I wish this site allowed half-star ratings, else I'd probably give this a 3.5/5 or so. I got enough enjoyment out of it so far that I'd rate it higher than 3, but I also experienced some issues with it that I can't really say it's a 4 either.
I have played from the beginning up to the current Day 15-17 version at time of writing, which included the compressed version of week 1. On that note, the file size is monstrous. Over 16GB uncompressed for week 1, which for a VN seems to be gargantuan, IMO. I think some work could be done to optimize this in future.
First of all, the game takes place in Japan. That's fine. What I wasn't a fan of is receiving a Japanese lesson semi-frequently for various things. With the exception of
maybe some honorifics, if you're going to have the game be in English (or other <language>) it doesn't really make sense to me to also include Japanese vocabulary for other things that have a <language> counterpart. Maybe this works well for you, but it was annoying to me.
For what the game is, it has been mostly enjoyable. The MC is a gigantic pervert, and you can try to refrain from being so much of one at times but not always - yet everyone seems to like him regardless because he is seen as some sort of god-like individual. Somewhat unbelievable at times but not really a dealbreaker considering it's an h-game.
It is a harem game, but even so I think the sheer amount of available girls (currently, there are intended to be even more in future apparently) is starting to become confusing. I began to forget some of them or at least not remember who's name belongs to which face, etc. There being so many girls means not all of them get the same amount of screen time, and it shows. There are some genuinely interesting or otherwise compelling characters: Mao, Fuyu, Kaede, hell even Hiroko to name a few, but there are several forgettable ones too. That also doesn't include whichever girls are meant to appeal to specific fetishes you don't personally engage with.
On that note, the Dark Minds patch (which is basically an essential install as a large chunk of the game is missed without it) allows for turning on/off certain kinks. This is helpful as it seems to disable the option to actually see the scene (only "Skip" is selectable) if you actually try to engage in something you've disabled), but it doesn't necessarily remove those things completely. For example, I disabled "rape" as that isn't something I enjoy as a fetish in any aspect, but yet there is a point where the MC gets drugged and raped and you can't avoid that - aside from skipping the scene. Still happens as part of the plot I guess, you just don't see it. I found that to be disappointing.
In terms of "plot" there is one, I'll give it that. The MC needs to keep his class' average grade high to make the school seem impressive, while balancing/improving his family life and other relationships to accomplish that goal. It's basic, but it is serviceable. As previously mentioned there are some characters that seem to have more depth than others, and those characters to me are more interesting, which means I try to interact with them more than the ones I find to be less compelling, or just "there to be there" (looking at you, most of the Neko club).
For art/design: Pretty much any scene that involves kissing is shot in first person, which looks extremely silly as the girl will be staring at you with her mouth hanging open or something. It's silly, and wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't as gratuitous as it is - though perhaps that's why the skip button is there for most of them. I'd appreciate more side/views or something instead. Also for how much of a prime specimen the MC apparently is, his dick could use an overhaul. Just sayin'.
Considering the game genre you're playing, it might be easy to overlook or find amusing things like:
- The obviously Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter/etc-type "training clothes" at the dojo
- The people who wear "ninja masks" all the time with nobody batting an eye - or the fact that ninja are commonplace apparently
- The girl who looks like some comically beefcake Naruto bodyguard character dual-wielding M16's as if they're swords and a WW2 era Mosin-Nagant instead of something modern
- Or the tiny girl who has the appearance of and acts like some sort of vampire but is obsessed with panini
Or, to some others that might be kind of ridiculous and may take you out of it. But I don't judge. This game's premise is ridiculous as it is so you gotta take the weird with the weirder I suppose.
ALL THAT ASIDE, I still found enough enjoyment through the game to keep playing to what constitutes as the end (day 17) currently. Certain characters piqued my interest enough to keep me wanting to further their story lines.
My fear though is that this game has
no end in sight. From what I can tell, it's been around since about the summer of 2018, and timeline wise in-game we're not even a month through the game yet which is very much reflected in the plot. I may be wrong, but from what I can tell from reading the story there are several in-game months to go in order to fully wrap up the "improve average grades" main plot, not to mention the other character stories. Also, the fact that most if not all of the female characters may have the potential to get pregnant (which apparently takes several in-game weeks to inform the MC?) means that extensive time will have to pass in some manner. With updates of a few in-game days every ~2 real life months, you can easily imagine that this game could go on for a very long time. The one thing I've noticed since diving in to h-games is that there are VASTLY more games that are unfinished or abandoned than properly completed. The scope of this game seems to be so large, that even if it does get completed eventually, it may be literally years from now.