Ren'Py - Vae Victis - Khan: Conquer, Ravish, Breed [v0.11.5] [Doorknob22]

TLDR:
Not only is this a fantastic game, but it also belongs to a breed that are exceedingly rare. Even if you don't fancy the tags, the execution alone is worth the price of admission.

More context:
As I finished the available content, I came here to read the reviews; especially the negative ones. Because to my mind, this is as good as a game gets. And I have to say, most of the criticisms I found were arguably subjective opinions (which is fine).

I won't do the traditional "pros & cons" as you can find them in other reviews. Instead, I want to point out something whose importance shouldn't be lost to anyone.
You see, we are living in a world were 'creativity' is trapped under the ever-looming shadow of popularity and quick monetary gain. The AAA industry is mostly a lost cause. And many indie devs are following suit, trying to 'make it big' by adhering to the 'lowest common denominator'. And of course, creativity suffers; being 'artful' and 'having a vision' suffers.
So when you find a developer and a game that has a clear creative vision, and despite 'what people may or may not like' is giving their all to realize that vision ... that's quite a rare phenomenon and worthy of the highest praise. This game is a good example of that.

On the game-design side, it has everything also.
It's a story about a smart prince, brought up broken and wronged, who is now vengeful and in pursuit of taking back what's his. Combine that with great visuals and amazing writing and you're in for a great and congruent experience.

I believe the following to be objective. I personally really enjoyed the kingdom management aspect as well.
It's a simple and amusing balancing act. But more importantly, it is completely optional; so is almost any tags that one might not like. They can be turned off or avoided. That means extra work for the dev which he has been considerate enough to put in.
Overall, a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

Conclusion:
I highly recommend this game. It is quite unique. This has clearly been a huge undertaking for the dev, and I hope they manage to finish the game.

Vae Victis - Khan: Conquer, Ravish, Breed [v0.7.5] review

Genre:
VN & turn-based kingdom management game harem collector hybrid, with optional side missions often containing sandbox and/or dungeon crawler elements. (Yikes!)

This game started out really strong, but fizzled out completely once I got to the "kingdom management" part of the game. Once I got there I played for maybe two hours more. I invaded two countries, did some infiltration missions, got very bored and was done.

It honestly feels like I'm reviewing two different games. The first part was a nice little RPG action adventure and I really liked it. Then the kingdom management, waifu management and infiltration sections came along and derailed everything.

What I liked about the first part:
+ Excellent MC introduction. He isn't just a cardboard blank. He's got a unique, tenacious personality and there's an appropriate amount of backstory and world building being delivered.
+ A super excellent villain introduction! A murderous mom & incestous undertones. MC promises revenge. Unique and fresh!
+ After some brief chatting things start happening immediately. The pacing here is excellent. There's a daring jailbreak, action sequences and some interesting encounters along the way.
+ Bitches be lying, bitches getting laid. Things getting steamy!
+ There's some nice player options. I get to choose whether I want to act like a noble lord or if I just wanna revenge rape bitches who be tryin to play me for a fool to teach them a valuable life lesson. With some more nuanced options in-between, of course.

Everything up until this point was great, and now suddenly *poof*, all that good shit goes bye-bye, never to be seen again. (Or maybe it returns, what do I know? I didn't finish all the available content.)

From this point the story takes a hard left off a steep cliff and I find myself splitting my time between playing some kind of kingdom administrator and playing as a secret agent infiltrator.

First off, playing Tax Man isn't fun. The "strategy layer" or whatever you wanna call it wasn't fun in the slightest.
Make some numbers increase here, build a building there, try to optimize this and that number. Press next turn and watch some numbers change. Get more money. Squeeze those peasants dry. Attack with your number when it's bigger than the enemy's number. It's just taxes and accounting, man. The universal opposite of fun.

Second:
If you want some covert operations done in enemy territory, and done right, you gotta send in the King!
Seriously what!? This is beyond retarded.
Yes, send the single most important individual in the entire Resistance, alone, to kidnap acolytes and burn a temple, really?
There's nobody in the entire fucking army organization that could have maybe done that instead?
If my guy Khan is this mentally challenged, he's obviously completely unfit to rule. Let's just go with the incest queen instead and just be done with it, it's probably for the better.

