Review written for 0.7 public release. Viewer discretion is advised.
DISCLAIMER: I am a supporter of this project and thus this review will be subjective.
As with any review - take it for what it's worth with a grain or truckload of salt, according to taste of course.
The TL;DR right up front because this is an extremely long one:
This game is well worth your time - and then some, while also more than worth to support.
So, after doing a couple reviews on smaller titles or titles where writing a review was easy as all hell, I thought I might as well write one for one of the bigger and more beloved titles out there. There are however two problems: One, I'm somewhat personally invested, as I am supporting the project monthly as I believe it to be a great title. Second and last, many things have been said already and I might as well be re-treading paths at this point.
Nevertheless, if it's worth repeating over, it can only be good, right? So, let's get to it.
This project has seen quite the development from its earlier days, where - at least to me - it felt more light-hearted than what it is today: An extremely rich and still developing story-bucket to grab and enjoy the development of characters in their respective arcs that you enjoy interacting with while also lewding it up a notch or two. Either that or I'm just talking out of my arse here.
Since this game is not just quite well-made but also big, I'm actually going to talk more in-depth about all the different aspects in quite the length - some sorted or unsorted list wouldn't do it justice, so I'm gonna dedicate entire paragraphs to them, starting now.
The characters
There's - as of time of writing - 8 varied main residents in your hotel split up on 7 rooms. Also there are several small side characters ranging from your receptionist, the waitress of your built-in bar and a small collection of elven slaves (or equals
) available for you to interact with and even some more - however, those are not just instantly available, as they are tied to the different characters story-arcs. The biggest strength in the character department is the extreme variety on offer: Not just in looks, but also truly in character - no two characters feel or look alike.
At the start, the characters do feel stereotypical: You have a somewhat reclusive nerdy girl, one that seems overly obsessed with you and the idea of having a boyfriend, one that seems cold, calculating and cunning - you get the idea. These stereotypes however break down the more you get to know these individuals as they develop and grow due to their past as well as the events surrounding them happen, with you being an important part of it. Yet they never manage to fully lose these stereotypes. It is what makes them feel human. Moreso than what many AAA developers set out but ultimately fail to achieve nowadays with characters so wooden you have to worry that their circuitry might set them ablaze the second they'd be required to think.
Not just that, but the characters stories are also partially intertwined which will cause events relating to one character also feature some of the other characters you may or may not suspect. This allows the place to feel alive - which is helped since most of the respective character stories early on play inside the hotel, meaing a densely packed environment. With their growth also growing the scope at which their events respectively play out. The characters are quite clearly the star of the game to me.
Well, that was quite a mouthful, only... several more topics to go over - fuck. Anyways, with the characters, most likely your main focal point out of the way, let us talk about other things, like...
The stories on display:
The overarching driving plot is, at least early on, what you'd expect from the title: You are the grandson of a hotel owner in his late years - with his death, you are asked to take over the business, which seemed to be going slow and manage a hotel full of females. As it turnes out quite a bit in, the hotel has been marketed as a "female only" hotel - oh how convenient... especially for us. The story is actually character driven and not plot driven. This means the focus lies on the characters reaction to events and their growth, rather than the overarching plot - which is only slighty touched upon. However, in the characters respective events, observant readers will quickly catch on that the Elves have become a slaverace, despite existing and living for so much longer due to the humans just outpacing them fiercely. The overarching plot of the game is however - at time of writing - not nearly as important as the individuals stories. The main focus lies truly with the characters arcs and their bond slowly forming with you and the other residents. Their stereotypical characters make for relatively simple introductions, which are chipped away bit by bit with each event unfolding. Their stories are also just as varied as their personalities. Yet the game is not afraid to throw gut-punching moments at you - that can hit quite close to home - to show just how relatable some of their story beats are and on that note - the game is more than willing to touch on philosophical and more mature topics. I'll however refrain from actually going in-depth for each character as to not spoil their story arcs as well as causing this review to most likely needing a Director's Cut - Let me just tell you, it's worth it just to enjoy the top notch writing as well as the actual events slowly broadening not just your view of the world, but of the characters as well.
Jesus christ, are these paragraphs getting longer the more I'm typing? Feels like it - I know why saying that some form of list wouldn't do this justice. So, what next? Gameplay?
