New experience with a game that is supposed to be played online and thus was downloading the whole time. I didn't play the whole thing.
Don't know if I'll return to it when I get better wifi.
As of now, my takeaways are:
Johanna is too pure for this world
1) Elephant in the room : I'm aware of the tragedy with palmer. Maybe the state of this game is related to that, I don't know and I will not try to understand some events I know nothing about. This bad review have nothing to do with his memory, only with the game itself.
2) I'm not a native speaker so I hope it will not be to painfull to read.
1star for the visuals, 1 star for dedication I supose. 18chapters (maybe more time will tell), even ifit's bad, it's work.
The rest is pretty much terrible. I can't list all the problems this game has but the main ones are :
The MC. Pretty big problem and even bigger because of the lack of choices. You have to follow the decisions of someone totally stupid. He keep whining about his problems, try nothing to solve them and when he do... Well he is stupid... But mostly everything solve itself, because it just does.
Following someone who succed or fail is totally fine... When he tries. Mc doesn't. I'm ok with drama or tragedy, here this is just stuff happening and sometimes the MC reacting (poorly) to it.
Tamara. She's a horrible person for 15 (maybe a bit less) episodes... Then do a "face turn" (become nice... ish) and everything is forgiven/forgotten. And you can't get rid of her because MC "can't say no" to her. Sure she has reasons to be horrible... But she's still horrible
Dennis. A big one. He is supposed to be the antagonist, your nemesis, the nerd against the jock... He is nothing but a pebble in you shoe. You don't feel anything about it, you don't "hate" a pebble, you only wish it will disapear... and it doesn't. He's just a prop to annoy you.
This is not how you make an antagonist (or any character). This is very very bad (at least I feel something for tamara even if it's bad)
Those things affect the whole game. The harem elements -> when you see the Mc can't manage a single/double relationship (forced by the game) you don't wan't to had a 3rd or more. He whine enough as it is and he do enough stupid things on his own.
The problems the Mc face are mostly stupid, could be solved easyly... But you have to watch a stupid character struggling 2 chapters (or more) until things solve by themselves. You can see them happening from far away, MC does not. The secret of the school... If it's true, is one of the dumbest thing ever (all this mystery for this? Really ?)
Almost every of the 18 chapter were unpleasant. I've played all of them, didn't skip dialogues because off daughter for desert. I didn't want to believe the writing could fall this low, I was hopping a twist every chapter, a chance to scream genius... There is none.
Has it good moments but also bad... if there was no skip button this would be a pain in the ass to play. Sorry to say that, but 90% of this game are endless inner monologue without any useful informations... and they repeat themselfs every now and then. In the first two chapters there is the same monologue going one about six times. "if they knew what ive done, bla bla lba, im afraid bla bla bla" come on guys... one time is enough. I get it in the first the second, the MC is depressed of what happened.
I start playing because DFD was really good... but this one is far away from the DFD niveau i have to say. Played too chapter 6 for now, but since here its most of the time boring, and i skipped most of the monologues, cause there is nothing happening anyways, and you get zero infos from them too.
I give 2 stars so far, cause the look of the charactres is very good. i love Tamara, Johanna and Amy (freckles and red hair... those get me everytime)
There are some sweet moments in this game between the charactres but those are very rare, most of the time this Story doenst get anywhere and is really really boring. But im not suprised that there are over 19 chapters... cause most content is just filling up the time... to be honest, the whole thing could be done in 5 chapters i think. Cut the monologues and the game is half as long as it is.
Those two redhead girls may be pretty, but the pictures are of mediocre quality, and the writing is just endless whining of inner dialogue. After 30 minutes of skip-reading I realized: it's unplayable.
Cons: The Mc is a cowardly simp, he'll probably end up offing himself.
Storyline feels like a bad soap opera. Like a twisted version of Dawson's Creek(I've never watched that show and you can't prove I did).
The engine is trash and makes the game less enjoyable, it's slow and unappealing. It's a struggle to remain engaged with the story.
The choices aren’t really important whatsoever, maybe a few, but overall no not really.
You’re constantly getting bested and outmaneuvered by some slimy, scrawny, cowardly geek by the name of Dennis... and he wants to cuck you and will probably succeed.
NTR loomed over this entire game from the start, but instead of adding it the beginning they waited and collected funds from people like others Devs usually do and added it later in the game., so I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a thing, but even if it's not added I kind of lost interest now. Like I said previously Dennis whole presence and vibe was annoying... and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. He's was unavoidable, like a turd that wouldn't flush.
Beautiful, flawless art no doubt, but even that's not enough to save it.
I genuinely care about these characters (minus the antagonist, whom I could've used less of). Seriously, while the writing can be a tad on the angsty side and takes itself a bit too seriously, they really nailed the girls. Choosing between the romantic interests is super hard for me because I really want them all to be happy, you know?
And damn, the game delivers customer satisfaction like no other without animations.
