Others - Phoenixes [v0.10] [NoMeme]

Im a huge fan of the devs previous work VIRTUES and was REALLY excited to see that he was already working on a new project.
Unfortunately Im not much into furries or animal beings, so I put this game off after 5mins.
Yesterday I gave it a new try and.. HOLY MOLY I wasnt disappointed. The dev made a huge progress in... actually in EVERYTHING. Im completely hooked to the world, story, atmosphere, ero scenes and most importantly into the characters. I like how they have 2 different appearances during work and non working times, it gives them more personality.

As I already said the world is really interesting. As a person who likes heroes/villain tropes, I got hooked real quickly and the characters are all quite versatile and (most of them are) so interesting to explore - ESPECIALLY Cassy, Sorring, Osonia and "Fortune Teller" Lady.

The music is chosen really well. For the sandbox game it is, its important to have relaxing music you can vibe to. He/she did well in choosing. It might be my mind playing tricks, but I feel like some songs from the previous game were took over. I like them.

Gameplay. For some people it might already be grindy, BUT its actually NOT grindy at all imo. There are so many different events happening all the time, you are always in for a treat and new things to discover.
For some people it might be more of a visual novel, because there dont seem to be any important choices to make, but im actually glad that the game is like this, because many choices create many branches that could become complicated. Its fine for me as it is now.

The H-Scenes are hot af. The girls are already smoking hot, but the renders of the scenes are giving them an extra kick, holy moly.

My only downsites for it so far would be that cat girl isnt appealing to me. Fox girl is still alright. Even better without her ears. And the doctor isnt appealing to me either. (Glad that she doesnt seem to be a main girl.. YET)
Dont get me wrong their character traits and personalities are still interesting... just their appearances arent appealign to me, but thats a me-problem lmao.
Plus that there isnt enough content out for it yet, q.q

Anyways. This game definetely deserves more attention, so thats why im putting it in my recommended games. I cant see this game to fall off from my list any time soon.

Phoenixes [v0.10] [NoMeme]

Pretty good VN with solid 4 out 5. Tho, kinetic nature of it and inability to chose partners for MC is killing this KN for me. LIke, for example, I hate Alnilam with all my heart, this filthy sucking/riding the dead hoe. ughhh, she's so f disgusting. She single handedly kills this KN for me. And no amount sad 'boo-hoo' backstory is gonna fix that. Jail or write off her, even without aforementioned she don't deserve forgiveness or place among LIs.

I'll see the finished product to make the final judgment, but for now it is very good KN, as a whole. Check it out and don't forget to support dev if you really like it.


Story - 3/5. Decent story, it was pretty engaging, to an extent. Not too bad.

Choices - 0,7/5. Don't matter. Flavor text.

Gameplay - 2/5. KN with sandbox and some bugs.

Characters - 2/5.

MC - -9999/5 *G-GULP!*

Models/animations - 4/5. It's pretty good HS.

Grammar - 4/5. it's all gonna be fine with proofreading.

The story wasnt really that good tbh but the interaction and dynamics between the MC and all the girls for some reason i really liked and loved it, the relationship also has a nice pace i'd say not to fast and not to slow.

The renders was great and beautifully done, the gameplay also not really complicated as you only need to click here and there to raise the girl parameter and unlock the event with them, i'd understand if some people find it grindy but personally i didnt think that way as its a simple enough gameplay.

If i want to nitpicking then i hope the MC can have a better render and also toned down at the breast size..personally dislike the huge and unrealistic breast or a breast that only an old lady could have a huge and saggy breast.

The story perhaps kinda cringe for some people who were not accustomed to it but personally i've read bunch of japanese manga and i loved science fiction very much so im okay with the story, not an amazing one but its good enough for me to enjoy it.

Its a kinetic novel kinda as the choice seems doesnt affect anything and personally i liked this more than multiplies path like any other games so i can sit and enjoy the story without a headache which choices is the best etc

Conclusion i give this 5 stars simply because it has everything i liked aside from the story ( main theme of the story was fine but the pace kinda needs improvement )

It has some good characters, but some really bad ones as well. The renders look good but it's grindy as hell so I just spent half of the time skipping through conversations I've already seen because can't progress through the game otherwise. Also, everybody else that isn't a LI or the MC is just a bunch of silhouettes of different colors, which looks pretty bad.

The story is... average or a tad below that, nothing really amazing, at least for me. Also caught many typos.

