Ren'Py - Lust Harem [v0.50.3E] [Xiongmao]

Review for v0.30.1

Lust Harem is a true sandbox game among sandbox games. This almost feels like what our world would possibly be like if it happened to be a modern day fantasy setting with magic and mythical beings. It's strangely... real in some senses. This is because the game doesn't have any grand plot or story, but really just is "a day in the life" where you play as a modern day young wizard. And it's done a great job of creating that feeling.

This may be one of the most interestingly mundane games I have played to be honest, and I mean that as a good thing. I say this because again nothing truly significant happens in this game. You're just living day by day as a magic guild exchange student doing whatever various events you choose to do, and it's almost relaxing really. There's a very casual/almost nonchalant attitude from the MC that ends up leaking into a lot of everything else. This is not to say the events themselves are boring either. There's a lot of witty dialogue and humor that makes scenes interesting to view. It keeps you hooked in a way.

What I think surprised me most is how much I actually like some of the love interests. Asara, Varess, and Mizuki specifically are great characters. Very charming in their own ways, and I'm always glad to get more of them. They feel rather unique among a sea of AVNs.

Here's where things gets a little funky for me though. The game definitely has some near-fuckfest levels of pacing sometimes. Sex scenes kind of just happen without much build up, and most of them are pretty quick/standard, which leaves an unsatisfying feeling for me. This is whatever for side girls, but it leaves me wishing the main girls had more events exploring relationship build up with them and just having some focus on that aspect in general, rather than whatever other shenanigans their stories involve (not that I want those things gone, but more of a balance on both would be nice). Especially since I like some of them as much as I do.

To touch on humor more, some of it is gritty. Klaus, the main comedic relief character, is someone I genuinely wish the MC had the ability to kill. Other people love him. It really just depends on your tastes. But overall I enjoyed a lot of the little quips that pop up.

Mechanically this game is your average sandbox. World map filled with different locations and characters, earn money, play minigames (with the option to turn them off, which I did), etc etc. The glossary is a pretty nice touch though, and I will say the turn based battle system is pretty unique for RenPy. But I didn't feel like bothering with it truth be told. There's also a surprising amount of choice and variance. Though I haven't done a ton of experimenting, it seems you can completely alter some of the girls routes.

This isn't perfect for me, but it does do a good job of scratching that occasional itch I get for more open-ended sandbox games.

UI is terrible, no sugarcoating! Almost everything looks like it's made out of text boxes, with little icons. Text for every single commands. Terrible UI design, so unintuitive. I know UI design is a bane to devs, but it looks shit! I mean sure, the UI does provide information to the players, but it looks unappealing and confusing to use.

The game looks average for an Honey Select game. Renders look flat with not much lighting and shader work. Sex animation ranges from default Honey Select to custom animations, which looks decent.

Gameplay is generic Sandbox, though made less unbearable due to an actual functional map (the only good part of the UI). As well as a generic RPGM-like Turn Based RPG. There are mini games, which are mediocre, but not painful to play.

Story is good, except some twist and turns that are just meanspirited (not in funny way), and comedy tend to be hit or miss. Character writing good.

Overall, the game is eh.

+ Hot sex scenes
+ Hilarius humor
+ Nice minigames
+ Music matches with gameplay and sets mood for every scene.
+ Lots of special events progressing the story with every character.
+ Hint system helps with everything, no need to remember what to do.

- Sometimes its insane and cruel.
- Klaus is an annoying and dangerous idiot. Yeah, sometimes it leads to a good joke, but most of the time I want to get rid of him.
- reading a long lecture with Helen about some fictional gods of china was super boring. Barely made it.
- using japaneese(or chineese) letters in minigame is unfair. Its just a lot of random lines for anyone who doesnt read this language.

Game gets worse over time. Starting with jokes and parody it moves to school bullying, animal cruelty, killing innocent people. Its not funny anymore, just stressing with new plot twists.

This has good scenes.
A large amount of scenes plus girls.

Fairly good story

The succubus helping corrupt makes sense for harem given some of the girls thoughts on their infidelity to their SOs when banging the mc, plus the occasional girls who are like all girls should be and want exclusivity/commitment.

I'm not sure about what this typa art is called. I know I'm not the greates fan of this art. Still good overall.

I suppose klaus is mainly for comedic relief. I've personally had it with him and would like to have a game without him.

Waiting for the story to allow the mc to knockup more LIs. klaus being killed or discontinued would be good too

Review of Version: 0.27.0

I have to say that this has quickly become one of my favorite games that I've found here.

