VN - Ren'Py - Cross Realms [v0.2.1] [DuskDuck]

This review contain some minor spoilers.


Cross Realms is a very promising game so far, Wuxia/cultivation is a pretty big genre in self-publish literature but a rarity in AVN, especially one done to this standard. It is early days yet but so far a lot of the major elements of Wuxia are present and well implemented, from Median and inner world to mysterious old master with secret techniques to transfer.

The LIs are likeable with distinct personality, at least the ones with significant screen time so far, and hopefully the dev will give their character some more depth later on as the story continues.

Render quality is high with nice distinct and unique locations, however character models are nice but rather standard, perhaps better than average when taken into account unique clothing and hair assests, sex scenes animations are only decent and servicable.

Overall this is still an AVN with great potential and well worth the time right now, it can even be among the top if the dev can play to his strength of a unique setting and round out the rough edges and improve.

This is fantastic, i can see some refrences from Battle through the heaven, if i want to be honest it kinda a little bit weird that the theme and the world obviously refer to chinese wuxia style but the characters has a non chinese name mostly, but thats not a big deal for me.

Render is fantastic and beautifully done, the sex scene kinda bad imo as it could be better if have more frame than just a 1 loop animation, and added some sex moan also a bonus imo.

Only at chapter 2 and the content is plenty already, goodluck with the devs and hope this game get more support and becomes more popular as it deserved.

Genuinely surprised by this game, obviously the girls and models are extremely attractive so that draws you in, but the plot synopsis didn't grab me and to be honest, the animeness of it all definitely was grating on me at the start.

But like all good to great stories, it draws you in, I am honestly surprised at how much I enjoy it, even if the fight scenes have the classic anime formula of "wow, he's doing x move, I wonder what he will do next!" running commentary from side characters or even inner monologues, which hey, if it's anime inspired, I think is fine.

"And THIS, is a super saiyan that has ascended PAST a super saiyan!" kinda deal

The game is fun though, I enjoyed it a lot, can't wait for more.

Models are good, and the story is actually decent! Very similar to a lot of cultivator web comics.

Suggestions for the author: So far (chapter 2) the sex scenes are all really short - they would be much better if they were longer and/or had a little more variety. You also use blue balled a lot, but you're using it incorrectly. You mean to say cock blocked. Blue balls explicitly implies not cumming, but in every sex scene, MC cums.

Favourite new game. Writing and renders are both above average, animation is just okay for now but it's to be expected. There were a couple moments where it was bit confusing trying to figure out whats going on in a fight, but it's not too bad.

Really hope this dev does not burn out and disappear like so many other new devs. Personal opinion Vannyr is way hotter than the other main girls.

It's a pretty decent game. The scenes are good and the story is interesting so far. What I like most about the game is that most of the environment in game is outside in an open world. I was getting tired of every game using the same room & assets and just building a game for the sake of it. The dev has certainly put a lot of effort in game assets imo. Especially the battles look pretty good.

The dialogue delivery could be better though, and it does in later game. Also it would be nice to have more camera angles during the sex scenes.

Surprisingly good! I was a bit skeptical about this genre as an AVN because the AVNs of this genre I played previously either had terrible stories or terrible visuals. But not with this one - it’s amazing in both aspects.

The story might not be for everyone, but for fans of Chinese novels like me, this is absolutely perfect. It captures the classic essence of the genre. Playing this reminded me of the old days reading classic Chinese martial arts novels.

A must play VN for readers of xianhuan/xianxia cultivation Novels
i personally loved it it was extremely good and such refreshing VN
MC is quite good, and all the LIs are beautiful and interesting and with their own personal characteristics.
The world also is very beautiful and the plot although clasic for xianhuan novels i liked it a lot (sometimes the classic and simple ones are the best)
The visuals where also extremely good (one of the best actually i have seen) and the soundtrack was quite good too.
Moreover I also loved the fact that we can disable lesbian content and thats a huge plus for me and im very thankful to creator for that
Any way this VN became one of favorites and i cant wait for the next chapter
5/5 stars.

I enjoyed Cross Realms! The storyline got me hooked, especially because the characters were so interesting. All the girls were outstanding; they were so beautiful. It's a shame that Zula died; she was charming. I love her.

The visuals were also impressive. The character models were beautiful, the environments were well-designed, and the animations were smooth and added to the overall experience.

Rendering 5/5
Characters 5/5
Story 4/5
Gameplay 5/5
Animation 5/5

Overall, this game is awesome! I give it a 10 out of 10. The characters are engaging, the story is interesting, and it is worth a try!

Just a short review of Ch. 2, v0.2.1
Didn't expect anything really and was pleasantly surprised how enjoyable this is.
First off, MC isn't creepy ass mf, which is already a huge bonus (that's what she said). He has clear goals and motivation to achieve them. Something that a lot of devs forget should be a thing and often MCs in other games are just a tag alongs with no agenda, solving everyone else's problems. Not the case here.

Secondly, LIs are hot and likable for the most part and optional except i think Yua, but i might be mistaken, went for all available LIs. Side fucks are hot too, Yua is a bit rude calling MC dumbass all the time but eh, ig it's ok, considering their long term friendship. If only you knew what profanities me and my buddy use to call each other. There's lesbi content, but it's avoidable and the game asks you beforehead if you want it or not.

