VN - Ren'Py - Trouble in Paradise [v1.9] [Syko134]

Well, this one is tough to review. It certainly has its strengths but it also has a few flaws that are hard to overlook for me.

It's the same basic story in terms of porn content. There's a dozen girls throwing themselves at the MC for superficial reasons. They are all cute in their basic submissive devotion that seems to be the porn trope men find most attractive, but which I start to find really annoying. It's the same as in every other game of this kind.

The main story is actually nice with the mystery suspense going on, but a little bit too accommodating. There is little doubt that the MC will prevail. The introduction of the superpowers is really new and fun though. It will carry the story for a long while still.

Unfortunately, the story takes forever to take off. You'll read for a few hours before anything (at all) happens.

Still, it is kinda nice once it gets going, but at this point it also becomes clear that the writing gets overwhelmed by the amount of girls. Characters are left abandoned for hours while the MC does his thing elsewhere.

Alyssa is a good example. She gets a bunch of scenes early, only to be basically ignored forever after. Not to spoil things, but after the manager scene, you'd have assumed that they'd talk immediately, but no dice. Seeing her again next will depend on completely unrelated choices, so you really have little say as a player in your destiny.

Same goes for Violet, which is the first girl he dates, setting up a fairly believable romance but which immediately gets sidelined afterwards and relegated to a sidekick for the foreseeable future only to have her story on a forced branch later, which makes equally little sense. It's all over the place.

Continuity is really not good at this point and more and more girls get introduced only to be abandoned on the spot. It's weak story telling. This would have been much stronger with a less numerous cast.

Having said all that, by porn game standards, it is decently entertaining I guess for the majority of people that come here. There's plenty of porn. All this may sound a bit negative, but you can tell it is a labor of love and if you are ok with this being bog standard in terms of successful tropes, you'll enjoy it. Maybe my negativity is borne from the fact that this has/had potential to be more than that.

If you're looking for a good slice of life game with very sympathetic characters, this might be a good experience for you.

The main story is not that good or compelling – at least yet –, but the characters are well written, which makes a pleasant and immersive experience. And that is the main strength of the game.

There could me more lewd content given the length. And some scenes you only get if you choose the right answers, which are, sometimes, impossible to guess correctly with the info you're given – it would be really frustrating if I wasn't playing with the walkthrough mod.

v0.7.0 Public

Trouble in Paradise v 0.7.0

I don't generally like hentai or ahegao... but **** this VN is superb. Congratulations to syko134 on a wonderfully unique story. Love the dialogue and the plots. And its funny. Really funny in places which highlights the tension and darkness. Love the story. Thanks!

An interesting visual novel with lots of character and tongue in cheek humour. The characters have well defined personalities and act consistently with that definition but are open to growth areas. The grammar and spelling are usually on point, and the plot evolves to something more than a typical slice of life harem visual novel does. You can tell that the developer has put in considerable time, resources and care into their work, making it something to be proud of.

There are some things I think I would change:

• For some reason, I find some girls' heads are weirdly shaped where the area up to the temples are inflated, like an upside down pear. I found it most notable on Alyssa. Don't know if this is a limitation of the character generation engine or an artistic choice.
• The beginning chapters I found to be slow and repetitive. I think we could have been introduced to the major plotline a bit sooner.
• The animated sex scenes are great, but lack accompanying text that makes the sex really pop out. Dirty talk is important!
• On the subject of dirty talk, 'moar fetishes' please!

Overall a great VN with awesome potential. Keep up the fantastic work!

Great game. Solid and engaging story with some great and characters and nice relationship building. Models are varied and nice looking and the sex scenes are pretty good. Only drawback is the linear nature of the game. Not a ton of choices and the first half of the game plays like a kinetic novel. This does lead the player places some may not want to go but the game does allow you to decide who those early relationships play out later on. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a nice harem game with some romance, mystery and even some tension and menace.

Some of the most genuine chemistry between characters I've ever seen in a porn VN. I'm not exactly sure where the overarching plot is going right now, but I honestly don't care as long as the writing continues to have such a high level of quality. Koikatsu can sometimes have a propensity for making robotic-looking animations and characters with severe sameface, and while the sameface problem is not fully fixed, the characters are all fairly distinct in design, and the animations are extremely fluid-looking. Really looking forward to seeing this story to the end.

I expected nothing from this. The warnings and tags worried me, and the banner is boring and not representative of the game.

I was pleasantly surprised. There are several characters, all different enough without relying on exaggerated archetypes. They interact with each other and don't all want to fuck their friends.

Story is delivered slowly and not driven by the mc. There seems to be some movement 'off camera' that will likely pan out. Some is mysterious but some is obvious and it can be frustrating watching the mc ignore it. The mc seems to have no interest in the story and doesn't search out the people that are showing obvious signs of needing help, instead he waits until they appear in front of him.

