Glowing Stones 0.4
To me the best way to summarize this game would be pretty straightforward harem game that takes place in a poorly written CW Arrowverse type story (they commonly start out with one character that gets super powers and then after a while all the significant characters become super heroes/villains) with some dashes of cyberpunk selectively thrown in.
Aesthetically it's passable but mediocre. The LIs generally have nice bodies but the faces, hair, and textures are a mixed bag. Renders are generally decent enough. Background details improve as the game progresses and one other nicety I don't see often enough that's used here is good attention to changing the outfit of at least the main characters frequently. One nitpick is some of the characters start to look like posed mannequins with a lot of repetitive and sometimes unnatural arm movements used too frequently in poses. Also, POV kissing I always find to be offputting but that's a personal preference.
Lewd scenes are okay (there are only a handful and they're generally pretty vanilla thus far) and can be kinda hot but the animation quality is middling at best and the writing during them doesn't really do much to enhance the experience. The extra angles on the animations is a nice feature but it feels like a bit of trying to make up for there not being much going on per scene. Most scenes do end well at least with there usually being a choice of how/where to finish (for 3 out of 4.5 scenes) and then getting to see the results.
The writing is easily the biggest problem with this avn. Some issues seem to be from things not translating well. An example of this would be the father's mantra of, "The future is ahead of yourself," which everyone in the game treats as a really profound phrase they constantly refer to as "mystical." This I can give the benefit of the doubt to and assume it's just something getting lost in translation. The larger issues with the writing I don't think can be written off as translation issues. It's not among the worst written games I've tried but after a while it stops being what I'd call "inoffensively bad" and crosses over into "routinely annoying + bad" territory with the writing. Lack of proper world building, shallow self-righteous characters that all seem to have very similar opinions (and problems), pacing issues, far too frequent power-fantasy contrivances which take away from any possible dramatic impact, and simplistic baby-level morality/thinking with zero nuance all really plague the story. Overall, it gets to be a slog to get through by the third chapter if you're paying attention to the details at all and not just skimming. Even skimming, I would still expect to be sick of even seeing the term "mega-corporations."
For the choices, I have no problem with the idea of this game not having choices that really affect the story outside of what LIs you want to be with, what content you see, and how some of the dialogue goes. My issue with this game is that it feels like there are basically "right" and "wrong" choices sometimes and they're not handled well. You're free to select something that doesn't go along with what the other characters in the game want you to say but just be prepared to be lectured a lot as a result. This is a game where the MC is a doormat without a mind of his own and you need to go along to get along or the other characters will put you in your place. Choices that only serve this purpose probably shouldn't be in the game unless you want to make the other characters seem unreasonable and unlikable. This is supposed to be a power fantasy and yet it feels very unsatisfying to play as the MC. It's also extremely hard to make choices about what the MC would say/think let alone agree/disagree with anything when the world building is so non-existent that we have to make a lot of assumptions about the setting and circumstances of the world this takes place in. The failure to set this up properly ends up creating a large disconnect since I lack the knowledge necessary to understand why the MC or other characters would feel the way they seem to about their world a lot of the time let alone have any idea about about why I as a player should care and get invested.
I may still pick it up on Steam when it's finished out of masochistic curiosity with how certain things go but it'll be very low on my priority list to play again if ever. I'm hoping at least the harem aspect will pick up since atm it's more like dating a couple girls separately while potential others are just being set up. A simple superhero team harem seems like a great concept in theory but the writer has tried to make it more ambitious than that before even having a good grasp on the basics which leads to a kinda miserable read so far. I can't really recommend this in the current state if you're at all detail-oriented when it comes to storytelling. The models, renders, and lewd content, while somewhat decent, aren't really good enough to recommend playing the game yet even for those that don't care about the story/writing.
