VN - Ren'Py - Matrix Hearts [v0.3.4] [Blue Otter Games]

Okay game but I wouldn't rate it as highly as others. Nothing super bad about the game but nothing great about it either, yet. It is only the first version though so could get better.

As far as the story goes it has quite an original and interesting main plot, but the writing leaves quite a bit to be desired in my opinion. Some dialogue comes across very unnatural, sometimes it tries way too hard to be funny and doesn't hit the mark, and the immersion breaking stuff is frequent and unnecessary.

Girls are cute but act super fucking weird (most characters do).

Worth a try if you're bored.

I feel like I need to get this out of the way before the review: You will be experiencing jokes that are otter this world if you play Matrix Hearts…

If you’re still here then you have a sense of humor, which is good because Matrix Hearts is full of humor from the get-go. MC starts out as goofy and a bit of a cocky guy. After his accident at the Olympic try-outs that ends his climbing dreams, he becomes a nihilistic husk of his former self. Or as his dad put it “You’re a real dick now, son.” MC’s deadpan responses to his ex and his parents in this scene make what could be a frustrating scene with a “whiny MC” a scene with humor that shows in the words and reactions of the characters.

Now you’re being shipped off to be a lab rat for your former babysitter Layla’s big project in hopes that it will fix your knee. On your flight you’ll meet a friendly stewardess who does a good job cheering you up. Once you exit the plane you’re on your way to meet Layla and get your brace attached. The brace has a bit more going on with it than just healing your knee, it’s about how it heals you that makes it more important to the story.

If you’re like me you’ll love Layla right away. Her and MC have great chemistry, they can go from silly to serious (not afraid to mock each other a bit) and it flows naturally. You can tell there’s real feelings there. Their interactions show off the devs writing skills. Layla is just playful enough that you and MC aren’t sure if she’s messing with you or not (in a good way, you can tell there’s no ill intent)

After spending the rest of your day/evening with Layla, you’ve gotta wake up the next day and head to Coconut Academy, the school you’ll be attending. This is where the point and click portion of the game shows up. The “Point and Click Spheres” are each a single screen with objects/people you can click on and get a bit more info/interactions. Just some side story and backstory about the town. If it’s not your thing you can just click continue and pass these parts up, you won’t miss out on any main story information. I would recommend exploring them though as there’s a lot of good stuff here.

You'll be given a tour of the school by Dutch, who seems friendly, but in that “I’m so friendly it’s annoying” kind of way. This is intended though as MC comments on it, this makes Dutch a character you like to dislike instead of a character you’re supposed to like but hate. This shows off the devs ability to get characters' personalities across without the player wondering what the intent was.

While at school, you’ll meet the rest of the main LIs. There’s Gemma, the blonde-haired, outdoorsy, water-loving girl who is into sports. Xia, the bespectacled Asian girl who’s really into photography. Chrysta, the dark skinned hottie with a bit of an attitude (I’m sure we can chip away at that rough exterior to find her creamy center) and an interest in music. Last but certainly not least, we have Red-Haired Rylee, with enough freckles to melt your heart. She’s a shy girl and doesn’t like people in her personal bubble. Rylee takes a liking to MC as they find some common ground. and the two of them will work to uncover the mystery of the vending machine.

All the scenes throughout the game are set to a great soundtrack that helps capture the mood.

Layla, Gemma, Xia, Chrysta, and Rylee will be the foundation of the harem you’ll be building in the game if you choose to (all relationships are optional, but c’mon, harem is the right path).

With Matrix Hearts being Blue Otter Games’ first project, I’m excited to watch their skills progress.

TLDR:

• Unique story and set up.
• Great humor throughout the game.
• Engaging characters, LI’s and otherwise
• Speaking of LI’s, there are currently 5 main with a possibility for a few more and all are delightful and beautiful in their own ways
• Harem is the focus of the game but all relationships are optional
• Point and Click sections are small and skippable (but worth it)
• Great soundtrack
• Solid animations during lewd scenes, not the best animation out there, but still good.

Matrix Hearts is a great game I played recently!
The game starting with good humor and very nicely looking renders and as you continue you you fall in love in the girls and the witty jokes

The devs did really good job in this game.
As a guy who like to play around in Daz and Blender, going over to C4D for rendering giving the game a unique look then other games around!

Really recommend this game for having a good laugh and for enjoying a good VN!

The story is quite interesting, unfortunately, I like less than half of the female cast.
For now, the choices appears meaningless, there is a lot of 4th wall breaking that ruin the immersion, and I'm clearly not a fan of the MC.
The scene with the stewardess was relly ridiculous.

edit : all the puns make it really painfull to read, and betwenn the addition of new girls and the devs favorites monopolizing the screen time, the scenes with the girls you like can become very scarce (except for the devs favorites like the redhead).

I really enjoyed this game. The renders of the women are very good, and the writing and story are fine. It is kind of tricky to make the best choices to keep the romance and hearts points high enough. The best answers were not obvious, so I was kind of bouncing back into the renpy code for many of the choices. I am looking forward to updates, and I very much recommend this one.

