Ren'Py - Lessons in Love [v0.45.0] [Selebus]

I haven't written a review before but feel compelled to do so for this VN Game. The writing is great, the characters are dynamic and complex, there's a good flow to the story and it is balanced well with H-scenes and such. It handles certain matters (like rape) at a different level that actually made me feel confused and a little fucked up instead of blindly rolling with a generic fetishism.

The tags fit and more importantly the content does so properly. All except Horror as I'm not sure it qualifies in that regard - maybe creepy at times. It incorporates the things like l*li, incest, rape, etc "tastefully" if you will and I don't need to tweak or custom patch certain things so that it fits the narrative I'm looking for.

Story: 10/10
Evolving and I'm engrossed in it. I get upset when I reach the end of an update.

CG/Art: 9.5/10
They're great, animations are good and appropriately placed in the game. There are some CG or animations where it cuts off right above the "good bits" which really is my only "complaint" and it's not really a complaint.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
It is, functionally, a standard sandbox dating sim and consequently can be hampered by having to grind. Even the grinding is alright to me but the issue is winding up in a dead-end (or not knowing when the update/arc ends). It was a bigger concern when I first started reading.

I forgot there are some puzzles and intricate/subtle details about this that will surprise you. The story is complex, so I'm bumping gameplay up .5 pts.

Soundtrack: 8.5/10
There are a few tracks that you'll find in other Ren'Py games but for the most part, the music is very good. After having played more and more Ren'Py games, it has become clear to me that LiL tracks are tiers above others.

Overall: 9.9/10
***Edit: (I'm a patron /whatever) After the most recent update, all I can say is I'm brain-fried, and feeling forlorn that there will be an extended hiatus on new content while the Dev does some updates/improvements. I like it so much that I'm pissed off how much I like it. Fack

I don't really write reviews unless I think it's worth doing and I certainly don't try and delve into the community but I have done so with LiL. During the drought between updates, I haven't found another VN that can tide me over well enough. So - yeah.

Great game, a whole heap of characters and an interesting story. All in all very solid , at times the writing can be a bit over the top and cringey though, and it is almost unplayable without the walkthrough mod.

Review of v0.22.0

Lessons in Love is the most mixed game I have ever played on this site, I kept downloading and canceling it for some time, while playing I thought at the same time: “Wow this is well written” and “Why am I playing this?”.
Starting off is a sandbox game, and it fails at that, after some days you’ll be clicking like a maniac and wonder why events don’t happen, that’s why you also need a walkthrough to help you, normally I don’t use them but this game made me wander from text to text with no exact clue.
The developer even makes fun of this mechanic in game, with 4th wall jokes, but still, it could have been resolved much better the “gameplay“ situation.
Still if the grind can be justified with great content I am happy, but here we arrive at the elephant in the room: The story and character.
The story starts incredibly strong, the mc got reincarnated in a mysterious and different version of the world, in a teacher who already had a life and people who knew.
The game sets off this eering feeling of mystery and psychological thriller with some light jokes and great writing, you can not expect this to fail…
Sadly it kinda disappoints you.
The best scenes are either the early ones or the ones you don’t expect, then the game becomes a mixed bag of quality, the mystery is left in the background lurking, and the MC finds his objective to make his harem of schoolgirls.
The MC has the mind of a predator and a manipulative individual and yet this is rarely used to make his character grows or explain themes, instead the psychological horror is replaced with some “DDLQ” horror stuff that becomes repetitive and laughable quickly.
Of course there are some scenes that are really good, but these are thrown off into a sea waiting.
Also the characters are a mixed bag, most of them are models with some traits put in together and some others are really good, and here comes another problem to progress with some of your favorites (Or the best written characters in game) you need to grind with some others!
And these others are as deep as a puddle, bland or annoying, a waste of reading.
Hoorray, railroad mechanic, and even if I despise this there are some games that turned the railroad mechanic into something fun, but this is not one of them.
To progress with some girls you do the most despicable and disgusting things, it really makes you close the game.
Also there are choices here and there, sometimes, it’s mostly a kinetic grindy sandbox.
I could say more, but other reviews down here caught problems much better, so I don’t want to be repetitive.
Overall it could have been great but it is flawed game with great and terrible aspects, that I am unsure to recommend or not, if it’s your thing good, but I was dissatisfied for half of the time

This is more of a visual novel that also contains sex scenes but both the story telling AND sex scenes are good
The game is very long, and there is a lot to read, i "completed" version 0.21.0 part 2 in day 577 but i for one didn't feel like there's much grinding, especially when using the Progress Mod which will point you in the right directions.
In the very beginning it can be a bit long winded and you kind of have to spread your attention to everyone but once you get further ahead, the game becomes gradually more liniar and grinding stats pretty much stops being a chore (of course it involves a lot of skipping repeating scenes but you actually spend very little time for it)

It also contains ridiculously funny scenes which made me audibly laugh, some jumpscares (i didn't find them bad and i hate jumpscares, maybe i just play at really low volume?), some very emotional scenes and even horror scenes. For me this game did the trick and kept me hooked, i found the storytelling ridiculously good and very well put together.

