VN - Ren'Py - Where It All Began [Ch. 3 Full] [Oceanlab]

Another title that sets itself apart from the herd. From the moment you begin this journey, you're quickly immersed into the characters. I was a little worried after the initial scene, but quickly draws you into an interesting backstory that makes you want to learn more.

I cannot wait to get more content from this title. The story, so far, doesn't feel like it's being rushed or unprepared.

This title deserves all the support it can get. I absolutely want to see this one completed, sooner rather than later. I cannot wait!!
Well done!

PS: As much as I would love more content delivered quickly, I am ready to wait as long as it takes for a polished story-line. PLEASE take the time you need to complete the character arcs adequately, as too often we find some titles start off spectacularly but end with a flimsy ending due to being rushed. When you need a break from the project, please take the time you need. Readers are often more grateful with a writer dedicated to the integrity of his work. Your true fans will understand and love you more for it.

I didn't play the old version (will do that now) but i must say.. playing the reworked I am really impressed! Beautiful, very beautiful characters (all of them!), amazing graphics, excellent animations, interesting plot, really a masterpiece!

Even the MC looks so damn good that you can believe that all girls fall on the back when they see him. Which they don't do too much for the moment here, but this is what they do in all games on this site.. However this is the first time when i can really see.. a reason.

Being not gay i always had problems to understand what makes women fall for a certain type of man. In real life I kinda got the picture when I first saw Brad Pit.. but in the games around here, the MCs usually look mediocre to say the least, here it's the first time I can figure out why all women should fall for him

I reached the end of this update (ch2 full) and i don't know what to expect for the future, but from my point of view, the multiple talks about "open relationships" are very promising! I hope not only the MC will fuck all women around but also, at least some of them, will interact not only with other girls.. This could be a problem for some players but i guess if you chose no NTR at the beginning, you will not see anything of that. I however.. can hardly wait. For me that would be the reason to place this game on number one of my personal Top.

The fact that this game has spent over 4 years in development, only to remain at v0.2 is quite disappointing and the content that is available thus far leaves much to be desired.

While the game does have quite attractive renders, and quite a bit of love definitely went into character design, lighting and posing, the game's plot feels quite empty and the characters are written in predictable ways.
The mc is extremely mediocre, for the most part he acts like a man-child who has undergone essentially no real development and growth in his time spent away from everyone else. He has failed to impress anyone in any meaningful way since his return and his entire personality is "I'm dumb but I'm hot". A shallow "alpha male" who "asserts dominance" by projecting sexual energy, and honestly, the sexual tension between him and everyone else is ridiculous. He still holds onto petty grievances and his vocabulary is riddled with words and terms that would only be used by a frat boy. Given his presumed age, it's not a good look. The women treat him as though he's the shit, but in actuality, he shares very few traits in common with a high value man. A man, by societal standards, is valued based on what he's capable of; what he's done and what he can do. This mc is on the receiving end of boundless admiration while he continues to act like a child. It's very important to have a well written mc considering the game will be experienced through his pov, you don't want to establish this disconnect between the protag and the audience but I couldn't identify with him not one time. When he met with the girl he publicly embarrassed, his remorse was lacking, then he'd have the audacity to say "Stop projecting the way I treated you on how I would treat Helen".

The emotional focus of the plot is driven by the mc's guilt towards abandoning everyone the way he did, and honestly, it's hard to take it seriously. It constantly feels as though they're making a large issue out of something trivial, while the mc continues to fall for the same guilt trip. The "small town" vibe where everyone knows each other is creepy enough, added to that is the fact that everyone acts as though the town itself is a prison of obligation to the mc, discouraging him from leaving with constant emotional manipulation saying shit like "I'm sure mc will make the right decision". Honestly had me laughing thinking "What is this, the church of scientology?" I can't take it seriously.

The mc having predisposed opinions of everyone leads to him acting familiar with people who the player has no inclination towards. This robs the player of the opportunity to identify with the mc and his judge of character and a lot of the context behind the nature of his relationships with others. I still, really and truly, have no idea what half these characters mean to the mc.

So far, the choices leave you without agency as the mc's personality overshadows the player's thoughts and opinions on the events that transpire as mc acts in his own way. There are also times at which the developer attempts to flex their literary muscles and butchers any intellectual conversation with fake deep generalizations of the issue at hand. I'd say the rating this game has received is a testament to how easily impressed the majority of this community is, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

Play it, you'll prolly like it anyways.

Amazing renders,good looking girls and the story is only starting (i know this is a remake that you can play the original). Hope in the future updates we get more choices, hope choices matter and have impact on the story and the relations with the girls, hope there is more choices to choose (instead of 2 to have 3) in the future,hope to see more girls on the game. it has potential to be amazing game but it takes time.

