English:............6/10
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........5/10
Story:..............3/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:.............5.43/10 [2.71/5]
To give this a "shining endorsement," I had LITERALLY NO MEMORY of playing this game. (Future Jnx here, I also had no memory I started this review)Any VN that is centered around soccer will be just as boring as watching it. I don't like sports, but EVEN IF YOU DO, this has nothing to do with them. Not only that, but this is also the dead horse of "MC goes to college and sex happens" story as well. Add that to the fact that MC wakes up at the beginning of this and remembers ZERO things. He might as well have amnesia with his mom telling him everything that's happened in his life up to this point. You could cold open into the story and have natural dialogue clues as to how MC got to this point. NOPE. "Hello, [INSERT RELATIONSHIP HERE]. You are going to college. You remember? it is college, your first day. You have friends x, y, and z and a [INSERT SISTER HERE] that is younger than you. Do not worry, she is old enough. Hurry, now. You must meet with x to get a lore dump from your friend as well!" The only thing that could make it worse is if they blatantly tell you their one character trait. And any other tidbits of information, MC rambles to himself over his bowl of frosted flakes. I shoudn't have to tell anyone how grating it is to have MC internally monologue about his so-called life up to this point. You know how you avoid this? Have MC actually talk to people. Instead of him telling you "My sister is super active but very lazy" you show that in a scene or two. Instead of "I'm indifferent towards my father" have it come up at the dinner table. Instead of MC magically forgetting his sister is not in college with him, have one or both of them say "It was weird to not see you at breakfast" or whatever. There's a tiny little thing in writing called CONTEXT CLUES that readers pick up on over time. Telling the reader that a character is an orphan and is sad is infinitely less effective than showing a kid trying to have fun, and a locket with a picture of their parents breaks and falls off. That dumb example I gave made me feel more than someone thinking "My parents died when I was 5." Anyway, this game is 100% Tell never show. If it were any more ham-fisted they'd have porkchops for fingers.
So, like I said, the story opens with MC waking up from a rough dream. To spoil things a bit, with what little I remember, MC is the most talented soccer player ever. Even though he doesn't play anymore, he's better than everyone. He has PTSD because he played soccer so well but his team still lost. That's even how he got a full-ride to the college he's at, which we'll get into later. You don't know it yet, but MC is a Gary-Stu. Anywho, MC is woken up by his mom who reminds him it's his first day of college. And that somehow college doesn't have class on the weekends, because he's starting on a Thursday. I don't know if any of you have gone to college, but I definitely had weekend classes. So, wherever they're from they're lucky. The mom also reminds him his sister is still a senior in highschool, so she couldn't wake him up. Why they're so attached at the hip for her to wake him up will be another ham-fisted hero complex we'll get into later as well. And if you thought the English wasn't gonna be shit, I direct you to "You sound like bitch too Kathy." And you might disregard that as "No they just forgot a word." And you'd be wrong, it's just a sign of things to come, my innocent lamb. But, as per the requirements of ALL these throwaway incest tales, MC falls asleep in the first 5 minutes and has a sex dream at school. Don't be fooled though, even his sex dream is mostly about him being bored. So you get two layers of boredom in no time flat. What a treat! The only thing this almost does well is open up to a minor mystery as to how Barbara knew where his class was. Don't worry, though, the subtlety hits you like a brick later on, can't be too cerebral. MC doesn't even have to make friends, some guy just shows up to be his friend because...? No idea. But this is the point you actually name MC. So his ENTIRE reason for existence is for you, the player, to name MC. Sucks to be him lol.
After MC gets home, he's called by his best friend Jacob. The first thing he does is blatantly tell MC how long they've known each other and that they're best friends. You know? Normal human things humans do. This scene also sets up the sister's hero complex I alluded to earlier. But is interrupted by the sister that wants MC to pose as her boyfriend at the movies. What's even better is the conversation ends, she says she'll see him tomorrow and leaves, he has one line of dialogue that doesn't show time is passing, and she comes back saying she can't sleep and wants to sleep there. Instead of all that, MC could have finished his non-converation with Jacob, went to bed, THEN she show up and asks all of that while laying in bed trying to sleep. All while ALSO alluding to what happened to her. But no. Writing is hard. You do get duped here, and instead of the trip to the movies, thankfully-ish, you get the most boring party scene ever. Nothing really happens, aside from a character, that pretty much disappears most of the game(unless you choose her later on), goes home with MC because she was too drunk. Nothing happens between them and she essentially runs away from him in the morning. The English gets noticeably worse here too. At least the scene where MC tries to walk Ada home is noble enough. There's no perviness or whatever. Which would completely destroy what little character he has. So it's an alright scene. When they wake up, however, MC talking about how he "thinks everything through multiple times" and all his gary-stu powers is so cringe-inducing it hurts. After Ada leaves, the jealous sister interrogates him and then MORE ALLUSION TO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SISTER. Remember, subtlety like a brick. Like an anime. It really is a shame because MC and the sister almost come off as personable and not over-the-top. If the rest of the story was like this I would love this game.
