VN - Ren'Py - Intertwined [v0.12.3] [Nyx]

INTERTWINED: MADDENING MOTIFS AND MIRRORS

Some thoughts and observations on the game:

I came to AVNs late in the game, and later in life. (Although my memory might be playing tricks on me since I recall playing one of those DOS proto AVNs in high school.)

If people came to BADIK for the sex but stayed for the story, I came to Intertwined for the sex but stayed for the drama and the characters.

It's a game about shocking and unexpected connections (in a six degrees of separation telenovela manner), and how history, behavior and life patterns can repeat itself through different generations. But it's also a game about small moments, emotional subtext, intimate gestures and flickers of feelings across characters' faces.

At her best, Nyx uses similar characters scenes, situations, and finds interesting and fun character and plot progression variations that aren't repetitive or redundant. At her worst it's a slow-paced telenovela with all the annoying tropes and cliches magnified.

Like elements of poetry, music and film, in this AVN, it appears that Nyx likes to repeat scenes, actions, locations and characters with obvious or subtle variations. These variations can be redundant at their worst, but at their best, allows the player to make narrative connections, compare and contrast, and emphasize character and relationship development by picking up on tiny, subtle changes.

(Narrative Mirror Scenes, Parallel Narrative Lines, Parallel Scenes, Plot Devices, Motifs, Comparison and Contrast, Scene and Situation Repetitions and Variations, Mirror Reflections of Characters and Mirror Sets of Characters, Visual Repetitions and Variations)


Aside from it being a practical use of limited game assets, as a technique, Nyx likes using the same location with the same characters (usually a pair of characters) repeating similar actions and situations but with subtle variations in their character development, individual behavior and interaction with each other.


Another one of Nyx's strengths is her ability to create so many variations of character's expressions on their faces. The subtle shift of an eyebrow, a look in the eyes, the direction of the eye stare, the turn of a mouth corner can communicate more than one emotion or mental state of a character without using any words. The effect is quite endearing and emotive. It helps me empathize with the different characters (especially the ladies.)

As for the game's flaws, at worst, the characters have inconsistent writing and development. The developer trolls both its fans and detractors by making creative decisions based on their reactions. The developer can create drama only to retcon it when she writes herself into the corner. The slow pace will drive a lot of gamers away - even those used to slow burns.

It's definitely not for everyone, but what keeps me coming back to this maddening game? Obsessive re-playability and it made me care about what happens to the characters, even the ones I don't like. Like it or not, I am emotionally invested and emotionally intertwined to see this game to end or abandonment.

Baffled by some of the poor ratings. The lewd scenes aren't the greatest, but all of the LIs are hot (and really likeable), the story is interesting for a slice of life style game, and the main character actually looks and acts his age. The writing is decent to good, and the art in general (scenes, models, lighting, etc.) is all really nice.

I do wish it allowed for a harem as I'm sure some tough choices are coming, and it's a bummer that the mom is not a LI, but those are design decisions, not quality issues, and I'm not docking a star for them.

(Review is as of 0.11.2)

What I hoped for, based on the title: main character does main character things, circumstances draw the people he interacts with together, events have a ripple effect on himself and others

What I got: everyone already knows at least a few other people the MC interacts with, but this is never brought up unless it adds a plot twist; the MC doesn't recognize people from his teens that he hasn't seen in five years, despite the fact that I've recognized people from my teens 20 years later, even after they went bald, lost 50 pounds, and started a family.

I think the creator took the term "Intertwined" a bit too literally. In this case, once you realize that everyone is already connected in some way, twists cease to be surprising or even all that interesting. Instead, it's just "I wonder which character they already know". That will usually be answered at the exact moment that it creates some kind of complication, and not a moment before.

I felt there was also a lot of inconsistency when it came to interacting with the girls in the MC's life. Check her out at this point or look down her shirt at this point - bonus points, she likes it! Check her out at this point or look at her butt at this point - lose points, what the hell were you thinking? You can also completely sabotage your own efforts just because a new character came along that seemed interesting to you. You've had some good interactions with this one character, and then a new character catches your eye. You haven't formally committed to anything yet, but you want to pursue the newcomer? Well, time to torch this past one!

Lastly, the two girls who I've found to be the most interesting at this point have very little content to them. Sure, that will likely change eventually, but 11 chapters in, it's a bit frustrating.

