I'll be extremely generous and give Sunshine Love v 0.0.2 a 3.5 stars of 5, which rounds up to 4 stars.
Let's go trough the positives first, shall we? Main LI (the friend/sister) and her buddy Victoria are absolutely stunning. Legit two of the best-looking LIs this year.
Renders are generally of very high quality, clothing and visuals are quite varied and not only go-where-the-bar-is-lowest stock shit.
I like the atmosphere, setting and story in general. It's a story you want to follow (I'll return to this later). Sure, it's a very slow burner, but I don't really mind it at all. However, I'd like to point out that I rarely play these VNs for a quick fap, but also want to experience a good story to pass the time, especially as we are in the midst of a global pandemic.
Then to the Ok things. The characters are visually varied so that there's something for everyone, but it's also a flaw. After 0.0.2 I already know who I'm going after, which are the two I mentioned earlier. For various reasons most other characters I'm just gonna ignore.
While I like the setting, the story is pretty bland. I think it's good that we got to know all relevant characters early on, but there's very little depth to them. Yes, they have commercial differences, but very few personal characteristics in order to make us engaged with them. Most characters have potential to be unique, but so far we have seen nothing of that.
The music is irrelevant, and I switched it off. While the playlist isn't bad, it's just a Spotify playlist and not tied to any events or scenes.
Finally, the bad things which need improvement.
Dialogue is extremely repetitive and even tiresome at point. While having its high points, some of it is like listening to a career politician. Speaking a lot of words, but saying very little.
MC's train of thought is disappointing, even childish. The story has its fair share of plot holes and/or absurd dialogue.
The stepmum. If you're gonna make MILF characters, at least do them properly, and not looking like 25 yos. Compare to Shortcake and Asian Aviatrix lolis who are real lolis. Too loli for my taste.
Because of the wide and early branching, collecting donuts will be a low priority, because you have to play every branch to get them all. The idea is good, but make them appear only in main renders, because the wide variety of so far quite shallow LIs won't make people immersed enough to play all paths even because of boredom.
If not only the dialogue, the character expressions are also pretty repetitive.
In conclusion; the game has great potential, but currently is pretty underwhelming. During writing this, I decided Sunshine Love is currently worth 3/5 stars and not 3.5. Definitely will play the game to its end, but it's not one I would recommend as a must-try one. It has the requirements of becoming a 4-star game, but that depends on future updates. Try it and see if it's for you, I'll guess it's a pretty hit or miss game.
Let's go trough the positives first, shall we? Main LI (the friend/sister) and her buddy Victoria are absolutely stunning. Legit two of the best-looking LIs this year.
Renders are generally of very high quality, clothing and visuals are quite varied and not only go-where-the-bar-is-lowest stock shit.
I like the atmosphere, setting and story in general. It's a story you want to follow (I'll return to this later). Sure, it's a very slow burner, but I don't really mind it at all. However, I'd like to point out that I rarely play these VNs for a quick fap, but also want to experience a good story to pass the time, especially as we are in the midst of a global pandemic.
Then to the Ok things. The characters are visually varied so that there's something for everyone, but it's also a flaw. After 0.0.2 I already know who I'm going after, which are the two I mentioned earlier. For various reasons most other characters I'm just gonna ignore.
While I like the setting, the story is pretty bland. I think it's good that we got to know all relevant characters early on, but there's very little depth to them. Yes, they have commercial differences, but very few personal characteristics in order to make us engaged with them. Most characters have potential to be unique, but so far we have seen nothing of that.
The music is irrelevant, and I switched it off. While the playlist isn't bad, it's just a Spotify playlist and not tied to any events or scenes.
Finally, the bad things which need improvement.
Dialogue is extremely repetitive and even tiresome at point. While having its high points, some of it is like listening to a career politician. Speaking a lot of words, but saying very little.
MC's train of thought is disappointing, even childish. The story has its fair share of plot holes and/or absurd dialogue.
The stepmum. If you're gonna make MILF characters, at least do them properly, and not looking like 25 yos. Compare to Shortcake and Asian Aviatrix lolis who are real lolis. Too loli for my taste.
Because of the wide and early branching, collecting donuts will be a low priority, because you have to play every branch to get them all. The idea is good, but make them appear only in main renders, because the wide variety of so far quite shallow LIs won't make people immersed enough to play all paths even because of boredom.
If not only the dialogue, the character expressions are also pretty repetitive.
In conclusion; the game has great potential, but currently is pretty underwhelming. During writing this, I decided Sunshine Love is currently worth 3/5 stars and not 3.5. Definitely will play the game to its end, but it's not one I would recommend as a must-try one. It has the requirements of becoming a 4-star game, but that depends on future updates. Try it and see if it's for you, I'll guess it's a pretty hit or miss game.