VN - Ren'Py - Harem Hotel [v0.18.2] [Runey]

v0.15.1
A grindy sandbox with honey select models. With meh UI and time blocks.
Sounds common enough, but the quality of execution can make a game stand out despite those.
This is a pretty old game that has been years in development and has lots of content.
Although the reason for the 10GB size is due to poor compression rather than sheer quantity of content.

Originally this was a charming and fun game. With happy waifus and relatively bright tone.
It was fun and joyful to play, even if somewhat tedious due to the grind.
You had an interesting cast of varied girls in the harem.

As you make progress in the game you move unto the newer content and experience some drastic tonal shifts. The game gets darker and darker over time. The harem lose their joy, you start getting reveals about dark depressing sad histories. Peppy waifus because traumatized wrecks.

Then the various character plots all get taken over by a new Elf Liberation Movement arch plot. The game gets even darker still, your waifus suffer more, suddenly MC is at the forefront of abolitionst activism.

More and more you are given info dumps about religion and history, all of which turns out to be a ham fisted unsubtle caricature of USA politics.
Also rather hypocritical considering how earlier you were a slaver training your slaves and women into submissive sex pets in your dungeon but now you are supposed to feel bad about it.

It even gets lampshaded, as Lin (your first elf slave) is being confronted by another elf about how Lin did a 180 on her interest in elf liberation movement. Right before she tries to get involved in national politics in a pretty stupid way (with everyone's blessing) and then gets kidnapped and tortured. As the game becomes even more of a downer.

Overall the game had a strong start followed by a downwards spiral of missed potential.

It's a great game, really like all of the girl.
My favourite is maria, ashley, and the twins. Ashley is a girl that have yandere personality at the begining, then become more lovely and kind after we found out about her story
Maria is a fun girl, and can get along with everyone, i love the story when she got depressed and we can't move further with her story, until her get better.
The twins is a bully at first, but in the end they become much loving and softer.

Simply one of if not the best game out there.
Comedy, drama, world building, character writing it is all here and well put together and paced. You age getting good content within five if not ten minutes of starting the game and while it offers hours of new content that is almost just as much repeatable events.
The lore building doesn't start until you are well into meeting the cast and you already care about them as people. All of this growing out of a classic idea of the genre "Elf slave what do?"
The comedy that does exist is situational rather than meme based or pop cultural which is very good.

I could gush on and on about this game but to sum up this game is hours and fun and should not be missed.

Amazing Game

Fun characters. I am particularly a fan of Autumn. She really encompasses that feeling of having grown up in a religious household and then being exposed to the reality of the real world.

I'm not really that good at lewving reviews, but I just wanna say, this game is really, really good. It has a good mix of funny, and serious moments. Adorable and interesting characters, each with their own stories and quirks that are very in depth. It doesnt have as much of a grindy feel that some VNs have to get money either, if you take the advice of your assistant to fix up and upgrade the bar. The animations are good too as well as all the character's designs, each one is quite unique. I've tried and kept playing with a lot of VNs, but this one has got to be one of my most favorites.

Silly concept. Silly characters. Surprisingly deep for a bang-em-all harem game. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't come out of this game (15.1 as of review) feeling somewhat invested in more than one of these girls.

Things I felt that were expected: horny. Things I felt that were unexpected: sad, sympathetic, soothed, uplifted. Despite being a silly harem game with all that entails, I feel like it kind of all makes sense in the way that for several of the LIs, you can actually watch their growth and healing and feel why they would be attracted to the MC as he makes their lives better.

Stupid sappy review for a silly horny game

[Review has been updated to take into account a response from the dev]

I’ve been a fan of Harem Hotel for a long time, since before the twins were added, and I’ve seen the game grow and change over time. Even early on, the game had already shown promise, in terms of content, consistency, charm, and comfort. Other competitors have since dropped off the map, or become stagnant, while Harem Hotel continues on forward, with a consistency and pace that I can only help but admire.

So why the low rating?

Harem hotel is a game that started off humbly, as a harem simulator with girls that fit each niche, with cute and sexual interactions with each. They come to your hotel, you hit on them, the rest is history. Whereas most games are stingy, dangling h-content as a carrot on a stick, Harem Hotel boasted a generous amount of varied h-content, tied conveniently into progression, and consistently as you play the game. The characters carried charm, with efficient and easy to understand personalities that only grew as more was added.

