This is my review from playing version 0.02 of the game. My personal overall rating will be 4/5 stars (but may change in future versions depending on what happens).
Ok, so I just tried this one out. I actually have heard of this anime but never watched it, so other than trailers I saw in the past and some information I saw online about it and the manga, I'm not familiar with what happened the best. For reference, the English title of the story is called, " The Quintessential Quintuplets", but this is clearly using the Japanese version despite how this game is still written in English. I suggest looking into that if you want better reference if you were confused like I was.
The original story (not this game), as far as I know, was about a tutor coming to help 5 sisters (quintuplets). There's more like he's a recluse, the sister's family is rich, and there was drama, but you can look all that up yourself. But for this game alone, for me, some of the context for the story in this game seems to expect you to know at least parts of what happened in the anime or manga, and since I didn't watch or read it, I didn't. So the beginning left me a bit confused. One of the more confusing aspects is you have to wait until you're in the house to find out which of the sisters you're even married to (it's Yotsuba), but as it picks up, that becomes obvious later as it is clearly specified then. Typically, I prefer to know, within reason, right away who the characters are and what I'm dealing with instead of being thrown into a world I'm unfamiliar with, even if it's based off of previous existing story, popular or not. However, I admit it was not played out poorly. So I actually think it worked out to my initial surprise and feel the way it started still kept me interested despite the lack of context.
Just suggesting though, I think it still might have helped.
Keep in mind, the original story this game is based off of is not a hentai (at least to my knowledge), so this being a porn game, the author clearly changed some parts in the game to fit what they wanted us to see not following the original story exactly. Unlike in the original story, the character already starts off married to one of the sisters (again, Yotsuba), taking place after the events of the manga I believe (but not 100% sure on that), but ultimately what this version of the game becomes is a story about infidelity since he's already married.
How it was handled though, I must say, I actually did really enjoy. Unrealistic or not, that was the part I personally enjoyed most and think it was well done!
But just my preference. With that said however...
I personally really liked the cheating aspect so far, and frankly, the LI I was already most interested in was the one you cheat with. However, as this stands right now, your choices don't seem to mean anything to the overall story, just variation in dialogue unless I missed something. This version of the game in my opinion should be a "kinetic novel", but not listed as such, and misleads you into thinking its something else. I enjoy cheating routes, but I also like exploring other options and enjoy pure love routes so I would have liked to be able to "have the choice" to avoid cheating, but Fuutarou is ultimately forced to have sex with another sister. No option I chose seemed to get me out of this. I did really enjoy it when that was the path I wanted to see most, but I'm disappointed right now there's no way to get out of it as I'd have liked to see, alternatively, him refuse her too trying to stay loyal to Yotsuba. So I'm a bit disappointed there was no clear warning, it's forced and without your choice, and I'm sure bound to disappoint people who wanted choices or might not have wanted to be with that particular sister.
This also leaves another concern that it's going to turn into one big harem later on in terms of porn (not my preference at all). Since you're forced into sex, there are probably going to be other times you're forced into it more, and likely, with the other sisters. Even if you eventually end up choosing the ones you want most by the end or you're just going to be forced getting them all is what it so far seems like its leading to. I feel this is the part why, so far, I can't rate it 5 stars. I think, for the story it is so far, it played out well, but unless this changes in later versions, I'm not convinced this is going to turn into something I enjoy and it's mostly going to continue mostly as a kinetic novel or at least forced harem, lots of forced sex scenes, and "Will Yotsuba be able to stop her sisters from trying to steal Fuutarou"? It feels misleading if you don't truly have choices that will matter there.
I really enjoyed what happened so far, I honestly did, but disappointed by the lack of any choices, and if that's a possibility, I'd really recommend the author do that or it's only going to appeal to a specific group of people. Thanks for the game so far though, I will go to the author's page to at least support this version I did enjoy so far, and hope the project works out in the future!
Edit: Seems it's now changed to a kinetic novel after I reported it. We'll see if in future versions, it stays one.
