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

[troll822]

Man... the point in the game where you get to a "which girl is my first choice"... and you get two pages of names.

 

[Cigar-Ferras]

Man... the point in the game where you get to a "which girl is my first choice"... and you get two pages of names.

Nah, it's an easy choice! lol Plus, i don't think it's a definitive choice just yet. More a way for the devs to get an idea where peoples choices are leading, i think. Some one said that a few pages back.

 

[Lolzi]

TL;DR: 2/5 stars. A worthy attempt but leaves a lot to be desired, whether visuals, story, progression, lack of audio... if you're bored, give it a whirl but you might just be better moving on to another project. You will need some patience for this one with an open mind.

This probably gets better but... I got bored part way through chapter 3 or 4. I think the best character up to that point at least the story/chemistry was Katie and basically that was the only thing keeping me interested.

The are some unusual choices for the models and few of them strike my boxes. Why does Jenna look like a half Drow (this is not a bad thing but doesn't match the context)? The 'landlord?' looks almost 60 (I'm sorry I'm not that old), and the token diversity character?

The progression was another matter...it feels like I'm on a rail road... but that's part and parcel of episodic VNs I guess. The pacing is not bad, I wouldn't say it's the best in the world but it isn't the worst I think it just suffers due to the aforementioned issues. Some of the character design even after being blatantly rebuffed seemed to come back for more as if there was no problem whatsoever and was becoming tedious to keep rebuffing. So that along with the story... well... it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

Finally the main character...urghhhh... someone shoot me. Did not like.

Removed from my system and I'll move onto another project. I'm mostly leaving this for myself as I'll likely come back across this and wonder why I stopped playing it. I can only hope that this review is constructive, if the author wishes to attract a wider audience at least if not, I hope it doesn't dissuade them from creating more content and hopefully their next project will be better.

 

[alex13_zen]

Jenna looks like that because she doesn't get out, after a while she literally gets a tan for her skin. And thankfully Monica is not a landlord and no way does she look 60

 

[Snugglepuff]

TL;DR: 2/5 stars. A worthy attempt but leaves a lot to be desired, whether visuals, story, progression, lack of audio... if you're bored, give it a whirl but you might just be better moving on to another project. You will need some patience for this one with an open mind.

This probably gets better but... I got bored part way through chapter 3 or 4. I think the best character up to that point at least the story/chemistry was Katie and basically that was the only thing keeping me interested.

The are some unusual choices for the models and few of them strike my boxes. Why does Jenna look like a half Drow (this is not a bad thing but doesn't match the context)? The 'landlord?' looks almost 60 (I'm sorry I'm not that old), and the token diversity character?

The progression was another matter...it feels like I'm on a rail road... but that's part and parcel of episodic VNs I guess. The pacing is not bad, I wouldn't say it's the best in the world but it isn't the worst I think it just suffers due to the aforementioned issues. Some of the character design even after being blatantly rebuffed seemed to come back for more as if there was no problem whatsoever and was becoming tedious to keep rebuffing. So that along with the story... well... it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

Finally the main character...urghhhh... someone shoot me. Did not like.

Removed from my system and I'll move onto another project. I'm mostly leaving this for myself as I'll likely come back across this and wonder why I stopped playing it. I can only hope that this review is constructive, if the author wishes to attract a wider audience at least if not, I hope it doesn't dissuade them from creating more content and hopefully their next project will be better.

There's an actual section for reviews, if you scroll up.
It's right next to this one - Discussion.

Criticism in the thread is fine, but posting a review in here is pointless for the purposes of a review, and is basically just contributing to needless thread bloat.

 

[Avaron1974]

just contributing to needless thread bloat.

Which I already do enough for everyone.

 

[Abhai]

TL;DR: 2/5 stars. A worthy attempt but leaves a lot to be desired, whether visuals, story, progression, lack of audio... if you're bored, give it a whirl but you might just be better moving on to another project. You will need some patience for this one with an open mind.

This probably gets better but... I got bored part way through chapter 3 or 4. I think the best character up to that point at least the story/chemistry was Katie and basically that was the only thing keeping me interested.

The are some unusual choices for the models and few of them strike my boxes. Why does Jenna look like a half Drow (this is not a bad thing but doesn't match the context)? The 'landlord?' looks almost 60 (I'm sorry I'm not that old), and the token diversity character?

The progression was another matter...it feels like I'm on a rail road... but that's part and parcel of episodic VNs I guess. The pacing is not bad, I wouldn't say it's the best in the world but it isn't the worst I think it just suffers due to the aforementioned issues. Some of the character design even after being blatantly rebuffed seemed to come back for more as if there was no problem whatsoever and was becoming tedious to keep rebuffing. So that along with the story... well... it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

Finally the main character...urghhhh... someone shoot me. Did not like.

