Powers That Be is a story-driven adult visual novel by Burst Out Games, built in Ren'Py with animated 3D CG art. You play a successful middle-aged man who pauses work to care for his shy goddaughter as her empathic powers begin affecting emotions. Their time together uncovers dark secrets, corruption, conspiracies, and sensual complications involving his married boss, ex-wife, stepdaughter, and mysterious exchange students. The pacing is slow, blending drama, science-fiction ideas, philosophy, and irreverent humor.
The current build is Chapter 25 Training Full, released on January 11, 2026, with development ongoing for Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux. It is in English and uncensored. The update adds an Official BOG Walkthrough Mode that shows choice effects and tracks points, plus more than 200 new animations. It also brings voiced Chapter 25 dialogue for Tilly, Valerie, Elsa, and Gloria, a new start-menu intro video with the original song Veil of Shadows, Bellona points from Chapter 24 onward, revised earlier scenes, added jokes, dialogue fixes, and re-rendered images.
Developer's description
When a young girl has the ultimate power over your emotions… do you want to resist?
A successful middle-aged man takes a break from work to take care of his shy goddaughter who, for unknown reasons, is developing empathic powers that can influence emotions. As they spend more time together and explore dark events from their past, the story explodes into a mix of drama, secrets, conspiracies, and sensual revelations that involve a desperate married boss, a curvy ex-wife, a sporty stepdaughter and a couple of mysterious exchange students.
This is a story-driven, slow-build game with emphasis on unique quality content. It encompasses themes with sci-fi and philosophical elements set against a real world background, as well as some irreverent humor sprinkled in for good measure.
The Official BOG Walkthrough Mode has been implemented! If you want to know the effects of your in-game choices and keep track of points, switch it on in the settings! (Warning: kinda cheating!)
Added 200+ new Animations throughout the game!
Fully Voiced dialogues for Tilly, Valerie, Elsa, Gloria in Chapter 25 (adjust volume in settings)
New Intro Video for the Start Menu with our original PTB song "Veil of Shadows”
Added the points system for Bellona starting with previous Chapter 24.
Rewrites and reprogramming for several scenes from previous chapters to better distinguish relationships between MC and the women based on previous choices
Added several new jokes and one liners to previous chapters, and corrected some previous dialogue
Re-rendered some images from earlier chapters
Testing out other new Voices, Render and Animation styles
We recommend restarting a new playthrough due to numerous backend changes. There’s a chance you may otherwise encounter unintended story or game issues moving forward should you choose not to, or miss out on some character's points. Replaying will also give you the opportunity to check out the new animations, renders, and dialogues as well as use the Walkthrough Mode to play the game the way you intended!
Chapter 25 - Training Part 1
In training, there is no winning or losing. There is only learning.
Our fanatical family’s trip to the Roman Gladiator School leads them into coming face to face with some unexpected visitors.
And as always, we like experimenting with new things, so you may notice some new animation and image movement styles we’re trying out.
Chapter 24 - Styling
Chapter 24 added.
Most extensive dialogue tweak yet!
Up to 10-15% of previous dialogue has been reworked, corrected, and/or reformatted to make it easier and more concise for players.
Chapter 23 - Experiencing
Chapter 23 added.
Amended some earlier text.
Re-rendered a couple of previous chapters' images.
Chapter 22 - Accepting
Chapter 22 added.
Corrected some earlier text.
Chapter 21 - Growing
Chapter 21 added.
Tweaked Elsa's model.
Added a couple more jokes and references to earlier chapters.
Chapter 20 - Learning
Chapter 20 added.
Tweaked character models of Valerie and Bryan.
Re-rendered a couple of previous chapters' images.
Changed some lines of earlier dialogue.
Chapter 19 - Flying
Chapter 19 added.
Removed some earlier slang.
Changed a few earlier lines of characters' speech to better reflect personalities.
Chapter 18 - Vindicating
Chapter 18 added.
Fixed some earlier chapters' dialogue and text issues.
Chapter 17 - Freeing
Chapter 17 added.
Some earlier chapters' dialogues changes.
Chapter 16 - Protecting
Chapter 16 added.
Changed some earlier chapters' dialogues.
Added a replay scene.
Chapter 15 - Camping
Chapter 15 added
Changed some of Tilly’s earlier dialogue to better reflect her character
Removed the majority of Tilly’s slang from earlier chapters, we’ll leave it to Valerie now to spew most of the zoomer jargon!
Chapter 14 - Clubbing
Chapter 14 added.
Biggest character model tweak for goddaughter.
Some earlier chapters text changes.
New menu UI style changes.
Chapter 13 - Lunching
Characters models tweaks.
Some earlier chapters text changes.
Small UI, preferences and credits changes.
Chapter 12 - Raising
New characters models for younger versions.
Features names and characters provided by previous contest winners.
Dialogue changes - Removed/changed more slang.
Characters models tweaks.
Dialogue changes - Some earlier chapters dialogue changes.
Chapter 11 - Working
Added new Scene Replay Gallery.
Added option to name Saved Games.
Added in-game foreign text translations (click on blue foreign text during gameplay to get instant English translations).
Characters names now changeable mid-game in Preferences.
Dialogue changes - removed/replaced more slang.
Dialogue changes - rewrote a sizeable amount of text for certain earlier scenes.
Character model tweaks.
Added easier code for translators to add new languages to the game (readme in the game/tl folder)
Chapter 10 - Answering
Minor text changes to previous chapters
Tweaks to certain character models
Chapter 9 - Supporting
Minor chapter fixes
Save game migration issue is solved
Chapter 8 - Breaking
Minor chapter fixes
Minor character model tweaks (doesn't affect previous episodes)
Chapter 7 - Competing
Minor chapter fixes
Revamped user interface
Chapter 6 - Admitting
Added "Hide" function (press "H" to hide dialogue field)
Added the Credits section with legal info
Removed a minor inconsistency in description of the protagonist's marriage
Fixed a minor bug in the bridge scene dialogue if you didn't enter the changing booth
Dialogue overhaul (reduced the number of "legit" and "bruh")
Chapters 1 to 5 - First Release
Player reviews
Player rating2.0 / 5 · 20 ratings
Written reviews20 · avg 2.3★
Positive (4–5★)25%
Latest review2026-03-25
What players say
Most reviews are negative, citing story and animation problems, though a few praise humor and renders.
5★1
4★4
3★1
2★8
1★6
Players like
Humor, references, and dad-joke writing
Good renders and varied character models
Promising early story and premise
Common complaints
Story deteriorates and becomes nonsensical
Static or degraded sex animations
Many dislike unattractive female models
Best for players who enjoy humorous writing and tolerate static adult scenes.
Summarised from 20 written player reviews.
ghostmaster2026-03-25★★★★★
There's this "AI CG" tag on this game. But game seems to use normal models overall. What's the catch? Author thought that using AI for animations is a good idea. Author is wrong. It's a horrible idea. Decent still images…
Draco-Drake2026-01-13★★★★★
This AVN generates quite a few conflicts for me when judging it... If it were just a simple porn game, this would be one of the best buuut this game tries to be more than that and that's where it…
LadySpider2026-01-11★★★★★
I'm going to start out with what I like, because it will be brief. I like some of the witty dad joke vibe in most instances, and the girls looking average is a nice touch. They aren't downright ugly, and…
★★★★★(20)
