This is a strong entry -- probably a 4.5 star effort at this point -- which avoids many of the failings of its predecessor (_Babysitter_) while preserving the best elements of that elaborate and sexy, but highly user-unfriendly, game.
The game's best aspect it that it gives the player the power decisively to shape the personalities of several characters, including the MC and three main LIs. Depending on the strength of the main LIs' affection for the MC, they will refuse to perform certain actions (in effect, points gating) and think AND act differently vis-a-vis other characters.
It is _not_ true, as some earlier reviews have stated, that the LIs do not change depending on the MC's choices -- they do, quite radically -- and you will see some scenes and miss others entirely if you surpass or fall under certain affection thresholds. There are an impressive array of choices, situations and kinks that can be unlocked through a combination of deliberate choices and molding the personalities of the MC and main LIs in certain ways. (There are also certain 'fixed personality' LIs that you cannot influence to the same degree.)
This makes for an impressive degree of replayability and different scenarios, for example:
- faithful husband/loyal-sexy wife;
- faithful husband cucked by cheating wife;
- curious husband, cuckqueen wife;
- unfaithful husband tempted by pure babysitter and others, etc.
It's all impressively complex. But the old school, sometimes punishing nature of the game means that if you fall one or two points short of the right threshold, the player can miss their target storyline or personality type and go careening off in the wrong direction. The game really needs a full, up-to-date walkthrough.
Fortunately, it does not have any of the annoying semi-sandbox sections of its predecessor, _Babysitter_ which made playing through different scenarios a mind-numbing chore. Decent skip controls make playing through the various paths relatively easy, especially by comparison.
My one complaint is that the characters are all basically porn game archetypes, albeit with a quirk or two. While you can change them or corrupt them, they stay broadly within their expected molds. They don't surprise or impress me, the way the best female characters in my favourite games do (e.g. Charlotte from _Hillside_, Elsa from _Corporate Culture_, Maria from _The Price of Power_, Sage from BAD).
Still, this is a genuinely good game. I will throw some more money at the poor Dev, who had a particularly rough 2020-21...