I'm making a note here: huge success
Great game in everything, but what feels like the hardest thing accomplished here is how everything "fits", and thus all parts assemble in a perfect story, perfect visual novel from the galaxy far, far away...
The setting
The precise date is unknown, but it seems to be 1-2 years after the fall of the Old Republic and the creation of the Empire. This is the time of Inquisitorium, jedi hunts and law enforcement in the Middle and Outer Rims. Patrolling stormtroopers are still a fresh view, but Darth Vader's feats are already known to the public.
You know what? When you usually have this much to say about just the timeframe, you think it is some Netflix series like Mandalorian or Bad Batch we are talking about, filmed by professional crew and directed by the most brilliant minds of the company. But no! Here it is an entirely third-party story, and usually those are common in SW Legends universe, but still most of those, even with all the effort to "fit" still don't. Something stands out, clearly marking the author's either inexperience in some topic, or complete negligence of such. Often, to disappointment of many. But not here.
Here the story is short, but vibrant, filled with all kinds of stuff. And every detail present is relevant to the timeframe, to the location, to the universe. Starting from the droid model, military insignia (slightly wrong positioning of imperial navy admiral's insignia is the worst sin I have managed to find). The clothing, the vehicles, ships, buildings - everything fits. Everything supports each other, and alltogether those details mean only one thing: believability.
The plot
The plot follows the story of young man, who decides to leave his petty life of a street rat behind and hire himself on any ship doing anything. As the story unfolds, the protagonist is faced with all the worst things the galaxy has to offer: slavery, organised crime, corrupt officials, harsh reality of Empire's autocracy and so on. All these things are a discovery to the protagonist, and the story follows his reactions, his feelings, and of course the development of his character, as he does indeed have "The Warrior's Heart".
There is nothing ridiculous going on, nothing crazy, nothing which doesn't fit the setting. The plot develops organically, and thus continues entertaining the player from the start to the very finish.
The art
Once again, the art comes in those forms which not only keep the high standarts set by everything else but push them even further. The game contains hundreds of beautiful fullscreen renders with sometimes lots of details, characters, action. Those renders must have been incredibly hard to do considering their immense difficulty. But they exist, and allow not only to contain the elements of the "visual novel" the game is presented as, but also such small details that sometimes one may find oneself hiding the UI and just immersing self in the scene rendered on it, directing attention to all the minor details carefully put where they belong by the developer, depicted so vividly that it doesn't take long before the scene reappears in the player's head, along with some imagined animation, scenery extension and such. This is what all novels strive to achieve, and what is achieved here of course.
In addition to render quality, the models themselves are top notch. How does one define an exceptional quality model, you might ask? I have the answer for myself: skin defects. If the developer goes far enough to include those in the model, you sure know everything else is you may ever wish for is already present. Sometimes I am put off by "perfectly clean", "perfectly shaped" models, this is unrealistic to a degree that it feels like a blowup doll, if you may. Here it is simple. The human does feel like actual human. More over so, the twi'lek does feel like actual twi'lek, and this requires way different mesh, animation skeleton and such. The game is short, and the inclusion of a non-human right from the start is so much of extra work it even feels like a flex! Like the developer is trying to tell you: "look how awesome I am, don't even try to top that".
The "adult" content
Currently there are 4 scenes. One of which is with a random character the protagonist does not meet outside the scene - this is the only encounter. However, 3 others are with main characters, one with the ship's captain and 2 with the twi'lek. And they all have a lead-up to the scene, as the relationship develops organically.
When I say "scene", I do not mean one static render. Not in this game at least, but I have seen worse. Each scene here consists of at least 3 great animations and is accompanied by a dozen of static renders. In any other game, if I have seen "only 4 sex scenes" I would straight say: bullshit, what is this lazy piece of an author not doing the main thing. But here the scenes are so well made it is clear that the developer pursues quality over quantity, and with that I am ok with.
Still, only 4 scenes feel a bit underwhelming, but only when viewed separately from everything else. Alltogether that's alright.
The summary:
To say this game is a hidden gem is an understatement, that is how good it actually is. I have checked and this game is in "featured" which is obviously well deserved, and, hopefully, fill attract more attention to this masterpiece. I am sad that the developer has chosen not to built on this success and not to continue this game. I can't count this game as completed, rather, abandoned? On hold? Maybe I just can't cope with the fact that there will unlikely be any continuation.
However, will there even be one or not, should not matter on the reader's decision to play this game, as it is not one's average "v0..01 alpha chapter one". It's like a blast from the past - the player gets the game and it is already good, not some wet alpha with dripfeed content addition, but rather a full fleshed-out game which is enjoyable to experience.
I have rated this game as 5/5, obviously. This is probably one of the best fan works on SW universe I have seen, and certainly the best adult VN for this universe by far.