VN - Ren'Py - The Roommate [v0.11.11] [togs]

This game hits the sweet spot for me. I'm very much into the BDSM-scene and this dev handles it brilliantly. No cheap blackmailed or forced submission, just consensual adults engaging and enjoying their kinks. The art looks quite good, and the characters are relatable and attractive. I highly recommend it.

The writing while not particularly gripping is at least serviceable enough, though it takes a while to build up to anything.

The game makes you aware of stats like energy and money, but so far no decision I've made has really forced me to consider them - which isn't a bad thing, I don't tend to like thinking about such things in these games. Just makes me wonder if they have any real purpose since I would really have to go out of my way to fuck up enough for it to maybe matter.

Anyway - I think it's worth a go - I'll be looking forward to future updates.

Had to go through several times. Not for fun either.

Got to I believe it was Day 70 and started a loop for the London trip. This went on for a few restarts. Finally got it sorted out.

Overall this is an average VN. Just slightly above basic. There are animations, but they are weirdish looking sometimes.
Writing on average is decent. The humor is what saves this VN. Lots of back and forth keeps you just interested enough.
Characters are getting to be over loaded. Meaning there's starting to be to many to deal with. I skipped Van altogether.
Story was really interesting until the big plot twist. Was it needed? Probably not with everything else going on. You're focused on building up your company, and now this twist is in place to distract you.

Summary
Average VN overall. Could have gone without the plot twist, IMO.
Writing is ok, and the humor is pretty good. Lots of banter between characters. I laugh every time I see Kayla.
Characters are unique, but there's a lot of them.
Will there ever be a way to check the stats you seemingly acquire throughout the entire story? Probably to late to add something that should've been there from the beginning.
Although it's an average VN, the recommendation is still there. Give this VN a try. Might be worth the time.

I have been playing this game pretty much from the beginning. While I wasn't sure how things were going to turn out with the various L.I.s I like how the dev worked that out so far. Other than a few minor annoyances this game has been fun. It will be interesting to see how the harem moves forward & how others are worked into things considering a couple seem to have disappeared since the game began.

Review based on v0.11.01:

Ok, this game has popped up now and again and by reading some of the reviews and posts here I figured I would give it a try.

First of the story. Its basic, not terrible basic but your average kind of basic. You become CEO of this supposedly large company after your late uncle and will over time find out about some shady stuff he has done over the years, leaving the company vulnerable of getting sued, so its your job to fix the mess he left basically. The story do have a few interesting ideas going for it but also get comically strange at times. You will get to know A LOT of characters, their pasts, present and future hopes and dreams. Supposedly the choices you can make is said to push the story this way or the other but I have yet to see my choices make any meaningful difference to the plot, I have tried to go back and choose differently but so far, besides a few main characters, it seems mostly like changes in text before it comes to the same conclusion as every other choice. The main character is this nice guy with a bit of a dom kink, but dont be fooled most adult scenes are boringly vanilla. Adult content is surprisingly sparse and far between each other, first 30 days I think I can count on 1 hand how many adult scenes I got. The models and scenes are also a bit basic, if you look on the screenshots that is basically what you get throughout. What puzzled me is how animations go from bad to ok and back to bad again at random. There is also no music or sounds in the game.

I see some find real enjoyment in this game and that is great, sadly for me its just an average game. But would still recommend to give it a go, you might end up liking it more than me.

Simple but nice graphics.
Plenty of content.
Nice color choices.
Dependable updates.

Cons:
It's a kinetic novel, basically.
You can't get rid of any of the characters.
I 'chose' all things that would rule out a relationship w Kari but it still puts her and the mc in bed together several times.

The really bad part about the game is you don't have any choices. Supposedly they matter with respect to the characters feelings but not to the game.
For example:
I didn't want to give money to Kari from my paycheck...it took it anyway the first time.....
I didn't buy her a phone...she has one anyway....
Kari is supposed to be 'made' for the mc...yet no matter what she goes against his wishes such as refusing a job, not quitting the titty bar, and a couple sexual relations......
I didn't want coffee but still have to go through a morning scene every day w her and mc having coffee together.....
Even trying not to have relations w her, she shows up to give you a blowjob in the shower. You can't say no...there's no choice.....

