VN - Ren'Py - Tribulations of a Mage [v0.28.0] [Talothral]

I'd love to give this game a 4/5, but the way it currently stands is that it'd be a 3,5 at best and since I can't give half points here I've decided to go with 3.
The story is decent, not bad but also not great, the characters are good, it has good diversity and also seems to paint the different characters and races with different traits with good diversity, but the sex is an absolute chore in my opinion. It overall feels way too stiff, every scene is basically the same with the same positions and the dialogue during these scenes is cold and impersonal, like the weird voice acting of games like Resident Evil 1 back in the days of its release kinda bad. Also and I can't believe I'd say that, but the sex scenes seem way too long.
Other than that I've enjoyed it so far although the writing could use some more polish as it seems like they make all these rather elaborate plans to deal with something and then it's over in 5 minutes or less.

Story is pretty bland and boring, alot of it can be blamed on the MC being submissive 99% of the time so everyone treats him like garbage and he shows 0 emotions, never gets pissed, in other words an emotionless robot which is really boring to play, the small fairy has more balls then MC....

As for the story its pretty much pure kinetic as well, all you ever controle is fuck a girl yes/no and thats pretty much it, all the other choices changes a little dialog but nothing story related change.

Also you keep getting more and more people in your group, why they want to follow MC i have no clue, apprently no one has a life of their own and just follow MC around to risk their lives for no reason what so ever?......i would kick everyone of them the fuck out of the party first chance i got...orc, fat girl, witch bitch....so playing on for story when you dont even want to hear or look at them is tuff and story wise its weird and stupid as well since MC dosent trust them, like the first orc girl that "joins" the party, yet MC allows it? why?
and the girls reasons to join is idiotic, one wants to kill necromancers, another wants to find a new orc tribe....so why follow an MC that is just trying to save him self, it wouldent help any of the girls so why would they stay....

Then theres all the nude people, ive always found it idiotic when devs make people walk around all nude, it dosent fit the story or the scene or anything and they arent even pretty to look at, they are damn ugly like Maevra or the black girl with her tits out, save that shit for people that are on their route and for sex scenes....

Girls are bland and mostly big tittet bimbos or monsters, even some gilfs and none of them are even remotly cute or hot in any way, they all feel as emotionless as the MC and diversity in builds are very poor its all bimbo builds.

Sex scenes are some of the most boring scenes ive seen as well, i had the sex dialogs set to ON but MC says nothing? MC feels like a statue and the girls dialogs are just plain bad and MCs face is like frozen its absolutly without any emotions which makes a really poor sex scene.

The lack of animations really hurt as well, its the crapy picture to picture stuff where you have to click a million times doing a sex scene, its more annoying then anything else, so the chance are that you will turn down every sex scene to avoid it and thats just no good for an adult game.

With the poor LI selection and lack of diversity in builds and no animations and a subpar story where alot dosent make sense, emotionless sex and characters, theres just no real point in playing it.

I really tried to play this game, again and and again.

But this just impossible. Yes there story, but MC is just dull and empty, also has no balls, he gets pushed by anyone, no-one respects him, he is so much unlikable .....

Story - 2/5
Characters - 2/5
Graphics - 5/5
Sex scenes - 1/5

also there no choices to be more manly or be polite, or there not many I'd say.

the sex scenes are boring, MC is like a corpse, and no-one enjoying it, the sex talk is horrible, especially from MC side.
I'd say only thing I like is graphics , cause even story is dumb, he suppose to be covered agent of emperor, and he shows his emperor seal to every villager. every time he comes somewhere he treated like shit on shoe, and he never pushed back.
Dwarf and Ayaka are so unlikable I'd kill them myself if I could.
and what is that with his pencil dick.... with all those weird girls his dick looks like a joke, well pretty much like MC himself.

V.0.26.1
SUMMARY: I really tried to enjoy and keep at this game but its lost me...

PROS:

1. Good story, lore rich
2. Very well written and structured
3. Interesting story.
4. Many characters and love interests.

