Hmm, having played the game, have to agree with the consensus so far.
1. The GF disappears for a month out of the blue. When he finally does hear from her, prior to the meeting she's happy and content, obviously loving what she's doing.
2. The GF having dumped the MC to chase riches and gold, and using her body the old-fashioned way to earn it on her back, reinforces to the MC that he should just stay away at the restaurant.
3. We have a larger story about who is corrupt in the town and who isn't, assume this will be a weak attempt by the dev to inject 'drama' and some attempt at moral ambiguity in the story about who is doing the 'right' stuff and who is not.
4. The MC is a
complete and utter simp/cuck because he's basically TOLD by his ex-GF, after she was off for a month fucking who knows what, to fuck off and he still somehow thinks she's a victim in the situation. She
very clearly is voluntarily doing everything according to her desires, and it's also clear this was a long time coming and she's been hiding a secret life from the MC all along.
5. We have what can only be assumed to be the supposed comic-relief cop at the end who once again, tries to bring some sort of moral ambiguity to the story by acting like the women who are fucking around as escorts are being forced to do so. This is truly laughable.
6. We have foreshadowing with the bakers daughter, where she can't open her shop due to 'red tape' and we can 99% presume she will have to fuck some other dude to get her shop open.
Overall verdict.. Purely NOT a harem game, unless the goal is to make the MC into some sort of pimp.
And the vast, vast majority of harem players would probably agree with the idea of WTH would you want to stick your dick into a whore? Harem games don't have to all consist of pristine virgins (even if some think the do) but everything in this game screams that the spineless MC will just be sloppy seconds behind every other guy in the game.
He's the incel who finally got a girl who was way above his league, did the typical guy thing of ignoring her and she decided he wasn't rich enough, and things split. He doesn't have the courage to move the fuck on and pursue women who might actually like him for him and not spread their legs for every guy with a large bank account.
So wimp/simp/cuck beta MC, the gold digger ex-GF, the bakers daughter that we can presume will be fucking other dudes somewhere down the line to get her shop open, and the redhead who works for the mayor, sucking and fucking him and claiming that the mayor isn't actually corrupt... We'll probably find out the reporter/news anchor is secretly fucking around/fucked her way to the top also.
No way this will be a harem game, more like a brothel game with whores as the women. If the MC tried to have any of them as a LI he better double-wrap his dick to make sure he doesn't catch whatever STD they picked up from all the other guys they are fucking.
This game, as it is now, is right at the edge of needing an NTR tag simple because of how the ex-GF acted (it might already be there but I'm not sure if the sex with the LI has to be shown or not) because the ex-GF was the one to actually NTR the MC.
If the dev is reading this thread as someone said, I hope you really understand why all of the above will never allow your game to appeal to the vast majority of the harem crowd. Unless the story is convincing and the MC stops being a simp/beta/cuck you will probably lose a good portion of the non-harem audience too unless they like the weak MC trope.
You will only reinforce how the MC is a beta/cuck if he ever does hook up with his ex-GF after she basically told him to his face he was a loser. No amount of later trying to back-spin her story of "she was forced" or any other shit will correct that either, fyi. Per the cop at the end of the episode she
willingly signed on as an escort as long as they followed her rules and even if her rules were supposedly to protect the MC, which we don't know and would be the stereo-typical lame bullshit attempt to not have her be a selfish whore, it doesn't matter the damage is done and she's soiled goods.
You may as well embrace the NTR fetish and go balls deep with that because with how your game is now that's the main crowd who will like this game and stick around most likely.
Naming the ex-GF "Bitch", which most closely resembles who she is, does produce some comic effect at least...
EDIT: Had a thought to share with the dev.. You could potentially salvage things for harem players but you'd need to follow the following:
1. Make the MC has some damn self-confidence and courage. When he get's the news be mad, sad, whatever, then get over the GF. Don't have him moping around for a month thinking she'll come back to him when she CLEARLY was gone.
2. Have the MC actually have self-worth so he basically thinks the ex-GF is a whore and
doesn't want to chase her or get back with her when he hears why she disappeared with just a "goodbye and fuck you" note. No man I know
would tolerate hearing that their partner not only left, but then finding out they turned into a whore. That's atomic level of "FUCK YOU" from any guy to any woman if the guy has any shred of self-esteem.
Most guys I know, if they got a note like that would be furious and then cleanup everything that was associated with the bitch and throw it in the dumpster the next day, if not that same night.
3. Don't have the MC mope around like a lost puppy that's been kicked. The reason his ex left him was because he has no damn spark, no fire, nothing, and he
needs fire and passion, or at least self-confidence that to make a good MC unless you want to go the NTR/cuck/beta MC route deliberately.
4. Never have the MC hook up with any of the women who are whores, maybe other than to bust a nut in them. There should be zero emotional connection with them if they are escorts/whores and they are there to be used physically, that's it. It doesn't matter if they willingly fucked around, or were coerced into it, once they do it they are no longer a valid LI. Obviously this conflicts directly with the "prostitution" tag. among others on the front page.
5. If the MC is cheated on and he doesn't immediately kick that former LI to the curb, he's done at that moment to any harem player, so be aware of that. And having the MC get cheated on, more than in the intro here, will pretty much catapult it into the beta/cuck/simp MC category and it probably won't be recoverable if you want the larger harem crowd.
There's already one major strike against the MC at this point, and the ex-GF too, but she seems to be a focal point of the story. After what the ex-GF already did, having her as a focal point of the story may already sink the game for those not liking the beta/simp/cuck MC, which is all he's shown so far.