Unity - Abandoned - Pico Sim Date 3 [v0.74.1] [Moosh]

My feelings towards this build of the game are complicated, as I grew up playing the previous entries on Newgrounds. Seeing the game not only abandoned, but in such an unfinished and unfun state disappoints me.

I won't explain the history of this Flash series; nor Pico, the titular character, although knowing the background of these things would make my critique make more sense.

Essentially, the game takes itself too seriously when the characters and "setting" being used don't lend itself to this. Whereas the original Flash games kept to their scope very well and generally had a self-aware and humorous tone, this entry, and ESPECIALLY in the development between the Flash version of the game and the Unity build here on F95, lost this. Below are a few examples of these criticisms:

- Humor & Tone: Between the Flash version and now, Nene's content has been added. There is a LOT of humorous and satirical lore surrounding this character that the game could have utilized, even in the continuity of this series. Instead, however, the dev decided to make her personality a despondent gold digger that doesn't even have continuity with the previous two games. The added lore doesn't even make sense in the continuity of this game!! (e.g. Nene and Pico had a falling out before prom. The game starts right at Pico's college orientation, and somehow between then and now Nene has slept with dozens or hundreds of men and FORGOT who Pico was. Unless he took a 10-year break between high school and college, this makes no sense.)

- Scope: You can see between the Flash version and the Unity version that the amount of girls in the game has been DOUBLED, but basically none of them have ANY content. The overworld has also been expanded to three separate areas, but with basically no new content being added in any of them, it just makes the whole world feel hollow and unfinished. The core gameplay loop of grinding stats also feels very disconnected from progression with the girls; you'll either not have nearly enough stats to get by or waaay too many. This problem would only be compounded with more girls.

I could go on about the above, but really the main reason why I can't recommend this game here is that it has basically no sexual content. Except for the increasingly lewd images the characters will send you unsolicited as you raise their hearts, you will be better off playing the standalone "Climax" mini-games if you want actual adult content.

That being said, I am still a fan of Moosh's previous work. If you'd like to see it, I've left some links below. Don't expect these to be sex games (since they aren't, lol).

Pico Sim Date 3 (minimal lewd content):
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/656769

Pico Sim Date 1 & 2 (WARNING: old, bad art, no lewd content):
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/310473
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/376491

*Please note that this review will be changed as the game updates
but as of now...

Although very good it needs some polishing but what do you expect since its unfinished . The artwork is beautifully done and very detailed. The Music is also well done and enjoy listening to it not only in game but separately. I also enjoyed the writing and dialogue .The only issues I had when playing the game was grinding to improve my stats which could be toned down but besides that I see no main issues with the game.


SideNote:
To people complaining about the lack of lewd content its a dating sim you earn their love then fuck them if you wanted a smutty game go look somewhere else. As for the 3 images they are to show your progress and the sex scenes which will be added in the end is your reward aka fap material .

Pros:

• Good art style

Cons:

• Bad endings(as in unsatisfying)
• Bad writing(story, MC dialogue and narration)
• Very grindy(even with god mode)
• NO H SCENES achieved from my run
• Info about girls very grindy to get(required for date questionnaire)
• Doesn't allow you to change routes or see other ending after achieving one ending
• Doesn't tell me how to achieve the H scenes or how to unlock them in a non directive manner
• Saving problems with the game

The game is too grindy to the point it seems redundant to even play this game for its lack of any good content and experience. (May as well fap to watching paint dry)
It might've just been problems with my pc with the problem with saves, however i'm not counting that towards my rating as it would create bias in the review.
There honestly might be someway to access the H scenes that i'm not aware of since there are pictures of an demo H scene in the preview.
This doesn't excuse the fact that it shows no hints towards Characters with Unlockable H scenes(none which i'm aware of) as it has a silhouette girl menu.

Ugh, probably one of the most conflicted reviews I'll write. On one hand, this game has great art, the one girl I invested into (green hair girl with sex scene preview) is fun and has a beautiful character, but... there is so little H content with her! By the art on the post, and due to her proximity to your home, I assume she is one of the main girls, so I can only assume how little content there are for the other girls.

It's a shame really. You get 3 H-pictures of her, and then you get a game over "you win!"... And then the dev is like, btw, here is a WIP sex scene for her, and shows you the scene in the preview. Which COULD be a great scene, but it's out of context in the story, and you can't finish the scene! The progress bar goes all the way up to a "CLIMAX" point, but you cant use it! You have to click the "Quit" button once you're done, and that literally just closes the game! What kind of BS is that?

And, not to mention, getting to this point with this girl (3 pics and half a sex scene out of context) takes probably 30min of mind numbing spam clicking on different fucking points just to raise certain stats. It's basically a cookie clicker type game with absolutely 0 automation, you're manually baking each one of those fuckers. And, there are other girls, but you have to focus down one of them ON EASY MODE or else you wont get all the content for the girl by the time you die (yes, you have many girls but the game only gives you the time to play with one...).

Anyways. Damn I really WANT to like this game, but I fucking hate it. I feel compelled to give it 5 stars but it represents everything I hate about shitty H games. Maybe give it some time. It is not worth mine today.

I suppose my frustration is because with this being versioned v0.70.1, and having animated image previews and great art and such, I assumed it was going to be quite far along, I assumed there would be at least one girl with at least a couple sex scenes, and maybe that was unrealistic of me. Or, maybe there is a girl that is more fleshed out (doubt it), but I'm not pouring anymore time into this for now. I will come back later, and by then, who knows, maybe it will have become a 5 star game and I will update my review. Not there today, but it is a possible future.