Heart of the House

Ending felt very rushed

Horrible writing style. I am 4h in and the protagonist fainted like 17 times, was completly overwhelmed by "mystic stuff" for around 20 times and has practically only really awkward talks to soooo mysterious people, that actually don't say anything. It is really hard for me to identiofy with such a flimsy, incompetent protagonist who can't be in control and conscious for longer than 10 minutes. I read VNs mainly as insipiration for pen & paper RPG. This VN is like a storyteller that completly railroads his players by one "mystical effect" thats unexplainable after the other. I like myself a good mystery, but if EVERYTHING is just suuuuuuper mystical and makes you faint and lose consciousness in nearly every scene at least twice, it gets boring really fast. 4h in and with one exception all the characters are hollow and self centered. They talk, but don't say anything. I think I will read further and may update my review if I do, but right now I am really let down by this one. EDIT after nearly 8h: It gets worse. Much worse. I just fainted for the 20th time. Scenes are just randomly put together without any explanation. There are huge exposition dumps that tell you nothing in the end and the descriptions just make it hard to picture the scene. Eveything is always soooo vague. Thne protagonist can't actually do much, because you ALWAYS faint, are too weak, disturbed, confused. The story just tells you: You are so confused. It doesn't explain why. No explanation but "spiritual energy". I went full on spiritual ghost person and with 80% in that stat I still faint every time without accomplyshing much. I am in I think some kind of boss fight and it is SUPER boring. You can't actually do something here and I had to stop reading out of boredom. The writing is miles away from Choice of Robots, Tin Star, Night Road or Parliament of Knives.

一共玩了三周目，最后一次才打到圆满大结局（在这一周目没有成功和Dev上升到互相深爱的程度，但最后二人试着以恋人身份相处的开放式结局也很棒w） 恋爱线（此处指Dev）和友情线（此处指Loren，虽然ta有找MC要亲亲但被无情拒绝了，母爱怎么能变质呢）都太可爱了！！ 虽然是全英但生僻词较少，依旧读得很流畅（也有剧情精彩的加持）。 另：choice of games的游戏设置一直是没法存档，但是有人做出了专门的存档程序，从豆瓣上直接搜choice of games就可以看到啦 最后是打过两次坏结局的温馨提示（有剧透！）：[spoiler] 一、如果后面选择自己继承the House的力量的话，身体健康和男主人的好感度还是挺重要的；二、如何关闭通往异世界的门的选项是关键！谨慎选择！ [spoiler]

I am sad that I could not enjoy the story as much as I hoped I would. The story had a very promising start, giving us the taste of intrigue and danger. But the immersion started to splinter once the protagonist reached safety. Some dialogue lines felt to be added not in the favour of progressing the story, but to deliver a message directly to the reader. Which did a disservice to the characters and the fluidity of the story. Because of that, most characters felt very underdeveloped and unlikeable. Though the problem is not in the messaging itself, but in the way it is conveyed – straightforward and out of the blue. Moreover, the protagonist often takes away the readers agency on how to behave or feel. One example, the sudden panic attack [spoiler]before the ball[\spoiler] when, to this point, I thought I was trying to play a reserved scholar. The attack was explained as a psychological trauma caused by a particular event in the recent past, but it was revealed too late in the story to believe it. A few of the given choices for particular moments in the story were somewhat confusing. As I would reach one of those moments, where all the choices seemed to be implying something I wasn't aiming to imply, I would spend a significant amount of time in confusion, re-reading everything on the screen. It might just be my imagination, that confused me. But I think more of the polite neutral answers would help the situation. Considering that in the work where choices have major consequences and there is no opportunity to alter the decision without a complete restart, it is crucial to make sure the goal for a choice and what exactly the protagonist is going to say are clear. My immersion into the story was chipping bit by bit until I lost the interest in it completely and quit. Hence, I cannot recommend it. But it is a solid work and, I imagine, people with lower expectations and big love for mysteries might enjoy it. Cheers.

If you love convulted stories, this game is a must. Sadly, I do not. There is plenty of roleplaying here and well written dialogue. However so much stuff is happening all at once that it is difficult to make sense of the story. Too many times I found myself thinking "What the heck is happening?". I ended up with a horrible ending to my character, but the worst part is I am not sure what I did wrong. Sorry, but I cannot recommend a game that has me constantly confused. I will say this though, the romances were amazing!