However as time went on, the characters grew too far from their core. I can’t help but feel that this is a developer who has begun to outgrow their flagship game, and has begun to add more content with a different style that has begun to clash. While oddities such as elven slavery, or an AI girl were there early on, which at the time I thought was simply to catch more fetishes, their role in the story grew, and pulled the story with it.

About a few hours in, after a strong and simple start (assuming you have mods to alleviate grind and point you to the right directions), the game changes entirely. As if the dev woke up one morning with a new idea, suddenly all the new events involved elven politics, or diatribes about mortality, AI, racism, and religion.

Old characters changed suddenly, and new characters head further along this direction.

Maria starts off as a regular cam-girl character, with charm and personality that makes her top notch. Her early arc wraps off as she decides to be yours instead of being a cam-girl, and then stagnates, until the dev decided to have her actually be an elf instead, shoehorning her in the political edge of the game.

Android changes quickly from an upbeat, naive character, into a character who has mostly depressing event after depressing event, ranting about existence, mortality, and you guessed it, racial discrimination. Great…

Lin’s arc which connects to the other elves, features a long section where they got kidnapped and tortured(sorry, imprisoned in chains, which I guess isn't a form of torture), ruining any sense of fun or sexuality. It’s hard to argue it isn’t jarring.

Autumn, reminiscent of stereotypes of Southern girls, has a fixation on religion, and an aversion to sexuality. While a generic corruption is played with, it’s been put on hold for a long time. Instead we have long, long scenes talking about fictional religion, sexual repression, history, politics, and yes, of course, elves.

An entire elven sanctuary has been added to the game, with the elves in the sanctuary almost superseding many of the old main characters in terms of plot relevance and importance unless they somehow become connected to elves.

Even Ashley now has magic Elven shiny eyes, and fairies.

As the game progresses, my favorite characters have been the side characters, such as Hana, Lucia, Ellen, and Kate. Their stories are more compact, more sexual, more direct, and more in line with what I’ve come to know, rather than how the game is now.

To be blunt, the game lost its joy.

With each update, outside of small side events, the game drifts towards a dark place. I’m convinced eventually we will lead direct revolt with the elves, as characters chastise us for ignoring elven slavery instead of sitting around in the hotel all day sleeping with the girls, as I was led to believe we were supposed to, after all, what is the title of the game?

For a game where the MC does and is supposed to treat his residents as a personal harem, as per the title, the game increasingly frowns upon sexual slavery. Maybe it’s okay for the MC if it is sexual indentured servitude. Breaking down that suspension of disbelief leads to an unraveling of the premise, causing a drastic change in mood.

This confused message continues to pervade through the game.

Within the elven sanctuary, you have four elves. Two of which aren’t truly plot relevant, but just serve as fuck toy’s for the MC, and do little otherwise. In the very same building, Sylvia and Nia are the complete opposite.
Inspired by the twins, I had some of the girls call me daddy, only for Sylvia and Nia to react poorly to it, and seem disgusted at the idea of touching me at all. I understand that it is in character, but that brings up an important question.
Wasn’t this an H game? Why am I made to feel guilty about behavior encouraged up until this point?
The new focus of the game rips out the joy from the original premise. Recently Kali has a throwaway line where she asks the MC if he has plans for moving on from the hotel to newer things, like more hotels or be some elven savior, and I was just shocked. Wasn’t that a little blatant?

I had consciously realized how much more the plot has to do with elven history, messing with AI and robots, and mingling with important political figures rather than the hotel itself.

Soon the name will be just a relic, and at some point a false advertisement.

I love the game. I really do. I love the charm, I love the characters, the passion, and the joy. But with each patch the joy is lessened. Each patch the charm decreases, and the characters grow depressed. Each patch I end up skipping more and more elven lore as I wait to see a heroine smile before I stop skipping.

It’s been years of this. It’s been many patches since the notable drift from its heart. It seems too late to turn around, as more lewd or fun content falls behind in priority to lore. In old versions, a foursome with the Twins and Ashley would beg for a long scene, or several, that goes into the interpersonal relationships that led to it. Now it’s a random scene to fit a lewd quota. Now, when we fuck Vanessa, it’s packaged with a long lore dump, and some pointed questions about your beliefs on Elven politics, chastising you if you press the obvious “skip this I’m bored” buttons that the dev clearly put in there, possibly knowing.

To be honest, with how many updates have come since the elven apocalypse, it’s hard to say that the majority of the game isn’t different now, even if it does come after the start. Not that I do not enjoy a story, or an H-game with a story, but the way thinly veiled American politics seep into every aspect of the game with the nuance and subtlety of a bulldozer, it makes me wonder if the Vanessa, the blue haired college girl with a fixation of elven social justice, was a parody, and I’m just going insane. But she isn’t. None of it is.

