Oof.
Ok, where to start?
First, not gonna complain about shota. It's in the tags. We can see who the protagonist will be. Don't like it, move on.
The issue is how he looks. Seeing as the game talks about a goblin realm. who knows, maybe there is a lore reason for it. But the fact is, he looks like a goblin or gremlin. Ugly little fucker.
So, the story is confusing, right off the bat. It starts by saying "last time..." and gives you a recap. This is in the beginning of my first playthrough. What is there to call "last time?" This should be the start of the game?
So, in the recap:
1) you hug mom and grope her
2) you check out her legs in the car
3) she gets mad and gets into a car wreck
4) you're in the hospital and mom is sucking you off asking you to save her
5) mom turns into a goblin who says that you need to save your mom
6) you freak out
7) Goblin says "don't freak out, this has to happen" and you promptly reply "oh, ok," and fuck her
8) people you don't know are suddenly in the hospital room, and you are given no clue who any of them are, save your stepmom.
9) it's now 5 years later
My synopsis of that beginning might seem rushed and scattershot, but I promise you, it has better pacing than the actual game, and leaves out nothing of importance.
The game seems to view dialog as a hinderance, and everything is just said and moved on from, without transition. And in as few words as possible.
The English is confused. To fall back on an old joke, the family guy skit about europeans who speak English just well enough that it makes sense but in enough of a weird way that it is certainly a second language and doesn't sound natural? That is encapsulated in this. And considering how limited and stilted the dialog is, it makes no sense for it to be so bad, because it could be proof read and improved in an instant.
Next, despite putting in a custom name, the game still calls me by default "Jason."
The hospital scene makes no sense, even post-goblin. You're in bed, a woman named Kasandra is in there with you, and a woman named Sam walks in. Sam is your stepmother. Fantastic. Thank you for being competent enough to at least tell us that.
Sam and Kasandra "talk," by which I mean they each say one thing to each other. You can make sense of it, again, but still, it is rushed. There is room for more dialog, even just one or two lines, to make things seem less breakneck.
Some douchey looking guy and a new girl enter your room. He says nothing, and the girl simply says "Hi there" and then it immediately cuts to 5 years later.
No introduction of people. No dialog to establish ANYTHING or just give personality. Things just happen.
5 years later, you step out of a very expensive looking car and just stand in the middle of the road thinking to yourself "It's progressing very slowly, I need to find a solution."
What is progressing slowly? What do you need a solution for?
Looking pleased with himself, he then says "Best thing is to go home. I need to think a bit more."
Well, lucky for us, we are home. That's where the car is parked in front of. I know whenever I'm facing a quandary, I stop in the middle of the road in front of my house and think about how I need to go home!
Anyhow...
We then get 5 renders of the MC locking his car, and walking to the house.
This is, by far, the most pacing we've seen so far. And is is jarring. Why does, up until now, one thing jump into the next like an impatient person is snapping their fingers demanding things happen faster, and then slow down to use 5 renders to show you walking to the front door?
I still have no idea who Kas is. Samantha is worried because she thinks I'm going to drive myself crazy trying to find answers for mom, when I should accept she is dead. This makes no sense, as her and Kas had dialog in the hospital that seemed to suggest they knew she was abducted or something.
You wander off to see Amy. People keep asking you "where are you?" when you are right in front of them talking to them. At least with Amy there are multiple lines of dialog, so it feels more natural (as natural as the broken English can sound).
Look, I could keep going as things progress. Keep talking about unnatural dialog, still not knowing who people are, weird tonal shifts in conversation, or Amy's frankly creepy face she keeps making. But I think I've gotten my point across.
Slow down the pacing, especially in the intro, clean up the English, explain who people are, and fix some faces, and even as an otherwise wonky experience that should in no way be taken seriously or seen as any achievement of any kind, you could still have a game worth 3 stars to most, or even 4 to people who really enjoy it. But as it exists right now, the game is an utter hot mess.
Very important edit:
If you turn on text skip and hold down the key to just breeze through stuff, you notice two things:
1) no choices at all
2) You zip through all available content in under 2 minutes
The fact that the game received and update today, when I posted this review, is all well and good. The project isn't dead. But the fact that the game is nearly 2 years in development and has no choices and could be played, even CAREFULLY reading each limited line of text, in under a half hour, is a huge red flag. There really is nothing here.
