I don't often leave reviews, but in this case I feel like I should (I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible).
This is not a game I enjoy.
I'm not saying it's badly made or that it doesn't have good ideas or neat systems or interesting concepts.
But I feel like I have to use a strategy guide if I want to enjoy this game well.
Part of that is I prefer to play lewd games as a virgin / low-/non-lewd character the first time around. Let the girl stay true to her values, stay with the guy she's in love with, not give in to the temptations of a corrupt world, yadda yadda yadda, standard hero bullshit. I understand not everyone (probably a relative minority) cares about that and this is my own way of enjoying lewd games.
But this game really doesn't like that. It is a massive struggle. For what it's worth, that's the overall theme of the game: You've been set up to have the deck thoroughly stacked against you, and you can feel it.
Now, some might say, heck, you want things easier, just tone down the difficulty. Which you can, but you will get absolute pennies in value for new game plus on even one step down from Normal difficulty. And it's not like Explorer difficulty is that much easier than normal. Easier, sure, you get plenty more money than on Normal difficulty. But it is still a slog. And you must play extremely efficiently if you want to not have even more struggles down the line (e.g., the second and third major boss fights; this may/probably applies to later fights too, but I've lost any drive to continue).
And to be quite honest, I don't really want to play on a lower difficulty. I want to play the game as the creator imagined and built it. I don't want to just stomp everything that comes my way, have all the money, have all the skills. I try to play these types of games on hard to start, because frankly I enjoy having the challenge, especially since it's a lewd game and I'm playing against that for the first go-round.
My first time playing this, I went straight for the highest difficulty, and immediately regretted it. I'll admit, that was foolish. Checking here, I saw it was recommended to start on Normal, so I tried a run of that, and still had a hell of a time managing to stay vaguely pure. So I tried yet another run, this time on Explorer, and I was getting better at handling things, thought I'd figured out a good rhythm for keeping corruption low, mental changes low, but found I was still having to compromise pretty frequently on lewd stuff, just so I could stay afloat either on money or combat ability. And when I finally felt I was ready to take on the next major bosses, no, I was very not ready. I beat them, sure, but at significant cost. Also, because I'd taken too long, they were even harder, and I lost out on some interactions.
Once again, this fits thematically with the story. It makes sense that things are super difficult. The opposing side has every advantage, I have every disadvantage, and I feel it. But there's nothing telling me that I need to keep up a solid pace if I want to be able to fight these guys on a workable scale without resorting to extreme measures. And that goes for so many aspects of the game. Some things may be arguably intuitive if you think about it, but there's little to no room for experimentation. You'd better pick the exact right things to do at the right times, buy the exact right items, make the exact right investments, or your 40 hour run will be absolutely worthless. Of course you can save scum, and I had to just to stay remotely competitive. But I shouldn't have to do that for every battle that's a step up from a regular enemy, which I almost certainly did.
And I just hate that. Once again, it fits with the theme. But it is not a game I can just play. I have to follow an exact procedure or I will have an experience varying from very difficult to nigh impossible. You cannot experiment. You cannot just play. You have to play according to rules that aren't apparent until after you've broken them or you only find out by digging through a wiki or walkthrough things you had to do or be aware of from the start of the game or at least much earlier on.
It's extremely frustrating. I want to like this game. I want to enjoy it. But I don't think I can, and I don't think I'll be able to. It's not wired in a way that would allow for that. And I don't see how, at this point, it could be changed to be more amenable to a more freestyle or at least looser experience. Maybe it could and I just can't see it, I don't know.
I appreciate the effort the dev has put into this. This is a very well built game with well-written characters, solid story moments, and just a lot of love clearly all around put into it. But I guess it's just not for me.