Reviewing v0.9c
TLDR
+ Unique art style
+ VN scenes are well choreographed
- Management game is not engaging
- The correct dialogue choices can be extremely weird
- One of the girls looks and acts like a child
In this game you spend a bit of time in a management phase before choosing which VN scene you want to play out before moving to the next management phase.
The management game is extremely thin. I was consistently completing goals in half of the allotted time. Every management phase you can assign employees to work in different buildings you own. When employees work for too long they get unhappy, so you are encouraged to rotate employees around different buildings instead of using one configuration permanently. You don't actually need to do this though, because the penalty for unhappiness is very small. The mechanics never get more complex or engaging than this, so you can breeze through the management part doing nothing other than spending the money you have when the game gives you more things to spend money on.
The worst part of the management game is that it doesn't support the VN scenes at all. You don't learn anything about the characters or the world through the game. You don't form any attachments to the characters by using them in the management game. I know the developer's other game is entirely a VN. It's very easy to tell that they have experience with VNs but not with gameplay.
The VN scenes have a unique art style and are technically well done, but some writing choices and one character in particular are very off-putting. I like that the scenes use dynamic camera angles, and dialogue is well-paced in a way that lets jokes land and deeper conversations stand out. Sometimes during scenes, you'll get two dialogue choices. One choice will end the scene, and one choice will continue. Sometimes one of the dialogue options will just be extremely weird and controlling, almost psychopathic. This is always the option that continues the scene, and characters always react positively to this. The choice that makes you sound like a sane person will end the scene. I don't know if the developer thinks they are encouraging choice or role-playing. They are not. When the choice is to stop a scene or continue the scene, there is only one correct answer, and the developer has consistently chosen to make that answer very stupid.
I also need to mention that one of the girls in this game looks and acts like a child. She's actually a 5000 year old dragon or whatever. You can choose not to view her scenes, but her presence in the game alone made me very uncomfortable when playing.
TLDR
+ Unique art style
+ VN scenes are well choreographed
- Management game is not engaging
- The correct dialogue choices can be extremely weird
- One of the girls looks and acts like a child
In this game you spend a bit of time in a management phase before choosing which VN scene you want to play out before moving to the next management phase.
The management game is extremely thin. I was consistently completing goals in half of the allotted time. Every management phase you can assign employees to work in different buildings you own. When employees work for too long they get unhappy, so you are encouraged to rotate employees around different buildings instead of using one configuration permanently. You don't actually need to do this though, because the penalty for unhappiness is very small. The mechanics never get more complex or engaging than this, so you can breeze through the management part doing nothing other than spending the money you have when the game gives you more things to spend money on.
The worst part of the management game is that it doesn't support the VN scenes at all. You don't learn anything about the characters or the world through the game. You don't form any attachments to the characters by using them in the management game. I know the developer's other game is entirely a VN. It's very easy to tell that they have experience with VNs but not with gameplay.
The VN scenes have a unique art style and are technically well done, but some writing choices and one character in particular are very off-putting. I like that the scenes use dynamic camera angles, and dialogue is well-paced in a way that lets jokes land and deeper conversations stand out. Sometimes during scenes, you'll get two dialogue choices. One choice will end the scene, and one choice will continue. Sometimes one of the dialogue options will just be extremely weird and controlling, almost psychopathic. This is always the option that continues the scene, and characters always react positively to this. The choice that makes you sound like a sane person will end the scene. I don't know if the developer thinks they are encouraging choice or role-playing. They are not. When the choice is to stop a scene or continue the scene, there is only one correct answer, and the developer has consistently chosen to make that answer very stupid.
I also need to mention that one of the girls in this game looks and acts like a child. She's actually a 5000 year old dragon or whatever. You can choose not to view her scenes, but her presence in the game alone made me very uncomfortable when playing.