VN Ren'Py Game of Hearts [Ch.5 R1] [SparkHG]

[jly]

Does R1 mean it's complete or not?

I always get confused by every developer's special versioning code system

 

[cariadult]

Hey everyone, just curious—does anyone know how much rendering the game has in the current release?

 

[slick97]

The quality of each update compared to how short the wait time between releases are has solidified this dude as the eighth wonder of the world.

In all seriousness though, this update was a nice change of pace compared to the past few chapters - which primarily focused on tempering Meredith for your harem. Spoiler for the rest of my thoughts:

Spoiler: Chapter 5 (R1)

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[siath70]

Kind of a strange update. I was hoping it would finally give us a sense of where the various approaches (affection vs corruption, encouraging Tommy to be honest, etc) we can take are headed, but if anything I'm even more confused now. The situation with Meredith and Tommy didn't seem consistent with the last time we saw them together if you encouraged Tommy to be honest with her. But at the same time the game is STILL offering us the chance not to push the full-tilt seduction approach with Meredith, so it's not like the game just overrode our choices. I really don't get what the goal of these choices is in the long term.

Moving on, I think it was a mistake to have scenes of the MC playing Influence games with Julia, Ruby and Brie back to back to back: even with the differences between the girls, the gameplay was starting to feel a little repetitive by the end. (Probably didn't help that all three girls kept their bra on during their sex scene for no clear reason.) As for the girls themselves, Julia didn't explore much new ground, and Meredith is mostly setup for the next update. Maxime is as uninteresting as always. Ruby did explore new ground, but it felt very rushed. Brie is a really cool character, but it feels like like her scene skipped over why the MC met her: I thought the whole point was to get her support for the MC in the upcoming demon war, but instead they seemed to focus on helping to take down the MC's mom - even though they all acknowledged that was far beyond their ability. Then they pivot again to the MC trying to fulfill Brie's favor. I think I have a good grasp on what Brie wants from the MC, but I'm lost on what exactly he's looking for from her (beyond lewd content, of course).

This wasn't a bad update or anything close, but it was surprisingly hard to wrap my head around it.

Everything you do with Meredith affects her outcome, what and how you react to Tommy affects her outcome. From what I understand, you can fail recruiting Meredith (Game over?), but I don't know for sure. Telling Tommy to be truthful is one way to make it harder on you. I do know you can make some pretty bad choices that do not let her advance (gain aff or corr). Even says you can scare her off. But like I said can you really fail? No idea...
You are full tilt corruption/affection (mine is balanced) on Meredith, what you do affects her attraction for you (lust) or corruption (desire) for you, basically how she see you.
You're right about the interactions between Meredith and Tommy not being the same. Remember what happened at the hotel, it changed everything for Meredith and that simple fact is reiterated at the start of the chapter with her and Red. He even point out they no longer need to be in front of the camera anymore. It's meant to have a profound impact on how she feels about Red, it was the one thing she said no too and then she does it herself anyway.
I don't know for sure, but I think this will have an affect on how she interacts with you. I asked on Patreon what the different paths mean, but to be honest the Dev never responded. Some clarification in game about what these different paths mean would be nice.

Maxime is not really in the picture for the most part right now, the story is about Meredith currently. Maxime shows you what she is about by helping Red with everything, she is 100% devoted to him. As was said by Julia, she's coming back and will probably never leave Red's side again. I think Maxime will grow once this Meredith thing is over. I am interest who his next woman will be, I expect more.

The whole point of Julia and Ruby and why that is still shown is to show how much stronger he has gotten. Julia tells him she can't handle him any more, he's gotten to strong. She the lets Ruby take over in his weakened state to see how much farther he can go, Julia even says Ruby is much stronger than her.
It was mentioned several times, he has to learn to resist, that if he can't he will die and it only take a touch to do it. This is the reason for the training along side showing his growth.
The bra thing was discussed on Patreon by a few of us. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it isn't unheard of. The Dev might find that kind of thing to their liking and that is why it's that way. It's different, so there is that going for it, not many VNs have women leave their top on while having sex. Different is a good thing sometimes.

