/outro phrases to make dialogue scenes pop and avoiding the temptation of recording voice-work for everything which would've been prohibitive.
Finally, the last strong point I'll mention is the general technical & game-play cohesiveness. This is hard to describe but the game just feels well put together. Not only did it not crash once on me but it also has exceptional technical and artistic blending between map areas, dialogue scenes, porn scenes, etc. The game simply flows well between one step and the next.
Downs
Unfortunately, ToN also has some gigantic downsides, the biggest being that it was milked for far too long with vast consequences. It had releases every ~2 weeks for over 2 years and each release piled on content using pretty much the same exact formula with no other aim than to keep the train going. The end result is you'll eventually get bored in the same way you get bored with a telenovela-like TV series that drags on for years using formulaic viewer attention hooks in an absolutely obvious attempt to sell more of the same instead of aiming for a well rounded, satisfying closure.
I only played this game once from beginning to end and it has TONS of other problems due to being milked so long. Story threads are often suspended in illogical ways simply because in the past you had to progress on other story threads before you can resume but this is not at all obvious so you either have to cheat and ask what's next or roam around visiting every screen looking for something to do. Everything is superlinearized so the world doesn't truly feel like a sandbox. The exact same puzzles with the exact same level of sophistication are piled on you incessantly until you are just completely spent (in a bad way).
I understand why the dev stuck with RPGM. They had the correct instinct that a porn game is better when the game part is actually something engaging instead of the almost-universal nothing offered in this regard by the vast majority of Ren'Py games. Meanwhile, using other engines is very expensive not just because of the effort required to learn them at the same depth but also because other engines don't provide such a comfortable template out of the box to build a game on. Unfortunately, due to ToN being so unbearably long, RPGM's idiosyncrasies only amplified the general feeling of repetitiveness and boredom once enough tens of hours accumulated.
Finally, the offence that really broke my back was the vanilla perversion level and this came at me with a one-two knock-out. One was that, with a few notable exceptions like the scene with the wetness contest or a scene with preggo fucking, all sex scenes are pretty much the same formula repeated with each of the 13 girls. Sooner or later you're going to get bored.
But two was the real knock-out. I know NLT for some deliciously kinky incest comics. In Family Vacation you have a mom encouraged by her husband to fuck their two boys and not only does she do it but the family dog gets some of her pussy too. In The Family Hike you get a dad fucking his sweet dumb little girl's pussy in such a perverted way. And then we come to the pile of incest-garbage that is The Treasure of Nadia. Oh My God is it bad. It's literally the same stinking find-and-replace neighbour/landlady with Mom & childhood-friend with sister. Incest in this game is absolutely sterile, the missed opportunities are gigantic and the fact that NLT (fucking No Limit Taboo!!!) is fully capable of putting out some seriously perverted stuff but doesn't because it chooses to bend the knee to Patreon is just gut wrenching.
Lastly, I'll mention in passing that none of these girls get fucked by anyone else except MC which only amplifies the clownish level of perversion you're faced with here. There isn't even any fisting anymore despite this being a thing in Lust Epidemic. SMH...
I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. 3.5 would've been more suitable but that's not a rating option. ToN has some really fantastic upsides but the downsides are equally huge and if you aim to complete it normally you will not be left satisfied vs. the amount of time it demands.