Welp... I didn't expect to like this VN as much as I did when I picked it up. Koikatsu models are often a red flag when it comes to the quality of a project... but I decided to pick this one up anyway given the high ratings and the fact that Mary's model lands very nicely in my preferences.
I didn't expect to like the story and characters as much as I did, nor did I expect to enjoy the scenes so much.
It's not perfect of course, there's oodles of small spelling mistakes and other things throughout the story, but it never gets beyond where it's mildly annoying. Some of the typical NTR cliches are also very strong with this one, but a number of them are handled well enough that I don't mind seeing them as much as I do in other stories I could possibly name.
That said, if I were to pick the single weakest part of the whole thing... then it'd likely be Arato. To expand on that, I don't care that he takes away time from Kendo's spotlight or whatnot. Indeed, I think he serves a pretty interesting narrative role. He basically hammers into Mary's head that she's a total sex-addict with his actions and that dick size matters to her a lot. He also serves as a foil to Kendo. On top of that, he brings in a more classic NTR villain vibe with blackmail, drugs, coercion and all that fun stuff we know. He's a monster of pure lust for whom girls are nothing more than holes to be used.
He also has as much nuance as a cardboard cut-out... For all that he serves a clear narrative role, and he creates the chance for extra scenes with Mary... he's a pile of cliches with nothing that makes him stand out from any other pretty-boy rich douchebag in fiction. His "I'm the best." stuff also gets stale quickly. Which means he's the least interesting character in this entire VN... which is saying something when Satoshi is a fairly typical NTR victim guy, for the most part.
But... hey, bunny-girl Mary. I want more of that. I want a LOT more of that. So hopefully there's plans for more scenes that include her getting her brains fucked out in that particular outfit.
The strongest point of the VN, for me, is not any character in particular, but the way a lot of H-scenes are handled... A lot of the H-scenes are LONG. Especially for Kendo, they take any one girl through multiple positions and so on and they really show you the fact that he's some weirdly inhuman fuck-god of a man that that can drive women insane with his dick. A lot of NTR stories TELL you that the stud is so-and-so amazing, but they fail to really hammer the point in as hard as this one does with the length of its scenes (and the length of dicks too, for that matter). We're shown that Kendo, and to a lesser extent Arato, are well beyond average, and not just in comparison to the MC, who is WELL below average in most aspects. We also have Takumi and Yoshi as points of comparison, who are average and over average respectively.
I also just like long scenes in general. A lot of games and VNs tend to keep their smut short, or lengthen it with word-salad but without the imagery to match, which lessens the impact of a genuinely long scene. The H-content in this VN just satisfies better with how it works and how it builds up.
Plus, I also like the fact that while Mary and Satoshi hit a number of the usual NTR cliches, the way they're handled makes them understandable. Their relationship was only 6 months long, they haven't had sex that much at that point, and most of their time was spent at university where their common ground was emphasized but their differences had a harder time causing them to butt heads. It makes it easy to see how they haven't grasped the big pain points of their relationship, and it also makes the impact of running into said pain points much harder with Kendo sticking his nose into things.
That said, I personally think that even without Kendo in the mix, their relationship would have been doomed in the long run. Not just because of Mary's higher than average sex-drive and the fact that she specifically likes to have her womb punched with a massive dick... but because Satoshi's a pretty terrible boyfriend who wasn't paying real attention to her wants and needs. Furthermore, the differences between them would have only started hitting harder as time passed. Mary's sporty and party-girl nature would have clashed more and more with Satoshi's own passive and reserved nature. Also, they're both subs at heart, and that also never works well. A whole essay could probably be written about how dysfunctional their relationship ends up being...
Which is why, the fact that a Satoshi route exists the way it does makes no sense to me. At all. Or rather, I think that something like that COULD be made to work... I just can't believe that it could work at the point where it starts. After Mary gets dicked by both Kendo and Arato and realizes just how important sex is to her as part of a relationship, I have absolutely no idea how the hell Satoshi could ever keep her at his side in the long run. She's not just a sex-addict at that point. She's also a size-queen. While Satoshi could definitely up his skills in sex and learn to handle his girl better in and out of bed, there's nothing he can do about the size of his dick and sex-toys only help so much if one of Mary's major kinks is specifically a big dick.
Oh well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad. I'll likely never read that route even when it gets more content. Don't really care much for small dick sex, and my suspension of disbelief simply wouldn't be able to handle it.
In any case, I'm seriously considering supporting this project in some form or another. Though it remains to be seen if my finances will allow it... I wouldn't be spending so much time in a place like f95 if I had a lot of money to spend... >.>"