Edit: I replayed the game recently, and it seems I misremembered some things a little. I'll mark my amendments and additions with strikethrough and red text. My rating stayed the same. For full transparency I edited the review a day or two after posting it. It had received 4 likes before the update.
It starts off good, it seemed interesting, wide array of characters, mc is written alright, while the set-up is some standard isekai stuff it seems to have some mystery element to it which is fed some breadcrumbs every now and then. As I continued to play I reached the conclusion that there is entirely too much clicking and I'd never beat it without the walk-through tips, which in turn just turn the game into a chore of following directions and clicking through a bunch of stale bullshit - it doesn't feel like a game or adventure after a short while - it feels like a captcha I need to pass to see some tits. I love going back and forth and refilling the water bottle 5 times, or clicking to navigate through the entire school only for an hour to pass and the character placements to shift. A lot of the "puzzles" or interactions seem so incredibly out of left field and irrelevant that I am certain it would be statistically impossible for anyone to stumble upon those answers without the in-game walk-through. You seemingly can pick quests, but then it turns out you need to beat some before others become available, which defeats the purpose and ends up just being more unnecessary captcha clicking. At some point I started skipping dialogue, many of the characters don't feel like actual characters, they're all so over the top they're incomprehensible. At least 2 or 3 characters feel like a collection of one-liners rather than actual people. I feel like I'm having a stroke reading half of the dialogue that the goth and sci-fi girl spout. I've given up trying to understand the dialogue and story. (I've since changed my mind a little, I still absolutely loathe Maxine (newspaper girl with the glasses and felt cap), and appreciate being able to pick the "I don't want to deal with this shit" option, but didn't really enjoy that the MC suggested he'd be interested in her romantically at the start. Goth/art girl (Jacklyn) is still weird, but is not as egregious as I remembered. She's still some flavor of "random xd", but I guess it's okay for the most part. Don't know why she specifically is locked into having to pick between her and the sister character. The few characters that seem to at least attempt to be people seem to just not be all that likable: maybe I'm missing something butwhy is the sister character so abusive even after you become closer with her (and why was she in the first place, she genuinely seemed disgusted by mc's existence) I misremembered this somewhat. It's not as egregious as I'd thought. A history of being at each other's throats is suggested through dialogue, though it can be just a little grating at times after having gotten closer - sometimes being nice to her means having to swallow disrespect, one that is suggested to have been earned through MC's behaviour before the events of the game; blonde cheerleader girl is so over the top irredemably selfish and cruel I really can't comprehend wtf anyone was possibly trying to go for with her. Whole thing is some twilight zone shit, I get whiplash reading this stuff. (While there seems to be at least some attempts at nuance I feel they're lost. The game likes to overreach and really go over the top in moments that just completely take me out of the story). There are some nice moments with a few of these characters, but then once they pass it goes back to whatever the fuck they were in-between them and I can only groan in frustration. It doesn't feel comprehensive, I can't reconcile those moments with the way these characters continue to act outside of them.
There are so many bizarre out of place moments that seem to just be brushed aside by the MC so casually that it is perplexingly frustrating. There is literally no other reason as to why someone would sit idly in these situations other than the fact that It'd massively shorten the game. The plot at times demands the MC to be a mouth-breather.
Maxine admits to so many weird and immoral fucked up things without offering any explanation and it's just brushed aside as some sort of kooky idiosyncrasy. Oh you committed a war crime, how quirky.
Sex scenes arenice underwhelming, some of them have a nice set-up and decent amount of intimacy, though there is far too much faffing about in-between them and they're far too short for how much shit you go through to get to them, so they feel a bit out of place and the general pace almost sterilizes them. The internal monologue is nice, and I appreciate the intimacy and suggested emotional weight of the event, but the actual sex scenes are one single position, with 2 or 3 keyframes and are too short and incredibly visually underwhelming. While the art is nice, the "animations" are terrible.
Having the transition skipping setting on breaks nsfw-scene animations. Most of the time it cycles between 2-3 keyframes with the ren'py transition.
Edit again: It turns out that some scenes are properly animated later in season 2, but most of the scenes are as described above.
I don't know how long this game is trying to be, can't get a feel for that at all.