This is an 'easy' game where your choices don't matter much and you can have almost everything offered. I like this.

I hate multiple protags and seeing from someone else's pov. Here it is done well. Very clearly lampshaded and not the usual "His dick was so big, why do I want to fuck him. I must masturbate now" crap. I appreciate not being given choices while viewing someone else's pov.

Introducing more characters seems unnecessary as the existing characters have barely been developed.

Well the first 30 minutes of the game give you the chance to enjoy the writing and story development. This decent writing mantains its quality for the next hour, in that period i can still enjoy the sense of humor and the jokes.

During that time there are an insane amount of clics and lots of apparently unconsecuential "sex" scenes in dreams (and this shit happens in many games, where nothing happens and you are fed with fanservice dreams as filler)

Once past the first 90-120 minutes of reading you may begin to notice that character arcs almost stopped developping and still, nothing interesting is happening, instead Mc becomes more and more alone, and when he is with someone, is to crak jokes and read exposition, and besides some minor exceptions not even the slightest hint or innuendo of sexual nature.

At that point in which i find myself right now, i feel like i need to stop playing this, cause it is becoming more and more annoying, to the point where what i initially perceived as a 4 stars, is getting dangerously close to a 1star rage rating.
It seems that at this point the MC doesnt like anyone, or nobody likes him and instead of be presented with more opportunities to engage, most of the time he spends with a dude.
Spoiling a little:
Right now Mc sister spends most of the time with the cheerleaders, and besides dreams, nothing happens at home. At school he is offerered to spend time with Emily and he declines, he is offered to spend time with the cheerleaders and he declines, he tries to speak with Ana and she wants to be alone.
And the doctor asks for Mc sister saying "its urgent", but proceeds to talk to Mc alone and asks him not to tell her about the DNA drama.Allow me call this bullshit. What is this, a porn novel or a Chinese Drama?

I dont know why after 2 hours the writer creates more and more opportunities to split the characters apart instead of making them closer. Lets see what will happen for this to change, it needs a 180 and usually i dont change my reviews much.

Edit>>
After finally finishing 0.53 the actual game didnt improve much, there were a lot of 4th walls broken there, Nicole acted in a totally unexpected way after so much building, like the writer got tired of creating endless subdirectories of subplots and drama, and the relationship with the sister almost came out of nowhere at the end of the update. I fell like that part was 200% rushed compared to the previous pace. This game has some issues building anticipation. Its my personal understanding here, but when something good happens, im so disconnected from it that i only get to enjoy it when is coming to an end.

I can not say its bad, cause it is not, if it was a finished novel with 20 hours of gameplay (and got the pacing issues solved and other stuff) it would be good.
It has some good things like the writing and some funny parts , not the ones whenre every character and the narator itself seem to come straight from a drama club, cracking jokes and quoting movies.

The game is great, it's very fun to play and the level of writing is really high. It has some funny moments, and a lot of nice character building moments, and I like how reading it doesn't feel like effort at any point, the game keeps you entertained and doesn't feel like a drag at any point.
As well as that, it has a nice soundtrack and some amazing animations. I'd definitely have it as a top 5 game on this forum. Overall, it's been a good experience to play it!

This is a really good VN. Humor is awesome
Renders 4/5 because I haven't come across any place holder screens, or blank screens, or errors
Models 4/5 because they are all sexy, good looking women
MC 4/5 because he's not a puss or a douche
Story 4/5 because it's interesting and not overbearing, and has a good flow
Overall
This is a well written VN. Yeah it has some random grammar mistakes, but what VN doesn't? The interactions are what makes this one really good. Characters are dynamic, and mesh well together. I recommend this VN all day long. Give it a play through. Keep up the good work, and I'll check this one out when the next update comes out

I've really enjoyed this game. See, I even wrote this long ass review. Hopefully it is informative and will help with future development decisions (if ever seen). Tldr not at the end, so skim if you want.

I categorize games into 2 broad categories: those with great renders and those with great renders and engrossing stories. This one is definitely the latter. I spent around 2 hours or so just reading and enjoying the events of the world and the characters. The developments are interesting, and while the pacing is slightly slow, it was still pleasant and enjoyable. I don't imagine many people do this when presented a harem, but I rejected all other characters and just pursued Iris- and still I didn't feel like I missed much. That's a good sign for your baseline story.