This is one of the most original games I've seen on F95.
There's not much to be said about it since it's very early on development, however I'm certain this one has all the potential to be one of greatest titles I've ever played.

+Good Plot
+Excellent Characters
+Funny Humor
+Great Renders
+Impressive Experience so far

Otters Rock!!

One of my favourite games so far. There is a really interesting storyline incorporated in with the game. I love the graphics! Gets a 5 star rating off of me! I am really hyped for the next update when Chapter 2 will be released. Kudos to the developers for this game and I wish them all the best with the coming developments.

Really liked this start and hope for future updates.
I play(ed) a lot of VNs on this site and skip most of them after a few minutes. This one was pretty interesting and I enjoyed all the dialogues. Please keep up the good work and add more content.

This review is based on v0.1.1 (While I usually wait until a third release to review this one was really good.)

One sentence review - The birth of a new titan on the VN field with plenty of humor.

Visuals - 4/5 Gorgeous renders with the blemishes you'd expect from a first time dev. They are very honest about it and they are already getting way better!
Story - 5/5 Funny VNs are my fav and this one is hilarious with a unique story.
Characters - 5/5 These characters are incredible! They feel well developed and not the basic models you usually get. Layla is Bae.
Music - 5/5 You wouldn't expect the music to be this good in a first release.
Fappability - 3/5 Plenty of good stuff to fap to but for some they are going to want better animations. The animations are very good just not top tier yet.

Oh if the two star review is still under this, don't listen to them. The idiot didn't bother reading the dev notes complaining that there is too much story and not enough flapping. The dev literally tells you this is happening! That wasn't an applicable review on the game. All others are very honest and true.

Overall this might become one of my faves. 5/5

I dont want anything to happen that lowers my rating for this game. So far i just started and i got to the beach house but:

Renders are quite gorgeus.
Animations are very good, not the absolutely real shit but decently awesome.
The couple of girls i saw are quite something, Layla is certainly different.
The way conversations are animated, with different body language poses and face expressions during conversations, top shit.
The Mc can be rude, and can be nice, but its not a SIMP cringy nice.
The way Layla dodges every attemp at flirting is fun to read, and a breeze of fresh air.
The playful banter, with witty remarks and innuendos, is really really enjoyable to read, as if everything makes sense.
Music choice so far is quite good.
The memes are quite good also.

So far i havent seen much, but its clear that this devs reaaally is putting some thought into the game, even small things,so please dont let this one dissapoint me.

EDIT:
After completing Chapter one, i fear that this game will have nothing worth of my time until 2023. Chapter 1 has one sex scene, and there is even one comment from the dev joking about a mandatory sex scene in games. It turns out to be that. And after that, only obnoxiously obvious fanservice lewds.

This game so far performs really bad at building sexual interest, so far there are only slight innuendos and thats it, but that doesnt build up any sexual tension. At this narrative pace, to reach to that point, i think it will take at least 3 more updates or it will be way to sudden. With the exception of Xia who is a little straight forward, the rest are pretty far in the sexual "development". Layla seemed to be smart avoiding flirt attempts but at the end of chapter 1 im starting to think that she is plot oblivious to anythin related to relationships, so she wil take 6 updates to build to the point of sexual interaction.

And i understand that patrons rule the world but personally i couldnt care less about fanservice renders. Watching renders of a girl naked when so far inside the game i have only saw her tits its ridiculous really. The same happens with watching some stuff in your phone from your past with your ex, when during the time you shared with her that stuf didnt happen.

And i didnt check those renders, but there are some renders in the game, specially when you are watching something closely, that are kind of blurry, like they were upscaled a lot. If those fanservice renders have great quality (i didnt cheack as i said) it would be a dick move considering the lack of quality in those parts of the actual game,meaningful parts, actually conected to the game.

All the good things about the game, are still good, but during the time i was playing, the support was mostly hype, this expectations werent met, not even close when thrown to the main menu.

Because of these things i described i leave my rating to 2,cause even though i enjoyed the experience most of the time, there were moments were i rolled my eyes and my head even, and above all, my dick was soft as a teddy bear for 90% of the gameplay, that is bad for any media with Sex stuff in it.

The renders are fantastic, the story has a unique concept (no parents dying in a car accident here, yet at least) the characters seem interesting and likeable so far.

So... the reason I am giving this Visual Novel 4 stars instead of 5 for right now is because of the ridiculous amount of fourth wall breaking it has. Sure, I can forgive it once or maybe even twice, but it is done a few too many times for my liking here.

This isn't necessarily a fault of the VN, but just a pet peeve of mine. For me, it kind of kills my immersion to the story when I am flashed a picture of a couple of otters wearing hats (the developers) in between dialogue and just a few other things, like jokes etc. that break the fourth wall through out the current version. Just not my cup of tea personally.

Definitely a worthwhile VN with a lot of potential that I will be keeping my eyes on though. Good job Blue Otter Games!

