Harem Hotel is a wonderful game that has developed from a simple concept with basic archetypes allowing for kink content, to a narrative full of well rounded characters, each with their own rich lives and interactions. As a polyamorous person IRL, despite the fact that only Maria ever seems interested in having relations outside of MC, I find the interconnected community of all the Harem members to feel genuine to real polycules I know and have been a part of.
On the characters:
Having played this game from early versions and just replayed the full game recently, the evolution of the girls has been a breath of fresh air, and I cannot fathom how any of the reviews saying that these girls don't behave like real people can think that.
From the trauma of oppression, seen in the elves, to the isolation of Androids experience, there are people I know in real life who map onto these characters incredibly well. Maria's crisis of self, when they realize that they've been masking around society, trying to be who she thought people wanted her to be, rather than herself, is an experience I have personally, and which most of the people in my life can relate to, as many of us are neurodivergent. And when she finds out about her parentage, I couldn't help but think to my friends' descriptions of their experiences. Both those of mixed heritage, and those of forgotten heritage, who were raised disconnected from their cultural identities, and found themselves needing to seek that community. Even Android, who is literally not a biological being, has relatable experiences, in her isolation due to feeling unique, in her fear of how society will view her due to biological essentialism, and in her need to find friendship in others, but not knowing well how to relate to them, because she lacks their social understanding. I could go on, and likely will elsewhere about each individual girl, but yeah, I can't help but find these girls as no longer being basic archetypes, like the cute one, the yandere, the tsundere, etc, and are now full characters for whom those archetypes are merely single facets of a broader personality.
The world:
While the game can get infodumpy at times, it's natural as this is a fantasy world that needs to explain its setting history and lore to us. More recently, I appreciate how Runey has been able to integrate that into the story better, giving us characters who care about this or that facet of it, and needing an outlet to share that with others, or finding a reason for a character to have need to learn it. Maria learining about the Tindi, Autumn learning about the Seldarine, the battle of perspectives in the first trip to the Museum, as Maria, Lin, and Autumn give their knowledge of the events and people we learn about therein. All of this is much more engaging that people are giving it credit for, especially when you consider the most famous fantasy novel of all time literally starts by giving us the entire family tree of a character who only matters because they found a fucking ring and give it to their "nephew".
Whats more, I personally love the way Runey has tied all of this world building into political commentary, highlighting inequality, giving us characters who feel a need to be involved in and act on their views. Some reviews I read find the political messaging of this game to be unsubtle, and to an extent, it is. But as the saying goes, I know authors who use subtext and they're all cowards. Sometimes a message doesn't need subtlety. But also, in a recent Lin event, two humans who have never seen an elf call her "articulate" and want to "touch her ears". And sure, anyone can see how that would make a person uncomfortable, but have you ever been in public and had a middle aged white woman who you don't know, walk up to you and ask to touch your hair? Because that's a real thing that my indigenous, black, and ginger friends deal with in our society, and complain about, as a strange violation of bodily autonomy and consent that way too many people think is normal. Being able to see your struggles mirrored in art, even porn, is good, actually.
The Porn:
Despite the heavy message, the deep characters whose stories can be depressing at times, the sexual content of the game still feels good, genuine even. The kink community is actually a safe space for a lot of people, both those of marginalized identities, and those who survived abuse, neglect, or other trauma. So this game allowing its characters to explore their sexualities through their safe relationship with the MC feels genuine, and for me, heightens the sexual arousal, because nothing is more hot than consent, and I say that as someone who has a CNC kink, like Kali, but in MC's role.
In many ways, the fact that this game has characters who I can believe and relate to, and a message and lore that runs deep and hits on real struggles, makes the porn side of it better. My experience with sex and sexuality can't be removed from my experience with trauma, with neurodivergence, with my identity being politicized. HH allows me, more than most games, to self insert. And I'm not even a man. I relate more to this game and its characters than I do to smaller more contained stories that don't make room for expansive identities outside of the relationship with the MC. And yet, many games with larger casts also fail this test, instead making the characters feel increasingly shallow, as they all essentially only exist for the MC's pleasure. Harem Hotel does a good job of creating characters who feel like they have lives outside of their sexual life with MC, and they're more attractive for it.