Removed from my system and I'll move onto another project. I'm mostly leaving this for myself as I'll likely come back across this and wonder why I stopped playing it. I can only hope that this review is constructive, if the author wishes to attract a wider audience at least if not, I hope it doesn't dissuade them from creating more content and hopefully their next project will be better.

and what exactly is your point there?
you dont like vn-s? you are loli-guy who plays only with loli-characters?

im sure this post/review of yours is very useful to the devs and majority people here...glad you came along to open our eyes and wide our narrow views.

better do as Snugglepuff advised - remove that "useful" post from the thread, and post it in the "reviews".

 

[Lolzi]

Alex, I'll concede late 50s :/ . Though this is not down purely to physical reasons (where I'd probably concede early 50s), I'm thinking hair style, clothing and somewhat posing. I have no idea whether landlord or not, I make use of my own custom mods to change certain details to words I prefer, I'm guessing at what the word should be (I never base criticism of the main game if the mods are at fault or it's something I can easily change, just to be clear). As for Jenna, she doesn't look pale, she looks like a drow (I checked)... the skin seems (to me at least) a dark grey rather than pale (this is usually quite fair, white even but at the very least still a shade of orange). I figured it was just the shading at first but even in supposedly different lightning conditions... well there didn't seem to be any difference. Seemed like an odd skin tone to go for. Many thanks for treating an opinion as what it is .

Snugglepuff, that'd be a great point... if I could actually do that. I get an error message saying something along the lines of insufficient permissions. It's been that way since day one. I'm not overly fussed as I can contribute topically to the thread (seeing as how the title is the game and my post is about the game). Sadly others think posting ad hominems is somehow less thread bloat... :/

Fortunately... I have an ignore button .

Lately, I've been playing Dreams and Desires, Milfy City, MotH in case that matters. Granted VNs are not normally my go to but they've been enjoying a bit of a renaissance with me lately.

 

[Conklingc]

My opinion is different from Lolzi, but obviously there are plenty of people with different tastes. I would question the choice to download it if the models didn't appeal since all the character's mentioned in the rating appear on the title page.

I like the main character and felt it was a nice change from the creeper types so common in these games. There were a couple points where he seemed to miss obvious things, but that's understandable with the developers trying to make him human. The one criticism I have for the main character is I wish he could be played more honest with the other characters. He seems nice and caring other than the lying. I like Being a Dik as well and feel the main character in it is more honest (although also less confident and a bit whiny at times - especially in their chapter 4). I also appreciate that the main character in this game is taller than what is used in several other games.

I downloaded this and started over at the beginning and haven't got to the new (chapter 17) material yet, but wanted to be familiar with it again when I played that section. It is still one of my top three games on the site (Being a Dik and City of Broken Dreamers being the other top picks for me). I like running the romance with all the choices, so like others the Harem ending would have been appealing though I expect it would have always had to have been an unattached bonus feature (at least if an orgy representation was desired rather than mutual dating - being on Patreon Jenna/Katie/Monica and Elaine/Bella can't end up together). For those who still want that ending my suggestion would be to go to Patreon and get the highest level support you can afford and comment the desire there (If I were a developer the opinion of someone paying for my work would certainly be more persuasive - I'm not a supporter yet, but this is one of the three main developers I would like to support at some point).

I look forward to seeing more of this and hope if the designers do more games int he future they continue with confident and competent main characters.

 

[alex13_zen]

I think in the beginning the MC doesn't really lie but then he has to in order to be able to sleep with all the girls for as much as possible. That's on us as players who control his decisions. Also, being caring and lying aren't at all mutually exclusive.
If I had a complaint, it's that I'm tired of hearing the girls fawn over the MC's big dick, how he's the biggest they've ever seen and omg will it fit them and ruin them for other men. It's been done to death in almost all games, just give him a medium, normal-sized dick. Or maybe some guys live their fantasy of a big dick this way? I never thought about it until now

 

[Lolzi]

My opinion is different from Lolzi, but obviously there are plenty of people with different tastes. I would question the choice to download it if the models didn't appeal since all the character's mentioned in the rating appear on the title page.

I look forward to seeing more of this and hope if the designers do more games int he future they continue with confident and competent main characters.

Potential. This game has a lot of it. With revisions perhaps to the earlier chapters, this game could be raised a few notches. A little work on the dialog here, some model refinement there, posing adjustment the other and I think the game would be more enjoyable. Normally in these games you can... ignore characters you're not interested in... or friendzone them so perhaps tinkering with the ren'py logic could help (consider it a quality of life improvement). Some of the models did appeal some didn't... for me most of the time the character matters more than the model but... sadly this wasn't pulled off properly. In short the 'core' is there but needs polish.

