I thought I'd give an honest review of this game, because many reviews so far are just venting frustration at the state of the game. Sadly, many of the complaints are justified.
The Good
- The art and character models are fantastic. I love this style of art, it's not realistic but that's it's charm. Rosie is super hot!
- The 'life meter' game mechanics are pretty neat, copied from The Sims. I'm surprised more sandbox games haven't implemented this gameplay.
- The animations (what little there is) are smooth and very well done. I could watch Rosie on the tread mill all day.
- The UI is pretty good, but the map button needs to be made more obvious.
- Can be surprisingly fun if you use the cheat mod and walkthrough.
The Bad (oooooh boy....)
- Game is frustrating and tediously repetitive if you do not use the cheat mod and walkthrough.
- The grind...my god the grind. Using the cheat mod makes it more bearable, but even with it it's still there.
- There are not many events, and only one sex scene (so far), and they can be easily missed or impossible to find without the walkthrough.
- The dev is clearly not an English speaker, and while the Engrish is real, you can basically understand what is going on. The game would be so much better with a proof reader. Some potentially emotional moments are completely ruined by bad translation.
- Game updates are incredibly slow, with only very small amounts of added content.
- The life needs mechanics are cool, but without the cheat mod they just serve to frustrate and slow you down. Nothing worse than missing an event window because you need to use the toilet.
The Ugly
- There has been the addition of a couple of side characters, neither of which look that good or interesting. It's depressing to think development time is going to be wasted on them given updates are already so slow and small.
- Other than a relationship meter with a % bar, there is no indication of what events are available with each character. A walkthrough is sort of mandatory.
I have developed a love - hate relationship with this game. There is a lot to love about it, but it is ruined by all the things I hate about it. I originally played it a year ago, and playing it again now I enjoyed the new content but there is so very little. Unless the dev recruits help, it won't be completed in our lifetime.
If you do decide to check this game out, make sure you download the cheat mod and walkthrough. Despite the frustrations, it's worth a solid look.