Ren'Py Under Your Spell [v0.2.0p] [Shady Characters]

[PDP19]

First impressions (v2.0. The latest public build is 2.4 in itch.io but nothing major, end point is still end of Nov)

- Storywise, its fine. More effort could be made to introduce the characters and indicate quite clearly who youre chasing when you choose the curriculum.
- Not a fan of stat decay, especially in an unfinished game. Given how short it is (with a set deadline) the decay rarely ever matters other than annoy the shit out of its playerbase.
- There is, to my knowledge, no real H scenes thus far.
- Its not a sandbox. You dont really go around seeking characters and passing statchecks. The scenes are tied to specific stat exercises if that makes sense. You'll never meet Violet if you never study for example, instead of being able to progress her storyline only if you have sufficient knowledge stat.

The game at present is simply too showing too much ambition but without the content to keep its playerbase interested in its development. I know many H games tend to start out as early access but I cant help but feel that it would be better if the game is released to public having a clear start and end, with placeholder sketches that'll be polished up in time.

In any case, at present this looks very much like something that'll only be worth playing after 5 years or so of development.

 

[Karnewarrior]

tbf, sandbox is far from required. Indeed, a non-sandbox game is usually more fun, imo. Too many sandboxes these days that spread themselves thin as hell trying to account for every possible player (which is impossible).

However, a porn game without porn or much game is just an empty program. And I've been waiting for months for this game to actually deliver on the porn aspect.

I do not think it ever will.

 

[Percipere0]

tbf, sandbox is far from required. Indeed, a non-sandbox game is usually more fun, imo. Too many sandboxes these days that spread themselves thin as hell trying to account for every possible player (which is impossible).

However, a porn game without porn or much game is just an empty program. And I've been waiting for months for this game to actually deliver on the porn aspect.

I do not think it ever will.

Perhaps I am a bit more optimistic, or perhaps I got slightly smitten by the art style, and simply wish for success, but I think the communication by the developer, in this case, is encouraging. I've noticed a trend with certain other (failed or disappeared) developers having a certain set of.... attitudes towards their own game, or towards critics, and this developer is different, insofar as to how they acknowledge and even point out how commenters currently call their game "boring" at the moment. I don't have anything to substantiate this gut feeling at the moment, as it's too early to tell, but from seeing multiple dozens of Webcomics and games implode and wither away into nothingness, I have hope for this one to be better. I will say it's definitely going to be at least a year or so before we have significant gameplay chunks to delve through. I am gonna socket this in my "check every couple months or so" folder.