Very well written with an interesting story, but be warned it gets real fucking dark.
The sex scenes are plentiful and well done, but it is very koikatsu so if you like sex scenes from there you will like this (no sound though). The fact that there is actual story behind the sex scenes makes them way better than most porn games.
The music is fucking glorious and the humor is absolutely on point.
The "gameplay" isn't really anything, there is no substance to it at all. But it is not grindy so doesnt really take away from the game, though it doesn't add anything to it either.
Tropicali unapologetically has a story it wants to tell and it succeeds masterfully in doing that, it just happens to not be my kind of story.
The sex scenes are a bit repetitive and the camera angles are the best, plus there are many moments where the text box is over important part, you can easily hide the textbox but still annoying.
The gameplay could be a lot better, the management is very basic which I wouldn´t mind if the feeling of it was good, but it isn´t it never feels like you grow the resort. The hiring sytem was very dissapointing the first few character had special scenes and even stuff like tits showing so I thought that would be expaned but no it was completly missing.
The chracters are okay, they are portayed deeper then they actually are but I still enjoyed them most of the time.
The story and especially tone of the story are both a mess, there are a lot of moments were it kinda works, but a lot are just too much and they end up feeling silly rather than emotional, there are a lot of things which came out of nowhere and then didn´t get enough screentime, and some moments were it kinda works but there is always something missing.
I guess the animations are fine, the models have a good variety and the gameplay loop itself isn't too grindy.
Other than that, cringe story, cringe tropes, cringe writing. This might sound unfair to people who like these kinds of games, but even for anime-looking game like this, it is not hard to have a modicum of creativity.
If you like watching numbers go up, listening to catchy latino music, or being surprised that someone with actual writing skills would make one of these games, this is the one for you.
Tropicali took me on an about 12 hour trip that I missed when it was over. By far the best Ren'py offering on this site that I've experienced in a good while, with none of the usual bugs or jankiness.
The gameplay isn't revolutionary, the story won't keep you up at night, and the animations aren't Pixar level, but they all combine with the fun and unapologetic swagger of this game to create something truly worth experiencing.
Self-aware, but not overly so, this game jerks you back and forth between thinking about how awful your actions are, and then proceeding to do them anyway.
Just try it for yourself.
An almost perfect game, in a sense of how perfect can a game realistically be.
Thought out story, even if of course over the top, but most importantly followed through until the end and with a clear resolution.
Humorous narration.
Good music choices and atmosphere pacing during the story.
Sexy characters. I'm all about big natural tits, so of course the ones I like best are Mio and Gloria. They have godlike bodies. But Gloria takes the cake, she's just so beautiful, thick "in all the right places" as Storyanon himself even says and just the sexiest digital woman alive.
Amazing renders/animations. And I mean amazing. The last scene with Gloria is maybe in the top 5 of sexiest animations ever done in a game.
The only con is the "gameplay" between the cinematics/scene. It's basically useless and pointless, and seemingly just there to make this game more than a simple AVN, but that's what it is. But that's perfectly ok, this AVN is incredible.
First off, a brief overview.
The game combines a tycoon manager with a VN. Its pretty unique.
Next, the music is pretty great. The dev does a good job fitting the correct music for the tone of the scenes.
Third, the characters are really well written. There are some real moments that pulled at my heart unexpectedly. The mc is not stupid or a beta. He is a charming bastard and possibly a bit of a psycho. He is not your typical self-insert weakling, he is confident and properly seduces the women around him.
The humor is great in this game, and is offset by the shockingly mature and heavy themes in this vn. The dev did a great job of combining comedy and tragedy.
Lastly, the girls are sexy and interesting. Whats not to love?
Ok. I'm gonna rapid-fire go through most of this game, because honestly it isn't too special in some regards, and I want to let my contrarian flag fly on the story.
Character variety is actually handled well, at least among the main characters. It's kinda tropey and nothing too terribly crazy at the end of the day, but there's definitely a wide breadth of main characters, which isn't always the case.
