VN Ren'Py Hillside [v0.16] [DarkBlue]

[xCalon]

What's the point of the Reviews section if you would rather that all people who dislike ASPECTS of this game to just leave unheard?

What's the point of the Reviews section? Absolutely nothing.

I wrote this in another topic, but I will repeat in this one too:

"Personally, I don't read, and don't write a review about a book, a movie, or in this case a AVN, because a review is just someone else's opinion. What someone likes, might bother me, or, on the contrary, what I like, other people hate. I am old enough, and intelligent enough to be able to decide for myself without help, whether a given game, book, series or movie is good or bad."

 

[Dessolos]

What's the point of the Reviews section? Absolutely nothing.

I wrote this in another topic, but I will repeat in this one too:

"Personally, I don't read, and don't write a review about a book, a movie, or in this case a AVN, because a review is just someone else's opinion. What someone likes, might bother me, or, on the contrary, what I like, other people hate. I am old enough, and intelligent enough to be able to decide for myself without help, whether a given game, book, series or movie is good or bad."

10000000% when it comes to entertainment reviews for me I only use to get a general idea / baseline if I even read them which I rarely do beyond just to get a good laugh.

 

[TonyMurray]

I posted that review and these comments because I want the dev to see and maybe work on those things so they are better in the future.

The problem is, those things are just your opinions. I get what you're saying, but the way you're saying it suggests that your opinion is fact and the dev needs to take your opinions on board and make changes based on them. See, that only suits you, not necessarily the dev, or any of the game's other players. What you say would make the game better might just as easily make it worse for others.

It's there to give a general consensus of the quality, not to serve as an echo chamber.

I think you were only talking about the review section when you said this, but just in case, this isn't an echo chamber, but I get why it might seem to be one sometimes. Generally speaking, those who contribute to one of these threads are those who actually play and enjoy the game. People who don't play it, don't tend to talk about it. People who don't enjoy it tend to stop playing it. So yeah, you're generally going to get mostly opposing opinions if you have only negative things to say about the game, because the people you're saying them to are almost exclusively those who play and enjoy the game, and so don't see it the same way you do. It's simple really.

 

[Justaphase]

Giving this a 1 star review is just absurd and completely disingenuous.
I've noticed a trend lately of giving Hillside negative reviews and to me it screams of trying to kick the developer when they are down and going through stuff in real life. Some people seemed to pounce the minute the "on hold" tag was given. If this is how you get satisfaction I recommend seeking help, for everyone's sake.

 

[HornyyPussy]

Giving this a 1 star review is just absurd and completely disingenuous.
I've noticed a trend lately of giving Hillside negative reviews and to me it screams of trying to kick the developer when they are down and going through stuff in real life. Some people seemed to pounce the minute the "on hold" tag was given. If this is how you get satisfaction I recommend seeking help, for everyone's sake.

Welcome to F95.......

 

[Aftershock500]

What's the point of the Reviews section? Absolutely nothing.

I wrote this in another topic, but I will repeat in this one too:

"Personally, I don't read, and don't write a review about a book, a movie, or in this case a AVN, because a review is just someone else's opinion. What someone likes, might bother me, or, on the contrary, what I like, other people hate. I am old enough, and intelligent enough to be able to decide for myself without help, whether a given game, book, series or movie is good or bad."

Personally disagree, reviewers are important for me to know whether I'll be wasting my time or not. Saw a review that said the first H-scene for a game was only 5 hours in and it was only a peck on the lips. Before that, I was already ready to download the game. That spared me a waste of time. You may personally not like reviews because you consider yourself a big boy who is willing to figure it out yourself but this whole situation reminds me of an instruction manual.

You've got some guys who completely disregard an instruction manual simply because "I'm smart enough and manly enough to figure it out myself" thus turning a 2 hour job into 12.

 

[Tremonia]

Personally disagree, reviewers are important for me to know whether I'll be wasting my time or not. Saw a review that said the first H-scene for a game was only 5 hours in and it was only a peck on the lips. Before that, I was already ready to download the game. That spared me a waste of time.

Hmm, playing AVN are wasting your time generally it seems. You know, there're gigatons of websites out there with free porn where you can get billions of porn in seconds. You don't even need to read anything.

 

[cxx]

Giving this a 1 star review is just absurd and completely disingenuous.
I've noticed a trend lately of giving Hillside negative reviews and to me it screams of trying to kick the developer when they are down and going through stuff in real life. Some people seemed to pounce the minute the "on hold" tag was given. If this is how you get satisfaction I recommend seeking help, for everyone's sake.

those don't like story and not enuf sex.

