VN - Ren'Py - Where the Heart Is [S1 Rev1] [CheekyGimp]

Finished game little while ago. Game has many good things but also things which i really dont like, so...

Pros:

I liked story, dialogues were quite enjoyable read even though some conversations were somewhat long, but that didnt bother me. Build ups with characters was also nice.

Decent renders, not the best but definitely nowhere near worst either!

Katie and Jenna were very likeable persons, Bella wasnt bad either.

Very good amount of content to play!

Cons:

Lets start with thing which annoyed me the most, POV kissing and sex scenes/angles. Especially POV kissing ruins the mood completely for me, its just looks so stupid. Some of POV sex scenes/angles was decent but i mostly didnt enjoy cuz cant see the faces of girls, would like more 3rd person angles, most of them was on POV.

More renders if long dialogues. That was the second thing which i didnt like. Sometimes there was long scenes with only few renders and so much of dialogue, it gets very boring to watch same render over and over again when they talk a lot.

Also i noticed that the same renders were used again and again later in the game which we already saw earlier (especially when he/she used same renders with different sex scenes was very bad imo, Katie's first time, for example)

Still, i give the game 3 stars, but oh boy this could been easily my top 3 game if only... Well, if u read "cons" then u know why it wasnt. But definitely enjoyable game storywise!

Well, I played only 'til episode 9 so far, so I'll give a more detailed review once I'm up to speed with the latest release, but what I can say so far is this:

The things I think are more important in this type of game are: Visuals and Story... 1a and 1b to me... And both of them are not great in this game (obviously I can't say that much about the story cause I played just a little over half of it so far)

Visuals: Average. Most characters have a really weird gray-ish skin tone, and their facial expressions are not that good either. And the locations, objects, etc don't look real or natural..

Story: Oh, look, another story where the MC goes back home to his mother and 2 sisters. Except there is no incest, so they're replaced by his mom's friend and her 2 daughters. And all of them are really impressed and attracted by your gigantic dick. How original.

Whoa boy, this is going to be a really difficult review to write.

The artwork is all over the place, character models range from well done to plastic barbie doll to downright ugly. Backgrounds amount to huge blobs of colour to dictate where everything is, to the point it's quite noticeable. Animations are all over the place, with some being flipbook, some being really janky and poorly done, and some being actually really high quality. There's no soundtrack either so that's another mark against the game. Overall, it just lacks a lot of polish. Once the game is finished, if the dev spent a few weeks, months, however long it took, to really nail down detail work and animation quality then this could be a much better game.

There's a few saving graces however.

The writing is witty and humorous, the characters are distinct and despite most of them being cliches of the adult VN genre they all feel just a little bit different to the norm. The story is an engaging mystery that plays out like some Machiavellian drama without taking itself totally seriously.

I do really enjoy the game in it's current state but the lack of quality in terms of presentation really drags this game down in comparison to some of it's peers. If it gets a coat of polish in the future, I won't hesitate to upgrade my score to a perfect.

Certainly one of the best games here. Choices affect the game but they are not too constrictive and the plot is interesting but easy to follow. The game is also regularly updated every 4-6 weeks. The pacing of the story is good and while I don't find every character interesting, they are different from each other.

Chapter16.
You know that slide when the story of the VN goes downhill when you start *ucking everyone? Not here! This is a rare gem where everything just keeps getting better and better! Some say the girls should look better.. Dont mind them! There´s a lot of fap material here! You really just end up liking the girls! Because they're awesome and well fleshed out characters that seem real and that includes the MC. Tee writing of this game is growing and it´s clear for us why the girls are interest is the MC and very clear why we like them. Just try it!

honestly i played a lot of games here, hands down this has to be one of my top games if not the top game so far.

when the BASEMENT exchange was happening i had to take a moment to reflect on how amazing the writing is. the plot, the jokes, the banter and the relationship with everyone it makes the game way more enjoyable to play and work on your relationship with every character because it is worth it.

the character development is amazing and you can easily lose yourself playing it wishing it can never end.

took me a long time to get to it but am very very glad i got to this game. everyone interested in an actual game and story in this site should try it because it is easily one of the most satisfying game stories you can experience...

the only downside is now it set the bar pretty high for any other games i play XD

I decided to give this game a 5 star. Its a bit generous but I want to encourage others to try it and to encourage dev to continue producing great games
I`m speaking as another dev...
Game is great. Story is easy/cheesy but its fine... I like that, its my preferred choice. Don`t expect some Skyrim story Its very hot game, with decent rendering but later on it gets better and better!!!(really nice animations later on!!!).It felt no more then 3 star game first half and hour or so but it really improves later on and its much better game...
I love frequent choices! Again, congrats to dev for implementing that! I love it! Its so much more involving and sexier to have choices even the obvious ones! That`s why I gave this game a 5 star despite not being AAA title...

