Ren'Py Harem Hotel [v0.19.1] [Runey]

[snapturtle34]

This feels like the pineapple on pizza argument applied to games. I loathe it, the mere thought of it makes me gag. Others say I'm not 'doing' pizza right without fruit on it. It is what is is. Different tastes and all that.
I also have to agree with TheDevian here. Don't purposely walk into random pizza places (or game threads) and lecture people who have different tastes than you about how wrong they are. Not only is it rude, it also makes you sound like an unbelievable douche.

Before I get mobbed, I'm not addressing anyone in particular, I just figured I'd drop my general opinion on the matter.

For sure, Again it seems like many people like this game according to the reviews. Thats cool.

 

[moonbaby]

 

[torresm]

I also wonder if the finished release will include more costume options for Autumn, I found some pretty good stuff in v0.18's code but it's still early stages.

Reckon I'd follow up on that since there isn't much going on while we wait for the release. Along with the code I also found these unused images for Autumn's room idle poses in the game files.

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[TheDevian]

Well after writing withthe other guys, I decided to give the game another shot. Honestly, I really tried but within five minutes, I was already frustrated. The whole sandbox setup just doesn’t work for me (personally). You can click around to visit different places, but the layout feels random, and sometimes locations are randomly locked. I found myself aimlessly clicking, hoping something would trigger, but nothing meaningful happened.
I talked to some of the girls in-game and even consulted the mod. The mod confirmed what I suspected: the game is very non-linear, and each girl has her own route. But instead of feeling engaging, it just felt chaotic. It was like doing a task at work rather than enjoying a game. I had to constantly refer to the mod’s walkthrough just to make any progress.
Honestly, I’m glad others enjoy this game, truly. But I just don’t feel the same. I’ve tried to get into it three times now: once years ago, and twice again this week. Each time, I end up closing it after 5–10 minutes. I just can’t stay immersed when I have to constantly fight with the sandbox structure.

Well, like I said before, at least at the start, almost every event triggers exactly the same way, wait a few days, then go to the girl's door, and click *TALK*. It is literally one of the simplest triggers in all of gaming. It gets a bit more complex as it goes, but not a lot. The only real exceptions to that, are the new events that were recently added, like where you can wander in town and do events there, but very little of that is required, other than meeting Eris and finding the park, but that is not needed until you want to do gardening, so it's not a rush either.

The key is to take your time, and just try to enjoy the world. If you try to rush...

 

[snapturtle34]

Well, like I said before, at least at the start, almost every event triggers exactly the same way, wait a few days, then go to the girl's door, and click *TALK*. It is literally one of the simplest triggers in all of gaming. It gets a bit more complex as it goes, but not a lot. The only real exceptions to that, are the new events that were recently added, like where you can wander in town, and do events there, but very little of that is required, other than meeting Eris and finding the park, but that is not needed until you want to do gardening, so it's not a rush either.

The key is to take your time, and just try to enjoy the world. If you try to rush...
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Heh, I guess… but honestly, I don’t find it funny or exciting. I lose almost all interest the moment I see it’s a sandbox game of this kind. It’s one of those grind-heavy types. I’m just not into grindy sandbox games, especially not VN ones.

 

[POne1]

Heh, I guess… but honestly, I don’t find it funny or exciting. I lose almost all interest the moment I see it’s a sandbox game of this kind. It’s one of those grind-heavy types. I’m just not into grindy sandbox games, especially not VN ones.

I'd suggest trying it again with the Walkthrough mod installed. It really simplifies the progression of things and you can check what to do with different characters. You can even cheat with the mod if you don't feel like all of the grinding to earn money for buying outfits and other things.

Personally I think some sandbox games if they take a certain amount of effort or needing for you to take notes or snap a picture of instructions, they should absolutely have some form of a hint system or even a way to cut some of that grind out. I'd absolutely grind for a game like Final Fantasy but not for a porn one in my opinion.

 

[TheDevian]

Heh, I guess… but honestly, I don’t find it funny or exciting. I lose almost all interest the moment I see it’s a sandbox game of this kind. It’s one of those grind-heavy types. I’m just not into grindy sandbox games, especially not VN ones.

It's really not that grindy though. You don't have to do anything but wait for money (you CAN do more, but you don't have to), and the stats only affect a few minor things, and those are also not required. There is nothing you have to do other than take your time, and experience the world.

But that is fine, I am the opposite, I lose interest the moment I see something is a Kinetic Novel.

I'd suggest trying it again with the Walkthrough mod installed. It really simplifies the progression of things and you can check what to do with different characters. You can even cheat with the mod if you don't feel like all of the grinding to earn money for buying outfits and other things.

Personally I think some sandbox games if they take a certain amount of effort or needing for you to take notes or snap a picture of instructions, they should absolutely have some form of a hint system or even a way to cut some of that grind out. I'd absolutely grind for a game like Final Fantasy but not for a porn one in my opinion.