Can't hire who you want at work. For example, the stewerdess, I said no but she works there anyway. Same w office girls, I couldn't stand them but I made me hire them no matter what I chose. If you try to hire one you want, it just says she refused the position.....

Looks like it's going to force a prostitute into your harem. I stopped going to the coffee shop the second playthrough so am not positive if it forced here all the way on you. ...

Choices just don't matter. It's the biggest downfall of The Roommate. I was hoping for more of a game not just reading and clicking. It's a pretty boring experience when you figure out you can't shape anything the way you want it.
I'm certainly glad others like it, though, and am very glad for all the success the dev is finding with it. If you don't mind not being able to make any decisions, then The Roommate is honestly a nice read with some really funny parts.

i never intended to rate this game cause it was too vanilla, so i stayed 2 years without playing, lately i was bored and downloaded and holy fuck, well worth it, no clue what the dev went trough, but the sex slave routes are amazing, or at least Lois is extremly well made!

there are a few other more spicy stuff that might not be for everyone
there is still the romantic route for those who enjoy such things
not everything is for everyone, but kudos to the dev for finding a good balance on a well done story so that it can please of a few of the more extreme niches in this community, which i personally feel that are being neglected!

if you can go over the build up that last up until 0.5 perhaps(?)
i´m sure you will find something that tickles you just right
probably the 5 stars was because i did not expected much from this game
but the turn around is extremely well done! for the extreme stuff ofc
for the rest romantic bullshit, guess it never needed the turn around!

Im big fan of the harem games, and this one is rare gem. Renders are decent, maybe little outdated. Not many animations. But we have a lot of LI's , lots of kinks - milking/lactation, anal, threesome, potential sharing (not my thing), bimbofication/transformation (which is rare and i love it).
Dev should add some screens with all LI and their statistics, its hard to keep track of them without it.
I like MC, that he is a chad, not some weak wimp, although his face is strange.
Overall good harem game. Looking forward for more.

Hmmmm. . ..
I didn't think this would happen but here I am.

I'm dropping the game. I don't know if the dev wanted to reflect what it's like writing so many LIs and making it work. If it was the intention, the scene with Kari being mad at the MC late at night was honestly perfect. She is the main gf. And yet she learned about something important last. Homeboy has stopped showing her he likes/loves her as much as he used to.

Then the morning scene where the she asks the mc if he wants coffee or something else while she is clearly in the mood for some lovin' only for homeboy to say "coffee would actually be perfect.". . . ..
I'm playing a porn games homes! Not a, "Life is such a drag! Let me just get a little boost before I go back to slaving on the 9-5 at my company where I spend a lot of time taking good advantage of my position to get into willing panties. But these panties stop mattering after a while. . . it looks like the panties at home don't matter that much anymore.
who knows. In 3-10 years from now we might all be jaded, love faded and no more sex."
I didn't do any exploring for the swinging paths but I guess Kiki leans HEAVILY to swinging even if none of the choices you've made lead to anything resembling any desire for that.

This may or may not mean the dev is going to make more paths for that. But I have been losing interest here and an extra reason is an extra reason.

As you probably can tell in the preview images, the graphics aren't great. The game has animations, but again. They nothing to marvel at.

For any of you who came for the milf/aunt. . . . I've played everything so far while avoiding swinging and slave/dominant paths. I did not get any content with her.

Absolutely beautiful game, the renders are really amazing, the game is beautifully written. I have just played a full playthrough of the latest version, and have since added the game to my watchlist, I look forward to all future updates from the developer.

The Roommate is what you get when you slam an ero-VN into an absolutely absurd soap opera. The story violates suspension of disbelief in the most heinous of fashions and there's t&a everywhere. Huh... that might actually just be a soap opera come to think of it.

The story starts out in a somewhat reasonable way. For about the first half of the content you play as a Steve Jobs wannabe becoming the CEO of your great uncle's fortune 500 company that does... things?... it's not very descriptive. You don't actually do work or pay attention to the company. You do PR heists and try to quietly clean up the ocean of abused women your great uncle left behind. It felt like a decent slice-of-life VN told from a unique point of view.

