Ren'Py - Uni [v0.56.119c] [Hizor Games]

This is is one of the most promising female protagonist sandbox games I've played.

Story [9/10]: The story, while at the moment very corruption focused, includes a vast number of choices and branching paths that each feel varied and weighting. The writing is immersive and entertaining throughout.

Characters [7/10]: I love the freedom the creator provides in how you want to play the protagonist. Apart from the female lead, there are four main and several supporting characters. Each romanceable character caters to a different preference and multiple can be unlocked in one playthrough. A little warning: one of the male characters is among the most hateable personalities I've encountered, but this is an intentional choice by the creator.

Art [9/10]: The art is the highlight of the game in my opinion. While unfortunately the CGs are still somewhat sparse and locked behind choices you make very early in the game, they really elevate the story and are expertly rendered. If you like the art style in the previews you'll love the art in the game.

Gameplay [8/10]: I personally really enjoy sandbox type games. While this honestly leans more towards a visual novel, there are still a number of hidden events and things to discover. With the choices I made playing the game there was never really a noticeable downtime where nothing happens at all.

Unfortunately it does seems like it will take a while for this game to be completed. I really hope the author keeps at it and I'm excited to see how this game will develop.

Review for v0.30.87b

rating this as of 0.30

the story has a decent plotline, simple but effective. characters are consistent, mc proggression is believable.
characters look good, the missing scenes are a bummer but oh well its still in proggress.
now to the bad: the game is more repetive than grinding, but it makes it dull nonetheless. there's no need to click 4-5 times every single time to go from house to school and viceversa.

Uni is a very promising female protagonist game that has excellent art and writing. It is a Hybrid VN open world game that features a branching narrative with the protagonist and a core of about 4 or 5 additional characters. Current content includes submission, blackmail, gentle femdom, vanilla romance both straight and lesbian, prostitution, and early bimbofication. All content is optional and the player isn't forced down a predetermined path or kink.

The biggest downfall of the game is that it is currently very submissive/blackmail heavy. In the most developed plot in both text and artwork the MC is incredibly submissive to a pretty mean and potentially unlikeable character. This content can be skipped if it isn't your thing, but without it the game feels significantly less realized in its current state. The quality of the game makes me optimistic that future updates will flesh out all the MC so you don't have to play her as a timid submissive schoolgirl to get a complete experience, but that is the status right now.

If submission is your thing (it's mine) then I would highly recommended Uni. It is among my favorite female protagonist games that are in development and I eagerly await future releases.

This HAS to be one of the best female protagonist VNs ever made. There are bugs and flaws in the early builds, but nothing overshadows the amazingly written story and characters. The amount of branches is INSANE. Even though there's still a lot of content in development and there isn't technically an ending to wrap things up yet, replay-ability is through the roof thanks to just how many different possibilities you could experiment with. The dom/sub and especially lesbian scenarios are exceptionally well written. The slight lack of CGs may be disappointing at times, but that's largely due to the huge script. If you like a female protagonist VN, this game is bound to impress.

It's a cool game with pretty art, but if you want a yuri game and make a route just with girls and you don't feel like being raped or sexually abused or prostituted, there is very little to see and it doesn't take more than 30 minutes to be repetitive.

As much as a Visual Novel this game is, it is also a great sandbox. There are plenty of different options to be explored and consequences from each, whereas different playthroughs may highlight different aspects (as in you can get a Violet dom route or a Violet sub route).
The art is pretty well done, the event CGs are great and the stories are well written. Also should consider that the game has a lot of content for the current development time. I'm looking forward for further updates.

