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

There are some cliche moments (particularly with Zak and Emma), but overall this game is stellar. One thing I like is that this game handles trauma exceptionally well. Even though there are several women in this game that distrusts men, their reasons are valid and the author SHOWS you why instead of just telling you. And it's also not some dumb-ass silly reason like what's written in modern shows like She-Hulk, it's genuine trauma that makes the characters sympathetic.

On the other side, the bodyguard isn't all op and unstoppable like some male power fantasy nonsense. He needs help and is vulnerable at times just like everyone else.

Another thing I liked, was the mish-mash of mental dialogue that happens between characters simultaneously during a scene. Most authors reserve thought dialogue for one character that is pov, but the author for Hillside has thoughts occur between two characters concurrently which is like some anti-solipsism type writing... idk.

The author had to tightrope this subject matter so that it didn't come off as preachy or power fantasy-Esque, and imo did a great job of doing so.

Hillside v0-12-1

Pros:
-The renders look good
-Characters look good
-decent premise

Cons:
- Story/Writing:
It pretends to have a "deep" Storyline, but it drags and drags, is very predictable and doesn´t make sense at times.
A lot of the story got wasted for the Stalker/Bully who just wanted to kill the girls self-esteem because he wanted to fuck her.

The writing/dialogues feel too artificial and are uninteresting.

Characters:
The Characters have no depth and have no interesting personalty.
One has a drinking problem and doesn´t fully trust you at first.
One is a bitch who hates you for no apparent reason.
The other is like the "cool" aunt who has a crush on you.
The Girl behaves like a 5 year old.
The MC gets constantly shit on for the dumbest reasons.
He saved the girls life, killed the Guy and he gets shit on. WTF
It´s like he lives in a world full of bitchy feminists.

Sex Scenes:
There are two in one walkthrough that you can´t really call Sex Scenes unless you think a still image of the penetration is a sex scene.

Conclusion:
I´ve read a lot of comments and reviews and am surprised that people love this game and it´s story. I´m also surprised that people get so defensive about the criticism that the game has little to no sex scenes on a site that is full of porn games.
It´s like saying I only watch porn because of the story or I only read Playboy because of the articles.
I don´t like games that are mindless fuck fests with no story, but whats even worse is when you play a long game that is 99.9% story and the story feels dull and unnecesarily long with boring sex scenes and is a very unsatisfying experience.

The game has nice renders with mostly attractive character models but that is really the only thing it has going for it. Normally that alone would be worth at least 2 stars but the rest is so bad it's worth a negative star.

To start with there is practically no lewd content and no animations at all to speak of so far.

The dialogue all feels forced and unnatural, real humans just don't talk anything like any of the characters in this game.

There seems to be some liked that/didn't like system in place but all of the dialogue choices seem to be false choices, meaning there is no branching at all, every dialogue runs the same no matter what choices you pick.

The characters are all shallow and one dimensional, each character basically has a single trope that you figure out as soon as they're introduced, innocent/man hating/promiscuous etc. and there is basically no character development beyond that trope.

The story is slow, full of cliches and somehow both predictable and hard to believe at the same time.

It's a shame because it feels like the renders are going to waste but without a competent story teller who can write some half believable dialogue this one is really just a waste of time.

An amazing story, I didn't expect this kind of game at all but in the end I love it and Hillside is by far my favourite game, I can't wait to see what happens next, you get attached to the characters quickly and you feel really invested in the story.

Well done.

Hillside is a rare gem inside its genre, story is something very close to reality, matter of fact it's happening and definitely an issue for women.
I very much absorbed to game intriguing stroty , also characters's depiction and design is flawless , We see strong men and women with strong will , not succumbing to disasters that happening to them.
This game easily can recommended in order to increasing awareness , I wish there was more determining choices in game.
Keep up the great job.

Love the time you are taking to actually write a story with the slow build up. I feel like I get more immersed in the game when there is a good story and I am not just skipping ahead to get to the ero scenes. I wish you had a bit more choices in the plot than some of the more recent updates are getting but overall I am really enjoying it. Best of luck with your future versions. Cheers mate.

First and last review as of version 0.12.

Frustrating. That's about the only word that explains this VN in a summative manner.

I'll start off with the good. The renders. The characters are beautiful, with ample assets and have tasteful wardrobe choices. If we were giving ratings based on looks alone, this VN would get a gold star.

Unfortunately, all good stops with the renders. The elements of a successful project that keep people interested in it are good, fleshed out characters and a coherent, progressive story. This VN is let down by both.

