Review for v0.2.0 public
Like some other people I was hesitant when I seen the rework, but that skepticism quickly faded when I started playing it. I played through most of what is now the "old" version awhile ago and although my memory is a bit fuzzy, I can still compare the rework to it. In my opinion, there are a lot of noticeable improvements.
What this does great right away is creating an atmosphere that gets you immersed. The visuals are great, the music is fitting, and even the sound effects are well chosen. Above all though I think the writing makes this shine. The protagonist feels like more of a protagonist, as in he has more character to him than what I remember from the old version. He's also not the cookie cutter nice guy MC you might see often, but he's still likeable so far. The big villain feels more intimidating this time around which is nice. Another new thing I really like is the dungeon crawler-esque map system. It's engaging and fun, and along with it, combat feels better too. Of course the few sex scenes so far are really good as well.
All that being said, this is still essentially a brothel simulator. If you are someone who doesn't like the women to have sex with anyone but the protagonist, this still probably isn't for you. Yes there are main girls who seemingly will only have eyes for the protagonist (ignoring possible bad ends or "dark paths"). But, the Oirans do act as prostitutes, and right now the only difference between "main girls" and "oirans" is the title. Saka and Yura, two of the starting Oirans, feel like main girls to me. Which is good as it's nice having all the characters get developed and feel like true characters, but the plot pushes them into basically selling themselves to help the business. If you're not into that happening it doesn't seem like there is an alternative right now. I guess you could just have them not service clients during nighttime, but that probably isn't viable long term.
I feel like the dialogue hints a lot at them possibly not going that route and doing the other jobs of an Oiran that doesn't involve straight sex, but again the plot pushes them into it. It would be cool if that becomes an option in the future to appease people like me who would want to go that route, and have alternate ways to earn money (like background courtesans or something) but again this is a brothel simulator after all.
Overall though, the rework is great. If you're someone like me who is hesitant to try this out because of the reasons above, I'd still say give it a shot. I didn't think I would like the game either when I originally played it either. I do hope we eventually get a route similar to what I talked about above as I think it would appeal to a lot of those people who would otherwise not even touch this.
I'm excited to see how this develops, best of luck on continuing the rework Devs! It's already a great start.
Like some other people I was hesitant when I seen the rework, but that skepticism quickly faded when I started playing it. I played through most of what is now the "old" version awhile ago and although my memory is a bit fuzzy, I can still compare the rework to it. In my opinion, there are a lot of noticeable improvements.
What this does great right away is creating an atmosphere that gets you immersed. The visuals are great, the music is fitting, and even the sound effects are well chosen. Above all though I think the writing makes this shine. The protagonist feels like more of a protagonist, as in he has more character to him than what I remember from the old version. He's also not the cookie cutter nice guy MC you might see often, but he's still likeable so far. The big villain feels more intimidating this time around which is nice. Another new thing I really like is the dungeon crawler-esque map system. It's engaging and fun, and along with it, combat feels better too. Of course the few sex scenes so far are really good as well.
All that being said, this is still essentially a brothel simulator. If you are someone who doesn't like the women to have sex with anyone but the protagonist, this still probably isn't for you. Yes there are main girls who seemingly will only have eyes for the protagonist (ignoring possible bad ends or "dark paths"). But, the Oirans do act as prostitutes, and right now the only difference between "main girls" and "oirans" is the title. Saka and Yura, two of the starting Oirans, feel like main girls to me. Which is good as it's nice having all the characters get developed and feel like true characters, but the plot pushes them into basically selling themselves to help the business. If you're not into that happening it doesn't seem like there is an alternative right now. I guess you could just have them not service clients during nighttime, but that probably isn't viable long term.
I feel like the dialogue hints a lot at them possibly not going that route and doing the other jobs of an Oiran that doesn't involve straight sex, but again the plot pushes them into it. It would be cool if that becomes an option in the future to appease people like me who would want to go that route, and have alternate ways to earn money (like background courtesans or something) but again this is a brothel simulator after all.
Overall though, the rework is great. If you're someone like me who is hesitant to try this out because of the reasons above, I'd still say give it a shot. I didn't think I would like the game either when I originally played it either. I do hope we eventually get a route similar to what I talked about above as I think it would appeal to a lot of those people who would otherwise not even touch this.
I'm excited to see how this develops, best of luck on continuing the rework Devs! It's already a great start.
