Ren'Py - A House in the Rift [v0.8.04r1] [Zanith]

Copying the post I made the other day while I'm here to rate this amazing game as I realized I didn't rate it.
It's been a while since I've downloaded an update to this game... and... just... damn. Some scenes kinda make me feel bad that I came to this game to just treat these girls as fap material and some of the dialogue legitimately makes me feel genuine sorrow for their circumstances and respect for their world views.

Rae's date in our world really moved me, in that dialogue she felt like an amazingly thoughtful real person, reminiscent of my first long term partner with her outlook of our world, very roughly paraphrased quote cuz i don't have eidetic memory, "There's so many things that require constant care and attention in our world that when looked at from within the system it's easy to feel like no one cares about anything. However, if that were true then even very food we're eating wouldn't have even been made so readily available".

Lyriel's struggles with finding her place in the world made me really want to just reach out and hug her on that bridge and tell her everything will be fine.

Naomi's struggles didn't resonate with me all that strongly, likely because I haven't had to take care of another life like her, but I still respect her sort of overbearing motherly feelings for her crew.

Caitlin is just super adorable and she's the first "shy girl" type I've genuinely liked in these types of games since I was first introduced to VN dating sim style games.

I find Blair interesting and I want to learn more about her but I haven't come across anything with her that has hooked me yet, y'know, in a non-sexual sense. Her face is extremely beautiful though and even if she doesn't get more of that good writing I would still be glad with her inclusion.

The only character I feel kind of unsure about is Yona, even though Yona seems to have a sad situation about her and her search for enlightenment was a bit comedic, there's just something missing with her interactions that makes it hard to feel a connection with her like I have the other's.

This game is freaking huge. One of the biggest productions I played and one of not many I wasn't able to go through without taking breaks for other games.

Main story and LIs main quests are very good, there are many branches that hopefully will connect in the whole piece and quality of writing is very high. It's quite long, but could be acceptable, if not massive amount of small useless side quests (girls) that aren't building any bonds. Their events are small and are not creating any feelings. A lot of them is with other LIs and MC's just listening or it's support quests for their stories. Dates or doing fun together are extremely rare, IMO romance tag here is blasphemy, because it's very small part of the game. There are also some timeline inaccuracies, mostly with Cait, f.e. doing blowjob for first time, but MC says she's better with her teeth and she progressed, then glassess buying after she used them once or twice in home and after she bought them, she's not using them in many events while reading, because fk logic, that's why - I understand that glassess fit her character, but if it was too big bother then why even saying she has sight defect or not buying eye lenses?. But the worst is mixing personal tantrums of LIs with main events where they act normally. With some timing you'll have situation that one LI is angry on whole world and sitting in her room, but meanwhile she's helping with other task. That's why, even if I'm a fan of sandboxes, this one would be definetely much better as a VN. It's also very weird for me that MC never been seen by anyone familiar or didn't even think about visiting his family and telling them he's alright.

Characters is the biggest flaw of this game. I never, literally NEVER, had a game where I dislike so many of them. That's why, for first time, I'll write a few sentences about each one.

Rea is the only one I liked from the very beginning to current version. She seems the most versatile. Teasing, intelligent, sexy and can show emotions, both positive like being grateful or negative like being pissed, if MC acts like a jerk. And she's all the time like that, not throwing tantrums or being sweet depending on mood like others. I like her even if she may act sometimes and I don't fully trust her, because of being agent or at least was doing it in the past. She don't fit the role of stereotypical succubus, but that's the only character I really like in this game and enjoy her events.

