VN - Ren'Py - Crimson High [v0.37.1] [Vertigo]

This is probably one of my favorite VN's. All the girls are adorable and attractive. They all have different personalities.

The story is really good also. You start as a detective and your first case is a murder at a school, little do you know you're about to be thrown into a world you never would of thought could be.

Some of the stories about the girls past is pretty sad maybe there is a way for us to brighten up their lives? Yes, yes we can. Like I said before the girls are adorable. It's really hard to point out a favorite for me but I would say Miko, Mana and more recently Emma but I really do enjoy all the girls, these 3 are just my personal favorites.

If you haven't given this one a shot and you like a good story, cute girls and all around good time, check out this one. I think you will enjoy if you're ok with a slightly slow burn but, It's 100% worth it.

I had a hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars.

There's a lot to love. The premise and setting aren't anything new, but it executes the concept better than most. The general "cinematography" is very good, and the dialogue feels very natural.

The girls themselves are mostly attractive , interesting, and varied both in appearance and personalities. Miko in particular is a beauty that stands out from the typical crowd of Koi girls, but I can't quite put my finger on why. A few, like the blonde police woman (whose name I can't remember) stray a bit into the uncanny valley for me.

This leads into one improvement it desperately needs; a larger character gallery, and to include the "monster type" and "powers" (if applicable) of the girls we've met in it. You can assume any unknown girls are vampires and often be right, but there are a lot of side characters that are easy to forget important details of and it would be nice to know for sure.

In the end, I'm eagerly awaiting the next update, so that ultimately makes it worthy of five stars from me.

This is a hard game to rate for me because you can just tell there is a lot of love poured into it by the dev. This is clearly not a game that is just quickly made and uploaded for a few bucks. However, that being said, this feels like barely a game because of how much of a kinetic novel it feels like. Throughout the game, there are only a handful of choices, and those choices are minimalistic at best. You just decide whether or not you are interested in a girl, basically. There are no options for different routes or yes/no to certain kinks or anything like that. You're mostly just reading a very detailed and in depth story with a unique fantasy setting. As stated on the page, there are not a lot of sex scenes in this game at all. If you're coming for a sex game you'll be very disappointed. If you want a very long in depth written story with a fantasy setting that mixes with the modern day then you'll love this game. The girls are all honey select but its got a nice mix of uniqueness blended with an anime style and it looks really really nice. I really like the look of all the characters. Overall, it's a pretty damn good game, but barely a game, and for me that part disappointed me enough to take off a star.

I quite like the plot of Crimson High, there's some decent world-building and it holds a good amount of mystery that gets reasonably revealed. I do think though that it might have gotten overly ambitious with the number of plot points and characters with some not being properly examined by the detective MC or just lacking payoff.

Speaking of characters, there's quite a few LIs and they're all at least nicely modelled, though it doesn't seem that they're all optional (or at least the choice isn't made obvious). But then again, that would probably multiply the complexity of development by many times given how many characters there are, which is another issue as inevitably some characters just drop off in appearance for no reason other than having to pace out the story. Most of the characters get a fair amount of development but it an feel like too much to keep track of sometimes. The sex scenes themselves are alright though not too high in quantity, which at least is sort of explained with a sufficient plot reason.

Overall, I think the story drives forward very well despite a few hiccups, and I give it a 4 star rating primarily for that, even though the VN suffers a bit by trying to be too grand in the quantity of plot points and characters.

[As of 28.1]
As a first-time player, I enjoyed myself immensely. Eventually, anyway.

Honestly, the start was a little hard to get through, primarily because of the MC. While he didn't seem like a wimp, he did feel overly passive to me and not at all what I would expect a detective to be like. Didn't ask enough questions, didn't seem curious enough, and trusted too quickly. I was pretty sure he would get murdered two days after he gets assigned a case where the culprit actually IS a cute girl.

I also didn't like how he didn't literally take his gun everywhere after getting almost killed twice and finding out myths are real. I mean, yeah, you're going on a date with a girl, and bringing a gun is not usually your first instinct, but when both you and the girl have already been attacked multiple times, maybe it's a good idea to bring some protection! Even if you're on a date! Personally, I would have gotten a second gun, just in case.