Brie has a whole other problem, she was also abused by his mother and has scars like him (not as bad). I, and this is my opinion, think her power is being blocked off. This has caused her to slowly lose emotions, she even mentions it's not just one emotion she can feel others dulling too. My guess is Red will have to make a pact with her to break this seal. I'm going to go out on a limb and say his mother did it to her based on what she told Red his mother did to her.
Red knows he can affect her with his power, but it's not enough to get through, this is my reasoning of it needing to be a pact.

The update wasn't that confusing to me, here is how I looked at it and what I took away from it.
It showed how close Meredith is to breaking and what a stupid ass Tommy is.
It showed how much more powerful he has gotten based on his interactions with Julia and Ruby.
It brought Brie into the picture with her problem, he now has to figure out to save her from her fate. This gives the story something else to focus on beside corrupting women.
It let us know that his mom is no one to be messed with and everyone is afraid of her.

Spoiler: Meredith Levels aff/corr changes I have noted

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I will say these are my opinions and what I feel like I learned from this last update.

 

[JokerLeader]

```
I'm sorry, but errors were detected in your script. Please correct the
errors listed below, and try again.


File "game/scripts/chap2/chap2_mer_scenes.rpy", line 1253: scene statement expects a non-empty block.
    scene chap2_mers_8b with dissolve :
                                       ^

Ren'Py Version: Ren'Py 8.2.3.24061702
Sat Aug 31 07:04:53 2024
```

At the line in question, there's an extra :. Removing it fixed the error

I think the actual Cheat button is missing too. At least, I don't see where it's being added and there's no scripts/options.rpy

Thank you
as far as the cheats go, they show for me

 

[BoomDaBoom]

Thank you
as far as the cheats go, they show for me
View attachment 3985212

I also found these errors. Not sure if they've been discussed yet. They don't happen on a non-modded game.

Spoiler: Error

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Spoiler: Error

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[lukas7533]

What the fuck. 1600 renders, a lot of animations in just 5 months ? Thats crazy output. Not to mention that quality wise this is still among the best AVNs I have ever played.
Good shit dev

 

[Arj31]

What the fuck is mc's mom? She can convert people into angels by physically hurting them?

 

[yangjuelek]

i wish the text is a bit higher ?
its way too low for me
idk if this is because of the mod or from the game itself

 

[Damien112]

What the fuck is mc's mom? She can convert people into angels by physically hurting them?

Probably some Christian extremis that hunts the paranormal, in worlds like this one where stuff like demons and angels exist it's a staple for there to be some sort of group that hunts the supernatural or "protects" most of humanity from the demons, I wouldn't be surprised if after her encounter with Reds dad she joined such a group in her hatred and spite.

Feels like Brie was supposed to be an experiment to prevent demon influence on humans by reducing or blocking of emotions that demons could potentially prey on and tempt with like desire, love and happiness by using a touch of the angelic, but the experiment failed, and while Brie did end up partially angelic in nature it came with an unfortunate Side-effect that is making her slowly lose connection to all her emotions, maybe due to the intended effect not being properly regulated.

The motivation for the mother to do something like this is also apparent, since she was enticed by his father but didn't succumb and now has a massive hate boner for all things demonic. Brie's plight might have occurred due to a spiteful woman's attempt at preventing what happened to her from ever having a chance of repeating and Brie might just be someone she was willing to sacrifice towards that end.

 

[Arj31]

Probably some Christian extremis that hunts the paranormal, in worlds like this one where stuff like demons and angels exist it's a staple for there to be some sort of group that hunts the supernatural or "protects" most of humanity from the demons, I wouldn't be surprised if after her encounter with Reds dad she joined such a group in her hatred and spite.

Feels like Brie was supposed to be an experiment to prevent demon influence on humans by reducing or blocking of emotions that demons could potentially prey on and tempt with like desire, love and happiness by using a touch of the angelic, but the experiment failed, and while Brie did end up partially angelic in nature it came with an unfortunate Side-effect that is making her slowly lose connection to all her emotions, maybe due to the intended effect not being properly regulated.

The motivation for the mother to do something like this is also apparent, since she was enticed by his father but didn't succumb and now has a massive hate boner for all things demonic. Brie's plight might have occurred due to a spiteful woman's attempt at preventing what happened to her from ever having a chance of repeating and Brie might just be someone she was willing to sacrifice towards that end.

Even then, how come supernatural beings such as mc and brie are saying they can't take on the mother. Will she smite them or what? After all she is just a human, or is she..

