VN - Ren'Py - Where the Heart Is [S1 v2024-07-10 BETA] [CheekyGimp]

PROS
- I gotta say, this is one of the most well written games I've ever played. Each character has a different personality and their dialogues stick true to their character.
- I initially disliked that infamous 'frame-by-frame' animation as they look terrible and dated but thankfully its only restricted to the older episodes. I planned on this point being a 'con' but I won't criticize something the dev has fixed.
- No blueballing with the sexual content (at least in the latter episodes). And they don't throw sex scenes around just for the sake of it. Each one has meaning to it and sufficient buildup behind it.
- Usually a game either has a good story with no NSFW content or lots of sex with a terrible plot. This is one of those few games that successfully does both. I'm really engaged in the story and the plots devices such as finding out who is the gold-digger is or Jenna's transformation where she comes out of her shell. I find myself looking forward to how the plot will develop.
- The characters here look realistic. You know, like actual people. Not pornstars or supermodels. The older women also look true to their age. None of that '20 year old looking milfs' that we see so often

CONS
- This game initially did not have harem. However, the harem fans demanded its inclusion and now the author is trying to shoehorn it in at this late stage in the game. The problem with this is that it leads to several plot inconsistencies. The game has set-up various potential polyamorous relationships with 'Jolina and Jenna' and 'Zarah and Monica'. However, lets take Katie's example since that harem is already set-up. Katie's character is someone that did not want to share her boyfriend with anyone. She is quite frequently depicted as a jealous and possessive character. Even labelled the MC's dick as a sole belonging of hers. She is never gonna be okay if the MC sleeps with someone else, right? In quite literally the next episode, she allows all her friends to sleep with him. Breaking her character development and the game's realistic tone. I have no problem with the act of sleeping with multiple women at once, its just disappointing when its done while sacrificing a character's identity just to provide fanservice.
- No music or sound effects.

In conclusion, its a pretty solid game and I recommend checking it out.

I kept seeing other players post things like, "Looking for games like 'Where the Heart is'" on various forums so I decided to give this game a try. My expectations where a bit too high coming into it but I enjoyed the game very much once I stuck with it.

Pros

• Good to Excellent renders
• Excellent characters with unique personalities
• Excellent character development
• Excellent variety of clothing that looks real and not painted on
• Excellent humor and banter between the characters
• Very long game with lots of hours of content - the longest game I've played on this site

Cons

• The dialog is quite verbose and it takes a while for it to lead anywhere. There is too much unmeaningful dialog that could be skipped or condensed in my opinion. All the characters in the game have long conversations that can get tiring after a while. I never did skip through the dialog but I was tempted to quite often.
• I was bothered that nearly all of the girls in the game have a potty or gutter mouth, meaning that they freely swear like a sailor, including the shy and innocent Jenna. This is one area where some of the characters break immersion for me.
• The first eight episodes of the game were a learning curve for the developer. Nearly everything is improved in later episodes of the game, especially the animations and some renders. The animations in the first eight episodes are done poorly using only a couple of frames so it is really rough and primitive. It really ruined the sex scenes for me but was fixed in later episodes.
• This is largely a kinetic novel, meaning that most choices are made for the character. The player gets to choose who he wants to romance and is often given a dialog choice for responses to the characters in the game, some being better than others. There are no sandbox or "free roam" elements in this game. It is 100% story driven.
• I don't care for the character models of Monica and Zarah. They are unattractive to me and have little appeal.
• The game kind of sets up the player for failure as it allows and often encourages you to romance every girl in the game like a harem but the author claims it isn't a harem game. It also goes to the extent of hardly any of the girls knowing you are romancing six other girls at the same time and the few that do find out tell you that they are OK with it (Jenna and Jolina for example). As of episode 19, you can literally romance every girl in the game with no consequences. This is going to be quite the feat for the author to resolve in later episodes if there truly isn't a harem ending. Instead of forcing the player to choose, he allows you to romance everyone at the same time. I have six girlfriends in the game. That is a lot to resolve and it will be hard to blame it all on the player when the game kind of encourages it and allows it.
• Some of the sex scenes are done really well but most are average. Many authors struggle with making the H scenes erotic, sensual, and meaningful and this is sometimes the case here. I've learned that it takes an entirely different skillset to pull this off well.
• Even in later episodes with better animation, the penetration animations (oral, vaginal, anal) don't have enough back and forth movement. Most of the penetration scenes only move back and forth one to two inches. Since the MC has a large dick it looks funny.