I don't expect anyone to actually wank playing this, don't expect anyone to actually enjoy the gameplay or dialogue for half of these characters. It's amazing how much people are willing to put-up with as long as you dangle some tits in front of them.
While the story is somewhat interesting, it is full of strange tonal shifts which constantly take me out of it. The gameplay feels like filing taxes, and even with the instructions you are bound to miss out on things due to the nature of the game's narrative structure - this would then suggest a replay to see how things could have been different. This has some sort of meta appeal given the game's plot, but the gameplay is such a fucking mindless chore, learning that I've missed out on some key things just pisses me off monumentally, because fuck clicking through all of that again just to change one or two choices I'd missed out on.
The choice of a semi-open world seems to not be utilized properly, and even feels detrimental to the experience, as you'll be most likely just following directions and clicking through the slightly awkward navigation system to pick up inexplicably random item #37 from a room you'd otherwise never bother to venture to at all. Who the fuck would think to combine a lollipop with a plastic fork to fiddle with a power breaker, much less leaving one of 2 specific (but entirely logically disconnected from the current quest) items in some mysterious desk that transforms them overnight into electrical tape. There are so many random items. You use a dead beaver carcass in combination with coloured paper to make confetti. Without the walk-through this is impossible.
You might even need an additional walk-through to not miss some choices that lock you out of later quests. Tips guide game-play (which items to use, how to combine them, where to go, who to talk to), not decisions. Finding out in season 2 that you have to click through all of s1 again because you missed out on one or two key moments somewhere and are now locked out of a quest is a dick-punch, because this gameplay left without any sense of discovery is like walking around in a circle with sand in your asshole.
Edit again: It seems to me now that some characters are paired in a x or y sort of thing where you can only romance one of them. I guess the way to go is to only do the sidequests for the characters you want to engage with from these pairs if you want to experience all of it, and another run with the other ones. It would've been nice to know this earlier, especially since there is entirely far too much clicking. I also have no way of knowing if this won't be changed later. I don't know If you're meant to only romance one character per run or whatever the fuck, and I'm honestly tired of this. I won't be editing this review further, fuck this, it's not worth the effort.
All in all, it's kind of interesting, to be honest. It's weird, jarring and frustrating, but some of the relationships are nice. If you're not paying and you're bored you could give it a try - it has a nice love story for at least one or two characters. It's quirky, weird and irreverent, even if it overplays it. That's the appeal. Internet addled brain that tries its hand at serious introspection only to include the most bizarre out-there decisions that undermine this house-of-cards of an experience. If you're looking for a wank, you'll be disappointed. It's too much of a time-sink for that, treat it as a bizarre visual novel. You could even enjoy it, but be prepared to sink at least 4 or 5 hours WITH the walk-through. It's got some signs of interesting writing, it's just being dragged down by so many weird choices and terrible design decisions. There is some enjoyment to be had, it's ultimately not without merit and is certainly the only thing like it out there, but I can't give it more than 2.5 stars.
It starts off good, it seemed interesting, wide array of characters, mc is written alright, while the set-up is some standard isekai stuff it seems to have some mystery element to it which is fed some breadcrumbs every now and then. As I continued to play I reached the conclusion that there is entirely too much clicking and I'd never beat it without the walk-through tips, which in turn just turn the game into a chore of following directions and clicking through a bunch of stale bullshit - it doesn't feel like a game or adventure after a short while - it feels like a captcha I need to pass to see some tits. I love going back and forth and refilling the water bottle 5 times, or clicking to navigate through the entire school only for an hour to pass and the character placements to shift. A lot of the "puzzles" or interactions seem so incredibly out of left field and irrelevant that I am certain it would be statistically impossible for anyone to stumble upon those answers without the in-game walk-through. You seemingly can pick quests, but then it turns out you need to beat some before others become available, which defeats the purpose and ends up just being more unnecessary captcha clicking. At some point I started skipping dialogue, many of the characters don't feel like actual characters, they're all so over the top they're incomprehensible. At least 2 or 3 characters feel like a collection of one-liners rather than actual people. I feel like I'm having a stroke reading half of the dialogue that the goth and sci-fi girl spout. I've given up trying to understand the dialogue and story. (I've since changed my mind a little, I still absolutely loathe Maxine (newspaper girl with the glasses and felt cap), and appreciate being able to pick the "I don't want to deal with this shit" option, but didn't really enjoy that the MC suggested he'd be interested in her romantically at the start. Goth/art girl (Jacklyn) is still weird, but is not as egregious as I remembered. She's still some flavor of "random xd", but I guess it's okay for the most part. Don't know why she specifically is locked into having to pick between her and the sister character. The few characters that seem to at least attempt to be people seem to just not be all that likable: maybe I'm missing something but
There are so many bizarre out of place moments that seem to just be brushed aside by the MC so casually that it is perplexingly frustrating. There is literally no other reason as to why someone would sit idly in these situations other than the fact that It'd massively shorten the game. The plot at times demands the MC to be a mouth-breather.
