I will mostly not touch on bugs as I'm sure they will be fixed eventually.
The Good
First of all, I enjoyed the new addition: the dialogue system. It's even possible to complete some stages without any massage at all, simply by talking. Some may argue that it takes away from a game called Taming Massage Parlor, but I think it's great at highlighting Mari's need for connection. Unlike Dana, she doesn't fall for the protagonist because of how the massage feels, but rather because he gives her appreciation and attention. It adds a layer of player choice in approaching each stage. Also, her reactions (and their progression as she gets more confident) are amusing, and that's the core of these games.
Next, the new posing system is awesome. The previous game had a heavy emphasis on pose management, deciding in advance, how much time you'd need with each individual position. This is completely gone and replaced with free posing, which is a good thing in my opinion.
Finally, taking off clothes by yourself instead of asking for them. This is a perfect addition for a game such as this, and my only gripe is that they removed the option to ask verbally. It really bothered me how the protagonist woke up Dana in the previous game to ask, instead of giving the player the option to simply take the clothes off. But I also enjoyed her flustered reactions at the request. I think both options of undressing should've been in this game.
New massage and sex systems. Simplifying the massage mini-game made the gameplay faster and easier, at the cost of simplifying stat increases and decreases. The sex system got rid of mini-games completely, which is a bit of a shame, but also massively improves flow. If it was up to me, I would make the player complete a mini-game once, the first time a sexual action is taken, and then I would just keep those results, with an option to replay the mini-game to change the results. It keeps the fun side of sex mini-games (varying stat changes) without annoying the player too much. But as it is, the game got quite better.
Masturbation. MASSIVE improvement. Also, them adding the choice of where to cum on the body and keeping fluids there until wiped off. It's a huge part of sleep sex simulator fantasy, and it works great here.
The art is also a bit better.
The Bad
This is gonna be a long one.
The main, biggest and most disgusting change is replacing the three meters from the previous game (Doubt, Anger and Satisfaction) with one unified "Mood" meter. It completely ruins the game. Not only does Mood not rise when she's asleep (which forces the player to keep waking her up with talking or pose changes, leaving less time to do something naughty as she sleeps), it can fall down when she's asleep. Mari, with her spider sense, psychic abilities, or whatever else, senses that I'm jerking off over her tits, completely not touching her, and her Mood falls. And now, if I wanna fix it, I have to wake her up (wasting time), talk to her or massage her again (wasting even more time), and now if I wanna do something else naughty to her, I have to get her to fall asleep again. It's dreadful. I'm absolutely baffled that they got rid of the previous elegant system of combining the satisfaction and sleepiness gauges into one.
But I'm not done with this horrid system yet. Its' next sin is completely ruining the core attraction of the previous game: girl's reactions, and, especially, her slow realization of what's going on. Previously, especially bold actions made her suspicion go up, eventually culminating in the Doubt bar turning into the Certainty bar, making her aware that you're intentionally touching her inappropriately, and changing her stat increases from the various massage types, as well as changing her reactions. It created this little dance of making her question you, raising her shame and arousal, then pulling back into normal massage to calm her down. It was simple, but fun. And making her alert, then pushing the boundaries, checking, how far you can go before she flips out, was thrilling for the first few times it happened. What's more, the massage only ended if her Anger bar filled up (or you got hit too much). So, you could fill out her Certainty bar completely, as long as her Anger didn't go up too much, which was also fun in its' own way. Finally, alerting her in later stages, then seeing her smile instead of being angry, and seeing that she doesn't mind you groping her and grinding on her, getting a lot less Anger than before, even though she's aware of what's going on, made the player feel satisfied with his progress. It was a great system.
AND THE MOOD METER TAKES ALL OF THAT AND THROWS IT INTO THE GARBAGE!
No more Certain state, no more Anger bar, no more careful dance. You touch her inappropriately, Mood goes down, Arousal and Shame go up. You touch her appropriately, Mood goes up, Arousal and Shame go down. Yes, her reactions still change based on the stage you're on, but it completely gets rid of the most fun part of the stage, her two states of engaging with the massage. For example, previously Dana could allow you to take her clothes off if she was oblivious to your intentions, or refuse you angrily if she caught on to what was going on. Mari waking up to suddenly being naked could've interacted wonderfully with Doubt and Certainty. But in this game it all depends entirely on the stage.
