This is a very bipolar game... and it is a game, in a true sense... but it's a lazy mobile type game with incredible grind and very sketchy and uneven mechanics for each minigame... some are super easy... some impossibly hard (the music game is touchy as hell- same with basketball). But these games break whatever spell the story might have had as you fumble with unclear mechanics and walkthrough Google searches....
And at times the story does have charm. At times it's funny. At times it's touching. And some of the characters win you over and you root for their storyline and success. But this is very scattershot, throughout. Some of the intimate scenes are well done with good buildup. But ultimately it's all cheap and passionless in the end when you realize there is no real consequence to anything.
Midway when advancing with a character the game warns you "choices have consequences" but they really don't. You can bed everyone... have relationships with them all... and they never come into conflict with each other. The few times when outside characters are involved in a romantic subplot, it's free-wheeling good times for all... no one cares or is jealous.
And when you've reach the end of a storyline for each main character, that's it. You've won them as a girl friend and the remaining interaction you have with them is to just visit them whenever and revisit the same sex scene you had with them last.
It's a decent little game... but a very poor visual novel. It squanders whatever emotional attachment you get with any character with a childish base conclusion.
A real big problem this game has is the story is all over the place. If you somehow manage to get further along with particular characters than their side stories (very easy to do--probably impossible to avoid even in a perfect walkthrough), things get wonky with the narrative. Say you just beat the jock in the hallway, well, now you visit him at the park and he bullies you again. The game is all over the map with remembering key events because the game exists in different realities... there is the main quest for each character, but there is also side quests where they don't remember the state of the main quests. It breaks any immersion, and this game was already lacking in that department going in.
The animations and drawing is well done, in a Playboy cartoon type way... it's quality work. But I'm not sure how hot it is... it's funnier than hot. Very few animations or artwork in this did anything to arouse me. Some of the writing did, at times... but that spell was broken easily by the format of the game... the time of day and the limited number of actions often breaks the narrative flow of whatever you were dealing with.
There's a bit of humor in some of the characters and dialog. It has a lot of pop culture references that I assume contribute to it's higher rating and the success of the author in crowd sourcing.... but to me, at times, it felt like pandering. These work best when left ambiguous and unexplained (the Breakfast Club detention scene was well done) and don't work at all when on-the-nose and obvious... I'm looking at you, Keanu...
I also think the MC is kinda weak... at time's he is thoughful and caring... sometimes he provides insight... especially with regards to Roxxy and Eve in their early storylines... but most of the time he is just a raging boner walking through life oblivious as women fling themselves at his schlong. There was zero self-identifying with this guy. Not even when I think back to how highschool was... he has no discernible personality. And in regards to the early storylines of Eve and Roxxy, both are treated almost serious with their life situations and history... you read their history and you begin to care for them... but this goes out the window right away and they are again reduced to cartoon bimbos wanting a good lay. And then when you start dealing with the teachers and some of the other stories that are outlandishly childish and lack any basis in reality, it makes you feel dumb for having felt anything in the brief moments this takes narrative seriously... It's schizophrenic, emotionally. Frustrating.
THERE IS NO BACK BUTTON. This bothered me immensely... you MUST continuously save your game, before mini games, before choices, when you wake in the morning... before u sleep... just all the time. I'm pretty sure they left this out to "make choices matter"... but it was more annoying than anything. The sheer ton of mundane dialog in some scenes get's you clicking fast through dialog and then you miss something, want to go back, but you can't... or what about if you happened to enjoy a particular piece of art... gotta reload everything. Hopefully you saved 20 seconds ago...
In short: this is all over the place... It gives you a ton to do, but it's all ultimately pointless, frustrating, and soulless. The flaws far outweigh the good.
