VN - Ren'Py - Love by the Water [v0.5] [CURE]

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.

The story is really what drives this novel. The animations are lovely for the source materiall and the love interests are varied, fun, gorgeous and have actual personalities.
Cure also gives the non love interest characters a lot of personality and it's refreshing to see something with so much fun and love also being able to go as dark as it went in 0.3.
Really looking forward to seeing where they take it from here.

Didn't really go in expecting too much. The story is fresh and took an absolutely bonkers turn in the best way possible. The background story about the founding of this little nation is like the start of the USA on crack, but with mermaids. I'll be twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next update.

Excellent story with a diverse cast of characters and interests. No one feels like a copy of anyone else with a slight change tacked on. Characters have unique flaws and personalities. Only complaint is that I can't interact with them all more yet. But time will change that.

Love by the Water is one of the games of all time. The characters are all incredibly well written, and I loved every femtosecond of pure unadulterated GAMING. Ken best girl.
Yeah so anyway play this game.

Absolutely great game, has pretty much everything for everyone and if you don't want something you can avoid a particular character or event so it's really made for everyone. Characters are all stunning and a very good plot, can't wait to see where it goes from here.

maybe not he best hs2 you can find but,there isnt a gad damn thig about this that is bad ,.i know is my view but ,man what a fantastic update[talking about 0.3v] when we all hoped that dev will continuos this amazing little story,he just delivered and nailed it,.
this last update have everything ,yeah a little too fast but ,not short on ,action ,cutienes,lewdness or drama and mystery.....what else you can ask...
waiting for the next one and i want to thx the dev for not dissapoint and deliver another great update.

This is a quick review, just so this game gets more attention and patrons, because I cant afford it. This game gas so much goddamn potential its extraordinary, and that's simply because of the clear amount of love and dedication put into all the aspects of the game.

Renders are very poor quality, making some characters look extremely weird. Some girls have a very large face that remind me of Quagmire from Family Guy, but even excluding that, the overall quality isn't very good. The facial expressions and camera angles in the very beginning also don't do the game any favors.

The writing of most characters isn't for me. The way some girls jump to grabbing MC's dick out of nowhere with very little or practically no interaction and the way to rejecting them is by getting interrupted by a third party doesn't feel right. And saying to a girl she looks cute immediately leading to a footjob while in club in front of others (hidden by a table) was very weird, just like stopping her when she's about to start not even leading to a conversation after about what the fuck she was about to do out of nowhere. Also at least there's the option to wake up before anything happens but being raped while sleeping and what leads to it didn't look very good. I just feel like rushing so much to show a few sex scenes like this damages the story and the characters.

The humor isn't bad even though a bit exaggerated at times, but I like it for the most part.

Overall I wasn't a big fan and stopped after two hours or so because I guess this game just isn't for me. Maybe I'll give it another try later and see if it improves but at least up until where I stopped, I wasn't a very big fan.

Review For Love by the Water (v.0.2)
Love by the Water is honestly an amazing game and severely underrated in my opinion. I've heard a few people mention it, so I decided to give it a shot, and boy, do I regret not discovering this gem sooner.
Wake, in my opinion, is one of the best protagonists in the world of adult visual novels. He genuinely feels like a real person, and following his journey has been an absolute blast! I love how he starts off as a socially awkward newcomer with hardly any connections, and now he's venturing out of his comfort zone to explore his hometown and embrace life. The setup is fantastic, and we really get to experience his emotions and the new things he encounters.
Wake is someone I could easily hang out with, and that's what makes him such a great character. It's also amusing how his social awkwardness comes into play during his interactions with the new girls he meets. He's clearly nervous and tries to act a certain way based on what he's read in books, and some of his one-liners are genuinely hilarious.
Additionally, I adore his character design. Most visual novels lack creativity when it comes to their main characters, but this developer has made sure to give Wake a memorable and genuinely attractive appearance. Kudos for that!
The story, so far, is pretty decent, although it hasn't gotten too serious yet. However, there's a lot of foreshadowing and intriguing events are already being set up for the future.
The girls in the game are quite unique, and I mean it. They come in different shapes and sizes, and while some may look a bit odd from certain angles, their personalities are fantastic. They do follow some classic cliché stereotypes, but they also bring something new to the table.
My current favorite girl is Abby; she's a fantastic character, and I'm thrilled that she appears frequently.
As of now, the game only has a few sex scenes, but they're all pretty good, and they seem to improve as the story progresses.
Now let's talk about the best part of the game in my opinion - the humor. It genuinely had me laughing quite a bit, and I really appreciate how seamlessly it blends into the world. Initially, it was a bit lacking in some areas, but it improves as the game progresses and becomes an integral part of its identity. I can't imagine the game without it.
The only thing I didn't like about the game is how short it currently is. I understand that the game hasn't been out for long, and I wish I had discovered it later when there's more content available.
After playing through the current build, the ending feels abrupt(DAMN CLIFFHANGERS), and I was disappointed that there wasn't more story to explore.
Nonetheless, this is still a fantastic game, and I already can't wait to continue playing. Though I'll probably wait for a few more updates so I have more content to digest. Until then, I hope the developer keeps delivering and doesn't abandon the project.

Ok, this took me a while to finish because I have the attention span of a goldfish. Love by the water starts off with a "hehe I'm so good at everything and everyone loves me" protagonist, but by the end of this build we get characters that don't love the MC within 5 seconds and even one that had a hidden ulterior motive....

