VN - Ren'Py - The Roommate [v0.11.06] [togs]

i never intended to rate this game cause it was too vanilla, so i stayed 2 years without playing, lately i was bored and downloaded and holy fuck, well worth it, no clue what the dev went trough, but the sex slave routes are amazing, or at least Lois is extremly well made!

there are a few other more spicy stuff that might not be for everyone
there is still the romantic route for those who enjoy such things
not everything is for everyone, but kudos to the dev for finding a good balance on a well done story so that it can please of a few of the more extreme niches in this community, which i personally feel that are being neglected!

if you can go over the build up that last up until 0.5 perhaps(?)
i´m sure you will find something that tickles you just right
probably the 5 stars was because i did not expected much from this game
but the turn around is extremely well done! for the extreme stuff ofc
for the rest romantic bullshit, guess it never needed the turn around!

Im big fan of the harem games, and this one is rare gem. Renders are decent, maybe little outdated. Not many animations. But we have a lot of LI's , lots of kinks - milking/lactation, anal, threesome, potential sharing (not my thing), bimbofication/transformation (which is rare and i love it).
Dev should add some screens with all LI and their statistics, its hard to keep track of them without it.
I like MC, that he is a chad, not some weak wimp, although his face is strange.
Overall good harem game. Looking forward for more.

Hmmmm. . ..
I didn't think this would happen but here I am.

I'm dropping the game. I don't know if the dev wanted to reflect what it's like writing so many LIs and making it work. If it was the intention, the scene with Kari being mad at the MC late at night was honestly perfect. She is the main gf. And yet she learned about something important last. Homeboy has stopped showing her he likes/loves her as much as he used to.

Then the morning scene where the she asks the mc if he wants coffee or something else while she is clearly in the mood for some lovin' only for homeboy to say "coffee would actually be perfect.". . . ..
I'm playing a porn games homes! Not a, "Life is such a drag! Let me just get a little boost before I go back to slaving on the 9-5 at my company where I spend a lot of time taking good advantage of my position to get into willing panties. But these panties stop mattering after a while. . . it looks like the panties at home don't matter that much anymore.
who knows. In 3-10 years from now we might all be jaded, love faded and no more sex."
I didn't do any exploring for the swinging paths but I guess Kiki leans HEAVILY to swinging even if none of the choices you've made lead to anything resembling any desire for that.

This may or may not mean the dev is going to make more paths for that. But I have been losing interest here and an extra reason is an extra reason.

As you probably can tell in the preview images, the graphics aren't great. The game has animations, but again. They nothing to marvel at.

For any of you who came for the milf/aunt. . . . I've played everything so far while avoiding swinging and slave/dominant paths. I did not get any content with her.

Absolutely beautiful game, the renders are really amazing, the game is beautifully written. I have just played a full playthrough of the latest version, and have since added the game to my watchlist, I look forward to all future updates from the developer.

The Roommate is what you get when you slam an ero-VN into an absolutely absurd soap opera. The story violates suspension of disbelief in the most heinous of fashions and there's t&a everywhere. Huh... that might actually just be a soap opera come to think of it.

The story starts out in a somewhat reasonable way. For about the first half of the content you play as a Steve Jobs wannabe becoming the CEO of your great uncle's fortune 500 company that does... things?... it's not very descriptive. You don't actually do work or pay attention to the company. You do PR heists and try to quietly clean up the ocean of abused women your great uncle left behind. It felt like a decent slice-of-life VN told from a unique point of view.

Then halfway through the story things go sideways. The company basically falls to the wayside and it's girl drama all the way down. Absolutely absurd shit starts happening to the point where I could only really laugh. Unfortunately the game plays it straight, but maybe that's for the best for humor potential? I think no personally, as it feels like I'm laughing at the story rather than with it.

It's typical VN style gameplay throughout, with hidden stat boosts based on your responses to characters. Your choices don't really effect the story though, so much as your relationship to individual characters. At the moment I think there's maybe five girls with whom choices actually matter, then a dozen other side chicks you can fuck if you choose.

There's a staggeringly massive number of characters in the game. It's too many. I think you could safely cut half the characters in the game and it would play better with more time to develop the existing characters.

Also, can we please stop with the spontaneous reveal of downright grim dark backstories for characters? Not every girl needs a past of trauma, rape and daddy issues, especially in a game that has very little in the way of horror beforehand. There's two girls in the game who reveal traumatic histories and then it's basically back to business as usual. It's so fucking unnecessary.

