VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Happenstance [v1.90] [Undertow Games]

Very interesting story, flirtation with side character is great, keeps you wanting more. Main romance is a nice slow burn, but good sex scenes eventually.

Critiques:
Too much non-con passed off as consensual.
More gradual from no sex to all night sex-a-thon with primary romance
Main romance character needs graphics work, sometimes looks undead
Would be nice to know what sex scenes have been missed

Good Points
+ Storytelling is well written.
+ Some characters like Elise warm my heart. Their character development is really good and cute.

Bad Points
- We have some typo problems, and sadly their number is quite a lot.
- Render and animation quality need improvement.
- Girl's faces look a little bit weird and they are less attractive than they can be. Just little changes and they should be better than this. Just need a little bit of work.
- Lewd animations are oddly fast and have weird physics.
- MC's face is blurred and censorship is in his eyes... WHY? It looks like some kind of NTR hentai who rape someone. Even in his childhood scenes, he has that censorship in his eyes. It's weird. Pretty weird...
- We don't have a walkthrough. And the worst part is choices matter... Choices are not useless that's good but without a walkthrough, you cant be sure you got all scenes, made the right decisions, etc. This game needs a walkthrough for sure.
- It's abandoned, and there is no guarantee DEV going to continue to this game, so if you are thinking of starting the game that is quite a bad point.

For The End
Well, it's not a bad game even has a good story and characters but has lots of bad points as well. If DEV fixes these problems this game could be amazing. I hope he will come back, fix the problems, improve the game, and makes this game reach that great potential.

This game is really REALLY good, the art is high quality, the animations are well done, the story is really captivating and is just overall an excelent experience, like I wouldn't question it being sold on steam when it is finished without the adult content as light novel. If it wasn't for corona and I had more money on me this is one of the game I would definetly support. My only concern is that the danger events seem uninteractable as of right now despite the game telling you they are, but I might have been blind on that one as I only did a single playthrough as of yet.

I began to play "lewd" games quite recently; Happenstance is one of these I enjoyed the most. I can't wait to play it again in a few updates. That would be my first rating on this site, like ever!
- pretty women (and sex scenes!), obviously; each one of them with her own personality
- awesome writing; the setting (dystopia), the dialogs (I sympathized with the characters after having "heard" their stories, I laughed "with" them)
- quite enjoyable gameplay feature (I won't tell you what it is, I don't want to spoil you)

I wasn't sure about this game when I first saw it but figured I might as well give it a shot. And I'm glad I did. Rather than being disappointed like with other games recently, I'm hooked. The writing, renders, and especially the incorporation of the rollback feature caught my attention and I'll certainly be watching for more in the future.

i think it is one of the most annoying games i have ever seen , tries to be different but took the wrong path, instead of making a unique story with some good plot twists and interesting characters we have a dead skin annoying female that is forced on you with more annoying game play + the illusion of choice instead of one that matter , it gets a little better at the end but still a big disappointment for all the hype !

Edit after latest update:

The game just continues to impress, the interactions seem so natural, I think this is pretty much the only game that does it this well. The conversations between Alice and MC are just so pure and endearing along with to other characters. I just really appreciate this game so much and I really can't wait to see more. This update was no exception and was really well done. The game also succeeds at bringing out the emotion between characters. There is some dark stuff going on and I actually feel bad for the characters at times.
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Wow, this game is really interesting. There is a decent foundation of a setting. It is still pretty unknown, we just know the basics at this point. But I really enjoy how the characters are built in this. I feel like I appreciate every character in the story. I feel that the game needs to delve deeper into each part though. We know a bit, but not enough about the characters, we know a bit not enough about the setting. I imagine that is because this is a huge project without a ton of support garnered just yet. I truly hope this changes in the future.

I basically just wish there was more to the game at this point. I also feel like choices might not matter much? I kind of just feel helpless and I am stuck in the passenger seat of a somewhat depressing, scary story.

Would definitely recommend this game. Better than most games I have the pleasure of trying on the website.

I gave 4 stars only for the current story and i am sure there is much to come in this game and it needs improvements too like the animations are bad and way too fast some minor grammatical errors.
I hope the developer fix the animations and improve it or at least does make it look like the flash is on action.

It is hard to give this game less than a 4. This is graphically above average, and there is a lot of content, so overall taekopan did more than a decent job. But this is the story of a missed opportunity to be a 5 star. Let me explain:
- I very much like the idea of a softcore VN, that is not only about having the MC getting laid with all the game's female character. That is really refreshing, and not less enjoyable.
- the story as a whole is divided between two parts (MC as a student, MC as a gang member in a futuristic setting) that do not mix well with each other. It makes it hard to maintain suspension of disbelief.
- Characters other than the MC like a bit of depth. Girlfriend is cute, but she is very shallow, terribly naive (although she is supposed to be super smart) and there is no way such a girl stays with a guy like the MC (she simply would be scared off).
- I did not like the mini games or the click and point aspect, I do not think they are actually worth it. There is an interesting try to insert the VN mechanics in the game that I liked, but this remains pretty thin, maybe there is much more that can be done in that regard, and it is the first time I see a VN author explore that path.
So, the VN looks like two separate stories merged into a single one, in a not so seamless manner. My thanks to taekopan however, because I cannot imagine how much time he put into that, and I hope he sees my review has a constructive one.

