This and this whole thread, I agree so much. I don't regret buying the game, or playing what I have; I'll play the game when my mood is at its best definitely, but I'll need to stay away from the game when it's not (I'm having to shelf it now, for instance.)

There are already so many games out there that have the "nothing you did mattered" aspect to them - and so many more where you're punished no matter what you choose.  That doesn't make the game fun, you feel punished for just playing the game. And like shock therapy, you just don't want to play it after a while.

Hell, Bloodborne and Dark Souls are some of the most difficult games to play, but they are made so they are also rewarding and you feel pumped when you get past something that was hard before you gained enough levels. And those are dark games with sad messages, but you still come out feeling like you did something. You're only punished if you rush in unprepared and not enough experience.

There's nothing wrong with dark stories. I love cosmic horror and tragic characters, but when such a genre becomes commonplace and you have no way of achieving some semblance of kindness, you grow weary. There needs to be growth in the story and in the characters, else it all just feels stagnant. That's not a rewarding experience, and it's memorable for the wrong reasons.

I also think you haven't really read what the thread is about... SPOILERS AHEAD SO BE CAUTIOUS.

no, nobody was waiting for a twilight-esque otome full of fluff, sweet, romance sunshine and rainbows, but rather, as the warnings said, some kind of twisted romance. The point being, this doesn't feel like romance at all. I'm not the best person to convey this thread into words that sounds coherent and makes sense, because my english is very basic tbh, but i will try....

What people is more upset about i could put it out as being that, for paying almost $20 usd for a game that obviously is very dark, we got a rollercoaster that feels like some kind of mess, and not really a good one, i mean, i don't mind playing almost 5 or 6 bad endings for each character if only i got some reward for it, i dont want a fluffy romance ending when suddenly everything gets solved out of nowhere and everyone is happy and sound, becouse this is not THAT kind of game, but i was expecting some kind of a better reaction to our character being our character and staying there at all, maybe an ending when whe can choose to run away with our LI and send the war *** and simply dont care at all. Also, maybe some bittersweet ending when it's kind of not solved, but rather paused, some mayor character deads but still some kind of reward out of it, something remotely happy amid all that chaos. But we get none.

Not only does the game feel like everything you do is pointless, because it basicaly goes down to ways: If our character didn't exist, the war would go on, we don't know how whould it develop but i am certain things wolud go ape*** and have mayor deaths, maybe set the whole hollywood on fire eventually, but with our character there, things go south rather fast, and for a game with a premise that OUR CHOICES matter, and that we hold the key to maybe solve everything, or set everything into chaos, it feels like no matter what, everything goes CHAOTIC anyways, like yup, we try to make it better, but oh noes, that isn't going to happen. We can't really be anything, and, as for being a vampire, mc feel rather usseless thought the story, being a relatively new vampire at all.

And don't even talk about the sex choices, that's some guild trip right there, it feels so wrong, and is not exactly the kind of "weird, toxic-romance" i was expecting, some of it yeah, but for it to remain that way i can't really call that a romance, it feels like there is not consent, nothing rather romantic at all, randal is the lest ankward one i think, and yeah even if vampires are dark, murderous suicidal beings -in this game context- They were also once human, i would have liked the devs to maybe explore that part and combine it better with this twisted world they created.

this game offers nothing more that a captivating storyline -wich ultimately feels bland after everything is said and done-, beautyfull characters who happend to be very haunted, and no matter what you do, you can't make it better, not only that, but if you try to make it better it will only get worse, a rollercoaster of guilt, blankness, suffering and so so many bad endings with nothing more to it, the game is so far only what seems like bad endings, and for a visual novel, that kinds of falls plain.

