VN - Ren'Py - Hardenville [v0.2.3] [JoyFI Games]

Visually stunning but somewhat hollow and kinda wasteful.

So let's just address it, it's a beautiful game. Better than many.

The problems are kinda small but they have the potential to get worse if not addressed. First off the bat I found some issues with the story. It's interesting.... I just don't know what it is. You're thrown right in with the MC being all broody and the like before it flashes back but there is precisely ZERO exposition. Who are you? What do you do? Who knows, you have a name but nothing else. And the same goes for everyone else, every character you meet has a name and precisely zero else. I mean look at the overview " Your decisions steer the story in this adult Visual Novel, shaping your fate through friendships, romance, drama, and personal growth. " The overview doesn't even give you an idea to what the plot is. So the issue is you start interacting with people and you gain/lose points depending on your answer and really..... you've no clue to how you should answer. Is the person annoying? Do you like them? Are you related to them? Who knows. A major failing there.

Another issue I mentioned is the game feels a bit wasteful. It's INCREDIBLY short. It's pretty.... but it's short and what's worse is even saying that, it's padded out with random renders who do nothing but seem to be there to fill out the game. There's a scene near the end where you take a delivery into the garage. There's then 3 separate renders of your feet as you walk into the house. There's then another 5 renders of you picking up a beer, walking to the table and sitting down. And then you have 8 renders of the MC just drinking cans waiting for the plot to get there. I mean jeez.... I appreciate it's good to let the story breathe but no player has every enjoyed watching a scene where the MC just sits about scratching his arse. I can do that without playing a game to show me how it's done. If the developer make the game a bit tighter, packed a bit more story and dialogue into lesser scenes it could be a bit better but really right now this is the game you go "huh pretty" then ignore for 4 years hoping that it lasts long enough to be worth your attention.

I couple of things irked me but... it's definitely not that bad of a game. Take away the minor hiccups in the writing department and it's a thing of beauty.

Story:

We start off with the MC in his what's assumed present state. He's looks to be suicidal or something. Or maybe he's just depressed because he gets no bitches as the kids love to say. But it's one of those "You're probably wondering how I got here" moments. We then jump into past tense and there's wedding going on. Your landlord and landlady are tying the knot. The Landlord has a mustache, just wanted to throw that out there.

There's celebrations, speeches, drinking, dancing, good music.... and then a random porta potty BJ which could've lasted a bit longer to make the MC look less of a... minute man.. a quick popper... a insta squirt.. You get the jizz.

The girl that actually blows and finishes him off looks to have a thing for him and I don't know if she's a LI or not but you can understand some of the straight forward players gripes(Like me). Initially I don't think the scene was avoidable until after the prologue was released if memory serves me right. Moving on. You meet cake girl, Emma and your landmate or roomlord Millie, gives you an assist as she was skinny dipping. She sensed you had a thing for her and like a good landmate she decided be her fellow roomlord's wingman. The scene overall was mid... kinda funny.. kinda sexy... mostly cringe as you, the MC ended up yeeted all over your landlady to end the prologue.

The second installment is short, very short... and very detailed... I mean, VERY detailed. We got a whole grocery shopping scene but along the way got to meet other potential Li's.

Is this a problem for me? Well, yes and no.

Sometimes Devs add too many LI's and that takes the focus away from the main ones who you're supposed to grow to eventually care for. The flipside is people like me can be too damn picky so if you're a Dev you try to give players a variety of characters to pursue.

After the shopping scene there's a game of... SOCCER! I mean "Futbul". I took some saving and loading but I beat the best girl in this game Millie and got the best view of the game as a reward. You sleep, wake up, play "Have you ever?" the crowd shows up for the party and that's it.

Was it super short? Sure.

Could some of the renders could've been used on other things and show less detail? Sure.

Does the lewd scenes need work? Sure.

Did I still enjoy this very short game overall? Yes.

Dialogue:
No complaints.

Models:
Gorgeous

Some of the models look slightly different from the prologue but they look hot. Millie once again is my top pick, followed by Ariel, Hannah and Jasmine. Millie's ass alone deserves praise.

Gui/Gameplay:
Sick. I mean that in a good way.

