This is a review of v0.3.
I am in many ways impressed by the game at this time. Character visuals are some of the best I've seen, though environments can sometimes be overly bright or undetailed, standing out sorely in comparison. Above all, the ability to play as either a male or female protagonist is just something I wish far more games would offer.
I do have several complaints about it however.
Foremost, the MC's dialogue is very...wimpy is the best way to put it, I think. They constantly stutter or awkwardly laugh at even simple statements, which is actually pretty cringe-inducing. I understand they're in an unusual situation, but I would feel better if I could portray them with the confidence to understand what needs to be done and work towards it, which I don't currently feel is possible at all. Truth be told, I actually feel the MC is portrayed in a rather poor light, as they don't have even a single moment in this version where they show themselves to be useful, convincing me that an accidental hemispherectomy took place and Valerie left half the MC's brain on their apartment floor. They seem to be completely incapable of reasoning through or reacting to situations, and the story as a whole suffers greatly for it. It's to the point where I considered doing a rewrite mod to address it, but the game is pretty early in development so it hardly sounded worth it at this time.
Secondly, the knowledge gap. This sort of relates to the MC's dialogue, but they often don't seem to be familiar with terms I'd expect them to be. You will never convince me that they know what "cosplay" is but haven't heard of the idea of "parallel worlds", those are pretty intertwined in modern circles.
Besides these, I noticed some fairly minor things as well.
There are a couple screens where the MC fully outstretches their arm (such as the "give nipple pinch"). These look very odd, the bend of the arm is completely unnatural.
Additionally, following the
, where the MC and Valerie are talking inside their home, there's one frame where Valerie's hairstyle suddenly changes (I chose her pigtails as my preferred hairstyle, but in that one frame it's suddenly a pony tail, then goes back).
There are some inconsistencies between scenes too. For instance, during the sword training, the MC is shown to wield the sword with their right hand...but the sword is later shown strapped to their right hip, as though wielded in their left. The sword then reverses itself entirely when the MC and Valerie are walking through the woods, in a way that would make it completely impossible to draw. It's incredibly jarring.
A slight bug I noticed. During your first night in the house, the game tells you that you can choose 5 sexual acts per night, but I was only ever able to choose up to 4.
If the game continues to maintain the visual quality that it possesses now, but improves upon the dialogue and presents the MC as a non-lobotomized character, I can see this game being a 5 star.