Reviewed Version [0.31 - Played up to 0.12, skimmed to around 0.14]
A short preface. I recently decided to systematically review the AVNs and conventional VN's i play and have played, although i might need to replay some of the past ones. Grandma's House was however one of the many new titles added to my library. To understand my 3 star rating you should know the following.
1. I played a very similar AVN just before Grandma's House and i ended up dropping that one for almost the exact same reasons, which left me a bit sour.
2. I consider myself to have above average standards for certain aspects in AVN's. Mostly related to writing and dialogue. My primary brain remains switched on when i read AVN's, but perhaps in a energy saving mode.
3. Like most people i have a set of tags/fetishes that i really like or care about. Just as well, i have a set of dealbreakers that very quickly will decrease my rating of a title or make me quit outright.
4. I have trouble containing my ramblings once i get going and some of my points below will seem oddly specific and nitpicky. I tend to use these as examples for more persistent issues.
5. Like most recent AVN additions to my library i picked Grandma's House based on certain tags: Harem (amazing if handled well), Pregnancy (both the breeding aspect and the pregnant look), INC(not needed but adds spice) and lactation.
6. I am kinda paraphrasing a review i already wrote in a personal word file. I have however merged some points together and maybe added a new point or 2. I also found some inspiration in other reveiws here.
Pros:
- While obviously a comedic relief character, Omar was legitimately funny and a nice break from the forced and often bad humor.
- A cast that is highly diverse and visually pleasing. The models look great compared to the average seen in Daz3D titles, with only a few wonky looking details on some of them. It's as if someone had occasionally used a morphing tool. Elizabeths (blonde aunt) tank top come to mind.
- H-scenes, while I never got far into the game, they were decent in most aspects. Plenty of renders to gradually illustrate the progression movements during an erotic encounter. Serviceable dialogue of an appropriate length. The occasional use of onomatopoeia works well. They looked fine without animation.
- Renders outside of H-scenes were used to great effect as well and i don't think that Grandma's House suffer from the lack of animation.
- A good variety of fetishes and the ones with the most focus are the ones i like the most. The primary reason i selected this title to begin with.
- No engrish here. Good consistent grammar and spelling
Mehs (or what i in some cases would label Hit/Miss for persons with different tastes from mine):
- Characters that dress lightly a with little reason. Mostly MC being shirtless at the slightest amount of physical work or in the morning long after leaving bed.
- Molly, the dog, feels like a wierd plot device. He/she (yes, i said that) spends 95% of her time cowardly hiding in the laundry room. Probably to avoid interferance with the "action"? IDK.
- A sin common in these non-fantasy and non-scifi setting are how these really expensive looking houses and apartments are so god damn widespread.
Cons:
- This is going to be a long section, but the dialogue, oh the dialogue. The dialogue is the primary reason i decided to drop Grandma's House.
Lets start with the content. In my mind it felt like 50-55% of what came out of MC's mouth were compliments. Then about 30% jokes and attempts at humor, that were not funny, 5 % that were somewhat funny and the last 10-15% were normal speech that actually served to move us forward in the plot, bring up information and so on.
Things weren't much different on the girls end with them putting themselves down, then accepting MC's compliments and praising MC saying "Oh well, i guess you are right MC, if only there were other guys like you out there, but no, there's ooooooooooonly you".
And it is all so damn hyperbolic and diabetically saccharine that it very quickly looses any true emotional impact because of how constant it is.
No one talks like that and it makes the vast amount of the central characters seem like cardboard cutouts or robots, with a singular purpose.
Fiona and Riona probably ended up as my favorite girls on account of having the most natural and REAL sounding dialogue. They, along with Omar, felt somewhat like real people.
- This high amount of compliments also results in incredibly stale and predictable conversations. Repetative as well. Some morning conversations feels indistinguishable from one another with the only diffrence being the result of different characters being present.
Another reviewer (starfarts) perfectly summarized how these conversations appear in his Feb. 27 2023. review.
- I mentioned the jokes that weren't funny. Try to pay attention and you will notice how often *Laughs* or *giggle* us used in the text. This is only a minor complaint, but it highlights the often forced nature of the humor. An example of forced humor would be whenever MC's lousy cooking skills are brought up.
- Then we have one of my personal dealbreakers, which is the relegation of all males into roles of villain, douchebag, comedic relief and goons( of the villains). I don't remember any goons or actual villain like characters in Grandma's House. But we have plenty of douchebags who are written to be super easy to dislike and effectively serves as delivery men, kicking one girl after another directly into the harem with MC not having to lift a finger in many cases. Incredibly convenient. What makes this a dealbreaker to me is not the way it is used as a cheap narrative trick, but instead the toxic portrayal of the male gender. It baffles me how the AVN medium, dominated by straight male consumers, isn't a cultural bastion, where we can escape from that BS.
- The concepts of male power fantasy and wish fulfillment is taken too far and there's a lot to this issue.
First we have the lower arm sized dong, which also doesn't look that great. It practically gets worthshipped and all that jazz. Dev did a decent job with positioning the models in the H scenes, but sometimes, due to awkward camera angles, the dong looks so big, and the girls so small in comparison, that they would need snake-jaws to fit the damn thing during oral.
There's also the ridiculing of other unseen male characters for being cucks. Really, F****** REALLY?! Jesus, what a powertrip this is. Is there anything this title won't do in order to make MC seem like the most ALPHA ever?
He is like beyond ALPHA, like litterally defining of what alpha means, like..................The Proto-ALPHA.
- Despite being written as a mushy character who can do no wrong, MC is incredibly casual about how he would use severe violence on the poor douchebags who are doomed from the start because of MC's level 9000 plot armor (hmmmmm, is it even plot armor is there is no plot and only expansion of the harem?). Leave the poor lads alone, they can't help that they were created like that.
- Nana's wealth is used to conveniently handwave away the few small, but slightly interesting issues that we face. This is a minor issue. Dev likely found some better assets(houses/apartments) and needed to implement them somehow. But still, buying up an entire apartment complex because your friend is under slight risk of eviction? A little much.
- I only just got to the parts where the label starts getting used, but the whole "Daddy" thing creeped my out real damn fast.
One of the aunt characters uses the term as well, but that just come across as wierd, especially considering that her daughter, the cousin, uses it as well, and even in the same scene. But no, even without the "Daddy" label, the interactions you have with pretty much all the younger girls (cousin and i think 5 others) are real damn creepy. I am aware that this very type of interaction is what brings some people here to full mast in seconds, but it just isn't for me. Fortunately, only the cousin and a young asian girl whose lewd content i didn't reach, are amongst the 7 unavoidable harem members, so i won't let this con drag the rating down substantially.
- The setting started out seeming like it was quite grounded with a slightly silly streak, but kept getting evermore silly and porn like.
Comments:
Well, i decided to give Grandma's House a 3 and not a 2 (in my existing review it was around 4.8-5.0 out of 10) because of the effort put into this one. I also think that some of my cons would barely noticed by the average AVN enjoyer. I would also say that this is mostly a case of Grandma's House just not being the right AVN for me, rather than Grandma's House being bad. Some of its weak aspects are litterally the norm in the AVN sphere.
