I concur, the dude is really bland and hollow. Most of the characters are, hollow at least. I think it comes from an issue with a lot of VNs, particularly common on western ones, where they create things out of order. You know, they visualise and create the lewd structure and then create a 'plot' to justify and glue that together instead of writing a story and then placing the lewd where it makes sense. That leaves a lot of stuff hollow and without natural growth. Furthermore, the structure used exarcebates some of that stuff. While doing all the routes together without any choice until the end is easier and less labor intensive on development, and certainly appealing for a small indie project, it leaves no place for a more detailed growth. "Jack-of-all-trades, master of none." is exactly what happens here.
Apart from stereotypes and a few lines of exposition, there was no significant character development anywhere apart from the "Oh, your dick is really big, I guess I'm a slut now." and to a minute degree, Jane. That's probably why she stood out, she was the only character with anything close to an actual arc and a structured line of events to explain her personality, motivations and fears of today. You can, with one or two words, describe all the plot surrounding each of the four heroines, but you can only understand the personal issues of 3 of the heroines without having to go deeper. The fourth one, not so.
Overworked.
Under pressure. (I could just have used Pressured to maintain it to a single word, but the former sounds better.)
Lonely.
Conflicted.
While you can ask, "why are you (word)?", the word itself is self explanatory for the first three. But the fourth one is necessary. You can't understand the behavior just with that label without asking more.
From the 4 heroines, only two get some explanation on their behavior towards the MC, Jane and Sarah. It's never explained the reasons of why Noelle and Kira treat Jason like that, in a way that matters anyway. And the reason given to Sarah is not unique to her. The whole reason of why she behaves the way she does is completely dependent on the relationship between Jason and Jane. Ergo, it's the only one that matters (for plot purposes).
That's probably why I feel that there could be a whole game surrounding Jane. The other three already feel like background supporting characters. Dedicating the whole plot to develop a single relationship would have worked better, especially because why they all treat Jason, and how he is, probably comes from how he behaves regarding the unresolved tension between him and his twin.
It would have no harem, but would be a concrete experience. I mean, look at the different love routes from FET, a singular progressing relationship with (mostly) optional sexual escapades sprinkled all around. It has both a meaningful character progression and lots of different lewd and fetish stuff if you want to look for it.
In any way, the other three girls should't have been this shafted. Although they are not my first pick it would have been nice if they were explored a little bit more. I don't care if it's even in a lazy exposition like reading their diary, I just wanted to know more about them. Anything at all. What are Kira's ambitions beyond the label "youngest chemical engineer"? What Sarah wants to do with her life? How is Noelle's health from all the stress?
Their behavior is interesting, I just want to know how their the cogs spin to make that behavior work. Like Jane.
Wow that was something. I guess I was really frustrated. Like when I watched Adam Sandler's Click. It was fun, but so frustrating at the untapped potential just left hanging there. I might just ctrl-c ctrl-v this text, or part of it, as my review.
Finally, regarding my unending crusade for Jane, as a wise man once said:
“I am completely biased, and I don’t care.” - SsethTzeentach
