VN - Ren'Py - My Dorm [v0.21.2 S3 Ch.1] [Tropecita Games]

EDIT:
I have to change the rating to 2/5, the "girls are not allowed to date other guys because of stds, but MC couldn't possibly get std from a girl he is dating, what??", completely ruined it for me, Dumbest thing i have ever read.
And the more i play the worse it gets with elaborate harem/porn logic that is completely unnecessary.

Old review:
It is obvious that this is a porn game first, and as such i rate it 4/5.
If I were to rate it as more than just porn game, it would be more like 2/5

The good:

• Renders are OK, not the best, but improving. Animations are not the best in the beginning, but for me personally if scenes are erotic enough with just writing then i don't really need animations, and that is definitely the case for this game. Some other reviewers mentioned that animations improve later on, so that is also good (i only played part 1 so far)
• Writing is really good, especially considering that English is not devs native language.
• All scenes with girls are erotic, it not just porn, i like that
• Pacing in both lewd content, and other content is also good
• Girls have different personality, they are not basically one person that just looks different like in so many other games

The bad

• Too many girls, even with just "family" there are way to many LIs for my liking, but they each get lots of content so that makes up for it at least
• MC is 21, but looks 40, which would have been fine, but then he also acts like 40 year old, he has 20 years of life experience just from going to college, not really realistic

Some thing that i dislike, but wouldn't necessarily have it as a con for this game, since it is a harem game after all:

• None of the girls will reject MC for any reason, they all lust after him like he is the only male on the planet
• Most of the girls are single and/or virgin, the ones that are not single have asshole boyfriend that MC takes care of like a hero that he is, or they haven't had sex in decades, etc.
• The only other male NPC, on top of being gay (which is fine) he is also disabled. I feel like this was done to make him not competitor to MC
• MC doesn't want to be with any girl that is also involved with other guys, but he himself whats to be with multiple girls, and they all accept it. I dislike this because it just shows that MC doesn't care about any of the girls as much as they care about him, they make a compromise while he doesn't.

Just competed my first run through and found this game to be absolutely excellent.
There a quite ridiculous amount of LI's but the creator has somehow managed to make them all entirely distinct and uniquely interesting...not to mention that they are all wonderful eye candy.
The writing is top notch and has a really light touch with a wonderful sense of comedy underpinning the whole thing.
A+++.

This is definitely a five star game, but the main reason for a three star rating is owing to "Too much of anything is good for nothing" too many characters, too many kinks and too many situations, I think this game is good and then logic is all great, but if only we had fewer characters and were done with one story that would be nice, a few characters is fine but this is too much.

This game is perhaps the most cliche game I've ever played. I'm about 30 minutes in, and I've seen every single cliche in the genre. Walking in on the LI in the bathroom (or vice versa), every single LI being an inexperienced virgin, the LI's boyfriend being abusive, the aforementioned boyfriend revealing his infidelity in front of the MC, the random person calling the MC and the LI a couple, the random guys hitting on the LI so the LI has to call the MC her boyfriend to get them to back off, et cetera. I just listed 6 off the dome, there are certainly more. Not to mention that the lewd scenes aren't very good, the MC is ugly, the quality is poor even on the HQ version, and the writing is not very good. To be fair, I am only 30 minutes in. Maybe it gets better. But I don't want to sit there bored for so long hoping for something that mught not happen.

This is the fifth best harem game for me!

very atmospheric and cozy game. I’m glad that there are beautiful scenes and girls, with each update the story becomes more interesting, it remains to advance the plot a little and find out all the stories with the clones.

The animation is getting better every time, especially in the second season the quality has noticeably improved, we will be happy see how the story develops longer, especially when the girls are already pregnant, the plot will become even brighter!

Love the story arc, characters, and the way it has been progressing. Love that you have the option to choose relationships, or to even just see the relationship arc after certain scenes in case you were on a different path.

Well made, characters are in-depth and well-flushed out. Although its cool that u can impregnate every girl, it may be more realistic to have some girls resist or ask for condoms. Overall amazing game and look forward to the next update.

