VN - Ren'Py - Crimson High [v0.34.1] [Vertigo]

I love this game and I'm gonna tell you why, but I'm going to advise you first to go into this one blind. It's going to really make the first leg of the story that much more enjoyable for you.

Anyway, this game is fantastic. The main draws to this game that I want to write about are its story, the characters, and the world-building. Gonna tackle them 1 by 1. There's a lot more I could write about but I'm gonna limit myself to these because wow this review is already long.

The game is one of those slow burners like the dev message tells you it is. You're likely familiar with how these go: character relationships are built up over several hours and the main enjoyment isn't really about the sex payoff at the "end" of the build-up (it is there though, but not for every girl yet as of current update 0.28). You're playing the game to see the characters develop up to bedding them, and then seeing how things progress afterwards. This is not one of those harem games where you go through a 20-minute character arc with a love interest and then they end up just being a trophy you can smash on the side while you pursue the next one.

About those characters then, there's the typical selection of "archetypes" you'd find in a lot of harem games: various shades of shy girls, a couple of flirty girls, a quiet one, a mysterious one, etc. Where Crimson high will impress you is in how it gives you glimpses into the depth of each of these girls. A lot of showing and not telling, done through the small details in scenes like how the girls look at the MC, what they say to him, and how, and sometimes why. 10 hours in and you're still not handed a single one of these girl's full stories and the mysteries of those stories gives each girl a real and distinctive weight whenever they're on screen. The game has probably the most robust and most loveable roster of LIs in any harem game I've played, which is remarkable considering how many LIs there are.

I would talk about the plot here, but it's worth finding that one out yourself, so I'll say it's definitely compelling. Moreover, it allows the characters to surprise you with how they end up developing and interacting with it. A case where both the plot, and the characters are in symbiosis, both enhancing the other, which is absolutely something most games don't get right and where the dev deserves the most praise for managing.

I also want to talk about the MC's character, which a few reviews seem to have issues with. I think they underrate him. He's a detective, and definitely not a dumb one either as shown by how he interacts with what's going on in the plot, picking up on the nuances of what people say to him and being able to discern who he can trust and what people's intentions are. While he's got the typical harem master trait of wanting to take care of and help ALL the girls, he's not a pushover. He'll put his foot down when it's time to do so. He's a 24 yr old adult and he's dealing with a bunch of 18/19 yr old girls at the end of the day, and it's always apparent. If you give him a chance and pay a bit more attention to his monologuing and actions, he will impress you with his insight, or at the very least make you respect him as a character who's able to take the weight of so many people's lives and the responsibilities that come with them. Finally, just like the girls, there's a lot we/he does not know about himself. He has many inexplicable reactions to things, able to do things and react to situations much more competently than anyone expects, all of which in an interesting and grounded way. He has a real depth there, not at all like the typical plank or blank page but somehow competent MC.

Last is world-building. It's done pretty damn well. The game is based in the "real world", in Japan, but here are characters from all over the world, people who are way older than they appear, the threads of politics and intrigue are not explicitly laid out bare the story yet, but absolutely pulse and set the course of things. Again, depth, there's a lot of it and can hold the crazy plot and its fantastic characters in it and keep everything grounded with the rules and expectations that it establishes.

This is where my main criticism of the game lies though. Unfortunately, this game has one of the bad harem game tropes where the MC is the only man shown in the story who isn't dead, an asshole, an ASSHOLE, elderly, a dad, gay, or isn't the one and only buddy/bro trope character who is not at all a threat to your relationships. If you realize that there are basically no other "normal" guys in the story, it can put a dampener on the world-building side of things, specifically how it keeps the story grounded and believable in the context of everything. Even just showing an interaction with another normal couple, or better yet have some more cool, likable, and interesting male characters tangentially related to the plot would do absolute wonders. At the current patch point of the story, the MC is the world to most of the girls, there is no harm in letting them interact with another cool genuinely likable guy, who while isn't going try some ntr shenanigans, is again a normal dude who isn't conveniently disallowed from being liked by the girls. Besides making the world more believable, it would be a chance to show the depth (my favorite word apparently) of the girls' feelings for the MC.

