The story in this game, which was supposed to be its strong point, is, to put it simply, very mediocre. I wonder how many of those still clinging to this game are clinging to expectations rather than reality.
The first screen of the game sums up the game quite well: "a typical angsty, sarcastic teenager with interest moreso in sex than in school. A natural young man". At the very least, you can't complain about false advertisement: there is no plot here, just a long-winded exposition of dull characters' feelings.
For a start, the author avoids providing the background for the world. You are just thrown into a pop melodrama with no sense of purpose or direction. It's like starting to watch a movie after the first hour and then watching the following 10 minutes 10 times over. The days go by and you barely notice the difference between the reality in the game and an acid induced groundhog day, as the writing is completely unstructured. I suspect the author has absolutely no idea about where he is going, or how to explain why the characters he picked behave as they do.
The dreams, which supposedly should serve as a band-aid for that, only make it worse, as they become way too frequent, and they lack the metaphorical characteristics of dreams which are usually used skillfully in literature to expose the subconscious of the characters. Here, dreams are shitty sexual fantasies on a white background (a common theme is the author's refusal to buy assets), or comedy sketches with a skeleton who isn't remotely funny.
The game is riddled with repetition. The dialogue is meandering beyond redemption. The characters express the same thoughts and feelings ad nauseam: at the beach, at the mall, in your room, in their room, in the kitchen, etc. There is barely any new insight to be gained by repeated interactions which make the game feel extremely tedious.
Characters (even adults) all seem to be modeled after the same person: melancholic depressed teenagers. Even many depressed people enjoy a modicum of tranquility when doing everyday tasks, but this game avoids exposing any of that. Characters wake up and immediately start thinking about the other depressed characters and rush to their rooms, only to be further depressed.
Compounding this problem is the fact that events happen spontaneously: unexplained isolated mood swings (the mother, the aunt, the cousin, the suicidal girl are some examples); randomly planned trips and dinners (like guests in a hotel); random rapes (which the raped ones quickly forget, repetition must not be disturbed); random aggression; and random side characters pop out who seem to immediately mesh with the main character, as if the author was desperate to break the repetition but didn't know where to go with the actual characters so he introduced disposable ones.
The inability of the author to explain stuff that would be relatively easy to explain with an actual plot and with properly written characters shows that this game almost certainly will never be finished successfully. Its over-reliance on overly attached fans to fill the plot holes will secure their disappointment, as all these overly emotional fan theories are gibberish that vary widely from one to another, and they all lack the basic characteristics of a good story (i.e. structure and sense of purpose).
Another poor aspect are the renders of random objects around the scene, possibly intended to make the repetition easier to stomach, which break the immersion even further. Suddenly you start noticing how poorly composed the scenes are, and how irrelevant the dialogue must be for the focus to be on a wall.
The flow of the game is also completely broken:
* Obvious continuity issues like the complete lack of transition scenes when moving between central scenes (e.g. the mall scene is a hilarious one). I suspect the author, even while making thousands, refuses to buy street assets or just doesn't know how to compose scenes on a photo editing software. Alternatively, the overly sentimental talks while walking on the street, or while being surrounded by other people would show how hilariously dramatic the characters are, and as such the author chose to avoid them.
* The chances of a certain character being in the house seems random, apparently nobody has a schedule here. It's like living in a hotel. People come and go like props, seemingly randomly, without explanation, just to make the intimate scenes easier to write. You can do that once, but when you do it constantly it just becomes hilarious.
* Characters seem to be stuck in a cloying loop where they are unable to react, even when raped, when trying to commit suicide, when suddenly sleeping next to their children, when caught peeking, when groped by your son, etc. They immediately go back to their angsty loop and keep repeating their tired lines and feelings.
Considering how poor the story is, and how irresponsible the author is, this game doesn't deserve anything but 1 star.