Side characters are a different story. You have approximately 40 hirable characters outside of the main 8, and they all are unique design speaking. The problem is that their expression as characters is relegated to an interview scene, where it's very clear between waves 1 and the other 4 that the devs kind of gave up? It's just a 5~9 line bit with some bust art for most of them, and that would be fine if it was consistent and not a direct downgrade from Wave 1's more involved bits.
Visuals? Nothing special. These are most likely ripped from one of the "generic porn modeling applications". I will give credit to the dev for trying to do something unique with them, even if that usually comes down to dimming the screen and focusing on someone's eyes. There's so many projects that do the bare minimum, so I'd be remiss to not reward at least some effort.
The management sim part of this game sucks. It's so tedious and such a nothingburger. It offers no challenge or even the slightest bit of critical thinking, and as soon as you get into a good rhythm, it just boils down to the slightest bit of upkeep every turn or two which, while not time consuming, feels like a chore nonetheless.
Music? Beats me. I've long since developed the habit of playing eroge sans sound because why not? The music/sound design can be anywhere between stock music and the hardest shit cooked up, and I wouldn't know. Sorry.
Ok now here's where I get real spicy. I generally liked the story. It's definitely unique, and also makes you feel like a shitty person as you control someone who's morals get slowly stripped away. Having a sandbox eroge where the more people you get laid with, the more depressing the ending gets is an absolutely wild thing, and I think it works better than people give it credit for. I mean, fuck, one of the characters has severely fucked up cognition, you think that's going to realistically end well when you take advantage of and (optionally) impregnate her? Rounding out your main trio of just flat out victims (I'd argue everyone's kind of a victim but these three are played up the most to just be straight up victims of you) is someone grappling with not being needed by anyone, and someone feeling abandoned by anyone. Those can get resolved in healthy ways, but they can also get resolved in extremely toxic ways, and this game's protagonist is written to be a fuckboy narcissist that leans towards fixing things in toxic ways.
I wish that everyone in this story got to have their problems resolved in a positive way. Again, the story here is really depressing, from the early signs of impending abuse up until the ramifications of your actions are made crystal clear. However, be it as I morally object to the protagonist (and Mio)'s actions, I think the way it's written is actually pretty decent. It's telegraphed, nothing out of character really happens, and dammit, its theming got seen to its grisly end.
On the ending, I don't think it's terrible. I also played this whole game in like 3 daily sessions, so everything was fresh on my mind. I think it's a bit soap opera-y and all over the place, but there were maybe two elements that hadn't been introduced prior that felt a bit cheap, but at the end of the day it's a sequence about reaching the lowest depths of your depravity and watching the people you've abused over the course of the game finally snap. On top of that, I disagree with the outcome of your actions being out of nowhere because again, it was consistently telegraphed throughout more or less every scene. It's severely fucked up, no doubt, but it's still part of a very coherent vision.
Anywho, I think this game's pretty good. I understand why it's controversial, but despite its negatives, I think its depressing story of abuse and exploitation provides something unique.
The visuals are amazing. Managed to tell a tropey dramatic story without being cringe.
The big problem is in the writing. Very tell not show, strangely emotional distance is increased during key scenes instead of decreasing. Horrible choice.
Awful waste of time management system.
Very strange minor characters and just in general unclear tone that made the experience confusing instead of hot or memorable.
Amazing graphics, character designs/artstyle and animations as well as music selection. Brought down by boring gameplay and just an overall confusing to bad story mostly by the latter half of it.
The gameplay is a simple management sim, hire people and put them to work in buildings you buy over time, and occasionally put them to rest when their smiley face turns to a frowny one, at the beginnding it's ok, but a lot of the more interesting and engaging mechanics like passives to make certain characters work better in certain buildings are locked behind progression and by the time you reach them, you're already most likely learned and gotten bored by the repetitive nature of it and it requires very little actual strategy or minmaxing and become more of a chore just to get the money needed to pay the debts and unlock more scenes.