Then halfway through the story things go sideways. The company basically falls to the wayside and it's girl drama all the way down. Absolutely absurd shit starts happening to the point where I could only really laugh. Unfortunately the game plays it straight, but maybe that's for the best for humor potential? I think no personally, as it feels like I'm laughing at the story rather than with it.

It's typical VN style gameplay throughout, with hidden stat boosts based on your responses to characters. Your choices don't really effect the story though, so much as your relationship to individual characters. At the moment I think there's maybe five girls with whom choices actually matter, then a dozen other side chicks you can fuck if you choose.

There's a staggeringly massive number of characters in the game. It's too many. I think you could safely cut half the characters in the game and it would play better with more time to develop the existing characters.

Also, can we please stop with the spontaneous reveal of downright grim dark backstories for characters? Not every girl needs a past of trauma, rape and daddy issues, especially in a game that has very little in the way of horror beforehand. There's two girls in the game who reveal traumatic histories and then it's basically back to business as usual. It's so fucking unnecessary.

The look of the game seems great to me though. The girls in the game wear a lot of downright whorish clothes throughout the game, which I love, and their models generally look good. There's also some shockingly great animations in the game, though they're all quite short.

Overall though, the Roommate is giving off vibes of intense development creep as of patch 10.05. Choices gradually become fewer and further between, many characters get almost no focus in the story as if they've been forgotten, and the story meanders between events without much in the way of an arc or thoughts for the future. If you like the way the game looks and want to play a decent secretary corruption storyline, that's most of the good stuff you'll find here. It's a whole lot of absurd story and filler to get to it though.

Love the initial story and mystery . The personalities of the girls are all done well. The renders seems a bit old school, but that's okay because of the story.

I like the initial setup as it does not feel forced or like a continual fuck fest.

If you are intrigued by the story and look forward to playing a millionaire business owner this game will positively suprise you.

Rated as of Version: "v.0.9.14"


I'll be honest in that, when I started playing this game I wasn't expecting too much. I liked the basic concept of the story, playing a millionaire business owner seemed like it might be fun. The beginning of the game seemed to confirm my skepsis, the character poses seemed unimaginative and the story stuck in a bit of a loop. You say good morning to your roomate, she makes you coffee, you go home, sleep repeat.

But after a bit of playtime I found myself suprised to be more and more caught up in the developing story. Relationships to some of the main characters started developing in interesting ways and the general story started becoming more engaging, to the point where I played through the entire game within 2 days. It's not a story that will stay in your mind for it's amazing literary character, but while playing it will keep you engaged and exited to hear the rest of the story.

Giving the game some time to look past the beginning really allows you to see the progress it makes, both visually and storywise. Another positive surprise a new player might encounter is the relatively long playtime. One will find that this is one of the few games where you really note the 2 years of development that have gone into this based on the length of the game alone.

The amount of characters you encounter is high, though not exactly balanced. At the beginning you will find yourself engaging mainly will Kari and Lois, allowing you to better connect with their characters, but rarely coversing with others. Toward the later stages you will meet an amount of female characters that is large and diverse but by the sheer number makes it difficult to keep track of.
Small notes from the developer help you understand more complicated aspects brought up in the game, some may find them useful, others may find them annoying. A switch to toggle them on and off might serve both these groups well.
In some instances I believe the branching is not quite perfected, I noted some pictures (especially based on the selection of front desk staffers), to not fit to the choices I made previously. I found this not particularly bothersome.

In general, this is a game worth checking out, if you are intrigued by the set-up and a developer worth supporting based the speed with which they create content. I wish lots of luck with the further development.


Gameplay: 4/5 | Art: 4.2/5 | Story: 4.1/5 | Writing: 4/5
OVERALL: 4.2

Updated for 11.0.8 (at the end).


This would've been a great and really enjoyable game if it wasn't getting killed by it's own dev and all the feminism.

