VN - Ren'Py - Royal Switch [v0.08.2] [DeepBauhaus]

Reviewing version 0.08.1

I'm not sure why the other reviews are so negative! It's true that the renders are pretty average, but in my opinion the writing in this game is much better than average! It really does well with taking itself seriously enough to have characters act in ways that actually make sense for their positions and backgrounds! It also does a much better job of setting up for and explaining the premise than it really needed to. Most mainstream changing places stories have much less believeable setups.

Anyway, I'm pretty fond of it. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you like slow burn corruption stories. It doesn't seem to have a ton of content yet, but what's there is hot.

Fun take on the classic tale of the prince and the pauper (gender bent, of course). This is primarily a corruption game, so most of the scenes are centered on corrupting both of the MCs. There aren't really huge differences in routes as far as I can tell, but the content that is available is pretty substantial. I highly recommend this game if you like fantasy/medieval settings and female MC corruption games.

A game that fails to meet any of the goals set by the developer in the notes section (and thus is a terrible or 1-star review) based on what was promised

• explore the related but distinct genres of training and corruption

First, both halves of this game are so structurally similar and lean much further on the training side that after a year and half a dozen updates, there is more or less no trace of corruption. I don't believe either character has changed, and the one who has been "corrupted" has been kidnapped, held in a cage, and forced to strip and clean for random soliders for over a week, which is closer to "forced with threat of death" than "corrupted"(but she is still able to say no thanks to her next task, so nope, not corrupted at all, but more on that later).

• How are they similar? How are they different?

As stated previously, there is so little difference between the two halves that I had to rework my review due to the fact that I assumed one half would be trainer and one half corruption (but changelog refers to everything as training). The only difference is that one of them is the most basic, barebones interpretation of the idea (you are allowed to say no twice every time until you have to say yes, repeating with escalating tasks and punishments). Which is made worse by the fact that both in the story and in the real world, the developers treat the person who kidnapped, then imprisoned, a royal against their will as some sort of genius who has it all planned out (ignore the fact that he had to flee the city because he was about to be caught doing a minor crime). Sadly, the better half is only better by default and has writing such as "you can turn a task, but it will take you longer to complete your spy training," which more or less boils down to (you are allowed to say no twice every time until you have to say yes again with escalating tasks and punishments, in this case having to do more minor tasks).

• How do they look from the perspective of the object of the training or corruption?

This is perhaps the most disappointing failed goal, as after a year both have started training (recently), there has been no believable or tanigable corruption (besides one girl not recoiling from being sexually assaulted while tied up), and even beyond that, who the people were before is utterly irrelevant to who they are now. A street kid thief who grew up with a single abusive father and two older sisters forced to prostitute themselves is just as easily able to fool high society as she is after several "training" sessions, and a princess who never worked nor wanted for anything is able to remain sane (and even enjoy pleasure!) after having multiple traumatic experiences.

All in all, if this game was just trying to be ye old pornography, it would get an average rating as there are things it does better and worse than other medevil games (the menus in particular stand out for being "accurate," but by the developer's own admission, that is not what he was attempting to do; he was attempting to do what I described above, and based on that, I would call this game terrible because it fails on every front (the dev note promises are what drew me to this game in the first place). I also think it "fails" as pure pornography compared to other games both in art and animation, but my main gripes are to do with failed ambition.

v0.03

Pros:
-The premise is pretty novel for a porn game
-The story is interesting
-Most characters are also interesting

Neutral:
-The art is...serviceable. I don't mean that in a bad way -it gets the job done, but it's definitely not the strong point of the game.

Con:
-While the plot (intrigue at the royal court) is interesting, the game sadly doesn't let you interact with it. Choices are very rare and exclusively limited to the MCs demeanor (nice or bratty for Brigitte and shy or confident for Esther) or of the "do you want to see more?" (as in optional sex scenes with side characters) type.

Version Played: 0.02
Time Played: Less than 2 hours

This is still early in development, but I really like what's here and so far; the content updates have been substantial with a good amount of sexual content. While the "identical people switch roles" plot is nothing new, it's always an interesting springboard. I like the fantasy medieval setting and really love the different girls. I've also come to really appreciate woman MCs, so that's another plus in my book.

Positives
+ Cute girls
+ Plenty of ways to play it from straight to lez
+ Hot sex scenes
+ Story is engaging with good amounts of humor as well as pathos

Neutral
- Story has some slightly darker elements, but they're there for drama, not as misery porn

Negatives
- Still not a lot of content

Rating a game this early in development is always risky business with the constant threat of abandonment or eternities between updates.
However, what's here is so good and promising that I wanted to throw my support in for it.

Note to devs: Thanks for the great project! I'm looking forward to what's coming up and hope to see some MMF and multiple pen scenes! Good luck!

I may update my review soon because I'm still in the prologue, but wow. Not only is the premise interesting (although I'll admit it's been done to death, (particularly in the 90s) the author was able to make the exposition interesting which is extremely hard to do.

Edit - The story is very good so far. The writing and characterization are top-notch. The only thing I'm worried about, are the plans for the future of the story. Without spoiling, the plans for where the princess and pauper go seem... heavy-handed. Instead of it being a political intrigue story, which is what it was set up as, it feels like it will become another generic corruption simulator which appeals to some, but not to all.

I had to deduct 1 star just because I felt like the release was just a little premature.. with leaving the basic main plot unfinished, and even though we got to make some decisions... you're just kinda left without any idea of what will even come of them. I do feel like there is a good amount of potential with this game.

1. Just simply put the main character is smoking hot, so that's an easy plus for me.
2. Female corruption/training games is one of my favorite categories, especially when there possibilities for different outcomes based on how you play.. which the dev has indicated is what's coming.
3. The writing and story so far is pretty good, so I'm not to worried there.

Thar said I have a lot of hope for the future of this game and can easily get behind it early.

Version Reviewed: 0.1
An excellent start. The story is unique and refreshing, the renders are well done, and there is even music and animations which is great to see for a first release.

There are a few choices to be made by the player although it remains to be seen whether or not they will have any bearing on the story later on. Frankly it feels more like a Kinetic novel as there is clearly a story to be told here and it's not just a fuck fest. But it's not a blue-ball game by any means and there's several lewd and sex scenes already.

The characters are quite interesting and each one has their own personality. Always a great thing to see.

One minor criticism I have is that several of the characters faces look a bit too similar to each other (I don't mean the two main MC's since that is clearly intended) but a lot of the character's noses and lips look identical to one another. It just feels slightly off, but it's not a huge deal.

Looking forward to playing more of this one.