VN - Ren'Py - Shards of the Past [v0.3.1] [Garou24]

Shards of the Past Review

The Beginning of a Journey
In a medieval world of dwarfs, elfs, knights, and lords, there remain hidden, forgotten secrets of the past. As our protagonist falls into an unexpected journey with a few strange acquaintances to make their way and rescue a daughter and mother.

What will the journey bring along its path, and what will be discovered not only about our journey but also about our main protagonist?

Story - Content
Shards of the Past is a visual novel set-in medieval times, and like the name says, there will be hidden signs from the past. The past, where electricity and guns were still in use.

The story begins with our protagonist walking back home in the forest an evening after selling a few potions for a friend. Hearing a scream for help, your first decision will be to either go investigate the cry for help or ignore it and walk home.

It doesn’t matter which decision the player chooses, it will all end up the same in one way or another. The main story board follows as planned, but some small things, or interactions or scenes can be different depending on which lead the player takes throughout the game.

For example, if our protagonist helps the person in need of help, they will be fine, and the protagonist will visit his elf friend, whose potions he sold for her.

Or if our protagonist chooses to go home and doesn’t want to get into trouble. They will instead, in the morning, come with their elf friend and take the hurt person and one fainted man.

Our protagonist saves a lord's son, who escaped their mansion after an unstoppable attack from within with an unusual relic. And are now begged to assist the lord's son, along with our protagonist's companions, to save his family and maybe explore the relics from the past.

Visual & Audio
Visuals
The character textures and surroundings are both well detailed and have good graphics.

Clothing designs and patterns, hairstyles, insides of houses and material graphics, shading, lighting, shadowing, and a lot more. Especially face expressions.

The facial expressions show a lot of their emotions or the way they act during a dialog. I quite like it a lot, both by its detail and by its fun.

Audio
The audio is simple but good: instrumental music with lutes, guitars, and bell sticks, or whatever the name is. It's so simple but soothing for the ears, and it adds to the medieval theme a lot.

Being not too complicated and setting the mood for the theme.

Pros and Cons
Pros

• Story
• Visuals
• Facial Expressions
• Audio
• Decisions/Different Scenes
• More Then one Outcome

Cons

• No intimate scenes

My final little thoughts
Shards of the Past has a great story and so many different paths to take, which will lead into different scenes, but all round up into the same main story line. Maybe it's just a bit different from some other paths.

The game is under development, but it is worth trying out. It is just a bit sad that there is no intimacy yet, just some eye candy along the way.

I highly recommend trying it out.

Rating: 5/5
Exotic Eye Candy

Links
Steam Store Page
Website Review

The renderings are excellent. The figures are not overloaded. The scenes are well offset. The story so far very well. No exaggerated nudity. The story is in the foreground with the right erotic moments. I love this game (and Qinara)

Well written characters, interesting plot and is polished. Player choices also matter (and are not simply picking if you are interested in a character or not). While that should leave to a 5* star rating, there is far too much branching happening for how early in the story it is. The latest chapter effectively ends the introduction to presumably the 3 main characters of the story and we are 2 years in.

There is a branching path that happens as soon as the game starts. What this means is that unique scenes need to be developed for a litany of options from the get go. This has led to story progression happening at a snails pace, and its hard to see this getting somewhere as a result.

What is there is great, but its too ambitious

A very well written mature storyline, actually well thought out characters and beautiful renders, there usually isn't much to say about a game this early in it's stage, but this game is one to look out for. Really excited for the upcoming updates.

The game is still in its early stages, but it shows great promise. After playing this brief introduction (v0.3.1), I am eager to learn more about the story and look forward to its further development. Overall, it is a well-crafted work; the graphics are beautiful, the scenes are nicely framed with good camera angles that allow you to appreciate the details, and the character models, particularly Qinara, are really well-designed. The music complements the medieval atmosphere perfectly, enhancing the immersion in the game. It truly is a very good introduction. I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming updates and hope that the quality will be maintained at this level.

Incredibly good start for this game, the atmosphere is similar to the settings in popular fantasy games like The Witcher and Dragon Age. The characters and story are good so far although a bit cliche, but the sci fi elements (guns and stuff) give it a somewhat unique spin. Overall, i dont think there's a similar game on this site already that hasn't been abandoned. I wish luck with more subscribers and more free time to the dev, so he can continue to update this gem

[SHORT REVIEW] [SPOILER ALERT]

I don't know what to say, this game looks alright but I can see that it'd be great in the future. The graphics are fine, nothing bad about it. No sex scenes yet so if you come here to fap, I suggest you to go away. Now, let's talk about the story and its characters.

