Ren'Py - A House in the Rift [v0.7.14b1] [Zanith]

Great game, the characters, and the writing are very good and even if I didn't quite liked the looks some of the characters the writing made up for it. The plot is pretty interesting with some unique approach to the typical fantasy vn and the character interactions and personal story progression are very fun and for me, the most enjoyable part of this game and the grinding to proceed with the story is almost non-existent which is very refreshing for this type of game. The renders and animations are very well done with some great scenes. Overall I greatly enjoyed the game and consider this one of the best fantasy vn on this site and hope to see more surreal and unique settings in the future.

So, first of all, the game is great.
Now I could actually finish my review, because I can't find anything negative. BUT I still go into some detail without spoiling anything.

The first thing I noticed was that both the interface and the menu are very intuitive. There are also in-game hints for every single character, which actually helps you a lot, even though it's usually self-explanatory what to do next. Since the environment within the game doesn't need a map,
there are no 50 different places to trigger anything anyway.
The game is expanding though, so you're not "trapped" in the small environment. And let me say at this point: The concept of that is really clever.

Characters:
There's only one thing to say about the Waifus: Gorgeous.
Sure, that's always in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I like them very much. The characters are very different from each other. Another point the game benefits from, because when you look at the situation the characters are in, you get the most hilarious situations. Which is great.
And the MC is also well written. In dialogues there are always about three possible answers available, which influence the point system. While playing I had the feeling that the answers you can give are divided into three types. Good/ friendly, Neutral and Dominant/aggressive.
I assume that this will probably have a strong influence on the individual routes in the further course of the game.

Story:
The story is actually quite interesting. In any case, nothing I have ever seen anywhere else before. Although I have to say, when I first read the description, I didn't have that much hope. But let me tell you, don't let the description fool you. The story is much more interesting and innovative than it seems at first.What I especially like about it is how crazy it is, but still believable. Not believable in the sense of: "Sure, happens to me every day". But as a fantasy story it is well thought out. Until now, at least.
But I have a feeling as if the quality would remain consistently high.
I assume that Zanith wrote the characters and the story himself. He sure has talent. And a wonderful sense of humour.

Animations:
So without exaggerating, I've played a lot of VN's developed with HS.
And the animations in these games are, to say the least, not the best.
I would even go so far as to say that the animations in HS VN's are partly so badly done (probably due to the possibilities you have with Studio Neo)
that I can definitely understand why many say "That's not for me".
But Holy Fu*k. The animations in this game are incredibly well done for a game developed with HS. I really haven't seen anything like it. I mean, for me personally, the animations aren't SO important that I wouldn't play the game if I liked the rest. But damn... Zanith sure knows what he's doin there.

Finally, I can say I really had a lot of fun playing.
And I'm not talking about Fapping. Well, not entirely, anyway.
However, I can only recommend this game.
For me, it's a solid 10/10.
Cheers.

I think we found a hidden gem here... I believe that A House In The Rift has great potential and now for the PROS and CONS :
PROS: All heroines are so lovable and unique in their own ways there s no way you can hate any of them ^^ (Well i gotta add that i love Rae most though~) The story is great and it ll get even better because its just v0. 3.6 at the moment. And of course the animations.. I hope we can see more of them in the future builds they made the experience better in every aspect. I count the fighting training with Rae as a mini-game and i liked it (well not as much as i liked the reward afterwards lol) so it s definitely a PRO for me.Last but not least it s being a mobile game is a PRO for me too.
CONS: Well honestly the music. I expect a better soundtrack from here and i think the dev ll make it happen too... And well we need MORE content but gotta be patient~
EDIT: This is becoming one of the best games in here props to dev

Review of ver0.3.6
Wow what an easy, clean 5 I get to give today! I'm so glad my habit of reading the reviews before deciding on downloading a game finally paid off big time!
From my first impression of this game I would have guessed that it would be a bit too cartoony for my taste, but boy was I wrong. This is right up my alley.

There are a few devs out there with actual writing skills and imagination enough to create fun interesting and sexy characters and Zanith is most definitely one of them. I also love it when I get to play a cocky-funny MC. Really well done on the writing!

The animations and sex scenes are also easy 5/5. The shower scenes are really steaming hot, wink wink.