 

[micojive]

Every single dev developing games should watch these sex scenes to see how to make a good one. Every single scene feels so freaking intimate, feels like the dev actually cared about making a quality product.

The story is interesting enough if not a little simple so far, but holy hell the sex scenes are so fucking good.

 

[sac812]

Even then, how come supernatural beings such as mc and brie are saying they can't take on the mother. Will she smite them or what? After all she is just a human, or is she..

She's an angel ... maybe even *THE* Angel. (IMO)

I love stories like this where we know "enough" but not nearly everything, so we're forced to try and connect the dots ourselves and fill in some gaps. With that in mind, this is my working theory -- or how I've pieced things together in my head.

MC's mom grew up a devout Christian. Around college age or shortly after, she dated Astofiel. She eventually got pregnant and had Red ... then other children followed. We know Red has only vague memories of his mother (and what she did to him), so I think somewhere around 3-4 years old is when Astofiel made his ill-fated attempt to have MC's mom worship him.

With the heavens still having *just* enough of a hold on her, she resisted, freaked the fuck out, and tried to destroy Red as she could only now see him has her demonic offspring (hello, scar). Maybe she would have tried to do the same with their other kids but before she could, Astofiel realized his mistake, wiped her memory of Red, and got her out of the picture.

Even without full knowledge/memory of Red, his mom would have continued to go through life as a devout Christian. As both angels and demons need followers and worshippers to grow, and I suspect that she has risen up through the ranks to sit atop whatever the angelic hierarchy looks like -- or, if not on top, very very close to it.

(I may have missed something during Astofiel's intro speech, but one thing I'm *not* certain of with regards to the coming Succession War -- are angels and demons to fight each other for the place at the High Table, or is that vacancy purely a demon interest and they are only in competition for converting followers?)

At any rate, I think it's clear that Red's mom -- fueled by her hatred for demons -- devoted her life after Astofiel to becoming more devout, and thus a more more powerful angel. To the point where she was willing to sacrifice people she didn't see as "human" (hello, Brie) in order to conduct a variety of out-of-the-box experiments and push the envelope of her power-generating abilities. Some were likely unsuccessful ... others likely were not.

That she is willing to use and discard human beings she doesn't consider "worthy" (like prostitutes) for the sake of pursuing her own goals (power) I think says a lot about 1) her hatred of demons and 2) the true nature of her own "angelic" self. (I'll avoid noting the obvious comparisons to contemporary religious fanatacism.... oops).

I made the comment a page or so back that I think the bald guy (from the hotel elevator and Brie's office at the end of the update) is a very powerful angel on the same level as Astofiel is to demons. My sense is that Red's mom is higher up the angelic food chain than that guy is. So, the full extent of her power is ... significant. And she *really* fucking hates demons.

To be clear, this is all conjecture on my part and I could very well be wrong about some/all of it. It's just how I've pieced things together so far while trying to read between the lines a bit.

 

[sac812]

Probably some Christian extremis that hunts the paranormal, in worlds like this one where stuff like demons and angels exist it's a staple for there to be some sort of group that hunts the supernatural or "protects" most of humanity from the demons, I wouldn't be surprised if after her encounter with Reds dad she joined such a group in her hatred and spite.

I missed your post when I was reading, but I just realized that you covered much of the same ground that I did above, albeit more concisely lol.

I think the idea I quoted is a really interesting one ... still unquestionably "angelic" but with a more specific purpose. It does contrast, I think, with my purely hierarchical theory, but definitely plausible and could make for some interesting storylines.

 

[Maviarab]

She's an angel ... maybe even *THE* Angel. (IMO)

I love stories like this where we know "enough" but not nearly everything, so we're forced to try and connect the dots ourselves and fill in some gaps. With that in mind, this is my working theory -- or how I've pieced things together in my head.

MC's mom grew up a devout Christian. Around college age or shortly after, she dated Astofiel. She eventually got pregnant and had Red ... then other children followed. We know Red has only vague memories of his mother (and what she did to him), so I think somewhere around 3-4 years old is when Astofiel made his ill-fated attempt to have MC's mom worship him.

With the heavens still having *just* enough of a hold on her, she resisted, freaked the fuck out, and tried to destroy Red as she could only now see him has her demonic offspring (hello, scar). Maybe she would have tried to do the same with their other kids but before she could, Astofiel realized his mistake, wiped her memory of Red, and got her out of the picture.