The look of the game seems great to me though. The girls in the game wear a lot of downright whorish clothes throughout the game, which I love, and their models generally look good. There's also some shockingly great animations in the game, though they're all quite short.

Overall though, the Roommate is giving off vibes of intense development creep as of patch 10.05. Choices gradually become fewer and further between, many characters get almost no focus in the story as if they've been forgotten, and the story meanders between events without much in the way of an arc or thoughts for the future. If you like the way the game looks and want to play a decent secretary corruption storyline, that's most of the good stuff you'll find here. It's a whole lot of absurd story and filler to get to it though.

Love the initial story and mystery . The personalities of the girls are all done well. The renders seems a bit old school, but that's okay because of the story.

I like the initial setup as it does not feel forced or like a continual fuck fest.

If you are intrigued by the story and look forward to playing a millionaire business owner this game will positively suprise you.

Rated as of Version: "v.0.9.14"


I'll be honest in that, when I started playing this game I wasn't expecting too much. I liked the basic concept of the story, playing a millionaire business owner seemed like it might be fun. The beginning of the game seemed to confirm my skepsis, the character poses seemed unimaginative and the story stuck in a bit of a loop. You say good morning to your roomate, she makes you coffee, you go home, sleep repeat.

But after a bit of playtime I found myself suprised to be more and more caught up in the developing story. Relationships to some of the main characters started developing in interesting ways and the general story started becoming more engaging, to the point where I played through the entire game within 2 days. It's not a story that will stay in your mind for it's amazing literary character, but while playing it will keep you engaged and exited to hear the rest of the story.

Giving the game some time to look past the beginning really allows you to see the progress it makes, both visually and storywise. Another positive surprise a new player might encounter is the relatively long playtime. One will find that this is one of the few games where you really note the 2 years of development that have gone into this based on the length of the game alone.

The amount of characters you encounter is high, though not exactly balanced. At the beginning you will find yourself engaging mainly will Kari and Lois, allowing you to better connect with their characters, but rarely coversing with others. Toward the later stages you will meet an amount of female characters that is large and diverse but by the sheer number makes it difficult to keep track of.
Small notes from the developer help you understand more complicated aspects brought up in the game, some may find them useful, others may find them annoying. A switch to toggle them on and off might serve both these groups well.
In some instances I believe the branching is not quite perfected, I noted some pictures (especially based on the selection of front desk staffers), to not fit to the choices I made previously. I found this not particularly bothersome.

In general, this is a game worth checking out, if you are intrigued by the set-up and a developer worth supporting based the speed with which they create content. I wish lots of luck with the further development.


Gameplay: 4/5 | Art: 4.2/5 | Story: 4.1/5 | Writing: 4/5
OVERALL: 4.2

This would've been a great and really enjoyable game if it wasn't for all the feminist bs.

By the second "men are destroying everything and only womyn can save it!" I was rolling my eyes (the irony of that is mindblowing since it's men that have built and created pretty much everything in the world around us), but by the third, Madison and her bar, I was ready to start bashing my head against the wall with how predictable, unimaginative and annoying the narrative was.

And of course there is the constant whining over the "old boys networks". I mean, seriously, the only thing missing was screaming about the Patriarchy and about how oppressed women are. Wait, actually the latter was done. So, yeah, patriarch still left and since I'm still not done with the game yet, that might come as well.

And of course all men, except 2 or 3, are utter sleazes, assholes and can't help themselves but molest women. Even JED got the asshole treatment by day 64!!! Alex, who is doing worse and saying shit to his PA that I would just gape at that is deep into sexual harassment territory, gets away with it cause he's rich.

The VN has potential cause it's got funny stuff like sex cults, hucows and stuff, really hot well-rendered girl like Kari, big boobs, many different choices and storylines, and even save vague system of money management that trutfully only works for the first hour or so, lust meter that at some point just stops working since there is NO SEX possible and you're stuck at high lust levels (I was near lethal level during BBQ), but it's the feminism, political indoctrination and virtue signalling that sinks it for me.

