VN - Ren'Py - Hard to Love [v0.24] [Qori Gaming]

So I just finished the game and I have some thoughts... It's gonna be a bit of a tangent so please bear with me.

I'm sure all of you have that kind of childhood dish that your moms used to make that you would absolutely adore. And every time that you would come home, she would make it and you would feel all tingly inside. For the sake of the argument let's say it was a chimken noodle soup.


Well one time you came back after not seeing your family for a year or two. And to celebrate your arrival your moms made you that beautiful, lovely soup you love so much. But once you taste it you realize that there is something missing. Something very very very minor, but it's a little different. It's not the same. You can't pinpoint what that thing is. Whether it is a certain spice or a specific vegetable. Maybe there is too much of this or too little of that.

And your moms is looking at you with tears at the edges of her eyes eating your cute little soup the same way as when you were a child.. And you see her and decide to not tell her that the soup is different to not hurt her feelings. BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME IS IT?
I mean the soup is absolutely wonderful, it tastes great, right? But you just know very VERY well that it simply is NOT the same.

So close to greatness but there is this one tiney tiny thing that's missing, but you can't pinpoint what it is. Those are my honest feelings about the game.

a simpleton would say something like "So it's close to being perfect, that's it?" but it's not so simple, is it? The feeling that the game invokes inside of you. It's simple to just say that it's "close to being perfect."

the issue is that "close". I don't know what that close is. That's the feeling that reminds me of the soup.

It's absolutely a 5/5 but there is just that little something.

Also for some more concrete criticism... The MC is bland. If the rest of the cast is a 3-course Michelin star meal, then the MC is a store-bought tuna sandwich.

4/5 - A diamond in the rough.

I was reading through the other reviews and thought to myself; "Woaw that's really harsh".

I know this game has it's flaws but some of the reviews would have you believe it's one of the worst games on the forum (which it simply is not).

Here is what it gets right:

• The dialog is concise (not a wall of text).
• Good renders.
• Good audio.
• Overall nice aesthetics and clear UI. (I would have left in the back, skip etc. buttons. I know it doesn't look as clean, but those buttons do serve a purpose).

Here is what it gets wrong:

• The character development does not exist. We get introduced to new characters before knowing what the already existing characters are all about. Maybe this is not something that was thought about before hand. Meaning, dialog was written without fleshing out the characters and backstories. This results in the story jumping around because it might add to a more interesting story. But in actuality it feels like it lacks a "soul".
• Inconsistency between art and story telling. Another user already pointed this out. When the Japan arc started. The story started feeling like it was written by a weeb. I know this game is made by Japanese people. But the way the japanese elements are introduced are EXACTLY the same way weeb developers do it. If you want to introduce new information, do it like a good movie. Don't tell us, show us what it means through image and dialog and expect the viewer to understand. Also the settings being in japanese but the daz3d art being western is unfortunate but maybe unavoidable due to availablity of assets. But seeing as the Japan arc was introduced in later chapters...I think this was an unfortunate mistake.

There is no point looking back now, but moving forward here is what I'd try to do:

• Write a background story and personality profile for each character, that way you can write story around the characters instead of writing a story and putting the characters in them.
• More character development instead of rushing to introducing new characters. If there is no development, we don't care about the characters. If we don't care about the characters then we don't care about the story. (The character development in chapter 1 was good).
• Tell us what we need to know and don't tell us what we don't need to know. Anything that affects the interaction between characters is something we need to know. An example of something we don't need to know is "Tokyo has less crime". Unless the MC is trying to move to Tokyo with his daughter to escape crime, how is this piece of information relevant to the story?

edit: The younger sister Madison that tries to seduce you and then threatens you is a interesting idea. The idea being that she is manipulative and mean but is only doing it to adept and survive her surroundings. It is how ever, less impactful than it should have been. She immediately throws all her cards on the table during in the first encounter with the MC. She's said to be manipulative. But how manipulative can she really be if EVERY character knows what she's up to. Since EVERY character knows what she is like, she is not a threat and not intelligent (enough to hide her manipulation) so what remains? What could have been an interesting character that you'd have to pay attention to ends up being used to invoke feelings of pity when her back story will be revealed. But since she is a simple minded mean person will we really care when her time comes? The question the dev needs to answer is, how do I make a simple minded mean person likable?