Eventually, MC leaves and meets up with Alexandra on a walk. She was at the party, so they talk and eventually race. She's apparently an Olympic level runner and MC can keep up with her even though he's lazy. Gary-Stu, remember? And don't worry, she is inconsequential for most of the game too(Unless you reject a couple girls to get to her). All leading to a contrived ass scene to make Julia see MC in the shower. Another shitty staple of AVNs. Only for the roles to be reversed immediately after, the next day. Gotta group similar events! So much of the game so far has been MC in a shower or in bed. I say this remembering that a lot is a buch of sports garbage that could be cut ENTIRELY and nothing would be missing. MC is regaled as some savior of soccer and none of it is ever shown. The scenes are just the coach bitching at them to do better for an absurdly long time. So sports aren't even in your sports AVN. Nice. Then Stella, MC's ex, shows up crying that MC lied to her. They have matching tattoos and everything. MC even has th GALL to say he's a bad person for some reason. MC has never been painted as anything but a saint this entire story so far. It's honestly kinda annoying to have such a white knight of an MC. This is where you finally learn that MC's best friend at the time, even though Jacob was supposedly his best friend since birth, Stella's brother tried to rape Julia. She passed out and he tried to get with her locked in a room together. Whatever MC told to Stella is never said, to my knowledge. It's at this point you get one of I think two choices that actually matter in the game. You get to decide if MC still loves Stella. You know, the girl MC has literally said nothing about, you know nothing about, and has been on screen for a total of 5 minutes? You get to decide the entirety of their relationship immediately. Cool. Instead of choices to build a relationship back up, just balls to the wall decide right now or get out. Julia also suddenly appears to see this too. But why Stella was crying and how they broke up are mysteries to me. I could see her being upset, but it's more impactful if she's crying I guess.
That night, MC remembers that he also stole a USB stick with, more than likely, a bunch of criminal activity. So not only is this a college story AND a sportsball story. But it's gonna be a Mafia/Big Business story as well! There is zero originality here folks, gotta stick to the AVN checkboxes all the time! I have a little aside here as well, I think it's brave to make the ugliest model the girlfriend, Stella. And I don't mean that she's ugly, per se, more that the model used for her is the worst looking one. I don't know what it is about it, but something looks off about her specifically. I think it's the cheekbones and the hairstyle.(I said all this before trying to reject her as the game makes it seem like you can only choose her or her and Julia) Anywho, after all that, the headmistress calls in MC to tell him "Play soccer get rewarded." And at this point I wouldn't be shocked if there's mysticism or superpowers in this too, based on how she gets him to agree. Then Stella and Matt, her brother, are now in school with MC. Matt is also one of the special people because reasons. A good portion of the "sports" section is dedicated to MC and Matt hating each other. For good reason, mind you. But it gets old fast, on top of the "sports" section with no actual sports makes it boring as well as annoying. Right after the first sport sections, you get to decide if MC is interested in Julia. While she's had more time to be a character, the only thing you have to go ion is the contrived shower scenes and Stella saying "Hey man, your sister wants to sleep with you." There's been no pretense, no buildup, nothing. Just "Do you want to sex this character?" True romance. After that, Barbara gifts MC an apartment to show how badly they want him to play soccer. One of the biggest issues I have with sports is how much they're paid and showered with bullshit, glad to know it's a central part of the story. MC also wants to know why she's doing it and I really don't get this part. This leads to them blowing the proverbial load of MC and Julia's sexual relationship. They go at it right away, all but sex, and it cheapens it all. Sure they're feigning buildup to her losing her virginity, but it doesn't change how cheap it all feels.