Final Thoughts

Despite the cons, the game is quite enjoyable if you get past the first eight episodes.

You'll find many of the common tropes in this game and the story is engaging but not really unique.

The unique personalities of all the girls and the excellent character development are really what make the game shine! The humor and banter between the various characters in the game is a near masterpiece!

In most games I wish there was more content. This is not the case here. There is tons of content and it has so much that it has as much content as three or four other games combined.

I really enjoyed the game overall and recommend that players give it a try!

In a few words the game is good, but has some flows. One of the problems is that it is just a bit too long. There is enough material there to make 2 or 3 separate games with different stories, models and everything. In fact, you can see how the graphics and animation improve in later episodes. Episodes 1 and 19 look very different. Another problem is that despite all the variety you don't really have any choice. Moreover, some girls will almost harass you if you are not interested in them, which feels quite unnatural even for a sex game. Additionally, you can proclaim your love and be a boyfriend to all the girls simultaneously without any repercussions. However, this is still an enjoyable game worthy of attention.

Art is poor.
Dialogues so similar and boooooring.
Unrealistic girls' and stupid MS's behaviour
There is a bunch of girls but I didn't like a single one
Sex scenes bad
This game was boring and disappointing for me.

Hmm, I would like to write a review about this game. At first I didn't want to download it because of the screenshots, but I decided to take this step and in the end... the game made a repulsive impression on me. Childish dialogues, not really good-looking girls especially this Zara milf. I think I'll have nightmares with her from this moment. Mediocre renders. Sex scenes are meh. Music and sound effects are absent and this is a huge no go. After 20 minutes I found myself skipping dialogues just to see scenes. And also this game really tried to force landlady. No matter how hard you try to avoid her, she is acting like you're romanicng her

The game has good graphics and story involving the slow teasing and sensible direction of story. The hidden traits of characters and the way story is progressing is very interesting, though now need to be careful about decisions becuase of negative points as well. The developer of game is quite active. Looking forward to more content in the upcoming releases.

Just an excellent game that I have played over the past few years. The story isn't the most original but it is entertaining and the twists keep the plot interesting. Apart from that, the characters are broad and unique and it was a thrill to play through all 19 Episodes!

Ep.19
Perhaps the best erotic scenes I ever seen in a game. Especially teasing and gruppensex with Katie and her two (girl)friends. Most other girls are amazing too (for instance, the blondes Joline, Wanda and Mabel).

MILFs can be a bit annoying in the beginning (if you are not into such stuff), but eventually you can tell them to back off.

The story is interesting and well written.

Though some details are not perfect. For instance, some days have "passed uneventful", while there were urgent things to do and many girls to bang.

Still, it's a certain five star, AAA game.

In my opinion this is one of the best VNs here. It has character depth, driven story, and the renders are top notch.
PROS
Humor
Story
Character depth
Beautiful women
CONS
Small typos here and there
Overall
This VN has been going on for a long time. Honestly I don't even remember when I started playing it, but it doesn't matter. The story is a bit cliche, but it fits perfectly. Lots of things happening in this VN. Revenge, seduction, money, and beautiful ladies. With those things you can't go wrong. This is probably one of the top five VNs I actually look forward to get updates for. Keep up the great work and keep the updates coming