With many other games there is a certain effort that goes into starting a new day, looking through rooms to see if there are any new interactions and then trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Not so with this game, every time a new day starts I'm genuinely feeling like an explorer, looking forward to finding out what comes next.

If I were to complain about anything it would be that there's only a few hours of content yet. I want moar! Also I guess the story has stayed clear of darker themes, I wouldn't mind seeing some (slightly) heavier stuff. Gimme some anger, violence and revenge sprinkled in and this could be a top tier masterpiece!

[rev @ v.0.3.6 Public]
[Edit @ v0.4.3 Public]: Bumped to 5. I fuckin love the characters. Game's now among the top of the list I look forward to updating.

Much better than the summary blurb led me to believe.

Art's nice, presentation has a good amount of effort.

Writing is much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Characters are strong and enjoyable.

Porn's enjoyable; a tad vanilla at the moment but in the 'project is still in early development' way rather than the 'I have no clue how sex works' way.

TLDR: It's nice being blindsided by a game being much higher quality than expected.

I sleept on this game a long time 'cus I thought that the summary made it sound kinda boring. Don't make my mistake. This game does have a story and so far it's pretty interesting even though there hasn't been much conflict yet.

The characters are all vivid and fun. You get a decent amount of options about how to define your relationships with them. The succubus in particular is an examplar of how to write an engaging character. Top-tier best girl that one.

The sex scenes are also some of the best I have seen in any porn game. The animations are fantastic and there's usually some pretty hot dialouge to go along with them.

All in all one of my favorite games on this site. Real must play.

Enjoyed the story almost to much. Have a thing for elfs and demons so check there. Great animation based on illusion but also great choices and angles. And good story. Spoiler! Enjoy the early scene with the succubus I tend to push for farther content or if I get caught up in the story I will forget to um enjoy the show! Enjoy the show on this one!

Great anime-style graphics that doesn't suffer from the usual omega-giantic tits syndrome, with quite unique facial design.
Loads of dialog choices that 'personalizes' your character, even though it leads to the same results in the end (not always!).
Engaging fantasy plot that will pull you in even though it started out slighty rough.
Game length as of now is roughly 4-6 hours with casual reading speed,
with the oldest character having roughly 6(?) scenes that are highly detailed.

Art is really good, Zanith puts a lot of time into it and is a perfectionist. He cares a lot about feedback and can be seen in the game itself. What we have at the moment is just phenomenal and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for it.

This game is absolutely amazing!!! Loving the characters (I like how they have such different personalities). It’s so cute watching the adapt to the MC’s realm. There are so many lewd options and the animations/models are very well done (sex related body parts are actually moving during the act. I was just getting tired of watching a dick thrust in to a female genitalia while pussy lips aren’t even spread if you know what I mean). I enjoyed reading every line. The story unravels at a very comfortable pace (there is a nice balance between the amount of the much desired scenes that you get to enjoy and the reading. The story itself is surprisingly good, it will make you wanna progress not only for them scenes but for it‘s content as well). I really hope that this title receives the amount of love it truly deserves! Please continue working on this and yes I will beg you if needed ❤ ❤❤!!!

It's definitely a good game. I think it has good story progression, good characters, and we get to experience a lot of progression in each character. Well made game, well made animations. Lets go champ!!!

Loved this offering and can't wait for more.

Is a true sandbox gem. The characters are unique and quirky. The dialogue options really allow a lot of freedom in role playing your character and the NPC's do seem to really behave in accordance to your play style.

There are NPC paths to unlock as well as main story. You also have to build up intimacy and lewdness with each character, on top of this you have 3 personal stats to grow. The nice part is none of them require grinding, just unlocking girls stories and main plot will give you most of the stats and the rest can be found in side H scenes or done alone in empty time slots.

Can be easily played without a walkthrough and in game hints for girls and story quickly put you back on track, yet it still rewards you for exploring and interacting with NPC's outside plot with lots of great dialogues and h content.

I know some of players didn't like the first person camera motion in scenes but I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the animations and renders and the diversity in the girls.

So far I only fully played a flirtatious but open and honest path but I did have a lot of fun just exploring some of different dialogue options and really had fun seeing NPC reactions. It really looks like there is going to be a real replayability factor.

The content options are really well integrated into the game so if you don't want to be more submissive to pirate or be her little baby its naturally avoided in dialogue choices.

