So, finished a DIK playthrough (with some nice choices thrown in) and almost done with the CHIK playthrough.
Well, got some things to unpack.
The music, the renders, the animation etc, are evidently all awesome. But I think I'll focus more on the story/characters.
Well, the story clearly won't have the same tone as Acting Lessons, something DPC warned us about right away. First episode in, and we're already dealing with prostitution. Where will we be in v.1.0? All the same, the characters and the dialogue in general feel quite natural and authentic.
In terms of LIs, well, you have the main one, the one MC loves no matter your playthrough, Josy. Unlike Megan, though, she spends much of the first three episodes away from MC, presumably to give the other LIs more opportunity to shine. So we really spend most of our time with Maya, who is currently the best girl imo, though it was inevitable considering how much she's fleshed out compared to the others.
The MC is probably one of my favorite on this site. It helps that he has his own face and personality instead of feeling like a self-insert, even if we still have a control on said personality with our choices. His backstory does a decent job in explaining why he'd go for multiple girls by establishing how confused he is by his own emotions. I don't really like the fact that we're supposed to side with him when it comes to the fight back then, though. The guy was on the ground and helpless. It was over when he threw the first punch, then MC decided otherwise and punched him again, and again, and again. That wasn't self-defense anymore, it was a beatdown, and he would have kept going if nobody stopped him. I do feel sympathy for him, being bullied and everyone getting away with it, but what he did was still out of line.
In terms of gameplay, the DIK system seems pretty well thought-out. The fact that what MC says depending on his DIK score makes picking the same option to see what MC says an actually interesting experience. I like being able to keep track of my choices too, especially with the phone's magnificent UI.
The mini-games are probably the one thing I would have removed entirely from the game if I were DPC. They're quite repetitive and get boring rather quickly. The fact that they're necessary to get some special events in the game, most of the money you earn in the game, and a few special renders, despite the option to turn those off, doesn't help matters. Acting Lessons didn't need any minigame. The story, characters, renders, music, were more than enough to hold the game together. The mini-games hold this game back more than anything.
Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to play 0.4, presumably next month.