Thankfully, this kind of thing can be done at any point in the story, it is a case of literally just adding a new side character. If you're reading this dev I hope I made my case well enough for you to consider doing something about this at least, this game is close to perfect for me and this trope is lame frankly.

4.5/5 game, rounded up because I think most people don't have as big of an issue as I have with not enough male characters in harem, story focused games. One of the best VNs I've played.

A very well written story with compelling characters. Despite the slow burn I still find myself drawn into the game and wanting to see more. If I had to complain about anything it would almost be that there are too many characters to follow =P

This game is excellent. I really look forward to the next update each time. Do head the dev's own warning though. It is very much a story focussed game. If you just want a few quick sex scenes then this game is not for you.

The English writing is (near) native. Can't find any fault with it. The artwork is good. As in framing, characters etc.

The biggest downside is the insistence of the dev on using cliff-hangers. They explained in comments that they do this as a way of marketing and getting players hooked. I think that this was a good strategy to be honest but now that there is a solid player base who come back regardless, if it is driving away more people than it attracts.
I know Soaps have constant cliff-hangers as well but they need to attract their audience at specific times to specific channels. Here you have a different model where a player can play whenever. I doubt this will change the dev's mind but hey. It's a small nit-pick to an otherwise great game.

Absolutely love this game! Played it at a point of thinking I'd seen all the good games and wasn't sure how to find new good ones, thought this looked worth a shot and tried it out. This immideately had me glued to the screen and was a game with great story and length to it along with good scenes which is painfully rare. Geniuninely may have become my favorite game ever after stumbling onto it now for the first time, in my opinion it is great story like tales of unity, worlds crossing academy and other games I held as the gold standard I was wondering if I'd ever find comparable games too. The moment I feel my income is stable enough this creator will be the first I support and please keep it up, my only feedback is more please!

Great game. Good pacing, and I really don't feel like H-scenes take that long to start appearing, but then again I'm used to classical VNs that can have 5-6 hour long common routes with 0 erotica whatsoever, also, really like the face models, they feel different and refreshing.
Only complain, and a very minor at that, is that at some points a similar general scenario keep repeating itself: Set up meeting/date- it get's postponed- date/meeting finally "happens" - something else happens during it and it gets cancelled and whatever was supposed to be discussed ends up being postponed, again - Final discussion. This happening once or 2 is a good storytelling tool, but in the middle of the current build it felt like it happened a couple times too many.
Otherwise 0 complaints.

Amazing game, got me essentially addicted.

The game itself is amazing. I follow the story intently while playing and actually feel emotion while playing which I have not experienced with a single other game - and I have played plenty in my time!

All the characters have their own personalities which have already been developing well throughout the current game.

With a hooking start Crimson High kicks off nicely with your detective work, and from there the mysteries of those monster girls unfold.
Crimson High is ceirtainly one of the best Koi made games with it's attention to details in every scene, making you easily understanding their emotions in the moment, and hidden secrets all over(Hampter).
It's ceirtainly a great game and it deserves the recognition , i'll be waiting for the next cliffhanger

Crimson High [v0.25.1] [Vertigo]

VN with stable 1,5-2,5 out 5. Tho, I have gripes with it and I'll see finished product to make final judgment. Check it out and don't forget to support dev if you really like it.


Story - 2,5/5. Average harem anime story, I skipped few drown out moments of inner monologue and just straight up word padding, but story was interesting enough to keep me going.
A "slow burn", as dev made strong point about it, with a strong focus on the story. Where girl MC met just ~8 hours ago finishes HJ with cum swallowing, after MC almost died from head injury and later surgery on kitchen table. It's not even in character, there were no prerequisites for that in her previous implicit or open behavior. He groped her, she starts purring and now apparently wants some "milk/creeam" in her diet. I don't f know.

Choices - 1,8/5. Pretty annoying, even though dev did some work removing unnecessary "choices", but there's still left much untouched padding. Many annoying variables/points, so you have to go back-n-forth many times to get things "right".
Side note: Btw, "walkthrough-guy" stopped working on his walkthrough for this game and dropped this VN all together (I get that), so don't expext any help further down the line.

