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

Edit: Lowered my rating from five stars to three, the remake is worse than the original. The renders are still good, but they now have AI filters applied to them so they can look a bit weird at times. My favourite LI, Amber has had her personality toned down significantly. No more extreme jealously, possessiveness or mood swings. She's far less interesting now. You're also forced into a romantic relationship with a girl that almost prostitutes herself to the Yazuka and only pulls out at the last minute. Hated that. There's some light lesbianism between two of the LIs which is another thing I didn't like. It's just some groping and suggestive dialogue for now but I'm sure there will be more than that in the future.

The only thing I liked about the reworked version compared to the original is that there's some progress with Isabella (the daughter). Everything else is worse.

They weren't kidding when they chose that name! It really is hard to love this game!
ooh, where to start?!

× The characters in this game can be in a dictionary next to the word bipolar! They just don't behave like human beings, every one of them is an example of extreme personality.
× The MC is a weird spinless jellyfish man! It's hard to explain him, but he's just so vanilla!
× The Dev had an idea of the MC being in love with a girl(with the weirdest name I've ever heard) and spends the first 1+ hour of the game making us fall in love with her too. yes, MAKING US. I don't know what he was thinking, just nonsense dialogues for hours and nothing else just trying to force a wholesome love connection between the MC and weird name girl. and forcing us to suffer through it and his terrible writing cuz he wants us to fall in love with this girl too! This is the biggest swing and a miss I've ever seen in one of these games! lol
× The story and characters suffer from one of the worst writings I've seen in these types of games. I mean if a dev is a bad writer and trying his best that is fine, but when the dev thinks he's a great writer and goes all out, it's just unbearable. wait until you reach the point you have to guess all the authors and the book names. talk about pompous writing!
× The story takes itself too seriously and loses all credibility.
× Oh, and have I mentioned the entire story(at least to the point I played) is a flashback?! yeah, the MC has taken painkillers on a train and is constantly going back and forth between now and his memories of high school, with his daughter taking care of him in the present and parading her around like the final prize you'll get in this game. I don't know how long is the flashback sequence and if it's just meant to be the intro, but I've played the game for hours and was still in the flashback intro!

Edit - forgot to mention, there's no rollback option at the bottom of the screen or in the options to activate (left side click to roll back) in fact they made the options screen as minimalistic as possible, cuz apparently fewer options are better?!
The texting mini-game is so annoying and buggy.

The start was very interesting with great potential. Great artwork, models and an interesting story, but things went quickly downhill from there. The game is incoherent with TOO MUCH blah blah blah and nothing much happening. It also tries to hard for dramatic effect with all those flashbacks which makes the story even more confusing. I ended up just skipping the entire season 2 episode.

To be honest the rating of this game fooled me pretty good. I have a hard time understanding how it can average 4 stars.

PRO
Renders - It definitely has a pretty shell so I get why people would give it a look. (Except for character eyes)

Story Structure - The basic premise of a man looking for his lost love and his family having an unhealthy dynamic is a solid base.

CON
Inconsistency/ Lots of filler - Cannot say I have seen an instance where the MC's story tries to progress any time it has been referenced it is interrupted and/or diverted into some kind of obligatory lewd scene

Unlikable characters - I saw a review that referred to them as a bi polar mess and I find it hard to disagree. Hard to tell if it is bad writing or a language barrier where lots of things get lost in translation.

Update for rework 0.1 (rework of previous rework?)

So, this doesn’t get to the finish of season 1 I believe, so it’s hard to evaluate writing improvements since it didn’t really go off the rails until after the MC arrived at the family home and that’s where this ends. The sister is still a total brat/bitch from the beginning and the MC still seems like a pushover/idiot.

As far as the AI art/filtering, I didn’t find it bothersome, but didn’t really add anything for me either. The UI is about the only noticeable change to me and it’s an improvement I guess but this doesn’t seem worth the time. Much of the ui changes and walkthrough could have been left to Sancho's mod imo.

This stays a 2 for now as I couldn’t recommend this until more content so we find out if the writing and all the characters are still suffering from schizophrenia or the writing significantly improves. To me it was the writing which needed the biggest rework and so far it seems most the time was spent polishing a turd.

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The renders are excellent. Good lighting, great focus and cropping, with sexy and unique LIs as well.

Unfortunately that’s the only good I can say.

I thought season 1 had too much jumping around via flashback and too much inner monologue, this first chapter of season 2 turns all that up to 11. It feels like monologues about monologues, flashbacks having flashbacks. Plus now we’re getting inner monologues by almost everyone in addition to the mc.