The story is a run of the mill corrupt elites in the fashion industry exploiting aspiring artists. It progresses at a steady pace but remains utterly predictable and barely does enough to keep your attention. As for the porn side of things, its taken this amount of time to get a single scene with a character. The build up to the scene was abysmal and the scene itself was robotic, choreographed so dismissively that it appeared to be an afterthought.. It was beyond poor. Slow burn is not a problem for me personally. But poor writing and character optimization is. And this VN suffers massively from it.

The characters themselves are poorly written. Linear, predictable, bland and showing no capability of learning. Probably the MC himself is among the worst written characters, being an absolute doormat despite being a so called body guard. The young daughter displays a mental age of 10, and her dialogue fails to progress beyond her affection for a teen star and her reliance on her immediate family(which she is readily willing to cast aside for said teen actor in what was a major break in consistency). The oldest daughter can be summarized by the following two words- haughty bitch and she has failed to progress beyond that for 11 updates.
The main actress shows tiny signs of changing her thinking, only to take two steps back at the slightest inconvenience. Despite her mannerisms, she might be the only character that has managed to evolve , which is a huge achievement in this otherwise dredge of a story.

All in all, I tried, really tried to keep an open mind and give this VN an opportunity. It had the potential when it started out. But direction it has consistently headed makes it clear that , for me at least, there is no further incentive to continue.

I hope the developer reflects on some points in this critique and hopefully other users can use this to form their opinion on whether they wish to see this project through.

Edits: Grammatical errors.

Hillside

Got a love/hate relationship with this one.

Love:
-The renders are awesome

-Some of the characters are gorgeous (Charlotte and Lucy, not too keen on the others as far as looks go)

-Writing isn't bad but can be INFURIATING at times

-Lots of character and world building.

-The MC is a breath of fresh air in both appearance and personality.

Hate:

-I have always hated how Emma is supposed to be 18, but looks and acts like a toddler most of the time. I get it's supposed to be because she was "sheltered" by Charlotte, but this is just ridiculous. No 18 year old would ever be as childish and naïve as this. Perhaps the developer wanted her to be younger and just slapped the age 18 on her... because, you know why.

-Can't believe I am saying this, because I am usually a fan of slow burns...but in Hillside the slow burn sucks. It's taken 2 years to finally get just one scene with Lucy, and with all the teasing and build up prior to her first scene I was expecting an awful lot more. There was no foreplay, nothing sexy or erotic about her scene at all. Just straight up penetration, and it was over. Slow burn is fine as long as the pay off is worth it, and after seeing Lucy's scene, who is supposed to be a real wild kind of girl, I really don't think there is going to be a good pay off with any of the other girls scenes. Lucy's scene was bad. In fact, her whole path is bad.

- The characters can all be real stupid just for the sake of the plot to allow drama to happen...over and over again. I like drama, and think all good stories require it but not at the expense of characters intelligence. So many bad things happen in this story because of stupid things the characters do (or don't do). For just one example. the MC completely ignores the fact he saw his friend "Steve" at the exact moment the "stalker" took a pic of them at the mall. Not to mention, Steve looked super dodgy and was in a hurry somewhere. The MC never brings this up again, just completely forgets about it. This happens MANY times in the story, and it's infuriating.

- The MC takes so much shit from people. He literally killed someone who was about to kill Emma, himself and Charlotte. He did his job as a security guard and eliminated someone who was endangering Emma...but all Charlotte can focus on out of that whole situation is not the fact the MC saved her daughters life, just the fact he killed someone. Not to mention the way Suzy treats him, and he just lets it happen. This is beyond frustrating to watch. I get Charlotte has a problem with men, but her opinion changes on the MC in almost every render. It's ridiculous. The only character who is consistent, is Emma, but that is actually a bad thing.

- I don't understand why both of Charlotte's daughters don't look like her in the slightest, at least one of them should have resembled her. Their father must have had some very strong genes, but I don't like that neither of them resemble Charlotte, especially considering how pretty Charlotte is. Both of the daughters aren't really my cup of tea as far as looks go. Not to mention, one of them is a raging bitch for no reason and the other acts like a baby.

- The story is told mostly through character's internal monologues (thoughts), there are far too many internal monologues. Internal monologuing should happen and be shown periodically, to help the player/reader fill in gaps when necessary. They shouldn't be used to tell the entire story, in my opinion.

There is a lot more I could say about Hillside, good and bad. But as a whole, I think it deserves no more than 3 stars as of now. If there were half stars when rating, it would most likely be a 3.5/5. It does a good job of building things up, but the execution is a mess and the pay off is mostly unsatisfying.