I've never seen a phone feature in a AVN that well detailed. The GUi is also nice and easy to navigate. The text font could be bigger though, so I would add a option to make them bigger for the sake of people who don't have 20-20 vision. I can see why mini games annoy people and even though I got past them I would still add a skip option just for the sake of not hearing people complain. I know the work you put in them and it's appreciate but still...

Renders:
Solid renders and lighting.

Overall response:

Minus the Cons this AVN is solid. I'm glad I gave it a second chance and I feel others should to. The music choices are top notch as well and I'm not a big music person when it comes to AVNs. To the Dev, don't get discouraged and welcome to F95, you'll get used to the environment.

Mediocre game so far. One lucky 1 minute encounter (which is probably enough time for MC to cum twice) and a bit of teasing.

• the LIs all pretty much look the same to me. I had trouble telling them apart at first.
• the mini-games are a total waste of time. games based purely on RNG rather than skill...what is the point of that? yawn. Dev seems intent on wasting my time on single 'choice' menus (insulting, do you think people are that stupid?) and lots of transitions.
• some of the worst abuse of depth of field I've ever seen. There are some renders where the only parts that aren't blurry are the overlay (i.e. font, phone, etc). I even cleaned my glasses once to make sure that wasn't the problem with the poor picture quality. It seems like a waste to buy a nice gpu and monitor when devs are gonna intentionally sabotage their own picture quality. I guess they are trying to cut down on game size and/or the time it takes them to do the rendering....
• MC is the worst pre-ejaculator I've ever seen, it really is pathetic. I'm guessing it is supposed to be comical, but why do you want lewd scenes to be funny rather than arousing? There is no way sex can be arousing or enjoyable (or good for self-confidence and the possibility of future sex with unsatisfied partners) if the slightest tap ends the scene.
• the end of the prologue was so stupid I was mildly offended. Again, I guess it was supposed to be silly or something, but it seemed like an insult to the player's intellect. A piss scene in the prologue is not a good sign for me either, as I find it disgusting and a waste of time that could better be spent developing sex scenes.
• seems like a boring slow-burn game to me...time will tell I guess. The story doesn't seem interesting so far, other than the potential the MC has to have sex with lots of young women. The very start of the prologue was a lame move by the dev as well...such a cheap way to try to create momentary drama.
• I don't understand Millie so far and what she is trying to accomplish. Maybe she'll end up being a cuck?

Review for v0.2.2
In my opinion this game deserve a little more love. The graphics and animations are among the best I've found on this website. The selection of girls in this game is honestly ridiculous, again there are not a lot of games that contain this many hot women.

So thats by far the best aspect of this game, the visuals. I already see a lot of criticism about the prologue and that things escalated too quickly. And honestly I understand and agree but episode one was already way better. Nothing too crazy happened and we get a nice introduction to the characters. The charachter arcs are well developed and complex. For example, Jasmine likes the MC way more then she likes to let on, that tension can really be felt which makes me curious to see their story develop.

I will say that as of now im not very sure what the story is about which tbh isnt great. I do not yet get the feeling that its moving in any direction but the game is still in its early stage of development. Furthermore, I do feel like the connection between the MC and some characters is kinda not there. For example, with Jasmine there is tension. They have this hate-love relationship which creates excitement. With Ariel and Millie there does not seem to be any tension, so I dont really see how romance can develop. Its seems like with these two there is a very normal kinda boring relationship.

So for that I will have to decrease my rating with one star. Still the game is worth checking out imo, I hope the story and the romances becomes more interesting in the following updates because then this game could very well still become an absolute masterpiece.

5 stars for the production. The GUI is just really well done and the images are all top notch. DOF, rule of thirds, scene blocking, pacing... a seriously top notch job. Clearly one of the more talented devs out there from an artistic perspective. Unfortunately, that's about where it ends.

To begin with, there is a section where you can set all the relationships, which right away turned me off. I just hate this as no matter what you put in these fields, it never seems to work right. Or worse, you play for a while and realize a character should be a different relation. There were so many characters and not knowing the story at all, I had no idea what I was supposed to name them.

Spoiler ahead....

