Played through all the current content of v0.09d and overall really liked the way this game is both established and the mechanics involved. Maybe not perfect, but I don't see any reason why this game won't continue to be a very enjoyable experience for people who don't mind reading and a slower burn. There is going to be a lot of pressure on the dev to balance new content with keeping things manageable without endless replays, I hope they have a good plan in place for it.
Pros
- The looping of a single weekend idea works really well here specifically because the Corruption system essentially re-writes the characters' histories so every new rank brings them into the weekend at a new baseline. It makes sense why there can be large changes in how events play out based on what the "status quo" moving into the weekend is.
- Alex C0-C3 is pretty damned well written. I like how her struggle of both liking and hating her body is presented, she's so brash because she needs to be constantly validated that you aren't like everyone else in how you view her body and treat her. Also makes sense why it becomes important for her to both be able to safely experiment but also keep strict rules of engagement to protect her closest relationship.
- The other characters have some very interesting C0-C1s currently, most of them show a lot of promise to have some large variety moving forwards with how each character develops and what their scenes and fetishes will be like.
- I like the precedent set by a lot of smaller interactions or decisions having small but noticeable effects later in the weekend. (ex. Alex seeing cum on Lina or lipstick on your dick from Lin and having something to say about it) Makes individual runs a lot more interesting when little differences and asides can be peppered in here and there to shake things up on top of the larger changes of full Corruption levels.
- Far more personal taste point here, but as someone who gets off on girls getting drenched in cum, the number of times the MC's prodigious loads are commented or focused on was great.
Cons
- This game is definitely grindy already and there's really only one main character throughline present. A lot of work has clearly gone into making it a bit easier, but when Character Corruption levels trigger on specific interactions that can be easily missed or require the whole weekend of particular setup with little variance, I can see this game getting crowded with too much content in too short an in-game timeframe that requires way too many replays to chug through.
- Alex's C4 felt very out of sync with her previous corruption levels. While the given explanation of "early sexual experience she's eager to explore" does explain C4 Alex's actions, it feels extremely out of character for the Alex of C0-C3, who at the end of C3 nearly has a breakdown about the sexual acts she's already performing. I'd personally prefer C4 Alex to slow her damn roll a bit, but with the aforementioned timeframe of the game pushing things forward I get it's a hard balance to hit.
- Another personal taste point, but yeah the tits are a little overzealous. Not enough to ruin the experience for me but it's definitely flirting with disaster, especially with shades of Expansion fetish being present on top of it. For a game with characters a lot deeper than the usual EpicLust cast, seeing them with similar bodies is a little jarring.
Overall the pros outweigh the cons for me, and unlike a fair few other reviews I see here the game being more dialogue and text focused over renders and animations isn't off putting to me. My main recommendation would be to find a way to resolve the extremely condensed timeframe of the game, even just to allow more than one character's main Corruption to be developed without having to worry about missing a single love point somewhere. Off the top of my head using existing mechanics, have the Sunday night dinner be a check of the overall mood against Clara's concern. If mood is higher, everyone decides to stay for an extra day or two maybe? Could give some more room to spread events out a bit and let players spend a bit more time progressing multiple characters at once? Just a thought. Overall this game is quite good and I hope it will remain so as more content is added!