CONS:

1. Long winded, too much attempt at intrigue, political plots and random encounters end up making me feel like the story never goes back to the main agenda and plot. These only detract from the greater story which hardly gets airtime. Waste.
2. Lack of animation and models are boring and plain, not built to the standard we have become use to, thus looks dated.
3. No kinks or anything other than vanilla sex scenes, which are very boring and dull, its actually so bad already that you could almost remove those scenes completely and focus purely on the story...not kidding...
4. Characters and dialogue feel robotic and completely unemotional, its one thing to have the MC act this way, he only has half a soul so...but everyone else also feels like they are paper characters that are reading from a script. This is compounded by poor art work and little effort with regards to the scenes or any real way to convey emotion.

TLDR: Interesting world, lore and plot, but thats it, rest is dull and boring and not worth even calling an adult VN.

Always love Talothral's work, and here's another banger!

The girls are gorgeous in this, particularly the non human/magical ones. I get very fond flashbacks from Sorcerer when playing it.

Also, I adore our dear feline Familiar. She's epic!

After playing Sorcerer as well as TRS1 & 2 my expectations for this game were quite high. And for me, Talothral delivered again. Story and writing are really good - no feeling of incoherency or awkward dialogues/monologues. Characters are likeable to me and the interactions are fun and not, which is important, cringe.

I like Talothrals rather pragmatic outlook on world and character building - there's no over-arching attempt of moral virtue-signing where certain actions are always "bad" and others always "good". It's more constructed in a realistic way of "rarely everything is black and white" but rather a lot of grey.

Visuals are well made with quite some care for details and composition. Are the sex scenes the best ones on this site? I wouldn't say so. But to me this is not a deciding factor since i would still play this game even without them. Although some spiciness is still good and adds to how the interpersonal relationships between characters are perceived.

Overall a very good story-focused game like the ones before and I'd recommend to give it a shot.

The game is well-paced, in my opinion, and I felt like I was seeing scenes at a good pace the whole way through. The art and dialogue are very good. It's easily one of the best games on this site. There is a large amount of content and a nice selection of actors. The game is quite addicting; I spent many hours on it. I would recommend this game to anyone. The game is updated regularly.

As of 0.19.0 I find the overarching story interesting albeit rushed and due to that rushed nature I don't find the love interests very interesting because they've had no time to develop.

The story jumps ahead days to weeks at a time with minimal onscreen interaction with said love interests and as such I don't find myself giving a damn about them. A major shift after the Dev's previous game, Sorcerer.

I think RandomHornyDude hits the nail on the head for this game but given the general quality of the stories I've encountered here over the years I have to bump the rating up one more star to four instead of his three because of the overall quality of the story and its presentation in general.
If the sex animations were up to the modern standard with greater range and types of motion then this would be a shoe-in for 5 stars.
I turned off the sex dialogue after watching a few scenes because it made the boring and uninteresting sex scenes take longer because you had to acknowledge each line of dialogue. When turned off you still have to wait for the scenes to complete and they are profoundly uninteresting. With the next update I may turn the sex scenes completely off as the story is interesting enough without them. In fact. I really think they are only there because this site expects a story to have them. In that sense they are clearly gratuitous rather than essential plot elements.
Anyway - I really enjoy the story as it develops and I hope the authorship team completes this without losing interest.
This is one of the stories here that I think would make a good movie.

If you are familiar with the creator's previous work then you know pretty much exactly what to expect.

The visuals range between good and very good imo, especially the girls which I find very attractive. The characters themselves (how they are written that is) are serviceable. Nothing mind-blowing but they are decent.

The story is honestly very interesting, the author is very good at world-building, never telling us everything in everyday conversations, but slowly introducing us to new things. I'd honestly play the game without any sex scenes and still enjoy it, and therein is kind of the major problem with the game.

The sex scenes are boring and stilted, it is just a whole lot of clicking between two- maybe three pictures where the main characters waist is slightly forward or backward. The game lacks animations altogether and pretty much every sex scene is stilted and honestly all kind of the same. The dialogue during sex scenes is also turned off by default, something I find kind of odd.

With animations and more varied and interesting sex scenes that don't end up with me skipping because I would rather see some story, the game would be a strong 4, maybe even a 5 if I am feeling charitable. Probably 4 though.

Despite my criticism towards the scenes I will be playing the future updates because I find the world and plot interesting.