Moving on, MC meets up with Kathy, inserting himself into her issues for some reason. Her whole story arc thing makes no sense to me, in terms of MC's involvement. He just catches her against a wall and demands she tells him about Lucas. Why? MC questioning everything is odd. Yes, it's weird all this good stuff is happening for him, but Kathy and Lucas have nothing to do with him. What Matt does away from MC shouldn't concern him. But he just continually tries to get involved because... Plot needs to happen? Id also like to know how Kathy thinks MC could find a mystery person that sent her one text one time. (This entire scene should be cut if the player chooses someone before her. You NEVER see Kathy again after this if you don't/aren't able to choose her here.)It has to be magic because literally all MC has done so far is play soccer and apologize for doing the right thing. It makes no sense. And MC's reliance on all the amenities that the school gave him, that he uses to solve mysteries that the school is tied to, is dumb. If they were doing bad/nefarious things, don't you think the driver they hired or the house they gave him would be bugged or something? THINK, people. After this, MC meets up with Jacob, to talk about Isaac. Who the hell Isaac is or what he does? Never explained. You're just expected to think he's important because they say so. They also act like they're these renegades that have to lay low. ALL WE KNOW ABOUT MC IS HE'S A LAZY REDNECK THAT IS GOOD AT EVERYTHING. Where does all this subterfuge come from? And after he gets home, he acts like he's so stressed from learning... No information? All you, the player, learned is someone named Isaac is missing or hiding. Why it matters, what could have happened, or what that means to MC is nonexistent. So he goes home and sleeps. Then wake up to the two girls, you're expected to believe MC loves, blowing him. All because "He seemed sad about something" that you, the player don't understand. Then, MC alludes to MORE SECRETS, the USB stick, that he won't tell them right now because... The writer probably didn't know what it was gonna be at the time. This scene can be cut/pasted for whichever girl you've picked at the time.
After all that posturing, to no one's surprise, Julia knew what MC did the whole time. But she's doing it in the "I'm a little sister that acts like a child" way. Not an adult "Just tell me the truth" way. Which then cuts away to MC talking to Barbara, but he asks her surface level questions that, if she were a villain, would make her suspicious of him for whatever he's doing or trying to learn. Again, whatever he's doing or trying to learn is completely lost on the player. I also find it HILARIOUS after all this non-dialogue and poor world building, MC talks to Ada, who says reading books is good because you can see a lot of emotions hidden in them. Meanwhile the only emotions we've gotten from this are two girls crying because MC is white-knighting so hard. (This is the section you'd get the last possible choice of date Ada or game over)I'm not gonna mention every time they practice on the field, because it's literally the most boring part about this, but skip past another training session and we FINALLY learn that, apparently, Isaac is a mobster. Queue in the stupd Mafia/Big Business storyline. My god. Jacob says "You girls find out who Isaac's wife is" because they want to help with a problem they don't know about, for reasons they don't know about, because MC sort of looked stressed one time. Nice. And when MC meets up with Jacob, MC says he didn't ask the shady principal for help because something felt off. Why? Because MC is an infallible Gary-Stu with the best intuition. I would still like to say: WE DO NOT KNOW WHY THEY NEED TO FIND HIM OR WHAT'S GOING ON. Neither have said if they're in trouble, why they would be in trouble, how finding Isaac would help, or what a guy that's hiding or dead could do for them. And as far as we know, they're just these privileged 19-20 year olds that found a USB one time. They've never expressed danger, fear, or anything that might suggest there's an issue. The BEST I can figure is they needed some drama because every other AVN does it.
And because the women need to be damsels in distress, they get locked in a nightclub that has doors YOU CAN'T OPEN FROM THE INSIDE?! Excuse me? You could have avoided this criticism by having them sneak in and can't get out. No. You added in a line that makes no sense just so MC can save them. My guy, this is not the way. This is advanced stupid. The only thing you get out of this is learning that, as a surprise to no one, Barbara is Isaacs wife. Remember when I said MC is infallable? This is what I mean. There is no level of intuition a reader could have had to intuit that she has anything to do with the nothingburger problems MC has. He just knew because he had to know. Lucky for you, the reader, they skipped over what Jacob talked with her about so they could reveal it to you later. Why? Because the writer needs to appear as smarter than the reader, and withholding information is the only way they can. But when they tell him, Stella says "So now you have to tell us everything because we told you Barbara exists. Except when MC tells them what's going on, IT CUTS TO A BLACK SCREEN AND SKIPS THE EXPLANATION?! What? Are you kidding me? We still don't know what's going on. This is dumb. The only stuff I skip over or barely read is the sports crap. At no point has ANYONE said what's going on. Then Barb gives MC a babysitter. The worlds only blonde haired, blue-eyed Japanese woman. I get it's because EVERY WOMAN in the game has had dark hair and dark eyes, but to do it to a Japanese woman is hilarious. If you remember, I said you should think some nefarious person is bugging the house she gave you. Well, MC that never even considered it before now, is told that was true and he's like "Yep! I knew it!" When? They're putting in all this weird spying and drama, but still not saying what is going on. I just do not care. Skip ahead to more training, that I also don't care about. They only show MC complaining about it anyway. Stella and Julia are doing Yoga at the same time, Julia is complaining just as much. Fun.
