It's good for what it is but ultimately the terrible grammar, spelling, and malapropisms (kept forgetting that word until I read another review, thanks) just destroy this game for me.
All the question marks at the end of sentences as well as overuse of the word "though" frustrate the hell out of me as well. "I wonder though?", "I wonder blah blah?", "Maybe blah blah ?", or something passive-aggressive/stupid like that.
I don't really have any problem with the common complaints:
- NTR is pretty easy to avoid. Just don't get rid of "Red" and then from there, just use common sense to "not watch" something or to " intervene".
- not really a sandbox since you have to progress with each character but I'm okay with that since the story's interesting enough
- Red is indeed a psychopath but so is almost every other character. Not an excuse but I just see it as an extreme overreaction to the games with spineless MCs who have 2 brain cells.
- I haven't played since version 0.68.2a but it looks like most bugs have been eliminated (Edit: except for maybe one or two). Not entirely sure so don't quote me on that.
Things I didn't like however were:
- Obviously the poor English. It dramatically improves at random times and that's all I can say. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason I can guess as to why that happens other than maybe there's more than one writer. I'm not even asking for "adequate". I'm just asking for basic grammar and spelling that doesn't remind me of the two vaguely Scandinavian guys from Family Guy who almost get an American phrase correct but are off by one or two words.
- Most of the body types just aren't for me. I like milfs but I'm not really into "thicc" milfs. At some point, everything just looks like blobs of flesh which is pretty gross.
- I don't mind that the quests just seem to railroad you into doing whatever the overall plot dictates. It's just that I wish the hints/objectives weren't so vague. When I first played this, I remember going back and forth from the game to this thread to search for explanations to a lot of quests. I still had to do that for a few quests. Unclear instructions that require constant browsing of a forum full of people who already played the game is a sign of a bad game. (Shout out to Count Morado the MVP, single-handedly fielding all questions and concerns.)
- Map design seems kind of meh. Everything is either at the Mall or I just buy everything from the "Shop". Although, I'm not crying over it. I'd rather development of the story continue and not get sidetracked by things like expanding on map assets. That'd be such a dumb move.
- Not a fan of switching the player character around. It's not a big deal and I think it was interesting to try it out but overall I just don't care about playing from other characters' perspectives when you can already just read their inner monologues anyway.
- More and more characters are being added when I just wish the more underutilized characters had more content. (But if that's what Patreon supporters want then it is what it is.) Still, it feels like I'm going to be dead before I see anything besides the Mom and Clara taking up what feels like half of the game's content.
- Sandbox features like quick travel within a location would be nice to have. Especially when at some point, you're just having to go do one thing then going back to bed for several days to a week. Shit, even just a bed icon at the top of the screen would make sense.
Edit: I forgot one more thing. The assets that already exist seem to be underutilized or sometimes really fucking random. Everything is either "click the bed" or something even when it'd make more sense to use the laptop or check the chest. It just seems non-intuitive or lazy. The random parts would be suddenly having to check the stairs to the roof when if you explore at the beginning of the game, it basically telling you it's pretty much closed off and not to bother checking it unless specifically prompted. (It could have prompted me but damn, I was so fed up with the broken English that I just hit "skip" for most of it.
- That reminds me. "Skip already read" doesn't seem to work as intended. There are some points I know I didn't see yet but the dialogue was still skipped. I even checked to make sure I didn't have it on "skip everything". Not the actual terms used but you know what I mean. So that might be a bug.
I think I covered all my thoughts about this game. Overall, there are things about the game that make it not for some people but there are things that make it interesting and I appreciate the different art style. However, there's still a lot of room for improvement even though it's been around for a while now. It's an "okay" game but could be better but at the same time, it's been this way for so long that I don't think "better" is ever going to come along.
Although, to be honest I'd be satisfied with the devs just hiring a good proofreader and giving more attention to characters with little to no content. If I was a more skeptical person, I'd think it was on purpose to egg on supporters to keep them donating to maybe one day see their favored characters. In reality, I'm thinking I'm just the odd man out and the characters with the most content are who patreon supporters actually want to see.
