An unconventional story about child abuse and the agency of its victims
Most players of VNs with a nameable protagonist expect an insert: an alter-ego they can manipulate at will, usually for the purpose of scoring with hot chicks. They expect this insert to think and act according to genre conventions, and they expect the same from other characters.
The Fosters does not do this.
Instead,
The Fosters wants to tell a story about the victims of abuse--not the abuse itself, but of its consequences. Some are direct victims, some are indirect or unknowing victims, but all are trapped in a dysfunctional family dynamic that is perpetuated by past and present abuse.
This brings us to why
The Fosters inspires polarized reactions: the protagonist, himself a victim of abuse, does not think or act like a stereotypical VN lead, and neither do its other characters. The decision mechanics themselves defy genre convention: the "alpha" and "beta" gauges actually represent a spectrum of personality disorders, typical of abuse victims, that the protagonist can fall prey to. "Alpha" indicates assertiveness, but also callousness and impulsiveness. "Beta" indicates passivity and indecisiveness--and also restraint. Once you understand this, it's clearly best not to maximize these traits if you want a happy ending.
I played the Balanced route with in-game walkthrough enabled, choosing the options that optimized relationships in this route, and I was treated to a touching and reasonably realistic tale of casting off the shackles of abuse. The tale isn't without its flaws. For better or worse, the heroines all start off infatuated with the protagonist and are fine with polyamory, giving him access to a ready-made harem. Many of the decision trees aren't straightforward, e.g., you can't shower properly AND masturbate, yet you can trigger most optional events with each heroine in any order each day (indicating that erratic design rather than lack of time is at fault here). Because of such unintuitive design choices, it feels like the game is meant to be played with the walkthrough feature enabled, and that's probably a key reason why many players get frustrated. The story is also muddled by occasional head-scratching moments, like when
(the whole thing seemed like a thinly veiled excuse to set up a conversation between the two that had no reason to happen).
Despite the game's shortcomings, if you treat the heroines right and avoid succumbing to neurotic patterns of behavior, you should get a satisfying story where the day is saved and (almost) everyone lives happily ever after. And if you act like a psychopath... then the game will let you experience the mindset and consequences of that too.
