Review of R7 PE...
The implementation of this chapter is much better than chapter 1. The animations are worked in much better and much more fluid with the text instead of being the annoying unskippable scenes in chapter 1. Unfortunately starting at Day 14 of chapter 2 they bring a few of those back, but it's only two or three.
In chapter 2 they also gave you the option to remove the smoking from that game. Which was VERY welcome. Smoking is a massive turn off for me and made it difficult for me to get attached to Juli in chapter 1.
The writing isn't bad. There are various spelling and punctuation errors that could have been corrected with a simple proofread, but it didn't take away from the game for me.
I would have given the game a full 5 stars if it wasn't for these few things...
- The only girl with realistic breasts in the game is the MC's girlfriend Maureen. Nearly every other character has unrealistically large fantasy tits. The disparity with Heather was comical. Her massive tit difference from her being in college to when she's a milf could only have happened if she had gotten massive implants in the years between, and she hadn't.
- Probably more of a nitpick - All of the women wear 4 inch heels no matter where they are or the time of day. Juli will be making breakfast in the morning wearing a housecoat and high heels. It would seem the dev has a smoking and heel fetish.
- I'm not a fan of fourth wall breaking. Bacon and the MC make comments about how they know they are in a game and they even name drop the dev several times while also mentioned the game has new writers. Bacon and the MC are also shown playing various other real world VNs by other devs. And for some reason there is also a "Narrator" who's only purpose only seems to be to break the fourth wall.
- This is more of an observation - They seemed to have abandoned Helen's sub-plot. Helen is the oldest child of Juli and John, and MC's older sister, who was said to have died in a car crash. In chapter 2 I noticed Helen has been removed from all of the family portraits in the MC's house, yet she is still mentioned once or twice.
The game also tries way too hard to be as meta as it possibly can...
- The MC's ringtone is the theme to Back to the Future.
- Old Man Jones shows up to the MC's house in the Delorian and looking like future Doc...complete with hair, yellow coat, and clear tie.
- Old Man Jones takes MC to a military base inside a mountain to a stable time travel portal which is a Stargate complete with needing nine chevrons for a complete temporal lock.
The MC can be a bit derpy. For example; when he goes back in time and is in college and takes Juli's virginity and cums inside her and she tells him not to worry because it's a safe day, somehow the MC has no idea what that means.
I like the story so far. I haven't seen many VNs with a time travel aspect. Although with it being time travel the story can get a bit convoluted.
All things considered I would say give it a try. Most of my personal issues with it have to do with some of the design concepts. I know some will feel differently. I like the story for the most part, and am looking forward to see where it goes.