Pros.
It actually has some (completely optional) interesting and fun gameplay, an extreme rarity for this sort of game. Most of the minigames are fine for what they are, but I got bored and turned them off after playing them a few times as they aren't my thing, EXCEPT for combat. While the basic battle system isn't breaking new ground, being the turn based fighting that anyone who's ever played a JRPG will know all too well, the Dev has obviously put a lot of thought and work into balancing the spells/powers that you and your foes use, making for a rather engagingly tactical experience that I honestly enjoyed. It even supports shenanigans like using the clothing destroying spell in battle, which gives you exactly the kinds of results that you'd hope for. (Though I do wish that particular spell was relevant more often.)

Hilarious and often down right good writing. The characters are almost all very well written and memorable in their own ways (not to mention quite sexy when applicable), and I always felt invested in all of the various story/plot threads that are being woven throughout the game. I don't think I was tempted to skip dialog once in my entire playthrough.

The games does a great job at making your choices feel like they actually matter, and more often than you might think think, they really do. Sometimes your decisions might completely change a girl's storyline. At other times it just lets you have more of a say in the MC's personality, as while he'll always be a pervert and a bit conceited, you can sometimes choose if you want to be more of a empathetic individual, or if you're the kind of guy who'd much rather give others a hard kick while they're down.

The sandbox never really leaves you feeling lost. Between the hints in the characters glossary and the exclamation points on the map I didn't ever find myself having to randomly look around trying to figure out what to do next. You should still do a bit of exploring though, there are minor scenes and repeatable events that the game doesn't go out of its way to draw attention to.


Cons.
There is some grinding sadly. It's not TOO bad, but you will probably be spending more time just trying to get more money than you really want to (talk about immersion!). However there is a cheat mod if you get really sick of it, so it's not that big of a deal.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and just read the fucking help screen, it won't take long at all. The game mostly does a good job at explaining things while you play, but there were a few things I was completely confused by until I finally got around to clicking that question mark and realized “oh, that's where it tells you what that means”.

It didn't really hurt my enjoyment at all, but it's probably worth mentioning that almost everyone in this game is some flavor of terrible person, and sometimes bad things happen to random people. Don't worry too much, this isn't some fucked up Asanagi manga, or anything like that, it's mostly just used (rather effectively) for black comedy. And as someone who's not generally into that sort of thing it only went form humorous to a bit of a boner killer maybe twice in the whole game for me, but if you're super sensitive to that kind of stuff it might be something to keep in mind.

Speaking of terrible people, guess I'll weigh in on Klaus. He's a comedy relief character who's main, and possibly only, trait is being just the absolute worst in general. Personally I like him. Yes, he's the human equivalent of a trash fire started in a cursed Indian burial ground that someone keeps dumping nuclear waste on top of, but who could look away from a spectacle like that? When he shows up you know that he's going to do something inane, insane, and/or down right horrible, which will then immediately backfire on him in some humorous way. But some players do absolutely despise Klaus as the worst part of the game and you do see quite a bit of him, so if you find yourself to be a part of that group I recommend just getting used to skipping dialog, you won't miss all that much important plot.

The sister of batt... I mean the chort needs more content! Being indescribably adorable, her status as a semi-optional minor waifu is an unforgivable crime against all humanity. Why, her amazing display of stealth when asked if she had the power to conceal herself was more than enough to cement her as best girl all by itself!


TLDR.
The game is sexy, fun, well written, and I regret not finding it sooner.

(Review of 0.27.0)

If Heathers were a game, it would be this one. The MC has more derring-do than common sense, but it makes for a solidly off-kilter experience that never seems to lose momentum once you get past the beginning -- see below. I'm not sure if this is my favorite MC so far, but it's definitely close.

The game has a number of rough edges that are worth keeping in mind. I tried it about a year ago and gave up out of boredom because I hadn't discovered the combat sections. At first it feels like a divorce between a charismatic drunk and a 40-year-old Harry Potter fan. You have to tolerate this dissonance for a bit while you're starting the storylines and getting things moving. Also, many of the core mechanics of the game are poorly explained; I went with a cheat mod to remove the grind.

Both the plot and characters are strong, the plot being stronger but both standing out. Asara and Varess are two of the best characters I've seen in porn games -- they remind me of Azraesha but lean into the chaotic/crazy side a bit harder. Klaus is Derek from a popular college game, but with a negative moral compass, a blast radius with more chaos than tragedy, and self-made (and hilarious) terrible outcomes. I get why he's controversial, but within the larger scope of the game he fits perfectly.

I will probably come back to this one when updates are released, but I might wait a while. It's not quite my usual fare, as I prefer character-driven stories -- and while the characters here are well-written, they get drowned out by the plot hijinks more than I tend to like for frequent replays. Either way, it was well worth the time and download size and had me laughing harder than anything else in recent memory. Highly recommend.