On other hand there's annoying trio. Cait, Naomi and Blair,

First one was mentioned very positively in few reviews, for me however, she's kind of dumb and without spine. Sweet and dumb pushover crammer, totally clueless most of times and at the beginning she can stand only for books. In some situations (that aren't even close to extreme) all her brain disappear, it's cute only for few times, not for over dozen hours of gameplay. I wish I could mute her in group events, because despite of being all shy she's all the time trying to explaining herself or things (to new inhabitants for example), but usually it's just annoying blabling. Don't get me wrong, I like this kind of character (sweet, shy, naive) and met few nice in games, I think I liked all of them. But they progressed much faster and weren't so annoying. Cait also progress a bit, but it's extremely slow and she's too annoying before this progress that it's hard for me to change my thinking about her. And when you think she's over with this, she throws MC under train against Naomi, because of being spineless or use make up kit, because she never learns on her own mistakes.

Second one, the big brute Naomi, is one of the most hated by me LIs in all the games I played. Just using MC without giving anything back. You spent whole days helping her. What's her answer at the morning? Get the fk out of my room. Just rude in her excitement and I really wished her ship been destroyed.

Blair meanwhile is extremely stubborn, even more than Naomi and Lyriel. If we add that she give up quickly it just makes her events boring and there are far too many shit without any progress, so I needed to keep going to her and going and I knew nothing will happen again, so even if something happens I just don't care anymore. Also, she's extremely ugly, my first thought was she's a Snooki version from Southpark.

Lyriel and Yana I consider neutral.

First one is just a tsundere princess, she can be lovely and sweet like Cait and stubborn like Blair, but at least she's not that annoying, except of her relatively short tantrum. And there's a huge minus for her for not reacting properly when MC got posioned by her sisters. She's also the hottest one.

Yana meanwhile, don't bring any emotions in me. Literally any. She's one of the most unattractive characters I ever met.

It gives 1 character out of 6 that I like. I'll repeat, I never had this situation in any game. Even in big harem games there are max 1-2 characters I dislike, but it's compensated with 10 likeable. Since we most likely can't skip any content in this sandbox game, it's drastically decreasing my rate.

Models are quite mediocre. Not ugly (discluding Blair), but let's say that I've seen prettier HS games. Well, game is from 2019 and it's very visible. I must however admit that animations and cut scenes are very good. I love it when game offer proper animations of cumming inside and this one does. In later parts, but it's a huge plus.

Easy interface, easy grinding (ngl, I used console to save time anyway, but doing it manually on beginning wasn't hard), transparent tips and a possibility to ask LI to do something else, so we can progress with event without waiting until she's for example using pool. There are some minigames or puzzles in later game and if you don't care too much about playing it, it's worth to master "search" on forum as there are solutions for everything that's needed.

Do I regret starting this title? Kind of. I found this game by looking for harem romance (ugh, romance my ass, however it sounds) games with high average score, but looking on latest reviews, it's not on top of the market anymore. Well, lesson learner, should've checked more recent reviews instead of average score. Game had high reviews (but latest quite lower), so I kept giving it a chance and patiently readen plot and dialogues, but I just totally don't feel this game. Overally it's extremely mediocre. If you're like me and you like to finish what you started, you should really consider playing this one. It's extremely long and (at least for me), not bad enough to being dropped, but not too entertaining as well. Just like this book that have 600 pages and you want to know ending, but it would be much better if it had 250 pages.

I've been following this game for a number of years now, and there's a lot that I like, the history is really the highlight here, and there's an atmosphere very well crafted by it. The characters are trully alive, each with a unique quest and personality and it all come together as captivating tale, I wanna know every new development of every character, Also, the animations are beautiful to look at (not very hot or sexy, but definitely beautiful). That's the positive.
Now the negative: Everything else. The sandbox is absolute crap and kills the ambiance of the game (in my opinion this game would be a lot better as a VN) there's a lot of skipping, and nothing to do, is really hard to keep up with the 'objetives'. It is simply bad.
The writing is very repetitive, no sound effects, the game is just not sexy, 98% of the sex stuff is bland and uninspired. You can't skyp any character you don't want to engage with. And this game is in devellopment for many years now... and it is kind of weird.
I would recommend this game kind of as a illustrated history with extra hoops, as a sex game, not so much.

