VN - Ren'Py - Completed - SWe1: The Warrior's Heart [v1.0] [Mortze]

Review for v1.0

This game has some good elements, but falls short due to some design choices in my opinion.

The writing is pretty good.
The graphics are mostly good, though I feel like Jiljoo could use some improvement during the sex scenes.
It doesn't need any quality of life improvements as far as I can find, it's work well for the most part.

That said, there are issues:
There is no music and a general lack of sound design. Some characters make noises, which slows down the dialogue, but you can't understand them anyway.

It's only episode 1, which really just sets up for a bigger story. some people might not care, but I would much rather see this as version 0.1 then have a bunch of separate episodes.

You can miss most of the scenes in this game. There is 1 scene everyone sees, but beyond that it's up to the choices you make. You have to go only for 1 girl to see their scenes, if you don't you end up having only 1 scene with a character that's not part of the main cast.

The branching story is just annoying. Just let me have sex with multiple girls in one play through. Now I'm just skipping dialogue to play all the paths.

Skipping caused the game to crash multiple times.

Overall it's not bad, but I won't come back to it. 3/5

Playtime: 2 hours for one playthrough, ~3 if you want to see all options
- It was sometimes a little tough to read the text. I would've liked an opacity slider for the text box.
- Some grammatical errors here and there, but overall the writing is solid
- As the title says, this is just chapter 1 so it's all build-up. It's also a side-project, so there's no real timetable for subsequent chapters.
- Paths can be fairly restrictive. For example, to get the Twi'lek end you need to make 3 specific choices, one of which is even the more dishonorable (in a game called the Warrior's Heart!) of the two presented.
- As is often the case, the game doesn't fully conform to the choices you make. Your character will be surprised by a revelation which you already knew about, but you screwed up one choice so it thinks you're on the general path instead of the one you were aiming for.
- There might a layer of appreciation missing if you're not deep into Star Wars? I've seen the movies and the Mandalorian, but this felt more "generally sci-fi" than quintessentially Star Wars to me. Yeah, it has Twi'leks and the Force and stuff, but I feel you could replace them with fantasy races and magic and tell the exact same story. Maybe I just missed the finer references to Star Wars lore.

This is a tough one. While I sincerely enjoyed the story, rendering and overall atmosphere of the story I felt it was more like a teaser. None of the characters really develop past their introduction and the ending is very sudden and leaves you with a lot to be desired. I know this is a passion project and I know it cannot be monetized, that is why I give four stars. But I have to admit that all things considered it feels more like a demo than an actual game. A good demo, yes, but not enough to have me fully invested.

Nice renders and story. Nice narrative and writing. This one truly gives the feel of star wars. If you are here for the sex part you will end up disappointed. If you are here for story it will give you nice experience. Nice sound effects and nice models too.

If you like story driven adult visual novels give this one a try. Waiting for the episode 2 of this. Hoping one day dev will release it. Because I'm eager to find out what happens in the story next. Looking forward to episode 2

I'm making a note here: huge success
Great game in everything, but what feels like the hardest thing accomplished here is how everything "fits", and thus all parts assemble in a perfect story, perfect visual novel from the galaxy far, far away...

The setting
The precise date is unknown, but it seems to be 1-2 years after the fall of the Old Republic and the creation of the Empire. This is the time of Inquisitorium, jedi hunts and law enforcement in the Middle and Outer Rims. Patrolling stormtroopers are still a fresh view, but Darth Vader's feats are already known to the public.

You know what? When you usually have this much to say about just the timeframe, you think it is some Netflix series like Mandalorian or Bad Batch we are talking about, filmed by professional crew and directed by the most brilliant minds of the company. But no! Here it is an entirely third-party story, and usually those are common in SW Legends universe, but still most of those, even with all the effort to "fit" still don't. Something stands out, clearly marking the author's either inexperience in some topic, or complete negligence of such. Often, to disappointment of many. But not here.

Here the story is short, but vibrant, filled with all kinds of stuff. And every detail present is relevant to the timeframe, to the location, to the universe. Starting from the droid model, military insignia (slightly wrong positioning of imperial navy admiral's insignia is the worst sin I have managed to find). The clothing, the vehicles, ships, buildings - everything fits. Everything supports each other, and alltogether those details mean only one thing: believability.

The plot
The plot follows the story of young man, who decides to leave his petty life of a street rat behind and hire himself on any ship doing anything. As the story unfolds, the protagonist is faced with all the worst things the galaxy has to offer: slavery, organised crime, corrupt officials, harsh reality of Empire's autocracy and so on. All these things are a discovery to the protagonist, and the story follows his reactions, his feelings, and of course the development of his character, as he does indeed have "The Warrior's Heart".
There is nothing ridiculous going on, nothing crazy, nothing which doesn't fit the setting. The plot develops organically, and thus continues entertaining the player from the start to the very finish.

The art
Once again, the art comes in those forms which not only keep the high standarts set by everything else but push them even further. The game contains hundreds of beautiful fullscreen renders with sometimes lots of details, characters, action. Those renders must have been incredibly hard to do considering their immense difficulty. But they exist, and allow not only to contain the elements of the "visual novel" the game is presented as, but also such small details that sometimes one may find oneself hiding the UI and just immersing self in the scene rendered on it, directing attention to all the minor details carefully put where they belong by the developer, depicted so vividly that it doesn't take long before the scene reappears in the player's head, along with some imagined animation, scenery extension and such. This is what all novels strive to achieve, and what is achieved here of course.