Another issue is the already mentioned lack of sex in what is an adult VN which is critical since high lust will affect your decisions - soon you don't even get the chance to masturbate anymore to relieve it (that are sadly not even that important in the long run since you can't affect the major plot points) and the fact that for some choices that are not straight-out simping for a girl you get punished by too harsh drawbacks for them. Also, some women that should be 40 years old look barely 20 (Omega looks early 20s, etc.), while others that are 35-40 (step-mom, forgot her name) look 50.

Good example of spineless simping is "invest into titty-bar" - the MC makes condition that Kari not work there anymore because he doesn't want his gf to be ogled, especially when pregnant, then instantly buckles at the slightest resistance, claiming "I'm impressed by how much you care for her" BS. Ashamed with how weak that makes him (and me) I rather went for the loan option.

Sorry, dev, but I would like the MC to stand for SOMETHING. Instead of constantly buckling to the slightest female pressure and push-back. CEOs are alphas by job description, not omegas! Can't imagine CEO running a business if he's got no spine and no balls and is being dominated by people that are not even his employees, but are ASKING FOR HELP.

There is also the serious lack of interaction, especially romantic, with Kari, who is your main love and the reason for the story's title. For a really long time there is basically no romantic content, then when it starts the pacing is completely weird, once you start dating nothing changes, you're just roommates that occasionally at scripted points have sex. There is no affection like between a normal couple, no goodnight kisses (especially when it looked like they would happen had I made other choices), no PDAs, not even regular hugging, kissing or just enjoying each other's closeness.

It's just MC that spends his entire days at the office with Lois that gets more screentime than Kari for some reason, and is basically chasing other women or is BEING CHASED (guessing he's surrounded by golddiggers cause money and power is really the only thing anyone can say about him) even when I explicitly took choices that should've kept him monogamous in his relationship with Kari. The dev seems determined to mess up my intentions and is doing everything they can to throw Lois (or other women) at MC and having MC show interest even though I do everything I can to prevent that. I'm starting to wonder what's the point of it, since the dev seems determined to sabotage it and make this game a harem thing even though they pretend they're giving us a choice.

Which was just impressed on me with a sledgehammer right now on Day 65 when I had to CHOOSE A PETNAME for Lois even though I'm not in relationship with her (which was the condition for the same action for Kari)!!!

Also, simply too many women chasing MC for no particular reason I can imagine other than his status (the cast being flooded by women is ironic since every woman I know complains if the workplace is mostly women and would like more men, they describe such gynocentric environment as too toxic and claim men make better coworkers AND BOSSES).

Good example, Kayla's tongue attack at the end of BBQ, that came more out of the left field than the impregnate-all-women-to-live plot. Also some of the lamest sex scenes (Kayla's deflowering where the MC just jumps on her and puts it in without any foreplay or anything, then the question about Kayla being on pill even though she didn't even mention it before).

2 stars only because of hot girls and the lovable sweetie that is Kari that saves the game from being deleted from my drive completely on her own, otherwise it would be 1.

Actually has a very decent story, the artwork is also very good. Some of the girls are real lookers and there is a wide variety of different types. This game really only has positives. If there would be anything that could be improved on is that there maybe can be a bit more choice in the story.

A difficult rating to be honest, it hovers between a 3 and a half and a 4. What's good is good and what's bad is really bad. The writings great, the girls are hot and you have (usually) a lot of choice in the paths you want to take with what girls. The story is ok, but the whole running the business thing gets old pretty fast, epecially since you have no real say in anything that happens, it just happens. It also gets weird towards the end for no real reason and you don't have a say in it soooo, pretty lame. When you choose what to do with the girls, in how you want your relationship towards them to go you get a good varied choice of the paths, but you don't get to choose what happens ON that path. So with lois you can make her your slave but you have no say in what happens. The jewelry, collar etc just happens and if you don't like it too bad. That just sucks the energy out of the path honestly. It's the same way with all of the other girls too, you choose their path but then don't get to pick the choices. Just... what's the point then. The strangest thing is the sandbox elements as they are completely useless. The phone, calender, the lust meter, all of this is just completely pointless and serves no point at all. They should just be removed and have have the extra effort put in towards refining the paths for the girls instead. The game suffers from trying to be a VN and a sandbox at the same time and ultimately ends up missing the mark on both. A sad situation because there are some real diamonds here, but unfortunately you have to scrape away the slimy garbage with your bare hands to get to them.

