Ren'Py - Under Your Spell [v0.2.0p] [Shady Characters]

• V0.2.3

So one thing I want to get out of the way is that this game is more of an Dating Simulator & Life/School sim rather than your standard porn game. And the lack of tags should indicate that. The devs have been open about, that this isn't the kind of game you are going to open up and be able to get some wank material in a few clicks.

As of version 0.2.3 there is one NSFW scene in the game which has incomplete uncoloured art but still solid, which involves the player peeping on the two students engaging in cunnilingus in the bath. This is all of the sexual content in the game at present as none of the girls currently in the game stories have have progressed far enough. There is a few "Ecchi" scenes of some pantyshots and hard nipples but nothing that's gonna make you want to Jackhammer Slammer.

So why am I giving it 5 stars if it's so devoid of sex content?
Objectively:

1. The Art: The character art is of high quality, and has a pleasing style.
   • Despite it still being incomplete art the one NSFW scene in the game shows that the artist has the ability to actually draw good porn in this art style.
2. The Music: There are some nice tracks here that go along with the tone of the game and the scenes.
3. The Characters: I like the characters a lot both their designs and their personalities. I feel like most people will find a character that they will want to engage with either due to their design or because of their writing and personalities.

Subjectively:
All in all I actually like games like this, having to work for and put effort into my relationship with characters, rather than y'know other games where you get up in them guts after knowing a girl for 2 weeks and talking to her three times. And there is a lot of promising stuff here I think this game right now is an uncut gem, that can turn into a genuinely amazing game if the devs can keep delivering.

All in all, really this game is more of a dating simulator than a porn game, if your looking for something to have a quick pickle tickle to, or something thats going to provide you with a lot of content so you can goon out infront of your monitor for 8hrs at a time than this probably isn't going to be for you. However if you are into these types of games than I suggest you keep you eyes on this and give it a try from time to time as this game has great potential to deliver on.

P.S: This site is multiple versions behind as of writing this, the current 0.2.3 version is available for free download from itch.io.

v0.1.8p

This sort of guide-less old-school dating sim is not for me. You get told the premise: you have to find a girlfriend within six months; and briefly introduced to two possible LIs. Then you're kicked straight into Day 1 and asked to just start going to classes and doing activities without even the barest hint of guidance like what stats to focus on for a particular girl or if you want to prepare for the wizard tournament or... anything.

This type of game worked better in the 90s when you'd buy one game every four months. In 2024, where everyone has unplayed games languishing in their Steam libraries, it's hard to justify playing and replaying and tinkering with a dating sim to try to find all the scenes and routes.

If you're into games like Story of Seasons or Rune Factory, you might have more patience for these type of games and enjoy this. The art is great and the UI is very clean. But I'll wait until there's a walkthrough available.

First time I've ever felt the need to leave a review because this game could be something special. The character design, artwork and character creation are all very promising.

But man this build should not have been released in the state it is in, it's insulting to even call this an alpha. RIGHT NOW, it's just a clicking simulator without any cool animations. There are like three interactions for like two characters that are all paper thin, which you have to mindlessly click around for to even get. The world doesn't feel alive and none of the "events" feel important. There's no real story, the relationship building feels hollow and despite the amount of choice for the schedule planner, every single place you can go is basically the same in terms of, you can do fuck all there.

For a game that already established a UI and its mechanic, it shouldn't be that hard to incorporate semi regular character based event that intertwine with a main storyline.

To the dev if you are going to continue the game please add a substantial story update and a decent amount of story events and character events to the next patch. There is so much potential here.

There is neither porn or even a game in this release. Just a menu that makes arbitrary stat changes. You're theoretically supposed to be managing the stats, but you have no clear guidance on what stats you are aiming for. Apparently my semi-even distribution managed to fail every single stat check that currently exists, so that's cool. Why tf would you release this? At one point the "game" even tells you to save on a screen from which you literally cannot save.

Seems like nothing but grind with no rollback and no guidance about what will make it possible to succeed in the long run. The look of the thing is fine, but it's a long slog with no rewards. I won't be following this game or playing any updates.

So far the art is promising and writing is decent; apart from lacking a tutorial in the beginning (especially with which classes improve which stat) I'm already looking forward to future updates!!!                                                                               

My experience getting to the current end of the demo is that it's just a grindfest with no real content.
Maybe I missed something, but if so it was incredibly easy to miss.
I'm assuming the plenty of missing art errors will be solved before too long, but this game needs a walkthrough and/or cheatmod to deliver on what its promising.

Good points:
Potentially interesting story, we will see how this goes
Great 2D art and unique (im sick of this AI s...)
Great characters and unique personalities.
machincs and overall feel of the game.

Its a bit difficult to orientate yourself and 'no rollback', but the game is still in early stages, so we will see for now.
Its difficult to rate but 5 stars i good for the good start. Lets see how this will develop and not take a wrong turn.

Ok, it is pretty early to say for sure, and many games that started like this did turn into a smutfest, but I really like what I see so far.
The art is great, the creators really care about game mechanics, and the updates have been regular so far. Don't want to give it 5 stars yet, before seeing where it ends up, but definitely worth checking out.

No rollback, can only save in one place, difficult to find characters, grindy, and it's buggy as well. Honestly, the theme and art is all it really has going for it. Barely two stars. Might be worth it after a few more updates but i don't really see the point if the dev can't even code well enough for rollback to not cause them issues.

I'm enjoying this game more then I thought I would, just needs a couple of more updates to really shine through.

Love the art style and the semblance to True Love 95, can't wait to see where the story takes us.

The game is in early stages and a lot of the art and place settings aren’t in yet. If you’re playing for titty this game’s development is way too early for that.

it’s a great display of concept as it is rn however and I look forward to playing it again when it’s more developed and closer to completion.