Roommate 1.4 [Completed]
Gosh, I hated the grind on this game. But that’s not the worst part. I disliked the way the sexual scenes were described, with so much fluff it’s almost TMZ. But that’s not the worst part. I hated the way this game doesn’t tell you there is new content unlocked that you just need to stumble upon. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is hints not helping, but sending you off track. I don’t care how many language barriers there are, that’s messed up game design.
STORY
So you look for a place to live and three nice, good looking young asian women take you in. They have rules for you and you gladly comply, except that one rule for privacy. Your goal is to get closer to these women, court them, spy on them, involuntarily touch them and eventually have them like it. Oh, and there’s a city of other women who can’t wait until you do the same to them.
That’s the intro. There are some basic parts of story segments - Zhou Ling’s boyfriend, Wu Xin’s job, Qin Yan’s boyfriend, Sun Li’s ambition - but it’s held back by copious, enormous, mountain sized groups of declarative text that tell you what the scientific action is whereby the woman doth receiveth pleasure as tingling sensations over her body.. You catch my drift. Click click click until the porn. Don’t bother going into the depth of the story, there’s absolutely no pay off and it doesn’t help to understand things.
Personality on the women isn’t the greatest, but at least it has variation. Sun Li’s a detached workaholic. Zhou Ling tries to be the modest, faithful girlfriend. Zhu Dan isn’t playing around and wants a boyfriend. It all comes down to the same endings of missionary, cowgirl or doggystyle - but at least it’s in a package. Not every package is that great though. While Wu Xin looks good and her story is eventually interesting, the gameplay just makes it a bit unbearable.And there are multiple women who suffer from ‘WhatTheFuckIsThisism’.
Funny sidenote - whenever you press ‘Talk’ to any women the game randomly throws an interaction and some of these are pretty dark and edgy. It’s not at all realistic, but I guess it’s the creator’s way of being tongue in cheek with the audience in the game. Just don’t ever actually talk to any of these women unless you need the points to level or if she has something good to say.
PRESENTATION
The game looks nice! With quite a large set of asian women there’s more than enough to pick if it’s your style. Outfits are somewhat realistic, although they might be a bit sexified without coming off too slutty. I like how the women look realistic, it makes the game far more believable. There’s no over the top porn scene going on, aside from maybe some fidgeting in the hospital. Hello nurse!
The menu and button structure isn’t great, but passable. Eventually you’ll find the right buttons to push your adventure forward and while the numbers don’t immediately make sense, you will understand eventually. The choices on the right side is an odd choice, but you get used to it fast enough. The map works, sometimes new icons pop up at certain hours. The game looks pretty good, which is easily it’s best feature. Nothing like having a docile woman eventually riding your dick only to have semen dripping out of her while panting. Just don’t explain to me in text how the hot seeds is slowly dripping on the bed.. That’s what this game does and it’s not a good look.
What is a good look is the decoration of the scenes. Houses look great, work looks like work and the ice cream parlor and cafe are believable. Visuals is definitely Ititnenon’s strong suit. It helps sell the fantasy of preying on your roommates and the women around you.
GAMEPLAY
So how is the gameplay loop? Honestly, it’s shit. You have about a full hour of fun and the rest is just grind and pain. Error messages pop up, hints tell you to go somewhere that doesn’t help you complete missions, important story items are tucked away behind a couple clicks - there isn’t any polish in this game whatsoever. And you can feel it every step of the way.
If you thought the story was neglected, the gameplay loop is atrocious. There are missions where you repeatedly have to trigger events, only to have to trigger them again. For example: Massage Zhang four times on different days. When you complete that: Massage Zhang and suck her tit four times. Fine, it happens. Next one: Massage Zhang, suck her tit and caress her hair three times. It’s uninspired, unnecessary and rude to the player’s time because level rarely really add to the story.
Also beware of what the game doesn’t tell you. There are things you can see or re-watch that change depending on the relationship you have with a woman. Example: You meet a woman at the hospital. Eventually you go out and get a drink. Then visit her home and get intimate. By the time you do that, there’s absolutely no reason to go back to the hospital again. But if you do, you might get some extra content in the hospital as well. The game just never tells you this, it expects you to search. Also, don’t let a girl sleeping stop you. Consent is not something we care about here, if it has a hole and gets wet for you - you can stick it.
OVERALL
Should you play it? No, unless you like hurting yourself or are a fan of asian women. Until Ititnenon respects our intellect and time and builds an update that does away with the unnecessary grind, builds proper storylines and makes better use of the sandbox this game is built in - I don’t see a reason for you to visit. I’m giving this game brownie points for the hot women and the world building, but can’t get over how shitty the gameplay loop is. Not even Wu Xin’s OnlyFriends adventure can take away that pain.
This game deserves a 4 until it gets better.
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