There is a lot to like in this game and especially considering it is relatively early in development it is very promising.
The game has gorgeous and detailed art and expands the formula with the aspect of storytelling. Art is detailed, plentiful and consistent. Girls are very attractive, I might have preferred more roguish, flirty Rogue, Jim Lee style. Sexual sandbox is already decently developed but more than that this game is leading players with a story and giving them goals to achieve, adding a sense of direction. Storytelling has two main conduits: big story events between chapters/seasons and some second hand stories you hear during conversations (with a nice touch that some characters are on occasions unavailable because they are on missions).
I like much of the writing (with one big exception, below). It is fun to take girls to movies, where you can get to know them better by observing their different reactions. Girls have their own stories and struggles. Their powers factor in your relationships too to a degree, their powers having some interactions with yours. Like the interfaces a lot too, very modern, very clean, one of the best I have seen in Renpy game. Seems decently balanced, gaining favour with the girls, earning money or XP engage you in main game loop and sandbox but does not get too tedious, with a bit of exception to hunting optional mini-events that have unspecified requirements, not sure if they random or trigger at relationship thresholds.
However, there are some problems. I start with ones I consider minor. So far this story events have very little hook, they seem rather random. You stumble into a fight, you unlock some powers, you need to train some more (after). No sense of mystery, existing challenge or rising threat, and certainly no sense of agency. There are some choices, kinda, would be actually grateful if someone spelled it out for me how much impact that this whole Determined /Reluctant /Bitter thing can even have on events (can I get better/ different options /outcomes of any events choosing differently?) - so far it doesn't seem to do much, tie to anything meaningful - and from searching the game thread, seems to be flavour only, but is introduced in very dramatic fashion, with special icons and context and explanations. Sure, your attitude (and no, it is not personality, personality is something stable, you don't change your personality 4 times a year) IRL will have major effects on your motivation and approach/avoidance psychological systems, but there are no such systems in game. And the game pretty explicitly seems to signal to you, that there will be no supervillany stuff here, no going renegade, no abuse of power so why bother with such obvious illusion of choice?
And this is not the only confusing choice subsystem: the one with lips or crossed lips icons is somewhat explained before you encounter it, but without mention of the icons, so when I encountered it I thought lips means continuing romance and crossed lips stopping it, but then after few times when I chose always lips it dawned on me, that it seems to be more about girls... flavour? Fetish? Quirk? And I remember Kurt mentioning reinforcing or discouraging some of the girls behaviours. So in total you have 3 type of choices. Standard ones (no icons) are the most clear: number go up or down (trust/love), part of the main game loop. Other two with icons, not so much, game creators seem to have some idea for it, but seems unwilling to spell it out what could be the consequences, and just playing the game choosing one over another doesn't seem to make much difference so far. So I would say design language was not intuitive for me, and would be clearer without icons suggesting that I'm making some crucial decision here (rejecting a girl or choosing a path for myself). Or just spell the effects like in normal choices (for example, "you encouraged Laura protectives" similar to "you gained 6 trust").
There are some missing functions I hope will improve. Girls can get levels, seen a notification popping up, but blink, and it is gone. Haven't found any place to check what level they are currently, nor what exactly changes with levels. They don't seem to gain stamina, and there is no other stat that we can observe. The poor communication of some very important facts and stats. There seem to be level 5 cap for yourself, you can reach it early, and there is no indication that you can progress any further (like when you reach max trust or love), in fact you seem to still be getting XP, just bar stops moving, but It's really hard to say if it completely stops or is just progressing more slowly. And there are still nodes in your skill tree that you want to reach, and they present as available. There is actually no value to check only very small bar (especially on Steam Deck screen). Same with sex minigame, at first you hit a cap, but you can't really be sure what is going on.
The last of the minor criticisms might be work in progress kinda thing. There is "combat" tab in character info screens, but it is empty, there is constant training, but there is no combat action, not even simplest kind. There is character progression, and gaining powers, but absolutely no way for you to use them in any shape or form.
There is one MAJOR gripe I have with the game: borderline bureaucratic management in sex scenes. Let me make myself clear: I don't begrudge creators for emphasizing consent. IRL consent is important, because real people can get really hurt if you are not responsible. I fully get that. I will admit that porn games with abuse of power and strong sexual domination fantasies are my preference, for fantasies that have no place in real life, but this criticism is not about that, I'm not trying to force my preference here. There are other games that cater to these fantasies. However, and I know it was already mentioned few times before, verbally and explicitly asking EVERY TIME you make any, even smallest, action during sex scenes is absolutely ridiculous and just kills the flow or excitement or spirit of play. You can actually kiss the same girl without written application in triplicate as a flirt action. Girls can take initiative too. But when you start sexual action, even when you are already balls depp in her pussy after she swallowed your firs load, you still have to verbally confirm if she is for sure absolutely comfortable holding hands. Seriously. So you are saying, that you cannot learn your preferences and boundaries, there is no body language that factors into the equation you cannot even set ground rules before if you're so worried about misreading more subtle cues. You cannot, for example, write it: "you slowly rise your hand to her breast and see her nod/smile/shudder with anticipation". Maybe this explicit verbal consent could make sense if you are role-playing submissive with domina situation. Or maybe (just spitballing) as a for of sexual therapy for someone that was mind controlled and need to regain their sense of control and agency.