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Sex scenes are
Having the transition skipping setting on breaks nsfw-scene animations. Most of the time it cycles between 2-3 keyframes with the ren'py transition.
Edit again: It turns out that some scenes are properly animated later in season 2, but most of the scenes are as described above.
I don't know how long this game is trying to be, can't get a feel for that at all.
I don't expect anyone to actually wank playing this, don't expect anyone to actually enjoy the gameplay or dialogue for half of these characters. It's amazing how much people are willing to put-up with as long as you dangle some tits in front of them.
While the story is somewhat interesting, it is full of strange tonal shifts which constantly take me out of it. The gameplay feels like filing taxes, and even with the instructions you are bound to miss out on things due to the nature of the game's narrative structure - this would then suggest a replay to see how things could have been different. This has some sort of meta appeal given the game's plot, but the gameplay is such a fucking mindless chore, learning that I've missed out on some key things just pisses me off monumentally, because fuck clicking through all of that again just to change one or two choices I'd missed out on.
The choice of a semi-open world seems to not be utilized properly, and even feels detrimental to the experience, as you'll be most likely just following directions and clicking through the slightly awkward navigation system to pick up inexplicably random item #37 from a room you'd otherwise never bother to venture to at all. Who the fuck would think to combine a lollipop with a plastic fork to fiddle with a power breaker, much less leaving one of 2 specific (but entirely logically disconnected from the current quest) items in some mysterious desk that transforms them overnight into electrical tape. There are so many random items. You use a dead beaver carcass in combination with coloured paper to make confetti. Without the walk-through this is impossible.
You might even need an additional walk-through to not miss some choices that lock you out of later quests. Tips guide game-play (which items to use, how to combine them, where to go, who to talk to), not decisions. Finding out in season 2 that you have to click through all of s1 again because you missed out on one or two key moments somewhere and are now locked out of a quest is a dick-punch, because this gameplay left without any sense of discovery is like walking around in a circle with sand in your asshole.
Edit again: It seems to me now that some characters are paired in a x or y sort of thing where you can only romance one of them. I guess the way to go is to only do the sidequests for the characters you want to engage with from these pairs if you want to experience all of it, and another run with the other ones. It would've been nice to know this earlier, especially since there is entirely far too much clicking. I also have no way of knowing if this won't be changed later. I don't know If you're meant to only romance one character per run or whatever the fuck, and I'm honestly tired of this. I won't be editing this review further, fuck this, it's not worth the effort.
All in all, it's kind of interesting, to be honest. It's weird, jarring and frustrating, but some of the relationships are nice. If you're not paying and you're bored you could give it a try - it has a nice love story for at least one or two characters. It's quirky, weird and irreverent, even if it overplays it. That's the appeal. Internet addled brain that tries its hand at serious introspection only to include the most bizarre out-there decisions that undermine this house-of-cards of an experience. If you're looking for a wank, you'll be disappointed. It's too much of a time-sink for that, treat it as a bizarre visual novel. You could even enjoy it, but be prepared to sink at least 4 or 5 hours WITH the walk-through. It's got some signs of interesting writing, it's just being dragged down by so many weird choices and terrible design decisions. There is some enjoyment to be had, it's ultimately not without merit and is certainly the only thing like it out there, but I can't give it more than 2.5 stars.
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