Just a slog. You always think theres going to be a payoff around the corner, but it never comes. Plus the girls are pretty lame, poorly written, and so is the MC. The most vanilla succubus in all fiction. I regret trying this again.

You may be surprised at my low rating, but please, I ask you to take a look at my critique and really consider if all those flaws can justify any higher rating.

TLDR: Totally overrated, very disappointing. Bad models, frustrating gameplay, obnoxious girls. Low quality and mostly uninteresting porn.

Positives:

• One anal scene. But just one. Not worth counting the one-off (and Patreon-exclusive) dream scenes.
• Deepthroating and swallowing. Scenes added later in the game do this well.
• Typical anime story, some might like that I suppose. Although as is typical of "anime" devs they get far too much into their own shit and forget about the porn. At that point it gets insufferable.
• Some interactivity in sex scenes. E.g. speed of thrusting and choice of where to cum. But it's essentially one sequence you have to follow anyway.
• The MC isn't always a total idiot, just sometimes (which is an improvement over many other adult games).
• Training a girl from innocent into a one who asks for cum for breakfast.
• Another girl enjoys masochism, throat fucking, etc. Hot actions despite the girl being a green monster girl.

Negatives:

• The porn is totally unsatisfying and uninteresting. The most vanilla acts, presented in a boring and simplistic manner, with poor art.
• Outdated and simplistic character models and animations. Poor renders in general, e.g. in terms of textures, light, shadow, liquids and more.
• The writing is terribly frustrating and repetitive. Again and again the girls will screw you over with lies, magic, drugs, manipulation. The only way forward is to accept it, apologize to them (when they fuck things up), and smile while doing it.
• The MC is just a passenger being pulled into whatever the girls interest of the week is. There's no agency.
• At some point you'll end up hating all the girls (perhaps except Cait) because of the constant obnoxious behavior, lies, manipulation, domineering, etc. They're like caricatures.
• Lots of bugs. E.g. suddenly a character appears which hasn't been introduced yet. Or taking a girls virginity after already having sex with her 10 times. Quests referring to girls not yet revealed. etc.
• Some characters are strangely proportioned. E.g. one girl looks like the aspect ratio of an image has been stretched incorrectly. Two other girls look enormous and muscled. A big turn-off.
• Grind. Repetitive daily activities. Progression is slow.
• Constantly the game poses you what appears to be a choice but actually, not matter your response (yes, no, maybe), only the devs intended action occurs. Regardless of your choice and it's blatant.
• When given quest "choices" (options A, B or C), if you don't choose A you will not be able to progress or, even worse, you'll get a penalty every day until you "choose" A.
• Convoluted and annoying game progression. And RNG-based elements which require repetition.
• Quests in the journal have dependencies for progression that are not listed. Task descriptions are misleading.
• It's a "sandbox" in a small house with the same type of activities repeating every day.
• Difficult to avoid femdom if you want to progress with a certain character. For example, the girl tries to manhandle you and I was strong enough to break her grip, but then you either have to skip the sex act entirely or submit to the girl. Choice effects are unknown. The MC is literally telling her clearly he doesn't like what she's doing and she just says she doesn't care and keeps going.
• MC's face is never shown. That's a stupid and outdated trope.
• Naomi. Both her personality and body is a turn off. She keeps trying to take my girls, she bosses everyone around and has no character development.
• It's the only Renpy game I've seen where the performance is actually bad. There's lag during some scenes.
• Events are out of order. E.g. Cait has had sex with and often given MC handjobs but later it's an event that's supposed to be the introduction of handjob type events as a first "step" of getting intimate with her.
• Lyriel's behavior. An obnoxious Tsundere with too few redeeming qualities. Naomi was right about her. The game wants me to apologize to Lyriel and that's annoying.
• Monster girl. It's a turn off.
• MC taking Cait's virginity but the MC already has fucked her 10 times! So many bugs.
• Railroading. Main quests: your choices don't matter. Side quests: Do it exactly one way or not at all.
• You're punished for expressing your opinion or for refusing sex.
• Blair is very unattractive. She's fat, looks weird.
• Far too long between lewdness limit increases. So you're stuck doing the same boring activities.
• Recycled animations. Devs pretend to create new scenes for a girl but it's the same with just some different clothes on.
• Every day you lose 1 or 2 intimacy points with Lyriel because 1) I don't want to go back to the people that drugged me unconscious, and 2) I say no thanks to sex when Lyriel asks. So yeah, great game guys. A lot of fun...
• Why just one anal scene?
• MCs personality and communication changes drastically from one scene to the next. One scene he's confident, clear and a charismatic leader. The next he's a bumbling fool unable to say anything other than "ehm, err, uh? I.. uh.. but?".
• Devs waste time on unattractive girls almost nobody wants to interact with (the fat Blair and the monster girl Yona).
• Side girls (e.g. Sagari) that you can't sleep with are hotter than any of the LIs.
• Unskippable cutscenes. In the second half of the game this starts and keeps on happening.
• Unskippable minigames. Very annoying and unnecessary to include puzzles in a porn game. Several scenes are hidden behind doing well in the minigames.