Uni, while still a work in progress, is a really well written and well made game. You can take a few different routes and the game gives you a few choices to make, but other than that the story is somewhat linear. Only a few choices will make a huge difference in the story. There is definitely a lot of submissive content in the game, with tidbits of femdom. The setting and the character personalities as well as the sex scenes are all top notch. Check it out.

if you're looking for a boring game filled with lots of bland dialogs and descriptions, clinically lacking in graphics, this is the one for you. don't let the nice and shiny screenshots mislead you. i don't remember ever to have played an adult game, whose graphics/text ratio is so much skewed towards text (again, text that is neither interesting nor humorous). this could easily put most html games to shame in that regard. then of course there's the astonishingly monotonous game play and the multitude of silly, ambiguous choices you have to make all the time, hoping they won't steer you away from your intended path. i'm really sorry for the time i've wasted on this 'thing' hoping it will get better at some point, it never did. like butt-head said years ago: "if i wanted to read, i'd go to school.."

Review based on v0.26.83:

In the shanty town of ren'py smut towns and their doomed characters controlled by the powers above, I try and be as honest as I can in what journey they could potentially be thrown into. Let's see what Uni, this particular town, has to offer overall.

Just as a bias before getting on the review, I really don't like a lot of the characters of this game. More on that later.

So, from the get go, this game isn't that bad. It's still feels a bit on the edge here and there in terms of content (especially with missing CG's), but it has enough at least so far to justify once over. Now as for the gameplay itself, it's a free roam ren'py title, which usually entails your homebase and the many locations surrounding that. Your homebase is your apartment, where you access your wardrobe, a laptop (mainly used for either homework or the gallery), alongside your bed. From there, you have your actual home which just serves as a means to get to the overworld, where you have the school, mall, whatever job you picked and the event-layden "walk around town" street as locations.

So with that we have the basis of the game, go to locations and see if something happens, sometimes it does and you progress with characters you met, or have some random event, usually smutty. There is a corruption meter as well, but that gets filled relatively quickly as access to the grander game (ie-smut) comes quick, now, there is a little bit of a burn in, but not horribly sizzling. It does well to throw you into the world softly without too much confusion. One thing I want to add though, is that the corruption meter is somewhat vapid in this game. Like, the choices are pretty much available from the get go and only a handful of scenes ever even have it as a "lock", which you rarely see since corruption is so easily obtained. It's...not really present gameplay-wise. Other than for outfits, but more on that later.

Now as for money, it's only there to pay off your landlord since you do have an apartment (there is a reason for that considering that you are still in high school) alongside just buying uniforms. If there's anything else (other than changing your room style) I most likely missed it. There is also a corruption meter for certain uniforms, but to be quite honest, I don't really understand the whole thing with the outfits/uniforms considering that at best they're just eye-candy without them ever impacting/changing a scene. I could be wrong if there was an event or event chain that I missed (which is possible, multiple playthroughs are encouraged with this game) but so far they are simply there just for visual flair and nothing else. So, as far as I know, no free-roam exhibitionism (but there is a linear questline that helps play that kink). Also, that and the many other things in this review is subject to change considering that the game is still in development.

And that's pretty much the game, or gameplay rather, go to places, wait for events to pop off, get money for outfits and just keep up with rent. Other than that, not much else to do, especially when the free roam portion starts to run dry on events and their subsequent chains. Not a lot of repeatables so far for folks that like that, unfortunately. Art-wise too, it's good, spotty is some spaces, but good.

Now for things I don't like, for the selection of characters you get, sometimes they're too bastardy, and that's saying something. For the bakery that felt appropriate in bastardness...somewhat, considering the circumstances and evolution of the MC there, kind of like a bimbo route in all regards, but for other characters such as Matt, the bastardness is a straight 11/10. Now, I can't complain too much on here considering that the main caveat of the game is that the MC is basically the most submissive person on earth to heavily justify the scenes, and the large majority of content present within the game.

Though, in spite of that, the main concern I find here is that usually with this content/fetish, it's done with some form of taste where yes, you do have a smutty bastard usually influencing the female MC to do something, but at least he's not entirely despicable, while still retaining heavy elements of humiliation/degredation. However, the major source of content for that in this game is unfortunately from a complete jackass, and for any other content, it further extends itself to other jackasses. I guess one way to say it, instead of feeling as though the MC was having corrupted fun, it felt more like witnessing the MC degrade herself to complete asses. It's strange, as it's hard to really explain this since this is basically present in all corruption games, and when it's done right you aren't feeling vexed, but there's just something about the characters where everyone (that tries to lewd the MC) just seems like an asshole. It isn't completely like that, but still present enough to be pretty noticeable, and even enough to be a turn off for me in some spots. Though, again this is a relatively subjective thing so I could just be the guy that the mark is missing.

