VN - Ren'Py - JPDE Refrain - Sonata of Fire [v4.6] [JPDE/Meinos Kaen]

The best description I can give of this game is that it's exactly like RWBY, with every positive and negative connotation that carries.

The characters feel like they do in the show, even more fleshed out at times, and the overall melodrama and plot honestly wouldn't feel too out of place in RWBY... But that's the problem. RWBY is not a well written show. It has good ideas and potential, but the melodrama, awkward comedy, and moments of "wtf why is this happening" make it suffer in execution. This game is the same, with good promise starting out, but incredibly cringy and awkward attempts at comedy, weird character moments where you're asking why the fuck characters are doing something, and every other complaint you could make about the original RWBY. Maybe I'm just dead inside, but out of every attempt at comedy in this game (there are a lot) I laughed a single time.

The other issue I have with it is the fact that you are 100% forced into being in a polygamous relationship with girls you may not want to date, nor do you get any real indication this is going to happen until you're pretty far along. For example, you are forced to date at least two members of your team (from when I last played), with no feedback on if the player wants to or not. I personally rather disliked the one who wasn't Penny, so imagine my joy when I'm forced to date her despite every other aspect of the game acting like a traditional dating sim where you get to choose your romantic partner. That also led to a whole bunch of melodrama I was totally invested in and not frustrated by (cough sarcasm cough).

Overall if you're fine with being forced multiple romantic partners in a dating simulator who you may or may not like and enjoy RWBY then you will like this game, probably even love it. If you're not okay with that or don't enjoy RWBY's particular brand of humor then stay far away from this game.

Allright, if you read the other reviews you might start getting the impression that this game is something really new, special and good. That's really not the case at all.
First off, if you're looking for lewds then you're gonna be dissappointed. I played this for a loooooong ass time but I gave up before there was any action.

Here's a test for you to see if you're going to enjoy this one:
Would you play a Harry Potter fanfic Ren'Py game, if it had no lewds in it?
If your answer is yes, then you very well might enjoy this one.

Sadly though, for me the answer is a loud and resounding "HELL no" and as such, I didn't enjoy this one one bit.

Another thing that kinda bugs me is that there aren't really varied expressions from the characters. They have a very low number of different faces used when there's dialogue. Most of the time it's just unchanging sprites with text appearing beneath them. Storytelling done this way doesn't keep my attention for long.

All in all, this made no lasting impression on me.

I am more than just pleasantly surprised with this one, I expected to go into this thinking I'm either gonna kinda like it or skip to the CG since I have absolutely zero knowledge of RWBY but damn was I wrong. I even forgot that there was anything lewd in this or that I got it here.

I was turned off of this one near the start when I started noticing a lack of choice, but after a while it stopped bothering me altogether, the plot is nothing revolutionary but it was good enough for me to get lost in it, and I love the characters and the interactions between them, there were more than a few times where I caught myself grinning at some interactions and a few that gave me some serious feels.

The art is decent enough during normal moments, and gorgeous during some events. Seriously, whoever does the art during character events needs a fucking raise.

The combat is basic, but it gets the job done. It would be nice to see something special during Semblance attacks at least, even if it's just the generic eye zoom.

I'm not good at reviewing things, so I'll just say that this was one of the most enjoyable VN's I've played, and I'm eager to see where it goes.
I was against the idea of replaying it when it's more updated, but after getting to the end I really just want more of it.

Pros:

Loved the game. After watching all seasons of RWBY, going through the high and lows, I had an awesome time playing this game. Came for the lewds, stayed for the plot and characters, even the original ones. All of the characters fell completely natural, and the drama and humour made me smile countless times. Team RWBY being a group of side characters was a brave decision and it worked out great. The main plot line is completely original, and entertaining till the end.



Cons:

The only problems the game has are things that can be glossed over as long as you are hooked by the main plot.



1. Combat: In this game, you will only have to fight to avoid a game over scene a handful of times, but those times can feel incredbly annoying, as if you don't keep an eye on your health bar and try to skip through it as fast as possible, you will be sent back to the main menu. If you didn't save beforehand, its even more of a hassle.



2. The Weekday/Weekend System: On Weekdays you have free reign to do whatever you want at the school and in the city, but by the second half of the game there is lack of content in both of these areas. On Saturdays, you have a choice to progress your relationship with other characters, unlocking new events to fill locations. However, as you can only do one event per weekend, and you only have a limited number, you will find yourself unable to complete all of the games content in one run. While this could very well be on purpose. I feel like giving players the freedom to do everything there is to offer in one run offers closure and a better playthough. In the end it doesn't even matter as the third problem makes this impossible anyways.