Now you might think, omg he's being a dick by writing this review, what does he know. I took the time to write a review expanding on what I think is needed to make your game better. Don't hate me for it. Take it on the chin and keep moving forward. (Your game already better than 90% of the games on f95).

v0.041

Models and renders are absolutely gorgeous including the the background and assets used. The characters are beautifully modelled, not a fan of beauty dolls but when its done right, its art.

Not much lewd scenes for now but what there is so far, i'd have to said the devs nailed it. Scenes are hot though vanilla stuff.

Can't comment much on the plot for now, seems quite early in to judge fairly. That said devs did a fair job in introducing the setting and laying the foundation for the story. However, a lot of backstory were purposely made ambiguous and combining with excessive use of flashbacks(which i'm not a fan of), it made the storyline all the more confusing. That said, the main plot only makes up 50% of the story, the other half relates to the relationship building between the MC and the love interests, which is fine by me as this part of the narrative is nicely executed.

As for the characters, i'm really loving the cast so far. Like their personalities, motives and relationship dynamics they have with each other and also the MC. They are unique amongst themselves which is a plus. The romance aspect is definitely done right and i'm craving for more. The MC though, he is a mess. He is indecisive, living in the past. Moreover he is like a lost soul just drifting through life but with an unhealthy obsession of his past despite being a father, a cop and with people who love him. I reckon this is on purpose and his character will mature later on.

Definitely wait for more chapters. Its looking good, but not good enough right now. It does however have a lot of potential.

Renders are good with really nice models, but the writing is just all over the place. It starts off decently strong and then makes a weird turn after the first chapter. It just feels... childish I guess.

Maybe it will come together later, but for now I would call this game a pass.

So i only played to about the beginning of chapter 2 before i decided to drop this game. The only good point about this game is the fantastic renders though it has this breathing effect where it zooms in and out which gives me a headache.

Story: Storywise this game was a mess, the constant jumping between the past and present was sorta confusing me and when it got to the scene where he arrived home i was even more confused.

The past with him and his gf was the only decent part granted she was a bit annoying at first, she had started to grow but then we learn she left the mc with their daughter. My interest was already low and now either we would never see her again or she wouldn't come in until later in the story. The characters themselves are also very annoying and kinda loco. The MC feels like a stuttering mess who cant complete a thought or sentence to save his life.

Overall, The dialogue is choppy and inconsistent. The constant random introduction of characters is also quite annoying. The random and
incoherently placed cuts between past and present, Along with all the characters lusting after you the story simply didnt interest me enough to keep reading.


SC: So to where i got there werent really any scenes, the ones with Antonella and amber were both cut short.

Renders: The renders were great, though i do have to take a point off for the breathing effect on each renders it gave me a headache.

Character Models: The models honestly reminds me of a modded sims 4 where you cover your female sims in a shit ton of makeup, which make them pretty unattractive and almost doll like. While they are high quality. Antonella was the only girl that i though didnt look creepy and actually looked good.

This VN is good. Really good. Visually, (besides the few clunky animations) its a 10/5. The renders each stand on their own merit artistically. Hell, I've seen people who only do renders who are lazier than some of the shots this dev makes. I just want to be clear that there are many things about this VN that are as near as perfect as you can get, but there are some really BAD things that I think the dev could easily fix if they wanted to.

Most glaringly is the influence that anime tropes have had on the characterization in the game. Apparently the dev team are actually japanese... which explains the "japanese" setting. If they want to make a VN with characters of varied ethnic background and say that its set in Japan, more power to them - or anyone for that matter. It's fantasy after all.

That being said, most of the japanese elements in this VN only serve to get in the way of the plot, or to make it entirely nonsensical. I was very surprised to learn that the dev team was japanese, because it feels like a weaboo dev is just inserting things he knows about japan haphazardly throughout the game with no rhyme or reason or real care for what it does to the overall story.

