Ren'Py - Abandoned - Vis [v2.0] [Mad King Games]

8.5/10 (Version 1.0)

I gave the game 5 stars so more people will play and support this beast of a project. Scroll to the bottom for a TLDR.

Positives:
I like the set up for this story- A coming of age story about a spoiled prince becoming a man. He and the people closest to him go on adventures and solves problems concerning his kingdom.

I like the cast- mostly. The queen, sisters all feel real and have real doubts and povs. They conflict and interact in ways real people do. And they all feel like individuals. The prince grows slowly and right before your eyes.

The visuals are amazing. Period.

Negatives

The villains are cliche and most of the cast outside the main cast are arch-typical- they behave based off a singular reason or goal- its never explained in depth. For example: the king is a dick because his son was coddled and doesn't measure up. Sure this explanation is fine for the first hour or so, but at the end of the day, outside the king, no one noble has anything bad to say about the prince outside whoring and drinking. He's kind, courageous, cares about his people and eager to prove himself. Maybe theres a bigger reason for the king to act the way he does, but nothing so far.

The story is has a huge scope, and as of now we have barely scratched the surface. Imagine if you read A Game of Thrones and were solely limited to Jon Snow at the Wall. You'd have no clue how the kingdom actually worked, or in Vis's case EMPIRE. Not to mention the fantasy elements.

Everyone has some degree on understanding that the MC/Prince is meant for great things. How if the king doesn't notice it and he was actively searching for it? I get by magical means but ehhhhh. Weak writing point.

The love and lust system is bad. Is love better than lust? Does having one higher than the other matter? Is corruption something to avoid? Right now there's no point to not gather points and picking the options that give whatever. Having someone at high lust doesnt matter compared to love, and corruption has no affect on gameplay.

The tarot card system doesnt mean anything. What does leadership or warrior stats matter if it doesnt change gameplay. By Version 1.0, i'd expect something out of this system. Aviod tarot cards gives you a very similar playtru as collecting all or focusing on a certain one.

Finally the chick with elf ears bothers me. Her whole subplot was a fantasy dump that i didnt care for and felt more like filler- not to mention her whole "I can bring people back from the dead" seems to go completely over everyone's head and is ignored. That bothers me.

Conclusion/TLDR

Vis has the makings of a grand game, but we haven't even scratched the surface. There's all these mechanics to give player agency but none of them really matter. Awesome story and lore, interesting characters, and compelling plot make you want more, but empty gameplay mechanics and typecast villains undercut the game.

An immersive story with fantastic renders! One of the favorite games I have played from many on this website. A smooth narrative experience, with interesting characters and cool takes on Roman/Greek mythology.

(v0.8) Ok, i get that 1/5 may be a little harsh but read my review and you will get my POV (or not... probably not)

Resuming for those who don't like reading wall of texts: this game is like "Ryse Son of Rome" (a xone launch game) good to look at, bad to play it*

BAD POINTS:

- So many wasted opportunities (too rushed, i don't know how this game can be this fast and yet this slow, at first you are a prince, then they present you magic, then they present you powerful entities, then they present you another dimensions, and with all this comes new characters... Sounds good right! But you don't progress with then! Just occasional flirting and teasing, don't let the first sex scene fool you, the MC only will get another one "actual sex" scene. Well, there is a LOT of girl on girl action without the MC, if you are a lesbian lover you will love it, but if not, beware since there even a Ms. Steal Yo Girl scene, which isn't in the tags**).

- So many flashbacks and "dreams" (MAN... I personally hate those, THIS IS FUCKING FRUSTRATING, seems like you are on wonderland, sometimes you don't know scene is really happening at all).

- So many Unknown things and characters (you/MC are basically are in the dark, nobody tell you shit, and when someone do, it doesn't make any sense. Of couse you could say: "OH the dev is gonna explain this later", and i gonna answer: "read the next item").

- So unnecessary complex (complex not always means good, i'm not trying to underestimate the dev, but even the LOST showrunners couldn't answer the questions that they propose, he may even have the answers already, highly doubt though, but those answers may not please the public or fill holes left in the plot).

GOOD POINTS:

Thematic: (You can't go wrong with the good old medieval theme, throw some fantasy and incest and voilà, I must say I really like the ambiance, doesn't fell generic).

Renders: (Undoubtedly the best characteristic of the game, that's probably why i wanted to like it, there swords, armors, dragons, monsters... pretty impressive)

CONCLUSION:
Fuck this!*** I'm gonna pick my Dora's backpack and hunt some Komodo Dragons with a lightsaber!

* Since these days we have to explain everything, the analogy there means that the VIDEOGAME ins't good as a GAME but only as VIDEO, like this VISUALNOVEL that is only good as VISUAL and not as NOVEL.
** NTR: classical setup: innocent girl, dominant partner, inicial internal conflict, "regret" later.
*** Note to myself: beware of where you click because i had to write this entire shit 2 FUCKING times cause i missclicked outside the review box.

Reviewed 0.7
It is nice to see a medieval-fantasy themed VN for a change.
The game started actually pretty good but after awhile the story seems a bit inconsistent and it quickly becomes boring.

