VN - Ren'Py - Halfway House [Ep.11 - Bonus 7-8] [Az]

Halfway house 5/10, but rounding down as it is closer to 4 than 6

If I had to describe this one in a single sentence it would simply be Not outright horrible, but incredibly bland.

Interesting enough premise, although very basic, very clunky and extremly repetitive dialogue. MC will call Samantha hot, she will flirt back. Call Emily cute, she will get angry or flustered, Call Ashley hot, she will call him a pervert. Cue internal monologue about how Samantha is hot, Emily is cute, Ashley is hot but a queen bitch. Fuggin hell. Every other line of internal monologue or dialogue will just reiterate what someone else just said, often what the MC just said. Basically, no instance of dialogue feels like a conversation that humans would actually have. Just constant reiteration of their assigned mixed personality trait, Motherly/flirting, Cute/angry, Berating/sexual.

Just outright repeating past scenes in flashbacks that frankly has not needed it even once. And why is that?

You couldn’t possibly need it because very little actually happens between characters in most scenes. Calling this a slow burn is misleading because a slow burn might take time in advancing relationships but that does not mean it just repeats every single interaction between characters.

Every single scene is just the same. Same observations. Same reactions. Same conversations. Same dialogue. The fact that any sexual acts happen in between feels more incidental than anything else.

Fantastic and Very Engaging Game. Enjoyed every minute and Following on Patreon for Episode 12.

It has a lot of different elements and some meaningful choices Along With Several Beautiful Girls that are entertaining as well as having vareied opinions on the goings on at the Halfway House.

I particularly like the Choices that you get to make and opportunities to use some wisdome in makeing them.

10 / 10

I like this for the most part, but there are a couple of things to note:

• There's only one "real" love interest — Emily. You can get a couple scenes with the other girls, but this isn't meant to be a harem. I enjoy a relatively simple, one-on-one romance plot, but I know not everyone wants that.
• The development is SLOW. The most recent update as of writing this (Episode 11) gave me maybe an hour of gameplay after over a year of waiting. And that's made more noticeable by my last point:
• This story is a slow burn. It's not just porn, it's romance. Again, I like that kind of thing every now and then, but it's not for everyone.

To reiterate, I do like what's here; just know that this probably won't be complete for potentially several years at the current rate.

Episode 11 + Bonus 1-8 (Emily Love route)

This game and that path in particular was great! I really like Emily and winning her over was a very heartwarming journey.

The writing was good, the characters are very interesting and deep, even after 11 episodes I still feel like I want to get know them more. The main story is also original and engaging.

The art started a bit average then it got a lot better as time passed by. The music does the job it supposed to do and adds a good background to the story. I particularly enjoyed the sound effects, they add a special flavor to this AVN.

The 8 bonus scenes are pretty cool. The later ones are high quality stuff. I am not sure if they are worth the time that could have been spent on the game proper or not, but the Dev can use the break from that to make something fun and light on the side. I think in the end, that helps him work better on the AVN in general, and we get some excellent bonus scenes. So, it's a win-win... lol

All in a all, a very solid game and AZ should be proud of his work. I am looking forward to the next update.

Early on this was one of my favorite games. Unfortunately there are a few details that made me demote it to just average.

First of, the development time. I understand not every dev out there can dedicate fully to their game... But in this case it's hard for the players. You either do fast, small updates or slow, long ones. Slow and small updates just don't go well together.

For example, in the last chapter (EP11) barely nothing happens. You're in the house... and that's it. I mean, I think the update starts and end in the same morning within the game. It was the same with some previous updates. I don't know how the rest of the people feel about this, but in my case it takes away my hype to play this game.

Secondly, I don't know if I didn't do my choices right, but I feel like I keep getting dragged into the redhead. I don't want anything with her and I find her attitude a bit annoying, however it seems like MC is constantly onto her. And then every other character reacts in the way or 'oh look at these two blabla', like, I'm trying to avoid her but it feels like the game is setup for MC to end up with her no matter what you do. I want to say again that maybe my choices weren't the ones I should have taken, but it doesn't feel like it.

