TL;DR:
I struggled with this review. On the one hand, I was liking the game a lot until a certain point in the plot. On the other hand, that point completely undermined everything that led up to it and left me not wanting to go any further.
Sadly, I must give this a 2/5.
Reviewed version: 0.2.6-I think. The point where the former priestess shows up, whichever update that was.
I want to make this very clear: I didn't play any version beyond that. The reason for that is I felt the game was losing me with the direction it was headed, and held off. After seeing it got an update today I went over the changelogs since I played and found that none of the things listed sounded like they'd fit with the game I remembered, and I wouldn't care to see any of them.
Which leads me to "Why are you posting this review"?
And the answer to that is, honestly, I feel cheated. I spent all that time going through one third of a VN thinking it was headed one way, and then at the end of that first third the developer drops a bomb that shifts the narrative tone and destroys the coherency of the plot.
Spoilers beyond this point, I suppose, although they're spoilers only for an ancient part of the plot. The game makes a big song and dance about subterfuge. The protagonist is a lesser power, a half demon that has been charged with infiltrating the hero's party. It is also established that the Goddess is a force for good that will not tolerate the protagonist's attempts, and that she desires the demon king to be destroyed. A third of the way into the plot, it is revealed that the Goddess has no interest in the demon king being destroyed beyond maintaining the status-quo, she is not good or benevolent, she has deliberately chosen an impure and lowly woman as her priestess for her own amusement after her prior priestess was too "boringly perfect" and no, there is no need for subterfuge since she was aware all along of the protagonist's purpose, intentions and actions and doesn't mind them one bit so long as knifey-throaty-slashy happens on the demon king. Oh, and the hero has given almost all of their power to the impure priestess who then yielded it to the protagonist, so he's not much of a lesser power anymore.
Talk about upsetting the plot. This isn't a narrative twist, this is the developer saying "BORED NOW" and changing everything that has been established over hours of VN dialogue and that training minigame in very literally one scene; you speak with the Goddess and she just casually states that everything that has been established since the start of the game is wrong, and from that point onward the VN could've ended and a new one could've begun, because there is no relation between the two. The former priestess even shows up - apropos of nothing - and the focus of the game shifts from the two established girls to her as she chastises the protagonist and drives him away, only to be chastised by the Goddess herself within literal minutes and have to go crawling back begging for forgiveness - forgiveness which the protagonist naturally doesn't grant. The protagonist then spends a while breaking her in and it's all so very utterly depressing that I didn't have any inclination to keep going beyond that point.
A game where you play a sneaky, stealthy infiltrator and take down a superior force from within by stealing what they love most right from under their noses is something I might be interested in; the hero so self-assured and laser focused on bringing down the Demon King that they fail to notice you snatching their beloved priestess, and maybe they do kill the Demon King at the end, only to see you taking his throne with the priestess as your queen.
This game started that way, and for several hours led you by the nose saying "C'mon, here's that thing you like, it'll be fun, c'mon, here's a bit more" before changing its tune into something completely different.
Fair's fair, the developer can do what they please with their game, I just wish it would've been more upfront about it. It'd have saved me several hours I ain't getting back.
Breakdown of score:
-Up to the point I played, and looking at the changelog even at present, the combat minigame is broken and players are advised to skip it. Why's it even there is a mystery to me, but yeah, combat that the developer themselves admits is futile and broken (-1*).
-Plot destruction mentioned above (-1*). There are far more elegant ways to subvert audience expectations than "Hello! I'm the Goddess and everything you've read thus far gave you the wrong ideas. Let me set the record straight".
-Radical and jarring shift in narrative tone (-1*). In one scene you go from the underdog afraid of being destroyed at every turn should the hero or Goddess realize what you're doing to being the greater power capable of threatening the hero and with your actions sanctioned by the Goddess. In. One. Bloody. Scene.
-Misleading game description on the website (-1*). There is no question of whether you'll succeed; in fact, reading the changelogs, it is intended that you will go through all of the options where you will not succeed to get "hints" about the narrative, only to be dropped back to where you were before the choice. Not only that, the bad decisions are signposted with "(B)". So, to reiterate, there is no question of whether you'll succeed. Your "big secret" is also not a secret at all, and was known by your supposed #1 enemy from the beginning. And you're not a spy; you don't do any spying, you don't do any reporting, you're not gathering intelligence. You're there to corrupt the hero's party and make them submit to you via sexual training and humiliation, which is enabled by a rampaging plot device AKA a curse that the Goddess could have probably effortlessly lifted but doesn't feel like doing so. What absolute malarkey.
-Well worded (+1*). Look, plot coherency and narrative tone shifts aside, the actual wording is good. The characters express themselves in a consistent manner - the priestess is consistently proud and consistently a secret slut, the hero is consistently oblivious and an idiot, the demon queen's wife is consistently devious and slutty and so on. The game does introductions well, sets up scenes well, describes things well, and so following. If it weren't for the ham-fisted narrative turning on a swivel this might have been one of the best written games on this site. IF. As it is, it's still well written enough for one bonus point.
2/5.