All the question marks at the end of sentences as well as overuse of the word "though" frustrate the hell out of me as well. "I wonder though?", "I wonder blah blah?", "Maybe blah blah ?", or something passive-aggressive/stupid like that.
I don't really have any problem with the common complaints:
- NTR is pretty easy to avoid. Just don't get rid of "Red" and then from there, just use common sense to "not watch" something or to " intervene".
- not really a sandbox since you have to progress with each character but I'm okay with that since the story's interesting enough
- Red is indeed a psychopath but so is almost every other character. Not an excuse but I just see it as an extreme overreaction to the games with spineless MCs who have 2 brain cells.
- I haven't played since version 0.68.2a but it looks like most bugs have been eliminated (Edit: except for maybe one or two). Not entirely sure so don't quote me on that.
Things I didn't like however were:
- Obviously the poor English. It dramatically improves at random times and that's all I can say. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason I can guess as to why that happens other than maybe there's more than one writer. I'm not even asking for "adequate". I'm just asking for basic grammar and spelling that doesn't remind me of the two vaguely Scandinavian guys from Family Guy who almost get an American phrase correct but are off by one or two words.
- Most of the body types just aren't for me. I like milfs but I'm not really into "thicc" milfs. At some point, everything just looks like blobs of flesh which is pretty gross.
- I don't mind that the quests just seem to railroad you into doing whatever the overall plot dictates. It's just that I wish the hints/objectives weren't so vague. When I first played this, I remember going back and forth from the game to this thread to search for explanations to a lot of quests. I still had to do that for a few quests. Unclear instructions that require constant browsing of a forum full of people who already played the game is a sign of a bad game. (Shout out to Count Morado the MVP, single-handedly fielding all questions and concerns.)
- Map design seems kind of meh. Everything is either at the Mall or I just buy everything from the "Shop". Although, I'm not crying over it. I'd rather development of the story continue and not get sidetracked by things like expanding on map assets. That'd be such a dumb move.
- Not a fan of switching the player character around. It's not a big deal and I think it was interesting to try it out but overall I just don't care about playing from other characters' perspectives when you can already just read their inner monologues anyway.
- More and more characters are being added when I just wish the more underutilized characters had more content. (But if that's what Patreon supporters want then it is what it is.) Still, it feels like I'm going to be dead before I see anything besides the Mom and Clara taking up what feels like half of the game's content.
- Sandbox features like quick travel within a location would be nice to have. Especially when at some point, you're just having to go do one thing then going back to bed for several days to a week. Shit, even just a bed icon at the top of the screen would make sense.
Edit: I forgot one more thing. The assets that already exist seem to be underutilized or sometimes really fucking random. Everything is either "click the bed" or something even when it'd make more sense to use the laptop or check the chest. It just seems non-intuitive or lazy. The random parts would be suddenly having to check the stairs to the roof when if you explore at the beginning of the game, it basically telling you it's pretty much closed off and not to bother checking it unless specifically prompted. (It could have prompted me but damn, I was so fed up with the broken English that I just hit "skip" for most of it.
- That reminds me. "Skip already read" doesn't seem to work as intended. There are some points I know I didn't see yet but the dialogue was still skipped. I even checked to make sure I didn't have it on "skip everything". Not the actual terms used but you know what I mean. So that might be a bug.
I think I covered all my thoughts about this game. Overall, there are things about the game that make it not for some people but there are things that make it interesting and I appreciate the different art style. However, there's still a lot of room for improvement even though it's been around for a while now. It's an "okay" game but could be better but at the same time, it's been this way for so long that I don't think "better" is ever going to come along.
Although, to be honest I'd be satisfied with the devs just hiring a good proofreader and giving more attention to characters with little to no content. If I was a more skeptical person, I'd think it was on purpose to egg on supporters to keep them donating to maybe one day see their favored characters. In reality, I'm thinking I'm just the odd man out and the characters with the most content are who patreon supporters actually want to see.