On the more positive side, the renders are good (the animations, however, are not) and I think most of the characters are actually written pretty well. They talk like people. They mostly act like people. The actual plot is relatively easy to follow and at least semi-grounded in how people might interact, with the exception of the MC's closest guy friend, who turns so quickly that I'm surprised he didn't get whiplash. The MC isn't amazing, but at least he doesn't approach life like everything will just work out for him because he's that damn awesome, and that's appreciated.

This is a ship that can still be righted. The characters are interesting enough to keep the story going, and there are absolutely ways to "Intertwine" everyone without resorting to contrivances. I hope that it does get righted, because there is a lot of potential.

Unless this is one of the first Daz games you've played, I don't recommend bothering with this game. This is the kind of game I'd expect from a Dev with ~200 patrons, not 1,200+.

-The sex scenes consist of the default Daz animations that you'll immediately recognize if you've ever played a Daz game before, and are quite choppy even with using that beginner's aid.

-Pretty much every character has barely any sexual content. That wouldn't be a problem if this was a story-focused game but it is not. It's a "son returns home to Mommy and gets with every girl around him" game except the dev forgot to add the actual incest and decided to branch every path off in ridiculous ways, with "plot twists" that can be seen coming from a mile away. I call them plot twists, but everyone guessed every single one of them long before they actually happened. There's a lot of childish, stupid drama that is just shoved down your throat.

-The (subjectively)best girls don't actually have their own path, and after over 3 years of development, the content for them is slim to none at all. In what is basically a dating sim, some girls are only actually available by being a cheater.

I'm really struggling with how much to let my personal enjoyment get in the way of so much well crafted content. It really doesn't deserve to be called poor, and much of it is well above average...I just didn't like it very much.

When you think of lives being "intertwined" you're expecting that through circumstance people will be drawn together. Maybe it's through common goals that arise, maybe it's through character development drawing people together. What we have here is Deus Ex Machina: the game.

Before I get to that, I'll give the positives and why I might be being harsh. For a start, the LIs in the game are hot. Really well done. Some of them are up with the best I've seen in 3d porn games. And along with that they have genuine personalities. They're distinct from each other, they have motivations, desires, goals, hardships, and it's a lot more than "Do I prefer blondes to brunettes?" or "Big tits or small?" when picking your favourites. You'll learn about them, see real dialogues, and be drawn to them as characters.

Most of the dialogue is solid. It reads like real conversations. I noticed more and more errors towards the end, so I assume it's being edited for improvements over time which is always good.

What's the problem then? For a start, it's the Deus Ex Machina thing. After the first couple of times, you know exactly who the new mystery woman is, and you're baffled as to how connections aren't made. All the characters are very close, but they never mention each other, nor have they ever met anyone's family. Yet it will turn out that everyone is someone's roommate/sister/brother/best friend/wife/husband that they never ever mentioned before and were never seen with even though they're inseparably close. Ugh.

The plot is: has some issues with Dad, moves back with Mom. That's your lot. Okay, so it's going to be a character driven game. No problem. Except that it's never clear what the aim is. The character appears to be able to sleep around, only to find out you've locked yourself out of most of the characters by doing so. But if you turn down other girls you're going to miss the bulk of the game and what's going on in the world. Neither building a harem nor picking a girlfriend actually works. It seems like you're supposed to pick one, but it's not clear.

Just as bad is an issue that a lot of games of this type fall into: you make me ruin a relationship with a character I've spent most of the game with in favour of someone who just appeared. You spend the first part of the game building a romance with a really hot girl only to find you have to give her up if you want to develop something with a brand new person who may or may not have any real content anyway.

Decisions are too unpredictable, and often contradict other decisions.
It's frustrating how far I got into my first run only to realise I'd completely blown all my favourite characters out of the game on one decision. Equally annoying are things like the "check her out" choice that often comes up. Trying to play along with a guide, I saw how often it would sometimes be a +2 and other times a -2 for the same damn character. Often the latter decision being the -2 one. So comment on her legs in school, +2. Look at her in a bikini...-2. I don't know what kind of character I'm supposed to be playing, and I don't know what the individual girls want. Is he a good guy or is he a womaniser? He's both. Arbitrarily. You don't get to pick how he develops so much as hope your last action didn't ruin whatever he's meant to be at that time.