Third:
What happened to the queen, anyway? What's she up to?
MC is out there raping ravaging his enemies and conquering their territories (Some of which are the Queen's alies, I would assume?) and what does our Main Villain do? She's got no agents out there looking for MC? No armies of her own to counterattack with? No reinforcements to send her allies? Some assassins maybe?
It's hard to believe that she wouldn't want to try to influence the global situation in some way with plots of her own. I feel this is the main weakness of the "strategy" gameplay: There's no active enemy! Everyone just sits there waiting to get invaded.
It's also a huge waste of a perfectly good villain! Such a great character definitely deserves a lot more screen time! (Again, maybe she shows up later, I wouldn't know.)

Oh man I could go on forever with all the plot holes and stupid mechanics but I'm gonna spare you all. I think I've made my point pretty clearly.
This game is a classic case of trying to do too many things and ending up with a confusing mess filled with plot holes and unnecessary accounting mechanics just dragging everything down, and along the way losing sight of the overarching story and the bigger picture.

This could have been a great RPG action adventure game, as evidenced by the very strong opening. It's such a shame.

Version: 0.7.5

Rating: 7/10

Fun game, fresh mechanics, good woman variety and large player control are some of the best ways to describe the game.
The choices you are given feel nice (always room for more) and with how the world map is set up you can choose which activities to do next with some leeway (similar to Desert Stalker). I like it, It stands out compared to other VN's.

The base here is solid but it has a lot of room for improvement too, which is why my rating is good but not amazing. Towards the later patches of the game, animations are being introduced so hopefully dev will rework the earlier patches to include them too as they were sorely missing. The dialogue does attempt to make up for this though, lots of detail and talk to pad out the renders which is nice but not the same.

The story is good and interesting but I'm not gripped for some reason. I do want it to continue but I'm not invested really. Maybe it's just too early so I've got to give it the benefit of the doubt but I do think there are things that could help. I can't say it's one thing and the things that would invest me in the story might not necessarily be main story related but I think they would help.

To elaborate on my views above: I would maybe add the option of a "main concubine" Unless a wife is coming in the story, and I don't expect great romance here, it would be cool to have your favourite lover who stays in the throne room, you can only have one but get unique scenes?
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I would also add more overworld events happening between "turns" to help grip you to the world and make you feel apart of it. They could be serious/fun (people turning up to your court or plotting against you)
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Maybe optional events that you can start from your throne room and decide based on your chosen route (Help villagers with raiders: Gentleman)/(Visit the brothel as the mighty Khan: Domination) Something to help you interact with your own citizens and stroke your ego
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Simple one would be a lore page with history and updates as you do things, perhaps getting a cool/funny perspective of things from townsfolk in the forms of population updates for e.g: ( Marbia Report 2: "Citizens adapt to your rule well, some are quoted as saying 'blablabla'")

Just some thoughts. Still a fun game and I recommend you to give it a go. Conquer land and women (or men too) as you fight to claim your rightful empire from your tyrant mother.

A Truly excellent game loved it had a fun time playing it the story was well written the graphics are good the scenes are just wonderful thee variety of scene is very impressive it's one of top fav games right now a lot improvements to make to the ui and tech and more wenches stuff but I am sure it will be added soon I really wish I came across this game earlier but anyways last 2 days were a blast I really didn't expect this game to hit this hard, it's a real shame this game isn't appreciated as much as it should it is easily one of the top 3 porno games right now.

One of my fav games. Love it. You get to be a chad khan looking to rule all the lands . The textures are lovely and you get to be a charismatic mc who gets all the ladies. The olgrid scene is so good she one of my fav girl. The Animations are on point and i love when you can choose what to ( multiple choices) it makes the game unique! I also like that you get to skip fights because im more here for the story and the scenes you know im saying. i just wished it were more bloody and gory and that you cant keep olgrid in your castle. thats all the complains. my prefernces are thick ladies and i like that the dev put them in the game. theres different types of bodytypes. petite,thick,fat,flat chested women and big breasted women.