This review is based on the [ v0.12 ] :

A wonderful game with great renders. There are very few or no animation scenes at this point of game. The main story is really wonderful and quite thrilling. The music in this game is very apt. Models are great (my personal fav Kaylah).

The game is fabulous and just go for it without further ado. The H-scenes are very few but awesome.

I should especially mention a special character and I think I've literally very much connected to this character. She is literally so cute as a button. And this character name is Emma. Play the game and tell me whether you also feel that connection or not.

The story is very huge but interesting. It would be better if there are more animations included.

My suggestion is to use the walkthrough mod for this game. The choices have affect on the characters part of the story but it does not affect the main story much. So use the walkthrough to know at what point the game is changing.

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Animations - 2/5
Renders - 5/5
Story - 5/5
Models - 5/5
Music - 5/5
Overall Gameplay - 5/5

The game is certainly an thrilling one with a gripping story.

I'm going to update this review after the next major release.

With all due respect I will probably never check this again, this VN seems to have a decent story but I'm not on this site to read a book, sorry.

Writing: 8/10
Seems to be telling an above average story compared to other games.

Renders: 10/10
Reason I fell into the trap, look at the preview pictures..

Animations: 0/10
No animations.

Scenes 0/10
If memory serves right there was only one scene, with Lucy, after 2 years of development.

What I don't understand is Lucy was already head over heels over the MC since the day she introduced him to the family, yet it took 2 years for 1 scene... I don't even want to imagine how many years it'll take for other girls. Hard pass from me, good luck to the dev and the supporters.

This is an excellent VN. The renders are top-notch, the LIs are very attractive, and the writing is among the best I've seen in a game like this. There is next to no sexual content yet, but the story and writing are good enough to keep you playing even without the payoff of seeing sex scenes.

The story is relatively original and the plot is believable. Because the dev is clearly aiming for realism, this is definitely not one of those games where everybody immediately jumps into a sexual relationship with the MC. The amount of relationship building/developing is immense. As other reviews have noted, this is the slowest of slow burn VNs. There are hours and hours of dialogue, and to this point, there is only one possible sex scene- and even then, you only see it if you choose to pursue a relationship with a particular LI.

If you are looking for a quick fap, this is definitely not the VN for you. The amount of buildup to entering a sexual/intimate relationship with any LI can be almost excruciating, but honestly I think this may be preferable to games in which you immediately start having sex with everyone, thus eliminating any sexual tension or anticipation (and often leading to boredom). While I do wish there was more sexual content, I'm not mad that it hasn't happened yet, as it seems likely the game will be heading that direction relatively soon.

All of that said, there are a few issues I have to nit-pick with this VN (and the reason I keep waffling between giving this 4 stars or 5):

First, while the characters have unique and mostly believable personalities and the character development is generally quite good, this game falls into a few common (and honestly irritating) tropes you see so often in games like this. The main LI's daughters have the same one-dimensional, and almost cartoony, personalities as you'll find in half the games on this site: the older daughter is inexplicably aggressive and basically a raging bitch for no discernable reason, while the younger daughter is unbelievably naïve and innocent. Seriously, the younger daughter is 18, but talks and acts like she is 12 years old. When the game first started, I was dreading the fact that it first seemed like you were going to be steered into a sexual relationship with the younger daughter, who is written to basically behave like a child. Thankfully, it appears your relationship with her appears to be growing to be much more like a (hopefully non-incestuous) father-daughter relationship.

The other issue I have is the same thing that bothers me about a number of movies and tv shows: so many problems and conflicts could be easily avoided if the characters simply talked to one another, rather than flying into a rage or emotional fit without letting the other person get a word in. This is most prevalent with regards to the interactions with Suzi, the older daughter. It's not a deal-breaker as far as the VN is concerned, but I find it extremely irritating and/or exhausting at times.

Ultimately, this is a really fantastic VN for anyone who appreciates good writing/storytelling, and one I will be following closely.

Version 0.12

This will easily go down as one of the best visual novels of all time. Renders are top tier. Dev has consistently shown his dedication to telling his story without regard to demands for more lewd content. And the story is great. I really care about these characters and as the MC my protective instinct for all of them is maxed out. Only struggle now is will I choose Lucy or Charlotte?

v0.12

As a story, this is a pretty good read.
As an adult VN... Not worth remembering imo.

Models: 5/5
Very pretty models that are very unique feeling.

Expression: 5/5
I could hold skip and actually tell what was going on with the visuals alone. Pretty well done.

