Ren'Py - Completed - Roommates [v1.4] [ititnenon]

Version Played: 1.4
Time Played: 5 hours+, saw nearly all content save one girl's whose conditions I couldn't get to trigger and probably a few smaller time/location-dependent scenes here and there
Gallery mode/Scene replay: No, but most sex scenes are repeatable once you get to the highest affection levels

It's pertinent to address the 大象 in the room here, which is that this game was not originally in English and suffers from a very poor translation. As we'll see over the course of the review, I don't think that would necessarily have improved my evaluation by much, but it's worth noting the dialog could hit differently in its native language. It's also worth nothing that while I am giving this a pretty low score, I got enough enjoyment out of it to play it as long as a I did.

So, Roommates. As the name implies, you have a trio of the titular roommates who, in the course of your interactions with them and other locations, will unlock scenes and other LIs over the limited map. The setup here is very minimal and you're off to the sandbox races in short order. In typical sandbox fashion, you will grind out money, physique and affection points and receive scenes as a reward for thresholds met....and that's about it. While each LI has a (somewhat) defined personality, there are repeating dialog options you will grind and most ladies are willing to spread in relatively short order.

Positives
+ Beautiful LIs of Asian descent. I love the look of the LIs and the creator gets max usage out of most of the Asian DAZ3D models
+ Decent in-game progress hint system (though if you miss one of the hint triggers or chose a clearly "bad end" choice for a particular character, you might get locked out of content or stuck)
+ Complete, though there are no "endings" to speak of
+ Bush!

Negatives
- Grindy
- Lack of personality and stories for the LIs. This is where I'm hesitant to blame the game's shortcomings on the translation; assuming the English here is a direct translation of the original, it seems that crude sex jokes (and a good physique) and persistence are all one needs to pull puss in the Middle Kingdom.

At the end of the day, this is about as vanilla as you could get from a Renpy sandbox game and does not reinvent the adult game wheel. It's executed at an extremely bare-bones level, and that, with the lack of meaningful characterizations and non-sex focused interactions make it a very tough sell. The huge asterisk here is how much you appreciate Asian LIs; as someone who likes them very much, I found enough here to keep me clicking, but that's pretty much the only thing the game has going for it.

It's also worth noting the developer has another game based on a classic of Chinese literature. 99% of this review could be copied verbatim for that game. (As someone familiar with the source material, it's actually a perfect novel to adapt. Ancient China was horny.)

Note to devs: Thank you for this (and your other) foray into the world of adult games. I hope you continue to make games and try a little harder with giving the LIs stories and arcs. It will go a long way towards getting the player invested.

in this game out of 0 to 100 i will say 100 point for renders model 30 point for gameplay,yeah best asian chinese renders model on games that i had ever play..but i think instead making the new project,u should focusing ur latest project with more long stories line concept to make interesting gameplay with good ending of ur project..hope u keep ur good work on ur project dude

Roommate 1.4 [Completed]

Gosh, I hated the grind on this game. But that’s not the worst part. I disliked the way the sexual scenes were described, with so much fluff it’s almost TMZ. But that’s not the worst part. I hated the way this game doesn’t tell you there is new content unlocked that you just need to stumble upon. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is hints not helping, but sending you off track. I don’t care how many language barriers there are, that’s messed up game design.

STORY
So you look for a place to live and three nice, good looking young asian women take you in. They have rules for you and you gladly comply, except that one rule for privacy. Your goal is to get closer to these women, court them, spy on them, involuntarily touch them and eventually have them like it. Oh, and there’s a city of other women who can’t wait until you do the same to them.

That’s the intro. There are some basic parts of story segments - Zhou Ling’s boyfriend, Wu Xin’s job, Qin Yan’s boyfriend, Sun Li’s ambition - but it’s held back by copious, enormous, mountain sized groups of declarative text that tell you what the scientific action is whereby the woman doth receiveth pleasure as tingling sensations over her body.. You catch my drift. Click click click until the porn. Don’t bother going into the depth of the story, there’s absolutely no pay off and it doesn’t help to understand things.

Personality on the women isn’t the greatest, but at least it has variation. Sun Li’s a detached workaholic. Zhou Ling tries to be the modest, faithful girlfriend. Zhu Dan isn’t playing around and wants a boyfriend. It all comes down to the same endings of missionary, cowgirl or doggystyle - but at least it’s in a package. Not every package is that great though. While Wu Xin looks good and her story is eventually interesting, the gameplay just makes it a bit unbearable.And there are multiple women who suffer from ‘WhatTheFuckIsThisism’.