(Version played: 0.8.01r2. I finished everything available in this version.)

I have been following this story for years now, so you know I like it. Each of the LIs are distinct and engaging whether it's the sultry and playful Rae, shy and curious Cait or the boisterous Naomi it's just as much fun hanging out with them as it is fucking them. The magical house combined with dream scenes offers a variety of sexual situations.
The stories of both the house and the girls are also entertaining as you unravel the mysteries of your sanctuary. It goes without saying that the animations are also smooth with the developers improving some of them over time.
With all of these positives, you may be wondering why it only gets four stars? The sex scenes have no SFX which knocks it down a point. If they decide to add them, then this would be an easy 5 out of 5.

the game had a lot of potential. it has one of the best settings that could lead to endless possibilities. just like the title of the game- youre stranded in a cozy house that is in between dimensions.

the main problems are the cast and writing. the cast of girls are mostly unlikeable and boring. the dev makes use of the setting in being able to use girls of different races and does pick some interesting races. but somehow the girls feel so bland in writing and in scenes. they just dont feel as attractive as you'd expect. im not even a picky person in H-Games but this is one of the few H-Games ive played where there wasnt a single character i wanted to focus on progressing.

the writing for the scenes and characters were all pretty mid. its filled with long drawn out dates and backstories that didnt change my opinions of the characters. im not even going to get into the writing for the MC since it seems everyone else has already mentioned it

at least you'd think the scenes could save the game? no theyre mostly pretty vanilla and again have boring writing

this is now one of my favorite games in this site

I will begin by saying that I have completed the game 100%, that means all the scenes, characters, dreams, missions, secret images and even interactions.
The game has a ton of content and I didnt want it to end, now that I have finished everything I have a unique feeling of emptiness, that same feeling that you have once you finished a really good series or a game and you know all of those characters and stories that you love have come to an end and there is nothing else left to do, yeah that same feeling
at least that feeling is diminished by the fact that the game is not yet finished and is still inactive development with the developer releasing monthly updates so that takes some weight away, but yeah getting to the end of the current content felt that way (as of this review that would be v0.7.21r1)

mind you only one other game in this site has made me feel that way, mist which is one of the best stories in this site in my opinion

but enough introductions, lets talk about each point

Visuals: 4/5
A house in the rift uses honey select models but the quality is pretty high, among the games that use honey select models this one is definetly one of the best, it includes custom animations which look fantastic but there is a clear lack of diversity, most are blowjobs and vaginal, a handful of anal, like 2 fotjobs and thats about it

despite that all scenes look good and dont look copy pasted at least not that much, there is also a lot of foreplay so in that regard the game is solid, 4/5 just because of the quality of the animations and look of the models

