Ren'Py - Demons of the Hearth [v0.9 P2] [Konvel]

[v0.3] review

What it is:
Sandbox-style VN, filled to the brim with lore and then more lore. Some sex scenes are sprinkled in, but they feel more like "yea i guess I gotta add some sex to make this a lewd VN rather than a normal one", rather than a central theme of the game. The graphics are decent and the writing is above average, though that is far from enough to make up for this game's major shortcoming: a severe lack of eroticism.

I can't really enjoy this kind of production. The lewd elements feel like fan service and they completely lack build-up. No kissing, flirting or touching. No escalation at all and then full 0-100 fast enough to give me whiplash.
This is how it goes: (I'm paraphrasing) "hey we've been friends for a while, lets "have some fun"". And then they bang. Just like that.

It's like the dev felt forced to add sex to his game. It feels hollow. It's just the character sprites in lewd positions. I'm not feeling emotionally invested at all.

Then there's the matter of the lore. This is a game centered around lore, more than anything else. It's like the dev wants to really show off his nice world building and cool backstories, and that's fine I guess. But sadly, that's not at all why I'm here. If I wanted that kind of content then I'd go read some Tolkien or watch Game of Thrones. Which by the way is infinitely better than what this game is.

The dev is skilled, just not in the eroticism department. Which makes this one a pass. I can abide poor world building and bad writing if the erotic content is top-notch, but not the other way around.

If you don't care much for the lewd in your lewd games then give it a try, because the rest is definitely above average. It's just not for me.

There's very few games I wait as eagerly for updates as I do Demons of the Hearth.

Konvel has obviously spent blood sweat and tears on the initial release of this game, with the already massive amounts of content that was already provided for a first release. Forget 10 minutes, there was hours(Unless you skip everything for the lewd, -- what's wrong with you btw??)

The story, pretty unique among AVNs, has a large cast of unique girls, each with adorable quirks of their own. Upbeat, tomboy, girly, tsundere, kuudere, devout lover who worships the ground you walk on, onee-chans, there's all sorts. There's something for everyone to say the least.
Astrid, Chelsey and Lilac best girls btw (Fight me idc)

Anyway, the animations are great, the characters and artwork are great, the story is good, and there's tons of character in the characters. If that makes sense. The cast is amazing, Bazrel is hilarious and quite frankly OP.

You're stuck trying to piece together the world and make sense of everything, with a cast of girls that basically worship the ground you walk on. For better or for worse, you're a harem protag and these girls are dangerous. Dangerously sexy.

I consider good koikatsu games very rare, altho there's a handful of them around the website, but damn, this one was really, really good.

The story is VERY interesting to say the least and I do hope this is one of those story focused games (without skipping the H-scenes, though they should be a bit rare in order to feel like you "earned" them), because this is so far a really entertaining plot.

The writing is also superb with close to 0 grammatical errors and smart writing.

The H-Scenes could take some polishing, such as the girls not sliding back and forth on the bed (I'm looking at you, Bea)

Characters also have some very interesting design as well as captivating backstories. My favorite definitely is Astrid so far.

Rating: 4.5/5 but since I can't do 4.5 but don't think it deserves a 4, a 5 is definitely the better choice.

I sincerely hope this game grows and I can't wait to see how big it'll turn out.

EDIT: Oh, and the choice of OST is also great.

Game version 0.2


Another game "in the style of" Corrupted Kindom. That's not really bad, as CK is far from perfect.
What I like more about this adaption are the dialoges and the story altogether.
What I DON't like is the free-roam, which is boring, repetitive and redundant. All I do is to open the map and grind the women's locations again and again, until I gained enough points or whatever to trigger the next event.
A free roam game NEEDS a quest log, which isn't present, either.
I pure VN would have been much more accessible and easier to follow, in my opinion.
Then, there is NO gallery option, which is kind of annoying- almost EVERY ren'py game has to have its own modder, who is needed to patch one into the game manually- No idea, why the developers still haven't learned from it!
The lack of lewd scenes in the current version is acceptable, as long as there will be MUCH more in the future.

I do not recommend this game at its current stage, because of its lack of content and confusing progressing (> no quest log).

Actually interesting story and characters so far. Also has lots of content for such an early version. Few sex scenes but they were rewarding since most of the characters were built up first instead of just randomly fucking at first sight.

Could use a time skip/advance option since character events are time of day specific. Maybe there is one and I didn't see it after searching for it, in which case.. maybe make it easier to find.

Interesting characters, solid writing, and a mostly solid plot. There's also a satisfying amount of content for a first release, though it only has four sex scenes so far, if that's what you play games for.

The issues for me:

The game starts with an explanation of what's going on in the world from a neutral viewpoint and feels a bit expositiony, though I don't generally mind that in small doses. But said intro likes to drop names/terms without explaining them. For example, I spent a while wondering if "under the banner of Mastema" was referring to a nation, ruler, or diety and it took a handful of scenes to get the answer, even though it's relevant for the intro's context.

The reasons for the conflict and the characters and motivations of the human king and the demon lord aren't really delved into. I don't mind this, because I assume motives and reasons will be explored later, but it could be annoying if you dislike MCs that seem to act with limited information/reasons, as the main character doesn't have a stated reason to get involved. I don't mind this either because he's - put vaguely to avoid spoilers as much as possible - inhereted the will of two who do seem to have ample motives, and will very likely develop some of his own reasons as the story goes on. But I could also see that rubbing some the wrong way.

Navigation is probably the biggest issue. It feels like it could use a map (Maybe a map with areas that branch off into sub-areas, as there are quite a few exact locations), but the bigger issue is the fact that there's no way to tell where any character is at any given moment beyond memorizing their three-day schedule. A game where you have to find characters to see events needs a way to *find characters.* (Edit: As of 0.2, a much-improved map/navigation system has been put in that addresses both ease of getting around, and easily locating characters.)

I also hope some characters that are presented as major characters but don't yet have events will eventually share the spotlight.

Definitely interesting so far, and I'm eager for more.