As others have already pointed out, the story is fine, the MC is not that great, the renders and the girls are pretty and the game uses the same formula as V.I.R.T.U.E.S which I'm OK with since I enjoyed that very much. However there are few red flags that would be nice to know about before jumping in.

1. Godot engine
   • While the UI looks nice, at the time of writing (version 0.9.4) the game has severe save problems. The UI shows a list of saves that you made, however only one remains after a relaunch. I assume that happens because every new save is created as a file with the name "saves 0", thus every time a new save is created, it overrides the old one. Now that is not a game breaking problem, until the game breaks something. Like what happened with Alnilam's interrogations. In the end I had to find the file and edit it manually to fix the progression, and that wouldn't be necessary if I had all of my save files. To add an insult to injury, you have to redefine the player and the other name every damn time a save is loaded. Otherwise you are stuck with the "player:name" placeholder or something like that and an white spaces in the dialogues.
     • Fixed in 0.10
   • Lack of Ren'Py's creature comforts like, right click closes the menu, skip transitions, URM, etc.
2. Unnecessary grind.
   • The girls' repeatable events just annoying once you have read through them once and yet you have to view them at least 3 times again to raise their affection. Just, WHY?? At least they change after events, but still...
3. No real choices
   • While the game has choices, they definitely don't do a thing. So the story is as kinetic as it can get.
4. "In the next update" options
   • I can't express how much I hate this, if there is an option, we should be able to choose it. It's not like the writer is held at gunpoint to include them there, so either do it properly or don't do it at all!
5. Standard Honey Select animations
   • While this goes for 99.99% HS games, for some reason I have expected more. Probably because it's not their first game. Despite that, all H-scenes are the same old recycled sequences that we all have seen in other games, time and time again.

To sum it up, I would rather wait before trying it out, I don't know if I'm the only one with the save problems but it's a deal breaker for me and those "in the next update" are just needlessly pissing me off. I will check the game after the next update and if it gets fixed, I will update my review.

** Edit **
Version 0.10 fixes the saves issue that I had, yay! Now I can at least recommend the game for those who don't mind the other issues I listed above.

Review of v0.9.4

Phoenixes is another excellent game by NoMeme. Do you like big breasts? Do you like wholesome harems? Do you like good guy mcs? Do you like sexy sex? Then Phoenixes will be the game for you. Wait: will be?

If you've played NoMeme's previous game, you'll understand two words: slow burn. NoMeme is a harem-crafting master, but their approach to relationship building is slow, and proper sex only gets started quite far into the game. And this is absolutely true of Phoenixes. As of v0.9.4, there are 9 girls and we have only had full sex with 3. However, all the lewd scenes are hot, with amazing visuals and sexy writing. NoMeme's previous game was exactly the same, which is why the last third of that game was the best, and extremely hot. Phoenixes is shaping up to be the same.

But it's not all about the sex. Phoenixes actually has some really good worldbuilding and a fun plot to accompany it. It takes itself exactly the right amount of not-too-seriously. The visuals are stunning throughout and the writing is strong. It's built in the Godot engine, which it utilises to build a slick UI. However I did experience a bug: while all my saves worked, only the 12 most recent displayed their image in the load menu. This is a problem because the game's gallery does not actually replay sex scenes, it only shows you the images from those scenes. This is a shame, because it misses out on all the well written, hot dialogue. Another annoyance is that the game interjects a few scenes (so far only 3) which have sub-scenes only accessible with sufficient points in a girl. I don't know why, but these happen typically well before you have the points necessary to see those sub-scenes. However there is a dedicated place to replay these in your apartment, so it's not a big deal.

It's worth mentioning the bonus chapter. Firstly: in my opinion, you shouldn't play it until you're in an established romantic relationship with Heather, which for me was pretty much at the end of the current build. Basically it adds some more hot sex scenes, which fit into the main game's plot in a way intended to not disrupt it. However I personally still found it slightly emotionally disruptive. Obviously it was made as a way to encourage people playing on the itchio version to support NoMeme on patreon, which is perfectly understandable.

So: should you play Phoenixes now, or should you wait? In my opinion, play it now! Yes, your heart will sink a bit everytime the message "You've reached the end of this girl's story in this build" pops up. But this is just such a good wholesome harem game; if you're into this genre you shouldn't wait.