The issue with that, is that you will break your save/game if you do.

This one takes no effort at all.

 

[snapturtle34]

It's really not that grindy though. You don't have to do anything but wait for money (you CAN do more, but you don't have to), and the stats only affect a few minor things, and those are also not required. There is nothing you have to do other than take your time, and experience the world.

But that is fine, I am the opposite, I lose interest the moment I see something is a Kinetic Novel.

The issue with that, is that you will break your save/game if you do.

This one takes no effort at all.

Sure all good. Guess i will try to force it someday i really feel like it.. But again the last 3 times didnt work.. Last time i tried i just tried to sleep until day 5, felt so wierd that i had to "wait" for something to happen.. Again this game seems like it wants your to explore, and thats fine, i just dont like it when its this complicated. It feels wierd with all these ??? mark options that are locked.. BUT again as you said, you should not rush this game apparently. Slow burn sandbox game

 

[snapturtle34]

I'd suggest trying it again with the Walkthrough mod installed. It really simplifies the progression of things and you can check what to do with different characters. You can even cheat with the mod if you don't feel like all of the grinding to earn money for buying outfits and other things.

Personally I think some sandbox games if they take a certain amount of effort or needing for you to take notes or snap a picture of instructions, they should absolutely have some form of a hint system or even a way to cut some of that grind out. I'd absolutely grind for a game like Final Fantasy but not for a porn one in my opinion.

Thanks buddy.. But i already did, it triggered me even more seeing the different routes etc, Like "Wait until day 4 for her, or this and that" Or "do this at this time"

 

[TheDevian]

Sure all good. Guess i will try to force it someday i really feel like it.. But again the last 3 times didnt work.. Last time i tried i just tried to sleep until day 5, felt so wierd that i had to "wait" for something to happen.. Again this game seems like it wants your to explore, and thats fine, i just dont like it when its this complicated. It feels wierd with all these ??? mark options that are locked.. BUT again as you said, you should not rush this game apparently. Slow burn sandbox game

Yeah, the game plays best if you just take your time and explore. It takes a bit of time to learn the layout, but it starts small and add new locations as you go, making the learning curve a lot easier than most.
That said, I haven't played the early game with the new downtown locations, so I don't know how that part feels as a new player, the idea was to give you more to do, and ways to earn money, while you are waiting for more repeatable events to unlock, as well as more girls to show up (and to help teach you about the rich lore of the world), but like I said, it's not really mandatory (though I do suggest going to the cafe and meeting Eris and doing her couple events to unlock the park at some point).

Eris is a cute, little goth girl, who was recently added, she only has a few scenes so far, but there will be more with her later.

 

[snapturtle34]

Yeah, the game plays best if you just take your time and explore. It takes a bit of time to learn the layout, but it starts small and add new locations as you go, making the learning curve a lot easier than most.
That said, I haven't played the early game with the new downtown locations, so I don't know how that part feels as a new player, the idea was to give you more to do, and ways to earn money, while you are waiting for more repeatable events to unlock, as well as more girls to show up (and to help teach you about the rich lore of the world), but like I said, it's not really mandatory (though I do suggest going to the cafe and meeting Eris and doing her couple events to unlock the park at some point).

Eris is a cute, little goth girl, who was recently added, she only has a few scenes so far, but there will be more with her later.

Thanks for the suggestion I will note it for next try.

 

[c3p0]

Heh, I guess… but honestly, I don’t find it funny or exciting. I lose almost all interest the moment I see it’s a sandbox game of this kind. It’s one of those grind-heavy types. I’m just not into grindy sandbox games, especially not VN ones.

Have you ever played sandbox heavy games?
Those are usually based on do task 20x time to rise the state y to 20 and then you get lewd scene 1 (handjob), then do the same task 20x again to raise the same state to 40 and get another lewd scene (perhaps blowjob). Of course the task and the scene that the task has vary almost not. And obviously to unlock her fully you need to it around 100x times with very little variants, possible at a specific time at a specific locations.

That are for me sandbox heavy games, who can be too much for me, cause of grind. As if you say 20 times "Hello, nice day for fishing" to your crush, she will give you suddenly a handjob...

But for each their own and I can respect you for trying the game 3 times, even though you weren't a fan of it your the first time. For me the sandbox is very minimalistic and most of the other sandbox games does a job a lot worse than HH on this.

The issue with that, is that you will break your save/game if you do.

That depends a lot on what you cheat. If you change the friendship level, you will break your game. Almost everything other than that is relatively save, even Lin's head-pat count.

 

[TheDevian]

That depends a lot on what you cheat. If you change the friendship level, you will break your game. Almost everything other than that is relatively save, even Lin's head-pat count.

Could be, but we see people that use the mod having problems, I never really thought to ask what they used it to do, and won't try it myself, so I wasn't sure.
Obviously, cheating the relationship levels are going to break things, I had hoped most of us knew that by now. lol
There seems to be other issues as well, but IDK for sure.