In addition to render quality, the models themselves are top notch. How does one define an exceptional quality model, you might ask? I have the answer for myself: skin defects. If the developer goes far enough to include those in the model, you sure know everything else is you may ever wish for is already present. Sometimes I am put off by "perfectly clean", "perfectly shaped" models, this is unrealistic to a degree that it feels like a blowup doll, if you may. Here it is simple. The human does feel like actual human. More over so, the twi'lek does feel like actual twi'lek, and this requires way different mesh, animation skeleton and such. The game is short, and the inclusion of a non-human right from the start is so much of extra work it even feels like a flex! Like the developer is trying to tell you: "look how awesome I am, don't even try to top that".

The "adult" content
Currently there are 4 scenes. One of which is with a random character the protagonist does not meet outside the scene - this is the only encounter. However, 3 others are with main characters, one with the ship's captain and 2 with the twi'lek. And they all have a lead-up to the scene, as the relationship develops organically.

When I say "scene", I do not mean one static render. Not in this game at least, but I have seen worse. Each scene here consists of at least 3 great animations and is accompanied by a dozen of static renders. In any other game, if I have seen "only 4 sex scenes" I would straight say: bullshit, what is this lazy piece of an author not doing the main thing. But here the scenes are so well made it is clear that the developer pursues quality over quantity, and with that I am ok with.

Still, only 4 scenes feel a bit underwhelming, but only when viewed separately from everything else. Alltogether that's alright.

The summary:
To say this game is a hidden gem is an understatement, that is how good it actually is. I have checked and this game is in "featured" which is obviously well deserved, and, hopefully, fill attract more attention to this masterpiece. I am sad that the developer has chosen not to built on this success and not to continue this game. I can't count this game as completed, rather, abandoned? On hold? Maybe I just can't cope with the fact that there will unlikely be any continuation.

However, will there even be one or not, should not matter on the reader's decision to play this game, as it is not one's average "v0..01 alpha chapter one". It's like a blast from the past - the player gets the game and it is already good, not some wet alpha with dripfeed content addition, but rather a full fleshed-out game which is enjoyable to experience.

I have rated this game as 5/5, obviously. This is probably one of the best fan works on SW universe I have seen, and certainly the best adult VN for this universe by far.

The game is really great - the setting, the story, the action is all getting you hooked. So I choose to give the game a 5 star rating, although it is missing some points that other games have, e.g. a gallery or a journal. Looking forward to playing episode 2.

I am not a fan of SWs tho i have watched 1 or 2 of the movies for entertainment. Gotta say i am really liking the atmosphere and the design of the characters. They are of high quality and very detailed, especially the females. All beautiful to look at and sexy as well. I enjoyed this short 1st episode and look forward to the 2nd whenever it is announced.

I had a blast playing though the first episode.

One huge selling point is the immersive story, which IMO is a must in any porn game worth its while. And while the sex scenes do not happen that often and the animations are meh at best, the realistic drawings more than make up for it. They are beautiful enough but they add a layer of realism to the whole story, and this is the key of this game.

The characters are introduced with a decent amount of background to make you interested in knowing them more. It's insane how I got attracted to Drea so fast, by her look but moreso by her background story.

Looking forward to episode II.

The art is very good and quite linked to SW lore so it's a very good point.

Then the obvious: the star wars lore. It means the authors can use thousand of sources to give an interesting story, backgrounds etc.

Finally the characters: they are interesting, and we would want to know more of them;

The only bad point is the fact that there are not certainty about episodes 2 and more so it maybe come one of those abandoned games.

One of the games that acutally made me appreciate VNs, before this i was only intrested in games lol or something like foot of the mountain grind but this showed me simple can be good too, great renders and good writing.

One of the best stories around in a beloved universe!

Sexy content may be a bit sparse, but storytelling and the characters do more than compensate.

One of the few times I actually read the dialogue.

v1.0

I think the renders are really well done but I found the story kind of wooden and confusing at times. The confusion might be because I'm not really into Star Wars but there were a number of scenes where I had no idea why things were happening. Probably great if you're a big Star Wars fan.

The good;
- game is complete
- multiple endings
- good supporting characters
- good audio

The bad:
- If the animations in a game are terrible, it is better not to include them at all. That is the case for the ones in this game.
- Renders are terribly done

Fantastic game! Putting aside the erotic aspects for a moment, this is actually an interesting Star Wars story with accurate references to the SW universe and the whole game just looks gorgeous. As a SW fan, I greatly enjoyed this title.
On the erotic side, the nudity and sex is done tastefully without seeming jarring in the context of the wider story. The renders are fantastic and the sexual tension rises at a good, gradual pace.

I really hope Ep 2 is not too far away!

I am not sure if it speaks well of this VN or poorly of the real sequals but I will say with complete confidence that so far the story is this porn parody is better than actual Star Wars episode 7. Great job!

Congratulations Mortze!

This game is a real masterpiece.

It impresses in every way.
The graphics are excellent and the characters are very elaborate.
It's great fun to follow the story to the end, which unfortunately comes way too early.

When will the sequel come ???

The best game so far I have found on this website, there is a great story, the characters are brilliant, the models are amazing so realistic, not rushed out, can't wait to check the part 2, waiting for more

Great! Despite not being ideal if you just want to get off and also being a bit linear, this still deserves a 5 star rating. The story telling and art is so good that I finished it in one sitting and would even pay quite a bit to get a sequel.

Compelling story, interesting characters, accurate to the star wars universe, and amazing renders, couldn't ask for anything more honestly! Almost thought I was watching a new Knights of the old Republic game. Looking forward to the rest of the story.