I love this game. The visuals, the characters, the story are all perfect. This is primarily a mystery harem game where the main character tries to investigate a big tech corporation that has taken the world by storm with their new VR-MMORPG game called Eternum. While the plot may sound formulaic, it is not. There are hints of fantasy elements and the game itself is not as it seems.
In terms of writing, the story is interesting and well written - its the kind of story that makes you want to theorize about the motivations of the characters, the world of eternum etc and I love that about it. The romances are sweet and the girls are all very likable and I am very glad to see that this is a harem game. The renders look beautiful - the in game worlds of the mmorpg look stunning and I cannot wait to see all the new worlds the author comes up with. Sexual content is very low - we have penetrative sex with only 1 girl that matters and is not a throwaway character.
My main criticism about this game is the gameplay. Specifically the way the choice system works. I dislike the gameplay loop of losing paths of the girls for all kinds of trivial reasons and having to roll back to figure out where you messed up. I think the closing of a girl's path should be a deliberate choice or due to consequences that have a real impact on the girl. The current design is immersion breaking and just ruins the fun. I ended up having to use a walkthrough and I hate that I had to do that. That said it gets a lot better as the game progresses and you dont have to rely on random guesses anymore.
Another criticism I have about the game is the way the sex scenes are handled. It does not feel organic and it follows the overused trope of a sex progression ladder (handjob -> blowjob -> sex ...) you find in so many other VNs. I find this very silly and while I understand that the premise of the game is unrealistic, having a harem is unrealistic I cannot help but wish that this game took a more realistic approach towards sexual interactions.
But despite my criticisms and what I think are flaws with the game, I cannot help but give it a perfect score. This is one of those games where the little imperfections and annoyances simply do not matter because of how much fun it is. I cannot deny just how much I enjoyed playing this game - playing it and getting immersed in the story made me completely forget all my nitpicks. This is a very special game and for that it gets a 5/5 from me.
In terms of writing, the story is interesting and well written - its the kind of story that makes you want to theorize about the motivations of the characters, the world of eternum etc and I love that about it. The romances are sweet and the girls are all very likable and I am very glad to see that this is a harem game. The renders look beautiful - the in game worlds of the mmorpg look stunning and I cannot wait to see all the new worlds the author comes up with. Sexual content is very low - we have penetrative sex with only 1 girl that matters and is not a throwaway character.
My main criticism about this game is the gameplay. Specifically the way the choice system works. I dislike the gameplay loop of losing paths of the girls for all kinds of trivial reasons and having to roll back to figure out where you messed up. I think the closing of a girl's path should be a deliberate choice or due to consequences that have a real impact on the girl. The current design is immersion breaking and just ruins the fun. I ended up having to use a walkthrough and I hate that I had to do that. That said it gets a lot better as the game progresses and you dont have to rely on random guesses anymore.
Another criticism I have about the game is the way the sex scenes are handled. It does not feel organic and it follows the overused trope of a sex progression ladder (handjob -> blowjob -> sex ...) you find in so many other VNs. I find this very silly and while I understand that the premise of the game is unrealistic, having a harem is unrealistic I cannot help but wish that this game took a more realistic approach towards sexual interactions.
But despite my criticisms and what I think are flaws with the game, I cannot help but give it a perfect score. This is one of those games where the little imperfections and annoyances simply do not matter because of how much fun it is. I cannot deny just how much I enjoyed playing this game - playing it and getting immersed in the story made me completely forget all my nitpicks. This is a very special game and for that it gets a 5/5 from me.