The greatest strength of this game is also its weakness.

Dialogues can make or break a game but the writer knows how to make even inane conversations come off as witty or charming. It's a delight to read them but here comes the kicker - There are way too many banal conversations EVERYWHERE. Suddenly you find yourself reading a back and forth between two girls who bicker with each other like children. Is it well written? Yes. Is it entertaining? No, it only clogs up the story or character progression and I found myself groaning at the prospect of yet again having to suffer through some utterly irrelevant conversation.

I really want to give this a higher rating but I simply can't justify all this inanity!

V0.23

This game is really good, not sure why it's not well known. There are few aspects of the game which are lacking but the story is intriguing and the MC's character is a cool.

The characters are all good, both the Main LI's & Secondary ones.

Scenes are done well too.

The sandbox aspect is a little demanding but once you get it it's awsm, combat is just cool, i deactivate all other minigames except combat as it actually test's your skills.

Good amount of content too till the latest version, will surely look out for future updates.

Good Luck with the game Dev.

Reviewed for version [v0.23]

One of the most fun I've had with porn games and a solid game separate from the porn itself.

TL;DR - Fun and creative sandbox with some real player agency, solid combat system, relaxing minigames, and well written characters that are all morally questionable in this magical dark comedy

Sandbox works basically like any other sandbox usually does with day phases and several set locations with repeatable events as you develop your relationships with characters. As someone who likes the repeatable aspect of sandbox games, they feel relatively lacking in that there isn't much interactivity outside repeatable sex scenes which is totally fine and likely preferred with players who are apprehensive about "sandbox" games in general. I'd like more as a fan of them, but all of what is available is solid and they aren't just slightly modified scenes from main events. There are stat increases for certain aspects that play more into the rpg side of things along with a money/item collection grind but it never felt too troublesome though it's far from a few easy clicks as it's tied to a minigame but it can easily be disabled. I kept the minigames and had fun with them for a while as lighthearted sandbox games are mainly a form of relaxation and chill minigames service that feeling well.

Combat in this game is my favorite aspect of it and I'd say it's worth leaving on to both breakup the monotony of the inevitable event hunting (which isn't too bad here but is just a fundamental aspect of sandbox games) as the combat is pretty fun and both simple enough to do and possibly more complex depending on how much you want to invest into it. The only dungeon available has a really lacking enemy variety, but there is very strong potential with the system overall as displayed in the more unique fights. One particularly fun spell can expose your enemy's breasts which can result in interesting outcomes and on a more serious level you can try different builds with the amount of spells and items already in the game such as my favorite strat against mages which is just high evasion and draining their magic until they're useless or for physical bosses I'll summon a bunch of rats and just chip away as they draw all the agro away from my squishy self. Many spells don't only effect the combat but also events within the game where you can encounter various opportunities to use them that give a real feeling of a goofy raunchy magical world that other games and media fail to really capture. This agency doesn't seem too have extremely major effects, but there's plenty of minor ones that are fun to watch unfold as you can sometimes reap the rewards of your magical genius or face consequences such as an in-game week long suspension from school.

Characters in the game are some of the best I've seen, not because they're deep, but because they're just pure fun. The nicest girl is probably kind of racist. A girl retaliating against bullies takes it way too far. A well meaning girl is incredibly bitchy and probably hasn't done any actual good. The main character plays pretty loose with his ethics depending on your choices. Klaus is an objectively terrible person and seems to be pretty controversial but it's clear that's the point and I love hating him and hope to see him get what he deserves, more so than the few scenes here and there. It's all good fun because the game knows what it is and what it's supposed to be, stupid and absurd, and it's good at it.

Porn is pretty good. Found myself the least interested in the porn as porn and was more interested in the scenarios and impact as a lot of sex scenes do a good job in pushing the narrative rather than just being a sort of reward for progress. It's nothing particularly special in terms of art but I liked it and it excels at it's framing of sex scenes, especially pregnancy with the side characters if you enable it. I'd absolutely enjoy the porn on its own and do recommend it, but personally the other aspects of the game drew me in much more. I did discover something about myself when I was given the chance to fuck a pretty horrifying demon and a spirit of pestilence though that's all optional in case you're not a freak.

There is much more I wish I could put into words and it may not be as objectively good as I believe it is, but I had a lot of laughs and fun with the game and recommend it to anyone who wants to relax and play a goofy game. I'm hopeful to see the game improve and progress.

