VN - Ren'Py - Where the Heart Is [S1 v2024-09-06 BETA] [CheekyGimp]

I LOVE this game so much!
Beach scenes, modelling shoot scenes, Party scenes are epic and all of them are one small game-sized. Very interesting plots and really good writings ( lots of lines ). The content is rich and every character in this game is so active and hot. Also, seeing some characters from his different game roommate was kind of cool. This game is definitely one of a few games that deserve Patreon funds.

Review updated for Ep. 23:

When I found this game, I'd been playing adult VNs and similar adult games for about 18 months after being stuck at home and bored during the pandemic. I've now played over 250 350 games that were nearly all 3D-rendered Ren'Py games. I started playing Where the Heart Is after Episode 18 was released and I've now played through Episode 23. The game is outstanding and I rank it at #2 among all the adult games I've played.

The plot/story is good. Some parts are contrived, but it keeps the player engaged and entertained. You can read the discussion thread to see that there is/was a lot of excitement and anticipation on the story continuation when the Episodes got into the late teens.

The writing is superb. In visual novels, there are limits/tradeoffs the writer must make in prose, but the developer nailed it in this game. It's refreshing to just find an adult visual novel written in good native English, but this game has actual style. [Side note: I've noticed a few reviews that complain about the writing in this game when the reviews themselves are written in broken English. Go figure.]

I love the crude but playful humor. The banter between the MC and Katie had me laughing out loud. I appreciated it, but I'm guessing some players were not enthused and that's why the "tone it down" option was added and I can understand it being a welcome choice by some players.

The graphics/art/rendering/animations are good. I wouldn't say they're outstanding, at least not consistently. Players can see that the graphics are more crude in earlier episodes with lighting and shading issues, but they get significantly more refined in later episodes. The developer says the earlier scenes will be remastered after the game is completed, which I like since so many developers just stop game progress for several months to go back and work on old content. [Edit, as of March 2023, the developer decided to pause the game to go back and remaster Episodes 1 -10. It's disappointing, but probably makes the most financial sense.]

The character models are attractive. The faces are pretty but not perfect or fake-looking. The character's body shapes vary a lot but they're all beautiful and even seem a little too good compared to the faces. I suppose that's not a bad thing for a porn game, and at least they don't all look like balloon-titted Barbie dolls. The exceptions are Zarah, who I found unattractive before about Ep 18 and Monica's hair which looks like it belongs on a 70-year-old, not a 40-year-old (sorry Monica fans).

There is plenty of hot sex and plenty of potential partners to choose from. The tension build-up varies with the different girls. There's something for most tastes although the types of sex are pretty mainstream. The male-domination, humiliation, and spanking scenes are very tame and I think that's a good thing. The group sex is either MFF or MFFF. There's a good variety of different types of sex, but the game doesn't cater to niche or more controversial kinks, and that gives it broader appeal.

The interactive choices in the game are mostly limited to wooing/seducing specific girls, which basically leads to the various sex scenes with those girls. I think fits well into a porn game, but players looking for more of a "gaming" experience aren't going to be happy since this makes it more of a kinetic novel than a game. I read complaints that the choices seem like the developer is forcing the player down specific paths. I didn't encounter that on my playthrough, as my goal was to have the MC attempt to have sex with every hot girl in the game. However, it was easy to succeed at that goal, maybe too easy. I did go back and play the game differently and I understand the complaint. I suspect the developer has the story and the game paths completely mapped-out and is coaxing the player down the most "entertaining" path. I guess we'll see.


The "Start Any Episode" feature is awesome. I have seen this feature in only two other VN games that I can recall. The feature allows the player to try different paths from specific points in the game without having to manually create and keep track of dozens of save games. It also very clearly reveals which choices (or groups of choices) in the game actually matter.

The game had a built-in gallery feature that allows players to replay scenes. The interface was a little clunky, but it worked. However, after Ep 18, the gallery was never updated and after Ep22, the gallery feature was completely removed. The "Start Any Episode" feature helps to make up for the lack of a gallery, but if players want to replay a scene that's' not at the beginning of an episode, then it's very tedious to skip forward to a specific scene because of all of the choices. [Edit: It will be interesting to see if Cheeky will add the gallery back in as part of the Episodes 1-10 remaster.]