Once again, support the developer if you like his work! Its very important and it motivates him to improve and keep delivering even better game. Its very hard work!(trust me, I know)

Variety, frequent choices, easy story, romance driven is a major plus for this game!

I love this VN, I liked the plot, the girls are very charismatic and the protagonist is not the typical idiot who fuck every woman he sees.

I definitely give him 5 stars and I hope to see more games from his dev in the future.

See, this is how you do an adult game. Not only are the character models gorgeous, but they are incredibly deep and all have their own (likable) personality. Especially, Monica.
Plus, when the developer releases an episode, there is a ton of content to go through.

One of the best games I've ever played if it wasn't the best already.
I like a lot of things about it:
1- Large content: The story is big and interesting, it made me spend a week till finishing it.
2- Hot NPCs: All the girls in the game without any exception are beautiful and hot. Every single one of them has her own charm.
3- A lot of sexual content: The story as I said is long but the good thing that the developer didn't forget about adding a lot of sexual content and not focusing only on building up the characters.
4- Cool story: I like the story and the gameplay and I like the idea that I don't have to repeat scenes to trigger sex scenes, everything was put in perfect order, you'll get laid at the end don't worry.
5- Descent animation: Except for the first two episodes, the animation is more than perfect, I liked it pretty much.
The only thing I didn't really like was focusing on POV without showing the MC's body or hands or face when kissing or groping but that was fixed later and I liked that the developer noticed it and improved it.

Definitely one of the best VN's out there. The renders fall a bit short when compared to top tier VN's but I think the game makes up for it in the story. It is an interesting concept and the anticipation of the mystery inheritance towards the later episodes is palpable.

I think the relationships are done very well. At least some of them; personally, I loved seeing Katie grow as a person in my playthrough and all of the parts with her and her friends were very enjoyable. Honestly the party and the beach were some of my favorite moments in a VN.

Jenna also grows a ton with the MC around and it is cool to feel like more than a walking cock. The MC is a pretty funny guy, not a creep like in some other games, and apparently is pretty attractive. The lives of those around you change for the better partly because of you and even in just a story, that feels good. This allows the game to feel really natural and is just an all around awesome experience. The banter and dialogue is enjoyable for the most part as well. The date with Katie at the French restaurant was really funny because of the little prank with the waiter. Seeing his reactions was pretty hilarious.

Hopefully this level of quality continues, the latest episode was done very well. It will be tough to close out the story because the whole mystery inheritance will have to be done tastefully and I am curious to see where the devs go with this. Easily in my top 5 and I totally recommend playing it.

Great job to the devs.

This game has a lot of hot girls and also a pretty good plot which kept me interested. Monica and her daughters are also likeable and pretty believable as characters. The animations are really well done, it's clear that a lot of work went into them. The banter and jokes are also good, sometimes fantastic (I've laughed out lout more than I would expect in an adult game).
Another testament to the quality of the game is that I had a reaaaaly hard time deciding what my pain route/path was, I kept weighing this as I went to sleep or on my way to work Btw I played without the incest patch, I didn't feel it was required here.
As criticism right now I can only say this: too many big/huge boobs. It makes you desensitized and makes everything slightly less believable.
Anyway I want to thank the team behind this game for many wonderful moments and I hope they can deal well with the branching and decisions.

Was decent and kept me engaged until the grey girl appearance. It's distracting (the character is supposed to be a white human that just spends way too much time inside).

The game is unremarkable (not terrible or awesome in any way for the small part I've seen), it just broke all immersion for me because one major character is totally desaturated. This is the key aspect that is bad. I don't believe I've seen enough of the game to judge it on story or originality.

I would consider playing a patch that replace any picture she's in with a black screen.

