Stunning Artwork and Unfulfilled Promises
I have to preface that I'm not usually a fan of fandom games, because they usually end up relying on having specific knowledge of the franchise and resort to a bunch of referential jokes, or they end up grossly deviating from the characters they are purportedly imitating and become a horrible parody.
Thankfully, this game appears to be neither. That, and the art—which is truly exceptional—convinced me to give the game a try. Every frame a painting is an overused cliche, but this game really attempts to make that a reality. Each shot is composed so well, with a surprising eye for detail and a specific attention to lighting and utilization of space. There's even simple but effective animations that really breathe additional life into the beautiful panels.
The fact that they aren't your usual Daz studio or Honey Select models is actually a big plus. Each slide has a kind of personal touch. Renders in the dark are often backlit with a moodier light, while slides in the light focus on having earthier colors and lighter tones. From an art perspective, this game is truly one of a kind. The style deviates from the usual anime style, but I think it does it exceptionally well, if not better than the source material.
The problem with this game is that the rest of the features lag well behind the exceptional artwork. The story is hardly original, with a failure-to-launch thirty-year-old being pulled into the Naruto universe, but the setup is actually decently compelling.
The only original character is Kamiko, the one responsible for pulling you through the screen. The dynamic between her and MC is interesting, and develops as the story goes along. I would (being someone who is only moderately interested in the original source material) actually argue it's the high point of the game.
Hinata is the MC's main target, and there's two paths available to pursue her, Romance and Corruption. This in itself is not unique, but the depth of which these two paths branch is unusual in this genre of game. Everything, even down to the secondary love interests, changes between the two routes. Unfortunately, I think this works against the overall experience of the game, as there's really no reason to believe that you get an entirely different cast of secondary characters depending on your route. It's not telegraphed anywhere in the game, but if you go the Romance route, you can interact with Mirai and Kurenai. While if you go the Corruption path, you have Moegi and Anko.
Why? Who knows. Maybe the developer thinks that having a completely different cast will increase the replay value? Unfortunately, because the paths are so different from each other, it's hard to review the game unless you play both, but you can't realize how different the paths are unless you already do. In the end, it just feels like your agency as a player is stripped away, since you don't even have determination over the characters you choose to interact with.
The writing also falls off very quickly. At first, there's an earnest attempt at setting the character up as this tutor of Himawari while getting to know Hinata. The build up in this case is much better than the payoff, as the game takes the tone of a generic Wife trainer in the second act, where you simply do repetitive visits to Hinata and slowly chip away at her, getting slightly lewder and lewder each time.
The other girls are just there to fill up your chakra, apparently, which makes it doubly strange why each path has a completely different selection. There's not enough engagement or substance there to really make the difference meaningful. You don't have any choices surrounding them, and their existence to the MC are essentially plug-and-play batteries to your Corruption remote.
The quality of the writing dips more and more as the game goes along. The early chapters feel like they were proofed and written with care. But as the game goes along, it starts to feel like they're written just to make updates or fill panels. Couple that with the transitions, which were always barebones lines of text on a phone screen, and the game manages to feel rushed and drawn out at the same time. They're really, really trying to milk the seduction of Hinata out as long as it'll go, but everything else, from the in-between moments to the secondary cast, feels like they're just along for the ride.
Ultimately, the game is worth trying just for the artwork. But beyond that it's quickly nothing special. Diminishing writing, a lack of choice beyond a simple binary split, and the tedium that is the actual seduction process make it a pretty forgettable gameplay experience. I can't say the game is a waste of time, but it's also far from a must play.