The characters all have different personalities, despite there being so many of them and some having very similar names to others, you get to know each and every one of them. It's a big overwhelming in the beginning but it all makes sense shortly after.

tl;dr
I give it 5/5, great story, good sex and great reading experience, don't play if you just want to bust a quick nut because there can be quite leghty "breaks" between sex scenes but they're generally really good when they come up

I'd been avoiding this one for a while, but finally decided to give it a try.

I was better off passing it up.
This game has nothing going for it.

Admittedly, I'm on "day 8" or so when I'm ditching it. Very early. But the fact is? It's got too many characters, with too little meaningful interactions. A boring MC who, for reasons that elude me, decides he's been iseki'd into being a teacher, so that means that he... can abandon all morality and jsut have fun?
I don't get it. He has no reason to assume it isn't amnesia. He doesn't remember who or what he supposedly was before he woke up. He isn't looking for any answers, or clues as to how this world works, an basically declares that he is abandoning morality because he doesn't need it. And this all happens in such a hand-wavey way that we're just sitting here confused trying to figure out what is actually going on.

Every event (thus far) has been linear. No choices that seem to carry any weight. Visit girls for scenes that generally lack any dialog to gain a point with her, because after X amount of points, things will open up. Rinse and repeat for all girls, especially as we're openly told we need to get points with certain girls to advance other girl's story.

So, we have a kinetic novel with an MC who has no personality beyond "horny," girls who have the personality of "trope," in a world with magically no other men, where the story isn't going to branch, choices mean nothing, you pursue everyone instead of just the characters you like, and presumably things will get more interesting later.

There is nothing unique and compelling about the game. I can come across girls whose personality is "rebel," "bookworm," "horny rich girl" and "self conscious and chubby despite having the same build as every other girl" in a dozen other games, that all either have choices, or at least a more immediately captivating story.

And, let's face it. Sandboxes usually suck anyhow. When you remove everything else they can offer and relegate them to simply "what girl do you see and gain 1 point with this time slot" you are underutilizing the gameplay potential of a format that is generally hated anyhow.

I'm sorry. The english is fine. The girls are fine. the UI is fine. But the experience is soulless and boring. And if it's just that I'm only 8 days in and I should give it time?
Nah. Maybe the dev should put more into those first few days to grab our attention more.

I haven't played very much of this game (about 5 or so hours) so take my review with a grain of salt; I couldn't get through any more of it.

First off, the 4th wall breaks are purely obnoxious, I feel like its "story telling 101" to never break the 4th wall if you wanna be taken seriously. You can't expect to impact your audience in any significant way if every 2 or 3 scenes you're gonna break their immersion to remind them that this is a game and nothing matters and act like it's "comedic relief" or something psychological. Makes it tough to give a shit about the story you're tryna tell and makes it SUPER tough to take your phycological horror and philosophical themes seriously. At some point it no longer felt like I was interacting with these characters and began feeling as though the dev was just reading me a story, waiting for me to jack off at my discretion. I'm not sure why anyone would think to adapt a popular theme from Deadpool into a game with darker/serious themes. This game failed me in qualifying as art because I felt nothing in the hours I spent on this I'm sorry.

My second gripe features the only reason I care enough to leave a review; the story following the protagonist doesn't take nearly as intricate/meaningful a direction as it could. I mean, the premise is by no means revolutionary, but interesting enough, its another isekai but the dev could've done so much more with this.
The protag overtakes someone's life, is robbed of his memories of his original life, has no knowledge of the life he's overtaken nor what happened to the person who's body he's now in possession of. He's been thrusted into another life, another world, another person, face to face with someone who deeply cares for the man the protag has unintentionally overwritten, mid sentence. That's some shit that would fuck your world up.
The premise had huge potential to become a genuinely thought provoking piece on the value of life and existence and his struggles with his identity, guilt and paranoia, especially around that girl who sees through him. The dev is aiming mainly at psychological aspects of horror, yet doesn't monopolize on these obvious sources of internal struggle and mental degeneration. Instead the game feels like a cheap cop out as the protag is just horny like 24/7, I'm assuming so it would be easier to slide in the sex scenes. I wish I could be so fucking unbothered lmao. I might've thought this game was deep and well written, had I found it back when I was still 15 or 16.

