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

[Holy Bacchus]

After playing through the game again for the new update, I realized I just don't care for this game all that much anymore. I'm in the same camp as a few people in here, when it started it felt like a harem game, and to now find out the choices you made at the start completely screw over your ending feels bad.

The "choose your chapter" start feels like a dev had an o shit moment and is using that as a "fix" for people after they realized most people playing would have had there saves fucked. Not sure why so many games have such a hard time sticking the ending, tons of games (like this one) start off sooooo strong but just fall flat.

Honestly, even though this game was never intended to be a harem game or even one where you could "have 'em all" with little fallout but not end with all of them, I think it's really quite difficult to do any adult game and not have people wanting to end up with every single female character they fuck along the way.

The escapism of these games is so often predicated on the notion that infidelity and womanising will be rewarded and that even if it causes some friction/break-ups, it will always be salvageable, and it's hard to dispell that once it's ingrained in people's heads. You could make a game with just 2 LIs, have them say in absolutely clear English that they will not tolerate a guy who sleeps around and/or leads them on, and people will still hope for an ending with both of them.

Perhaps more games, including this one, should be including more consequential choices earlier on or perhaps even lean more into branching whereby you have to choose one girl over the other at certain points and this will determine your relationships, because one thing this game suffers from, which others do too, is that the MC can do pretty much everything with everyone in every episode one after the other, and because they can do that, it makes people feel like that can have everyone because no-one has to be left out or avoided and they're able to maintain all these relationships simultaneously. But if they couldn't do that and had to choose between one or the other throughout the game, then that could maybe go some ways to making it clear you can't have them all because your time is being split between them.

 

[mannice431]

There's no new Zarah scenes in this update right?

 

[Holy Bacchus]

There's no new Zarah scenes in this update right?

No.

 

[micojive]

this never was going to be a harem, it gave enough freedom for you to get most of the content but that would come at a cost towards the end, it has been said countless times for almost 2 years now it is not an harem game try and catch them all at your on risk, there will be a few groups but mostly solo LI endings like it was always planned to be

Thats fine if that is what the dev said, but to be frank there are 1100 pages of comments, and this site isnt the most user friendly for searching.

Just from playing the game, until chapter 19/20 there isn't a time where any of the girls are flat out refusing sharing. There are no consequences in playing, by fooling around with everyone and you can keep every path open, even now in chapter 20 nothing is closed off.

Out of all the girls Katie is the only one who has shown to be against it, and even then you have a fucking 4some with her 2 best friends. So no, playing this game is plays exactly like a harem game. The only reason to say otherwise is because of some comments made by the dev, not by the gameplay. So yea if people get put off by that its really not some crazy thing players are reaching for. In 2 years of updates, in the actual gameplay there has been nothing shown that would lead a player to believe the harem is a bad path and wont happen.

 

[troll822]

IJolina is still a suspected gold digger, I wonder if she didn't video the little session with the MC and Jenna to use later.

Jolina and Bella are both gold diggers. Whether one of them is the 3rd woman (I would suspect Bella) is not known. However, one doesn't have to be the 3rd woman to be a gold digger.

 

[Bailz]

Honestly, even though this game was never intended to be a harem game or even one where you could "have 'em all" with little fallout but not end with all of them, I think it's really quite difficult to do any adult game and not have people wanting to end up with every single female character they fuck along the way.

The escapism of these games is so often predicated on the notion that infidelity and womanising will be rewarded and that even if it causes some friction/break-ups, it will always be salvageable, and it's hard to dispell that once it's ingrained in people's heads. You could make a game with just 2 LIs, have them say in absolutely clear English that they will not tolerate a guy who sleeps around and/or leads them on, and people will still hope for an ending with both of them.

Perhaps more games, including this one, should be including more consequential choices earlier on or perhaps even lean more into branching whereby you have to choose one girl over the other at certain points and this will determine your relationships, because one thing this game suffers from, which others do too, is that the MC can do pretty much everything with everyone in every episode one after the other, and because they can do that, it makes people feel like that can have everyone because no-one has to be left out or avoided and they're able to maintain all these relationships simultaneously. But if they couldn't do that and had to choose between one or the other throughout the game, then that could maybe go some ways to making it clear you can't have them all because your time is being split between them.

but thats not the devs fault they only gave the option its up to the player to choose to try and catch them all or not and if they try and it all comes crashing down then its the players fault, because they have been told over and over again both on here and in game that it is not an harem, most of the girls in game have told the MC they will not share him so what do players expect to happen if they try and fuck around on a girl who has said that, i have 5 saves where i have only slept with the girl im chasing there is no need for every game to be an harem if people cant make a choice in LI then thats on them

 

[Gold613]

I absolved Elaine because she was never cold to other people, even Bella points out how she treated the MC was unusual behaviour and brought on by his dad.

