Man, whenever I see a new RPGM v0.01 femdom game I get a little excited but also very hesitant about what kind of quality I'm going to find. This blew my expectations out of the water, this is really well done. I absolutely love the little pixel animations, they're very emotive, and I appreciate the amount of artwork that's here, not just for erotic scenes, but all around. The art is really good quality too.
Perhaps more than anything, I love how this game is directed. By that I mean all the little director choices of how a scene goes, what to show when and how, creating a setting and a flow, and most importantly communicating emotions and premises. Each scene really conveys what it tries to convey, and when you hit a game like this that's competently directed it's such a nice playing experience.
I'm also super excited about the characters. That's one of the most important aspects of almost any story for me, likable and interesting characters. I appreciate that while there are dominant and sadistic women who'd love to get us under their heel, not every character in the game is a mindlessly cruel dominatrix (not that I can't enjoy that too, in a way, I guess) and we can find some who might just be friendly, or give advice, or temporarily ignore us or whatever else makes sense for them at the moment. Whether friend, foe or mistress, all the characters feel like they have more than one dimension, which makes them more sympathetic and interesting than if the entirety of their being was defined only by the one narrow type of interaction they have with the mc.
I'd also like to dwell on the mc in particular for a moment, because a bad mc can make me quit even an otherwise good femdom game. I really like the mc in this one. He has ambition and drive, and most importantly he seems like a genuinely well meaning person. He can be defiant without turning into a hotheaded douche, and he's understandably hesitant about submitting and humiliating himself while showing obvious signs of being susceptible to it. Overall, a well balanced mc, and because I trust him to not be a douche about it, I'm actually interested in seeing both the fully submissive paths and the more resistant, hopefully affectionate paths. (So far I've only played pretty submissively...)
As far as concerns go, I don't have many. I understand some of what others are saying about lengthy cutscenes and such. I think absolutely nothing needs to be shortened or sped up for a first playthrough, but it can potentially hinder replayability. For example, all the little pixel animations that make a scene more compelling and alive do make it more of a chore to play through if you just want to go back and try a different option. If there's a way to maybe make it so they're optionally skippable, or that holding ctrl or enter or some other key fast forwards them at x4 or x8 speed could maybe make things easier, provided it doesn't cause anything to go wonky. Similar with the map, I actually really like the school map design, but I can understand how running back and forth might eventually get tiresome, especially on replays. A fast travel map or item that takes you to certain locations might help, but I'm afraid it could be tricky to try to implement that when certain scenes trigger by coming into a location along the path. Maybe have a super run button, like holding ctrl makes you walk 4x as fast as shift does? Not sure what's the best solution. Either way, it won't be a dealbreaker for me even if faster options won't be implemented, but it could be nice for replayability if they were.
As for my personal wishes, 'cause I just can't help myself but share them, I'm hoping to see some game endings for specific characters along the way and maybe more diverse fetishes. I'm pretty optimistic on the first, the idea of becoming one of the girls' permanent slave has already been brought up, I just really hope we get to see a nice ending or two for each of them. The second is a lesser issue for me, ultimately more than anything I'm here for the relationship progression and the more psychological aspects of domination and submission, so whether that's achieved through feet worship or breast smothering isn't that important. But I do like to see diversity in the specific activities used to dominate me, and I am a bit of a butt lover, so I have to admit that the butt-worshipping/smothering scene might have been my favorite so far. But like I said, as long as the relationship and the dialogue is good I'm happy, and I did very much enjoy every foot scene I've seen in the game, and at the end of the day, I do believe the dev should just do whatever they feel they want as that's probably what'll produce the best result.
So in the end what I'm really hoping for is really just more of the same, more high quality game/story experience with good characters and relationship progression and escalating femdom as we slowly become more submissive to Leah and/or one of the other girls when we get to them. This is a really great and satisfyingly lengthy first release that I immensely enjoyed and am excited to see more of! So great job dev! You did a good one in my book.