I actually dislike the resetting everything gimmick. Makes me feel like theres no actual progress or anything. I fine with there being a rewind thing but I dont like the idea of being stuck in a groundhogs day situation.
Agreed. It does make this game more unique I guess but because of the reset the characters and their relationships barely develop and I don't really feel invested.
Yep, and this is why the Incest aspect is incompatible with Groundhog day trope. Unless the Incest is already established(incestual family), progression is needed to get over the whole "fucking somebody related to you" bit, especially in the case of the Mother character, as she will feel it's inherently wrong for her to do so as the parent. Feels like the writing crew didn't really fully explore how their ideas would work, and just figured they could wing it. This is why the MC's goal is basically just rape/fuck anything he can, because he can't actually organically develop a romantic relationship with any of these women. "Relationship progression" just really doesn't work with "Groundhog day", the women have to basically be already on the crux of wanting to fuck the MC.
Imo they should have gone with a college setting, this creates a scenario where most ppl are already ready and open to fucking ppl they meet(so Zoey, and Amy). The women would have all had a history with the MC, and already playing with the idea of having sex with him, the catch would be the MC did something recently that fucked that up, and his goal would be about unraveling that so he could "score". This would replace "Relationship Progression" with "Relationship fix". The whole thing would allow us to explore the characterization with each Women, as well as the MC, and provide and oppurtunity for character growth as he realizes all the ways he's fucked up with ppl in his life. Hell S1 could be "MC tries to fix things to score"(Sex game) then S2 would have him facing conseqences for that approach, and have him do a deeper dive on what his personal issue are and try to fix things to genuinely make things better between him and each of the women(Dating Sim). Just think this game really only uses the Simulation and time travel aspect as a gimmick, and never takes full advantage of it, and because things are so incompatable, it just makes the narrative suffer even more for it(kind of remind me of NLT with Treasure of Nadia).