Ren'Py - Golden Mean [v0.4] [DrMolly]

Game version: 0.4

Came for the fap, stayed for the story (well.. and the fap).
The story writing, the characters (and, for the very first time- the father figure / landlord is actually a NICE guy!!) are so well written, it's almost unreal.
The MC is no dckhead, quite the opposite in the beginning. And when he changes, he STILL isn't some shallow and walking dck, but a very unique character indeed.

The animation quality varies from "good" to "mediocre" - I see much more potential here!

I rarely give 5 stars to an unfinished game, but since I haven't encountered a single flaw that annoyed me so far... well deserved, Dr. Molly!

P.S.: This game needs a GALLERY O:

Fuck! That was nice... That NTR route was right up my alley. The renders/animations are beautiful and the women are fantastic. I don't care about sandbox mechanism as long as there are build in cheat functions. I cannot wait what will the dev bring up next time. That NTR onsen meeting was especially hot!

One of the better games out there. The blonde sister is awesome. There is a good amount of diversity with the various love interests.

I knew I liked this one when I actually read the dialogue to follow the story. Usually it's just like, "naw."

Easy to avoid the things u don't like. I vote to leave all fetishes on but the choices needed to avoid the father are really obvious.

Golden Mean is a captivating experience that left me torn between awe and moments of questionable character decisions. The game boasts an engaging story, solid writing, and breathtaking art, yet it occasionally stumbles in maintaining the integrity of its character arcs.

One of the standout features of Golden Mean is undoubtedly its narrative depth. The storyline is gripping, filled with unexpected twists and turns. The writing is skillfully executed, seamlessly blending elements of suspense, drama, and emotion. The characters are well-developed, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations, adding layers to the overall narrative.

The art in game is nothing short of spectacular. From the meticulously designed environments to the stunning character models, every visual aspect contributes to the game's immersive atmosphere. The attention to detail is commendable.

However, at times, choices made by the protagonist and characters feel rushed and impulsive, as if the developer is prioritizing player satisfaction over the integrity of the character arc. While it's natural for players to want sex in the story, the frequency and speed of these decisions sometimes compromise the authenticity of the character's journey.

It's essential for a game like this to strike a balance between sex scenes and preserving the narrative integrity of the characters. In the case of Golden, some moments left me questioning the realism of certain choices, as they seemed driven more by the desire to please the player than by the natural progression of the story.

On a positive note, the frequency of updates is impressive.

Banger all the way through. I respect the devs decision of releasing as its their game to do that. Always amazing renders. Always updates on their patreon. Always excited for new story. Never dissapointed.

[v0.4]

Warning. Spoilers below

I would definitely give this game 5/5, but there are some issues, which bog it down for me. The rating is "average", but the game would feel much better than that, if only some things were taken care of.

A quick rundown.

Pros:
* Animations and visuals in general are among the best of all AVNs here. Really top notch.

GRIND would be horrible, but is COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE with built-in cheats. Just open MC's folder while at home, and you can increase all his stats by double clicking on the appropriate icon (just have to click in the center of icon itself, not on stat numbers). You can raise money by 100, restore mana, and raise/add stamina to max (15/15) every time you do that.
Same also works on LIs with Affection (but not with Submission or Corruption).

Author mentions this in dev notes, but I read reviews here, which seem not to have read the notes.

* Premise is decent, story is sort of fine. Dialogues and actions are a weird mix, on one hand we are very sexual (AND got the power to influence minds!), on the other, MC is mostly blueballed by his household and has got up to approx only handjobs only at v0.4, plus, he is not really using his powers on his household, or almost anyone in fact, except in specific circumstances. So for some release he's got to go to a prostitute or become a sperm donor (nice scenes btw).

* Variety of models. Really you get a good variety of body types. Not everything, because there are not many characters, but you get younger, older, fit and somewhat used-looking. And the renders are very good.


Cons:

* It is a sandbox, and you can mess up paths, if you don't follow author's logic. For example, I maxed out Affection with all girls before going to Auction, and that seemed to break Diana path -- couldn't advance past doing excercises with her. After a replay I managed to finish off her path, but now I seem to have somehow broken Amelia's path, and can't get past her refusing to remove bra during massaging me. Also, while I have finished Diana's path, the game tells me I can trigger repeatable scenes in bakery and shower. But the repeat shower scenes don't work, I spent all day in shower, and nothing happened, except me being locked out of it whenever anyone else got in. Same unclarity about Elisa's continuation -- the game tells me just to "wait" (if I had shaved, which I did). No clue what for and how long. Waited a week without anything happening.

