Escape the Manor by Nargaflaga

 

Novels like Student Transfer and Press Switch offer a wide range of options in stories focused on a related thematic, TF, it is natural that some scenarios and spin-offs get born in offering their own anthology of stories and routes based on more specific topics or ideas. For example, as I said before, I wanted first Into the Janeverse to be an anthology of MTF transformations. For this scenario, Escape the Manor, we have an anthology of transformations based on Identity Death.

Now, I have said that I like long stories to even if they become linear most of the time due to how they are fleshed out, I have reviewed some linear scenarios in the past, but I haven't mentioned a scenario like this, that has a completely opposite approach.

Everything starts with a group of people who have to find refugee in a Manor when they get stranded in the middle of nowhere during a downpour; after that, the characters will realize that something inside there is going on and they will have to choose to try and escape or fight what it is within. In Escape the Manor we have a lot of choices, and by a lot I mean a lot, counting 43 endings (54 including placeholders) which offer a variety of events all across the presented story.

What kind of endings do we get? Oh boy, where do we start, since most endings show different characters and monster girl tropes all coming from High Fantasy standards. We have Bee Girls, Dark Elfs, Succubuses, Slime, Maid Servants, Immortal Wish Benders, Posession Demons, Mirror Demons, Weight Gain Fat Girls, Centaurs, Gyarus, Bimbos, Spider Girls, Isekai Girls, and so forth...

According to Narg, the ultimate goal was to provide a wide range of TF options with a large number of ways to achieve Identity Death, so, all these endings and routes, despite being so varied and different, are connected all together by this one theme, in particular, mind control and identity death, giving a somewhat consistent topic inside the scenario.

What is most discussed about this scenario however is the execution of these transformations, which might not be likable for some. While in Cold as Ice we have slow drama and introspection ending in two main events revolved about the death of an ego, most mind control and identity deaths in Escape the Manor happen quite fast actually. The implications of losing your identity and forget who you were or who other people were are not touched here, the drama there is involved and the implications of the transformations are limited to being mentioned that they happen. 

Since we are talking about content explicitly focused on a fetish, it is to be assumed that a lot of people might enjoy this due to its sexual appeal. In that way, Escape the Manor works, it showcases an Identity Death happening, if you can get sexual appeal of hearing the Identity Death alone, this scenario will work for you since this is what it does best, the characters get their memory erased in a lot of different kinds of beings, and it has variety even for everyone.

If what you are looking for is the mental and social implications about Ego Death, Escape the Manor is not really the scenario for you, all due to its fast pace and approach. Most "deaths" go in a similar way, somebody applies some magic, and the characters forget what they were doing, after the other person who is mind-controlling them tells them who they are now, they adopt a new identity rather quickly losing any hesitation and personality they could have had. Sometimes characters might struggle, sometimes characters might be aware they aren't who they used to be, but in the end, most of them end up engulfed by their own mind control.

Now, while Narg says this was not intentional, the truth is that Escape the Manor as a final product is something that has to be enjoyed right quickly or rather instinctively, without analyzing it too much. As I have said before, this scenario stands for its sexual appeal rather than anything else, if you think about it the more you need, or if you judge the scenario in a more serious way than what it should, it simply falls apart in its own logic: From the unremarkable personality of the protagonists, the lack of having a different cadence for each character, through the way the casually take everything that is happening, the vague magic that is used as a plot device only, the characters that sometimes morph to different bodies while being mind-controlled and sometimes not, to the villains that have such enormous power to use telepathy and mind control in anybody in the mansion at any time but don't do it just for the sake of the plot. 

With TF, there are people who enjoy the content for its mental, psychological implications, and there are people who enjoy it for the sexual appeal. It is something that I like about TF since it offers content and ideas for several kinds of audiences, Escape the Manor might be enjoyed more by the latter group in this case.

