(Review done for the Release version)
So, a somewhat shorter review for a short game:
TL;DR: Don't bother, 2 stars.
To justify that statement. While the game looks okay on bootup, with a somewhat minimalistic tutorial it throws you into the deep end as it gives you a minimal rundown on how to play and progress. So far so good. Yet the second you play, you'll notice that the game is awfully low-qualiy and worst of all: Pretentious.
Once you advance through the levels with each girl, you're forced to sit through asinine dialogue that is horribly written and could at the very least use someone to proofread that stuff. Worse yet, it's trying to appear deeper than it actually is by giving you dialogue choice options which all mean the absolute same after each new rank, which in turn do exactly nothing. It is there because other, more popular games had it, where your answers actually mattered and in turn your progess was lying.
Most of the stuff could be forgiven if the progression and scenes were at least halfway decent - sadly they aren't. Progression is stunningly bad - with rounds getting harder for the sake of it getting harder with no real way to increase the players toolkit except for some powerups that unlock after the first couple rounds and in turn cost money, crippling you for using them. The levels get bigger with more elaborate goals to reach, where more often than not you are forced to just rely on a decent roll of the board to clear the challenge up ahead or try over and over again or having to buy powerups to again, clear out unfair map generation - on the other hand, some of the maps are in turn piss-takingly easy and can be skimmed through in a couple turns: in short, difficulty is all over the place. On that note: you can quickly get frustrated as all hell simply because the game has to recalculate the pieces if there are no combinations left - not only can this happen multiple times a round if your board is ass, it also removes any specials that are currently on the board - severely hampering the player for the games fault to calculate a decent board to begin with. Rewards increase lineary with you gaining 10 more gold each round that you clear, while also having increased prices on gifts in the end.
And again pretentiousness is showing - by having a point system, which ultimately does nothing to affect gameplay: The points and subsequent stars aquired do nothing to begin with and are just there for the sake of them being there.
The first couple scenes to unlock for each girl are just a variation of some petting on short loop with the same sound underlying each of them. The later scenes aren't any better sadly. The loops are half a second long and thei animation is so stiff and robotic, you are left wondering if this was actually designed by a human being or a machine to begin with.
Final verdict? Skip - it's not worth your time, it sure as hell wasn't worth mine even though I decided to slog through it. Given they are charging less than a buck for it on steam - which to me indicates it is a fully released version, it isn't even worth that amount of money either. Other games have done it better and offer greater rewards for sitting through what is basically bejeweled.
So, a somewhat shorter review for a short game:
TL;DR: Don't bother, 2 stars.
To justify that statement. While the game looks okay on bootup, with a somewhat minimalistic tutorial it throws you into the deep end as it gives you a minimal rundown on how to play and progress. So far so good. Yet the second you play, you'll notice that the game is awfully low-qualiy and worst of all: Pretentious.
Once you advance through the levels with each girl, you're forced to sit through asinine dialogue that is horribly written and could at the very least use someone to proofread that stuff. Worse yet, it's trying to appear deeper than it actually is by giving you dialogue choice options which all mean the absolute same after each new rank, which in turn do exactly nothing. It is there because other, more popular games had it, where your answers actually mattered and in turn your progess was lying.
Most of the stuff could be forgiven if the progression and scenes were at least halfway decent - sadly they aren't. Progression is stunningly bad - with rounds getting harder for the sake of it getting harder with no real way to increase the players toolkit except for some powerups that unlock after the first couple rounds and in turn cost money, crippling you for using them. The levels get bigger with more elaborate goals to reach, where more often than not you are forced to just rely on a decent roll of the board to clear the challenge up ahead or try over and over again or having to buy powerups to again, clear out unfair map generation - on the other hand, some of the maps are in turn piss-takingly easy and can be skimmed through in a couple turns: in short, difficulty is all over the place. On that note: you can quickly get frustrated as all hell simply because the game has to recalculate the pieces if there are no combinations left - not only can this happen multiple times a round if your board is ass, it also removes any specials that are currently on the board - severely hampering the player for the games fault to calculate a decent board to begin with. Rewards increase lineary with you gaining 10 more gold each round that you clear, while also having increased prices on gifts in the end.
And again pretentiousness is showing - by having a point system, which ultimately does nothing to affect gameplay: The points and subsequent stars aquired do nothing to begin with and are just there for the sake of them being there.
The first couple scenes to unlock for each girl are just a variation of some petting on short loop with the same sound underlying each of them. The later scenes aren't any better sadly. The loops are half a second long and thei animation is so stiff and robotic, you are left wondering if this was actually designed by a human being or a machine to begin with.
Final verdict? Skip - it's not worth your time, it sure as hell wasn't worth mine even though I decided to slog through it. Given they are charging less than a buck for it on steam - which to me indicates it is a fully released version, it isn't even worth that amount of money either. Other games have done it better and offer greater rewards for sitting through what is basically bejeweled.