There are certain moments, some scenes are blocked by “only available in future updates as you will need a greater relationship with a certain character” Of the 4 choice options, only one is available, but you can review a scene in a type of replay called subplot's, which is like a gallery of scenes that the dev created and knew that the player would not be able to do at that moment, so he created the subplot, a menu from which you can review the scene in an out-of-context way as it would just be a replay of a situation that has already happened
So wouldn't it be better to wait to include such an opportunity in future updates instead of letting the player "tease" something that he cannot do at the moment?
I have 2 elves... option 1 go with elf Y.. option 2 go with elf X... option 3 go with the two elves together X and Y.. however I can only go with Y because the other options are not ready in the at the moment, but I may review it someday in the future so “don’t be upset player”
I wouldn't say that this is a good way of putting situations... but that's another question.

despite the game being a sandbox it is practically kinetic, THERE ARE NO CHOICES, the MC acts the way the dev wants... the player didn't like being rejected so many times by the white tail? Don't want to forgive her for raping him while he was sleeping and then refusing to sleep with him again while he's awake? but it's up to the dev to forgive, not the player, so the mc will always forgive the white tail and will do everything for her, even though she causes him blue balls He will always give in to teasing and accept being teased and having just a handjob as a reward... just like most girls…”because he is a gentleman with girls”, There's a bit of a lack of attitude with the MC... he should have his own motivations... arrive at the moment and be the one who refuses the girls... or he's the one who imposes the rules and they're the ones who fight for him or at least let the player choose who to get involved with.. or the dev stop placing fouls and empty options that “aren't implemented yet but you can review it as a replay” like... such a big sandbox game.. few people would be willing to replay everything for some content where 3 options in a scene weren't ready at the moment... “ah man, I wanted to go out with the two elves... I'll wait for the update in a few months and replay everything so I can see the scene with the two elves instead of just one” when I will barely remember what happened in the scene

the game is good, it's one of my favorites because I got attached to the girls... I like robot girls... elves... villains I like super powers... but the lack of choice and “not implemented” options that are there but not ready... kinda that breaks and discourages me a little…

I don't like being provoked and being promised something in the future that I will barely remember later and being rewarded at the moment with something lower than my expectations... it would be better not to include such options then... but I will follow the game because so far it is above average for me... and I really liked it.

One of among the Greatest adult visual novel you can find on this site and it's definitely not for kids. Amazing character models and animation scenes. Will be waiting for more updates on this one.

-Alnilam number 1 even though she literally killed the MC (us).

It's good, mostly.

The renders, animations and h-scenes are all great.
The story is good so far, no complaints.

That said, it's obviously about the same formula as virtues, where a lazy guy without ambition finds himself surrounded by girls who like to be dominated, which gives the guy the ambition and drive to try and be worthy of them.

It's not a bad formula, and just twice in a row is still fine, but if you make a third game, I suggest trying something new.

Now for the bad stuf, the MC starts of as a cringy edgelord with self esteem issues, who then transfers into a cringy romantic with self esteem issues, either way, it's a little hard to like him.

I also dislike how kemuri is portrayed, and I don't mean the concept of a blind sword master itself, as that's a timeless classic, but rather the dumb way in wich the story makes the MC feel sympathy for her.

I mean, she fails at school because she is blind? What bullshit is that? There are plenty of ways for blind people to take tests and learn, and if she isn't using those, she's just choosing to fail.
Then there is the way she walked straight into a pole, while holding her sword, I mean what is that? How long has she been blind for? 5 minutes? Use your sheathed sword to check the space in front of you!

Seriously, trying to force the MC and us players to feel sympathy for her in this way actually feels like an insult to blind people!

Anyway, becaude of kemuri and the cringy MC, I'm subtracting a star, but otherwise its a great game!

Basically what the other reviewers have said. This is a typical Harem x Superhero game, which is expected from the devs. So, if you're okay with that style, then you will like this.

The overall presentation is really good (good renders, good character design, nice environment, good UI), the story is decent and intriguing (the dilemma between the MC, the Lead LL & the antagonist is really good), and the characters are mostly well written for the majority of it, though there are a lot of cringe dialogues.

The only complaint that I have are the sex scenes, because they are default Honey Select animations with not much flair or eroticness to them. Especially considering the render quality, I was expecting good custom animation, but, hence we get the generic default ones.

Overall, a 7/10 VN.

NoMeme, is in my opinion one of the best harem genre game developer. Phoenixes is no exception, great game from visuals to dialogue. The ost could benefit from more variety.

The characters have individual personalities and are likeable. The overall design of them is also well done. (The rather terrible hairstyle of mc is fixed later on.)

The gameplay or management system could be a little bit more complex. I feel like all possible actions one can do with the 'Hero Guild' play out the same. E.g. it doesn't even matter with heroine you pick.

5/5 - Excellent Harem Game form a VN standpoint, the gameplay could use some work!

