Reviewing v0.22.4
I just upgraded from v0.22.0 to v0.22.4 and played the update. Some quests have now gone backward to present the player with decisions that let the MC not be a creep (although at least some of the non-creep paths aren't implemented). I guess the developer is changing the story/playstyle, and the MC's personality, which is probably a good thing because I'm sure a lot of players were turned off by the game forcing the player to be creepy and evil. Unfortunately, I have to do a bunch of grinding to re-play the quests, and I've already found multiple bugs that block progress. I admit that is a risk players take when playing games in development, but this game just wasn't enjoyable enough to replay any significant portion of it. I'm out. Good luck to other players.
Previous review for v0.18.5
The girls are cute, but they are stereotype Japanese-inspired Honey Select models, so not very original.
The game is mostly a turn-off to me just because the MC is an asshole, a creep, a rapist, and a thief. Relationships are based on blackmail, extortion, coercion, corruption, and deceit. Some of these are evident from the tags, but what's not clear is that they are the basis for all of the content. Be warned just in case being a sociopath is not one of your porn fantasies. If the description had given more insight into the MC being only a creep, I probably wouldn't have bothered playing the game. The biggest irony in this game is that after stealing his neighbor's house keys, if the player tries to use them to enter the neighbor's house, the MC says something like "I don't want to break into someone's house." That seems normal until you realize that the MC has consistently been a thief, extortionist, rapist, and burglar.
As far as the game mechanics go, they're kind of average. Some things are more tedious than necessary, and they could be simplified. Examples include the interior of the MC's home, the interior of the hospital.
Some reviews say the grind is bad and some say it isn't. I would call it a mixed bag, but it definitely is getting worse with each new update. For the most part, the quests have a natural progression where the player goes through the same thing multiple times but the content changes slightly and that's good. However, trying to earn money is VERY grindy and has minigames. The minigames (lockpicking, safe opening, negotiating, cleaning, and now backyard fishing) are neither challenging nor entertaining. They're just designed to waste time. The developer is putting so much effort into creating a gaming experience, but it's an adult game and the games are targeted at 5- to 10-year-olds. The game forces the player to wait 10 seconds after skipping time before time can be skipped again. Why do that for any reason except to force the player to waste more time? [Edit: We found the answer with v0.17: a new feature was added where you can buy a "gaming device" that reduces the 10-second delay after skipping time, so now you can waste time grinding for money to buy the device so that you don't have to waste 10 seconds between time skips. Sigh.]
The story is lame. The "agent" is so dumb that she takes orders from the teenage idiot MC. The story only exists to create grind and is just full of stupidity. Consider the recent addition of the fishing pole where the MC uses the pole to retrieve items laying around his neighbor's backyard. Once the MC retrieves the keys to his neighbor's house (by stealing them from the backyard with the fishing pole), the MC can go into the neighbor's' house and into the backyard when the neighbor isn't home, but he still uses the fishing pole to steal items from her backyard when he could just walk into her backyard and pick up items. Yeah, I know it's a game, but damn.
The quest/hint system seems to be unfinished or buggy or both.
I've found a lot of dialogue/menu choices that are grayed out. It's not always clear if those items can be activated in a given update or not. There's lots of stuff that's not finished, but not all of it appears to tell you when it's not yet implemented or not available due to some other choice.
Summary: The target audience appears to be players that are mostly brain-dead, have way too much time on their hands, and fantasize about being a sociopath.