Ren'Py - Lessons in Love [v0.53.0] [Selebus]

I gave this two stars because some of the ideas are decent, but they don't outweigh the four following drawbacks.

1) The writing. The author subscribes to the "lots of words is better" school of thought. Every single moment is dragged out as long as it possibly can be. This is especially egregious in "comedy" sections, where jokes are drawn out long past their point of humor. I don't understand how people are praising the writing in this game. Perhaps they spend too much time reading poorly translated visual novels. For those that spend any amount of time reading actual books, you will find the writing here infuriating.
2) The gameplay. Grind affection/lust and try to guess which choices lead to scenes. Much like reading the text, this takes a LONG time. Sometimes this is interrupted by poorly designed puzzle sections. The author has stated that he deliberately designed these sections to be frustrating/confusing. He succeeded.
3) Sex scenes. There are some odd choices here. For example, while this game has a gallery, it is a gallery of all of the events, not just the sex scenes. This would be fine, except there are several sex scenes missing from the gallery. Namely all of the scenes with animation. The ones in the gallery are still images with the authors trademark "ridiculous amount of text" filling the gaps. Most of the animated scenes are repeatable in game, but that would require you to understand every character's schedule. Good luck with that.
4) Obviously underage girls. Your mileage may vary on this one, so I didn't actually take this into account when rating the game. Still, you should know that the girls in this game look YOUNG. I would say that the majority of the students the protagonist molests look somewhere in the range of 10-13 years old. The oldest looks to be about 16. There are adults you can sleep with, but know that you are going to miss out on the majority of the game if you stick with that.

If you want a very long VN with a lot of depth you will enjoy Lessons in Love. If you're like me who wants something to jerk off to, this probably isn't the best game for you. A lot of the sex scenes scenes are spread out, sometimes taking 10-15 minutes or more of going through quests to get to the next piece of sexual content. Lessons in Love also suffers from the same problem a lot of dating sims on this site do, which is that there's way too many love interests. This results in not a lot of sexual content for a lot of the girls which is amplified by the fact that the creator of the game wants to put a lot backstory into every character. This is a fine ideal to strive for but since there are so many characters to develop there ends up being not much sexual content for them, at least compared to how much reading the creator of the game expects of you. Also since there are so many characters, the ones you may like often end up not having any good content or they rarely get new content as the creator tries to add more for other girls.

Lessons in Love is also terrible to play without the guide mod. The first time I played was a ton of clicking around because I didn't know if I don't have someone's affection high enough or if I wasn't checking the correct area at the right time. When you play with the guide mod and see how specific each trigger is you realize the game is terrible without it.

I also find the writing to be very tiresome. Lessons in Love has a lot of fourth wall breaking, mainly in the form of the "happy events". I find myself trying to get through these events as quickly as possible as I find them to be very disconnected to a porn game. I think when you're trying to make a game for people to jerk off to, events like these are just a turn off. This goes for a lot of the events in the game as there are many that deal with serious topics which isn't what I boot up a porn game for. They're way too serious. I want a character to feel like an individual and to feel connected to them but this game often makes me care less about characters because I get sick of hearing about all their problems and insecurities. It constantly tries to make you feel guilty for having sex with characters which isn't a turn-on for me.

In the end the writing is good, although it can be a bit pretentious at times. It just isn't what I want when I want to jerk off. It's often way too serious and kills my boner. The sex scenes are well-made and I'm sure if you play there will be characters you'll be into as there are a lot and most are well-written.

Overall I would only recommend this game to people who are patient and want more of a visual novel rather than an erotic game. Definitely play with the guide mod, it will save you a lot of time. I'm personally done with this game for the foreseeable future. I might play it one more time when it's finished and I have a lot of time on my hands but currently it's just too much of a drag to play and jerk off to. I hope after this game, the creator makes a game that is more light hearted as they do have talent for writing a story and making a decent plot, it just needs to be focused more on lewd themes rather than the uncomfortable themes that are prevalent throughout this game.

TLDR: Writing good, not really good if you're horny. A lot of reading, a lot of characters, and an okay amount of sex scenes (not all characters have them) that are pretty decent as they're well written.

Playing LiL since the beginnin. Honestly, the best game I played.
The mistery, the characters, the fantasy, the uncertainty of what is happening. The way that de dev writes is really immersive. Maybe im too fan tbh, but still, i really like this game.

A genuinely fantastic story with legit interesting lore, this game will make your skin crawl and your dick hard, 10/10

*as a side note, Keep notes or a journal and try to decode the lore, it's super rewarding and will leave you feeling a whole lot of emotions. (a hexadecimal converter is useful)

One of the best VNs on here. Varied fetishes, plenty of room to grow and the dev cares enough to go back and improve older content in the story.
I don't really have any complaints for this one.
I'm excited to see where the story will lead.