The MC is crazy, which I can understand plot wise, but it’s just all over the place and doubting about his doubts on and on and on ….. He’s worse than some of the worst “just out of high school” mc’s who are virgins and have never seen a breast before. His whining….ugh, I had to skip over half the dialogue/monologues. In addition, it is now clear everyone around the MC is crazy/bipolar as well. It’s just so much that doesn’t seem possible to keep everything straight with all the flashbacks, doubts, reversals of behavior/thoughts, etc.

I get that the author is probably trying to give each LI more detailed personalities/differences but this wasn’t the way to do it. It feels like all story focus is lost. It’s nearly stream of conscious writing, but this is no Ulysses by James Joyce and besides, isn’t suited for a VN/Porn game.

To get back on track, this would need major paring down of monologues and most the doubting/whining. We should be able to tell the girls’ personalities apart by the way they act and talk towards the MC, not by having to hear their inner thoughts. Hopefully this can get turned around.

Looks great, animations are neat, but everyone is fucking bipolar.
Season 2 feels like a jarring retcon of season 1, the characters feel completely different, mainly the goth chick and the mom. Dialogue is whacked.
Everyone is so insane it's genuinely disturbing, and all the flashbacks are terrible and there's way too many - you REALLY didn't need to do 4 flashbacks in a row with very small breaks in-between. Just do one long one. The dialogue sounds like gibberish sometimes.

For me, so far the story is interesting.
But for some reason, sometimes I feel that the face of the main character's mother and Madison looks like that of a woman who uses drugs, or like someone who has a serious illness, or like someone who hasn't eaten in months (sorry). Or maybe there really is a dark story behind the two of them when the main character left for years.
In my opinion, maybe in the future the facial models of the main character's mother and Madison can be made even prettier.

And I think so far Isabella and Nanami are the best girls.

Sorry for my bad English.

Really good renders, great lighting work. Love the main girl- stunning foxy looking and awesome personality, daughter not so much. Grown up sister is something else too. Keep up the good work. Best of luck!

As of v0.042 (didn't bother trying the second part)

PROS

• Models look ok

CONS

• Forced sex scenes
• False choices
• Story is a poor jumbled mess.
• MC is pathetic
• Only one likable side character

CONCLUSION

For those who just want to look at the pretty pictures.

I honestly feel like rating this a 5/5 is too high for the game but it's closer to a 5/5 than a 4/5.

The story has bad pacing, a bit incoherent and not serious at all. As the goals of the MC are a bit thrown to the side so that every character gets their 5 minutes of fame which just ends up being this drama filled ride. I would even say it feels at times like a trainwreck you just can't look away from. So, all in all love the game for what it is.

Game is really weird one here with really good graphics plus characters but Mc and Story makes no sense really thats big turn off for me like Mc acts like idiot and story is all about flashbacks that makes me feels really bored about this and family members is just DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA nothing more like thats biggest con for me about this game other than MC being moron.

Other than that game is okay even with weird story with lot of flashbacks worths 5 star for potential for now.

Visuals

• Top notch. Every girl, every woman (important distinction) is beautifully rendered. Among the best I've seen.
• We are spoiled with MANY lewd angles, suggestive clothing, revealing clothing, exposure, all of which are thoughtful and satisfying.
• I'm not into petite women, nor lollis (per se), but even they are well rendered. You will not be disappointed in this arena.

Characters

• Antonella (beautiful name) - Reasonably cute, spunky personality, a bit of firecracker. Endearing from start to finish.
• Isabella - Another name I've always loved (looking at you: BADIK), and she's exceptionally pretty. Love that the dev made her look interesting in that she's got some thicc thighs. Typical doting daughter, absolutely nothing wrong with that, and she plays the part well. I hope we begin to see more content centered around she and the MC in future updates.
• Madison - I'm a bit neutral on her. She's not too cute, and I don't like small breasts, but she's got a round ass that helps. She's devious, and that makes her interesting, but we'll see to what end (and of course, depending on the path chosen).
• Mom - Obviously a knockout in her youth, I love that the dev just facedove into the taboo and doesn't make you wait endlessly. She maintains a believable distance from you, despite the tension, but she wants you to know she knows you want her.
• Amber - 10/10 would bang. She's got a weird larger-than-it-should-be head size as a teenager when MC has flashbacks about their childhood, and yet still a great body. When we see her again as an adult...holy shitballs. She's fantastic. Wouldn't change a thing.
• Nanami is phenomenally hot. Adorable face, exceptionally generous breasts for how young she is, and a cute little ass. The schoolgirl outfit is all of the cherries on all of the tops. She's got an adorable, endearing personality too. She sees the best in everyone, I love that. Even if it is delusional at times.

