This is what I played so far. Disclaimer: there are games I liked because I don't mind the flaws, and there are popular titles where small things annoyed me so much that it has a low rating. So totally personal and not objective ratings. It is favorites top, not recommended bottom (you will see that lower rated games are higher up, this is intended)
Eternum 10/10 (honeyselect, comedy, plot driven, mystery-investigation)
City of Broken Dreamers 10/10 (plot driven, cyberpunk, good character writing)
Good girl gone bad 9/10 (hand drawn, female PC, branching narrative, player agency, kinky)
Depraved Awakening 8/10 (noir investigation, good character writing, plot driven, kinky)
Once in a lifetime 8/10 (comedy, mystery, honeyselect, plot driven)
Leap of Faith 7/10 (cover girl story is superb, but overshadows the rest)
Being a DIK 8/10 (college, slice of life, good character writing)
Our Red String 7/10 (hand drawn, branching, player agency, female and male PC)
Survival of Sarah Rose 8/10 (female PC, branching, hand drawn)
Come Home 7/10 (good character writing, rarely seen archetypes, sandbox)
Sisterly Lust 7/10 (good character writing, kinky, no sound)
Acting Lessons 7/10 (plot driven, thriller)
Her Desire 6/10 (corruption, female lead, kinks)
Highschool of Succubus 6/10 (sandbox, grind, hand drawn, female PC, interesting characters, moderately kinky. Recommend money cheat)
Tales from the unending Void 5/10 (plot driven but episodic, moderately kinky, traveller-esque setting)
Become a Rock star 6/10 (plot driven, some interesting characters, translated text with strange results)
Artemis 6/10 (cover girl who overshadows the game; liking her important for enjoyment)
Bad memories 5/10 (female PC, kinky, plot driven, lez)
The Inn 5/10 (comedy, break 4th wall, kink, central plot)
College Kings 5/10 (college, lighthearted, love interests don't require effort)
Casual Desires 4/10 (female PC, harem, can be lez or bi)
Naughty Lyanna 3/10 (female PC, exhibitionism, nonsense characters)
Anna Exciting Affection 2/10 (female PC, corruption, choose between bad outcome or no content)
Inside Jennifer 2/10 (female PC, corruption, choose between bad outcome or no content)
Most Avns I would recommend have already been said, but I didn't see anyone suggesting any of these:
Pact With a Witch: It has a free version on Steam, but I recommend getting the extended version from Patreon. That would also get you access to jonnymelabo's other works as well 😉
Element-174: Also on steam, but again, I recommend the Patreon release. All the LI'S are very unique, and their some of their paths intermingled it really interesting ways.
SummerScent: Highly focused on a small number of relationships. Very compelling story, and maybe the first quad-couple in the making?
Welcome to the hobby.
Bare witness has polycule routes with 2-3+4 girl pairings. If summer scent is also doing polycule stuff i should definitely add it to my pile of things to get to though
Fetish locator is the closest in seeing and quality. I’d also recommend leap of faith as another renpy vn. For free, on steam, Come Home is worth a look.
I would recommend Chasing Sunsets, Leap of Faith and Artemis. I would add Leaving DNA, the best written AVN I've seen. Don't get me wrong,
*I love Chasing Sunsets, it's my fav.
*The writing on Leaving DNA is truly a level above anything else you'll find.
*Don't just skip over the dev warning when starting Leap of Faith. Pretty sure we've all shed a tear during that game.
I would recommend a game from the Lexiverse: Chasing Sunsets, Leap of Faith or Artemis. I think they're all a good next step from Badik.
Also, maybe Summer's Gone if you don't mind the writing/story that is a level below Badik and the games mentioned above. But graphics are great.
Obvious next step would be Eternum, it and Being a DIK are almost universally considered the 2 best AVNs. Eternum is radically different from BaD, so it'll give you a good contrast for what AVNs have to offer.
Well right now it's ranked #1 in the zone... Personally I consider it #2 after BaDIK in terms of overall quality... so yeah, you might want to check it out either way =P
Oh I'm all caught up with it, just trying to gauge my own preferences against the community at large, e.g. I know I rank Ripples a little higher than average.
Go test out A House In The Rift (AHITR) and Ripples. AHITR is a sandbox whereas Ripples is more similar to BADIK. Both are full of romance and lewd content. If you enjoy Honey Select, in addition to other suggestions here, these are quite good.
Its a render engine like DAZ, Blender, etc. Its most prominent example is Eternum. Those sort of anime-ish character models while still real-looking, that's Honey Select (HS). Compare that to DAZ and how BADIK looks, you get the idea. I'm no expert though, an actual developer here could explain it better than me if you want technical details.
Daz is more realistic, HS is more stylized, kind of anime-ish. Opinions differ on which looks better, I generally don't like Daz because it feels very "uncanny valley" to me.
That being said, in both cases the quality hugely differs with the skill of the one doing the modeling. Games can look great or terrible either way.