 

[Joshy92]

I won't lie and say I don't want to see sex scenes with Emma because I would love to see them but they aren't what I play the game for.

And I understand if people want to see more lewds but this isn't that type of game and people have known that for ages so why still complain about it? It gets especially irritating when a new update comes out.

 

[Filipis]

What's the point of the Reviews section? Absolutely nothing.

I wrote this in another topic, but I will repeat in this one too:

"Personally, I don't read, and don't write a review about a book, a movie, or in this case a AVN, because a review is just someone else's opinion. What someone likes, might bother me, or, on the contrary, what I like, other people hate. I am old enough, and intelligent enough to be able to decide for myself without help, whether a given game, book, series or movie is good or bad."

That is probably the single dumbest thing I've ever heard on this site.

Reviews (proper reviews) contain a lot more than just opinions. They let you know, usually in a concise manner, the qualities & quantities of some aspects of a game that are present, and let you know if the product could be of interest to you, the consumer.

For example, saying that the graphical fidelity of any given AVN's renders are lackluster is not a subjective opinion but rather an objective observation. Comparing this game to Dreamland - I would definitely give the award to Dreamland for probably the best visuals on this site, and anyone that would claim differently is either extremely biased against it... or visually impaired.

Now, story quality is a subjective category, I'll give you that, as I clearly see a lot of you like the story. And I would agree - to an extent, as I like the concept of it as well. But the execution is where I can already find a lot of flaws. And now we are back at some of the objective parts of a subjective category: Grammar, coherence, and dialogue can all be objectively rated, even if they are part of something subjective like an individual's preference for story material.

That is why reviews are very handy, and I'd even go as far as to say very important.

P.S. I will be adjusting my review and raising it to a 2-star review, as I have learned that 1-star reviews should be reserved solely for games that are suffering from performance issues or are simply unplayable (broken). My apologies on that.

 

[guardianfather]

Saw a review that said the first H-scene for a game was only 5 hours in and it was only a peck on the lips.

What is an H-scene? What does the H stand for?

 

[Filipis]

Giving this a 1 star review is just absurd and completely disingenuous.
I've noticed a trend lately of giving Hillside negative reviews and to me it screams of trying to kick the developer when they are down and going through stuff in real life. Some people seemed to pounce the minute the "on hold" tag was given. If this is how you get satisfaction I recommend seeking help, for everyone's sake.

It is unfortunate to hear of some members of our community spreading hate for hate's sake, but I hope you believe me when I say that I tried this game out unaware of any development delays. I am glad that I got to experience Hillside blindly, and I've heard a lot of good things about it (some true, others not so much), however I have been left wanting more than once while following the story.

Overall, the potential for greatness is there, but there are a lot of true Adult Visual Novels that deal with heavy themes that still manage to have beautifully animated sex scenes (or if not animated, render-rich), especially so when they are purposefully used sparingly. And much better scripts, generally speaking. I don't mean to belittle anyone's enjoyment of this game, as I do want it to finish and see, for myself, the developer's complete picture. And I will be happy to update my review when/if that happens.

However, I do not owe sympathy to anyone unless truly tragic events are involved. Stuff like "depression", burnout, creative blocks are unfortunate indeed, but I am a paying customer, and I will treat them with kindness up to a certain - professional - point.

 

[Filipis]

What is an H-scene? What does the H stand for?

H-scene stands for Hentai scene, the H is shorthand for Hentai <insert whatever>

 

[Dessolos]

For example, saying that the graphical fidelity of any given AVN's renders are lackluster is not a subjective opinion but rather an objective observation. Comparing this game to Dreamland - I would definitely give the award to Dreamland for probably the best visuals on this site, and anyone that would claim differently is either extremely biased against it... or visually impaired.

expect graphics / render quality is subjective at least to me it is. I've seen games people say they have bad renders ( it depends on how bad they are tho id say if it's super obvious probably yeah more objective.) but they look fine and good to me personally. Never seen it in the reverse tho , that might be more a bit more on the objective side when the graphics are good. But bad is 100% subjective. This game for example to me I do think the renders are pretty good in this game just not amazing like some other titles but still good.

Now, story quality is a subjective category, I'll give you that, as I clearly see a lot of you like the story. And I would agree - to an extent, as I like the concept of it as well. But the execution is where I can already find a lot of flaws. And now we are back at some of the objective parts of a subjective category: Grammar, coherence, and dialogue can all be objectively rated, even if they are part of something subjective like an individual's preference for story material.

This I mostly agree with but I do think writing is more subjective. I honestly can't tell the difference between bad and good writing and I only understand English. I think it's do mostly with the way I play I think , as I never think about the quality but just with the context of what is being said I play more in the moment. Tho I will say yeah there are games that stand out to me to have better writing but I don't know why they are better but do feel better. I've played plenty of games as well where ive seen alot of complaints about the bad writing too but I can't notice it or see it when I played.