I must say I'm not really into this futuristic dystopian kind of setting where this takes place but some said the writing was good so I gave it a try.... And I am so glad i did!

The story in this game is captivating and makes me read every line that is presented before me. There's no skipping here. I want all the details because they are beautifully connected and it seems like nothing is halv done here by the creator.

With this kind of writing I'm not too picky on the renders but they are good. Not excellent but good. Would say great except for the eyes on one of the girls seems to be too dark all the time so she would almost freak me out if it weren't for the good writing.

Hope you give this a try! If you do, I'm sure you'll end up being a supporter like I did.

This one is on my top 5 for sure. The writing is really good, fun to read and filled with details which adds lots of immersion for those who are looking for a good story.

While the models don't look super good they do their job. It´s always a big plus not seeing the same models that are being used in a lot of other games and specially when they look natural and don´t have super sized bodies or they are all super models.

The game mechanics are not overly complex and this is the only game which i´ve played so far where actually make sense including them and adds details and context to the story.

Characters are well written and very likeable. Mc is also quite decent and not another teen scumbag perv.

At update 1.20 i give this game 4,5 stars, i would have given 5 but there's a few scenes where you have to navigate through some random rooms clicking on some stairs and doors while adding nothing to the gameplay. It´s nothing mayor , this is not a sandbox (which would be a big downside for me) but those few scenes didn´t make any sense to me on the context of the game and all the details included by the mechanics already makes you feel more freedom than most sandbox style of game.

For me this game is now worthy of a 5 star review.

Here's why:
1. The setting. At first you think it's just another one of those "young stud in college gets all women" games, but with each update the dev reveals more and more of his setting and by now it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into the city, it's history and the world the game is set in.
It's not your usual college porn, it's a slightly dystopian future, with elements of cyberpunk.

2. The story: Just like with the setting there's more to it than you would guess at first. Not another perv with mindbending powers, but one with a very specific, if limited psi-power and with a foe that seems to have a far more impressive set of powers. The foe also has some sort of connection to the MC, but so far we don't know how.

3. The characters: For now only two girls are available for some smexy time, your girlfriend and your ex/ childhood friend, but EVERY single woman in the game looks great. Ely isn't a typical beauty either, she has some flaws, but is so cute, it's to die for.
The characters might be not the most original. The whore that struggles to become more, the shut-in best friend/sister, the somewhat naive and sexually unexperienced gf. But it doesn't matter, because they are written well.

4. The writing: Definitely above the average for games here, and that is if you already exclude the Engrish ones.
The descriptions are nice, the inner monologue of the MC isn't boring as fuck as it is in so, so many games, there's humour and the good writing extends into the sex scenes.
Hell, I think even the moans and screams the girls make are special in this game.

You can add to that pretty innovative gameplay, that you rarely see in ren'py games.
The minigames are also done quite well, even though I felt they were definitely a bit too much at the start.
But not only are they now completely skippable, the dev also seems to have concentrated more on the strengths of his storytelling in recent updates, so that the game-flow isn't hindered any more.

All in all, this is a extraordinary game on this forum and I give it my definitive seal of approval.

It's botc76 tested for your smutty entertainment.

This is amazing! I don't know how many updates the game had til now, but there is quite a bit of meat to the plot already. You will get a good idea of the lore and setting, characters and introduction to the main plot points.

First off, I gotta mention the rollback function being integrated into the story as the MC's power. That's a novel and brilliant concept. It's not really utilized after the tutorials though. Then there is QTE which are also part of his reprocessing powers. It's not very hard or annoying and adds some interactivity. It's probably fine to disable it if you want though.

The MC's power is "reprocessing." He basically has high observational skills along with photographic memory up to a point. This means he can look back in time (or do it real time) to process all the details of his memory to learn knew information. He isn't going back in time to redo choices or something (just thought I'd clear that up). We don't know how many people have powers in this universe, but there is one antagonist introduced at this point who has a much more menacing power. So we have an MC with a minor power suited for gathering information, and he has to face off against people who can disappear like a ghost and stuff. It's pretty exciting.

I'll go by categories now.

