Ren'Py - Come Home [v8.18.5 Premium] [R.J. Rhodes]

Before I start let me state that I believe that a Developer should make the game they want to make, their way, with regards to their vision. In a similar mindset, I will be offering my review of their game, my way and how it relates to my preferences.

I am going to try and be as fair as possible with this review, because Come Home has some content that I personally have zero time for. However, this content is (mostly) avoidable (more on this later) and the developer not only tells the player outright, but also has designed the game in such a way that the player can turn off (most) of this content at any time. As a side note, English is not my first language, so please be forgiving if I make an odd statement.

Design seems like a good place to start:

It is very unique and is the best type of sandbox game a player can ask for. Not much in the way of grind, no schedules to keep, no “missed this so reload”. In addition to this, the core story (which has no sexual content) is separate from all potential LI stories. The LI stories can be turned off, which effectively removes that LI from the game (except for a key characters), which you will still meet and interact with in a completely non-sexual way.

Graphics are well done, and I won’t comment much on them, as its easy to see a few screenshots and decide for yourself.

The main story is passible, and you don’t need to make any big jumps, or overlook wholes in the logic (too much). The love Interest stories, that’s a bit of a different issue. As stated above they are typically avoidable with the exception that the main story will introduce and have you interacted with some of them in non-sexual ways occasionally.

Now onto the LI content, and please note that I am very much a ‘Only MC’ kind of player and I do not share. That being said, I will try and go down each of the LI’s and give my thoughts good &bad, but first some general comments.

Some of the LI stories I found to be quite good, several of them contain unique characters that I had an overall good time learning about and gaining affection with. Two issues, always seem to bring the stories down a step or two.

1) Almost all of the characters will either make comments on their past or present sexual exploits. Now let me be clear here, I am not expecting all the characters to be blushing virgins, but as a player I do not want to hear about how much they enjoy getting gangbanged or how they fucked their best friend because they were horny.

These comments range from things like (and I will give my own examples to avoid potential spoilers) “You’re the 3rd man I’ve slept with, I think a girl should have slept with 10 men before she settles down” (this is of course before the) “I love you and I couldn’t be happier” type comment. AGAIN, to be clear, I am not expecting a blushing virgin, but these two statements are contradictory to each other, in the context of a ‘vanilla’ relationship.

2) Every character (several of whom discuss how they love the MC and how he has been there crush for years) make it clear that they don’t expect any kind of commitment (yet). Several even go so far as to state that the MC should ‘fool around’ for a while because ‘they are’. This includes some of the more “wholesome” style relationships.

3) Not part of my original 2 issues, but something that is worth mentioning is the forced link between the MC pursing a relationship with both Suzy (The ‘step-sister’ if you select those options) and her bff Tammy. These two relationships are linked and the player MUST level them both up, and pursue them both. Since Tammy is one of the key characters guilty of the above two issues… it kind of forces the players to accept the whole ‘open relationship’ & ‘free love’ attitude of Tammy if they want to pursue the more traditional Suzy.

Those issues aside, I will briefly give a quick sentence or two about each of the potential LI’s these will have some minor spoilers, so don’t read them if you don’t want any. That being said, I will try to keep such information to a minimum, giving my like/dislike for the LI and reason why.





















Final Thoughts;
On one hand I really commend the Dev’s for finding a Sandbox design that is decent. I also think that much of the writing, and a few of the characters are very well made. The overall story (about a missing father) is decent enough, but somewhat forgettable when a player starts diving into the different characters arcs.

My criticisms about the game are mostly to do with the dialogue and logical deductions that one can make from those dialogues. The developer has made a point of designing and implementing a system that empowers the player to ‘turn off’ specific fetishes (which is awesome). They even make a specific point of ensuring that their isn’t NTR type content displayed (at least none that I found, with Izzy and other NTR type characters turned off).

However, the dialogue still makes references to not only the past of a character (which is irritating, but ultimately a ‘whatever’ annoyance), but also to their current and desired future activities (many of which would be considered sharing/cheating/ntr). I don’t know if it’s a translation issue (for me) or an ESL issue (again with me), but when a character that claims to be in love with the MC states that she “wants to sleep with a bunch of different men” or that she suggest the MC “see a bunch of different people” because “She is doing the same”… Well, these bits of dialogue do present a worry about the future of the game and how many characters would need to be excluded for a “Only MC and/or Harem” style of player.

