Review as of Ch2 Ep1 Pt2. That's a mouthful.
I really wanted to like this one, especially since most people seem to think very highly of it. But I was put off from the very beginning, and while it improves as it went along (presumably the game dev got better as they continued developing), nothing heats up past lukewarm.
Graphics: 3/5
The renders are your typical Honey Select game. I really struggle with Honey Select. While I sometimes go back and forth over whether I like the art style or not, Honey Select just lacks the level of shading, lighting, textures, etc that really separate the best rendered games from the pack. And while it's understandably not the focus, I so rarely see a male character that doesn't look like a backup dancer in a boy band, so I assume it's not designed to render anyone who doesn't look the type. They all have the same messy haircuts that are probably bleached tips away from being out of an early 2000s music video. Sometimes they're fat or have a creepy beard. For variety I guess.
Big pet peeve is when girls have clothes that cling taut to the underside of their boobs. Why? Do they put tape there?
Characters: 3/5
The MC, in particular, has one of the most punchable faces I've seen in a while. He looks like a 15 year old boy, carries an expression that is simultaneously inscrutable and smug, and acts like a total dickhead to everyone he meets for seemingly no reason.
Other characters seem to write off this kind of behavior as being "introverted." Which is... NOT what introvertedness actually means. Introverted people just like to have their alone time. They tend to deplete their energy when around other people and have to recharge by being alone, as opposed to extroverts who are energized by social activity and get lethargic when they have to spend too much of their time in isolation.
It's also a spectrum. No one is purely introverted and no one is purely extroverted. And it's not a matter of social skills. You can be a socially savvy introvert or a socially awkward extrovert. It's a measure of your personality inclinations, not your practicable skills.
People who are assholes to new people they meet are not introverts. They're just assholes.
And people who have the cluelessness to answer "Why should I tell you?" when they're innocently asked "Why didn't you tell me [about massive life changing decision here]?" are socially inept assholes.
So basically the premise of this story is you have an "introvert" (read: asshole) move into a house where one of his housemates is another "introvert" (read: another asshole), with two other housemates who have the patience of saints for dealing with these "introverts", and a girl who apparently has crippling social anxiety because she's been there for years but no one knows who the hell she is, or have even seen her around (but you coincidentally see her the first day you're there). Does she sleep? Go to the bathroom? Eat? Leave the house? Stay tuned!
The developer takes on a kind of amateurish approach to characters by taking their most pronounced attributes and exaggerating them to 11 to immediately MAKE IT CLEAR THAT'S THE KIND OF CHARACTER THEY ARE. You have your ice queen, your tsundere (sorry, "introvert"), your bubbly girl, etc. It's characterization by screaming. People are generally more than their most obvious traits, not that you can tell with this author.
Thankfully, you eventually learn more about the characters, but too often these personality adjustments manifest as complete changes to their entire manner of speech or action, which strike me as an odd, hyper-fantasy-ish way of writing. Like you're determining people's entire personalities by way of making some story choices.
Storytelling: 4/5
You're quickly introduced to some neckbeards in the game development department who have creepily named the "Six Angels" of the company, which I imagine the author thinks is a clever way to introduce all the company girls they bothered to put in the game, but in reality is just kind of unsettling and weird. Seems kind of predatory to be ranking your coworkers based on their looks, and in front of the new girl at that.
Luckily, the story manages to get better. You can round out the MC's character a little bit, and kind of blunt Yui's spiky exterior, but the relationship between MC and Yui are some of the most dull to read. The MC is very much a character that needs to be carried by much less asshole-ish characters like Rin, who thankfully is in the VN a good deal, and is easily one of the highlights.
The story is probably the best attribute of the book by a long shot. The VN progresses fairly naturally, without feeling too forced from one plot point to the next. There's a fair number of grammar mistakes, but as the author is not a native English speaker, it's easy to give them a small pass.
Lewd Scenes: 3/5
They're... ok? They are kind of few and far between, which is not a bad thing when the game prioritizes plot and relationship development like this one. But when they are there, they're nothing too special. Honey Select games tend to just fall into a "meh" average. Nothing jarring or poor, but you'll definitely find better.
Overall: 3.25/5
What I always look for & give full Starts for is Story, Gameplay & Also big plus if yu acutally use or make new chars for the game, seen so many diffrent games, but with Same Char Models.. but just diffrent name & clothes, so big plus in that regard.
