Demons of the Hearth

This game is excellent if you want a great story with some top-notch world building. That said, it definitely isn't going to be for those who want a quick fap, and to be completely honest the H-scenes could really use some work. But for me, the story really grabbed my attention with some excellent mystery suspense and intrigue. The world is very flushed out, and you can tell that the author put a lot of effort into planning out where this is going, as there is a lot of subtle hinting and set up that is so well done you may not even notice some of it until a second play through. The characters are also fairly well done as well, with each having well-defined backgrounds and personalities. In summary, it's a great story that just so happens to have a little spice.

I WANT TO LOVE THIS GAME. The story is good and interesting enough to keep me engaged but the sandbox just makes me angry. I'm still trying my absolute best to finish it and once I do maybe I will change my review but until then I gotta continue putting up with this unpleasant sandbox.

I like the game, but I do have one criticism: the mc. It annoys me that he's constantly getting beaten up. He hasn't won a single fight so far. He's always been helped by the women or his roommate in his body, but the mc himself is a loser who can't do anything right, and that bothers me. I want to see a fight where the mc wins on his own and completely wipes out his opponent. He can do magic, but you don't see any of that anymore. He seems like a run-of-the-mill NPC. On top of that, he lets everyone take advantage of him and has no willpower. (Translated with Google)

It seems that this visual novel is following a similar case like most other top notch 3dcg vns out there - starts out rough but gets better with every release. From the start the story / plot is interesting and as the vn progresses - gets more chaotic, complex and adds some plot twists on top. The scenes get more detailed and longer as well which is a plus. The character variety is quite high, would say the music is very well timed too. The lewd scenes themselves might be a tad more disappointing - basic , quick and sometimes feel out of place, but did start to notice improvements on them as well. Would say it's worth sticking for the plot and character development alone, definitely recommend giving this vn a try.

Incredible story...been following the game for years now, the story had me hooked from the first time i ever played it. The world building and lore are excellent. Should definitely be tried at least once.

great story and animations. with all the koikatsu slop thrown around, don't let yourself be fooled- this is one of the very few that are worth your time. there is a genuine attempt to connect you with every character you interact with (even the ones not pictures in the title card).

This game is so good I can hardly believe it.. Why it is so low up there, I do not know, and for me, this is one of the lowest prize games I have ever played. Honestly, I think this game is one of the most underrated out there. I already played it a few times, and every time it feels new and so fresh and good every time.. It shows how well the game was made. What makes this game so much better for me, and anyone who wants true player choice, you will love it, is the great freedom you get.. First, it has a good layout, and it gives you a lot of control over what to do, especially when it comes to relationships with love Interests, You get to say if you want to be with them or not, it is not just for a show it is real choice, and your choices matter, it makes the game fit to what you want to do and how you put the story together and how your character grows.. You want to be with them and fall in love, or want to just be good friends and just be with them for that or not at all. No matter what you pick, it is your choice, and you feel it when you make these choices. Which is all the choices that you choose that will affect the story and character development a lot. The players get to change what kind of person the MC is and what their morals are, so you get to feel really close to the story. That kinda focus on the important stuff and the little things that make the characters grow is why it has a spot in the list of people who like games with lots of depth and character development, and you gotta play it. You can also say how you want the Main character to be. Another thing that makes this game good is how you can have a really big impact on the MC's life. when you pick any choice and it's about how you can control who your MC is going to be. The way they act, what they feel about the world, and how they grow. It all feels like it is you are controlling what the story is about. It makes the story way better, makes you feel more connected to it then other games. All of this is why I think this game is the best, and it makes you feel like you are making your own choice in game. If you like that kinda of stuff that makes you feel like your choice matters, then this game is a must for you. It is more than that. I also think the plot is also quite great and unique, and the story is quite interesting. So do yourself a favor and play this game; it is so good, and you will absolutely love it.

I want to like this as a lot of effort seems to be put into it but after a point you just notice a quality drop. I felt like some characters have been unnecessarily rushed into certain events or things happen out of no where with no build up. There are also characters in there that feel like they are just there to fill in a niche or whatever.

