[v0.15.0] Review update 11/28/23
Pros:
great art
great voice acting
good story with a chance a great
funny in a good way
The random events and decisions are good, they just arn't very impactful, except the bad events, which are somewhat preventable.
Cons:
The Grind is REAL; 4 girls, 3 opportunities to improve stats per day where most attribute or corruption increases are +1. If improving rooms in the keep helps this at some point, but as it stands, you're well over 100 days of grinding without being done.
cleaning rooms requires multiple cleaning jobs to finalize, this adds significant grind early on.
there is a low number of events tied to building up your kingdom related to soldiers and artisans so you are gated behind rng to finish upgrades in several rooms.
gold balance is way too generous to have any impact on tax decisions.
certain resources are irrelevant while others are insanely overvalued for upgrades, often with no sense to their need or cost. the balance is out of wack when it comes to Crown points quite often.
Resources are generous for the most part, but sourcing them relies on you having to check the scheduled optimal time for a maid to go and fetch them for you. This is fine mechanically, but is another draw on time in a time intensive game.
The larger issue is the splash screens for daily updates and phase changes of the game. They take enormous amounts of time away from the player in the long run because they are deliberately slow. This is the single largest issue with the game in it's current state.
conclusion:
Overall, there is a good game here. Some of the grind has dissipated through the upgrade system. The game play loop is solid. The characters are unique with their own quirks. The random midday events fit well, but need some tweaking when it comes to cost as the values of certain resources are not dialed in. The splash screens NEED TO BE SHORTER or removed.
There should be some form of reward or random encounter with the girls that does not progress time. Spontaneous encounters would give the player a sense of progression as real change in the behavior because the girls behavior has been adjusted by the player's actions and there is a reaction by the world, not the script, that the player can enjoy.
Gallery does not include story sex scenes.
It's a 4 on quality, but the negatives pull it down. Dropping the .5 score to 3/5. On second playthrough the negatives stick out so much more despite the general great level of polish of this project.