playingstory | Entries tagged with m/f

Name: Sweet Volley High
Status: Complete
Site: https://newwestgames.itch.io/sweet-volley-high-all-ages-ver
Pairing: F/M, F/F
Description: A sports Otome with some odd pacing

This is a Yuri/Otome game that follows High School senior Aya as she plays some volley ball and gets attracted to all of her teammates.

Opening Screen

The pacing in this game is such that I stopped half an hour in to check that this really was a VN with choices, as I hadn't seen a single one yet, and then, after being assured that there were choices, still ended up reading through an interminable amount of single track text in which nothing happened, only to find out at the end that what amounts to choice in this game is a single option picking the LI's route and then reading a bunch more text on rails for the final third of the game.

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The BLM edition of this game is the family friendly version, so the sex scenes have been excised. Maybe they're worth the price of admission, but if so I would say have no shame in speed clicking through this one cause you're not missing much at all.

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Name: Furries & Scalies & Bears OH MY!
Status: Complete
Site: https://steg-game-dev.itch.io/furries-scalies-bears-oh-my-complete-edition
Pairing: M/M, M/F
Description: Wander around in a daze for a year chatting with furries.

This is something of a Furry issekai. You play a human named Oz, and end up walking through a portal into another world with your best friend Dorothy (get it?). Here in this world furries are everywhere and the only two humans around also ended up coming through a portal years ago. Once you have sort of set yourself up in town, you're told that it will be maybe a year before the scientists can figure out a way of getting you back, and you have nothing to do but wait for that to happen.

Main menu

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This feels like a game for which there was inadequate planning. The characters themselves are kind of interesting, but pursuing them was not satisfying, and they just didn't seem to actually have anything to do with what I could comprehend of the story. Yes, there is some overall plot about a character behaving a little badly, but it wasn't very good. Looking at the game page, there is evidence that the developer made some changes to the writing after a user complained that the black character had an antagonistic role in the game, and in my run at least he had pretty much no role at all (which was the same for 90% of the cast) so I don't know if maybe the coherency was better in a previous version or what. Regardless, all I can say is that the writing in Furries and Scalies makes it feel kind of noobish, but it looks like the dev has made a whole bunch of games, so I'm just confused.

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Name: Starlight Shores
Status: Complete
Site: https://tidalblossoms.itch.io/starlight-shores
Pairing: M/F
Description: A short Bishoujo game set during a single starry night.

title screen

Starlight Shores is a straight forward Bishoujo game, where you and some friends are going to a vacation house to watch a meteor shower on the beech. The party consists of you, an old childhood friend, someone she wants you to meet, and a couple that causes all the problems. There are no gimmicks or new complicated technical elements to the game, just a few scattered choices in what is generally a linear story that takes place around a bonfire as you all settle down to watch a star shower and play drinking games. The choices are sometimes straightforward about whether or not you want to lean towards the best friend or the person you just met, but some are also a little more ambiguous. I was sloppy about my choices on my first run, picking either or just based on how I felt at the moment and I still got a good end with the old friend, so it doesn't seem to be that demanding of a game.

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I enjoyed my time with this, as short as it was. It's a straight forward little dating sim, with a simple premise well executed.

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Name: That Which Binds Us
Status: Complete
Site: https://crystalgameworks.itch.io/that-which-binds-us
Pairing: F/M
Description: Lies, manipulation, and mind wipes somehow coalesce into romance?

This is a game that relies a lot on romance logic making some of the weird shit that goes on okay. The idea is that there is a magic knife that can be used to make people forget completely about someone else. The man who owns the knife inherited it from his father, and with it he inherited the business of performing this operation on behalf of other people. He also happened to inherit a bondsman's shop along with it. It's a weird combo, and a premise I can safely say I've never seen before. If nothing else I do have to give the game some credit for that.

Characters running into each other in the game

The MC is a girl who has a shit criminal boyfriend, and when going to get a bond for him the bondsman informs her that he has this magical knife that he can use to make her boyfriend just forget about her completely. She decides to take him up on it, and since he doesn't charge her she decides to treat him to dinner as a thank you when it turns out to work just as he promised.

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I somewhat regret replaying this one multiple times, because the first run, while effectively a kinetic novel, was cute, had some plot progression, and the ending was satisfying. I felt that the following runs only resulted in lowering my opinion of the way the story was told because these felt like subpar versions of the original story, not really new paths in their own right.