Good plot full of political intrigue involving the various factions in Sanctus. The LI's are pretty complex and fleshed out with their own goals and desires. There's a pretty good amount of content so far in game. The H scenes are typical of koikatsu. My only criticism is the length of dialogue between major plot points. Best LI's imo: Nyla, Beatrice, Finley

TL;DR: Nonsense story, poor sexual content, default Koikatsu art After I saw so many 5/5 reviews and a 4.5+ rating, I expected something really good — but I was hugely disappointed. I really tried to enjoy this game, but I just couldn’t. I dropped it after four main story events and LI’s first sex scenes. It’s a story-focused game; the sex scenes feel like a way to get more donations, I suppose. **Story 1/5** Writing is not that bad, but the author has a huge problem with pacing — I almost fell asleep during the prologue. It’s one big info dump: a constant bombardment of concepts, names, and organizations. Do you remember the LOTR intro? It’s a few minutes of brief summary of the key elements of the setting. Now imagine it stretched to an hour — that’s the intro to this game. This is not how you introduce a completely new world: all these names mean nothing to me, it’s just a set of letters. Nonsensical motivations: Spoiler: spoilers of prologue Why does MC agree to a suicide mission? He’s a completely new person — why does he agree with his previous personalities? There was a demon invasion in the kingdom that lasted for years. The demons were defeated, and the kingdom decided to allow demons to coexist with humans. After 13 years, demons even held high positions in the main military base. WTF? HOW? WHY? Then there’s Hearth — a sort of the country’s main training camp. There’s no prohibition on murders, and it’s run by several gangs. Sorry, what? In what universe is that a good idea? So here’s the Demon King: he decides to sacrifice himself to kill the King … 13 years later? Mmmmmmm what? The King is just a human — what’s the point? I understand it’s fantasy and you need to suspend your disbelief, but any fiction world needs coherent inner logic, otherwise it falls apart. **Romance 1/5** There’s no romance, build-up, or relationship development. I got four sex scenes with four different characters. Three of them followed the same awful pattern: a few boring events where you fight “Thugs,” play console, or do some other random shit, and then the girl just jumps on you. The fourth was even worse: you literally exchange ten sentences about lore and then just fuck out of nowhere. And of course all LI’s are virgins. Pathetic. **H-scenes 1/5** The descriptions aren’t that bad, but the scenes have zero emotion or chemistry between the characters — just two random anime dolls in lewd positions. Default Koikatsu renders and animations you’ve seen a hundred times. **Anime humor 1/5** I simply don’t understand anime humor: all those silly gags, poses, blushing, running. If you’re an anime fan, you might like it. **Sandbox 2/5** There’s no button to skip time — you’re forced to chat with random characters. Not all characters are present on the map at the same time. The only good thing is that you don’t have to go to bed every day.

The story is absolutely amazing. Had me hooked and actually anticipating the development. Characters are all mostly unique! Only reason it may be knocked is the visuals are off at times, reused assets, and the game is not finished, and the MC seems to be simply following a path of Bazrel (Previous Demon King who now occupies him) with no direction of his own, but its amazing otherwise!

The history is decent, but the interface is a bit laggy. The side caracters are decent, but i feel like the main caracter is a bit inconsistant, sometimes he know something he shouldnt know yet and sometimes the contrary happens, there should be a system where you could train the main caracter beyond the events with flen because i am feeling that the main caracter shoulnt be able to even use fortification with the amount of experiance he has and to give him a reason later in the history to not be always a sitting duck that is fuck unless the plot give him a easy out. I will give it 5 star, mainly because how the rating system works here, but honestly i would give it between a 4 and a 4.5

Played a hour or 2 and stopped, the story seems decent and the progress with the characters is great. My biggest dislike is the MC, while he can be calm and composed I think the demon guy should have been the main instead of having pretty much 3 souls. Because from what I've played the mc is pretty much useless while having the power of whose possibly the strongest person. There are no classes or training which is very bizarre, one of my most dislike trope is a MC who can't fight/doesn't try to learn and instead rely on his battle harem. I really don't understand why he's not training his powers tho, could have been good character development with such an aspect early on, becoming his own person.