And it pains me even more, since they added the "accidental touch" massage area. It could've been a way of raising less suspicion than outright erotic massage, at the cost of raising less shame and arousal, or some other cost. But no.
I hoped the second game would make those systems, that made the first game fun, more engaging and deep. They could've even added a third state, something like Alertness, for example, between Doubt and Certainty. Instead the developers removed them completely.
Complete, utter, disastrous waste of potential. I can't overstate how much it ruins the game. And that's only my first point. Wild, isn't it?
My second gripe connects directly to the first. The progression conditions.
Each stage in the game roughly boils down to "talk about X topics a Y amount of times, then finish with high Mood".
...and I hate that a lot.
The first game gave you very vague directions. "Raise satisfaction", "Make her feel a bit ashamed", "Make her aroused and ashamed". It gave you a target and then let you achieve it in any way you want, playing with the meters. In theory, the dialogue system should've greatly improved that loop. With a variety of topics, some could increase or decrease her shame, some could make her aroused, some could put her at ease, some could raise or lower her doubt. And imagine how fun could it be to see her reactions change when in Certainty state!
But instead they all still simply raise or lower her Mood and slightly affect her Shame (which is useless because it's not a real stat anymore). You now have a huge variety of topics, all of which have no purpose, because the game tells you directly what to talk to her about and how much. And even if you decide to talk to her on your own, there isn't really any meaningful choice with upsides and downsides there, only good and bad options. It removes a huge chunk of interactivity and "problem-solving", however basic it may have been.
Now, add to that the fact that she no longer feels muscle tension, which actually decided if the massage was successful or not in the first game, and how you handled that decided the duration of each massage session. Another potentially interesting system replaced with the fucking Mood™ meter.
Another problem is gate-keeping massage points behind certain stage levels. The first game let you loose on Dana's body from the very beginning, allowing you to massage her anywhere any way you want. Yes, she would immediately get angry and you would lose if you got too sexual in the very first stage, but the option to fuck around and find out was there. And you could still get her to fall asleep and sneak in a few touches here and there. The only hard barrier was clothing, which is even more disappointing, since now you can remove it as Mari sleeps, but the game gate-keeps touching her behind plot progression. You can't even cum on her body after masturbating during the first session! What the fuck is the point then!?
I could keep going for a long time, turning this review into a whole essay (or a fucking novel). No clothing choices, no items, no money system. No option to massage her after lowering her panties slightly (although that's only if you do it from the front, so maybe that's a bug). No option to massage your cum into her skin instead of wiping it off (is it a goddamn massage game or not?). Too little days in the plot, giving you zero margin for error. No main menu, no sound options, no body type options after starting the game (in the first one you could toggle Dana's nipple color), underbaked peeping system, no sleeping blowjob (eh... personal gripe...), less grinding points that in the first game (which didn't have that much to begin with), no variations in dialogue...
Any one of these small issues could be overlooked. More than that, even they all together could be overlooked, if the game overall expanded upon the first game's ideas. Instead, it went the Bethesda way and cut its' own systems in half. Well, I suppose, at least the developers can say that they're a lot like an AAA company then: simplifying their games while still having a huge amount of bugs in them.
The Ugly
I loved the first game. It wasn't the best game in the world, but I spent way more time than I should've with it, because I really saw the potential in it. When I heard that the devs are making a sequel, I was happy as one can be.
I waited patiently. I didn't care about their cut in communications, didn't care about the long wait. I can wait, if it means getting the game building on the basis of the first game. In the mean-time, I checked out some of their other games. I checked out a demo for Clara's confessional, and, once again, I saw makings of a very interesting gameplay system, something unique and very promising.
I would honestly pay the devs for this game, if it came out on DLsite before the f95 version appeared. And I would be sorely disappointed. And now I can't help but wonder: can the devs really deliver on the promise of Clara's Confessional? Can they make the other entries in the Taming Massage Parlor series interesting and fun?
Do they even know what makes their own games good?
I give this game a 3 out of 5. Once they iron out the bugs, it will be playable, and decently fun. Not terrible, by any stretch of the imagination. But for this game, it's a scathing review. It could have been a 5. It should have been a 5.
