VN - Ren'Py - Twisted Fates [Ep. 4] [Aigas]

I tried out Twisted Fates half-heartedly as the plot summary and screenshots looked mediocre. After finishing I strongly recommend the developer revamp his entire product page and description - it's doing a total disservice to this excellent hidden gem!

This is a potentially heavyweight AVN with an interesting plot, lots of unique characters, nice BGMs and excellent graphic renders. Only disadvantage is this developer is apparently a hobbyist with little interest in engaging players or pushing out updates, so they can be very slow.

Story
The game starts out with MC, whom we find out works in a cafe as a barista, making breakfast for an outspoken adopted sister Irena staying with him - classic indications of a typical loser MC with a tsundere LI and probably a harem of girls who fall head over heels for him for no reason.

Half an hour into the game, you go "hey maybe MC is not what he looks like after all". As the game progresses you realise that even Irena is not what she seems... And then eventually you find out almost every major character in the game is not what he/she seems initially.

I don't want to elaborate for fear of spoiling, but basically this game belongs to the modern fantasy genre and also focuses quite a bit on individual character development. This is NOT your typical troupey harem game where you go around banging random chicks in a cafe or school.

Game Mechanics
Mostly a kinetic novel with choices that allow you to reject sex scenes with LIs you are not interested in.

Background / Character Renders
Background is a combination of HS stock images and perhaps some custom renders that serve its purpose.

Characters are rendered in HS2 with the typical anime feel, but each of them is attractively designed and easily distinguishable. Kudos to also see MC looking good instead of the standard stock MC we usually see in HS2.

The fight scene in Episode 4 is actually quite impressive, it's about as best as it can be presented in a visual novel without making a one-minute continuous animation .

Character Development
Twisted Fates focuses quite a bit on character development and players slowly get to see and understand why each character behaves in a certain way as more of their secrets are revealed. I quite liked the way MC and Ely interacted - it's mature as expected of old pals and comrades instead of the usual teenage emotional drama or cougar teases male virgin act.

Irena starts off as single dimension tsundere but after a while we can tell she is also much more mature than others around her age due to her extraordinary experience. Not much is known about Anali as of Chapter 4, but likewise she gives off a friendly but mysterious vibe.

Other LIs like Akino, Laura and Saire are still development in progress, but from what we can see now each of them will also likely get their own screen time in due course.

Although the story and genre are decidedly different, the game is quite similar to the much more well-known My Bully is My Lover in its presentation and style, so you'll likely love Twisted if you are into MBIML and vice versa.

Sex Scenes
Not too many as of Episode 4, but each of them is very well done. The renders are detailed, camera angles good and no shortcut workarounds by hiding genitals in animations. Dialogue feels natural and passionate backed by unique BGM songs to bring the experience beyond just fucking for the sake of it.

BGM and Sound Effects
Most of the BGMs are standard free use pieces I've heard in other game, but overall it's nicely curated and fits the story well. There are also a couple of song tracks which fit the occasion.

There is moderate use of sound effects especially during the fight scenes which aid in immersion.

Conclusion
Twisted Fates features an interesting plot, very nice character render and development and a few memorable sex scenes. It has the potential to be a classic like My Bully is My Lover if the updates can be more frequent and more players can be enticed to try out.

I'm surprised it's relatively unknown, this is probably in part due to the horrendous game page which tells us absolutely nothing of the story and a strange selection of generic screenshots which gives the impression of a typical boring harem slice of life game.

Ch. 4 Review

As of writing, it's been over 11 months since the last update. I think Twisted Fates would be much bigger if it had more frequent updates.

This is all-round a competently made game. Solid renders, cute characters (though nothing new when it comes to HS), intriguing story, and decent music.

There are a few tropes I'm not a fan of, like how the MC's abilities and background are mostly a mystery to the player. It makes me feel less involved in the story and more like I'm just watching stuff happen. Another is the whole "I live with my little childish not-sister who falls in love with me" shtick. Just makes me feel like I'm taking advantage of a minor 20-year-old who depends on me. Also, the lesbian rape scene is unfortunate. Fortunately, that along with all romantic content is optional.

There are 2 sex events between two characters in 4 chapters of content, both of which are in the final chapter. The animation work is quite good. The dev seems to be going for a slower burn with more focus on the story. However, given the current thinness, I recommend you wait to play this game until there is more content.

[Review as of Ch4]

I don't have a ton of good things to say about Twisted Fates. The plot is dull and the pacing is a mess. The porn dialogue is a mess and a turn-off. The rest of the dialogue and writing is just awkward, wooden, and boring.