Early review ( 0.0.1)

The Devs of this game are doing an outstanding job. Renders and animations are impeccable, dialogue is relatable, believable and has the right balance between humour and realism. Situations also are realistic, believable and flesh out the characters to be more than simple paper dolls.

If this level of quality is maintained Matrix Hearts is setting itself up to be one of the new heavy-weight contenders out there and has a real shot at making it into the top tier.

Keep it up guys, I love your game.

An actually enjoyable game & story, where I didn't skip the entire thing to get to the sex parts.

I really love the renders and all the characters so far.

what a great game, can't wait for future releases

It is plain to see that this is a high-quality project; looking forward to further development. My only concern is the stiffness of the current animations, but I'm sure that'll be improved as the project progresses. Thanks for your hard work.

Fun and amusing visual novel, very recommended!

On a little side note, while the static renders look amazing, the animated ones could be better, I would have rather used a little sequence of static renders. However, the story and gameplay totally make up for this

Humorous with naturally pretty girls. Renders a little grainy now, and animations are not great, but they've announced a patch coming which fixes both of those issues. Kind of reminded me of DeLuca Family with the humor.

Oh my goodness!!!

This is fantastic!

Gorgeous images (some graininess), but the posing, look and consistent environment use is fanstatic.

Story is not cliche'd at all.

Writing is clever and funny and not full of exposition.

Girls introduced so far are mostly interesting and cute.

A little gratuitous sex thrown in so there is some juice in the first chapter, but of course with a convenient side character and thus the relationship with all the main girls is not ruined too early.

Lovely little game, I hope that the Otters keep up the excellent work!

5/5 stars!

When all's said and done, I have a feeling I might put this game up there among my favorite games. Along with a unique storyline, It manages to combine all the qualities of my top games into one

Game promises to be one that involves delving deeper into character personalities and setting up character arcs for all those involved instead of it being just a harem adventure. Everyone has their own quirk and perceived setback that provides for future development later on. That said, I'm sure the prospect of having a harem with all those girls is pretty enticing too. None of them are easy to get and have a realistic barrier when it comes to getting past 2nd base.

Writing and pacing is pretty spot on. Nothing feels rushed whatsoever and that's partially due to the MC's nature in wanting to take everything a step at a time as he acclimates himself to a new society. There weren't many, if any, grammatical errors that disrupted the game flow so that's always nice.

The animations were relatively smooth as well but the excess shaking effect was a little much, at least for me, but nothing too major. Character renders were pretty crisp for the most part as well

Really am looking forward to seeing how the game progresses. Premise is a breath of fresh air and everything I've seen so far has not disappointed me. Kudos

Just… Wow! Where do I start?! What a debut this is!

Firstly, if you’re looking for a VN where all the characters are flat and boring or you’re hoping to spam your mouse to get to the “bewbz n fagine”, your simple ass mind gon get chased outta here.

Now, if you want a VN that’s captivating, funny and visually distinct from anything I’ve ever played before (and I’ve played A LOT), assume your look of superiority and get stuck in.

Characters
The girls. Look. Amazing!! Massive thumbs up for not giving the smallest girl the biggest tits that have no effect on her posture… shit really bugs me and instantly makes me abandon the game.

Variety of the girls are bang on and caters to most tastes with some actual thought put into it. I have no idea what base model these guys (or girls) used for the characters which in itself is an achievement.

Dialogue
Dialogue is great. Some really funny lines and perfectly matching images. It feels natural to read and flows well. Not clunky in the slightest and not written using Google translate…

The story as a whole and visuals work so well together to really grab you and immerse yourself in the world.

Renders & Animations
As I mentioned earlier, they are so distinctive and unique. Would easily pick them out of a lineup against other games that use DAZ assets. There are some new assets in there too which I don’t recognise. Again, actual thought gone into this rather than a rehash of existing shit. No crazy skin textures that make them look like a three year old orange skin either. News flash, visible skin pores from across the room is not sexy!

Conclusion
A refreshing change to the games being released at the moment which are becoming boring and tired cliches. I’ll be hitting up Patreon to get me some sweet sweet Rylee between updates. High high hopes for this. A few updates and these guys (or girls) will set a new standard.

Very promising start, well done to the developers for creating something other than "I left home for a few years, had to come back, and now I bang literally everything that has tits and a vagina." And on that same note, the ladies look amazing, much more appealing than the overused, overexaggerated ginormous tits and waste/ass that are the size of the main character. Only reason I couldn't give a perfect 5 stars thus far, maybe I'm being nitpicky, but there were some things that could've been proofread, and some things that could've been double checked. One scene in particular, when the MC is introducing himself to Rylee, and the camera angle is below the MC's waste from behind him, looking at Rylee, the knee brace was now on his right leg, instead of the left. Anyway, like i said, just being nitpicky, and none of this tarnished the experience in any way. Great job so far, seeing as this is your first project. Looking forward to future updates, and maybe if this high level of content continues in the next couple of updates or so, I'll consider supporting via Patreon. Good luck!