DLMC is a case study in when a dev's ambitions exceed their ability.
The presentation is the crown jewel here. The illustrative renderings are gorgeous, the animations are superb for the medium, with plenty of nuance and detail, utilizing the fundamentals of animation. Many times animated scenes come down to a few frames that are played then reversed, but not here. The character designs are endearing if not terribly unique. The anatomy on display is rendered to have weight and dimension, and the body types have plenty of variety. The sprite work is colorful and lovely. The world feels splendidly realized in terms of visuals. All in all, it's one of the most visually pleasing games you can find on this site.
But that's really where the obvious positives end. So, what is DLMC? Well, it's the story of a young boy who goes to live with his auntie and cousin in a rural community. He's a skinny little guy but boasts a massive hog. He's horny, but so is everyone around him, and people have practically non existent personal boundaries or any sense of taboo.
So, your characters goals are to get laid, and this is where the major issues come in. The entire thing is designed not only to have you wander aimlessly, but to consume as much time as possible. There is no critical path, so there is no signposting so the player can infer what to do next and why. To play the game earnestly, you have to raise the affection of each female character by grinding repetitive actions. Compliment their cooking, helping them with chores, over and over and over. So, once you repeat these tasks dozens of times, you can trigger viginette set pieces. These require specific day, time and location criteria to be met.
The only real way to play is to turn on the cheat menu and skip all that bollocks. Max each female character's affection to 999, adjust the day and time to the correct parameters, and teleport around. You do not miss out on fun gameplay this way, you simply save yourself time. I do not need to tell the Auntie I like Steak for dinner every night of the week, or help the neighbor girl harvest veggies a few dozen times. You see the thing once, you see it enough. And there's a whole Harvest Moon style mini-chore to do to get cash. I just cheat to give myself cash and call it a day.
At the end of the day, this is the ghost of a gorgeously rendered visual novel stuffed into the facsimile of Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley. Just cheat past the tedious gameplay.
The presentation is the crown jewel here. The illustrative renderings are gorgeous, the animations are superb for the medium, with plenty of nuance and detail, utilizing the fundamentals of animation. Many times animated scenes come down to a few frames that are played then reversed, but not here. The character designs are endearing if not terribly unique. The anatomy on display is rendered to have weight and dimension, and the body types have plenty of variety. The sprite work is colorful and lovely. The world feels splendidly realized in terms of visuals. All in all, it's one of the most visually pleasing games you can find on this site.
But that's really where the obvious positives end. So, what is DLMC? Well, it's the story of a young boy who goes to live with his auntie and cousin in a rural community. He's a skinny little guy but boasts a massive hog. He's horny, but so is everyone around him, and people have practically non existent personal boundaries or any sense of taboo.
So, your characters goals are to get laid, and this is where the major issues come in. The entire thing is designed not only to have you wander aimlessly, but to consume as much time as possible. There is no critical path, so there is no signposting so the player can infer what to do next and why. To play the game earnestly, you have to raise the affection of each female character by grinding repetitive actions. Compliment their cooking, helping them with chores, over and over and over. So, once you repeat these tasks dozens of times, you can trigger viginette set pieces. These require specific day, time and location criteria to be met.
The only real way to play is to turn on the cheat menu and skip all that bollocks. Max each female character's affection to 999, adjust the day and time to the correct parameters, and teleport around. You do not miss out on fun gameplay this way, you simply save yourself time. I do not need to tell the Auntie I like Steak for dinner every night of the week, or help the neighbor girl harvest veggies a few dozen times. You see the thing once, you see it enough. And there's a whole Harvest Moon style mini-chore to do to get cash. I just cheat to give myself cash and call it a day.
At the end of the day, this is the ghost of a gorgeously rendered visual novel stuffed into the facsimile of Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley. Just cheat past the tedious gameplay.