She was never cold to the MC, just stopped interacting with him. It was brought up in this update how they used to enjoy a meal together like an actual family, his dad put a stop to it.

She may have sent the e-mail but as far as anyone else has said, even the MC himself, she was never cold and manipulative just distant and ignorant.

That too is correct you are right, I figured that much too myself specially indeed from what I remember. But that indeed added with the rest only absolves her more. I just double checked like 15 min ago the conversation word for word in terms of both the fortune teller and the lawyer convo from ep19.

The mention of a mother figure who wants to tell you something but she cannot, Her specific wording and I quote " I see many years in the cold...separation from you MC. You were kept apart but it was the fault of another. But now she wants you in her life. And in her home. And you are most definitely in her heart. But I see her surrounded by the money with the money connected to her house... "

So yeah like I said the main issue is she clearly wants the house and nothing else and from what she has told before she would willingly give up everything and give it all to the MC so long as she gets the house. So her being cold and deceitful and manipulative all is out of the question as indeed confirmed as you said by Bella and the MC and actions as well as what the fortune teller has said. That brings me to the part of where the fortune teller said she wants to tell you something but she cannot.. which moves us to the lawyer. I quote a part of him " In fact for some of the beneficiaries, it would actually make things null and void if they share their conditions with another beneficiary " So to correct myself it seems that while they can technically talk about the will some of them cannot talk about their conditions so that does make it seems to add that Elaine is one of the few that cannot speak about her conditions.

And another reason why I also don't think she is the problem and the one who knows all the conditions is because iirc ( feel free to correct me on this ) Neither Elaine nor the MC knew there was a third party and from what the Lawyer spoke it seems that the third party knows about ALL the conditions and knew of her other 2 competitors. He also makes it clear by stating and I quote " You are playing poker against someone who can see your hand and the hands of everyone else. And from my observations, this particular player is a very cold, manipulative, deceitful and... " He does however point out that is merely him sharing his personal feelings based on just two meetings he had with that person so he might be unfair about the situation.

So a quick question to you, Avaron1974 we both agree about Elaine, but can you tell me maybe where everyone is getting this whole Jo and Bella working together deal from ? And point me in the right direction on that ? And also do you by chance remember which Ep it is where the MC sits in his room to hear about his conditions and terms of his will ? I want to have a full check on that. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bailz]

Thats fine if that is what the dev said, but to be frank there are 1100 pages of comments, and this site isnt the most user friendly for searching.

Just from playing the game, until chapter 19/20 there isn't a time where any of the girls are flat out refusing sharing. There are no consequences in playing, by fooling around with everyone and you can keep every path open, even now in chapter 20 nothing is closed off.

Out of all the girls Katie is the only one who has shown to be against it, and even then you have a fucking 4some with her 2 best friends. So no, playing this game is plays exactly like a harem game. The only reason to say otherwise is because of some comments made by the dev, not by the gameplay. So yea if people get put off by that its really not some crazy thing players are reaching for. In 2 years of updates, in the actual gameplay there has been nothing shown that would lead a player to believe the harem is a bad path and wont happen.

Katie, Bella, Monica and i think Angel all say they will not share the MC, and the devs from the start have said no harem

 

[micojive]

Katie, Bella, Monica and i think Angel all say they will not share the MC, and the devs from the start have said no harem

They might say it, but the sure as hell don't believe it when they are having 3somes or more with him lol...

 

[Conklingc]

Honestly, even though this game was never intended to be a harem game or even one where you could "have 'em all" with little fallout but not end with all of them, I think it's really quite difficult to do any adult game and not have people wanting to end up with every single female character they fuck along the way.

The escapism of these games is so often predicated on the notion that infidelity and womanising will be rewarded and that even if it causes some friction/break-ups, it will always be salvageable, and it's hard to dispell that once it's ingrained in people's heads. You could make a game with just 2 LIs, have them say in absolutely clear English that they will not tolerate a guy who sleeps around and/or leads them on, and people will still hope for an ending with both of them.

