VN - Ren'Py - Zero End [v0.2.4d] [StolenRose]

I give Zero End five stars because it is a very good story experience that doesn't rely on sex at all to tell a convincing story. That might sound counterintuitive for an AVN, but in my opinion any adult novel should first and foremost tell a good story and have sexual content to enhance the experience.

In this novel we kind of play with the stereotype of the Superchad, because our Caleb does at times act and think like one. But this expectation is subverted often enough.
Zero End is a stylish mix of gothic-horror elements in a low fantasy world. Some assets like the College setting don't get sufficiently utilized so that I ask myself if it was really necessary to dabble in this overcrowded genre. Stephen King used remote villages in Maine to tell his stories and they were always written amazingly, do we really have to go to College every other AVN?

However, all characters feel unique. Although I feel that the romance options could develop more organically. It is obvious that in order to progress the plot it was necessary to cut romance dialogue trees and intimate moments short.
I like that many of them are tied to the overall theme though, I like the looming betrayal and tension whenever you get close to someone. Makes a celibate playthrough believable and in-character.

The sandbox elements don't feel out of place, many decisions feel meaningful and many characters are well written, so much in fact that I wish the VN would offer me more time to explore these relationships in a non-sexual but meaningful manner.
The net of conspiracies is intricately woven and feels believable until the very end of the most recent update (v0.2.4d), which is the foundation for everything that is yet to come. You can sense that there are still story elements to explore even though we skipped through a lot already. You could say that the two initial chapters are enough for a complete game.

And here lies the biggest strength of Zero End and the reason why I definitely have to give it five stars. This is a very good dark fantasy adventure with original ideas and effects that keep me hooked even though we have explored much of the initial premise. Zero End does something that many devs struggle with. It can finish an update and pick off from that point by telling a new story that is tied to what happened but still feels fresh and new.
I wouldn't be surprised if the developer managed to tell 6-7 chapters like this, always expanding and developing on lore, characters, consistently raising the stakes. That is probably not what will happen but at times I felt reminded of some great fantasy shows from the 90s and 2000s that had like 10 seasons. I feel there is not much of that anymore on modern television. Like Buffy, True Blood, Supernatural, Charmed, I devoured many of those. But it has become a rare sight and it feels lovely to experience this in the form of a visual novel.

First of all, I would like to say that the game is not exactly a 5 star game, it is more of a 4 star game in its current state. However, I want to give it 5 stars because of its potential. So I write first things that came up to my mind straight.

Story;
The story of the game is more or less a standard college fantasy mixed with an urban legend theme and a bit of the occult. Although the mystery theme and the introduction are not bad, since it is the developer's first game, you feel disconnected from the universe, especially in one scene in day 2, and reason for that because the characters in the universe it takes place in do not give much detail about how they perceive the universe. So you can end up confused that what normal people see things. But other than that, since the game is still in its early stages, it is hard to say anything, but it manages to draw you in. And you may like it, well atleast I did.

If I want to talk about the game apart from the story, it has a nice RPG system compared to other games on the market, you can feel like you are affecting the game. Although some of the character models look kind of weird sometimes, I can say that I liked the atmosphere and at least most of the characters in general.

Apart from these, one thing I would like to appreciate about the game is that the use of sound and music is definitely very good.

Conclusion: The game certainly has great potential, but it is impossible not to notice how small it is for a game that has been in development for 2 years, unfortunately the curse of difficulty in developing games, which curses almost all the games on the site, has also occurred with this developer. I hope he can continue his game well, because it is possible to tell from his first game that he is talented. Good Luck to him.

Visual : 8/10 graphics are good
Story : 9/10 zero end story is excellent
MC : 8/10 MC is different and its good different personality and look
characters : 7/10 personally i didnt like all of the characters in zero end but most of them are good
Game play : 8/10 it is so good to have other things in the game such as status or some FR.