After the movie date, suddenly Isaac appears. Did you think you'd get exposition? Too damn bad. He says "Keep your head down, kid" and leaves. Then the soccer match is cancelled, so sad. But Barb appears as well to tell him "I know everything and hate Matt too. Don't worry." Which is all well and good. I SUPPOSE there's a second USB about illegal things? But MC and Jacob still aren't in trouble, so I don't get why they're forcing this Mafia narrative? Just make the mid, throwaway incest tale you want to make. Don't shoehorn in this mid mafia story. Then the game ends on a stupid cliffhanger that does not entice me to play more.
I have to admit, I'm surprised, after going back to reject Stella and Julia, that it opened up a bunch of other routes. I went back to check them out, loosely. You have to make a lot of big choices for girls early on to lock you out of girls you wouldn't even know you could get with. That is not how you should do things. You need to meet most of them before knowing a choice exists at all to date them. Hell, if you choose one of the girls, the choices just never show up at all so if you did the Throuple route, like most probably will, you wouldn't know that EVENTUALLY you can go out with Ada, after rejecting everyone. I find it odd you completely forego a friendship at all if you make a choice on a girl. You should at least get to know them more than one minor interaction before a game altering choice to cut a character out of the game. And it's even more of a slap in the face because no matter what, you somehow get all the same information. Sure, you meet more characters, but you, as the player, somehow see Jacob meeting with Barb. Or if you pick Ada, you get to actually meet Matt's dad. But the mid ass soccer story is still going. The boring Mafia story is still going. The only change is sometimes MC's sister is cut from the game. Or Madison, someone you only meet if you reject the first two, actually exists. And every sexual/personal moment with girlfriend X Y or Z happens at the same moments. MC forgets he has a mom, sister, or ex that's back. Forgets he's training with Alex. Never sees Ada again. All because you made a half-assed choice early on to see a bad early game blowjob. Add that all to the fact you are drip fed useless info and it took until this release to get to some semblance of a point, I'm kinda checked out.
This is as middling a game as one can muster. It's not awful. But I'd never go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. I like maybe one girl and none of the guys. And for all the dialogue that's good, there's a bunch of stupid nothings to irritate me. The English is fine, I'm not sure whether to give it a 6 or 7, but a bunch of tensing issues and weird sentences bog it down. The UI/UX is mostly stock with a tiny facelift, nothing special. The art is lit well, the angles are tight enough to say the posing is okay, but it's nothing special. The animations are alright but clothes have a tendency to jitter and it made me laugh a couple times. The dialogue is tough. While some of the back and forth with Stella, MC, and Julia was alright, the rest was so empty I just didn't care. And even going back to play the other girls "storylines" the banter was never as good. As for the story, I just do not care. Nothing is happening, and what little that tries to happen, doesn't affect MC at all. He's just along for the ride but also trying to get involved because...? Who knows. And it becomes even less apparent if you reject Julia, because Julia is no longer in the story at all and Matt is in minor scenes. While I agree with MC that Matt is a piece of shit, I just see MC getting mad at him and it doesn't affect me. Futher dividing my attachment to MC. So this is a true middle of the road game. I don't see it doing anything amazing, going forward. But I also don't see a giant wave of outrage over anything either. It gets bonus points for HAVING the multiple routes. But they're all parallel routes that do the same things, not branching paths that do anything new for you. I don't need a harem to coddle my fragile ego, but at least knowing I could have picked other girls would have been nice. If not being put in a situation I could reject a girl later on or have interpersonal drama of some sort woulda been nice as well.
