The stuff that needs worked on imo:
Absolute slog, seems like nearly everything is connecting so you can't avoid content you are not interested in.My progress has stopped after the finding Jimmy in the Slums quest Did actually get through that, absolute nightmare btw, and not doing the school/company stuff. I cannot progress because I do not want to do the last tutor request nor deal with the boss. While I can understand that people enjoy different things, its just rough locking story behind stuff that people can find understandably detestable. This should not be considered a true sandbox with how railroaded the player is in all of this. It feels like the player has no options in the story - only that they can avoid it (and lose out on lots of content). Having a walkthrough to tell what you need to do and what all is interconnected so the player can plan to do everything efficiently would help this a lot. especially considering that the Quest tab is infuriatingly vague and even wrong at times.
How was I supposed to know to run away from the gangs in the slums as opposed to fighting them, both feel very mechanically the same and all the Quest tab says is "Find him in the Slums" which is insanely vague. That 1, implies that it is location based in a maze like area (which it isn't); 2, does NOT imply that it has to do with any interaction in the slums; and 3 (or 2.5), it gives no inkling of which action to do. Reading the discussion I saw stuff relating to the Punch option in the slums (an issue that should be addressed, even though its content I won't get to), and so when I saw that you had to interact with them (again from the discussion), that's what I assumed what it was - which wasted far too much time. If the slums were removed/heavily reworked (to keep the content, but lose the mechanics), nothing would be lost
All the problems are vastly compounded with how clunky and unintuitive the UI is and having to click so much to go through each location. The way location is handled is very disorienting, especially in the slums - both in general and when you have to deal with an encounter. While you can buy a literal "magic shortcut", it only goes one way and mechanically is there to avoid encounters - its not for moving location convenience, this is obvious because you have to use the location back button to leave these spots. You still have to manually click back each step. The amount of clicking this game requires is unironically absurd for both moving and any 'sandbox' features - oh you get to decided how much time you get to sleep in your own bed, the starting bed. The options are literally only 2 hours and 4 hours. The two other locations I have found that you can sleep offer 2,4, and 8 (which seems like it should be the default), and one, in the slums (an odd place mechanically) you can sleep for 5 or 7 hours. You will be forced to home typically at Midnight, then the earliest you can leave your house is 6, so you have to go through multiple waiting/sleep cycles per night with your regular bed.
The time system of the whole game just feels bad - you never know how long anything is aside from sleep. There is a wait button the game never tells you about and it is set for only 1 and a half hours. You have 0 fine control over minutes - the smallest safe/repeatable options being 15 minute baths and 10 minute showers. There are things that will throw that clock off to a minute scale, so not having that minute level control is terrible. Why? The clock is absolutely broken, especially when the minutes are off from 5 minute points. Not to mention that many (if not most) quest events are time based, alongside side most general option being time locked. The clock also gets covered by notifications (+1 stat, for example) so if you're trying to pass a specific amount of time while boosting a stat/getting money it becomes very obnoxious.
There are also just many spots of odd jank - sound is very weird with this. The only music is in the fully backed out map, nothing else has it (outside of one cutscene) which makes this very jarring, the game might benefit from having it off until more places have music. The only other location based sound is the gym, which has odd ball/sports sound and is just extremely awkward. The ear piercing sound + volume of the office phone is also horrible.
The Goods:
All those issues are a real shame because the models look very good and the animations are mostly smooth. I really wanted to like this one, I have put many hours in but have had very little on return. I have the patience to sit through a bad slog if there is good content at the end and for me personally that good content is mind control stuff - my disappointment when finding out its pretty much non-existent (as far as I can tell) is immense.
This game has immense potential, if only some of the most common complaints were dealt with to make it actually playable. That is the most frustrating part, I really wanted to like this - it looks so good, but I can no longer suffer through the hours slog for the hope of finding something right for me. If it wasn't so long to get through I would still have patience to hope for what I'm looking for but right now this seems like a never touch again (though I hope I'm wrong). This is the furthest thing from wasted effort, but I hope that future effort will go into the games playability (and also my interests, but that's a lot more selfish a request.
tldr; Horrible slog for both story and UI reasons, arguably should not have the sandbox tag (story wise it isn't one IMO), and really shouldn't have the mind control tag to my disappointment. Has massive potential to be great though.
