Review for v0.1.6
Even stated by the dev's themselves, this is really more akin to a tech demo showing off what they can do. I'm kind of rating this with that in mind. So really it's much too early to say anything concrete. With that said, here are my thoughts:
It's a bold and ambitious claim made on "creating what we believe will be the best adult visual novel." When I think about what I look for in a good adult visual novel at a very base level, there are two aspects I feel are most important. Good writing and good lewd content. Not every game is going to be plot of the century nor is every game going to be the hottest thing you've ever seen, but when something can strike a good balance with both is when I truly enjoy AVNs. So with that claim, I would expect those two things from this game at a minimum.
I'm not a huge fan of isekai tropes personally, but this game is better with it than others I've played. I appreciate that air of mystery of just waking up in this different world and that's all you get. No getting killed by a truck and talking to goddesses to find out you're a chosen one. It's a little more of a realistic approach.
After a little exploring you happen to run into an elf girl who's being chased by a werewolf, manage to help her kill it by providing a distraction, and then she takes you back to her camp. Up until this point, I don't really have complaints about the plot so far (as little of it as there is anyway). Wouldn't say I was hooked, but I was interested.
Now I am not familiar with the animators work, but I've already seen a few people recognize them. It's no question that the sex scene, animation wise, is top tier. It's just something you don't see much with 3D models in AVNs. THAT level of quality. It's easily this little demos strongest aspect. But what separates a good AVN sex scene from just looking up porn is the writing going into it, and that part has underwhelmed me. After getting back to that camp, suddenly the elf girl monologues about how sweet and cute and brave and fragile this human is. Then she gets horny and lets you help tend to her wounds. Then you start having full on sex with her?
I feel like this scene would have made sense like way into the game after we got to know these two characters more and see a relationship grow between them, but it felt very out of place and rushed as is. I found the girls monologue annoying and kind of unrealistic is maybe the way to put it, given she just escaped death moments ago and was inherently distrustful of this random stranger in the woods. Maybe a single thought about the MC being cute would be fine, but to have all these feelings out of nowhere, well, feels weird. I think the wound cleaning moment would have been great to build a little tension, but to be the transition into full sex makes this feel like it would be taking a fuckfest kind of route. Now if this is all just for the purpose of the demo and to show off a sex scene fair enough, but I would be unsatisfied if this was the actual start. Though maybe I'm reading too deep and this elf doesn't even matter, since we seemingly wake up and "it was all a dream" or something.
The game ends right after that so there really isn't much to talk about. It definitely has all the bells and whistles going into it with the nice renders, great animations, sounds and music, etc etc. But plenty of games can say that and still fail to hold my interest due to the writing not being nearly up to the same quality. Hoping this one surprises me on that front, but it definitely has my eye for now.