By the second "men are destroying everything and only womyn can save it!" I was rolling my eyes (the irony of that is mindblowing since it's men that have built and created pretty much everything in the world around us), but by the third, Madison and her bar, I was ready to start bashing my head against the wall with how predictable, unimaginative and annoying the narrative was.

And of course there is the constant whining over the "old boys networks". I mean, seriously, the only thing missing was screaming about the Patriarchy and about how oppressed women are. Wait, actually the latter was done. So, yeah, patriarchy still left and since I'm still not done with the game yet, that might come as well.

And of course all men, except 2 or 3, are utter sleazes, assholes and can't help themselves but molest women. Even JED, the good solid guy that does construction, got the asshole treatment by day 64! Alex, who is doing worse and saying shit to his PA that I would just gape at that is deep into sexual harassment territory, gets away with it cause he's rich. That's the time feminism takes an afternoon off, I guess. Hypergamy overrules even it.

And there are many targets, honestly I don't think I remember playing recently a VN with so many love interests. So many in fact that I've forgotten the names and backstories of the most of them, because they're just so flat and one-dimensional while others have overly dramatical stories (there is really no need for more than 1 LI to have been raped and thus traumatised per story). And that is an issue on it's own. Or would be if their role was anything more than being a cock-warmer for the apparently irresistible MC.

The VN originally had potential cause it's got stuff like sex cults, hucows, etc. but the problem is the game takes all this very seriously instead of with some self-aware humor and thus falls on it's face. And after like the first 20 or 30 days it turns into a boring grind. Pervasive feminism is not the only problem. There's other small issues like vague system of money management that trutfully only works for the first hour or so until you inherit millions, lust meter that at some point just stops working since there is NO SEX possible and you're stuck at high lust levels (I was near lethal level during BBQ) and the primary romantic relationship that quickly loses it's spark. And the fact that the game does it's level best to portray the monotony of every day life and some quest lines and red threads just get lost in the aether forever.


Even bigger issue is complete lack of player agency. You can choose monogamy soon after the start of the game, but the dev will blithely ignore all your decisions and wishes.

You want Kari to be your only girl? Tough shit. Dev doesn't like that and he writes the game giving you no option to reject having a harem, the only thing you can do is to stop playing this game. Your PA, Lois, starts acting like she's your girlfriend and dev forces you to give her a petname - a milestone that in relationship with Kari was a signal that you've progressed from friends to lovers. And this happens no matter how hard you worked to keep Lois at a distance and only professional colleague. Kari loses all possesiveness over you and turns into Cuck Queen Extraordinaire as she not only tolerates MC's straying, but actively encourages is and engages in it. Yes, Kari cheats on you with women and is quite blatant and unashamed of it.

That is another thing to sink this story for me. Not only am I forced to cheat on my girlfriend "for the greater good" with at least 3 of her sisters, but she takes up lesbianism without the slightest input from her boyfriend. Sorry dev, but lesbians don't do anything for me. Yeah, I imagine your world was shaken by the revelation there are men out there who don't get turned on by two women faking sex by licking each other and shoving rubber imitations of dicks into each other. IRL it would be a deal-breaker and relationship-breaker for me. Exclusive or hit the road. Hetero or hit the road. Only morbid fascination and desire to see how the train will eventually derail is keeping me playing.


There is far more work and effort involved in keeping OUT OF relationships than actually starting them. The dev literally throws women and entanglements at the player as deals that are 3/4 done, you just need to rubber stamp them. Thus getting out of them is not always that easy, because you're EXPECTED to go along with it. Thus <b>player agency in this game is really low</b>.

And that doesn't just go for the player, but also for his love interests. Kari, who is basically thrown into his wife role from day 1, does what she wants, like working in a titty bar, etc. even if you're strongly against it. Lois, your PA, just elbows herself into position of your girlfriend even if you try to keep her away. Aria will steal your girlfriend and try to make her into a lesbian (and succeed) no matter how much you want your wife to stay your wife and straight. There is <b>frustratingly little control you have over your experience</b>.