* It seems that as of currently you can mostly raise Submission only by choosing NTR or semi-NTR path. Since Submission (which can be negative) is a specific statistic and that implies a level of attention to dom/sub scenes, I would assume stuff can be done and happen by MC being more assertive. Instead he is somewhat of a wet blanket for most part. Domination score: 1,5/5. A great pity, the game's corruption theme is very close to dom scene, I was looking forward to it as I played v0.3.

* In general too slow burn. The scenes, which are done, are beautiful (if for majority a bit short and simplistic), but there are not a lot of them, and if we would assume a 0.4 version is almost half the game done, it does not really look promising.

To sum it up. For me it would change game to 5/5, if devs:

- stop blueballing him, and let MC be more assertive and start finally using his powers. After all, he's made the pact with the demon, let's bring it on.

- take greater care of sandbox, either by providing a bit more specific hints ("just wait" is a bad one), or taking greater care to make sure advancing in unexpected order doesn't bug you out of content.

- establish a dom path without NTR. First of all, as other forum member has mentioned somewhere in other game's comments: NTR and Harem are usually opposites for target audiences. Please make up your minds if you want for your game the people who enjoy being cucked or the ones who enjoy cucking others. As it is, while the demon tells you that your "landlord" is basically under your thumb, and he IS incredibly supportive of your actions, the same can't be said for Way and the other guy from the baths.

The money grind is dreadful, it takes for ever to purchase items!
The game mechanics use cum for power and it's used each time you interact with the women making it only possible once per day. Too bad for the dev that he doesn't manage to cum more than once per day!
So the game is "wake up", "do one thing", "sleep"
The end game area is the same, you can do only one thing per visit and you have to roll a dice for getting the hot weather...
Buying new clothes doesn't do anything else than change the clothes the women are wearing, it doesn't unlock some new scenes, just re-renders of the previous poses.
Sex is not existing at the moment.
The renders are flawless however!
The story got lost in very strange written text with pre-school grammar, but it wasn't any unique in any way but it worked.

I rate the game poor because the fundament of the game is flawed and won't be changed.

V.04

One of the best games on this site. The girls' models are unique, very beautiful. There are family resemblances between parents and offspring, a detail rarely seen in games.


Gradation in the plot is ensured through the use of a sandbox model it really makes sense here, although this does not suit today's impatient mentality of the majority of players.

There is no need to waste words on the quality of the animations, it's great.

The only minor complaint, which I put here so as not to be accused of bias, is: The relationship with the ex-girlfriend does not fit the concept, it seems to me that the author wanted to show his skill in creating animations in the first sequel in order to attract patrons. Of course, this is a completely justified tactic that does not spoil the story too much. Given that remakes and reboots have ruined many good attempts at game creation, this should not be changed. I hope and believe that the author will continue to bring many good continuations of the story and that the game will be completed.

We leave disagreements about piracy behind and wish the best of luck to the author and his followers.

I would give it 3.5 stars but not possible and it's not a 4 star as there's just too many things dragging the rating down.

Let's just get it out of the way. Models animations and premise of the story are all very good and the potential to be a 5 star game is here.

Now that, that is out of the way here's what holding this game and reason you might not want to invest time into playing it.

It is a game yes and not a kinetic novel but there's just WAY too much clicking and having to grind in this game. I'm not a fan of sandbox or different time of day event but it's decent here and sort of makes sense, there's just too much and it loses all meaning. Listen I don't mind certain events triggering in a specific place or hour like 3 times, max 5 maybe but here it's just unreasonable.

I can't remember if this was an issue in the previous version as it takes so long in between actual content but quest log is super not specific about what to do and what triggers there are. In the whole latest update the questlog just says that's all for this version when in reality there's like 12 more scenes to unlock.

I was going initially to put this at a 4 star or up because of animated orgasm scenes but then it seems like the dev got lazy. Commit or don't. Aniamted orgasm scenes gets a full extra star and flashing light eplepsy attack ones don't. Also a few scenes could be better and not just one animation where the option is faster or slower.

Plot is sort of slow moving if that will put some people of but sort of fit the game, just not the release schedule. I'm suspecting or hoping for quite the spicy anal scenes and puffy pussy action in the future but if you don't want to click grind 500+ times and wait 5 years for that to happen, maybe it's not the game for you.

Again, a "too much, too little" update, is more like that the dev takes more time redoing old renders for "quality sake" than actually advancing the story (again); after 0.2 the game advanced 0.

