[v0.5.1] Still playing but played long enough to give a review.
● Story/plot - 8?/10
It is one of the hardest game for me to review. With no expectations at all at the beginning I was amused by its maturity, realistic dialogues, great emotion expressions but... What tends to be a big advantage at the beginning started to become disadvantage as I played more.
This game just feels too real in its complexity, interpersonal relations etc. Messages on the phone seems real, often hiding real thoughts and you feel that it is hard for characters to express themselves just as it would in real life. The same comes with live interactions, often things are not so obvious, they often miss or don't get hints given them all the time just like they would forgot that they are in game and they suppose to entertain you, not to live life you already have. After some time I became tired of some characters or dramas and not that they were written bad, quite opposite actually...
The greatest asset of this game tho is MC's knowledge of psychology itself. As someone who knows something and experienced some shit in my life, I can say that this game is more like a "psychologist simulator" or "getting out of depression simulator". Dialogues often are tooo loooong, just as I would read some articles about specific behaviors, MC explains all stuff about mental health issues, kinks, sex life, relationship and all of this stuff is more or less 1:1 accurate to real life. I think that because of that, that is perfect game for... everyone? Especially for younger players who still explore themselves and are not sure what is "good" or "bad" etc. As for me, I know most of this already and it bores me but I'm sure most of players will get great wisdom from it.
If it comes about plot and story itself... I'm not sure there is anything more than just a life? MC done mistake in the past as we all do, changed city, met some old and new friends, goes to work, handles daily dramas and own mental problems just as we all do. This is not kind of game when you got some magic dick and you are something special. This is game that has some depth in it and helps you understand little more about how the interpersonal interactions works, shows you that everybody has theirs own daily struggles, time passes and it is not like there is something interesting to do everyday... That is how life works for most of people and game shows it 100% accurately.
+ FINALLY game where MC has two male friends! And both of them are normal! I wish more games do that instead of one jester male friend
+ I like "..." in dialogues, it makes them feel more real
+ MC is not horny dog talking about nothing but sex or making assumptions to it like in many VNs
- As said before, dialogues are often waaay toooo loooooong. As much as I respect wisdom coming from them, reading all this super wise MC monologues about humans behaviors at every possible dialogue makes me super tired...
- MC having problems noticing Emma's crush, jealousy and care until she had to tell him straight forward. From all of the people out there he should be able to read others feelings and body language easily. Was it his depression fogging thoughts? Maybe, but later on it still looks like he does not see obvious things. Same goes with Deb, I mean there were clues and at some point it was obvious they like sharing or something, yet after massage MC tells he has "no idea what this is all about". Lack of consistency I would say.
● Graphics/visuals/renders quality - 6/10
I wanted to give it higher note, when you play it renders are actually not bad and you get used to. But then you are lurking f95zone threads and you catch renders from the games you played before and you are wondering how is that your eyes are not hurt playing this game lol.
Graphics has it own style and I get it but quality could still be better. More details, better quality, better face expressions. After all, I'm the game-has-to-look-pretty guy and probably I would trash this game seeing opinion like mine but do not do that, give it a chance because quality of game itself overcomes its lacks in renders quality.
● Animations - 0/10
There are no animations at all which is a big disappointment. Sex scenes are the most boring ones I have ever seen in VN because of that.
● Music - 7/10
Music is one of the best if we exclude "#1 of VNs". It is nice and good fitted but because of long dialogues music tends to loop and becomes anoying after a while. More diversity could help with that for sure.
● Characters - 10/10
All of characters have depth and story behind that. You can like or not either of them but I cannot say that they are not unique. I like it that they all seem to be "normal" but as game progresses we discover theirs kinks, giving us feeling of even more depth as characters become to open up for us. I will not describe every each of them since my review is too long already, I will do it just about Emma since I hate her lol.
Emma is so fucking annoying. She is just not far from being as bitchy as Kim, although her feminism fogs her eyes making her unbearable. She just has awful character, she is always peevish and angry. Her hate to men makes her impossible to make right conclusions or decisions. She always wants to be the best, at least better than any men, no matter if it is her friend or not, she goes all in no matter the costs. At the beginning I kinda liked her, I thought she just have problems with spreading out her feelings to MC but after many interactions she is still full of acid and pride, often having even problem with being nice to MC who is her friend. I guess it is another point for MrSilverLust for showing how much feminists are blind and annoying...
● Amount of content - 10/10
This is the biggest wow of the game. I was kinda feeling guilty when I was reviewing some games in the past, pointing out "lack of content, just linear VN" and at the same time having no idea how to improve it. MrSilverLust shown me I was right and wow, all these VNs devs should be ashamed by him right now.
+ Chess games! Live events or stream with commentary and analysis made me actually come back to my chess plays from the time I was kid. Great job here.
+ Skills! This is a big one. All answers give you specific points of character types which you can invest in your kinks and based on that you will or will not be able to push further with some characters. I still see some potential here because sex scenes sucks and using multiple kinks, even with mixed categories would be great.
+ Discovering girls kinks is also great. It is kinda too easy if you ask me, since hints are automatically lighten up in theirs sentences and it is pretty easy to match it with kink later but still it is nice enhancement for the gameplay.
+ As I saind before dialogues are very mature and valuable. It is not common in VNs to have dialogues with actual wisdom coming from them, surely needed some work with that.
+ Freeroam is sketchy for now but is, like tiding up Deb's apartment or city map with some points to visit to see what was happening in last 3 weeks. It is nice change from linear story but again, got some more potential in it.
+ Smaller things like lovemeter, kink inception, drink chose, timers on occasional dialogues...
+ Start/ending of dialogues, smaller font gives you feeling that meeting is not over after couple sentences like in most of game after 5 sentences
- Phone could be little more extended, for now it looks more like a draft
● Fappable - 2/10
If you got great imagination and like shit-talking during sex than it will be great for you. In other case it is meh... Small amount of renders with not much of realistic quality, no animations at all, tons of talking during sex not to mention sex is kinda rare.
As I said before, it is more like real life and I think dev wanted to show it here also, that sex is not like in porn or porn games. In reality there are not much chances you got 21cm dick and everyday you fuck different chick, sometimes more than once a day and every one of them is long, amazing and unforgettable. I think it is nice and healthy dissonance for all of the sex-oriented games available here.
● Overall - 4/5
Content quality is not enough to be best out there. Renders improvements, adding animations, little fix with music and dialogues and it will be one of the top VN games out there.