VN - Ren'Py - Hard to Love [v0.26] [Qori Gaming]

The renders are beautiful and characters are decent. I particularly liked the way Nanami has been done, both visually and as a personality.

Going back and forth in time can be a little disorienting, but I think it makes sense as the MC at first is dealing with a mixture of meds and suddenly coming to terms with the past. Then he continues trying to come to terms with the past. We get more and more an understanding of where the present is. Maybe it could be executed better, but I think other reviewers are too harsh about this.

As beautiful as the rendered static/still images are, it makes it all the more jarring that the animations are on the poor side. The first couple early on aren't bad, but later (starting in Episode 5, maybe 4?), we suddenly get a lot of animation but it's pretty bad stuff: clipping issues (especially hair), air gaps where bodies should be touching themselves or other bodies (especially with placement of hands), stiff motions, and it looks like the MC's dick is stabbing Amber rather than penetrating her; that last bit is painful to watch.

There is also voice moan audio included, which I typically appreciate. But mainly they are one or two-second clips, whereas looped audio is the ideal for ongoing action. Occasionally there is some of that but it's very hit or miss. It would be better if the dev applied the voice sfx more consistently and with loops where appropriate.

All in all, I think this mangaka-cum-AVN developer holds a lot of promise. Two areas to improve a bit would be 1) smoother story telling from past to present and back, and 2) more use of looped moan sfx during animations. But the biggest issue is with the quality of the animations. That's definitely the big sore spot here and not easily remedied.

If animations aren't the biggest deal to you, then check it out. If they are (as they are for me), probably a good idea to hold off for now. Unfortunately, we already know the dev has been doing remakes; so yet more remakes, this time of animations, probably isn't forthcoming. Nevertheless, I'll probably come back in a couple years to see how she's been doing on that score. Here's hoping to some marked improvement in the future.

The Best VN i've played and i've played a Lot...as for the characters, i loved Isabella she is an 11/10 so attractive and cute, i wish the story focus in her and antonella but i understand that yukana is doing what's is doing for a god reason. i hope, she receive all sucesfull that she deserves

As soon as MC's behavior.
I poste Lady Lydia's reply that explain this behavior

What difference would it make if he had Isabella as a 13 yo? He'd be what, about mid 30s still? Not a big difference, I have a brother that is in his early 40s can't say he was really any different in his early 30s. Also his profession of police... doesn't bring maturity, unless you failed to notice corrupt cops exist, or assholes on a power trip, being a cop require training, not emotional stability, many cops aren't there by any mean for their mental fortitude.

As for the MC being a mess... well yea... that is the point, he is clearly suffering from arrested development, his relationship with his Mom which was early on very erotic & even sexual and him effectively having to be keeping her afloat amidst her issues, his relationship with Amber with her being in a way dependent on him due to their father being an asshole and their mother being a mess. His girlfriend with her whole lot of issues, abandoning him shortly after having given birth to their kid to go avenge her father figure.

Do you really think the MC is sane by any means? No he isn't. His girlfriend choosing vengeance over him, and him going after her over his own daughter, he clearly has stalled emotionally at that stage for nearly 20 years. He clearly also to some degree fled from home, probably to escape his abusive father, and fleeing his complicated relationship with his mother and sister.

Oh and what you mentioned for it working for him being an inexperienced mid twenty with a heart broken... that is exactly the point, he never moved on from that, he had sex with 3 women as a teen & young adult, his Mom, his sister and his girlfriend, after which point he kept looking for his girlfriend for nearly half his life, having possibly only sex rarely on the side time to time to take the edge off but never moving on and getting into any serious relationship until Arlette. Which took him about 17 years to happen... so yea he is still an inexperienced young man at heart, sure it seem shortly before the story begin he might have had a bit of a breakdown and went on a sex binge with several girls / women of various ages, but that didn't bring him any experience in actually dealing with women, it was just sex, at most it just mean he hit 'College' level of emotional development.

I mean Amber is hardly better, she should be in her mid 30s and she is a sexy streamer and behaving also like someone in arrested development in her early 20s... Isabella basically jumped on her father as soon as he came back in her life trying to claim him for herself and jealously trying to keep other girls at bay, Madison had to raise herself because her mother spent her time drunk and without her son around she likely spent most of her time completely lost, and her father was probably just as neglectful and abusive as he was to 'his' first two kids, her sister was likely emotionally absent because she kept also like their mother clinging to her missing brother, also likely had to compete for what affection her mother and sister had with her niece / sister, which probably won because she was the daughter of the missing son / brother, she mostly end up acting like someone that had to grow older than her actual age because of that, and because of that she basically learned to be manipulative to get whatever she wanted.