Gameplay - 2/5. VN with mini-game "FIND THE HAMSTER" (very f exciting) and its reward - boring girl random pics.

Characters - 2,5/5. Cliche harem anime palette. ~16 girls. You'll probably find one that suits your taste, no promises.

Models/animations - 2/5. It's low/average end of Koikatsu, animations look mostly good, but models... especially MC, he looks so f bad. Good thing most shots are POV.

MC - 1/5 Blank piece of wood. DO whatever you want with it, he won't mind. doormat

Degeneracy - meeeeeeh. This harem game is super vanilla.

When a Ren'py game running mostly basic Koikatsu models pops up on this site with cute characters, I download it and expect to just kinda take a break from real life for a bit. If it opens up with some intro text proclaiming itself a slow burn for people who want a "good story", alarm bells start going off. That's usually an excuse you find on a game made by somebody who's gonna end up ripping people off on patreon as their characters are still holding hands two years into development as they report armageddon has unleashed itself upon their lives, causing slower and slower updates with less and less content. So when I downloaded this game, I booted it up, saw the content warnings, saw the intro text, got to the central focus being about a murder and... I closed it. A few hours later, I opened it back up out of boredom and not being able to find something else to do at the moment.

13 hours later, it is 7 AM the next day and I have completed all of the content.

Now I'm not going to say this is a masterpiece, I'm a stingy asshole who doesn't even say that about shit I've enjoyed for far, far more time. What I will say is that this is potentially the best example of a story that keeps a handle on its scope. The author clearly planned this shit out to a solid degree ahead of time and it absolutely pays off as you go through the story. Somehow, in a cast of ~30 characters (with more seemingly popping up all the time), the game manages to not be overwhelming. Each character has a fun degree of intrigue just upon meeting them. Even if you think you've figured out their backstory, there's usually an extra layer of it that isn't immediately obvious.

Again, I don't want to give anybody the false impression that this is a masterwork of writing and worldbuilding. It isn't. Most of the girls are very clearly some variant of "shy and cute". That is very clearly the author's preference. However, in my opinion, it's varied enough and usually has an extra layer to keep it from getting old. The author seems to understand that characters need to go through an arc to be interesting. I'd say their success rate in making this happen isn't perfect, but that could also just be a matter of preference. If every character in the cast was my favorite, I think that'd cancel itself out too.

I'm rambling a bit, but I imagine you get the gist. If you're looking for a long story with cute girls and a plot that strikes a good balance between comforting and intriguing, this is worth giving a shot.

A good game with a great story. The characters are likeable and the MC is a likeable character as well. Its a light hearted story about mythological beings and investigating weird shit. There are alot of characters and side stories that happen that sometimes feel really random, but that isnt really that bad of a thing.

Very good read id say, the story is immersive and had me excited many times. The story has good pacing and it has a LOT of content packed into each day. Though I would say, the MC being a detective and all really ignores the fact that he does something supernatural is kind of irritating. Every time he has the chance to explain some of the weird stuff he was able to do, he doesn't. With all of the context clues someone should have realized something right? (nope) Everyone is oblivious to the mc and it mostly feels like a plot hole. I believe I didn't come across any typos and I had a lot of laughs. I like that the game kind of eased into sexual content instead of blasting the reader into a sexual situation without any build up. There was a lot of character development for the MC, but mostly development in the characters around him. I got more than I expected with this read, and it surprised me, But yeah the author did a great job on this story altogether!

I absolutely adore the writing in this game. It's such a well-written story and the different fantasy and mythology parts add a lot of depth to it. Also Im a sucker for the art style and love how different the girls are.

Review v0.24.1

Highly recommend. There are way too many girls and the plot feels more like a series of vignettes for each girl than a single coherent story but maybe it will all end up tying together. The girls are very cute and all manage to have distinct personalities and the writing is very good except for the intro which I found super cringe. After that it was great, though.

For a game that opens with investigating a murder and leads into all sorts of conspiracies, it's a very light-hearted harem romp but the journey is fun enough that I was mostly able to shrug it off.

