alright, i just finished 0.4.4 and i think it's a pretty good effort and definitely the right direction, and it's much better than the premium edition. i know many people are complaining about it and hating it, but i think that's just because he's starting from scratch and therefore there just isn't any real amount of content yet, but i don't mind. there's a lot more good than bad with this new version.
firstly, the writing is much, much better. the writing in the original game (0.4.2) was not the best, and there was no real story to it. the mc was not really a character either; there was nothing to like about him. the grammar and spelling were also pretty interesting. this new version has much more fleshed out characters, the mc is a pretty likeable guy (in my opinion, anyways), and there's hints at new paths the story can take, with you trying to figure out what you want your career to be, and how the girls each want their relationship with you to be. it's much more lighthearted than the premium edition. there's no revenge plot, no unnecessarily vindictive mc, the girls (mainly elena) aren't complete bitches. it's just a happy tone, which is good for a game like this. it's overall a lot better (plus the grammar and spelling are improved, thankfully).
all the new stuff that came from the premium edition is pretty good too. the new menus and ui are all impressive. the new house and map look good. the new models for the mc and his dick are a lot better. the intro was a nice prologue (albeit a bit long). there's a lot more effort put in which is noticeable. and i think the new girls introduced in the premium edition that carry over all look really good, as does any model in this game. i hope the principal has content planned for her, and i also hope that sofia and catalina are bundled together, like the original game. it was definitely cool to have a 2 for 1 route.
finally, some things i dislike or don't really care about. i think the reputation system is a bit disjointed. it doesn't really make sense for your choices to either affect your rep or the romantic interest with a girl; you're always gonna choose rep in that case, considering you can raise the girl's love in other ways (mostly gifts). i wouldn't change it though, i don't want some girls' content to be locked out because you chose rep over her love. this is a harem game after all.
just get rid of the minigames when you peep and when you masturbate. minigames are always kind of annoying, and these ones are extremely so. if you have to have something to raise the levels, maybe just make the button stationary and have it so the player has to click a lot less to reach the max level, i don't know.
lastly, i think the relationship with alice moves a bit too fast. something that was actually pretty good about the original was your relationship with alice. it was a lot slower and drawn out. there was a lot more latent desire in both of you, and it culminated nicely in that shopping trip. in this game you kind of just ask her to be your girlfriend and she accepts right away. maybe this is a result of the game having no content yet, but that doesn't really make sense considering she comes home without you seeing her for potentially days and right away you already lust after her and get her to be interested in you as well. so maybe rework the relationship between them. maybe when there's more content with the other girls he'll rework it so it's much more drawn out.
i think this new version has much, much more potential than the old one. obviously, the old one has a lot more content, so i think that's why people think it's better. and i'll agree, the content in the old version was good. we'll just have to wait for the content in this one to catch up. it's disappointing, sure, but i think there's a lot more room for new stuff in this version. i'm looking forward to it. keep it up waifston