There is some complaint about navigation but again I found it very easy and smooth and by walking through house you do get a lot of side encounters that room jumping does not allow.

The story is interesting with so much potential and its only just started. The delivery of story is smooth and relates to everything you doing, no pointless grinding or quests that add nothing to telling story. Even the hidden side events add to story or character development.

Man this is great! Such good personalities on the girls, good writing in the game. So often in these games I just hit CTRL but I like reading what's being said in this one. Hell broheim I'd say that's a big accomplishment on it's own. I think having that good dialogue and story gets people to stick around for the long term with ya.

I like that the chars have a fair amount of sweetness, it's not just complete whores. Even the succubus. Good stuff. Normally I find chars like a succubus boring due to how one dimensional they are but Rea is great.

Past that, you have these gorgeous models. When I first glanced at the screen shots I thought it was gonna be your normal honey select stuff, nothing to special but man was I wrong. The animations are good, I personally really like the movement during scenes. You did some smart stuff like the MC looking at Rea's butt =P

PROS

Boardgames in my porn game? That’s a star by itself.

LANGUAGE
The game has many typos, which is unfortunate, but the actual syntax is pretty good, and it sucks so hard that "pretty good" is rare enough in these HS VNs that I even have to point this out.

RENDERS
Excellent renders and UI. Some of the new HS tech being used looks fantastic; there’s no other HS game on f95 that looks this good. It is without competition here. Environment is great, as well. It cannot be understated how much effort has been put in to making this game’s look and animations. As someone that’s followed the HS mod scene themself, I can tell you this game is using some cutting edge stuff to great effect. If you're into the Honey Select look, your eyeballs will be pleased.


CONS


HOUSE NAVIGATION
Surprise, a renpy game with garbage world navigation, who’da thunk it? Twice as many clicks as there needs to be, but there’s worse out there.


SHAKYCAM
The disorienting camera compromises the use of the new HS tech for the porn scenes. Distracting and even a little nauseating at times, a lot of what could have been sexy time ends up just making me dizzy, and I have no history of motion problems in or out of VR. The camera work is clever from a technical standpoint given it’s HS, but effectively an experience destroying shitshow.


ILLUSION OF CHOICE
A huge amount of dialogue is locked behind multiple choice answers. I feel like to get the whole package and understand the characters, you’re forced to obnoxiously roll back twice every time there’s a choice, and it really slogs things down. There are many of these micro choices and the locked dialogue is always very short, so instead of feeling like you want to commit to a reply and go with it, you just feel like you’ve tripped over a shoe over and over. A narrative system based around constant rollbacks makes things feel very disconnected.


PACING
The exposition is paced very poorly, and characters throwing "we'll talk about it later" at you every single conversation for the first two hours is very frustrating. Instead of getting an organic flow of backstory, the brief, empty conversations that divide sex and lore give the game a jarring sense of “hurry up and wait.”


The sex pacing is also bizarre. If you’re into quick sex at the cost of verisimilitude, this point shouldn’t phase you, but the characters go from casual to throwing themselves on your dick and then back to disinterested so fast and so often, any attachment you might have to WHY the sex is happening is usually lost. Lady creature touch PP just because ┐(´ー｀)┌


BORING CHARACTERS
I’ll be more than happy to revisit this review as the game fleshes out more because I’m first to admit the game is pretty content shallow at present, but given the time spent with the game so far, there is some serious narrative problems with how the characters are written. One of the women feels so inconsistent she’s too unpredictable to relate to, while the two other main women are TOO predictable; flat, sterile, and ultimately boring in a fun porn game. I didn’t feel like my couple hours with the game made me emotionally invest in anybody, and by this point in many of these games, I definitely should start to feel something.


FOURTH WALL
The “this is the end of this route” screen begging for panhandle paywall bucks every time you get to the end of a route, which there are multiple of for each girl, looks desperate and happens too often. It sours whatever mood you had at the end of the scene in which it appears, and it appears a lot. Throwing up a “thanks for playing” note and a patreon link isn’t unusual in these games, usually at the end of the main story route or after all “end of route” flags have checked, but Rift does it so often and so brazenly (its own full screen UI element) that it comes off as kind of pathetic. There comes a point where this end of route nag compromises the creator’s artistic integrity and I think Rift definitely crosses that line.