Other than that, as said, the game is still being made so the content runs out quick after about 2/3 playthroughs (which doesn't take too long). Not too bad as a beginning structure, enough so far and maybe with an excess of free-roam events when walking through town can really make this game feel more lively since I think the small questchain's you find there are pretty neat. And of course further additions/developments of existing characters. In the end, I think it'll shape up nicely if it continues as such, irregardless of my tastes, and overall it stands in a good place as is, just a little lacking in spots as it does feel empty sometimes. 4/5.

Yet another game where the only way to play the female protagonist is as a submissive slut: clueless and there to be taken advantage of.

Anytime you stand up for yourself against someone it makes you less corrupt? And when you don't give into blackmail it's game over, because you're expelled because someone snuck into the locker room to take illegal pictures of you? That person should be arrested.

I keep trying these because I'd like to see a female protagonist that is "corrupt" by choice, not just because she's too dumb to not have everyone use her.

Not going to lie this one almost flew under my radar, its a bit of a slow burn in the beginning if you're like me and you don't got a lot of free time on your hands, but if you sit down and give it a go it's got a lotta freedom in how you play the MC. Workin on my second playthrough now and gotta say, I missed a lot that first go around that I wish I'd been patient for the first time.

The game certainly has potential, but for me it seems quite empty. When this game has lot more content I'll be happy to play again, and I'll probably rate much higher. But for now, there's very little to do during the day and each one passes very quickly. There also needs to be more characters. Both Matt and Damien especially were just annoying to me. But everything else, the layout and the map etc, it seems promising

a great game that needs more updates. the story is great but I reached the end to each storyline only itching for more. I cant wait to see where this game goes in the future... I will be watching with a keen eye for where this is going.

Really fantastic game and developer. Quite an intriguing story with various fun and varying choices. Scenes were well drawn and clearly the developers took into account feedback from their patreon members quite seriously which has helped the game develop so much.

(vv. 0.22.78, 27.84)

Uh, it has its strengths but it has a lot of flaws. I'm going to acknowledge right away that Uni has not too much CGs (some of the sex scenes are text only), for some reason has music and SFX only in the main menu, and it's quite short (most paths have very limited number of major dates/events). I'm not going to hold it against the game too much, since it's not finished.

The gameplay is pretty monotonous and passive. The day is divided in three standard periods, but you are always required to attend school, then work, then you have free time with nothing to do except infrequent homework or wander the city in hopes to get a random event to advance sidequests. The game won't allow any deviation from this routine, you just go through the motions. Click on the door to the living room, click on the door to the outside, click on school location, proceed through school subroutine, click on your workplace, proceed through work subroutine and so on. This is not enough for me to give a convincing illusion of agency in a game, especially when you're not able to initiate any events on your own. Like, your character has a phone and can get texts, but you can't call anyone and ask them on a date. Neither can you decide that today at school you want to hang out with this character in particular. You have no agency. Basically, you're clicking through the mandatory part of your daily routine, waiting for evening to come so you can try to fish for a random sidestory event, if the RNG deigns you worthy, of course. I think this false façade of a dating sandbox sim actually exaggerates your passiveness, instead of hiding it, plus it ads grind, which is never a plus. This lack of agency thematically fits one particular storyline where the main character has an extremely passive role (Matt route), but for every other path, no. This game is really a VN, for some reason forced into the skin of a dating sim instead of just delivering you a narrative without any extra busywork.

So about that narrative then... The technical side of writing is solid, not too flowery yet pretty descriptive. Maybe could be just a bit more flowery. Anyway, it's good; sex scenes are hot, some of them are very good. I think this is probably the best thing the game has to offer, for what it's worth. However the underlying logic and plot are... lacking.