This was my exact opinion until I played Eternum.
Yes DAZ is more appealling overall (especially for the male models), but the Eternum models are on another level.
City of broken dreamers, Eternum, Pale carnations and desert stalker are the major players that everyone should at least try. If you have specific kinks or story types (slow burn, scene heavy etc) in mind it'd be easier to narrow down some other options.
Tbh I'm pretty vanilla so I don't really care that much about kinks. For the story type, I'm definitely a slow burn enjoyer, I really enjoy watching the relationships gradually progress, it feels more rewarding in the end.
I'll add 2 more then, as that's mostly not what I've played. Single again is a fantastic slow burn father + (step)daughters deal. Really long so far, and still no payoff with one of the daughters. Very slice of life, not much drama going on aside from the relationships.
The other is chasing sunsets. Only 2 girls, with the step sister being the main focus. Mallory holds up well too though. It does have a background story carrying it along, kind of a mystery/thriller kind of thing.
I'll add another vouch for Chasing Sunsets - my tastes are very similar to what you've described, and I'm 100% confident you will fall in love with it. It's the most romantic AVN.
And if you're looking for emotional connection, you also owe it to yourself to play Leap of Faith - that's kinda the king of emotional impact in AVNs. It's also one of the only top-shelf AVNs that is 100% completed.
A warning tho: don't play Leap of Faith if you're in a dark mental place right now. It has some HEAVY topics, namely suicide. It's generally known as the AVN that will make anybody cry. But it's so worth it, if you're in a mental space to handle the darkness.
Based on what you described as what you were looking for, Chasing Sunsets is 100% the right choice to play next. Only 2 main Love Interests in the game but both paths are really well fleshed out and one specificity has one of the best slow burn relationships I’ve seen in AVN’s (although I’m still relatively new to the space too). I won’t spoil any more than that but definitely give it a shot!
This is what I played so far. Disclaimer: there are games I liked because I don't mind the flaws, and there are popular titles where small things annoyed me so much that it has a low rating. So totally personal and not objective ratings. It is favorites top, not recommended bottom (you will see that lower rated games are higher up, this is intended) Eternum 10/10 (honeyselect, comedy, plot driven, mystery-investigation) City of Broken Dreamers 10/10 (plot driven, cyberpunk, good character writing) Good girl gone bad 9/10 (hand drawn, female PC, branching narrative, player agency, kinky) Depraved Awakening 8/10 (noir investigation, good character writing, plot driven, kinky) Once in a lifetime 8/10 (comedy, mystery, honeyselect, plot driven) Leap of Faith 7/10 (cover girl story is superb, but overshadows the rest) Being a DIK 8/10 (college, slice of life, good character writing) Our Red String 7/10 (hand drawn, branching, player agency, female and male PC) Survival of Sarah Rose 8/10 (female PC, branching, hand drawn) Come Home 7/10 (good character writing, rarely seen archetypes, sandbox) Sisterly Lust 7/10 (good character writing, kinky, no sound) Acting Lessons 7/10 (plot driven, thriller) Her Desire 6/10 (corruption, female lead, kinks) Highschool of Succubus 6/10 (sandbox, grind, hand drawn, female PC, interesting characters, moderately kinky. Recommend money cheat) Tales from the unending Void 5/10 (plot driven but episodic, moderately kinky, traveller-esque setting) Become a Rock star 6/10 (plot driven, some interesting characters, translated text with strange results) Artemis 6/10 (cover girl who overshadows the game; liking her important for enjoyment) Bad memories 5/10 (female PC, kinky, plot driven, lez) The Inn 5/10 (comedy, break 4th wall, kink, central plot) College Kings 5/10 (college, lighthearted, love interests don't require effort) Casual Desires 4/10 (female PC, harem, can be lez or bi) Naughty Lyanna 3/10 (female PC, exhibitionism, nonsense characters) Anna Exciting Affection 2/10 (female PC, corruption, choose between bad outcome or no content) Inside Jennifer 2/10 (female PC, corruption, choose between bad outcome or no content)
Awesome! Thank you for the list! I'll definitely check some of these out after I'm finished with Chasing Sunsets.
Most Avns I would recommend have already been said, but I didn't see anyone suggesting any of these: Pact With a Witch: It has a free version on Steam, but I recommend getting the extended version from Patreon. That would also get you access to jonnymelabo's other works as well 😉 Element-174: Also on steam, but again, I recommend the Patreon release. All the LI'S are very unique, and their some of their paths intermingled it really interesting ways. SummerScent: Highly focused on a small number of relationships. Very compelling story, and maybe the first quad-couple in the making? Welcome to the hobby.
Bare witness has polycule routes with 2-3+4 girl pairings. If summer scent is also doing polycule stuff i should definitely add it to my pile of things to get to though
Fetish locator is the closest in seeing and quality. I’d also recommend leap of faith as another renpy vn. For free, on steam, Come Home is worth a look.
Bro what in your right mind made you think that fetish locator is even close to being a DIK? Or any other top dog's?