One of the most interesting protagonists among all vn. Great dialogue, well written characters. Whatever the problem with the grind or puzzles, the game remains 10 out of 10 thanks to the characters and the story.

Firstly, while it's my favorite game on the site, there are cons worth mentioning. As I'm sure other reviews talked about, this VN is very...very long. Almost exhaustingly so. It doesn't make it bad but if you're a completionist just be sure to take plenty of breaks. Don't make the mistake I made and try to beat it in a week. You won't. Aside from that there are a lot of very jarring scenes, which are put in intentionally to be offputting. I personally don't mind them, but some might. And finally, there are impassible blocks in the game designed specifically to force you to look up resolutions and come back to the thread. I think it's an interesting way to spark community engagement, but I wish the puzzles were at least solvable.
Positives: If you're willing to read all the text (this game is literally longer than the bible) There are some really great characters who each have important elements that reoccur and sometimes resolve in satisfying ways. It pulls at the heartstrings which is not something I expect from eroge. Would recommend.

This review should be almost entirely spoiler free.
TL;DR great story and characters but the porn sucks.

Pros:
This game is loooong.
The characters are good and somewhat diverse. While almost every (dateable) character fits some kind of stereotype they are still nice and varied.
The characters are all pretty likeable in their own way (at least for me). Except the MC. More on that later.
The story is pretty interesting.

Neutral:
The writing feels kinda pretentious sometimes if that makes sense. I didn't mind though.
Seriously, the game is super freaking long. Like about three times as long as LotR last time I checked. Might be too much for some people.
The story might not be everyone´s cup of tea. Check the tags.
It takes hours to get to the action. I didn't mind, but don't play this for the porn probably (it sucks anyway, see cons).
In general everything takes very long to get going. The story and character development could have probably been edited down by 50% and still be very coherent. I enjoyed the slow pace though. YMMV.
This game is hyped a lot on this site. So if you play it with very high expectations you might be disappointed. Not saying the game is bad, but it also probably isn't a perfect 5/7 GOTY for most folks. Just temper your expectations

Cons:
The MC is a massive fucking prick. It's probably supposed to be that way and without spoiling anything it fits the game pretty well I think. But it's still annoying to me. Might not be a problem for most people.
The porn is meh. It's standard honey select fare or whatever devs use to get this anime look. It looks very mediocre honestly. Also every sex scene is tinged with desperation (on the girls side) and feels super creepy. Which is probably the correct way to write a sex scene in a game in which almost every dateable character is of, at best, questionable age. But it still put me off personally. Which honestly might be the point. You never know with this game.


I thought about giving this 4 stars but honestly it IS a standout game on this site.

This is legitimately one of my favorite games ever. Yes it's a VN but man, I got so involved in the story I think I actually god a bit addicted to it in an unhealthy way lol.
Thanks Selebus for this game.

Terrible Event Loop and Loop again No walkthrough i'm stuck at RESET EVENT Loop and Loop and Loop annoying me and i'm read a comment just go to Shrine and pray Yeah i'm pray PRAY more than 100 times now but nothing happen It Just 0.5.0 Event Content But i'm not even in 0.28.0 Content I'm going to drop this game again because of this
i can't pass it Start Over 10 times Still same
I HATE THIS LOOP WORLD IS BROKEN LIKE MY MIND gonna take a break

This is one of the best and probably the best written VN on this site. Beware that this is a VN first and an eroge second. There is no constant arousal and also about as much emotionally disturbing content as that. If you are willing to tolerate a lot of text then this can be heartily recommended though. Only problem for me is that you need to use a guide mod or the wiki to find events and push the story forward, which is annoying and unnecessary.

Lessons in Love is not going to live up to the hype if you've been around the block for a while.

It's supposed to be this "philosophical" game that asks us - people who play porn games - questions that the game developer and its fans think we never thought to ask ourselves, such as "damn is incest kinda fucked up?" or "damn is abusing our position of power to get some pussy fucked up?" or even - THE HORROR - "Is taking advantage emotionally vulnerable women to get some pussy fucked up?".

Unfortunately for the developer, these questions are fairly entry level if you've played over even 10 non-indie, japanese visual novels. One hour of euphoria has more fucked up content and makes me question how down I'm willing to go than the 40 hours I sunk into this.

The fourth wall breaks are random, don't come with any worthwhile long-term effects apart from one scene in the middle of the game, the sandbox is woefully slow and painfully boring as most sandboxes are, none of the characters feel decently fleshed out enough because there's just so fucking many, and the scenes that directly address the reader to say "hey are these things fucked up?" are short, quickly end, and don't really become a theme throughout the game, making it feel as if the game is scared of coming into these things too strongly.

The end result is just that: a game that fails to be philosophically or morally intriguing and interesting because it is scared to lean heavily into these things AND the themes are also fairly soft to begin with, while ALSO being a game that fails to be good to fap to because of the woeful sandbox and sheer amount of characters. Therefore, there is nothing to say about LiL other than it is painfully average.