Story

• Semi-typical inter-familial relationships, tension, etc. Well-written, though, and that is KEY. It's never dull, it seldom drones on, and achieves a satisfying cadence. I really don't want to give away specifics or spoilers, but suffice it to say that if the above is your jam, you'll really enjoy this one.
• There are some confusing elements, I am guessing they may stem from cultural differences between Asia and the US. For example:
  Spoiler: Spoiler - Story

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Dialog

• This is probably the only real area I have minor critiques on; MC has a good amount of inner monologue, even in between actual ongoing dialogue. Not that it isn't believable, but rather sometimes it feels repetitive. It suffers from an endlessly surprised MC who - realistically - would not retain the height of feeling caught off guard for such sustained periods. Almost comes across clueless, though he isn't.
• The actual text - the words you read on the screen, are almost flawless. This is huge for me. I am incapable of enjoying a VN to its fullest when my mind is making regular corrections to the text before me. It's nice to be free of that burden, and just enjoy the story.
• There are no overtly corny, cliché, or otherwise annoying qualities to the dialog. The closest thing to this would be how it seems nearly every girl MC comes in contact with speaks in riddles/broken or disjointed concepts/contradicts themselves within seconds. Nobody's perfect.

Game Mechanics/Other Notes

• This is another area where this VN really shines. It has among the top 5 most unique AND well-implemented UIs I've ever seen. Everything from the launcher, to the menu, the dialog box, and the scene transitions are extremely creative. Super awesome and fun.
• Contains sound/music, always worth calling out and always in the plus column
• Contains some animations, though none are particularly great. This doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the experience for me, though.

Eagerly awaiting future updates, and am highly impressed by this one.

This game is very well crafted and has some of the best character writing of any of new AVNs I've played. The storytelling is exceptional. Events unfold in a mesmerizingly cinematic way. The easy-going music greatly contributes to this quality as well.

Moreover, it has some of the best image and scene transitions I've encounters. As far as the models, they are all knockouts and fit well with the characters. The outfits are dank. Overall, great attention to detail.

My only complaint is that it was too cpu/gpu intensive to run on faptop. Had to risk playing it on main.

Loving the game overall. Really hoping I get to see it finished one day.

Hard To Love is.... hard to rate

There is so much in this game to love and so much to dislike

Likes: Great models for the most part and great renders (see dislikes)
A story that is at least different from the typical ones found on this site

Dislikes: The dev trying way too hard to be "artistic"..., it's frustrating and annoying.
e.g. The constant jarring flashbacks are way too overdone and so erratic you tend to quickly lose focus on just what the hell is going on.

A lot of the renders both current and in flashback are beautifully done then washed out by a blurry mist overlay or background light flare. If I wanted hazy images I'll not clean my glasses. It is just dumb...it's not artistic!

Final rating is a tough one as at times I want to bin this game and give it one star while at other times it comes close to a five star.
Unfortunately at the moment there are more one star moments than five star......I really hope for more five star ones in the future.

Edit: Going to try this again because my last review was just all over the place.

I was going to give this 3 stars because of all the "WTFs" and poor grammar as well as the "weeby" vibe I got from it but it's overall a good game and still deserves 4 stars.