Absolute slog, seems like nearly everything is connecting so you can't avoid content you are not interested in.
How was I supposed to know to run away from the gangs in the slums as opposed to fighting them, both feel very mechanically the same and all the Quest tab says is "Find him in the Slums" which is insanely vague. That 1, implies that it is location based in a maze like area (which it isn't); 2, does NOT imply that it has to do with any interaction in the slums; and 3 (or 2.5), it gives no inkling of which action to do. Reading the discussion I saw stuff relating to the Punch option in the slums (an issue that should be addressed, even though its content I won't get to), and so when I saw that you had to interact with them (again from the discussion), that's what I assumed what it was - which wasted far too much time. If the slums were removed/heavily reworked (to keep the content, but lose the mechanics), nothing would be lost
All the problems are vastly compounded with how clunky and unintuitive the UI is and having to click so much to go through each location. The way location is handled is very disorienting, especially in the slums - both in general and when you have to deal with an encounter. While you can buy a literal "magic shortcut", it only goes one way and mechanically is there to avoid encounters - its not for moving location convenience, this is obvious because you have to use the location back button to leave these spots. You still have to manually click back each step. The amount of clicking this game requires is unironically absurd for both moving and any 'sandbox' features - oh you get to decided how much time you get to sleep in your own bed, the starting bed. The options are literally only 2 hours and 4 hours. The two other locations I have found that you can sleep offer 2,4, and 8 (which seems like it should be the default), and one, in the slums (an odd place mechanically) you can sleep for 5 or 7 hours. You will be forced to home typically at Midnight, then the earliest you can leave your house is 6, so you have to go through multiple waiting/sleep cycles per night with your regular bed.
The time system of the whole game just feels bad - you never know how long anything is aside from sleep. There is a wait button the game never tells you about and it is set for only 1 and a half hours. You have 0 fine control over minutes - the smallest safe/repeatable options being 15 minute baths and 10 minute showers. There are things that will throw that clock off to a minute scale, so not having that minute level control is terrible. Why? The clock is absolutely broken, especially when the minutes are off from 5 minute points. Not to mention that many (if not most) quest events are time based, alongside side most general option being time locked. The clock also gets covered by notifications (+1 stat, for example) so if you're trying to pass a specific amount of time while boosting a stat/getting money it becomes very obnoxious.
There are also just many spots of odd jank - sound is very weird with this. The only music is in the fully backed out map, nothing else has it (outside of one cutscene) which makes this very jarring, the game might benefit from having it off until more places have music. The only other location based sound is the gym, which has odd ball/sports sound and is just extremely awkward. The ear piercing sound + volume of the office phone is also horrible.
The Goods:
All those issues are a real shame because the models look very good and the animations are mostly smooth. I really wanted to like this one, I have put many hours in but have had very little on return. I have the patience to sit through a bad slog if there is good content at the end and for me personally that good content is mind control stuff - my disappointment when finding out its pretty much non-existent (as far as I can tell) is immense.
This game has immense potential, if only some of the most common complaints were dealt with to make it actually playable. That is the most frustrating part, I really wanted to like this - it looks so good, but I can no longer suffer through the hours slog for the hope of finding something right for me. If it wasn't so long to get through I would still have patience to hope for what I'm looking for but right now this seems like a never touch again (though I hope I'm wrong). This is the furthest thing from wasted effort, but I hope that future effort will go into the games playability (and also my interests, but that's a lot more selfish a request.
tldr; Horrible slog for both story and UI reasons, arguably should not have the sandbox tag (story wise it isn't one IMO), and really shouldn't have the mind control tag to my disappointment. Has massive potential to be great though.