Im gonna start with the negatives
4/5 of the characters dont explain the MC wtf is happening.Yeah i get it you want to create suspence but when soo many characters tell you patience,have patience,you will see in the future,i cant tell you yet and so on itjust becomes annoying and frustrating.
The flashback and scene that shows other characters elsewhere should be framed and explained better.It took me awhile to realise that the flashback scene was actually one.Also the whole Wilfred scenes feel misplaced and it doesnt make sence,it serves no purpose.
The MC is meant to be something greater but as of 0.7 he still waits for that revelation ,Balding .He has a near death experience and after he does what he does he goes back to drinking and whoring.dafuq.also needle peen .
I think dev has an issue with where woman and women should used.

There's some things that are done nice tho:
BGM is nice and its immersive.
Renders,models and enviroments are detailed.
Animations are kinda meh but there's no real fuck yet.
Medieval theme is great.
The story despite the negative is generally interesting.

All in all with some story and scene tweaking this could turn into an interesting game.For me i started skipping some dialogue near the end because being kept in the dark for so many things and the inconsistency made me lose interest.
Would i recommend the game?
Not yet wait a bit more for more story and when the dev starts revealing wtf is happening with 80% of the characters.

creative wise and look wise - most unique and creative i have played
story - interesting
women - all gorgeous
sex scenes - let down - which is why i gave it a 4, would have been a 3 but everything else is so top notch a unique, it would be too harsh

The game is excellent...

Art work, design, UI everything is class.

Great looking women, with equally great characteristics. MC is a good guy and really wants to do the right thing. Not shy to enjoy women but respects them.

Renders are exceptionally done and honestly the whole feel of the game is superb.
Personally not a fan of Skyrim style VN's at present but that doesn't mean if its done well as is in this case I wouldn't enjoy it. Simply love this game.

Great story, great dialogue, great renders and seriously well put together game. You will not be dissapointed.

Great work dev....

Man, I am conflicted about this game. It is so interesting in some regards but falls short in others. This review is based on the incest patch so disregard improper relationship titles for characters.

The relationship between MC and Morrigan is definitely my favorite part, rivaling some relationships from the most popular VNs. Unfortunately the game struggles in a lot of aspects as well. In particular, I feel the game is a bit of a mess. It seems like it goes on and on about a bunch of random paths but they never end. We see a lot of different dream worlds or whatever and just random scenes that are a bit confusing and mess with the pacing.

There also is an open exploration part which I'm not sure actually serves any purpose. As of now it seems useless. Other than these issues and some problems with the story (namely the other sister, the king, the MC drowning himself in beer, etc) the game really is impressive. The renders are so good and the girls all look really nice.

As I said the (as of now) main relationship really piques my interest. I hope these issues get hammered out and I look forward to seeing where this one goes. Easily recommend the game in spite of the problems.

I don't think the creator really knows how to accomplish what they want to do here, and I'm not entirely sure they know what they want to do. They seem to want to create an intimate epic, and the presentation of it is quite good. The models, interiors, exteriors are all good looking. But man, I don't know if it's even possible to call this a story. I feel like I'm reading a plot. I mean the writer kind of just skips over a lot of interesting stuff, including character development.

I mean really, the moment where you think the prologue is over and you think the game is about to open up, allowing you to explore the world beyond the VN format, it suddenly time skips a bit and straight up tells you, "you've isolated yourself further from your loved ones" and tells you in a sentence or two that you feel regret, and that, "you started to wander for days" like...??? How do you skip over all this interesting drama and character development in the span of two sentences?

The entire game so far feels extremely rushed.

As well, the structure is extremely poor. I got to a time where I figured this is just a visual novel, with no exploration or grinding with stats or whatever. Until literally out of nowhere they just decided to make it one. Except...there's nothing to explore. Just rooms with nothing in them. And then it just tells you to press the middle button to continue to story. And you continue the story like it's a visual novel.

This is so poorly thought out I'm just baffled. The groundwork for the game's future is incredibly unstable. I have no idea how the creator is gonna make anything worthwhile here if they keep going the way they're currently going. It's so clearly rushed.

I will say, though, the beginning is relatively interesting, and some early scenes with Morganna are pretty good. But otherwise, this game is a mess as it is.

A good project after a long time. Try to reduce the dialog little bit. The INCEST is more satisfying. Try to focus on mom and both the sisters.

Most importantly (its a request) try to finish the story in a year. I don't know the statics but usually people seem to be lost touch with the game if the project is long term. technology is increasing better games will develop day by day. we don't want to see this an abandoned project.

Review written as of v0.6.0.3

Overall a solid game, 4/5 stars.

Pros:

-Very good renders and models. No crazy proportions for body types and there's no clipping or other visual issues.

-Unique world and design of costumes. I haven't played many fantasy settings so not sure how many other games utilize the same costumes and hair selections, but the art is very well thought out and done

-Perspective transitions during dialogue is excellent in a lot of scenes. Blurring the image of the listener and focusing on the speaker during dialogue is very well placed and executed. Additionally there are several close-up shots at certain points which really add to the complete visual experience.

