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.
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.