Even without full knowledge/memory of Red, his mom would have continued to go through life as a devout Christian. As both angels and demons need followers and worshippers to grow, and I suspect that she has risen up through the ranks to sit atop whatever the angelic hierarchy looks like -- or, if not on top, very very close to it.

(I may have missed something during Astofiel's intro speech, but one thing I'm *not* certain of with regards to the coming Succession War -- are angels and demons to fight each other for the place at the High Table, or is that vacancy purely a demon interest and they are only in competition for converting followers?)

At any rate, I think it's clear that Red's mom -- fueled by her hatred for demons -- devoted her life after Astofiel to becoming more devout, and thus more a more powerful angel. To the point where she was willing to sacrifice people she didn't see as "human" (hello, Brie) in order to conduct a variety of out-of-the-box experiments and push the envelope of her power-generating abilities. Some were likely unsuccessful ... others likely were not.

That she is willing to use and discard human beings she doesn't consider "worthy" (like prostitutes) for the sake of pursuing her own goals (power) I think says a lot about 1) her hatred of demons and 2) the true nature of her own "angelic" self. (I'll avoid noting the obvious comparisons to contemporary religious fanatacism.... oops).

I made the comment a page or so back that I think the bald guy (from the hotel elevator and Brie's office at the end of the update) is a very powerful angel on the same level as Astofiel is to demons. My sense is that Red's mom is higher up the angelic food chain than that guy is. So, the full extent of her power is ... significant. And she *really* fucking hates demons.

To be clear, this is all conjecture on my part and I could very well be wrong about some/all of it. It's just how I've pieced things together so far while trying to read between the lines a bit.

I missed your post when I was reading, but I just realized that you covered much of the same ground that I did above, albeit more concisely lol.

I think the idea I quoted is a really interesting one ... still unquestionably "angelic" but with a more specific purpose. It does contrast, I think, with my purely hierarchical theory, but definitely plausible and could make for some interesting storylines.

As long as he goes with the actual biblical version of angels (who are very far from being anywhere near 'good') I'd be more than happy with that plot variation. Would add a great dynamic.

 

[sac812]

As long as he goes with the actual biblical version of angels (who are very far from being anywhere near 'good') I'd be more than happy with that plot variation. Would add a great dynamic.

Yeah, I feel like the dev/writer has so far made no attempt to hide the fact that he gives the angels *zero* moral high ground and I love it lol.

There was a line that MC and Brie shared at the end -- something like "Angels coerce. Demons tempt. Humans suffer."

Yuuppp....

 

[Canto Forte]

Let these angels descend into this game!

Spoiler

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Angels coerce. Demons tempt. Humans suffer.

Let them spread the joy of becoming and the truth of deliverance!

Spoiler

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She's an angel ... maybe even *THE* Angel.

Let their fantastic bodies and their disarming minds cut deep into our deepest sorrows!

Spoiler

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still unquestionably "angelic" but with a more specific purpose

Let there be paradise befallen on our journeys!

Spoiler

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[ename144]

Everything you do with Meredith affects her outcome, what and how you react to Tommy affects her outcome. From what I understand, you can fail recruiting Meredith (Game over?), but I don't know for sure. Telling Tommy to be truthful is one way to make it harder on you. I do know you can make some pretty bad choices that do not let her advance (gain aff or corr). Even says you can scare her off. But like I said can you really fail? No idea...
You are full tilt corruption/affection (mine is balanced) on Meredith, what you do affects her attraction for you (lust) or corruption (desire) for you, basically how she see you.
You're right about the interactions between Meredith and Tommy not being the same. Remember what happened at the hotel, it changed everything for Meredith and that simple fact is reiterated at the start of the chapter with her and Red. He even point out they no longer need to be in front of the camera anymore. It's meant to have a profound impact on how she feels about Red, it was the one thing she said no too and then she does it herself anyway.
I don't know for sure, but I think this will have an affect on how she interacts with you. I asked on Patreon what the different paths mean, but to be honest the Dev never responded. Some clarification in game about what these different paths mean would be nice.

