Review for V0.12b Extra
I was pretty on the line in regards to giving this 4 or 5 starts. There are a lot of things to like in this game, but at the same time I think there is still room for improvement.
You play as young, care-free and troublemaking MC about to undertake a training mission in the naval academy. Things go awry and suddenly you and a group of your academy friends become a ragtag crew of deserters on a mission to get back something lost, and as always, there are bigger things at play as the plot moves forward.
The MC's dialogue reflects his personality, but this is a rare case where it isn't obnoxious or dreadful to read. He's a young dude, but perving on every woman he sees isn't his sole personality trait, as with some other VNs. There really isn't any of it, which I appreciate a ton. It's always nice having an MC who isn't a chore to play as.
The characters in general are all pretty good, but some get more developed than others. None of them are the most complex I've seen, but they aren't even close to barebones either. While there is plot with the porn, I wouldn't call this a slow burn. For some that's a good thing, for others it isn't. I lean more on the side of slow burn, but there was still enough to keep me feeling satisfied as I played.
The renders start off at what I would consider pretty decent, but they do steadily get better as the game goes on. Same thing with animations. A lot of them felt a bit stiff, but again improve as the game goes on. I still wouldn't call either amazing, so that's an area I think could still get a lot better. Some of the character models were hit or miss for me, but that's probably to be expected. I did like a majority of them.
As for the overall writing, I enjoyed the story enough to keep going to the end and still wanted to see more. There are some really fun parts of the game that I don't want to spoil. I also enjoyed all the interludes between big events with the crew, and the sort of free roam style parts on certain locations.
However, I also found some things a bit lacking. Some of the twists were interesting, but I also felt some were kind of dumb. Parts of the game feel a bit rushed, and some characters I thought were going to be more important get almost forgotten about. The last few episodes especially had some stupid choices that I felt were only saved by plot armor. There is a lot of illusion of choice situations, were the only thing really being altered by your choices is whether you see a scene or not. Some of them felt like they really should have had a bigger impact on the game based on what you choose, but you're very quickly put back onto the same track no matter the choice without much change to the plot.
One thing I really do want to praise this game for is that it's not afraid to use aliens and have sex scenes with them. Most of my favorite scenes in the game involve alien one-offs you meet as you go. My only complaint would be that I want more of them, especially the more exotic ones.
TLDR - Though I do have some criticisms, this is still a very solid sci-fi AVN. Definitely worth a play if it caught your interest, especially if you're a bigger fan of sci-fi like myself. While I gave this a 4 star, I think the next part of the game can easily be a 5 if the right things are improved.
I was pretty on the line in regards to giving this 4 or 5 starts. There are a lot of things to like in this game, but at the same time I think there is still room for improvement.
You play as young, care-free and troublemaking MC about to undertake a training mission in the naval academy. Things go awry and suddenly you and a group of your academy friends become a ragtag crew of deserters on a mission to get back something lost, and as always, there are bigger things at play as the plot moves forward.
The MC's dialogue reflects his personality, but this is a rare case where it isn't obnoxious or dreadful to read. He's a young dude, but perving on every woman he sees isn't his sole personality trait, as with some other VNs. There really isn't any of it, which I appreciate a ton. It's always nice having an MC who isn't a chore to play as.
The characters in general are all pretty good, but some get more developed than others. None of them are the most complex I've seen, but they aren't even close to barebones either. While there is plot with the porn, I wouldn't call this a slow burn. For some that's a good thing, for others it isn't. I lean more on the side of slow burn, but there was still enough to keep me feeling satisfied as I played.
The renders start off at what I would consider pretty decent, but they do steadily get better as the game goes on. Same thing with animations. A lot of them felt a bit stiff, but again improve as the game goes on. I still wouldn't call either amazing, so that's an area I think could still get a lot better. Some of the character models were hit or miss for me, but that's probably to be expected. I did like a majority of them.
As for the overall writing, I enjoyed the story enough to keep going to the end and still wanted to see more. There are some really fun parts of the game that I don't want to spoil. I also enjoyed all the interludes between big events with the crew, and the sort of free roam style parts on certain locations.
However, I also found some things a bit lacking. Some of the twists were interesting, but I also felt some were kind of dumb. Parts of the game feel a bit rushed, and some characters I thought were going to be more important get almost forgotten about. The last few episodes especially had some stupid choices that I felt were only saved by plot armor. There is a lot of illusion of choice situations, were the only thing really being altered by your choices is whether you see a scene or not. Some of them felt like they really should have had a bigger impact on the game based on what you choose, but you're very quickly put back onto the same track no matter the choice without much change to the plot.
One thing I really do want to praise this game for is that it's not afraid to use aliens and have sex scenes with them. Most of my favorite scenes in the game involve alien one-offs you meet as you go. My only complaint would be that I want more of them, especially the more exotic ones.
TLDR - Though I do have some criticisms, this is still a very solid sci-fi AVN. Definitely worth a play if it caught your interest, especially if you're a bigger fan of sci-fi like myself. While I gave this a 4 star, I think the next part of the game can easily be a 5 if the right things are improved.