This game is well-crafted and (sort of) finished (which is enough to award it 2 stars in my book). It's LIs are well written and fleshed out and they kept me interested in the game (+1 star). That's about the two positive things I can say about this game.
Now for the negatives:
In a medium that's fundamentally based on dialogue, the authors made the bafflingly stupid decision to write a plot that involves a main character that's mute. I get that there's a need to distinguish the MC, but... why mute? It's all the more baffling, considering that they do so little with that premise and use it in a half-assed way. I'd imagine an MC nodding and gesticulating a lot, yet, according to ingame logic, he mostly uses a text-to-speech app - even for the most mundane things like "yes" or "no". Why can't he just nod or shake his head?
This just shatters my immersion. Especially in highly dramatic and dynamic moments, like in a stand-off with an enemy, I imagine our MC typing in his (often quite verbose) remarks with flying fingers - the output of which apparently sounding like that Stephen Hawking robot voice. It's weird, unintentionally funny and just so, so unnecessary!
On top of that, the main story is confusing and draaaggggggiiiiing on. The first part of the story that culminates in a halloween party (check that on your bingo sheet) is relatively well paced, so I figure this was written in advance. The following chapters have a rough episodic style and it feels like chasing after the proverbial carrot. You have little to no influence on the events of the story, and the MC often makes decisions that I find dumb and frustrating. The pace picks up again in the later parts, but by then, I was skipping a lot of stuff, because I wanted it to finally end.
The sex scenes are formulaic and here's where the stupid 'mute premise' hits again as there's a lack of any banter or dirty talk (one of the endings makes good on that, but it's too little too late). Also, the body type of the LIs are all more or less the same.
For a game this scale and ambition, you really want to give it more than three stars, but that would be overlooking its massive flaws. Recommended at your own peril.
Now for the negatives:
In a medium that's fundamentally based on dialogue, the authors made the bafflingly stupid decision to write a plot that involves a main character that's mute. I get that there's a need to distinguish the MC, but... why mute? It's all the more baffling, considering that they do so little with that premise and use it in a half-assed way. I'd imagine an MC nodding and gesticulating a lot, yet, according to ingame logic, he mostly uses a text-to-speech app - even for the most mundane things like "yes" or "no". Why can't he just nod or shake his head?
This just shatters my immersion. Especially in highly dramatic and dynamic moments, like in a stand-off with an enemy, I imagine our MC typing in his (often quite verbose) remarks with flying fingers - the output of which apparently sounding like that Stephen Hawking robot voice. It's weird, unintentionally funny and just so, so unnecessary!
On top of that, the main story is confusing and draaaggggggiiiiing on. The first part of the story that culminates in a halloween party (check that on your bingo sheet) is relatively well paced, so I figure this was written in advance. The following chapters have a rough episodic style and it feels like chasing after the proverbial carrot. You have little to no influence on the events of the story, and the MC often makes decisions that I find dumb and frustrating. The pace picks up again in the later parts, but by then, I was skipping a lot of stuff, because I wanted it to finally end.
The sex scenes are formulaic and here's where the stupid 'mute premise' hits again as there's a lack of any banter or dirty talk (one of the endings makes good on that, but it's too little too late). Also, the body type of the LIs are all more or less the same.
For a game this scale and ambition, you really want to give it more than three stars, but that would be overlooking its massive flaws. Recommended at your own peril.