Pros:
Writing/Relationships - Overall quite good. I really like that the interactions between the characters are believable (sibling banter, animosity between ex's, etc); things that are forced aren't too egregious (bathroom peeping, universal attraction to MC). There's a good set of character archetypes to play around (earnest/class rep, casual/FB, capricious/delinquent, tsundere, popular/cheerleader, MILF, etc...) which makes things interesting. The writing is humorous and got a few sympathetic nose exhales out of me. There is not much character progression yet, but the development in the relationship between the MC and Iris is great, and the payoff is already quite satisfying. The eye-discoloration/confession part was a really memorable and clever plot device, the tension, flashback, and reactions were all expertly done, and the translation in the relationship/resolution was supremely satisfying. Definitely the best part of the story so far and I'm looking forward to how their relationship develops from this point. Hopefully we can get a true ending with Iris, start a family.... well I can hope
Animations/Renders - Also quite good. The different angles and positions are nice, the movements are usually natural and smooth, and I really appreciate the 'afterglow' animations when they are present. I think the facial expressions are great and the renders are well done.

Cons
Animations - Aversion to illustrating creampies (1 instance?) and not enough care and time allotted to climax. That's really the payoff of the scene, the peak, but its neglected. Its jarring how all of the buildup, several angles and positions, leads to a somewhat lackluster finish, and then transitions away quickly (that's why I appreciate the afterglow scenes when present). It would be vastly improved if you gave these scenes more attention. Maybe its a personal kink thing but the creampie is really underplayed here.
MC(?) - A potential drawback is the propensity of the MC to white-knight. I find such characters unrealistic and exasperating, but that is merely unsolicited personal opinion. I say potential drawback because you hint at dark events and twists upcoming: in order for world to feel dynamic, the upstanding MC needs to grow and change, to at least feel the moral pressure in dealing with these events (potential drawback if he remains static). These dark twists will provide a great opportunity to develop the cast.
Choices - Really the only choices that exist are those which turn off or on the sexual content of the harem members. Not many meaningful story choices. Some choices really aren't even choices at all and railroad you into the same path. Having meaningful choices that alter the storyline and ending makes the game 5x better (yet 100x harder to create).

Overall, really enjoyed it. I hope development is successful and informative for the dev. Looking forward to more.

I really like the relationships between characters in this game, they react like a real human beings, not some dolls, they are quirky, funny and relatable people(except Liam, all my homies hate Liam). I haven't laughed so much while playing any other adult game. 10/10

Great characters and tension! The characters look good and different unlike most games, and the h-scenes are well done. Story wise and lewd material. Pacing is pretty good and has a lot of content for just a 0.5 game. Looking forward to the next updates.

[v0.3.3]

Ok so who wants to read a hundred thousand words of boring dialogue and angsty teen bullshit? How about if the MC is a massive pussy and the whitest of white knights where he respects the shit out of all the women he meets? Acting all insecure and sweet and respecting everyone's feelings.

And how do the women react? They throw themselves at him obviously! Duh.

This isn't so much a good story as a fantasy depiction about how the author thinks real life ought to be like. I have a harder time believing this kind of fantasy world than one with space-faring aliens. At least the second can make some kind of sense.

It is really grating how the MC gets girls by acting like a massive pussy white knight. This shit isn't hot, realistic or even remotely interesting.

This was an excellent play the writing was engaging the characters especially the bro and "best friend" really have great chemistry cant wait for the update. PS you have options out of the NTR if that's your thing. Nichole is evil in all the right ways.

I clicked next next next next next with mouse and keyboard for 5 minutes and still no choices , and nothing but standard teen angst drama romance.

If there really are choices and a game here it should come before 5 minutes of constant button mashing. It would have taken me 30 minutes to read it all before i just gave up.
I am going to suspend my belief and accept that people come to this site to read i mean play games like these.
I am going to give it 3 stars as I think this is a fair assessment of a "this type of game I dont think is a game and should have its own site, like maybe fan fic renpys?"
Remember 3 stars if you are a person who enjoys this kind of "game"

I had my doubts about the simplistic art-work, but it has grown on me. And the writing is clever and I'm interested in the story. I like the relationship-building. There is a real sincerity to it and I don't consider anything 'forced'. Overall, a very entertaining project.

I like this game, a lot. It's definitely one of the better games on this site, even though it has a lot of development to go (Judging by the current build number). My favourite thing about this is the visuals and the artwork, it has a very nice art style and the characters look very nice. As well as this, the story is quite fun and unique.
It caught my eye a while ago, and I'm glad it did because it is a very good game

Brilliant brilliant writing. The character models are really good and the game has a nice pace even for 0.2. Looks promising so far. I hope this has a decent amount of playtime as we approach the final version. Harem is to be expected but as long as it's a wholesome kind (like Parental Love), this is a serious, quality contender for best harem games.

Story still fairly basic but has a good foundation and a decent set of characters that could be built upon to to make something interesting. The models are nice and the game is well structured though at the moment lacking in content.