Unity - Completed - Mystwood Manor [v1.1.2] [Faerin]

This is an updated review, based on replaying the game after it was completed (version 1.0.1). I initially gave the game 4 stars, but the developer addressed most of the concerns I had, and while the game still isn't perfect I think it's an easy 5 stars.

Mystwood Manor is one of the best management games on this website. The management system, where you assign staff members to different jobs to satisfy customers, is great. Every day you've got a little puzzle to solve: which customers you can handle, who should serve which customer, when to plan maintenance and security, which staff member should rest to be ready for the next shift, etc. It's easy to get into and quite engaging.

The story, where you gradually learn more about the hotel's history and its people, is interesting but at times a bit confusing. The recent changes have made the 'tarot cards' and items system more logical.

However, the game isn't for everyone. It's a genuine game and not for someone who's looking for quick access to lewd material. As your hotel gradually increases in tier level, your interaction with the all-female staff gets gradually lewder, and they start wearing more revealing outfits. This is a slow process; it will take you at least an hour to get to the interesting stuff.

In short, this is one of the best games if you're looking for interesting gameplay. If you want something quick this is not for you.

My review is not directed to devs skill level because Faerin's first game was one of my favorites and to be honest unfortunately it's still much superior to this one in every way. While the first game had freedom, tons of interactions and a nice individual story for each character, Mystwood Manor falls short in all aspects. The management idea is impressive, and I liked the story since it was promising, but the gameplay makes it quite hard to move forward and enjoy it.

There is not much interaction except in a few story related events, so ultimately everything is pretty much linear here.

This however is just my personal opinion and should not be put on a podest. I believe in Faerin's skills and just hope that his next game will be similar to his first one again.

[v0.7.3]

The game has great potential.

- The management system is pretty good and I actually had fun doing the planning and making sure all the guests are satisfied
- The art is good and the characters are hot
- The characters are wearing more skimpier outfit as you progress in the game

However, the game fails at its core: the porn part
- To access the next scene level, you have to increase your hotel level.... which takes an insane amount of time. We are talking hours and hours of game here.
- Because of that, the sexual tension is nearly non existent since the last scene was a few hours ago
- The sex scenes absolutely need to be more evenly spread, with more possible interaction. It wouldn't hurt to have some groping scene here and there
- I would love some sex interaction with the guests. I know some people are not fan, but it would be awesome to see the male guests participating (I love MMF)

Other than that, at some point, the MC becomes annoying.
- Too much thought (text between parenthesis) and it's most of the time the same kind of reflection.
- He is rather dumb, after seeing 10 times those foggy hallucinations, he is still asking himself if it's real.

I hesitated a long time between 3 & 4 stars. The game deserves 3.5 but it made me waste so much time of my life that I decided to go for 3 stars. I hope I will be able to change that rating in the future because, like I said, the game has great potential.

I like the game very much, amazing renders and involving backstory to justify the sex. The only downpoint is that there is no way to skip de grinding of the girls ( the lovepoints). Im waiting for it to be completed

Warning: This game is primary a management game with lewd as a side dish!
--- v.0.7.3 Full ---
Overall: Its nice if you want to play something and your steam library has nothing interesting for you BUT to see sometghing good you have to play so damn long and "grindy" its just no fun...

Thx to the ingame stats i saw that i played around 13-14 hours until i fucked the first girl... and then its not satisfying because of how you unlock everything.

The scene come with a Tier system of events -> Do X events in Tier 1 and you cant get the next scenes with a little bit more action. The Tier system is based on the lvl of your girls AND your hotel. So by the time you can unlock the new tier, you do it for nearly every girl. This means that for the most time of the game you see/ do next to nothing with every girl UNTIL the point where you fuck them all at once and thats dumb and boring

Ofcourse, there are some lewd scenes along the way but wtf?!