Writing - It's top notch. The pacing is great so far. This game has a pretty serious tone. You won't get absurd situations like a typical game focused on the porn part. MC won't see his "sister" sleeping naked and have the typical internal monologues about her ass. He cares deeply for her and adores her like a real sister as we learned when he talked about her to his GF. Who knows if there will be sexy time with her or his actual mother, but it won't be out of the blue and will probably be explained well if it happens. The dialogues are very natural. The general story outside of the girls is pretty fantastic too. With all that said, the game does force you into a relationship and the writing suffers a little bit of inconsistency if you cheat. The kind where the character cares deeply for the main female love interest but the game doesn't justifiy or explain the cheating as much as it should.

Setting - Amazing. I love this dystopian future type of setting. The game doesn't break new grounds in this area, but this type of setting is always welcome in adult games imo.

Characters - The characters all have distinct personalities. They are written quite well. Especially the MC. He isn't a virgin beta cucklord, or an alpha chad asslord. He grew up in Lowtown (the lower class section of the city) with all that you can expect in the slums of a dystopian city. He is used to death. He has killed before when he was part of a gang. He also cares deeply for his friends and family. He left the gang and worked hard to get into a prestigious school in a better part of the city on his mother's behest. So we have a multifaceted MC who can probably be steered in whichever moral direction you choose and it wouldn't be too awkward. All the other characters are very fleshed out. Your old gang boss is a real bro. Your old crew is also looking out for you (some in more ways than one ).

Graphics - Pretty good. Nothing to complain about here. Its up to standards. Animations are pretty good too. The main girl looks a bit weird sometimes... her eyes maybe. She grows on you though.

Sex scenes - I like it. There is a general male dom vibe to the scenes. MC is pretty dominant, but not in the abusive way. Multiple girls including the main girl likes to be submissive during sexy times so it works out. I'd imagine there will be more of that to come and if male dom is your thing, you won't be complaining about the scenes in this game.

Gameplay - All the things about rollback powers and radar and the UI and QTE might sound menacing at first, but its really simple. Its just a VN with some interactivity. There is always a sound when you got clickables on the map, with a radar pointing out where. There is an indicator on the UI when you can use the rollback power for plot purposes. Only encountered it once after the tutorials and thats when I purposefully picked a dumb choice. That part was weird because it treated it like a time machine instead of reprocessing. Anyways, the gameplay is smooth. I hope the dev doesn't decide to suddenly go free roam or something atrocious like that.

Some bugs and typos here and there, but nothing major... except that one fucking clickable that refuses to disappear. Overall, this is an amazing VN well worth checking out. It's a shame the dev has so few patrons. Patreon success is something I will never understand lol.

First of all, it's nice to see someone taking a few risks with the format. Lots of innovative stuff here. Not all of it works, but there's a lot to like here.

In particular, I like the way the developer has co-oped the Ren'Py scroll back mechanism as the MC's superpower. So many games try and lock this sort of feature down, presumably out of some misplaced fear that the player may "cheat", it's really refreshing to see one embrace it instead.

And the game doesn't just embrace that one mechanic, but inegrates it seamlessly into a set of powers. We have a tale of a guy with a minor mental superpower playing well outside his league, both socially and ion terms of power. I found it an intriguing mix.

The game uses QTEs as part of the "reprocessing" mechanism. I'd planned to turn these off, but I find they don't annoy me as much as such things normally do. So that's good. Where it does stumble a little is the radar screen where you see warnings and clickables on the screen. The tecnique works well enough, but I think the intention was that we'd miss the warnings, and then when things went wrong we'd "reprocess" looking for the warning signs, and then choose another path simulating Zeid's superhuman intelligence. Sadly, I find that I ignore the text and click rapidly though it all looking for clickables, which is probably the opposite of what was intended. I also have a minor niggle with the "danger" signal, in so for as most of the time it just means that the girlfriend is about to get mad, and the warning tends to be useless since there isn't generally anything you can do to avoid it.

What else? The writing is generally good, the renders range from passable to good (they seem to be getting better). The navigation is confusing at first, but that soon passes.

At the end of the day, it's a worthy effort, but I can feel my interest waning. Partly, I'm not very good with visual novels, but generally when one is this good, that stops mattering. I think the problem I'm having is that the choice and consequence motif seems to demand some sort of sandbox, and I'm stuck in VN mode. I'd like to take this enhanced information stream that the game offers, and use it to change what I do, but the format offers precious few choices and a fewer still based on reprocessing. OK, I get that this isn't how the game is supposed to work, but that doesn't stop me feeling frustrated.

Summing up: decent game; writing is fun; setting is interesting; renders are acceptible to good (and occasionally excellent); and I applaud the creativity of the game mechanics, even when they don't entirely work for me.

[Updated1.05)
When started playing this and went through tutorial after tutorial on the workings of the game. I was struck by how much wordy dialogue there was and most of it seemed to be the MC bragging to everyone he met. After a while though I was missing most of what was said because I was keeping one eye on the radar in the top right corner. It seems this game will need to be replayed multiple times to get scenes and to introduce a plot device that makes you replay replays seems off putting. The girls I met were beautiful though and probably said some interesting things but I missed most of that too. The radar sometimes flashed red with a warning sound, it made me think I was missing something. I would likely have really enjoyed this without the rollback element.