I told this sometimes after 0.3 and repeat after 0.4: if the game is not abandoned by the end of the year, it will have only one more update with "a lot" of rework from old shit and maybe 4 scenes, with 1 of than with a big MAYBE for actual sexual content (or even the dev will have and reloaded/reworked v0.1, like saw TOO MANY FUCKING TIMES on other games last year).

Don´t know if this is just a hobby for the dev or if he/she just want to milk some money; but don't get your hopes high on this (unfortunately).

nice game and graphics, history its easy to follow, animations are correct.
Its just a man for all womens, i like more voyeur and share, but love hairy and this game had. congrats for the game, and one last thing, updates are slow.

Great game ! the story is verry original, the renders are SO good also , can't remember seeing any of the faces of the characters in other games although sure someone will correct me on that one lol So far an entertaining story which will hopefully continue in this vein. Give this game a try, you wont regret it !

This game (v0.3) has done a lot of things right. It has great art, an actually decent sandbox where you don't need to grind for hours to progress, and a decent story.

The problems with this game are (1) the lack of repeatable content (and content in general) and (2) that the progress status is broken.

Pretty broken English. It feels like it was written in another language first and then poorly translated.

I don't even know where to start with this. Also, what's with using ellipses every other sentence? That and some other quirks make me feel like I could guess the original language but it doesn't mean shit if it's not in the script.

I think the only way I could play this is if I just proofread it myself, forgot about it for a while, then tried it again.

It feels like 9 times out of 10, I find shitty grammar like this. It makes me less incentivized to ever try anything new. The game seems interesting enough. It's just ... wow, that grammar is bad. Stuff like this is probably why some of the top devs can afford to be arrogant fucks. They know they're safe if this is the competition. Very few devs are competent enough in everything to really bring it all together and turn it into something people would actually pay for.

Great graphics and visuals, balanced work.

Romance and NTR in equal measure to those who want either.

Currently enough content for a satisfied run despite its relative infancy.

Shut up and take my money !

This is one of the best AVN out here I really love almost every ingredient in this AVN . It's 9/10 to me

Pro
- Sandbox are cool!
- Interesting storyline
- Goodlooking model and MC (not many AVN have good looking MC)
- The another man Felix in this game is loveable
- The seduction are really good
- The animation scene are smooth and looking really good
- Render are great
- VIctoria with her perky nips <3
- Alexis is really my type

Cons (My cons for this game is kinda subjective it's only my opinion)
- I wish Alexis is in family I really love her model
- The girl outside home kinda look better than the one inside
- If this AVN stories lie in 1900 or before that this will be the best in AVN industry

I really thank you for the great work not many dev make sandbox avn with interesting stories

Amazing everything - story, renders, characters, writing, and originality!

The mom is what I picture when thinking of a MILF. The sisters are different from each other, not only in personality but body-wise as well (I fucking love those soft tan lines).

This game actually made me enjoy NTR for the first time, I don't know if it's because the scenes are so hot and sexy or because there was something I simply didn't know about myself. Either way, you can just avoid it via choices (can't remember if you can also turn it off) if you don't want it! What more can you ask...

While the dev takes somewhat of a long time to update, for now, it has been absolutely worth the wait each time. Can only hope that with success, this little "flaw" will disappear or at least get better!

I truly hope for this game to succeed in order to inspire more of the type/genre to be made - Incest with NTR and sharing of the family between father and son. I'm not sure that's a type/genre but seems like it is enough

One of my favourite games. I love that the characters are original and the sandbox is not too complex unlike other games. Waiting for the next update and good luck!

As some comments mention, V0.3 is -very- low on content, but boy does it have potential.

The game itself is about family corruption, with either solo or pimping routes. I like a lot the latter as there are really few games with family pimping and that's nice to have. The models look good, and the story builds up, albeit it's a little too grindy (I suppose that's so the few content feels longer), which is not a good take on this kind of games.

It has great potential and because I want more of it, there is where my 5 stars are for. But it does require a lot of content. I think a longer but more solid update would be better, and focusing on one character like the "landlady" (Diana).

Overall, it can be a very good game like a Tryant successor.

At the moment, an absolutely empty game with no content that does not explain anything to you. For some reason, you have to waste your time and poke all over the screen in the hope that something will change and happen. The game requires too much time without giving anything in return.
The game asks to "Train Diana", but she does not train anywhere herself))), only Eliza trains)) and the game will not explain anything to you again, you have to run around the locations and look for unknown things))
Too much empty equally NOTHING in search of at least something. Annoying, boring repetitive dialogue.

Not worth the time