This game truly is one of the gems on this site.
The core story is pretty original in my opinion. The main character essentially gets an offer he can't refuse (well...in the good way) and finds himself working as a helper in a sex club. Said sex club has a yearly, month long competition running in which three women (the eponymous Carnations) have to fulfill sexual tasks - often enough in front of an audience - to win a price at the end.
And while that sounds kinda cheap and cheesy at first, the writing does and excellent job of making a really interesting and compelling story out of this. All three women have their own reasons to compete and in addition to the club activities the private life of the MC quickly becomes entangled into the story as well.
In its core the story seems to be about "two-facedness". Pretty much every character in this game has a "public" and a "hidden" side to him/her, including the MC. And the club itself also stands for the "two-facedness" of society as a whole with seemingly upstanding pillars of the community engaging in a perverted sex competition in a brothel.
In terms of gameplay it is a relatively standard linear VN. It has decisions every once in a while that will shape the story and the relationships the MC has. There are a few free roam events, but those are pretty short.
The audio of the game does a good job of enhancing the immersion. The soundtrack might not be the absolute best, but it is clearly one of the better ones and overall very good. The sound effects are a bit rare but get the job done well enough.
Now one of the "elephants in the room" are generally the visuals since that is what pretty much everybody here will see first on the provided screenshots and the banner. I can understand that the slight "Manga look" it has going might not be for every one. In fact I originally thought it wouldn't be for me either.
But the visuals ended up being another absolute strength of this game. For one this is easily the best looking HS 1 game I have ever played.
But even overall it is an absolutely great looking game. The animations and the way movements of the characters flow even from static to static...easily conveying movement when no actual animations take place...it is absolutely superb. Add to that some of the best facial expressions in a VN I have ever seen, great lighting and so on and so forth and you have one of the best looking VNs you can find here.
Bottom line: A pretty cheesy story premise that is exceptionally well executed with very good audio and superb visuals: 5/5.
The core story is pretty original in my opinion. The main character essentially gets an offer he can't refuse (well...in the good way) and finds himself working as a helper in a sex club. Said sex club has a yearly, month long competition running in which three women (the eponymous Carnations) have to fulfill sexual tasks - often enough in front of an audience - to win a price at the end.
And while that sounds kinda cheap and cheesy at first, the writing does and excellent job of making a really interesting and compelling story out of this. All three women have their own reasons to compete and in addition to the club activities the private life of the MC quickly becomes entangled into the story as well.
In its core the story seems to be about "two-facedness". Pretty much every character in this game has a "public" and a "hidden" side to him/her, including the MC. And the club itself also stands for the "two-facedness" of society as a whole with seemingly upstanding pillars of the community engaging in a perverted sex competition in a brothel.
In terms of gameplay it is a relatively standard linear VN. It has decisions every once in a while that will shape the story and the relationships the MC has. There are a few free roam events, but those are pretty short.
The audio of the game does a good job of enhancing the immersion. The soundtrack might not be the absolute best, but it is clearly one of the better ones and overall very good. The sound effects are a bit rare but get the job done well enough.
Now one of the "elephants in the room" are generally the visuals since that is what pretty much everybody here will see first on the provided screenshots and the banner. I can understand that the slight "Manga look" it has going might not be for every one. In fact I originally thought it wouldn't be for me either.
But the visuals ended up being another absolute strength of this game. For one this is easily the best looking HS 1 game I have ever played.
But even overall it is an absolutely great looking game. The animations and the way movements of the characters flow even from static to static...easily conveying movement when no actual animations take place...it is absolutely superb. Add to that some of the best facial expressions in a VN I have ever seen, great lighting and so on and so forth and you have one of the best looking VNs you can find here.
Bottom line: A pretty cheesy story premise that is exceptionally well executed with very good audio and superb visuals: 5/5.