To finish this, I would like to encourage the dev of this game. I don't know if he reads this, but if he does, I really liked this game in the past, that's why I'm still giving it 3 stars. I think it still has potential, and I understand if he cannot work on it as much as he would have liked. I hope he continues to work in this game, hopefully change a few things here and there and see how it goes.

As much as the main game lack in sexual content the girls are good looking enough for it to get a 10/10, even if one of the three main girls look like a goblin to me, and tragically most of the very few sex scenes being with her, sadly enough the cutest one gets the least bit of action with only a finger bang almost at the end of the thing, the second best only giving a pair of hjs and bjs, but at least the plot is nice, the background is superb, it even get's a first ranking from me in the sidekick department, that luis guy is just too awesome not to be mentioned even if he's not part of the action, ik it would look a bit weird but he should be in the pic with the girls, not the mc tho, that dude's too slim shady lookin

This was a very fun playthrough. Interesting characters despite being pretty typical and familiar from many other stories, I don't mind it when the game is this good overall. I'm really looking forward to playing more of this, and Emily has caught my heart for now. Still looking forward to seriously pursuing Ash (and Lynn too!) in a future playthrough.

Consistency is key, and if this game is anything, it is consistent. Episode after episode it delivers. Episode 10 saw an improvement in animations. Episode 11 improved on facial expressions. This dev seems to always look for ways to improve. So although updates take very long I am sure there is more to come from this dev.

This game is back in my top 3, together with being a dik and pale carnations.

Upon reading the other reviews, I too support the sentiment that there are too few updates. More updates dev, stop dragging your feet!

i never really gave this a chance the models on preview shots looks fugly as hell ... but i finally thought cant be bad with the scores .. so i got it and took a look ... god dam this is a real gem of a game .. the character development is top notch .. the animations are all top notch ... just far and few between ... the main story is great ...

I gotta say, the more you say "check failed", the more I say "fuck you". I've been following this game from the start, and its pluses keep being undermined by its many infuriating minuses. Sure, at the start I was willing to go along with the completely arbitrary choices -- including the maddening one-choice banner wins -- WTF with all of those?? But really, the interesting story continues to be upended by the strange UI choices. Who comes up with these? Can we please follow an actual story line, or lines, and either stick with a visual novel, or NOT? It's too bad cause it has some interesting characters. No... I couldn't even get to the disco, there was just too little control. DELETE

Play this only if you have a Humiliation Fetish.
(As in you get Humiliated, not the other way around)

The premise was interesting. in a rehabilitation house instead of 'returning to family after a decade' which was a refreshing take.

I was decently invested in the story. Relations with Sam and Emily were good. I could feel this being an affectionate story rather than a corruption one.

But I fucking hated Ash. She is such an entitled narcissist brat who leaves no opportunity to Insult MC at any point of time. And it's not one of those friendly banter type insult, it was straight up Humiliation, like she hated you with her last ounce in her body.
And the MC just tolerates it like a fucking pussy, barely making any attempt to defend himself.
But I still gave it time, I assumed its one of those Tsundere characters that hate you at first but eventually fall in love with you later. So I slogged along with the story.
As hours went by I was expecting Ash to get friendly and calm down with the humiliation. But it never ended. Majority of the interactions MC had with Ash resulted into Ashe insulting him or making a smug remark.
When MC saved Sam from the attack in the Toilet and got hurt in the process, I thought this was the turning point. THIS is the moment where she softens up to MC, praises him for risking his life to save Sam or at least tone down the hatred towards him.
But no. First thing she does after meeting MC in the hospital is humiliate him over how he got hurt while saving Sam and eventually Sam had to save MC from the attacker. Something along the lines of questioning his manliness.

This was the blade of grass that broke the camels back. And I straight up deleted the game.