This has everything going for it:

• The best 3DCG you've ever seen in an adult game
• Multidimensional, fun characters
• Engaging storyline
• Highly attractive, sexy VN babes
• Superbly animated sex scenes
• An MC that would fuck everybody's moms but stick around to be your new dad, teaching you everything you need to know about life, and helping you become more successful in life so that you are not inside all day playing visual novels

Okay the rework is amazing!
I played the old version long long back and remember not being too impressed with it, the characters, especially Miru, I found really annoying back then and that wasnt great given how she's got all the screentime being the girlfriend and everything.
But rework has honestly fixed every single complain I had with the game, I will say that the story seems to lack a driving force at this point but I'm satisfied with assuming that's because we're only at the second chapter still and this will change soon given the developments we had the 2 spiders event.
The renders are fucking amazing, usually if the renders are decent that's good enough for me. But this one goes way beyond whatever the bar is, so many times I found myself just sitting and admiring how pretty everything looks (especially Miru).
I'll warn anyone getting into this 'game' though, this one definitely is a movie as of ch2 beta, not that it's a bad thing cause it is very good at being that but I figure anyone getting into it should be atleast be aware of that.

This visual novel/game has everything I look for when I download. The scenese are realistic and actual animation. The movements and angles are well thought out and designed. The dialogue is actually enjoyabe and not overly cheesy or volgar. The only reason for 4 stars and not 5 is the lack of sound effects. There is background music. I am looking forward to future updates for this game .

After reading all these other glowing reviews I had to add something to caution anyone thinking of trying this.

There's nothing here. Like nothing happens. Yes, the renders are gorgeous, and there's some dialogue, but overall this is just a start, an intro chapter. It certainly looks promising, as others have said, but it must be emphasized there's no real story arc fufillment. You chat with someone, you go to a bar and chat with more people, you go to a park and chat, then you go to another party and chat with people, then game ends.

Again, huge potential, but this is nothing more than a start, and in the non-renpy avn/indie game landscape, this would be nothing more than a teaser demo given any for free.

-EDIT

Updated rating after game is through Chapter 3, it's mostly enjoyable and there are plenty of sex scenes now, upped rating to 4 stars.

Review for Ch1 Reworked as well as the original Ch1-6, subject to change for future updates.

As a big fan of Ocean's Summer's Gone, I finally decide to give Where It All Began a try after I find out I could also play the original version of it. Even though Ocean states that Reworked version will be a major overhaul from the original, playing both versions still gives me a lot of information about the overall idea of the game.

Warning: the following review contains spoilers!!!

I still have hard time agreeing with Ocean's fanatic obsession of Rework/remaster in the middle of the development of his games (same goes with Summer's Gone), but I must say the difference between the original and reworked contents convinces me a lot. Not only does the model and visual effects get improved, but the story is made more interesting and engaging. Take Ch1 for example as right now only the first chapter gets reworked: in the original game Miru (your current girlfriend) is just a crazy Asian nympho who basically cannot live out a day without a cock in her vagina (this is especially worse if you turn NTR on. I personally turn NTR on not because I'm a NTR fan but because I wanna see the dialogue/scene change, so I keep Miru from falling into the NTR route), and some of the interaction are quite childish and inconsistent to watch, thus making the character of Miru less likable (I honestly care less for her than other girls). But in the reworked version she turns into a caring, still horny, and loyal partner who will accompany you to face the unknown no matter what, letting alone her model is much prettier than before. The same improvement also applies to the story: your sister's call and the need to come home becomes more natural, and the addition of MC's inner struggle and his interaction with other people in the town he now lives makes the plot become more captivating. Huge respect for Ocean's effort in changing the storyline.

As for the story itself, I don't know how much Ocean will change in future rework updates, so I only talk about the original game right now. I love Ocean also provides Miru's solo perspective that leads to more contents, especially if you turn NTR on that may lead to some scenes that my wholesome heart will sink, but it actually makes the game a lot more interesting knowing that you need to make certain/correct choices in order to keep your relationship untainted. Another thing that deserves praising is the effects of variety and randomness. One of the most important choices in the game is that if you fuck Donna/the bar lady at the bar, and the consequences become even more entertaining with the choice of pregnancy or not in the middle of the game. Yes you can choose whether every semen you shoot inside women's vagina can knock them up, and the choice of "mystery pregnancy" (50/50 pregancy) makes it more interesting. Drama everywhere, and I love it.

Overall, since the game is still under the rework development, my opinion of it will certainly be separated between reworked version and the original contents. But the game itself is still very fun to watch, and you can turn NTR off if you want. Couldn't recommend more.

