VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Haley's Story [v1.1 Pre-Patched] [Viitgames]

Short version: Not worth your time!

Long version:
The plot starts off strong. As an incest story, this VN tells the classic "forbidden love" story between two siblings that slowly take their relationship to the next level. In the beginning, the game tackles this moral and ethical issue decently well, but soon enough, several gameplay & narrative problems overwhelm it.

1. The incest plot briefly takes a backseat to heavy subjects like pedophilia and sexual abuse - something that can be made into a centerpiece is taken for granted in this particular instance, where that specific plot point is resolved too fast to be satisfactory to anyone, and begs the question of why it was included in the first place.
2. The "Visual Novel" completely forgoes asking for any player input after a certain point in the game (about halfway through). At least, it does so for probably the longest possible path you can take. I don't think I need to explain why that completely goes against the point of making a VN game, but people deserve to know. Absolutely shameful.
3. Apparently, there are quite enough of grammar and spelling mistakes in the final stretch of the story. I can't personally vouch for the intensity of this particular offense, but what I can say is this: the second half of the plot dragged on pointlessly for so long, that I was skimming over the text as fast as I could in hopes of reading something that can even remotely be considered plot-advancing. And once it did, the story actually ended several scenes later.

With all this said, I can't in good conscience give this game anything above 2/5, if only for the sake of well-done renders (not spectacular), as following the story feels like watching a plane get shot-down mid-flight - nothing but a burning mess nose-diving into its grave.

GREAT GODDAMN GAME suffering with shit-the-bed syndrome towards the end.
Lemme tell you there was shot where they were walking towards their home at night and they are looking at eachother in almost pitch black darkness, I knew it then and there that I am gonna carry this in my mind till the day i die.

Enough said.
By the way the abuse angle was almost bungled, hate it when it happens in any media.

A great game, Haley is very nice and great build from narrative perspective. The only minus is that after a while is getting boring with too much same dialogues. But if you are for visual than i would recomend to play it though.

v1.1
It starts out as a 4-5 star game, and roughly between the second half/last third of the game, it starts taking its spectacular nosedive.

The slice-of-life story revolves around incest, and it was well explored at first, through a nice, slow burn, with frequent timeskips of days and weeks to keep the story from feeling rushed and the game from feeling like a slog, all of it accompanied by a mood of upbeat cutesy set by the music, the characters, as well as the situations themselves.

And that evidently wasn't good enough beause the positive air was poisoned by the revelation of the title character's history with paedophilia/rape.
Not only did this come out of the blue, and pretty much changed the tone of the game irreversibly DESPITE continued use of upbeat cutesy, it was also poorly explored, inconclusive, and wholly unnecessary to the plot.
We (the players) never learn exactly what happened or how exaclty it ended, only that "Mom" (yes, that's her name) somehow "put a stop to it". That's literally all we're told.
We don't know the effects it had on the victim Haley short term, because it's never even mentioned, nor can we confront Mom, not to learn about what happened, learn how she "put a stop to it", why she started treating her own daughter as the unwanted child after the incident, or how there were evidently no consequences for the rapist, as if the topic wasn't important enough to varrant a discussion.
And as we play catch-up with vague, bare bones of past events, we also meet potential new victim(s), the rapist's new wife and step-daughter, whom he has been likely grooming, and who may or may not have been molested already. And also whose fate remains a total mystery because it's never mentioned again, after all, it was just a plot device to get Haley to begin addressing the problem.
We're also introduced to some super secretive high-class mysterious badass criminals (soo kewl) who can "deal with" the rapist.
So they do exaclty that.
What did they do? "Dealt with" him. What that means? No information given. Did anyone realize something happened? No information given. Consequences of that for sister? No information given. Consequences for the rapist's step-daughter or her mother? No information given. It's a bare bones addition, lacking close all the details, and was an absolutely unnecessary arc to the sister's character as it literally didn't change shit about her, or even play a remote role in the rest of the story, including all the endings.

The story of other characters aren't much better either.
One in particular, who potentially becomes the girlfriend/wife of the MC, whose mother experienced something similar, which also affected the girl in question. Even if you go down that path, you'll learn almost nothing of their story, after all, who cares, it's just your girlfriend and her mother, not a topic worthy of discussion, much less actual resolution.