However! LiL is a good intro into the denpa-style genre or these more self-reflective visual novels, of which we can include several known games ranging from Subahibi to Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo to Koi. If you've never played this, holy shit, LiL must feel stellar.

But if you've been around the block and played any number of these types of VNs with fourthwall breaks or denpa/ethical questions, LiL is painfully, painfully average.

Why am I on day 47 and I still haven't seen one piece of action literally on like over a month worth of lines and lines and paragraphs and more paragraphs about how much they like Vanilla Icecream or whatever other subject that I honestly did not look for when I search for 'loli' games bruv.... What are these reviews of 4.5 stars for a game longer than the Holy Bible my god....

Do not recommend it unless you like to spend hours and hours reading meaningless 'dates' that lead to nothing even after almost 2 months into game-time. Sex scenes after almost reaching 'end-game' aren't even that great; 2 outta 5 stars is overrating this tbh

This is not a game. This is a visual novel. This is not porn; it is an artistic creation that contains porn. If you are looking for a quick fap, especially if you were drawn to the game because of a transgressive tag (rape, incest, cheating, school setting, loli, virgin)... THEN CONGRATULATIONS, you are the target audience! I strongly encourage you to play this game!

This game can make all of your fantasies a reality! Isn't that wonderful!? You get to rape people! You get to fuck a vulnerable family member you are supposed to keep safe! You get to create a harem by lying to the people who trust you! You can prey upon women desperate for attention because the men they love are off dying in a war! Isn't that what you came here to do?

Oh, and the game is FREE! It's updated regularly and currently is the longest visual novel ever created! SO MUCH CONTENT!

Aren't you happy!? How can you not be happy?! You're getting everything you want. All you have to do is click a box! All you have to do is agree to be an abuser keep playing.

And get this! In this universe, for reasons I won't reveal, it might not even be possible for you to be accountable! Remember, it's just a game. Just something you do so you can get off. These are just images on a screen—lines of dialogue and narration. Nothing is real!

If you enjoy playing the game, you can donate to the artist and join the discord--filled with other people like you! Don't you want to meet other people who like to play games with the tags you searched for? Why not tell your friends about this game so that they can learn more about your hobbies?

I love this game. The themes it explores are worth exploring. If you give this game one star, I suggest you take a long look in the mirror. Why would anyone like us, the people who found this game, deserve to feel comfortable? We all have darkness in us. Did you think playing a game like this would give you an outlet for that darkness? Were you looking to explore that darkness in a comfortable and reassuring setting?

The people who don't like this game are the target audience and the people who could most benefit from playing it. The questions it asks us are questions worth asking. It's not the game's fault when the player can't answer those questions.

TLDR: If you read the other reviews and think you'll hate it. Play it. It was made just for you.

Edit to add: the most ringing endorsement is just above my post. There is a 3-star review complaining about LiL being inferior to Subahibi and Totono. They are two of the greatest visual novels of all time. Each required dozens of people to make. The fact that it's drawing those types of comparisons says a lot about the game and the person making it. Oh, and for the record, I've played both, and I liked LiL better than Totono and more accessible than Subahibi. I have no problem dying on this hill.

It started like an excellent game but by time, it's lost it's chops. Still great work and it motivated me to start and work over my own vn. Selebus's doing an outstanding job with it and I hope he is OK. But since the last two or three updates, I think he should start to wrap the story up. It is going out of nowhere and some gimmicks of the game are starting to be annoying. That's my take.

The story is not bad, but the MC like in most of the VNs here, is dumb as fuck, he is a guy that aparently died and now is in a teacher's body, obviously he has no idea of teaching so his way to save himself and don't let the girls know that he doesn't know what he is doing, tell to the girls that he won't teach them anymore, that is a new system he is trying, that they should study by themself, and we know that the MC is not going to grade them or do anything, is pretty stupid and makes no sense, at least give a better excuse. Why no one knows that he is not teaching? Looks like the school is a ghost building because looks like there is not principal or other teachers that would complain or take actions against the MC.
The MC is lusting over all the girls and he doesn't hide it, a girl tell him that he just want to fuck other girl and his response is "yes, I want to fuck her" or he stay in silent, that is the same that say yes, really?? What kind of stupid and virgin guy does that?
Your decisions means shit, the game and the developer lie saying that your decisions have an impact and that is not true, you have to grind love and lust points talking to the girls and most of the times there aren't decisions, you just gain a point for read all the text, the game is almost 100% kinetic, there is nothing to do, like I said, you have to grind a lot because only in weekends you can expend time with most of the girls and see an event, to do the dorm event you have to have a good relationship with both girls that live in that room, so more grind. I have no problem with games that are slow paced but I hate games that are grindy like this one, those are different things. Pretty dissapointed.

