Ren'Py - Abandoned - Dark Influence: Stolen Fate [v0.01] [Crimson Vial Studio]

  1. 3.00 star(s)

    Zippity

    The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.01...

    Originally Reviewed on 12/27/2017

    I was a bit confused by the introduction to this game, but it's was alright once you got past it... It's still really early into it's development so I'll assume some stuff will change or be added over time...

    Visually the characters look alright, and most of the backdrops look unique... There are some moments when it looks like some backdrops come for copies of older art, probably from a history book or historical painting... But overall the game looks fine visually... The user interface works well for the simple game mechanics...

    The script has a lot of broken English and spelling/grammar errors, but once I got past the introduction it seemed to be a lot better (not perfect)... A lot of the introduction seemed lengthy and unnecessary... With the broken English it was hard to read, but for the most part it seemed like it was trying to go into depth with lots of details on the inner workings and life within the Netherworld, but the game portion doesn't take place there at all, so it felt more like filler then meaningful backstory... When it switched to the demon's room with the succubus fight, it became a bit more meaningful and added more to the actual plot then before that point... The text was all still hard to read, and it kept switching between present tense and past tense...

    Once you got past the Netherworld the plot got a bit better, but then the game begins and the story telling ends mostly... You do get some additional story elements now and then through game play, but it only comes after trying different things for a while and having some occasional discussions between the male protagonist, his enslaved succubus, and the residence of the town that you can interact with... The protagonist has possessed a local human peasant and the succubus takes on human form for the general game play, and your basic goal is to survive and become more powerful... It requires making money, eating, interacting with other characters, gaining mana through various sources (one of them being sex, although I never got far enough to see any sex scenes beyond the initial succubus sex scene, which does not count towards gaining mana)... The succubus does comply with the protagonists wishes, but she isn't doing most of it willingly...

    Overall, the game mechanics are down, and you do open up other small story elements, but it takes some time and effort... The biggest hurdle in this game is keeping the protagonists stats up while not starving to death, or being revealed and getting killed... I had some fun playing the game portion, but the introduction was so confusing and full of detail that seemed superfluous to me... It's not bad for being so early into production, just needs a better English translation/interpretation... I will probably re-visit this one, once it's had a lot more development time, as it shows promise...