Great game, Great characters is all I can say about this game overall. one good point is that the quality of renders and animation are improving every update, but the problem is that the story has reached so far, that there's no worthwhile content left. from the way I see it, this game is aiming for the story level of Milfy city. ( Ikr, Nowadays this game is turning into just go home have sex, go to sisters have sex, go to friends place have sex, go stepmoms have sex. ) Not sure how much more the dev is gonna milk this game. I have seen this game come from grainy renders and janky animations to what it is today. The Dev should really close this chapter and start a new game .
Now since that's off the table, the ratings
Story : 2/5 and continuing to degrade.
Renders: 4/5 - greatly improved
Animations : 4/5- also a lot of improvement seen
Characters 4/5
Overall rating : 4/5

Starting things off: The biggest critism I have seen so far is: "This Game is quantity over quality"
This is true to a certain extent but it is still a great game.

The beginning of the game definitely it's weakest part: The renders look odd at the start, the Milf characters are kinda ugly, ...
BUT if you keep playing for a bit it just gets better and better.

Yes 2 of the ugly looking Milf characters are still with you but you kind of get to like them a bit. The shy nerdy girl which looks awful at the start (Jenna) starts to look better and better. Jenna has grey skin in the beginning but after a while she looks very cute.

Pros:
+huge amount of content
+likeable characters
+gets better as time goes on
Cons:
-renders could be better (quality wise)
-not the most creative story but who cares

I recommend this game to everyone who wants a buch of content and who likes the look of at least some of the characters you see in the screenshots.

My first and my favourite!!

I'm relatively new to these type of games and I'm glad I was introduced with this one. Great story, great characters with a variety of trouble you can get up too. Plenty of paths/directions to take with all characters allowing for a fairly replayable game.
Very well done to this point, with noticeable improvements to quality throught the episodes.
I'm really looking forward to continuing this one, makes me want more which is great!

Keep up the work!

I love the story of this game and I love the number of viable options in girls the game provides as well. Currently there is no downside to hooking up with every girl in the game but as of writing this (Ch. 18) it appears that this won't continue to be the case as it keeps hinting that big "decisions" will need to be made. Regardless I love the game up to this point. The only downside to this game is the lack of any real animations, but if you are okay with that and can be patient at the beginning then this game will definitely deliver.

My absolute favorite!

I hope this story will never end

Great humor, definitely one of the best stories, the characters are lovely and they are all different, everyone can get his favorite girl or more than one

10/5

My favourite game from all over the f95zone. I love this game so much it has interesting story and graphics are pretty good too. Every characters has their own story and content is awesome. The thing I like the most is the romance of mc with the other girls. I think this game has everything and can't ask for more. Please give updates faster I am always waiting for it but it takes too much time for one episode to release so please update as soon as possible I cant wait anymore. Thank you so much for making this game. Keep it up.

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As a long-time player, it almost feels weird that I've yet to review a game. That being said, Where The Heart Is was too good to not review. At first glance, it's a safe bet that everyone's immediate reaction is that this is just another Ren'Py Man Of The House/Big Brother clone. But, in this reviewer's humble opinion, the storytelling and character work of Where The Heart Is goes far above and beyond either game. I'd like to note here that I am in no way putting the other games down, I thoroughly enjoyed both, but I have genuinely sunk my teeth—and not JUST in a kinky sense—into these characters and their story. Its use of genre cliches are immediately noticeable from the start and are one of the few reasons I debated giving it a 4 or 4.5-star review, however, while most of these cliches would leave a bad taste in a player's mouth in most other games, in Where The Heart Is, CheekyGimp uses them in such a way that it doesn't become an annoyance. Quite honestly, their use of these cliches only serves to better the story and game as a whole. The visuals are well-done and show clear talent and effort on the development team's behalf. Have I mentioned that our fair writer(s) including CheekyGimp themself have quite possibly the best sense of humor I've seen in a VERY long time? No? Well... now I have. So there you have it, a nobody's opinion on a very, VERY good game that you should definitely try.