Story: 4/5
The story is interesting enough, the game starts with the MC enjoying a nice day in the park after a warning that some unknown experiment is going to start soon, the MC doesnt really pay much attenton until suddenly something happens, an explosion is heard and a bunch of portals open up and you are sucked by one of them

next thing you remember you wake up in your childhood's house, but things are weird, most doors cant be opened, the fridge has random food appear and disapear, the front door leads to a vast void, only two doors can be opened at first your childhood bedroom and the bathroom (how convenient), you go to sleep and the next morning you hear some noises in the house, you go to investigate them and find an unknown girl hiding from you

and that is how the game starts, from there on more girls start arriving at the house, each from a different world. I have to say the main story of the game is nothing really spectacular, its not boring but it has the simple purpose of introducing the elements of worldbuilding and the characters

The central conflict of the story is that once you enter the house you cannot really escape, at least not for long, everyone in the house is trapped inside it and while the house itself has everything they need to survive and live decently comfortable lives of course everyone wants to return to their original worlds

later on some mysteries start to get introduces, such as the string that create the house start unraveling someone is trying to get in contact with the MC promising unlimited power and the park where the accident happened becomes a void of ether this mysteries serve to add some meat to the story which up until that point had very little

the story again is not bad but I think it could use something more to add to it, we will see how those mysteries unravel and that could probably increase or decrease the score, right now I would say its above average

Gameplay: 3/5
this is definetly the weakest aspect of the game, its not that its bad its just painfully average

the game is your usual renpy sanbox, you walk through the house interacting with the girls to gain stats to progress their stories and some limited elements of the environment

the biggest issue is that there are a lot of mechanics that are either underutilized, ignored or straight up forgotten, for example you can collect money, but the money doesnt really have any use, there is 1 mission where you are asked if you have any money and thats about it, same with some of the objects, there are certain items that have no use like the ice cream with you use once and then never again

and its confusing because there are some objects that do have a pretty substancial use, such as the food ingredients and the whiskey

another aspect that is kind of forgotten is the combat system, because yes this game has combat... kind off, early on in the game one of the girls teaches you how to fight but there are like 3 fights in the game including the tutorial fight, its not like the combat system is anythig spectacular but its there and its just kind of ignored

there is also later on a sort of dungeon with some unique mechanics and its really fun, the game has some cool gameplay moments but usually they are one and done, for that reason I think its the weakest aspect of the whole game

Characters: 6/5
Now this, this is where the game shines

there are 6 main girls, Azraeshe (better known as Rae) Naomi, Caitlin, Lyriel, Yona and Blair, each of the girls has a unique personality but they do start a little cliche, like Rae is you usual succubus who enjoys sex, Naomi is the badass pirate and muscle mommy of the group, Caitlin is the innocent wall flower, Lyriel is the usual racist elf, Yona is... actually kind of unique from the get go, she is an orc but unlike most orcs in fiction she is pretty chill and even phylosophical at moments and Blair is your usualy headstrong dwarf

in that regards each of the girls could appear like a simple stereotype but they dont stay that way for long, they develop and we learn more about them, their troubles and other aspects of their personalities, as the game goes on, the characters are definetly the strong point of the game

each character has a substantial amount of details and backstory as do their respective worlds

you interact with the characters through dialogue, the game has a ton of dialogue options most of them dont really do anything its there for you to roleplay most often that not, you can choose to be an asshole, more neutral or try to be more amicable either way the story will progress the same way but the interactions with the girls will change to reflect your attitude

one aspect of the characters that a lot of people will dislike is that the characters in this game are imperfect, they make mistakes, get angry, will scream at you, sometimes can get violent, will ignore your advice, some can be headstrong, or ignorant, or petulant
they are not your archetipical harem characters that just agrees with everything you say like in most other games, there will be clashes but I like it, it makes them feel human, as I say most of the time it doesnt really matter what you say the story will continue either way but there are mission that you can ignore and you can shape the relationship how you want

