VN - Ren'Py - Hillside [v0.15.1] [DarkBlue]

Slow burn? Of course!
It's like love/drama movie and not an erotic movie or porn movie.
I have no problem with it, but in my opinion, the story may be interesting, but without anything "spicy and risqué" to make it attractive, and it generates little interest.
We have: Blah blah blah... hug. Blah blah blah... sobbing or crying, and blah blah blah... some shouting/argument... From time to time there are kisses on the cheeks, on the forehead, some on the mouth... You can also see some boobs , ass, nipple... but little else.
And why 2 stars? The renders are quite decent, especially the one of the little daughter.

I've already gotten used to unren rpa files, seeing the images, and if they catch my attention, I play the game. If not, I delete the game directly. And this game is not the only one in which I do that process, unfortunately.

Regards.

There are hundreds of reviews, but I'll add another one onto it.

Story and writing is pretty good, but drags in several places. The characters in the VN are actually written like characters though, which is a big benefit and probably the only reason it gets a high 3 I guess. Unfortunately though, there ARE some issues. The longer the game goes, the less the characters actually evolve. The mother is forced into the "aggressive and possessive" stereotype, the dev insists on the younger daughter being unable to have any level of maturity, the villains are all cartoonishly evil, it just ends up dissolving.

Visually it's great, not really any complaints in that department. The biggest complaint though is that for all the time spent on how great it is visually, there's barely any intimiate/sexual scenes. For all of the dialogue you sit through, there are only a handful of scenes. Why even make a nsfw VN if you're spending 96% of your time playing it just treating it like a VN? Either add more sexual content, or just make it SFW. Not very complicated.

Positives:
Interesting story, great renders. Very appreciative of the "normal" physical proportions of the characters.

Criticisms:
Firstly, while I understand the direction of the game and intent to tell an adult story and not just produce masturbatory material, I wish there were a couple more naughty scenes already in the game.

Secondly, while I mostly like Emma as a character, she come across like a 13-year-old, she's meant to be eighteen, but her personality and character feels much younger and that's a bit ick to me.

I recommend this game if you're looking for a story focused game with some mild sexual content.

This is a terrific VN ! Ok, people looking for a fap game, pease move on, you'll waste your time. But for those looking for a real story, engaging characters and this feeling that you're really part of the story, please come on !

I have played so many VNs on this site and finally enjoyed only a few ones... Why ? It all depends on me, on what I'm looking for, and I've never been looking to 100% sex games. I like it when the story catches me and this is what I got here. Really well written story, this could have been a real movie regarding the scenario... We all know a few unmissable games here for sure ! But stories wise ? Not that much. Once again be aware, 4 hours playing for just a short sex scene. If you're looking for that, once again you should look for another game. But if you're looking for something where you will go in deep in the story, stay with us and give it a chance cause it's a must have...

Sorry for my poor english, I'm just a french guy, but I hope this will be understandable for the most of you !

So where to start ?
From the start of the game, I am caught up in the story that is being told to me, the author could have written scenarios for the cinema, I find it really good.
There is suspense, emotions, we develop affection for the main characters, it is really worth reading all the dialogues while taking your time.
The renderings are also very beautiful, the intentions/emotions of the characters are well transcribed on the features of their faces.
I haven't finished, I'm testing, I haven't seen many animations but they aren't missing from the game because the story makes up for it.
I give this game a five out of five.

-The girl designs are quite natural and beautiful, which is not very common in adult games.
-The slow pace of the story does not get boring due to the deep character relationships.
-Girls have personalities and conflicts.
-The emphasis in the game is on establishing relationships rather than sexuality.
-The story is original and more realistic than other adult games. Of course, except for a few stupid things...
-Choices do not have much effect other than love points.
-The music is a bit boring.

The story is somewhat decent but its very drawn out so you dont feel any progress for a looong time, also its not really a AVN its 97% text 3% sex scenes, so if your looking for an adult game this wont be it.

For once MC seems to have a brain which is nice to see for once, but the mother is getting annoying to say the least, for a very long time she hates MC and men which is fine with what shes been through but it feels like they dont know what to do with this LI, even after you save someone from rape and save the mother from her old attacker, she feels safe with MC and wants to share her historie but the very next day shes back to hateing MC, same when MC is around her daughter or other girls she gets jealous and dont like it which really dosent make sense when she constantly hates MC, she swings way to much and its getting to drawn out.