Jokes aside, experiencing this game from the MC's pov feels like a sim for a smooth-brained, shallow scumbag, except I can't really place myself in the protag's shoes cause I'm unable to immerse and my actions/decisions hardly matter at all cause a lot of the bullshit that unfolds is scripted. Its like witnessing a predator at work and I have a hard time believing that's intentional. I'm disappointed, but as an aspiring game dev, I learned a bit about what not to do from playing this. I'd say the dev is lucky so much of the AVN community is comprised of coomers who don't care if shit makes any sense.

All in all, congrats to the dev on making a game, everyone wants to be a critic, putting something like this together takes time and effort, regardless of whether or not I'm a fan I respect that. People will eat this shit up anyways.

simply a masterpiece, the best and the unique
It's a perfect combination of cosmic horror, porn, character building and dark humor. Eventhough the game has VERY LITTLE porn, trust me u'll mostly dont like it that much when the porn happens.
In short, I just hate this game soooooo much i love it.
praise be

So, this was actually kind of hard to review.

On the one hand, I stopped playing because I stopped enjoying it.

On the other, I did so for kind of an odd reason: The writing was too good.

That probably doesn't make much sense but here it is.
Like it says on the box, this is basically a harem game around a teacher and his students.
There's actually a lot of similarities between this and Harem Hotel. Another Harem game that became a lot more than that thanks to the writing.
The difference is, in HH, I felt like I (the main character) was generally a positive influence in the girls' lives.

Lessons in Love made me feel the exact opposite. I felt like a piece of shit, even though it mostly wasn't my fault (more on this soon).
Its actually a pretty disturbing game. Not because of the strange creepypasta scenes. Those are laughable.
Rather its disturbing because its frighteningly accurate to the way real life predators prey on young women. And that made me feel all kinds of icky.

It would be different if there was some level of choice in the game. Sadly, there isn't. You do get some choices every once in a while, but the times I tried to be forthright or honest, the game slapped me on the wrist and made me pick the worse option (very meta, funny, ha ha, why are you railroading me so hard?).

The scenes that finally made me stop playing involved Rin. Spoilers:
You're forced to "level up" each girl's "Affection" (or at least the Main Girls) in order to continue the story. Meaning the game forces you to do some horrible things to these girls' hearts in order to progress.


Ultimately, It just made me a little sick.

Good writing, perhaps wasted on a hentai game I ended up hating because of what I had to do to keep playing.

Ok, so starting off, I don't review too often, generally because someone has already said something I completely agree with (fuck off... I'm lazy, ok? ;P ), or reviewing the game was worth about as much as the game itself. I also can't stand anime or sandboxes, so why the 5-star rating you ask?

Because it's goddamn hilarious, that's why. And yeah, it takes some work to get to the h-scenes. but with the spot-on comedy, it makes you want more, damn the sexy hs students.

Well honestly, if there wasn't any sex (with some very attractive lol*s, I might add), I probably wouldn't be playing. I would expect some/most of this kind of humor from a Netflix/HBO special.

Yeah, some of the chicks hate the MC, but fuck it. Their characters have some depth to them. There are some girls who have been wanting to jump your bones from before the start, and then there are some that need some warming up, AND then, there are the ones that would buy tickets and popcorn to see you thrown feet first into an industrial-sized meat grinder. I love it!

As I said above, I can't stand anime (again, fuck off... I was raised on Looney Tunes), but Selebus has a way of making the story more interesting than the visuals. If only I had this kind of talent...

TL;DR:
I came out of curiosity (lol...for reals), stayed for the story and incredibly excellent writing. Comedy is insanely funny (two words: giant banana. Not a dick reference either, lol), and always spot on, and the grind is worth it for the h-scenes IMO.

Give it a try! I mean come on! I'm right 50%, 100% of the time... JK, it's a really good game, so give it a try. If I had the money, I'd be telling Selebus to take it already.

Review Version: 0.21.0
Time played: 20+ hours

My experience so far has been pretty great. The game offers variety of girls, realistic proportions of bodies and some great story. Horror with porn is not something that has been executed well in a lot of games but here it shines through it all. The game focuses on a lot of philosophical aspects as well which can be a breath of fresh air. All in all, it's a visual novel game first and and erotic game second which I think is something not a lot of games have achieved.