This VN has all of the elements that could make for an interesting and dramatic adult story - and it could still mostly be that with some minor changes. As it is though, all of the cast are suffering some sort of anime trope behaviours. For the characters who are supposed to be 35+ years old, this comes in the form of switching personalities back and forth, often multiple times in the same conversation between having a more complex and adult personality to being a character out of a teen anime. The women are mostly behaving like tsunderes towards the MC, and the MC is constantly switching between a grizzled 40yo cop and a stuttering 16 year old boy who is scared of his mama and gets constantly disciplined and told off by her, and who can barely handle the tantrums of girls half his age.

Nanami has also been inserted into the story much too early, and she has been slotted into the story in, again, a totally nonsensical way. She's the only ethnically Japanese character so far, and it feels like that's the reason she's been put into the story, just for the sake of having a big-titted japanese schoolgirl (see what I mean about feeling like a weeb wrote this story?).

She basically takes the role of what your daughter you've just been reunited with and have totally shrugged off should have done. For no good reason the story is written so that your daughter goes off to a modelling shoot with her grandma and aunt, even though she will just be sitting in a corner not participating. Meanwhile the MC meets Nanami and within a few minutes of knowing her is spilling the most intimate details of his life to her and treating her to more attention that he has his daughter so far. Later on Nanami is sleeping over and sneaks out of the room at night to see the MC and talk to him again.

Wouldn't all of that make more sense if Isabella was in Nanami's place? If the MC had taken more than a minute to try to bond with his daughter? To try to explain to her maybe the reasons behind why he left her for years? To give her something to latch onto as far as knowing about either of her parents? No. No, it's much better that the MC has done all of this extensive bonding with some random girl he has known for less than a day rather than with his daughter, who he's talked to for all of 10 minutes in the space of the few days that the game has taken place in.

Overall these things make for a messy and nonsensical story, and with characters who are totally unsympathetic and have incredibly immature and inconsistent characterization.

This game is gonna be as popular as "being a D.I.K" or "MILFy City" when they released it. Mark my words, except if they ruin it, like some other creators *cough* *cough*.

Good luck with this game!

The game looks Awesome.
Graphic is great, not like most renpy games, pretty unique. I like that!
The character designs are extremely good! I love Antonellas design.
World building is beautiful as well, the scene where i was in the office from Antonellas mother, the view from that "skyscraper", was just great!
Stroy is pretty interesting as well, looking forward in wich direction this game heads to!
The Music choice fits the scenes too!
So far, this game is a solid 9,5/10, or in stars 4.5/5. Sadly, i think i cant give a 4,5 in stars, so its a 5.
Great work!

Really goes off track after episode 2, renders are good and most of what happens in the present is decent, but as soons as the flashbacks post episode 2 happen it's a massive snooze fest with random women appearing out of nowhere.

This is a review for version 0.041
What great experience it was playing this game.
To start with the general storyline, I must say that this is not very interesting yet. This is most probably because this is yet to come. The father, for instance, is fairly mysterious and I have a feeling that some things are going to happen in the story that could also make the overall story very good in potential. However, at the moment, it is not there yet. The dialogue with the characters, on the other hand, is very good. Thoughts are used which gives the characters and the dialogue a bit more depth. So that's where this game scores very high in my opinion.

In addition, the graphics are of extremely good quality, there is really nothing to criticise about that. This applies to the general graphics, but also to the love interests. These look very good. I very much hope that this game will get animations but we shall see in the future.

In addition, the music and mechanics were fine, no problems encountered in this regard. The game therefore deserves five stars, I highly recommend playing this game.

A Pretty Storytelling Mess: Hard to Love is, appropriately, hard to love.

Let's make it clear, the game is beautifully rendered, not just in terms of the female models, but the scenes are composed well, with a good eye for framing and blocking. The renderer genuinely has artistic talent. The backgrounds are varied and chosen well, all the women are attractive and visually distinct, and the game is a joy to look at.

Once you get past that, though, the wheels really come off.

To get the most topical issue out of the way, why is this a game set in Japan but everyone's not Japanese? The MC is some dude whose parents are Dan and Elizabeth. His sisters are Amber and Madison. His daughter's Isabella. His love interest in Antonella. His partner is Paz. His sidepiece/girlfriend is Artelle. None of the architecture or background used is Japanese (presumably because the Daz3d assets aren't), so why is the game set there?