I also agree with you about the MC, It was a nice touch that they aimed for something... 'else' for the basis behind the main character. More choice for different play styles would have been nice... even if ultimately there were no real changes to the reactions.

What I did like for the most part was scroll back wasn't limited (as much), this is pretty much a life saver if I accidentally click the wrong option. Or some action a little earlier had a surprising knock on effect, that meant for me at least not being able to keep my suspension of disbelief.

 

[Ulrich37]

First off, I want to give a big shout-out to the Dev here. This is a fantastic game with a well-developed mystery that adds to the overall enjoyment factor. Thanks for your work and for sharing this with the community! I hope the donations keep rolling in.

As we come to the end of the story (and I suspect we are a handful of releases from the finish), the main mystery of the story is, as yet, unsolved.

I would like to put my theory out there regarding how it will play out, and who I think the 'villain' of the story will be. Perhaps I'm borrowing from previous theories, but this thread is too long and I've not done a lot of reading of what others also think, so far. Pardon me if most of this is already established theory, or if certain combinations have already been ruled out.

Also, this is pretty long, so I’ll include a TL : DR here.

Spoiler: TL : DR

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Spoiler: Full Explanation

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Thanks for reading, and feel free to reply with your thoughts on the end game, or if you think I missed something!

 

[Cigar-Ferras]

First off, I want to give a big shout-out to the Dev here. This is a fantastic game with a well-developed mystery that adds to the overall enjoyment factor. Thanks for your work and for sharing this with the community! I hope the donations keep rolling in.

As we come to the end of the story (and I suspect we are a handful of releases from the finish), the main mystery of the story is, as yet, unsolved.

I would like to put my theory out there regarding how it will play out, and who I think the 'villain' of the story will be. Perhaps I'm borrowing from previous theories, but this thread is too long and I've not done a lot of reading of what others also think, so far. Pardon me if most of this is already established theory, or if certain combinations have already been ruled out.

Also, this is pretty long, so I’ll include a TL : DR here.

Spoiler: TL : DR

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Spoiler: Full Explanation

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Thanks for reading, and feel free to reply with your thoughts on the end game, or if you think I missed something!

The way you describe Elaine' story playing out is pretty much bang on my thoughts on how thing's will go. Bella i'm not sure of yet, she definitely has a connection to Jolina, as seen in the Jenna PC screen. Not sure what she would be doing with Jo with how it plays into the larger Will story yet as we haven't had a lot of info on Bella really. At this point, i think i'm just happy to see how it all plays out instead of all the multiple theories i had going. Katie is bae though!

 

[snakeplisskin]

Nah, it's an easy choice! lol Plus, i don't think it's a definitive choice just yet. More a way for the devs to get an idea where peoples choices are leading, i think. Some one said that a few pages back.

I don’t know it was pretty easy for me, Lily all the way heck I will gladly run away with her right now

 

[Avaron1974]

if you think I missed something!

Quite a big miss.

There is no harem, that is confirmed by the devs.

Your theory mentions a harem a couple of times yet it won't be happening so may need a rethink.

Also, personal thing cos it grated on me. Monica isn't a landlady, she's just Monica. She was MC's mothers friend not an incest plot device. The only incest in the game is if you use a game changing mod, this was never set with incest in mind.

 

[Ulrich37]

Quite a big miss.

There is no harem, that is confirmed by the devs.

Your theory mentions a harem a couple of times yet it won't be happening so may need a rethink.

Also, personal thing cos it grated on me. Monica isn't a landlady, she's just Monica. She was MC's mothers friend not an incest plot device. The only incest in the game is if you use a game changing mod, this was never set with incest in mind.

Wow, that's... quite sad. I mean, perhaps not a full on, every girl for me ending. But if it's limited to small groups and duos? Ouch.

Sorry about the Landlady thing. Technically she owns the place the MC is staying at the start of the game, but you aren't really paying rent. Friend of MC's Mom is a bit of a mouthful too. I'm perfectly fine with the lack of incest here.

 

[Avaron1974]

Wow, that's... quite sad. I mean, perhaps not a full on, every girl for me ending. But if it's limited to small groups and duos? Ouch.

To be fair, apart from Katie saying she would reluctantly share with her 2 friends, everyone else has either said they will not share at all or hinted at it.

The game let you sleep with everyone but a harem was never in the works.

 

[CheekyGimp]

TL;DR: 2/5 stars. A worthy attempt but leaves a lot to be desired, whether visuals, story, progression, lack of audio... if you're bored, give it a whirl but you might just be better moving on to another project. You will need some patience for this one with an open mind.