Although I have found some bugs (slut route with Lois and the phone) and lack of a gallery, I am impressed of the story going multiple routes. Animations are a bit lacking but I can forgive that. I was too busy seeing what the roommate has to offer and I'm impressed. Hopefully we're not approaching the endgame anytime soon. Keep up the good work!

[0.9.7]

This is a game that is unlikely to leave one indifferent.

Summary: As an AVN it is very strong on N part, good on V, but lukewarm on much of AV (H scenes).

I am torn between giving it 2 stars and 5 stars, so decided on 4.

Note for those who only just started -- just survive the first N days, the lewd parts unfold at some point. For additional explanation see below.

The good:

- excellent writing. really superb, mature, realistic dialogues. 6/5

- good plot, very good story progression (with eyebrow raised for the scifi elements);

- good attention to rendering background/item detail -- eg. floor plans, etc.

- the characters and interactions with them are also very well written and reasonably believable (at least at start).

- the MC is not a kid! And not a wet blanket! -- honestly, as of late, it seems a rarity and deserves a special mention in the games supposedly tagged maledom.


The bad:

- a ton of girls added, as story progresses, yet there really is not very much lewd content for most of them, despite it being hinted all the time.

- fully fledged H content with only one - Lois. Others, including supposedly MC's main LI Kari, appear mostly as story elements or plot drivers. Yes, you can build some involvement and supposed relationship with her, but the A part of AVN is kinda 10% of what Lois has. And for the first 2/3ds of current game, Kari's content is basically one scene repeated several times.

- the H scenes are short and with maybe 1 short animation, especially at start. Lois gets a lot of attention later on, and her scenes are markedly better. There is some decent writing on top of most of scenes though, so together it sort of works OK.

- the game has sandbox elements like phone and calendar, but is really so story driven, that you can almost never use them. It feels like sandbox elements merged into a kinetic novel actually.

The phone is the weird thing. There is a quick menu entry for phone, which you have to watch like a hawk, to get clickable, but there is no need really, as at most times you'll just call somebody's voicemail. Even in voicemail you can "leave a message" or just "hang up". I have no idea whether at one point, leaving a message maybe will be needed, so it's very frustrating -- a thing which you think you don't need, but are not sure. At the only couple of places the phone calls are required, you get direct information from dialogues about that.

The calendar is also a mixed bag. It supposedly lists events you'll have, BUT you can't be sure the events *you* add, will happen. Point in case: Ashley. You can become her sugardaddy, and you can schedule to meet her via phone, BUT 70% of time, the meets don't happen because story events ignore them. And sometimes not even any significant events. For example, I've tested it so that I have one of those evenings at home where there is option to go get coffee (at Ashley's who is a barista) or just go to sleep to recover energy. Even if I've scheduled a meet with her, it doesn't happen, if I go to coffee shop, and it doesn't happen, if I stay at home.

Also, you had the option of being pretty dominant at one of the employees once, and you can sorta force her to "be available when you want". But there's no content for her at all, even on phone, you can't even call her, just leave the same unknown message. A bit annoying.

The I.R.I.S. AI quick menu button is discussed a number of times, but dangles always unclickable. Probably one of the @TODO@s.

The other

- there is a long sort of intro/prologue for the first N days, where you get into real corporate routine, and there are only hints of any possibilities of H content. It's not that bad, and there is good writing so you get filled in on details of the world, but I did get a feeling of... hmm.. should I even try to continue? If you survive that, there is some point after which you start getting some of the A part of AVN.

- there is a curious mix of good storytelling with some characters, and other (later) characters who are still pretty decently written with good bg -- but unlike the first characters they just appear to beg to worship MC for no reasons. I approve, as too much storytelling/char development would move this from AVN to simple VN, and make a convoluted mess, but ofc it feels somewhat weird.

- This is a very story driven AVN. Actually I would call it almost a kinetic novel in disguise, because the only *decisions* you get to make, is how and which girls to get. You do take some major steps as CEO, but those are preset for you, and you can't avoid them. So 90% of your time in office (and you spend much of time there), is spent taking care of personnel details that in usual corporate practice wouldn't be particularly care of CEO. That's OK, this is a supposedly lewd AVN where you are actually forming your harem.

- you're the guy the dev envisioned to be, regardless of your own preferences. I understand there is only so much one can do for story paths, just be aware. You watch as MC's fate unfolds, and you can only enjoy the ride. Are you good? Are you bad? Well, even if you try to be more of a jerk, it turns out you're sort of vanilla considerate caring dom guy, who can't be actually evil, just maybe a bit egoistic as we all.