After spending way too long on this, I finally jumped into the story and in no time, the MC was naked with a girl in the ocean he had just met. Who was also working at the wedding, yet she was drunk. Then she sees a jellyfish and the two of them continue to stay in the water. Erm... hello... get the hell out before you get stung! No. They start making out surrounded by jellyfish until our female mensa member gets stung and then has the audacity to act surprised. So, they rush to the shore where she asks to get peed on, the MC doesn't and she is like oh well, I'll just have to ignore it. Oh hey! Let's go to the port-a-potty and have some fun. While there, the female mensa member, bumps the MCs smallish cock with her ass cheek and he blows his load all over his Mom/StepMom/Landlady/Non-binary female who is sitting in an unlocked port-a-potty (we won't even mention the earlier port-a-potty scene). This is the high quality story telling you have to look forward to in this AVN.

The other problem, of course, is there are way too many LIs and too many of them look the same. They are all beautiful and there are some unique ones, but sometimes it is hard to differenciate between them. Also, your MC is thrown into the middle of a wedding and you have no idea who everyone is and there is nothing to explain who they are along the way,

The writing is at such odds with the production. So much time and effort was put into making it look good, someone forgot to let the dev know you have to have a decent story underneath it. Regardless, it is worth the download to see the production and you might actually be fine with the story. I plan to stick with it and hope it gets better as I am really rooting for this dev.

Good luck!

Excellent models and renders, good english quality. The WORST minigames I've ever encountered. All minigames are trash but unwinnable ones with no skill like the stupid unavoidable handball are absolute game ruiners.

Story is very very short right now but seems easy enough to follow.

Also dont agree with the other reviewer who called mc a microdick becasue he doesnt know what the term means. Its far better to have normal human proportions than insecure overcompensation that makes mc look like a horse - other criticisms are valid though. The mc is very cowardly and effeminate

+ good music
+ renders
+ mc is not a total wimp/loser

- mc pathetic cumshot scene in prologue, wtf is this?
- story doesn't exist right now, no idea what's going on and what is this all about
- no character introduction. I was really confused who these girls are.
- game is generally boring, nothing interesting happens

Not a lot of content, but i see potential here, we will see. 3 stars for now

This game showed qualities in the prologue that could be AAA grade AVN, but this update episode 1 just gave me the feeling of playing prologue 2 and seems to have failed to maintain volume and sexual tension overall

To put it another way, I think this game will get a lot better if it's already impeccable in terms of quality and if you can increase the amount and sexual tension in moderation

Quite boring to be honest. The renders are excellent, but the MC is shorter than the girls and has a dwerby haircut and a micro dick that is just cringe to look at during the scenes...

The game has massive cuck and femdom vibes.... No scenes but endless blue ballng with an average beta MC. Shame, because the models are excellent but everything else is piss poor.

Review as of Ch 1.

This game has potential. I'm normally not one into incest characters at all but 2 out 3 of them I really liked their characters so far, they were fun to be around. No lewd animations but there was non lewd animations and those were great. The comedy is a bit funny in a cringe kind of way. The minigames fell off to me.

The handball one it feels random and you just got to keep reloading till RNG decides to be in your favor as I dont see a pattern to it at all. The never have I ever feels odd to me, as it just goes through the questions but there is no dialogue in between the questions.

The only other negative I have is more on a technical side it seems there is no quick save and quick load which makes this game a bit annoying for me. But this is also a rare game that supports controllers at least on steam it does.

Not to sure about the story yet it's still early on in the game and it's short but I do like what is there but can't give it more than 3 stars until we get more updates.

[Reviewed v.0.1.2]

Just a prologue for now, but shows some promise if it can start to differentiate itself from other titles with a cast of pretty, similar-looking young love interests.

The Good ()

• Beautiful, well-rendered models (with enough subtle flaws to make the renders feel more realistic)
• Erotic H-scenes with good animations
• Some slick UI elements that are not run-of-the-mill Ren'Py

The Not-So-Good ()

• There's not a lot of content yet
• Initial scene at the wedding provides an interesting set-up but had multiple female characters pursue the MC in totally unrealistic ways (glory hole in the port-a-potty?)
• Story is a little jumpy and it is hard to follow the cast of characters

A good but imperfect start. I'll be following to see how this progresses.

