I'm quite conflicted about BaDik.
The characters and the setting are great, even if you think the college thing has been overdone. A lot of the character interactions and little subtle details are extremely well done and really flesh out the overall feel of the game. That complexity and attention to detail is key to the experience.
At the same time, it goes completely overboard, which you will mostly notice when you replay the game to tryout different paths.
1. The minigames & general sandbox. I don't mind minigames, but there are way too many and they require too much 'cognitive effort' and general grindy feel.
DrP seemingly wants to remain as a solo dev despite the massive backing the game receives, but that means you need to prioritise what you're doing. Why on earth would i want to spend every single free roam feeding fish? And if i decide not to do it then i have to take a hit to my DIKs relationship. Is it just a way to keep the 'pocket money' relevant? Because what an insane waste of dev time and effort.
Similarly why would i want to do tedious chemistry experiments? As someone that spent up to 30 hours a week in the lab during uni, even i don't have the patience for that nonsense. The same with the other class tests. I can play 'brain games' on my phone if i want to. I'm here to be entertained, not to think too hard. Then you have brawler, which is just too much like hard work and i ignore as much as possible.... even though you're forced to use it at one point.
If DrP insists on having this level of detail (which isn't a bad thing) then it would be much better if it was spent on fleshing out the world more. instead of tests, make grades dynamic with your use of 'study time' during free roams. Have a 'hit the gym' option during some free roams instead of having to use brawler for character development. Do we need a full beer pong game?
Add more messaging/rooster/ other options during free roams rather than rooster engagements being so limited as they are now instead coding mini games. I'd much rather spend my time mocking tybalt or chatting shit with derek.
Also wrt the free roams, a lot of the time you can only engage with certain characters if you're on a specific path with them, meaning in some paths the free roams are actually just really bad with minimal content (e.g. BBQ on bella path). I feel like fleshing out these interactions may be a bettter priority.
The free roams also REQUIRE the official guide, because otherwise you have no idea what to do and you'd just waste hours of your life aimlessly clicking around and going back and forth between rooms. That strikes me as poor design.
2. Whilst i love the general character interactions, the story is a bit questionable at times.
The MC could have basically ended the Maya-tuition story arc in episode 1/2, rather than letting it continue for 8 episodes. It took active effort on his part to not tell Maya about Quinn's 'activities'. Even if he didn't want to be explicit he could have just forcefully stated that there was no free tuition.
Similarly the Mora/ stephen storyline, where the MC sees her in distress (he must have known she was refusing to prostitute herself), she disappears and then everyone basically just forgets about her. I can suspend disbelief, but the trope of characters overtly refusing to communicate things for plot-armour purposes is annoying. Especially for an MC that ostensibly is a good communicator. The MC knows exactly what is going on in any reasonable plotline, but somehow he can't connect the very simple dots despite the wife also calling out stephen.
The MC's naive about relationships, he's not a moron. He's also caring and supportive, so would've gone after mora to see if she was ok.
3. Relationships.
I have no issues with the throuple, but given Josy's character in all the non-throuple paths, it's a bit mad that there isn't a josy solo path where she breaks up with maya *early on*. In most playthroughs it's clear that she cares more about the MC than Maya, so why wouldn't she have broken up with maya earlier, especially given her feelings when she first arrives at B&R. I get the feeling DrP is setting us up for a later josy solo path, but it feels a bit forced
I'm not really sure what purpose the jock/nerd/rich fucks relationship points have? There doesn't seem to be an option to reconcile or get on well with any of them. I know it's sacrilegious and i don't have much use for it, but i'm imagining an amusing scene where you're dating Sage and she realises you're friends with Tybalt (for example) if you're not on the jill path.
Tl;dr: It's a great game with fun/ interesting/ diverse characters and lots of complexity. However it's let down by some questionable plot points and having additional complexity where it's frankly not needed and serves no purpose.