You are meant to take all of it seriously.
And quite frankly, it’s not that good.

The strength of the game was the loads of easily accessible h-content, the characters, and their stories that develop their relationship with you.
Unfortunately the game leans into a fixation with elven slavery, or other strange topics, at the expense of charm.

But maybe it’s just me.

Ver:0.15.1

>wake up
>realize you will never have cute elf waifu
>why live

Harem Hotel is a passion project that I am fully behind. While the first two-four hours of the game present itself as your typical "click and fuck" game, the stories that have develop over the last four years have made this more entertaining than any porn game has any right to be. Due to the variety of women, there are plenty of tropes to suit your fancy, and all of them are pretty fleshed out.

The only issue I have the game is that the story is getting very complex, with story threads seeming developing with every new event. I'm a little curious if the author will be able to resolve any of these lines in a satisfactory way, especially since the development time has now hit 4 years.

Recommend you play, use the walkthrough mod and cheat in money and stats and just enjoy the story without pointless grind.

The game is fun. The characters are pretty well designed, on the mid section of not too realistic and not too cartoony. Though it may grip you initially with the sex scenes and cute girls, the story in itself is something else. Having gone through the previous public release of 0.14.1, I was heavily invested to the story and the character arc. The characterization of each character is great and shows development throughout the entire story. I've recently started the recent public release of 0.15.1 and still have more ways to go but, suffice to say, replaying the game for the newer update isn't as tedious as you'd think with a lot of newer additions from the previous update on the start of the game. It feels fresh still even if its the 2nd or 3rd time replaying the game. Pretty high hopes for the game as a whole. Also counting on headpatting everyone in the game.

I've put off leaving a review just because I was not sure how to word exactly what I wanted to say, I think I know exactly how I can describe this game now.
TLDR:
A tasteful harem game with Lore that rivals some novel series. This game is worth playing, and supporting.

First, Runey creates a game that not only do you want to play, but one where you are constantly wanting to learn more about. You get little bits of the lore in an organic manner that makes you want to keep going instead of dumping it all on you like a bucket. You are never bored as you get info on new things in this world you are living in. The Lore could, and honestly should at this point have it's own novel series.

The non H-scenes are well thought out, and fit the story as it progresses. Are there some that feel a little of a stretch? Yes, but no more than those awkward stories you have of some stuff you might have done in your past. (and lets be honest, it's a harem game)

The characters feel real, and each have their own things that they are dealing with. This makes it so you can connect with certain ones who you may feel more emotional to, without completely alienating the others. It's a good balance, and feels well done. Sometimes with this type of game the author pushes you slightly to one certain girl. I feel this game has a nice balance and the content is even for the choices you have.

Story progressing is very smooth for the amount of jumps you have to have in a game like this, and never did I have a "wait a minute, I don't understand/remember/know what the heck is going on" moment.

H- Scenes, we know why you all are here. There is plenty, with plenty of tasteful kinks for anyone. You can basically play it out however you want with the story nudging you in some small directions to keep things rolling. A good balance, without going overboard one way or another.

Grinding, any game has it. It is done minimally, and tastefully here. You progress as one would semi-naturally and it feels right without being overbearing.
This game is worth playing, and supporting.

this game is.. i m just speechless... it have extremely big world. and a lot of things happning in it. it has drama, emotional, funny momments bla bla. animations are nice and one of the best story i think. i would give my top 1 to this masterpiece. everyone should give a shot to this masterpiece. characters have funny backstories or dark ones . 10/10 for me. everyone in this forum should play this game.

One of the best Games I've played on this site
Great girls with a beautiful story
Lin the Best Girl Ever
Excellent gameplay easy to understand and get used to
I should just improve the H scenes a little
More clothes in H scenes
Good Interactions, Add more
I hope it continues for a long time, we are not ready to say goodbye to this wonderful game yet

Prepare yourselves, folks. You are about to embark on a storytelling masterpiece with good porn and heartstring-pulling moments served as the side dish.

Ignore those who say this game is boring and has a bad story, they clearly have zero taste and can't tell a good game from a terrible one

Reminder that Lin best girl

I don't understand the huge hype for this game. I've read all the story related content, and all I can say is, I'm not impressed. Since this game was so high rated, I expected some kind of masterpiece but all I got was media core fiction probably half inspired from something else like manga, novels, or something like that.

Characters and Animations aren't worth mentioning because It's made apparently from another game.