Another girl, who was introduced as a free-spirited semi-slut collegue student got the ending where, disregarding everyone's established character, all sexual acts with her stopped, and she was essentially demoted to a roomie and "adopted" by MC and his sister. Until out of nowhere you just have a threesome with them the end thanks for playing bye.

In any case, Haley, the title character and MC's sister, is always going to be in the picture no matter what (not that I'm complaining about this fact, "Haley" is literally the title after all). Unfortunately it looks like the author ran out of ideas on how to make this (polyamory between 3 characters) happen naturally, and reached for convenient tools, like excessive amounts of alcohol to jumpstart things, simply and forcibly inserting sister into the relationship and blaming it on/justifying it with her antics, and/or straight-up manipulating characters to accept the brother/sister combo as part of the deal of being with the MC.
And while it looks like Haley's character develops slowly (at first anyway), it's undone by some of the endings, and in others her character is just arbitrarily changed.

Gameplay was, at first, typical of what you'd expect of a VN game, that is, choces are presented on a semi-regular basis which affect the story/characters.
However by the second half/last third of the game, choices became extinct and the game turned into a lengthy kinetic novel (with some endings being so...so...SO much longer than others).
There is also a problem with the routes themselves. You can get on any available character's path, however it is not made clear to you whose paths you are on.
Here I would also like to mention that this is NOT a harem game which is not a bad thing, but it IS tagged as such when it clearly isn't.
Anyway, you will ALWAYS end up with Haley, and depending on which path you're on, you may end up with an additional character also. Even if you (repeatedly) step on every available characters' paths, you will get the ending of only ONE of the paths, with the (singular) character associated with that particular path. The rest of the characters, and their (until that point, often half-finished) stories just fade out of existence and aren't mentioned ever again.
It is also not made clear which path superseeds which. Meaning fuck you, figure it out, or don't.

Grammar/spelling also started out quite well, no complaints, but then errors started piling up, it looked as if it wasn't even checked once it had been written.

Visauls are...okay overall. Model quality is good, they are fairly realistic, aren't exaggerated, fairly varied also, no complaints here. Lighting is usually good also, except for a couple of night scenes where you can't see shit. Those aren't very frequent thankfully.
Animations, on the other hand are bad. Just...bad.

Sounds boil down to music (and maybe some slapping sound effects? I am unsure). There are maybe 3-4 tracks overall, and while they are fine, they got old fast. They were used appropriately at frst, but their use to set the mood became half-assed towards the end (like everything else was), such as using upbeat music when discussing abuse. Talk about tonal clash.

Overall it's pretty obvious how few fucks were given by the end of it. It feels like nothing was really fleshed out or even finished, not even the title character's story. And by the time you reach one of the endings, it also becomes a "lonely" experience, because aside from Haley (and maybe a 2nd character), interactions with other characters all but cease.
So while I could applaud the author for wrapping it up despite the evident lack of interest or care, I won't, because I don't think running it into the ground is any better than abandoning it while it's still good.

When I started this AVN, I had it at 5 stars, but by the end, I was disappointed.

This title starts out very strong with great renders, one of the hottest main LIs in anything I've played, nice dialogue without too many grammar or spelling issues, terrific models with great expressiveness, and a story that is truly engaging.

Then, about 70% of the way through, they seem to lose their mojo: the dialogue/spelling/grammar QC goes right out the window, which is something that is bothersome for me. The renders and scenes generally stayed decent, but lewd scenes that were long and engaging early in the VN became more perfunctory and brief as the VN neared its end.

The endings is where things really trailed off. The Dev had started working on another project and this one became neglected, as though he lost all interest in finishing strong and just wanted to finish.

The endings aren't bad, but they feel rushed and aren't very engaging in the story arc areas - certainly not up to the same bar as the beginning and mid-game. There's also an underlying arc related to Haley's molestation in HS that was being explored reasonably well early on, but it was never properly resolved - you knew something happened to the teacher, but not what, and not how it impacted the stepdaughter that prompted Haley to finally come out of her shell about it and stop hiding her trauma from her brother. We know mom probably knew about it, but it never got handled. If you're going to bring up something so weighty and integral to a character's development, you need more than a goon calling you and saying "it's done" without knowing for sure what "it" is or the aftermath for all the affected.

One final thought is that the music seemed to become an afterthought at the end as well. It was matched reasonably through much of the VN, but there was this one "ominous" track that would play in places where it just didn't seem to fit, or overplayed will after it should have stopped - it really broke the mood.

