I should preface this by saying I loved the first game, binged it in like 2 days. 5/5. If you haven't played the first game, you should probably stop reading because there are plenty of spoilers below.
I'm posting this review here as a way to provide constructive feedback. It's unwarranted advice, I know. So here goes nothing.
I think this sequel lacks focus. It doesn't bring a lot of new things to the franchise, and what little is new is not really valuable. The phone gimmick is clunky. UI improvements like hovering to see the time or fewer choices when in front of the computer by use of a few clickable areas rather than a stack of choices are "nice to haves" but don't make a great game.
Aside from the new things, this sequel is also different from the first title but in several bad ways. First, there's a lot of exposition text that feels like a chore to read early on. The first game set up the plot brilliantly and this one pales in comparison. For example, when you take your first call from Melvin in the first game, you have no idea he will be the antagonist. You get introduced to the bots then and it's only later on that you find out his nefarious motives. If I recall correctly, you're not introduced to the "hot squad" as an ensemble cast in that game. Some of the chicks like Daphne and Steph are just there in the background of the prom scenes, and it takes a while for you to know who they are. You have to work for it and peel the layers of the time loop onion until you get the reward of interacting with them. Similarly for Miss Jessica. Mai only shows up way, way later in a totally unexpected way that adds meaningful suspense and WTF-ness
Conversely, in this game, you get long info dumps, every character strolling into your life in a matter of minutes and "here's my number" from so many characters so early... because it's so easy to get to know them, it doesn't feel rewarding at all. It actually feels taxing to have so many contact numbers. You now have me worried about needing to keep track of my phone, which I don't really want to do.
As we get towards the end of the demo, we're presented with what will be the future choices for how to spend your day. Again, there are 4 choices immediately available, many of which with multiple LI routes. That's neither rewarding nor easy to choose from, which actually translates to being a negative experience for players.
I think the best story-driven games (AVNs or not) strike that perfect balance where the player is given some illusion of full freedom while in reality they are pretty much on rails as the storyteller moves the plot forward. Full-on sandboxes can be very frustrating. IMHO, they are only interesting when the dev fucking nails the world building with countless details so that the exploration is rewarding, but that seems like too ambitious a scope for an AVN. And even these games, this can still be very taxing. You basically need a full day off, lights out, take-out food and drinks and your phone on DND to really get into it. Again, out of scope for an AVN.
Very often when we build something we fall in love with the thing we are creating rather than falling love with our customers. In this case, customers are the degenerate zoners and patrineons. To the dev, I suggest reconsidering whether the things they think are interesting are truly valuable to users.
What made the first game great was not great UI or technology, but an interesting plot, fantastic humor, quick action without info dumps and the ability to develop relationships with a diverse cast of LIs and side frenemiesover across time. This tech demo basically has none of the above and doesn't suggest it's really going to be there in a meaningful way, or in some way that is more rewarding than just replaying the first. Maybe it's coming down the road, but at a minimum, I expected the demo to get to first tension moment of the plot, similar to when we learn Melvin is a bastard in the first game.
Last but not least, there's no meaningful improvement in the renders. It's been years since the first game and while I think I'm actually one of the players who can enjoy the russian-plastic-bimbo look of some of the LIs, that level of quality is meaningfully below what I would consider "meeting the bar" of today's titles. And I'm no dev, but I feel like the lighting overall is very flat here too.
Anyway, I'm rambling a bit but hopefully that's helpful to the dev. Congrats on building a great game and on artfully setting up a sequel with its ending. I actually liked that a lot and I sincerely hope this game dunks the alley-oop (at which point I will happily change this to a glowing 5-star review!)
I'm posting this review here as a way to provide constructive feedback. It's unwarranted advice, I know. So here goes nothing.
I think this sequel lacks focus. It doesn't bring a lot of new things to the franchise, and what little is new is not really valuable. The phone gimmick is clunky. UI improvements like hovering to see the time or fewer choices when in front of the computer by use of a few clickable areas rather than a stack of choices are "nice to haves" but don't make a great game.
Aside from the new things, this sequel is also different from the first title but in several bad ways. First, there's a lot of exposition text that feels like a chore to read early on. The first game set up the plot brilliantly and this one pales in comparison. For example, when you take your first call from Melvin in the first game, you have no idea he will be the antagonist. You get introduced to the bots then and it's only later on that you find out his nefarious motives. If I recall correctly, you're not introduced to the "hot squad" as an ensemble cast in that game. Some of the chicks like Daphne and Steph are just there in the background of the prom scenes, and it takes a while for you to know who they are. You have to work for it and peel the layers of the time loop onion until you get the reward of interacting with them. Similarly for Miss Jessica. Mai only shows up way, way later in a totally unexpected way that adds meaningful suspense and WTF-ness
Conversely, in this game, you get long info dumps, every character strolling into your life in a matter of minutes and "here's my number" from so many characters so early... because it's so easy to get to know them, it doesn't feel rewarding at all. It actually feels taxing to have so many contact numbers. You now have me worried about needing to keep track of my phone, which I don't really want to do.
As we get towards the end of the demo, we're presented with what will be the future choices for how to spend your day. Again, there are 4 choices immediately available, many of which with multiple LI routes. That's neither rewarding nor easy to choose from, which actually translates to being a negative experience for players.
I think the best story-driven games (AVNs or not) strike that perfect balance where the player is given some illusion of full freedom while in reality they are pretty much on rails as the storyteller moves the plot forward. Full-on sandboxes can be very frustrating. IMHO, they are only interesting when the dev fucking nails the world building with countless details so that the exploration is rewarding, but that seems like too ambitious a scope for an AVN. And even these games, this can still be very taxing. You basically need a full day off, lights out, take-out food and drinks and your phone on DND to really get into it. Again, out of scope for an AVN.
Very often when we build something we fall in love with the thing we are creating rather than falling love with our customers. In this case, customers are the degenerate zoners and patrineons. To the dev, I suggest reconsidering whether the things they think are interesting are truly valuable to users.
What made the first game great was not great UI or technology, but an interesting plot, fantastic humor, quick action without info dumps and the ability to develop relationships with a diverse cast of LIs and side frenemies
Last but not least, there's no meaningful improvement in the renders. It's been years since the first game and while I think I'm actually one of the players who can enjoy the russian-plastic-bimbo look of some of the LIs, that level of quality is meaningfully below what I would consider "meeting the bar" of today's titles. And I'm no dev, but I feel like the lighting overall is very flat here too.
Anyway, I'm rambling a bit but hopefully that's helpful to the dev. Congrats on building a great game and on artfully setting up a sequel with its ending. I actually liked that a lot and I sincerely hope this game dunks the alley-oop (at which point I will happily change this to a glowing 5-star review!)
