VN - Ren'Py - Healslut [v0.99f3] [Davie Zwei]

Game version: [v0.99f3]

A game with a fun setup (autistic nerd has to play a hot girl in a VR MMO), good writing and some interesting characters that ultimately does very little with that concept except turn it into some confusing Westworld analogue or something and despite the name features shockingly little actual fucking.

It's a pretty good time for like the first half of the game, though some of the problems already start compounding here, like introducing way too many characters that barely get enough screentime and a bunch of half-baked plots and routes that either get abandoned immediately or kind of stay dormant for hours before anything new happens in them. And even if you play the game with a mindset of "I'll always pick the most degenerate option and throw myself at everybody" including becoming a literal sex slave, you still barely get any action.

The whole aspect of "dude is suddenly a hot chick and munching on dicks (when that rare occasion comes up, it feels like 70% of the scenes are lesbian stuff)" is weirdly under-explored in the game apart from a comment here or there, to the point that the game might as well just have been a female MC fantasy game and nothing much would actually change, except for the pretty dopey sci-fi wrapping.

It kind of feels like somewhere along the line the dev got tired of the initial concept or didn't know where to go with it because the whole aspect of "playing an MMO" gradually recedes into the background and even though at one point you find out that your IRL body is going to transform into your avatar if you keep playing the game, that actually never comes up again (until the literal ending) because conveniently the game won't let you log out anymore, so the IRL aspect is just unceremoniously dropped from the game.

Or rather it's replaced with some sci-fi parallel universe plot and crazy AIs and weird last minute reveals of tragic backstories for your party members that completely clash with the light-hearted tone of the game. I literally laughed when the Kayden flashback thing happened because it felt like I was suddenly watching a bad anime. The ending (or 1 out of the 4 that is implemented, though it says it's the canon ending) is a muddled mess that includes a literal Deus Ex Machina and is pretty lame and unsatisfying. Like there's all this unearned pathos and drama and the sci-fi mumbo jumbo gets turned up to 11 instead of giving characters any kind of emotional resolution.

I've kind of run out of things to say so to close I'll list some stuff this game introduces and then fails to resolve in any meaningful way.

MC's dead sister
The MC in general
(did he learn anything through his adventures? if so, what?)
Panki's struggle with her nature
(the game makes a huge deal out of this but I guess in the end demons aren't a thing anymore anyway sooo...)
Lel's pact with a demon
(see above, but Lel doesn't even get to be in the "new reality")
Jane
(though for some reason she gets to be in the ending, but like, what was the point of this character?)
Sparkle's "corruption"
(the game makes a big deal out of this but unless I'm dumb I don't think it does anything either way)
The super important "appeals"
(which make no logical sense when talking to AI Sparkle in the first place since she's not bound by some MMO ruleset, but I also don't think they do anything because corruption doesn't do anything)
Wejit/Ooyum
(or rather the one you don't pick just drops out of the game forever, which is really lame, especially when you leave Wejit behind because the game tells you to do it to get Jane into it and then it turns out she is kind of a non-character you interact with twice)
Prince Tonii
(another character you meet twice and you can "recruit" him to the party like 10 minutes before the game ends and he is never mentioned again)

I could probably come up with 10 more if I sat here longer but I'll stop.

Healslut could have been a masterpiece but sadly it has failed to realize its potential.

It's got a dozen different, mostly mutually exclusive paths that are all under cooked. There are very many bugs and missing scenes. Only a few characters are interesting and worth paying attention to.

Worst of all though, there is just barely any sex. I wish less effort had been put into a billion unfinished paths and meaningless side content and more effort into the characters, main story and more booty.

Just a shame really, could have been the best femboy/trap game on the platform.

I was kinda really into it from the start to like Act 10. I thought the writing was kinda fun, and I enjoyed the various companions you got to meet up with.

But the whole "IRL" story is just dragging it down for me. It's sort of like in the Assassin Creed series where it just makes me groan every time I had to leave the Animus, like it would have been better without all of that nonsense in my opinion. Like maybe instead of a VR game it was some adventurer who ended up being bewitched to be a healslut by a mischievous god or something in a Fantasy world, I don't know.