Great animation with original models with an intriguing plot with multiple paths to choose from, this game has more longevity than most Visual Novels & the Developers are dedicated to taking their time before each update so it makes it worthwhile for each update to be downloaded, Episode 20 ends on a huge cliffhanger that I won't spoil it but things are going to get very intense in Episode 21. I hear the Developer CheekyGlmp was really sick so I wish them a speedy recovery before continuing the story

Great story and lot of potential in game. The renders for beginning chapters are a bit on the downside but have been picked up well as the game progresses. Looking forward to how the story plays out with the two sisters.

(As of V22 I am downgrading to 4 stars. I still like this game, and recommend it. But I've been noticing a real drop in the quality of the writing. Girls are losing agency - becoming more slavish to the MC. There's more of people saying what they're doing while they're doing it. I suspect the problem is just keeping all the relationship balls in the air, and stretching out the whodunnit doesn't help. Don't get me wrong, still a good VN).


Young man returns home to stay with his mother's friend and come to terms with his recently deceased father (who was not, it appears, a very nice man). This sounds very somber and mopey, but the execution couldn't be further from that. This game is an absolute hoot.

VN with choice, the choices really only determine sexual partners. And there are a bevy of them. There's at least 2 of each, 2 milfs (actually more), 2 super hot fashionistas, 2 best friends, 2 nerdettes... It's an all you can eat buffet. And, despite the quantity, they are all well-differentiated. The dev team does a great job of giving time to all the girls to reveal their personalities.

I'm big on tone, and I love the tone of this game. It's very playful and silly, even the serious moments are quickly deflated with a wink and a nudge

The dialogue is like an Abbott and Costello routine, and can become a little too fey, with everyone launching zingers. I wouldn't say it's funny, but it's very breezy and light, and I come back to it repeatedly just to enjoy the sheer pleasure of all the fast-paced natter with the beautiful girls before sex.

There's a kind of a whodunit thing going on, and you can read the discussion thread for all the sleuthing, but I actually don't pay to much attention to it. To me it feels like a red herring just to get the MC connected with all these beautiful women. It's like how in an 80s teen sex comedy they might throw in a side plot about stolen secret plans or something just to get the hero to hook up with a femme fatale.

The artwork is good, not top-of-the-line, but better than average. I really notice the improvement in rendering as the game progresses. The early art was fine, but clunky, but the later art has become quite skillful in composition, animation etc. At least one character has been substantially re-worked (and I still think she's ugly, but there are so many other beauties who cares?).

You're playing from the MC's POV most of the time, and there are some wonderful moments of intimacy where you get closeups of a beauty's face as she leans in for the kiss. Other games do this, but I don't know any that do it as well.

Btw, the MC is not cringy, imho. He's a basically good person who can't avoid temptation. Most of the plot is driven by him reacting to what other people do (which is kind of realistic, I suppose...)

The Dev team were good at releasing substantial updates, but they've had some health issues and we can only hope they recover and are able to resume. Because, frankly, I just can't get enough of my gal Katie.

Another great VN game.
MC has a large magic cock and every female character wants it, what's not to love?
Similar situation to Sisterly Lust (another of my favs), where the MC is a long lost Son/Brother and moves into his mother/sisters house.
Lots of stunningly gorgeous girls and a decent story.
Very much looking forward to the next update.

Game: "Are you interested in this woman?"
Choice: "No"
Game: "And then you do what woman wants, do you feel uncomfortable?"
Choice: "Yes"
Game: "And then you strip further. Do you want to continue?"
Choice: "No"
Game: "And then you proceed"

This game seriously made me uncomfortable during some dialogues. Just no, no, I don't want to do what game forces onto MC. Let me move on, please. First game I actually gave up on.

One of the best visual novels i have played if not the best.

Great looking and interesting characters, not mention some good animations. Nothing ground breaking but very enjoyable nonetheless 0 complaints.

Though I would have liked an incest plotline but this isnt that game which is fine. I mean heyyy thats just me, not everyone has to force incest or ntr or other fetishes if they dont want to and its in a way refreshing to see someone doing what they want. Respect.

And the romancing of characters is done incredibly well, its a slow build and it feels very nicely done. On top of that the plot is interesting which is quite rare for games like this, and it isnt even supernatural or futuristic which makes it even more rare. Very intriguing, cant wait to see how it plays out and who the two mysterious women are...

