Well, talk about being pleasantly surprised. Was not expecting to enjoy that one as much as I did.
Let's get the nitpicks out of the way, cause they are just nitpicks.
I'm not a fan of the pseudo-sandbox stuff frontloaded into the start of the experience. I'm glad that the further the game went on the less 'navigation' was required of you, but it was still jarring to be dropped at the bedroom navigation screen every morning and having to jump through the perfunctory hoop of clicking on the stairs to exit the room. The game flow would be greatly improved if all of that was eliminated. The café exploration at the start should be streamlined into a narrative guided tour, no need for the player to click on all of the locations to move through the café if you're not going to put any actual sandbox elements in. As it currently is, it is the worst of both worlds; lacking the freedom of an actual sandbox, but requiring more needless hoop jumping than a straight up VN or KN.
Access to the café seems weirdly inconsistent. Sometimes people are locked outside, other times they seem to enter without needing a key. When Victoria first enters the café looking for work and the MC is upstairs getting dressed, how did she get in? Did the MC forget to lock the door, or did they wake up and go downstairs to unlock it before returning to their room to get undressed? And if the MC is really just lazy with remembering to lock the door, then how come later Akatsuki is left outside in the morning on day 9?
I get that this takes places somewhere in the UK, since they're using pounds as currency. But whenever you see the actual notes, they're US $100 notes with Benjamin Franklin on them. Super nitpicky, but still, I did noticed it.
Alright, now for all the stuff that does work.
First off, animation. It's used well and subtly. They don't commit the cardinal sin of being
distractingly bad. They're usually just small loops of what appear to be stock Honey Select loops (which is to say, they're at least decent), and framed in such a way as to not detract from the experience. None of that 'we're going to slap a walking animation on character moving at a sprint while obnoxiously panning the camera over the whole thing' levels of unnecessary bullshit. The people who are actual trained animators working in this field of amateur digital erotica are small, and we're all better off when non-animators don't try to pretend to be something they're not. So yeah, I never saw an animation that was so bad or out of place that it forcibly ejected me from the experience or shattered my suspension of disbelief. So, good work there.
I love the writing. If I were to grade it like a piece of schoolwork, it would be a solid A. I didn't catch any outstanding grammatical errors, and it read like it was written by and for native English speakers. Not quite at the level of A+, as it lacks the creativity and more thoughtful prose of a
Pale Carnations or a
Now & Then, but damn if it doesn't come within swinging distance. I think the thing I liked most was that the writer remembers the ancillary details. They pay attention to the small things, and don't forget to write about them. I hate when a game is just 99% character dialogue; you either miss out on a lot of details, or they get crammed into the character's speech and their dialogue is lesser and more unnatural because of it. But remembering to add in details like how something felt or sounded (
'Lucy lets out a long exhalation as the tension drains from her body, before finally rounding on you and lightly hitting you on the chest.'), how a particular character moved or acted (
'Unable to think of an adequate response, you just hug her tighter.'), or even just being explicitly privy to the MC's thoughts (
'She's been dropping hints that she's interested in me, and she's clearly up to something. I think it's time I test her limits.'), all help to flesh out the world and make it feel more authentic and lived in. Plus, that doesn't stop when the lewd scenes happen! Other lesser writers have often dropped the ball there and started skimping on their writing (often combined with using animation as a crutch or filler, another pet peeve of mine).
I really like the characters. First off, it is refreshing to see a maledom MC who gets that being in the dominant role is a kink and not a lifestyle. So many fall victim to bad characterization and stereotypes, misusing or misappropriating BDSM culture, and otherwise using 'dom' as a synonym for 'toxic, abusive, controlling sociopath'. See Also: Dorian Grey from
50 Shades of Grey for a prime example of how NOT to do maledom. It is kinda sad that 'just not being an asshole' is the bar that needs to be cleared to stand out here, but it does clear it. But our MC here is empathetic, kind, and quite affable. He also isn't above being rude or assertive if the moment calls for it. While the rest of the cast might be a bit trope-y (the shy one, the spunky tsundere, the switch bitch, and the weird one), that's not necessarily a bad thing. The film
Independence Day is nothing but tropes and archetypes, and it's one of the best summer blockbusters ever. They're all endearing in one way or another, and all of their dialogue is both spot on and entertaining. Lucy is shy and sweet with a few peeks at her daring side. Victoria is an entertaining witty barb jouster, and seeing her 'redemption' arc is good fun. Akatsuki is for the moment sufficiently mysterious, and I'm very interested to see where she is going (especially when she does assert herself). I'm hoping that Sarah expands to be more than than just the token tsundere character, but she hasn't been around long enough for a deeper read; plus I have a thing for petite gingers with freckles, so I'm in to see what happens.
So yeah, very pleasantly surprised with this one, and I am very much looking forward to further updates.