Ok the game is a typical harem game but it is well done, the characters have personality and are generally likeable (although they are way too eager to accept the whole harem thing, I would have liked a lot more jealousy and competition between girls, but that is part of the genre and only my personal preference so cant hold it against it).
Visuals in general are good, the story is serviceable and most scenes and interactions are well implemented and enjoyable so far, even content that I am not exactly a fan of, like lesbian stuff, is included in a tasteful way so that it is not off-putting and actually enjoyable and is one of the few games where I'm playing with the lesbian content 'on' (I am still making Katy straight though because I am not into actual lesbian characters, but it is great that theres a choice either way)
All in all it is a good time and of the better harem games here, you can avoid pretty much anything that could bother you and there's plenty of content already. I would give it a 4.5

Renders - 4/5
Story - 3,5/5
Li's - 5/5 lots of them, good variety
MC - 4/5 cool chad MC
Animations - 4/5 could be longer and more

Overall 4,5/5. One of the greatest harem games out there. Lots of young LI's but also MILFs and GILFs. I love it

My dorm (first season played) is a decent game but one that also lacks something to make it really stand out in any way. It feels too generic in all aspects, from characters to interactions or the story. And when it does go away from generic it goes into wacky land (clones?!). Specially from a few chapters onwards, it all feels very rushed, like there was a point when the creator decided sex had to come and it doens't make much sense, destroying the game and tension built up until then. Choices are plenty and pretty clear on the consequences with the guide option active, and some content can be blocked if you're not interested in it.

Render quality is pretty decent, even though the girls have sometimes strange facial expressions. Animations are decent as well, but not incredible. As for sound, can't say, either it didn't have or I had turned it off.

All in all I can't say it is a bad game, but I did drop it because I lost interest in it.

The dialog, storyline and look of the girls is top notch. Literally one of my favorite games, easily when it comes to these elements. The writing really is hilarious and great.

The animations are bad. Like BAD bad. Like makes an otherwise 5-star game barely 3-star bad.

**Ok after reading some of the reviews, I wanted to add a bit to mine, I think the dev deserves as much**

Yes, the girls are "dickmatized" when they see you, and there isn't a bunch of tension. You know what another word for tension is? Stress. I don't generally look to my VN and games to increase my stress.

Part of the charm of the game, in my opinion, is that it isn't stressful. The world doesn't fall apart when two of your lovers find out about each other. Plot-wise the game is filled with best-case-scenario situations and it's one of the reasons I appreciate and enjoy it. It's just about positivity and love.

The MC is a bit controlling in thinking he knows better than everyone else and making their decisions for them. This is far from the worst trait I've seen MCs have in VNs.

When it comes to the animations, there are a few decent ones--they're usually non-sexy-time animations, though. The eye blinking and other subtle animations are perfectly fine. It's typically any animation that involves much movement (which would be pretty much all sexy stuff) where they really are bad.

I definitely recommend it--if it weren't for the fun and hot characters it wouldn't be such a let-down when you're pulled out of the moment by the bad animations.

This is the stereotypical harem game. But unlike 99% of the similar games out there, this one does it very well.

+ good-looking models for anyone's taste, including really some unique ones that I haven't seen in any other games

+ cursive writing

+ a nice MC

+ choices for everything - this one is done really well, the game is fluid no matter how many girls you choose

+ hard-working dev that puts out consistent updates

- a couple of animations could use a bit more polish

All in all, one of the best games out there, and I say it as someone who doesn't particularly like harem. Easy 5 stars for me.

Keep up the good work, dev!

It is the first review I do and I can only say that I love it, the renders are very good and the girls are amazing, for me is the best VN I've played so far thank you very much for the hard work and keep it up.
I'm sorry for my Google English, I'm from Spain.

Good harem game with an active and consistent dev. Good models well used. Well though out characters, relationships and developments. Script is generally very well written humor is usually spot on with out degenerating into story stopping wackiness.

Story 1/5
Its an extremly vanilla story and softcore in alot of ways.

It really needed the incest patch for me to play it, the clone crap and constant reminder that they where not related to hide the incest fact was driving me crazy, it was none stop with each and every girl......

The biggest issue is the lack of a backbone with MC hes extremly bland and extremly boring, nothing gets him mad, you can never say what you want to say since MC is accepts everything and is so overly nice that you will puke and im really not kidding, its the one thing that can truely ruin this hole game and for immersion players its impossible to play.
You should think of MC as the purple Barney from kids tv-show, walking around singing "i love you, you love me" its the perfect clone of MC.

Apprently the story has the most strange mindset/plot ive ever seen or heard about, everyone around MC is to be considered Family.....this means a few girls rents a room at MCs house due to hes house being a dorm for girls, those total strangers you need to think off as family like them or not but this is the hole backbone of the game, same for ex-girlfriends they are also to be considered Family.......
Its a mindset so far out of reality that it will never even be remotely close to being possible for me to accept, to me family is blood or someone you are in a relationship with, but strangers? ex-girlfriends? no just no way its to crazy and way to idiotic.

