Starting with my personal take, the game does have its merits. However, you might be wondering why the two-star rating. Well, let me share my perspective as a player:
The game kicks off in a somewhat cliché manner, but that's fine. Many great works begin with clichés and eventually turn out to be impressive, right? So, let's delve further.
The introduction of the female characters brings a mix of personalities; the tomboy (Asami), the dominant/submissive (Noriko), the classic romantic (Yasuka), the Yandere (Sakuya), and, in the future, the abuse victim (Chiaki).
What leaves me a bit disappointed? They have beauty and interesting personalities you can follow them, and feel, how can I say, a little fond of them? I think that's the word.
You have Macumba who, by far, is one of the best characters with dialogue that makes you laugh, and even gives hope to the player sometimes. There's dickhead Kimochi, who is a typical Otaku figure, but not as hateful to catch.
However, the story suddenly takes an irritating turn. The protagonist made it clear at the beginning that we would probably have to deal with drug trafficking, and prostitution, among other things, BUT THAT WAS IN THE FUTURE. Hasn't even a month passed since we woke up? Out of nowhere, Noriko is already involved with Akira, Yasuka is thinking about becoming a prostitute, and Asami wants to give up herself to be what Minato will "probably" want. Like, what? The protagonist in this new version literally said "I am mentally the oldest among us" (Him and the girls including Yasuka)
But tell me, does he seem mentally like a 40+-year-old guy? Damn, what do you mean!? Our choices do not match our age in reality. This is the biggest problem, and it's what makes the game difficult to play. On the one hand, it's great to see the story developing and everything, but man... Not being able to refuse Akira's command to release him!? Serious!? I AM FORCED to release the psychopath, and you know what's worse? Moments after that, Akira ALMOST RAPED our girlfriend in front of our eyes! Are you serious, man? Then we met him a few times later after that, why the fuck didn't we kill him!?
WE ARE FORCED TO ACCEPT YANDERE, okay, that's how it is, great! But she’s going to help us now, right!? You fuckin' take an iron bar, give the MC some balls, and kill this son of a bitch, ask Yandere to help conceal the tracks, damn it! But no, you can't... The protagonist can almost die a thousand times, he can have his girl almost raped by a maniac, but kill the maniac? Oh no, he has to be the cute protagonist, rainbows and shit.
Yes, I loved the game at the beginning, I hoped that we, as a protagonist who back a mistaken life, would be more knowledgeable, mature, and decisive. I saw someone commenting here about thinking the game is about a "teenage boy who just discovered alpha male trope existence", my friend, it would be much, much better if it were about that...
If you want to make a game that has trafficking, prostitution, serious problems to solve, and above all; A game where the protagonist is 40+ years old, plan his moves competently. There's no way a butterfly can survive in a swamp. And that's how I feel when I play this game these days.
I really hope things change, but help, no, I guess it won't... The game ended (0.8.1) with the fat bastard going to kidnap Asami, and we will probably have another miracle happening to prevent rape or a concrete rape scene. Am I excited to play? ARE YOU EXCITED TO PLAY IT? But earning 2k$ per month, I don't think my quitting makes any difference to the developer.