I played the Come Unglued Demo in July 2019, and I liked it. Is this still to be called a demo? There is quite a lot of content already. On the other hand, it is not entirely free of bugs either.

Happenstance is a sort of fantasy cyberpunk-ish story about a young man, who is born and raised in the downtown urban jungle and who is entering college in a more sophisticated part of town. He has some sort of superpower, but I did not manage to understand the details of it. Of course, he meets some interesting girls. On top of that there is a mysterious entity threatening him.

I like the overall atmosphere of the game. There is a clear contrast between the clean and safe environment of Midtown, where the University is, and the raw, dirty and dangerous neighbourhood where the MC lives. Well done and very convincing.

The first girl he meets is Elise (Ellie), who really seems to fall in love with him. It made me feel squishy inside. I am not sure if the MC has the same feelings for her though. Well, he does show some feelings of guilt when he fucks his long-time friend-with-benefits in Lowtown. There are other girls as well, like this pot-mouthed unrelated girl he calls his sister. Please don’t make an IC-patch, the story does not need it!
So, the story seems to follow the cliché of most porn games where the male MC can fuck most, if not all, of the girls he meets, while all the girls, in a mysterious and supernatural way, are only interested in the MC.

The girls do look lovely. Elise is a natural, cute, girl next door with a temper. Just don’t say “swoon” to her. But what’s with her eyes? I hope there is an ophthalmologist in the University hospital.

It is hot in town, and most girls wear revealing low-cut tops. I love it! More nip slips please!

I am not convinced of the game mechanics. At some points you are asked to franticly click your spacebar or another key, or to drag a red dot into a rapidly disappearing circle. Apparently, you can turn this off in your settings, but why is it in there in the first place?
There is a kind of radar that shows you the direction of clickable objects you have to find. These objects can give you extra information or maybe progress you in the story. On one occasion, the clickable object wouldn’t go away. At all. Forever. But that is clearly a bug that, I trust, will be resolved by the dev.
If you manage to find a hot scene, it is stored in a gallery so you can watch it again later, which is nice.

Overall, I can say that, although the story left me clueless at some points, it still grabbed me and made me curious of what the dev has in store for us. Definitely a better game than average.

4/10

• Starts out with an interesting premise but falls apart fast
• Some points for effort maybe. I liked the quick-time-events the first couple of times
• Turns into a prolonged typing tutor for no reason. Bet there's math coming up next
• Chocobo music doesn't work here
• Sexual writing is bad. There's one scene that happens on a bus that's tonally garbage
• Aux viewport is a nice idea. The animations are almost bad but bearable. One where the camera passes through a tree. Hands flinging into the sky
• Everyone's tired of these cookie cutter daz renders. Painful to look at when a game's this average
• No way the dev's continuing work on this with the couple patrons he has. This is vaporware

Summary:
Poorly written. Cookie cutter renders. Decent coding effort. Painful 'gameplay'.

I haven''t saw a game like this before. Unique quick-time events and other clickable objects or hints in the environment and during dialog. a stamina and health bar plus a radar that lets you know when and where clickables are available and serves as an alert system when you mess up. The renders and animation are pretty good. Writing is good too.

[Rev @'alpha']
Art's good. Character design's attractive.
Writing is good; Narrative voice and plotting are good, Dialog gets kinda repetitive and a little preachy but is good. Characterization is as good as you can get with the current length.

No real porn at this point so nothing to squick me. Always a plus. Teaser-pics with multiple girls in bondage gear is an easy way to get my attention; hopefully that happens and isn't just a cocktease.

The devs' ideas for gameplay are clever, but I worry they'll distract and detract from the story for its sake and from the porn that is the reason I'm personally here. That being said, making use of the save-scumming I always do anyway is novel and worth keeping an eye on. We'll hafta see in future releases.

TLDR: Iiinnnnnteresting...

Thoroughly impressed by the first release. Plenty of content to go about, so if you're on the edge thinking it might not have content, then don't fear.
Renders are decent and the animations are smooth and fluid. Sounds are done really well. The attention to detail and changes of expression of the characters is amazing.
Pros:
+ Renders are beautiful
+ Sounds are apt
+ Use of roll-back is really creative
+The little hints MC picks up here and there is a very unique method of story telling.
+ The method of interacting with environment and the 'alert system' is done well.
+Animations are smooth.
+Plenty of content for an alpha.
+Contains a mix of both first and third person point of view

Sure, it does have light amount of mini-games. But they're so easy and they don't break the immersion at all, so nothing to fret about.
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of plot advancement and see where it goes. All the very best to the developer.