The core plot utterly lacks tension. The MC has a long and storied past, but none of it is told to you at all, meaning the characters are constantly making decisions based on context you don't have. The overpowered MC plus lack of clarity on what's going on robs any tension with the scenes, so you just kind of watch as the MC SFXes his way through non-problems. I tend to enjoy fantasy, but I just can't bring myself to care about anything happening in Twisted Fates.

The VN is also tonally all over the place. It leaps between confrontations that are presumably supposed to be tense, teenage drinking games, and the like with seemingly no interest in continuity. Scenes are frequently set up for no reason and go nowhere: for instance, at one point in Ch4 several of the characters go to a spa, and we're showed a few lines of dialogue where they realize that it isn't open yet. That's it. This wasn't important, nothing happened, and it isn't returned to. And then a few moments later they're apparently going to some party or other out of nowhere, and again it's hard to care because it comes out of nowhere and means nothing. We're introduced to a bunch of throwaway characters without accomplishing anything in the narrative, and then that scene ends because it's time to go back to progressing the plot. It's like reading a sequence of vignettes which happen to involve the same characters, except none of them actually stand on their own either.

The porn, just... doesn't do anything for me. In addition to the characters being relatively bland, the dialogue is just atrocious. The scenes read like they're ripped from poorly translated JVNs, but the characters don't even maintain consistent personas during them. The MC, for instance, speaks like a blushing virgin one line and confident/controlled the next. The romantic relationships are just as bad: the MC and his main LI, both of whom are in their 30s or older, both act like fifteen year olds when asked about their relationship. Hell, not only do they conceal it from the world, they even conceal it from the reader. I'm four chapters in to a story, allegedly from the MC's POV, and I still barely know what he thinks about anyone.

I'm perplexed that, as of writing this, this VN is rated as high as it is. There are lots of VNs that I understand a wide range of scores for: they might have obvious rough edges, controversial material, strong stylistic choices, a bad first few chapters, or big weaknesses to offset their strengths. This is none of those. It's just poorly written and a reminder that, even by the low standards of fanfiction writing, the bar is often underground.

I can tell that a lot of effort went into putting this together and I hope it turns around, but I can't see myself returning to Twisted Fates. It needs a complete rewrite from the ground up. The dialogue needs fixing, the narration needs fixing, the plot needs fixing, the pacing needs fixing, the editing needs fixing. It's just a mess.

Girls are fine. Animations are good. Music is copied from other AVN's. The one's that aren't are ok. Some of the superpowers are also copied from a popular anime. Literally to the T except for the name lol.
Has potential but only if author starts using his own ideas.
Even some jokes are from viral videos you see on youtube or reddit.

Writing this as of Ep 4

Really enjoyed this game. The pacing is good, the story is intriguing, and I like the girls presented so far.
Some might find the mc a bit OP, but I like these types, so its right up my alley.
Definitely something worth checking out, cause it got potential
Looking forward to further updates for this one ;-D

VN promising, the characters are interesting. The general atmosphere is good, it reminds a bit of eternum or ripples, which for me is a good point.
The lewd scenes are a little light, but it's not something essential, it's still the icing on the cake.

Really like the concept.
I found episode to be better than the others, good action with the girls.
Some inconsistencias like when Irena was in pain during sex whe days before she was fucking herself silly with a massive sized dildo. Artistic liberties I guess

Damn, I really like the story so far. It has great characters, so I am going to play it till the end. The character designs are appealing to me. I like the scenes so far. It's great that all of the characters have different emotions. Every character has a unique story to tell.

I'm writing this as of version 3.0.
first ill start with what i thought was done well before i pick this apart. i think the story is pretty good so far. it starts off like one of those anime that takes a few episodes to kick things off! the character development is nice and we learn a bit more about the characters as time goes by or other characters are introduced that give us new info on existing characters. (for those that like anime with a bit of mystery and those type of stories where the details of the story unfold slowly and at times character development or character traits are purposely held back to create a sense of tension.... this is one of those sort of stories)

the combat scene at the end of act 1 was pretty awesome (even if it was the MC just showing off how badass he is against monster this time instead of thugs)

i see this having potential if some things are fixed to make it more immersive.

this leads me to the things i feel need work, polishing, or just fixed completely! the big and most notable is the sudden change to Yuki toward the end of act 2! when she came on screen i was like "who is that?"! I had to read the name in the dialogue box to realize Yuki had got a makeover and I don't think it was for the better in my opinion!

