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

Version Reviewed: 0.6 Full

I really wasn't expecting much from this game due to not liking the author's other game Summers Gone. This game is more believable with more realistic writing.

Pros

• Excellent renders and visuals
• Excellent character models
• Good looking / hot female character models
• Good story
• Good writing
• Good character development with the main characters
• Good animations
• Good lewd scenes

Cons

• English problems throughout the game. Lots of misspelled words and misused words. Lots of awkwardly worded sentences. The author even claims to have a proofreader which is shocking!
• Too many females in the game have the same body type - bimbo
• Not enough animations
• Not enough lewd scenes with side characters
• Sexual situations are often teased and then you only end up sucking on tits or eating them out. The story doesn't attempt to advance this in nearly every case. Once you do something sexual with them, no more lewd content is available for that LI in most cases.
• The author keeps introducing more and more side characters instead of developing existing ones and furthering their stories
• The scene in prison with the MC teaching a female guard a lesson was a huge letdown! The author could have really done something special here with an aggressive forced deepthroat/facefuck. The scene ended up being very mild with just a single punch to the face and the female guard barely licking the MC's cock. Nobody who saw this would buy it. The MC's cellmate just takes his word for it with no witnesses? I was expecting the female guard to be screaming out for help while the MC kept forcing her mouth to deepthroat him further over and over again while her makeup smeared down her face. The MC could keep slapping her across the face telling her to do better. That would have been a worthy scene instead of the weak scene we were given! The MC and female guard did not sell the scene in any way.

Overall, I enjoyed this game and encourage others to give it a try!

I love this game. The renders look great and a new update is coming out to improve the renders!!! The story is captivating, I don't know who to trust. I read the walkthrough and I couldn't decide which playthough I wanted to do they were all so good. I also really like the idea of some scene and choices being up to chance like the camping and mystery pregnancy. Trust me you will fall in love with this game.

Pros

I like some of the scenes and scenarios. In particular the camping trip. It's really fresh and interesting.

On my second playthrough I appreciated the story more with it's focus on a more serious take, although I'm more neutral here because I don't particularly like it either.

The girls are really hot for the most part and the character archs are very appealing: hot lawyer, 'mute' milf, needy women that wants you so badly, crazy young chick. I just wish I could have seen the story go further. I'd love to explore all these women and their arcs.


Cons

I find the girlfriend unattractive and really annoying, I don't really have a thing for asians so it might just be me. But I like how you could act rudely towards her.

I came back to this several months later and found the story hasn't progressed. And I seen that this person wants to do a re-haul of everything. Why!? It looks good, just continue on with the story. There is a much wider problem with these VNs taking so long to make. Such potential with great characters but can only give it a 3 because of progress. I probably will look elsewhere as I don't understand devs decisions to remake it all.

Great story telling. Renders and animations start out good, not great but definitely improve over the course of the game. What would I suggest the developer improve? Well, a true harem path would be great (it seems impossible with the story so far). Even more strongly requested would be a request for a greater variety of body types. Its not bad now but could be better.
If you value story over quick action, I would recommend you try it. I will try this Dev's other games.

Without a doubt this is one of the best games ever made I was taking a look at the remaster I liked it very much better all very beautiful especially the characters this game was even more perfect than before and it must have been a lot of work to redo everything and change some things for I'm here commenting and doing my best to make it clear that this game is very good even I don't know if the story has changed or remains the same But that's not important for me now I'll find out when it was released I just want to thank you for two games I like the most Miru is also very beautiful thank you (Oceanlab) for having spent all this time remaking the game you for me are one of the best developers so far ♥

The story is good, the choices are very good (I looked at the different forks in the walkthrough and I saw a lot of very different outcomes than what I choose, same for the information you get). The characters are very interesting and there is a clear progression in the dev skills between each chapters.
The only minor downside is that sex scene are kinda average (but they are nice nontheless).

Overall an excellent surprise and seeing how the dev skill progress it can be one of the best in the end.

It has very nice renders, quite interesting story and an interesting character cast. I did however find the current content rather short. I can only see it going up as the paths get more developed. I would love to see the MC doing some blackmailing of Katie but that doesn't seem to be there (yet?).

What I like about this game is that it really has different paths/variables that really affect how things develop and change. This makes it so much fun. I really recommend playing without any walkthrough and just make choices and decisions you like. Just if you are curious about how things could go differently, create different saves and experiment around. The story development and the different characters are written nicely and I love how different fetishes are included. Lots is optional like NTR (I do not like NTR but I think it is great the option is there for those who wanna play with fire lol) but also pregnancy (again, optional). It makes the game pretty rich, diverse and really impacts how things unfold. Cannot wait for the next update!

Absolutely fantastic, and now one of my faves that I'll try and support on-and-off (as finances allow, gotta bounce between stuff or I'll go broke with so many faves). Great plot that actually engages you (doesn't just feel like a renpy wall-of-single-sentences), fantastic graphics with an eye for lighting, mood, clothing, fun characters that feel distinct, just enough 'dark' to add spice, feels like it will lead to a possible poly path (not just 'harem' but actual poly where multiple characters might have multiple partners they love and support each other)... And I'm super-curious to see what happens next!!