This is one of the most unique VNs I've ever played. It's a potent mix of Urban fantasy, Magicpunk, Action, Political Drama and Religious elements. It's wrapped in a surprisingly high quality sandbox, featuring ambient dialogue, banter and character development remniscient of more mainstream RPGs. It has a lot of depth and strong aesthetic identity that leave a lasting impression. Click the spoiler to gain an overview on what is happening in the game. It features light spoilers that the player learns in the early stages of the game. Spoiler The Setting: There is a lot of information to go through here and I don't want to spoil much. The land of Skaldera is home to 5 countries. The story deals with the conflict between two of these countries, - Rhukane, The "Blessed Lands", a Human kingdom led by a King and a triumvirate of "advisors". - Mastema, The land of Degmiato, led by a powerful individual with the title of Vezkhana. There are two distinct fanctions. Humans and Degmiato. Degmiato are humanoid demon-like creatures that are naturally strong with magical affinity and unique abilities. Humans on the other hand range from mundane to highly gifted in magic. Rhukane stands in the middle of the 5 countries and due to being blessed, it's inhabitants have a higher quality of life, but the country is a target for it's neighbors for the same reason. Mastema on the other hand isn't a great place to live because it's desolate, which prompts them to attempt to invade Rhukane to secure better lands. Rhukane is basically a superpower and tends to come on top despite the numerous external conflicts it faces. Rhukanians use a scheme to recruit potent Degmiato for their army. They allow Degmiatos in their country only if they graduate from one of their military academies, called Hearths, and they use these trained and powerful individuals to protect their borders. The rest of Degmiato and other downtrodden humans who don't want to live in Mastema, are forced to live in a wasteland called the "Shoal", a lawless place where only the fittest manage to survive, making the prospect of joining a Hearth a very attractive option. The Story: After a failed invasion, the Masteman Vezkhana cooked up a plan to attack Rhukane from within. He fused his soul with a Shoal kid who had a burning hatred for Rhukanian leadership. The kid was lucky enough to be adopted by a prestigious Rhukanian family and managed to qualify for entrance in one of Hearths. The story follows this kid and his struggle to gain a foothold in the Hearth to be used as the operation center for an attempt to assassinate the Rhukanian leadership, by creating alliances and gaining the support of other Degmiato. How magic works: According to Hearth tradition, there are 5 grades of magic potential. The titles are arbitrary. 5. Mundanes These are humans without any magical talent. They don't really stand a chance against mages and Degmiato. While the best of them can qualify for entrance in a Hearth, they are bottom feeders and mostly do it for the prestige and the salary, but it's an extremely risky proposition. 4. Weak mages: The weakest of Degmiato and the majority of Human mages tend to fall in this category. They have some limited magical talent which allows them to survive some hits and imbue their weapons in order to bypass some magical defenses. 3. Mages: Most Degmiato and exceptional Humans fall in this level. They have enough magical potential to cast spells and can sustain strong defensive auras that allow them to survive powerful attacks. 2. Powerful mages: This category is reserved for the most powerful of individuals. Their are basically invincible compared to levels 5 and 4. Their auras are so powerful that they can make short work of their enemies while keeping up their defenses indefinitely. Level 3s can wound them, but it will take numbers and significant effort to beat them. 1. Witches/Warlocks (and some other select individuals) These rare individuals are the result of unique circumstances as they have absorbed multiple Souls that give them unmatched magical ability. Assuming they are adequately trained, they absolutely crash the competition. They can be so overwhelmingly powerful that the only way to challenge a witch is by bringing another witch. The MC: Nero Havelka is an interesting individual. His circumstances left him with a complete memory loss and a very difficult quest which prompts him to develop a guarded and inquisitive nature. He is cunning and uses empathy and charm to control his surroundings. Early on he makes a blunder which forces him to hide his magical abilities in order to avoid an investigation. He is ambitious and doesn't take things for granded, always trying to improve himself despite his restrictions. He doesn't enjoy intrigue much, prefering straightforward relationships. He also has a mind geared to protecting his friends/allies and favors diplomacy over strength. This tends to create a constrast between him and his more action-oriented allies. All in all, a fairly relatable individual. He strikes a good balance between being forced into a quest and retaining agency. Despite being extremely powerful, he isn't a Gary Stu by any stretch of the imagination. He has flaws and makes a lot of mistakes, but he also has strokes of genius and he is very perceptive. The Cast: The game as of 0.7.51 features 10 main girls with a hint at an 11th, and an extended cast of well crafted individuals. The characterization is excellent, every character is unique and has observable strengths and weaknesses. The dialogue and banter is well written, the interactions have depth and complexity. While some of the characters are very quirky and some are too set in their ways, I can't really find any caricatures. Even the simplest characters can surprise you and the more complex ones are amazing. The game doesn't need to tell you if a character has complicated personality. The player can easily identify these characters through dialogue and observation. The main narrative element is the dialogue. The game doesn't attempt to explain anything. The exposition happens either by the MC asking question, or by showing dialogue from different perspectives. My personal favorites are Chelsea, Undyne, Tabitha and Kalista The aesthetics: Visually the game is adequate. It's not the best use of Koikatsu but it's good enough. The models themselves aren't the most varied, but the posing and the scene staging is effective and expressive with enough detail to understand what is going on without having to read the text. The animations are mostly for sex scenes. Again, the operating word is adequate. It does what it's supposed to do. I'd say that it's better than average, but nothing to write home about. Music is by far the strongest aesthetic point. It's very effective at communicating the intent of the scene, the character themes are very appropriate and the game makes great use of atmospheric, rhythmic, operatic and ethnic elements that add a lot of depth and dimension to the scenes. The romantic elements: Sex isn't the focus of the game. It focuses on relationship build, character development and romance. Most scenes feel organic, with minimal porn logic. MC will also may resist advances from certain characters because of trust issues/intrigue. The sex is mostly vanilla with simple animations that focus on positions instead of angles. One of the things I really like about this game is that the drama is very good. You won't find forced overdramatic elements here that create fake tension. Of course this may also create some frustration because MC won't initiate anything with certain characters despite how attractive they look, but I won't complain because it's too well written to suddenly inject porn logic. The approach is remniscient of mainstream RPG games with romantic elements, like Dragon Age, The Witcher etc, but a lot more explicit (and of course adding the Harem dynamics, which are fairly light since the game doesn't focus on sexual relationships too much). The sandbox: The idea is straightforward. There is a main quest and character quests. They are intertwined and you have to progress all of them in an organic manner. In order to progress the character quests, you need to farm trust. It's not that hard and currently it's capped at 13 so you can just spend 20-30 minutes maximizing it for all characters and you won't have to grind any more than that. The strong point is that while you farm trust, the characters have unique dialogue that provides exposition, showcases elements of their personality, and there is a progression to them depending on where you are on the main quest. The weak point is that the day-night cycle is a bit annoying and not every character is active in every time period. Additionally I couldn't find a skip button to progress the time, so I was forced into talking to them to progress the time, which can get frustrating after a while. Another weak point is that because the quests are intertwined, you may progress them in a manner that the dialogue references events that haven't happened yet. The best approach is to do all characters quests till they are locked, then progress the main quest until the a character quest unlocks. Rinse and repeat. If you somehow start an event that you didn't intent to, just rollback and check the hints. This method will give you the most consistent results. So to close this: - Expansive and detailed urban fantasy setting with magicpunk elements. - Interesting and engaging story. - Great drama and political intrigue. - Amazing characterization and dialogue (with perfect english). - Visuals ranging from average to above average. - Average animations. - Great audio. - Straightforward sandbox with a few unecessarily time consuming issues. - Focus on romance, relationship building and character development over porn. - Formidable MC and a diverse cast of humans and monster girls to cover many different preferences. This is an easy 5/5 game. If you like fantasy/magic, political intrigue and have a preference in story-first VNs, it should be right up your alley.