also the characters are not static, they will change and grow, I think the biggest example is Naomi who after a certain point becomes kind of toxic and her attitude will anger a lot of people but if you complete her story she eventually does realize that she fucked up and manages to improve character development

their individual stories are definetly the meat of the game, each girl has their own personal questline that allows you to learn more about them, their world, their own story and some problems that they are facing and those are extremely interesting

like for example Rae, spoilers for a big reveal later on in the story how she is not just a spy but forms part of a secret organization that is trying to effectively destroy or at least dominate humanity and that sees demons as inherently superior to the other races such as humans, dwarfs and elves

or Lyriel and how it is revealed that her aunt and the rest of her family are in reality a guild of assassins who were doing all kinds of dirty works on the sidelines while keeping her on the dark

all of the characters stories are interesting, of course some more than others but I want to see more from all of them, even from some of the characters that the comunity seems to have a lower interest in such as Yona or Blair, im specially interested in seeing more about Blair's story

Conclusion
A solid game, what it lacks in gameplay and story makes up for it in characters, I enjoyed my time with the game a lot, that being said those two weakpoints are still flaws and stop the game from getting a perfect score, that and the lack of diversity in the sex scenes

all in all a really good fun game, the game is just chill there arent any huge stakes, no end of the world shenanigans, no impending doom, just a man and a bunch of girls trapped in a typical suburban home while exploring a bunch of fantasy worlds

It was interesting at first. But alas, the developers decided to turn this to soy vn. Now there are the most boring vanilla dialogues/plot. No interesting actions or stories, just standing in one place and idle chatter. It looks good visually, but even the scenes have become more vanilla and boring.

While not yet finished this is one of the games on this site that just captures you with an interesting story and characters. The archetypes of the female characters, their journeys and interactions with both the player and other girls keep the sandbox aspects of the game lively.

Version 0.720r1

So far this game is very good, but IMO it's not a masterpiece.

About Story, The main plot is intriguing, but unfortunately it seems to move very slowly. As for other quests, I have mixed feelings, some were interesting, others were just fine, others were mehh, and some others were boring (especially Naomi's). And, by the way, why the hell every importat event has to be in the evening, that was pretty annoying

The writing can get too dense at times, with a lot of walls of text.

Characters: From Interesting to boring (considering quests and personalities): Lyriel/Azraesha/Caitlin/Blair/Yona/Naomi. I'd say there is tie between Lyriel and Azraesha I liked them both.

Renders and animations: Both were more than fine, considering this is HS.

Music: It could use a few more tracks, There are many silent moments from time to time.

Overall I think this game is a 7.5/10, My concern is that we might never see the end of this story, since it's progressing very slowly. It's worth checking out anyway.

played version V0-7-20r1
took me about 5 days to get through all the content available
would rate this maybe 7/10
favorite character is rae

Animations
very basic if im being honest and there arent that many for how much other story there is, nor is there much variety in them. some of the animations are quite stiff (ie no boob jiggle as they move which always feels off to me)

Characters
models are nothing special about what you would typically see in a honey select game. Characters personalities are pretty good though in regard to the story, i wish they displayed their growth more in the sandbox element.

Story
story seems interesting enough though its pretty slow. Game follows typical 3 timeslot sandbox style, it unfortunately also follows one of the most common problems sandboxes that use this format seem to end up with. That is a very uneven weighting of events on a specific timeslot. for this game it was evening, there was almost always too much stuff to do in the evening while i would end up skipping the morning and sometimes afternoon because there is nothing to do in those timeslots. This also is made worse by the events that occur when you sleep or wake up causing weird sequence breaks in whatever event you were doing.
(ex, went to sleep with El to visit her family, after that but before i "woke up" i triggered another story event that auto triggers on sleep, which after led me to waking up in my own bed, being unable to continue on with Els event until the next day where i sleep again and then finally "wake up" in her bed to conclude the event.)
I had this happen so much to the point where i ended up lagging 3 days behind because every evening there was a dream event that put me to sleep and i would wake up with one of the previous events beds. Its just really jarring.
The sandbox doesnt seem super sandboxy when it comes to choices either, youre often given a choice between being an ass or being nice in dialogue which results in the same outcomes in the story for the most part that i saw. the only difference being whether you gain some affection or lose some.


