VN - Ren'Py - Love by the Water [v0.4 RE] [CURE]

This game is probably the biggest let down I've ever downloaded. With the (imo, apparently contentious) good looking visuals, interesting looking character roster, and high rating, I was expecting it to be really good! However, the game was such a big let down that it's actually frustrating.

So to figure out why this game is such a let down, you have to start with the story. I won't give spoiles but I'll give a basic premise. You are a Mary Sue; perfectly intelligent without effort, extremely fit and lean, and you've got heterochromia. Your one weakness being your lack of social skills, from being a stay at home neet since birth. You enroll into university where you begin to introduce yourself and make friends (your lack of social skills aren't apparent at all as you perfectly navigate every situation flawlessly). There's even some poverty porn where you showcase how divine of a saviour you are by feeding/homing a starving homeless girl. The believability of your social skills completely vanishes as random girls, who having met you for less than a few hours, immediately start trying to have sex with you. Then the game legsweeps you and entirely changes genre to a fantasy/paranormal/organized crime thriller. (If you didn't notice the "fantasy" tag like I did, then you'll be in for a wild ride).

So the game has a boring egotistical mc and unrealistic relationships/sex, standard mid-tier porn game stuff. Now this is a glaring issue for one reason; this is supposed to be a story-focused slowburn. For reference; it takes you three entire hours before your first ever h-scene. You spend the first 3 hours of the game, being introduced to the characters and setting. So you'd think for a slowburn, that this blowjob would come from the one character you actually established somewhat of a relationship with? Nope, it's a random woman you've never even spoken with. This is the clearest indicator of this game just being a complete mess. It's trying so hard to be a slowburn, but this h-scene completely undercuts that. It's like the author forgot this was fundementally supposed to be a PORN game and just added a random h-scene.

This sets the precedent for the biggest issue in the whole game: pacing. It's so damn inconsistent and all over the place. Like back to back scenes of wildly different speeds and moods, high paced to extremely slow paced. You just randomly leave the main character and just follow random plots and stories for long periods of time, sometimes without reasoning or explanaiton. Like you spend a couple minutes following some "quirky funny scene" (another big issue is that the game is trying to hard to be funny), and then immediately you spend 20 minutes watching some random character you've never met sexually abusing her maid (hot), that you've also never met. Most glaringly, after a huge climactic scene of some huge emotional arc, you then spend 20 minutes watching your surfer "friend" spend his morning before school and learn he's close with the local bike ship owner. For literally no reason???

Overall, I would haphazardly recommend giving it a try. The game is maybe well-liked so if you like a slowburn go for it??

Now I say 'maybe well liked' cause if you look through these reviews, you'll notice that all these 5 star reviews have literally 0 likes. But all these 1-2 star reviews have like 5-10 likes? Idk if this points to the silent majority actually disliking this game and a vocal minority loving it or what?

It's peak, I'm afraid.
The game is great, the animations are insane and funny and charming, and the voice lines are extremely well done. The LI designs are varied and don't feel like canned characters. Absolutely worth your time, and not a slow burn, either, you can get your first H scenes very early on, after a very, very charming intro. Highly recommended!

It's a little nuts with some of the excited animations and tells a nice story. I like the way this dev gives clues on which dialogue choice is the correct one. I like the choices for the LI's. I look forward to more.

Really great game with a fast moving story, good presentation and style, and a good deal of LIs. It's not the most original for an HS game, but some elements are definitely unique. Overall, I'm into it so far.

Honestly, I was a sucker for this game at the start. After the rework it's even better. The main character is delightful. He's a bad ass without being a bad ass. He's sweet and kind and I think the way the LIs flock to him, supernaturally prompted or not, feels natural. How can you not like someone who is intelligent, kind and considerate?
The characters are unique and interesting and make me want to get to know them better. The comedy does a fine job of being silly, poignant and well-intentioned. This would make an amazing novel in and of itself. The visuals enhance the excellent writing. The story is engaging and well thought-out, both asking questions and answering some as well in ways that keep you hooked without keeping the reader in the dark. It also does a great job of introducing just enough new content without drowning you in so many mysteries you lose the main thread of things.
I can't possibly recommend this enough and I will be supporting the author and looking forward to each new release.