HOW CAN A CHARACTER BE SO FUCKING ANNOYING? HOW CAN YOU INSULT SOMEONE WHO SAVED YOUR PSEUDO-MOTHER. AND HE GOT HOSPITALIZED SAVING HER, GIVE HIM a GODDAMN BREAK.

That was extremely frustrating. I deleted the game afterwards.
Whatever emotional investment I had in Sam and Emily was destroyed by how infuriating it was to deal with Ash. Did not want to play any further.

The Dev clearly has a humiliation fetish. IDK why he mentioned in the Tags section that Humiliation is never going to be there in this game.

Another good "Story based" game not other games that gives you fap per minute. The game is good that giving you a chance to not corrupt samantha or emily I mean why would you, you can feel there affection towards the mc except for ash she is the one to fap for and Im still in ep 4 so lets see but overall its so good that the game is not fap per minute where you fuck a girl then another girl for another scene and another girl like games c0ll3g3 k\ngs or col3g3 b0und if I say the games gives you fap per minute. Even this game has only 3 girls (ep 4) you can feel them as a character and not a FAP A MINUTE CHARACTER.

V.EP11 Bonus 7-8

didn't even bother with that bonus crap as it holds zero appeal. just fluff to obscure progress. if it was any good it would be IN the game.
nobody with sense buys DLC for a game yet to be released dev. try the horse before the cart

Halfway is right. this parody of a VN is halfway to being a VN.
art is fine but the plot/story is about as interesting as talking to a mortgage advisor. essentially just a pretty slideshow and very slow to progress, despite chapters being somewhat short.

the latest 'episode' is itself a parody as nothing happens. hardly an episode unless i count the paperclip falling off my desk as i clicked through. that i remember that happenstance says it all.

not a backable project for me and not one to follow. maybe when completed tag gets added i may look again but i will need to visit with that advisor first to set the mood.

Good renders, not too many characterse which I like. Slow burn, but each updates progress with one more characters is made. Updates take a bit and in the latest updates there wasn't that much content for the amount fo time it took, but I still like the game. Will change the review depending on how the next updates go

A fine game with humour, a good story and very good looking girls. The artwork is good and i like the young girls ( i was thinking first the 2 girls have a secret love relationship ,but sadly no. ) The Landlord is hot too and the cop funny ( about the dream of the MC on the way to the house ) I was hoping that Ashley was more dominant to the MC and not so fast submissive ( she like rough sex but why must they so submissive to the MC ? , only my opinion ) The background story about Emily and Ashley are good and Ashley sister is sexy too . I like the little jokes from Ashley for Emily in talking between the 2 .So i like your game and now i will it play again .

I appreciate good renders, good writing and girls who look, well, like people and not some artificial mannequins with inflated boobs. The story is quite interesting in adult VN standards.
The weakness is that you have basically no real choices if you want to get somewhere with Emily in the 10 chapters that are now here.
The only way that works for Emily at the moment is corruption, and to achieve the necessary level of her corruption requires sexual interactions with other girls that are unattractive to me.

Being a good boy and not treating Emily like an asshole might help accumulate affection points, but those are more or less insignificant so far, and the corruption is what's crucial in later key moments.

Above average writing, graphics are fine, but there isn't really a plot and the paths are not fleshed out at all.

There is minimal difference in game play or plot if you choose corruption or friend points. Corruption points for two of the characters simply serve to whether you want to see content with them or not.

On the point of content: there is not much of it. Each chapter is very short and has 15 minutes or less of content. For a game thats 5 years old, it doesn't leave a lot of confidence. This game doesn't have that many characters, but there are still too many of them. Most characters are included in a single scene or two even though its implied they will be more involved in the story. Large chunks of most chapters are there for just the MC chatting up random NPCs who serve no purpose.

