+Writing style is efficient and enjoyable. I was expecting things to be pretty dry with lots of reading in what looked to be a fantasy epic but was pleasantly surprised with a much lighter approach and good amounts of humor while still keeping things serious when they needed to be. The humor and style got me particularly hooked in the earlier parts of the game but became less pronounced as the game progressed while still being there from time to time.
+Lore entries are unlocked as things are mentioned in the game which make for a terrific way of providing background and world-building for those of us that care without bloating dialogue with unnatural exposition.
+Animations are surprisingly well done. The lewd ones are somewhat straight-forward (each scene is one to two positions shown at various angles and a finishing animation) but satisfying. Things jiggle as they should and things like speed and impact are just right. My only slight knock is that the quality is somewhat compromised in some cases by compression artifacts. Things move fast enough though that they're usually not noticeable.
+Voice acting was well done for an AVN. Sounds were overall solid. Sounds and moans/voices during sex scenes were excellent.
+Bonus points from me for a few decent animated facials.
=Renders are overall decent enough but not great. Some look terrific but a lot are lacking in various aspects. Aesthetic choices particularly with some of the models themselves can take a bit of getting used to as well. The amount of renders used per scene can seem pretty low compared to other AVNs but they generally get the job done. Render choice was a bit hit or miss with some seemingly unneeded large shots of barren landscapes and not enough in scenes with interactions with other characters. Use of sprites in certain dialogues did help make up for the lack of renders in some of these scenarios though.
=Most of the lewd material and flavors catered to are fairly vanilla aside from a few exceptions.
=It's hard to tell if one of the storylines in the final battle is an homage or just a fantasy rip off that other parts of the game were included just to set up.
It worked in the context of the game world but hardly felt remotely original.
-Despite being fairly succinct, parts of the story and dialogue still feel meaningless and boring. There are also occasionally things mentioned that are quickly explained away that make no sense if you stop to think about them at all. A couple things that are brought up are then explicitly not explained within the game (which would be fine if there was meant to be a sequel - and I'd love to see one someday).
-Romantic progression with LIs is extremely rushed and largely formulaic. There's rarely time or reason to get invested in them, chemistry is nearly non-existent, and how quickly they come to trust or care for the MC rarely seems earned or believable. It works fine for some of the more casual sexual relationships in the game but not so much for others.
-A bunch of the sex scenes don't feel organic or built up to but rather there because it's just time for a sex scene. There's also little very in the way additional renders, descriptive text, or even dialogue during the scenes. While I like that the animations have the characters clearly not afraid of getting after it, the only build up before most of these animations is usually one or two renders and a bit of text hinting at some foreplay which I would rather have seen more of (just some more renders and text would do the trick). Scenes also have no choices/options to speak of.
-City seems empty and lifeless. The handful of characters you can interact with in the few locations you can go to freely have dialogue options that disappointingly never change as the game progresses. I liked the map and journal interface but it seemed wasted as you only ever have at most a few simple choices of where to go and what to do at any given time.
-Panning/Zooming effects are used way too much on static renders. It works well in the cases where there's a reason to pan/zoom as well as in the scenes with more lengthy dialogue on top of an otherwise static background but it's very frequently used completely unnecessarily. After playing for a while you may start to feel like images even in other programs are moving when they aren't.
-Renders and animations both suffer in certain lighting conditions. Frequent low light combined with bright glowing elements seems to be particularly problematic.
Conclusion:
There's a lot to like and a lot to pick at critically. Writing and world-building had more pros than cons. Animations and audio were impressive. LI progression was generally a let down but sex scenes were satisfying if a bit generic and short. Renders were decent but a bit infrequent at times and often hampered by lighting, quality issues, and obsession with panning/zooming.
This was a good first time outing from a new dev. There are certainly things left to be improved upon but what was already accomplished and learned from here certainly bodes well for future projects. This was also a game which was completed in a very reasonable length of time but as a result unfortunately did feel a bit like an experimental project that could have been much more. It did a good enough job of telling its story and wrapping it up in a fairly satisfying manner but it felt like a lot of potential was still left on the table (especially for the amount of thought that went into building out the world). Nonetheless, the game felt fresh and quite enjoyable for what it was and I'm looking forward to the dev's next project.