Another issue is the already mentioned lack of sex in what is an adult VN which is critical since high lust will affect your decisions (theoretically and only at the start) - soon you don't even get the chance to masturbate anymore to relieve it (that are sadly not even that important in the long run since you can't affect the major plot points) and the fact that for some choices that are not straight-out simping for a girl you get punished by too harsh drawbacks for them. Also, some women that should be 40 years old look barely 20 (Omega looks early 20s, etc.), while others that are 35-40 (step-mom, forgot her name) look 50.

Good example of spineless simping is "invest into titty-bar" - the MC makes condition that Kari not work there anymore because he doesn't want his gf to be ogled, especially when she becomes pregnant (honestly, what kind of a man, except for a cuck, would want that?), then instantly buckles at the slightest resistance from the young woman who came BEGGING for his money to make this reality, claiming "I'm impressed by how much you care for her".

Bullshit! If she cared about Kari at all she wouldn't want to turn her into the kind of slut that she herself is that wants to show her tits to some random men, instead of only to her boyfriend or husband. What kind of a man likes his gf/wife showing her body or letting her body be used by other men? What kind of a husband doesn't mind if his wife gets felt up and wolf-whistled while strutting half-naked around a public place? Cucks, thats who and it's kink that is sadly spreading quickly on this board. So, are we being forced by the dev into being cucks? Aside of Mc being spinless pussy what made me angry the most is the woman's gall and arrogance. And the fact that the dev lets her get away with it and even gives positive reinforcement as if she is in the right. Instead, MC should've thrown the bitch out of the building (preferably through a window like Terence Hill) instead of cowering like some pathetic little puppy before the Strong Independent WomynTM. Ashamed with how weak that makes MC (and me) I rather went for the loan option just so I didn't have that scene in my playthrough.

Sorry, dev, but I would like the MC to stand for SOMETHING. Instead of constantly buckling to the slightest female pressure and push-back. CEOs are alphas by job description, not betas! Can't imagine CEO running a business if he's got no spine and no balls and is being dominated by people that are not even his employees, but are ASKING FOR HELP. How the hell is he supposed to run a multi-million business that employs thousands and keep confidence of the Board when he's incapable of standing his ground and defending his opinion, belief and wife in front of a single small woman, one who has no power over him, but is actually depending on him? How is he even supposed to SURVIVE in an ultra-competitive world of bio-engineering, pharmacy and whatever the hell else his company is involved in??? IRL this pussy would've been eaten by competition in week 1.


There is also the serious lack of interaction, especially romantic, with Kari, who is your main love and the reason for the story's title. For a really long time there is basically no romantic content, then when it starts the pacing is completely weird, once you start dating nothing changes, you're just roommates that occasionally at scripted points have sex. There is no affection like between a normal couple, no goodnight kisses (especially when it looked like they would happen had I made other choices), no PDAs, not even regular hugging, kissing or just enjoying each other's closeness. Or even affectionate petnames. Honestly, what kind of new couple would act like that? Where is the horniness of fresh love? These two act like they've been married for 40 years and the passion and lust had died long ago. Kari LITERALLY READS IN BED next to MC! A 20-something year old woman in the prime of her life with a fully functioning reproductive system! WTF? In reality she would've been all over him and vice-versa.

The way to fix that would be for dev to simply give players the option to have sex with Kari in the evening and the morning. AND change Kari's interaction to reflect their newfound love and passion.


Worse, MC spends his entire days at the office with Lois that gets more screentime than Kari for some reason, and is basically chasing other women or is BEING CHASED (guessing he's surrounded by golddiggers cause money and power is really the only thing anyone can say about him) even when I explicitly took choices that should've kept him monogamous in his relationship with Kari. The dev seems determined to mess up my intentions and is doing everything he can to throw Lois (or other women) at MC and having MC show interest even though I do everything I can to prevent that. I'm starting to wonder what's the point of it, since the dev seems determined to sabotage it and make this game a harem thing even though he pretends he's giving us a choice.

Which was just impressed on me with a sledgehammer on Day 65 when I had to CHOOSE A PETNAME for Lois even though I'm not in relationship with her (which was the condition for the same action for Kari).