Dixi.
The Good
First of all, I enjoyed the new addition: the dialogue system. It's even possible to complete some stages without any massage at all, simply by talking. Some may argue that it takes away from a game called Taming Massage Parlor, but I think it's great at highlighting Mari's need for connection. Unlike Dana, she doesn't fall for the protagonist because of how the massage feels, but rather because he gives her appreciation and attention. It adds a layer of player choice in approaching each stage. Also, her reactions (and their progression as she gets more confident) are amusing, and that's the core of these games.
Next, the new posing system is awesome. The previous game had a heavy emphasis on pose management, deciding in advance, how much time you'd need with each individual position. This is completely gone and replaced with free posing, which is a good thing in my opinion.
Finally, taking off clothes by yourself instead of asking for them. This is a perfect addition for a game such as this, and my only gripe is that they removed the option to ask verbally. It really bothered me how the protagonist woke up Dana in the previous game to ask, instead of giving the player the option to simply take the clothes off. But I also enjoyed her flustered reactions at the request. I think both options of undressing should've been in this game.
New massage and sex systems. Simplifying the massage mini-game made the gameplay faster and easier, at the cost of simplifying stat increases and decreases. The sex system got rid of mini-games completely, which is a bit of a shame, but also massively improves flow. If it was up to me, I would make the player complete a mini-game once, the first time a sexual action is taken, and then I would just keep those results, with an option to replay the mini-game to change the results. It keeps the fun side of sex mini-games (varying stat changes) without annoying the player too much. But as it is, the game got quite better.
Masturbation. MASSIVE improvement. Also, them adding the choice of where to cum on the body and keeping fluids there until wiped off. It's a huge part of sleep sex simulator fantasy, and it works great here.
The art is also a bit better.
The Bad
This is gonna be a long one.
The main, biggest and most disgusting change is replacing the three meters from the previous game (Doubt, Anger and Satisfaction) with one unified "Mood" meter. It completely ruins the game. Not only does Mood not rise when she's asleep (which forces the player to keep waking her up with talking or pose changes, leaving less time to do something naughty as she sleeps), it can fall down when she's asleep. Mari, with her spider sense, psychic abilities, or whatever else, senses that I'm jerking off over her tits, completely not touching her, and her Mood falls. And now, if I wanna fix it, I have to wake her up (wasting time), talk to her or massage her again (wasting even more time), and now if I wanna do something else naughty to her, I have to get her to fall asleep again. It's dreadful. I'm absolutely baffled that they got rid of the previous elegant system of combining the satisfaction and sleepiness gauges into one.
But I'm not done with this horrid system yet. Its' next sin is completely ruining the core attraction of the previous game: girl's reactions, and, especially, her slow realization of what's going on. Previously, especially bold actions made her suspicion go up, eventually culminating in the Doubt bar turning into the Certainty bar, making her aware that you're intentionally touching her inappropriately, and changing her stat increases from the various massage types, as well as changing her reactions. It created this little dance of making her question you, raising her shame and arousal, then pulling back into normal massage to calm her down. It was simple, but fun. And making her alert, then pushing the boundaries, checking, how far you can go before she flips out, was thrilling for the first few times it happened. What's more, the massage only ended if her Anger bar filled up (or you got hit too much). So, you could fill out her Certainty bar completely, as long as her Anger didn't go up too much, which was also fun in its' own way. Finally, alerting her in later stages, then seeing her smile instead of being angry, and seeing that she doesn't mind you groping her and grinding on her, getting a lot less Anger than before, even though she's aware of what's going on, made the player feel satisfied with his progress. It was a great system.
AND THE MOOD METER TAKES ALL OF THAT AND THROWS IT INTO THE GARBAGE!
No more Certain state, no more Anger bar, no more careful dance. You touch her inappropriately, Mood goes down, Arousal and Shame go up. You touch her appropriately, Mood goes up, Arousal and Shame go down. Yes, her reactions still change based on the stage you're on, but it completely gets rid of the most fun part of the stage, her two states of engaging with the massage. For example, previously Dana could allow you to take her clothes off if she was oblivious to your intentions, or refuse you angrily if she caught on to what was going on. Mari waking up to suddenly being naked could've interacted wonderfully with Doubt and Certainty. But in this game it all depends entirely on the stage.