1. The girls and the scenes are ok but nothing to brag about.
2. Animations are one or two scenes where you can adjust the speed
3. The story is ok
4. The management part takes forever
5. Without ingame info for events and the WT here you would not see a single tit or get a single item -> i thought they arent implemeted yet till i saw them in the WT...
6. Thx to the Tier system you have either no action with the girls or all at once which is extremely boring

Version 0.7.3 of Mystwood Manor:

First and foremost, I'll be comparing this game extensively to "Man of the House"

Story: You could divide this story into four parts, and I'll go over them one by one:
You: Your story is simple enough but rather original in this world of erotic visual novels. You are son of an aspiring hotel keeper. unfortunately, your father dies and it is left to you to make his dream a reality. To help you make this hotel great, you are helped by your mother, sister and a number of female employees. All is not well however is Mystwood and things are going wrong.
I am very much under the impression that the developer still intents to add a lot of content to this part of the game. Currently it is very meager and it kinda feels simple, and added more as an afterthought. There is also no interaction between the Mystwood story and anything else that is happening around you. This is very much contrary to MotH, in which the story evolved gradually depending on what you did with the characters in the game
Employees: All your employees have their own little story, but... all of them are so simple with little to no meat to them. Compared to the intense writing of MofH, Mystwood is - in my humble opinion - boring.
Guests: Currently guests have almost no story or content but I'm assuming that this is to be added. It would be pretty interesting if we could (sexually) interact with them as well
background; there is a cute little backstory which is entertaining enough.

Advise: Currently, each story is almost an island by itself (with certain exception). What made MotH really intriguing was not the awesome writing but also how these stories overlapped which each other. Here there is almost none. It would be really cool if there were more elements of employee situations overlapping and maybe even with the guests or the background story.
Also, I'm not a fan that the fog might be the cause that everyone is interested in fucking the MC

The overarc

Mechanics: As many here have mentioned, unlike 99% of games here, this is a game with a mechanic, which already sets it apart . And honestly, it isn't too shabby of a mechanic. it's simple, and there is little challenge to it, but I found myself enjoying it. that being said, it could be rebalanced or rethought a bit. the premise is good, it just need polish.

Interface: The interface is pretty good, with one BIG issue and that's the waiting time. At a certain point, there is a lot of grind. but each time the game forces us to go through that little waiting animation before we can press next. This has to go faster.

Characterization: all the different characters have their quirks and character but the way we interact with them is nothing special. as I mentioned before in the story element, each character is rather one-dimensional with very little shocking value. Compare this to MotH, it is kinda boring.

Art: Though the MC looks rather dorky, overall, the art is really good.

Verdict: 4/5, and this grade is compared to most other games here. However, if I were to compare this to MofH, I'd rather this a 3/5 where MotH gets a 5/5. My advise for the developer going forward:
- Flesh out your characters more. What do you want us to take away from them? think of MotH where your sister was a crazy submissive, a psychologist that abused her power, a crazy younger sister, a cool superhero, a doubing horny mom. And if you know what you want us to take away from them, how should we interact with them as MC? but go further then shy (laura), sultry (ruby), assertive (amber), mysterious (Hanna), cool (Kay), chill (Annieka)
- next, see how those well defined character can interact with each other and the guests. Now, it's nearly always a two way street between the MC and them.
- the system of leveling up and going further with the characters works... but, the fact that we see exactly howmuch and when we get it doesn't work very well I feel. not to say that MotH was a perfect system,. I'd make it feel more organic instead of a math equation.
- do something more with the guests, it would be fun if they'de be included in the fun.

I understand the game is not finished, but on what's finished... even there I'd maybe go back to the drawing board and rethink certain parts. Try to make things intertwined and not four separate entities: Game + Backstory + Employees + guests. For example,
- have the MC meet someone in the woods who is researching the legend and becomes a guests and every time he/she comes back he/she has another puzzle from the story.
- maybe Hanna is videotaping erotic scenes with her security camera with the consent of certain guests, which she sells
- allow perhaps the MC the choice to be sweet and caring for Amber, or to dominate Amber into submission and help the MC like that, and perhaps even make her please certain guests.
- let certain random events take place depending on the romance between the MC and the employees that have no relation to the 'counter' (for example, if you're above 70 with both Amber and Kay, and if Kay is cook and Amber is waiting tables, have a little scene where the MC and Kay dominate and humiliate Amber.