However:
- No regular person is going to say things like "BTW", "OMG", and "WTF" outside of texting or online chats. Don't really know why that's a thing among devs but it's become a huge pet peeve.
- The setting being Japan is kind of weird. Since most of the characters don't look asian or have Japanese names. Still, I got past that by choosing to suspend disbelief and imagining the dev just wrote it to be some weird alternate world where Russians(?) and the Japanese intermingled at some point and Osaka is the remnants of before that point in time.
- The main cast of characters' appearances are sometimes inconsistent. Like the dev is trying to make them seem more "Asian" at times then completely abandoning that and switching back. Especially the MC.
- Not a fan of the MC by the way. Kind of a spineless loser. Even just leaves his kid to "pursue his dreams" then ends up drowning in alcohol and prostitutes for a period of time. Seems to take a backseat to almost every other character and I can imagine once or if Antonella (can't remember how to spell the name) comes he'll probably be outshined even more.
- Speaking of taking a backseat, the more attractive character models seem to be taking a backseat so far in terms of the story. I get it. You need to explain what the MC was doing and lay the groundwork for how all these different characters and storylines will eventually coincide with each other. HOWEVER, 6 or 7 of the characters on the banner don't get that much screentime and any content with them is just a bunch of teasing even though they seem like they're highly advertised based off the screenshot previews.
- Seems almost too convoluted of a plot for it to ever be finished. Too many characters and too many plot lines that would make pretty good games by themselves but it's just too slow to grab anyone's attention for a long period of time. It goes from high school sweethearts with one of the greatest looking character models to possible incest with less attractive characters to some crime/bad cop/possibly secret agent/evil mastermind with even less attractive characters. I more or less see how the story might come together later on but how many years will take, is the dev even going to finish such a herculean task, and will it even be worth the wait (both in terms of the MC not being a little bitch outshined by his baby mama and doing the character models justice)?

That's just my best guess on how the plot is going to unfold based off of obvious foreshadowing. That's just the Point A to Point B. It's up to the writer to create an actual journey/story that captivates the audience. It's an adult VN, most won't care about twists and turns. Just a good story and satisfying experience that justifies waiting years for it to finish.

This is an overall good game. The Japanese setting/vibe isn't all that unique but the style, graphics, and sounds give it that unique touch and it's still the best executed of all the games I've seen so far with similar settings.

However, I've seen devs try to take on such a big storytelling task before and the game usually ends up abandoned or stuck in development limbo where we might get trickles of updates every 6 months or longer, if at all.

Still, I wish the devs all the best and hope that they can get enough supporters to see this through so they can be satisfied with their work in the end. Looking forward to future updates.

So I just finished the game and I have some thoughts... It's gonna be a bit of a tangent so please bear with me.

I'm sure all of you have that kind of childhood dish that your moms used to make that you would absolutely adore. And every time that you would come home, she would make it and you would feel all tingly inside. For the sake of the argument let's say it was a chimken noodle soup.


Well one time you came back after not seeing your family for a year or two. And to celebrate your arrival your moms made you that beautiful, lovely soup you love so much. But once you taste it you realize that there is something missing. Something very very very minor, but it's a little different. It's not the same. You can't pinpoint what that thing is. Whether it is a certain spice or a specific vegetable. Maybe there is too much of this or too little of that.

And your moms is looking at you with tears at the edges of her eyes eating your cute little soup the same way as when you were a child.. And you see her and decide to not tell her that the soup is different to not hurt her feelings. BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME IS IT?
I mean the soup is absolutely wonderful, it tastes great, right? But you just know very VERY well that it simply is NOT the same.

So close to greatness but there is this one tiney tiny thing that's missing, but you can't pinpoint what it is. Those are my honest feelings about the game.

a simpleton would say something like "So it's close to being perfect, that's it?" but it's not so simple, is it? The feeling that the game invokes inside of you. It's simple to just say that it's "close to being perfect."

the issue is that "close". I don't know what that close is. That's the feeling that reminds me of the soup.

It's absolutely a 5/5 but there is just that little something.

Also for some more concrete criticism... The MC is bland. If the rest of the cast is a 3-course Michelin star meal, then the MC is a store-bought tuna sandwich.

4/5 - A diamond in the rough.

I was reading through the other reviews and thought to myself; "Woaw that's really harsh".

I know this game has it's flaws but some of the reviews would have you believe it's one of the worst games on the forum (which it simply is not).

Here is what it gets right:

• The dialog is concise (not a wall of text).
• Good renders.
• Good audio.
• Overall nice aesthetics and clear UI. (I would have left in the back, skip etc. buttons. I know it doesn't look as clean, but those buttons do serve a purpose).

Here is what it gets wrong:

• The character development does not exist. We get introduced to new characters before knowing what the already existing characters are all about. Maybe this is not something that was thought about before hand. Meaning, dialog was written without fleshing out the characters and backstories. This results in the story jumping around because it might add to a more interesting story. But in actuality it feels like it lacks a "soul".
• Inconsistency between art and story telling. Another user already pointed this out. When the Japan arc started. The story started feeling like it was written by a weeb. I know this game is made by Japanese people. But the way the japanese elements are introduced are EXACTLY the same way weeb developers do it. If you want to introduce new information, do it like a good movie. Don't tell us, show us what it means through image and dialog and expect the viewer to understand. Also the settings being in japanese but the daz3d art being western is unfortunate but maybe unavoidable due to availablity of assets. But seeing as the Japan arc was introduced in later chapters...I think this was an unfortunate mistake.