-A unique world that's populated by a vast cast of characters and seems to be well crafted and thought out with a LOT in the works for future updates

-The specific patterns of speech and references that are unique to the world Mad King created go a long way in maintaining the story

-The mechanics are excellent and the attention to detail in creating the card system is fantastic! A lot of games use stats, but the detail in Vis to this system is very well done indeed. Especially the three cards that are persistent in the main screen, a great way to have quick access to stats and replays/gallery

-Character dialogue is excellent and the verbal fencing between specific characters is solid (no spoilers for those who haven't played; some players may find it boring, but if you enjoy a good story then you'll probably appreciate the attention to detail)

Cons:

-Scene transitions could use explanation or a bit of smoothing out. Jumping from one scene to the next without any point of reference was a tad jarring to the overall rhythm of the story. A small text box on a black screen explaining "meanwhile in (insert next location) these characters are doing xxxx" would be infinitely helpful in smoothing out these scene and location transitions

-I feel that so far the mechanics are under-utilized (as of v0.6.0.3). I hope that in future builds there's more chances to increase or decrease the stats for all characters, and possibly expanded to include more than the 3 primary characters

-Some of the scenes are a bit drawn out and are still disconnected, but this is probably intentional building up of the main plot

Overall:
I understand some of the critical reviews about the plot in the last update, but to restate above, it feels like Mad King is slowly introducing us to all the threads in the plot. Hopefully these threads will begin to come together over the next series of updates and will make the story clearer

TL;DR:
Give this project a try if you're looking for a good story that's very unique. There are some flaws but they're outweighed by a very interesting story that's being developed and furthered by excellent visual execution

I am disappointed to see in what path this game is going. The beginning of the game was fun and it had a lot of potential, the medieval fantasy concept was very refreshing.
The story was vague but I had hope that in future updates this was going to be resolved.

Instead it seemed for a while that the mc didn’t really matter anymore and the focus was on the little girl. When in the newer updates when we Did get to see the mc, he had turned out to a total dweep.

I honestly have skipped most of the new dialogue and I have lost a bit of my interest in the game, very sad.

Very disappointed.
Bad story in general. Plot is actually very
dreary. This is the level of typical fantasy category "b"
Poorly written dialogues
If you like pictures - just extract rpa file and enjoy them.

This is my rating for v0.6.0.2:
Pro:
- Amazing renders.
- Great soundtracks. I think it's one of the few adult games with soundtracks.
- Beautiful characters. My favorite are Liliana and Morgana.
- Unique user interface.
Cons:
- I can't really figure what are the purpose of all the characters, but I will take a leap of faith with the dev and see where this goes.
(I will update it in the future)

This game seemed to have potential instead we get a stagnant story that and no character development. First of all let me make clear I don't mind it being story driven, but at some point the game seems to forget that it's an adult game too. Not to mention the fact that MC seems to be referred to as this beacon of hope, but instead of getting his act together we get more and more of the same drunk loser segment of the MC. Almost as if the creator hasn't figured out what they're going to do next.

I absolutely loved the game..Beautiful renders,Sexy ass models,Incest ,good storyline and good characters .Loved the sisters ;P . Hoping to see more of the game ..Eventhough I would've preferred it as a non sandbox game ,the devs are trying to make it a better sandbox so it's ok for me

The tags are very much my style so I tried out this game. I actually enjoyed the presentation of the story, seemed well crafted. Looking forward to completion of the game! I'm not a great fan of the image style, but it was good enough.

a breath of fresh air, medieval fantasy, discount yennefer, incest. ah fuck i have too many weak spots not to give this game perfect rating.
renders are good, music is a nice touch. writing and dialogue is not groundbreaking but more than adequete and beats lot if not most other games.
yeah it has flaws, mainly there a gaps between events, happening which is confusing, or well, disorienting.
the other flaw is MC. a cocky and smug but not an asshole. he is not terrible, but at least not the spineless creep cliche either. (all this is personal preference of course)
probably doesn't deserve perfect rating, but ah fuck it, im biased screw you.

I can't think of any other game title coming near this one. The developer has done a marvelous job and created a true masterpiece.
This definitely deserves a lot more recognition...

*Will update my review based on future versions

[Rev @v0.5]
I like what's goin on here.

Art's very nice, shockingly little uncanny valley creepiness and a minimum of the wonky 3d rendering physics. Character designs are appealing.

Writing's good; voice is a little rough and pacing is choppy. Pace tends to speed along just barely too fast to lend depth to deeper moments, and the sudden lurches of X Time Has Passed come out of nowhere and are gone again before they can impart any weight to the narrative. Give'r another once-over and add a couple transitional scenes and these problems will solve themselves.

Nothing in the porn squicked me, always a plus.

TLDR: Good quality, keep it up~

I dont see why this game geting this much praise.
The story seems just a bunch of random events stringed togather in a vague plot about how gods are control freaks and a lust demoness will set you free.
Atleast that is my interpetation of it.
Also i spend way to much time asking myself:
What is the story with the father.
He seems moronic evil.
Add to this i encounted meaby 3 or 4 choices.
The game is very much on rails.

It isnt bad but i dont get the praise it is recieving.