VN - Others - Completed - The Adulterous Wife for Sale, Hina Kawabuchi [v1.0] [Atelier Sakura]

I'd give this game 2.5 stars, but since I can't, I'll round it down to 2. The visual novel is decent because it's short, doesn't have a lot of filler text, and doesn't add anything excessive, but it's also nothing new.

The Good:
-It's not very long, which is a plus. Other VNs should learn from this, as they don't need to drag on for hours and hours, which just makes them monotonous.

-There are a few scenes that are incredible and visually very good.

-There's sound, which helps immerse you more in the moment.

-"The villain" isn't actually a bad person, and I see that as a positive. Sometimes it gets tiring when characters are always portrayed as hateful or trying to be.

The Bad:
-It doesn't innovate at all; the story is generic.

-There are moments they don't show you. For example, they tell you the wife has been unfaithful again, but they only narrate it and don't show you.

-The fact that the main character is a "cuck" for an extended period isn't to my taste. I prefer it when he doesn't know.

In summary, if you haven't played many VNs, this one will be fine because it doesn't become unbearable. It's short and gets straight to "the action," but it doesn't go beyond that.

Overall vote: 9

Ok I don't know how to approach reviewing this one.
Truth be told I have a LOT to say about this one but if I do my usual AS reviews as always this review might end up being 5 pages long, I'll try my best to keep it short ...

In a nutshell I loved this one.
And it was super unexpected.
Never I would have thought beforehand that this one might perhaps become my favorite AS game up to date so far.

This game is a mix up of some of my all time favorites gimmicks mixed in at once:
-NTR
-Masseuse (which is an underrated and not used too much trope)
- Money / Financial problem being the plot device (honestly is underutilized and it should not be given how good of a trope this is)
-TRUE Slow burn corruption
-Petite Heroine (also rarely used)
-All major characters playing their roles well AND not a single one of them being neglected
-Split End which is the cherry on top to me

It does have some flaws however which for me personally are inconsequential (I'll put them on a spoiler at the end)

I'll go more indepth on what about the good points of the game now (if you're not intersted you can stop reading from this point since you already got my general take now ...)

• This company has really tried all the faucets of the NTR genre, and by using a masseuse it was trying to gain some of the fans of Relaxation Yuka which was a move that they also attempted with other specific sub genre like the interracial genre (this one) that was genre dominated by Orcsoft

• Honestly after reading Hina all the other so called slow burn corruption are gonna feel super rushed i fear.
Cause the way it was done here was excellent to me.
It really was a process that was building up step by step with each new sex scene and while yes some aspects were sorta unrealistic / too over the top but that wasn't a very big deal in my eyes.

• Never have I much talked about VA but the voice actress that did Hina was like the best VA so far on any past AS heroine.
She truly did a great job as Hina.
The combination of her VA, her petite design so different from other standard AS heroines plus her writing truly makes her standout as a heroine ...

• The main difference between this slow burning corruption game and many others is that here the money financial problem was rightfully and brilliantly used as an "excuse".
In many other games however they don't bother making a excuse except the usual "he was way better than my husband"

• Personally the best thing imo for a NTR game is that it should have multiple endings and at min at least a good end / bad end.
We do have it here which is not a guarantee with AS.
The good end was excellent to me.
The bad end I do have a small grief with this one
I would have much rather had there be at least a confrontation and have the husband at least reveal to her that he knows instead of the full passive loser outcome ...

• On my effort to try to keep it short I'll condense some of the rest of my usual topics here:
- CG
Yeah they're great, not the very best of the best that this company made but near it
- Sex Scenes
Yes this is super fappable imo
- Hina
Top 5 best AS heroines
- Effort
Yes there was some love and effort spent by AS in making this game
- Budget
Also yes
- Pace
Yes, with how much praise i gave the slow burning, the pace has to be good (if we do look past at flaws which I'll list at the end)
- Plot
Really nice, it stands out from the other AS plots in the execution

As a nitpicker I am aware of the flaws of this game which I will list them here below but to be honest after so many japanese media being manga / anime / LN / videogames these sort of tiny things are way passable imo