Heileen 1: Sail Away Reviews

I got the game cause it was on sale and the story really just seemed sort of flat. It felt like the writing was all over the place - half the scenes were so random and didn't even make sense tbh. Like they were thrown in as a filler or something. And many of the characters were just plain annoying. I like other Winter Wolves games, but Heileen falls way short of their better quality games and I don't think I'll be buying either of the sequels anytime soon.

Picked up the 2nd in bundle, it made no sense, had to pick up the first, and to my surprise? Found myself loving it. It'g oing to be hit or miss. You have to like Visual Novels, and I lucked out as 17th century sailing, mysteries, pirates, and stowaways are a total niche love of mine which this definitely fits. The romance options are cute, the art is pretty great, and the story is decent enough, especially with the mystery quests along the way. Explore all of it, and you'll probably enjoy it at least a little. Without spoilering, while there are some clunky parts in the writing, replaying over those pieces to try out the other options can make all the difference. The characterization especially is one of the best parts.

If they was a option for 'neutral' then I would have chosen that. The story is about 2-3+ hours. In that time, I played through the whole game. The relationships are rushed and sometimes for me, out of the blue. Specially that the MC "Heileen", seems to dislike at least 2 of them. Heileen is just 18 year old girl, that really seem to dislike man. And in this game it's not hard to. The male characters are rude and sexist to say the least. But Heileen seems to have dislike them before going on this journey. It's a shame, that her past was not explore about that, so that you atleast can get it. I would love to be have more achievements. Like for getting quests compleet. And some nice pics would be a big plus. Graphics are nice enough. The background are nicely done and the sound is very good. That said. I do like the storyline and the plot twist. I didn't see it coming and with the secrets lingering on the ship, was nicely done. I do think that it should be longer, as some moment seems rushed. And real character development is something I wish to have seen in "Heileen 1", but it seems that it would happen in "Heileen 2". This is not a game to begin to exporing the genre i'm afraid, this because it would give many wrong impressions about visuel novels in general. So if you enjoy the genre, this maybe be a game to pick up. But I would recommend to buy this game at discount only.

quick visual novel, but with a story that forces you into awkward relationships

This is an interesting little visual novella. Based on the date of release and the price, I suspect this may be one of (if not the) first releases from Winter Wolves. As such, you can see a lot of... issues that they figured out as they got more experience. So while the weakest of their efforts, it is still interesting to see how far they've come. There are three paths in this game, plus 40 side quests. This is a good introduction to many of the characters in the trilogy. So, I shall recommend it for anyone interested.

The game has no distinctive features and built around cliched story and characters.

This must be one of the silliest - and shortest (1 hr to finish) - games ever made. It's all about little girls' overly dramatic fantasies about boys (and other girls); what's worse, all you can do is click on a very limited choice of replies. If you're over 13, don't bother.

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.

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.

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.