I had some preconceptions with this one. I figured it was "one of those games" i.e. a lazy harem story with a bunch of walking stereotypes waiting to have sex for no reason. Surprisingly though, this is a very good tension-filled story with everyone having their own goals and motivations. In the end, it's still a fairly tame harem story, but there's depth to the story element, that I did not expect. There is a sandbox element, but it is unobtrusive and doesn't get in the way. I'd say, it's not worth it to play for the porn. There's enough of it but it's a pretty standard unmotivated affair, but it's also not important, because you'll want to know what happens next and that is a rare breed here. It starts slow, stick with it.

Review of 7.5.1 This is my first review so please bear with me. I've been following this game for quite a while now and seen how much effort is being put in by the dev Konvel is, and seen the lack of recent reviews that goes over some of the game so I decided to jump in. First of all; yes this a story first game but of the games ten available of this updates girls, eight have sex scenes with a few having three, of the last two, one has a blowjob. There's optional blowjobs and sex with side characters if you wish. Talking of optional, yes you can choose which girls you romance so no need to worry about that. And the dev is actively going back to improve old sex scenes with a few repeatable events done first to test with hopes that they are brought in line with the later scenes like the threesome. But of course getting back to the story its definitely the games strong point with the girls playing center stage along with Nero the Mc. A common complaint is that Nero is mostly avoids combatant. A reasonable complaint but its established why at the start. In minor spoiler terms they would quickly find out who he is while he is till gathering strength. But still I get why people want a more combat proactive protag, its a pretty common request on this site. Still the mc remains an active part of the plot rather than a bystander if thats a worry. But yeah this is definitely a game where you stay for the characters. It has quite a few twists even this early on so i'm afraid of spoiling. It has a sandbox, a sandbox with minor point collection that you can max out at the start and never bother with again. Still the word sandbox causes chill down your spine doesn't it? if you've been on this site long enough. The sandbox though is heavily sign posted with indicators of where characters are so you don't have to keep click around. The requirements of how to get events are on the girls page so you don't have blindly guess either. And even that is planned to get streamlined from images posted. I've already mentioned it but the sex scenes have improved from feedback over time so the dev is listening and is pretty open to feedback. And the end goal is to have at least sixteen main girls to romance with the allies screen as proof. So lots of different girls await Lets talk about about bugs and such. This current updates has months of searching the game for issues and sending it back to konvel so we've caught up. And he would be happy to help if you find one. The continuity issues triggering were also looked at by myself since that seemed like a possible issue so unless me and konvel missed something it should be hard to get things out of order now since I've went through the game three different ways and attempted to break it. But if you do somehow get an out of order scene then please roll back to the sandbox, save and post the save and instructions or at least what happened in the thread or discord and we'll take a look. If you lose a save then the game gives you an option to jump to the start of any available chapters with a checklist of any flags like romance If I missed anything ask me in the thread and i'll answer, thank you. Have fun P.S if you do have issues and how then please say, liking the negative review is your prerogative but it would help the dev more if you posted your issue in thread so konvel can fix it.