Great text! But the game is not for a quick pass with the key held down. For a full understanding of what is happening, you need to read carefully. The pictures serve only for easy illustration of the text.

The bad: Terrible pacing. The horror (if you want to call it that) existential bs is a huge turn-off. It's just thrown in your face and feels completely out of place. LOTS of reading with NOTHING happening. Pointless grind for stats when story progress is linear and vast majority of choices don't matter. "There is always something to do in Lessons in Love." No there isn't. No matter how efficiently you grind stats there will be several days in game of no events and just grinding (unless the grind is counted as "something to do").
It does have good renders. I also like several of the character interactions outside of the main story with exception to the ones with the stupid "horror" shift forcing the mc out of it because I need edgy edgelord bs thrown in my face again.

This is a review of version 26part3

Pros:
+ Awesome strories of girls, that can make you laugh, feel sad or uncomfortable
+ If it clicks with you this game will make you care about them and interested what happens next
+ Great variety of girls, of different shapes and sizes
+ Interesting MC that is relatable (at least for me). He's a deeply flawed man but it's a deeply flawed world we live in. And he has some redeeming qualities
+ Graphics is nice
+ Main story idea
+ Frequent and steady stream of updates

Cons:
- Main story execution is a bit convoluted and too pretentious for me
- Vanilla gameplay - for the love of god, if you're not a masochist play this game with a guide mod or you will be pulling your hair out after one hour with this game.
- H scenes are a bit below average compared to most games here
- Nodoka

Overall:
Overall, I think that if for you a good story in a game is more important than just H scenes I think you should try it. You may hate it but chances are you will enjoy the ride like the rest of us. I would rate it 9/10.

Updated for 0.29

TLDR; Game is weird and that's good. Unless you don't like weird, then it's bad. Game isn't just about sex, but relationships. So while there is plenty of sex, there's also a lot of romance. And manipulation. This game will make you feel something. Good, bad, horny, disgusted. I can't promise what it is, but I can promise you'll feel. Read on for more details!

Personally, I think this is the best game on the site. The writing is intelligent and well-done, the lore is complex enough to encourage theory-crafting, the characters are all unique, there's variation in body types, and it accomplishes an incredible feat by making characters both anime-ish and realistic at the same time by making them flawed. There are characters with depression, trauma, ASPD, PTSD, grief, emotional baggage...

If you're looking for a game just to fap to, this is not the one. When I played this game for the first time, I dropped it pretty quickly. I wasn't in the right mind-space to play it. But after revisiting it, I've played it through completely twice (which it has at least 40 hours of gameplay to it right now, btw).

This game is art and you can't convince me otherwise. The subject matter is horrifying, it's aware it's horrifying, and that's largely the point. The game itself asks you to stop playing it on multiple occasions, calling the player out for continuing and making the choices that they do. And those choices matter in this game, btw. They have long-lasting consequences that change the story in both small and large ways.

Still not sold? The game consistently updates every month with hours of new content. And the dev? Constantly active, providing timelines for releases months in advance, and actually sticking to them. This is his job and he very clearly treats it like one.

As much as I'm fanboying in this review, there's negatives to it too. First off, trigger warning for suicide, body dysmorphia, childhood sexual abuse, rape, blood, gore, disturbing images, and psychological horror. Also something that can be frustrating is that while choices have consequences, they can also lock you out of certain paths and content. A choice made in chapter 1 can lock you out of things in chapter 3, 30+ hours of gameplay later. Sometimes being a good person comes at the cost of getting what you want, like sex scenes. And sometimes being a bad person can push someone away, costing you things you may enjoy like a romantic scene. It is possible to play in such a way that you can view all content in a single playthrough, but without following a guide or paying close attention to the wiki, it's unlikely you'll do so on accident.

The game also doesn't offer in-game hints on how to progress, though it does have a link to the wiki. Without the wiki, it would take you forever to figure out how to progress.

This negative may also be a positive, depending on the type of person you are, but in-game puzzles are not skippable and the wiki does not offer solutions to them. The game leaves small hints to puzzle solutions, but you have to really be looking for them to find them. Solutions to puzzles may require you to review past events in the archive. They may be what you thought were throw-away lines or hidden in the backgrounds of scenes. Or in the audio. The game demands your full attention and if you want to continue being a horrible person by playing it, you'll need to put forth the effort. Some people legit keep notes!

Finally, this game requires a bit of grinding. It's really not much, but it exists. You can cheat, but you run the risk of having your save file flagged for doing so. Being flagged as a cheater can change some scenes and dialogue. There's also no telling how it may effect things by the game's end.

And that's everything! Hopefully that answers any and all questions you may have and will help you figure out if you want to play. If you enjoy it, be sure to throw the dev some cash. He's certainly earned it.