Yes, this scenario has a very characteristic stream of consciousness method, and just like in scenarios like Harem or John Sudden Lifechange, its appeal results polarizing. My recommendation is that if you like Mind Control and Identity Death you can check them out taking into account the quick and to-the-point approach it uses, it doesn't offer any further deconstruction upon identity itself but it gives a wide catalog of ideas with diversity and range.

Golden Lining by GarySavage

 

Fan cover made by Clavietika

Despite her lack of content in the main game, Jane, the gender-bent version of John has gained a certain popularity in the Student Transfer community ad the predetermined choice for MTF storylines thanks to John's protagonism in the game and the inclusion of Jane's Tina Koya uniform sprite since v4, which makes her a great choice to use without using side characters or additional sprites that might not fit in the main game.

Golden Lining chooses Jane as the protagonist but changes the sprite for a similar-looking girl to add the possibility of use CGs from her source game since the original Jane's CGs are forbidden for use in scenarios to avoid spoilers. Another advantage of Jane is the number of similar sprites to her coming from the same artist working in the same GIGA visual novel series, allowing the writer to pick another "Jane" in this case without making the choice look too out of place.

Story-wise, Golden Lining shows an alternate timeline where John does not get his heirloom's spellbook but is instead gender-bent due to the side effect of the magic energy contained on a doll after accidentally getting seen as a witch hunter by Lin, a paranoic Witch of the Chinese tradition.

John wakes up as a woman the next day and escapes out of nervousness, he meets Lin, but she doesn't know to revert John back, but since John has now the magic power of the Chinese tradition thanks to the energy absorbed by the doll, she promises him to teach her magic, the issue? Lin's magic is not as powerful as Blackwell's magic, and even then, it requires practice.

As the case is with Spitting Image, this set up is pretty great by the fact that avoids a lot of the escalation issues presented in the main game like characters not using certain spells or commands when they can to out of pure principle or simply because they do not think about doing so, John's magic is not anymore godlike and omnipotent, but something that needs to be worked on and that will not give John everything that he wants, allowing the reader to enjoy the story without recurring too much to the suspension of disbelief.

Golden Lining is in summary a 2-hour introduction of a story yet to be made, but even then doesn't suffer from any slow pacing issues, all this time is used to introduce the new characters like Lin and her friend Edward, as well as the place they come from, the Chinese restaurant Red Lotus, John's doll incident happens actually quite fast and afterward the scenario focuses in his arrival home and transformation in the morning, a great scene that shows going from confusion, to shock, and panic allowing the reader to feel and experience all those emotions in almost real-time; a perfect example of how to do a TF sequence and a character's reaction to an abrupt change and contrasts with a lot of rushed out sequences in TF material.

In general, Golden Lining is part of the new generation of scenarios that provide amazing and more natural pacing to the story compared to previous rushed v3 content, all scenes are given their own space, their own dialogue, and we get to meet and understand all the characters.

There are some scenes that Gary said are set up for future plot points, everything that happens in the scenario happens for a specific reason, there are no scenes wasted in the whole 2 hours; even then, readers might get confused since a lot of the reasons things happen are not answered in the state the scenario is now.

Besides all the ideas Golden Lining brings to the table story-wise, it also introduces a lot of graphic elements to make the visual format less stale, starting from Jane's CGs, there are also a lot of edited backgrounds, animations, phone menus, transitions, and visual clues to show character's feelings more properly.

Golden Lining is currently on hiatus and therefore not because of its quality, but because it finishes too soon (in terms of the general plot) it might not deserve a spot yet as a Student Transfer Classic but is still recommended as it is to anybody who enjoys MTF content, it is hoped the project gets continued one day.

Sister Swap by Tgsquirtle

 

Fan cover made by Clavietika

Following the example of the main game, some authors started creating some scenarios with several stories and lore, and Sister Swap had big ambitions for what its story was going to be.

Based on the scenario thread, Sister Swap was one of the first scenarios to ever be made after Stuck and even had a general outline and even a big twist planned before the author dropped it completely.

There are several routes in this scenario raging a variety of concepts, not just a Sister Swap, which is only the event that starts things out. In this world, the protagonist is Riley and the swap starts with his sister Allison in a discussion Riley started while being picked up by his sister, it's easier being a girl.