It’s impressive what one can do with just the written word. The tone and overall feeling is great, very much fitting the gothic theme, with some cosmic horror elements. When I first played it had me on the edge of my seat, I was invested and wanted to know what would happen next, but with different scenes and choices it’s worth replaying too, uncovering new secrets and character moments. The characters are memorable and intriguing, you want to get to know about them, and the optional romantic subplots are pretty good. The ones I’ve played felt unique and fitting that character, rather than just generic. I would definitely recommend picking this up.

Ok soo, what? I bought it because everyone told me there is a good romance in it, It could have, Idk since I CANT FINISH THE GAME, 4 hours playing and I dont Think Im even in half of it TOO much for my head, maybe if you read it slow you can understand? Well I read fast so it didn't work for me. I can't understand what is happening on this house and I haven't seen the good romance everyone talks about so far, it's okay till now but is not the best. Maybe if I CAN finish the game I'll change my mind.

4.5/5。很有老式侦探味，维多利亚时代，多雨的天气，偏僻的城镇，阴冷的大宅，化妆舞会，神秘学超自然灵媒。无论是主题还是情节都非常非常让我回想起我很爱的《鬼入侵》。整体挑不出什么瑕疵，角色都写得比较讨喜，叙事也很流畅，但我觉得没有什么剧情反转，一眼就可以猜出原委的程度。我顺利打出好结局后investigation才百分之五十多（） dev完全是狗啊，特别特别萌，忠诚勇敢默默守护主角的小助手，一出场我就已爱上。成就里有一个spend the night in bed with two of your favorite people，是不是还可以threesome啊好好奇是谁和谁。

[h2]注意：[/h2] 因为这里有很多关于RO种族肤色在旧伦敦背景下相关的描写，但是没有关于MC种族的差分，所以我觉得很大程度上应该是默认白人了，在意这方面的话读起来会有点奇怪 [h3]8/10维多利亚背景x邪恶力量（不过这部才370k字[/h3] 还行，有[b]非常色情的性爱场景[/b]（特指某人 选项分支也还行，不一样选择会有不一样线索剧情 主角和助手有点像灵异调查员版的福尔摩斯和华生（不过相处的大部分都是off-screen[spoiler]还以为会一直在的，结果跟我说不能一起去调查，后面再出场了也才一会会[/spoiler]）要是展开写该多好呜呜，我真的好想看一本mc是福尔摩斯泡华生的这种关系的 [b]RO:[/b] 三个锁性别，一个跟着性向变 刚开始看到Dev就真香，结果遇到Bastian就被勾魂一样勾走了 Bastian真的是给我下了迷魂药，很多描写都看得我脑袋晕乎乎的[spoiler]特别是单独相处的剧情真的是无敌，后面成人剧情也色的要死，晕倒嘞[/spoiler] Bastian take me with you 后面又想看Dev的浪漫分支，但是打了好几遍都没打出来，[spoiler]真的气死我了，每次找他他都跟另外一个ro好，妈的，但是我答应Bastian求婚他又一脸失落[/spoiler]（原来是一定要[spoiler]开头他表白的时候答应他，选indecisive的选项也相当于拒绝了 /汗 [/spoiler]） [b]剧情：[/b] 打了几遍感觉还行，但就还是因为短的缘故吧，舞会前后分支做的有点差，[spoiler]单人剧情不选某些人的剧情就没法救人这个很烦（不过其实也可以不救，不去救人跟Bastian的剧情真的很流畅舒适，做完他说的话也不一样[/spoiler]，舞会也是太仓促了，[spoiler]就明明是来救人的，咋又突然开始放松起来了，还插入一些莫名其妙的桥段：不跟Dev过夜的话舞会去衣帽间还会撞见他跟Loren搞完，真服了，不过选他的话也能跟他在衣帽间那样一下（但是代价都是牺牲准备时间..如果能把救人和社交单独分开就好了[/spoiler] 后面结尾反而还好，epilogue也蛮好蛮温馨的（不过其实也不长

一次愉快的体验，如果你喜欢四处晃荡的鬼魂/爱伦坡式家族诅咒/迷失在古宅之中/危机四伏的假面舞会/巨型触手怪兽这些要素的话十分推荐购买 长度大概是一本中篇小说？阅读难度不算太高但也有一些不常见的词汇（也可能单纯是我英语太烂）。和大多数CoG游戏一样没有存档功能，没有存档功能，没有存档功能（重要的事情说三遍） 作者你很喜欢褐色小甜心对不对，可攻略角色有三位小甜心其中两个都是褐色[strike] 我也很喜欢[/strike] 很喜欢作者的氛围描写，还挺想看这个世界观下的其他故事的。期待续作！ 一周目pc是传统驱魔师，下次想尝试一下高Skeptical的冷漠侦探路线