That combined with having all females trow them self at MC and none stop flirting and sexual hints or kissing or touching with girls/womans you have permantly turned down is extremly annoying and has no place in the story, with some girls its meet and fuck no build-up and those the you dont fuck right away its due to MC going slow not the girls.

Theres also the issue of way to many girls, so you have very little screen time with each of them and some you barely ever see even when on their route.

I love how you have a choice in this game as to who you want to have sex with, i did find a few things annoying, like how the game ask you over and over if you want to be in a relationship after you have already said no, it feels like its trying to force you be with someone, but good news is it will stop asking after the second time.

I really dident like how the Mother starts sleeping with MC after you permanently turn her down for a sexual relationship, after doing that she starts sleeping in MCs bed which is the last thing i would want, MC even desides to sleep nude knowing hes going to have hes mother sleeping next to him, that alone is so far out there thats its crazy, just days before that MC was putting on pants so the mother wouldent see hes dick when walking in to check on him doing the night, story just dosent add up for him to sleep nude, not even a little.....

Then the mother even touches MCs dick even though she thinks that MC hates incest making it even more worng what she did.
MC sees her doing it and ask what shes doing, she runs, MC runs after her again nude??? its idiotic, then MC is the one that is saying sorry to hes mother which makes absolutly no sense when its the mother who fucked up, MC should be mad or at the very least tell her it was worng and not to do it again, remember this is when you have permanently turned her down....
MC is just like a wet nuddle with hes family so you never get to say what you realllly want to say to anyone and i know that stuff will drive alot of people insane.

Another thing i really dident like is how they changed someones look right before having sex with them the first time, they made her go from a very cute looking girl, to a rich bitch looking type, changing someone that much is simply idiotic since its no longer the girl you picked to be in a relationship with and MC will ofc just love everything like he always does.
If she looked like a rich bitch i would never have picked her, so only option is to reload hours back to turn her down which is even more annoying.

As for the mainstory and everything outside relationships its really a kinetic novel, you dont controle anything MC does or say, you just follow an emotionless MC while having no choices.


Girls 5/5
This is proberly the best thing about the game, it has everything from younger to grannys, from smaller tits to huge saggy ones, so chances are you can find something for taste.

Animations 2/5
They are a bit low in quality and lighting is off in more then one, they could use alot of work, hands going through MCs head looked wierd and animations are short and the reset/repeat is pretty bad and a long way from smooth, some even looks extremly weird, its pretty clear this s not the storng point of this game.

Music 3/5
It has ok music at times even with lyrics, but 80-90% of the time its a bit boring standard background stuff.

Choices 5/5 and 0/5
When it comes to relationships its absolutly perfect and you have the choice to turn off lesbian stuff and anal, but when it comes to mainstory and anything outside relationships theres 0 choices 0 controle.

Ive just redone my hole review and it went from 4 to 2 stars due to so many reasons, which is clearly explained above, sorry for the long revew but i went into debt with this one.

The dialogues are pretty boring and really long, banal conversations that add nothing or almost nothing to the story, the MC try to seduce women with pretty chessy and stupid pick-up lines and the girls in this VN like in almost every other are so needy that they love it. The women are so needy that they fall in love with the MC for no reason, like the tipycal Harem game.
I'm playing with the Multi-mod and there are a lot of "decisions" that do nothing, thats right, you can fuck a girl, look at their ass, spy on someone and there aren't consecuencies, the only "consecuencies" are that you could close the path with one girl or not, the game is pretty linear aside that.
The "sexy" scenes are like in any other VN, are the tipycal cliche when someone goes to the bathroom and there is someone naked or taking a bath, people falling over someone else and getting the other person naked.
This one is a pretty common game that it offers nothing new, it could be different if the story and the dialogues were interesting but not, it doesn't have even that.

I have already given several compliments and some feedback in the comments, but I'll summarize here. I LOVE THIS GAME! Right from the start, the narrative intrigued me, and it's one of the rare games where I didn't know when to stop playing once I turned it on. The progression and teasing are what I love; it takes time for the girls to end up in your bed (or elsewhere), and that builds up the atmosphere. It feels realistic, and the desire keeps rising until the satisfying reward! It does have the same weakness I give to games I enjoyed: I discovered it while it's still incomplete. For what it currently offers, it excels in all aspects. I don't see why not give it a 5-star rating when it fulfills all the criteria: top-notch graphics, top-notch girls, and excellent writing and storyline.

