3D Corruption Visual Novel Review: Long Story Short

Written by Rastafoo69, edited by Otaku Apologist

Long Story Short, a visual novel developed by TTrickGames. Released June 4, 2019. Last updated! June 20, 2023. Support the developer on Patreon here. Long Story Short on Steam 14.79€. For PC Windows, Linux, & Mac OS. No voice acting. Uncensored genitals.

After years of not dating, you’re finally ready to get out there and start a new relationship! You meet a beautiful nerdy college girl, and reunite with your best friend who has lost a lot of weight. The only question is, how do you plan to treat them?

STORY

After your best friend Joe loses a hundred pounds and gets a hot girlfriend, he begins pushing you to get out into the dating market. Soon after you meet a cute and innocent girl named Ann, who’s never had a real relationship before in her life. Its up to you whether or not this builds into a blossoming relationship or something else entirely.

The game has a lot of cheating and sexual promiscuity. Often times you, as the protagonist, are given opportunities to cheat on your girlfriend. Similarly, she will jump at the opportunity to cheat on you. Ostensibly speaking its an open relationship, though neither of you actually call it that. Admittedly, the rampant unprotected sex with strangers and casual infidelity is enough to make this game feel pretty disgusting if you take it seriously. After all, most characters casually lie or behave facetiously, to the point that none of them can be called objectively “good”.

An example of the general degeneracy in this game is how Joe’s girlfriend cheats on him constantly, but he’s entirely unaware. The game seems to encourage you betraying your friend by not telling him, since it rewards you with erotic scenes involving his girlfriend. Speaking of, her name is Vanessa and she devotes all of her free time into corrupting your girlfriend Ann. So much so that when you have sex with your girlfriend for the first time, Vanessa wants to be there and take part. Again, if you take this game seriously, it can border on creepy how it attempts to present the abnormal as positive.

One of the major issues with this game is that its introduced countless side characters, many of which have recieved screen time and development hours that would have been better spent on the core cast of characters. In spite of the game being in development since 2019, there wasn’t any “girlfriend-sharing” content until late 2023. Even now, the pure love route is largely underdeveloped. If the developer adds any more side girls, this game is going to be as wide as a sports field but shallow as a pond. In that sense, it may not age well in the long-run.

Overall, the main criticism of the game is its scattershot approach. This however, comes with upsides. If you’ve never played it before, there are a wide range of choices and possibilites to explore. You can pursue the pure love route, cheat on your girlfriend, encourage her to cheat on you, or remain single and voyeuristically ogle girls on Instagram. Yes, there is an in-game version of Instagram for you to explore. The game has plenty of content, but my concern is that it will lack cohesion upon final release.

GAMEPLAY

Long Story Short was created in a custom engine prepared by this developer. Over time, he’s added all of the features standard to the Renpy visual novel engine, though it remains less responsive and polished. Thankfully, a fan remake in the Renpy engine is available, but it sometimes lacks content present in the custom engine.

As a visual novel style game, the focus is on reading dialogue and making choices which effect the direction of the plot. Though there are some aspects of the game that are more recreational, like browsing the instagram photos of various characters, the vast majority of gameplay is focused on choices.

As of the 0.80 release of the game, there are no endings. It is unclear if the developer plans for existing choices to have an impact on the ending, or if they will simply be route-specific.

GRAPHICS

On its surface, the visuals of this game are fantastic. All the girls have their own unique styles which reflects their personalities. And the ability to use Instagram and leave comments is a neat little feature that further adds to the immersion of the experience. Best of all, there are some light-animations in the game to add life to sex scenes.

However, this game is a hobby by the developer. So as you might expect, all characters are comprised of downloadable assets that are mixed and matched, then repositioned to provide a fresh approach. Even Ann’s default hairstyle, that everyone adores, is simply a downloadable 3D asset. Even if you are not familiar with all of that, its visually obvious because parts of the characters like their hair, rarely moves. In spite of 3D artwork promising a more lifelike experience, it often misses the mark where 2D artwork is able to shine.

Honestly, the art shines its brightest when it comes to faces and eyes. When it comes to breasts and other body parts, everything looks a bit too firm and well placed. And the clothing often looks so impractical, its obvious no living woman would actually dress that way. And then the sex scenes often have the dick look so dry or randomly shiny, it doesn’t seem realistic at all. For virgins, this game will seem legendary. For everyone else, the art is servicable and has its moments, but is pretty average.

This is of course, a matter of personal preference. And if the writing is strong enough, one can look past the occasional visual hiccup. After all, the game has many great moments visually like when an NPC pulls out their phone and shows you a photo. Moments like these look so realistic, its as if you’re actually talking to someone who is trying to show you a photo. The POV perspective of this scene has many moments to shine, but its simply a bit unsustainable to make every single scene great when its constantly zoomed in through the player’s eyes.

VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)

Long Story Short has no voice acting or sound effects.

MUSIC

Long Story Short has no background music of any kind.

HENTAI

As a corruption focused game, Long Story Short can feel like a bit of a slow-burn experience. At first the corruption is gradual with clothing changes and occasional exhibitionism, but at the end, you can actually share your girlfriend with another man! Her heart belongs to you, but there’s no denying that her body needs a thicker dick to be satisfied!

Sex positions range from standard doggystyle to reverse cowgirl and other exciting views. Animation is present in most sex scenes, varying in frequency throughout the game. Between sex scenes, there are many erotic moments like having your girlfriend flash a homeless person. If you love classic corruption with the option of a vanilla romance, this game is sure to please.

The downside being that most other girls, like Vanessa, are effectively cum dumpsters. Rather than corruption, there really is little buildup before engaging with the other ladies. And with the developer adding new characters every few seconds, there’s an imbalance in the game where certain routes and characters are clearly favored over others.

In spite of those downsides, the eroticism is every scene still makes this game well worth a play. I recommend you share your girlfriend so you can unlock the scene between her and that skinny nerd in the library. The nerd has never been with a girl so beautiful before, and your girlfriend is going to make sure he never forgets it!

CONCLUDING WORDS

Long Story Short is a solid game, but the lack of any audio assets holds it back from matching other titans in the corruption genre. As it approaches its five year anniversary in development, its become a game that is well worth playing, while also having plenty more to come along the way. Download Long Story Short.