Look, I'm just a guy on the internet, on a pirate site, playing Eroge. Don't let my thoughts affect you any more than the next guy. I'm not hard to please. Good story, good music, interesting mechanics, that's about it. I've played up to the start of Act 3 so I haven't experienced this god-awful combat mechanic everyone's been talking about, but I enjoyed CK, sandbox, and all. Didn't really have complaints with the story or gameplay other than it was easy to miss events, but that's probably cuz I played blind. I didn't play with a guide, honestly forgot there was one, I just played the game. It's an exploration-esque vn, so I explored. I honestly like vns that have you do more than just pick a few options of dialogue. I didn't think it was too grindy, cuz I know grind and this was not it. Really just hold ctrl, and that's about as much grind as you're gonna do.
What I'm saying is I thought CK was fine, nothing really tedious. I just played it with what it had to offer and enjoyed my time. I guess it's just the mindset you go into a game with and what you're trying to get out of it. CK without the exploration/sandbox elements, as a straight vn, sounds really weird to me and would not make sense to the story. There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea, play whatever game in whichever fashion is most enjoyable to you, but the sandbox thing is a core part of the game. Removing that would leave it pretty barebones and not as satisfying, IMO. Anyways that's my two cents, agree or disagree that's fine, just wanted to put it out there. About whether it's right for this to exist, seems like it's already been resolved but. This is a pirate site, expect piracy. Let's not pick and choose what's valid when we're all on this site for one reason or another. Debating about it isn't gonna change how the world works.