VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Heart City Stories Ep. 1: Friendly Favours [v1.05] [ParkGDev]

In the vast darkness of mediocre AVNs on this website, there's always a few glimmering little lights on the corner. Heart City Stories is one of them.

I'm not gonna make it long since this is the dev's first project and the game is fairly short, but everything about it sounds lovely to me. No unecessary drama, no killings, no drug abuse, no blackmails, nothing but a pure wholesome story about two economically struggling man and woman who confides on each other.

It's a 2D game, yes. But don't worry, it's also animated so you won't get bored. I wish this game was a little bit longer, but I'm glad ParkG decides to make the second episode longer than this one.

I played the dev's other game, but this one had a new update so I tried it. I'm rating this game for what it is. This VN tells a short love story between 2 people, and imo the dev succeeded in that. You should not expect complex plots and stories. This story is about 2 people flirting and becoming friends or lovers. Unlike the dev's other game, this one has no conflict and very straightforward.

+ Nice 2D artstyle
+ Very nice and believable dialogue and interaction between the MC and girl.
+ The girl is very cute & her personality carries the story.
+ The sex scene is well done, the creampie shot is erotic imo.
- Could use more CGs.
- The art is OK, it's the dev's first game.

I agree with other reviews, all around a feel good game. After playing both games, I expect more good things from this series.

I adore this one. One of the best short stories in the "wholesome" category but still has enough spice (for me at least), especially for being as vanilla as it is. The game has gorgeous art with a heart warming story.
Good short games seem hard to pull off, so hats off to you dev. Thanks for making my day better with this one.

My first review, seems like the least I can do to support your efforts in this underrepresented niche of games.

+ very nice original art
+ compact, complete and good story
+ so good it left me wanting for more

- no mecha chickens trying to steal the LI

I like the hand-drawn art, and I enjoyed the sweet, vanilla story line. I played through once and got the 'lovers' ending.
I have to agree with the MC that moving to a new city without having a job was not the smartest thing to do

Dumplings were already my fav and this just sealed the deal!

Oh...how I longed for such pieces of media. I'm a proud handholding, pat-giving, hug seeking, kiss-loving fucko. This shit here is right up my vanilla alley, I cannot express to you how happy this makes me....



Pros:

1. Perfectly encapsulated the act of developing a crush with small things like light contact, humor, blushing, thinking about them, and a bit of self-doubt, and melting away in their presence and starting a new journey (30-45 min max read)
2. Writing is phenomenal with rom-com at its finest.
3. Art is lovely <3
4. Music selection is decent
5. H-scenes are romantic with a mixture of static art and a bit of animation.
6. UI is customized and nicely done.
7. Two endings that I am aware of.

Cons:

1. Why must you end!??? But alas it's better to end on a high note than drag it across the mud....the dev just dropped a second title set in the same city with different characters.......so pumped!!!

Verdict: Abso-fucking-lutely pick this up...especially if you are a vanila/rom-com slut like me

A nice collection to add for the fans of the vanilla genre. You invite your companion over and enjoy each others company deciding how far you take it. Game itself is straight forward, read and choose a choice. Story's pretty short but was enjoyable.

I would rate this at 4.5 stars but due to the delineation available here and people generally rate 5 or 1 star and 3 stars is crap even though 60% is above average so 5 it is!
I like the art and think it does fit the whimsical nature of the story and especially the LI, I found it charming.
In regards to choices the ones presented were certainly enough for such a short experience and did have potential effect(beyond flavor dialog) so was not a kinetic novel.
To me the brevity of the work is the only real downside, at the end I simply wanted the story to continue.

A good first game for the dev. Not too complex, but it has a soul and it delivers on what it proposes for itself
Only bit of criticism I can give is that the choices don't really... matter, I mean there's 2 ends but otherwise it's a kinetic novel
Keep up the good work dev!

Great game.

Pros:
Cute, romantic story
Likeable characters
Unique and good graphics

Cons:
Short

It is a good first game from this dev, so if you enjoy vanilla romance games, then I would recommend it 100%.

(Edited Response) After having given it more thought I actually want to praise this game a little more strongly.
Pros
+ The artwork is quite satisfying. I find it sort of nostalgic, and charming. It sort reminds me of the work of Hornblase, but not weird, if that makes any sense.
+ The primary theme revolves around a wholesome romance, which is very refreshing. It's an all around feel good game.
+ The dynamics between the characters were pretty cute, and didn't rely too heavily on tropes, which I'm grateful for. I genuinely liked both characters. Yuka's pretty adorable, and the protag behaves, and talks, like a normal person.

Cons
- The dialogue decisions you make don't matter that much. You can choose to become friends or lovers. Those are the only endings. Each dialogue option only gives you two choices, so the actual degree of interactivity with the story is pretty limited.


Summary
I think this game pretty good. It could be better, but I'm definitely not disappointed. I feel like a lot of games suffer from being overly ambitious. This one feels like it tries something straightforward and executes it pretty well. I'm definitely gonna support the dev. If they keep making games like this, and keep improving, then I'm sure we'll have some thoroughly entertaining games to look forward too.

Nice to find a game with a bit of soul to it. This was short and sweet, wholesome and real, a nice little story with a satisfying scene at the end. More romance than erotica and there's nothing wrong that that.

The art style probably isn't for everyone but then again what is? It's not my favourite style but I still really enjoyed the game, so I'd encourage anyone to give it a look.

A nice, straightforward vanilla / wholesome game - the story is pleasant, the character design looks fairly nice, with only few elements like the nipples on the female character that some might agree / disagree with, but overall its nice to look at, and overall has a good sense of originality in the backgrounds (didn't immediately remind me of anything else I've seen in other games), even if they are a tad limited in variation

The story is relatively short, and while I would have liked for it to be longer, I understand that it was the developer's intent to keep it short, and the game was enjoyable regardless.

I'd pick 4.5 stars instead of 5 if possible for a good first time effort from the dev in a genre (wholesome / vanilla) that seems to be slightly left behind sometimes in the AVN / adult game world, hopefully they continue to move forward and improve on this good effort.