Certainly worth checking, not to mention this isnt a seasonal type game which I approve of, though I love Being A DIK, I much prefer a well told concise story that isnt dragged on. These games take so damn long to make, so making just one season can take several years, or cancelled outright. So to imagine there are going to be several? That could mean years and years until you see the conclusion and that idea alone damn near gives me an anxiety attack.

Keep it up

Too overrated game in my opinion. Character models are ones of the worst which I seen. Dialog lines? Damn it...Some of them are like the ones from children cartoons series "Nora" or something like that...

[as of Ep. 20]
I want to preface this review by saying that I have been playing adult games on and off for a long time. I have been a member of this website since 2018, before that, I used to get all of my adult games from /aco/ on 4chan. In all of my time playing adult games, there has never been a game that I liked or loved more than this game.
I recently discovered this game and completed it for the first time last weekend. I have to say that I am blown away. I love reading but I think nobody here would disagree if I say that a vast majority of games here have a very poor storyline and worse writing. I used to read every single bit of text in my early days of adult gaming but as I played more and more, I got bored of the redundant bullshit that the devs spun and it has become a habit of mine lately to spam ctrl and select skip all messages to skim through every new game that I play. This gives me the idea of the storyline and if the story seems intriguing, I go back and start from the beginning and do a careful playthrough. The same was the case with this game, and the only difference being that I was hooked very early on.
Let's talk about the story. The story is not Pulitzer winning but it's not bad either. In my opinion it one of the very best that this site has to offer. I played with DrAddy's Incest/Walkthrough mod so I consider Monica as Mom and Katie and Jenna as Sisters to be canon.
Usually, for most of the games that I play, I only like one character and ignore the rest. Many times no character in the game is eyecatching and everyone has bland and shitty dialogues but in this game, all of the characters are so unique and cleverly written that I can't help getting attached to each one of them. Not at any point while I was playing that I got bored and wanted to skip dialogue. Each girl has a completely separate and consistent personality and it seemed to me that the writer had figured them out completely before writing the story.
Now some words about the suspense and the twists. After playing the game it seems to me that every girl that we meet except the two virgin sisters (Katie and Jenna) has been fucked or at least tried to fuck by MC's dad. Nothing is said openly but it is hinted at often. Here are a few examples: a) Monica (ex-wife) b) Elaine (GF) c) Angel hints at being with a guy like MC's dad d) Jolina hints at something similar e) Zarah hints at being made a pass at by some like him f) Theresa is hinted to one of them too g) Bella tells MC that his dad made a pass at her too. These are all the ones that I can remember off the top of my head.
Also, Elaine was so heavily implied to be the villain in the beginning and throughout the story that I was almost sure that the writer was trying to through us off the scent of the real villain and there would be a twist in the end but in the last episode we got the picture of Elaine entering the coffee shop so I guess I was wrong. I was beginning to like Elaine so much that after the golden trio (Mom and Sisters), she was my most favorite character but I guess she really likes money and is gonna fuck us over in the end anyway.
I have read in the thread that there will be no Harem route and that makes a lot of sense and I appreciate that the dev decided to not ruin his game by forcing a harem route on this game. Although I would have liked to have an ending with [the golden trio] or maybe [Katie and her friends] or [Jenna and Jolina] or [Elaine and Bella] or [Monica and Elaine and Dizzy] etc. What I'm trying to say is that instead of a complete harem we could get small groups of twos and threes making the story a lot more fun.
The absence of a harem route gives the game a lot of replayability value. I don't usually replay adult games but I will definitely be replaying this one a lot.
And finally the models and character design. I love the character models so much in this game and even though they aren't the best or most high quality that you can find on this website, they complement the story nicely and I wouldn't change them if given the choice.
In conclusion, this is my all-time favorite game on this website and I am eagerly looking forward to its completion. Good luck to the dev and his team. I end this review with a request, and that is please add pregnancy, birth, and some time after the birth in the game too, before the end as to give some closure to us as a player. Don't just end on "and they lived happily ever after". I want to see their happily ever after. This is an adult game and here we get everything that we desire, right? all of our fetishes? so seeing their happily ever after is my fetish. Thanks and Good day.

5/5 in everything. Perfect.

It's not that great. Some LIs are attractive some are not, all have absurd proportions. Both the art and the writing is a 3/5 but there is a lot of content. After a while I ended up just fast forwarding parts of the story because I got bored.