Plot: 4/5
Bodyguard stepdad, and the issues of his girls.
Meh.

Dialogue: 4/5
Decent conversation flow and somewhat believable.

Sex quality: 1/5
It was like sex was added just for the sake of having a touch of it.

Adult content frequency: 1/5
Saw some nip here and there.
...ya. Not a fap story in the least.

Enjoyment: 2/5
While I liked the daughter at first, her whining and inability to change mixed with the lack of sexual content just had me wondering why I was even bothering.

If you want a mopey somewhat realistic story without any focus on sexual content or really romance either, this might be interesting to read.
I'm sure that's what you're here for. lol

I don't know why I haven't rated this yet. Truly a gem between AVN games. Engaging story with a lot of drama in it, likeable, beautifuly made characters (apart of Suzi, lol) and very well made renders overall. Only dowside could be development time, but it is not that long as many games there have and updates are long enough. Generaly, Hillside is really worth playing.

Warning: no sex! And for some reason i´m doing my first run on a Charlotte path! And it was like 3am when i got to the end (v0.11). And...

If you´re like me you´ve played dozens (100s?) of AVNs. Sometimes one of those is a true gem. It´s fun, exciting and doesnt feel like porn.

The story and characters, including the MC, are very well written.

Forget porn for a few hours and indulge yourself with a fantastic love story.

I've played dozen's of games on F95. Mostly Ren'py VN's in the top 100. This by far is the best game I've played. I'm not going to lie, for most of the games, I turn on the ol'auto function and rip through the story lines to get to the good stuff. This game, this story drew me in and kept me wanting more. Despite the lack of sex scene I was completely enamored by the story line and stuck to it to the very end. Really looking forward to the next update!

Review v0.11

This game is amazing. Great renders, fantastic story. One of the few that made me close to crying at some points.

Those looking for a quick fap should go look elsewhere but I don't care. There are plenty of games like that but sadly only a few like this one.

The only thing I found somewhat confusing was the gameplay. In some conversations, love points can be earned, but it's not clear what they do. It seems the paths are dependant on clear choices, like "do I have feelings for her?" "yes" => path opens, "no" => path closes.

Anyway, the game handles this consistently so it's not a big problem, it just annoys me a bit that I don't what the love points do.

Regardless, the story, the characters and the renders are so good that it in no way distracts from the experience.

Note to people concerned about NTR. Don't open if you don't want spoilers!

Verdict: one of the best games out there! 5/5 easily

An excellent game like no other, which focuses on character development, the relationships between them and the story. It is a real pleasure to play this game and to discover the plot as it unfolds.

Big LOVE to Emma the best girl ! <3

I have finished almost 50 adult games, I can safely say this has the best story and rendering, I really enjoyed it, laughing, excitement, fear, anxiety, badge, everything at the same time in the end, it was so much. I enjoyed it a lot, the scene where Emma was about to be killed was more exciting for me than the Avengers movie, I don't know why! It's 100% due to its wonderful story, congratulations to the developer of this game, I'm sure if he turns to the directing industry, we will see the best Hollywood movies, the story was so great

Great game. Great plot, well written dialogue, lots of interesting characters. The main character isn't some pervert/horny teenager you really sympathize with him. The flip side of high fashion and show business is great, you can see that the emphasis has been on highlighting stories that have recently received a lot of publicity. Of course there are no erotic scenes and passionate relationships at all for version 11, but I think that will change in the coming updates. The relationship of the main characters is developing, spiritual and physical intimacy is just around the corner so let's have some patience.
The game is really great, but the minuses are present here too and they are worth pointing out:
- The drawing of the emotions of the main characters often looks ridiculous and absurd. For example, the main character has a completely idiotic facial expression in many scenes. This should definitely be corrected a stern military man should not look like an idiot;
- Some scenes are often repetitive, such as the constant hugging of mother and daughter and talking about how they miss each other when they see each other almost every day. And anyway, as intimidated as poor Emma is it's hard to believe that she has no friends at all at school. It's not believable that everyone in the class is an arrogant bastard we need more people at least someone like the hapless lover David;
- Many of the characters are too implausibly negative. It's clear that the glamour world is full of bastards, but this could have been played a little more interesting. There are many more shades of gray in reality; I would have liked to see more ambiguous individuals;
- The scene with the cop at the end of version 11 is weird - well, a maniac can't just let his victim go like that, it's kind of dumb.
Thank you for reading to the end!
I expect that the author will continue to delight us with updates, well, I hope that he will read my comments and make this game even more perfect