The Arson Betryal is a story driven action thriller. It's a Honey Select game, so you know what to expect. Girls are cute and stylized, the men all look different kinds of weird and have a very distinct Japanese appearance. The MC used here in this game is still one of the better looking default Honey Select males, you have most likely seen him in quite a few other Honey Select games.
The presentation is quite exceptional in the game. You have a few animated cutscenes, the various sex scenes are also animated of course. But on top of that the characters emote and react to dialogue. So there's mouth movement, eye movement and head movement between dialogue lines. Things are rarely static here.
The renders themselves are fine, but it's more or less what you expect from Honey Select. But as far as HS is concerned everyting looks great.
The female character design is varied, however many of the potential love interests have larger breasts. And the shape of the breasts is a bit unnatural, it defies gravity. And the breasts have a tendency to stick out too much, they look a bit pointy as well here and there.
The animated sex scenes are more or less ok, but the scenes have limited interactions, you can go faster, you can change a camera angle, you can sometimes decide where to finish. That's it. So far there are no major kinks here, everything is vanilla. I like that however.
But while the game uses a third person perspective in the game in the sex scenes it very often switches to a POV perspective. And here things begin to look weird. In the POV parts an ultra wide angle perspective is chosen and things therefore look very warped, think ultra wide angle lens on a camera, almost like a fisheye lens even. These scenes look pretty bad, limbs and faces are very distorted. A third person view would have been better here. Or at least a different field of view.
The game also has music and many sound effects. The music is great and fits the mood of the game.
The story: the MC works at a coffee shop, trying to save money so he can go to university. One night he comes across a girl who is threatened by two policemen with guns. The MC decides to help her and is slowly drawn into a dangerous web of corrupt politicians who are in league with crime gangs and the equally corrupt police department. The girl the MC saves is the daughter of a scientist who was killed, he left his daughter a hard drive and instructions to go to a cabin on the other side of the country so she can decrypt the info stored on the hard drive.
But as is quickly revealed the hard drive contains a formula for something that the mayor and his associates are after. And things heat up more and more as the mayor, mercenaries and corrupt police try to track down Alice, so they can seize the hard drive from her.
Along the way the MC will meet several women, almost all of them can be potential love interests, but is it a wise idea to pursue everyone?
The game has several game over options. So you can fail at various points in the story. Be aware of that. It's usually obvious what to avoid. But you can still easily fail here and there if you don't pay attention.
If you like story driven VNs The Arson Betrayal is definitely one of the best experiences. The thriller story is well written and pretty interesting. There are various action scenes in the VN, sometimes with cutscenes, at other times you get quick time events, i.e. you have to choose a correct option with your mouse before the timer runs out.
Where the VN stumbles a bit, in my opinion, is unfortunately in the romance and love interest department. Now, you can, in theory, try to reject everyone or go after everyone, but you may not always be able to reject everyone. If you close a route with someone you will get an opportunity to reopen it later.
The problem with the love interests is that they are your stereotypical collection of slow burners and super thirsty bi-curious girls who fall for the MC at the first opportunity for no particular reason.
Again, you don't need to engage with (most) females in a romantic way, but if you do engage with them things become tropeladen and a bit silly.
The first scene with the MC shows him making out with Sydney in the bathroom of the coffee shop, apparently it was a dare. She's a virgin. Of course.
Sydney has a friend, Jessica, who is also super thirsty for the MC for no given reason. You can take her virginity (she's a virgin too, of course) in the coffee shop behind the counter if you like. Or you can postpone things and do it later. Or you can reject her.
If you don't reject her Jessica is one of those girls who just LOVE sharing the MC with her best friend: Sydney. So you can get a threesome with the two of them eventually. And sure, Jessica goes down on Sydney, why not. Just like that. And it's never even talked about or mentioned again. Why should they...
Now most people will probably like this... there's this common belief that all men love bisexual love interests in VNs and lesbian scenes.
I feel these things should always be optional. I don't like bi-curious love interests at all. Of course you can reject Jessica but you basically lock yourself out from content if you reject love interests here. But in theory you can avoid these scenes, just ignore Jessica altogether.
If you do like Jessica there is, to my knowledge, no way yet to have her without Sydney. Jessica even points out that she doesn't want to lose her friend over her entanglement with the MC, so she wants to share him with her.
Then there's quasi tsundere Tiffany who allegedly dislikes the MC, she's the sister of his best male friend. But of course Tiffany actually has the hots for the MC (and the MC had a crush an her in the past)... and one morning the MC walks in on her in his bathroom, she's sitting on the toilet, he's naked... and she immediately begins to masturbate. Like any girl would do.