TL;DR: If you are looking for hot sex scenes then go for something else, but if you want a very interesting fantasy plot with good renders then maybe give it a chance.

One of the best games I ever played. The story is amazing, so are the renders. Also played this game's developers other games as well so the guy knows what he's doing. The game deserves 5 out of 5 stars with out a doubt. Can't wait to see what's gonna happen in the future updates. Good Luck @Talothral.

pure kino. Animations aren't gonna win any awards but the models are lovely, the story is classic high fantasy which some may bore quickly from but the characters and writing are interesting enough to more than enough make up for it. Also, actually laughed at a couple of points in the story. I enjoy the dev's humor. It's not a game for all but if you like high fantasy I'd highly recommend.

V0.15.0 (no idea why the extra point 0. makes the numbers look more pretty? false sense of production? couldn't find a one? maybe it's renpy tourette's? possibly i am flummoxed)

lets start with the art. not my strong point as i have always been a novel reader as opposed to picture book and i can draw stick figures. once did something that got approval from an art teacher with chalk as a young teen but otherwise, it either looks pretty or it doesn't.
i'm okay with the non-sex stuff. sure it could be better but it does the job and i can agree i am entertained.

adult scenes fail to even give me a chubby so i tend to just click through. bland would be a good word for me. i liken it to watching a favourite show until excitement takes a tea-break and i have to skip through the sex scene like it's an advert

plot/story/writing is why i return to Talothral's work. this dev knows what a plot is, what plot devices are, how to construct a story and how to deliver it. it is never a dull read, quite the opposite. i find myself often immersed with consistency. like the mirror image of...er...several other developers. a d and a k and something super spring to mind...curiously

yes there are a quite a few errors where writing is concerned but the story drives you past them, so becomes a minor flaw.

has anyone ever seen a renpy error? i haven't. dev knows how to code. thumbs up

i like it, just not aroused by it

I would first like to say the dev has done a really nice job with the production. The MC looks amazing and this is one of the few AVN that has done a great job with the fantasy genre. You won't find any earth shattering renders but you will find the best mage character and use of spells in any of these AVNs. It is a mage who is confident, but flawed, intelligent and business like, caring and wise. A really well rounded, non Gary Stu kind of a character.

If I was just rating it on the MC, then 5 stars as he is really excellent. The story, however, and the other characters, they are all just kind of average.

The problem with most fantasy stories is they require a lot of exposition, and this is no exception. Because there are so many things the reader/player doesn't know about, it all has to be explained. Different countries with different politics, different races, intelligent "monsters", etc. So a lot of the time you are reading and trying to figure out what is going on.

And that's okay, but in this case, the story seems to drag along. There is also not a lot of content and the ones you get are with things like a fairly who is the size of your hand or a dark dwarf. The weird part, is when you finally get to an H scene, there is zero exposition. Just one position transitioning to the next. There is no "ooh that feels good" or "fuck me harder"... nothing... just silence. And then the animation... just... not good.

For me, I could look past that if the story was good, and in this case, it just kind of drags along. It's crazy because it has all the right ingredients to be really good. Unique characters, unique world, and a dev is who is dedicated to producing good, regular updates. It just doesn't really work. Between the lack of content and the plodding story, I find myself skipping scenes and losing interest.

Having said that, if you are into this genre, chances are you might really like it so I would encourage you to download it and give it a try.

Good luck to the dev!

UPDATE: I have been informed there are options under preferences to change the dialogue during the h scenes so they are visible. I have never seen this option before so my fault for missing it.

I used to have a boss who was a small business owner that had the same outlook as this dev.

I'd ask him questions like:
"Why don't we upgrade to "x" shipping company? They're better in every way, and we can remain competitive."
And he'd always just dismiss my concerns:
"Well, we've always gone with "x," and it worked out fine, why change? "

Story is fun, but just like with all of the devs other games, everything else remains substandard and never improves, as if every game and every update was his first.

Same still frame, poorly done, non animated sex scenes. Same stiff conversations and low brow writing. Same derpy facial expressions (or lack of any at all). Same souless doll-like eyes staring off into the abyss instead of to the person they're talking to. Same tropes like the last games. Same MC. Same... everything.