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........5/10
Story:..............3/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:.............5.43/10 [2.71/5]
To give this a "shining endorsement," I had LITERALLY NO MEMORY of playing this game. (Future Jnx here, I also had no memory I started this review)Any VN that is centered around soccer will be just as boring as watching it. I don't like sports, but EVEN IF YOU DO, this has nothing to do with them. Not only that, but this is also the dead horse of "MC goes to college and sex happens" story as well. Add that to the fact that MC wakes up at the beginning of this and remembers ZERO things. He might as well have amnesia with his mom telling him everything that's happened in his life up to this point. You could cold open into the story and have natural dialogue clues as to how MC got to this point. NOPE. "Hello, [INSERT RELATIONSHIP HERE]. You are going to college. You remember? it is college, your first day. You have friends x, y, and z and a [INSERT SISTER HERE] that is younger than you. Do not worry, she is old enough. Hurry, now. You must meet with x to get a lore dump from your friend as well!" The only thing that could make it worse is if they blatantly tell you their one character trait. And any other tidbits of information, MC rambles to himself over his bowl of frosted flakes. I shoudn't have to tell anyone how grating it is to have MC internally monologue about his so-called life up to this point. You know how you avoid this? Have MC actually talk to people. Instead of him telling you "My sister is super active but very lazy" you show that in a scene or two. Instead of "I'm indifferent towards my father" have it come up at the dinner table. Instead of MC magically forgetting his sister is not in college with him, have one or both of them say "It was weird to not see you at breakfast" or whatever. There's a tiny little thing in writing called CONTEXT CLUES that readers pick up on over time. Telling the reader that a character is an orphan and is sad is infinitely less effective than showing a kid trying to have fun, and a locket with a picture of their parents breaks and falls off. That dumb example I gave made me feel more than someone thinking "My parents died when I was 5." Anyway, this game is 100% Tell never show. If it were any more ham-fisted they'd have porkchops for fingers.
So, like I said, the story opens with MC waking up from a rough dream. To spoil things a bit, with what little I remember, MC is the most talented soccer player ever. Even though he doesn't play anymore, he's better than everyone. He has PTSD because he played soccer so well but his team still lost. That's even how he got a full-ride to the college he's at, which we'll get into later. You don't know it yet, but MC is a Gary-Stu. Anywho, MC is woken up by his mom who reminds him it's his first day of college. And that somehow college doesn't have class on the weekends, because he's starting on a Thursday. I don't know if any of you have gone to college, but I definitely had weekend classes. So, wherever they're from they're lucky. The mom also reminds him his sister is still a senior in highschool, so she couldn't wake him up. Why they're so attached at the hip for her to wake him up will be another ham-fisted hero complex we'll get into later as well. And if you thought the English wasn't gonna be shit, I direct you to "You sound like bitch too Kathy." And you might disregard that as "No they just forgot a word." And you'd be wrong, it's just a sign of things to come, my innocent lamb. But, as per the requirements of ALL these throwaway incest tales, MC falls asleep in the first 5 minutes and has a sex dream at school. Don't be fooled though, even his sex dream is mostly about him being bored. So you get two layers of boredom in no time flat. What a treat! The only thing this almost does well is open up to a minor mystery as to how Barbara knew where his class was. Don't worry, though, the subtlety hits you like a brick later on, can't be too cerebral. MC doesn't even have to make friends, some guy just shows up to be his friend because...? No idea. But this is the point you actually name MC. So his ENTIRE reason for existence is for you, the player, to name MC. Sucks to be him lol.
After MC gets home, he's called by his best friend Jacob. The first thing he does is blatantly tell MC how long they've known each other and that they're best friends. You know? Normal human things humans do. This scene also sets up the sister's hero complex I alluded to earlier. But is interrupted by the sister that wants MC to pose as her boyfriend at the movies. What's even better is the conversation ends, she says she'll see him tomorrow and leaves, he has one line of dialogue that doesn't show time is passing, and she comes back saying she can't sleep and wants to sleep there. Instead of all that, MC could have finished his non-converation with Jacob, went to bed, THEN she show up and asks all of that while laying in bed trying to sleep. All while ALSO alluding to what happened to her. But no. Writing is hard. You do get duped here, and instead of the trip to the movies, thankfully-ish, you get the most boring party scene ever. Nothing really happens, aside from a character, that pretty much disappears most of the game(unless you choose her later on), goes home with MC because she was too drunk. Nothing happens between them and she essentially runs away from him in the morning. The English gets noticeably worse here too. At least the scene where MC tries to walk Ada home is noble enough. There's no perviness or whatever. Which would completely destroy what little character he has. So it's an alright scene. When they wake up, however, MC talking about how he "thinks everything through multiple times" and all his gary-stu powers is so cringe-inducing it hurts. After Ada leaves, the jealous sister interrogates him and then MORE ALLUSION TO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SISTER. Remember, subtlety like a brick. Like an anime. It really is a shame because MC and the sister almost come off as personable and not over-the-top. If the rest of the story was like this I would love this game.
