Not a bad overall game or writing effort in itself, but as born and raised in the USA gamer I just couldn't get pass the disconnect going on with the story presentation. Which ultimately cut my playthrough short a few hours in. Just felt too try hard cheesy at times and a little too " I didn't grow up in eastern culture" kiddy power fantasy'like for me to be able to ever fully immerse myself in it.
I mean for me Rule #1 of making a harem game aimed at an english audience - don't actually use the world "harem" in your game writing. And certainly don't make it a literally labeled harem that just essentially foreignizes the "screw-them-all" concept presentation to a lot of people outside a hardcore audience of posters stealing games on F95 . As games can and routinely do accomplish the same exact end goal without doing that.
Referencing that you were born and raised in the US, as if that would make your perspective more valuable somehow, makes you sound like an arrogant ass. Your call, but I would advice against it in the future, if you want to be taken seriously.
Harem is an english word. It's perfectly well suited to be used in an english game. We use it on this english site for instance. It might be a little bit cringe if used in a game taking place in a contemporary setting in a western country, but it's perfectly fine in this instance, as in this game it is an actual harem the way they used to work back in the day in the parts of the world where male rulers had harems.
Furthermore, harem isn't just "screw-them-all". There are plenty of games where you "screw them all" without having a harem. Harem means that the MC is in a relationship with several LIs at the same time and the LIs are both aware and accepting of it.
Entitlement? As in my expectation of an at least semi decent story plot out of any game I play, and something that ideally isn't being weighed down by some misguided assumption that I'm going to relate to some "power fantasy" concept that essentially speaks to me as if I'm some 13 year old kid virgin who grew up somewhere people actually use the term "harem"?
It's a bit weird that you claim that Hot Sand of Antarctica is a "power fantasy" for 13-year old virgins, while later in the thread you claim you've enjoyed plenty of other harem games. Whether or not you enjoy harem as a fetish/fantasy is of course subjective, as is also if you enjoy a story set in a brutal post apocalyptic world, but if we're talking about what's realistic, the harem presented in games like Hot Sand of Antarctica and Dessert Stalker is way more realistic than the harems in virtually all games taking place in some contemporary western society.
The societies of Hot Sand of Antarctica and Dessert Stalker are brutal and violent dog eat dog societies, where might makes right and there are few, if any, moral norms and laws governing sexual relations. In such socieites, it's rather natural that you will have a ruthless ruling class of fighters/warriors, who predominantly will be male (due to the physical advantage that men have) and because of that can choose to have a harem if they like, where the women gravitate to them for status and protection (and to the extent there are women rulers, they could of course also have harems).
In a contemporary western setting on the other hand, there is a very strong monogamous norm, usually codified into law, paired with egalitarian ideals that prescribe that parties in a relationships should be on an equal footing. That means, that if you suggest to a contemporary western woman (or man) that she (he) should enter into a harem-style relation ship with you, most will tell you to fuck off right away, because you don't want monogamy and the rest will tell you to fuck off once they realise that it's only you who are allowed to have sex with other people. Very few harem games set in contemporary western settings solve this in any believable manner and some are down right laughable (for instance having the LIs suggest the harem because they want the MC to fuck around, so that other women can experience the joy of having a sexual relationship with him...
).
Now, if there is any complaint I would have of the harem mechanics in both Hot Sand of Antarctica and Dessert Stalker, it is that there isn't *more* jealousy and intrigue going on between the women in the harem (and directed at any other women the MCs fuck on the side). There is some, but I think there realistically should be more. But it is still more than in many other harem games, where there is no female jealousy at all.