So yea Madison's relationship with her 'brother' and likely actual father if you pay attention to the fact their is a scene where you see the MC had sex with his Mom as a late teen while she was drunk, is built upon her behaving like a mature woman manipulating a young man, because emotionally that is where they are at, he didn't mature in 20 years and she matured in acceleration. The MC ultimately is reacting to her as normally a young adult would to a very dominant mature woman, its all understandable within the context of the story.

Hard TO Love v0.26, it's really hard to love...

I have never seen such a pushover, spineless and insufferable MC.
The way it forces the characters into the story, no matter how much you want to have some kind of relationship with that character or not.
How a teenager blackmails you: Simply because you're an idiot and can't do anything about it.
How everyone manipulates you. Simply because you're an idiot again.
Animations... what animations?
What I felt while playing this was rage and frustration.

DISAPPOINTING GAME NOT RECOMMENDED.
Save your time and skip this one.

Quickly became hot garbage. I'm going to echo a lot of the other comments. Madison is easily the worst character and her interactions with MC make absolutely no sense, completely out of line with the supposed characteristics of a middle-aged hardened cop the story has painted him as. MC is also ugly as hell, in dire need of a makeover.

To be honest, I don't see how this one has such high reviews. Sure, some character models are nice, but it does include a lot of scenes with minors or characters looking like them which I personally dislike. But more importantly, I didn't get hooked at all in any moment with the story, the characters and so on, they seem completely uninteresting to me. Choices seem to matter, which is nice.

Render quality is pretty high, but I don't like that AI take into things. Animations are atrocious, they improve as the game goes by but they're still below average (in a game that's been remade!). I took off the sound so I can't say anything on that, and I did get a few minor bugs in my quick playthrough.

So, all in all, not worth it for me.

It looks amazing. Both the characters and scenery are beautiful... until it comes to the sex scenes where the quality is significantly lower for some reason. I'm guessing the game is made with DAZ renders then ran through an AI filter? And this filter probably lacks the talent to enhance depictions of sex because the difference is jarring. The first sex scene with Amber must've been so bad it had to be hidden from view like in a 15+ movie despite being a virginity loss and important to the plot.

Speaking of the plot, what the fuck even is it? Does the MC have dementia or something? Sometimes he remembers his past, sometimes he forgets, one second you're in the present, the other you're in the past, a couple dialogs later you're god knows where. Writing is very hazy and goes nowhere most of the time, reading it is like walking through a thick fog in circles.

I'm gonna be really lazy here and copy another review I wrote for a different game, because it's just too fitting.

Flashy graphics of big titted, artificial looking women try to cover an otherwise pretty poor VN. There's really nothing worth playing here. Plot, characterisation, writing etc., it's all very underwhelming and boring. Not recommended.

v0.26

The game has a "police/crime" plot, but at this point it is hard to say what is its function in the story. As it is kind of backstory or side story at this moment.
The more interesting part of the story is how the MC integrates back into his family. Lots of juicy drama and sexual tensions.

Writing is really good. I love the characters and how complex many of them are. Maybe some of them are little crazy, but i think it just makes better drama. And i find myself caring a lot more about these broken people, than some generic girlfriend or perfect loving mother that most games have. Some characters are just perfectly charismatic for AVN game that does wanna create drama between characters. MC could be more neutral, as there is a wide range of options in conversations and some options feel like going against his "good boy" character.

Visually game is great. I love how older mother is not just curvy middle aged woman, but really an older woman. So much great details and sexy women with lots of variety. Not 100% sure about the "feels like some images are enchanted with AI" art style.
In no point does the MC take a control in sexual situations, he just lets the women lead like a good boy. Only downside in sex scenes is how the MC is trying to fight the desire to take these women like a man.

This is the problem with nonlinear storytelling... If it is done right, it can be an excellent story, but if it is done like this... it makes the last season of Lost and Game of Thrones look like masterpieces. I made it to the train platform before I turned on the autoclicker. After reaching the tatted "Younger Friend," I was done. The renders are good, but the story is a mess. Even the scenes of the present day have a fever-dream feel to them. Which leads me back to Lost, and the story ends with him dying in the hospital from the gunshot wound.

It started out really good, figured it would be a decent game but the whole way MC and Madison's story goes made all that good writing meaningless. The forced sex scene with her is a tremendous let down and the only thing it does is make the MC look pathetic.