The story is just disappointing, because at the beginning it had a lot of potential and was a lot of fun, a simple rags to riches, a somewhat cocky but charming and kindhearted guy becomes an inheritor of an island resort and he gets to meet and hire some cute girls, a story with a great comedic tone, but by the latter half, once you progress more and more with the love interests, it just devolves into such a feels bad type of story where the game tries to make you feel as awful as it can by the very end and shaming you for your 'poor' choices of just wanting to see porn in a porn game. Very misleading dialogue choices that make you regret attempting to get intimate with characters, the main character just out of nowhere goes on ramblings about being a evil or being manipulative even if his actions haven't been overly malicious or evil or really made with any ulterior motives by any means to make you feel bad for 'using' the love interests for selfish goals, just so much moral projection that it's hard to understand it unless you like being talked down to. Apperantly there are multiple endings, I just got the one where I tried to get every sex scene possible and as a result got the bad harem ending where everyone apparently hated me/was broken. Going out of my way to get the other ones seemed overly tedious because without proper saves at the right moments you'd have to replay the whole game without any advantages.
Such a shame, if it was a simpler/comedic and lighthearted story that kept the same tone from beginning to end I'd easily give it a max score even with the underwhelming gameplay considered, but the sour taste left after finishing just completely ruined it for me and just overamplifies the bad aspects of the game and overall makes me just regret wasting my time getting so invested, to just not see a satisfying ending to it all. I wouldn't recommend picking it up unless you're just looking to stare at the absolutely stunning art, but in that case, why not just find some reuploads instead.
TLR. It is great up to a point and it gets downhill from there. Feels rusehed towards the ending.
It started really good with the premise of a "Rags-To-Riches" story.
Even if you unconventional inherit a big business.
Great character diversity like mature dom, mature sub/loving/ naïve bimbo/ tomboy/ emotional lacking/ tsundere/ loving sister.
Game elements are okay'ish, not really a fan of time based management style games, and yes there is the easy mode, but I played it before it got into the game.
Humour is welcome and appreciated, even if somewhat cringe worthy.
The worst part about this game is the, what feels like, a rushed ending. And everyone is sad that you are a harem leader without the option to do anything about it. You ruined a promise from a loving wife,. You screwed a relationship, based on love, up. You killed someone for your love, who feels guilt and displeasure and love?.
You basiclly get punished for enjoying a harem premise. And you get punished if you don't enjoy t.
It is really hard to say it is the worst game, because it got the got vibes of a enjoyable game with good characters and scenes. Premise is awesome and even good teaser for future games.
And it is hard to say it is good because it feels to rushed, there is no real ending to the build up. It has too many characters with too few content. It should build up these characters there is little to no information why Rina is there. It happens OFFSCREEN.
TL;DR: This game is a gem. It's a must play if you're OK with a well-executed sandbox management game with VN sections, and you like your porn interspersed and mixed with comedy and parody. Visuals, UI, music, sound design, backdrops, characters, worldbuilding - so much of this game is of such high-quality that you should at least give it a try.
The Review
This will be mostly praise, because truly this game deserves a lot of it. I would like to preface by saying that I am not someone who usually goes for this type of product; I like comedy, but my stuff is slow-burn romantic traditional VNs with focus on lore and/or characters. However, Tropicali is so well executed that I enjoyed it thoroughly.
My first surprise was with the visuals. The UI seems to be fully custom-made on top of Ren'Py, and it works really well, making the game look well-polished from the start. Honestly, it's better than many conventional AA games out there. There are some small UX hiccups with some keyboard controls not working on some parts of the fully custom UI, but I think most people use just mouse anyways. The renders and animations are also high-quality from the start and maintain that consistency all the way to the end.
The second surprise was the music. It fits with the themes of the game so well, and shifts to match more erotic or introspective moments too. I actually got to know Helado Negro's work via this game and now I listen to his songs on my free time quite often. 10/10 on the music front.
The third surprise was the writing. Humour is very personal, but to me, this game nails the flavour of parody-esque humour that it's going for. The writing is comedic all throughout and the game doesn't take itself too seriously, I chuckled and literally laughed out loud so many times playing through it that I quickly lost count.
And the surprises just kept coming. The sandbox is well implemented, a rarity in the world of VNs. It offers enough depth for you to satisfy the efficiency-goblin part of your brain, while not posing enough of a challenge to deter anyone who absolutely doesn't want to truly engage with it. You can also choose to entirely remove the failstate from the management part, meaning you can just spam "Next day" if you really don't want to have to think about employee stats and stuff. It's not deep enough to be a management game fully by itself, but this is a piece of porn media, it's not trying to sell itself as a complete management sim.