Been a supporter for Faerin since early MOTH days and he is the GOAT.
This game is really good. It has strong characters that look just "perfect" enough but still believable with fun personalities. The guests are also unique and have their own style, even thought there is quite little content with them so far.

The game looks great, all the settings and backgrounds are excellent, there is even sound! And pretty good music to go with it that doesnt grind your brain to dust.

The gameplay loop is simple but addictive, its one of those "just one more day/turn" kind of games. The escalation of lewdness is great, i like not opening the game with a damn gangbang but make you want to see more and more and get to know the characters as the clothes come off.

The plot is interesting enough to make you curious and move it all forward at a good pace and overall the game just feels like a quality product, its clear Faerin has learnt from MOTH and is evolving as a developer.

Its an absolute joy to play this game and cant wait for the future of this game and whatever he chooses to make for us!

Before playing this game I was so excited. Man of the house will always be one of my favorite games, Veronica as a character just gets me everytime. Something about the character writing slightly beyond real-life but somewhat believable hits a sweetspot for me.

However, when I first started playing this game for a good 1-2 hours I was close to quitting. I am very glad I stuck with it, so just kind of warning people to stick with it for a little while. For a long time I had no idea I had to claim rewards for seeing a girls events before unlocking new ones, so It felt like there was no actual scenes or character development only hotel management simulation gameplay. However, after realizing I really like the system.

I am very glad I stuck with it, the art is gorgeous, the animation is good and I kind of adore all the characters. They all have their own unique charm. I do however hope the game doesn't go down the route of all the girls only being into you because of the mystical fog. Furthermore, I hope not too many of the scenes will continue to be caused by the fog. If everything is just mind-control / mind-influence and no real feelings, that would kind of ruin it. Off to a great start, it really just needs more content.

However, he finished man of the house, no reason to think he won't finish this. This however might have even more potential though, the hotel management system actually get's quite enjoyable as it opens more up further into the game. I do wish there was a phone with sms like man of the house with the"younger sister". Just a personal preference of mine. Furthermore, the transitions between times are way too long. always feel like I have to wait so long for time to pass.

Finally, I hope it get's more content than man of the house. Man of the house was kind of short really, without feeling incomplete, as soon as you understand the mechanics and get past the grind you can unlock everything in like a day or two, and don't misunderstand me. That does not mean I want more grind, simply more fleshed out characters and more scenes with them, both before eventual relationships and after.

Edit: original rating was 5 stars. I still see Faerin as a S tier developer. However, this was in some ways a step up (in pure quality), but it feels soulless compared to man of the house. Originally, a lot of my stars where based on potential, but by the time the final version of the game was out, I found myself thinking "wait, that's it?". There is so much character development I expected that just never happened, and at the end of the day, almost every scene felt unearned and therefore non-erotic, not that there were that many in the first place.

Man of the house was very hot, regardless of experience and pure objective quality because of the writing of the relationships. Characters and their relationships developed over time, scenes felt earned and meaningful. Veronica for me being the best example, as she starts out quite"bitchy", but end up with romantic and sweet scenes, as well as some spicier ones. In this game, I loved the introduction of the characters, but never felt like I developed a relationship with them. At the end of the day, I don't think ill remember any of their names.

Hope the next game can take some of the quality-increases Faerin has learned over time and apply it to a more tight cast of characters with good development. Best of luck.

One of the best games I've played in a long time. The sex scenes are fantastic, the women are diverse, and the hotel management aspect is crazily addicting. There's also a plot that makes you want to see what happens next, rather than just stuff happening between the sex scenes.

Review update for the 1.0.2 [Completed] release:

Comparing this game to all of the adult games that are available on F95Zone, this game is easily 5 stars. There are only two things that hold it back from being a masterpiece. First, the hotel management gameplay is likely not appealing to a sizeable percentage of players. Second, the renders/animations for the lewd scenes aren't as crisp in detail as they should be. I would guess this is to reduce either the game size or the development time. Don't misunderstand me, the scenes are still good quality, I just don't think they're where they could/should be.