+Lore entries are unlocked as things are mentioned in the game which make for a terrific way of providing background and world-building for those of us that care without bloating dialogue with unnatural exposition.
+Animations are surprisingly well done. The lewd ones are somewhat straight-forward (each scene is one to two positions shown at various angles and a finishing animation) but satisfying. Things jiggle as they should and things like speed and impact are just right. My only slight knock is that the quality is somewhat compromised in some cases by compression artifacts. Things move fast enough though that they're usually not noticeable.
+Voice acting was well done for an AVN. Sounds were overall solid. Sounds and moans/voices during sex scenes were excellent.
+Bonus points from me for a few decent animated facials.
=Renders are overall decent enough but not great. Some look terrific but a lot are lacking in various aspects. Aesthetic choices particularly with some of the models themselves can take a bit of getting used to as well. The amount of renders used per scene can seem pretty low compared to other AVNs but they generally get the job done. Render choice was a bit hit or miss with some seemingly unneeded large shots of barren landscapes and not enough in scenes with interactions with other characters. Use of sprites in certain dialogues did help make up for the lack of renders in some of these scenarios though.
=Most of the lewd material and flavors catered to are fairly vanilla aside from a few exceptions.
=It's hard to tell if one of the storylines in the final battle is an homage or just a fantasy rip off that other parts of the game were included just to set up.
It worked in the context of the game world but hardly felt remotely original.-Despite being fairly succinct, parts of the story and dialogue still feel meaningless and boring. There are also occasionally things mentioned that are quickly explained away that make no sense if you stop to think about them at all. A couple things that are brought up are then explicitly not explained within the game (which would be fine if there was meant to be a sequel - and I'd love to see one someday).
-Romantic progression with LIs is extremely rushed and largely formulaic. There's rarely time or reason to get invested in them, chemistry is nearly non-existent, and how quickly they come to trust or care for the MC rarely seems earned or believable. It works fine for some of the more casual sexual relationships in the game but not so much for others.
-A bunch of the sex scenes don't feel organic or built up to but rather there because it's just time for a sex scene. There's also little very in the way additional renders, descriptive text, or even dialogue during the scenes. While I like that the animations have the characters clearly not afraid of getting after it, the only build up before most of these animations is usually one or two renders and a bit of text hinting at some foreplay which I would rather have seen more of (just some more renders and text would do the trick). Scenes also have no choices/options to speak of.
-City seems empty and lifeless. The handful of characters you can interact with in the few locations you can go to freely have dialogue options that disappointingly never change as the game progresses. I liked the map and journal interface but it seemed wasted as you only ever have at most a few simple choices of where to go and what to do at any given time.
-Panning/Zooming effects are used way too much on static renders. It works well in the cases where there's a reason to pan/zoom as well as in the scenes with more lengthy dialogue on top of an otherwise static background but it's very frequently used completely unnecessarily. After playing for a while you may start to feel like images even in other programs are moving when they aren't.
-Renders and animations both suffer in certain lighting conditions. Frequent low light combined with bright glowing elements seems to be particularly problematic.
Conclusion:
There's a lot to like and a lot to pick at critically. Writing and world-building had more pros than cons. Animations and audio were impressive. LI progression was generally a let down but sex scenes were satisfying if a bit generic and short. Renders were decent but a bit infrequent at times and often hampered by lighting, quality issues, and obsession with panning/zooming.
This was a good first time outing from a new dev. There are certainly things left to be improved upon but what was already accomplished and learned from here certainly bodes well for future projects. This was also a game which was completed in a very reasonable length of time but as a result unfortunately did feel a bit like an experimental project that could have been much more. It did a good enough job of telling its story and wrapping it up in a fairly satisfying manner but it felt like a lot of potential was still left on the table (especially for the amount of thought that went into building out the world). Nonetheless, the game felt fresh and quite enjoyable for what it was and I'm looking forward to the dev's next project.