The story is told in a series of random flashbacks, but there's too many elements juggled at once and none of them are told to their natural conclusion. Even the flashback sequences involving Antonella repeatedly get interrupted. It's an awful trope even when it's done well, and it's done very mediocrely here. Just tell the damn story you're trying to tell, at least before you introduce another 4 simultaneous flashback scenes that are also left frustratingly unfinished.

The kind of multithreaded breadcrumbing needs to be handled by a literary genius. Unfortunately, the developer is not. Which is no insult. It would take a truly extraordinary storyteller to pull off what they're going for here. Naturally, they fall short of an impossible bar they set for themselves, and the story suffers for it.

None of the characters are even likable. The MC is an indecisive welp of a man who lets everyone walk over him, and then is a total dick who lashes out at everyone on top of it. He's still obsessed with a disappearance of a woman from many years ago, which of course gives him the liberty to abuse drugs and alcohol and take out his obsession by being a general asshole to everyone around him, including people like Paz who clearly do not deserve it. Somehow, instead of people being annoyed with having to put up with this pile of human baggage and garbage like they should, all of them are inappropriately in love with him instead. Makes sense... Thank goodness for toxic masculinity, because this limp-dicked asshat has few other character traits outside of that.

And let's not even get into the issue of telling about his raunchy sexcapades to some school-girl friend of his little sister minutes after they just met. Apparently, the game would have you believe sexual harassment's supposed to be a deep and meaningful relationship.

The members of the family, who ostensibly should be the primary love interests thanks to the incest kink of this game, all generally range from annoying to outright insufferable. The Mom figure randomly oscillates from doormat spouse and mother to dictatorial matriarch exclusively at plot convenience. The two sisters range from mildly annoying aggressive sexpot (Amber) and intensely infuriating shit-stirrer (Madison) who gives you whiplash in the very same scene. The daughter is overprotective and easily jealous, though arguably warranted considering how stupid the MC is. Finally, the father is blatantly an irredeemable bastard whose entire purpose is to act as an antagonist—though again, you understand it because the MC is such a raging blowhard.

Nanami is a mousy uwu big-tittied anime girl caricature who exists as a character without a backbone so she can be manipulated and contorted into whatever awkward position the story needs.

It's not even presumed that there's any build-up in actual feelings, because for whatever bizarre Stockholm Syndrome situation, all of the women in this game are very obviously head over heels for this intensely unlikable MC character, so all of the will-they-or-won't-they is from bullshit carrot dangling on account of the developer.

That's how you get not-even-entertaining moments like Madison showing her boobs, begging MC to touch them, before jumping away acting like he just molested her. Or the Mom character getting on her knees in front of half-naked MC and openly groping at him before suddenly running off in embarrassment. All while the MC uselessly stammers "I-I-I..." thirty-seven times in the span of 4 chapters (how else would you show an MC is internally conflicted, after all?). At some point it stops even being erotic, or carrying any amount of tension, because these scenes shift tones so violently for completely unbelievable reasons, even in the context of unbelievable incest fantasy.

Because the developer doesn't know how to write relationship development, instead of sticking to some inappropriate attraction that blooms over time, they just start all the women out as obsessed and willing. But then they remember they need to milk those Patreon dollars, so they refuse to let these scenes play out to their natural conclusion, instead breadcrumbing and trickling in progressively more risque scenes to keep the reader on the line.

Sadly the breadcrumbing extends all over the storytelling too. Not only are the flashbacks unfinished, people talk like they are all living examples of the worst kind of B movie tropes. Characters will allude to big events, or bring up important information, and then just trail off instead of finishing their thought. The narration does its best to draw out even the most basic of plot hooks, teasing cliffhanging images or alluding to one bigger mystery after another. It's so blatant that it's not suspenseful anymore, just shameless.

And that doesn't even touch on the ridiculousness of "Antonella" as a "quirky" anime Wednesday Addams first love figure the MC is weirdly hung up on for two decades after she disappeared from his life. Like, you'd think that an MC whose mere existence makes all the women in his life, family included, throw themselves at him regardless of consequences would not be the kind of person to develop one-itis so easily. But everything in this game is treated as a vehicle to show off MC's brooding manpain, so that's sadly not a surprise.

