Ren'Py - Completed - Unveiling the Unknown [v1.1.0] [TwistedScarlett]

2023/10/10

Amazing art style. Good plot and lore. Cute maids. Still a few bugs and problems with writing, but you can't expect all that much polish from a game that is not finished. I expect this game to be one of my favourite ones once it's finished.

Updated for 1.1.0:

Emi's route triggers some bad memories... like really bad memories. It would be fine if I could have skipped it, but unfortunately, ending the game demands the full harem. Weirdly enough, a scene from this route that shows how fucked up MC can be is the first scene in the game, and aside from this route MC isn't that much of a manipulative asshole.

Art in sex scenes has become inconsistent since initial release, but I personally wouldn't call the worst of it bad.

Also it's a damn shame Mirabelle was nerfed to the ground. At the point I'm at that doesn't really matter but still I miss ... I don't even remember what anymore, been too long.

The worst part of this game is waiting for new updates because it's actually a really good one.

As for v0.3.1, the game is awesome and has everything you can ask for: great scenes, fun dungeon crawling gameplay with management elements, good story and music.
I encountered a few bugs in my gameplay but nothing too broken, and i wish it had more content so take that in consideration if you decide to play it now or in a few months, but definitely don't forget to check it out.

Reviewing as of 3.1. First off, I want to say that I am a huge fan of old school dungeon crawler games, so this review may be heavily biased by that. I also want to say that the game is such a great example of the dungeon crawler genre that if the dev made a non-adult version of the game, it would probably do extremely well on the mainstream markets.

First off, the artwork is beautiful. The girls all look fantastic, and there's solid variety, especially thanks to the side girls(dungeon encounters). I actually really enjoy the dual art styles. The lewd scenes in sketch look great, and give a very sexy vibe, while the polished 2D portraits are very expressive and fit perfectly for dialog.

The story is well-told, funny, engaging, and creative. As some have stated, the pacing of the lewd content seems a tad rushed, but based on what we've learned in the story so far, it's explainable as a series of misunderstandings, intentionally poor communication, and the nature of Lily's curse. Dev did a fantastic job of organizing the story as a progression of "morning events"(daily progression), hangouts, and daily chats with the girls.

The actual gameplay aspects, such as base management, character(stats) development, and dungeon crawling are all beautifully done. I'm very impressed with the dev's ability to make such a complex game on such a simple engine. The dungeon crawling mechanics are inventive, unique, and fun. The only complaint I have, is that late-game scaling makes the dungeon far too easy. Hopefully dev can put some limitations on some of the abilities/stats that make endless dungeon runs so easy, and tweak the late-game resource drops(loot bags especially), as by the end of 3.1 I was able to earn enough resources to unlock every manor and character upgrade in a single dungeon run. There are some bugs, which is to be expected in early development, such as random event rolls having low or negative percentages when abilities should be making them easier instead.

The game is fantastic, and I highly recommend any fans of the dungeon crawler genre to give it a shot. The few bugs/issues(none remotely game-breaking) are nothing compared to the overall quality of the game. I am anxiously awaiting the next update!

Version 0.3.1

Solid story, some clunkiness with code, a few typos.

Haven't tried out this dev's other games, but this one's making me wanna considering how polished it already is overall. Maid sex scene art is rough, but a welcome surprise to me. I prefer that over the hyper polish that's splashing the launch screen.

Some display errors are on the dungeon screen, especially whenever you're doing triple digit damage as well as having significant amounts of modifiers. It only properly displays the last two digits for whatever reason, even though it works in function.

I think I'll wait until this one's complete to do an edit for the final review, but definitely worth playing through again I think.

Art: Fantastic scene art, love the sketchy look and the scenes just ooze passion and that expression of being on the edge of climax, also just enough animation to keep them lively. Bit of a style clash with the inked and colored portrait art, but not a big deal. Might be a two-for-one special though if using the sketchy look for the portraits too could unify the style of the whole game and make development easier. It'd be a very unique style for a VN.

Gameplay: Pacing seems a little quick as you're deflowering the maids pretty much on the 2nd date. But I'm ok with quick if there's not enough content to fill, grindings never fun. Map is pretty simple without empty rooms or anything, hate games that waste time with overly complex map navigation, so simple is good.

Dungeon combat is fairly weak and feels tacked on, doesn't seem to interact much if any with the scenes which are affection unlocked. Not that I would want a grindy dungeon crawler to get in the way of unlocking H-scenes, but ultimately if it's entirely optional side content the question has to be asked if it's just wasted dev effort to have it at all.

Reviewing V 0.2.2

The story is great, and the characters are likable (Except the brother but that’s the point) the only reason why I don’t give it 5 stars it’s because of some minor (like really minor and sometimes just personal) nitpicks.




Now I want to reiterate the game is pretty good the story is interesting, the characters are likable (except the brother but again that’s the point), the music is excellent, and the art styles are pretty good each one with some charm to it. It has some small problems (or nitpicks) but that’s about it in my opinion.