Turns out that Riley comes from a family of mages that can change reality and saying "I wish" out loud triggered the first manifestation of his powers, a body swap with his sister.

The summary of the routes goes more or less like this:

-In one of the routes, Riley goes to his house neighbor Marty and due to their sexual desires they end up having sex, Marty and Riley (in Allison's body) swap again due to Riley's still unconscious powers, and they have to act like they other while they figure out what is happening.

In another route, is Allison (in Riley's body) that ends up having sex with her friend Cassie due to their own sexual desires, after that, Cassie and Allison go back to Riley's house and ask Riley to swap them so Cassie can fuck herself, they believe Riley has he power since when they try to swap between themselves, it does not work, Riley accepts with the condition of borrowing Allison's body for a little longer, Allison accepts saying that she wouldn't mind having Riley's body permanently.

In another route (ditto), Riley (in Allison's body) asks Yuuna, one of her Mom's friends to swap with him out of curiosity, Riley goes to her home and has sex with her husband Greg, the next day after waking up in her bed Riley goes back to his home to ask Yuuna to swap back, Yuuna doesn't remember anything, neither Allison in his body, he tries saying I wish out loud, it doesn't work, what happened? According to Tgsquirtle, what was planned for the route was revealing that Riley liked Yuuna's life so much that he unconsciously wished to stay as her and he affected the memories of other people as nothing had happened.

This is one of the first interesting ideas the scenario shows, an interesting approach in Reality Change based on a subconscious wish.

Another swap that happens is Riley (In Allison's body) swapping with his mom out of curiosity, her mother tells him about his power and she accepts, afterwards, her little sister, Olivia, asks her to get bathed together since she's used to it since she is still a kid, Riley first refuses but due to his sister's cries he accepts and does her hair showing the first glances of maternal instincts.

The last route shows Olivia growing up to an adult by accident due to Riley's words and ends up in Olivia morphing her mother into a kid while trying to trade places of mother and daughter so she doesn't have to be told to go to bed or being bossed around by her again, Olivia seems to have the same powers as Riley and be simply saying it, she can morph people, control their actions, and also their memories, this plants an interesting villain that has basically the mind of a child but also unlimited power. Unfortunately, morphs done in this route violates the TFGS rules due to the depiction of minors in sexual situations, which led to ST developers removing it. The option for the author to rerelease the scenario edited is still there, or even continuing it, but according to Tgsquirtle the project is now completely dead.

The main plot also depicts Yoshinori as a wise grandfather that Riley calls in for help, Yoshinori teaches him about how he will be able to control time and space in the future and how he will teach him to control his powers, he uses magic to make one of Riley's Mom's friends go into a vacation and he morphs into her so he can take care of the family in secret due to issues that happened with her mother.

All the routes end up there until I explained them, the scenario is no more than 30 minutes long so far, but Tgsquirtle mentioned a whole outline they had for the story in which (spoilers) it's explained that Riley's dad is actually Olivia, morphed by his brother, Riley's uncle, in undefined events, apparently, Riley's uncle had the same abilities as his father and developed a God complex, even then, his whereabouts were unknown in the final state of the scenario.

Riley's dad, Claus, lost all his memories and he would be able to recover them only as an adult, once he grows up as Olivia, making his own wife take care of after him.

Tgsquirtle mentioned being reading a lot of fictionmania stories at the time which inspired the routes in the scenario, even the story "where someone gets turned into a baby and loses their memories until they reach adulthood". 

In general, the execution of all these concepts was no better than your average TF doujin, characters act rapidly, nonsensically, thinking only about sex, the animation was very limited and poor, with static characters across the screen even in sex scenes, but bringing up all those TF concepts and ideas into a visual novel narrative was an interesting idea that was getting known at the time thanks to PS and ST, the whole family magic and lore of the scenario was vivid and interesting. Overall, even when not playable anymore, this scenario shows an important step for the ST community and TF in general.