Gameplay:
Despite what the title would suggest, it is not really a management game at all, but rather a sandbox-style visual novel with the purpose of telling the characters stories while also lewding them. You receive a set amount of income based on the amount of residents as well as the potential bar you built and from side activities. This money you can spend on buying various things, like outfits for your female residents to enjoy alternate clothing in scenes or to access other areas. Your actions done with them affect a relatively simple stat system which covers their affection, sluttiness, submission and exhibitionism as well as their experience in sexual acts or their friendship - which gauges the event progress done with each character. These stats are increased (or sometimes decreased) in various different activities. Their influence reaches from "barely noticable" with the experience in sexual acts only influencing some lines of text to "pretty neat" with things like submission or exhibition opening up extra options in events to chose from. The gameplay structure allows for very little in terms of branching paths, which I honestly like. Stories in which you fail entirely or block off entire character paths due to a decision that seemed reasonable to you at that time more often than not frustrate the player and since the focus is less on a plot and more on the growth of the respective characters, such design would make little sense in this regard. (This even gets mentioned shortly in a fun little easter egg). Besides that, once unlocked due to progressing each characters events, you are able to enjoy a wide variety of sexual acts you can perform with them - however, these scenes are more often than not non-interactive, so don't expect weird quick time events or a bunch of button pressing, except to further the texts
. Pretty well cut and dried gameplay that feels not grind heavy at all - unless you wish to get all characters stats and sexual experiences up to the maximum, which may just happen by itself because the scenes are pretty well made and worth coming back to and thanks to the variety of characters involved, checking around them all every now and then to enjoy them is not wasted effort.
Well, that's another part done, feels like only a couple pieces left... I guess next up is the other part people are most likely going to come after for this game.
The scenes and interactions:
Besides the characters events, probably the other big chunk of the game - the different scenes and interactions at hand. The game offers you not just a variety of girls to enjoy, but also a variety of scenes for each and every one of them. From simple activities like going outside to spend the time with them (or to do naughtier things there while you are at it) in order to increase their stats, to straight up lewding them up in different ways. Each girl has their own respective scenes in sexual acts with a variety of clothing to enjoy them with (if bought). The different acts cover all the basics available, with the dungeon and even some of the locales inside and outside the hotel like the main lobby, the showers or the beach offering some extra content for those who wish to engage in it. It's well worth your time to pursue after all of them and enjoying what the game has to offer to you.
Phew, and here I was saying earlier that I should learn to cut to the chase, yet I'm wording on and on... christ. Anyways, there isn't much else to cover, but it still warrants some mentioning. And with that, let us talk about the last thing on this huge pile of text I dare to call a review.
Ambience and Quality:
Let us talk about quality first. Achieving modeling of characters that is considered to be a consistent, yet high quality is no easy feat, yet Runey managed to pull it off, with characters not only looking quite natural and realistic (synthetic beings not withstanding), but also with pushing the quality up release after release. The game shows its development in the scene department with scenes from the early days that only consisted of a couple of still images. This has been drastically improved over time with animations using up to 40 frames to give a smooth but also naturally feeling movement in the respective scenes. This is a very big plus - many games have problems with their images used: Either because characters have this horrible Uncanny Valley effect that makes you feel like you talk to robots, or animations which are neither smooth nor feel remotely realistic. Runey also stated that he'll be reworking older scenes over time in order to accomodate for a consistent quality and has already done so with a couple of scenes.
With that out of the way, another part would be ambience, which, while nothing to write home about, still suits the game well and does what its supposed to do. The music underlying the game is not intrusive and gives a generally relaxing feel to the player while making the game not a mute experience - however, some events, especially those that cover more adult themes, might work better when underlined with atmosphere building music instead of the general theme you get to hear, even in a characters' recap of the past. This has been slighty expanded upon with the addition of the bar and several musical pieces that can not only be purchased, but also played while in there to give that bar the nice authentic atmosphere. There are definitely games out there that did it way worse.
To sum this abomination of text up: This is an outstanding project which now screams "high production value" considering it's small start, which I still think delivered way more in it's versions v0.1 to v0.3 than most games managed to show in what they called version v0.5 and onwards. There is a very good reason this game got so much support over those past two years and very little that needs improving at this point. The few complaints I have a mere nitpicks and barely influence the overall experience, which is also why I actually can't give any suggestions that haven't been given or aren't already part of the game. This is mainly because Runey not only listenes to the community here and on his patreon, but also shows a serious passion and an actual interest in telling a story, rather than to make a game for the sake of making a game.
Final verdict:
Honestly, a 5/5 rating seems more than fitting for this title - these five stars are well deserved. Though I'd rather have a more nuanced score available other than a scale of 1 to 5.
And once more, just to clarify: There is no perfect game experience, period.
There are gonna be nitpicks here and there as well as my rating being subjective because, hell, I enjoy it - that mustn't necessarily mean you do as well.
If you managed to get this far down here - First off I'd like to apologize for writing such a long text which some might not even consider a review in the usual sense. Still - congratulations: Here's 5 Internet points and a well deserved cookie.
EDIT: small corrections here and there.