S
3.00 star(s)
Stormsworn
I really want to enjoy this. There's a lot of care an detail that's gone into this game. Renders are excellent. The writing is pretty decent. Sometimes.
But I feel like 90% of the drama in this game wouldn't exist if the MC wasn't such a simpering coward. He actually let some spineless twerp blackmail him over something so ridiculously petty? That... isn't good writing. No one is that much of a coward that they care about people knowing they played a lot of video games.
To top it off, if the MC had recorded said twerp's conversations even once, it'd be game over. If he'd snatched the little jerk's phone out of his hands and shown the "photos" to his classmates, game over. Hell, if he'd even stood in front of the class and relayed, in detail, the things that Dennis had said, it would have been game over.
Instead we have an MC who doesn't have any problem-solving skills whatsoever and who promptly rolled over like a bitch when confronted with the least embarrassing blackmail material imaginable.
The writing and characterization are a cut above what is usually found in this type of game, particularly through about the first half of it. Its nice to see something written by someone who appears to have had some life experiences rather than just mashing together the plots from a few porn videos. The characters do begin to blend together as the focus shifts to an increasingly fantastical plot in the later episodes, which is unfortunate.
On the negative side the MC's passivity towards the incel character strains credibility at times. There really isn't much new art in most chapters. And every male character with an open 70's collar, V neck sweater and little tie is bizarre.
Still, its long and engaging, insightful at times, and has excellent art. IMO its one of the best games on here.
Only giving 2 stars for the renders. They beautiful.
I can't keep up with whatever story there is though. chapters are super short and half of the playtime is taken up by transitions. Got really bored, really fast. I tried playing online version and the load times are even worse. And don't blame my PC I have a1Gig connection and have no trouble running RDR2 at 60. Game is just poorly coded with needlessly long animated transitions.
One pro tip. If a woman decides to go out dating random assholes to make you jealous... walk the other way. It's an idiotic movie cliche that needs to die.
Wow, I can't help but feel the negative reviews are completely unjustified.
Few games have a production value like this one, especially in terms of characterization and story. I really like how it develops over time, it stays interesting and adult themes flow fairly naturally compared to what you can expect in this genre.
The engine is fine as it is. The phase out/in is not a problem, unless you just want to fast forward to the next sex scene.
This is a great, engaging, emotional game with just about the right amount of mystery and tension.
I have to say - with Palmers skill in building emotion and depth to their characters, they could make one hell of a mean NTR game.
Anyway, excellent work! Try it! And this is coming from someone that bounced off hard of their first game.
The unresponsive interface and the unskippable seconds of fade-out/fade-in interrupt the game pace every few sentences makes it a slog worse than the grind-fest games. With instant text display, the character's expressions are sometimes still in a fade by the time you're halfway through the text. I'd give it a pass if the variables for the fade durations were identical in every chapter (the only issue I had hacking these in chapter 2 was nothing a quicksave/quickload didn't fix), but I can't be bothered to automate the minification-deobfuscation multiple times.
There's no preloading of images, so you'll have to look at a progress bar several times per episodes.
The writing might be enjoyable if any rhythm wasn't killed by the engine's pace.
I really enjoy the story of this VN and would play it even without the nudity.
The story is quite interesting and I didn't skip any of the dialog yet (ep.18).
Art and renders are done very good and the developers seem to care about the game.
very good game with much quality at all characters. the girls are very beatiful and also the story is pretty good. The same developer created a lot of games like this and keep the samne high level as his other works.
This game has everything!!!! Such a wonderful story and such sweet and cute actors that the sexual content isn't important anymore. Thank you so much Palmer for your astonishing effort to create a game with an entertaining content. I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait a whole month for next update.
I really want to rate this game a 1 star. However, in fairness I have to say the visuals in this game are top notch. Perhaps some of the best in any game on this site. All of the girls are beautiful and the locations are well made. I do have a gripe even with the visuals and that's the transitions. They're everywhere and take place way too often! It gets incredibly annoying very quickly.
However, the rest of this "game" is awful. in truth, I'm not sure you can call this a game since it's really a visual novel. There are choices, but they don't matter the vast majority of the time. You'll be railroaded through the story no matter what you do. There is one path and you will stick to it. The "choices" may alter some text occasionally. The only discernible choice that mattered was one regarding the two main girls, and that only changed whom is featured at the end of Chapter 18.
I honestly don't know how I suffered through 18 chapters. The story is utterly ridiculous and only masochists are going to enjoy it. Everything that happens seems to be done to create drama and inflict suffering on the MC. Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger and none of them are good. Every single one of them is used to ratchet up the drama and mental pressure on the MC. While that's crazy, it's even worse when you consider the backstory you're given for the MC. He would have cracked like a walnut under all the blackmail very quickly, and either killed Dennis with a pencil or taken himself out.
Review for public releases up to now up to episode 14.
It's great renders ruined by an insufferable story.
This is one of the few games I'd encourage people to ignore any and all story and just click through nonstop.