3. Hidden Content: Since the game works on a timeline, if you don't complete events by a certain day, you will miss out on future events. This on its own isn't so much of a problem, but since you already don't have enough time to complete every Saturday event, you miss out on content you don’t know about as you watch the days tick down so quickly that you wont have time to finish the content you do know about.

4. The art is ok. The player models in the first half might make you cringe a little, but by the second half they are all updated and look beautiful.

Overall, I would not recommend this game to anyone that hasn't watcher RWBY. However, I think a surprisingly good way to get into it without watching the show (past season 3 plz watch 1-3 RIP Monty Oum). As a fan, every minute playing this game was worth it.

I ventured into this game without prior knowledge of RWBY (although I did know of show's existence it newer stood out to me and I knew pretty much nothing), thinking yea this game looks cool and having finished the current update (at the time) I had to watch RWBY to compare it to the game. Gotta say you did a pretty good job from characters to writing probably better than the show itself, even though it is not really too hard to do better than the show from 3rd season onward but still. Here are some key points which were better. Although this review is mostly same as a comment I posted it will also contain a few things I dislike about the game.

1. The importance and meaning of being one's partner (You did this even better than Monty, God rest his soul).
Once I started watching the show I was kinda feeling meh when I realized that it did not play an important role at all. Yea we do see it a little at the beginning with Ruby and Weiss and Jaune and Pyrrha, but beside that nothing really special.

2. You did well with the main crew too except Penny (Love her here and in the show, she is pretty much my fav, but she shouldn't be the part of main cast here). Again this might be because I played the game first, but Ruby and the gang do not feel like the main characters at all. Dunno if it's just me, but Jaune felt like the main character from the start (had the best development too).

3. Ozpin and the orphans. Nothing special to say except that is awesome as fuck and I am surprised that in RWBY he does not have a secret unit at all. A unit he personally trained to be the best fighting machines and with unwavering loyalty would make things much easier for him, but if at this point he has one it would be bullshit.

4. The Main character David di Kabegis. Mysterious past, a maniacal semblance becoming of the MC, and most importantly going from weak to strong. He is potentially the only character who could do ''magic without maiden powers'' by having a fuck ton of semblances and I simply love that idea. I believe that he (at full potential) and Jack could go 1v1 against Salem and give her a run for her money (While we do know shit about how strong Salem is compared to others that feels just right). RWBY at this point really needs a truly op character like him on the good side.

5. And last but certainly not least Jacqueline B. Ivory, pretty much the best character in the game. I was like watching the show hoping she would show up at some point, but nope, I mean the show did not end so who knows hahahha. She is an OP character done right. Dunno if there is a semblance stronger than hers that feels completely fair to others. If she was in the show by the end of Volume 7 I think she would be able to trash the whole team RWBY alone and other maidens 1v1 easily, and I would not even be mad about it. Actually, it would be therapeutic to have someone defeat Cinder that does not have special powers.

Now for my dislikes.

1. Power scaling. This one concerns only Jack (my fav). Maybe it is just me, but I think that she is pretty much among the strongest characters in the game yet she kinda goes back and forth. She almost lost to Neon come on

Yup, couldn't think about anything else beside that and it is pretty much minor point at most.

So again congrats on making this awesome game, and I hope I will see it to its completion.

Good game lots of fun great story but there feels like the are parts missing like the parts that is when Penny and Evelyn sleeps with the MC (Davit) I will recommend the game but it needs repeatable events like sex scenes

music and sounds: amaizingly done.

draws: some really good and some amaizingly done.

story: really well done and fun to read.

characters: a plethora of them amazingly done (and so cute that give me diabetes).

scenes (all of them): amazingly done.

gameplay: really fun to play and with lots of variety.

conclussion: this is probably one of the best games you can find in this page.
the combination of the great effort on how the game feels and looks, with all the
passion on the story and characters, is something that you can see from the minute 1.
of curse is a "WIP" so you can expect some places that need upgrades and fixes.
but for what there is there now, is a solid game with both quality and quantity.

this game TOTTALLY deserve your time and money.

psdt: this game is more about adventure and action than hotscenes and lewds, so keep that in mind.