Also, what I don't understand is how and why is Kari so perfectly happy to share HER man with other women? Sure "he's about to die if he doesn't make babies", BUT there should've at least been SOME internal conflict! SOME kind of filtering competition to sort out the ones she can tolerate instead of just giving everyone a blank checque. SOME kind of heart-to-heart with him telling that she doesn't agree easily, but because she loves him and because he will die otherwise she will do this sacrifice. After all, I DID check the monogamy clause at the start! so, WHERE IS IT, dev???

Good example, Kayla's tongue attack at the end of BBQ, that came more out of the left field than the impregnate-all-women-to-live plot. Also some of the lamest sex scenes in the game that also makes MC look like either a complete uncaring twat or the most useless and skilless lover ever. Kayla is an 18 year old VIRGIN and instead of making sure there is least amount of pain and she enjoys the experience the MC just jumps her like a horny dog and starts humping away at her.

I give this game 2 stars only because of hot girls and the lovable sweetie that is Kari that saves the game from being deleted from my drive completely on her own, otherwise it would be 1.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review of new content since I last played, newest is 11.0.8.

Well, the game has officially jumped the shark and straight into garbage bin.

Let's start with easiest. Apparently Mallory's milking life is public knowledge (last I remember she was pretty shy about it and keeping it secret) to the point she gives a public demonstration before people she really shouldn't even know. I honestly don't remember since when, but apparently well-known enough that Kiki, the British PA, was comfortable enough to take MC's role in the milking (sexually stimulating Mal) in front of her coworkers. And Lois found the moooing hot enough she had to jill it out afterwards. Foreshadowing, I guess.

The sharking jumping moment came soon after I started playing where for some fucking reason Kari suddenly wants to have lesbian sex with Aria! I'm sorry, dev, I don't share your weird lesbian fantasies, I want my hetero girl to stay hetero, instead of this bullshit American idiocy of "experimenting".

Since dev is determined to ignore all my choices and wishes and browbeat and throw me into a harem direction, I decided to just start troll-playing. As a result, the 18 year old intern is now preggers (hooray for fertility of youth if she got knocked up from her first and only sex, I guess) and instead of being happy that Project Saving My Life Through Breeding Women is finally on track and far sooner than expected (even if it's not with 1 of the 4 sisters), MC is acting like one of the biggest douches you can imagine who flip out when their gfs tell them they're pregnant. Yo, dude, she was a virgin and you didn't use a condom and she's freaking 18, the most fertile years, what did you expect?

Like seriously, maybe Kayla is not the perfect candidate for baby-momma for reasons other than her youth, but considering MC should have minimum 12 kids for best result (and only 4 clones made specifically for this purpose) and despite having sex with 3 sisters more than his gf/Kari there has still been no pregnancy, he should've been thrilled to be progressing at least somewhere in regards to hopefully not dying. Besides, she seems to be pretty happy and is not flipping out or calling the DA to sue him for sexual harrassment and child support that will send him into the poor house and is even so happy she is making a point to praise him for being the father, so I'm thinking take your wins as you get them. MC could do worse for his first baby-mommy. Hell, if she keeps that attitude and belief in him than ANY man could hardly do better.


There was a tiny development with the sex cult, which has been sitting untouched for a long time. It turns out it's not a sex cult but it's a re-heating of the Nazi Lebensborn and Western Eugenics ideology from the 1930s. As if some of this stuff wasn't already shady as hell and his old uncle beyond redemption, the dev decided to finally make him into someone on whose grave we would all happily relieve ourselves. Apparently it was originally conceived as an idea that "Rich people must start breeding more to not be outdone by the filthy inferior masses!" which then grew into "Need to save my boy" when MC's disease became known.

Dev, you DO realize this kind of elitist thinking is why Communism was created, right? To fight against it and give the disenfranchised masses the right to exist? But when uncle found out about his nephew's illness he changed it into his nephew's own little breeding camp. And now one of the army of receptionists that go around wearing see-through-dresses showing their nipples to visitors instead of uniforms; has decided that she doesn't see her sister (cult member) enough so the only solution to that is to leave her job and become a member herself. Yes, that means, she wants her boss' babies. This is... what... woman number 480956456 that wants his babies? Also, we STILL don't have a clue what does women do 24/7 except just sitting around in their cells, waiting for 20 years for their Master to finally appear and then ignoring them for a while again. What a boring existence. I hope they at least crochet, do needle work or engage in martial arts or something to pass the time.