You can have and be anything at hollywood- because you are already death, yet, none of it really happens because the ilusion of choices fails to deliver, except for some turns here and there, someone saving your ass depending of your reputation and evading ultimate death, your characters apport to storyline is rather bland, interaction with other characters...bland. Some jokes here and there that might make you laught, but this game can be everything--- but at the end of the day, you sat in front of your pc, staring at the credits screen after 50+ hours of gamplay, to be rewarded with....nothing, just bitternest, some really bad memories, amazing storyline for the supporting characters with major and minor roles and feeling like you did nothing at all, except self-insert yourself in a rollercoaster of despair, maddness, with little to no romance at all, hell, even if you DO avoind romance, even as friends, the feelings are all the same, so the question that always lingers in the end is "What does it matter? nothing really does" Your character matters nothing at all, i get what the devs where going with this game, but it had so much potential to be something more ya'know? The twisted-romance premise could've been aproached so much better, instead is just bland, aknward and kind of put it there? It doesn't matter in the storyline at all- And as such, it doesn't really matter to the characters LI at all, for example markus, something that striked me in his story was that at the beggining when you choose him as a tutor of sorts, he asks you "What are your fears" i choose "Being lonely- because of being a vampire" that's how i would answer in real life, and he responded in the context of "I see, but we're all afraid of it, with different name and circumstances, yet all united with the same string, and do tell, what whould you seek to scape it, what do you expect to not feel it?" -not his exact words but yeah- And i answered "love- i hope to find it" and then this moment got caught in my head because he got serious all of a sudden and said "This is the right time, isn't it? all this time...for this moment" and i was like welp yeah, golgotha can se s*** and stuff, would have been so amazing to explore the way that maybe markus knew you where coming into his life all along- he just didn't know wich role you whould play into his inmortal life until he expended a bit of time with your character? and so, if you chose to romance him, this would've been soo much deep...

That is the kind of potential this game had, but fail to deliver.

Not that i was expecting anything tbh.

i expected more for the storyline choices and endings with influences, but the only one so far who had me almost satisfied was when i started a rebellion of my own -See? i pulled sneaky on you, saorise lol- and got to be the new vamp leader, aside from that, every ending just left me with this bitter taste and i just was sitting there thinking -Wow, so much for choises matter- because in the end, no matter what you choose, the outcome is always bad in some kind of way,  and not bad as in - bad game, bad ending kind of- but bad in the way of that it's always a dissasters, and that in the end of the day, you can't even protect the people you come to care for in this new, dark twisted world. 

Heck, i would have been so much pleased with an option to suicide myself after all those bad endings, maybe then, i could say, yeah, this is that kind of game, but welp, i guess even my character doesn't care about anything at all- just how this game feels.

May not be accurrated because a rambled a lot but yeah, there you have it, some pinpoints into what other people where saying and how i feel about it all.

Sorry for bad english,

Spoilers not game breaking- i think- unless you get turned down for a game who doesnt have real romance lol.

Eh, I agree with your last point to a certain extent. Visual novel writers should be able to write whatever the heck they want, but not on Kickstarter dime.  Though legally the project creator is only beholden to delivering the project, they are expected on a social level to deliver a project that satisfies backers. This is the implicit agreement  Kickstarter donors have with project managers when they give them their money. Not doing so incurs social consequences, and depending on the context, these consequences can be justified (i.e. marketing it in Kickstarter as one thing, and delivering it as another).  

As to whether RE:H was ever labelled as a romance...I'm not sure? I check otome, dating sim, and romance tags all the time here, so I'm pretty sure that's how I first came across RE:H. Looking at the tags on the product page now though, none of those are there, so...*shrugs* Maybe they changed it or I came across it some other way. If anyone else can chime in on that, I'd appreciate it. 

Short answer: No, no happy endings, with the possible exception of Markus' special ending. But you stay alive in most endings.

Long answer: If you get shot, it means that you choose a faction that doesn't like/trust you enough to save you. If you made a deal with Lazarus, he will indeed aid you, but not at this point, but rather in the final battle. (He also will go after Andrei and might even succeed onscreen, depending on you choices.) If you have enough influence with the faction of your choice, you will be saved by that faction and you will make it through the story alive. As for the mentors, there are no ways to "fix" Heath or Randal or even just keeping them from getting worse, though there are endings where they stay with you. Markus' endings are not quite that gloomy, though I found them still pretty depressing, with the exception of his special ending, as already mentioned.

PS: I definitely didn't feel like the game endorses drugs, quite the opposite. That Heath tries to escape from reality and numbs himself is actually his fatal flaw. Mind you, you don't have to sleep with him, and you can also just pretend to take the drugs, if you don't mind deceiving him.