Short summary:


This one is a nice game on the renders alone. Worth checking out and following on the progress. The story is disappointing though due to the unbelievability of the character’s actions, which is a shame, as the other aspects of the game are not bad.



Good Things

• Models are mostly good and realistic
• Good work with lighting, post-production
• Some beautiful scenes
• The overall level of quality and polish for the early release

Bad points

• On-the-nose dialogue
• Character actions make no sense (e.g. right at the start you stumble upon a girl jerking off in the public toilet, who sucks you off through a gloryhole for no reason, and your cousin walks in and joins. All with no setup, choices, or explanation. Ridiculous)
• Forced peeing on the girl

Solid start. The second prologue I've played today and this JoyFI does everything the other one failed to do to grab my attention and anticipation for the next update. Light-hearted and funny, likeable MC and secondary characters.
Liked the pianist slip at the start just would've liked if she didn't notice for a while, thought this might be the only tease but boy was I wrong.
Nice attention to detail with the text message history, including a "accidental" pic.
Never thought I'd see an accidental gloryhole but it really paid off well.
Personally I would've gone after the pianist later on but I guess the MC had a existing relationship to pursue at the beach. Hope to see more of that pianist though...
Great start, look forward to episode one, anyone who would rate this less than 5 stars is a, well, you know the word.
This is how you get backers for your game, to the other prologue I've already forgotten.

The game has an interesting story, apart from the fact that the protagonist has a lazy attitude for what it's worth, great renderings, the music is very good, the girls' models are very good, I thought there would be sex before chapter 1 but that will be for the next time the way the protagonist is precocious in that last scene, plus Emma giving the poor guy her ass like that, it's difficult , let's see how the story will unfold from now on.

Congratulations to the developer and good luck with your project
Please don't abandon

Hardenville Review

Its hardly a playable game at this stage. You could clear it in less than 5 mins. Depending on how future updates go, this game is either a trending main stay or it would be semi abandoned.

Renders are good like "The Grey Dream". However both games suffer from the same thing and that is the younger girls in the game all look the same with different hair assets. You have no idea which blonde you're speaking to half the time.

Overall its hard to even rate something this miniscule at the moment. It has potential but as I've stated before many times Devs need to put everything into first releases. It is your chance to Strike out.

This would be a 1/5 if it weren't for its amazing UI design, menu and audio. Once this game actually makes progress a proper review will be added.

Story: Still too early it is not really fair to rate
Render: 5/5
Gameplay:4/5 (Simple AVN game, with a GOOD PHONE RENDER HOLY)
Girls: 4/5 (The Dev love freckles )
Potential: 10/5

with a render this good this will take too much time for each episode unless the dev got backup, and yes its still early in terms of development but I really like it so far it has so much potential to be really good AVN.

Congrats on the game and good luck for the dev.
I cant wait for the version 1.0.0

Absolutely gorgeous models so far, very little content in the game for now but hopefully dev delivers updates consistently. Love the menu design, UI is looking amazing. Very promising, definitely watching this one closely.

v0.1.2.

This is one of those games that tries so hard to be high quality that it ends up with little more than good renders.

It has a decent setting and some good sex situations that are slightly humorous.

The game feels slow as it has transitions an such that cause delay or slow changes a lot of these higher quality games tend to have.
And no, it isn't my pc. And if it, then this is worse than a top game these days.

I liked that incest was a setting choice.
I dislike that it wasn't *A* setting choice. It was a pain in the ass to find, and a pain to change everything. That was a massive mood killer and a nuisance.
Just make it an option. Or at least explain how to find it better, something.
The amount fo content was actually low due to the amount of story movement it made. Individual frames it was decent in number but not in story.

Overall 3/5 enjoyment.
I might look at it in the future. Maybe when it is done.

Game has really good UI, music ain't bad either and some spicy content even though it is just in a prologue phase, can't wait for future releases. I hope it doesn't gets abandoned after prologue as the content and story seems promising so far.

Hardenville [v0.1.0] Review by Tauro Thurius

Here's my take on version 0.1.0: