VN - Ren'Py - Where the Heart Is [S1 v6.1.2024 BETA] [CheekyGimp]

this game is awesome, one of the 5 best on the platform. It's evolving, the story is credible, the characters have their own personalities. Sex scenes happen regularly and in very different situations

[As of EP 18]

The animations, girls, and the renders are good (4-star quality). So why a 5-star review? Well, it is because of the story.

There are 2 main aspects to the story that I like:
1. The ability to start and end paths multiple times with multiple girls.
2. The identity of the mystery person in the will keeps you intrigued throughout the game which leaves something to look forward to always and you're always second-guessing yourself regarding who to trust.

Some of the "MILFs" are just not great renders at all. Actually made me keep their paths low. Renders overall are a weak spot to be sure.

However, beyond that, it is one of the deepest levels of stories crossing so many different characters paths. Really well done story that makes up for the "less than" renders. The younger models are actually pretty decent, just not top notch and the girls are cure. Monica, though yeah that was an unfortunate hard pass.

Despite its obvious flaws (when comparing to other masterpieces, mostly), this game more than compensates with good writing and overall locations/situations.

Every character feels unique and has unique, well writen situations.

That makes it a very competent (until ep. 17, at least) visual novel. It's not a porn game, because it successfully unites it's plot with sex, without most of the girls acting like sex lunatics.

Just finished my first playthrough. Without leaving too many spoilers, this is a great game. All the characters you meet have personalities to them and they don't feel like dead sexdolls. Even during the sex scenes the way they talk/respond matches their personality which I really like.

CONS : The faces in the beginning did seem kinda lifeless to me sometimes like a creepy smile with no life in the eyes which is why I thought this would be a mediocre game but i'll admit the plot and characters pulled me in.

- I wish the renders had more life in them and i mean non sexual renders too. the scenes serve their purpose but stopped there. I get it's not easy to make a game and focus on the details but i guess i'm just spoiled by certain games where the background is as immersive as the characters you meet.

- I get this is not a con for everyone but i really like my VNs to have sound. Any form of audio even if its just background music for different scenes. For me good sound just adds some meat to the bones. Great example is Being a diks famous 'punk rock flu'. It just fits.

PROS : Every character you meet is interesting and really well written in my opinion. Once you get past the lack of expressions(in some cases) , it's really easy to forget about that and just get into the character.

The plot was fun for me. It might feel cliched to some people but I like it and i'm eagerly waiting to see what happens next

Im mentioning characters again because towards the end I was really getting attached to certain characters and lowkey feeling bad for my choices haha.

Overall a great game so please do give it a shot

I won't say much because I won't be able to help myself with the spoiling.
Give this game a go. You won't be disappointed.

Visually the characters are not the best looking. That does improve as the game goes on. That ties into the story, so don't be turned off the game because at first you see some ugly ducklings.

Character development is great in the game and your actions do have a meaning beyond just being able to seduce everyone.

Later edit:

Oops. I forgot to say that the story is great. A sort of whodunnit. Characters are complex enough that who the hell knows who was actually at that computer sending that e-mail. Luckily the author is not making it easy and the sucks me right into the story to the point I can't wait for updates.

Its quite enjoyable, the writing is ok, the character models look good. There are a lot of characters, and the progression with most of them feels very fast, but with the 3 main interests there is a hefty amount of buildup, and of course they feel like the most fleshed out as characters. My personal favorites are Monica and Jenna, but there are a lot of other girls to interact with, one cuter than the other. The story is ok, it has some interesting elements here and there, and a lot of steamy situations, sometimes though it feels too slow, like they are just repeating themselves almost every day. But these are minor issues overall, and in the end the game is still worth playing

Edit:
Also its worth mentioning that, as the game progresses there is a definitely noticeable improvement in the renders and animations. Now, they dont look bad at eh beginning of the game either, but by the later chapters you can clearly see that the renders look better

I like the game, i like most of dialogue, some characters are really interesting, like Lily that seems to be Asperger.
Elaine is also interesting, i like the redemption ark
All the teasing with Katie is quite funny and pop culture references are hilarious at times.

Renders are decent, theres some things that are off for me like lighting in many situations make Jenna look like she has no texture.
I dont like the POV kisses for obvious reasons. A girl making faces inside a space void is not exciting to me.

I wish sex was less milestone and staged and more fluid cause theres a lot of interesting scenes where things are getting heated that get cut and redirected to finish according to the intimacy level unlocked for the character.
For me its a turn off cause main characters follow that rule so you end up achieving the same endings from different characters, and its not fun to watch a woman in her 40s stick to that handjob-blowjob/titjob bullshit.

This failed personal requirements drop 1 star. Still a good amount of hours of entertainment.

After playing episode 22 and getting this weird oerly used phone date menu, the game quality dropped to 1 star. Stilla lot f content, but at this point verything ahs happened already so its repetitive. Witht he exceoption of a handful of scenes that are decetn, th rest are nothing extraordinary. Some weird changes in characters, and a gynm scene wher the dev decided to subverto my expectations finally buries the rating. In episode 22 you can not do that, the game is ancient, it should ive everythig and be done with it, not subvert your expectations with some stupid scene. Definetly not when the game has become a date simulator where you chat with a girl throu some werid menu and spawn at her house or whatever place.

A high 3 starts until ep 21, but episode 22 is a fuck up.

CheekyGimp makes a really good game with a nice story. Many girls that MC can be with or not. How to choose money when you have so many good choices to make your life better... Whatever what players like, there is at least one hot girl you'll like.

Another average game with a plot that we already seen.The game is not bad not great either and i want to point out that the game has a mobile game tag but dont has mobile port so thats should be changed.I would recommend somebody who want some fuckable characters.

On the first day your mother reunited with you, she kept flirting with you and wanted to fuck you...As long as a woman older than you met you, she wanted to fuck you without a few words.
The plot can be more nonsense...

Many characters in the game are really ugly. If the 3d model is uglier than the real person, is it still worth playing?
The little sister's skin tone is poorly rendered, making her sometimes look like a zombie.

Being flirted by a group of ugly women, I can't play anymore, so I can only give 2 stars.

The characters have a good storyline but are not pretty, played it till two updates because I liked the story but there are better games out there whose creators are giving constant updates. Overall, its an average game.

Early episodes are a tiny bit outdated with the design of certain characters but if you pass through that and you will experience a VN with great characters written with realistic dialogue and not the greatest animated scenes but its more of the connection you build with the harem of women throwing themselves at you.

A great VN if you want something straightforward with no grind but having to read conversations that feel real and at times can be funny. A ton of content and can be a tease at times with sex scenes but its well worth the wait.

I'm a straight simp for my goddess Katie.

Reading the story plot and looking at some of the character renders, I very nearly passed on this VN. Story sounds usual generic "Mum died and young guy moves in with 2 girls and their Mother"......plus the main girls looked nothing special to me. I am so glad I gave this a try!
Where this game really shines is the characters and their dialogue. The dialogue is the best I`ve ever seen in plenty of similar visual novels and oh man is it hilarious! the absolute killer humor of Kate`s banter makes her the best psycho-tourette syndrome, love interest I`ve seen......made me laugh so many times....and her bimbo brained friends Debbie and Lily....oh sweet, dumb Lily. Add lots of romantic choices and paths, with an average storyline, this became one of my top choices in erotic VN`s. Play it just for the Katie content alone! 5 star approval from me.

I'm not entirely sure about this one. The characters are well done (Even if I - personally - would describe some of them as downright ugly, but that is a preference thing. And I quite like games that offer some variety!). The renders are really nice, but the animations... not so much, but still OK.

The main reason I gave only three stars is the storytelling. The story itself is simply intriguing. But the way the dev chooses to present it is... a little problematic.
This is one of those games that presents dozens of characters who are all potential partners and love-interests, but doesn't want to offer a harem route. The Dev made it very clear there won't be an option for that. BUT... it seems like you are supposed to play the game, as if there were one. Otherwise you will be confronted with quite a few inconsistencies. So you get a choice: You can play as an asshole or as an honest guy. But only one of those two options will actually make sense. So why is the choice even there in the first place?

Before playing, I saw that this game doesn't have a harem-Tag. So I chose one girl and stuck to it. And that made the game quite boring...
There are quite a few characters to get to know in this game. And the days are filled with events that will only happen, if your relationship with a character progressed enough. But as I wrote before... I didn't try to get with EVERY character there is...
Now, it is possible that I misunderstood something. But I'm pretty sure my MC just spend an entire day taking showers in his beach-house. No other events besides that, because I didn't want to get romatically involved with the other characters. Many, many "You wake up alone. The girls are already gone. You spend the day alone in your room"-Screens.
Especially the transition from Episode 16 to 17 makes no god damn sense, if you didn't choose to go with Jolina at the end. Because the first scene in EP17 is a Discussion about what happened in Jolinas Bedroom... even though for me, it didn't happen!

So I started over, installed the walkthrough-mod and said "fuck it". Just gonna do whatever to improve my relationship with every character. And there is so much more content. So much more dialogues, interactions, events... looks like the game is geared towards this. There will not be a harem route. So if you want the story to make sense, if you want to gather as much information from the characters as possible, you better be prepared to break a few hearts and ruin MCs friendships.

Probably one of the best VNs ever. Every character is awesome has a great dinstinct personaltity.

Sex scenes are just fantastic.

Monica is the best girl, with Jenna closely behind... maybe they'll have a scene together one day.

This game is fun there are lot of beautiful girl and choices are frequent. Renders are not top but nice quality. Lewd scenes are average but enough for me. Overall this is not a special game but quality work.

This VN broke my cherry, and it was an excellent first choice. The biggest draw was that the characters simply seemed "real" and each and every one felt genuinely familiar to me.

After playing several other VN's, this one remains one of my favorites and I finally feel as if I can clearly point out the differences in what makes a novel good and bad.

