The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is Episode 1 v1.0...
I see some very familiar themes in this visual novel/game, as well as some tiny references here and there to other VN/Games... Downside is that this is yet another in a long line of overused Family Sex themed VN/Games...
The visuals of the characters are alright, with some faces looking a bit odd and some looking alright... The backdrops appear to be mostly unique and creative... The airplane visuals didn't look very realistic at all, especially the see through roof... How that was scientifically possible on a big airliner like that, I don't know... No such airliner currently exists...
The script is decent but it has the occasional spelling/grammar error... The plot revolves around a male protagonist who is ex-military (who also has a possible drinking problem) but now works for an insurance company... At first it kind of felt this game was kind of throwing a lot of information at you in small waves, mostly in an attempt to give the readers/players a sense of both backstory as well as setting... At first I totally thought this game was going a totally different route, but it ends up going in a direction I had no idea it would go until it did...
During the office scenes you first think that maybe the story was about going on a work vacation and maybe hooking up, but that fell apart quickly... Then he heads home to see his girlfriend and go on a vacation he'd planned for weeks, but she ends up lying through her teeth about needing to cancel the plans (at the very last second) to go somewhere for her job with a guy named Eric... He calls her on her lie, and come to find out she was going with Eric for reasons other then work... Cuckold by another Eric, which I can only assume is the developers way of trying to be either funny or putting in a shout out to another game... After that he ends up instead going to see his 18 year old daughter, who he had not seen for 5 years due to divorce and the mother leaving the country with the daughter with no further contact... He reconnects with her because she used visible ink (i think the authors meant invisible ink) to hide her phone number on a card she sent him through her mother, so she wouldn't find out...
Hmmm, I immediately smelt a very familiar setup... The father going to see the daughter who was taken away by a vindictive mother figure who is now rich, living in a far away place... And of course, she is super controlling of her adult daughter, and everyone in the location they live is a threat to mom finding out that daddy is visiting his daughter... I've seen this setup so many times... No originality hardly at all... And of course, I was not expecting this to be a father daughter erotica story at all originally... It just kind of appeared out of the blue...
At this point is where the story and events go a bit over the top sometimes... Like the plane ride, having a private room (with a real bed) on a public luxury airliner, with stewardess' in bathing suits, a dance floor, bar, other people, etc... On a train or a cruise liner, I could believe it, but not on a transcontinental airline... Maybe a private plane, but never on something open to general public... That was a real stretch... The developers are trying to portray that the daughter, her mom, and probably the step-dad were ultra rich living on an island (he had never heard of) where everyone was a potential spy for the mother regarding the daughters activities, and that a 18 year old adult still has a nanny and a curfew... All signs at the airport were in English, so it is an English speaking location... Yes, way over the top... I'm going to guess that the family probably has influence over the local cops and government officials as well... Hmmmm, where have I seen this exact setup before?
The developers also try to add in some mini-game type moments, which was a nice touch, but the volleyball one felt bugged... There is a bit of focus on trying to relay to the reader/player the mechanics of knowing what choice to make to score a point... But then it felt like no matter the choice, either it was bugging out or a random element was added, which was confusing as to why show instructions if they don't really matter much? As an example, if the daughter made a fist, it meant to go on the defensive, and an open palm would mean go on the offensive... But half the choices never showed you her character to be clued in on what she wanted, and so you had to guess... I tried saving game during the first couple times that happened, and it was random as to if the choice I made was the right one to score a point or not... The same thing might happen when you could see her in the picture, she might show a fist and if you chose defense, it still might not of gone your way... So why go through the trouble of giving instructions that you could ask her to explain again, when a possible random outcome might occur anyhow?
This VN/Game also incorporates sound effects and so forth... The only issue I have with sound files being used in Ren'py games sometimes, is that it causes pauses in moving the frames along... I don't play with sound on for most of these types of VN/Games, and lots of other people are the same way... I only knew sounds were included, because there were moments when clicking or space bar would not move the story frame to the next one, until the sound file finished it's play through, which is a bit annoying... It only happened a couple times, but if sound files become more prevalent, then I can see it becoming a major issue for folks who turn the volume down to zero, having pauses all the time...
Overall, I get a feeling this is going to be just another take on a very common setup, but in some cases going a bit over the top with certain things... I really truly thought this VN/Game was going a totally different direction in the beginning, especially with the game's title the way it is... Instead it is a familiar father daughter family sex story, just with a different backdrop and different characters... I'm sure there will be lots of other differences, but having played several other games with a very similar setup, for now it feels a little unoriginal and definitely not what I first expected...
You can tell it is going the Family Sex route because of the option to peep on her as she changes into her bathing suit... Which also felt a bit unnatural because nothing up to that point led you to believe the protagonist had any sexual interest in her at all... I even was thinking that maybe this game was going to go a completely different route and the sexual content would be with other characters around the daughter, and not the daughter herself, up until the peeping choices... Which would have been unique and creative, but that was not to be, for the moment...
This VN/Game is still early into it's development, so it has lots of time to grow and expand... I do wish the whole mother being a major threat non-sense wasn't there, because that has been used in F-D stories too many times already, but it is what it is... Will I revisit this one? Maybe, we'll have to see how it develops...