I really loved the story initially, but over time its short-comings are beginning to wear on me.
It's a VN that can set a beautiful scene now and then and it really shines then, but it also doesn't respect its readers time. At all. The 'game' part is frustratingly obstructionist. It does nothing but try to delay your progress. The characters are refreshingly alive at first, but they never grow or develop over time. Almost all of them are static and one dimensional. And boy... it is wordy. For the past 2 years, the girls essentially talk about nothing but their singular defining "thing". The game feels like a love child of Groundhog Day and "War and Peace".
It probably makes financial sense to drag this out endlessly, but if I don't play for a year, I know I will be right where I am today in terms of character progression.
It is a shame, because the few instances where the characters are allowed to grow are truly great. There is just too little of that.
It's a VN that can set a beautiful scene now and then and it really shines then, but it also doesn't respect its readers time. At all. The 'game' part is frustratingly obstructionist. It does nothing but try to delay your progress. The characters are refreshingly alive at first, but they never grow or develop over time. Almost all of them are static and one dimensional. And boy... it is wordy. For the past 2 years, the girls essentially talk about nothing but their singular defining "thing". The game feels like a love child of Groundhog Day and "War and Peace".
It probably makes financial sense to drag this out endlessly, but if I don't play for a year, I know I will be right where I am today in terms of character progression.
It is a shame, because the few instances where the characters are allowed to grow are truly great. There is just too little of that.