One of the best VNs I've ever played.
I find that VNs tend to be 'wordy', too much text (and clicking) and not enough content. This gets it just right. The offered choices feel like they make sense, and the game doesn't obfuscate what you're choosing. Good bgm selection.

Story-wise, it's VTMB meets The Magicians, which I like a lot.

I'm reviewing this from a story based game with sex scenes perspective because that is that this game turned out to be. The story so far is excellent. I like the characters, I like the world so far. A lot of games get me bored and I skip through and watch the renders and that's it. This one had me passing up on multiple scenes because that is how I wanted to play through the story.

The magic system seems neat. The MC feels more like a John Constantine than a super powerful magician. The extra characters all have good backstories and their personalities lend to the overall story in a very positive way.

Overall, I think I prefer it this way. I hope the author keeps up the quality of the story and characters, even if the sex scenes aren't the best. If they can also make good scenes, I will more or less consider that a bonus.

I have no idea why this game is rated so high. It boggles the mind. The game is slow and grindy, the renders are grainy and have poor lighting, sex scenes are not arousing and you have to lock in on a single love interest at the end of the first version. wtf. The MC is an edgy goth-wannabe that acts like an arrogant asshole.

The only good part about the game is the RPG/stat increases and even that is not done very well.

Plot is Constantine goes to college. Supernatural gothic with some detective work.

The Good:
- Decent prose and story.
- The renders and girls are good.
- Good Music and UI.

The bad:
- Erotic content focuses on quantity instead of quality. Scenes are short and rather bland.
- Not much content, a couple of hours.
- Branching further reduces the little amount of content. Deity, stat system, choosing a single Love Interest; all these are great for flavor when you have a team of writers, they're out of scope here and make for a bare-boned VN.
- Awkward navigation during free roam with no minimap.

The ugly:
- Puzzles blocking progression.

aaah man what a pleasure to finally play a VN with a good story. You can feel that the dev wanted a game with a good story and that he then integrated some “lewd” moments, they're actually pretty well integrated and if you're playing a VN mainly for that, you can skip it.

UI is good, renders are also good. The point system (strength, seduction, etc.) is really good and will have an impact on choices. The music is also nice. There are lots of other good things, but I'm not going to mention them all.

If I had to give some “negative” points in my opinion, it would be :
- Lack of choice (there's some, don't worry, but I like having the choice of what answers to give during a discussion, for example).
- Not being able to change the MC name (I've used the universal renpy mod to change it, but it doesn't make much sense with some renders that mention the basic name, so it's up to you).

In short, this is probably the top VN you'll find here.

This AVN is a breath of fresh air. Well developed horror and supernatural elements, which is rare in this genre. Good renders, a smart and cool MC (one of the best MC in the genre IMHO), nice music. The game is well-written and the plot is engaging. The animations may be longer and use some improvements.

Truly an hidden gem. I definitely recommend playing it if you're into magic, mistery, supernatural and paranormal stuff

v0.24d

Story 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Characters 4/5
Writing 5/5

A great VN, interesting and distinctly different from the standard formula. It's apparent that the dev is putting a lot of effort into crafting a dense and coherent story with twists and turns. Most, if not all, choices made have an impact on how the story progresses to some degree, and those choices are also enjoyable in different ways. Unlike so many other VNs the choices here do not boil down to sex scene / no sex scene, but are more impactful. Do you want to charm the bartender, hang out with your bro, or get non-consensual surprise sex with a vampire? Normally the choice would be obvious, but the wide array of personalities on display from the characters make it a more interesting decision, and the absence of harem building also means that your choices exclude far more than they include. Choose wisely (and by that I mean listen to your penis).

Story
The story is excellent. It's concise and to the point without unnecessary exposition or text dumps. For those that want to play detective the game drops more than enough hints and implications to figure out what will happen, and for those that do not the plot is revealed later anyway with relevant flashbacks and convergences. All in all this story is better than 95% of what's available on F95.

Graphics
Sufficient. No quirks, no uncanny valley plastic dolls.