 

[cxx]

What is an H-scene? What does the H stand for?

as said it means hentai and more correctly means lewd scenes.

 

[Filipis]

expect graphics / render quality is subjective at least to me it is. I've seen games people say they have bad renders ( it depends on how bad they are tho id say if it's super obvious probably yeah more objective.) but they look fine and good to me personally. Never seen it in the reverse tho , that might be more a bit more on the objective side when the graphics are good. But bad is 100% subjective. This game for example to me I do think the renders are pretty good in this game just not amazing like some other titles but still good.


This I mostly agree with but I do think writing is more subjective. I honestly can't tell the difference between bad and good writing and I only understand English. I think it's do mostly with the way I play I think , as I never think about the quality but just with the context of what is being said I play more in the moment. Tho I will say yeah there are games that stand out to me to have better writing but I don't know why they are better but do feel better. I've played plenty of games as well where ive seen alot of complaints about the bad writing too but I can't notice it or see it when I played.

1. Render Quality is an absolutely objective metric of grading. Hillside squarely belongs in the upper% of quality, perhaps you are thinking of Art Style over Art Resolution? Some people may prefer how games made with Honey Select 2 graphics look like over Daz3D games, and that is great. But it is simply untrue to say that those game are higher-fidelity than games like Where It All Began, Being a DIK, Dreamland, etc. Or are you referring to graphical glitches like object clipping?
2. I'd say that writing is better when it resembles real life, greatly so if the game is attempting to be more "adult". Ever wonder why people praise Quentin Tarantino's movies? It's because the plot is tight, and the characters talk very naturally - the dialogue just flows, as if the camera recorded an actual spontaneous conversation between people. Tarantino is a master at that, even if his cinematography is disappointing to many. But the man writes some of the best scripts in the business. And to me, I take that as a genuine metric for VNs trying to muscle their way into "true adult" territory. If I can immerse myself into a scene of just two dudes talking, without my eyes getting tired of the endless text or pulled out by incoherent speech, then I consider the writing as exceptionally well done. Makes the characters more realistic, in turn more believable, and in turn more immersive.

 

[guardianfather]

H-scene stands for Hentai scene, the H is shorthand for Hentai <insert whatever>

Ok Thanks! But Hentai is japanese cartoons so that doesn't apply here. Carry on!

 

[Filipis]

Ok Thanks! But Hentai is japanese cartoons so that doesn't apply here. Carry on!

Hentai as a noun has been co-opted by western adult arts as a general term for animated erotic content, it doesn't have to be strictly Japanese to apply here, though it did originate over there.

 

[Dessolos]

1. Render Quality is an absolutely objective metric of grading. Hillside squarely belongs in the upper% of quality, perhaps you are thinking of Art Style over Art Resolution? Some people may prefer how games made with Honey Select 2 graphics look like over Daz3D games, and that is great. But it is simply untrue to say that those game are higher-fidelity than games like Where It All Began, Being a DIK, Dreamland, etc. Or are you referring to graphical glitches like object clipping?
2. I'd say that writing is better when it resembles real life, greatly so if the game is attempting to be more "adult". Ever wonder why people praise Quentin Tarantino's movies? It's because the plot is tight, and the characters talk very naturally - the dialogue just flows, as if the camera recorded an actual spontaneous conversation between people. Tarantino is a master at that, even if his cinematography is disappointing to many. But the man writes some of the best scripts in the business. And to me, I take that as a genuine metric for VNs trying to muscle their way into "true adult" territory. If I can immerse myself into a scene of just two dudes talking, without my eyes getting tired of the endless text or pulled out by incoherent speech, then I consider the writing as exceptionally well done. Makes the characters more realistic, in turn more believable, and in turn more immersive.

1. When you compare X game to X then yeah you are 100% correct. I was more really referring to see once in awhile I'll see a comment someone saying X game's renders are bad that is what I think is subjective. Cause in those cases ive seen games where I don't see what makes the renders bad since they look decent enough even sometimes good to me.

 

[Aftershock500]

Hmm, playing AVN are wasting your time generally it seems. You know, there're gigatons of websites out there with free porn where you can get billions of porn in seconds. You don't even need to read anything.

This is a silly response. I enjoy AVNs. Some are of better quality than others. This shouldn't come to a shock to you as it's just basic common sense. I enjoy games. I read reviews to figure out if they raise concerns similar to ones I care about. Genuinely not rocket science on the difference between porn and AVNs - unless your taste in AVNs is just literal porn, lol