The nature of choice based Visual Novels is such that the story progresses based on the selection of the player. However, so many times the player is basically forced or railroaded onto a path and this ultimately causes a disconnect with the player. Where The Heart Is has to be perhaps one of the very rare choice based Visual Novels where you, the player is in complete control of your actions. Not once are you forced to romance or sleep with someone who you don't like or hate. Another HUGE pet peeve of mine where harem/dating VN's start with MC in a relationship with a girl or wife that the player won't have a bonding with which utterly pisses me off. This is essentially the VN manipulating the player into having feelings that should never be the case.

What you see is exactly what you get here. The MC goes to live with the friends of his mother who has two daughters with whom he bonded many years ago. At this point the plot sounds cliche but this is where things start getting interesting. Various plots like the MC's dad leaving an inheritance and an email sent by a mysterious person form an interesting overarching mythology arc which tether together the episodes. There are various events peppered throughout that give an adequate amount of screentime to mostly all the characters. The dialogue exchange in particular between the MC and a few of the girls with a funny bone is hilarious.

There are numerous girls and ladies available for the MC to romance with points allocated based on love/lust but choose the wrong one and you can make most of them hate you. Almost all carry with them a certain secret or something that should make you suspicious of them that further adds to the intrigue so there are no archetypes but more of people with mixed qualities that make each of them unique. The dialogue options also reflect this clearly and you more or less know where you stand with the ladies. A helpful stat screen at the end of each episode is present for the meta gamers who'd like to min/max their standing. Thus you are free to be friends with all girls and not romance a single one of them or be committed to just one or try sleeping with all and suffer the consequences. What's spoiled me for future VN's is how WTHI gives the players chances to back out many times so that you don't fall victim to being in an unintended situation with someone.

The few weaknesses WTHI has is lies with the less amount of renders and somewhat static poses. For people like me who value story, this doesn't matter but when you have a high quality VN like this then you wish that the entire package was well rounded up. A few times some verbal tics are shared by a few characters which comes off a little odd but can be largely ignored. For all the amount of choices given I wish one was given in a certain party where MC could leave after attending the first half. Keeping it vague, you can succeed in the first half and purposely fail the second half to exit unscathed.

For me, this is the gold standard of choice-based dating VN's and similar future game developers (current ones as well) should learn from WTHI and take notes on how not to strong-arm the player into doing things they don't want and get detached from them in the end. After all, the medium is all about player choice and WTHI perfectly encapsulates it.

Pros
♦ Good rendering;
♦ A lot of female characters;
♦ Progressive storyline;
♦ Diverse outfits;
♦ Choices matter;
♦ Long story, gives you some hours of gameplay;
♦ Constantly updated.
________________________________

Cons
♣ Correct choices all revolve around being nice and follow the same pattern for every single character, thus making their personalities all the same;
♣ Odd onomatopeias* that may turn a little irritating (like 'MMM' and 'MWAH!' every single time there is a kiss)
→ None of these actually affect the game on a large scale, and are more related to personal pet peeves.

* - Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes

It is a lovely game, the story line is captivating and hours and hours of hot girls, and ladies. MC seems to be getting in a bit of a mess with all the commitments but i am sure he is going to make out of it safe and sound and with a big harem, is there any source of corruption round the corner? So looking forward to more, keep it coming @CheekyGimp

The amount of content in this game is impressive, played this game for a number of days, and just started to skip characters I wasn't interested in and there was still a lengthy amount of content for characters I did enjoy.

The renders and characters are good and while some are not that impressive overall the visuals are quite well done, and the writing is simple but surprisingly enjoyable except the minefield I had to endure at the start of the game to avoid characters that I didn't want to pursue, but after playing further it got better and you eventually get dialogue choices to completely stop any forced intimate interactions with them. The characters are numerous, with different, simple but distinct personalities and needs, and plenty of intimate and sex scenes.

Overall it was a rough start, but once I got further I genuinely enjoyed the game and the amount of content and the character variety it has.

Very good game with lots of excellent writing. Katie is the reason I would never put this game down, but there is so much more to it than that. I just can't wait to see where the story goes, Cheeky has improved so much since the start, but the writing has always been there. One of the funniest VN's on here by far. You can tell he cares about his game a lot.

Best plot ever. new scenes new characters and new experience is what you always get in every new update. Girls are nasty if you want them be like that. Milfs are superhot. Katie is amazing! Love this game and wish you all the best!

This is one of the few releases that I consistently look forward to with each new release. The assets used are fairly well textured (except one of the daughters who looks a bit too much like a vampire with how pale she is) and it has an enjoyable story, so far.