*Review as of Ch 10*
**Chapter 10 update
Why is there almost no intimacy/nudity in the last two episodes? MC has some with Charlotte, and there's a tad with Lisa, but why nothing with Hazel? Nothing with Nicole. Maybe it depends on the path? Episodes 8-10 feel like fillers; there's nothing really substancial going on, and you keep pressing onward in hopes that the dev will raise the bar with the lewd content...but they don't. It's a bunch of circular dialog, recycled humor/quips, and nothing substantive. For this, I'm pulling 1 add'l star, and rating is now 3/5.
**Below - Original, full review**
Glad I didn't read any reviews, and just dove in. I actually didn't know the same dev made Dusklight Manor. I am circling back to complete that one as it's been a year-ish since I started it, but I loved how creative the plot was.
This is no different; I really enjoy the writing. Yeah, there's flaws in that your expectations based on real-world interactions aren't reliable in this "world" but that's the point of a visual (or any) novel, right? Defy expectations?
Nicole - She's very pretty, and has a great body. I like the choice in her outfits, and I feel like this is often overlooked, at least by me. Some devs pick weird shit to outfit their models in. I digress...Nicole is a....well, a bitch. She's written that way, obviously. Nothing about the MC's interactions with her feels disingenuous to me. Where you're given a choice in how to respond to her, the choices are both logical as are the results of those choices. This can't be said for every character in the game but it can for her.
Lisa - She's cute, not exactly my type in terms of her facial features. Not a fan of blondes. What I do like about her is that she's got great breasts and a slightly bigger ass than her peers. Her personality is very believable in terms of
I hope the path here continues, and the MC gets a chance to utterly defile her in spectacular fashion.
Charlotte - If I'm honest, I'm not really sure why she's the MC to the MC's story. She's kind of 2-dimensional and boring. Every single exchange with her is predictable and anticlimactic. Dev could've done a lot more here; make her resistant to the MC (at least, at first), make her a lesbian who wouldn't be interested in him anyway....something. Instead, we get a very vanilla, agreeable pacifist who isn't really memorable in any way. Her hair bothers me because it's what real girls' hair looks like right after they try and "absentmindedly" play with it by putting a hand through it and then leaving it there. It never moves, it never changes, and I don't like that (actually, all characters suffer from this bother except for Hazel). I like that she has big breasts, but then again few models in the game don't (which I'm grateful for).
Hazel - Easily could have been the most enjoyable character of the entire cast. She's uniquely pretty, her hair is interesting - although not exactly sexy. I like her eyes. Best breasts in the game, hands down, so at least she has that going for her. Personality wise, she's the most unrealistic and frustrating character. I understand what the dev was trying to do here, truly, but they failed. She simply comes across as exhausting over 90% of the time. There are brief moments of reprieve, but ultimately it's just annoying how combative she is and there's absolutely nothing done to really explain what motivates her to keep on this way. She can be the Wicked Witch of the West, so long as she's got a good back story that clearly explains how and why she ended up this way, and as a human being she's going to falter; her "love-hate" thing with the MC was brilliant except that it comes across as "indifference-hate". I guess we'll see what happens when this is completed, and whether the dev opts to satisfy the obvious itch here.
Most of the supporting characters are just noise to me; they're unnecessary and add excessive forks in the story. Like, why is Jacob dressed like an EDM priest? Why is Matt a jock that apparently doesn't play any sports, and what's he doing hanging out with Jacob anyway? What's the point of Emily? Bonnie's role showed promise, but was so boring and predictable I ended up back-tracking to a prior save and going down another path. If you're just going to draw stick figures instead of going full Bob Ross...just don't.
Oh, almost forgot about "Father Jack" - this is another giant disappointing element in the story. Starts off cool, in a mysterious sort of way, you're enticed by the idea/assumption that the MC is going to get put in situations against his will
and of course for Jack himself. Perhaps some exceedingly vulgar, sexual rituals, etc. Nope. Lots of smoke and mirrors, a lot of noise (dialog) that I honestly skipped over every chance I got because Jack is so boring. If he'd have been more directly involved with the goings on around the house, dev could've made things very interesting for the MC or even the ladies. But no, instead, Jack comes and goes, leaves cryptic and pseudo-prophetic rhetoric with the MC, and then needs to "tend" to something again for however many scenes. Rinse, repeat.
Tl;dr - If you like whatever the industry term for a secret harem is, you'll love this game and the story. If you just want to get your rocks off, you'll enjoy that too, to a degree. If you are hoping for a plot that delivers on what it promises or hints at - you will seldom get that satisfaction. Hope ya like big tits, and round asses, I know I do!
4 stars because honestly most devs do a shit job at writing even a lukewarm plot with interesting characters that isn't even remotely overplayed, and I think this dev is a top contender for content. Not the best models, not the best animations, not the best story; it's all relatively even, and I like that. Disappointments really stick with me and distract me from enjoying what might otherwise be quite good.