This AVN is still worth the play, but be prepared for an unfulfilled feeling in in the end.

One of the best incest games ever. The way the immorality aspect is handled, the choices and the jokes just does it for me. I recommend this 100%. The sex scenes are very good as well and Haley (the fmc) is so beautiful. Idk if its thats shes ginger but shes smoking hot

The dialogue is beyond boring, I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. It's a shame since everything else looks great, I would like to get to the meat of the story but I just can't sit through this.

I have a younger sister and we never tease (verbally) each other this much, at some point it just became too much to the point of it becoming annoying, and I just don't believe it.

One of those games that you play for the story and not for the fap. Believe me, the sex scenes are barely worth it if that is your priority for playing these type of games.

The game is good, AS LONG as you walk into its world with the right mindset. I didn't. I actually was more interested in other heroine routes. Mistake. Should have taken the hint when it said "Haley's Story" but you don't actually play from her POV. So, no matter which route you pick, as her twin brother, you're pretty much locked into the incest route by default.

Thankfully, the heroine routes are well done. Both Sandra and Adrianna routes were unique and appealing in their own ways. However, Lisa, Diana and Alana routes are just.. dull.

Not because they are bad, but because they are pretty much nonexistent. Lisa is a sex crazed teenager, Diana is a fitness crazed minx and Alana has her own emotional baggage having an affair with a married man. Intriguing settings, only the dev doesn't really explore them further or in detail. Just a few night stands that amount to nothing in the end. Given how the dev is able to flesh out good routes, I can only presume that he/she burned out midway and just finished off the game quickly. It also becomes a bit more apparent when a lot of questions remained unanswered. Some being: What happened to Mr. Klaus after Victor's help? Or what's the story behind Adrianna's scar? Or what amounted to the threat that Jack made about getting to the bottom of the breakup reasoning? Nope. Instead all focus went into Haley and her story, which I guess makes sense given the title?

All in all, I wanted to give the game three stars. One lost for coming off as incomplete and one lost for unappealing sex scenes and bland animations. Even the character development is a bit bricked with the MC trying to distance himself from Haley but then couldn't, but then feeling guilty about cheating on his girlfriend(s). The choices are simply useless.

But it does well as a story overall once you adapt to that mindset. I especially don't want to knock on the clear effort the dev put into this game. Overall, a very fine read. Especially since I'm not into incest. But it kept me hooked till the end anyway.

Going with realistic approach is always daring and laudable, this is definitely a rare gem in its own class.

Depiction of characters and their traits definitely is flawless, relationship parts is another excellent point for story, and there is ample amount of choices and plenty of tasteful scenes.

There is a good deal of comic moments inside story that making playing more enjoyable, also approaching sensitive topic of Hayley’s past done adeptly.

Overall this is an excellent VN, splendid job really.

Really tried to like this game, i would even have liked it if this game had no forced routes, which it does. I find it funny that you have an option to kiss her which opens the sandra route based on the walkthrough, but the next day you are dating her again? Like c'mon, why cant I say no?

This game should be named Sandra's story.

Eugh... I really wanted to give this one more of a chance, because there's so much to like about it, but like so many that came before it, the ending just didn't quite make it.

So, to end on a good note, I'll start with the ending because that's my biggest gripe. It felt rushed. There was a lot of stuff that was planted, that just wasn't paid off. The place where the story ends isn't some fulfilling climax, it just hops into the epilogue, wrapping everything up and leaving you dissatisfied.

And that's REALLY a shame, because there's so much to love about this game. The models are good, the writing is fantastic, it really gets into the way a relationship like this one might play out, with the angst being real without overstaying its welcome. Calling it 'realistic' would be a stretch, but it's, for lack of a better word, complex. You're never going to be pulled OUT of the story by something that seems out of place. It keeps a level of fantasy that stays consistent, so once you're in it, you're in it, and you can go along for a damn good ride.

Hopefully in future games the dev keeps their ability to tell a compelling narrative, but gets some notes on how to end one.

o/
Review time ! Spoiler : it will not be great ^^"
I'm not a good written, and english isn't my native language so ..
Other reviews are better but I want to participate cause this game have left a feeling on me ! In some way

I give the game a 4/5 stars.
I'm not used to play adult visual novel so I put more subjectivity than objectivity in this review.

So I've just finished the game.
The game is (and for me too), a pretty or even very beautiful part of life of two twins, loving each other, in summary.