Of course the MC can't pursue any women in the game, that would be a betrayal to his one true love! But it doesn't stop a bunch of women from throwing themselves on the MC's dick, or all the times he hires and has his way with whores (because whores aren't people, clearly). Besides, how else can a writer depict their character going through it™ if they can't show him out drinking, doing drugs, and whoring? You can't expect people to write emotions in a visual novel, don't be ridiculous.

There also isn't any real choice in this game. It's either your character is a giant asshole to these women, earning you negative points and shutting down scenes (ostensibly defeating the purpose of even playing the damn game), or you continue to let them have their way with the MC over his token protestations.

Between the intensely unlikable MC and love interests, the all-over-the-shop storytelling, the paint-by-numbers way of depicting human emotions, and the way the game blueballs you on every front (including the flimsy mysteries of the missing girl and corrupt cop storylines unfolding in the background), it's just hard to recommend this game. Which is a real shame, because the effort put into the renders and atmosphere is top notch. I could see the developer being half of a very good developer team, but they really need someone else to handle the storyboarding and writing.

First let me say that this game has incredible potential.

The writing is good*
The models are some of the most beautiful i've ever seen. Paz is amazing, btw, i could stare at her all day.
The story seems like it could be intriguing, if rather standard to the genre
It doesn't seem like the choices have any effect, so I think its more of a kinetic novel than anything. That last comment is not positive or negative, just a thought.

Here's my issue, and its going to come down to two factors.

1 Getting into the story. Good stories are ones where you know the main concept very clearly and obviously within the first 10 minutes. You have some idea who the main characters are and perhaps a hint of the central conflict. A lot of modern stories also use a hook to simultaneously make sure you don't get bored. In this genre, usually a sex scene.

There's no sex hook here, and that's honestly fine. I was intrigued enough by the plot. But tthat is the issue. The plot is firing on two or even three or four different angles for quite awhile. Now this isn't to say a good story can't have subplots, especially if they tie into the main plot, but as it stands, is the story about MC reconnecting with his daughter, his relationship with his family, or getting shot on the job? HtL juggles all three and it doesn't really work. Instead we get information dumped on us, plots rushed through and characters not given enough time to shine (sans Antonella). This and the flashbacks create a jarring narrative, instead of a smooth and gentle flow.

Then you have scenes like the one with the little sister (I forgot her name). We whip from her being crazy to manipulative to nice(?) to manipulative again, I guess? It's messy and unearned, and fails to have the emotional punch I believe the writers were going for.

I think the scene could have worked, (though it still would have been better if it wasn't her first scene and had a chance to be built up towards) if they had just cut it about halfway through. Scenes need time to breath, when you put so much into one, it clogs up the whole thing and makes it impossible for it to have any impact.

Anyway, it's just my thoughts. I think the Dev is talented and I wish them much success.

Amazing game,amazing story and graphics. Animations are wonderfull.
I like when game is teasing and spicy,not giving all at once. Plot is very uniq and well written. Cant wait for another update,very good and interesting game. Characters are so different and triggering of the game is great. I have read all conversations between characters, in my top 5 games definitly. Well done.

The graphic and the chars looking really good and the fact the game jumps like the bad movie "Cloud Atlas" between the time is weird and a bit confusing.
Too much insults all the time!

Emotional whiplash! These two words describe this game in my opinion.

Render are good, but models look strange to say the least.
Intro is hard to follow jumping from past to present and back, while it feels like the MC is actively dying.
In the past the LI is written to be quirky? I don't know MC says something neutral/nice and she takes it as an insult and attacks him verbally multiple times.

But what really got me was Madison...
Wanne see my boobs or even touch them?
What are you doing trying to touch my boobs?
Oh now you feel sad? Come touch my boobs, rub them, be gentle with them.
OMG you took advantage of me and abused me!

The above happens in ONE scene not multiple.
WTF?

That was the point I started skipping and was not impressed by the rest.

Hard to Love suffers from a rather sub-par translation, poor dialogue or both. The narration is erratic and explanations are broken off in mid-sentence, feelings are expressed only fragmentarily.