It's a personal preference, but I appreciate sandbox games, and if this were a sandbox, it would be my number one. However, it's more of a non-sandbox visual novel, so I'll keep moving forward. But if that's the only drawback, honestly, the game doesn't have to be embarrassed compared to other games. Especially since it's a subjective matter, so it's not really a bad point at all. There are truly some girls I love encountering, and there's something for every taste and genre.

I'm not sure yet if I'll replay it or wait for future chapters, but that's not the game's fault. What sets it apart from other games? Unfortunately, nothing particularly special. It checks all the right boxes like a good student, but it doesn't necessarily bring something super original. The main character's mentality doesn't resonate with me at all, but he is very friendly and enjoyable to follow. The game has a fantastic cast and a highly promising future. Now that everyone has loosened up, it's going to be SUPER!

I actually really like this game. In fact, there only a couple of things about this game that took my rating from a 5 to a 2 star. I will get to that later, but first, the positives. I really like all the LI and their personalities. I think they're all sexy and really like spending time with them. The English is pretty good, a few mistakes here and there but not enough to distract me from the game or warrant losing a star. I am also interested in the storyline concerning the renovation of the houses and the incoming new students. Now it's on to the negatives, and they are pretty big negatives.
The first, is the MC. He is one of the most annoying characters in the game and one of the worst MCs I have ever played as. He is completely overdone as the "nice guy." He acts like he is respecting the LI feelings but in reality he is a controlling, close-minded, pussy. He claims to be respecting the women but then gives them no agency. When they try to make a move on him or try to progress the relationship he goes "this is not what you want, you want it to be romantic." Not every woman wants this romantic, candlelit dinner scenario as their first time. Sometimes when a woman knows who they want to be with, they just want to take the opportunity to be with that guy, especially if they're sneaking around and don't have enough time. Of course, the dev writes it so all the girls end up just agreeing (sometimes reluctantly), but that's just to make it seem less controlling. Also whenever the MC does get to have sex it's an endless "are you sure?" "We don't have to do this" "We can stop if you want." Even when the girls are basically begging him to shut the fuck up and just fuck them. Also he tells them they have to be honest, sometimes even scolding them when they haven't been, but he lies all the fucking time. There are several times where he can be upfront with someone that there are other girls, without disclosing the names, but he just doesn't. There is another game I have played recently that does the "nice guy" MC way better. He also makes sure the LI are ok and are consenting, but does not overdo it. Most importantly, he lets the women have some fucking choice in what they want. The MC in this game is a piece of shit who thinks he knows what's best for everyone. This is also the MC that turns down the most opportunities to have sex or fool around, not gets interrupted or runs out of time, TURNS DOWN. That is all under the guise of being "nice," but is really just being controlling and not giving the girls any chance to decide what they really want. Now to the dev's credit, the MC does get a little better further in the game and there's even a (half-assed) attempt at a domination route with one of the LI, but it's not enough.
The other negative concerns the storyline. Some of the LI felt dragged out a little bit too long and it started to get annoying. That's actually still a problem with some of them. Those two big problems aside, the rest of this game is actually pretty fun and interesting. I just wish the LIs had a better MC to fall in love with cause they will never have an opportunity to decide anything for themselves. The MC sucks so much that it caused a loss of 2 stars because he is literally the character you spend the most time with and he is unbearable, hypocritical, arrogant, and a bitch pretending to be a "nice guy."

Tropey, Shallow Game with a lot of Words

People like @TheLegend1337, @berny, and @LordOfMurder have already discussed the issues, so I'm not going to simply reiterate what they've mentioned.

I'm sure this game has an audience. There's people who will enjoy it as a kind of mindless frat boy fantasy of just going around, banging a lot of different women, impregnating them without any real consequence. If your goal is just to watch some dude build a huge harem of women and you don't mind reading a bunch of words before you get to that point, this is a decent option.

For anyone else that cares about the story, the characters, the dynamics of a relationship, this game is shallow and uninteresting.

The MC is just a massive, self-insert Gary Stu. He was formerly chubby—done transparently to try to take the edge off his obvious Gary Stu-ness but is completely irrelevant by the time the story starts. He dickishly wants to claim ownership over every girl he meets. Not because their personalities are compelling or they have interesting conversation, but rather just because they're hot.

