Review for v0.3.16
I half skimmed the overview and thought this was going to be yet another run-of-the-mill college game. I was wrong. It came as an interesting twist to find out our true purpose in attending the university, and I think that's when I got hooked. I'm not going to talk too much about the actual plot as to avoid spoilers, but for people like me who are into more well-written games, this is one to try out for sure.
There's a lot to praise here. First, this has an impressively large cast of diverse characters to get to know. It's interesting to see it from a detective point of view, puzzling together how everyone connects to each other. It's got some great renders and the animations aren't bad either. Proper music and sound effects too, but I'll say I turned the voices off instantly. The MC is definitely more of a Mr. Perfect, but I don't find him insufferable or anything which is a rarity.
The style of this game definitely feels different as well. You aren't necessarily given a cast of individual girls to focus on one by one. Rather, you're investigating each clique more or less. You could say you're focusing on different groups of girls rather than an individual. This has both positives and negatives admittedly. A lot of games suffer from not having anyone interact with anyone else, and only with the MC. I like that in this, everyone is connected in some way. Things are happening around the MC regardless of if he's involved. It makes things feel more real. But on the other hand, you're going to be left waiting if you really want to see a bunch of content from someone specific. There really doesn't feel like a lot of "main" love interests as of now imo.
If I had any real complaint, it would be that this is a bit too linear for me. I really do like that you can choose the order of who you investigate first, but beyond that most choices simply seem to be "see this scene or don't." Now there are a few exceptions, but for the most part the player really isn't given any agency. Even just given the option to choose how we respond in more conversations would be great. There doesn't feel like there's diverging paths, but this is also rather early so I'd give it the benefit of the doubt there.
To put it in less words, this is an AVN with a real story to it. Not something you see very often, especially to the degree of this one. This is definitely a slow burn among slow burns, but I'm finding it compelling enough to want to keep going. I'm impressed so far.