Haec Victorius (This is Victorius)
Absolute delight of an experience. Exceptional Writing, Great CG, Amazing Story, Branching Narrative and Just an absolute immersive experience. Devs really should be proud for this is one of the best games I've played and I keep wanting for more.

Out of all the adult games I have played this one takes a different approach, with the conquering and managing aspects of the game it's quite refreshing. Pair that with excellent renders and now animations and the excellent writing it's a game worth giving a shot. There's many scenes and paths no matter what you like and you can turn off fetishes you may not like, definitely recommend giving it a shot!

This would be a fun game if the MC wasn't so utterly one-dimensional. He's big, he's dumb and he's full of cum.

You play a complete thug and while that could be fun, he's constantly thrown into situations that require intellect, cunning or anything resembling a little tactical sense. But no, he's too stupid to think, too impatient to think up a plan.

You victories you gain feel hollow because you know it was just the plot that awarded them to you, almost everyone is smarter than MC and were it not for the plot armor he'd be a dumb peasant getting eaten by a wolf at the age of 10.

Love this game so much. High quality ravishment, I mean, yes. Also, I very much appreciate there being variety in body types of the, um, victims. There are a couple of minigames of the kind I'm terrible at, but that turns out not to matter, as they're easily skippable, and I can just get on with the story. If I'd reviewed it a few months ago, I might have expressed a wish for animations, but it seems the dev was way ahead of me, because we're starting to get them.
I love the gradual progression of conquoring territory. I also much appreciate the replay gallery, and the ability to turn off the text box--I wish more games had those features.
In short, it's one of my favorite games, and I can't wait for the next update.

Vae Victis is one of the best porn games that I've played and I've probably played thousands of them.

This is what I like about the game:

1. The MC is a warlord who focuses on conquering a distinctly different territory in each update. The conquest of that territory could essentially be a game on its own as it consists of a series of objectives and and meeting and fucking various girls on the way to achieving the goal of conquering the territory. Although each update has the similar objective of conquering a new territory, it does not feel repetitive or boring because they are all very different from each in terms of the type of quests, the cultures, the girls, the steps that the MC can take to get there, etc.

2. There are many different girls in this game and I find the vast majority of them to be very attractive, but they are also all different from each other. There are many different body types, ages, races (real and fantasy), etc. and each girl has a unique backstory and personality, which makes the story more interesting and fucking her more satisfying.

3. The MC is unapologetically an asshole and the general slant of the game is towards him raping women in the territories that he conquers. This is not forced on the player though. I like having the freedom to be as nice or as awful as I want to the girls in the game. That is one of the major reasons why I like the game. I've played the game several times and on each playthrough I try different variations in terms of how I treat the girls, which makes it have better replay value than other games where there are fewer choices.

4. I also like that there are usually many different options available in terms of how to fuck the girls. Anal, oral, and vaginal are usually available, which is nice because I can choose whichever ones I want with each girl and do not need to limit myself in what I can pick.

Those are the reasons that I like the game. There are a few negative aspects to it, but in my opinion the positives outweigh these, which is why I still gave it a 5 star review.

1. There are both visual novel and strategy modes. While I enjoy having the option to play one or the other, the strategy version doesn't really seem to add much to the game. It creates extra work by having the player decide which buildings his subjects should construct, fending off raiding parties, and so forth, but I haven't seen plot-advancing or sexual events that result from these features which make them seem irrelevant to the gameplay.

2. The MC often has the option to get girls pregnant. I very much like this feature and it is a key aspect of why I like this game, but there doesn't seem to be any follow-through on this so far. I mean, the girls get pregnant and disappear to have birth, and it is announced that they gave birth but then we never get to see the babies afterwards or see the births themselves. I think it would be far more interesting if we could watch the raped girls give birth and then have some involvement in raising our offspring afterwards.

3. The combat system is boring and tedious. There is a "chicken button," which allows skipping the combat entirely. I use that button every time and I appreciate having it there, but I think it would be great if the combat system were less boring by being more interactive or something.

