[Book Two]
It was ok. I found it rather average, but it has what it takes to appeal to the superfans of safe space harems.
The core plot and the world building is not bad. There is some creativity here, but the execution is lacking a bit. Maybe my sci-fi nerd rage is preventing me from giving it a pass, but the game is very loose and carefree on the sci-fi elements. It is magical sci-fi where things are just handwaved away instead of being based even slightly on current scientific knowledge. That alone wouldn't really be an issue since it's hardly a unique case in sci-fi. However, the suspension of disbelief is lost when you also account for the way the characters behave on missions. They suspect some world ending nanobot swarm might be in the planet, yet they just sit around and have dinner and have carefree sex. Well, the tone is absolutely on the lighthearted side almost all the time, possibly to the detriment of the narrative, but some players might prefer light hearted rather than serious. There is also multiple moments where the dev is hugging the players and telling us that this is a very safe space where other dicks don't exist. Some people might like this reassurance, but I find it rather forced and unnecessary in getting the point across, especially when it leaves holes in the plot.
I didn't find the character interactions and the characters believable at all. As in, they don't behave anything like actual people and are convenient caricatures that are there to fill in the harem slots. All of them are immediately in love with the MC who acts like a reddit neckbeard's idea of an outgoing white knight. I mean, the plot device makes sexual contact a necessity, but there are much more interesting ways to develop these relationships than immediately snuffing out all sexual tension from the very beginning.
Perhaps the biggest issue for me was the coding. Well, this is a kinetic novel with a bunch of meaningless choices. I looked under the hood and confirmed that there is not a single variable or flag that is set for any of the choices. The only thing it affects is the immediate outcome after the response. It is a bit of a downer, but not the end of the world. Some devs just want to tell their story and don't want to account for variables and branches. Alright, but I would have liked the choices to at least attempt to provide some role playing opportunities. The MC's persona is already set. We know how he feels and what his all about. So when there is a choice that is obviously the right answer and then another choice that makes very little sense, it doesn't really present even the illusion of choice. If you pick the wrong answers to see what happens? 1) Game over. 2) Immediately look like a fool and MC accepts that he was wrong. 3) You don't get a kiss from girl. But we know that in the end, none of it matters since it is not keeping track of choices at all.
The game does do some things very well though. The music is on point. Absolutely. I was feeling that synthwave track that plays at the start of the game, but I began to worry that this might be a perpetual single track loop. That worry was misplaced because the music changes quite naturally to fit the different scenes.
The other thing I always praise when I notice it is when character have functional wardrobes. They change clothing like normal people.
The game is quite above average in the visual department. Nice models, nice outfits, cool environments. Not a fan of the whole first person view thing, but ehh... I can live with that. Not sure why this self insert POV is important for this game though, since as I've noted earlier, there is nothing we can do to actually influence the MC's persona. Oh, the animations are basically like ~4-6 frame loops. I don't really care at all about animations, but others might. Perhaps doing away with this version of choppy back and fourth and focusing more on still pictures is something to consider. Still, I found the sex scenes to be pretty decent for vanilla stuff. I think the dev could work on sex dialogues a bit though. Mix in a couple longer sentences here and there.
Overall, I found it to be a very fitting 3/5. What could have been another mindless harem game is anchored to a decently promising core plot that presents some interesting ideas to be explored.
