Ren'Py - Lust Harem [v0.36] [Xiongmao]

Played V0.20 -- short review, so you all can move on to the important part.

this is close to a Perfect porn game for me.
a bit of story, a dash of humor, a buked of girls to fuck. enough of a Sandbox to not make it a pure VN but still confined to few chooses so you can't relly do anything wrong.

this game is a must play on my list. there is stuff to do, a good story to read, and a ton girls to play with.
if you are into school girls and harem's you will not be disappointed.

One of the best games found here i my opinion.
First of all: the story is great and so is the writing, i could probably play this game even without the porn 5/5
Animations are great, 4.5/5 (some i would give a 5 some i would give less)
Many different girls with different body type / scenarios / sex and personalities
You can do the minigames, or you can just experience the visual novel
Pregnancy is optional and so is incest
Overall lot of contents
Only con but i won't give a penalty because it's rare or not good is the missing sex sounds

VERY fun game, the sex scenes are decent, no big deal, but I still enjoyed them a lot.

It's true that every now and then some of the conversations are tedious, but most of the time they are hilarious. Klaus is a god.

It's not a masterpiece but I recommend it to anyone who likes the kinks.

For those who like wizards, pregnancy, school setting, police, succubus, harem and a lot of humor, This is THE game.

This game has a lot of potential! yes, certain things can be improved, but the universe and the humor is fantastic!

AN UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD GAME
(My apology, English is not my mother language therefore this review may have a few/a lot grammar and spelling mistakes).
The review has been written on version 18.2.
The Goods:
- First thing I love about this game is the conversations. Conservations and interactions between the main character and girls are smooth and stupid, it's so stupid and funny that made it's good.
- Second thing that impressed me is the sandbox with mini-games. The game is well-coded with many mini-games. I hardly encounter any bugs during gameplay despite the number of contents.
- Character Models, They did custom the models not just reuse the default provided by Honey Select. I have played a lot of games and they are so lazy in adjusting character looks.
- Dumb Puns, so many of them combine with parodies that this game is a big meme.
- The Main Male characters are absolute bastards, they are all jerks or the kinds who will ignore criminal actions. The main character is no more than that but his talking is funny and his past and relation seem intriguing.
- The story is plain but better prepared for the plot, it has uncovered mysteries and good ideas.
- Soundtracks are plenty and reasonable placing.
The Bads:
- Not Much Choices Matter, Lust Harem currently doesn't have many options (still but not many) that have consequences. They are all just lead to other dialogues or another short scene (Excluded Sexual Scenes).
- Character gestures while talking are boring, like stop-motion dolls.
The Medians:
- The Render is fine, actually I think it's a bit under average but for character models, I think I would accept this.
- I can see Lust Harem has set up a magical world and it's pretty interesting with the diversity in magic and the rule of its although everything is still not unclear
- Combat is interesting but still not completed and currently, it's likely just a mini-games, It would be disappointing if it won't be a main mechanic in the future and there are events with combat scenes but the dev did not include this aspect to it, I hope they can integrate some combat requirements for some event/storyline. In short: The game does not exploit all the advantages of combat and skill systems and I am looking for it in future updates.
- Sex-scenes are dull, not so much interacting between characters in and afterward but I am very satisfied with other conversations in-game so that I rarely attend to those scenes but they are better be upgraded.
Overall:
Very delightful experience because of the clumsy main character and the hilarious conservations, I rate this game 4.5/5. Enjoy!

Xiongmao is really onto something here. This is one of those games that sucks you in and the next thing you know it's 5a.m and you're not even mad. I'll break this down into sections to not go on tangents but I have a feeling it's gonna get long as hell anyways because I adore this game so here we go.

World-Building: The setting is quite interesting and very unique as it's set in a world very similar to ours with the main difference being there are mythical creatures and some folks with the aptitude for magic. The country you live in is heavily influenced by Japanese and German culture but the MC is from what is believed to be the UK. There are 3 guilds in this country (Guards, Mage, and Merchants) which are institutions that provide services to people. None of this is in your face and is very subtle which I love. No exposition dumps unless you seek it out and even then it's just bits and pieces.

Characters: Klaus is the best character in any VN I've ever played and nothing can change my mind. He is such a scumbag and the dev somehow got me to sympathize with him because he's so damn funny.
The girls are great and are easy to connect with. Some are pretty stereotypical but others have a bit more than cookie-cutter personalities. There hasn't been a lot of character development yet with the main heroines as the MC likes to call them but some of the side characters have already had their whole life changed because of your actions.