You have to sit through slide after slide of boring, topical conversation that doesn't illuminate anything, only to discover that it was never even needed, because the girls are already head-over-heels for the MC just because he exists. His magic aura and super penis must produce some kind of mystic forcefield that ensnares any vagina in the area (some of these characters are so shallow it's insulting to call them women).

Almost every girl is either a virgin or has only ever wanted to be with the MC. And as soon as they see the MC and his magic penis, forget whatever they were holding onto their virginities for, it's time to jump aboard the most one-sided harem train. Choo choo!

On some level, this is a game of almosts. For instance, the justification for why the MC looks "older" is delivered out-of-character. It's a pretty shallow, straightforward explanation that the dev gives, that some people simply look older than their age. That's fine. But why isn't that information delivered in game? It can almost make sense, if you delivered it in game.

Worse, the exact opposite is implied. The first time you take Norah out to the hairdresser, the hairdresser comments on how she's dating someone half her age. Huh? Norah's model looks about 25. The MC looks about 40. If the rationale is that Norah wants to date an older looking man, why doesn't anyone in game assume he's older than he is? It's such a handwave-y explanation delivered after the fact, to justify why the author took a middle-aged DAZ model and put him on a college-aged character.

Scenes just drag on because nothing really happens. The developer doesn't know how to edit. (And to be fair to them, a lot of developers are guilty of this.) You don't need to depict everything in essentially real time. You don't need to capture every line of dialogue, every interaction, and every piss or shower the MC takes. A lot of these scenes have characters sit around and shoot the shit, and either no action takes place or the plot doesn't move forward in any meaningful way. You can cut those scenes. Believe me, developer, no one will find your characters sitting around and making small talk as interesting as you do.

For a game called "My Dorm," the first thousand or so slides of the game are a run-of-the-mill slice-of-life incest game. You're seducing your mom, aunt, sister, and cousins for long before you even catch glimpse of the first roommate. The main issue with these interactions are they're shallow and porn tropey. A girl walks in on the MC while he's showering and becomes dickmatized. Someone slips and falls on top of the MC. It's bad and cheap. There's no seduction or tension. They're just immediately transfixed and can't think of anything else, because apparently there's no one in this universe besides the MC that has a decent dick.

It's another one of those weird, incel fantasies where the MC is praised for being an amazing guy just for breathing. He essentially does nothing of value. He's bland, uninteresting, doesn't possess a sense of humor, is selfish and thinks of himself, but he's this amazing guy by virtue of how every other male character in the game is a cartoonishly horrible mouthbreather.

And worse, it's not even self-deferential in its tropey power fantasy. The game might be better if it takes itself less seriously, plays into the silly tropes and just has silly and light-hearted, porn-logic driven interactions. Instead, it tries to take itself seriously and falls flat on its face. It really wants us to believe the MC is a nice dude but all of their efforts just backfire on the simple account that he's not a nice guy. Like how the MC repeatedly mentions how he wants a relationship but it's only open one way, and apparently the audience is supposed to buy that he's being a good guy because... he mentions it?

"I'm going to go around banging anyone I want but you have to be loyal only to me" is not exactly the grounds for a kind or likable protagonist, no matter how the game tries to dress it up. It would almost be better if the game completely cut out any attempts to have this conversation and just had the girls magically propose this kind of relationship on their own. Maybe he by some miracle ended up in a dormitory of all cuckqueans. But the more he brings up this inherently unfair relationship, the more unlikable and selfish he appears, which is exactly the opposite effect you want when you're trying to create the MC as being a uniquely awesome guy who's just so lovable because he's nice and treats people well.

Even when you finally, inevitably, hook up with the girl, none of it feels interesting or special. They're just another statistic in the black book. The renders are nothing special, the animations are short and loopy, and there's almost never any foreplay or comedown. It's just hey, this time you get to bang the redhead rather than the brunette.

This is also one of the few games where the presence of sound really detracts rather than adds to the experience. The developer needs to understand that his game is wordy. In fact, he should probably cut out half the dialogue slides, but barring that, he needs to understand the wordiness of his own work. Having a looping, 30 second background noise, that's poorly balanced with a loud laugh or clap at one part of the track, is just terrible sound design. You end up wanting to mute the game.

What I can say about this game is that its not irredeemable, and the developer has some potential if they can curtail a lot of these beginner mistakes. However, the game in its current state is nothing to write home about.

I don't know how this flew under my radar but damn this is good! Sure it follows all the tropes we have come to expect from this type of game but the character designs and writing are all really endearing. I like every girl in this. And I do not care that the sexual content is slow in coming. I'm enjoying the ride.