VN - Ren'Py - Harmony Haven [Ch. 2 v1.0] [respirit]

I've been playing for a few hours, and here are a few of my thoughts.

The developer has an immense writing talent. There are a few minor mistakes scattered in, I assume the dev doesn't have an editor to follow behind so little things are lost in a sea of words. Beyond small grammatical details, the developer has an amazing way with words and subtle phrase. I'm impressed.

I like the faces of the characters. While they're based on stock characters, it feels like they've been tweaked slightly to make it a little less obvious. It feels like I've seen Kevin, the male MC, previously... but enough has changed that I can't remember from where. For that matter, that goes for most of the characters so far.

A little confused by Kevin's one and only tattoo. It looks like two orcas humping. Very... odd. I'll leave it at that.

Wasn't a fan of the first sexual encounter while the happy couple was still in the big city. If you're going to attempt a parallax effect, you have to commit to the bit. A parallax effect is best, but failing that the cityscape should have simply moved with the room. The cityscape not moving while the camera panned back and forth made it seem like the room they were in was floating in the air and spinning; very uncomfortable, dizzying to watch.

I like the music, I like the sounds. Not really much else to say there.

All told, I'm just really impressed by the writing. More and more often, developers in this space are non-native English speakers. I try to avoid giving heavy critique on writing skills for that reason, because you can't really blame someone for not knowing something they haven't been taught... additionally, it's frequently it's lost on the developer. I think I've only ever given a bad review due to writing once, and that was only because the developer started out with a crisp writing style that fell off in the last couple of chapters, suggesting the developer was capable but got lazy towards the end. As long as you maintain this level or better, I think this is definitely a 5-star work.

The narrative progression in this visual novel feels directionless at times. While I appreciate a well-executed slow burn, the current pacing lacks emotional weight and narrative depth. Scenes often conclude abruptly, leaving little room for genuine tension or character development.


For instance, the cinema scene had great potential to deliver a memorable moment but ultimately fell flat. Extending its duration, adding more visual variety — such as diverse poses, subtle gestures, and teasing interactions — could have significantly enhanced the experience.


There is no need to rush toward the intimate moments; the dev understand this — true satisfaction in storytelling often lies in the anticipation and buildup. A more deliberate focus on emotional nuance and pacing would make these scenes far more impactful. Even then, the game still falls short in delivering effective teasing — the tension feels underdeveloped and the payoff lacks emotional or narrative resonance, and the player’s limited freedom (getting locked on to one path) only amplifies this disconnect, leaving interactions feeling more scripted than engaging.


My actual rating is 2.5 for now.

For now not much happened and mostly vanilla content. Waiting for real action like gangbangs/bukkake/MMF/DP/swinging with other couples.

Hope game can be different and MC will join the fucking party for MMF scenes in NTS path instead of watching ALL THE TIME....
Avn generally doesn't offer anything new you haven't seen before. 3 stars

This one could be good, but the way it locks content is unfortunately very poorly thought through. It doesnt recognize any nuance in decisions and is very black and white which results in getting locked out of content for no reason.

Absolutely an amazing game, I have played it long time ago while it was in development and left, by chance now I got back to it and the amount of content is superb, I really enjoyed each second I played 5/5.

This one is, to me, a good definition of where the middle point lands. Story isn't great but isn't terrible either (I did end up skipping a large part of it though), much like the characters in it, and it is pretty decently written. Choices seem to matter but I have seen critics to the contrary so it might be a bit of a mistake on either my or their part. I do think the pacing is a bit strange, but rythm can be a very subjective thing.

Render quality is pretty high, though animations are a bit basic. There are sounds but I did turn off the music as I usually do. And I found no bugs in my playthrough, which is nice.

So, overall, a pretty decent game, nothing incredible but worth some time.

The initial choice presented is relatively flexible. However, as the narrative progresses, the scenario becomes increasingly imposed, regardless of the player's decision to decline the scene. This game has diminished the aspect of consent.

An excellent erotic game, with a slow burn story, but neither falls in the blue balling genre. Rachel is stunning, one of the most beautiful MILF's in the history of AVN´s

I hope this game doesn't get abandoned.

Good game and I hope it has creative sharing or swinging scenes, Netorase, and doesn't follow the same old same old.

It's already started well by not focusing on the interracial saturated and that already puts it well ahead.

A bit overrated if I'm being honest.

As someone who doesn't really like NTR, you can play the game completely without it, which is nice, but that route is quite bland. It seems like every other scene in the game is just an opportunity for NTR making the non-cheating route quite dry.