That and the lack of sexual encounters. Like I was really excited when my MC became "free-use" for the group, and thought this would surely mean they'd be constantly passing them around enemies and within the group, but alas it didn't really seem to change much.

I finally had to tap out when I went through that backstory thing for Lel, I just can't vibe with a whole serious tragic story thing in the middle of my lewd slut corruption game.

I'll give it a 2.5/5, for the enjoyable first half of the game though, the dialogue was well written, funny, and clever, plus I enjoyed the look of the characters.

I absolutely love this game. It is sexy, funny, and clever. I can't imagine how difficult it is to keep all the paths straight, and I commend the single developer on the tremendous amount of effort that he clearly has put into it.

There are very few H games out there with as much player agency and branching choices as this one. Your experience is very customizable and differs greatly from one playthrough to the next. That said, the story is written in disconnected episodic chunks in-between sporadic updates, and it REALLY shows.

Most of the characters and plot threads introduced are rendered pointless within minutes as another precious OC and sidequest are introduced, and any erotic/kinky consequences of your actions are usually hand-waved away before you can properly enjoy them.

Also, for a game called "Healslut", you have to kind of go out of your way to BE a slut. Sure, you can solve a problem by sucking someone's dick here and there, but usually the nonsexual solutions are even easier and faster. The protagonist is sexually repressed and reluctant, so you often have to break your immersion in order to see any smut.

The main character (Sparkle in-game, Simon/Simone IRL) is actually pretty intriguing, and their obsession with MMO's is obviously rooted in some long-held trauma and abandonment issues. I found that I was way more interested in learning more about the "real" person behind the RPG character, and the "lewd genderbending adventure" plot was more of an obstacle than anything else. Both stories feel totally separate from each other and would be great individually, but together feel half-assed and watered-down.

Overall what's here is very good, but spreads itself too thin. I'd like to see the maker either flesh the actually interesting plot threads out, or make a more focused side-story of some kind.

PS: If you're tired of living, take a shot every time a character says "That's not very nice!"

Good, but....

The premise is interesting, the writing is above average, the characters are quite fun, and a lot of the kinks being presented happened to be stuff I'm into.

That being said.... some routes are clearly more polished than others, both in the graphics and dialogue department.

SPOILERS AHEAD


Most of these are relatively minor problems admittedly, but they do add up and hurts the immersion. I don't know how the other paths perform, maybe I just happened to pick all the non-fleshed out choices, but my experience with this game, despite still enjoying it, has been objectively flawed.

Would be happy to revisit this review if the issues were fixed.

[0.99D version]
Ohh, that was fun. Albeit with some caveats.

So, the story is fun, I really enjoyed the world building, comedy tuned and overall development of the main characters. The fact that your character learns aboutnew abilities is fun, having a lot of interesting choices is fun, even if a few of them don't really matter on the long run, having them is the right way to do a game. Also so many kinky options, very nice!

Now...the bad things: CG frequency is low, there's not many 'straighty' options, and the characters sometimes look bad. This game would improve a lot with better3d quality models and even more if the scenes were animated. Story wise, I feel the end was a little rushed, so many threads left untied.

I will definitely check the game again in a couple of years or so if its still going.

I've been passing up on this game for a while.
THIS IS PEAK. The story is well written, I didn't get bored. unlike other games where I just skip click skip click, fap. I seriously was invested in the story I played nonstop, until the end. looking forward to the other final choices and updates ! The only complaint I'd have is that some of the scenes with the Femboi form the hair style changes making it look more masculine than the story hair style. I'm hoping this is just slot filling for the updates later on.

I love the game and the updates are consistent and provide great content.
One of my fav VN with choices that actually make an impact.

Loved bringing in the male option in addition to the female avatar.
The creator takes input from the fans and makes efforts to adjust based on feedback which is always a great plus.

Based on the version v0.99c:

I have to say, first of all, that I only played once (I didn't did multiple playthroughs). So I didn't see if other characters have enough depth like Lel and Kayden for example (I say this based on another review). And by the way, I get the Green Good Ending: "All Goes Well" for those who want a reference.