Perhaps more games, including this one, should be including more consequential choices earlier on or perhaps even lean more into branching whereby you have to choose one girl over the other at certain points and this will determine your relationships, because one thing this game suffers from, which others do too, is that the MC can do pretty much everything with everyone in every episode one after the other, and because they can do that, it makes people feel like that can have everyone because no-one has to be left out or avoided and they're able to maintain all these relationships simultaneously. But if they couldn't do that and had to choose between one or the other throughout the game, then that could maybe go some ways to making it clear you can't have them all because your time is being split between them.

I agree with your thoughts to a degree, but I'm one of those that doesn't want a multi-save game so if there's branching where you miss some of the material I just drop the game. In the long run there are too many fans that want different results, so no matter what the developers choose people will complain.

The harem/no harem argument goes around a lot and that's actually something I don't care about either way (the final explosive confrontation/harem group occurs at the very end of the game and then it's all over anyhow). I like there being a story beyond the porn but don't want to have to choose to see one side of the story over the other (or one of 3 or more possible branches). On the other hand I know there are people who want to play the game over and over and see just one of a possible set of stories each time and accept there's no way for a developer to make both of us happy.

 

[acewinz]

Downloaded Where the Heart Is [Ep.20] but at the end of EP-19 that was all.What happen to EP-20? This game was going well until now and hated to replay the 19th EP again. I am giving this game a 8 out of 10 stars but maybe more when it's fixed.

If the pirate links for the game are giving you trouble you could always try the legitimate ones on our patreon... Also we have a quick start on the menu... No need to replay any eps anymore.

 

[micojive]

I agree with your thoughts to a degree, but I'm one of those that doesn't want a multi-save game so if there's branching where you miss some of the material I just drop the game. In the long run there are too many fans that want different results, so no matter what the developers choose people will complain.

The harem/no harem argument goes around a lot and that's actually something I don't care about either way (the final explosive confrontation/harem group occurs at the very end of the game and then it's all over anyhow). I like there being a story beyond the porn but don't want to have to choose to see one side of the story over the other (or one of 3 or more possible branches). On the other hand I know there are people who want to play the game over and over and see just one of a possible set of stories each time and accept there's no way for a developer to make both of us happy.

Eh, this has turned into the exact kind of a game that a decently done mod can make 10000x better. Not locking you out of paths and letting you see all the scenes in one playthrough.

I get it from a devs perspective, multiple routes and all that...but I just don't want to replay the same 95% of a game 5 times just to get all the individual scenes.

 

[Gold613]

Jolina and Bella are both gold diggers. Whether one of them is the 3rd woman (I would suspect Bella) is not known. However, one doesn't have to be the 3rd woman to be a gold digger.

Jolina if she was a GD would have jumped at every opportunity that she got presented from the MC to back her up financially so I doubt that she is a GD. Also her business is failing and she is having an Epic meltdown with everything going on. Last thing I think is her wanting to actually close shop but seemingly is in a desperate situation yet declined a second offering to receive financial help. Not sure how that would make her a GD specially that she had to degrade herself to the point of maybe working at some place where her body will be providing the income for her. And you are right the third person does not have to be a gold digger perse however from the game and so far everything that has been given and pointed out it is made clear that Elaine is not a GD either. So that means the GD is the third person. And no one knows who the third person is and if I was in MC his situation I would be frustrated as hell because as far as I know I myself and Elaine are 2 and we both know about each other but neither know anything about who and what the third person is but would clearly upset both the MC and Elaine. So I am trying to see if there is anything that gives something about Bella's background and or up bringing. Some are pointing out at Theresa but I doubt Elaine knows Theresa and MC only learned and got to know her because of Dog boys action and Jo introducing her. So she falls off for me too.

 

[Avaron1974]

So a quick question to you, Avaron1974 we both agree about Elaine, but can you tell me maybe where everyone is getting this whole Jo and Bella working together deal from ? And point me in the right direction on that ? And also do you by chance remember which Ep it is where the MC sits in his room to hear about his conditions and terms of his will ? I want to have a full check on that. Thanks in advance.

I will go through it and check which episode it is but there is a moment where you check Jenna's PC and it has several pictures on it, 2 of which are taken in the same kitchen with 1 picture showing Bella and the other showing Jolina and both also had the same laptop in frame.