Next, the characters. I expected the LIs would be different flavours of fetishes for you to explore, and that is not an incorrect assessment, but they are also considerably more engaging than I expected (and one of the relationships might end in an unexpectedly strong gut-punch, that being Juni). There are some quick-but-deep moments with most of them that, while not matching the expected tone that the game had set, actually served really well to break-up the constant comedy and made me laugh harder when the jokes inevitably came back afterwards, while also making me curious to know more about the world.
Your protagonist is also not an insufferable prick. I mean, he is a prick, but he is proudly and consistently a prick, and the game establishes very quickly that you will have no say in that, so no expectations are broken when he comments on his actions or makes choices for you. This was also the first AVN that made me go for the self-centered/chaotic/""evil"" path in my first playthrough, since the game clearly establishes that this is the story it wants to tell, and you're mostly just along for the ride. The game will openly make fun of you if you choose to go for 'prudish' (or 'sensible', depending on your point of view) choices - this is one of multiple comments of this nature, but you can get the following message during the end sequence, for example: "You didn't fuck your maids because youre a boring player who played this game wrong. If you're reading this, you suck.". In other contexts, in stories that take themselves seriously, this type of 4th-wall break to diminish the player's choices would be a big red flag, but here, they're just another joke that fits the theme of the game.
Conclusion
And honestly, that's it. I don't have any major criticisms for the game. It was positive surprise after positive surprise for the first 2 hours of playing this thing, and after I raised my expectations to match the quality I was seeing, the game didn't let me down at any later point either, it just maintained that level to the end.
I fully recommend this game if you can take it without seriousness, can stomach (or enjoy) the management aspects, and can understand and laugh at the drives of a parodied heteronormative cis male protagonist. Even if you don't come for (with?) the porn, this game will probably get you to laugh enough to enjoy it, and the technical aspects are consistently good enough to let you coast through any part that doesn't touch you personally.
Started great with a cool premise, humor, vibe and animations, but literally falls apart and rugpulls you so hard in the second half of the game it's hard to recommend this to anyone. Doesn't really give a lot of the content it teases and railroads you into a unsatisfying ending.
You'll also realize pretty fast your narrative choices are an illusion. It's basically be nice and get no content, or be forced to be an asshole to get content. Wouldn't been a problem if it's meant to be pure VN, but presenting you with choices and consistently telling the player "you're wrong" gets old quickly.
Absolutely horrible ending, do not play this game unless you feel like being depressed.
Seriously, what the hell was the point of this game? "Life sucks, everyone dies, your fantasy's are garbage and you should feel bad for enjoying them in a game." Or something? Gee, thanks a lot I guess? I seriously have no idea why this story is so extremely meanspirited in it's theming. I understand that harem stuff and happy endings are unrealistic and quite childish, but is that not the point of playing a video game with those themes? To have a few moments of joy before going back to the mundanity of life?
Before the game went terrible I was a bit concerned of course, I'm not an idiot, I saw the foreshadowing, I read the overview. But I assumed I was in for a rollercoaster (you know, scary, ups and downs, but on rails and will eventually end in a satisfying way), not a cliff dive with no water at the bottom. I assumed it was melodrama, and everything would work out, or at worst, I'd have to replay it and do things 'right' to get the 'good' ending. I assumed this because that's the case for almost every other game of this type I've ever played. But no that 'good ending' just doesn't even exist. The 'good' ending is "Hey fuckhead, don't play the game. Leave everyone alone. Be alone. No romance for you. You're better off not having existed within the framing of this story. Feel bad." Why make the damn game at all then? Like I understand the theming and the framing of the story, I just think it's shit, pointless, and mean.
I was about to download the creators other game when I was in the first half of this one, because I was very impressed with the visuals and the dialogue, but to hell with that. I've got no interest in feeling bad while trying to enjoy an H video game, and that seems to be what gets this developers rocks off or something. Being subversive about a damn harem game and telling us all that we're wrong for enjoying them, or somehow destructive because we've got fantasy's we have no intention of enacting in the real world.