In story I can say is simple as it is: you are a nerd who is a beta-tester and recieves a invitation to a new version of the game you play and well, you forced to play as a Healslut and in general happens things: some comicals, others times annoying for how others people treat you at times. But I think that the first acts are good but in the later ones downgrades a little and the most important acts gives you a feeling of maybe be rushed (but in my case doesn't mean it was bad written: just happens a lot of things and later the peace comes out of the sudden).
And by the way, there are things that happens in the game in-game, like missions and so (and others things that surely ended forgotten writing this), that later you don't know what happened to that, but I guess you gonna find out when the endings are completed.

But yeah, I can't only talk about the story without including the characters. So here's my opinion about the characters: most of them I like them (from the main cast/group).

Gameplay wise, I think they are interestings things, but later it stay in that: just an idea that feels interesting but unfinished, like the clothes thing where, excepting the first part of the game, later doesn't matter what clothes you are clothing because what only matter is if you are naked or not. They are stats that maybe affected the ending I get (only 2 for what I know, maybe there's more but didn't get anymore), but the others things that I'm gonna mention are for showing things or context at the end.
And now editing this I have to mention that the puzzles of this game are good. And if we are talking about ways of complete or progress the game are the skills that can affect in minor or mayor amount the way you complete the problems that you confront.

The most important thing for some people is the sexual content. And I gonna say that no: this is not a fuck-fest. You have a decent amount of sex content if you are able of play various playthroughs (I'm not counting only the gallery because it's imcomplete in my opinion), but mostly is nudity. Ah, and for those who asking why this game have the animation Tag but didn't find it: When you are with Harmony in the mining thing mission and complete the puzzle, she decides to ask you about being more than friends and select the first option until she ask you if you wanna fuck her or be fucked. Select the second option and there you have it: a scene that is image per image without clicking (that's the only one that I get with a animation).

Sound and music I think is good, decent at least.

You have the bugs where interrupts the experience most of the time (all of them image related), but for what the creator said, is gonna be fixed most of them in the 0.99d.


Surely there's something more that could mention but for not doing this longer i'm gonna end with this review:
If you don't have problems with a game where you have a sex scene every 1 hour of reading (without skipping, if you like to read, and of course this number can vary depending what route you take), you don't have problems of being treated in a weird way sometimes and you are able to consume comedy in form of absurdity: give it a try. The characters are different so some can like you or not, but if you want to know how much background or well done they are, just go full X route only (depending of the character) after doing your first playthrough.

I hate every single fucking character in this game. It's not even like the pitiful sprinklings of sex scenes are worth the hours of reading the dog shit plot. At the end of the day some decent porn could conceivably rescue this disaster but the dev seems to have forgotten they he isn't making fucking skyrim so he makes a bunch of useless over-designed mechanics and every once in a while tosses in two frames of a blowjob. But somehow the cock teasing isn't even the worst part because I have never had to suffer through a more loathsome cast of characters in my life. They are so fucking annoying and unlikable that I'd seethe every time they spoke and the game is 99% dialogue. Playing this was an absolutely miserable experience.

click *exception* click *exception* click, *exception*

this game is beyond broken. having exceptions every few clicks, becomes a real pain in the ass.

spend more time polishing your builds please, thanks

Legitimately an amazing porn game.

It has several different paths that are actually different paths which gives it a generous amount of replay value!

The MC is hot of course, and it's amazing having a female MC with normal sized breasts, which btw can be made larger depending on the path you choose.

The world building is excellent as well.

Extremely excited to see this game completed and it is worth being a patron for despite the relatively slow update schedule simply because it is already a great and thorough game with many choices and sexy scenes. The devs deserve it.

Yo za game is pretti guud

It's still incomplete, and i can't garantee it wouldn't receive 5* if it was complete, but still i feel the end game was kinda rushed, maybe it will be added afterwards with the different paths and stuff, but in general, it's a good story. The sex scenes ain't all that much, but the narrative was refreshing enough to making me want to play the game more than i needed.

Planki/lel path was lovely. BUT it should have "no sexual content" tag, like 1 scene/10k words or something.