But the final thing that had me screaming in rage so hard I woke up crows in the neighboring country is the reason for the newest tag that starts with a "b".

Seriously, dev. What. The. Fuck. Possesed you to add that shit into this game? As if it isn't already resembling a garbage fire as it is, you make it even fucking worse. I won't go into details, but let's just say you need to think carefully if you want to boink that big-breasted girl cop cause it will be unavoidable.


Oh well, maybe not all is lost, maybe I'll still get a chance to laugh at MC. Maybe he'll get cucked by an animal and his newest little conquest will start popping out wolf puppies instead of being his own little breeder.

Cause to laugh hysterically due to this game is all I can do anymore at this point.

Actually has a very decent story, the artwork is also very good. Some of the girls are real lookers and there is a wide variety of different types. This game really only has positives. If there would be anything that could be improved on is that there maybe can be a bit more choice in the story.

A difficult rating to be honest, it hovers between a 3 and a half and a 4. What's good is good and what's bad is really bad. The writings great, the girls are hot and you have (usually) a lot of choice in the paths you want to take with what girls. The story is ok, but the whole running the business thing gets old pretty fast, epecially since you have no real say in anything that happens, it just happens. It also gets weird towards the end for no real reason and you don't have a say in it soooo, pretty lame. When you choose what to do with the girls, in how you want your relationship towards them to go you get a good varied choice of the paths, but you don't get to choose what happens ON that path. So with lois you can make her your slave but you have no say in what happens. The jewelry, collar etc just happens and if you don't like it too bad. That just sucks the energy out of the path honestly. It's the same way with all of the other girls too, you choose their path but then don't get to pick the choices. Just... what's the point then. The strangest thing is the sandbox elements as they are completely useless. The phone, calender, the lust meter, all of this is just completely pointless and serves no point at all. They should just be removed and have have the extra effort put in towards refining the paths for the girls instead. The game suffers from trying to be a VN and a sandbox at the same time and ultimately ends up missing the mark on both. A sad situation because there are some real diamonds here, but unfortunately you have to scrape away the slimy garbage with your bare hands to get to them.

Although I have found some bugs (slut route with Lois and the phone) and lack of a gallery, I am impressed of the story going multiple routes. Animations are a bit lacking but I can forgive that. I was too busy seeing what the roommate has to offer and I'm impressed. Hopefully we're not approaching the endgame anytime soon. Keep up the good work!

[0.9.7]

This is a game that is unlikely to leave one indifferent.

Summary: As an AVN it is very strong on N part, good on V, but lukewarm on much of AV (H scenes).

I am torn between giving it 2 stars and 5 stars, so decided on 4.

Note for those who only just started -- just survive the first N days, the lewd parts unfold at some point. For additional explanation see below.

The good:

- excellent writing. really superb, mature, realistic dialogues. 6/5

- good plot, very good story progression (with eyebrow raised for the scifi elements);

- good attention to rendering background/item detail -- eg. floor plans, etc.

- the characters and interactions with them are also very well written and reasonably believable (at least at start).

- the MC is not a kid! And not a wet blanket! -- honestly, as of late, it seems a rarity and deserves a special mention in the games supposedly tagged maledom.


The bad:

- a ton of girls added, as story progresses, yet there really is not very much lewd content for most of them, despite it being hinted all the time.

- fully fledged H content with only one - Lois. Others, including supposedly MC's main LI Kari, appear mostly as story elements or plot drivers. Yes, you can build some involvement and supposed relationship with her, but the A part of AVN is kinda 10% of what Lois has. And for the first 2/3ds of current game, Kari's content is basically one scene repeated several times.

- the H scenes are short and with maybe 1 short animation, especially at start. Lois gets a lot of attention later on, and her scenes are markedly better. There is some decent writing on top of most of scenes though, so together it sort of works OK.