Refreshing to play a game where the story is the focus, and not the lewd bits. For those wanting a fap-game better look elsewhere, sure there is romance, but there is very few sex scenes and no lewd animations. All the characters are unique, likable(or hateable, fuck Ozpin) and well-written, something that's a bit annoying though is that you can only go on "dates" (special events) during Saturdays, which means you will have to chose, in some cases you can miss out on information that is quite relevant to the main story, and miss out on having the chance to get to know characters. I guess that it may be in part so people will spend enough time training their skills for whats needed for the story. I does get a bit tedious at times though, and if possible if think it would improve the game if at least one more day was added to do "dates/events". I also hope that there will be a spike in the MC's power in the near future, he(we) are suppose to be the hero after all, not the best supporting actor(hopefully). Over all a well-written and entertaining story. Keep up the great work!

It's fairly rare that I write reviews but I feel as though I kind of have to with this one since this game really deserves more recognition then it has.

First things first, two caveats.
1). This game (as of 3.11) will more than likely not get your rocks off, it is not really a porn game. It is a visual novel with a couple of mild lewd scenes.
2), I'm coming into this as someone not that familiar with the show, I only saw the old animations Monty Oom made before it became an actual series so it is entirely possible fans might view things differently.

Anyway, the quality of the game itself is surprisingly high, especially since at least to me this game seemed to come out of nowhere when it landed here. There is already many hours worth of content and has a solid cast of characters and most of them are given quite a bit of screen time.

The art is great, especially the CGs even if the contrast between the CG art and the sprites was a bit jarring at first. The story is essentially a self insert fanfiction, but one done well. It is well written and entertaining enough to make you want to continue reading.

There are problems though, the combat starts off fine but quickly became a nuisance that I end up using command controls to cheat through. Having combat is fine but so far it seems a bit under developed. (Adding tooltips to let you know what abilities actuallu do would be a good start.)

Overall, I think with enough time and polish this game could become something really special. 5 stars might be a bit too generous atm but it has great potential and really does deserve a bit more attention and ideally, support. Looking forward to what's to come.

Ever wish that RWBY had actual character development? Have you felt that RWBY's concept is good but the story is meh? Well, this is the game for you! Before you ask, yes this has OCs in it but before you go write this is a self-insert fan fiction power fantasy, hear me out.

The game is indeed a self insert fan fiction but it is done very well, no character seems forced. All the characters seem like natural parts of the RWBY universe and yes, the OG characters are still there. I'll go through a list of pros and cons then state a summary at the end.

Pros:

1. The game is long, 20+ hours at minimum could be longer if you want to replay to get every route.
2. The story is very strong and doesn't seem forced.
3. Every OC character is well made and has good depth to them, none of them seem to be a power fantasy.
4. The OG characters talk and act the way you'd expect them to and through out the game you will see them act differently and develop as a character.

Cons:

1. Art, I love the art don't get me wrong but there isn't enough of it. Some character models seem very off and some are perfect in a few updates the art will most likely become a pro.
2. Lewds, I know why you're here, you know why I'm here let's get down to business. This visual novel is not made to be jacked off to. (But I won't judge you if you do.) There isn't many lewd scenes and many of the scenes that do have lewds aren't in the game yet. You'll have a thing that pops up saying insert image here when a lewd is supposed to be there. You can insert the lewd images from the Lewds download on the main page.
3. Grammar mistakes, they aren't major I saw at least seven while playing thus far, this is a VERY minor issue but if you get turned off by even one grammar mistake you have been warned.

In summary: This game is great, it reminds me so much of Katawa Shoujo. The music in the background, the story, the characters are so good. Once some of the art and lewd scenes are added/gets better this will be one of my top dating simulators out there. Not just in fanfics but in professionally made ones as well.

Simply, if you like RWBY and you wanted to see serious character development THIS IS A MUST PLAY GAME. If you simply like datings sims and don't really care about RWBY then this game is still a good choice, but I'd suggest waiting until it's finished then.

4/5
This game will be a 5/5 once it's fully out or the art/lewds are finished.

I greatly enjoyed this game. The characters were genuinely interesting and it provided some neat background to the series. Yes, OC, but it was fun.

My only issue was a lack of time in the game to do everything in one run. I got around this by editing my save files to replay weekends for example. Admittedly, I played a prior version than the one brought here.

A relationship guide is also recommended to know about cut-offs for character routes.

Because of how I played, the game was quite long. 7 hours+?