Sooo, i played through the game, in my opinion, its to early to rate it properbly, so i dont write a review yet.
But here is what i think. In advance i have to say, most of the writing i will do is critical, cause i think its important to let you know what i think can be improved. I am no expert, so this just will be my opinion on things how i feel about them.
First the Setting all around... its really good and kinda refreshing (who would have thought that mafia/gangster setting will be something fresh at a time? But around the games here there are many games with a setting like that, and most of them are bad i think)
Than the renders, i have to admit, the body hair especially on Danna weird me out a little bit... just doesnt look good. And of course i would say, a star-ballerina would have shaved her legs
but nevermind... maybe its her thing to got all natural in that department, who am i to judge. But what bothers me more is that the body hair on her just looks weird... the hair just doesnt look "right" to me besides the fact that i dont like particular unshaved bodyparts on a woman, its pure on the "technical" side here, the rendered bodyhair looks just not "right"
Besides the Bodyhair issue the renders are top notch. The Bodys are looking good, realistic and natural... Most of the games out there overdo it with "big tits" and so on... not so here. Everything just fits right. And i kinda like the overall style with the "filters" and so on.... its just a unique look and make a good atmosphere, but i would prefer a little more "light" in the scenes... overall all the images lack of light in my opinion, but thats just my taste. Other than that... the game is really looking awesome. The clothing, the characters, really fine work of art.
Than the story... dont know what to say, just... wow? Really good, exciting, and i was sitting on the edge of my chair to see what is happening next.
BUT i have a big issue on HOW the storytelling went... i really really dont like jumping around between timelines... Past, present, middle of the past, present, past, and so on, its very hard to get a grip on the characters like that (especially the MC)... the prologue is very good, but why to end the prologue and than just hint in some sentences what happened to rachel and Anderson instead of just showing a complete prologue and go on with the present? And for Rachel... it was a Rollercoaster-ride with her emotionally, and i wondered what happened to her after the MC has to leave... only to read in a side-sentence that she died... oh come on, you can do better than that. Get us a REAL emotional rollercoaster ride and conclude the prologue as a whole i would say. Would be much better in my opinion, but i guess its just your style to tell a story, so no offense.
Another thing is a technical issue in my opinion. Every image got a transition, so if i go through the dialogues i have to wait for every transition between the images, i dont know... why? Its annoying and not necessary. And is disturbing the reading flow a lot. And there is something else, what the MC/NPCs are saying is often cut and displayed in parts... it goes like that:
"MC says a word -> click -> MC says some more words in the same line -> another click -> same line continues with some more words -> click -> image transition -> click -> new line starts with a few words -> click -> new line continues"
and so on... every dialogue goes like that, the cutted lines and transitions and many many clicks to go through the game are tiresome i have to say. There has to be a better way to do that. To be honest, its the first VN where i witnessed that as an issue. I think that should be overworked.
What i really like are the decisions and that they are having a affect on how everyone is acting, and that you cant just jump around to be a nice guy in one scene and than to be chaotic in the next one... you have to choose a path and than walk it down. That is really good, so everything is kind of "evolving" and "influenced" on the decisions and behavior of your acting... most of the games out there cant deliver something like that, its all about decisions on how to get in the pants of a girl, not about how the characters are developing and evolving around your decisions... So you deliver here a huge plus in that department!
I really see big potential in that game, thats why i wrote so much here, even if its most critical cause a care about the game... i would love to see the game improve in some departments beacuse i sense a feeling that this game could be a Top 5 or Top 3 game aorund here if some issues will be gone, but maybe theses issues are only issues for me not others, dont know about that... wouldnt be the first time i am the only one seeing issues where are none to others ^^
But i have to say, for now iam really looking forward for the next update.
Hopefully my english is good enough to transport everything that is important to me about the game... i know my english is far from perfect.