This probably gets better but... I got bored part way through chapter 3 or 4. I think the best character up to that point at least the story/chemistry was Katie and basically that was the only thing keeping me interested.

The are some unusual choices for the models and few of them strike my boxes. Why does Jenna look like a half Drow (this is not a bad thing but doesn't match the context)? The 'landlord?' looks almost 60 (I'm sorry I'm not that old), and the token diversity character?

The progression was another matter...it feels like I'm on a rail road... but that's part and parcel of episodic VNs I guess. The pacing is not bad, I wouldn't say it's the best in the world but it isn't the worst I think it just suffers due to the aforementioned issues. Some of the character design even after being blatantly rebuffed seemed to come back for more as if there was no problem whatsoever and was becoming tedious to keep rebuffing. So that along with the story... well... it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

Finally the main character...urghhhh... someone shoot me. Did not like.

Removed from my system and I'll move onto another project. I'm mostly leaving this for myself as I'll likely come back across this and wonder why I stopped playing it. I can only hope that this review is constructive, if the author wishes to attract a wider audience at least if not, I hope it doesn't dissuade them from creating more content and hopefully their next project will be better.

As soon as someone mentions the "landlord", the "mom", "The MC's sister", etc. I lose all interest in their commentary. I have no problem with people who criticise the game or don't like it. I know it's impossible to please everyone and I take no offence when someone dislikes it or gives a bad review. However I do take umbrage to people who aren't even reviewing the right game. If you mention landlord, mother, sister, etc. then you are not playing THIS game. If you play the mod, go review the mod. If you're mixing it up with other games, then please don't over-exert your brain by writing mixed-up reviews. If you don't like THIS game, then feel free to critique / criticise. And I really hope these people aren't as mixed up in their real-life otherwise their landlord / moms / sisters might end up dishing out restraining orders!!

 

[CheekyGimp]

My opinion is different from Lolzi, but obviously there are plenty of people with different tastes. I would question the choice to download it if the models didn't appeal since all the character's mentioned in the rating appear on the title page.

I like the main character and felt it was a nice change from the creeper types so common in these games. There were a couple points where he seemed to miss obvious things, but that's understandable with the developers trying to make him human. The one criticism I have for the main character is I wish he could be played more honest with the other characters. He seems nice and caring other than the lying. I like Being a Dik as well and feel the main character in it is more honest (although also less confident and a bit whiny at times - especially in their chapter 4). I also appreciate that the main character in this game is taller than what is used in several other games.

I downloaded this and started over at the beginning and haven't got to the new (chapter 17) material yet, but wanted to be familiar with it again when I played that section. It is still one of my top three games on the site (Being a Dik and City of Broken Dreamers being the other top picks for me). I like running the romance with all the choices, so like others the Harem ending would have been appealing though I expect it would have always had to have been an unattached bonus feature (at least if an orgy representation was desired rather than mutual dating - being on Patreon Jenna/Katie/Monica and Elaine/Bella can't end up together). For those who still want that ending my suggestion would be to go to Patreon and get the highest level support you can afford and comment the desire there (If I were a developer the opinion of someone paying for my work would certainly be more persuasive - I'm not a supporter yet, but this is one of the three main developers I would like to support at some point).

I look forward to seeing more of this and hope if the designers do more games int he future they continue with confident and competent main characters.

Good insights, especially about the MC being dishonest. I agree with you that it sorta does make him out to be a bit of a dick. He is in essence playing with the emotions of a lot of women but it is tricky to find the right balance. If he's too honest, every girl would dump him. Or if he's too honest and every girl accepts it, it would be unrealistic. I know the whole thing is unrealistic but you know what I mean We also try to find a balance between him having some thoughts (the inner monologue / Dialog responses where we don't give options, etc.) versus having him being a completely empty shell who only comments based on menu choices (that could get monotonous, also). But yep, in summary if you want to fuck aALL (or most) of the women, a little bit of dishonesty is needed. And in real life this guy wouldn't be everyone's "man of the year" award winner . But it's true what they say... "Nice guys finish last." Thanks for the inputs.

 

[CheekyGimp]

I think in the beginning the MC doesn't really lie but then he has to in order to be able to sleep with all the girls for as much as possible. That's on us as players who control his decisions. Also, being caring and lying aren't at all mutually exclusive.
If I had a complaint, it's that I'm tired of hearing the girls fawn over the MC's big dick, how he's the biggest they've ever seen and omg will it fit them and ruin them for other men. It's been done to death in almost all games, just give him a medium, normal-sized dick. Or maybe some guys live their fantasy of a big dick this way? I never thought about it until now

Yep, another one I agree. If I was to start from scratch, his dick certainly wouldn't be as big.