Ren'Py - Abandoned - Symphonic Love [v0.5] [IndieGO Studios]

Eeeeeh, it's not the worst thing ever and it can be fixed. Here are my opinions:

1. The dating minigme is a relatively poorly implemented arrow rhytm game. Except that the game doesn't follow the rhytm of the song ( this is VERY important in rhytm games ), so for all intents and purposes the song can be removed and the rest turned into a QTE. Also, the keys are semi-transparent ( they light up when you need to press them )and they move around the screen. This means that fairly frequently they will blend into the background and you will miss them, pretty big no-no. At least you can turn the date minigame off and cheat in the wishes and exp you would have gotten .

2. At some points you need to click around the environment to find stuff, but when you mouse over they don't really highlight in a visible way, making this way more tedious than it has any right to be. Also, in some of these sections there are choices that will randomly give you a game over, even thou you had no hint that something dangerous is lurking there ( spider under the bed, monster in the hospital ). This doesn't add fun, doesn't add challenge, it's just a "sure, whatever". Choices that give game overs should be hinted at in context, so a player that pays attention could notice them.

3. I am unsure if this is meant to be a porn game first, a story game first or a romance game first. If it's a porn game first, then the porn is VERY scarce. Most characters don't have a sex scene and many that do have short and bland sex scenes. The only decent one I saw was the one at the very start of the game. The rest are like 10 lines long ? Be a bit more creative, be a bit more descriptive.

4. If this is supposed to be a story game first, then the story is pretty ... meh ? There are only a few main story missions already implemented, and I think the big mystery is already pretty evident.

5. If this is a romance game first... well, I'm sorry, but the romance is rather uninspiring, with most characters being very 1 dimensional, like someone looked at Huniepop and thought that those characters are interesting. White haired girl is a bleeding heart, the one with the fox loves animals, the boy at the bar is all about trying sexual stuff with toys and such ( which from what I can see is not reflected in hi sex scenes, a shame ), catgirl is cutesy and loves cats, etc... honestly, the cat girl was the most interesting one, having some interesting dialogue in the second date. In a romance game you need to make the player for in love with your characters, and most characters are extremely forgettable. I mean, I am typically bad with names, but I just shut the game down and I can't name a single character off of the top of my head.

6. For a game that has been around for half an year the content feels really light, will probably be a few years till this game gets anywhere, if it does. The main story has done very little stuff of interest, most characters only have 1 or 2 dates, with some having zero, most characters don't have a sex scene. It just feels like there is nothing there. Add in the fact that most dates aren't that interesting and ... well, I feel like I haven't read much.

7. The character designs are really basic. Other than the catgirl and your boss, most characters don't have a noticeable appearance that tells you much about the character. The looks in a visual novel are just as import parts of the character as the writing.

This can be fixed, absolutely, but the author will have to change the gameplay up a bit, decide on what he wants to focus, and maybe stop adding new characters for a while, develop the ones that are there.

Played it, game looked really good in almost every department, pretty rare to see straight and gay content in the same game, but minigame... I Don't come to this site to play minigames guys.

Will revisit later if its removed.

I was gonna finish everything in this build (0.3) before writing the review, but I accidentally quit to title and lost about two hours worth of progress. And since I don't really care to get it back, here we go

Pros

1. Diverse cast. There's someone for everyone. From the doomer girl to the big titty shy girl, even a burly dude, this game at least fills all the kinks
2. You can choose pronouns. Not that it matters to most, it matters to some, and that's important
   

Cons

1. 95% of the dialogue is from HuniePop. Some of it is changed, but only a few minor things like ages and seasons. And for those interested, here's all of the parallels so far
   1. Kaori : Lola
   2. Lillian : Jessie
   3. Erina : Beli
   4. Rukia : Tiffany
   5. Yuki : Momo
2. The dates are just a bad rythym game. The notes are off tempo, sometimes you can't tell what's next, and to top it all off you need to actually be pretty good at it. I shouldn't have to try kinda hard to get some hentai
3. The dream sequences. Okay, dark backstories are not inherently bad., but why the fuck are there jumpscares in a hentai game?

Overall this game is the worst I've played, but it's not really worth it to finish what content there is. Just need a bit of work.

There's a lot of potential here. But more than that the developer is very transparent and willing to listen to suggestions and feedback. The rhythm game is being addressed hopefully next update (0.15) which should fix my main problem with the game. The game is very ambitious and I hope the dev doesn't bite off more than they can chew.

