Review: Intertwined

 Ed's H Game Review!

Intertwined

Game Type: Ren'py Choice Based VN

Creator: Nyx

Version Played: Episode 6

It's a feature, not a bug. That's what I had to tell myself constantly during this game. Intertwined is a game about random ass coincidence. Things do not happen for a narrative reason in this game, they just happen. And they happen a lot. A LOT.

It's interesting to note that the creator, Nyx, seems to have some Latinx background. The story mostly reminds me of a telenovela, throwing twist after bonkers twist at you. Everybody knows everybody else, and chances are the MC has fucked them. That cute bartender? An old friend the MC forgot about (thanks to five years out of town and a lot of emotional trauma). Cute girl at the school? Someone else's sister. Random tattoo artist in another city? Bartender's cousin. Girl you hook up with at a club? Your soon-to-be-stepsister. This makes no sense. Or at least, that's what I WOULD say, but then I look at the name of the game.  "Intertwined." It's right there in the title. Well it's sure living up to its name. This isn't a narrative mistake, it's a deliberate stylistic choice. Whether it's a choice that works for you can only be left up to you. Either way, be prepared for a wild ride.

The MC is also an enigma... and that enigma is why they let you name the guy. He's not your typical standin for any player. He's his own character with his own background (half-Latino, high school senior... sorta, divorced parents, kind of a punk), personality (somber, athletic, bilingual, magnetically charismatic, has a problem with jumping to conclusions getting him into trouble), interests (other than girls of course, he's a talented athlete with a track and football background, watches basketball religiously, plays guitar at an amateur level, and he's interested in STEM), and he even has CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT throughout the game. 

The other thing about this game is that the world doesn't operate by normal rules. Playername Moreno's high school isn't a high school, it's a college. Clearly. Usually H Games try to hide high school aged content (mimicking Japan) by calling it college, this one does it the other way around. Explicitly high school, functionally not. Threw me off. The guys regularly go to a bar after classes for a beer and a game. Most notably, pretty much every girl in the cast falls utterly in love with the MC. Love, not lust. Sure, there's a remarkable amount of sex, but each of those girls seems unnaturally devoted to the MC in rapid pace. It's not hypersexuality, it's romantic devotion. It once again is implausible, but once again, Telenovela. Soap Opera. Just gotta roll with it.

By now you probably know whether or not you want to play this game. It seems made for a specific audience, but it is WELL made. The renders are clean and solid. The animations are among the better ones of the Daz3D library, and are generally well used. The story and pacing flow well once you figure out what the author is doing. It's a bit of a system shock, but I like that it works well once you get over that shock. The characters are pretty solid in the story. No one stands out as problematic.

Not everything is excellent though. There's no sound AT ALL, no music, no effects. So play it with a playlist or something. And the big one... look. I compared this to a telenovela and a soap opera a LOT. Well it lives up to that premise in another way, and that is emotions run VERY hot at all these twists. Lots of big highs and lots of huge lows. If you're looking for lighter fare, this is not the game for you.

I wouldn't have said it's a game for me either, but it did what the best soap operas do, and that is that it sucks you in. Or at least it did to me. I kept clicking on because I just had to see what happened next. I played all the way to the end of the current content in one sitting. I couldn't tell you if it was worth it, but I was certainly there for the ride as it happened.

Pros: Strong male lead with a worthwhile story. Unique hook. Girls are pretty great. Renders are fantastic.

Cons: No Audio at all (even music). Interconnecting characters stretch plausibility. Deeply melodramatic.

Overall: 7/10

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NyxVN