I really can't keep doing this anymore. The first few episodes, I only wanted to give the game a chance. Now I just can't keep doing this anymore. I'm tired. It's exhausting.
The biggest flaw in the story is interactions with Dennis, the main villain of this game. Palmer clearly wanted us to dislike him. He starts off as an overconfident nerd who repeatedly takes the limelight from you.
And the interactions with him are all wrong. In some games, the player doesn't have any real personality; you basically make choices that define it. Here he has one and you're given the option of going far, (far) against it.
The scenes are almost exclusively the standard vanilla or femdom and I'm not big on either. The renders are damn good all things considered... but seriously the story is just agonizingly bad and keeps getting worse.
EDIT: I suppose I should add... I really would like to give this a one star rating. But being objective, the renders are really, really great. And I'm sure there are people who are going to enjoy this game.
However, there seems to be 2 sides on the content. If you really feel like immersing yourself in the story, use the mc as a self-insert, you'll probably hate this. Nothing ever seems to go your way, get used to living in the shadow of Dennis. You never feel like a winner in this one. The only appeal I can see is if you're a submissive/masochistic type. If you're here for a quick fap with no care for immersion, you'll probably also enjoy.
Stop this silly soap opera shit. You can have drama without exploding it every episode ending. And do you want drama? OK let's add drama without the story transforming into some cartoonish version of itself with ridiculous-ass plot twists. The story is all over the place, 90% of it feels like the mc is a complete loser, it feels shitty to play him.
Ahhhhh it's hard.... It's hard because I actually liked it.
I liked the visuals even if a bit plastic, the girls both their design and their characters, and the story( I've seen much worse).
The problem, or rather the problems, are too present to ignore.
The lack of impact of the choices.
Loading (far too much for not much).
The jerky pace.
Save transfers (I had to start over several times and use a cheat code to finish the game).
Online but Offline but Online but Offline.
Short, similar sex scenes.
The Harem tag can be misleading (here Harem doesn't mean all the girls).
For all these reasons, I'd give it 2.5* (or even 3* if I'd been able to play the game in one go). But we can't give it a half, so it'll be a 2* (which pisses me off a bit).
I only recommend it if you play it in one go and in a compiled version (if possible).
And since criticism is easier than practice, I'd like to thank Palmer(RIP) & Love-Joint and congratulate them on their work.
Interesting game. While the creator learned a few things from the previous game there are still few things to learn.
Gameplay:
- the engine used has it's flaws one of them being the necessity to load in game. I would expect that each chapter is already preloaded.
+ the flaw of the engine might be a plus at the end when you want to reach all endings, but is something to be tested first
+ I apreciate the Variable Editor that helps you go back on the game and
see more scenes
+ it will be nice for the next game to see another game editor used or a better implementation of this one
Story line:
- for me it look like a normal teenager drama and the events are something that happens a lot
+ it is nice to see that the characters presented are interconected and as story progress we find out about their previous interaction. Those are interesting little twist
- I played up to chapter 13 and I am still not sure if the girl split I did with Denniss in the first chapters really influenced the event in one way or another. As mentioned by others I expect that decisions I took to impact what happens
Characters:
+ the majority of the characters is that they have a backstory. It is
not just the MC that has a story, a past, a reason of doing some actions. Each and every character has a story and we get to know a bit about that.
- The only character I am not happy with is Dennis. I believe that he could have played amuch more decisive role in what happened and could be more of a genius. It could have lead to some blackmail, NTR scenarios if fans were interested in that, or it could have helped at MC development. At the moment he is just there, anoying, not very realistic.
Graphics:
+ The models are very nice. I still have quite vivid in mind the night when you fuck the teacher at school. She was so sexy and elegant and with an angelic face. The other girls are also beautiful represented and you have a bit of variety. The sex scenes are not fully animated, but it did not really bothered me.
this game is a real masterpiece, the story is so captivating and always keeps you guessing and feels like a real Crescendo, there are so many gorgeous characters with very unique traits and intresting stories, and overall the graphics and render are amazing i really have to recommand this game its a 10/10
Up to Episode 15, real rating is 2.5-star (below average) but I chose to go with 2-star (poor) than 3-star (average) because I feel that the bad is worse than the good. I'll also add that if you don't care about the plot, then it's a 4-star (good) because the girls are good.
To understand the bad, it's basically the plot and how the villain (Dennis) is one of the worst villains in anything I've seen. The main problem with it is not about how people don't like Dennis, but how Dennis is a villain that doesn't really do anything but somehow comes out on top just because.
For a game that has been up to 15 episodes (that's more than a year), it's really unsatisfying that MC has been on the losing side again and again and again. It doesn't feel good to play a game when you are given no way to win. Imagine if you're given a die and told that you win if you roll number 6. But when you rolled a 6, they suddenly told you that it's a joke that you still lose even if you roll a 6 anyway. That's the kind of experience you get from the plot in this game. There's no logic to it and it just feels bad.
It's really a shame because a good plot would instantly elevate this game into a 5-star worthy game.