Update/edited: v.1.1.0
Now that the game is completed there has been some changes so I'll update this review.

First off the good is still that the art is spectacular and each character is well made, it has some nice music and you could pretty much say it uses a futa MC, though you can pick your gender your pretty much a futa in all of them. It really feels like a lot of detail has gone into the sex aspect of the game and it's interesting to see how a single scene can be used differently depending on the zooming in or out of that scene which I haven't seen in many other games. A minor downside however, most likely because of the art quality, is the fact that many images are used several times.

The story is a bit unclear for the moment since the setting is pretty much that the MC is part of the hero lineage but the older brother is the hero, being the hero allows him to use divine power from the goddess as long as he stays a virgin, while the MC is weak and fragile without much power. On top of this are the battle maids that follows the hero family and foremost the hero into the dungeon and onto the battlefield, they are also for now seemingly the love interests and a large part of the story and game focus seems to be to NTR them away from the hero. The story has become more fleshed out but at the same time even though the game is "completed" it still seems like there are some loose ends and several characters that needs to be more fleshed out and the ending feels very abrupt to be honest and the post game is mostly just endless grind in the dungeon for the most part. Only 2 characters at the moment have a "what if" scene that functions a bit off an epilogue scene in my opinion while most of the characters don't have an "epilogue" scene or something that gives an actual ending to their story in my mind.

I would still say that the bad part of the game is the combat system and things associated to it at the moment is the bad part of the game since there really isn't much to go on here yet with the combat being a large part of the game and having to do it a lot but there isn't much depth to it outside of just clicking on the screen to fight and progress in the dungeon then get loot for your effort, use loot to upgrade so you can fight better and earn more loot and/or buy outfits and gifts for the maids then rinse and repeat each day.

There is also an option to dive into a tougher dungeon called X that just get's offered at some point and while I probably missed it I didn't understand that diving into the harder dungeon would reset all my progress in the form of upgrades and levels. Which wasn't exactly funny.

In short the game is great when it comes to the story, though I still think it feels a bit unfinished when it comes to the majority of main cast and I don't understand why more new characters are added instead of fleshing out the characters that are already in the game. The sex scenes are great, especially the art. While the gameplay is not very good in my mind.

Still this is a very good game in my mind that would get a 4.5 out of 5 if it was possible.

I love this game its perfect, Art is so good, cutscenes are hot af, story is not so bad but we are all here for the "plot" anyway but yeah xD. Futa MC is sexy too and i hope we get that update this month. Im looking forward to Hazel, Ophelia and Demon queen mommy. You got my full support keep it up. 5 stars deserved

Wonderful character creation and interaction with beautiful artwork. Great story work. Smooth transitioning between scenes to make it feel more lively.

Mirabelle has a mislabeled sex scene when upon choice. Some options show can be done but will not work. Some Maid upgrades show no price and are unavailable. Most Manor upgrades that have no limit can get very expensive quickly (and some that do are still very expensive). Ophelia seems to only be a decorative Maid thus far with no interactions besides being a side character. And I wanted to break her first. Why do we get the guide book twice? By default we get it, yet doing Seraphina's first hangout she gives us the same guidebook.

Can we have the maids move locations day to day? For convenience they are in the same locations but how about a single Unique sex scene in a specific location for each character. Detection meter? It could amount to nothing or a steamy hidden scene with your character almost being caught with a maid.

Though the last part are some ideas for game improvement, feel free to ignore. I know this is still early in the release stages but I truly look forward to future updates.

Great art, fun writing and premise.
For such an early version of the game (0.2.2) its got a good amount of content.
It's a tad grindy but its palatable, nothing too extreme and the combat/grind is relatively simple so there isn't a need to minmax or savescum much (i still do)

Unless you're turned off by the protag's tags the only way this could go bad is if the author either abandons this or takes forever to release any major updates but considering his track record that is very unlikely.
Would jack off/5

So far this is a great start. The artwork is excellent as you'd expect from a Twisted Scarlett game and the topic is fun as well. Glad to see some animations as well in this one. Definitely a game I'll be following

A good harem game with interesting rpg systems. Great for anyone with a maid (or nun) fetish. Not sure if it's just me, but I also rarely find voice acting during sex scenes, so that's another plus.

+ Good Art
+ Good Animations
+ Fun Characters

= Decent Premise
= Decent UI
= Decent Gameplay
= Good variety of upgrades for characters or the mansion

- Somewhat grindy, fits the gameplay loop mostly

v0.1.1
--
v1
my score and points remain after trying the completed game
its just solid all around
the combat did get stale in the last 1/3 of the game
but that might be optional as well, didn't try ignoring it.

Looks nice, very excited for future updates. The art looks original and fun, you said that you usually have a busy update schedule will it be updated on here always? Thank you for your game, time and effort. Good luck.