Characters
The characters are mostly great, distinguished, and interesting. There are no hordes of one-dimensional 18 year old virgins roaming about, waiting to be deflowered. Instead they are fun on their own (Brandon is a great bro), with interesting enough twists on their background stories. The absence of sex yes/no choices also adds to the character development as other aspects become more prominent and charming. The one thing I'd like to see developed a bit further here is that choices between hanging with your bro Brandon and meeting girls should be separated, as it's too obvious that you need to meet girls and Brandon becomes the last pick by default. I would prefer to have bro hangouts not conflict with important choices. All in all, characters are excellent and much more interesting than what you expect from a current year VN.

Writing
Writing is great. Semantically coherent, solid mix of internal dialogue and conversation (befitting a detective-oriented VN), and well paced. No notes.

Summary
This VN well deserves a five star rating, and I am looking forward to the next update. Best of luck to the dev!

If you've ever seen the Constantine TV series from a while back, with the C listers, or read any of the Hellblazer/Constantine comics, then you pretty much know what's going to happen in this game.

That said, this is a fantastic homage to those series, and a great game in its own right.

The graphics are generally great, though some of the characters and girls are not quite up to the same level of quality that others are (for example, the Dean, Brianna, Brandon). There are also a LOT of these weird zoom-ins on the main character's face that don't seem to serve any real purpose other than to make the narrative feel very awkward.

The UI/UIX is enormous, and not the most optimized in terms of screen real estate, but at least it looks cool. I can't tell you how many times my wandering mouse caught the edge of the star menu in the bottom left and ended up skipping a line because of it.

The story is solid, and probably the best star of this VN. There's a number of twists and turns, though it does feel like women throw themselves at the MC quite often. It also feels weird that the MC is just able to go wherever he wants--even straight into the heart of the cultist HQ, and escape pretty much unscathed. Also weird that there's no wide-scale conflict at several points later on in the story. I WILL however give it a few points for how many choices there are in the game.

The design is fairly simple, but effective, however, it does feel weird that a new player is supposed to know what each of the stats and deities do or change things. Found myself a bit lost at the start, and just figured that if a game was going to feature Morgana Le Fay as an option, I might as well go with that. Seemed to work out? Not sure what would have been different.

Audio and FX were solid for the most part, though some were a bit cheaped out on (the eye glow, and his Sword n Cup stuffs). The missteps were barely bad enough to notice.

All in all, a 4.5/5. Very enjoyable, but I don't think someone without my edgy sensibilities would enjoy it.

Pros:
+ Superb writing. A lot of care is put into the lore and character development.
+Amazing render and animation
+Sandbox doesn't overstay it's welcome and the puzzle minigames are fun to figure out
+Music is lit
+Choices matters and routes are very different. Worth replaying.
+UI is visually nice
+Scare factor
+Deity and skill system is well implemented
+Setting and 17th century magic

Cons:
-Navigating around the mansion sandbox can be a bit confusing

Conclusion: Overall, easily one of the best I've played. The game kept me hooked and wanting more. You can tell the developer is very passionate about the project. The fact that the developer takes inspiration from hellblazer is like icing on a cake for me (as Constantine is one of favorite anti-hero). I highly recommend to newcomers. Keep up the brilliant work!

Very enjoyable story, although it presumes a lot of knowledge I just didn't have about abrahamic religions. It was well written enough it didnt bother me. One small thing that maybe shouldn't bother me but did is the inability to rename the MC. I have a regular name I use in all these games so it was mildly jarring to see Caleb at all times. Maybe there's a story reason for it? Overall hugely enjoyable playthrough.

Only started playing this game did not think there would be much content but there is , i found the story compelling and made me want to play more so much so the sex scenes were just a bonus.

It is extremely well written and possibly will rival the best games on here if it continues the way it is going then it will be top 5 if not number 1 most highly rated games on here.

Great work Devs hats off to you, the fact i am reviewing now with 3 Acts planned to come says something about the caliber of this game.

OMG! Hands down one of the best games on this site. Hands freaking down!