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Name: Songs and Flowers
Status: Complete
Site: https://cowboy-starshine.itch.io/songs-and-flowers
Pairing: M/F
Description: Two separate high school stories about people supporting each other.

This game doesn't lean much on novelty. It's a high school VN with two LIs, a straightforward plot with very few choices, and no real meta elements (unless you count playing a VN as a part of the story being meta). Your character is an abrasive, cursing, high energy girl who has just transferred to a new school and has never really made a friend. She's determined to become an intelligence broker in order to achieve her childhood goal of finding her mother, who left her and her father when she was a small child. But she's super bad with people and generally oblivious to all social cues. Her process of training is to just brute force ask people as many questions about them as she can.

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There are a few extra mini stories that are just texts and unlocked after you complete each path, which is it in terms of extra content. While the choice elements of Songs and Flowers are bare-bones, the two stories for the LIs are sweet and simple, and I enjoyed my time playing.

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Name: Conversations with My Anxiety
Status: Complete
Site: https://digitaldaydream.itch.io/conversations-with-my-anxiety
Pairing: M/F
Description: Navigating one bad date while your anxiety verbally abuses you.

This is a first date simulator where your anxiety provides constant commentary in the form of a little version of you popping up inside your own head. The game is made in unity and a fast play. A single run is maybe 10 minutes, and less than that if you's managed to fuck up royally. Your job is to say, if not the right thing, than at least the least wrong thing, to survive through the end of the night and maybe even get a second date. A lot of things manage to go very wrong. Your lyft guy is a pain in the ass. The kid taking your card at the movie theater is a smarmy brat, and your date runs into her ex at dinner. Meanwhile your date will not hesitate to ditch you if she's decided you're not what she's looking for. I played twice because the first time I managed to piss her off enough to make her leave over my giving my opinion on the movie we had watched. This I consider my true ending because I wouldn't be able to date anyone who took an opinion I had about media personally. We'd be fighting all the time! I just don't care if someone thinks something I like is trash so I don't really understand it when other people do. Although, true to the theme of the game, my dude did not explain his position without dipping a toe into his mouth. The next run I managed to thread the needle and said all the right things to be a considerate and friendly date, and got what I assume is the good end, where the woman is considering seeing me again.

The anxiety that pipes up every time things get a little awkward is an amusing little addition. Since the game is free and short, I don't really see any reason not to give it a go, although for me it highlighted the fact that one person's bad date might be another person's fun time.

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Name: Don't Take it Personally, I Just Don't Like You
Status: Demo only
Site:https://lockerkid.itch.io/dont-take-it-personally-i-just-dont-like-you
Pairing: Any/F (suggested Any/M in later complete game)
Description: A short demo about drama in the woods

This is a self-contained, complete demo for what is promised to be a larger game. The setting is New England in the 90s, and you're off to spend a night in the woods with your maybe-girlfriend and a couple casual friends. The demo features two LIs, Rose, member of the college student council, and Maria, a punk waitress who spends a lot of her time in the woods. The two don't really mesh well, and a lot of the game is you trying to figure out how best to keep the peace, or how to best pick a side on one issue or the other.

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As a demo, this game does its job. It gives me a sense of the tone, shows that the characters and dialog is appealing, provides for enough choice options to show that there is some decent logic that isn't confined to "good/bad" options, and makes me curious for more.

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Name: Roll + Heart
Status: Complete
Site: https://owl-sanctuary-studios.itch.io/rollplusheart
Pairing: Any/M Any/F
Description: Meet some LIs around the DnD table

Roll + Heart is another game about playing tabletop while also dating your fellow players (or GM). It's longer and more involved than Dungeons and Lesbians, the other tabletop VN that I've played in the BLM bundle, with longer and more numerous scenes, a combat system, and a few mini games.

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If you strip down all the extra mini games and simple combat system, what you reveal is a basic VN with poor pathing, that fails to make references to choices from scene to scene. Even though I liked the characters in this game, I can't say the story is well done because there are just too many errors in the scripting. If the fundamental question of what did or didn't happen in a certain run is something a game can't keep track of, I don't think I can call it a good game.

That said, I did play Roll+Heart through three times because I actually did want to romance some of the LIs, which is more than I can say for many VNs. Even though it's fucked up by the coding, the pacing of the game doesn't drag, and the LIs have fun personalities and are nice to get to know. It's a shame that the execution of everything is so sloppy. I'm not a Renpy evangelist, but games like this make me wish people would just use something that works and leave the gimmicks alone if they can't execute well.