Also feels weird how the mother wants Emma to get a boyfriend and even ask her other daughter to help with it, considering the mother has 0 trust in men that feels way off.
Also both the mother and emmas sister hates that MC is a friend of Emma but is totaly fine with her going after Zak who always has multiple girls with him, everyone knows how Zak treats girls and yet Emmas mother, sister and kaylah are all so happy for Emma to date him, in what world does that make any sense......and how brainless can Emma be....

Emma is also just annoying, i normaly like the hole build up between MC and a LI but it feels painfull with Emma since she constantly acts like a 12 year old and constantly talks about her crush on a famous boy at her school, and it really just gets boring and annoying to listening to her go on and on about Zak, which we all know is an idiot who couldent care less about girls and just want to fuck em and move on to the next, but this story is also just drawn out for way to long, and when you finaly think its over when Emma finds Zak with her best friend having sex, it still keeps going and she still loves Zak, no one should ever be this stupid, shes supposed to be 18 but clearly shes not anywhere close to that.

And MC letting Emma go out on the date alone made no sense either, the cop already told MC "she has to go on the date" which MC dident even wonder about at all, then a kid gets arrested for being a stalker and MC thinks great they must have the evidence for him even thought he think it was weird he still lets her go out with 0 protection also knowing Zak is bad dude, all this protection doing the hole game and MC is fine risking Emmas life, gimme a break...

Must say i am supprised it has such a high rating with no animations or music and a story full of holes, i really feel like people are way to nice.

Story 2/5
Story is pretty vanilla and no real twists, but drawn out for way to long, and to me the story it self dosent make any sense, if someone tries to kill you by beeating you up, kills your friend by overdose, tries to rape you, then you get the fuck out of there and protect your 2 kids......you dont stay in the same town and work with the ones that wants to kill you, its just beyound stupid and there should have been put alot more thought into writing this.

Animations 0/5
Well there arent any so no real reward to playing might as well read a normal book, or atleast i havent seen any yet like i said its a very drawn out game.

Music 0/5
Again there is none.

Girls 4/5
They look pretty nice.

A story that is out of the ordinary, endearing characters to protect, the renderings are good, the writing is good. If you expect sex everywhere and all the time move on, this game is not for you, we are closer to reality so no MC who attracts all the women of creation

imho best game i ever played in this forum, story that beats most of holywood movies told in a way that makes you develop feelings for characters around you, great 3D models...my only complain is that at some moments main character doesn't react as someone who spent years as a soldier and bodyguard

Je to absolútna TOPKA! Za túto hru keby bola kompletná by som dal kľudne aj 100euro . Nedočkavo čakám na ďalšie pokračovanie. Je to prvá hra tohto žánru ktorú som si zahral. Keby sa len zrýchlil vývoj tejto hry, dal by som za to všetko.

Hillside is the best AVN that isn't an AVN. The game is in fact a thriller romance visual novel, with a few adult elements sprinkled in. The camera is fairly often positioned to highlight the character models' beautiful features, but there is currently only 1 sex scene. Frankly, if the male gaze was toned down and the sex scene was less explicit, this game could be a compelling film. But I'm glad it isn't. The visual novel format suits it very well.

Why? Because not only do the choices feel meaningful, the length visual novels can take allows all the important characters to be explored deeply. This is one of the only AVNs where all of the women have quite large flaws, and yet you come to love them nonetheless. Once you understand their backstory, you can see how their flaws have (entirely believably) arisen from their pasts. You don't get annoyed by them, you sympathise with them. And as you talk and interact with them, you realise how big their hearts are and connect to them, just as the mc does. One way this is achieved so successfully is by spending a lot of time in the women's perspective rather than the mc's. We don't make choices for them, but seeing from their perspective lets us learn about them in a more natural way, and makes the game feel more cinematic.

Hillside has tier 1 visuals, solid line-by-line writing, and a thrilling plot. While I would like things to progress a little faster, keeping them slow has been successful so far. My only real complaint, which isn't a fault of the game, is that the walkthrough isn't very clear about the different LI paths, e.g. when they close each other off. Hopefully this will become clearer later.

Edit: Some people have complained about Emma being an LI. I understand, but in my playthrough

A slow burn story of seducing a mentally handicapped young lady.



Pretty good, other than that little thing. I really do like the story but once it became clear that Emma was a LI then the whole thing started feeling gross.

excellent visual novel, very good story, I like that nothing is left to chance, the details in each place that the game takes place are very well done, the renders have very good quality. Character textures could be improved and animations added; and hopefully the story continues for much longer with a lot of revenge

I've actually given up on this game, I don't mind slowburn, infact I really enjoyed it for the first however many hours of gameplay, what bothers me is the fact that it feels like the dev doesn't really know where they want to progress with the character dynamic between MC and Charlotte. In this universe, every male is inherently evil, a pervert and a rapist, except ofcourse MC and the mandatory buddy bro character who is present in every AVN.