Because of these narrative problems, I have no great interest in slogging through the plot. I think the introduction in particular urgently needs to be revised so that newcomers are not left out in the cold.

It's exceptional, but it's not perfect, and what's worse.... it seems to go a bit... peculiar.

When playing you can taste the effort put in. The renders are spectacular. Reminds me a bit of another game I won't mention here but they're better than that because at least these characters look less perfect, if that makes sense. It's not characters who look like they've been cloned from all the best bits of DNA from the cast of Beverley Hills 90210. It looks like the Dev's taken the time to make them appealing but not to the point they look unbelievable.

The issues I have, if they can really be called that are to do with other areas. The MC.. seems like a dick. It's hard to say for sure but I definitely get that feeling about him. This could simply be due to the other issue however and that's the lack of real explanation around why everyone is the way they are. There's also little in the way of an explanation as to who the people are. Could come later but if so then it's being fleshed out very slowly. It feels almost like the Dev trusts in their ability to draw the player in so much they don't feel they need to dump exposition on them so soon into the game and it's entirely plausible, but personally I'd like a bit more.

"Hard to Love" seems almost like a joke in itself because it could be talking about the MC (who has a ton of issues and comes off as a dick) or the women he interacts with (who universally also all have issues). The Overview in the original post establishes more than the game does as to what's going on, which in storytelling is a cardinal sin. Show don't tell.

What happened to the MC? Seems he got done in but never explained why. He has flashbacks to a girl, but never really explained who. He's got a daughter, who we know nothing about. A sister who has stuff going on, but not sure what. A mom who's been relegated to a trophy wife who has no issues flaunting herself in front of her family, but it's never explained why. Funnily enough the person who makes the most sense is the dad who seems to hate the MC but from what little I know of the story I can at least get why. There's very little there needing to be explained but all the other characters are a mystery. It also suffers from that frustrating trope of having all the characters KNOW there's something there but refusing to explain it. So you get a lot of dialogue like

Character: blah blah blah. You'd think she'd be better at hiding it
MC: wut?
Character: you know how she....... you know what, never mind... it doesn't matter

No, not never mind, explain the damn story please.

It kind of gets worse as it goes on. There's a whole flashback scene that.... I don't care about with characters I care less about. It's told in a way to suggest it's trying to explain why the MC is a dick but really it just reinforces the fact that he's a dick. And not like a normal dick, I'm talking the level where the story doesn't make sense cause there's no way he'd be allowed by his work to continue being that way. There's also head scratching moments with where the game's set, it seems to be in Japan for some reason despite the cast being white and really the flashback took so long I started to just skip the dialogue. The whole thing didn't interest me and I'm sure it's well written but at it's foundation it's such an abrupt turn from the story that was shown previously it almost feels like a different game.

Renders are fantastic the MC is just unlikable the more I get into his story the less I like him. Story is all over the place and makes me not really want to get invested into it. Game could use a better translator because some parts are just a mishmash and hard to follow. But despite all this I really do like the game so far just hope these things I listed can be corrected by the creator.

I made it through I'm guessing v0.1 of v0.3. The story seems be ok but it bounces all over the place and the way it is presented is difficult to follow, which is the reason for the low rating. Pics are really good. MC is a pussy. I hope the rest of the game works out ok, but it is not for me. Hard to love is Hard to love. Good luck with the game.

I think this is a decent start to what could be a good game.

At the moment it's mostly setup and little payoff but as content updates come that will hopefully change.

The story so far is not super complex and as of yet most of the choices you can make don't really appear to change the story too much; something that I expect will also change with more content releases. The writing itself was good enough that I never felt like trying to just skip through it like I have with some games.

I agree with some of the other reviews that say the MC is unlikable, if he's one that's "Hard To Love" it would make sense, but then again most the women in his life seem to find him the opposite of that.

All things considered, easily one of the best games that I've ever played.

Story 6/5
Models 6/5
Renders 10/5

There aren't many scenes in the game yet, but the story goes very deep. The interactions between the characters may not seem natural for game, but it makes the story much more realistic. Lastly, I would just like to compliment on the quality of renders, so much better than BaD and the other games that I've played.