I really wanted to be able to recommend this game due to its mixed reviews.
Heileen falls short of other romance based Visual Novels. It does not really have a large amount of character development, and none of those sweet sentimental touching moments, that I have come to love from games of this genre.

On my first play though, I barely spoke to the person I ended up with, and my character showed no really inkling that she liked him, nor did he to her. In fact, he seemed like an awful person the entire time, and my character seemed to despise him.

I played through to get all three endings, and each relationship seems equally forced.

In other Visual Novels I have played, the protagonist gets closer to the person you wish to romance, and you learn more about them and you see a relationship forming. This just did not happen.

There also seems to be a huge anti-male sentiment within the game. The male characters are arrogant, sexist, womanizers and violent. The result of this is that 2 out of 3 game endings involve the protagonist concluding that she hates men.

If you really enjoy Visual Novels, and you have run out of games to play, you may enjoy this game. However, do not buy it at full price.

This was the first visual novel I've ever played. I was interested by the description of it, but to be perfectly honest, the main "sell point" for me was the possibility of f/f romance. What I remembered about this game? That it was disappointing, that I ended up with a character I wasn't interested in the slightest for some unknown reason and that, at some point, I started skipping huge parts of dialogue, because the story wasn't engaging in the slightest.

I decided to replay it now and I think it's even worse than I remember. By any means, this isn't THE WORST visual novel out there (or even on Steam). Characters looks alright, music is alright, the creators clearly wanted this to be something else than just any visual novel, since there's quest system. It's worth mentioning, that this was one of first if not the first game from Winter Wolves, so if you don't like this one, you shouldn't feel discouraged to try others (some of their games are really good).

That being said, you don't have to play long to see that "Heileen", as a game, has a lot of issues. Haileen, as a character, too. Writing is fluctuating between bland and absolutely terrible, characters are acting weird, there isn't much logic in their behavior. I got used to annoying protagonists in visual novels, but usually there are other characters that makes up for that. Here everyone is annoying, because nothing they do make any kind of sense. There is a score system, which I don't think have much of an impact on a game per se. Plot seems almost non existent, everything is bland and predictable.

The good thing? Price. I'm glad to see that this one isn't sold for 10$ (like Love and Order, which is even worse). If you are a fan of visual novels, get "Heileen" during sale. If not, skip this one.

This first visual novel release on Steam by Winter Wolves (Celso Riva) feature a female protagonist Heileen who is brought on a trip to sail to the New World by her uncle Otto. While on board the ship, Heileen will get to meet and interact with John, Marie, Lora, Otto and other minor characters. Achievements involve reaching a special romance ending with John, a sailor working on the ship, Heileen's childhood best friend Marie or with Heileen's aunt Lora. The game has plenty of save slots to enable quicker replays to reach a different romance ending, a tell-all relationship meter with any of the three main characters that goes up or down depending on your dialogue or option choices and the option to skip and fast-forward already read sections.

Soundtracks and overall game presentation are decent. Recommended when at sale or in a bundle offer as all endings can be reached and game can be completed in less than 10 hours.

This interactive novel was a truly lackluster effort in my opinion. It came as part of a bundle I bought, and for this I am glad, because if I had actually spent a few bucks for this game by itself, I would have been pretty upset with the content. The writing is pretty terrible, the voice acting is mediocre, and the story is completely lacking, and often doesn't make any sense.

For example, there are a pair of stowaway escaped slaves hiding in a room at the bottom of the ship. Somehow, nobody knows they are in there except the uncle, his wife, and the ship doctor. They have scurvy, but the doctor doesn't realize this until Heileen asks him about it, lol. Additionally, they are being taken to a slave owner who has promised the uncle and wife that the ex slaves would not be treated as slaves, lol. Fortunately for all parties involved, one of the passengers is vegan, and through her advocacy of eating only fruits and vegetables, the are able to stave off the slaves scurvy. Had she not been there, the slaves would have died from scurvy and presumably, many of the ship mates would have also, since prior to that revelation, only the weird people at fruits and veggies at all.

That is just the tip of the god awful writing spear.

Do NOT spend money on this game. If it ends up in a bundle you purchase, then go ahead and waste an hour playing it I guess, but that is all you will be doing...wasting an hour.

3 out of 10.

p.s. the menu screen music is pretty cool even though it's like a 30 second loop, and the graphics are decent (but not enough to save the game)

Simple little VN. Cute stories and nice characters. Good if you need something not too deep to invest yourself in for an hour or so. The art is also very nice. :)

A heartwarming tale of a barely legal settler girl discovering the sleeping lesbian within herself.