In fact I was searching a game with Incest tag, saw this one, thinking about fantasies game had to give and so I've speed up half of the game (holded CTRL, reading essentialy texts betweens MC and his sister).
But I've fall on a loving story, betweens a sister (Haley) and her twin brother (the MC).
Really, it's fun, entertaining and I've laugh a couple of time.
I like the chimestery betweens them.

But ..

I don't like the whole personnality of the MC.
Without spoil, and if you play you'll notice, Haley is more the girl who make fun (and seek protection) and the brother (MC) the serious guy.
She is, no she act like a brat sometimes, and he answer at the same level. It's like a game or an habit betweens them.
But the MC is half the time so serious, breaking the fun.
I know being poked by a foot in the face isn't great when working but it's that make her cute !
Her overflowing imagination and her smiles .. that make her personnality and why we appreciat her.

Besides, I don't like the father.
I know the story need something, otherwise the game is boring but thems father is a jerk.
How someone who have rises twins can think separed them?!
But no spoil.

Other reviews say we don't have informations of some events after a while and it's true, but in fact isn't a big deal.

But more big deal, it's at the half of the story, all other character other than thems parents disapear.
No more friends, no more discussions with bosses.
Ok we don't need useless texts for the story at some point, but just a line that say we talk with X or Y is good enough.
I think the author have focus on the twins without any other characters than thems parents for keep the stoy "short" with him ideas.

Even if I've skip a part of the game, I found the game a bit too long at my taste and the end maybe a little rushed?
Like other reviews, it depend on your feeling but for me that was enough.
Better end than do useless texts.
But I know, this AVN is a focus on the part of the life of two twins loving each other but sometimes I was just "ahem I need this to go end".
It's totaly subjectivity, I know see a part of the life of two characters is important, more in this story but except some laugh I had, that was long. Arf I feel guilty to write that.
I've like the story, and i've come back for the "slices of life" and of course the end but that was a bit long.

I like how Haley is modeled, same if some (a little) facial expression are not top.
I like her smile, I like how she stare when she taunts and her hair are super nice ! Like others says, they are in motions and are very pretty.
Other character are also well modeled same if I'm just "meh" by the MC's model.
The render is good also, not cheap or older.
Sex scene are good too, but absent on the end.
We have a couple of choices but I don't think they are all very important on what the story will be.

In summary, a good game if you like past time on reading a story about the loving betweens twins, more than make choices or whatever.

It's strange for me, I think the story could be better, the interactions etc, but this game give me a feel like when I finish a serie or a story in two or three films. The feeling of happiness and sadness, but more sadness cause i've rushed the beginning and the end is a little rushed.
I'll maybe rethink to this game or replay it in couple of years, who knows? ^^

Likely one of the best in terms of humor and general writing, the scenes are excellently made. I don't want to spoil anything but if there is a way to get a sequel, I think I'd welcome one. Or an expanded remake of the same; though it really doesn't need a remake for any of the usual reasons, the writing and art is incredibly good. A remake would only be fun if it extended the end stories or expanded the cast. Again though, what there is here, is plenty and I love it.

First of all, the visuals have aged extremele well, and that gets it 2 stars on its own.

Also, I wanna say that this game has made a lot of people happy, and I don't wanna take that away from them. You're not hurting anyone if you like this, so go ahead and keep liking it.

That said, this is yet another boring game about generic characters that say a bunch of lazy sentences over and over. There's nothing interesting about them at all.

As for some contructive criticism, try to put more effort into your dialogue. Almost every since sentence is literally 1-5 words long, you keep reusing the same ones over and over, making scenes feel a lot longer than they actually are.

(5 Stars bc review scores are bullshit, but i do believe this game is one of the best in the genre and would rather it shown up than down on lists)
(Preamble 2: this isn't very well edited, mostly made from annotations during the roughly 1 month that i read this VN).

Overall: it's starts really promising, but unfortunately doesn't truly rise to greatness. it's still good, in ways that make me expect good things from the writer(s). Dialogue is pretty nice, sharp, most of the time it doesn't feel like robots talking or mere pawns of the plot. Dan (the protagonist) almost feels like a real character sometimes, but everyone else feels fully realized (with some exceptions).