I've playing the game since the 0.5.0 release. The game is quite unique. There are three components to the game: the story, the gameplay (hotel management), and the relationships (lewd scenes). These three components are mostly independent, with the dependencies being that sometimes, you can't progress in one until you level-up another.

The main story is missing a lot of details, but it's engaging, entertaining, and the writing is very good. There is intrigue based on greed as well as a supernatural aspect. I'd give it a 4.5/5.

The gameplay is all about resource management of time, money, personnel, and skillsets. The developer put a lot of work into balancing chance and skill and levelling-up difficulty with the skill, etc. However, once a player understands all of the cards, special items, and perk points, assigning them correctly to the staff makes the game almost as easy as just assigning the correct staff member to the correct position. There are cases where you can't satisfy 3 or more guests while also keeping up with maintenance, health, security, and cleaning. Players can move around inventory items for each staff member to increase the success rate of guest interactions when there are more guests, but it's tedious and not really necessary. Players can simply never allow more than 2 guests to check-in at once. This will still allow the hotel to earn more than enough money to pay for hotel upgrades, the staff's wages, and pay off the loan.

I like the gameplay, but unfortunately, I doubt this type of resource management is enjoyable for a lot of players and I'm sure that's why the automatic resource assignment became available after the game was about half-finished. For the gameplay, I give it 4.5/5.

The lewd scenes are good. The relationships just happen as the story and gameplay progresses. The scenes are sexy/erotic. The girls are beautiful. The scenes have smooth animations. Some of the scenes give the impression that the girls are being controlled by a supernatural force, which might either be a turn-on or a turn-off for some players. I'd give the relationships/scenes a 4/5.

From a technical perspective, the game has been really solid. There were some UI glitches back in earlier releases, but they were minor, not game breaking. There is really only one technical issue I still have in the completed game, which is that occasionally, the game has an artificial delay that sometimes makes the player wait longer than necessary to click the UI (e.g., after choosing to spend time in the office, the user's clicks to don't register for some time after the screen is updated). Still, from a technical standpoint, the game is both unique and robust. It's a 5/5.

This game has the look of a quality porn game, but the gameplay of an incremental management game. The grind is so intense that the porn aspect of the game is buried in the tedious, non-stop management aspects. I was under the impression that this was a porn game, but it's just a management game that grinds on for 10 hours before you see any booba. If you want Booba this is not your game.

A great game but emphasis on GAME. Its mechanics are simplistic but deep, its grindy but rewarding and the characters and storyline are easily interesting enough to keep you invested in putting the hours in. Graphically the game looks great, the sex scenes are varied and animated (with sliders as well no less). On the whole a really really really good game.

As for the negatives though its conceptually a game first and a fappers wet dream a very far distant second. This means itll either frustrate you to high hell often hitting ceilings trying to level up the girls, answer the same mundane questions night after night to appease annoying guests and probably not even have access to the name you really want to till long after youve aquired the girls as you simply cannot affort to keep all your staff and yet save up for all the more expensive expansions in a rapid pace at least.

Im reviewing it now and giving it a full 5 stars as in this current build you can pretty much bang everyone if you put the time in and i felt it was worth it. It does what it does to the very best standards ive seen on the site and whilst itll blue ball anyone who dives in expecting more Man of the House sexcapades on demand its pretty faultless in doing what it sets out to do. Its also got a very clear guide in what you need to do to unlock the content and its all accessible at anytime once unlocked as a pseudo gallery.

Finally an actual game with active engagement that isn't clicking through images.
Also animations where they matter the most.
Watching the development it seems pretty leveled across all characters, probably the best approach.
I love this game!

Super-interesting game from the creator of the excellent Man of The House.
The skills on display - rendering, gameplay, story, GUI - are top-notch, combining management and RPG in a game with a sexy storyline filled with mistery and surprises.
One of the few developers here that I support through Patreon.
Oh, BTW, I can't wait to see the girl in the lingerie shop coming to the Manor!

