The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is Release 2...
For being somewhat a grinder, it's not bad so far...
The visuals of the characters, for being Asian style, are actually high resolution and crisp in quality, compared to other Honey Select Asian style VN/Games I've read/played... There are a few characters that are a tiny bit fake looking as far as facial features, but it's not bad... The backdrops are also high resolution and crisp looking, even if some I've seen before but in lower resolution... There are a few animations, but they are mostly just ok looking and short, but with lots of text to go along with them, which is always a plus... There was also some decent attention to details, with some of the characters parents, whom actually have resemblance to each other... That is such a rarity in most VN/Games I've read/played...
The script is mostly done very well, with only the occasional spelling/grammar error... The overall plot is unique, revolving around a male protagonist who works as a magic using special agent for the government... He is placed on a undercover assignment to seek out members of a anti-magic terrorist organization, at a post high-school magic academy... At the same time, he is reunited with a childhood friend and her mother, whom were neighbors where he grew up... So he not only gets to rekindle old friendships, but he also needs to find anything suspicious and stop the terrorist organization, while acting as a student at the academy...
This VN/Game is a mix of Visual Novel and Relationship Grinder... You have a main story that can be pushed along (via a Exclamation button in the protagonists bedroom during the morning), although for now it's a bit short... But outside of that are lots of side stories as well as relationship story arcs to go through... When presented with choices, they do seem to matter, so pay close attention... It is your typical location-time-day scenario for the game play mechanics... You can go to various locations at different times of day as you try to open new content... I couldn't find a way to skip the time of day beyond taking a nap in the protagonists bed, which I felt was a bit tedious... So that is definatley a quality of life issue that should be addressed at some point... There isn't a huge amount of content at the moment, with most of it being around meeting the various characters, with only a small handful having any content, outside of the initial meeting VN events... And only a tiny few of the characters feel like they have an over the top personality...
You do have to waste some time, skipping time and sometimes days to get through a few of the relationship stories... Plus, some events feel slightly random as you go from location to location trying to see if anything opens up... But as content is added, that should start feeling less tedious... There is a hint system, that can be either detailed, or slightly vague, which works fine for the moment, to help you know that more content can still be opened up... So you're not left wondering... And as I said before, this VN/Game is very early in development, so do not expect a huge amount of content...
I really liked how the developers tell the story and play out the events in this VN/Game... The protagonist is not your typical mindless pervert, just looking to score all the time... With most of the erotic content, it's the female characters around him that are the aggressive perverts, for the few characters that fall into that category... There are many different female characters in this VN/Game, most of which don't have much content yet... And don't get me wrong, the protagonist has no problem with being open minded with attractive women, regardless if they throw themselves at him or not... And he seems to have his sexual likes and dislikes, usually depending on the situation, but his overall goal does not revolve around lots of sex at every turn... He takes his job very seriously, regardless of the Love and Lust interests that come into his orbit...
The story includes several points of intrigue, which comes and goes in a well told manner... The kicker, is that you don't really know, at least not yet, who the bad guys are, or how many there are... Could it be one of the women the protagonist is building a relationship with? Or could it be someone entirely different? There is no telling yet, which adds a bit of spice to the story telling...
Overall, this VN/Game is not heavy on the story text, but thus far I feel the story it does have, feels more meaningful and deep, then what you normally get from this style of VN/Game... Sure it has some erotic content, but there is a sense of balance, which is always a plus... Being a nut for romance stories, I like that they are including one if not more of those... Sure, this VN/Game has a few tiny quirks, but in the end I think the developers are doing a great job with it... And I can't wait to see more, sometime in the future... I'll definitely revisit this one, several updates down the line...