CONCLUSION as of 0.3.4 (Oct 2019)
The game has too many problems, and too little content, to be worth checking out unless you have a very strong affinity for Honey Select.

EDIT: as of 3.7 (Dec 2019)
I won't be revisiting this review due to paywall panhandling on the part of the developer.

Fantasy is my favourite genre when it comes to most mediums, so I try to find stuff based on that and I also enjoy when its blended with modern elements. When I came across A House In The Rift, I was intrigued by the synopsis and renders shown.

I've been following this game for the last month or a bit, so I arrived to this project with a decent amount of content for a first timer.

The characters are interesting and all have their own personalities, without any of them feeling similar or such.

The writing/dialogue is pretty good and the humour is too.

Pretty good job with the sound/music selection. I find that a lot of games have obnoxious music that I usually have to mute.

Not a massive spoiler but something to do with the setting, so if you don't mind me expanding on some things, read ahead.

All in all, this is a project that's already top notch and has a lot more to come. I am very much looking forward to diving further into this world and seeing the characters/story expanding.

Highly recommend!

The premise of a House in the Rift wasn't anything special when i read the short description before playing. You're a dude living with some good looking young girls in a house, and get to have sandbox-style events with those girls. Nothing new there.
It's obvious it wants to add a touch of fantasy to keep things fresh, that's why you're not in a normal house, but in a house in the middle of nothing.
That also affects the girls you're living with. They all come from different worlds, filled with Magic.
So yeah, nothing too special. Renders looked okay and the reviews were good, so i gave it a try.

And after actually playing, i can say that this game makes so much more out of the premise than i expected it to do.
The characters actually do look and behave like they're from different worlds, obvious in their morals, their thought process and how they interact with one another. They also feel alive in the fact that they are changing slightly with their (new) surroundings. They start to settle in, getting to know you and the other girls living there, finding stuff to do or things to improve on.
You can also see and experience the worlds they come from through great useage of dream sequences. Don't want to spoil anything, but it does fit very well within the story.


As a summary, i'd say the strong point of this game is its writing.
I actually started liking all the characters pretty shortly after they arrived, and most importantly, i had fun actually reading the dialogue. So i'd say its a very strong point.
The pacing is kinda slow, but that fits the theme of the story, the aesthetics and the music SO well ! An incredibly relaxing game.

I had a lot more fun playing than i thought i would. And hopefully, so will you.

I really enjoyed this game! The renders are good and I'm really enjoying the storyline. I like the help mechanism and am very intrigued to see how this story progresses. I also like how the personality of the MC can be a choice, too. I'll definitely keep an eye on this one.

Excellent story setup and game with a lot of potential and a fair amount of content considering the version (0.3.4 as of writing).

Renders and animations also feel very well done.

Promising to see where it leads and updates seem to come fairly frequently.

Great game so far!

- What is particularly striking is the high quality renders, and can't forget the smooth animations.

- The characters are all wonderful thus far as well.

Definitely looking forward to more of this story.

(This game has an excellent focus on character and character interaction that I find extremely appealing. I found myself actually caring about the characters, and not wanting to be a jerk to them, despite how that's usually the route to sexual dominance and that's my fetish. Now, I rather hope there's ways to sexually dominate all of them without being a jerk, because I want to rule as Master, and make them happy. The point is, this game does truly well with the characters, and I enjoy them greatly. It's intriguing enough to earn the five star rating.

I am editing my review, though leaving the original section above. All I want to say, is that that review and the 5 Star rating was given on October 15th, 2019. A year, and nearly two months into development, and this game STILL earns that five star rating. It has met and surpassed my hopes and expectations, and has occupied the spot for my favorite game on this site.

Not because it necessarily appeals to my fetishes. There are some quality bondage scenes, however nowhere near as many as I would typically like, and I definitely cannot go all out on the girls like I would in other games where I play my bad guy. No, I enjoy it because I find the characters so compelling, and enjoyable, and full of personality. Because there's plenty of ways to just spend time with them. Because it's enjoyable to just INTERACT with these different ladies. Emotions and people and bond-building... it's all wonderful, and I love it.

And that's that, for now. Thank you kindly for reading, and simply let me reiterate. This game, is utterly fantastic.)