My two main concerns are this: Is there jump scares, and a lot of them all things considered?
And: What type of cheating is there? Mc being cheated on and girl being hurt, mc being cheated on and the girl isn't hurt, or the mc is the one doing the cheating?
The only thing I don't do well with is lots of unpredictable jump scares and the girl being hurt in cheating scenarios. I've had a certain braveheart academy do that but it was obviously avoidable. I learned my lesson after that.
Okay so, I've watched people play DDLC before, that was obviously not what people expected. Any similarities there?
Then there is Scorn which is... very fucked up, but I barely reacted to anything I saw, like, at all. Iron stomach? Perhaps.
It's the jump scares that get me.
I've been around, seen things.
Honestly, I think if existential horror is more in the text format, I should be completely fine. The implication that this is a long game is great for me, but I question if it's worth it if my initial two questions don't yield favorable responses.
Oh shit, one more thing! Do beloved characters suddenly die unexpectedly???
I'll address your questions and concerns, but in your own best interest (without trying to be too pushy) I would recommend to just go for it afterwards, the more detailed questions you will ask, the more will you rob yourself of the enjoyment of finding out the story by yourself.
Is there jump scares, and a lot of them all things considered?
In my opinion that depends on what you consider jump scares. There are recurring audio cues, a static sound, that indicates that some fuckery is going on. There might be some flashy images suddenly popping up seemingly out of nowhere.
But I wouldn't say that the horror element in this game is focused on getting actively scared like in a standard horror slasher. It's mostly psychological and existential horror. With occasional gory scenes. Think of "trying to face your inner demons and feeling powerless to do anything against them as you slowly slip away".
The comparison with DDLC is fair. Think of it being similar to that game, but much further expanded plot wise and the horror aspect much more subtle and not as central to the identity of the game. Essentially this game is still a slice of life story, just with trauma and weird dreams, gods, etc. thrown in.
What type of cheating is there?
The MC is not getting cheated on. Actually scratch that, there has been this weird discussion going on, mainly in the reviews for some reason, about NTR. I guess there might be one or at most two scenes that could be interpreted that way, but this is far from an NTR game, the MC is not in danger of being cheated on.
At one point in time you have the
choice to initiate in a sexual relationship with a married person (whose partner is not shown in the game at any point so far) but this is avoidable. And the relationships you may choose to pursue with certain girls might appear exclusive to some of them. So some girls might get hurt to some extent. Honestly, I would be kinda surprised if that ended up to be the thing that bothered you the most about this game lol.
In general though, if NTR is one of your concerns, there are canonically (basically) no other male characters in the game - it is explained at the very beginning of the game why.
Do beloved characters suddenly die unexpectedly???
There might be cock murder at some point in this game. That is all that I am willing to say.
But in all seriousness, the girls you see in the menu's character screen from the beginning of the game still exist and are all alive up to this date.