Built in walkthrough is just bad, and this game is needs a GOOD walkthrough for all the paths.

Gave up after ~10hours of pain and just played it as "skip unseen text simulator" to try and trigger the content.

Healslut 0.99b

I am not a fan of such fetishes as futa, bimbo, etc. but I really liked the character Lel, the path of the marauder and everything connected with it + the atmosphere of the group's adventures in the raid on the dungeon (Roles in the group, relationships, etc.)

BUT... But unfortunately this only applies to the first half of the game before boarding the ship, after boarding the ship the game quickly goes to the final and nothing remains from the atmosphere of the first half, which I REALLY liked

I understand that the game is primarily about virtual immersion and the plot associated with this world, but the first half of the game with a group adventure for me turned out to be much better than the second half, in addition, it feels like there should be at least 3-4 more chapters before boarding the ship (my personal opinion) because everything is moving too quickly to the final

Liked

+ The music and sounds are memorable

+ Characters - although I didn't like all of them, fortunately some of them definitely stuck in my soul like Lel or Panki

+ The Marauder's Path - There is very little of it, but it is there and it is done well.

The game is still in development and the ending is currently being finalized, but I hope that after the ending is finished, Davie Zwei will go back to the best part of the game and expand the first half, or at least release a DLC about Lel or something like that later.

Flat out boring and fails to meet the 'Healslut' title.

No lewd animations. Sex scenes are sparse and really boring. At best, lewd interactions and nudity, but it just goes nowhere.

The story is boring and also goes nowhere, with random distractions here and there. Too much exposition.

Hmm, an interesting and unique game with plenty of weaknesses.

Healslut is basically a lighthearted story with lots of side stories. The side stories are used so often that they slow the main story down to a crawl! It's a slow burn game that is light on H content.

There's lots of nudity in the game but very little sex, most of which is handjobs and blowjobs. The game is heavily story focused with sex being a small afterthought. No sex animations and the sex events that are there are short and mostly disappointing.

The game doesn't deliver on the "heal" or the "slut" parts as neither take place very frequently. Sparkle is basically led around throughout the story (as if she was on a leash), contributing very little to her adventuring party. If she was just there as a fuck doll and plaything (slut) I could live with that, but that isn't what happens. I just feel like I'm watching a movie and am not an active participant in the story or what is going on around me.

On the plus side, the game has good humor and is fairly unique. The writing is good although long winded. The game is several years old and I wish the author listened more to player feedback as opposed to pushing more of the same with the game losing focus during the second half.

Conclusion

If you're here for a lighthearted and somewhat fun humorous story (slow burn that gets sidetracked frequently) then I can recommend it. If you're here to fap or for the adult content then you'll be very disappointed (lots of nudity, very little sex).

Lots of re-playability, good flow to the story, great renders, updates frequently, and it flows well as a game/feels like you can go down more than one route pretty easily. Honestly it covers a lot of this directly that other games miss.

When I started playing this, I simply fell out of my life for a couple of days. It's been a long time since a game has been this addictive. The idea of a game world that takes on a life of its own, ceasing to be a game, is really good. The plot, in some places, is really deep, but is gently diluted with unobtrusive humor and comical situations. I especially liked the fact that the main character has, in a way, his own route (more precisely, several routes), which does not have a critical impact on the main plot (does not distort the final goal), but seems to run in parallel, touching in some places. (I can’t stand stories where the peculiarities of the hero’s personal life turn, for example, a heroic campaign against evil into a trip to the nearest brothel or drug den as the final goal of the story.)
Although the sex scenes do not have animations, they are written very colorfully and juicily. Plus, they don't appear at every turn. Each of these scenes has a logic that fits well with the world around us and the situations taking place.
The characters are really interesting and logical. They, like real people, are in no hurry to dump all the details of their lives on the MC. To really reveal any character, the MC needs to work hard to earn his trust and friendship. It is impossible to do everything at once with all of them in one playthrough. Another plus for replay value.
Overall, there is only one bad thing about this game for me. It has an end. )) Well, I'll wait for updates...