4. I like the sex scenes in the dungeon, but I think it would make more sense if the repeatable later sex scenes were more different than the initial ones since the girls would probably react differently after the MC has already raped them before.

The game fulfills its promise: You get to conquer, you get to ravish, you get to breed.

The protagonist
The player can choose whether to play Karder as a magnificent bastard or as an unrepented rapist (or a mixture of them). He might call himself a brute, but he actually appears smart and thoughtful (even if maybe a bit rash). He is not brooding or self-doubting, and makes for a great lead for a power-fantasy plotline. One of my favourite protagonists of all AVNs (and he'd do well even if competing beyond that area).

Consent
You can play Karder as an outright rapist, but you don't have to. I consider the word "seduction" to name the other route (choice is on a case by case basis) ill-chosen. The attitude to me seems to me more like "My dick is going in you one way or another, but I'd prefer it if you want it too and enjoy it." Basically, he's utterly unsuitable as an RL role model, but the game can be very enjoyable even if you dislike the "rape" tag.

Sex partners
We get some genuine variety in bodyshapes and looks from the women (and few men) Karder beds. Old and young, tall and short, thin and thicc, big tits, small tits, white skin, dark skin. All there, and more to come.

Game play
The game has standard VN-parts, a strategy part, and duels spliced into the VN-parts. I like the strategy part - it makes the whole "Karder is conquering the known world"-come to life much more than JUST the VN-part could. There is an easymode making the strategy part trivial, if this is not your cup of tea. The duels are not my cup of tea, but there is an auto-win button. So don't let the game play component scare you away.

v0.6.11

Pros
+ The infiltration storylines of each kingdom are each unique and offer the biggest incentive to play the game.
+ gallery

Cons
- The character development is not good. Some scenes are very awkward or flat out don't make any sense why we would be acting a certain way or why certain characters act the way they do towards us given the circumstances. Sometimes the Khan will make major decisions outside of your control that will feel out of character (regardless of your previous choices as the Khan).
- Although I like the idea of playing a conqueror and uniting various nations under your banner, the gameplay for getting there feels rather clunky and repetitive. There's a lot of waiting for gold and troops. The core gameplay of beating a kingdom, then waiting for gold so you can build the same key buildings over again is boring. The gameplay for taking a nation is purely based on waiting for enough troops to be in your army, and then attack when you have a numerical advanatage. It's rather boring, oversimplified and repetitive.
- The troop cap is annoying especially when garrisoned troops count towards army count. So everytime, you want to wage war, you have to remove all your troops from all your garrisons then wage war. Then you lose a bunch of your troops and would have to wait for army count to slowing increase and Obedience decreases due to having 0 troops garrisoned. Most of the time, the game's army limit cap will not allow you to have enough troops to garrison 20 to each captured kingdom (nevermind the 30 needed to grow obedience). This could be easily fixed if garrisoned troops didn't count towards army count and couldn't be removed from the garrison once assigned.
- The H-scenes feel unremarkable. They are still images, lacking much escalation, arousal, and tend to feel short.
- The models are ok but could be better
- The rock paper scissors dueling combat is just a guessing game with very little depth

Conclusion
The infiltration questlines for each kingdoms function like a story arc in a visual novel. In my opinion it's the only thing that this game does well. Everything else feels boring and repetitive

This game has a great base story that makes you want to see the end but it is a little too straight forward and repetitive at the moment.

The repetitiveness also make the characters seem like they have no personalities at all, from the parlay's which are all the same to the dungeon visits which again are all the same, none of the characters actually act different and it becomes easy to mix them up.

At the moment the are very few side stories or extra events and what there is lacks content, choices don't direct the game at all, they really are just treat the person good or bad but one of the big problems with this game is the lack of commitment, picking the bad options doesn't lead to anything really bad even when it is very well deserved and everything(even when told it is not) is reversible, after breeding the women you would expect to be different in both looks and personalities but apart from one side story they go back to being exactly the same.

The MC is ok but once again the character lacks commitment, even in the bad "choices" he still treats the women better than you would expect him to with the worst things he will do being a quick rape and lots of bad language.