You play as a mysterious man who lives in some kind of bleak fantasy world. You don't have many friends except for an elf woman who helps you survive everyday. Sadly, she also doesn't have a family or other friends other than the MC and a mysterious dwarf named Damerek that you've met in the forest because other humanoid races are getting persecuted by humans. Ha, sounds like The Witcher, right? well except it isn't.

Your normal daily life becomes different when you stumble the local lord's son who just escaped from one man slaughter that happens in his castle. He's asking you for help along with your friends because he doesn't know what to do. It turns out, the man who took over his castle managed to get a gun that just discovered in a hidden bunker by the Lord himself during expedition.

Now here comes the question, what is this game about? a fantasy world mixed with modern equipments and shit? Is it gonna be like Desert Stalker/New Antioch? or maybe somewhat like Westworld? or maybe.... it's something like GATE? to be honest, I have no clue at all. But, judging from the title, it seems like those guns, bunkers, etc are remnants from the past, hence the title of this game. Perhaps it takes inspiration from Horizon? Eh, who knows....

Anyway, I gave it four stars because this game still has a long way to go. I hope this game doesn't get abandoned because I have faith in it.

Overall a solid VN which lives up to the words "Visual" and "Novel". A breath of fresh air. Easily has potential to be one of the best medieval fantasy VN on this site if it's developed to the end.

Pros:

1) Great writing and plot. The writing has a natural believable flow and the plot seems to be going somewhere to have you invested.
2) Great visuals and models. Although every game has them these days. The girls look great but most importantly, they look UNIQUE. Can't say the same for many other copy paste VNs of this site. The supporting renders like the nature and stuff is also enough well made to make you feel immersed into the game.
3) The medieval fantasy setting is done properly so it actually feels like a medieval fantasy. The world has it's history and lore. Not too over the top but still entertaining and intriguing enough as we imagine a medieval fantasy world to be.
4) Appropriate music for the setting and appropriate song for the scenes. That beach scene was very dreamy due to the music.
5) MC isn't a fresh 18yo creep.
Cons:

1) As of 0.3, no sex scenes yet. (Let him cook)
2) Also as of 0.3, your choices don't seem to matter in the grand scheme of things. 3) Personal con but the girls lack the THICC

Based on the forum posts, it seems the sex content intends to branch out a bit too much to tailor to every need. Usually that's too ambitious for a porn game and often this ambition causes a project to be abandoned. But still, this game is very promising and a breath of fresh air. Hope it can make a name for itself. Best of luck to the devs.

I'm giving this a 5 stars because it is a very promising VN that deals with dark themes and it reminded me a lot of the Witcher lore especially the first game where the world is kinda bleak and oppressing and non-humans are being treated very badly. The visuals, renders, music and dialogue are very well made, you can see the dev put a lot of work and care into making this. I liked the characters especially Qinara and can't wait to see more of her. Wishlisted on Steam and will definitely grab a copy when it comes out.

It's a dark game that deals with themes like racism (towards elves), and it feels like I'm playing an actual RPG game instead of a visual novel (it reminds me a bit of The Witcher). Choices really matter. The renders look great, and the female characters in the game are beautiful. It's definitely going on my top games list, and I wish there were more games like this.

Expected nothing, merely checking another game out.
- Holy shit I got blown out of the water, takes fantasy tropes, but delivers it better than most movies (certain beach scene is very well done and sets the mood right). Subverts expectations better as well.
Branching path is also done well , there is a main story, but how you arrived there and how people will see you are different.
Sure not much content here atm. , but this game got me more hyped for more.

So TLDR = Top Quality, good potential for the plot twists from what we see here.

It's early, but there's just enough for me to give this a provisional 5 stars.
The world is pretty dark, so it might not be for everyone; it has tons of racism (against elves) and violence.
Let's see: the story is, as far as it has been developed, excellent. The first LI, Qinara, is great. The other two LIs that you see (but don't meet yet) are also gorgeous, so I'm looking forward to them.
You get to make choices which have serious impact on the story, which I like. (They're not just about whom you end up fucking.)
The world is compelling, the women are exceptionally gorgeous, and the story looks good. I have trouble seeing how this could not be a 5 star game when it's finished.

The good

Not sure if it’s simply because AVN’s are a different format of games compared to other games I have played that deal with racism against nonhumans. But the way this game explores humans being racist towards elfs is really well done. It makes me really feel for Qinara and hate the humans in this game with a burning passion. Unlike some other games, even some AAA games I have played in the past that touch on this subject ,I've never felt anything close to what this game has made me feel. Either way it’s one of the strong points of this game so far.

