I truly cannot comprehend how this game has 5/5. I'm glad to see 2D art actually being made, but there are some genuine flaws that people just seem to...totally ignore?
First off, the protagonist. He's spineless. I'm not sure if this is a product of the more kinetic-style of choice making in a lot of places or if the kinetic choices are as a result of the protagonist, but he sucks. He's a blank slate. I've played this game for hours, and what I get from him is: he loves his uncle, and he wants to be an adventurer, and he's a pushover. That's it. Everything else is entirely dependent on what's currently happening. Sometimes he's good with a sword, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's good with a bow, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's sneaky, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's knowledgeable, sometimes he isn't. It's very convenient when you write when nothing the player does really matters, but it isn't great for an AVN that FORCES YOU TO GRIND STATS (more on that later).
Next comes the characters, who essentially remain identical. This wouldn't be an issue if they were interesting to begin with and just felt familiar throughout, but they started out as generally one-note and just stay there. The worst example is Cynthia, who starts as a bitch and continues being a bitch, while the protagonist continues to be a fucking wimp (to the point where she literally points it out, multiple times). Characters like Gabe, Lori and Taliya don't really evolve at all, the most you learn are their goals and some of their backstory and that's it. Nothing feels like it's evolving, which isn't great when I'm on my 50th in-game day.
Another big flaw is this game is designed for grinding, but there's literally no value to the player. There are 3 main stats: sword, bow, and magic. Magic, as far as I've seen, is totally useless at the moment. I have found zero purpose. They have gold too, but that's useful to buy 3 items and then nothing else. You'd think they'd incentivise you to get more gold to buy more equipment to boost stats, but they haven't even done THAT. Then there's the stat of sneaking, which only appears useful for ONE activity of groping someone in their sleep, and there's agility which again seems to be useful for one activity. This is MEANINGLESS grind to make you feel like you're actually progressing by giving you busywork.
The actual main story has barely evolved for me, but it's abundantly clear that the dev is using a lot of tropes to get it moving. Oh wow, orphan who's parents died a mysterious death? A devil woman you see in the art that you see ages after but conveniently see talking about "energy" being detected? Well, having played AVNs with basically the same variation of the same story, it's pretty clear how it works. Some people might call it nitpicking, but with the amount of boring dialogue I have to read, the unnecessary grind I have to do, and the lack of genuinely good sex scenes, I at least want a story worth reading.
A smaller side point is that some characters genuinely appear like they're drawn by different people who are trying to replicate one person. Cynthia and the MC have different shading, different facial and body proportions, they even have different PICTURE quality. I assume this may be due to the MC being the first drawn and then adding more people, but it's quite distracting.
The thing is though, that a lot of these flaws are present in a lot of other AVNs. It's not that it's egregiously bad, it's that something with effort just seems to fall into the exact same obvious pitfalls. Grindy, repetitive, unfulfilling, cliched. Hopefully it adds stuff around it to actually give it purpose, but at the moment there's very little. Just not worth the time. 6/10.
First off, the protagonist. He's spineless. I'm not sure if this is a product of the more kinetic-style of choice making in a lot of places or if the kinetic choices are as a result of the protagonist, but he sucks. He's a blank slate. I've played this game for hours, and what I get from him is: he loves his uncle, and he wants to be an adventurer, and he's a pushover. That's it. Everything else is entirely dependent on what's currently happening. Sometimes he's good with a sword, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's good with a bow, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's sneaky, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes he's knowledgeable, sometimes he isn't. It's very convenient when you write when nothing the player does really matters, but it isn't great for an AVN that FORCES YOU TO GRIND STATS (more on that later).
Next comes the characters, who essentially remain identical. This wouldn't be an issue if they were interesting to begin with and just felt familiar throughout, but they started out as generally one-note and just stay there. The worst example is Cynthia, who starts as a bitch and continues being a bitch, while the protagonist continues to be a fucking wimp (to the point where she literally points it out, multiple times). Characters like Gabe, Lori and Taliya don't really evolve at all, the most you learn are their goals and some of their backstory and that's it. Nothing feels like it's evolving, which isn't great when I'm on my 50th in-game day.
Another big flaw is this game is designed for grinding, but there's literally no value to the player. There are 3 main stats: sword, bow, and magic. Magic, as far as I've seen, is totally useless at the moment. I have found zero purpose. They have gold too, but that's useful to buy 3 items and then nothing else. You'd think they'd incentivise you to get more gold to buy more equipment to boost stats, but they haven't even done THAT. Then there's the stat of sneaking, which only appears useful for ONE activity of groping someone in their sleep, and there's agility which again seems to be useful for one activity. This is MEANINGLESS grind to make you feel like you're actually progressing by giving you busywork.
The actual main story has barely evolved for me, but it's abundantly clear that the dev is using a lot of tropes to get it moving. Oh wow, orphan who's parents died a mysterious death? A devil woman you see in the art that you see ages after but conveniently see talking about "energy" being detected? Well, having played AVNs with basically the same variation of the same story, it's pretty clear how it works. Some people might call it nitpicking, but with the amount of boring dialogue I have to read, the unnecessary grind I have to do, and the lack of genuinely good sex scenes, I at least want a story worth reading.
A smaller side point is that some characters genuinely appear like they're drawn by different people who are trying to replicate one person. Cynthia and the MC have different shading, different facial and body proportions, they even have different PICTURE quality. I assume this may be due to the MC being the first drawn and then adding more people, but it's quite distracting.
The thing is though, that a lot of these flaws are present in a lot of other AVNs. It's not that it's egregiously bad, it's that something with effort just seems to fall into the exact same obvious pitfalls. Grindy, repetitive, unfulfilling, cliched. Hopefully it adds stuff around it to actually give it purpose, but at the moment there's very little. Just not worth the time. 6/10.