I have to applaud you DrPinkCake. Once again, you have managed to weave an interesting story. I had always been a fan but man have you improved!
Let's start with the story. So far, you have again pulled at my heartsrings and reminded me I am still human. There is enough emotion here to keep you rooted in the story, reminding the player that "THIS is not just another fap-material" while still giving the player enough access to lewd content (should they want to). The satirical aspect of the "best friend" Derek allows for a fair bit of light-hearted comedic banter without it being annoying or cringey (at least for me anyway). The set up for the story allows the player to be a blank slate as a college freshman which (although been used quite a lot) has been done effectively by establishing affinity (DIK neutral and CHIK). I first did a blind playthrough (recommended) and it allowed me to immerse myself into the character, making choices I would make myself and not choices that would clearly lead to lewd content. Here, you can also get attached to certain characters, be it due to their looks, personality, or background. Personally I pick Jill>Maya>Isabella. There is also enough in-between content (like D&D with the nerds) that I find quite enjoyable that keeps the story moving without being too heavy.
Next comes the gameplay. So, we are pretty much used to seeing these kinds of games being a simple pick a path style, and the most gameplay you get is a point-and-click free roam. But it is good to see that developers are now expanding the gameplay aspect a bit and this game really improves a lot on it. It's not the best gameplay but I'll take it. For what it's worth, I've played this 3x over and never turned off the mini-games. Sure the pointer maze is a pain in the ass (with its invisible timer), sure the 3x3 image puzzler can be a bit annoying (for some reason, I can NEVER finish the one with Cathy and Jade, I know they not that much different but that's the only one I can't seem to finish). Oh and I really like the fighting mini-game. Which, unfortunately leads me to one of my gripes with this game. Winning the story fights does not seem to affect the story much aside from brief quips or asides from other character. Winning them doesn't impact the story and only gets you renders. I'd wish there was an impact though as it seems entirely pointless to have to do the mini-game only to lose story-wise anyway. This is also the case with the tennis mini-game. Jill wins the 2nd set no matter what you do and it doesn't seem to make much difference whether you win or lose. The affinity system tends to be muddled near the middle of 0.6 too where the game checks for your affinity bar balance (which bar you have more on) instead of the affinity you gained by your other choices (the arrow beneath the bar). I have tried multiple playthroughs (tried neutral, DIK and CHIK) and end up neutral by the end because of 1 or 2 major choices. It wasn't really clear which was being measured and all I thought was these are maximums to keep you within DIK or CHIK areas.
Then we have the music/audio. I really like most of the choices in the music selection, although there are a few tracks that has this creepy monologue at the start that sometimes takes me out of the game specially when it plays during party scenes, I mean I get it, the rest of that track actually has good beats but I still don't get the artistic choice why they had to add that monologue. Anyway, rant aside, many of the tracks fit the scenes but there are some scenes where the BGM just cuts silent. This makes the scene a bit awkward and would benefit from a good instrumental one. I have also notices that the music is more on a track list rather than a set loop. Now I get the idea, but I would suggest to sticking with loops for specific scenes to keep the intended emotion for them. The free roam music should be kept as is.
I was surprised the intro had a voice for Jill so I was half expecting that there would be some voice acting for some of the scenes, but I guess it was just a tease. Haha. But if voice acting for this game is one of the Patreon goals, I'm all for it.
I put off playing this game for some time after what happened with the last game (caused by personal attachment to the characters in the game) but now that I have played this, I must say, I am hooked and can't wait for the next installment.
Overall I would have given a 4.8 but rounded it up since my complaints are minor and the game is not yet on full release.