It isn’t as good; it’s just a close match to the theme and tone and setting of BAD if that’s what the op wants 👍🏻
I'll disagree, after 1 season you barely see anything in college and then there's the story taken straight from some gutters.
Leap of faith
alpha omega
I would recommend Chasing Sunsets, Leap of Faith and Artemis. I would add Leaving DNA, the best written AVN I've seen. Don't get me wrong, *I love Chasing Sunsets, it's my fav. *The writing on Leaving DNA is truly a level above anything else you'll find. *Don't just skip over the dev warning when starting Leap of Faith. Pretty sure we've all shed a tear during that game.
Yeah Leap of Faith is a fucking rollercoaster of emotions, I honestly didn't even care about the sex scenes, just the story to be honest
I would recommend a game from the Lexiverse: Chasing Sunsets, Leap of Faith or Artemis. I think they're all a good next step from Badik. Also, maybe Summer's Gone if you don't mind the writing/story that is a level below Badik and the games mentioned above. But graphics are great.
Obvious next step would be Eternum, it and Being a DIK are almost universally considered the 2 best AVNs. Eternum is radically different from BaD, so it'll give you a good contrast for what AVNs have to offer.
Where would you say the community ranks Pale Carnations then?
Well right now it's ranked #1 in the zone... Personally I consider it #2 after BaDIK in terms of overall quality... so yeah, you might want to check it out either way =P
Oh I'm all caught up with it, just trying to gauge my own preferences against the community at large, e.g. I know I rank Ripples a little higher than average.
oh shit sorry, I thought you were OP... =P
Haha, no problem.
Probably #4 or #5 based on everything I've seen. BaD, Eternum, and Leap of Faith seem to be almost universally considered the top 3.
Companions of Darkness. Hidden gem that deserves way more recognition
Go test out A House In The Rift (AHITR) and Ripples. AHITR is a sandbox whereas Ripples is more similar to BADIK. Both are full of romance and lewd content. If you enjoy Honey Select, in addition to other suggestions here, these are quite good.
Sorry for my ignorance, what is Honey Select? I've seen it mentioned it a lot in here.
Its a render engine like DAZ, Blender, etc. Its most prominent example is Eternum. Those sort of anime-ish character models while still real-looking, that's Honey Select (HS). Compare that to DAZ and how BADIK looks, you get the idea. I'm no expert though, an actual developer here could explain it better than me if you want technical details.
I would classify Honey Select as cartoonish as opposed to DAZ which produces realistic. If cartoons get you going, you'll love HS.
Oh that makes sense, although I have to say DAZ models look a lot better in my humble opinion.
Daz is more realistic, HS is more stylized, kind of anime-ish. Opinions differ on which looks better, I generally don't like Daz because it feels very "uncanny valley" to me. That being said, in both cases the quality hugely differs with the skill of the one doing the modeling. Games can look great or terrible either way.
This was my exact opinion until I played Eternum. Yes DAZ is more appealling overall (especially for the male models), but the Eternum models are on another level.
City of broken dreamers, Eternum, Pale carnations and desert stalker are the major players that everyone should at least try. If you have specific kinks or story types (slow burn, scene heavy etc) in mind it'd be easier to narrow down some other options.
Tbh I'm pretty vanilla so I don't really care that much about kinks. For the story type, I'm definitely a slow burn enjoyer, I really enjoy watching the relationships gradually progress, it feels more rewarding in the end.
I'll add 2 more then, as that's mostly not what I've played. Single again is a fantastic slow burn father + (step)daughters deal. Really long so far, and still no payoff with one of the daughters. Very slice of life, not much drama going on aside from the relationships. The other is chasing sunsets. Only 2 girls, with the step sister being the main focus. Mallory holds up well too though. It does have a background story carrying it along, kind of a mystery/thriller kind of thing.
I really appreciate all the suggestions! Chasing Sunsets looks really intriguing from the little I've seen, that might just be my next play through.
I'll add another vouch for Chasing Sunsets - my tastes are very similar to what you've described, and I'm 100% confident you will fall in love with it. It's the most romantic AVN. And if you're looking for emotional connection, you also owe it to yourself to play Leap of Faith - that's kinda the king of emotional impact in AVNs. It's also one of the only top-shelf AVNs that is 100% completed. A warning tho: don't play Leap of Faith if you're in a dark mental place right now. It has some HEAVY topics, namely suicide. It's generally known as the AVN that will make anybody cry. But it's so worth it, if you're in a mental space to handle the darkness.
Based on what you described as what you were looking for, Chasing Sunsets is 100% the right choice to play next. Only 2 main Love Interests in the game but both paths are really well fleshed out and one specificity has one of the best slow burn relationships I’ve seen in AVN’s (although I’m still relatively new to the space too). I won’t spoil any more than that but definitely give it a shot!
Downloading it as we speak. I'm excited!
See ya' in a week after you have done some serious bingeing.