Review of version 7.5.1: I'd like to give this about 4.5 stars, but that's not possible so I'll round it up. I really enjoyed the story, even though there were some things I did not quite understand. for example: the MC seems to run into all sorts of powerful enemies and does not have control over his own power. Why has he been training so little? It does not really make sense to me. The game also doesn't really benefit from an open world in my opninion, and the order of certain events is forced anyway, so why not a VN? Other than that I really have nothing to complain, I enjoyed the story and there is a TON of content.

Review for "0.7" (Spoiler I did not make it that far)​ The Good: The Story/intrigue is very well thought out and is so many miles above the majority of games on this site The Characters are also very distinct and speak/interact like diffrent people The Music is probably the best/most fitting in any game like this with there being several times where I stopped reading just to listen to the music Good Rating: 4.5 Stars​ The Bad: The Sandbox is the main fault of this game and while it does not suffer from an endless grind there is a fair amount of extra/useless clicking (even if you use the in game walkthrough as every time you use it 3 extra clicks are needed which can add up if you need it after every event Stars lost: 0.5 ​ Spoiler: Outdated The Terrible/Game ruining : Spoiler: Outdated The Continuity (or lack thereof) is a single thing that not only stopped me from continuing this game, will prevent me from recommending this to anybody, and imo ruins the entire point of this game,​ Imagine a book you are enjoying but when you turn the page from page 68 expecting to be on page 69 you end up on page 80 and thus spoil the end of the chapter. That has happened to me 5 times in 2 chapters ranging from small spoilers (like an extra scene spoiling that a side character can see the demon kings spirit inside of you), to spoiling the ending of chapter 1 while also missing ALL the context relating to Astrid. There are claims that no content is miss-able but on latest version I was able to skip into chapter 2 (reloading an eariler save allowed me to see the end of chapter 1). Stars lost: 3 Overall Game Rating 1 Stars (Terrible Sadly) This game isnt a good story mired by the usual sandbox problems it is a great story/experience that is absolutely destroyed by the ease and the amount you can create continuity errors (it got to the point I was rolling back anytime an event started because there is no way of knowing if it will spoil a huge plot point until it spoils it) even when using the official guide in the game. Unfortunately beyond adding an ungodly amount of variables and checks or reworking the entire game as a pure VN I dont think there is a way to fix these issues​ ​ Playing through almost a year later and I did not encounter a single continuity error the games biggest weakness has been fixed and its now very easy to recommend even if you are not a fan of sandboxes like myself

One of the few games on here with a very in-depth story and lore. Pros: Story: While it is a lot of reading, the story is very well laid well, has a lot of lore building, and is imaginative so far. MC: The MC is alright. He is deceiving and manipulative, but he is powerful and somewhat likeable so far. LIs: There is a good variety of LIs and they are mostly likeable so far (but some lie too much or are too deceiving). Cons: Sandbox: I think this game would have made a better VN since you already have to do most of the events to continue the story. It is not the worst sandbox, but still takes quite a bit of clicks. Overall, a VN with one of the most interesting stories I have seen on this site.

Content: Quite a lot Pacing: steady Plot line: Corrupt/Criminal School/World - gangs - serial killers - murders - organizations - demons - discrimination - MC revenge story - MC rallies people to his cause Character Models: Quite OK during interactions - could be improved for some H-scenes Personalities: Main Charm of the game - well defined - everyone got quite the backstory Music: really badass Animation: could be improved