As for the rest, the writing is ok, but the graphics are not very good specially at the start. The renders shift without any transitions and to different angles, making it very jarring, and the animations don't quite fit very well as you can tell by the first sex scene.

PS: It is also really hard to believe the MC is young enough to be Jennifer's stepson

Overall I wouldn't say it is a bad game, maybe it is a bit better if you like the NTR route, but given the quality of the animations and writing I still can't rate this above average.

So far a great game

Pros:
Generic story and it's not a bad thing
Impactful choices
Points are easy to see
Nice character art
Nice characters (especially love the milf)

Cons:
Can't choose relationships in the beginning (ugh probably need to mod/patch)
The story clearly doesn't say weather it's going for NTR or NTS, for someone who prefers NTS, it's hard to decide on playing or not.

I'd much prefer it has NTS-Harem, and not the NTR path

Great game so far. Very well written, not too fast not too slow. I focused mainly on the cheating path on my play through and found it thoroughly enticing or interesting or whatever. I enjoyed how it wasn't just full on porn stuff and the reactions and thoughts of the characters were more in keeping with how folk behave IRL. Really hope the dev does well with this and keeps going, i for one will buy it when its complete. Really fresh approach to a game with a strong cheating focus. Good luck dev and keep up the good work.

Good graphics.
The story is still unclear, just the life of a young couple.
But the main feature of this game. A salesman started groping my wife in the store.And do you know what happened?You won't believe it!! No, she didn't suck him off and he didn't fuck her. You can choose the option there to punch him in the face. I haven't seen this in any game on this site, not really in one. Usually, any action towards the wife ended up with her being fucked, but here you can hit the pervert in the face. I'm shocked. Pinch me, I must have fallen asleep.

I'll just give this game 10 stars.

Developer, you're really a man

The story is excellent, The story is very well built, it's a shame it's slower, but it's quality content. I'm sure there will be many more updates, and it will be even better.
I always look forward to the next update. The menu is perfect. I like the development of the characters

There is a lack of character development. And scene kinda skips forward. Can't really get into the story. The plot is a bit shallow. hard to follow along. sex scenes are short and does't allow player to choose what to do.

Huge improvement over the first game. Every single aspect has been kicked up a notch. Didn't really like the first game but this one could be good. Especially the inner thoughts that pop up are a nice touch.

Everyone is always talking about "originality" but there is nothing wrong with going with what works and improving on that,the dev is clearly doing this so keep up the good work.

This game is a wayyyy better then the previous one, I was not even able to play 10 mins of the previous game meanwhile this one is engaging with choices that affects the outcome of the game, also NTR/NTS stuff is good so far I'm liking the build up

It's kind of early to be reviewing this, but I thought v0.06 would have more content. Instead, it was surprisingly short. So far, however, it looks promising.

To be honest, I actually like NTR. Not most of the lame cucking style NTR, but I like when the dude is not a loser and is still able to satisfy his LI physically. I guess what I really like is the cheating aspect with the potential for the dude to catch his LI in the act. There is only one other AVN out there like this (that I know of) and this one looks like it is on the right track for me.

You can play him as a willing cuck and it looks like he will be able to cheat on his wife as well, so again, it looks promising. It's not going to win any writing awards, and the renders are all solid but nothing mind blowing. There are some h scenes with the wife that are decent but so far, there has not been any sharing/cheating/etc, just starting to open up those paths.

Anyway, a promising start. We will see if it devolves into the typical NTR trash or it is sticks with it.

Good luck to the developer.

That's the type on NTR games I love
Husband is not a cuckold, and have own interests in girls. Both may be curious of other people sexually, but love and respect each other. More this type of games please.

The whole story is about as original as if someone took every visual novel ever made, ranked them from best to worst, and then let ChatGPT summarize the bottom 500 in that order. It’s not even the fact that the story is “about nothing” – a good story doesn’t have to be about saving the planet or fighting villains, but it should offer something compelling enough to make you want to turn the next page. Unfortunately, the story Rachel is writing within this narrative perfectly encapsulates her own: “It’s about a woman, there’s not much to tell.”

The main plot revolves around how the MC and his GF handle NTR, while everything else feels like filler clumsily cobbled together to stitch specific scenes. The lives of all the characters feel like they hit "pause" whenever they’re off-screen, just standing around waiting for the camera to cut to them so they can laugh together, share a meaningless conversation, or reminisce about something someone just said. My favorite bit? The guy who’s supposed to be “hanging out at the park.” MC shows up, and there he is: standing, staring, at the literal edge of the park. Most of the dialogue topics feel like they came straight out of Alien’s Guide to Human Small Talk, Volume 1.