One of the best games,
Story is good,
Characters are good,
Animation (in recent versions) are almost like AAA games

With ntr turned off, there are so many meaningful choices that completely changes the story's experience. And if we count ntr content (didn't checked), Dev has put so much effort in the content.
Good luck to the Dev for future updates.

If you don't like NTR and turn it off, it seems you miss quite a lot of scenes, including the first animated one (first scenes aren't animated).
Content is rather limited for a game started in autumn 2018. The releases are also on the rare side (dev is also working on another game).
The game is also a contender for the most spelling mistakes. They're not big and you still understand the message, but there are A LOT. I'm not even a native English speaker and could still spot them so if this breaks immersion for you, stay away.
There are also good parts, which is why I didn't give it 2 stars but 3: the characters are pretty convincing and some are very likeable. Also, the pregnancy promise is something I like, although there are too few sex scenes (in the non-NTR at least).
In conclusion, I feel this game isn't worth it if you don't like NTR. At least not until it's completed.

I don't know how Oceanlab does it but I think I've played enough to say that the combination of his renders, animations, graphics, transitions, cleanliness, UI - everything you could expect from a technical standpoint - is 2nd to none on this site.

In both Summer's Gone and here with Where It All Began, Ocean displays a masterful ability to completely hook the user into the game with visuals while also providing a story line that makes us feel something. And while it is an adult game , there are themes and concepts that are very relatable. There is depth to each character that adds to the realism and makes the overall experience even more enjoyable

This game is truly worth the full 5 stars

Edit for reworked version :

This used to be one of my favorite VN, but in this new version, the character have become caricatures from magazine and advertising, the MC look like a buff american model and the female all look like they have ass and lips injections and fake boobs. This is clearly not my cup of tea and I really don't find them attractive.
The animations are great, the story and the writing are good enough, but the devs work slowly and they're developping two games so each release is a very long wait.

[As of v0.6 Full]

The Good:

- Intriguing Story
- Some of the girls are nice
- Renders are good
- Lewd scenes are very good

The Bad:
- Oddly forgettable game (was going thru the list of VNs that I played but I completely forgot what this game is about, which leads to)
- Nothing stands out despite the story is good.
- Slow updates (WHICH IS FINE, DEV, PLS CONTINUE TO WORK ON SUMMER GONE, THAT GAME IS SO MUCH BETTER!!)

Conclusion:
It's good. That's about it. A standard Adult VN. Look forward to future updates.
4/5.

This game. In short? For me masterpiece. I'm gonna start with very high quality of renders, animations - gorgeous, I haven't play Ren'Py game with such a great animations. Totaly breathtaking. Story's plot is very good, interesting and not the traditional one (MC's father dies and you came back to mom and sis). It can be little bit confusing but it motivated me to play it again. Also must point out the variability of choices. Nice. For me, this game is on the top. Very good quality, interesting story and plot, nice animation and details, no typos etc. Totally recommand. 9.5/10.

PS.: That racoon render in the shop made me burst in tears laughing.

What a fantastic game, loving the story and the renders. From the psychotic girlfriend to the sexy aunt. There is something for every one.

I think I have played through this game 10+ times and explored all the options.

I early await more chapters...

Renders 9/10
Animations 8/10
Story 9/10
Characters 10/10

Enjoyed game, but it's still need more and more scenes, more options, more choices. Finished it in 5 hours.

PS: Don't afraid to turn NTR on. Everything will depend on your actions. It will be more realistic when you turn NTR on and you will get more scenes.

Reviewing after playing 0.6:
Renders: 5/5
Animation: 5/5
Story:10/5 !!

I really like games with story, but on the other side it should also not be too much blueballing! This games seems to find the perfect balance which I expect.
Once I started playing, I really didn't realize how much time had passed.
And boy the story progression was great in the latest release, I really felt like Katie is a real person and she has been wronged!
Would highly recommend this game.

Another world populated with psychos and predators. The story is hard to decipher, not just because of the spelling and syntax. MC isn't likeable enough to justify the adoration of every woman, but it's balanced by the female characters being violent sociopaths. Some characters are beautifully rendered... others seem half-baked.

Rating for Version 0.6:

Just wow. Played the game a few months ago (pre 0.5) for the first time and it was at least interesting, renders looked fine, story was okay, quite some interesting kinks, nice sex scenes, but only average characters, etc. So would rate pre 0.5 as a good game but even completely forgot about it so nothing special imo. Only played it by chance again.

Now after playing post 0.5 I completely changed my mind.

- there are a looot of different routes
- the characters start to become quite interesting
- the story became amazing (some parts nearly made me cry)
- really great animations
- the new character models look amazing
- there's already a lot of content
- the writing style is good too

overall really amazing game and can't wait for the next update.