Much improved after the rework i remember playing this game a while back and just being confused by the story, it always had great rendors but now those great renders tie into a decent storyline that i could folow and be interested in, its definitely still a bit rough around the edges and doesnt have quite enough content to satisfy yet, but i can see the potential in this one now, as of 0.26 id give it a 4/5 but it deserves a 5/5 for its potential

From Promising Start to Complete Disaster

I really wanted to like Hard To Love—in fact, I did at first. The game had potential and started off with a compelling enough setup to keep me interested. But sadly, with every new update, the quality has nosedived.

The characters have become downright unbearable. It's like the entire cast escaped from a mental institution—everyone is over-the-top, erratic, and just plain unlikeable. There's no nuance, no growth—just chaotic personalities thrown together for the sake of drama.

And don't even get me started on the main character. Whatever appeal or relatability he had at the beginning is long gone. He’s become a complete pushover, spineless and insufferable. By v0.25, he's manipulated by an unstable character in a way that should’ve been a wake-up call. But instead of learning or growing, he lets it happen again in v0.26—culminating in a completely forced sex scene with the same manipulative “psycho bitch.” It made absolutely zero sense for the MC to go along with it, and at that point, I was just done.

I deleted Hard To Love right after that scene. What started as a promising visual novel has devolved into a frustrating mess with poor writing and even worse character decisions. Save your time and skip this one.

Was quite optimistic about this the first time I played it, but every time I come back to it the quality seems to have gone downhill a bit more.

Most of the characters have rather unlikable personality traits and the mc is a complete moron. Story "progress" seems to negate any required logic or consistency which in turn means that said story is nonsense.

Also the writer seems to be stuck on repeat as the latest Madison scene had her say exactly the same thing, 3 different ways but 20+ times in a row. Mind numbing shit.. I'd rather just read ah ah ah, oh oh oh than that tedious drivel.

Very good graphics and a wide panel of attractive LIs. The story is quite captivating albeit at times lacking coherence. My main issue lies with the MC, what does he have going for him to attract so much attention? Nothing at all, it's magic. The guy abandons his family and daughter for nearly 20 years but no grudges, right? He's not even a looker, and he's a bit of a creep.
Still interested to see where that'll lead, but I'm mildly worried the author is aiming more highly in the writing than they are capable of delivering.
That being said, it has a lot of potential if it manages to link up all these characters in a well-thought chain of events. Although it seems unlikely at this moment, if Madison proves to be MC's daughter, that'd be amazing. I could see the completed game anywhere between 3.5 stars and 5 stars, and I'll revise my rating if the day comes.

Update Review (Finished 0.24 of Remake):

There is a lot more that makes sense in the Remake, but you still have some stuff that skews as irrational. There is a much more obvious delineation between the "Trust/Love" and "Corruption" choices in the Remake. Most decisions seemed to just be corruption in the originals, which could explain the dramatic mood swings.

But you still have them, to a degree, in the Remake. Madison is a manipulative, spoiled brat in the Remake, still, but at least she looks healthier and better. Amber is easier to handle as well, without the on-rails decision to make her spiral into madness. Isabella is jealous, but sane. They haven't done anything (so far) like the "I resent everyone and everything about my life, and you and mom - can you still love me?" storyline they did in the originals. And it is interesting what they are doing with the MC's mother and father.

Like I said, the Remake makes far more sense to me, but I think I will try a corruption playthrough to see if sanity just goes out the window for all of them.

So, a few people state that this entire game is AI. These are DAZ 3D renders that, in my opinion, are put through an AI Photo enhancer like Topaz Photo AI. You can tell flipping through that periodically, one of the images doesn't have the AI Sharpening on the hair and the colors or lighting in the skin tones are noticeably different. The results, for me, look fantastic. The scenes look great. Even the sets that you've seen used in other games, because whoever is doing the art seems to understand lighting and composition - everything just looks better.

I'll bump this up one star and reserve doing more till I see what introducing corruption does (more than what the minor point here and there with Amber does). If it flies off the rail into crazyland, then I'll bump up the stars to 4. There's nothing wrong with providing distinct storylines to cater to the kinks. In the Remake, it's just a HELL of a lot more clear when your choices are Trust/Love and when they are Corruption. So you don't inadvertently turn all your family members into psychopaths just because you wanted to see them naked and have fun with them.

Original Review (finished Volume 1 and 2 of the original and Ch. 1 of Remake):
Pros:

• Graphics. They are well done. Lighting, renders, and effects are better than most games. Most obviously, the key light isn't just flash bang bright and randomly placed in the scene
• Music. I usually just turn this stuff down, but this has some nice tunes. I still don't think the music adds anything to the game like they do in other creative media (Movies, TV, Games), but this sounds better and more thematic to where they're being used in the game.