Phoenixes is a game for those who enjoy harems in a blend of fantasy and sci-fi settings. The pacing is done well enough and the renders are gorgeous. There's a lot of girls with animal features but nothing full on furry (yet).

Unfortunately the mc is a bit of a tool and has that odour of wimp around him. It feels as if he's taken from a meme and i fully expect him to teleport behind someone with his sword, saying "nothing personell kid." He's not as cool as he thinks he is and it breaks the immersion.

Other than that, the story is refreshing and the setting is well developed. It really feels as if you're in a living city. The girls are very cute and the sex is animated, lots of plusses with this game but sometimes it needs to not take itself so seriously all the time.

I would give it a 3.5 if i could.
Pros:
The character designs
The sex scenes
Worldbuilding
Fav girl robot girl

Cons:
-The Dialoge is so cringe sometimes, nobody talks like that
- and every girl goes into the sam direction as of now ( mc has a master like relationship with every girl)
-an the arc with anilin (the goat girl) is just weird, how the mc got closer to her is just odd. She tells the Mc how ever body mistreated her, thats why she hates sociaty, MC mistreats her and now she likes him. L. Why didnt she like the people before MC then when she actually enjoyed being a masochistic.

In general i would still recommend this game.
I enjoyed it.
P.s: English is not my first language.

Really amazing art and animations. Some of the best I've seen with the HS models. I have to commend the model hair, face, body, and costume design. It really mixes well with how each character has their own unique personality and place in the story.

Also, the story world-building is top notch. Feels like playing an anime.

It has everything I want in an ideal AVN. The renders are nice, animations are smooth, plot is decent, kinks are plenty. MC is not the typical wimp or loser who is totally lame to play as. Instead he is fairly a nice guy, not a total badass but neither a weak ass chicken, just someone somewhere in between that we can relate to. The love interests are all gorgeous and have their distinctive personality and physical features, though all of them have enormous boobs but they all look credible and natural, so no complain there for me, if anything that's a plus. Game is in development for a year at the time and there's already plenty of content to enjoy, so no blue ball or teasing leading to nowhere. The dev has a decent reputation of delivering content with consistency so both him and his game deserve our utmost support.

Let’s start with the setting as I see it we have a jaded retired vet who seems to be true neutral character. However, quickly becomes obvious he’s more of a chaotic/neutral good archetype. Nothing original about this trope but it’s engaging enough. The MC like many stories is passive, but unlike many, many stories here he doesn’t remain that way. Despite clearly being out of his element and at the bottom of the food chain he actually decides to be active once he gets out of his rut. More importantly he’s not a “shounen” like character who will get through it all in the weeb way with only his willpower. He knows he wants revenge but he is willing to build up to it. As for the porn side of things the models are exaggerated without making them look creepy. There is not NTR so that’s another positive and it’s harem. The only way to make this better would be to add pregnancy before the ending. Now for the negatives: it’s a bit grindy, too many scenes end with simple teasing, and the biggest sin is that there’s no fox tail for Heather in sex scenes.

I love super hero stories, so Phoenixes got my attention immediately. The game looks very pristine, the characters are good, and the developer already proved what they can do with V.I.R.T.U.E.S., so I'm optimistic on this game.

However, it has a concerning performance issue. I play in Android, and more than once the game crashed during certain animations (passing from your first encounter with Whitetail, which happens very early on the game, was a true pain in the ass). These issues aren't too prevalent on the latest parts of the game, but forced me to insta-save when an animation started.

Updated Review for v0.10 (4 stars -> 3 stars)

I decided to return to this again roughly a year since my last playthrough, wanting to see what's changed given the ample dev time. Originally I was planning on getting to end of content, but after a second crash and losing about an hours worth of progress, I've decided I've had enough. I think where I was originally giving this the benefit of the doubt before, I became a lot more scrutinizing this time around. My TLDR opinion is that while the game can be enjoyable, it is disappointingly worse than their first game overall.

As labeled, this game brands itself as a "Harem Sim," which I will say is apt. Now their first game, Virtues, was also very much a harem sim. But where that took a more contained and simple approach to the harem aspect, Phoenixes tries to mix it up with a superhero flavor this time. Unfortunately, I think it falls short in about every aspect it tries to do. It really feels like the game took a quantity over quality approach this time.

The premise of this game revolves around a superhero club, or the "Phoenix project." Through various events we find ourselves as a leader of this project. The girls get split into three categories: Heroes, Villains, and Neutral, which all sort of fall into this funnel of interacting with the club one way or another. It's where we build our harem essentially. Truly I don't mind the central idea.