I am leaving 1 star because the plot starts out with the MC getting his butt kicked, and thats how it ends 10 chapters later, with really no plot advancement or character development. Relationships with every character move at a snail pace. Outside of a couple BJ scenes and one anal, there are zero sex scenes with any of the main characters, and only one with a side character.... in 10 chapters and 5 years of development. If the story had any reasoning to it, I would bump it up to 2 or 3 stars, the writing is solid - but there is no purpose. Just a dude living his life in a halfway house endlessly

People choosing to leave high ratings and continue supporting games that are being blatantly milked for year after year is why there are so few completed games

After 10 chapters, Ashley is still… Ashley, the Queen Bitch who don’t show any compassion for anyone expect for Emily from time to time. She does nothing around the house to help Samantha and treats MC as a doggy. Don’t ask yourself why there is no love point for her, there is no love inside her, just ice. Maybe there is someone worth discovering behind her ugly shell but even the chapter 9 did not show this someone, she was still the usual bitch despite being insecure about the meeting with her grandad.

After 10 chapters, MC is still a wimp in front of women, even when treated like dogshit by Ashley or her lovely sister Lynn. I find it strange that he was introduced as someone with anger issues in chapter 1 and yet he goes silent when being talked nastily.

After 10 chapters, this VN would benefit from some changes in attitudes to show a real progression and evolution.

After 10 chapters, there are still a lot of choices with only one single option. Hmm what’s the point in doing this? It looks like a waste of time for both the developer and the player to me.

All in all, I quite enjoy this VN even if I deeply hate Ashley’s character, as you noticed, but it would be great if the MC was starting to grow some balls, just saying. I was glad to see some real animations for the first time in chapter 10, so that’s a plus and I look forward to the next chapters and hope for Ashley to calm her tits down or for the MC to put her in her place.

Review of Ep. 10….

I decided to try this game because I thought the premise was interesting and unique. It’s a slice of life slow burn, which I tend to like, that takes place over about 7 or 8 days with a time jump of about a few weeks in the middle.

I like the character models. Kudos to the dev for using good looking realistic models and not horribly proportioned ones with the giant fantasy tits.

The writing is good for the most part. Hardly any spelling or grammar errors. But as others have noted there is bloat at times.

There is no real overarching story. The plot is mainly getting to know the girls and helping them with their problems. There is very little sex so far. From what I’ve read in other reviews there are a few sex scenes, but they are very easy to miss given your choices. I didn’t get any in my playthrough. All I got was a BJ from Samantha then later I dry humped her, then finger banged Emily.

I’ve seen some reviewers put down the music, but it didn’t bother me. I quite liked a few of the scores used. What I didn’t really like was the sporadic use of voices for the occasional gasp, moan, or “HEY!”. There really should have been a setting to turn the voices off.

There are a lot of single option “choices” to click on throughout the story. I don’t understand the point of this. If the MC is going to do the thing anyway why make a single button appear to progress him forward? All it does is break the flow of the game.

I liked Emily for the most part, but she’s the cliched (and played out) 19 year old who acts like a shy 5 year old when it comes to anything regarding sex. She’s good when she’s not acting like a baby. The majority of the character development seems to be focused on Emily.

There seems to be some kind of writing inconsistency when it comes to Ashley. You spend almost an entire episode helping her with her family drama. She warms up more to the MC and is much friendlier to him, but in the very next episode she is right back to treating him like dogshit again. There is no explanation for this.

I like Samantha for the most part. She’s supposed to be around 40, but there are times when she acts like a teenager. She was supposedly some kind of movie star once, but she is adamant about never wanting anybody to see the film she was in. It’s never mentioned again after maybe episode 2. I’m guessing she was a porn star.

The MC was fine to begin with, but he starts to get annoying when he begins to constantly nag Emily for kisses, and Samantha to help get him off. You would think this was the thirstiest mother fucker to ever live. I get he was in an all-male juvenile detention center for 4 years, but damn. Stop being such a beta.

I’ve seen other reviewers state that the dev seems to be very liberal with his updates. Taking a full year between episodes 9 and 10. I’m interested enough to want to see this game finished, but if these long droughts between updates is going to be the norm for the dev I’m not optimistic for it’s completion.