Ver 0.0.1
Game has potential. The biggest thing holding it back right now is the UI.
It's hard to balance rating what is here versus the ambition of the project. There is a foundation and a lot of the framework is already in place, so the game could develop into something excellent but there are also a lot of issues and the gameplay loop is a little lacking.
Biggest issue by far is the UI. A lot of this is due to using RPGmaker as the engine, which limits how much custom UI can be put into the game. Pain points I noticed in no particular order:
- Lack of easy to access stat or schedule tracking. I don't know if hunger or hygiene do anything in this build and there are no UI elements that surface that information. Having to go into the quest menu to check the class schedule is also rather cumbersome.
- Nested menus in the sex interactions. I do like how many options are there and the framework for the sex sim is already looking excellent. The amount of flexibility the system affords is great but having to click through multiple layers of menu just to repeat an action is cumbersome. A 'continue' or 'repeat' button at the top menu layer that progresses the scene would be very welcome.
- Inability to pick a character to interact with. This is a game system issue along with a UI one but especially considering there are 100 NPCs and seemingly the intent to add 100 more each in game year the fact that running into any specific NPC is a roll of the dice is a major pain point. Having a 'people nearby' menu when trying to interact so the player can focus on specific characters would be very welcome.
For the gameplay side:
- The RNG and stat checks for interactions are very, very strict. Easily 70-80% of my interaction attempts failed which is majorly painful especially considering how long an interaction takes and that you can't pick specific NPCs to interact with. Making matters worse if you pick the wrong conversation topic (from a randomly selected list) it just makes the NPC mad, which makes actually developing a relationship with any NPC majorly difficult.
- Not a pain point but I would love to see the NPCs act more during the sex scenes. That is likely going to be difficult to implement, and I'm not sure how well it *could* be implemented in RPGmaker, but it would be a major positive addition and make the interactions feel more dynamic and alive.
- There is the potential for a soft conflict between the sandbox systems and the more visual novel style systems. I'm not sure if it's possible to run into the named, unique NPCs outside of classes so it makes the two loops feel cut off from one another.
If the UI could be tightened up and some of the rough edges of the sandbox smoothed out this could be a very fun game. Wishing the dev all the best and good luck with the project!
Game has potential. The biggest thing holding it back right now is the UI.
It's hard to balance rating what is here versus the ambition of the project. There is a foundation and a lot of the framework is already in place, so the game could develop into something excellent but there are also a lot of issues and the gameplay loop is a little lacking.
Biggest issue by far is the UI. A lot of this is due to using RPGmaker as the engine, which limits how much custom UI can be put into the game. Pain points I noticed in no particular order:
- Lack of easy to access stat or schedule tracking. I don't know if hunger or hygiene do anything in this build and there are no UI elements that surface that information. Having to go into the quest menu to check the class schedule is also rather cumbersome.
- Nested menus in the sex interactions. I do like how many options are there and the framework for the sex sim is already looking excellent. The amount of flexibility the system affords is great but having to click through multiple layers of menu just to repeat an action is cumbersome. A 'continue' or 'repeat' button at the top menu layer that progresses the scene would be very welcome.
- Inability to pick a character to interact with. This is a game system issue along with a UI one but especially considering there are 100 NPCs and seemingly the intent to add 100 more each in game year the fact that running into any specific NPC is a roll of the dice is a major pain point. Having a 'people nearby' menu when trying to interact so the player can focus on specific characters would be very welcome.
For the gameplay side:
- The RNG and stat checks for interactions are very, very strict. Easily 70-80% of my interaction attempts failed which is majorly painful especially considering how long an interaction takes and that you can't pick specific NPCs to interact with. Making matters worse if you pick the wrong conversation topic (from a randomly selected list) it just makes the NPC mad, which makes actually developing a relationship with any NPC majorly difficult.
- Not a pain point but I would love to see the NPCs act more during the sex scenes. That is likely going to be difficult to implement, and I'm not sure how well it *could* be implemented in RPGmaker, but it would be a major positive addition and make the interactions feel more dynamic and alive.
- There is the potential for a soft conflict between the sandbox systems and the more visual novel style systems. I'm not sure if it's possible to run into the named, unique NPCs outside of classes so it makes the two loops feel cut off from one another.
If the UI could be tightened up and some of the rough edges of the sandbox smoothed out this could be a very fun game. Wishing the dev all the best and good luck with the project!