As a final note because I try to be transparent with my reviews. I did support this game in the past but have not done so for a while now. NOT because I think the game is bad, but because I personally will never give a single copper penny to a game that has NTR/Sharing/Futa/Trans or similar type of content. Some may think that my previous support makes be bias towards, or that my ending of that support makes me bias against. I am stating it here so that said people can decide for themselves.

Good game. It's well written, the renders are good and the women's bodies are realistic (no giant blimp tits or asses that can't fit through a door). It has different kinks and fetishes so everybody should find something they like and everything is avoidable. I'm also impressed by how active the dev is in the forum answering questions and helping people with any problems they have playing the game. Well done R.J. Rhodes.

This game is a such a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed how you can choose which people you want to interract with and when. I hate the games where you have no choice in certain interactions and events. Also I really enjoyed the differences in characters personalities as well as the plot. I highly recommend this game I really enjoy it

I like to have a game a bit more complete when I review it usually, but I can always come back and edit it later, and this game deserves more attention.
This is a fun little Dating Sim, with many varied and realistic romance options. Sandbox is well done, and walkthrough fully integrated into the game, makes for very little grind and overall pleasant experience. Would like to give 5* but have a few issues with the game. Still it's lots of fun, and well worth a play.
The Good
Something for pretty much everyone in the romance department. Was worried it might make some characters a bit one dimensional, but most are really believable, with fully fleshed personalities, and backstories. I say Most, because at this point, some of the characters have a lot more content than others, but what's there is good.
Great variety visually as well. Reminds me of Personal Trainer, with many different shapes and sizes represented, and that is quite refreshing, as opposed to the, super-models everywhere, we usually get with most AVNs.
The Sandbox is very easy to navigate, and usually there is something new to discover. I don't really care for Sandbox usually, but in a Dating Sim, with many separate romance options, it is a necessity, and this one does it quite well. Very robust hint system is fully integrated into the UI, so it's easy to figure out what to do next.
The Not So Good
This is a bit tricky for me, and mostly personal preference, as overall the game is really fun.
Big fan of Incest in AVNs, and would like a true incest option, as opposed to just changing pet names and pretending it's incest. This would require a bit of tweaking to the main story, which will probably not happen, but it is a flaw in my opinion.
Main story is a bit weak, and doesn't integrate well into the dating Sim mechanic. I was a bit confused by the sci-fi elements, and the backstory just doesn't mesh very well. I have also seen similar stories done in other AVNs, so was hoping for something a bit more original. There is still a lot of the main story to be told, so I may come back at a later date and edit this. As it stands now, it's not my favorite, and a bit distracting, from what I consider the more fun parts of the game.
More sound effects, and background Audio, especially in the lewd scenes, would make the game more immersive, and enjoyable. The music that is there is very good, and usually fits the scenes pretty well. I understand lots of music requires money to use, so hopefully as the Dev gets more support, audio will get a bit more variety.
Overall I very much enjoyed my time with Come Home, and recommend any fans of Dating Sim AVNs give it a try. The game is free, but please support the Dev if you can, so we can get more of it.

(Version .3.09) Beyond the main storyline and the fact that none of the romancible characters get possessive, it's the realest-feeling porn game I've ever played. The characters look like they're real people, and they pretty much act like it, too. Good, surprisingly (to me) wholesome smut.

it's good in a sort of "just chill and relax" kind of way.

The renders are good, the characters are INCREDIBLY varied. There literally is something for everyone in here and the dev really really should get credit for actually putting the effort in to make the characters each have a distinct flavour. Each of them are quite interesting so there's a desire to get to know them better as opposed to simply "click the button that leads to sex"

In terms of negatives, the subplot with Daddy is absurd. It's incredibly unnecessary and feels out of place. It's almost like the dev played another game with a tech-mcguffin that I won't name here, and was like "aww yis, this is the perfect thing to make my MC come home to kickstart the story" when really they could have left it at "dad missing" and let it start from there. Wonder where it will go but at the same time it seems almost irrelevant given so many other characters to interact with.

