I gave the game a try, and I gotta say... it's very inconsistent, almost like the game has an identity crisis.
I've read the other reviews, and I gotta agree with most of them.
For starters, the pacing is weird. It's wholesome sibling time one moment, paranormal activity the next, sexual tension a few seconds later, visions of a family being murdered by a demon moments after that, and then “awkward teenager” sex.
The game doesn't seem to know if it wants to be a cute-ish romantic hentai or a horror game. Maybe try pacing those elements a little better?
Then we get to the point that everything goes too fast.
Conrad can get intimate after only one day of talking (which, with porn logic coupled with his pre-established relationship with most characters, makes a bit of sense, so I can overlook that).
Conrad is also able to commit murder after just one day of being possessed, with no option of "being his true self" during the event, unless you avoid the event altogether. Just one day, and he already loses it.
Giving the option to refuse the demon's suggestion and succeed (since he doesn't have much power over Conrad yet) could fix that.
These are the main issues I have with the game, but there are also some other things I want to point out:
- The "paranormal activity" (noise in Maggie's room) on day two is never touched upon again (aside from Conrad asking Maggie if it was her at night). It's never explained what it was. Although most players can guess the potential culprit, it's such an odd choice and doesn’t make much sense compared to the visions and nightmares.
- There are some sections with no text that require a lot of clicking, with no obvious indicator. I thought my game had frozen twice!
- Conrad's sprites are extremely inconsistent. They look alright at the start but suddenly jump in quality when he gets the sunglasses. It's... certainly awkward, to say the least.
- Speaking of, most sprites don't really convey much emotion. It's hard to tell what emotion they're supposed to portray. This doesn’t apply to the CG artworks though, those are pretty good and convey emotions perfectly (even the unfinished ones!).
- It's not really easy to tell how far into the relationship Conrad is with each character. If there were an indicator (like a stats screen) showing how much love/friendship each character has, it would make things a lot easier.
- In one scene, a blank screen suddenly shows the warning “Image 'charlie_drunk2' not found.” Guess you forgot something, lol.
- Lots of Engrish. Easy-to-understand Engrish, but Engrish nonetheless.
- The intro states that the game takes place in 1982, which sounds odd for the technology shown in the background — smartphones, notebooks, a console that appears to be either an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4, a modern flat-screen television, not to mention the many posters/paintings referencing media that were never made in the 20th century. Maybe an explanation that this world is more advanced than ours and reached our current technology earlier could make it more immersive... or maybe just change the date to 20XX.
- Speaking of... why is there a painting of Jesus Christ and a poster for the Mario Movie? Do humans exist in this furry world? Are they a mythical species in this universe? Are there humans on other sides of this world? Maybe... maybe I’m overthinking...
Aside from that, I like it! It can be pretty cute and has potential! I can’t wait to see what will happen in the near future!
While we're on the topic, may I ask some final questions?
What exactly is planned in terms of "love interest" content? From what I experienced, there are only straight relationships, but there was some weird bi-sexual tension between Conrad and Charlie in the “kicked out” path. Are gay relationships planned in the near future? I’d love that! What about a polycule path?
And what happened to the itch.io page? Any news if it'll be unblocked? Just asking because I find it easier to follow games there than here.
Thank you for your time.