I picked this up on sale without even knowing what it was. Not going to lie, I've never played/read a VN before so I admit I expected the gameplay to be a little more than 3 choices, but that's on me on account of that "never having read a VN before" thing. That said, the writing for this is fantastic, the voice acting is top tier and the soundtrack is outstanding. I really, really enjoyed it. Plus the true ending is so lovely and feels like such a good pay off, especially after also doing the the two bad endings.

Also it's so very, very gay. Straight to the "Harold, they're lesbians" list.

It's hard nowadays to find a visual novel that isn't catering to a lower calling, its sole use for visual stimulation. But every now and then, you'll find a diamond in the rough, a story that calls to every emotion in you, to see not only a tale of regret and grief, but one of acceptance, love, and friendship. I couldn't be happier with how Studio Élan captivated its audience: it's sharp writing, lovable characters, and its breathtaking use of emotion put Heart of the Woods miles above the competition, and worth every minute you give it.

Its a great visual novel! Its a charming and suspenseful story with a great soundtrack. It's been a minute since I played, but I recall at the time thinking there was a real missed opportunity with the way the dialogue choices affect the ending, or something about wanting a little more of one of the secondary heroine's interiority... But overall the execution of the writing is top-notch. The scene where Maddie freezes to death is probably the highlight of the game for me; it captures an incredible feeling of mounting tension and dread.

The primary way my girlfriend and I do dates is by playing VNs with one another over Discord, and this is one such VN that she recommended we play together. We read out the voices while we play, so it tends to take us a bit longer than just reading it in your head would, so it took us some 15 hours to get through this over the course of a few weekends. We played it in English and got the best ending~.

Heart of the Woods is a story about Maddie and her best friend Tara during a quite tense part of their relationship. Maddie has decided to leave the paranormal-focused YouTube show they've worked on together for years and it's caused a lot of strain in the relationship, and they're doing one last big outing together before Maddie leaves the show, taking a trip across the world to the remote Scandinavian village of Eisenfeld to visit a fan who claims there are all sorts of supernatural occurrences there. It's a game with a pretty small cast, mostly just being Maddie, Tara, Morgan (the fan they're visiting) and a couple others, but I like stories like that, so it's no big deal. The story does hop perspectives around fairly frequently, but it mostly centers on Maddie and Morgan, jumping to people who aren't them only very occasionally.

The writing has a few typos here and there, but it's a very sweet love story. It's also a very queer (by which I mean LGBTQIA+), and a good one of those at that. The mystery of what's going on in the town is also told in an engaging fashion, and although there isn't a ton of interactivity, there are a few choices you get to make that dictate just how things end up once you've wrapped up your battle against the supernatural. The art is very pretty, and has a lot of fun, subtle touches to how its done even though there isn't a ton of it. Worth mentioning on that note is how good the music is as well, as it does an excellent job of setting the mood~.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. Heart of the Woods is an excellent and delightful queer romance VN. If that's your kind of thing, then this is absolutely worth checking out.