This game is absolutely amazing! The humor hits you hard right at the start, but as you progress, the tone shifts toward a more serious vibe with an intriguing mystery and plot. However, the humor never fully disappears—it’s always there when you need it. The developer has an incredible knack for setting the right tone, whether it’s for a lighthearted moment or a more intense, serious one.

The characters are fantastic. I’m about to start day 2, but I’m already hooked and plan to finish the rest tomorrow. I’m so confident in this game that I’m leaving a 5-star rating now. Each character is captivating, and the story is incredibly engaging—one of the rare games where I don’t skip any dialogue at all. For a "Honey Select"-style game, the quality is off the charts. There’s even some solid voice acting in key moments, which is a nice touch.

Honestly, this game is something special. If you enjoy a witty, engaging, and mysterious story with a touch of deep emotion, I can’t recommend it enough. Amazing job, developer—keep up the great work!

I like the animations and models, but good god this is the most tik tok brained/snorted a whole ass cup of cocaine and actual sugar thing I have ever seen. Take a breather man. There doesn't have to be 10 different moments every single minute trying to pull a hyuk hyuk from the player. It's okay to have more than a short sentence before switching the scene around 12 different times showing a character making a face in a single second.

Was so good I felt the need to make my first ever review. Story has been amazing and I have had many laughs from this novel. Variety of body shapes for love interest is a huge plus. I promise there is one that fits what you like. Can't wait for the next release.

Instantly hooked on this one. Dev is doing great work with this. Intriguing characters, story, plot, and I find myself wanting to engage with pretty much every LI.

Highly recommend, and can't wait to see how this one takes shape as it evolves.

I really liked the game, it's quite interesting and has captivating characters.
I also liked the MC's personality, his original one.
And I hope there will be more female dominance. And I love Sasha. Frankie is also very cool, I hope to see more development of her.

Game has good potential but image quality little low I hope we'll see proper ending.For dev some dialogues confusing and you pour to much information short amoun time I'll hope you consider our constructive criticism .

Really well-written but terrible if you're just looking for porn.

The protag is on a very well-defined and (relatively) straight path towards his goal. And along that path, the writer throws all kinds of obstacles and barriers at him. Though simplistic, it's been executed beautifully. Every time he (the mc) has to overcome a challenge, he does so using his own virtues, not because the author helped him out by tweaking the circumstances. Absolutely loved it.

The dialogue is also done pretty well. The only two criticisms I have are as follows. Firstly, the delivery of information to the reader through dialogue could be done better. The dialogue should never feel like its only purpose is to give the reader that particular piece of info. And secondly, a dialogue should never devolve into a monologue. It should never feel like the character is giving a speech instead of having normal conversation.

Otherwise, the dialogue was excellent. A good amount of subtext, lots of conflict and, most importantly, the dialogue was never boring. None of it felt like idle chatter or "filler". And the humor was also really good.

Overall, I'd say the writer knows what they're doing and I highly recommend that you give it a read.

The Game is really not as good as the rating makes it out to be (4 and a half Stars at the time of writing)
I tried the game out because of that rating but was quickly bored. The Story made little sense and the renders and character visuals are mediocre at best. But the biggest weakness is the story and writing being mostly flat and unrefined with a lot of infantile humor.
I was playing it and simply thought to myself: "What am I doing with my time" Overall it all just feels bland with little redeeming quality.

To be fair, the most pretty of the cast is the MC, but he is a good character and the game has a story, which both of them are good enough for me to write a good review. There are a great cast of LIs, come in all shape and size (yes), though the dev allow you the freedom to choose who to pursuit. Some really grow on me like Sasha. Let see if this game keep it up in the futue

had some really great writing, girls, and art. usually don't like male npc's, but, Bodhi is something else. (if only people were actually as nice as the people in this vn) glad i found this one can't wait for the next update

It's not a bad game per see, and the writting part isnt that bad , there is also some weird humor who wont be for everyone even if it didnt bottered me much, but if you expect a serious story and deep character it's probably not for you.