Gameplay is managing a hotel, but all you can do is buy upgrades. There is no real management aspect in this game.

The only thing left is the adult content, and even that wasn't good, sadly. You can repeat most scenes by interacting with the characters, which also is essential to grind stats. But most of those scenes were so boring, that it felt like work going through it each time.

Review of 0.15 public version

One of the best games here on f95.

From the well written story to the hot look of the girls, Harem Hotel is one of those games that must be played at least once in a lifetime.

Harem Hotel starts you off pretty simple. You are a standard MC who's thrown into a situation surrounded by girls. When you meet the women for the first time, it seems like they follow a basic archetype. But quickly this changes. Each girl actually gets a solid piece of character development and some of them get a really strong backstory. My favorite is Ashley , also if sometimes she is scary yandere I fell in love with her knowing her sad past. One of my favorite Ashley's in game event is when MC and the other hotel's girls surprise her with a birthday party. I have to admit that some tears have fallen from my eyes.

The sandbox part Is pretty well done with no difficult grinding for money or girls' love and lewd stats.

Recent Runey's rework of many parts of the beginning of the game or secondary stuff such as menu , map etc has been the key for me to write a review. It seems a different game. With each update we can see how the dev cares about his baby , always listening to people opinions and giving to us a lot of content for all tastes .

Thanks Runey for the game

More Ellen content

Still after all this years, its by far my favorite ero game, i love everything about this game, the world building, the character building, the ero scenes and so on. The girls are created with such an wonderful charm and there is 100% a girl wich catches your interest because there is every casual sexual interest covered like: small boobs, big boobs, medium boobs, exhibitionism, feet content and also for sure things like fantasy races like elves. You also have the possibility to replay nearly every scene and this in several super duper cute outfits (The neko one from felicity is my favourite one ^^)
I just wanna say thank you for this game, its amazing works and the updates never let me down!
Keep working on this masterpiece!

Fantastic game! One of the best in the genre!

Did not expect the amount of work put into each character and their stories given the name of the game.

The only critique I have is that during some of the events in the game the "lobby" music (the soundtrack you hear the most in the game) continues to play instead of muting or switching to a different, more fitting soundtrack. It sort of ruins the experience given how emotional some of the events are.

But other than that it's an amazing game!

This game is nothing short of superb. If you are worried about games where you can not really get into the story or the characters, then fear not. Every character goes through an in depth arc where, with your help, they grow as a person and overcome the obstacles life has put in place for them. Every decision made has a logical and realistic basis, no dumb porn logic. Every character seems like someone you could meet in real life.
Working in tandem with the excellent writing is the great world building. A game like this has absolutely no business being as in depth and thought out as this, But the dev went and did it anyway. Everything is grounded in a rich history that you uncover throughout the game. It is an entirely new world with its own politics, culture, and history, with a spicy twist of the existence of elves to play a dramatic role in the story.
And as for what you probably came here for in the first place, the sexy times, there are dozens upon dozens of scenes for the primary cast, and still plenty for many of the supporting characters. Everything is animated, and anything that doesn't look as good is for sure on the table to be redone.

so strap yourself in, this game will entertain you for many hours, as you come to care as much, or more, about the narrative than what you initially came for.

in short this game is good and has many aspects other games lack such as the great writing and plots for each member of the hotel even some that aren't even main characters, i didn't want to write this long of a review. i was just gonna say something like "good" and call it quits but apparently i can't do that so i'm just filling this place as i can. but in short this game is good and worth playing, compared to other games it feels a lot more fleshed out and it has a lot of events so you can keep playing for a while aside from that it has many other reasons why it's worth playing one of them being the most important reason to play a game said reason being that it's fun gameplay wise it's not too different from other games of the same kind but it makes up for it by having great writing as mentioned before and same as most visual novels the story is the important part though some try to add minigames to the mix which is not always enjoyable anyways many people on the developers discord server say you come for the porn and stay for the plot this is certainly one of the western games i've enjoyed the most together with games like being a dik, once in a lifetime and a few others.

Now for the story and graphic it's not wow and definitely is not 5/5 is overated this game, my personal I didn't enjoy this story after 2h it make me bored as hell. Gameplay it's really painful the same hated system of rewarding the player grind hard to buy X then you can Y go with the story line. Nothing new, nothing original is a waste of time with no worth it invest the time on this game.
Graphic look old it look like a game from 2010 and not from 2022 it's on the limit if a be allow to be honest here.
I can give this game 2/5 the real rating that you really need to know.