Main criticisms: Dan (the protagonist), as far as AVNs go, dan is fine, and occasionally shows flashes of being his own character. But grading him outside of the curve that we grade AVNs on? eh. He just goes with the flow, doesn't seem to have agency or any sort of initiave. Nothing wrong with indecisive or indifferent characters, but that has to be written in him, instead of just feeling like "he's the protag of a porn game, therefore he must do this and that, etc."
It does have some flashes, in a person that doesn't have a lot of words and doesn't seem to reflect a lot on things? but because we rarely know what's going on his mind (which doesn't need to be spelt out, but just hearing his thoughts or anything more indicative of a character would be nice).

There's 2 things i'd like to highlight about him. His relationship with Sandra is weird, at the start. He does say the pretty words, generally treats her well, and does say and do things that would equate with him caring about her. On the other hand Dan cheat's on Sandra with a multitude of characters, while Dan throws passive-aggressive comments at Sandra and occasionally even show some indiffirence towards her? Not that a story with those things can't be written, but at no point we hear a moment of reflection from dan on these actions. He cheats on Sandra until he Hayley says no, and the passive-aggressive comments just disappear. It's what i meant earlier by Dan not really being a fully realized character. Those things could be worked on to more depth, but yet they aren't.
The second thing is the hitman subplot. Awful is as strong word for it, but, it feels so out of place, meaningless, a filler story point that doesn't (but probably couldn't either) amount to anything interesting, other than fullfilling some sort of vigilante fantasy. I'm assuming something went less than ideal in development, but hey, it's still in the story. Another bad thing about that subplot is the fact that Dan "stole" the choice of how to deal with Hayley's abuser, behind her back, wether she wanted or not, barely any thought to how the death of her abuser would impact any other life. It's something that Dan made purely for himself, while i don't think the intention was anything other than some "heroic and righteous revenge", the way i read it, it was just overprotective machismo and the fantasy of being a vigilante. I could've bought it more if Dan was more of a character, if that subplot said anything about Dan, but no. Him "killing" Haley's abuser didn't say anything about himself, nor did that action have any consequences in the story (realistically the other Haley, who the story dropped like a hot a potato, would be very affected by that).

Funny thing to nitpick on: Not sure if it was intended, but Dan calling his ex a slut for selling blowjobs is very funny if you choose to cheat with him.

End paragraph i guess? While i did write more about the negative things than the positives, make no mistake, this is still a gem of the AVN scene. Again, dialogue is good, most of the characters do feel fully realized, and a lot of their interactions are fun to read.

This game's story is very good and graphics is decent. I love haley's character. She is adorable and funny. She is on my favorite list. Other LIs are interesting too.
The ending could be better but not bad.
Overall awesome game. One of my favorite VN game.

This game had some real promise, but the forced relationship is an automatic dealbreaker. None of your choices really matter, and you wind up with the same love interest no matter what you do, really disappointing.

Nice vanilla romance story. Great story, dialogues and jokes. Game doesn't force into something you are not into. Nice renders. And Haley of course is really adorable with a good written bitchy character)). Only the ending (I did the best ending with Haley) kinda leaves some questions open, but that really not that critical, it is a work for a fantasy.

[v1.1 Pre-Patched]

Haley's Story was one I initially skipped it due to a certain tag (not to yuck anyone's yum) but I decided to give it a shot with the numerous good ratings, and I am honestly glad that I did.
The dialogue and banter between the MCs just had me instantly invested, then it delves deeper as the story goes on-- without losing a beat between the humour and serious moments.

H-scenes
While the "animations" and statics are simple, due to being an older title. There's a certain rustic charm to them.

The "worst" complaint you will find is the fact it is a few years old, so there's a bit of jank here and there. Nothing outlandishly immersion breaking. A bit too dark in a few places/scenes.

Mostly vanilla in terms of kink variety (outside the obvious incest); though a few light moments of variety sprinkled throughout to not be completely boring:
mainly threesomes, a bit of lesbian action, voyeurism, and anal.

In conclusion: if you want to enjoy a compelling incest romance, this is the game for you

This game/story brings back memories, it was the time I played/read a VN game and really enjoyed it. I always looked forward to the next update.

I loved the graphics and the looks of the girl haley, I though she was beautiful and funny.

It was only after finishing the main story line, a few updates later, that I realized you could have different endings. Unfortunately I never played those other story lines, I just watched the images in game.

Every time I see this game, I feel like downloading it again, and trying to play it again, to recreate the feeling I had the first time I played it.