For me it just dont work sadly, the story and how much character are acting dont make much sens even with some of the explanation given ,

we could also talk about graphics who are severily outdated fo a game from 2023 , and some girls looking realy weird because of it ).

Since most of the girl act like bitch in heat around mc and none of the relationship with the girl can be genuine because of some pheromone stuff , the other character wont save this game in my eyes .

some people who like the fuckfest harem type could maybe appreciate this game but even then the graphic part of the game would make it difficult to appreciate the girls and the sex scene.

i would have rated it a 2.5 but since we cant give semi star and 2 seem a bit arsh so i gave it a 3 .

Definitely a 5-star game, the pros outweigh the cons, I'd probably rate it closer to a 4.5 or 4 but I definitely am encouraged by the plot hooks and overall the setting and the ideas the author has.

Some of the girls are hot as hell, some of the girls aren't and that's okay, you can choose who you want to be with and it's a good time, although there's a weird bit of dialogue in which you reject Emma but Sasha still references her leaving your room in a sexual way even if you didn't do anything, but that was the only time I felt like the dialogue didn't match.

Some of the faces are, off, specifically Mallory and the guidance counselor, I am forgetting her name, if they are meant to be butterfaces then they are exactly rocking it, and more power to them.

The strongest part of this game is the story, I think the worst part is the tone switching constantly, it can get very dark and gruesome and then your character will do a goofy panicky animition. The tone is really hard to nail down.

I hope the author doesn't take my criticisms too harshly! I enjoyed this game immensely, I just wanted to voice some things I think would improve the game, the goofy honey select animations can probably go by the wayside, or at least save them for specific characters like Frankie where it makes sense, and not have everyone do it.

This VN is what I assume happens when a terminal 12 year old dev gets his hands on Honey Select.
The power fantasy, the "humor" and the lewd scenes are all horrifyingly poorly written.

Our socially awkward MC (with heterochromia btw) gets randomly flashed by someone on his way to school. He then saves a poor hungry homeless girl by taking her out to eat and offers her to come stay at his house. A heroic endeavor so cringeworthy it could only be concocted by the most infantile of minds.
Arriving at his school he promptly gets a perfect score on his placement test (despite being homeschooled) and fucks the counselling teacher.

I'll spare you any further details about the start of the game; any more elaborations on my part and I may become suicidal. Needless to say it's just more of the same.

The good part of the game is that it shows it's nature early so you'll quickly see if it's the kind of brainrot inducing content you like and also the grammar seemed passable.

Probably one of the better written games out there. Characters have a good amount of depth, history, and aspiration that make them feel more than just tools to push along the plot. It makes for a more meaningful experience. Characters also differ in shape and size, which frankly, i'm grateful for. It's refreshing to see characters with varied facial structure and body types. It makes for a much more liberating and nuanced experience, compared to similar games of the genre. Diverse yet still conventionally attractive is the perfect balance.

"'Why are you skulking in the woods, Lily?'
"'Who did you kill, Lily?'
"God forbid a girl has hobbies."

About the only problem here is the visuals, which are washed-out and muddy in a way that often makes them hard to follow. It's a Honey Select game, sure, but the kind that feels like it got photocopied a couple of times before it was released.

Other than that, it does a surprisingly good job juggling a number of different stories at once, from normal human drama to crazy supernatural nonsense.

It also features an MC who, if we're being really honest, is one of the bigger power fantasies of any game on the site (he's strong! he's fast! he's got supernatural charm powers! he's not as socially inept as the narrative wants to pretend he is! he's hung like a riot baton!), but he's such a consistently decent guy that it's easy to overlook. He also doesn't always win, which is nice.

With a visual makeover, this could be a classic. As it is right now, it's just good.