I have to say something weird here... Sorry folks...
MoonBox and Grandma's House has made a really BIG change in what content I look for and appreciate and how critic I am. I'll not even go into the release schedule, it's simply incredible, only thing that kinda keeps up is Terminus, but, I haven't even started the 2nd one.
What I mean is the type of writing, the humor, the trust that the decisions will not lead us astray, the simplicity (deliberately misleading) of the story, the happy undertones, the wholesome relationships, the HUGS (I'm a hugger, all of us here at home hug each other multiple times every day, it's our thing). The road is clear, it's a enlarged family falling in love with each other in ways they didn't expect. And that is true if you play the patched or unpatched game, the story is about falling in love... and in LUST too, nothing wrong with that.
After feeling this involved, this immersed in such a story, I simply can't find patience for VN's that try to force binary decisions down your throat after spending hours and hours developing a relationship with 2 characters, suddenly, none of that matters, bah... what a load of crap. I will not mention the ones I mean, they are very famous.
Or, find the patience to byzantine plots of increasing Machiavellian complexity always inferring content that the author swears will never be present, it was fun for a bit, in a puzzle solving manner, then it went really bad. You know what I mean, and if you don't, be happy that you don't.
I am becoming more and more interested in slow burn stories, with some lateral fast releases, just to keep the interest. It can have incest or not, sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it feels forced, sometimes shouldn't even exist. I know it is a major trend, I'm not stupid, but, bah... it's fine when it's well done, but when it isn't, it's simply horrible.
Allison, Shizuka, Liz, Katie, Jamila, the whole O'Reilly clan, are such great characters, I end up measuring (unfairly, I know) other VN's characters by them. Priya, Tanya (that I think was truly a mistake to make optional, sorry MB) even Annabelle are very relatable. Jada, Aallyiah and Jerome, so so, there's potential for more, but they have been neglected for so long it's easy to forget them, but still, even so, they are relevant, interesting. The whole thing is filled with interesting characters. Not cardboard cutouts, they have flavor, depth, interest. Yet, they are simple, easy to understand, to immerse in.
So, I've started to measure most of the VN's I play against this unfair standard. Does that mean that they all fail, no, not by a long shot, but I have become a lot more critical, a lot less forgiving, a lot less impressed by animations and fancy graphics when there's no substance behind it. Many, many, VN's here, rise to the challenge, also, many others, no matter how famous, are leaving me a really bad taste.
So, Mr. MoonBox, you can feel proud of what you have been doing, it's working. Does that mean it's perfect? Obviously not!! But for each thing that is less stellar here, there's a bunch of really good shit very well done.
I hope I made clear that this is my very personal view, YMMV and it's quite OK. I don't presume to be anything more than a single player that only has one person to please, himself. If you disagree with what I said above, it's fine. No hate.
Thanks for reading.
Peace
each time to go back , no other back button to be seen
