Review based on v0.9
Considering the state of western erotic games, I'm going to base my review on the story aspect and the flow of events rather than functional stuff like gameplay. The only goal is to give criticism to the game based on that factor and hopefully see some improvement.
There are things I like, such as not throwing you into girls that have no personality. They have some character trope behind it. You also have an extra goal besides conquering girls. There's a lot of sexual tension with one girl to the point where you're eager to reach a sex scene, something I don't think I saw so far, making it stand out as unique/original. Another cool aspect is getting "matched" indirectly based on what you choose as your field to study for your exam. You get 2 teachers to bond with based on that. But there are some negatives I'm going to focus more in depth:
First of all, the tutoring aspect feels off. It's like the plot is coated over an average hentai game rather than the porn integrated into a story. It starts off on a good note but sooner or later you forget you're a tutor. To distinguish yourself from other games, imo, you need to make sure your premise sticks throughout the whole game, not just in the beginning.
Second, the mothers of all the girls feel like gatekeepers or shoehorned in rather than side characters that you get to know and have a clear separate choice. There's one in particular that you have to get sexual in order to advance with her daughter. Another pretty much participates in various lewd activities with the daughter. If there's gonna be some sort of threesome, I expect it based on a combination of factors, making it feel like an expansion of two separate routes.
Third, while I like that you can get some sexy time with the teachers, the requirements don't really stick well. It's like a forced event so you can get better in certain domains rather than a side thing tied into the teaching aspect. In my opinion, the erotic parts related to those particular characters should be a thing you would have to actively pursue, breaking the ice by having the need to improve yourself with their help.
Fourth, the exam itself. I like the idea of a side goal, to make you mange your tasks. It's just not done right. You can basically focus just that and never have any downsides other than stalling the hentai. I tried my best to make it a challenge by balancing both getting to know the girls and focusing the exam at the same time. It feels like it requires more polish.
Now to give some ideas on how the game could be improved based on my perspective:
- Focus the tutoring aspect more as it's the core aspect of the game. Maybe change how you get money by tutoring random students instead of helping your mother.
- Change the mothers of the girls into side characters rather than being intertwined with them. If they will get mixed together, make it something for later after getting to know both of them. The player should have a choice between tutoring a girl and screwing their mother without her knowing, tutoring the girl while screwing her without her mother's knowledge, or both.
- The teachers' erotic scenes shouldn't feel like they're forced to be there. Maybe those events should be tied to activities after you improve yourself and wanting more from them. And the tutoring part can easily help with the bonding.
- Each of the 3 domains that you focus for your exams should unlock more girls on the way. This would feel like you're improving yourself towards being an actual teacher, qualified to give lessons to more advanced students per say that you wouldn't meet otherwise. It would give a purpose beyond just passing the exam.
Conclusion: average game, could be better, could have been worse. Don't get your hopes up despite the high ratings. The flaws of the game can be fixed but that depends on the dev's vision of his project. Maybe I'm just part of a minority of people and all the flaws aren't that big of a deal. So it's up to him what he thinks it's right.
Hopefully at the very least I bought some inspiration either for the patreon supporters to suggest or the dev himself.