Once you have some of the powers and start to level up, you are basically a walking cheat anyway. The initial climb is pretty steep.
Yeah, but the initial climb and finding your way around the game should be the easy bit right? Ease you into the game and get you hooked so you stick around. There's very little explanation of the mechanics behind some of the actions or why some actions fail when you try them whilst not meeting the criteria. I mean, I know the UI is rough and ready but you can have some popup explanations or signage or something.
There's a lot of hidden information that you just have to glean "somehow", I mean without looking at the wikia page and sifting through a the posts in this thread but I would have no idea why I can't see any other person that I've met in my phone other than my mum. You effectively have no insight into their stats except when you talk to them and either their "favour meter" changes and then it's only the favour meter. It took me (I may be stupid) a while to figure out what the favours were for and how the cost was displayed in the top right box (I can't remember what it's called). Even colour coding the favour cost and the charm cost would have helped to just link those differing units with the appropriate meter. The levels of "favours" you can request from NPC's should have some kind of level indication, so that you don't just request them without meeting the hidden requirements. I mean, the bottom ones need at least an 80 in favour with that character, the next one up is 60, the next one I think is 40, then 30 and finally 20 (I think). How hard would it be to have a demarcation down the side with "favour level needed" and the number for each line?
It turns it into more of a grind without the information given freely, because I'm always just saving before talking to someone, fearful of what will happen. Of course you have to do that with all the questions you ask as well because there are like 4 good subjects for each girl and the others they don't react well to, and you're expected to remember them or save and reload like a bitch (which I do, because I'm a bitch). Would it be too hard to implement a system in the game that acts as your memory once you've found "good" subjects for a girl? "Oh! She likes talking about this subject, I'll remember that!". Maybe a highlight marker around the subject when talking to them or if the author doesn't want to do that just make a popup to tell you about the good and bad subjects and to maybe make a list yourself to remember the information?
The study portion of the game, unless you've researched what other people have said or played it so much you've gamed the information doesn't make a lot of sense. Nowhere does it tell you that your grade will update at the end of the week, it doesn't say that it will drop if you don't study (although that's pretty self explanatory) or what type of study is best or most beneficial. Looking at this thread it seems the study at home gives you 4 points and the tutor session gives 6 (?) but I'm not sure how much it drops over the week as well or if it does if you study. Maybe at the end of each week when it updates, have some kind of announcement that it changed? I know I didn't notice that it changed the first week and was convinced it was bugged after the first few study sessions didn't affect it at all.
I think it needs some "tweaks" to make it more user friendly, obviously it's supposed to appeal to the more experienced player but it's still a game with mechanics that aren't easily deduced from initial inspection and it hides way too much information that some of those mechanics rely on. You have to play it to learn it and if he's trying to get as many people to play it as possible it needs to be accessible and readily understandable. At least the basics.
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