Having played through the game all the way through 1.5.1, I'll say it's a good game, but not a perfect 5 stars.
In game, you play as Arvin, the renamable MC, tho renaming the character is a can of worms in itself. I'll elaborate later... anyways, Arvin starts off introduced as someone who is chronically sickly and doesn't seem to care about anything, yet has a hot girl as a childhood friend who is secretly in love with him and just about every girl in his class cares about him... except for one girl who hates him. Gameplay is pretty linear, especially for a 'sandbox' game. The story is static and the main story is gated behind making progress with ALL girls. This kinda betrays the whole 'sandbox' intention of the game.
The gating isn't a terrible thing except when you are forced to hang out with characters you really would rather not hang out with. The MC himself declares several times in self monologue about what a pain some of these girls are.
The girls, on the whole, are very pretty and hot. Even the shyest, most introverted girl decides to go braless for a cosplay. Current H content is repeatable with 3 girls you get to have repeatable sex with.
For me, the major downsides come with the dialogue and motivations for characters, along with the abstract static cuts that frequently happen in the game.
I've seen the abstract 'static' cuts used in other games and those always related to a horror theme or showing an onset of insanity... but the main character shows nothing about this. Moments of tension slowly fade towards darkness and sometimes even the static plays into moments of tension when a side character gets 'crazy eyes', tho this is just predominate in the 'Ami' character when she goes full slut mode. Maybe these things will be more apparent as to why they happen later on, but for now, they are just extremely annoying moments that kind of kill the mood of what is currently happening onscreen.
The dialogue and character writing, I have to say is either bad or disturbingly accurate for the mentality of high school girls with the characters. Some of the girls seem well grounded in the way they act, solid archetypes for the characters. Others however, bounce all over the place with motivations and thinking. The constant back-and-forth in their logic makes me legit want to back away from interacting with the worst one who is also likely one of the most popular: Sakura, and she isn't the only one this happens with. She starts off intelligent and strong willed, even going so far as to promise the MC that she's willing to pose in lingerie for him in return for him buying clothing from her at the store she works for. But then she just gets stupid: picks out a pair of shorts too small for her, insists on struggling into them, rips them while trying to be sexy and spends the next several days blaming MC for it. Then says she wants you and then says we have to distance ourselves because you're involved with Saori and she doesn't want to hurt Saori (?) even tho we never see them hanging out. Why does she care? And then says she wants you. then pushes you away. then comes back. If a girl was honestly that much of a yo-yo with me irl, I'd tell her to please back away and make up her mind before coming back to me. Please.
None of the other characters care that Saori and you might be a thing before they pursue you. It makes no sense for this one to flip-flop so damned much when we see ZERO interaction between her and Saori, meanwhile, one we see apparently DOES have a positive relationship with Saori practically throws herself at the MC right in front of Saori and casually treats Saori as if she's not even there whenever she does so... which becomes a point of friction. Other times, it's the MC himself being the mental yo-yo. In one part, tells a character that they are like a butterfly, a strong yet beautiful creature that is not at all weak... then says that she's fragile like a butterfly. Is she strong or weak? I get that even strong people have their weaknesses, but don't use the same metaphor to explain two different things.
Anyways, peeves aside, still a good game. Not a true sandbox, simply because you gate main story behind progression with all girls. But still a good one.