I also felt he dropped the mother topic with Uraha too quickly. I mean, my mother is alive and well, but when a 500-year-old vampire tells me they "heard about her," I'd like some more information than that, let alone if she were dead.

Then, some minor things, like during Miko's date, where the MC gives her a box of chocolates that seems to appear and disappear into thin air. It's kind of funny when such things get acknowledged, like the MC thinking where they pulled this and that from, but when it's not, it's just weird.
There was also the time when the MC had already told Miko about Suzu staying at his apartment but later worried about telling Miko that exact same thing.

Anyway, having said all that, from about halfway into where the game is at now, I started enjoying myself a lot more as the MC started seeming much more like what I would expect someone like him to be.

I still have some grievances, though, like the MC still having failed to check the handwriting in that notebook. I mean, yeah, the case is basically over, but be a little more thorough; why don't you?
He also still has too many times where he "Doesn't know why he did/feel/say/think this or that." Even if it has gone down by a bit.
Like the time when he "Didn't know why he felt like kissing her," and I'm just sitting here thinking 'dude, you have a beautiful girl on your lap with her face close to yours while you're looking into each other's eyes. I would have revoked your straight male card if you didn't at least THINK about kissing her.'

It seems I somehow ended up complaining about the MC again, but I honestly enjoy both the MC and the game now. The setting and story are both intriguing, and I'm excited to see more.

There aren't really a lot of adult scenes yet, but the ones that are there are good, and I see a lot of promising stuff for the future.

So yeah, I deducted one star for the mediocre MC at the start, but otherwise great game.

Great game.

An engaging and well-written story. I love games like this, where the game scenes progress as you advance in the story.

All the characters are very well-detailed and developed. Plus, it's visually beautiful.

Congratulations to the developer!

I think this is a great example of what can be done with Koikatsu. The visuals and the sound are appealing in a general anime sorta way. The game isn't presented as a bunch of memes and references tying sex scenes together and the characters express personality beyond being clones of favored anime waifus.

Vertigo pays a great deal of attention to detail. There's no mid-scene camera angle jitter, no mid scene lighting changes or background objects moving around for no reason. What really impresses is how people in the background aren't static. In a lot of games the only character on screen that moves is the one you're specifically talking to. But this one, you see that they are presented like people, they'll react to things that are said or happen instead of just sitting there like dolls.

The MC is even a likeable sorta guy, he's obviously the lead of a harem story but not all his problems are solved by his giant magic dick like most others.

Speaking of which kudos to the dev for not subjecting the audience to more dick shots then girls. I don't know how many games I've tried where I have to frequently see the MC in the shower or pissing like they're advertising his alpha/bull/stud status right before they show us the evil dream sequences to qualify for tags they haven't got content for yet. Thanks Vertigo for being a rational person in this regard.

The story's great, actual character development for a couple characters so far. Although I will say, I hope there's some more challenges to overcome. I'm not saying I wanna see anyone die, but some more adversity would do well to spice things up. As it is it's mostly slice of life with monster inspired girls with some kinda spooky looming shadows nearby that might be a problem. Some day? Be prepared for cliff hangers if you play by the update, if you wait 2 or 3 and play them all at once you won't notice them. Clever that...

Give it a try if you like harem stories, girls in pleated skirts, and heartwarming character interaction punctured...I mean punctuated by some pretty good lewd content.

If you like the most generic characters, situations, plot, humour, mc, scenes and dialogue, this one is for you.
There is not one original thing going on in here and you have seen everything at least a dozen times already. The humor is random and cringeworthy and nothing interesting happens.

But at least it is stretched very thin and padded with more nonsense.

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!

edit/PS: as i have replayed updates I came to the conclusion that this is probably my favorite game of all time, next to Eternum and I am shocked at how few likes this has, wish the author success and that this gains more traction!

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 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 - 1,9/5. 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. But not anymore.
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 - 1,4/5. 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 - 1/5. VN with mini-game "FIND THE HAMSTER" (very f exciting) and its reward - boring girl random pics.

Characters - ~1,8/5. 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.