Leap of Faith [Completed] - No Spoilers
I abandoned this during a truth or dare scene in what I believe is chapter 3. That I would still rate it 3 stars feels incredibly generous. I didn't know that this was the 4th highest rated game on F95 before reading it, so it's not as if my expectations were high.
I'll get the good bits out of the way. The technical aspects of the game, such as the apps on the cell phone, are fun to play with. The writing is grammatically correct and some story points are interesting, but I can't say anything else that's positive about the writing.
Now for the criticism. The main character is your typical harem magnet. There's nothing especially likeable about him. His relationship with his best friend seems relatable at first, but it quickly becomes nothing more than a tool for the MC to connect with more girls. The MC's speech with women oscillates between gentlemanly and perverted early on, before settling on mostly juvenile. Most of his love interests fit that juvenile description as well.
The positive overreaction towards this game for discussing "deep" issues like suicide is bewildering to me. Most of us have dealt with loss, anger, and depression, but very little in this game struck a chord with me. Neither the sob stories, the C-tier movie twist, nor the "shocking" confessions merit generous praise for their creativity, expression, or emotional impact. It doesn't help that every emotional scene is sandwiched between other cheesy or immature scenes. The cheesy scenes with frat-boy-inspired humour are bad, but the immature scenes are the worst, because they rely on stereotypical porn game tropes. I get the sense that the author is slightly older or more mature himself, so I don't understand why so much of the writing devolves into frivolous banter. It's disappointing especially when there are glimpses of higher quality writing.
I'll wrap up by saying that what disappointed me the most in this game was the selection of women. So few are actually hot enough to want to pursue, and then the selection narrows even more when you consider which ones have personalities worth pursuing further. It's not that the girls and their assets look cheap, but it's the unique changes that have been made to their faces that unfortunately detract from the standard models.
I would feel guilty rating this lower than 3 stars because I can recognise the tremendous amount of work that went into it, but anything more would be overrating this game and its writing. Oh, and the gags. Yet another game that assumes the readers will laugh when they see characters with uncannily expressive faces and reactions. No, I didn't find your joke funny just because your own character laughed at it.