If you want to see an even more detailed if redundant breakdown here are my full (much less cohesive but more in-depth) notes I put this review together from including spoilers:
To me the best way to summarize this game would be pretty straightforward harem game that takes place in a poorly written CW Arrowverse type story (they commonly start out with one character that gets super powers and then after a while all the significant characters become super heroes/villains) with some dashes of cyberpunk selectively thrown in.
Aesthetically it's passable but mediocre. The LIs generally have nice bodies but the faces, hair, and textures are a mixed bag. Renders are generally decent enough. Background details improve as the game progresses and one other nicety I don't see often enough that's used here is good attention to changing the outfit of at least the main characters frequently. One nitpick is some of the characters start to look like posed mannequins with a lot of repetitive and sometimes unnatural arm movements used too frequently in poses. Also, POV kissing I always find to be offputting but that's a personal preference.
Lewd scenes are okay (there are only a handful and they're generally pretty vanilla thus far) and can be kinda hot but the animation quality is middling at best and the writing during them doesn't really do much to enhance the experience. The extra angles on the animations is a nice feature but it feels like a bit of trying to make up for there not being much going on per scene. Most scenes do end well at least with there usually being a choice of how/where to finish (for 3 out of 4.5 scenes) and then getting to see the results.
The writing is easily the biggest problem with this avn. Some issues seem to be from things not translating well. An example of this would be the father's mantra of, "The future is ahead of yourself," which everyone in the game treats as a really profound phrase they constantly refer to as "mystical." This I can give the benefit of the doubt to and assume it's just something getting lost in translation. The larger issues with the writing I don't think can be written off as translation issues. It's not among the worst written games I've tried but after a while it stops being what I'd call "inoffensively bad" and crosses over into "routinely annoying + bad" territory with the writing. Lack of proper world building, shallow self-righteous characters that all seem to have very similar opinions (and problems), pacing issues, far too frequent power-fantasy contrivances which take away from any possible dramatic impact, and simplistic baby-level morality/thinking with zero nuance all really plague the story. Overall, it gets to be a slog to get through by the third chapter if you're paying attention to the details at all and not just skimming. Even skimming, I would still expect to be sick of even seeing the term "mega-corporations."
For the choices, I have no problem with the idea of this game not having choices that really affect the story outside of what LIs you want to be with, what content you see, and how some of the dialogue goes. My issue with this game is that it feels like there are basically "right" and "wrong" choices sometimes and they're not handled well. You're free to select something that doesn't go along with what the other characters in the game want you to say but just be prepared to be lectured a lot as a result. This is a game where the MC is a doormat without a mind of his own and you need to go along to get along or the other characters will put you in your place. Choices that only serve this purpose probably shouldn't be in the game unless you want to make the other characters seem unreasonable and unlikable. This is supposed to be a power fantasy and yet it feels very unsatisfying to play as the MC. It's also extremely hard to make choices about what the MC would say/think let alone agree/disagree with anything when the world building is so non-existent that we have to make a lot of assumptions about the setting and circumstances of the world this takes place in. The failure to set this up properly ends up creating a large disconnect since I lack the knowledge necessary to understand why the MC or other characters would feel the way they seem to about their world a lot of the time let alone have any idea about about why I as a player should care and get invested.
I may still pick it up on Steam when it's finished out of masochistic curiosity with how certain things go but it'll be very low on my priority list to play again if ever. I'm hoping at least the harem aspect will pick up since atm it's more like dating a couple girls separately while potential others are just being set up. A simple superhero team harem seems like a great concept in theory but the writer has tried to make it more ambitious than that before even having a good grasp on the basics which leads to a kinda miserable read so far. I can't really recommend this in the current state if you're at all detail-oriented when it comes to storytelling. The models, renders, and lewd content, while somewhat decent, aren't really good enough to recommend playing the game yet even for those that don't care about the story/writing.
If you want to see an even more detailed if redundant breakdown here are my full (much less cohesive but more in-depth) notes I put this review together from including spoilers:
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