There's also a low key part of me that's worried that the sheer number of interactable characters will lead to a situation where to actually get somewhere with a character will take like 7 updates. I've only just played this game on the latest update (chapter 9) so my fears could be unfounded but there's.... what? 20 characters in total? Alot of characters fighting over screen time in an update

So yeah, in summary, it's a lovely game. There's very little thought involved to push the game forward, the "main" story line is absurd and forgettable and the wealth of different characters on offer means it's rarely boring, although I fear if you get to the point where you have a favourite then you might be disappointed if the focus is on other characters in a particular release

Torn on this review. I want to give it a 4-5 star based on all of the ideas and mechanics used (some things I think can make a great H game) but my experience was more of a 1-2 star. It really boils down to this game being a little too "real". I'm playing an H game, I'm here for something more imaginative than reality, but all the girls and interactions are just... so believable that they come across as bland to me in an H game.

The models have realistic bodies, realistic expectations, realistic families, realistic life problems, realistic variance in personalities, etc. Honestly it's an interesting concept, the dev has done a great job at portraying some human qualities, but it just doesn't make a great H game. Example, the game has 20 different love interests you can "heart" to indicate you are interested in seeing H content for them (great mechanic idea) and I only had 6 hearted when I ended. 6 potentially interesting characters is great!... but not when they're only 30% of available girls. It's also unfortunate that, because there are so many girls, the amount of content for them can vary a lot. One girl has quite a bit. At least one girl has nothing. Most others have "something" that isn't anything you'd fap to.

And on their personalities, I am usually super into incest, but the (step) mom and sister characters were some of the most boring and at some points unattractive characters in the game. Like literally I often filter games for "incest" on this site because I enjoy it so much, and this game somehow managed to make me disinterested in the "incest" content. The mom is (sorry) unattractive and boring in the context of a sex game. She would be very sweet in real life but I don't want to fuck a very sweet mom, I want to fuck a sexy depraved mom. The sister is actually quite hot/cute, and her story/personality seemed like it could be fun, but man I was not willing to risk wasting time on her based on what I was seeing from other characters.

And, all of above could be exactly what you (reader) are looking for. It just does not do it for me at all. This game is trying to break the mold, which is admirable, but imo this is a failure that can hopefully serve as a learning opportunity for later success.

Great game! Once I started I literally couldn't stop playing it.
The grphics are good. Not to usual models, but look like actual people. Wish the animations were better, but theyre still fun.
There is a ton of of dialogue with the characters so the leveling up don't feel grindy. I need to know what Mari's secret sex fantasy is like yesterday!

Don't like all of the chars, skipped on the guy and the boss, but they are easy to avoid, so that's nice.
The music is good too, sometimes carries over to the next scene, but mostly sets the right mood.
5/5 will come home again!

A mediocre sandbox game. There's a long grind to unlock scenes with each character who are weirdly all fine right from the get-go about you fucking all the women in town. The story is mildly interesting but not very exciting.

The visuals need a lot of work with inconsistent lighting of scenes that need to be fixed, characters are bright in one scene and then dim while some move up and down with the light.

Come home is a fantastic sandbox adult game that incorporates a solid main story, a large number of interesting characters and love interests, and a wide array of kinks and fetishes.

The game is pretty straightforward (you do not need a walk-through or a mod to help you navigate through the stories - yes, it has a main story and plenty of side stories), and you as the player have the choice to either pursue someone or just ignore them (if they are not your type/kink).

On top of some great writing and plenty of content, this game has good renders, animated sex scenes, and unique back ground music for each character.

All in all, I would totally recommend this game to anyone and everyone that wants to have a great time!

PS: My review is based on my experience playing till the chapter 8 of this game.

Update, Version: Chapter 9

The more I play this game, the more invested in it I get. The characters are so grounded and, again, the writing really takes it to another level. You feel like you like (most) of these characters for who they are and not just cuz they're physically appealing.
Add to that some super hot sex scenes (I'm as sucker for group and DP), again NO GRIND TO SPEAK OF, and you've got yourself a fantastic game.

Can't wait to see what else in store!

Version Played: Chapter 8

I believe the writer is a woman and I feel that really adds to the believability of the situations and characters as well as not making the MC come across as a complete prick who probably couldn't actually score in real life. The women are fleshed out with some interesting personalities.
The overarching story is a little silly with its pseudo-science/metaphysical bent, but it definitely gets points for trying something a little different!
The individual character stories are overall very interesting.

