So, I'm looking for a game that sets you up in a particular setting and then mostly ends up being about emergent character interactions/relationships/relationship drama. I have a particular preference towards those with a female main character, and, to be specific, I'm looking for something where, rather than a visual novel with a few set relationship paths, it's more something akin to Newlife/Degrees of Lewdity/... That college game that's DoL without the fantastical/transformation elements, where you have a kinda generalized sandbox set up that then has you building relationships with various characters and trying to live your life.
Of the three in the example here, I'll admit I prefer Newlife's (this one, for clarity: https://f95zone.to/threads/newlife-v0-8-14-splendid-ostrich.293/ ) style for this, as there's a lot less of the micromanagment DoL and the college one have going on, and what I'm kinda looking for is that sort of broad strokes "your character is going through their life, with characters who might try to seduce them, date them, take advantage of a social situation to take advantage of them, etc." without having to click through attending every class, walking down every street, eat every meal, etc. etc. with at least some emphasis on the development of relationships and the complications other characters trying to get in your pants might make for said relationships. It'd be a particular bonus if your character has their own set of preferences/interests/w/e, and so could be won over by a character despite what you, as the player, might be intending, as I tend to find games where you just "go talk to character X Y times and give them Z gifts, and now you're in a relationship and can bang" feel really... Dry? The player having too much control makes it feel more like punching in a combination to access lewd scenes, and I tend to not find that super engaging personally.
I don't want to like, fill out a check list to get sex scenes, my preferences go almost in the opposite direction, playing a nice/shy/innocent character who ends up seduced even as they don't actively pursue such a fate, or even make some attempts to resist it. Newlife does do a lot of this... Reasonably well? Even down to your character being able to fall in love (or lust) with someone and thereby having penalties to resist what they want, etc. (and like, having willpower rolls/levels of arousal/drunkeness/etc. to limit what the player can make the character do matches my inclinations pretty well)... But while all the bones are there, anyone who knows the game knows it's been mostly bones in a lot of places for a long time, and hasn't gotten much new content in ages, so I'm curious if there's anything else out there that fits into the space, as most of the stuff I've found when trying to find other relationship sandboxy stuff is more "a collection of image cut outs you can fill a gauge with to get dating/sex content with", so, uh... Figured I'd see if anyone else had some promising ideas as searching about has failed me.
Of the three in the example here, I'll admit I prefer Newlife's (this one, for clarity: https://f95zone.to/threads/newlife-v0-8-14-splendid-ostrich.293/ ) style for this, as there's a lot less of the micromanagment DoL and the college one have going on, and what I'm kinda looking for is that sort of broad strokes "your character is going through their life, with characters who might try to seduce them, date them, take advantage of a social situation to take advantage of them, etc." without having to click through attending every class, walking down every street, eat every meal, etc. etc. with at least some emphasis on the development of relationships and the complications other characters trying to get in your pants might make for said relationships. It'd be a particular bonus if your character has their own set of preferences/interests/w/e, and so could be won over by a character despite what you, as the player, might be intending, as I tend to find games where you just "go talk to character X Y times and give them Z gifts, and now you're in a relationship and can bang" feel really... Dry? The player having too much control makes it feel more like punching in a combination to access lewd scenes, and I tend to not find that super engaging personally.
I don't want to like, fill out a check list to get sex scenes, my preferences go almost in the opposite direction, playing a nice/shy/innocent character who ends up seduced even as they don't actively pursue such a fate, or even make some attempts to resist it. Newlife does do a lot of this... Reasonably well? Even down to your character being able to fall in love (or lust) with someone and thereby having penalties to resist what they want, etc. (and like, having willpower rolls/levels of arousal/drunkeness/etc. to limit what the player can make the character do matches my inclinations pretty well)... But while all the bones are there, anyone who knows the game knows it's been mostly bones in a lot of places for a long time, and hasn't gotten much new content in ages, so I'm curious if there's anything else out there that fits into the space, as most of the stuff I've found when trying to find other relationship sandboxy stuff is more "a collection of image cut outs you can fill a gauge with to get dating/sex content with", so, uh... Figured I'd see if anyone else had some promising ideas as searching about has failed me.