I just found myself annoyed and frustrated while sighing at the constant "And these two people knew each other all along!". In spite of all the criticism here though, I have to give some praise and say obviously a fair few people are enjoying it. Maybe this one just isn't for me.

Objectively, it's a great looking game and you can get some enjoyment out of the women and the sex scenes in it. It does a lot right and I'm sure plenty of people will praise it. If I were comparing it to two star games on this site then the bulk of them are unplayable messes and this is nothing like that. It's a very playable, very well made game. But the things it does wrong frustrated me to no end. I wasn't keen on it, but I'd still say others should give it a whirl and see.

Negative:

1- MC is very ugly, rude, and stupid.
2- Average story with bullshits like you can make out your best friend's mom in public.
3- Sex scenes are terrible, ends with two click.
4- Everyone knows each other in this big city.

Positive:

Layla.

One of the best games on F95 right now with many interesting characters, interactions between them, nice visuals and story. Nyx really knows how to present a story and every update has been better and better

Best VN ever and I really don't understand why the score is so low? The MC is good looking so that makes it believable that he can charm all the girls in the game. This is really not the case in other VN's. You got a lot of beautiful girls with different personalities. You cannot fool around with them all, as in real life you have to pick your path . I only hope that Nyx stay through to her narrative. I noticed a couple of bad written characteristics in the last episode with Nikki. Hopefully Nyx haven't got a guy friend to Co Write. Still, love this game and look forward to next episode.

This is one of those games that has such a horrible main character that you want another guy to show up just to steal all of his girls but i can't solely blame it on the mc since its really the writing here that's the problem. The characters suck, the story sucks and the author tends to milf bait a little too much, hell there are early scenes with the mom that the dev put in there to take a jab at people who like that kind of content, same with the milfs really.

Probably a 3/5 if your attracted to younger women but if you like the opposite stay far far away from this game.

EDIT: Update, game went from a 1 star to a 3 star with the inclusion of Nikki the first female to not act like a teenager.

Definitely one of the better College themed Avn's out there. A bewildering array of Li's and paths. Good news is the love interests are great and actions actually seem to have some consequences!
Shame the update rate is slow, but I'm really looking forward to see how this continues.

1 star for the effort of continuing the story even if it's bad
2nd star for the good renders
3rd for my favorite girls

Said that. This game has so many cons , all girls are wet for the Mc just by its presence even if he didn't do anything, they are in heat and are stalkers, well , i don t mind it, but the thing is that all of them lie to the MC at the end of the day, if you are (the player) invested in the story, you will get mad and start hating all the women in the game (my case)

And...you (the player) start to wonder if this game is a waste of time.

i found myself waiting for certain scenes with certain woman, the rest, shit

Average-poorish game

Writing is so-so, there are a lot of stupid situations that could be handle different with another kind of writting, said that you can still enjoy the game, this are my tastes


I am finally enjoying the game after cutting bonds with almost all girls and staying on the training camp. so far, all looks fine, Valerie and Elena are probably the less hateful girls in the game.

This game stands out among others with a well-thought-out plot, which is not too long and at the same time does not make the characters of the game rabbits who just do their thing all the time. The plot involves dealing with two goddesses and there's even a balance between the two superpowers they give the main character, but it could have been a little better. In general, there are almost no comments about the game. There can only be wishes for the models of the girls, although they are different, but too close to real life, it would be possible to add at least one or two beauties among the girls with an ordinary appearance. Waiting for the future updates!

A bit disappointed after reading some reviews and praises for the game and then played it. The best thing about the game are girls (most of them LIs are hot, there are quite a few "flavors" so to speak) and moms are absolute milfs, but that's about it really.

The rest, I'm afraid is average or even negative:
- Don't like MC. I find him... just boring as fuck really. Also I don't like his looks and lame haircut and the way he smiles... Ugh.
- Story so far is pretty average, nothing that would want me to continue playing.
- Male characters are either cringy, boring or total assholes as always. Kinda sick of these games that have men in only when they need you to hate someone or sexually harass someone. Or be a cringy sidekick to a MC.
- Lewd scenes are pretty bad overall. Very short, no buildup whatsoever and it ends in seconds, since there is barely any dialogue or narration in them. So you stick your dick in a girl and in two seconds you cum and it's over.
- Other scenes and overall story progression can also feel lacking, ends abruptly and it goes to complete other scene (like what happens after few days) and it's just not a smooth and organic transition and feels like there is content missing.
- I don't mind too much that it isn't a harem and you have to pick a girl, but I think there are too many girls tbh. While I like most of them, I usually feel a bit overwhelmed with games that have so many girls available to be your LI. I prefer fewer girls with more quality content with each of them.