Translation is quite alright, nothing was bugging me throughout the whole game, either the dev is good at english or proofreading has been done. Either way, no complaints.

Story is interesting, the preamble is that MC and his friends get sucked into a vortex of unknown origin and end up in, as i understand, some sort of mix of feudal Japan and ancient China, mixed cultures and all that. While world traveling is nothing we haven't seen before, what counts is how it's served, and it served well. And let's not forget the parents whom went MIA. Oh well, at least they're not dead. As for the choices, it's straightforward so far with no significant impact, but it's too early too make conclusions so we'll see how it goes.

I thought about giving a 4* as i'm not particularly fond of HS graphics, but on the bright side, it should shorten the time between updates. If i understand correctly, rendering HS stuff is not as demanding and time consuming as advanced realistic rendering. I'm total noob at this, it's how i understand it. The animations, well, it's HS and everybody saw them so...

It's a little bit on the anime-ish side, but nothing over the top. I'm quite neutral towards anime and can watch it if it's good and serious stuff like AoT or Berserk, this one is not as depressing, so even if you prefer not to watch anime i'd still recommend giving this game a try. Magic prevails here with huge ass AoE spells, but there is sword fighting too.

TLDR: cool game, nice hot LIs, interesting plot, HS graphics is meh but it's subjective ig. Can recommend unless you really hate any sort of anime.

Aweosme start. The animations look really nice and the story is also catchy. Some characters don't have that much depth yet but i think we will get there in a future update.

There aren't many sex scences yet both the one that do exist look hot.

Great game! Didn't think I would like it at first but I am happy to be proved wrong! Can't wait for the next updates.

This game just ties well a mythical cultivating scene with a great story. The characters are well made each having their own great individual personality.

The only thing is in some scenes I don't know if my computer is not able to render the animations properly leaving it framy or it is meant to be that way.. other than that no complains from this game!

Review for v0.2.1

Cross Realms is a cultivation-based AVN, a genre I've been wanting to see explored in the lewd game world for a long time now. Truthfully there's a decent amount about this game I'm forgiving in a sense because of that. I do not think this is without flaws, nor is it the dream cultivation lewd game I've been waiting for. However as far as the average AVN goes and the fact that there really aren't any other good cultivation lewd games, this scratches that itch for one well enough.

Now I'm no cultivation expert, but even from my limited knowledge this game is pretty much the Xianxia classic. If you know anything about the genre you already have a good idea of what to expect, but if you don't the simplest way to put it is that this game is an over-the-top power fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology and culture among other things (google will explain it a lot better than me). The game does establish the setting well. One of the best aspects of this is probably all the different unique assets it uses for the renders. The environments, outfits, special effects, etc. etc. all come together to form a pretty fresh feel even if you've played a lot of other AVNs. They just look good in general as well, there's a lot of effort going into them.

I'm going to be real, the story and writing is average at best thus far. This is my problem with Cross Realms. The MC is as dull as a doorknob and suffers from his personality being the typical AVN nice guy who's a little pervy and is motivated by the power of "wanting to protect my friends!!!" Most of the girls are very surface level and quickly get sidelined, causing very few of them to actually feel relevant let alone get me attached to them. Ignore the cultivation theme for a second, and it plays very close to a lot of other power fantasy plots you've likely seen before. MC get's isekai'd (which I think is lame) and surprise surprise he's very special with insane talent because he has a mysterious parent. There's really just a general lack of complexity to the writing and characters of this and I find it kind of boring. I will say the little twist at the end of this version has potential to shake things up but I can't say I'm super confident about it.

The same kind of issue plays into the sex stuff for the game as well. As I mentioned, I'm not very attached to any of the love interests yet and the game is already a couple hours long. Sex scenes so far felt like random whims the dev threw in because he needed lewd stuff. They just don't feel intimate. Not to mention they're just pretty bog standard overall.

Now while these are pretty unfortunate drawbacks for me, I was able to personally push past it and still enjoy the game for what it is. Another big part of the game and a staple of the genre is the fights and action. It's probably one of the things this does best. It can be a bit hard to follow sometimes, but overall it's fun and engaging for a visual novel.

The four star rating is a bit tentative right now. I like aspects of this game and want to be fully into it, but I need to see the writing improve a bit in both the story and for the girls. I'll take this over the average incest slop game for sure, but there's room to grow and I want to see this get there.

Didn't think it would be at first, but the story and world building are really engaging. I'm hoping there is more exposition on and exploration of the nature Qi Cultivation coming up. Maybe some dark twists. Cost of power type stuff. And tie at all back to quality AVN fan service.

Great game. Both the story and the art are excellent! Story is very in depth both for the world building as well as the depth of all the main characters. Characters are all unique but all interesting it impossible just to only go after one. I can not wait for next update!

Despite being only at v0.2.1 at the time of writing there is quite a bunch of content. I suppose this has to do with the engine switch from Unreal to Ren'py. The former I have not checked out. This is just for the Ren'py stuff.