- the game has sandbox elements like phone and calendar, but is really so story driven, that you can almost never use them. It feels like sandbox elements merged into a kinetic novel actually.

The phone is the weird thing. There is a quick menu entry for phone, which you have to watch like a hawk, to get clickable, but there is no need really, as at most times you'll just call somebody's voicemail. Even in voicemail you can "leave a message" or just "hang up". I have no idea whether at one point, leaving a message maybe will be needed, so it's very frustrating -- a thing which you think you don't need, but are not sure. At the only couple of places the phone calls are required, you get direct information from dialogues about that.

The calendar is also a mixed bag. It supposedly lists events you'll have, BUT you can't be sure the events *you* add, will happen. Point in case: Ashley. You can become her sugardaddy, and you can schedule to meet her via phone, BUT 70% of time, the meets don't happen because story events ignore them. And sometimes not even any significant events. For example, I've tested it so that I have one of those evenings at home where there is option to go get coffee (at Ashley's who is a barista) or just go to sleep to recover energy. Even if I've scheduled a meet with her, it doesn't happen, if I go to coffee shop, and it doesn't happen, if I stay at home.

Also, you had the option of being pretty dominant at one of the employees once, and you can sorta force her to "be available when you want". But there's no content for her at all, even on phone, you can't even call her, just leave the same unknown message. A bit annoying.

The I.R.I.S. AI quick menu button is discussed a number of times, but dangles always unclickable. Probably one of the @TODO@s.

The other

- there is a long sort of intro/prologue for the first N days, where you get into real corporate routine, and there are only hints of any possibilities of H content. It's not that bad, and there is good writing so you get filled in on details of the world, but I did get a feeling of... hmm.. should I even try to continue? If you survive that, there is some point after which you start getting some of the A part of AVN.

- there is a curious mix of good storytelling with some characters, and other (later) characters who are still pretty decently written with good bg -- but unlike the first characters they just appear to beg to worship MC for no reasons. I approve, as too much storytelling/char development would move this from AVN to simple VN, and make a convoluted mess, but ofc it feels somewhat weird.

- This is a very story driven AVN. Actually I would call it almost a kinetic novel in disguise, because the only *decisions* you get to make, is how and which girls to get. You do take some major steps as CEO, but those are preset for you, and you can't avoid them. So 90% of your time in office (and you spend much of time there), is spent taking care of personnel details that in usual corporate practice wouldn't be particularly care of CEO. That's OK, this is a supposedly lewd AVN where you are actually forming your harem.

- you're the guy the dev envisioned to be, regardless of your own preferences. I understand there is only so much one can do for story paths, just be aware. You watch as MC's fate unfolds, and you can only enjoy the ride. Are you good? Are you bad? Well, even if you try to be more of a jerk, it turns out you're sort of vanilla considerate caring dom guy, who can't be actually evil, just maybe a bit egoistic as we all.

- The sci-fi elements that start to unfold, can raise a lot of eyebrows. Personally didn't bother me -- it is no worse than generic conspiracy theories floating around. In fact, due to the good writing, even those are not as unbeliavable as I'd think. The basement really picked my interest, it hints to more dom/sub setting, which is one of my kinks.

At the end, I somehow feel it a very controversial game for me. I love some parts of it, and hate others, therefore I can't make up my mind on the rating. But I know I want "mooooar content!" for most of the characters, since they are starved of it -- that surely means something.

Despite the list for bad being twice the size of good, the good things are very important and the bad things, while annoying, are livable with.

I don' really know how to convey how positively surprised I am with this game. The title does not do this game justice. I don't want to spoil anything but damn. Just play the game if you like well-written dialogues that are semi-realistic (at least in its own unrealistic porn setting), a great variety in girls, a likeable MC (or maybe I just share the exact same sense of humor?) and a much deeper plot than you first realize!

If the game continues in this direction and quality... expect a five star from me.

may not be top from technical point of view but i enjoyed playing it a lot
strong point are characters (secretary and girlfriend) and relationship dynamics
lots of side girls but did not care for them
dev is improving and game gets better further in you go
fortunately stat and wallet doesn't matter - money is endless and you can always pick whatever