Maxime is not really in the picture for the most part right now, the story is about Meredith currently. Maxime shows you what she is about by helping Red with everything, she is 100% devoted to him. As was said by Julia, she's coming back and will probably never leave Red's side again. I think Maxime will grow once this Meredith thing is over. I am interest who his next woman will be, I expect more.

The whole point of Julia and Ruby and why that is still shown is to show how much stronger he has gotten. Julia tells him she can't handle him any more, he's gotten to strong. She the lets Ruby take over in his weakened state to see how much farther he can go, Julia even says Ruby is much stronger than her.
It was mentioned several times, he has to learn to resist, that if he can't he will die and it only take a touch to do it. This is the reason for the training along side showing his growth.
The bra thing was discussed on Patreon by a few of us. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it isn't unheard of. The Dev might find that kind of thing to their liking and that is why it's that way. It's different, so there is that going for it, not many VNs have women leave their top on while having sex. Different is a good thing sometimes.

Brie has a whole other problem, she was also abused by his mother and has scars like him (not as bad). I, and this is my opinion, think her power is being blocked off. This has caused her to slowly lose emotions, she even mentions it's not just one emotion she can feel others dulling too. My guess is Red will have to make a pact with her to break this seal. I'm going to go out on a limb and say his mother did it to her based on what she told Red his mother did to her.
Red knows he can affect her with his power, but it's not enough to get through, this is my reasoning of it needing to be a pact.

The update wasn't that confusing to me, here is how I looked at it and what I took away from it.
It showed how close Meredith is to breaking and what a stupid ass Tommy is.
It showed how much more powerful he has gotten based on his interactions with Julia and Ruby.
It brought Brie into the picture with her problem, he now has to figure out to save her from her fate. This gives the story something else to focus on beside corrupting women.
It let us know that his mom is no one to be messed with and everyone is afraid of her.

Interesting insights.

I'm aware the hotel scene was supposed to have changed everything with Meredith and by extension Tommy; the characters mention that point often enough to be a drinking game. My point is that this change felt artificial and poorly illustrated by the actual events of the game. To be fair, it's very possible my experience is atypical, a byproduct of my well below-grade Affection levels with Meredith. But the game is letting me play on this way so I'm assuming this should be a valid sub-path in the short term (even if it's essentially an unwinnable game state that will eventually lead to a Game Over).

Speaking of which, failing to recruit Meredith does not lead to a game over yet, at least AFAICT. You're warned that things have gone off the rails, but the game plays as normal otherwise.

Spoiler: Subtle Hints

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As far as the bra thing goes, I agree different is good. But my point is that having all three characters leave their bra on (while otherwise naked) back to back to back makes it feel extremely un-different. At that point it's less a breath of fresh air and more an odd fetish. I think it would have been better to shake the costume choice up a bit with one of the girls, probably Ruby since her scene is in the middle.

Spoiler: Meredith Levels aff/corr changes I have noted

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I will say these are my opinions and what I feel like I learned from this last update.

Is it even possible to have 4+ levels in both Corruption and Affection without cheating? I've never come close, but I've also never dug too deeply into just how to optimize my points. The fact that a bunch of scenes seem to play out the same way regardless of our levels with Meredith makes me worry that the game isn't properly tracking its loose ends and most of the choices we're making won't have much payoff down the line - which would be a real shame.

I don't like the though of breaking Meredith's will, so I've been trying to avoid that. From was Astofiel said that should be tantamount to suicide for the MC, but since the game makes it an option (and spends so much time ruminating on the morality of our actions), I feel like I need to try it and see where it leads before trying something less pleasant to me.

But as I said, I'm having a very hard time telling where it leads. Is this a broken path the dev never actually expected anyone to take? A very slow path to an early game over? A long and complicated path that could potentially lead to a secret, non-thrall ending for Meredith? The same path as all the other choices, just wearing a funny hat in some scenes? I really have no idea.

 

[Josie5213]

First of all I have to say I'm a bad guy and I'm on Meredith's path of love and have 4 hearts so at the end of the chapter I chose to have Meredith resist the MC because then in our next update when Tommy watches us break Meredith's last defenses it will be a huge victory and it will be too easy to be fun Of. course I hope this choice doesn't end badly for me because then I have to roll back the choice

 

[OnlyWorthyDevsMakeMoney]

I have a question: given the paranormal setting, what kind of MC we have here? One that actually loves and cares about the women or just an asshole that uses them for his own gain?