Charlotte is a man hater in the game through and through, I'm not saying it's not justified given what happened to her but her reaction to men is rather set to the extreme end of the spectrum, for some it could be a charm of the game, like it was for me for the first few episodes. Many players like that sort of dynamic where you crack the tough exterior of a character little by little but where the problem arises (according to my personal opinions) is it doesn't really happen in the correct way, right when you think that you're getting through to her she flips off at MC for something that would be totally out of his control. What pissed me off is when MC saved her daughter's life, instead of thanking him she basically treated him like he's some sort of monster.

Coming on to the character of the daughter (Emma), don't even get me started on her, she is the single most annoying character I've come across any halfway decent AVN. She is supposedly an "18 year old", but she looks, speaks and acts like a 13 year old, she likes pink things and constantly compares MC to her dad. It was not a bother at first because it seemed like she was destined to become more of a daughter like character to MC but as we slowly approached the last few updates it is becoming apparent she is approaching LI territory which is seriously disgusting imo, I used to respect the dev but this change in dynamic has me rethinking my opinions of them. I may hate games with loli characters but atleast a lot of them have the decency to be forthcoming about what the game is, this one on the other hand had no such intentions.

Now this is what I call a visual novel. Just pure storytelling.
FYI: I only played Charlotte's route.

I had been itching to play a game set in Hollywood and was ecstatic to find this game. You get to date a model and enjoy the extravagant Hollywood life? Count me in. It became clear soon, though that it was not how it was going to be.

Sexual assault in the modeling/acting world and exploitation of young models is a very interesting theme. It's unique in the world of visual novels and it's something that's actually based on reality.

Renders won't blow your mind away but they're good enough to tell a story. Charlotte actually has the 'model' look. Gosh, those cheekbones!

The story is the reason you play this game. While the progression of the relationship between you and Charlotte is very slow, there are story arcs and plot points that will keep you occupied and I did not think the overall pacing was an issue at all. The characters act in a way that's understandable most of the time.(Not logical, but understandable.) The story does get a bit jumbled as the scale of the story shifts later on but nothing too significant.

What I really liked was how it gave me the feel of the modeling/entertainment world with all the photo shoot stuff, Valentini and so on. Those details really fleshed out the world without going too deep into the details.

TL;DR
If you're not looking for a quick wank this is one of, if not the best game in terms of story. Just try to follow the story as it unravels and you'll find yourself enjoying it in no time.

Nice game, likeable characters, and good story. If you are looking to pound off then stay away because the game is more story based and takes its time for us to get to like the characters. I love the plot so far and character progression is at good pace too.

Nice game, and good story. This game is more focused on feelings than sexual, which is what make this game has a good story. And all the character is still in progress in terms of feeling and sexual way, in the future i think this game is gonna be one of the best adult visual novel, well at least for me. Aaaanddd i dont what to write now. I think thats all my review for this game for now.

I really liked the game and no offense said the game is very similar to Lexi's game it's a pity that it was abandoned for serious reasons, but the game is already very cool, it's clear that the game is made with love and with the soul of its developer good luck to you game

The story in this game is amazing so far. I only gave it a 4 star because we could use more choices, animations, and I'd like to see more and longer sex scenes., Right now the game plays more like a kinetic novel.

Story: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sex scenes: 1/10
Characters 10/10

English: 7
User Interface: 6
User Experience: 6
Art: 7
Dialogue: 4
Story: 6
Opinion: 5
------------------------------
Avg: 5.86/10

As of right now, before even replaying this story. From what I remember it's a difficult story to rate. On one hand, it puts a light to real world horror stories that happen every day in hollywood. On the other hand it kinda uses that as a framing object for MC to eventually have sex with the victims of that awful shit. I'm well aware I'm one of the few idiots on this site with an actual conscience, and as such I can't "enjoy" a lot of the actual garbage on this site. But this story walks a very fine line between hero complex and taking advantage of scared women based on the plot twist of Batman v Superman. (ie a character having the same name as someone else.) That, added with the late 80s characterization of some bullies and plot "twists" that can literally be seen before the plot is even laid out, just makes so many story points flat out boring. But it also gets points not being the same awful plot 90% of the other "games" on here have. And the joke that MC is so bad at his job he's supposedly "the best at" that he couldn't stay up past 9pm to walk around and find some cretin jerking off in their bushes is laughable at best. And the writer still manages to have a fucking stupid horny brain character insert with Steve and I wish there was a version of this with him cut out of it.

