VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Press-Switch [v0.6c Beta] [Skiegh]

Mixed feelings about this game. On one hand, it's supposedly complete but actually just abandoned because the author apparently had a real life stalker. Shit happens, I know.

But purely as a game, development is just a mess, and I would say rendered this an unplayable mess. For example, my first route (cloning a friend) dead ends almost immediately. This after asking you to key in some random codes to unlock stuff.

Didn't go further because this just disrespects the player's time. Cannot recommend playing unless you really have nothing better to do.

I absolutely hate it when a game is clearly unfinished but it's marked as completed because they don't want to admit it's abandoned. This game is clearly abandoned, not finished.

Ignoring that, I would have still given this game two stars at best. This game has (or had) some great potential but is clearly a victim of it's own vision. What I mean is that the DSM device is interesting, but being unable to choose what you want means you are forced into story pathways you don't like. I'm not a fan of transformation stories -- and at this time the game isn't even marked with the transformation tag, but after playing it, there's many pathways where you don't really have a choice but to have the MC transform into a female character.

The dev should have simplified the DSM's capabilities and gotten rid of the rest. E.g., only have transformation capabilities and focus on that. The current game has a lot of "illusion of choice" choices which need to be handled in such a way to actually hide the fact that the player doesn't really have a choice. A lot of VNs screw this up and it can frustrate players.

Further, given the complicated premise, the story has too many characters. The more characters you add, the more complicated the story can get, adding options on top of that and the number of pathways is staggering.

The visuals are dated, and I understand it was started in 2018, but there's something to be said about finishing a game before it becomes too dated.

My honest advice to the dev (although I doubt they will read this). Reboot the game, update the visuals, clearly focus on specific things and think through all of the routes from beginning to end before you start writing the game to figure out the complexity. Clearly think through how the device's capabilities mesh with the story routes and remove any "false choice" issues (e.g., if I unlock Mind Alternation, not letting me use it means I never had the choice to use it in the first place). The easiest way to do this is to remove the DSM interface and make using it entirely story driven and not by player choice.

I find it incredible that a game has so many different routes. The game is amazing, it's a shame they abandoned it. The only thing I think they needed to improve was the scenes, there were more scenes missing of what was happening instead of just having the characters talking. Although it is understood that doing that for a game where practically every dialogue takes you to a different story is very difficult. I hope that someday some creator will take up this game and be able to finish it because it has a lot of content but it has even more content that they never finished making.

Graphics: 3
cute flawless manga girls
but no animations and censored
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gameplay: 3
Too much choice / characters. And all routes ending in dev saying it's not implemented. Then you have to save at every choice or you could have to restart.
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optimisation : 0
Long time to load for a vn.
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Story: 4
Not great. too much oriented on guess who is who instead or real living stories.
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dialogues : 5
good english.
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Content: 1
Lot of routes, but only two have lewd content. so 4 pictures only.
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Overall rating: 2 (3 stars to encourage author to change the game)
Too few lewd content for a 0.6a version. Too much caracters/routes ending fast make it not fun to play. If the dev want to continue he should focus on few caracters and story, then add other stories. 0.6a is not worth playing. I stopped after 10 mn.

I found the story really compelling and unique. The CGs were high quality (for CGs of that type) and there are multiple paths (but only one long one atm).

I give it 5 stars for how unique the story is and that it actually made me want to follow along.

I will admit, that the current long path isn't necessarily my favourite choice route, but it is still good.

Looking at the CGs, there does appear to be some that I didn't see in the game at all. Did I miss something? I tried to look at every option possible.