Funny sidenote - whenever you press ‘Talk’ to any women the game randomly throws an interaction and some of these are pretty dark and edgy. It’s not at all realistic, but I guess it’s the creator’s way of being tongue in cheek with the audience in the game. Just don’t ever actually talk to any of these women unless you need the points to level or if she has something good to say.

PRESENTATION
The game looks nice! With quite a large set of asian women there’s more than enough to pick if it’s your style. Outfits are somewhat realistic, although they might be a bit sexified without coming off too slutty. I like how the women look realistic, it makes the game far more believable. There’s no over the top porn scene going on, aside from maybe some fidgeting in the hospital. Hello nurse!

The menu and button structure isn’t great, but passable. Eventually you’ll find the right buttons to push your adventure forward and while the numbers don’t immediately make sense, you will understand eventually. The choices on the right side is an odd choice, but you get used to it fast enough. The map works, sometimes new icons pop up at certain hours. The game looks pretty good, which is easily it’s best feature. Nothing like having a docile woman eventually riding your dick only to have semen dripping out of her while panting. Just don’t explain to me in text how the hot seeds is slowly dripping on the bed.. That’s what this game does and it’s not a good look.

What is a good look is the decoration of the scenes. Houses look great, work looks like work and the ice cream parlor and cafe are believable. Visuals is definitely Ititnenon’s strong suit. It helps sell the fantasy of preying on your roommates and the women around you.

GAMEPLAY
So how is the gameplay loop? Honestly, it’s shit. You have about a full hour of fun and the rest is just grind and pain. Error messages pop up, hints tell you to go somewhere that doesn’t help you complete missions, important story items are tucked away behind a couple clicks - there isn’t any polish in this game whatsoever. And you can feel it every step of the way.

If you thought the story was neglected, the gameplay loop is atrocious. There are missions where you repeatedly have to trigger events, only to have to trigger them again. For example: Massage Zhang four times on different days. When you complete that: Massage Zhang and suck her tit four times. Fine, it happens. Next one: Massage Zhang, suck her tit and caress her hair three times. It’s uninspired, unnecessary and rude to the player’s time because level rarely really add to the story.

Also beware of what the game doesn’t tell you. There are things you can see or re-watch that change depending on the relationship you have with a woman. Example: You meet a woman at the hospital. Eventually you go out and get a drink. Then visit her home and get intimate. By the time you do that, there’s absolutely no reason to go back to the hospital again. But if you do, you might get some extra content in the hospital as well. The game just never tells you this, it expects you to search. Also, don’t let a girl sleeping stop you. Consent is not something we care about here, if it has a hole and gets wet for you - you can stick it.

OVERALL
Should you play it? No, unless you like hurting yourself or are a fan of asian women. Until Ititnenon respects our intellect and time and builds an update that does away with the unnecessary grind, builds proper storylines and makes better use of the sandbox this game is built in - I don’t see a reason for you to visit. I’m giving this game brownie points for the hot women and the world building, but can’t get over how shitty the gameplay loop is. Not even Wu Xin’s OnlyFriends adventure can take away that pain.

This game deserves a 4 until it gets better.

i really like it. there is grinding but not too much there is story but not too heavy and the progression goes at a nice speed. reminds me of old games like Man of the House but with shittier renderings honestly. kinda Glassix 1 lvl id say

Not the worst sandbox ever, but it can get annoying at times due to the poor English and lack of a walkthrough.

However, the models and animations are top notch. So it is totally worth the struggle just for that. It's also absolutely worth a playthrough if you are a fan of / into Asian women. Me personally, I definitely have the yellow fever, and as such, this was a delightful romp.

I guess my only other gripe would be the lack of a cohesive "ending" to the game. You basically reach the end of each girl's path and that's it. It pretty much then becomes a "free play mode" where you continue to repeat scenes.

The game is interesting, but also confusing in some areas. Like for example, the MC is supposed to talk to someone at midnight, but when midnight comes around, the person you're supposed to talk to at that time isn't there... but forward time by just one hour and you get the scene that should have happened at midnight. Also, a lot of the dialog, especially during most if not all lewd scenes, are copy and paste dialog. It's also grindy in a lot of other areas. I didn't completely hate the game as it does have interesting characters and some stories, and the renders/artstyle are quite nice, but certainly not flawless. I managed to complete the game (up to version 1.4) in about a day, so if you're really just looking for lewds without the hassle, this isn't really for you as you do have to put in some work and kinda luck into the next scene for each of the characters.