Choices have some impact from the start of the game. One of the first choices of the first bit of chapter will play out entirely differently based on your choice. Hell depending on your choices in the inn you can lose or win a bar fight. Most games don’t let you lose a fight unless it’s needed for the story.

Almost every time we are presented with some backstory / flashbacks that we have been told, have more purpose than character building. All but one time it also serves as a way to do some world building and build up some lore. So really all the flashbacks / backstory I'd say are pretty essential to the storytelling and not something to gloss over or skip just because you may not like or have any interest in a character.

The mixed

Was getting into the setting of this game being medieval and all and when get a bit of backstory of what happened to Branson’s father. But when it was revealed what the relic was it kind of broke my immersion for this being a medieval evil setting. As the relic feels really out of place and random with what is known of the world at the time of it being revealed. I will give the benefit of doubt to the dev and that it will work with the story later as we get more updates. But as of right now it just doesn't work for me.

What I didn't like

This is more of a me issue but worth mentioning I do dislike how the dev decided to disable being able to rollback instead of making it optional. Just makes it a bit more annoying to see all the dialogue options in one go. As the way I like to play AVN’s is to go through all the options then roll back and go with my decisions even if I plan to do multiple playthroughs it’s just my style of playing. At least I can still use quick save and load and get the same effect

Overall I really liked this game it is almost worthy of being 10 for me but I think I need a few more updates for it to make that list.

This is a fantastic start. There isn't a ton of content yet, but the intro is very promising.

The writing and dialogue is genuinely good. The characters and setting are pretty standard but competently done.

The game feels very premium visually. The interface is stylish, simple and looks fantastic. The renders are above average. Not the absolute best I have seen but still look very good.

There isn't too much more to say currently. As of now the story is still pretty much in it's intro phase. Right now it definitely deserves the 5 stars, and we will see if this level of quality can be maintained.

It seems like something that is still at the beginning, but I liked the storytelling, the characters seem to have layers, depth, I missed the sex scenes but it wasn't bothersome for something that is just beginning.

Legitimately a game of the highest quality, in every possible way. The only negative is that there's not more of it.

This is one of those games that you wish you could travel years into the future for so that you could play the whole thing. Top notch in both the writing and the visuals.

I like this kind of settings and visuals are good. Like the guy below said yeah it follow used and tested formula. One thing I hated in the game was choosing the choices of Branson. I hate when I have to make decisions for other characters doing except MC. Dev if you want to make Branson more cruel make him like that or otherwise. There was another occasion where we have to another decision for Branson to save his sister from groping of other guy. If we choose to intervene Branson will save her from groping nothing happens. If we let it happen, we can see Branson having an orgasm from watching the groping scenes. Seems like Branson have hots for his sister. If Branson's sister is a Love interest of MC I hope she won't suffer from these kind of activities in the future. But also I only like to choose decision for MC only hoping dev will consider this. I also saw sharing in planned tags hoping it will avoidable . Apart from this game is enjoyable. Game got nice visuals and sound effects and music for the ambience. It's a shorter game at the moment.

This is a four star rating mainly because it's still too early to give a five star review. The content you will find here is merely an introduction or demo. Right when the plot starts to get going you reach the end.

What I can say however is that the writing is very good, the characters seem multi-layered. There is some indication that this story could take a very dark turn at some point and the appearance of a certain relic really opens up a number of ways this story could unfold. There are choices but we have to see if there will be any payoff or not.

I would recommend to wait for one or two updates before giving this a try. Put it on your watchlist and give it some time to cook. But when you come back, it's definitely worth your time.

[Reviewed as of 0.2.0]

1. A very promising start that feels true to the genre.

2. Uses "tried and tested" formulae, but executes it with full conviction and pulls it off really well.

3. The scenes are rendered really nice.

4. Qinara = Adorable.

Impressed with the quality of the renders. Definitely a five-star game visually.

The strength and consistency of the narrative is a bit hard to judge as yet. But it is at least literate.

Preventing rollback at decision points is not a good idea, irritates the player and should be abandoned with the next release. It's actually a great deal more disruptive of immersion to be constantly saving.

But this is a promising start, I'll definitely have a look at the next update.

Updated after playing 0.3.1. This is developing well, with plenty of mysteries being set up for future resolution. Preventing rollback is still a bad idea, but I will buy on Steam when it becomes available.