other gripes
the fact that you need money in this game for some events. The game never tells you how to get money. You get money from searching the wardrobe in your room for clothes, now the game has you use the wardrobe twice in the story and each time you get clothes from it. i did try early on using the wardrobe outside of when i needed clothes just to see what would happen but all it did was mention that there were extra clothes in there which led me to believe for the longest time that it was useless outside of events needing clothes.
Very unintuitive design, not to mention how painful actually getting money from it is.
it takes up a time slot, chance of gaining money is random, the amount you gain is (from my experience) $2~10, and the earliest date you can go on using it cost $50. it took me a week and a half ingame time using all 3 timeslots just to get the 50$ to go on the date. This wasnt a fun aspect, i dont know why you dont just get more money.

This game has been in development for a while. And I still like it. I like the story, and I like most of the girls, with Lyriel being favorite(i wish they made her tsun become dere more obvious as your relationship becomes better). I like most of the scenes the dev makes, I do hope he would make more kinky stuff than overly obvious vanilla stuff too. Vanilla stuff can be kinky as well.

However, I feel like it is dragging itself right now. Many updates, little progress. I do not feel like the story has gone further too much further over the last 2 years. I think the fact there is so many girls and that it a sandbox at the same time has bit the dev in the ass a little. There is seems to be a slight lack of focus. It has been in development for 6 years, but I don't see the end still.

Still giving it 4 starts over giving me good content for many years now. There is a danger that it will drop if it the latest updates continue to drag.

If you are a new player, try it!! It still has a lot of content for a new player!

This is one of the best romance games. when it came out, it was so good because i like mystery, but i don't like when the mystery gets revealed, but i still love it even though i know why things happened. THIS GAME IS THE GOAT

I love this game and I want to share my opinion about it. Firstly, it has a wonderful plot, secondly, it has wonderful girls and much more. I would like you to add character voice acting to the game. Greetings from Russia and good luck

this game has been my #1 since release with fantastic waifus and fantastic animations. I reached the point where I need good animations and the Rift has never disappointed. I look forward to every single update

Love this Visual Novel. Intimate and emotional characters, with an MC that isn't 'over the top' as well!

One issue I've encountered is that, on rare occasions later in the game, 'non-important' conversations sometimes reveal events that haven't yet, such as unlocking certain portions of the house Though this hasn't happened for critical or 'quest' events yet!

Quite frankly, this game is terrible.

Sandbox is honestly pretty useless. This would've been better as a VN.

Women in this game is super annoying. Except maybe succubus girl, she's okay.

Cait is whiny and annoying. When you try to call out Lyriel for her bitch attitude, Cait starts a whine fest about how terrible you are, as if you had murdered her whole family in front of her or something. And the way she just talks, talks and talks makes you want to gag her, because everything she says has no substance or point.

Naomi is a bitch with anger issues. When you deny her request (more like demand) to see if her pirate crew is alive or not, she loses her shit, which is understandable, if you dont take into consideration the fact that Rae made multiple warnings about the potential risks and dangers that it would entail.

Lyriel is an even bigger bitch with a superiority complex.
Whenever you try to call her out on her bullshit all the girls rebuke you for it.

Am i forced to play in the shoes of a doormat and yes-man? because standing up for oneself in the game seem to cost you affection points and make you seem like the bad guy.

I think theres a few more chicks in this game but i didnt get far enough to see them, but if Cait, Naomi and Lyriel is any indicator then the other girls will almost certainly be equally annoying.