First and foremost, I gave this a try because the screenshots and ratings looked quite decent. Normally I'm not a fan of this cultivation theme, since far too many power ups are delivered by dumb ex-machina, it is kind of a genre thing. So far that is decently ok here, nothing too crazy, but some genre clichés do get attended to. My personal and a bit biased opinion is that the story is ok so far but nothing to write home about. It is still quite early in the grand scheme of things teased at. So I may change my opinion based on later updates.

The renders are quite good on the other hand. The scenery around the mountains and such is well done and I really got the feeling of being high up in the sky. Immersion is definitely a strong point. Really liked that. The visuals especially during combat is where it all shines in my opinion. This part is exceedingly well done and fun to follow. The sound design was very good and generally emphasizes the theme very well. Effects help give impact to the combat as well.

The character design is great as well. Characters are quite distinct and interesting and they look pretty good, too. Costumes especially were given a lot of thought and focus. Dialogues can be a bit hit or miss though.

I personally liked the presentation of the lewd scenes. It is more on the slow burning side but still offers some juice regardless. I like that. It generally fit in well I would say. No mindless fuckfest and characters behave according to their personality.

With the ups and downs I was really torn between giving this 4 or 5 stars really it is more 4.5 for me. I'm giving it some benefit of the doubt here because of my own bias towards wuxia. There are surely some rough edges in here but the hard work that was put in does show and it deserved the better rating in my opinion. Particularly if you are a fan of wuxia/cultivation this is surely a great hit. Experience may differ otherwise.
Will follow this for more since it did surprise me positively.
Dev seems to be around so props to some honest and good work and keep it up!

Cheers =)

Review V0.2.1
When I reached the end of this game, I honestly felt sad that there wasnt more. This game was so amazing, I just wanted to keep playing for hours and hours.

Lets get into it. I think that the best thing about this game is the story in itself. The story is so unique and well though out. There are so many different realms, factions and places to discover. It really makes me excited about what's to come. I also feel like the game does a good job making the hierarchy and legendary figures come alive by the way the people interact in the game and the way that is spoken about legendary figures from the past. It makes the fantasy world really come alive and adds to the immersion. Among the best storylines I've seen on this site by far.

Furthermore, this amazing storyline makes spaces for interesting characters with unique backgrounds. The charachters therefore have unique interests, personalities and powers. The love interests are therefore interesting frankly amazing.

The graphics in this game are also well done. Very creative and each faction has their own distinct things about them. The fights look absolutely epic and the places/backgrounds are all done with an solid amount of care.

Also great add of the quick menu about the Qi-levels, used it a lot while playing the game. Really helped putting the dialogue in perspective in regards to the hierarchy.

I cant find anything to critiscize in this game. This game is honestly perfect to me and the only thing for me to say is. Dev great job and you... play this game right now, because you wont regret it.

Version 0.2.1 :

It took me about 30 minutes t really start to enjoy this AVN. Why ? Because dialogs and charaters interactions are well behind the render and animations quality. But I got used to it as it in some ways fit to the setup.

I used to read quite a lot of Chinese LN with this knid of setup, based on chinese cultivations. And on those it was quite the same pace, you have an introduction about the differents level of cultivation but not too deep, just a hierarchie and that's it. Dialogs are usually not the best but the story goes on, almost without rest. The MC is kinda OP compared to his pairs and there is quite a lot of skip in time.

I feel this AVN follow this route and I love it. But not as far as giving 5 stars, it needs IMO improvements in dialogs as some can be kindy poor and hard to follow the real intent.

Without the greet characters design, all the good combats animations and lovely Li's this game would easily drop to 3 stars.

Great Game! Models are top notch, the story is great nice! It has a lot of quality comparing with 98% of all the games available in this plattform. I just hope the DEV doesn't abandone the game , cause it will easly get to the TOP 5 of this site! Thank you for your game!

As a huge fan of wuxia, xianxia and murim comics, this VN is an extremely awesome surprise. The quality of the battles is awesome and I did not expect so much to be packed into Chapter 2, this was simply an awesome update.

I am hoping that as the MC levels up, the ladies will also keep up so that the future team battles continue to be epic. I am all for an MC that can eventually beat everyone and everything but I love a good fight against an opponent that requires all hands on deck like2 of the fights that occur in this recent chapter(2). The strength chart helps you keep in mind the strength levels so you don't get confused and I love that. I hope the strength progression will be done well for all characters (especially the love interests since they are here for the long run) so that it doesn't look like a cheap gimmick. We already have a good idea of how the MC's progression will flow with some of the revelations that occurred .

I love the cast of main and side characters so far and as the mystery behind the MC's background is further explored, the story keeps opening up to greater heights. I seriously hope the MC will develop meaningful relationships with more than just the love interests, a couple of more awesome characters like Cassian (the real MVP) and Felix (dude's a bro) will be awesome.

The cast of ladies so far is pretty good, you have a diverse rage of personalities and looks ranging from cute to downright sexy (loved the reveal of the last romanceable girl). I am looking forward to how the harem will come together.

All in all, just read it if you are looking forward to an excellent zero to hero story with some awesome action scenes and a harem of lovely ladies.