Let's start with the MC. Honestly, I'd fuck him. What we see looks good, but that's the easy part. The difficult part is giving him a personality that is genuinely pretty damned cool, and dialogue options that make him out to be intelligent, witty, and a very natural charmer. It's pretty easy to believe that he can charm the pants off anyone. The standout moments are with my personal best girl Katie. While rendered interactions are limited to a degree (because it's a big deal), the dialogue with Katie pairs with the simple renders that only change her subdued facial expressions and deliver an INTENSITY to the verbal interactions that make the MC (and of course, Katie) pretty amazing. Their first date is an intense staring match paired with verbal sparring reminiscent of virtuosos improvising a jam session... plus, we love Francois.

The ladies meanwhile are on the surface the generic stereotypical bunch, but the author seems far more familiar with the reality of the stereotypes rather than the television and film versions of such... There are some standout points here I'd like to bring up.

"The Hacker Girl" is primarily represented by Jenna, but we'll also be mentioning Joline. Jenna is not a Felicit Smoak styled ditzy hottie or some raver / goth chick like most media portrays. Instead, she is simply a recluse with confidence issues and an internet connection. She knows what normal personal interaction is like, she just doesn't have the confidence in herself to engage as such. This makes her a perfect voyeur, but it's balanced with those dreams of actually being able to engage with real people face to face. So, she's not some Polyanna with no understanding of sexuality, but a smart girl with entirely too much understanding ("The internet is 99% porn"). On the other hand, Joline is also self described as a "techie", but she is pretty normal by most standards and driven more by being an entrepeneur (non tech related)... that's right, nerds can actually be normal and think of things other than anime, computers and comic books.

"The Lesbian" is good old Debbie. Rather than some long, involved seduction meant to "convince" the lesbian she likes cock... well, the author seems to have met real live lesbians before. Debbie will fuck the MC at the drop of a hat because (surprise!) sex feels good. This may sound unrealistic, but there are lots of people who are more than willing to have sex with their non-primary desired gender so long as their partner is willing to keep relations totally casual - it's not the sex itself that is objectionable, but having an actual relationship.

"The Ditzy Girl" is Lily (swoon)... For once, she's not a complete idiot. She's no genius, but she knows her own limitations and chooses to encourage the image purely for the sake of allowing people to underestimate her.

"The MILF"... we've got two of them, but let's focus upon Monica. I shot her down in my first playthrough because on a personal level I don't like the drinkers. The very first scene, she's wined up an ready to go in the early morning. Luckily I played through again. If any main supporting character fit a stereotype, it would be her with her memory (and inhibition) loss due to drinking, and her constant reminders of how wrong a sexual relationship would be when she is sober. What made me love her truly is when she finally does open up to the MC and she escapes that two dimensional portrayal with the admission that the drinking is an excuse. She was always aware of exactly what she was doing, and that made her uncomfortable because she was afraid that the MC advances were just a cheap sexual thrill. Yes, she wanted that, but in reality she wanted more. So long as she could blame the drinking though, she could at least get the thrill without the guilt, and she could maintain the genuine friendship even if she desired true love which she did not think the MC would reciprocate.

Another detail that I enjoyed was that in my playthrough(s), the MC never really lies. A few small lies here and there, and he will lie when he is obligated to another character to do so, but nothing blatant. Maybe there are a set of events I have not found yet where he will lie, but my style of playthrough has not hit that yet. This is a very big point to me, and it is pretty funny that the MC can bang every single female and still keep away from lies. It could even be argued that at many points the MC has attempted to be completely open. I can very literally picture a situation where every supporting character he has fucked finds out all at once, and every last one of them is sitting together, drinking wine, and bringing up that he never really lies about what he has done and has made an honest effort to tell everyone what has been going on. I don't think this will last, but it's a fun fantasy to have over a bunch of fictional characters I have grown to love.

All this writing, and I still haven't even touched upon actual story! Well, that's a slow burn, but intriguing. There is tons of slice-of-life story that is satisfactory just by itself, but there is also an arc about his father's machinations that the author may still be writing when the chapters go to triple digits. While I would REALLY love to find out how the main arc resolves, I'm honestly just happy living in this world.

Overall, this is not the best VN I have ever played... There are others with more features, more original models, more active storytelling... but this is the one I always come back to with the huge amount of content and some of the best characters.

This has to be the game with the most amount of contents and branching paths out there. Truly impressive!

The start of the story is very bland and some characters aren't attractive at all but, DON'T BE FOOLED!! there is good effort putted in every aspect of the game and, it's keeps going on.

You will probably found everything you want along the ride.

Review for chapter 17:

Honestly the game is good. Not superb.

Pros:

1. Decent Writing.
2. Engaging story & choices.
3. Good animations.
4. Some cute models though they r introduced much later in the game. So it's worth ur time.

Cons:

1. The main reason I gave 3 star is because the first 3 female characters we are introduced in it are ugly tbh (To me atleast). Their story follow through is good & these characters also seem to be somewhat of fleshed out which I really liked. It kinda helped me not to drop it at earliest.

2. Writing is good but sometimes way too cringy for my liking.

3. Overall there r only one or two girls which I really liked. All the others are just simple PIA.

P.S. Cheekygimp you did a great job. I didn't mean to discourage u or anything I just said my part. Everyone has their preferences so this is mine. What I personally like in the game is some goody hot girl with thicc thighs. ✌

*Sorry for my english. Not a native one.*