Scenes: They are animated which is always a huge plus and you get to change between the camera angles in some, which I would like to see implemented in all of them but what we have now is great. In most to all scenes, you get to choose to go back to a previous speed or maneuver before continuing. More options = More bettererer

Combat: As stated in another review, combat is a non-essential part of the game as of now, but damn is it good. There have only been small bugs that cause slight inconveniences, which is to be expected when you implement 18 spells and items you can use such as armor and weapons (only 1 for each as of now). The only glitch I've experienced in combat has been patched so this gets an A+ from me. It just furthers your immersion that you really are a sorcerer.

Story: You jump right into the MC's life and might feel like you missed something at first in the prologue but this goes away as soon as the prologue is over. Personally, I enjoy this instead of a narrator or MC telling you who everyone is and talking about their backstory. this game is a perfect example of show, don't tell, and is executed well.

TLDR: Amazing game that will only get better as the story develops.

The Good:
- Art and character design - could be better, but it's still really good
- Characters - varied and engaging, nothing to nitpick there
- Story - the main story is pretty good, but it's expanded just enough to where you know what is going on with the MC more or less, which is understandable, since i doubt there are many people playing this game for male MC story, so i can't really complain about it
- Writing - this is mostly pure gold, with no scene writing below good
- Systems and sandbox - no issues there, sandbox works well, time blocks for events would be a pain, but here new events are marked properly at the map so it's fine
- Humor - sometimes better, sometimes worse, but on average it's still great, like 8-9/10 overall

The Bad:
- Combat - for now it's completely optional and removed from the rest of the game so it's hard to judge, it feels like it's not implemented properly yet, you can ignore it completely as of v0.18.2
- opening and closing the map can be annoying after playing for a few hours? it's just a nitpick though

Overall 5/5, the quality of writing alone offsets any minor nitpicks i would have like graphics being not 10/10, but 8/10 instead, combat could sour the experience if it's implemented badly, but it's not really implemented yet so time will tell.

Was pleasantly surprised at how good this game is. Did not expect much since number of reviews were low, but damn has this game reached among my all time favorites.

Pros (For me):
Huge amount of content.
Interesting premise
Good Story
Good Humor
Arousing models
Zero grind/Skippable minigames

~ Characters? 2/5

I don't know if the author just hasn't gotten around to it yet, but you don't learn anything about any of the characters, you just kind of meet them and move on. Even when doing events with them, you don't learn much of anything. It feels like the game wants to you believe you've known them for a long time, so it doesn't have to actually put in the effort to teach you about them.

Even still, I gave this a 2 out of 5 because the characters themselves are likeable if not bland due to us, again, not knowing anything about them.

~ Character Models? 4/5

All the characters look good. Not much else to say other than that. One positive is that not all the girls have beach balls for tits like other games, though the MC suffers from 'mini-bat for a dick' syndrome, but I can live with that.

~ Story? 1/5

In all honestly, I'm not sure what the story even is, if there is one. It just feels like you're in this world where magic exists but doesn't really do much, and you hang out with girls just to try and fuck them. Which, don't get me wrong, isn't necessarily bad, just not all that existing.

~ Game Mechanics? -5/5

I haven't gotten to any combat yet, so I can't comment on that, but I was actually excited when I read this game had minigames as I quite enjoy them, they offer a nice change of pace in these types of games. Well, that was until I found out they were RNG based. Seriously. Fuck anything RNG.

~ Dialogue? 4/5

I honestly enjoy the dialogue a lot. The conversations feel long and fulfilling without feeling stretched out, and the humour is good.

~ Art? 4/5

The world and scenes look good. Not really any complaints here.

~ Animations? 3/5

The sex animations are good, my only complaint would be that the sex scenes lack a lot of depth and variety and are over really quickly. It's just fucking for a few frames at a few different camera angles, cum, and done. One thing I will praise is that in some situations the girls have idle animations which really helps make them feel alive.

~ Sounds? 3/5

Some scenes have BGM, others don't.

~ Final thoughts?

A lot of promise, but needs some fleshing out.

with a little more time this game could be one of the all time greats i cant remember the last time i laughed this hard at the story dialogue of a game and the content actually has a unique twist for what it is

I love the premise that MC is a novice wizard who has the ambition to enslave a succubus for moar power. It shows a level of proactivity that you rarely see from harem MCs. Normally the succubus randomly chooses them for no reason.

I enjoyed the game a lot. What really stands out is the humor though. I laughed so hard that I felt like I was dying. I couldn't breath, it hurt, but I couldn't stop laughing.
Humor is consistently awesome and I can not wait for more of this wonderful gem of a game

Awesome game, with a ton of fun content for early release. A lot of games take years to get to the level that this game had at start.
Very fun setting, interesting characters, a lot of humor, and really cool scenes.