If this wasn't the umpteenth game the dev has made where he's put literally zero effort into improving his process, it wouldn't be on the lower end of the rating. If this wasn't 2024, this might be a good game. Thing is, everyone has long since moved away from this sort of paleolithic use of Daz. There's just no excuse anymore, man.

I'm glad you're consistent with updates. Many devs are not. But that consistency is also spread amongst all the negatives as well. It's been quite the minute since your first game and you should have figured out how to use Daz by now. What may have carried the shortfalls of your games in the past simply do not cut it in the present. What may have been a hit back then, is just mediocre and forgettable now. You've got a story that is interesting in there somewhere. Your games generally have decent storylines, but that's all there is on offer. It's a 4 star story, with a 1 star sfx budget. It's honestly a shame, because it's obvious you like to make games and write stories. But story alone isn't going to keep me engaged if everything else remains so consistently awful and you refuse to make even the smallest attempt at improving. I hope you join us in the current decade eventually. It's pretty cool here and there's a lot of neat tech.

I no longer work under my previous boss. Not because I quit, but because he eventually went bankrupt due to being unwilling to keep up, adapt, and evolve within the space.

Writers are doing a great job. I like the story line. Graphics are good, but could use more detail. I would like to see better quality animations. I like the wider range of characters. Each character gives a different favor to the story line. Over all a great game.

There is some complex lore inside for just a common fantasy game. Weird. I liked the dialogue so far and it keeps me playing. But I am impressed by the amount of gods. Almost Skyrim levels. The main character is a common fantasy MC with no remarkable personality traits beyond being a nice and honor-full guy most of the time, but the models are nicely made no uncanny valley or deformed bodies to be seen.

Not very good. The plot is good, the writing is poor, the girls are... niche, and the sex scenes are bad.

The plot is solid. The writing doesn't quite work, however, at least in English. There are lines dealing with intrigue, cleverness, and implied secrets, and they don't make sense. There's a lot of stuff that I can't directly follow, which is not normal for me.

The girls are mostly not even close to human. LIs include: a red-eyed dwarf, an actual fucking ghost, an orc, a halfling (probably), a woman corrupted by necromancy so she looks half like a zombie, and an actual human. If that's what you're into, then you might like this game. I don't mind there being niche LIs, but I want there to be actual human women. I probably wouldn't've played this game if the screenshots were representative of the LIs.

The sex scenes are not animated, and don't have dialogue. They are basically just a series of slightly changed still images. They really don't work for me; I was actually laughing during the first sex scene I got with a human.

Anyway, I got basically nothing good out of this.

The art is top quality both in characters and backgrounds, while i personally don't like animations you have to notice that they are also very high quality even if a bit slow.

While the main story is way over complicated it is still an interesting read and plenty enough to keep you interested in playing, on the flip side the minor story arcs are too simple basically there is an enemy kill it.

Characters are good from a story standpoint, coming off as very realistic being just what you would expect from the situation but again on the flip side because of that none of the women are likeable from a dating point of view, personally i didn't like any of them enough to see a single sex scene in the whole game.

The other thing about the characters is they are almost totally useless beyond a quick healing and general cooking the MC does everything by himself, would have been nice to see them help out once and a while.

After playing to the end i didn't see a single consequence of any choice that was made, a few were obvious see sex scene or not but the ones that should control the story had no impact of any kind that i could notice, maybe they will end up doing something in the future but for now choices are mostly pointless.

Story 3/5 (needs a little work)
Art 5/5 (very good)
Sex N/A (didn't get any on my play through)
Fetishes 1/5 (nonhuman if that counts)
Choices 1/5
Characters 3/5 (Ok)

This VN has some of the best world building I've ever seen in a VN. I love fantasy worldbuilding, but a lot of stories just use exposition dumps. But this VN doesnt do that - everything is unraveled slowly and the dev actually actually leaves it up to the players to piece it together through the dialogue and the preexisting knowledge of fantasy stuff.
There was never a scene where the circumstances are explicitly explained to the player and the fact that I was able to piece it together really shows how well the whole thing is written.
As for the technical stuff, the dialogue writing and the visuals are good, but the character models can look a little generic and the posing is a little awkward - especially in the sex scenes.
Definitely give this one a shot if you are at all interested in magical fantasy stories.