VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Sophia's Spa [v1.03.598] [DMA Games]

How annoying. The game is marked as Completed because it's left early access on Steam, but it's definitely incomplete. The main story—whatever it is and wherever it might be going—as well as some of the side stories that are broken down into "tasks" are definitely still in progress.

Additionally, there are some sandbox elements that allow the player to access the Spa from the perspective of known card-carrying membership holders (customers) which grants access to staff members for services (both basic and "premium")... but to this point, you are limited to only two of the staff members (even though 10 are presented). Also of the dozen or so customers who are presented as options, only five are available to follow and of those only one currently has access to the two staff members. Everyone else is usually told that no one currently available for services.

Lastly, for how little content there is currently, this game is huge. It takes 9.44gb when decompressed which is absolutely massive, this game has no business being this large. I can't imagine how large this will be if the developer actually finishes the content, it'll be an obscenity.

The content that is here is good, and that's promising... but to take the game out of Steam EA at this stage is either telling the community they have no intentions to finish their work or they don't really understand what it's for. I like what's there, but I can't in good conscious give more than a couple of stars for so little when it's obviously incomplete.

Of course, I reserve the right to improve my rating when/if it's completed. The game is on my tracker so I'll see updates if they happen. Hopefully, they'll come.

Way too linear - more a kinetic novel than a game because you only have choices in what order things happen. Another really bad thing is using the control key doesn't skip through things like in nearly every Renpy game if you have it checked to skip unseen choices.

I am sorry for the low review rating; I believe the developer has worked hard on the game. But as it is now it is almost unplayable.

The worst part is the game user interface. The game is basically a linear visual novel with several characters, but to mask the linear story you are able to “choose” which part to watch first. This is a fallacy since you have to watch all the parts before the next part of the story unlocks. Thus, this only helps hinder the progression of the game. Furthermore, the skip text option is completely disable aggravating this issue.

The girls are not the best looking out there but are not so bad. However, the sex scenes, are composed by few unconnected frames and they lack any context beyond superficial porn dialogue. There are several games that do not have animations on them, but due to great writing they are able to set the mood and compensate this lack, this is not one of them.

Finally, as other have previously comment, the story logic is worse than in some porn movies, every character is willing to become a sex worker right of the bat. Even when there is really no point for it.

Nonetheless, I wish the best to the developer and hopefully there is a public out there for this game.

I have to say I couldn't finish the game. I played through the first 3 sex scenes before I had to stop playing.

The good:
Decent graphics.
Some attractive girls
Interesting "starting condition"/ story idea

The Bad (at least for me):
The game jumps right into the porn stuff.
Spoilers ahead:
Sophia has a bad business because her competitors are offering sexual services so she decides to take the same route. She tells her girls that in a meeting (while also mentioning they had already talked about it. Makes no sense but we can just skip over that part).
All of the girls immediately decide it's an easy step to jump from massaging people to full on sex. It feels take right out of a bad porno movie.
Cut to next morning, 2 new girls come to "audition" for a gig at the spa. First one, no problem to have sex to get the job. Second one proceeds to have a threeway with 2 guys, again, no pause given. Like the were prostitutes until now, and the chance to be that at this "prestigious" spa is better for them - no pimps.
Again, at the risk of repeating myself, these scenes look like they were taken out of a bad porno movie. If I want that type of content, I will surely watch real porn, than play through that.
Third scene is Sophia masturbating because the sex from the auditions was so hot. There are too many games out there for me to be wasting my time with this.

If someone feels like what I described is something they would enjoy, I encourage them to give it a try. If not, skip it.

Sexy concept, really nice looking girls and a good amount of content for a first release make this a promising game going forward. My main critique would be that the actual sex scenes are way too short (4 or 5 frames), and really should be animated if it wants to be a top tier game. At least an auto button would be nice.

I'll be keeping an eye on this game going forward, but at the moment its a little too early for anything more than a 3 star rating.

a great start, an intriguing demo! wonderful characters and excellent
drawing (I am glad that pussies are not bald). I am waiting for the continuation of the game (possibly with the expansion of locations). I hope the project will not be abandoned.