Great game, love the characters (maybe a bit too many love interests and side girls), interesting story and well written dialogue. I wasn't a fan of the art style at first but I quite like it now as well.

If you like slow burn AVNs, you should definitely try this one.

This one is a banger.

Main character is fun and a good person. Isn't taking advantage of anyone.

Characters have their motivations, some bigger than other and yes, most of them wants to fuck or be really close to Ren, but it is a Adult Visual Novel, so I don't know what people expect.

I didn't enjoy the renders at first but they got better or I just got used to it. Facial expression are really cute and most of the characters are adorbs.

This one is a banger.

I really like and care for each and every main character and can't wait to learn all of their stories. This is my favorite game so far. Just like the mc, I can't choose, I want them all haha. These slow burn games are my favorite and this game is the best among them. My only concern is increasing number of side characters, they are great and I hope you know what you are doing with the number of side cast and I hope in the future updates the quality remains

PS every time Nagisa shows up it's just pure delight

Wholesome light-hearted with some dark moments though harem novel with monster girls.

Character's design might seem simple, but still attractive. Girls are sweet and likeable. Story itself has deep lore but it manages to not fall into lore boombing and still stays fun. Yeah, according to in-game world rules Crimson High is a slow-burner, but that growing temptation between MC and girls is awesome.

Updates are regular, which is big plus. Yeah, they end with goofy ahh cliffhangers, but hey, you can just play until lewd scene and then come back after 4-5 updates. Works for me.

Kudos for dev. I'm patiently NO waiting for new updates with solution for sweet vampire girls

This is a fairly standard Ren'Py VN with Koikatsu renders for visuals. On a purely technical/visual level it's solidly in the top 10% of its kind. However, I absolutely cannot stand how the game claims that the protagonist is a prodigy who became a full-fledged police detective at an early age yet writes him as a bumbling everyman who has absolutely no sense of how to look for clues or solve a case. If any other character had this sort of disconnect it could be forgiven, but you can't escape the protagonist.

I would rate it 4.5 if I could, but I'm rounding up.

I'll start off by saying that Crimson High has all of the tropes that you've seen a thousand times in every other fantasy harem VN, but it also has a lot of charm and heart, something that is lacking from so many other games. There's clearly thought put into the world, the characters are in many cases more than just walking archetypes, and the MC is more than just the typical perfect male power fantasy self-insert. It's not just another harem game.

The art and characters are typical Koikatsu-render fare. There's none of the dark wizardry that Lessons in Love does to get the incredible model quality that LiL has, but it's on par with other Koikatsu-based games. The characters are cute, but perhaps more importantly they're distinctive. It's easy to tell characters apart visually and remember who is who even though there are a LOT of characters introduced in a pretty short span of time.

The prose is good enough. I wouldn't say that it stands among the best on the site, but it may as well be Shakespeare compared to the majority of western indie VNs. All I ever ask is that the quality of the writing isn't bad enough to distract from the story itself, and this more than achieves that.

All in all, it's certainly worth playing even if you've played other similar games, and I'll be watching like a hawk for updates because I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

Crimson High is a very well written story-focused AVN. As the developer says, it focuses more on character building than sex scenes. There are a few scenes in the game that are of good quality.
I don't want to say if you're in it for the porn then you shouldn't play this game, but if you are in it solely, 100% for porn, then it probably isn't the game for you. If you like relationship and character building, then it is the game for you. The main characters are well fleshed out each having their own unique personality. One complaint I've seen throughout the reviews is about how much the main character has inner monologues. While that is true, they're well written, typically push the plot forwards in some way, provide insight into the main character's thoughts, and in some cases provide some comic relief. The story itself is fairly linear, but there are choices you make along the way that have varying levels of impact. Currently, the vn is only written to the beginning of chapter 3, so I can't say how much impact they'll carry as it moves forward, but there are callbacks to earlier choices.
The author puts a unique spin on a few common myths, which leaves you questioning and wanting to learn more.

I would definitely recommend this visual novel if you enjoy story-focused games.