Eventually, MC leaves and meets up with Alexandra on a walk. She was at the party, so they talk and eventually race. She's apparently an Olympic level runner and MC can keep up with her even though he's lazy. Gary-Stu, remember? And don't worry, she is inconsequential for most of the game too(Unless you reject a couple girls to get to her). All leading to a contrived ass scene to make Julia see MC in the shower. Another shitty staple of AVNs. Only for the roles to be reversed immediately after, the next day. Gotta group similar events! So much of the game so far has been MC in a shower or in bed. I say this remembering that a lot is a buch of sports garbage that could be cut ENTIRELY and nothing would be missing. MC is regaled as some savior of soccer and none of it is ever shown. The scenes are just the coach bitching at them to do better for an absurdly long time. So sports aren't even in your sports AVN. Nice. Then Stella, MC's ex, shows up crying that MC lied to her. They have matching tattoos and everything. MC even has th GALL to say he's a bad person for some reason. MC has never been painted as anything but a saint this entire story so far. It's honestly kinda annoying to have such a white knight of an MC. This is where you finally learn that MC's best friend at the time, even though Jacob was supposedly his best friend since birth, Stella's brother tried to rape Julia. She passed out and he tried to get with her locked in a room together. Whatever MC told to Stella is never said, to my knowledge. It's at this point you get one of I think two choices that actually matter in the game. You get to decide if MC still loves Stella. You know, the girl MC has literally said nothing about, you know nothing about, and has been on screen for a total of 5 minutes? You get to decide the entirety of their relationship immediately. Cool. Instead of choices to build a relationship back up, just balls to the wall decide right now or get out. Julia also suddenly appears to see this too. But why Stella was crying and how they broke up are mysteries to me. I could see her being upset, but it's more impactful if she's crying I guess.
That night, MC remembers that he also stole a USB stick with, more than likely, a bunch of criminal activity. So not only is this a college story AND a sportsball story. But it's gonna be a Mafia/Big Business story as well! There is zero originality here folks, gotta stick to the AVN checkboxes all the time! I have a little aside here as well, I think it's brave to make the ugliest model the girlfriend, Stella. And I don't mean that she's ugly, per se, more that the model used for her is the worst looking one. I don't know what it is about it, but something looks off about her specifically. I think it's the cheekbones and the hairstyle.(I said all this before trying to reject her as the game makes it seem like you can only choose her or her and Julia) Anywho, after all that, the headmistress calls in MC to tell him "Play soccer get rewarded." And at this point I wouldn't be shocked if there's mysticism or superpowers in this too, based on how she gets him to agree. Then Stella and Matt, her brother, are now in school with MC. Matt is also one of the special people because reasons. A good portion of the "sports" section is dedicated to MC and Matt hating each other. For good reason, mind you. But it gets old fast, on top of the "sports" section with no actual sports makes it boring as well as annoying. Right after the first sport sections, you get to decide if MC is interested in Julia. While she's had more time to be a character, the only thing you have to go ion is the contrived shower scenes and Stella saying "Hey man, your sister wants to sleep with you." There's been no pretense, no buildup, nothing. Just "Do you want to sex this character?" True romance. After that, Barbara gifts MC an apartment to show how badly they want him to play soccer. One of the biggest issues I have with sports is how much they're paid and showered with bullshit, glad to know it's a central part of the story. MC also wants to know why she's doing it and I really don't get this part. This leads to them blowing the proverbial load of MC and Julia's sexual relationship. They go at it right away, all but sex, and it cheapens it all. Sure they're feigning buildup to her losing her virginity, but it doesn't change how cheap it all feels.
