Few games have gripped me at first release like this one. Beautifully rendered with great "camera work", many close up shots that pull you into the story, but never overdone, and a colour palette that fits the mood. It's a visually beautiful game.
The character design is great, the girls are pretty and realistic looking with small 'imperfections' that only enhance the feeling that you are looking at real people.
A feeling further enhanced by the fantastic script and completely believable dialogue.
Everyone in the game feels like normal people, the MC is neither a super chad or a misunderstood angsty teen, just a young man at a difficult moment in his life and the two girls have their own stuff they are going through that we've only seen a little of so far.
Extra points for the male friend who escapes all the common tropes so many AVNs use. In Strangers on Paper, he's just a regular guy who cares about the people around him and tries to help as best he can.
The way the characters engage, or try to engage, with each other in their hesitant and fumbling ways again brings home how normal this story is. Not cliché or boring, definitely not uninteresting , because this is a story about regular people experiencing regular things, but done in a sensitive and empathetic way.