There are also little coincidences like Bella finding the USB stick and not long after Jolina finds out she was hacked.

I am not sure that I would trust those pics after they have been doctored by two computer oriented women.

I didn't think about that, that's a really good point.

If Jo is working with Bella it would be in both their interests to make Elaine out to be the bad guy again.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

but thats not the devs fault they only gave the option its up to the player to choose to try and catch them all or not and if they try and it all comes crashing down then its the players fault, because they have been told over and over again both on here and in game that it is not an harem, most of the girls in game have told the MC they will not share him so what do players expect to happen if they try and fuck around on a girl who has said that, i have 5 saves where i have only slept with the girl im chasing there is no need for every game to be an harem if people cant make a choice in LI then thats on them

It's not the player's fault if they don't know that. Not everybody who plays this game follows this thread or knows what the dev has said on this matter, and you can't expect people to know it from simply playing this game either because it does play like a harem game, or at least every game with multiple female characters that the MC can bed without consequence, even when there are characters who say they will not share the MC.

Again, an issue here is the general, somewhat conventional notion that games like this will allow for such seemingly limitless womanising and that everything will work out fine because about 90% or more of the adult games that exist are that. So when that's your mindset and frame of reference and you start playing a game like this with a huge cast of female characters that you're able to have simultanteously, most people will naturally assume that can work out well in the end. Characters like Katie are also not enough to deter people from that view because female characters in adult games so often their views on relationships and sexuality that there will be an expectation of it happening here too.

So it's not the player's fault and not entirely the game's fault either, it's what these games generally are that can make people expect the same here.

 

[Gold613]

I will go through it and check which episode it is but there is a moment where you check Jenna's PC and it has several pictures on it, 2 of which are taken in the same kitchen with 1 picture showing Bella and the other showing Jolina and both also had the same laptop in frame.

There are also little coincidences like Bella finding the USB stick and not long after Jolina finds out she was hacked.

I didn't think about that, that's a really good point.

If Jo is working with Bella it would be in both their interests to make Elaine out to be the bad guy again.

Oof, Either I did not get those scenes or I do not remember them, Seems I will have to figure out what choices have been made to get those scenes and what ep's they are on, thanks. And yeah if that is indeed the case they are working together it is indeed in best interest to have Elaine look bad but it does seem off that Jo's business is failing and she refuses any monetary help from MC. So knowing exactly when and where to look would def help me out, much appreciated.

 

[BeingADikDik]

Excellent update - looking forward to plot resolutions. Here are some of my own predictions and hopes for endings:

1. Spoiler: Who are the gold diggers?

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2. Spoiler: What other characters have secrets?

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3. Spoiler: How will the plot threads resolve?

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4. Spoiler: Will there be any more twists/turns?

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Thanks to the devs for an engaging game and well wishes for continued success. Cheers!

 

[acewinz]

Eh, this has turned into the exact kind of a game that a decently done mod can make 10000x better. Not locking you out of paths and letting you see all the scenes in one playthrough.

I get it from a devs perspective, multiple routes and all that...but I just don't want to replay the same 95% of a game 5 times just to get all the individual scenes.

Maybe if someone put a quick start into the game you could avoid most of the redundant scenes. Especially since path exclusivity only really started this Ep.

 

[Gold613]

1. Spoiler: What other characters have secrets?

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I need your help on something and for the blonde/sister comment from the fortune teller you are correct on that one if it is about Jo seeing as people have pointed out about Bella and Jo knowing one another and while I wait for Avaron's help on that I did manage to find the pictures that was being referred too and that does make sense as I was confused at first about the blonde part with the sister but no mention of lily in that mix while she is much important as the rest.
What I need your help is, can you point me out about where exactly

Spoiler

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As I want to experience everything surrounding that conversation for myself. Thanks.

 

[Bailz]

I need your help on something and for the blonde/sister comment from the fortune teller you are correct on that one if it is about Jo seeing as people have pointed out about Bella and Jo knowing one another and while I wait for Avaron's help on that I did manage to find the pictures that was being referred too and that does make sense as I was confused at first about the blonde part with the sister but no mention of lily in that mix while she is much important as the rest.
What I need your help is, can you point me out about where exactly

Spoiler

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As I want to experience everything surrounding that conversation for myself. Thanks.

im not sure but i think its in this update after the threesome as the MC and Jenna are getting ready to go but Jenna interrupts her