Pros(+):-

• Large number of girls with unique personality types
• Great storyline
• Event Tracker and Progress tabs provide tips at times
• Horror has been blended well
• Deals with a lot of mental health issues in a sort of proper manner

Cons(-):-

• Not all scenes are animated.
• A lot of times the text can get boring .
• Some event triggers are very confusing and during the playthrough you may probably will require a walkthrough/guide.
• Stat grinding also exists.
• Low Sexual Content at the start

May affect your choice(~):-

• Jumpscares are common so beware if you can't handle them. Please read all warnings given by the developer carefully before playing the game.
• The personality of the MC can be a hit-or-miss with a lot of people. Same goes for the girls.
• Not a lot of fetishes covered ( doesn't really bother me since I do not have any extreme kinks but nevertheless may affect certain people).
• Koikatsu models are again a hit-or-miss with poeple. It can appear too anime like at times, especially with the ">.<" expressions.

In conclusion, this is what a erotic VN should feel like - heavy story based gameplay with some sex involved . My recommendation is to at least give it a shot once. A must play in my book.

I had this game dld a little while ago, and finally got around to playing it.

I'm going to try to condense my thoughts on this game as much as possible.

To start, this game is not a bad game. This game is clearly something with the potential of 5 stars. But it fails to meet that potential for a few reasons.

1. The grind feels atrocious and the girls seem way too unchanging
2. walkthrough-itis in sandbox
3. political commentary.

The graphics, scenes, etc are beautiful, and it does create an eery atmosphere. If you've played doki doki you'll get the cutesie anime horror. This is what the game does correctly. There's a serious looming feeling of how spooky this game is and the writing is normally good when it's focused on the girls and eroticism. It was also fun googling the hex values to see what was being said.

The game fails when you need a walkthrough in this type of sandbox. The rinse and repeat element is an attempt to streamline sandbox elements... but feels tedious. I held ctrl key 95% of the entire game because I was going through a mountain of text I've seen a dozen times before. It doesn't feel like my decisions are meaningful, of all things, it makes my decisions feel meaningless.

The only purpose of the sandbox feels like it's to slow me down without offering me a reward.

There are different routes for girls, and you might not realize you've stumbled into a bad route until it's too late. If there was a clear indicator that I'd be punished for pursuing one girl over another at a specific time I'd get why I'd lose my chance at the standard route per girl. If you don't have an earlier save, then you'll either need to grind your way back from the beginning or you'll need to just accept being in that "bad" route.

A lot of girls have literally just one thing about them that makes up their entire identity. One girl is a punk. One girl is a lesbian. One girl is very in love with you. One girl is a student council president. One girl is your niece who wants to have incest babies with you. One girl knows what's going on but doesn't like you. Very little changes about these characters, they're never developed, their flaws and identity don't improve or change.

On political commentary, the game feels like the eroticism is 'interrupted' quite often for the author to discuss his feelings on religion or how our desires are kinda depraved. I'm not here because I want to think about how much the main character dislikes "lower case t's." Adding this kinda stuff is a bit avant-garde. In a way it's creative since I don't get athiest commentary in porn games very often, but in another it's just leaving me asking, "who cares what your thoughts on God are? Can you stop talking to me about God and bring the sexy ladies in?"

I feel like if you're watching tv, then mormons knock at your door to talk to you about how he loves Jesus and you spend 5 minutes trying to politely decline him? That's kinda what I felt from his religious fixation in this game, except it's an athiest who wants to talk to you about how much he doesn't like Jesus.

TLDR;
This game is something you should check out, but be wary of its downsides. Either approach it from a casual careless perspective knowing you might risk being on less perfect routes with some of the girls or go in with a walkthrough at your side and keep the occasional save.

Might be one of the best game I've ever played.

A Doki Doki Literature Club-inspired, Horror VN that both parodies the harem genre, and also does said genre better than 99.9% other games that try.

It somehow feels both brand new and nostalgic all at once.

The cast is large and feel of cute uwu-anime girls. Some aware of the MCs situation, others, totally unware. (Their implied ages are kinda sus and that made me feel uncomfortable, though. I must admit.)

The horror elements are done well, with some genuine disturbing imagery, music and great sudden changes of tone.

The lewd content is aplenty and done well enough, though the animations won't be anything you've never seen before. But, this VN is more than a hentai game.