Moving on, MC meets up with Kathy, inserting himself into her issues for some reason. Her whole story arc thing makes no sense to me, in terms of MC's involvement. He just catches her against a wall and demands she tells him about Lucas. Why? MC questioning everything is odd. Yes, it's weird all this good stuff is happening for him, but Kathy and Lucas have nothing to do with him. What Matt does away from MC shouldn't concern him. But he just continually tries to get involved because... Plot needs to happen? Id also like to know how Kathy thinks MC could find a mystery person that sent her one text one time. (This entire scene should be cut if the player chooses someone before her. You NEVER see Kathy again after this if you don't/aren't able to choose her here.)It has to be magic because literally all MC has done so far is play soccer and apologize for doing the right thing. It makes no sense. And MC's reliance on all the amenities that the school gave him, that he uses to solve mysteries that the school is tied to, is dumb. If they were doing bad/nefarious things, don't you think the driver they hired or the house they gave him would be bugged or something? THINK, people. After this, MC meets up with Jacob, to talk about Isaac. Who the hell Isaac is or what he does? Never explained. You're just expected to think he's important because they say so. They also act like they're these renegades that have to lay low. ALL WE KNOW ABOUT MC IS HE'S A LAZY REDNECK THAT IS GOOD AT EVERYTHING. Where does all this subterfuge come from? And after he gets home, he acts like he's so stressed from learning... No information? All you, the player, learned is someone named Isaac is missing or hiding. Why it matters, what could have happened, or what that means to MC is nonexistent. So he goes home and sleeps. Then wake up to the two girls, you're expected to believe MC loves, blowing him. All because "He seemed sad about something" that you, the player don't understand. Then, MC alludes to MORE SECRETS, the USB stick, that he won't tell them right now because... The writer probably didn't know what it was gonna be at the time. This scene can be cut/pasted for whichever girl you've picked at the time.
After all that posturing, to no one's surprise, Julia knew what MC did the whole time. But she's doing it in the "I'm a little sister that acts like a child" way. Not an adult "Just tell me the truth" way. Which then cuts away to MC talking to Barbara, but he asks her surface level questions that, if she were a villain, would make her suspicious of him for whatever he's doing or trying to learn. Again, whatever he's doing or trying to learn is completely lost on the player. I also find it HILARIOUS after all this non-dialogue and poor world building, MC talks to Ada, who says reading books is good because you can see a lot of emotions hidden in them. Meanwhile the only emotions we've gotten from this are two girls crying because MC is white-knighting so hard. (This is the section you'd get the last possible choice of date Ada or game over)I'm not gonna mention every time they practice on the field, because it's literally the most boring part about this, but skip past another training session and we FINALLY learn that, apparently, Isaac is a mobster. Queue in the stupd Mafia/Big Business storyline. My god. Jacob says "You girls find out who Isaac's wife is" because they want to help with a problem they don't know about, for reasons they don't know about, because MC sort of looked stressed one time. Nice. And when MC meets up with Jacob, MC says he didn't ask the shady principal for help because something felt off. Why? Because MC is an infallible Gary-Stu with the best intuition. I would still like to say: WE DO NOT KNOW WHY THEY NEED TO FIND HIM OR WHAT'S GOING ON. Neither have said if they're in trouble, why they would be in trouble, how finding Isaac would help, or what a guy that's hiding or dead could do for them. And as far as we know, they're just these privileged 19-20 year olds that found a USB one time. They've never expressed danger, fear, or anything that might suggest there's an issue. The BEST I can figure is they needed some drama because every other AVN does it.
And because the women need to be damsels in distress, they get locked in a nightclub that has doors YOU CAN'T OPEN FROM THE INSIDE?! Excuse me? You could have avoided this criticism by having them sneak in and can't get out. No. You added in a line that makes no sense just so MC can save them. My guy, this is not the way. This is advanced stupid. The only thing you get out of this is learning that, as a surprise to no one, Barbara is Isaacs wife. Remember when I said MC is infallable? This is what I mean. There is no level of intuition a reader could have had to intuit that she has anything to do with the nothingburger problems MC has. He just knew because he had to know. Lucky for you, the reader, they skipped over what Jacob talked with her about so they could reveal it to you later. Why? Because the writer needs to appear as smarter than the reader, and withholding information is the only way they can. But when they tell him, Stella says "So now you have to tell us everything because we told you Barbara exists. Except when MC tells them what's going on, IT CUTS TO A BLACK SCREEN AND SKIPS THE EXPLANATION?! What? Are you kidding me? We still don't know what's going on. This is dumb. The only stuff I skip over or barely read is the sports crap. At no point has ANYONE said what's going on. Then Barb gives MC a babysitter. The worlds only blonde haired, blue-eyed Japanese woman. I get it's because EVERY WOMAN in the game has had dark hair and dark eyes, but to do it to a Japanese woman is hilarious. If you remember, I said you should think some nefarious person is bugging the house she gave you. Well, MC that never even considered it before now, is told that was true and he's like "Yep! I knew it!" When? They're putting in all this weird spying and drama, but still not saying what is going on. I just do not care. Skip ahead to more training, that I also don't care about. They only show MC complaining about it anyway. Stella and Julia are doing Yoga at the same time, Julia is complaining just as much. Fun.
