A simple game that had potential but rushed things too much while neglecting polish along the way.
Characters: The characters aren't too deep but they are attractive and largely serve their narrative purpose. Where this game stands out most however is the protagonist. For once, we don't have to play the "nice guy" that innocuously cheats on dozens of women because he "loves" them. Instead we play a ruthless businessman. And whereas on paper he's fueled by revenge in the main storyline, he rarely pretends that that's the motivation behind all his cruelty outside of lies to manipulate others. He owns his choices. Commendable MC choice for a harem game, if not always perfectly executed upon.
Story: The story started off interesting but quickly petered out as storylines began rushing to a close. It doesn't seem like much forethought or priority was placed here. Some characters just get forgotten, like the coffee shop girl who doesn't even get her foreshadowed sex scene. And many questions like the reason behind Jisoo's provocative tattoos go unanswered. There isn't a proper game ending and it sometimes feels like entire events are missing. And whereas I praised the choice of protagonists earlier, unfortunately the story does not really always deliver on portraying him as competent. He is far too trusting towards people that have reason to harm his interests (e.g. Dakota, Chloe) and distrustful of those that don't (e.g. Jessica, Olivia). And his use of powers, especially the second one, are very questionable. All his successes unfortunately seem more a product of pure luck and lack of real opposition more than that of calculated uses of his powers.
Gameplay: This is where the game really started losing me. Whereas the story had problems, the way you engage with the events is what makes it fall apart. At first the game starts with the stereotypical problem of overbooking certain times of day with too many events. Then the further you get, the more it starts playing events drastically out of order, downright spoiling you the story. As the game rushes on, it starts forgetting that the point of having a map is to convey any sense of progress by acquiring new locations, expanding repeatables and evolving character interactions. Some interact/look around buttons even start losing functionality. Nearing the "climax", you're really just speeding through playing this as a purely linear VN. Fast clicking locations and skipping time since there's no "game" flavoring to be had. And with the story being weak as is,
Graphics: The tutorial renders were quite bad as warned but it gets better pretty fast. The models are very nice and there's many scenes to unlock. I'd say this area is pretty good overall, outside of perhaps a few side characters that needed one or two more sex scenes to feel complete.
All in all, still not a bad game. But being that it is "complete", I can't give this more than a 3 in this state. Needs more work, I really only enjoyed the first half or so.
Characters: The characters aren't too deep but they are attractive and largely serve their narrative purpose. Where this game stands out most however is the protagonist. For once, we don't have to play the "nice guy" that innocuously cheats on dozens of women because he "loves" them. Instead we play a ruthless businessman. And whereas on paper he's fueled by revenge in the main storyline, he rarely pretends that that's the motivation behind all his cruelty outside of lies to manipulate others. He owns his choices. Commendable MC choice for a harem game, if not always perfectly executed upon.
Story: The story started off interesting but quickly petered out as storylines began rushing to a close. It doesn't seem like much forethought or priority was placed here. Some characters just get forgotten, like the coffee shop girl who doesn't even get her foreshadowed sex scene. And many questions like the reason behind Jisoo's provocative tattoos go unanswered. There isn't a proper game ending and it sometimes feels like entire events are missing. And whereas I praised the choice of protagonists earlier, unfortunately the story does not really always deliver on portraying him as competent. He is far too trusting towards people that have reason to harm his interests (e.g. Dakota, Chloe) and distrustful of those that don't (e.g. Jessica, Olivia). And his use of powers, especially the second one, are very questionable. All his successes unfortunately seem more a product of pure luck and lack of real opposition more than that of calculated uses of his powers.
Gameplay: This is where the game really started losing me. Whereas the story had problems, the way you engage with the events is what makes it fall apart. At first the game starts with the stereotypical problem of overbooking certain times of day with too many events. Then the further you get, the more it starts playing events drastically out of order, downright spoiling you the story. As the game rushes on, it starts forgetting that the point of having a map is to convey any sense of progress by acquiring new locations, expanding repeatables and evolving character interactions. Some interact/look around buttons even start losing functionality. Nearing the "climax", you're really just speeding through playing this as a purely linear VN. Fast clicking locations and skipping time since there's no "game" flavoring to be had. And with the story being weak as is,
Graphics: The tutorial renders were quite bad as warned but it gets better pretty fast. The models are very nice and there's many scenes to unlock. I'd say this area is pretty good overall, outside of perhaps a few side characters that needed one or two more sex scenes to feel complete.
All in all, still not a bad game. But being that it is "complete", I can't give this more than a 3 in this state. Needs more work, I really only enjoyed the first half or so.