So much content here in general, so you'll be playing for literal hours. Only small complaint is that you'll get a bit lost at times without a guide.

Virtually a perfect game. I love me some meta shit, and this is so meta.

5*

This game is fantastic. The writing is stellar and the story captivates you from the very beginning. All the characters are interesting and fully fleshed out, the humor is top-notch, the situations the players get in are incredible.

Finally, there's so much content in this game. I've been playing for months and I'm still not done with it all. Do yourself a favor and play it.

I can't stop thinking about this game. That's what it really boils down to. It's got me by the balls and I'm 100% invested.

From a pure gameplay perspective, the fundamental gameplay loop isn't very engaging, just unadorned dating sim stuff. But the writing is so good. I care so much about what happens to these characters and want to unravel the mysteries of what is going on, and that is enough to give this a full-throated recommendation (to anyone who can deal with the inherent squickiness of the premise).

The only game that makes me think on here and spend time trying to understand the workings of the world. I have gone back to replay from the beginning a couple of times, and new things have been made evident each time I have done so. I am looking forward to the rewrite as although the beginning seemed great at the time, in comparison to the later releases it just doesn't feel as polished.

Also the work ethic on this is absolutely insane incredibly dedicated to the releases which makes me feel good about the long lasting potential of the game.

What can i say... when i think about this game i've been reading for more than a year now, it brings me a lot of emotions. It's very difficult for me to find the right words to describe it, there is so much i wanna say. The characters developments, the unique philosophy of the protagonist, the artworks, musics, and above all...the writing and the valors the author shares with us through it. To me all of this is a masterpiece and this visual novel means a lot to me. Every month i'm like, bro what's next ? I am addicted to this story like i've never been before for any litterature work. To all the people who hesitate : just give it a shot. I don't wanna go into the details here, to me there is just too much to say, i don't know. Just try.

One of the few (almost) perfect games here. Not too much drama, but also not only happy days. A huge bit of fantasy/religion and a lot of story makes it by far more interesting than a boring sex VN. And in my case, i never really liked VN which are too linear. Thats why i love the sandbox side of Lessons in Love too.

I really loved the story initially, but over time its short-comings are beginning to wear on me.

It's a VN that can set a beautiful scene now and then and it really shines then, but it also doesn't respect its readers time. At all. The 'game' part is frustratingly obstructionist. It does nothing but try to delay your progress. The characters are refreshingly alive at first, but they never grow or develop over time. Almost all of them are static and one dimensional. And boy... it is wordy. For the past 2 years, the girls essentially talk about nothing but their singular defining "thing". The game feels like a love child of Groundhog Day and "War and Peace".

It probably makes financial sense to drag this out endlessly, but if I don't play for a year, I know I will be right where I am today in terms of character progression.

It is a shame, because the few instances where the characters are allowed to grow are truly great. There is just too little of that.

It's not so much that this is a 3/5 game, more like it's a 5/5 story with 1/5 gameplay. The sandbox element is staggeringly bad and serves no good purpose. Imagine reading a nice book, except that at the end of every couple pages you are forced to go on a scavenger hunt with little to no direction, just to read the next couple pages. This game does NOT respect your time, and is only worth playing if, like me, you like the girls/plot, and if, like me, you have no life and so wasted time doesn't mean much.

Some other notes:

- The puzzles, particularly the first one in between chapters, is kind of ridiculously hard. I literally looked the answer up, and I STILL don't know how I was supposed to solve it.

- The sound design is excellent during events, with a nice selection of music being paired up to the right moments. But, just to hammer home how awful the sandbox portion of the game is, while you aren't in an event there is nothing but some background effects like cars driving; and, far worse is that EVERY MORNING your niece knocks on you door. BONK BONK BONK. You will hear this hundreds of times during the game. Truly awful.

- The UI in general is hideous, Sickly pink on white and, in the first chapter of the game, the background is this strange dim lit hazy pink setting that is equally gross. That part at least is fixed in chapter 2, with a much more pleasant and well-lit background image, but the pink/white buttons are permanent.

This game demands your time but damn does it reward you for it. Each character has a unique personality and chemistry with both the MC and various other characters.

The Horror genre mix is done brilliantly and it adds so much to the tension of many scenes when you begin to piece together the ramifications of what is going on.

If anything the early game is not quite as good before Selebus went full time but Sel's planning to fix that early 2022. Even then the early game is still better written than almost anything else on here and the 80% of the game that comes after is most certainly the best.