Well here’s a game that suffers from an identity crisis. I haven’t followed the development closely, but it’s clear that at some point the dev decided to do a complete 180 on the game, resulting in something that’s constantly at odds with itself.
Story:
The MC moves into a different country, to live in a hotel inherited from his grandfather. In that country, slavery of elves is legalized, so he inherits a slave, and an experimental android his grandfather was working on. The original premise of the game was nothing more than a depraved harem simulator, where you would fuck any girl moving in, while earning money to pay for your debt. At some point, the developer decided the game needed to be something more, and shifted the focus towards a story about emancipating the elves.
This wouldn’t be bad, if not for all the mixed messages that come from the shift. The porn part of the game has a heavy dose of “maledom” and “trainer” fetishes. One moment, you’re being told how the masters abuse their elves sexually. The next moment, you’re taking your girls to a sex dungeon, tying them up with ropes and hanging them for sex, or you’re telling them to fuck in front of dozens of strangers, or putting them in a number of humiliating scenarios. You’re told how the masters use their elves for profit, but in the beginning, pretty much the only way you can earn money is to sell lewd pictures of your girls to strangers online. It’s “hipocrisy, the game”.
With strong enough writing you could still make a case that somehow all these girls are into bondage and exibitionism. After all, if it’s the girl’s desire, there’s nothing abusive about it. But there’s no such writing here. The MC just tells them to do stuff, and as long as their stats are high enough, they’ll do it. There’s barely any conversation in regards to these acts, which makes the MC look not that different from the supposed bad guys you’re trying to stop.
In fact, the writing in this game is all over the place. There are interesting story beats here, but the game often presents them in lenghty exposition dumps. The game goes on and on about elven society, the subjulgation, the mistreatment. Nothing is ever shown through flashbacks or other visual means.
The characters are yet another reminder of the game’s radical change in direction. Most of the LIs can’t jump on the dick fast enough, with barely any development. The game goes out of its way to paint them as sex objects, “awarding” them such lovely traits as “cum dumpster” and “mega slut”. Only at later stages, the game tries to develop backstories and make you care. To its credit, there are genuinely good moments that get you invested on the girls. But they’re buried so deep under the nonsensical porn moments, that they almost feel out of place.
The characters often act and speak nothing like human beings. Just to paint a Picture: In one scene, a girl is arguing with her mother, who wants her to come back home. The girl pulls the MC’s dick out and starts sucking him. Her mother just sits there and politely waits till her daughter is done, and the MC doesn’t say a word while all this is happening. Some girls will act like psycho posessive girlfriends after 1 bang. Ironically, the most human characters in the game are the elf and the android.
Design:
It’s a sandbox game, so you get to manage a few aspects about the hotel, choose which girl you Interact with, earn money and so on. The grinding isn’t excessive but its definetly present. The game doesn’t have a user friendly guide, so there’s a lot of checking each girl’s door to see if a new event is avaliable.
Visuals:
The game does look nice, but nothing groundbreaking. Character models are attractive and have nice variety. I still have a few events missing, but from what I’ve seen, there’s only 1 animation I’d say is really good very late in the game. Hard to say if it’s an exception or the dev is making an effort to improve. They play out smoothly, but it’s mostly standard honey select stuff you’ve seen before.
Conclusion:
For being one of the most popular and highest rated games in the site, this was a massive disappointment. Let me just say that most of the things I’ve mentioned would get a pass if this game remained just an unassuming harem game. But the moment you try to take yourself seriously, I’m gonna look at you seriously as well. And while dissecting the game, all I see is a story dragged down by ridiculous porn movie moments and characters, and porn that keeps spreading thinner and thinner by excessive exposition.
