Thanks a LOT for this extensive review @Techn0magier!So I could give 7.7 now a little run. I haven't it completed yet, but hence I missed a few couple of updates more, I could enjoy a full, cheatfree rerun with some new stuff.
So here they are my good, bad and ugly. This is only my opinion, I try to be as objective as I can, as a biased fan.
The Good
Overall consistency. Girls that are new additions (at least for me), are also introduced in an early gaming stage. A lot of developers and authors got this wrong. You introduce all relevant characters in the first act of the story and not out of the blue in the second or even the third act.
Quality of new content. The beach, the dates the sauna events with Sophia. They are all fun to watch. Even the events for the characters I don't really care about (personal taste), are enjoyable and not destrubtive.
Story development and consitency. So far, I couldn't find much situations where characters were acting out of character. A really rare thing in games. Espeacially in games with such a long public development phase. And the very few I could find so far, will be addressed later, as well why I think that they appear this way.
The Bad
Inconsistent statraising. There are some problems with the stats of the girls. While Ashleys love can be raised very quick (Compliment at breakfast, Kissing while homework, Good Night Kiss, bonus for beach even without her participating in the scene, multiple bonus events) considered love is her only stat this is extreme. The mom on the other hand. Has from arousal level 20 to 30 only one event. After that from level 30 to 35 another single event. That is extrem low paced. You need two ingame weeks to get any advancement. SHe has two stats that needs to be take care of. So that sound s legit at first. But hence Ashley is in the same game environment with her fast pace, mom feels utterly slugish. Something similar with Veronica. She has at first only one stat, and in the phase she has only one event per working day, where you can raise it. And again, she is in the same Environment as Ashley. She feels right compared to mom, hence their similar pacing, but compared to Ashley.I think I got the message delivered.
Currently pointless. I'm not talking about stuff that is currently under development by the state of the story here. So I'm not talking about dead ends, collectibles, or the casinoThe most prominent example is the brief case. You find it and got a choice. You can take it and get the money or you can leave it and yeah. So it is absolutly pointless. If there would be a hidden luck or karma stat, then I could understand such an event but then there would be too few of those. Right now it does nothing to enhance the gaming experience. The Milk button still exists after the Tutorial, I would just change the tutorial event for a bottle of wine. I has the same learning effect to the system, ans the player would get a hint for the wine as a relaxing component for mom. Solitaire or the computer games at all. The Porn option is powerful, and both games didn't help out when you can play them. And in later gamesstages you can grind Ashley (literally) to keep your mood in check. Yeah I would either cancel those two games or tweak the efficiency of the games and the porn option.
Random events are too random. If you try to collect all achievements you run into smth I call Fortunas Disgrace. The chores given by mom are randomly, which means the will appear unevenly distributed, same with the events when you walk across the map. Maybe system that can tweak those chances would be a good idea. (i.e. Player got Laundry five times, kitchen three times, and living room not a single time, the living room will be a forced event. Or the chances for the thig will be enhanced every time you travel a complete rout without encountering etc.)
Disencouraging HUD. What I mean here are two things in particular. First the picture gallery. It has the same problem other gallerys in games have too. They show what you didn't have found by now. Currently I'm missing Ashley picture 5-12 And I don't know if I have missed them, if they will appear in a later stage of the game or if they can be achieved by the route I've chosen this time. Collectibles Appear in different ways, but similar appearence should also be handled similar. My example here are the Forbidden Lotus 01 and 02. While 02 jumps straight into the face of the player by blinking and appearing. 01 hides in a draft, that didn't blink but writes a word in the Textbox. I would make them the same, one way or the other.
Gradient quality. You can see the improving skillset of Faerin, when you start from the beginning. Some older events could need a quality overhaul b/c they look lackluster compared to the newer stuff.
The Ugly (Bugs I encountered)
Missed textlines. There is the bathroom scene with ashley, when she left the MC blueballes in the jacuzzi. MC thinks about her and that he wants to ga all the way now. And then he thinks that the next update should progress this eventline. Well, it already is progressed when I remember correctly.
Inconsitent characters. Here they are. As I said earlier the characters didn't act strange by bad writing, they act out of character by bugs. First, the barista. You can sai, that you've seen her at the police station without ever been there. Ashley snugs into your room in the lingery, w/o pantie but two weeks later she send you the picture where she teases the MC and he is surprised by her decision, that she really didn't wear panties. Mom reacts like in the first week, when you neglect her a compliment in the morning. Even with a maxed out love stat. Veronica wil not drive you at weekends, when she is already a maid in training but the choice exists. This list is a little bit longer, and will be expand with every update. This happens mainly in events that are depending on a time and a location. Mom on the couch, leaving the room at a specific time, entering the hall at a specific time, etc. I would write parallel events that are depending on only one of those dependencys, and can progress the story as well, but without all the benefits. i.e. the lingery photos. The MC got only one, if he isn't at the couch exactly at 20:00. Or he got a totally different set hence he could talk with Ashley without stressing mom out.
The Hintsystem. I love it, but it is missleading with Ashley. You get the Dating option very early hinted(5 Stars), but you cant progress at all with it. Only when you hit another event by chance it goes away, till you finished the current event. Maybe you shold implement a button like "Next Tip" to keep the ball rolling.
Feedback like this really helps a lot in improving the game.
I have to agree with all your points and would like to comment on one in particular: The stat gain.
This is something that has been bothering me for a while and is unfortunately the result of this kind of development (and insufficient planning on my side).
I want the stat gains to be more balanced throughout the game, but at this point I decided that if I give the the stat gains and event rewards an overhaul, it would be better to re-evaluate them and redo them from scratch.
So I believe it would be best to wait until we reach a somewhat "finished" version and then take one update to review it all. This would help in tackling the dialog inconsistencies as well.
Thanks again, I'll definitely take all of this into account (although it might be a while before I get to it)!