The game is good, the story is interesting and the content is decent. There's a surprising amount of choices, I didn't expect as many as there were. There's a fair bit of humor in it as well, but there's one character that is just wrung out way too much. Klaus. Funny the first few times. Then it's just predictable. Then it's annoying. And then it's just exhausting, and playing the game feels like a trial of endurance. Like, there's beating a dead horse. Then there's beating the ground that was fertilized by the mushy remains of the horse that you pulverized 3 months ago.

Do us all a favor, kill Klaus off as a zombie or something. Make him suddenly more intelligent as a zombie than as a person. At least that would be funny. Or give us the option to just kill him with fire after the first few times.*

*in case he's already dealt with, I stopped playing because... jesus... he just never stops. Honestly with him dealt with sooner and/or maybe coming up now and then as comedic relief instead of just a constant, this game would be a 4 maybe 4.5.

Yes I realize most of my review is just about Klaus. It's obviously the part I feel strongest about.



**April 19th, 2024: Tried the game again. I stand by this review. If Klaus were replaced with a more toned down character, or perhaps faced literally any kind of consequence, it would be more tolerable. As is, he ruins the setting for the game. Any chance of being invested in characters or plot is just sabotaged.

If this were a comedy game, and you were involved in the antics or able to create your own, then it would be a totally different scenario. However, even the Overview fails to properly set you up for what's coming. Even if it were a comedy game, a big part of what makes things funny is delivery and predictability. If you know the punchline before the joke even starts, and it's delivered as a "Well. Basically, I'm not in trouble. Because reasons." it's really not that funny.

Yes, I'm mad that Klaus ruined the game for me, because I really want to enjoy it otherwise. *Again, I didn't manage to finish the available content.*

Pretty damn good game. As a person who loves impregnation, this is right up my alley. I had a few grips with the map for the rat area (a little annoying that hitting the X pushes you out of the dungeon rather than close the window, but not unbearable. Additionally, checking the side characters causes an error screen to pop up which forces a Rollback usually). Other than that, I was not expecting to love this game as much as I did. FIVE STARS!

As for 0.2, I must admit that it is quite packed.
Varess and Klaus is just great, I really had fun with these two characters.
Although the game does not have any main story, but rather tells the fate of our character, I got into it very much.
Deserves 5 stars, looking forward to the next update, good luck.

Holy shit, I really don't review games often, but this was incredible enough to make me put in the effort. First off, there is an incredible amount of content. The gallery seemed like it had a reasonable amount of smut, but on playing the game, the sheer number of scenes that popped out of the woodwork was mind boggling.

The writing is really good, with unexpectedly funny moments. The picture of the guy with his dick in a skull from the previews? Yeah, there I am in the middle of the night, genuinely laughing out loud with dick in hand. You can also choose between being an asshole, an sketchy but okay guy, or a decent human being. All of the characters have their own thing going on, and they don't all magically become friends because you're fucking them. It's pretty fun.

The animations and art are fantastic, with a range of big tiddie girls and more normal bodies with carefully animated natural action and secondary movement (ie, they move like people, not dolls). Even without the explicit scenes there's a good amount of sexually charged content. Sex scenes are pretty hot, and removing condoms and trying to knock up the girls was not something I thought I'd enjoy as much as I did. Now I just want more impregnable side characters. Especially the fast growing shapeshifter kids. It would be neat if I could kick off a generational incestuous odyssey.

My only real complaint is that a bunch of stats are only displayed on the prefight window, and there's no explanation (that I noticed, while distracted by titties) that I saw for what exactly they all did. Training stats is a bit ambiguous as I just tried random things and suddenly boosted willpower or health. I also have no idea where skill points come from, or what a reasonable fighting build looks like, and just wound up learning all the necromancy spells for endless meatshields. The rest of the game is well-guided with exclamation marks, but I just kinda avoided the sewer until I realized I could steamroll the entire first floor in one go. There's also a bug with the hints where an error screen pops up and I can either roll back in time, or click ignore and be teleported to places and scenes I shouldn't have access to. But otherwise it all seemed clean for how many intersecting plotlines there are at any given moment.

Overall, fucking amazing. There's a ton of really good content, you can be a dick or a decent person, knock up girls, help people victimized by your friends, help your friends victimize people, and it just keeps going. This is one of the few adult games that I would instantly recommend for AAA development because it's perfectly depraved and the world deserves more of this within it.

This game is really good. The world building is good with a nice mix of familiar elements mixed up in an unusual combination (e.g., Mage's college in a modern world with different guilds operating in the city).

The character development for main LI and some side LI is excellent. Characters are three dimensional. They have likes, dislikes, goals, feuds and change over time in ways that fit into the plot.

I'm really shocked at the ratio of reviews (very few), to content (quite a bit) and quality. This game deserves a lot more attention. Good job dev!

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.