I think this game is significantly underrated. The story is quite basic. But, it let's the player decide how the story pans out. Unlike most games this game has used amazing storytelling, while building up tension and giving the player a really good experience. Overall the game is unique in it's own way. Instead of relying on the overused stepmother and two stepsisters format, this uses it's own spin on the same concept(which is done really well, btw) and gives player the option to play out the storyline of a character and move on to a different character of the players choice. It already has quite a lot of content and I'm exited to see where it leads to.

I played and re-played this game more than 10 times (against my will, due to factors external to the game)

The song "Estilo Cachorro" by Racionais MC's sums up this game well, as in the lyrics the only dilemma in the game is "Woman and money, money and woman", for a while it is cool, but then it gets repetitive, an excellent The point in this work is that choices have consequences, the style of art is satisfactory, sometimes it made you want to skip some dialogues, there is a lot of dialogue that is only there "to fill sausage", since the information given by the player had already assumed it to be true ... The animations are average, because they all have a robotic movement and sometimes... I always play with volume 0, so I don't know if they have sound effects or if they're good, this item is kind of irrelevant to me.

For each category the highest score is 10:
Graphics: 9.0;
Character development: 9.0;
History: 8.5;
Plot: 9;

Note: I didn't find any bugs.
Note 2: I don't speak English fluently, so the text may have connotation errors.

Verdict: It is worth taking a chance, the project is good.

The good:
Some LIs are reasonably interesting and attractive. Lots of contents.

The mediocre:
Writing ins OK but nothing special. Art is OK but nothing special.

The bad:
All male characters other than the MC are gay or assholes and have small dicks (as opposed to the MC with the usual horse cock).
Every single female character seems to never have met a nice male before meeting the MC, and immediately falls for him, as he is not only very fit and cute etc but supposedly is not an asshole (which is not entirely convincing giving his behavior). Not only they want to have a sexual relationship with MC, but many of them immediately stress that they are happy with MC fucking other people too. Choices seem so far restricted to "do you want to add X to your harem or are you not interested" (Maybe later on these choices will boil down to some meaningful story development, but I somehow doubt it).

What can i say about this perfection that havent being said yet ?
The characters depth are in the top 5 of all time.
You dont have to like em , just bear with em and you are on for a trip.....
The renders mean alot in this kind of games and i only can say that they add to the whole perfection. Just some minor rendering faults but this is expected from the humongus size of this game.
I could say this and im serious : You can very well inspire a movie !
I know there are some 'fetish issues involved' but hey we are in 2021 for crying out loud...
10/10
keep it up devs !

Every girl you meet wants a relationship with mc
Problem is keeping these relations a secret I feel like this game wants you to have a relationship with every girl But if you do someone sure gonna find out and not gonna be happy Also what are these woman in the household No patch means they are not family right ?
This game needs a harem option
there is no way to know who you can date while also dating someone else
Or who you can cheat on with another girl

There are quite a few different women to romance and their personalities are clearly different. And I quite enjoy that the different storylines, although obviously a bit silly, actually involve seduction and romance and are actually kind of sweet at times.
It's always great to see something different to the usual 'women can't resist your huge d*ck'.
The renders and animations are decent and don't use the choice dialogue box when there is no choice, i.e. 'click to penetrate' which is a pet peeve of mine.
All in all, I'd say this is one of the better games of this type that I have played.

Been following this game for a while and hadn't realized I never reviewed it. Keep it short. Great characters, great scenes. REALLY going above and beyond with the choice of 4some3somesolo with the girls from chapter 19. Dev has found a lot more support lately but the quality of updates has not gone down.

Excellent, indeed. All-round a great game. Solid writing, style is easy to read, straightforward and engaging. Story is interesting, if not very original, but that works to its advantege imo, it's cliche but in a good way. Art is great, some of the best around. Plenty of characters, all unique and attractive in their own ways, with believable motives/motivations.. Sex scenes are plentyfull and have proper buildup/follow up. Decent number of different fetishes, all done very tastefully. Also, you can define your relationships pretty much however you want, with a few exceptions. Yea, it's just that good. Lots of content, regular updates, quality seems to be improving every update. Serious dev, serious talent.

Color me a fan. 5/5. Awesome.

It is a good game. with excellent animation and development in each of the characters and i like so much the way the story has been made. On the other hand the updates go out regularly and they often show us the progress