I might play some more and see if anything changes, but it's definitely not what I expected.

This might actually be a great game. For me however, it just slightly misses the mark. I don't personally like games where you have to make choices between women. I get the idea of wanting the game to have a real life feel to it, but this is just a game so why do I have to choose?? If it wasn't for that aspect, I would give the game five stars. There are many plot lines,. There are many characters, and there are a lot of choices.

One of the finest AVNs I've played honestly, characters are well-written and well-modeled too. I think it's the best game when it comes to how well it handles cheating, the consequences are just top-notch. hopefully late on the music improves but storywise, it's really interesting and engaging. and lastly the Lewds are fantastic , we need more updates asap!!!!

Take Gossip Girl, filter it through the writing talent of the average native english porno dev, add an assortment of generic moralisations.. this game in a nutshell. It goes one step further than drama for drama's sake, it creates drama out of thin air. Horror movies have jump-scares, this has jump-drama.

Traditionally, characters are supposed to be established as characters before their problems or conflicts can be expected to have any impact on the audience. Here drama is synonymous with personality:
'I am a pregnant woman';
'I saw mom kissing her female best friend and was very angry at her' [It's unclear why that makes the PC angry, apart from - you guessed it - drama. But that's kind of the running theme of this game.]
'My dad isn't my real dad, and that's very upsetting for some reason'.

The characters themselves, beyond all these plot contrivances that happen to them, are defined by either one of two qualities - nice (most of them incl the females) or mean (the obligatory asshole jock rival).

Tldr, the story is a collection of superficial and not quite coherent drama setups featuring a surplus of romantic interests who constantly want to hang out with the insipid featureless PC. So like most porno gaems, except it's designed to force you to take the story and some of its moral lessons srsly. You can only choose one girl and cheating has consequences. Problem being, the game's mechanism for determining the PC's chastity reflects how stupid/contrived the plot is. So much so that merely having met or spent time with someone without successively informing everyone else of that fact is apparently a big deal. If the roleplaying setup is bad the roleplay won't be engaging either, however diverse or impactful the choices might be.

Gfx/models range from 3-5/5. Lighting is very good. Some anims are decent, most are choppy and awkward. H-scenes vary in quality. I saw two that were fappable, the rest not so much. Mileage may vary ofc.

I like how the dynamics between the MC and the rest seem quite organic. Some of the plot development seems a little contrived, but I get why that is necessary for things to all be 'intertwined'. I'd give it a solid 9 out of 10, and I look forward to what future updates will bring.
Nikki is best girl.

v 0.10.5
The story was delightful, with a delightful sense of humor and captivating characters. It stands as one of the most exceptional games I have ever experienced. I was completely engrossed, playing for extended periods without pause.

Nevertheless, there are drawbacks. The graphics leave something to be desired, occasionally even falling into the realm of subpar. This is particularly evident in the animations and backgrounds. However, the character designs and intricacies are commendable. While I don't necessarily require top-notch visuals when the characters and plot are so engaging, it would still be pleasing to have improved graphics as well.

Best game, but maybe more motorcycle scenes, I would imagine. .
Women like motorcycles. .
And it would be nice to have more scenes with Valeria on the road and also on the motorbike. .

This game really showcases what I love about adult VNs.

Really fun and engaging dialogue, without being pretentious.

Great, good looking characters, all with realistic motives and morals. (Alexis is wifey material, and I won't tolerate any slander coming her way.)

There's just a lot here to dive into and enjoy. Tons of ups and downs, steamy romance and some juicy drama. And I was into ALL of it, lmao.

Random note; I suspect the dev might be a pro wrestling fan, as the MC's shirt looks like a CM Punk shirt from his 2011-12 run. And they also referenced "making the list" which could be a Chris Jericho reference?

Anyway, yeah, infinite stars for this charming VN.