Maybe it ain't that deep and I'm being too sensitive, but fuck if I'm not frustrated by this gaming experience. 1/5 stars, visuals are fantastic.
The renders are very nice, some of the best models made with this Koitaku engine. Also the scenes are nice and plot is engaging. But I found it kinda incomplete and rushed ending. The harem ending is a let down and the teasing incest to have absolutely no scene with the supposed sister is a letdown, besides having impregnation but do not showing any pregnant girls and I don't recall the anal scene at all. The music though, is very good.
Excelent visuals, the writing is corny and fun, it has his sentimental moments and exciting ones. I love that it goes to the point without the feeling of getting rushed.
The minigame about managin the island is refreshing and i found it to be quite enjoyable. A good standalone game, its fresh, funny and interesting. A good one.
Intriguing start, good humour, good models, terrible ending
each LI introduction ends with something along the lines of "you will ruin her life", which I thought was intriguing. Then the first choices appear and you're either on the darker route and get the first teases or you get nothing and dev literally says "why are you playing these types of games".
That made me assume that the choices were next to meaningless and that you should take every opportunity, leading to the drama later on. It's fine to have some drama in a story, it can allow to bounce back even harder once its cleared.
The problem becomes obvious when you realise the drama that was teased happens at the same time and in the same scene at the end.
I was left confused. To get the main content of this game, you sometimes have to be a scumbag and deal with the consequences at the end. I know there's like 4 mysterious warnings at the beginning but with the playfulness and humour this game offers for quite a lot of hours, i was not expecting to actually end in such a bitter way. It simply wasn't fitting and crushed all the previous experience.
On top of that, during the entire story it's teased that the characters have a hidden side to them, sometimes even supernatural. However, the best you can have are two lines of dialogue close to the ending explaining vaguely what's their deal and that's it. You paid attention and were curious where it would lead? The answer is nowhere. now scram.
such a shame when i think most would agree that everything else is well made
Everything about this game is a 5/5. Great writing, great animation, great music, and even if it's just a management game, the gameplay didn't feel like it was lacking anything at all and even managed to play well into the story.
Everything about Tropicali just feels so alive. The humor isn't ran into the ground, the characters actually have personalities, and even you, the main protagonist, isn't just some self-insert for any bastard playing the game. He's not a "do-gooder kind guy", hell he can be a piece of shit at times but that's what makes him a good protagonist as a piece of media. My ONLY criticism (which doesn't affect my score and outlook towards the game) is that the choices just feels empty? 90% of the time it was only:
A: Be kind and sympathize with the girl. -> Fuck her.
B. Be an annoying dipshit. -> Do not fuck her.
...and you would never choose the option that don't fuck the girl.
Another important part is the visuals. I've been avoiding most 3DCG games because most of them look ugly (especially Koikatsu models), but not Tropicali. They don't look unique, but they don't need to be unique to look good. They just need to be really well done no matter how simple they might look. And the animation is something you just have to experience for yourself. Perfect.
It was good, liked the gameplay loop and the scenes where great, also liked that you didnt have to do any random walking around to trigger events, sadly it also meant there were no repeatable events, yeah you can rewatch the scenes but its not the same, plus it feels like there was a lot of loose threads up until the end and some post game content would have helped a lot. so yeah 4/5 among the other porn harem making sandbox games its good and does some things better than other games but it also does a few things worse, like how you acted towards the girls never mattered, you being nice simply means no sex scene....
The story was decent for the most part for the first half, but everything completely fell apart for the second half. I honestly hated the ending—it left me feeling like absolute crap after finishing the game. Half the cast ends up traumatized, and not even all of the love interests get a happy ending. Like, where did that even come from? What was the point of building trust with everyone if it all just gets thrown away in the end? It honestly felt like a huge waste of time, and now I just feel depressed.
I also had no idea where the drug part came from, but yeah—you literally have to drug them to get them pregnant. That came out of nowhere and made things even worse.
This is my first review on this site, and honestly, it feels more like a rant than a review. The animation was good, and most of the girls were likable (except for Mio). But seriously, I recommend staying far away from this game just because of the ending.
R. It is great up to a point and it gets downhill from there. Feels rusehed towards the ending.