Positives:
+ Well-written, likable characters
+ Trans and gay content available if you're into that. 100% avoidable if not.
+ BUSH! (could use more though)

Negatives:
- Nothing major stands out.

Like This? Try!: Dreaming with Elsa
Note to Dev: Please keep the quality of writing up. Looking forward to seeing more content!

Here’s my first review ever of Come Home (Chapter 8) by R.J. Rhodes

Story [Grade B]
The main plot is decent enough and it’s about the MC coming home to discover the mysterious events surrounding his father’s disappearance. It’s hard to say at this point what satisfying conclusions the main story will provide. The only gripe I can say about the story is that the MC isn’t very interesting all by himself. However, it’s the 20 love interests that make this game exciting and carry the overall story in my opinion.

Playability [Grade A]
The main reason this VN is so much fun is that you can play at your own pace. No need to jump heavy into the main story if you don’t want to. There’s plenty of quality love routes to play through and explore. I like that there aren’t any consequences of dating multiple characters. And you can even get extra dialogue options if the girl you are on a date with is seen by other girls you know. The 7 day system makes it easy to hangout with the characters you want to at your own convenience.

Writing [Grade A]
I may not be completely in love with the main story line just yet, but there’s a lot to like from the writing in general. Each of the 20 love interests have a story of their own to tell and it’s written in a very easy to understand way. The dialogue you get from dates and phone conversations can tell you many things about a person including their likes, dislikes, main goals and motivations. I can’t really think of any other VN that the player can ask the characters what they are afraid of or what’s their biggest disappointment in life. Overall, you can tell the dev handles each character with care and nothing is rushed in the writing department.

Amount of Content [Grade A]
The amount of content here is plenty as it took me several days to play through it all. When it comes to sex there’s plenty of blowjobs, handjobs, and titjobs here. Most characters don’t have full sex scenes yet, but the animation quality of the scenes here are decent and pleasing to the eye. So even though this VN doesn’t have the highest quality of renders, what’s here is certainly above average to say the least. Also the look of the characters are made well enough to be unique and not be off-putting to the causal player.

Performance and Sound [Grade A]
I’ve played a ton of VNs and when it comes to performance many of them have bugs you just have to play around with. Fortunately this game is well polished and I didn’t encounter any game breaking bugs in my playthrough. The sound is decent for a game like this where the music tracks played match the setting and places the MC can go. As a person that usually likes to listen to his own music while playing a VN, I didn’t feel the need to do so as the song selection here is pretty solid.

In conclusion, I give Come Home 5 stars out of 5. There’s plenty of content to enjoy and I look forward to more.

I've played it only for 3 in-game weeks, because it's boring. Mostly it's just short scenes, with little to no meaning, devoid of depth or emotional engagement.

Most of women are not attractive.

For those more attractive ones, I got no sex with Mi Cha or Rodrigues or Tammy, and Kendra's sex scene was unimpressive.

It's not a high quality game, e.g. models are often just mechanically placed against backgrounds, with no regard of scaling or lighting.

Even the coding is clumsy: always increasing indents; calls with no parameters; repetitions of the same blocks for every character; pointless pieces of code (like trying to add affection before attraction could even start, which results in immediate return from the function).

[Ch.8]

Request to the mods... can we get a rating system that goes up to 100 stars? this game needs it.

with a cast of 24+characters, you would expect them to lack personality, and you'd be wrong.. here we're faced with amazingly flashed characters with great personalities (some of them are bad people but that's a different topic and I wouldn't want them any other way)
let's talk about the renders....what you see in the previews doesn't give you the full picture, characters (not just the girls) get better, hotter their clothes and hairstyles change giving you the illusion of reality that Top tier AVNs should provide.

the sandbox in this game actually helps pacing the story in a way that feels organic and natural, although often we may find ourselves forced to chose where to go and who to meet.
Speaking of story, each update has the right dosage of story progression and relationshipn development. And you never feel like the pacing is dragging.

Finally let's talk about the lewd part; sure the sexy times are fun and nicely rendered but sometimes the journey is the best part... for example doing those silly dates with Brandi can be more satisfying than full sex in other games.
and keep in mind that nothing is forced upon you

I've played this for over 26 hours at the moment of reviewing

An excellent game!