the next thing is the plot holes or lack of continuity in some parts. the biggest culprit of this is the scene in act 2 where the girls (Ely and Alisa) are supposed to be staying over at the MCs place because of the rain/storm outside. then a few scenes later after an argument they go home (back to Elys house) and no more staying over. I get that English isn't the devs first language and that's why I'm not mentioning some of the grammatical errors and odd wording which are probably literal translations with no adjustment for context that make the characters English sound bad (i can handle that). but sometimes scenes jump around and make things a bit confusing.

finally I think the biggest thing I was disappointed in was the erotic content. (or lack of...) the whole time I was playing I was waiting to see who the MC was gonna hook up with and when he had the shower scene with Ely I thought things were finally gonna get good... but no luck! so disappointing! when we did finally get to some erotic content late in act3 it was unfortunately a rape scene! while the girls are hot I wasn't really feelin that! (here's hoping the MC boosts his charisma skill so that he can persuade that villan girl to join his side cause she's smokin hot!)

anyway as I've mentioned before the game has potential but may need a kinetic novel tag as I've only seen a few choices in the game and don't think they have much effect on the story (unless that's something the dev plans to add later)
my overall score is 4/5 stars because its a nice story and looks to have promise if some minor issues are cleaned up! technically, I didn't run into any bugs while playing and the only factor that had me drop the score was probably the lack of erotic content and the couple of plot holes/continuity errors I ran across!

final verdict.... would recommend for the story but if your looking to fap (while the girls are cute) there's nothing there to qualify for late night "research"!
...but that's just this guys opinion! take it or leave it!

So the game starts off with some pace, a bit slower than what I'm used to, but that's not so bad. It hits differently in that it works to establish the characters in the first episode. Something that isn't often done, I've played quite a bit of VNs, especially the western ones on this site and this is one of the few cases where the girls don't feel like they're just rotating in on a conveyor belt for the MC to plow and move onto the next one with. There's the element of mystery that leaves one to be curious about the project's story and where it is going. While there are scenes that feel sorta out of nowhere I'd say the writing is well but there could very well be some improvement in structure. The characters specifically the main ones are easily likable. The music picks throughout the game are nice and the render quality while starting out a bit rough smoothens out each chapter. Especially in the recent one that just released (as of 0.3).

One last thing is to address the elephant in the room. There is a lewd scene in the game that players may be distressed by its content. ( I personally didn't see a big deal with it.) That sort of sets the atmosphere of just what kind of characters we're dealing with as this project progresses. IMO it makes it clear this atmosphere is not just sunshine, cupcakes, and rainbows. It's a dangerous world with dangerous entities lurking in the background. With that said I enjoy this change of atmosphere and rate this with 5 stars.

A game that had a lot of potential but threw it away with a couple scenes.

Pros:
Graphics are fine
Semi-original and interesting story line
MC was not weak

Neutral:
The LI's are sometimes alright, sometimes not

Cons:
Unavoidable lesbian rape scene
Only true sexual content is none-MC related
Some NPCs are annoying

Game that had potential but threw it away with the unavoidable sexual stuff (you really want a LI that is capable of rape?). If you can stand that stuff, it may be an alright game.

v.02

An incredible start! Feels like a really good anime in VN form. The characters are all fun and look great so far. The humor is fun. The slice of life moments are done really well and are very wholesome. I went in blind and didn't expect a full power/magic system that is yet to be fully revealed to the reader.
Even though it's really early, I think this is one of the better reads on this site. The English is typical 'sorry I'm not very good at English' so it's perfectly fine and easy to understand! All in all, Twisted Fates is something I highly recommend playing and keeping up with! It's quite promising!

Too early for a proper review but so far I am enjoying it. Plot seems interesting, grammar is pretty decent, I do enjoy honey select graphics so I find the visual to be fine. The girls are nice. Its pretty early so nothing too lewd yet. Looking forward to more.

Twisted Fates v0.1

This one got potential to become a great game. Absolutely loved the story. Seems like this one is giving for importance to the story part. That's a big plus for me. FYI there is no sexual content yet. Characters are funny, loved the sister character. Another big plus is MC is not perverted nor asshole. He is a caring person he has a certain past, he got some super powers. More information about it is not revealed yet. And game ended on a cliff hanger.

There are some anime references on the game but it has nothing to do with the game's story. Dev is just a fan of animes.

+ Story rich
+ Sound effects
+ Good looking MC with good personality
+ Humor
+ Lovable characters
+ Slowburn

Looking forward to the next update. But dev has plan to rework the the renders of this version. But renders are not bad either, reworking means next episode wil take time. Anyway it's Dev's choice. If you are looking for a game with good story give this one a try