The story is unreal - top notch! I feel like I'm reading a Vertigo Comic from back when they were written by the top writers Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Ennis. Seriously, very well written. Crazy good.

Story 1000/1000 Easy.
Visuals are amazing 10/10 - perfect to capture certain moods and dramatic tension.
Characters are so unique and beautifully rendered 10/10 .
Sex 9/10 - it's hot and well done.
Music 7/10 - my only knock on this one - I personally just mute most of these games anyway and throw some ambient stuff on while I'm playing them.
The RPG aspect to it is woven in really well for Ren'Py - 9/10.
Choices - in this yes, they matter quite a bit 10/10.

My two favorite genres aren't even in this game (inc/preg) and I could care less. You can't rename the MC and I could care less. THAT'S how amazing the story is on this one.

If you dig Vertigo comics and ceremonial magic - you've found your great white whale. I really hope the author keeps this sucker on track. I'm having a blast.! Top five game for me.

Story 10/10 great story with great characters and great mc who you can shape with decisions; This game reminds of my favorite game Vampire masquerade bloodlines with all stats and puzzles;Also Swansong reminds me of Jeanette

Writing 10/10: great writing makes a story enjoyable so yeah this made story enjoyable

Art 10/10: Great renders ;all characters are hot like mc and girls are beautiful and alluring

Overall a great Vn with a story that quench my thirst for world of darkness
Content
I hope dev continues this way and succeeds

As a fan of games with mystic setting, mythical creatures and magic, Zero End is one of my favourite AVNs and it have a huge potential to be one of the best story-driven games in mentioned style.

Writing is really solid in my opinion, it makes me really invested in plot and characters, their backstories and goals. Despite overall tone of game, it have some quite funny moments and nice romance, at least as much as it's possible for a few in-game days so far. Atmosphere in this game is great. Gloom, danger and mystery are present throughough whole game, which is exactly what I was expecting from it.
Story is really interesting and captivating with exciting lore, good amount of branching, mysteries and tension. Due to yet unanswered questions regarding MC and his old connections, game keeps me interested all the time and makes me worried during some confrontations with antagonists, as I simply don't know what to expect.
Characters are written quite well as I've already mentioned earlier, they look quite beautiful and unique, and their personalities are actually interesting without too much of cliche imo. MC is also an interesting and smart guy with some intriguing background. He's kinda edgy, but I love how characters are making fun of it, sometimes including MC himself.
Visually Zero End is pretty damn good, at least to my taste. Animations are smooth and nice as well, no complaints here from me. Models of some creatures looks actually interesting and spooky, I'd say the game have its own style with rather darker tone and mood to set the ominous atmosphere, and I love it.
Music is also on point, great choice of sounds/melodies.
There are a few small puzzles in the game, controversial ones according to some people but personally it didn't bother me at all, even if I didn't know the answer and had to spend ~30 seconds to Google them, it made me think about solution for some time and it was interesting experience nonetheless.

Overall, Zero End is an amazing game, especially if you like some supernatural stuff, old-school magic etc. and it have really big potential if dev will keep improving with future updates.

The dark story is really nice, still shrouded in a lot of mystery, i'd say it still answers as much as it questions.

If you like story affecting choices and human reactions, troubled topics and playing detective, I highly recommend this.

0.2.4d: By far the most promising VN I've played in a few years. It's actually a little strange not having anything at all to complain about the writing. I do think there's space for improvement on visuals, but nothing major. Can't wait to see what this game holds for the future.

In my years of consuming fantasy media, there have been very few times where I've experienced world building on this level, done this smoothly.

This VN impeccable worldbuilding, and all of it is left up to the reader to piece through using their existing knowledge and context clues instead of being delivered through expositions or lore dumps. The dev has done some outstanding writing.

The character and dialogue writing is great too. None of the characters are particularly deep, but they are unique and serve the story well. The dialogue is extremely punchy and efficient and it never drags.

Visuals might be incredible, but they are good enough and never distract or detract from the story being told.