The Art:
I have always appreciated HH for the art. I know it's all made with illusion programs, thus giving Runey fewer tools to make the characters unique, but Runey has always still found a way to make the girls feel different from other games using the same software for character creation.
I do recognize that Runey has in many ways reached the limits of the technology, but I don't fault them for it, rather I appreciate how it still feels mostly unique and how the characters feel different. Sure, Daz might give more tools, but at the end of the day, it's just a more modular character designer, and plenty of Daz users can't create truly unique looks with it either. So I do appreciate how Runey has made the best of what they've got.
Criticism:
I know Runey has a lot on their plate, and this game has gotten very large. It's up to the members of the community who are giving feedback to help with this, but there are still a few inconsistencies that need addressing.
Lin describes having spent time with the Sand Elf chieftain when she mentions her initially, that the chieftain had promised they'd take Lin back to their community with them if they needed to when the uprising was over. However one of the next story bits with Lin has her retell this story with a flashback that makes it seem like a single chance meeting and they never run into one another again. These inconsistencies sometimes take us out of the game, but they can be addressed and tweaked over time, the game is still in development.
Elf Memory is a somewhat nebulous incosistency that I think could be solved pretty easily. For those who don't know, memory is actually heavily effected by ones psychology. Trauma can cause memories not to be written, can cause written memory to be forgotten or changed. Context from the future can color past memories to change your interpretation. Lin not remembering her parents well, but not being able to forget the sister who she credits with saving her makes sense in this context, but without it, feels inconsistent. Introducing this concept shouldn't be hard, it could even be a throwaway line from Maria, who studied psychology, but would definitely help to allow elves to have spotty memories, and actually create another element of their oppression. They are a species that shouldn't forget, but they do, because of what slavery is doing to them. That has power.
This is a little thing, but I say, don't be afraid to call a spade a spade. Kate is autistic. From an abled perspective it might seem like a good idea to leave it vague, as you don't want to fetishize disability, but that is better done by fleshing a character out, which over her 8 story interactions and the riddles thus far, she has been. A reality of ableism in our society is that people have a problem seeing autistic people as sexual beings, they often childize them, and that is really a problem. So while this game is making the messages it is, it would actually do well to call these spades for what they are. Let her be autistic. Let Maria, Kali, Ashley, and Hana discover their own neurodivergence, because I promise, as a neurodivergent person who finds community with other neurodivergent people, all of them are. Let all of them find solidarity with Android, who due to her having sapience, but being a machine without the neural pathing of a human, nor the social upbringing, what we normally call nurture, not the ability to relate well to the complex social constructs we have to navigate in society, would find herself feeling similar to Kali, Ashley, and Maria especially, through different aspects of their life. In a way, Ashley being the one to talk to her when she was depressed did this, in a way the fact that Kali is seen as her psychiatrist does this, in a way, Maria was literally trying to teach her how to mask in the bar. All that's needed is a little acknowledgement of what all this is to make it feel more inclusive than it already does from my perspective.
A little more nuance. Lin and Nia, in particular, but also Maria, Vanessa, and Sylvia, need to be given the opportunity to develop more specific ideological stances. Lin's current pacifism is very simplistic, and naive, and has the potential to lead to another disaster, like the one with the High Elf Queen. The Lin we had to help spark hope in again should be more receptive to criticism from people like Nia and Silvia on this. Nia too needs a little more nuance though. There have been hints that she knows full well that she's only practicing harm reduction right now, but the interaction with Vanessa, and the way she talks to Lin and MC sometimes, it makes her come off as thinking of herself as being more effective at changing things than she has previously acknowledged. I absolutely think that her belief of "we live in a system that is actively violent toward us, and thus my violence is self defense" is valid and should be held and shown in the game, but it needs nuance, and it needs to make room for tactics that build community without that violence being the center. Lin and Nia can have different approaches without opposition, because what they're working toward is going to need way more cooks and supply line workers and builders than it is going to need fighters. Lin can do what she needs without inciting violence, while allowing for planning from people like Nia to protect what people like Lin are doing from the inevitable violence of the state.
Conclusion:
This game is amazing, it has come so far, and I know it still has a lot of places it can go. I personally can't wait to see how this game continues, what characters we'll meet, and how the ones we already know will interact with the changes we are seeing happen.
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