Honestly, there isn't much action. But there is also nothing else like this game. As a fan of pure aesthetics, this was simply dreamlike. The characters make such a deep impression on you in such a short time it's actually unreal.

There is also insane potential, as there are 5-6 branches that the dev's can explore. I really hope they have the support they need. God's work.

This is a first for me. Normally I wait until after I finish playing something to rate it, but man. I'm only 5-10 minutes in, and I can honestly say, that the sheer quality and polish of this game, is beyond anything I've played. It has the highly detailed models of Being a Dik, with the fluid animation of Treasure of Nadia. It's almost strange how high quality it looks. The writing is also engaging. Nothing amazing, but definitely not bad by any means.

Where It All Began is a VN where you play as a guy returning to see his family after a long, sudden absence. The game appears to have been reworked in December and as such there's the 0.6 version and the new reworked Ch. 1. They're very different in virtually every way.

The renders in 0.6 are decent but nothing to write home about. There are some cute girls, but they aren't enough to recommend the game on their own.

The story is unfortunately a dumpster fire. It's extremely difficult for me to play a VN where I don't know who the hell my MC is and the game doesn't tell you a damn thing. I'm not sure if the writer was going for dramatic revelations or what, but it mostly left me confused. How am I supposed to interact with characters when I don't know who "I" am supposed to be?

There's no real continuity of events in 0.6. Things just... happen in this game. First you're solving a crime, then you're invited to dinner, then you're in prison, then you're on a camping trip? Individually, these events are all fine, but the way your character seems to be dragged between events feels absurd. The MC has no agency whatsoever in the story, despite being able to make choices about who you are or aren't trying to fuck.

There's just too many characters in the game for the amount of content. As a result, basically none of the characters get much in the way of development or focus. It felt like I was being introduced to new characters before I'd even finished being introduced to the ones in front of me.

Lastly, 0.6 is an ntr game first and an anything else game second. Trying to play a faithful runthrough is frankly boring. There are about two scenes with your gf early in the game then nothing. Hell, you barely see her the rest of the game. It seems like you could get her to fuck other guys more than the MC.

The reworked game might be better. There's frankly not enough content to say. That said, the look of the game is sharply upgraded and I hope the story won't be such a convoluted mess, though it's already leaning that direction. Overall though, there's just no way I can recommend this game.

Finally a game where the MC does not look like a geriatric or skinnymanlet. I love every character model in the game male and female included, stunning renders and awesome characters. I don't write reviews on this site, but this one deserves it. Perfect, can't wait for more.

I haven't played the previous iteration of this game but I really enjoyed this new reworked one. It's just chapter 1 for now so there is not much story but there is a lot of drama and mystery from the beginning. The renders, animation, music and lighting are all incredibly done. Every still frame looks good. And I really enjoyed the dynamic between the protagonist and his girlfriend. She's a keeper in every aspect. And idk why the Dev gave the protagonist the gigachad face lol.

Wow, this first episode totally blow my mind away, i wasnt specting this much quality.

Usually i feel very lazy to writte reviews (Since as you can see, English is not my first language) but i really feel like this game totally deserves it.

The intro is stunning (Very well done) the writting is amazing (To me) but the renders and characters... you simply fall in love with them. (It took me 2 minutes to fall in love with Miru)

The only bad point to me is when the main character girlfriend is that lovely and perfect i just feel like if i was the main character i will say "I just gonna enjoy my life living with this Asian angel and i dont care about everything else" so yeah, no story to tell if i were him. lol