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Name: Talk to Me
Status: Complete (yes really)
Site: https://boop-studios.itch.io/talk-to-me
Rating: PG-13 with some sexually explicit text
Pairing: M/F, M/M
Description: A modern dating game dealing with some serious topics.

Talk to Me is a mundane VN centered around a male MC that has a lot of issues. He's depressed and has had a hard time recovering after what appears to be the sudden death of his mother some years back. He moved away shortly after, and has been slowly spending through his inheritance in a small apartment, not working, not doing anything really, especially, as he explains in the intro to the game, not making any friends. The game is broadly about him making human connections again, and dealing with some of his issues. At first I really didn't like the MC, because in the very first scene you're expected to pick some random girl in a library to try to come on to, and you are guaranteed to make a mess of it. I was getting some low key incel vibes from him for a little bit, but things calm down after that and he ended up being much more self-aware and nice as the game goes on.

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Overall this was a good adult dating game. Had it had more time to develop its female LI routes more or just hard focused on the one story it seemed to want to tell it would have been a real solid VN. As it is it's fine but flawed.

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Name: Arcade Spirits
Status: Complete
Site: https://fictionfactorygames.itch.io/arcade-spirits
Rating: PG-13, light romance, light violence, some mental health talk
Pairing: options for gen and any pairing configuration
Description: Someone who loves arcades made a game about loving arcades and finding love at arcades

Title screen

Arcade Spirits is a professional and polished game, which is a rarity in these reviews. Tl;dr it's a great little VN, with good writing and very nice art, a personable cast of characters, great mood-setting music, and a decent system that both helps you control the plot but also lets you make choices without feeling that you are obligated to say one thing or another to get the ending you are seeking. The length of the game is also decent. I thought it was going to be the end twice before it actually was. Retail cost of Arcade Spirits is $20. That is always going to feel a little steep for me when it comes to VNs, but this is because I am cheap, not because the game doesn't deserve it, and I think in this case the game is definitely worth that if you are a VN fan.

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So all in all I'd say this is a successful VN. It's nice to play something that does have some straight forward romance elements but also has an interesting Gen story, something where the characters are easy on the eyes and emotionally engaging, and all of the bells and whistles are operating as intended. The renpy engine is taken full advantage of, with some new game plus elements thrown in too, and it's clear the game was made with love.

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Name: Who Killed My Father Academy
Status: Complete
Site: https://ntagonistic.itch.io/wkmfa
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: F/Fish but you date F/M
Description: Crazy ass rich kids murder each other a lot.

As the title of this game suggests, the twist to this VN is that the LIs are all suspects in the protagonist's father's murder! You, the player, have been recruited by the protagonist to help her get to the bottom of this murder by choosing her actions for her, then keeping in mind the result so that you can go back again and give her better choices in a different run through. This fourth-wall-breaking premise is stated explicitly at the beginning of the game, and the MC speaks to you directly in her inner monologue as you guide her through her little investigation. After going on multiple dates with each of the suspects, almost all of them ending poorly, you can tell her that you've figured things out, at which point you have to tell her the information you uncovered and get to play through the final ending.

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I had to avoid looking at the graphics while I played, but luckily for VNs good writing is always more important, and this game has that. If you can get around the assault on your eyes (or who knows, maybe you're into it) then this is a fun game worth checking out.

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Name: One Night Stand
Status: Complete
Site: https://kinmoku.itch.io/one-night-stand
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: M/F
Description: Short game about the morning after a one night stand

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Ultimately the game is too short to elicit any sort of emotional investment from me. What's there is a well-made little diversion, but as far as VNs go it doesn't feel like it breaks any new ground. For that reason I wouldn't really recommend it unless you really like the premise.

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Name: Mission: Dry Drowning
Status: Complete
Site: https://vlg.itch.io/dry-drowning
Rating: R (Graphic Violence, no smut)
Pairing: M/F, but really Gen
Description: Serial killers, revolution, fascism, oh my!

Talk about tone whiplash. After playing a game that was way too wholesome for me in Mission: It's Complicated, I went to a game full of murder, lies, and thriller-type gameplay that was just short of too scary for me (I'm an actual wimp so that doesn't mean much).

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