Ren'Py - A House in the Rift [v0.7.17] [Zanith]

Like the premise and like the characters - especially the "Disagreeable Elf" (despite the fact that characters like that usually aren't to my liking, but she's so innocent in addition to being abrasive - especially about things she knows nothing about, so it's kind of cute, like a rebellious teenager )

The good: Good and amusing writing, the glimpses of the story that are provided are good and immersive, likeable and interesting characters (I particularly like Rae), friendly / somehow respectful atmosphere

The neutral: Renders are OK, but I personally do not like the style too much.

The mediocre: Gameplay. No branching as far as I can tell, i.e., no influence on the story whatsoever, apart from choosing whether to trigger a scene or not. Given this lack of choice, the bit of grind that is present seems unnecessary and annoying. Regarding the story: As I mentioned I like what is there, but I am a bit suspicious whether it will be wrapped up in a reasonable way. It opens many arches and themes, but does not progress much in any of them. I understand that the large animations of the stories must be a pain to produce; I personally would be quite happy with more text and fewer animations, to get the story rolling. Otherwise this may drag on until 2100...

Fantastic game with good writing, an interesting premise, and great animations. Update schedule is reasonable for the content released. The strength in this game is the animation quality and characters, although the MC can be rather blank even for a self insert. While some of the story elements can be brief and strung out, the sections with extended story are intriguing and worth reading through. The lewd scenes themselves are high quality and fairly varied.

Definitely worth a try if you have any interest.

Super high quality game. Beautiful characters with lots of personality, amazing sex animations, a cute and interesting story, and a good amount of content. One of my favorites on this site, great work!!

Just a great game that hit me right in the heart. Fantastic characters and great eroge Keep up the good work! Fantastic for corona times and just a ton of content as well Cant wait for updates! It is so hard to pic a favorite girl, and I am glad its all such a "goodfeel" game as well!

Holy shit this is really good. Wow, the sex parts it's much better than most other games. It isn't static images or sloppy or choppy animation but smooth animation and it's really good. The characters are very good too. The gameplay elements aren't convoluted or annoying or confusing. There's a nice small array of actions you can do and the plot is furthered easily and quickly, good! No bullshit like in some other games where's there's a shit ton of actions you can do.This is how it should be done, at least in a visual novel style.

This is one of the best porn games I've played so far. The characters look great, especially with their special outfits in some scenes. They also have personality, they're not some bland sex dolls. The story is really good, too. It's not boring, and while I can't say I haven't seen something similar, it's got it's own enjoyable twists. It's definitely a must play.

One of the best. The story is intriguing, every character is hot and well written. Sex scenes are great, with smooth animations. The game is made with high attention for the details. Higly recommended.

This game definitely deserves a 5 star rating and here is why:
Story:
The story places the MC in a house which he can‘t leave. Throughout the game additional girls are added, each with their own personal story and personality. The story revolves around exploring the MCs magical abilities with the original goal for everyone to return back to their own worlds. It‘s fun to get to know all of the characters and their own problems. It‘s also very interesting to see the girls interact with each other and how these personalities mix together.

Renders:
Renders are top quality and can compete with other top rated games on this site. The house is clean, but doesn‘t feel empty, especially in each room. Characters are beautiful with diverse body types. Facial expressions are appropriate and bring the characters and the scenes very much to life.

Playability:
You can freeroam around the house. This is supported by a map which simply shows the rooms with the current location of each character. This allows for easy movement around the house to trigger the various events without taking you to a separate map screen which would break the flow of the game.
There is a stat system for the MC and each character. In my experience it only has little effect on the game though, as the MCs stats are maxed out without much grind and the girls stats are easily increased through interactions with them.
The game usual offers three choices which allow you to give the Mc a bit of personality. You aren‘t locked into anything though, as you can pick the asshole answer in the first choice and be as understanding as ever in the following choice.
A gallery for the various scenes exists and sorts every girl and their corresponding scene together and also gives a minimal hint as to what expect in the scene in case you haven‘t unlocked them.

Animations:
Scenes are fully animated. These animations are custom made and show a lot of the dedication the author puts into the game. These animations also enhance the gameplay by conveying more of the characters personality in how they act.

Bugs:
People seem to encounter bugs, especially right after a new update releases. Personally I haven‘t encountered anything, except for a minor typo here and there. So overall I would say the game is pretty robust.

Amount of content:
I feel like the game already has a lot to offer with a lot of character development and scenes. Some might say the story itself progresses to slowly. This may be due to the developer giving a lot of smaller updates with a few events rather than one big update every few months. If you have played to the current version then it‘s a good idea to wait a few releases before playing again so there is more new content to experience.