Cons:

• Everything else.

I wanted to like this, but the entire time, it feels like I started watching the TV shows "Lost" or "Twin Peaks" part of the way through the series. If the characters don't start off when you meet them completely and utterly mental, they will... just give it a little time. It's all so confusing, random, and nonsensical.

Given the amount of iterations that have occurred with this game in a short amount of time (Volume 1, Volume 2, Remake), I'm guessing this is a freshman start in game making and development. So, I hope they find their "zone" and things just click for them and things start to make sense more. Everyone being bipolar just isn't fun. And everyone being irrational chaos with an MC that is just a spineless ignoramus isn't fun either. He was shot in the stomach, not the head. So, somehow, he was this kind of person all through the Cadet Academy and Officer all the way to earning a Detective's promotion?? Maybe research the character and personality types attracted to being Police Officers and how they evolve and change in their years of service. I'm not saying it's impossible that a "Beta Bob" doesn't go into the Force, but it is a rarity.

Nice renders. I hope for the best in the future.

An absolute breakthrough in the world of visual novels: meet AIAVN - a story with dialogues written by artificial intelligence with renders generated by artificial intelligence about women sexaully harassing one of the most pathetic protagonists in the universe.

REVIEW OF [v0.24]

The MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME, if not the MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED...

as is, and if you don't like my opinion, it is what it is, it is what I think.
At the beginning of playing it I thought, wow, what a great game! It has a cool UI it's polished, and the atmosphere is good with good lighting and the AI. Well, yes, there are some girls and such, but it's still good, I don't care.

Then the MC wakes up on a train with his daughter in Japan, very interesting, he's a detective and such...

He begins to remember his past that he fell in love at school then under a tree with the girl with the cherry tree, everything was very nice.

But suddenly he is involved in a shootout with the YAKUZA!
Then a little girl comes to your house in the pool and shows you her pussy and ass!

(She's Retarded , she should be checked by a doctor, she will surely have a degenerative neurological problem)
He falls every now and then and falls on top of you as he teleports!!!

PATHETIC!

Give the public what they want?

The story seems to have been written by some kind of AI MIND
It does have nice renders, good sound, the girls are attractive and blah blah blah, but what's the point?
The DEV wants to focus on 5 stories and does not focus on any of them.
I can't understand the game, the time jumps drive you crazy.

PROS

• Good atmosphere and sound
• Good renders
• attractive girls

CONS

• Terrible Writing
• Horrible MC
• Terrible Story
• Animations... what animations???

RATING :

Content: ⭐⭐
Sound: ⭐⭐
Renders: ⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐
Animations:

Final conclusion: ⭐ DISAPPOINTING GAME NOT RECOMMENDED

unless you want to see AI girls showing you their asses and tits, but for that I recommend you Candy.AI

Well, I'm editing my review to 1 star because with each update that is released it becomes impossible to play, especially when you're in a specific scene. Well, the game has some problems, but of all of them, the worst is its poor optimization, which is one of the worst I've ever seen. The game closes by itself in many scenes because of this. Seriously, for you to be able to run this game, you need a super computer, since if it's an intermediate or entry-level computer, you'll only have suffering trying to run the game. The same goes for cell phones, where you can only run it with a very powerful cell phone with at least 8GB of RAM and a powerful processor. Well, that was the main problem I saw in this game: poor optimization, bad, not terrible, one of the worst I've ever seen. I hope this is fixed or the game runs the risk of losing players.

The renders are crazy, and the UI/UX is one in a million—you rarely find an interface like this in this field. But the story is kinda mid. I hope they find an assistant to help develop it. That said, I don’t really care this time—these insane renders make up for it.

This is one of my favorite games on this site. The renders are top notch, the characters (though batshit crazy) are all unique - with personality quirks and different ways to tempt the MC, and even though the story may start off a bit cliched, it soon becomes very original due to the Japanese setting and the criminal underground angle.
The overall presentation/level of polish is quite advanced, with intricate character expressions and dialogue options, and the way the story branches off is also quite ambitious. Even though the game hasn't progressed much in terms of story from its original version, it's still packed with lots of content and sexually-charged scenes.
I loved this game before it was remade with AI, and even now that the developer has decided to go back to "pure" Daz3d renders, I don't mind the changes - because it made everything more photorealistic. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and give it a chance. I assure you that you won't find anything like it on this site.