This is the the level of romance you usually get here. Super unrealistic and silly scenes that stretch credibility.
Jessica is later revealed to be somewhat submissive... I really dislike submissive or dominant love interests, but at least you will eventually get a choice to base the relationship on romance or corruption, you basically either tell her you like her or you tell her she's your slave now.
Tiffany is also apparently 100% ok with sharing, she watches the MC and Jessica having sex in his apartment and of course she masturbates while watching them.
Then there's the daughter of the coffee shop owner, Bailey. You can go on a date with her (which can result in sex with Tiffany in the bathroom (she works at the place you go to). And immediately after the date Bailey, the virgin (lots of virgins here), tells the MC she's bisexual and would not be disinclined to have fun with him and another girl (she comments on Tiffany).
I just rolled my eyes. And yes, you can reject Bailey as well of course. But later her mother heavily encourages the MC to please go after Bailey. So maybe she's unavoidable in future updates.
The only potential love interests I found actually interesting are Alice and Luna. You can also choose a love and corruption route for Alice. On the love route there's some dry humping later in the game. She's one of the archetypical "I am not ready yet" characters, at least on the love route. So you know the drill, you know what you get. Or you try to corrupt her... I cannot tell you though what happens then, I never choose corruption routes.
Ironically enough Bailey is also yet another "I am not ready yet" character (but she's bisexual?), but in a scene with her she is eventually overwhelmed by desire and IS ready... the MC is about to enter her... but then you are interrupted by her mother. The usual.
The other female character I like is Luna, the redhead cop. I am not entirely certain she even is a proper love interest, if she is, she's the super slow burner here. There is nothing going on with her, not even teasing. Not even a hint of romance. Probably in future episodes. I pray to the VN gods that she's not yet another "I am not ready yet" bi-curious sharing fan. We'll see.
So where does this leave things?
If you play The Arson Betrayal for the story and if you don't mind the clichéd romance and usual tropes and stereotypes you'll get with the love interests... it's a great experience!
If you like games that put a bit more emphasis on believable romance... you may not find it here or you need to be very selective and try to reject several girls. Alice is the most "normal" romance here. She's also the most important female in this game. Luna may be yet another "normal" romance, but so far there's nothing with her.
If you don't mind the usual bi-curious virgins who fall on the MC's penis at the first opportunity you can have that here as well. So if you like that you will appreciate the inclusion of the super easy girls who are ok with sharing. If you don't like it you need to reject Jessica all the way. You can still engage with her friend Sydney though, later in the game. Also, maybe reject Bailey if you are tired of bisexual virgins in VNs. Tiffany is kind of ok, especially if you like her somewhat submissive nature. The verdict is still out on how her love/romance route will develop. The "you're my slave path" is pretty obvious, I would guess.
Anyway, despite my criticism regarding many of the love interests, The Arson Betrayal is a good game. The focus here is more on the story and the hunt for Alice and the hard drive. The game has just the right balance between story and romance.
Too bad the romance is something that I found clichéd and a bit annoying even at times. If you reject everyone but Alice (and Luna) maybe you will virtually play a game without sex. Tiffany is ok-ish, but the submissive undertones and the "I haven't allowed you to cum yet" line by the MC really ruins her path for me. Maybe her love route which becomes available later will improve things.
So it's up to you. You can have a thriller with just one main love interest... or you can have a thriller where the MC has time to fool around with half a dozen girls, most of whom are tropes.
But choice is always great, you get it here. And it's not that the various girls don't have depth to them, outside of the romance the girls are all ok, they are not one dimensional here, each of them has a backstory. It's only in the romance parts of their arcs that things are a bit too easy and/or too silly. But maybe you like super easy and silly.
I feel it doesn't really fit the tone of the story though which is very serious and at times even dark. A more fleshed out Alice romance would have been better here maybe instead of creating this medium sized harem. If there even is a harem. The game has no harem tag. So chances are you will eventually have to choose between girls, with only some of them becoming an option for a throuple or so.
I find it somewhat surprising that this game is not more popular, since it's absolutely one of the better overall experiences with a strong plot. Give it a try! Chances are high you will even like the romance parts in this game. And if not, then just play it for the story and focus on just one or two girls.
Final remark about the English and another review found here: while there are some mistakes here and there the English in the current build is mostly perfectly fine. Also, text and images never mismatch. This can be the side effect of a mod. Just don't use the mod and instead consult the PDF walkthrough if you want to know something.
I'm not a fan of the typical "all girls fawning over MC" thing, honestly, but this aside, great characters, great connections, great pacing, interesting story, I like it. One of the great ones overall!