 

[shadowtempered]

Reckon I'd follow up on that since there isn't much going on while we wait for the release. Along with the code I also found these unused images for Autumn's room idle poses in the game files.

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That second one is great.

 

[POne1]

Could be, but we see people that use the mod having problems, I never really thought to ask what they used it to do, and won't try it myself, so I wasn't sure.
Obviously, cheating the relationship levels are going to break things, I had hoped most of us knew that by now. lol
There seems to be other issues as well, but IDK for sure.

Does it break due to changing relationship levels? I never touched that part. Just money cheat and having it there as a guide. I just don't do long playing sessions. I added it because it's been months since I last played and I can't be bothered to relearn the patterns and such.

 

[Perniciousducks]

Does it break due to changing relationship levels? I never touched that part. Just money cheat and having it there as a guide. I just don't do long playing sessions. I added it because it's been months since I last played and I can't be bothered to relearn the patterns and such.

Relationship levels are how it tracks event progression. So messing with that will break lots of things.

 

[TheDevian]

Does it break due to changing relationship levels? I never touched that part. Just money cheat and having it there as a guide. I just don't do long playing sessions. I added it because it's been months since I last played and I can't be bothered to relearn the patterns and such.

I mean, that will break things for sure, but I would not say the rest is safe to use either.

 

[snapturtle34]

Have you ever played sandbox heavy games?
Those are usually based on do task 20x time to rise the state y to 20 and then you get lewd scene 1 (handjob), then do the same task 20x again to raise the same state to 40 and get another lewd scene (perhaps blowjob). Of course the task and the scene that the task has vary almost not. And obviously to unlock her fully you need to it around 100x times with very little variants, possible at a specific time at a specific locations.

That are for me sandbox heavy games, who can be too much for me, cause of grind. As if you say 20 times "Hello, nice day for fishing" to your crush, she will give you suddenly a handjob...

But for each their own and I can respect you for trying the game 3 times, even though you weren't a fan of it your the first time. For me the sandbox is very minimalistic and most of the other sandbox games does a job a lot worse than HH on this.

That depends a lot on what you cheat. If you change the friendship level, you will break your game. Almost everything other than that is relatively save, even Lin's head-pat count.

I see, sure i dont like that either no. But the fact that you randomly need to click around with no clear goal is enough for me. So for basic explanation, if i need to click to move around in the world with no clear idea of what to do.. But as i said before, i will try it out someday when i really dont know what to do.. And try to not rush

 

[shadowtempered]

I see, sure i dont like that either no. But the fact that you randomly need to click around with no clear goal is enough for me. So for basic explanation, if i need to click to move around in the world with no clear idea of what to do.. But as i said before, i will try it out someday when i really dont know what to do.. And try to not rush

Early game when you haven't done much unlocked, there isn't much to do. Loading screen on each day shift will show you icons for each girl and when they're filled, there will be an event to trigger which is often started by visiting their room though not always. Once you've done a few story beats and started upgrading to the point other girls move in the schedule starts to fill up a lot more.

As a "sandbox", the game isn't much of one beyond some repeatable events. It started very sandboxy in the early versions(we had no notification for new events) and has slowly shifted less and less focus on those elements. Unless you choose to skip out on a girl's story, which you can't completely do as all the story beats eventually weave into one another, or you want to grind up stats for a specific sexual encounter there isn't much reason to just randomly explore the hotel outside of the first floor for repeatable events. There's no House in the Rift collectibles hiding around the hotel or secret scenes ala Summertime Saga to find because you were in the right spot at the right time.

City exploration is still the new kid on the street, so there is some early stuff but then it tapers off pretty quick.

 

[snapturtle34]

Early game when you haven't done much unlocked, there isn't much to do. Loading screen on each day shift will show you icons for each girl and when they're filled, there will be an event to trigger which is often started by visiting their room though not always. Once you've done a few story beats and started upgrading to the point other girls move in the schedule starts to fill up a lot more.

As a "sandbox", the game isn't much of one beyond some repeatable events. It started very sandboxy in the early versions(we had no notification for new events) and has slowly shifted less and less focus on those elements. Unless you choose to skip out on a girl's story, which you can't completely do as all the story beats eventually weave into one another, or you want to grind up stats for a specific sexual encounter there isn't much reason to just randomly explore the hotel outside of the first floor for repeatable events. There's no House in the Rift collectibles hiding around the hotel or secret scenes ala Summertime Saga to find because you were in the right spot at the right time.

City exploration is still the new kid on the street, so there is some early stuff but then it tapers off pretty quick.

Got it, sounds like the early gameplay is where most of my frustration might come from. Thanks for the heads-up! I’ll probably give it a try tomorrow when I have some time. Planning to spend at least 1–3 hours on it without rushing as the others suggested