Story 3/5 interesting but a little too straight forward
Art 3/5 good but could be better
Sex 2/5 needs more verity
Fetishes 3/5 some but apart from preg the rest are only used once
Choices 2/5 no real difference
Characters 3/5 no personalities

Excellent game. There is actual gameplay mechanics throughout which might seem tedious at first but work nicely if you put some time into it. You can also just ignore most of it and play in VN mode.
The different kingdoms have different cultures that are very interesting as well as different characters. You can take a gentle approach or a harsh one and there are missions after you're done with a kingdom.
It's very well made in my opinion and deserves nothing less than 5 stars and support.

I play lots of grand strategy games but i really cant make heads of the world map. I just click around until i take over the areas, its too simple to be fun but too complex to be a breeze. The "quests, that are the visual novel part is also annoying. Moving around between scenes in a grid map like its an RPGM game is not fun.

But the fetish content is good, forced stuff all kinds of unsavory stuff crying and all. But disappointingly imprisoning the foreign rulers is underdeveloped. You can put them into your dungeon or not. And its irreversible so you have to pick on or the other. There should be more romance stuff like having them come along with you on your missions or something, but this isnt that type of game i guess.

Good fetish content everything else is rather subpar, and incest isnt in the game yet.

Love the game so far. Don't have as much of a problem with the 'ravishing' as some people do. I just wish there was a way to only sleep with Dian without Antiop. But I don't if there are any plans to even add new scenes for already conquered wenches.

Excellent writing, honestly the sex scenes don't do a lot for me, although the domination aspect is enticing.

The "min-game" with the map is okay, a bit bugged, but still fun. It's entertaining to put the rulers in their place.

The addition of the black-only lands where they call white people "salmon" is a nice addition - in today's politics you only see the reverse, so it's kinda a nice reminder that racism goes both ways (and the black chicks are hot).

Honestly, I keep playing for the writing - getting to know the individual girls and their desires and vulnerabilities is written well. I almost have sympathy for them, until I remember that I play this to get an 'Absolute Power Corruption' feel from it.

I haven't gotten as far as the pregnancy, which is the reason I d/led it in the first place, so I'm hoping for some good pregnancy fucks, we'll see.

TL;DR - kinda just going through the sex scenes quickly, the writing is what is really keeping me going.

Note to dev: Finish your renders; they are a bit grainy. Change your girls/women to show more emotion during scenes. When I betray a rich merchant woman, I want to see her pissed off.,

Based on V0.6.9 -

I'm enjoying the game and content. The story premis is interesting and keeps you wanting to play. Its a good idea that the 'inflitration' missions form part of the games unique questing. I like the MC has a decent sized dong, IMO i'd of gone bigger but its big enough.

Nice to have the option of playing like a real uncaring mofo and controlling through fear and domination and or being a lethario, charming the loin cloths off your rivals.

The combat system is basic but it works and gives you a decent sense of a strategy and management system.

There could be improvements but overall its a solid body of work. Looking forward to more content and good luck to the dev with completing this.

Very promising! I'm giving 5 stars although it still needs to be finished and could have also some adjustments. I would push more on the strategic management of the territories, implementing a mechanic that rewards good management with NSFW scenes (maybe by reaching specific development objectives).

Overall this game is great. If you like Struggle with Sin, or Peasant Quest, or the type of breeding / slave making games the polifrate this great website you will like this one. 5/5, reviewing this now at 0.6.9, and I can't wait to play again when there is even more content. Here are some brief pros and cons.

PRO:
Great renders
Lots of characters,
Breeding fetish + BDSM
Decent writing and fun mini-stories within the main story
Interesting consquences for how you solve the quests

Cons
Not a super fan of the the rock papers scissors minigame but its okay, the subdue mechanic is fun in that it make it higher risk but better rewards

The strategy aspect feels like it should be played more like a risk style game, it feels underdeveloped, not a big deal since you play it with essentially cheats on, but I feel like the developer is SO close to pure gold here.

Lack of intercharacter interactions - each little nation is seems to be a walled off story with a few exceptions.