[Rereview on Update 40 and Completed status]
So, game's finished and I can confidently say that none of the issues I brought up were addressed--if anything it only got worse.
The sex kept on being boring, almost all of it was in bedrooms with uninspired dirty talk and barely any passion or eroticism which is almost impressive in a story with so much sex. For a game with so much breeding it is, ironically, incredible sterile.
And the story... Oh my God, the story. I'll be completely honest, by the end I barely had any idea what was going on, there were just too many characters, too many plotlines, too many meetings... too many everything. And then all of it is solved in a rather anticlimactic raid that doesn't really feel any different from all the other raids and battles that preceded it. I was so bored and disconnected from it all that by the end I was skipping the fucking sex scenes to get to the end of the game.
I think the scope got too big which in turn only highlighted and magnified all the issues I wrote about below. Its length is why I gave it 2 stars and why I don't recommend playing it--it's too long and not worth the days you'll spend slogging through it.
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My opinions on this game are very hard to pin down and trying to do so through a numerical score even more so, but I'll try my best to justify the 3 stars.
While I do note that the renders have improved when compared to the dev's previous titles and that does deserve praise, most of my review will be focused on the writing. I will say that the general baldness doesn't bother me much and I find most of the LIs attractive, Nova especially makes me want to act up.
This game's problems are Talothral's other games' problems: he's very good at worldbuilding and coming up with general plots, but he falls short when it comes to writing scenes and dialogue. The amount of thought put into the lore as well as its sheer quantity is commendable and one of the strongest aspects of the game (and the dev's other games), but the way it's written combined with the lack of mastery of conversational English makes the game as a whole a slog to read through.
Characters talk too much, they say the same things several times over and elaborate on every facet of the conversation which only draws it out even more. A lot is said, most of it not important, and so when your eyes inevitably glaze over and you start only half-reading things you miss out on vital pieces of information since they're buried amidst fluff dialogue.
And fluff dialogue can be useful, it enables deeper characterization or a peek at unrelated worldbuilding, but most of the dialogue in the game isn't that. None of it feels actually useless, it's just that what is there could be trimmed down to feel less dense.
Another big problem is the sex. Unlike some other reviewers, I don't think there's too little of it, I think it's quite the opposite. Sex feels like a formality in this, and its execution is very clinical. It usually starts with oral, the girl cums once, then they move onto actual intercourse in which whoever's on bottom will simply lay there, then they switch to a different position, then there may or may not be a third position, then everyone cums and it's over. Factor in slight variations like pregnancy, threesomes, and anal and you're golden, that's every sexual encounter. It just feels superfluous, bordering on unnecessary.
I understand that sex isn't the focus of the game, but that's no excuse to neglect it. The slow burn nature of the story lends itself to each sex scene feeling special but for that they'd need to be well-executed. As it stands, what is there is no different than fading to a black screen with the words "And then they had sex." displayed on it.
My final bit of criticism is toward the MC. I've no problem with him being ultra-powerful or an incredibly competent assassin, I just wish everyone else got the chance to show off their competence. This imbalance of competence is at its worst when it comes to everyone else in leadership positions: if a plan isn't coming straight from the MC's mouth, it's likely there's some flaw in it no-one but him will see. It gets annoying after a while, as does his constant whining about being put in positions of power. When he was just an assassin suddenly being handed huge amounts of responsibility it made sense, but my man's had 5 years to process that and yet he's still harping on about it despite being the most effective leader on board the Sentinel by miles.
In conclusion, I still think the game is worth a readthrough, I just recommend doing it in bursts so you don't get too bored and start missing crucial details.
I hope I didn't come across as harsh, I'm just passionate about writing and I can see the amazing potential shining through the game's writing-related flaws.