NB: there be some spoilers.

So the positive thing about storylines in Uni is that there's a decent amount of branching and interconnections. Say you choose to date a certain nerd and you pick the Cheerleading Club. In this case there will be an event when your nerd comes to your cheerleading practice (which makes the implication that there can be similar events like nerd bf + nerd club. It could be funny to see some kind of nerddom explosion). That's the good part, albeit it's far from perfect; some glaring inconsistencies can crop up here and there.

The bad part is when your whole relationship and personality hinges on some pretty inconsequential choices. So there's this character that has a 'sub' and 'dom' routes and you have some interactions where you can be assertive or not. The problem is, most of these don't actually matter. And to give some perspective one of the choices is to tell that your parents died or not. Pretty big deal, right? NOPE, it means jack shit, zero branching! Likewise there isn't a compound dom-sub score for this character. Instead, there comes a point in the story when you more or less go out on a date, and THEN you have 3 choices and only these three choices decide how the branching goes (which food to order, really?) And the worst part, if you don't lean super hard either way this route appears to end abruptly. At least it did for me until I figured it out from external sources. So the character is pliable enough to be sub or dom but plain vanilla is too much to ask? This is the kind of internal logic that makes a game insufferable without a walkthrough.

I'm going to offer one last example that is clubs. So I've mentioned that club choice offers extra events for certain story-lines. What I haven't mentioned is that the club choice is mandatory (the headmaster says so) and that it permanently alters MC's personality. Join the 'nerd club'? Enjoy MC stammering and blushing for the rest of the game, even when her corruption is 100 out of possible 100. That's so sad on multiple levels. If the club choice is mandatory there must be a I don't give a fuck Club that doesn't alter your personality and lets corruption take care of stammering or lack thereof (if you didn't take the hint that's my favourite club). I think I get the logic behind this. This choice is more of a retroactive personality test, as in only an outgoing girl is going to choose a cheerleading club. Except this is not how it works, is it? Maybe a girl chooses cheerleading exactly because she's not very confident and wants to improve that. And ideally corruption must be taken into account. Overall, this little quirk of dialogue writing is disheartening to see. So much effort wasted in a counterproductive way when there are some obvious improvements begging to be made.

So, IDK, I think this is 6/10 or something like that. I don't like meaningless choices, and choices that have disproportionally large impact. I hope it gets better but won't hold my breath.

The 4 stars here are supposed to be 7/10, and since this game is rather open in the "decision does matter" way, expect a barrage of spoilers.
While I will hide them, but if you skip all of them then some of this review probably will not make sense.
Also I should mention this game is rather unfinished in the CG department...which some take it as a reason to give it low score.
While I do respect that point of view since this is a hentai game, hell I will even say that is the most problem I have with this game...but since this is something that WILL be fix, I will not treat it as seriously.


So this game is, well the overview told you what you need to know:
You are a girl name [Insert your preferred name here] that moves to the titular city of Uni and starts a new life, as a high schooler.
...after a certain event that I will not spoiled since the game tells you like 3 minutes in.
After you settle in, everything is up to you...while not literally everything, you still have to go to school and shit, but this game is very free, in the "Choices" department.


But let's talk about the art style first:
It is good, while I won't say "brilliant" or "fantastic", I rather dig it.
But they are also kinda inconsistent...which, to be honest, fits the game in its current state, more on that later.

Like the standing illustration in the talking and interacting part kinda feel different compare to some of the CGs, which feel like there is another artist trying to mimic the main art style you see on the banner in the OP...while this is not really a problem for me. But I have to point it out since it really feels kinda different.

Though that really doesn't affect the game as a whole, so hows the gameplay?


Well...
When you heard the idea of "dating game", what do you expect?
The kind that decisions matter and choices affect what you will face later on? Or the kind that just railroads you to your love interest, and all you need to do is to pick one in either the very start or end?

This game is definitely the former, even though it is built on an engine that powers mostly VN that has nothing other than reading and serval choices between tens of minutes of text.

