I found this game while looking for a traditional Japanese-like visual novel eroge. In other words, hot 2D anime girls. I've been playing the gacha game Princess Connect and got in the mood for something similar, but lewd. So, I hop on F95, filter for 2D dating sims and voila!
I played the outdated unofficial mobile version running v1.0. I didn't notice any major issues while playing and understand that most of the patches according to the changelog since the initial release have been minor.
After starting, one of the first things I noticed is that the text can be a little hard to read. A transparent background option would have been nice. Not a big issue, the text was never UNreadable.
Comical and enjoyable writing. Poking fun at the teacher's butt showed me from the very beginning that the creator can both tease and appreciate their diverse mix of characters.
Despite the various ripped assets, it's pretty cohesive. The story feels like it matches the images.
The creator did a good job interweaving details throughout the different playthroughs, making it feel as if you are piecing together a larger whole from different points of view.
I don't know if 30+ endings are common in visual novels, but it can be a headache exploring them all. It's like trying to navigate a maze where some paths lead to dead ends, some lead to the same place, some are short while others are long, and you're constantly questioning which turn to make. Even the smallest trivial choice such as choosing whether or not to look at someone can result in a completely different outcome.
The music was a strange choice at times. One example, early in the game when you just board the boat and are looking out towards the water, it starts playing this hip-hop music that sounds like something out of a MEGALOBOX training montage, but while you're talking to a girl about her social media followers.
Not a fan of the quick sex scenes. It's like the opposite of blue balls if that makes any sense. There was no build up and they passed by so fast like a jump cut. Considering that this was intentional and the creator was going for more of a comical use of sex scenes, job well done I suppose, but it's not my preference.
As an intro to Japanese visual novels, this felt like a sample platter. The most experience I have with visual novels other than the 3DCG/sandbox varients you can find on this site like '
Milfy City', is '
Doki Doki Literature Club'. I came looking for something more in the traditional anime-style and I certainly got it. A whole mishmash of who knows what. Through playing this I found some characters and art styles that I like and I think I'm now a fan of Softhouse Chara. A lot of their games take place in the fantasy setting that I didn't know I was looking for and am interested in playing one of them, but not before exploring some more endings of BOAT.
There are SO many endings!