And it pains me even more, since they added the "accidental touch" massage area. It could've been a way of raising less suspicion than outright erotic massage, at the cost of raising less shame and arousal, or some other cost. But no.
I hoped the second game would make those systems, that made the first game fun, more engaging and deep. They could've even added a third state, something like Alertness, for example, between Doubt and Certainty. Instead the developers removed them completely.
Complete, utter, disastrous waste of potential. I can't overstate how much it ruins the game. And that's only my first point. Wild, isn't it?
My second gripe connects directly to the first. The progression conditions.
Each stage in the game roughly boils down to "talk about X topics a Y amount of times, then finish with high Mood".
...and I hate that a lot.
The first game gave you very vague directions. "Raise satisfaction", "Make her feel a bit ashamed", "Make her aroused and ashamed". It gave you a target and then let you achieve it in any way you want, playing with the meters. In theory, the dialogue system should've greatly improved that loop. With a variety of topics, some could increase or decrease her shame, some could make her aroused, some could put her at ease, some could raise or lower her doubt. And imagine how fun could it be to see her reactions change when in Certainty state!
But instead they all still simply raise or lower her Mood and slightly affect her Shame (which is useless because it's not a real stat anymore). You now have a huge variety of topics, all of which have no purpose, because the game tells you directly what to talk to her about and how much. And even if you decide to talk to her on your own, there isn't really any meaningful choice with upsides and downsides there, only good and bad options. It removes a huge chunk of interactivity and "problem-solving", however basic it may have been.
Now, add to that the fact that she no longer feels muscle tension, which actually decided if the massage was successful or not in the first game, and how you handled that decided the duration of each massage session. Another potentially interesting system replaced with the fucking Mood™ meter.
Another problem is gate-keeping massage points behind certain stage levels. The first game let you loose on Dana's body from the very beginning, allowing you to massage her anywhere any way you want. Yes, she would immediately get angry and you would lose if you got too sexual in the very first stage, but the option to fuck around and find out was there. And you could still get her to fall asleep and sneak in a few touches here and there. The only hard barrier was clothing, which is even more disappointing, since now you can remove it as Mari sleeps, but the game gate-keeps touching her behind plot progression. You can't even cum on her body after masturbating during the first session! What the fuck is the point then!?
I could keep going for a long time, turning this review into a whole essay (or a fucking novel). No clothing choices, no items, no money system. No option to massage her after lowering her panties slightly (although that's only if you do it from the front, so maybe that's a bug). No option to massage your cum into her skin instead of wiping it off (is it a goddamn massage game or not?). Too little days in the plot, giving you zero margin for error. No main menu, no sound options, no body type options after starting the game (in the first one you could toggle Dana's nipple color), underbaked peeping system, no sleeping blowjob (eh... personal gripe...), less grinding points that in the first game (which didn't have that much to begin with), no variations in dialogue...
Any one of these small issues could be overlooked. More than that, even they all together could be overlooked, if the game overall expanded upon the first game's ideas. Instead, it went the Bethesda way and cut its' own systems in half. Well, I suppose, at least the developers can say that they're a lot like an AAA company then: simplifying their games while still having a huge amount of bugs in them.
The Ugly
I loved the first game. It wasn't the best game in the world, but I spent way more time than I should've with it, because I really saw the potential in it. When I heard that the devs are making a sequel, I was happy as one can be.
I waited patiently. I didn't care about their cut in communications, didn't care about the long wait. I can wait, if it means getting the game building on the basis of the first game. In the mean-time, I checked out some of their other games. I checked out a demo for Clara's confessional, and, once again, I saw makings of a very interesting gameplay system, something unique and very promising.
I would honestly pay the devs for this game, if it came out on DLsite before the f95 version appeared. And I would be sorely disappointed. And now I can't help but wonder: can the devs really deliver on the promise of Clara's Confessional? Can they make the other entries in the Taming Massage Parlor series interesting and fun?
Do they even know what makes their own games good?
I give this game a 3 out of 5. Once they iron out the bugs, it will be playable, and decently fun. Not terrible, by any stretch of the imagination. But for this game, it's a scathing review. It could have been a 5. It should have been a 5.
Dixi.