I was not expecting much given the plot summary (which sounds painfully cliché), but I was very positively surprised:
The writing is good, the whole thing seems in some sense "mature" and the people feel real in some way.
The MC is reasonable! (He *knocks* at a bathroom door! Instead of barging in with his 1m cock hanging out of his boxers!)
Most LIs are actually nice and relatable!
Even the stereotypical roles are filled well: The "bitch boss" is not just an archetype that has to be fucked into submission with said 1m cock, but is a reasonable and interesting and smart character. (Btw, the MC can get on the receiving end of sexual workplace harassment; but that can be avoided I think.) The hillbillies were a bit too stereotypical for my taste, though.

I think there is optional gay contents (did not follow it, so I am not sure),
and there is mild pressure to follow (well made) trans contents (but it can be avoided). If your manhood is threatened by such things, be aware.

Of course the story is completely unrealistic (or, to put it bluntly, stupid), starting with the harem setup (with a harem of ridiculous size) and continuing with some ridiculous many world quantum physics scifi;
but I found that quite forgivable.

The renders are fine but not fantastic. Several times the placement of characters in the background ore relative to one another seems off
(e.g. Kendra Toilet scene, or sitting on park bench, or the councilor touching the MCs shoulder which looks more like her hand hovering in front of him;
the characters on the title screen seem to have inconsistent head sizes;
MC does not remove shoes on beds and sofas, I assume because it would be more work to render?)
The facial expressions are sometimes exaggerated or strange, but that is OK.
The models are fine: Even the "MILF" type (a type I usually hate in AVNs) is done better than normally (she still has humongous tits, but at least combined with wide hips, leading to a more human-like overall impression)

I do not like sandbox mechanics, but here it is done lightly and did not annoy me at all.
Only sometimes the navigation was a bit confusing (I never found back to garage to try to repair the car, or the the backyard to mow the lawn?)

(Did I mention that there seem to be too many LIs?)

All in all a very good game, I am looking forward to updates...

Surprising amount of content considering the size of the game, with pretty good graphics, though the animations are not that good.
The writing is also pretty good, a lot of characters and each of them feel quite different and well written. I loved some of the interactions with character through the phone in the game.
There is lewd content in the game, some of them pretty good, others not so much, especially since most of them are not explicit enough imo. I almost always felt like that most of the scenes could have been a lot more exciting with a few extra camera shots and angles.
Also i was quite annoyed by the fact that almost all of the characters i was really interested in barely have any lewd content or none at all, like Jez, Juliana, Mrs McGee, Gertrude, Mrs Mills, Brandi, Whitney.
Overall the game is absolutely worth a try, and im looking forward to future updates.

Great writing with realistic characters with personality, albeit with a little "porn-world" progression to get things going. Models are pretty varied and hot.

Pretty big fan of the fact that there isnt any real, heavy drama in this game as well. I'd say that if you are a fan of games like Summertime Saga, this would be a great game for you.

There are not many games on this site that I would support via Patreon. This game is the exception to that rule. Amazing dialogue, fantastic array of characters, and great assortment of kinks/fetishes/sexual preferences from which players can choose. Absolute 10/10, for me. Check it out! You won't be disappointed!

I am Brazilian, and one thing that makes me laugh in this game, it's them talking about him going to a university in brazil being a good thing. Man the schooling here in brazil is horrible, most of teens learn english because of the games, most of people here is almost are almost killing each other for one chance to go to a "bad" university in the US.
This game make laugh a lot! Thank you.

Was not expecting to become attached to this game so much, much less a sandbox....but nevertheless I am

There's a deceptively large amount of content to go through with a very clear explanation of how things work so you don't need to worry about not having enough to play or knowing how to play. There are plenty of love interests to choose from that range across the spectrum and I'm all for that open acceptance of sexuality.

While renders I wouldn't say are the best, they did grow on me after a little while, especially with Kendra and the school staff. Dana, Mari, and Reba are all top notch baes.

Only thing I will say are that the animations need some work. While there are some that look fine, some of them either look like bobbleheads or demons being exorcised. The head/neck movement is herky jerky and irregular and a little offputting at times.

All that said, I still believe this is a pretty quality game that deserves its fair amount of attention