This is a tricky game to review. It falls into the very unfortunate category "Quite a bit better than the competition, but nowhere near as good as I expected from this developer."

The writing is very good, characters are distinct and (relatively) reasonable people, and the story has a good sense of flow and progression, overall. I did find the story progress too slow, though, and would have liked to see more of it at an earlier stage.
Graphics are fantastic, and the all-important girls are both varied and beautiful, each in their own way. There's really very little to complain about here.

However. The gameplay is interesting for the first week or so, but has little to no challenge or agency. It's a question of dropping people into the appropriate slots, and for the most part you really don't have much choice in the matter. They can either do the job or they can't, and most of the time there's zero strategy to consider. It's just drag, drag, drag, click next, repeat. Add to this that the story progress (not just romance progress) is locked behind this samey grind, and it sort of turns into a kinetic novel with a bunch of clicking between each scene. What little decision making there is gets swept to the side by a deluge of repetitive clicking, and I find that the lack of gameplay development almost makes me lose sight of the good parts. Even thinking about it now, I remember decisions I made, certainly, but the main thing that comes to mind is how every day is exactly the same, and how the characters seemed to develop as if they were 3-4 steps ahead of the story.

Make no mistake, this is "better" than most games here. Heck, compared to the average "alpha 0.03 prologue chapter 1 first 3 hours of day 1"-effort, I'd rate this 8 out of 5. But this is a game from a proven developer, and the grievances and quality of life-problems drag it down all the harder due to the otherwise high quality. This could be amazing. Right now, unfortunately, it isn't.

Girls are nice, very beautiful models, poses and animations. Story and dialogues are amazing in its unpretentiousness.
Sill 5 stars despite this disgusting grindfest-management.
Use the CheatEngine, Luke.

v0.7.2 Full

The suit maybe doesn't make a man, but it sure as hell makes a woman! Hot damn!
All models are drop dead gorgeous, but what really makes them super irresistible are the outfits.
Additionally, every girl has a different personality and background which makes them AND the game a hell of a lot more interesting.

Renders are really good, animations are amazing (did not see that one coming), game UI and mechanics are nice and smooth. Writing and dialogues are on point, which is super important!

It's a unique game, unlike any other I've seen around. Yes, there's "grind", but not in an annoying and irritating kind of way. It makes good gameplay, honestly.

Hope this dev catches the eye of more people and starts getting more serious funding, as they obviously have both the talent and consistency to produce top notch content.

I'm super impressed and can't wait to see what the future brings us.

Cheers

Tried this game for the first time. As someone who absolutely loved the man of the house, this doesn't feel like the same dev at all. No repeatable events and the rewards are not even one percent of the grind. There is no real story. You grind then get a scene. The story is buried so deep within the grind that I just skipped past them just to get it over with. I didn't play the game till now thinking Faerin's game would be worth waiting for, but this wasn't the case for this game. I will wait for his next game. Good luck to the dev.

0.7.1 reviews
Gameplay 8/10
I think the idea of running a hotel was well chosen, being able to improve it to build new rooms, the tarot card system is also original. (too bad the witch is not a little more slutty) I hope that will be the case later.
Graphics 8/10
Renders of great quality, the women are all sexy, there is something for everyone. The HUD is cool, and so is the hotel. Sound level is quite successful too.

My expectations for the future: More sex content, sex with customers and the end of this story

This is one of the games I come back to every month, the moment I find some cash to spare I will join Faerin's subscribers, while people find it grindy I actually like it, the management of the hotel is nice, I never accept a 5 star guest especially if they are VIP, and I like it, maybe because I am here since the beginning, if you don't like the management of the hotel you will find this game problematic, because it is not helpful, but other than that you can get the hang of it in 1st month in game or so.

the story is intriguing, I expect some twists and turns and I find it fantastic to play, if you want sex heavy game, maybe you will be tired by the grind, otherwise give this a try and you won't be disappointed.