Is this review biased? Yes. It's my opinion on the game (and seeing that it's easily become my favorite game in quite a long time, I have a strong opinion on it.) Feel free to disagree! I'm far from a genius; I simply wanted to do my part in promoting and encouraging others to play.

Should you become a patron? Play the game and decide for yourself! If I wasn't currently struggling financially, I'd be among the 1,600+ others who support CheekyGimp and their work and deservedly so.

Is this review complete? No. This is just a short, simple, spoiler-free review from a first-time reviewer who wanted to focus on the pleasantly surprising storytelling experience of Where The Heart Is as of the latest episode. (Ep:18 as of this review)

Play the game for yourself. Form your own thoughts on it, and hopefully have some fun in the process. I personally can't wait to see what else is in store for this game and whatever else CheekyGimp may do in the future.

TTFN.

To be honest, at first I ignore this game because in the past I have already try this game a bit at first episode and previewing H scene from gallery mod, and I can say I'm not interested. I have played quite many top high quality VN in this site mainly looking for high quality renders and story.

Now while I'm waiting update from some of my fav VN's I decided to give this game a go because it already have so many episodes and its perfect to fill the void while waiting the other VN's update. After playing a few first episodes I still don't like this game, so why I gave this 5 stars? I will tell the reasons and it will contain few minor spoilers.

In the first few episodes I only meet 2 MILF (mom and his neighbor) and the sisters characters. Those 2 MILFs are ugly, and because this is a first-person POV game, make them a turn off for me, the sisters are not so bad at least, and the dialog is quite funny so I decided to power through the pain while keeping those 2 MILF points low, and I'm so glad with my decision, because after I meet some new characters, the game begin more interesting with more beautiful girls and the story start showing its gem. Yes there is still some cons like no sound (for now), repetitive renders, bad kissing render, bad animation (in first half episodes).

And as I continue more and more episodes, to my surprise this game start showing its gem, the story became more and more interesting, with mystery, character depth, crude humor, hilarious humor, memorable events and the renders.. Wow I see a very high improvement, the girls became more hot and beautiful, even the ugliest MILF which is the neighbor, in the latest episode has a face lift, although no near the level of the younger girls but still, she is some much better now, to bad the mom is still No for me though, so now I'm hooked a lot to this game and can't wait for next updates.

And the BIG improvement in the few last episodes is the ANIMATION, I said WOW its HUGE different, now its very fluid, realistic and very high quality with a lot of options, replay able, longer and more hotter. I know this is because more and more people joined the dev team, so the game became so much better through episodes, and I'm quite sure with a little more support to this game, soon will be sounds in this game, and the game will be perfect.

As long as dev keep improving the quality of this game, I'm sure a lot more people will be hooked. Maybe someday dev's will consider a rework of the art, renders and animation from the beginning of episode so it will be high quality from the start. For me this game rise through from "meh" to top 3 of my list of VN's, so I gave it a solid 5 stars based on improvement this game has made through episodes. This game is a rough diamond that has been polished and start showing it's wondrous glow.

So this is my first ever VN review and Where The Heart Is totally deserve it. So don't judge before you've played it properly, give it a go and you will not regret it.

The embodiment of quantity over quality

Everything in this game is as mediocre as can be nothing stands out positively (other than having a lot of content I guess?) a few strong problems do stand out though, Characters personality wise were all pretty offputting, the models are ugly and the game play is a VN with no choices

If you can get past bad writing and alot of the girls looking like a foot then go ahead and try it, I really couldn't play for more than a few hours as this was too much for me

Excellent story intriguing, sexy, and fun. Characters are very well written and draw you in early. On top of that it quite funny. Lily is legendary cracks me up. Can't wait to see how this story will end. One of the best games I've played without a doubt. Only negative I can come up with is some of the animations are short or repetitive. Specifically Debbie at the pool for repetitive. Love to see some improved animations, but it's an outstanding game anyway. Keep up the great work.