DreamLink is a love letter to indie VNs.
That's what the game is. People will rave about the obvious similarities to a certain other game - of which there are several, from the opening scene's location to the overall theme and structure - but there's actually inspirations from several other games at play here (including the previous one by the same author of the obvious one, of course). I can trace down some other stuff that happened to other very popular games and their motifs.
The first VN of most people comes off as them choosing the VN simply as a medium to tell their story. This VN reads as someone who became infatuated with VNs, who really enjoyed them as a reader, and then decided to make his own to contribute. You can see where it takes its inspirations from, you can trace down common themes, places, and even poses, to not just the more obvious inspiration, but to some other games too. Some may say the game might just be a cashgrab, something trying to ride on the coattails of more popular games to simply try and make a quick buck off whatever is popular. If that's the case, then hey - at least the dev is hard at work, because overall, the game is good. The renders are not on the very high end but they're definitely good, the game has a decent soundtrack, and the story is interesting enough to keep me reading. Perhaps the truth might be more down the middle - the dev both likes VNs and decided to try to make money off them seeing how others have gotten success. Does it matter? The game gives off a really cozy feeling - a game that feels inspired by other games and doesn't really aim to steal their spotlight, but rather, to be its own thing with heavy inspiration from what the dev previously enjoyed.
Nonetheless, as enjoyable as DreamLink is, it's not without its flaws. The story feels like its moving a bit too quick in respects to the LIs; some HCGs have been coming too fast to the point that it feels like we're trying to pad the game out with them to keep people interested at the start, and it kinda diminishes the quality of some characters. And as much as some inspiration is good, there's definitely times when I could tell beat for beat where the story was going, and it started treading a bit too thinly the line between a copy and a love letter. The renders are good, but not great, and it can be a bit disjointing when looking at the girls and how they're described in text. While the writing is fine, the scene composition is a bit bland, and how the game flows from scene to scene can feel a bit "disjointed" or "episodic" at times. Furthermore, with how clearly it is inspired in other games, there's never any point where DreamLink does something that makes me go "ooh, that's new". It never surprises me. It never does something truly excellent, or go beyond the bounds of "generic done right" - it's not bad at all, but it's like a meal that was prepared by deviating minimally from the recipe. Enjoyable, sure. Memorable? Not quite yet. This isn't a huge negative, but it's what keeps the game from 5 stars.
The writing is good during most of the time (apart from some flaws during HScenes specifically), the dialogue is amusing and light to read, and the game overall is very well polished. I hope that as the game progresses, it can carve its own place in our beloved indie VN list alongside the games that clearly inspired it to be created, and eventually, develops its own thing and its own style, as well as moving to get rid of its flaws and eases into a better progression of the story and of the characters.