This Must Stay Hidden

Editorial Don't bother

This Must Stay Hidden is a step-sibling/fakecest visual novel that has landed with a thud for many players. The most consistent complaints are about the visual side: character models are widely described as unattractive or uncanny, with stiff eye direction that breaks immersion. The writing centers on a protagonist whom multiple reviewers call frustratingly passive or dense, and while a handful of players find genuine intrigue in the family drama and enjoy the lewd content, the overall sentiment skews negative. A small group of players appreciate the darker melodrama and give it middling-positive marks, but that enthusiasm is clearly in the minority. A notable source of friction is that the incest content is of the step/adoptive variety rather than biological, which disappointed players who came for something else — a content-fit mismatch rather than a quality problem, but worth knowing before you start. The build itself appears functional across the available versions, with updates releasing at a regular pace and no widespread technical complaints. Community discussion is fairly shallow and cluttered with off-topic posts, so the picture here is limited, but what genuine opinion exists tilts toward "skip" for most audiences.