I'm not a huge fan of the genre, so keep that in mind when reading my review.

I've done a few of these visual novels, but this was only my second completed 'otome' style novel, if Shan Gui can be considered otome. I've seen alot of feedback about how this is the least popular and detailed of the Heileen series, and I am hopeful that this is the case. I found the game to have all the plot of an adult movie without almost any of the parts of an adult movie that get people to watch. Not that I wanted a hentai game or anything, I just mean the plot was thin, the clothes on the ladies 4 sizes too small, and the characters uninteresting. I also had some of the women in my life give the game a try and they were likewise unimpressed. The quests seemed unimportant and I don't think I even resolved half of them, with little seeming consequence. Once dialogue was seen the first time (you will see it 2-3 times to get the achievements), you can hold down the space bar to go through all the dialogue and you barely miss anything. The artwork is okay, and if you are familiar with these jrpg style visual novels, this won't be much of a surprise, except the only song was a slightly less than a full ripoff of Styx' 'come sail away' modifed and muzak'd to try and perhaps avoid royalties...

I think this was on sale for me for $1.49 and was not worth it. I think in a $1 bundle with 6-8 other games it might be worth your while to get the 100% achievement, or to somehow get you into the Heileen series which is supposed to be better in 2 and 3. I haven't tried them, and likely won't, for a while anyway...

1/10 at full price
3/10 in an inexpensive bundle

Oh Heileen...

This first installment in Heileen's adventures is pretty cut and dry. You play a rather generic main character with rather generic romantic options and a generic story to follow. This game is very middle of the road all around. No voice acting, rather bland music and decent enough artwork, at first it might not even catch your eye at all.

To me what made it worth playing was the romantic path with Marie, your childhood best friend. It seemed to have the most depth story wise and the most drama, though even at the end I'm still iffy is Heileen really returned that same kind of love. You can also pursue an ending with Lora, your uncle's out going mistress but this was the weakest arch with barely any interactions and a vague ending. The default ending is with John, the only male option. Sadly, I found him to be a complete jerk as did Heileen but yet she still fell in love with him.

With only three endings to go after, the game is good for achievement hunters but not so good for anyone wanting a solid visual novel experience. The story is a bit dull, though they try to add mystery and drama to it just not enough for me. The characters aren't all bad and some are interesting, just could use more development. It's a sale purchase at best, but there are two more games in the series so if you really want to find out what happens next you may be tempted to purchase all three.

I clicked 'Yes' to recommend, but in truth, I only recommend as an introduction to the characters for the 2nd and 3rd entries in this series. Heileen 1 is short, with limited input and very brief, shallow storyline. The endings are easy to get, and it is an easy game to get 100% on with only 3 achievements. It does contradict the second novel (the ending of this one, to the start of the 2nd) - so do play with the knowledge that they don't seamlessly merge together into one story.

I've completed this on android and steam. It is the weakest in the series, but I'm glad to have played it as groundwork for the later games. The 2nd is enjoyable, with a lot more interactivity and a lot more depth as an adventure visual novel. The third is a 'proper' dating visual novel, and highly enjoyable. So only buy/play this if you you intend to play the others - try to grab on sale or in a bundle.

This is the first Heileen game I’ve ever played, meaning I have no references about the other two games.

If you want a quick experience with this early Winter Wolves game, I guess it’s worth a try (but only on sale — ain’t worth paying the full price to be totally honest). The story is dull, predictable; the main character, at least on this first game, feels empty and rather annoying since it seems that all that matters to her are how good looking some people are. I found that simply atrocious, especially on a particular scene involving her friend Marie…

The art is okay. Some of the backgrounds are good, others are just bad. The background music is kinda weird: it plays sometimes, REALLY LOUD, scaring the f*ck out of me. Most of times there are some sad scenes and the songs are just all… happy. Makes no sense.

Another thing that annoys me on this game is the lack of expressions: Heileen always has a) her dumb face on or b) her dumb embarrassed face on. Same with all the other characters. And speaking of them… Just awful. John makes me so mad I wish I could hit his face with one of Marco’s pans.

I know this is an old game, but I’m being really honest. I hope the second and third games are better.

4/10. I don’t recommend this game unless it’s on sale, you get it as a gift, or if you want to play this mess by yourself.