The character models might seem weird but they grow on you because of the dumptruck, and the characters themselves might seem flat, but some have unexpected traits like the bald, menacing, goth girl being sweeter than sugar or the mean girl being shy, or the quiet book nerd wearing see-through underwear in school, similar to her sister she never talked to that we thought she was the complete opposite of (more on this?).

I never play through these types of games for the story, but this was a rare exception. There's like 4 different best girls for me.

Tldr: Mallory best girl

Conclusion up front:
"Reeks of charm" is completely accurate. Clearly a ton of thought and time went into this. Great start, especially from a new dev, but maybe wait one or two updates if you want a more fleshed-out playthrough. 4/5 as is, but gets a bonus star for having so much potential.

The story is mostly setup at this point, but has plenty of foreshadowing to give an idea of what's to come in future updates. The exposition is very much "show don't tell" and leaves plenty of time to start developing the characters and relationships.

The plot is your standard "overpowered MC that everyone drools over" premise but done in a way that feels original enough to stand out from the crowd. The protagonist has a memorable design and an actual personality, and for once they don't look so generic/bland that the entire premise falls apart. The other characters have a good amount of variety in their designs and personalities, and every relationship can be kept platonic so you can pick the ones you like and ignore the ones you don't.

Really looking forward to the next update, and hopefully a new wave of long-haired twink protagonists in other games once this picks up steam (other devs please take note I'm begging you)

There is nothing truly bad or great with this game it's simply mediocre in almost all facets. The render quality is probably a 5/10 , the writing quality is a 4/10 for me because of how over the top it is, and LI's are probably a 5/10 for me as well since they all look a little wonky.

This game absolutely reeks of charm.
The cast has a very diverse set of personalities and looks. Characters all feel unique, and their personalities feel very consistent. The MC is extremely likeable, the humor is on point and the girls are all lovely. This game immediately stands out as a special one and it's very much worth keeping an eye on.

This review is based on v0.1
Please keep in mind that this review does have some bias according to my taste in games

Writing 2/5:
MC is son of a mermaid (probably?) according to game play. He is really naive and socially weird. Personally i don't like this type at all, naive boys that get the plot to carry them. At least the flirty part is compensating his character?
The humor is killing this game, too much, too cringy for me. It making me just want to click and press space as fast as i can to skip it. I can't take the story seriously with humor at all. Tbh, i've never seen any good game that have humor in it, maybe that is just me? idk.

Renders and art 2/5: Mediocre at best.
Seriously what's wrong with all the figures, why does people body shape looks so weird. When the mc wear cloth, it looks like the whole torso, arms, upper body parts smaller than the whole lower body.
And why some girl face look so fat? They look like an obese person face with normal body.
These type of render hardly draw out the attractive looking of the characters.
This, with the overly exaggerating humour just completely shut off my boner.

Overall, this game at best is mediocre according to my standard.
Keep in mind that this is a review for v0.1. There maybe improvement in the future.

Way overrated at this time. The models aren't very good. The story is okay with it being quirky. He is so socially awkward that it actually makes sense the way he acts. Maybe it will get better with time.

If the future development of this game continues to be as excellent as this, I'll be waiting impatiently for every update. I am a person who wants to meet engaging, interesting, and quirky characters in a game with an MC who isn't a creep, but who has emotionally satisfying relationships with the women he comes across, not to mention interesting and arousing sexual interactions. This game has all of that and more. I'm already impatiently waiting for the next update -- if I was in a position to donate money to the team, I'd be doing it.

As of the v0.4 update, I can only say that I'm only hoping the dev doesn't keep using the silly flipping video slam cuts. Given my affection for the characters and stories, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Review for v.0.1

Love by the Water has a bit of an interesting duality going on. On one side, the game is shaping up to be a sort of quirky and cushiony harem game that doesn't really take itself seriously. Lots of comedic moments, an MC who most love very quickly, a bit fuckfesty, you get the idea. If you enjoy games like that, this seems like a fun one.

But the other side gets a little deeper, where those horror and mystery inspirations come into play. There were some surprisingly dark moments in this that caught me off guard, and the story feels a bit fresh with those urban fantasy elements mixed in (such as being part mermaid). Hard to go into detail since it's so early, but it has me intrigued enough.

The comedy is going to be a very hit or miss thing to most I'd imagine. I don't care for the 4th wall stuff, but it's very easy to avoid those moments. And while I never laughed my ass off, some parts did get a chuckle out of me. There were never moments where I'd be annoyed by it either.

Something that's easy to praise is the wide range of different body types among the love interests. It's a nice bit of variety spice that's doing favors for the game. I will say though, it felt a bit hit or miss with the character models for me. I think that comes down to their faces. The game is definitely trying to make characters that stand out from the average, but I can't say I'm liking them all. That could also very well be my own personal preferences at the same time.

The renders start out a bit rough, but they have some personality and life to them that makes up a bit for it. There's also a point towards the end of this version where the quality very noticeably improves which was nice to see. I'd actually already say the earlier renders could use a sort of remaster at some point to match up. Same deal with animations. They don't exist in the first couple scenes, but there's some nice ones towards the end.

I think my only other real criticism is how fast sex scenes happen. Lewd scenes with characters we see barely see more than a minute of just don't do a lot for me personally. I like build up, so I'm hoping the game mixes that into some of the love interests as development goes.

Besides that, this was a fun first version and I enjoyed what I played. A game I will more than likely come back to when it gets some updates.