Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the fact that this is a popular game I had reservations about the art style and a suspicion that it would be a mindless bonkfest. Neither turned out to be a problem.
The art is not the best, but you swiftly get over it and it's fine. The game runs well and is easy to play, with no grind. I would say that it is decently well written - the plot and characters are not completely ludicrous, and in my first playthrough I encountered two touching moments, one laugh out loud moment (gym music) and one cringe one (rap video). You can roleplay, your choices do matter, the game has a variety of paths.
In terms of sexual content there are some paths with family and gross men that I didn't pursue, a decent amount of lesbian stuff I liked and a fair bit of race stuff that may be to other's tastes. There is some very limited dominance and submission but it's mainly vanilla/hardcore.
So I would encourage checking it out. A first playthrough might take 6-8 hours. Most of my good impression was based on an initial blind playthrough. I was excited to do further playthroughs but after one I have abandoned this. You already know the story and are basically just trying to unlock different paths and endings - easy with the guide? Nope. I don't know whether to call it bugs or clumsy tag application but you are often locked out of content you are deliberately pursuing because you didn't go to a coffee shop 4 hours ago, or because of a tag that is lingering even though it shouldn't. Other games with similar variable systems like Pale Carnations don't have this frustrating issue.
So try it if you like, it's not bad, I had an alright time.
Edit: I'm updating this to 4 star to bring it better into line with my other reviews. Despite negatives the customisable visuals and ambition for story interactivity deserves a higher rating.
The art is not the best, but you swiftly get over it and it's fine. The game runs well and is easy to play, with no grind. I would say that it is decently well written - the plot and characters are not completely ludicrous, and in my first playthrough I encountered two touching moments, one laugh out loud moment (gym music) and one cringe one (rap video). You can roleplay, your choices do matter, the game has a variety of paths.
In terms of sexual content there are some paths with family and gross men that I didn't pursue, a decent amount of lesbian stuff I liked and a fair bit of race stuff that may be to other's tastes. There is some very limited dominance and submission but it's mainly vanilla/hardcore.
So I would encourage checking it out. A first playthrough might take 6-8 hours. Most of my good impression was based on an initial blind playthrough. I was excited to do further playthroughs but after one I have abandoned this. You already know the story and are basically just trying to unlock different paths and endings - easy with the guide? Nope. I don't know whether to call it bugs or clumsy tag application but you are often locked out of content you are deliberately pursuing because you didn't go to a coffee shop 4 hours ago, or because of a tag that is lingering even though it shouldn't. Other games with similar variable systems like Pale Carnations don't have this frustrating issue.
So try it if you like, it's not bad, I had an alright time.
Edit: I'm updating this to 4 star to bring it better into line with my other reviews. Despite negatives the customisable visuals and ambition for story interactivity deserves a higher rating.