Deleted 11 days ago
The game is fine.
If you play AVNs for the N bit, there's tons out there which do not have the A bit, and are just dedicated Visual Novel style games, which are a millions times better than ANY AVN because they are made by major studios.
If you play for the A bit, this should be SSS Tier for you, as the scenes are great... not as long or immersive as some... but beautifully done.
If you are playing an AVN that has this 'weird' trope you mentioned, expect them to be a little batty, because they HAVE to be....it is taboo sexual fantasy, that is very rare irl, and most people cannot imagine a logical, realistic, scenario in which it could happen... ...because most of us do not do that kind of thing, never have, so have no metric to judge such, and those who HAVE, are stigmatized in almost ALL societies... so I doubt they are making AVNs, and if they DO, they likely will not be using the real world experience of how they came to be sleeping with half their family as the narrative.
If you play AVNs expecting both amazing A bit, and amazing N bits... then what can you do, they do not exist, even the very very best in the genre do not blend both flawlessly.... they cannot.
Most 'Artistes' with a story living as a song in their heart they just have to get out.... choose the AVN format, over just a plain old VN one, to simply broaden their reach.. You almost ALWAYS find the adult content is cheap, quick, BS, limited in quantity, duration, and quality, and usually not even necessary for the story (as in retrospective confirmation, implication and suggestion, symbolism, or good old Fade To Black would work just as well and make NO difference to the game) but just there as a gimmick and to let Adult and NSFW tags do their thing, and draw in players from a smaller competition than going up against aforementioned VNs made by big pro studios.
Most AVNs where the ADULT bit is CRITICAL and even foundational to the story, have major issues with narrative... because at the very least, even leaving out crazy rationalisations, contortions in morals and logic, tenuous associations and interpretations etc etc to justify the extreme fetishist, or very taboo things.... the narrative still needs be one which somehow explains the F ton of sex going on. That is almost impossible to do realistically, when by the end of an in game week the MC is meant to have banged his neighbour five times, his classmate thrice, once with his Uni lecturer who they've also banged separately half a dozen times, his sisters best friend... and his sister.... and mom.... and.... grammie at least four times. The result being rather simplistic, unrealistic, at times repetitive, at others just batshit cray cray narratives, that are basically necessary to move the carnal narrative, which is the games core, along.
Even the very very best games on here... the highest rated, like Eternum, or Ripples or Pale Carnations, go all in on the loopy edgy crazy unrealistic BS at times, because they could not be the games they are without it, and still hit all the adult content beats they do.
And who says choices have to matter? Sure agency is great...but there are FAR FAR worse games for removing all agency from the player. Play Harem Hotel deep in the late game, or what there is so far in it... and it a pretty long game even unfinished... and then enjoy being a spectator in all your girls dismal failures to do what needs doing to address the social injustice which becomes the overriding narrative of the game instead of the Hotel or the Harem. Talk about choices not mattering and lack of agency, sheesh.
Also... Annie's Anal Surrender is all the reward system anyone should need, and if that is less important to you than immersive narrative, I suggest you stop playing games, and go read some the classics of idk, 19thC Russian literature. This is an AVN. Not Tolstoy, sorry.
sadly agree, the graphics are great, but *man* I really don't like the story or layout they have going, which is a shame. This is the first game like this I have ever played and then genuinely had to push myself to keep playing it, only to uninstall it because of how bad it got... A partnership could be cool, no shame in that for sure, some of the best games I've seen on here are made like that. Hope changes are made.
I just wonder what you people find so objectionable... in what way is the story so bad?
The Amnesia trope is present in SO MANY AVNs, this is not the first. The Domestic set up, and the Damsel in Distress element, as well as the College thing, as ALL staples of the Genre too.
I wonder, genuinely, what you people expect?
I have never found this game unplayable at all, and I have played 100s of AVNs.
Probably partially because it is so recycled, but the day to day dialogue feels very low effort and generally scattered as if it's impossible to use words larger than 5 letters for someone lol
I think it is absolutely possible, the genre isn't an excuse. Particularly, play Companions of Darkness- it has incredible reputation for its story and was great IMO, that or maybe Cross Realms (which I think should frankly go to JUST story and not AVN because of what it is / makes itself to be).
I have played both. Companion has WAY TOO LITTLE sex for an AVN, and WAY WAY too little for an AVN THAT LONG, sorry. Cross Realms, indeed, SHOULD just become a VN, and drop the Adult parts, because they really do nothing, in fact, in my review for the game, I say JUST THIS.
But you have made my point. Games which focus on a realistic, deep, well written narrative.... ALWAYS fail, in regards to their Adult content, just like Companion of Darkness and Cross Realms, unless the MC or the world having a heavy sexual/sexualized nature is written in CORE to the story... because such stories DO NOT lend themselves to copious amounts of wild Sex.
Sorry, I prefer my AVNs DO have COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF WILD SEX. For that, I will take some tropes, and some simplistic dialogue, and bat shit cray cray prepositions and tenuous associations and logic. If those things are need for the MC to bang his mother, sister (legal) daughter, and his doctor, and lawyer, and (female) best friend, and neighbour, and neighbours daughter, and best friends mother..... whilst on spaceships careening out of control towards blackhole ... wormhole... that will take him to the land of the Space Elves.... where he must fuck the Elf Sorceress Queen in a Sex battle to the death, to save the world from Demoness that has fallen in love with him and been R-wording him most the game.....because you CANNOT have that happen, without some tropes, simplistic dialogue, crazy unrealistic premises.
But for ME, THAT is MUCH better than some 'narratively realistic and sophisticated immersive story'...... that does not GIVE ME ELF ORGIES and let me bang everyone in my household.. and on my block... multiple times in a week.
Um. No, I can comprehend just fine, sir.
But that is NOT the point of AVNs. The key is the A bit.
There's plenty of great games which just use the VN format. Once you add the A bit, you are stuck either narratively, in regards to the adult content, or stuck in regards to narrative strength. They tend, as I just explained, to not be conducive to each other.
A strong narrative, often means the story finds ways to juts ease in the adult content naturally, and logically, dictated by the story...... but that often means paltry amounts of adult content, often done poorly, without the focus and care it should have.
A game with a lot of adult content, covering all kinds of fetishes and taboos, by necessity often has to have some fairly absurd, at the least, writing, often times some unbelievable crazy premises, and tenuous associations and logic.... otherwise the scene cannot be set for that intense BDSM Orgy that is a thing in the game... along with many others.
About the ONLY games which do both naturally, are games where the sexual nature of the MC, or the ultra sexualized nature of the world, are CORE traits not only to the character and world, but the main story plot itself. BUT, that is VERY limiting.
So, what side should the AVN author fall on?
It is an A VN, not a VN... the game is meant to be an adult game, with adult content. Adult content at the expense of narrative strength ALWAYS WINS as far as I am concerned.
Maybe you are playing the wrong kind of games? Perhaps you should seek more mainstream VN format games.