It is mainly a point and click game than a VN. You go through a daily routine of a schoolgirl who goes to school, work after school, wander around the street finding fun, go to school club, or "dates" at the weekends, while pick and choose through a lot of choices and events. the reading is minimal unless you are in certain events.
So despite it technically qualifies as a "dating game", the "dating" can be minimal if you do "my thing", more on that later.

It is by far the more complex game I've seen done in this engine, like when they say "choices matters" they mean that, almost every choice can cause something to happen...
Ofc simple things such as "Will you go on a date with A? Y/N" and what is different is simply if you want to go to the date or not. But choices not as simple as that really affect things...

For example- okay, first spoilers that really shouldn't matter, but still:
But man, if we go by this logic, every choice that is not a simple "Yes" or "No" is basically a risk of you not interacting with a chunk of the game, since you can only pick one.
This makes me wonder "what do I miss if I choose A except of B?" every time a choice that is not as obvious as "Do you want to sit on this man's lap since he will probably give me more cash?"
In terms that make my perception of this game becomes so large, that is probably larger than the game is.

While the game might not be as large I make myself believe, it is still really complex if someone will make a spreadsheet about what choices lead to what...even in this unfinished form.

Yes, those other reviews that said this is unfinished are right. Hell just the review before this one has stated
"Good start, but as with 90% of games on here, desperately unfinished.

There's a solid core, but a lot that can be added or improved."

While I agree this is rather unfinished game considering the scope it is building into (or at least, according to my own thought) since there are still a lot of "black screens" that feels like it should have something to show.
But there is still "a game", that you can play. That at least pass Early Access level. When even more games here is nothing but a proof of concepts, or sandbox bullshit like Yandere sim which all you can do is fuck around in a sandbox.


So the art style is fine, the game is complex with Choices really matters, and might may whoever playing this believe it is a far larger game than it really is...even though in this unfinish form.
So what is the problem?

Well...I feel like the choices can affect things way too much.
Like, I know this isn't real life but a game, but everyone takes rejection like my self-esteem can take insults.
Okay I can't really explain it without going into spoiler territory, so here we go:
So yeah, the above text illustrated my problem with the choice system, basically everyone is as "glassharted" as the Chinese government when you insult their system- NO BAD, NO POLITICS.


The other thing is the tone of the game, it kinda goes all over the place due to the open nature of the game...I should mention there is a corruption meter. After seeing this my imminent thought is to be a "slut with good grades and public appearance" just to fuck with the usual binary idea of "good students" and "bad sluts"...and since as I say before this game is rather free when it comes to choices, might as well try.

So I pay attention in class, do all the homework, attend club activities...while try to be deprived as possible, and always choose the "slut" choice.
...and the result is kinda weird, I think it is partly my fault though, since the-
ah spoiler alert, again:
Am I being old fashion and conservative? I write reviews on an adult game site ffs...or I am just reading too much in a porn game? Imma move on.

So yeah, the tone goes all over the place, like one second I am doing my best to be a good student, the next I am handing my panties to the rando who ask for it in the street...
Granted, these are mostly caused by my choices, but at least the girl can show some concern about the wacky and slutty choices I made for her.
Remember at the very beginning of this review, I say something about the inconsistency of the art fits this game? This is why.

While the choices do matter, but how the girl reacts to it is extreme to the point it feels like a different person.
Sometimes, it makes sense, like that first example in the second spoiler section.
In others it doesn't, you either obey and act like "Yeah I've done this a million times" or tell the guy to fuck off.

But in reality, the above can all be just Nick-picks.
The biggest issue I have with this game. As mentioned before, the lack of CGs in like a lot, hell I will even say most events.
But since the game is still in development, plus I seldom play adult game for a wank...that doesn’t bother me much.


Overall, this doesn't really affect my experience with this game, since I still like the game even with this inconsistency and the lack of CGs in some places...that I feel should have something.