Also, there were a couple of instances where the other girls mentioned a girl that had yet to be introduced into the game, so thats a bit sloppy.

Then there's the etherwalks. when i do the walk to take Cait to her academy or whatever, the next morning i wake up with naomi thanking me instead of Cait.

It's actually impressive how annoying the dev managed to make the women in this game, it's like he went out of his way to make the most insufferable cast possible. Aside from the first one introduced, all the other ones are their own flavor of a pain in the butt, and see little to no development.

The sandbox is also awful, The game has day->afternnon->evening->night stages, but you can't do anything at night except go to sleep so not sure why it's even there. Most of the events happen at evening for some reason so you're pressing skip->skip->see one scene->sleep every day.

Characters aside, there's barely any plot, and what little it is there has seen very little development in the 6 years this has been out. Most of it in the beginning.

So annoying characters and no plot... What's left? Vanilla sex basically.

I only give 2 stars instead of 1 because the first girl (Rae) is actually playful and enjoyable, some of the sex scenes are well done and there's a little bit of maledom with one specific LI (and I really enjoy maledom).

Whelp, 4.5 stars isn't a thing so we're rounding up here. It's not perfect but I really like this game.

First off: It's not really a fap game (although a few of the animations are hot enough, if you're not so jaded that vanilla boy-and-girl-in-and-out no longer does it for you). It's much more "mood porn"; everything about it is just very chill. The theme bg music is perfect, it just has this sort of relaxed, almost lazy ambiance, like a murky day in that weird week-where-time-means-nothing between Christmas and New Year's where you have the week off but it's too cold to go out so fuck it let's just laze around the house.

Pros:
* Reasonably attractive renders for what it is (older Honey Select)
* Engaging characters. They aren't all waifu material, but a few of them are just delightful.
* MC is neither an idiot nor an asshole. (Imagine that!) He doesn't come across as an autist, or a Russian misogynist, or a weird genius, or a saint -- he's just a regular guy, basically decent.
* Not too many variables and points. You do have a couple gating metrics (the usual lust and love) but they are easy to grind up to the caps with minimal effort, so you can feel free to explore the dialogue trees without fear. And they are entertaining enough that you'll be glad you did. (On the flip side of this-- characters are fairly static, their personalities don't really evolve much.)
* Pacing is good. The burn is not so slow it's annoying, nor so quick you're rolling your eyes.
* World building is reasonable. Once you accept the basic silly premises, it all fits togethery in a satisfying manner.
* Low stakes (at least as of 7.17). No world-ending catastrophes that must be averted, just a nice placid environment with hot girls to play with.

Cons:
* This game has the feel of a novice programmer who got in over his head. What happens in the repeatable sandbox is basically independent from the story events; a girl who is disconsolately sobbing in her room every day might be cheerful and friendly at breakfast (but only breakfast), for instance. Gating events is tricky for people who don't structure programs well, and this one has the hallmarks of a project that organically grew with no real design work done at the start.
* Developer tries to cast a wide net, kink-wise. That's fine and I get why he does that, but it does mean that most people will probably find a few of the girls unattractive.
* The sex scenes are a bit too vanilla for such a long game; if seeing the "lewndess" variables makes you think this game is any sort of corruption/trainer game think again. It covers the basics (vag, BJs, and a little bit of anal) but that's about it. Look, I sure as hell don't want this to turn into one of those games that degenerates into a mass of weird shit, but I can only see the same guy reciprocate his dick into a hole so many times and still find it interesting. (Examples: Aside from one frame of a very minor repeatable event, the closest we get to girl/girl action is a side-by-side BJ where the girls politely refrain from touching each other. The long-anticipated "bondage potion" event has nothing of the sort. There is a bit of toying and masturbation but very limited. Etc.)

All in all it's a good game, worth the time. Not putting it in the rarified air of Great Games but it's better than most.