Review based on the v0.4 version.
Bear in mind, these are opinions based on personal taste, not a condemnation or judgment of the developers.
Positives:
- Presentation: Decent music & sound effects. UI is alright, but it does this annoying thing where the textbox disappears for a second anytime the picture changes. So let's say the lady you have a date with simply raises her eyebrows. so the picture chages - *poof* the textbox disappears. It's just a short thing but it wastes time and just comes across amateurish.
- Animation: Fluid animation in the X-scenes, which isn't really an accomplishment, considering they're pre-made.
Negatives:
- Gameplay: For all the talk about choices, for now at least they don't really seem to have too much of an impact. The game registeres whether you behave "assertive" or more gentleman-like, but so far I haven't noticed that this would change the path in any meaningful way.
- Writing: I think " juvenile" and "inconsistant" is the best way to summarize it.
You know you're in trouble when the writer thinks "Muffville" is a funny name for a town. Or when they think "FCKING AWESUMM" is an appropriate response and "pretty swell" isn't. And no, there's no third option. You either respond like an enthusiastic simpleton or like a posh freak. But only the first option leads to an adult scene, because I guess sounding like a pubescent teen in the body of a 35 year old adult man is just ... tooo irresistable.
Oh, and in the subsequent XXX-scene, the dirty talk contains the line "Fuck me like a little doggy". LITTLE DOGGY... And that's supposed to be hot.
Now, about the protagonist. There's just no consistency in the writing here.
If you establish your character as this workaholic, who never had time for fun, let alone a relationships because they're so busy with their work - how likely is it, that they managed to become a mixed martial arts master? Surely you're not implying that that's something you can just accomplish on the side next to your stressfull full-time job?
Also, he comes across as a manipulative womanizer in one scene, where he simply says what the woman wants to hear in one scene and just a couple of scenes later he can't stop gushing about what an amazing woman she is. He's this pervert with a "dark side" in one moment, but behaves as if he never kissed a girl in his life in the next.
Finally, just as an aside: the idea that a woman is "tainted" and lo longer pure after she's been with a man is outright medieval and while it's just a throwaway line the MC says at a point and doesn't have to reflect the writer's morals, it does make it harder to sympathize with the character you're playing as.
- Visuals: Why do people think that using HoneySelect 1 models is still acceptable in 2020? Let's ignore for a moment that the environments and everything in it look like they belong to games from the PS1-era.
As for the character models - I played around with the character maker myself years and years ago and I can tell you, that since it's made in Japan it's biased towards a certain ideal of beauty and what are considered to be "normal" facial features. This restriction results in faces always looking slightly asian (especially the male characters) and same-y.
Now, if this was the first game where I see those character models ... fine. But we have about half a dozen other (massively popular) titles that have already squeezed this engine to its limits. There's nothing new anyone can do here. And it's not even as if these models look especially good, anyway. I honestly don't get it. Saying they are unoriginal and boring is an understatement at this point.
But even I hadn't seen what feels like a hundred characters like this already. What's even worse is that the adult women look as if they're around the same age as their daughters.
F.ex.: I was convinced Lyanna was going to be one of the students in the all-girls-school. But nope, she is an adult. More so: she's old enough to have an adult daughter. I dunked on the Character Maker earlier, but I know for a fact that it is possible to create characters with it, that look mature. So this is 100% on the developer.