As for the NTR/cheating theme, yet another storyteller fails to grasp that real-life stories in this vein don’t revolve around couples suddenly cheating because they got a fleeting rush from seeing someone else’s genitals or because someone conveniently undressed them and offered oral out of the blue. Real stories involve a deeper process – a beginning, a seed that grows, evolving within the characters’ lives. They don’t rely on coincidences like, “Wow, you didn’t tell me your cousin was this hot!”

Then there’s the narrator – a completely useless addition who either states the obvious (“Rachel smiled” when her face on-screen is as expressionless as a brick wall) or describes things you can’t see (“Kevin put down his phone” while Kevin’s still clearly holding it). It’s like the narrator exists solely to plug the gaps where renders are missing. Frequent character teleportations across scenes are clumsily explained by our robotic narrator to justify their multi-meter hops.

The exposition is laughably bad and utterly soulless. One of the first examples: “I’ll lie in the bath and reflect on how the world around me works.” Yeah, because we all do that, right? Whenever we’re alone, we start narrating the backstories of everyone we know for no reason. Key historical moments are relayed as follows: one character says, “That’s what happened,” adds “Do you remember?” and that’s that. Or my personal favorite: “Who’s that?” “That’s Frank.” “Oh, right, wouldn’t have recognized him.” The rest of the exposition is equally uninspired, consisting of characters repeating things they both already know.

The graphics of the environments themselves aren’t bad in terms of quality, but the obsessive overuse of depth-of-field blur is maddening. Some renders look like I forgot to put on my glasses over one eye. The worst is when there are windows in the scene – objects two meters away are blurred beyond recognition, while buildings hundreds of meters away are razor-sharp.

Character models, however, are a completely different story. Whether this is Daz or not, be prepared for a trip to the uncanny valley’s freak show, where the models look worse than wax figures sculpted by a drunk Karen. Naturally, all the women walk around braless and in the most revealing outfits imaginable. The wardrobe clearly lacks a woman’s touch because the clothing choices make zero sense.

The locations are as generic as they come. Most homes are completely devoid of personality. Bella’s room looks like an OnlyFans streamer’s studio and is probably the only place with a sliver of individuality. MC’s apartment, on the other hand, looks like someone took the Windows 95 maze screensaver, slapped on some bright red bricks on one wall, concrete on another, and called it a day. Furniture? Straight out of “Future IKEA Catalogue 2010,” designed in 1995. The funniest part? The characters supposedly pack up all their personal belongings when moving – which, they claim, are full of memories – yet in the next shot, the apartment is completely stripped bare. No couch, no kitchen counter, no bar stools – but, oh, they leave behind the one thing I assumed had sentimental value: the pictures on the walls. Seriously? And when they move into their new home, none of the furniture they allegedly brought with them shows up.

The sex animations are laughably unnatural. You can practically feel the keyframes grinding along a timeline. The backgrounds outside the windows are static, so get ready for a cosmic simulator experience while the characters jerk around like they’re having seizures.

After reading previous reviews, I can only assume they were written by bots or the author himself. Honestly, the only reason I downloaded this masterpiece was because of the glowing praise about the story and characters. I was especially intrigued by the “character development.”

Rachel (the MC’s girlfriend) is apparently unemployed and spends her days doing absolutely nothing. She has no life outside the story’s scope, no hobbies, no fears – she’s just there. One day, she’s madly in love with her boyfriend, and the next, a random dude gropes her at a gas station, and she finds it “weirdly arousing.” Naturally, her loyalty stat starts at 0. She quickly writes this into her book, where she has “the beginning” of her story, right after her BSOD-ridden laptop miraculously fixes itself.

MC Kevin is introduced as “a typical white-collar worker.” Literally. His entire life story consists of him living somewhere, moving somewhere else, and then moving back.

The story is currently short, but I can already see the glorious direction it’ll take: everyone sleeps with everyone, and when they run out of characters, they’ll just add more. I clicked through every choice the game offers, and the only difference is a few extra sex scenes and maybe three altered lines of dialogue elsewhere. Don’t expect any meaningful branching or deep emotional impact.

tl;dr: Boring story, bad animations, shallow characters, choices don’t matter (yet, but when they do, they’ll probably just unlock or skip a scene or two).

Graphics: 2/10
Story: 1/10
Characters: 1/10
Audio: 0/10
Originality: 0/10

Total Score: 1/10

btw this review has probably more words that the Harmony Haven story script.