The story is a little too childish for me. At first, I saw a great intrigue in prospect. I said to myself, we are going to discover the characters with the introduction of their story and the links either with the MC or with his family. Their involvement in every part of the plot, but until the end of Chapter 6, even the Mc's background is barely revealed. The dialogue is superficial (still lots of spelling, grammar, etc.), and...well, everything about this game is superficial. The NPCs know things they've never heard of, and everything is confusing to the point that it becomes impossible to delve into this story. Also impossible to develop a relationship with a particular LI, and the same for a possible harem mod. The dev has to concentrate a lot more, and write the whole story, before launching, rather than writing bits of story on a corner of a paper tablecloth. It is clear that the ambition of the dev far exceeds its capacity in the field of writing. It's quite ironic given the profession of the Mc. I'm not saying that meanly. The story is good and has a lot of potential. Here, all the characters are intriguing down to the smallest details of their lives, and every information about one of them is thrown like a bomb, and then a great upheaval in the story is expected, but we remain suspended without knowing if this implies other consequences. A simple narration at the introduction of each character would suffice to understand what their position was before the Mc fled from his home and how they evolved during his absence. Then, we would have to develop the paths of each LI separately to make them possible, rather than suggesting that the Mc wants to fuck anything with two legs. There are also other issues such as the plausibility of events. For example, a simple punch in the face as a prison guard is worth a week of survival for the Mc, while letting his girlfriend Miru get fucked buys him only one day? Really? Without mentioning the fact that Miru seems to be part of a yakuza family, which masters the art of combat. She would like to kill Danna, the woman she was cheated on, but she lets herself be fucked by an inmate without question, to save her boyfriend? seriously? That she agrees to make deliveries for the gang to save the Mc's butt remained reasonable, but the rest... We don't believe it for a second. On top of that, she disappears without giving any explanation to the Mc, after doing all that How his 20-year-old twin Leia became the boss of several nightclubs, or his friend Dana the same age became a famous lawyer who earns 6 figures a year... I mean Wow! What incredible women. All this remains possible, but it is necessary to deepen the explanations to make this story coherent. Also, the female dialogues need to be reworked. Not all women talk like truckers, damn it! In short, there's a lot of untapped potential here, and it's going to take a lot of work to give this story the immersion it deserves. The new version has better renders and animations, but so far I don't see any improvement yet, just some changes. That said, I personally find the new Miru (closer to its sister in the first version) much more beautiful. Their relationship seems much better too. Naughty games and a lot of complicity between them. I like it and I hope these changes are a sign of a good evolution. Hopefully these changes will be better oriented, to fully exploit the full potential of this game. I rate 3/5, because I guess a lot of ideas for improvements. The images are beautiful, and the scenes are well done. Some scenes are really funny. The cousin who swallows the umbrella in the bar, or the girls who are completely stoned who fight with a raccoon. I wish good luck to the dev. If he deserves to be criticized, he also deserves to be encouraged to give so much richness to his game, in accordance with his ideas.

So I dont write these very often anymore, I will leave the bad reviews to others...

I didnt recognize any of the normal stuff, but I am not familiar with renpy VNs enough to say that all the art stuff is new, nothing reused.

I can say that whoever directed the camera/lighting/etc did an outstanding job. Some of those transitions were AAA quality. One point of contention, please add like a hold to skip button(or something) so I dont accidentally skip a cutscene again.

The music was right there too, queued and stopped perfectly, and blended with the scene.

There isnt really any story yet, just some background and a peak at drama to come.

I liked the quirky humor the MC has with his girlfriend, thank god it doenst extend beyond them.

Naughty animations look really good, all the animations look really good.

So far the quality is excellent, better than a few I have seen sold on Steam, hopefully the story develops and matches. I cant wait to see more.

I was really upset reading the girl's dialogue lines. It is like a boy in a chat wants to pretend to be a girl !!!
English problems during the game. Many misspellings and bad words are used. Lots of weird phrases. The author even claims to have a proofreader who is shocking!
Many women in the game have the same body type
Animation is not enough
Dirty scenes with side characters are not enough
Sexual situations are often aroused and then you just suck or suck on your breasts. The story does not try to push this issue in almost every case. In most cases, no other offensive content is available for this LI when you have sex with them.
Instead of developing existing characters and reinforcing their stories, the author continues to introduce more and more sub-characters.
The scene in the prison with MC teaching a female guard was a great disappointment! The author could really do something special here with his aggressive / forced depth. The scene was beautiful with a fist to the face and a man licking the MC bar hard. Whoever sees this will not buy it. Does MC's friend in the dungeon just accept his words without a witness? I expected the barracks to scream for help, while the MC kept forcing his mouth to deepen over and over again as his makeup stained his face. MC could constantly slap him in the face and tell him to do better. It could have been a good scene instead of the bad one we got! MC and the guards did not sell the scene in any way.

I had played the previous version a couple of year ago. The story was intriguing and excellent, but besides that I was not really impressed.

But this rework is in another league. The renders are just stunning and I spent several minutes to admire each of them (every aspect is close to perfection: lighting, framing, DoF, details in the scenes, expressions, eye reflections, etc). Very few sex scenes ATM, but with an incredible animation (and many small anims in the story). The narrative is excellent, one of the best I have seen; you slowly discover the personality of the chars and the underlying story thanks to small details, remarks, expressions, close up, etc; excellent mix of textual and visual aspects. The story is always as mysterious and fascinating. And, cherry on the cake, an excellent musical soundtrack and background sounds.

In terms of quality, without any doubt one of the very best game I have played.
The only drawback is that to maintain such a high standard the dev will need decades to achieve this masterpiece! But I prefer that to these rushed out games that we generally see.
Continue this outstanding work.

This is the first game where i felt really uncomfortable when reading girl's dialogue lines. It is like a guy in chat who is trying to pretend he is a girl
And mc looking like a giga chad does not add any immersion
Everything else looks nice so i rate it as 3* for animated transitions with beautiful music