English: 6
User Interface: 3
User Experience: 6
Art: 7
Dialogue: 4
Story: 7
Opinion: 5
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Avg. 5.43
I'm gonna review this as if it's not a sandbox, because it's really not. The "sandbox" sections are literally "Click on this button and do the same nothing event until the arbitrary skills can't be increased anymore." That's boring. And the self insert of the dev, as usual being god, hinted at inventory and outfits, so I'm sure that will add loads of nothing interactions as well. I do want to say that I WANT to like this game. The story is interesting, the world is semi-interesting. But every time a character opens their mouth, I want them to close it. ALL of the humor, or at least 99% of it, is entirely referential. And having a character say a line from a movie or show isn't funny, it just gets you to chuckle and think "Hey, I like that too." It's worse than prop humor. Anyway, this uses default renpy UI aside from ONE custom screen, and all the girls, that aren't the main four, are REFERENCES TO OTHER MEDIA. Which just feels cheap. Especially after everything else.
The game opens up essentially saying covid brought everyone together but then bitcoin crashed and WW3 happened. Then cults emerged after nukes dropped? My only real issue is this is it's just glossed over. And I wouldn't critique the story so much if there wasn't a SFW version that is one of the first things you can branch off to. Which would indicate there's an emphasis on story. But the real joke is there's pretty much not. Anyway, MC monologues about his life up to the beginning of the game and makes a 4th wall joke about said act. He's some rich guy with dead parents, and in the apocalypse, is an indie game developer? Wow. And immediately, MC sleeps and meets his younger sister April. The one that gives me a headache. So for whatever reason, that to this point is still unexplained, she erased the memories of her brother and sister and broke up the family because MC and May were fighting. Why? Who knows. But somehow he ended up weeks away from them and lives alone and she's been following him in his dreams all along. Being a wanderer.
She turns MC into a wanderer as well and really, not much happens outside of getting May, Zoe and Lulu to join the group. You meet Zoe fighting just to fight. You find May repeating her nightmare that you couldn't help her with but the MC's hand was held step by step to become a wanderer? After meeting you all again, she was told by April that MC and her were constantly fighting. So instead of becoming reacquainted, she says "We were fighting before we lost our memories, so I'm gonna hate you." Which is the DUMBEST thing... And finally Lulu, a girl that just shows up and MC supposedly knew for years but you as the player have no previous knowledge of so her existence blindsides you. Either way, MC's ex was a wanderer and probably knows the "Legendary Wanderer" you're eventually looking for if not actually being that person.
My complaints are as follows: The day to day events, that aren't just for stat-ups that you don't even use, are decently written and personable. But you still deal with a reference, a character calling MC a perv (which they do even without him doing anything), or someone avoiding a question that would advance the story or tell you the reader anything while the dev figures out the story. At the beginning I thought the person that wrote this speaks english, but the a lot of the phrasing and such gets worse over time. Like I said the UI is default outside of the map screen, menu font, and main menu that is just an hbox instead of a vbox. The jokes and references are tiring. The story needs to be explored more, or at least fleshed out. But overall, it's inoffensive and an okay read. I hope some of this can be improved in the future.