After the movie date, suddenly Isaac appears. Did you think you'd get exposition? Too damn bad. He says "Keep your head down, kid" and leaves. Then the soccer match is cancelled, so sad. But Barb appears as well to tell him "I know everything and hate Matt too. Don't worry." Which is all well and good. I SUPPOSE there's a second USB about illegal things? But MC and Jacob still aren't in trouble, so I don't get why they're forcing this Mafia narrative? Just make the mid, throwaway incest tale you want to make. Don't shoehorn in this mid mafia story. Then the game ends on a stupid cliffhanger that does not entice me to play more.
I have to admit, I'm surprised, after going back to reject Stella and Julia, that it opened up a bunch of other routes. I went back to check them out, loosely. You have to make a lot of big choices for girls early on to lock you out of girls you wouldn't even know you could get with. That is not how you should do things. You need to meet most of them before knowing a choice exists at all to date them. Hell, if you choose one of the girls, the choices just never show up at all so if you did the Throuple route, like most probably will, you wouldn't know that EVENTUALLY you can go out with Ada, after rejecting everyone. I find it odd you completely forego a friendship at all if you make a choice on a girl. You should at least get to know them more than one minor interaction before a game altering choice to cut a character out of the game. And it's even more of a slap in the face because no matter what, you somehow get all the same information. Sure, you meet more characters, but you, as the player, somehow see Jacob meeting with Barb. Or if you pick Ada, you get to actually meet Matt's dad. But the mid ass soccer story is still going. The boring Mafia story is still going. The only change is sometimes MC's sister is cut from the game. Or Madison, someone you only meet if you reject the first two, actually exists. And every sexual/personal moment with girlfriend X Y or Z happens at the same moments. MC forgets he has a mom, sister, or ex that's back. Forgets he's training with Alex. Never sees Ada again. All because you made a half-assed choice early on to see a bad early game blowjob. Add that all to the fact you are drip fed useless info and it took until this release to get to some semblance of a point, I'm kinda checked out.
This is as middling a game as one can muster. It's not awful. But I'd never go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. I like maybe one girl and none of the guys. And for all the dialogue that's good, there's a bunch of stupid nothings to irritate me. The English is fine, I'm not sure whether to give it a 6 or 7, but a bunch of tensing issues and weird sentences bog it down. The UI/UX is mostly stock with a tiny facelift, nothing special. The art is lit well, the angles are tight enough to say the posing is okay, but it's nothing special. The animations are alright but clothes have a tendency to jitter and it made me laugh a couple times. The dialogue is tough. While some of the back and forth with Stella, MC, and Julia was alright, the rest was so empty I just didn't care. And even going back to play the other girls "storylines" the banter was never as good. As for the story, I just do not care. Nothing is happening, and what little that tries to happen, doesn't affect MC at all. He's just along for the ride but also trying to get involved because...? Who knows. And it becomes even less apparent if you reject Julia, because Julia is no longer in the story at all and Matt is in minor scenes. While I agree with MC that Matt is a piece of shit, I just see MC getting mad at him and it doesn't affect me. Futher dividing my attachment to MC. So this is a true middle of the road game. I don't see it doing anything amazing, going forward. But I also don't see a giant wave of outrage over anything either. It gets bonus points for HAVING the multiple routes. But they're all parallel routes that do the same things, not branching paths that do anything new for you. I don't need a harem to coddle my fragile ego, but at least knowing I could have picked other girls would have been nice. If not being put in a situation I could reject a girl later on or have interpersonal drama of some sort woulda been nice as well.
