Finally giving this game a review at v12.1. Don't let my 2-star rating fool you, I like this game in for certain reasons but I need to be objective in my review. If the developer is reading any of these reviews, I hope they are willing and able to continue addressing the many shortcomings of their game. They've made great progress, but it's far from over. Maybe then, I could give this game the 4 or 5 star rating I want to give it.
Simple Days is an impregnation harem VN, and completely breaks the status quo of pregnancy in adult games. In most VNs, you don't get any pregnancy until the every end. Most RPGM games usually treats pregnancy a negative status or a result of a bad ending.
Mega Lono had the audacity to do what everyone with a pregnancy fetish wants to see in an adult VN: You can keep getting your girls pregnant and it's all a part of the story. I can't remember the exact number, but almost 10 girls can get pregnant, and about 4 of them can have 2 or more babies, as of this build. Most devs won't do this because "it's too much work." I'm sure it is a lot of work, but that hasn't stopped Mega Lono. Well done, sir.
That's about where the good stuff ends.
1) The Characters:
The MC is basically a rapist and a retard with level 9001 plot armor. Everything goes his way, "just because."
- Barely 5 minutes into the game, the MC gets an opportunity to stealth creampie a girl by removing the condom when she isn't looking.
- His master plan to impregnate Dora is to put a bunch of holes in the condom, then sleep on top of her with his dick still inside. And she's somehow okay with it (this doesn't happen).
- With Moko, she can magically get pregnant the same day you replace her birth control pills.
- The MC can creampie his best friend's girl while she's "sleeping," and somehow she can't tell the difference in the size of their dicks.
You get the idea.
The list goes on, and somehow all of these girls are perfectly content with the fact this guy is sleeping around and knocking up every girl he sets his eyes on - and there are zero consequences. It's the literal definition of a juvenile fantasy.
The only character remotely believable is the one girl who
wants to be a single mother. You get to have sex with her three times and then she's out of the picture.
2) The Writing
The quality of the writing is inconsistent, usually incompetent at best. I honestly can't tell if English simply isn't Mega Lono's first language, if he doesn't care that much, or something else is at work. Regardless, the results speak for themselves. The characters frequently speak in an annoyingly inorganic manner, and I think it's a major problem.
3) The Gameplay
The game starts as a semi-sandbox VN. Each day is mostly the same as the last, and you choose which relationships to pursue by calling those people. Each progresses independently for the most part. It works, but you will want to skip all the unnecessary bits where the MC is driving to work, tapping on his keyboard. Just watch out or you'll miss phone call opportunities at the end of various days.
The second half of the game feels like Mega Lono's attempt to go clean slate without starting a new project. The MC moves to a new city, takes his harem with him, and is making bank at his new job. This country just happens to be more accepting of men sleeping with many women, you can see where this is going.
You will eventually be prompted to play the game in either a VN style or a full sandbox with a map to navigate.
...Ugh... One of the key changes of the sandbox mode is repeatable events. In other words, we go from a semi-organic VN where progress in your relationships was observable, to a more obvious
game where you will find yourself reading the exact same conversation 100 times over again. Yeah...
easily not one of Mega Lono's better game design decisions.
4) Graphics/Animations
The characters are par. Not the best looking, but servicable. The animations are VERY inconsistent. Sometimes they're really smooth and well done, others are straight up choppy as fuck.
My advice for the dev if they're reading:
- For sanity's sake, pick a gaming style. VN or Sandbox, not both. You're wasting your time trying to please everyone. I strongly recommend going VN style and adding a scene gallery, but the decision is yours.
- Please get a proofreader/editor, or take some courses in creative writing. This is easily the weakest part of the game.
- Finish cleaning up chapter 1, there is still a lot of leftover garbage from previous builds filled with those unnecessary "next auto" buttons interrupting scenes. Yes it's old content, but you should want to be able to make a good impression on new players who will be playing the game from the beginning.
- Cut all of the content that doesn't matter and will never matter: like making the decision if the MC takes a shower or not, or eats breakfast or not. Spare yourself and us from unnecessary tediousness.
In summary:
I'm not asking for this game to be top tier and competing with the highest rated VNs on F95. I just hate finding low quality writing and bad game design decisions being left unaddressed. It feels half-assed because some things, like spelling and grammar, are very easily fixed.
With all that said, lets put this way: if Being A DIK is like hiring an escort at $1000 an hour for a whole night, then Simple Days is like getting a street-side hooker at $25 for twenty minutes, but she could easily charge $400 if only she had basic fashion sense. Sometimes you just need cheap and dirty, but you also don't want it to be too cheap and too dirty. Despite its current state, it still might help you get off if you put fetish over quality.
Enjoy the game.