The story is pretty cliche, you're MC, a bodyguard for wealthy people. Suddenly MC's called by world famous supermodel Charlotte to protect her daughter Emma. Only MC does the anime exclamation grunt "!!!" She has the same name as... The sentence trails off as you rightly assume "MC once guarded and fell in love with another woman named Emma." The twist is: the now dead Emma was best friends with Charlotte while MC was working with her. Anyways, MC takes the job as some sort of self redemption. He learns Emma is being stalked and tormented BY THE ONLY OTHER MALE MENTIONED IN THE GAME so far. Wow. Imagine that. And Charlotte being a superstar coveted by every rich male in the industry has severe androphobia due to past experiences and is hesitant to hire a male bodyguard. But the mischievous sister, Lucy recommends MC to hopefully fight that fear and have a male presence around. She also serves as early game sexual content, being the trope of sexually forward, self conscious sister of the "world's hottest woman." And from there its banal day to day nothings while MC screws the sister then snowballs into learning about a corrupt billionaire sex ring. Like, if MC was a cop, I'd understand, but all of that couldn't be solved by a bodyguard that doesn't WANT to deal with all of that until he's eventually in a relationship with one (or all) of the women in the house.

One of my big issues with the writing happens in a lot of these stories. When Lucy tells MC about the times Charlotte was attacked, suddenly MC has this fake brain blast like "I know she's not telling me everything I HAVE to know it all." When? At what point in the dialogue did Lucy seem like she was holding something back? He had that thought mid-sentence even, so she wasn't even really done talking. And why would she even have to tell him? It's someone else's trauma, not a secret that prevents MC from doing his job. That he SUCKS at by the way. Every bad event in this story could have been prevented if MC actually guarded a fucking body. Break in? Stay up later than 9 on a school night. Stalker? Look out a window for once. Possible kidnapping? Follow the girl you're supposed to be protecting while she goes on her first date with a piece of shit. They all hold MC on some pedestal, but he really just doesn't do his job. And every interaction with Emma. She acts like an 8 year old. EVERY GAME ON THIS SITE does this. If there is a daughter, the writer's only frame of reference of a younger girl is just that, a brain dead toddler that pouts. She's supposed to be a young woman getting into the fashion industry. Not a little girl that likes pretty clothes. And it's not even just her, MC pokes at her like a kid too, to the point where he lets her paint his nails for him. I mean, come on.

And at the point you make the "big Charlotte decision" there has been exactly ONE point where MC and her share any iota of intimacy. "Oh... I can't deny I feel something for her." Outside of the night MC saves Kaylah, all she does is kep distance and all he does is say "Yes Ms. Lloyd." Like, as a character, yes Charlotte is a likeable mother-type and despite her troubles, seems like a decent person. But beyond (failing at) doing his job, MC hasn't had any personal moments with her. It feels like a rush, as at that point it was what, seven episodes of an adult game with minimal sexual content? I, personally like the burn, let them have more than just a common enemy and him being contractually obligated to live with her. But people paid for this, I'm sure the brain-dead brigade stormed in with "I pay FIVE whole dollars a month for this, me want sex." So it rushed that, and then the story snowballs into the Epstien-esque sex ring and police investigations.

The truth is at this point, I don't think this will ever be finished. MC has barely held hands with the main LI all the while screwing Lucy and/or Kaylah. And with what's building up, it seems like Emma and possibly Suzi are going to be LI's? Emma is the most brain-dead, childish, naive little robot and it would feel completely disgusting to even hint at a romantic relationship with her. So that makes one of the good points, the characterization of Charlotte, also a huge weakness, as all other LI's just are compared to her. And that's half of their personality. Kaylah wants to be just like Charlotte. Lucy feels worthless always compared to her sister. Emma wants to be stong like her mother. And Suzi isn't even on the radar yet. All that added to maybe one update a year? This is going to be milked. Which is unfortunate.

And I wanna be clear, my rating for "English" is not just how well some broken English is presented. It's spelling, flow, and just how it feels to read. And A LOT of this feels robotic. A lot of phases just aren't said the ways they're presented in this. And it's all british spelling but 100% based in L.A. I dunno just something about feels not quite all there. The UI is mostly edited and looks alright, and the UX wasn't broken or impacted by it. The art is fine. A lot of dead faces and stuff but it looks good overall. The Dialogue would be better if Emma was mute. Every line she fumbles out, she acts like a child and the ONE time she's told "no" she pouts and cries like an impetulant spoiled brat. The story isn't bad. It feels like I've seen or read this exact story somewhere, but it's executed fine, so my opinion is middle of the road, I guess.