There is no point looking back now, but moving forward here is what I'd try to do:

• Write a background story and personality profile for each character, that way you can write story around the characters instead of writing a story and putting the characters in them.
• More character development instead of rushing to introducing new characters. If there is no development, we don't care about the characters. If we don't care about the characters then we don't care about the story. (The character development in chapter 1 was good).
• Tell us what we need to know and don't tell us what we don't need to know. Anything that affects the interaction between characters is something we need to know. An example of something we don't need to know is "Tokyo has less crime". Unless the MC is trying to move to Tokyo with his daughter to escape crime, how is this piece of information relevant to the story?

edit: The younger sister Madison that tries to seduce you and then threatens you is a interesting idea. The idea being that she is manipulative and mean but is only doing it to adept and survive her surroundings. It is how ever, less impactful than it should have been. She immediately throws all her cards on the table during in the first encounter with the MC. She's said to be manipulative. But how manipulative can she really be if EVERY character knows what she's up to. Since EVERY character knows what she is like, she is not a threat and not intelligent (enough to hide her manipulation) so what remains? What could have been an interesting character that you'd have to pay attention to ends up being used to invoke feelings of pity when her back story will be revealed. But since she is a simple minded mean person will we really care when her time comes? The question the dev needs to answer is, how do I make a simple minded mean person likable?

Now you might think, omg he's being a dick by writing this review, what does he know. I took the time to write a review expanding on what I think is needed to make your game better. Don't hate me for it. Take it on the chin and keep moving forward. (Your game already better than 90% of the games on f95).

v0.041

Models and renders are absolutely gorgeous including the the background and assets used. The characters are beautifully modelled, not a fan of beauty dolls but when its done right, its art.

Not much lewd scenes for now but what there is so far, i'd have to said the devs nailed it. Scenes are hot though vanilla stuff.

Can't comment much on the plot for now, seems quite early in to judge fairly. That said devs did a fair job in introducing the setting and laying the foundation for the story. However, a lot of backstory were purposely made ambiguous and combining with excessive use of flashbacks(which i'm not a fan of), it made the storyline all the more confusing. That said, the main plot only makes up 50% of the story, the other half relates to the relationship building between the MC and the love interests, which is fine by me as this part of the narrative is nicely executed.

As for the characters, i'm really loving the cast so far. Like their personalities, motives and relationship dynamics they have with each other and also the MC. They are unique amongst themselves which is a plus. The romance aspect is definitely done right and i'm craving for more. The MC though, he is a mess. He is indecisive, living in the past. Moreover he is like a lost soul just drifting through life but with an unhealthy obsession of his past despite being a father, a cop and with people who love him. I reckon this is on purpose and his character will mature later on.

Definitely wait for more chapters. Its looking good, but not good enough right now. It does however have a lot of potential.

Renders are good with really nice models, but the writing is just all over the place. It starts off decently strong and then makes a weird turn after the first chapter. It just feels... childish I guess.

Maybe it will come together later, but for now I would call this game a pass.

So i only played to about the beginning of chapter 2 before i decided to drop this game. The only good point about this game is the fantastic renders though it has this breathing effect where it zooms in and out which gives me a headache.

Story: Storywise this game was a mess, the constant jumping between the past and present was sorta confusing me and when it got to the scene where he arrived home i was even more confused.

The past with him and his gf was the only decent part granted she was a bit annoying at first, she had started to grow but then we learn she left the mc with their daughter. My interest was already low and now either we would never see her again or she wouldn't come in until later in the story. The characters themselves are also very annoying and kinda loco. The MC feels like a stuttering mess who cant complete a thought or sentence to save his life.

Overall, The dialogue is choppy and inconsistent. The constant random introduction of characters is also quite annoying. The random and
incoherently placed cuts between past and present, Along with all the characters lusting after you the story simply didnt interest me enough to keep reading.


SC: So to where i got there werent really any scenes, the ones with Antonella and amber were both cut short.

Renders: The renders were great, though i do have to take a point off for the breathing effect on each renders it gave me a headache.

Character Models: The models honestly reminds me of a modded sims 4 where you cover your female sims in a shit ton of makeup, which make them pretty unattractive and almost doll like. While they are high quality. Antonella was the only girl that i though didnt look creepy and actually looked good.