Noice, one of the rarer versions of art available. We need more of games like this. ie. asian art style in 3d and not the usual anime 2d looking ones. This also has a unique storyline sandbox style instead of just a lengthy visual novel

Good game imho!
The graphics and animations are really good, a lot of attention to details (look out for reflections in mirrors or windows)
I'm not into asian women but those are cute and sexy and their choice of clothes is great (maybe it is only my kink but I love the stockings/pantyhose/yoga pants stuff )
Yes, it is a bit grindy but like in real life: no work no fun.
Until now it has no real ending(s) but maybe in the future...I will definitely follow this game and the developer

it is a decent sandbox game with relatively straightforward game play, the trouble is there's an element of grinding that really doesn't have much of a place in an adult game...I mean what is the point after seeing the scene already, then repeating just to get to the next scene? The game is also incomplete since some of the girls of interest doesn't have lewd scenes.

Review done at 22/Feb/2024
Game ver. 1.2

The game tends to cause bugs that freeze events and I had to resort to (online save editor) to move forward.

To be honest this game is not worth playing, since the scenes are always the same bodies with camera position changes, only the haircut and facial features change, also the characters that require more time have simple scenes which is very disappointing (it really frustrated me when I unlocked everything).
I don't know if I should give it a single star because I've seen much worse things.


As I always say, my criticism is in comparison to the games that are uploaded here.

It's a strange sandbox. On the one hand, all the necessary attributes are in place, but you have to go through the game almost blindly. Graphics - neither this nor that, with a stretch I will estimate it in 3 points from 5.

Immersiveness - 1/5.

Character development -1/5.

For me, as a fan of sandboxes, the game was a big disappointment. It's unlikely that fans of pure porn, who don't pay attention to the plot and characters, will be satisfied.

Honestly, I just don't know what audience I can recommend this game to. Probably none.

My score is 2 out of 5.

The language and the grammar in this game is bad and does not make sense at certain points. The game is also too grindy and unclear at times what to do in order to progress with a character. The graphics are not the best but it does not bother me too much.

So extremely grindy, the MC is a complete douche and the gameplay is utterly soul destroying. Which is all a shame considering the fact that the potential love interests are actually attractive, even if they have no personality to speak of ("You're so funny!" is the most conversation you will get out of them. All in all, extremely lazy and by no means a complete or tested game.

I've completed 100% in 1.0 few months ago.

Story is nothing, game play is just a normal sandbox
the attractive point is good looking Asian character and nothing more.

It's so disappointed to see the update.
The new render is so bad, all characters have a horrible face.

Just leave the game ended at 1.0. No more update needed.

Renders are ok , everything else is garbage. Like wtf the whole text is almost comepletly fucked up. Can't understand shit from it. If you want anyone to understand hire someone for translatolion or something it's absolutely ridiculous.

This game has average graphics and some nice renders. But still it is not really enjoyable. It is made a lot like china style and it is too much visible in the game. The characters are OK. The gameplay is horrible.

this game is just bad and disappointed.. story make no sense but if they made it easy for sex is okay, but dificult get some.. so much thing to do.. E.G u got sleeping pil but need certain time to put it in water.. eh feel grinding and bug where all sudden dialog write in Chinese.. i got no clue what it wrote..

Roommates [v1.1] [ititnenon]
Great potential, disappointing result.

From the images, from the plot, from the beginning of the story, I thought it would be a great game, one of those with a structure that I like (increase relationship with characters little by little, while earning money etc), yet it is a game done badly and in a hurry. It would have been a good start to the game (first release of the project) but having seen the "Completed" I deduce that it is over here, so all the defects will remain forever.
Given the basis of this type of games, you have to add other things to not make the player bored, since basically you always have to do the same things. Well, this game failed to overcome that obstacle,
so it became boring and repetitive like few other games. Obviously the game lacks in other fields, such as music, which is not needed in some games, but here it would have helped to ease the boredom.
Too bad, I don't recommend the game.

Category: Visual novel, Dating Sims
Version: 1.0
Overall: 7/10

Pros: Good character design, pretty good graphic for virtual novel. Story is simple and straight forward. Average gameplay length. Easy difficulty for DatingSims type game.

Cons: BGM is missing, Lots of Eng translation bug, gameplay can be quite confusing. You need some time to figure out what to do next which is ok, but without a proper hint translation, you'll stuck at some point for hours. Also, some pointless grinding action to unlock next scene are a bit too much.