TL;DR (no really, this one is too fuckin long)
A "real-life" adventure game with decent art style, and choices that really matter in more than an "I can't see porn" way. The complexity of choices may make people believe this game has a bigger scale than it actually has (or maybe the game is really that big...which is the beauity of this type of design: They leave you guessing.)
You can lock out entire story events with your choices, though it is unfinished in its current state, there are still enough things to offer if you sit back and play.

To end this, I must mention a lot of events are random, and since you start a new from your "past life". This game is rather slow-boiling, if you are those who want porn right now. This is not your game.

Good start, but as with 90% of games on here, desperately unfinished.

There's a solid core, but a lot that can be added or improved.

Branching paths would be nice. As it is, it feels like you have to pick the very specific responses the game expects or get locked out of basically every route.

Additionally, the game has no business having a corruption mechanic. The only thing it does is restrict which outfits you can wear, but there are only 3 that have a corruption requirement. And Wearing them has no gameplay impact.
Simply put the corruption just shouldn't be in the game. It has no bearing on what choices are available in dialogue, because it can't since, as I stated above, making the "wrong" (usually non-lewd) choice in a dialogue can lock you out of a particular path, or simply Game Over you.
Corruption mechanics are best used in 2 types of games. 1. Ones who's scenes are basically endlessly replayable (i.e. Girl Life) but which options are available is dependent on your corruption. This allows the game to gradually open up additional options as you become more corrupted. OR 2. Shorter, more branching games, which are designed to be replayed (i.e. Good Girl Gone Bad). This allows the player to experience scenes unique to each playthrough based on what their corruption is at that time.
Uni (also, what's up with the name? the game clearly states she's still in High School), fits into neither category.

I will say the game has very nice art, and the scenes and themes in the game definitely appeal to my interests. However, I really only partially recommend the game in its current state. Download it, play it for an hour or two and forget about it until when (if) it becomes more complete.

I'll keep an eye on it and if it improves will adjust my rating.

Edit: Lost a star for disappointing updates. I haven't played the game since I left this review until today.


Updates since then are disappointing to say the least. Creator should really focus on completing paths first and updating art second.

It seems only a couple events have been added to a couple paths. Most of these events contain no art assets at all. Just text. And the text is just a couple sentences each.

It should not take that long to do this. I would actually applaud if the developer was banging out text events and adding the art in later. The biggest issue with most games is they are never finished. However that is clearly not what they're doing. I honestly don't know what they've been doing, the amount of additional content in the past 7+ months is pathetic given its mostly just text.

Pretty good base. I love the scenes with Kate that they added in the last update. I would give 5 stars for that content and 1-2 stars for everything else, averaging to about 3 stars.

The bad: The dream scenes are way too long, and IMO are a waste of development time. I would think otherwise if the player could make choices whether to go along with the dreams and if they had a few corresponding CG's. This might make them feel more engaging. I also think the MC's naked portrait art could be reworked. She looks great in clothes, but those naked boobs are... Yikes. Also, not many of the scenes have corresponding illustrations.

The good: Fantastic CG's! When this game gets it right, boy does it really get it right. It's in a great direction with Kate's corruption route and the black-haired girl's submission route. (I just wish they focused on only one route for her. Two routes seems like a waste of development time.) But this game feels like one of the few that can really scratch that lesbian-tag itch for me. The way the friendship is corrupted between the girls, yet retains cuteness and caring, is just great.

If more illustrations are added, the MC can be redesigned to look cuter without clothes, and the devs follow up with more updates like this last one (sans the empty dream sequences), I would change this rating to five stars in a heartbeat.

This is that kind of anime graphic game for me which is not too japanese to play and enjoy. So graphical appearence nice but not too cartoonish which kills pleasure for me. Game story is simple but thats ok because writing and character interactions makes the game alive. You can customize clothes of the main character. Sandbox part of the game working you can feel free roam.

Fun and interesting story line. The art is wonderful, there's no CG scene but there are standing images. There is high replay value for the multiple route and allow for every play through to be a little different. So far there are a good amount of content, although no ending yet.