Ok, I have quite a bit to say about this Visual Novel/Game... And this is just my point of view, so please don't be offended... From the beginning I was really truely enjoying this VN as the story had a creative and interesting plot... With all the mystery surrounding the protagonist and his new abilities, with an almost detective mystery feel to it... Sure there is erotic stuff as well, but the story was really engaging and sucked you into wanted to know more about what was going on, how will the protagonist figure it all out, who are the bad guys, will the protagonist fall in love, and so on and so on... But as the VN went on, I started to find that the story began to suffer due to various things that I'll mention below...
Visually the characters in this VN was absolutely top notch, and better than most other VN's I've read or played... The backgrounds, when unique, were also good... There were a few backdrops that are copies from other VN's, so the sources were probably the same, which does get a bit tiring after a while... I would love to see more original backgrounds, not the same ones being used from different VN/Games, especially when it's not the same authors... The animations were well done as well... There are a LOT of creepy visuals as well, that tended to sometimes be a little too creepy so much as to just add to the confusion of the plot at times... There is also a lot of body camera panning, some which you can space bar through, and some you can't... At first it happens on occasion, but later it happens quite a lot, which I was glad I could space bar through most of them, because they started to become distractions...
The script and how it plays out is where I found the most problems in this VN... From the beginning, I absolutely loved how it was playing out, with the mystery and character interaction, and the tons of protagonist dialogue and inner monologue... But as the story progressed, so many questions kept coming up with what was going on, and the protagonist started to feel more and more like a clueless sex addict, and it just started to become just a bunch (and I mean a huge amount) of back to back sex scenes, with the occasional small amount of pushing the plot forward... The protagonist would begin to push for more information, and 9 times out of 10 get distracted by more erotic scenes, walking away from it with no new information... Don't get me wrong, this is supposed to be an erotic VN, but too many constant erotic scenes, just destroys the driving points of the main story... Add to that, with so much sex constantly happening, the immersion also began to suffer since it is biologically impossible for a man to ejaculate that much through multiple sex scenes in one day, and do it yet again every day... Nothing leads you to believe that any ability he has includes unlimited ejaculate... Of course, that is just my observation, with so many darn erotic scenes in the last 1/3rd of the VN...
There are lots of scenes/script that only open up based on the decisions the reader/player makes, so it is impossible to see all the content on one play through... Many times throughout a play through, decisions will alter content later in the VN, and in some cases multiple different decisions together will alter what you see and read later in the VN... So going through this VN several times will be required if you want to see it all..
Sex scenes are well choreographed and sexy as hell, but with the VN going from story driven in the beginning, to sex scene driven, with the protagonist just repeatedly having inner monologue about the confusion of what was happening all around him, as the only real driving force to push the plot along, at a snails pace, it becomes a bit annoying... Now, there were moments, very few near the end of the current content, that scenes not involving sex, pushed the story along a tiny tiny bit... But I wanted to see the story progress, not be constantly bombarded with sex scene after sex scene after sex scene... The sex scenes become tedious when presented so often... The VN started to really lose that Novel story driven feel, to being just back to back porn (sometimes creepy porn)... They should have been more spread out with more story filling the gaps... I just don't understand the 90 degree turn on how this VN began to progress...
And the Halloween stuff, when it occurs, both times, it seems totally and I mean totally out of place with what is happening in the story at the moment both events occur... It felt like bonus material that should have been included outside of the main story as a separate entity for viewing, rather then being slipped into the main story at points that make no sense, and just causes more confusion... It also felt like chapter 9 was just haphazardly thrown together, and some continuity is lost with the Halloween stuff...
I feel that shortly after about 3/5ths into the current content, that the story slowed way down in favor of erotic scenes, and it became frustrating to have so many unanswered questions about what was truly going on, and whenever the protagonist would plan out a way to get more information, he would be stymied by more erotic sex scenes and not get anywhere... The inner monologue in the shower scenes and at night, tried to portray that the story was moving along, albeit at a snails pace in the last few chapters, yet sometimes felt like it was just repeating the protagonists confusion again without really being constructive... I started to question if this VN was as good as it seemed during the first half, and the potential that this would be great story driven VN began to just disappear...
By the end of chapter 9, it seems to just be mostly nothing but sex scenes, hardly any movement in the real plot... And it's so hard to tell who is really a bad guy and who is really a good guy... It's so confusing and full of mystery in the last few chapters... I actually began to feel the need to skip some of the last few erotic scenes, just to get the story moving...
Now, in the last half of the vn, there were a few (and I mean only a few) sex scenes that perhaps were probably intended to slightly add to the actual plot (beyond just adding to the creep vibe), and did tease at something more going on then what may be currently known... But they also just added to the confusion and mystery... There was more mystery than answers by the end of chapter 9... You really only know 1 character that is 100% a bad guy, but it isn't the protagonist that knows this, just you as the reader... Every other character could be a bad guy, could be a good guy, could be nothing, and the protagonist is so bad at figuring things out, it's a bit scary...
There were a few moments, especially in the first half, that I felt like there might even be a few love stories playing out between the protagonist and other characters... But by the end, it felt like that aspect was most likely abandoned, and it just become sex, sex, and more sex...
Overall, I'm so disappointed in how things are playing out... Please don't get me wrong, the sex scenes are very well done, creative (albeit some creeped me out during dream sequences), and so forth... But to go from such great promise in the first half to becoming a plot tease, while throwing mostly sex scenes at the reader, it's starting to become tedious that the story has taken such a back seat to the sex, when it started off so strong...
It makes me wonder if all these sex scenes, being added, are just to keep the money flowing in for the author/s, rather than making a well balanced VN that is a piece of art, up there with some of the best erotic VN's... And not just another copy cat 3D porn show... I may try this one again in the future, and I may not... I dunno, because I'm so disappointed with how slow the story is actually progressing at the moment...