- The sci-fi elements that start to unfold, can raise a lot of eyebrows. Personally didn't bother me -- it is no worse than generic conspiracy theories floating around. In fact, due to the good writing, even those are not as unbeliavable as I'd think. The basement really picked my interest, it hints to more dom/sub setting, which is one of my kinks.

At the end, I somehow feel it a very controversial game for me. I love some parts of it, and hate others, therefore I can't make up my mind on the rating. But I know I want "mooooar content!" for most of the characters, since they are starved of it -- that surely means something.

Despite the list for bad being twice the size of good, the good things are very important and the bad things, while annoying, are livable with.

I don' really know how to convey how positively surprised I am with this game. The title does not do this game justice. I don't want to spoil anything but damn. Just play the game if you like well-written dialogues that are semi-realistic (at least in its own unrealistic porn setting), a great variety in girls, a likeable MC (or maybe I just share the exact same sense of humor?) and a much deeper plot than you first realize!

If the game continues in this direction and quality... expect a five star from me.

may not be top from technical point of view but i enjoyed playing it a lot
strong point are characters (secretary and girlfriend) and relationship dynamics
lots of side girls but did not care for them
dev is improving and game gets better further in you go
fortunately stat and wallet doesn't matter - money is endless and you can always pick whatever

The positive is that the 'story' is entertaining, but the sex scenes bring this game's score way down.

The animations are not only the default animations everyone has seen a thousand times, but they're also reused over and over. For that matter, there's a ton of material that is re-used constantly throughout the game, and that's a big negative.

There's a ton of inconsistency in the sex scenes as well. A few have animations, even more do not and are just a one or two-render affair. Due to that, the sex scenes do absolutely nothing for me.

The phone is pointless. It's ridiculous going through every name each time the phone is available when most of the time there's nothing there, and it rarely works properly. The dev insists on keeping it in the game for some weird reason when it would be better if it was just removed from the game.

It's not terrible, but it definitely is a poor quality game that is sitting at too high of a rating.

I enjoyed playing the game and did get invested in the story. The renders are not amazing and there is a little re-use of images here and there but it is not detrimental to the game in any way. Whatever the dev needs to do to get the story out.

I am a little worried about the future though as there is a lot going on. Dozens of characters with multiple story lines that centred around you taking over the family company and discovering the dark secrets. With a lot of player choice seemingly. There is a chance this will become to hard to manage eventually.

I think a little more focus could be given to the relationship with the roommate herself. The protagonist cares about her but it doesn't really show.

Minor gripe: The name choices of Kara Kari Kiri and Kiki is annoying as the names are so similar I usually forget who's who. For any other dev's reading this or for the dev's next project I would suggest not doing this.

For once, the pattern of a day-to-day management game works. However, the further along I go in the game, the less control I have over what is happening. This is made up for by the fact that everything on offer is of top quality.

I have very mixed feelings about this.
On one side, it has really good looking LI's. Kari, lois, the other sisters are all 10/10 and get extra points from me as i like boob heavy models

But other than that it falls flat on almost everything else. My biggest complaint is about content with Kari. For most part of the game her content is limited to coming and going from office, having dinner and then good night. Even after you get into a relationship with her, other than a few sex scenes, there is hardly any content with her.
Like she is the only LI in game, to whom you can confess your love to. Considering that her content in the story is even less than side girls in other games.

Lois just dominates the content once MC becomes CEO. I understand she is his PA, but then there should be a balance. Then you get an option to have Lois as your girlfriend as well, but whats the point of having one more girlfriend, if you dont even give time to your main Girlfriend.
Then the story just goes into spiral with making babies stuff and then the cult stuff which just got introduced.
I want to give this game a chance, but the treatment Kari has received, i am really miffed. Such a darling girl is just ignored for some side sluts

I intitally didnt have high expectations of this game. The title has never called to me. I was happily surprised that I was wrong. This game is absolutely fantastic. I'm very much looking forward to your future updates. The harem elements make you feel powerful and seductive. The gameplay doesnt feel tedious and it flows at a good pace. You actually feel like you're important.

First two times I tried this I found it a bit stiff and evolving very slowly. Third time was my luck. What a gem this is. The level of perversion, choices and beautiful babes under command is just wonderful.