The game isn't unsalvageable. The premise is ok enough, the characters don't look too terrible, and it's one of the few vns with 3D graphics that I can say don't look terrible. It's got some ambition, I'll give it that, but there isn't much behind it.
The dev is clearly a massive fan of Huniepop, as the questions and many of the answers required to go on dates with characters are ripped right from the game. Unfortunately, it lacks the game's profile system, which is luckily amended by the rollback feature so you can use the mouse wheel to scroll up and redo your answer.
Once you've secured a date, however, the game doesn't get much better. In place of Huniepop's refined puzzle matching game is a half-baked rhythm game that the engine is clearly not made to work with.
To begin with, each note takes the form of an arrow key you need to hit on time, true to most rhythm games. What it lacks, however, is timing. There is one song and yet not once are the buttons on beat with the song. In fact, the timing is wildly erratic, switching from being pressable instantaneously to taking a few seconds with no rhyme, reason, nor way to predict it. Where a normal rhythm game has falling notes that lets you see the timing and the note before you need to press it, this game just tells you what note to press and has no indication for timing until you're met with a depleting bar of differing time limit, telling you it's time to do so.
Possibly the biggest issue with the rhythm game is the note placement. Notes are nearly transparent and will appear in random locations across the screen like a drunk fly on meth playing hopscotch with the screen. After every note is pressed, you have to begin the hunt for the next and pray you make it in time.
Both of the aforementioned mapping issues are thankfully somewhat remedied by the game's poor timing system that allows you to just mash the button repeatedly and it'll register once the key is available. It's not wholly consistent, but it's a hell of a lot more accurate than playing the game honestly.
Circling back to the music, there is literally only one song and it's in both dates that I bothered with. As the game is unfinished so far, there is little to do, as you'll find after maxing out a relationship meter only to realize the date option does nothing, but if you do secure a date you'll also quickly find out that this is the same song you've heard before, looped twice in a row for some reason. I'll give it credit, I don't know if the song is original or stolen, but it's pretty good nonetheless. Even if it's played twice in a row and only nets you 2 wishes for your troubles in the casino.
Finally backing off the topic of the dates, we also have what I consider the most atrocious part of the game- praying. I'll pray to god, budhha, allah, or any deity that'll hear my plea if it means this gets dropped in the next update and never returns. Who's ever said "You know how I like meeting my women? Gambling for them via Genshin Impact-style gacha mechanics." I'll bet my remaining wishes on it that nobody's ever said that, or at least I would if I hadn't burned through them all on trying to get a character. Thankfully, savescumming is doable, but I'm not sure there's much point to it when all I got time after time was more experience than I knew what to do with.
As for some various miscellaneous complaints, I'll start with searching. Often times, it's difficult to find what you're supposed to click on, as waving around your mouse doesn't show what's highlighted, because what you need to click on takes a second to finally glow with your mouse on it. This would ordinarily be less of an issue if that damn cafe wasn't just a door on the side of the screen as opposed to the clothing store that highlights the entire shop area. Even when you click your phone at the start, it seems to be really hard to get just right. Thus, I thought the same issue occurred when I tried going to bed at night, only to realize that you can only sleep at midnight. Oh, well I'm just a massive dolt for that one, aren't I? Speaking of your bed at midnight, your first lay is a rapist who you drunkenly wake up to slobbing on your knob. I don't have much of an issue with that, besides the fact that after this encounter, almost all sexual options in her dialogue are met with her calling the player a perv. I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was the one who took a piss drunk dude home and blew him in his sleep. Or maybe I would be if I'd gone Natsuki's route, who knows.
It also feels weird that a couple key map UI elements are hidden in a skill tree. You need 2 points to go to your room from the map and 5 to see who's where? The first is pointless, as going home takes you to your bedroom instantly anyway, thanks to there being nothing else to do at home, and the other is the only way you'll know the characters' really weird availability times, like the weird cat barber being available at night but not evening?
I've seen some praise for the writing, and I'll say it's just passable. It's not particularly funny, interesting, or engaging, and there were a couple moments where the anime inspiration was so obvious it leaned on the cringier side.
I'll be honest, since its current build isn't even at a 0.2 release yet, I can hardly fault its lack of content, however the story just kind of cuts off after you meet a couple chicks and quests pick up and then end when you do various things. Jacked off and got, then finished the quest at the same time, and many of the girls' quests are just to raise the bar and it's over. Good thing one of the around 4-5 things to unlock with your skill points is a creepy headpat, lord knows what I would've done without that.
I came for the trap tag, never found it, and likely never will. It could be an unlockable character, but all I'm seeing is a monogatari character, Zuko for some reason, and a tiny goth that looks the same as all the other tiny chicks just with more makeup. I don't know where all the supposed "200+" animations are, but they're certainly not attainable without grinding. A lot of it.
TL;DR The game has some potential, it's just desperately in need of a huge overhaul first. So soon in development, there isn't much to see and what there is is pretty limited. The story is insignificant, the women are uninteresting, and the dates are abysmal, all making for a visually pleasing yet technically disastrous experience that makes you wish you'd just played the game's inspiration.
My advice? Wait for a bigger update, then play it. The game's interesting enough that I'll be watching for a content drop, but as it is now, I can't give it much more than 2 stars. I'm sorry if I've come across as unfair, but I tear the game apart because it's important to figure out what does and doesn't work early-on, and I want to see the game improve.