Firstly I have to say that I have only played the version available on the developer's page of The Secret Of The House, that is, until the 12th or so. I don't know if things change for the better in the following days.
THE SECRET OF THE HOUSE
Ok, where do I start?
-ART: Possibly it is the most remarkable aspect of this game. An art style very similar to the films of Disney's golden age or Don Bluth's movies and games. A very original style for a VN and quite well done, I may say.
- ANIMATION: Well, I am aware of how difficult it is to animate just a few seconds of a scene so I really appreciate that in most places you can visit there is at least one animated character. The animation in the erotic scenes is fine, but considering the gameplay leading up to it, I can't help but get a little nitpicky. I will explain later.
- WRITING: I want to include here everything that has to do with the characters, the story, the dialogues and the translation.
Well, it's bad, really bad, and I'm being quite fair in this assessment.
Most of the characters are assholes, the MC is an asshole too or at least this is the feeling I have thanks to some dialogues that sometimes seem written by an AI that has been trained with the instructions of a washing machine.
I would like to highlight the moment where Liza behaves like a piece of shit with poor Kitty (one of the few redeemable characters) for no apparent reason, quite awkward.
The story: generic, I've seen it a million times. Meh, I guess it works as background stuff while you're trying to fuck half the town.
The Translation: I could blame an exaggerated use of Google translate but I think that even that couldn't explain the aberrations that I've come to read. Also, there are a lot of uncorrected errors.
-THE GAMEPLAY: Oh boy... here we go. As I said, the animated cutscenes are fine and the art style is beautiful. Many people will wonder if this is worth playing the game for.
No, it's not worth it.
The click and point elements are very poorly done and sometimes inconsistent. Apart from the fact that in many cases it's almost impossible to locate them without a walkthrough, they magically appear and disappear from the locations as it suits the game.
The game also doesn't reward you properly for your visual acuity, many times you will have deduced that a certain object is useful to achieve an objective, but the game will not let you take it until you have followed a certain (absurd) order, wasting your time.
Some situations become insane when you have to click on a spot for the game then allow you to fetch the needed item that you already knew where it was, only for later tell you that you need another item that was in the exact same place where the previous one was but with which you couldn't interact, making you go from one place to another several times with the sole intention of wasting your time.
Also, filling a garbage bag and having to go to another place to empty it THREE. FUCKING. TIMES. IN A ROW. (This also occurs in at least three different situations)
Moving around the house induces you to madness. To get to the kitchen can I only go through my room? OH REALLY??
I am not going to elaborate more on how the layout of the house does not make fucking sense because this review is already kilometric.
Well, summarizing, This is a game whose main value is not the artistic aspect, it's that practically the good art and the animations pitifully carry the dead weight of a terrible gameplay and an absurd writing. I know this is a way too long review (maybe a bit to harsh?) but the funny thing is that I'm still leaving a lot of things unsaid. 2/5 Poor.
Ah, silly of me, I almost forgot: THE FUCKING TIME BARS!! WHOSE FUCK'S IDEA IS IT TO HAVE YOU WAITING ALMOST FOR 30 SECONDS TO DO A TRIVIALITY? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!