To summarize:
A house in the Rift is a great harem game with beautiful characters that each have a unique personality and a interesting background story that makes want more. Characters are diverse enough so everyone can have a favourite.
The developer did a great job here and continues to deliver great content

Just perfect! I really fell in love with some of the characters and the story is so captivating that i played for hours just to get on with the plot. The animations are great and there is plenty to explore.

Great character design, lovable characters, all to accompany you on an interesting, romp around fictional worlds, that looks breathtaking, on top of having some of the best animations i have seen. The only real downside that i have to this game is that if you follow it release to release have to spam past days to get to any new content can be pretty boring, i would advise letting a couple of updates happen in between playing or restart each time so that the flow of content feels better paced.

Awesome game with nice character design compelling story and a great waifu or multiples ones depending on what you're into.
What's not to like??Although in my humble opinion it would've been better if it had a real distinction between the so called "path" i've been really confused about it all at first.

One of the best storylines of any game I've played so far on this site. The main love route with the primary interest was very appealing to me. However, there is also the possibility of pursuing multiple relationships.

One of my only gripes would be the lack of obvious consequences to pursuing multiple relationships at the same time.

This is a fantastic game with a wonderful story. It does a really great job of having many different settings and it all feels good. The story telling is excellent AND it is a game! One of the biggest issues for me in adult "games" is that so many of them are just "pick your own adventure" novels.

The team behind this game has done a fantastic job. I'm very excited to see the project when it is done.

One of the best games here. The world and the story is very relatable and the characters are all feeling original and are very different.
The feeling of the place is getting perfectly captured and it feels like you really live with them there. It has many good eastereggs that are perfectly conveyed with the situation.
From my opinion this masterpiece is when done definataly worth a 40€ price tag.

Havent dont one of this in a while but holy shit does this game deserve it. One of the best in the whole platform and so fullfillig.

The story and render are awesome, but what really sets the game apart for me is the characters, since they are so adorable. The progression in the game makes you really care about this characters and the sex content really pays off. This is one of the few games where i actually want more romance focused content or options since the girls are so lovable (Rae is absolutely the best).

If i had to criticize something about the game, it would be that Yona is pretty bland as a character at the time of this review, and that there is not enough content with Caitlin and Lyriel. But dont get me wrong, theres a shit ton of content in this game.

I really wish we get some romance route with the girls since they are the best. Awesome game. Easily deservesas 5 stars.

Highly recommend playing this one. By far one of the most relaxing games I've ever played, the music is super soothing and the story is interesting but fun and mostly light hearted. The girls are all pretty good and the H-scenes are good quality. Really this game is perfect for relaxation for just how soothing everything is and the fact that you can progress at your own pace.

I got into A House in the Rift pretty early on, and it's been super fun to watch it grow and take the shape it has. At time of writing, there are five housemates and all five of them are wonderfully unique. Although it has in recent updates leaned more into grinding then I'd prefer, the animation quality is stellar (definitely the best HS on the site, or at least tied with Ripples)and the writing outside of those is one of the best on the site.

WOW this is one of the best games that I've played on this site. The story is extremely engaging, the animations are perfect, the characters are all extremely very likeable(including the MC IMO) and everything is absolutely 10/10.

The dialogue - oh god, I've lowered my standards way too much on this site to simply give me passable English phrases and not detract from overall gameplay, but this game has superb dialogue, giving character to all of the girls in the game(Especially Rae).

It also solved a pet peeve of mine by NEVER revealing the MC's face, which is honestly incredibly refreshing. I've seen so many good games ruined by an MC who looks like crap and completely takes me out of the game.

The only thing I was ambivalent about was the 5th character. Not going to spoil anything, but I was...eh confused about the choice. Maybe it's somebody's kink, but I really wasn't into that. Still, the other 4 more than makes up for it.

Overall, 10 out of 5. If a game manages to reach this game's level in just one component(story, animation, characters etc), I'd consider it to be an amazing game. Looking forward to future updates.

One of the best sandbox VNs on this site. Good renders, simple and clean UI, and decent storyline. Not many typos from what I've read so far which is always a bonus. It is not overly wordy and there isn't much grind to increase your stats. Instead, your stats improvement/decrease come from interacting with the girls and choosing the right responses/dialogue.

There are only 5 girls you can interact with so far but they each arrive one at a time so you needn't overload yourself with trying to do everything at once. Each girl has their own personality - you have the Amazonian, the shyster, the succubus, the tsundere, and the obedient housewife.

You have to work for the sex scenes and they aren't that abundant to be frank. However they are well done and there will probably be more in the future. So right now I don't think it's really a game for fapping but that can always change.

Therefore, 5/5 stars.