As a seasoned dev with a rather large completed game under their belt, I'd expect their next game to have improvements. In a lot of ways it plays very similar to the first. You have a very simplistic sandbox where you "grind" love levels with girls to reach new events. Which is... fine for interactivity, but starts to become a slog for reasons that I'll get to.

So here is the first real problem: the writing. The nicest thing I can say about it is that at its best, it's serviceable. If you're going in expecting any actual in-depth plot revolving around heroes and villains, let me stop you here. It doesn't exist. The writing is so mind-numbingly surface level that you will forget about half the shit that even happens, because there simply just isn't anything worth remembering. Now keep in mind this game is once again a harem sim, so maybe it doesn't need to have a plot of the century. Therefore the focus then falls on the girls, which mostly is what the game is about admittedly and even fine in theory.

I'd be lying by saying they aren't enjoyable or cute, but man once again does the writing fall flat. It feels like ~80% of the events were walking around doing some meaningless bullshit in the city while talking to a love interest, and just when it would actually move into something more interesting the game says "hey actually fuck you, here's a black screen skipping all that." Case in point, there's an event that mentions you're about to get breakfast with the two elf sisters. But hey, why would you want to see that when I just showed you a forgetful conversation as you walk around the same part of the city I've used for ten other scenes? So many scenes feel like they cut off right when they would get good man, and it sucks. I do not feel much intimacy with the love interests when I compare it to their previous game. Everything feels so fabricated instead of being natural.

This is actually a twofold issue as well, because now I have to talk about the MC. Holy shit does he suck. I'll give you that it's a step above mindless pervert, but quite literally only a step. The game tries to take this experienced cool guy approach with him and my god is it cringe. All he's missing is the fedora really, and it would complete his dumpster outfit and match his personality to boot. Some of the lines are so genuinely bad that it takes me out of the game, and then I have to watch this goober somehow get lucky with all these hot women. Very hard to stay immersed let me tell you. There's moments when it's not as bad admittedly, but when I get a line talking unironically about how easy it would be for a "seasoned player" like him to get this pure girl to fall in love with him, I want to punch him in the mouth. Who says that shit lol.

I'm ragging on this a lot, and that's not even getting into issues like the repetitive gameplay loop, music choice, less than stellar animations, and translation/grammar issues that haven't improved since the first game. I just don't feel like this game was a step up from the previous.

Now after all my long-winded complaints being said, I will say I don't think this game is something awful or unenjoyable. It's something you turn your brain off for and just kinda cruise through events. I still will probably return to this again. But towards the end of playing I just felt like a lot of this blends together into a sort of bland mess that is struggling to keep me hooked. If you really love harem games this is probably still fine for you, but Phoenixes has underdelivered for me so far. Here's hoping more development changes my mind.

Badly-paced harem story.

Pros

• Harem
• Okay setting
• Has music

Cons

• Writing is rushed and slow at all the worst points. It is both convoluted and shallow. Interesting themes are brought up and explored in a manner even children's shows do better.
• Grammar is bad, but even if it was good, see previous con.
• Character consistency is everywhere but still bland.
• Decisions don't seem to matter.

If you're really bored and just want to brain-off and see dumb harem plot points that aren't *too* cringe, this will do.

Downloaded this game for the first time at the 0.5.0.1 point. Took me a bit to figure out why I was unable to Save/Load, but saw someone else had the same issue and got it resolved (microsoft defender prob, easily solved).

This game, in my opinion, out-f'ing-standing!! I generally hate sandbox type games, but this one is easily navigable. HoneySelect can be awesome, and it can be somewhat disappointing to my taste. But the artwork and gals in this offering are outstanding, unique and extremely enjoyable.
The writing is clean and almost entirely error free. Better still, the story is smartly developed as you play through the game and does not feel overly contrived or forced.
There is almost zero 'grinding'. Some will differ, as some events do seem to be repeated, but from someone who hate grinding I can say plainly that this truly isn't a grind type game. And there are enough hints given in the game where it does not feel like some ridiculous puzzle either.

Oh sweet savory succulent slow burn satisfaction! The slow burn in this game is just about perfect. Slow enough to let you enjoy the build up and anticipation, but not ridiculously long and pointless either. And the pay-off at the end of the slow burn is spot on as well.

In all, a truly solid 5 star game. Great story, wide variety of different and unique characters. very enjoyable story, well written with solid english, and super sexy babes. Addicting and fun. Highly recommend.