Written as of [v0.3] :
GRAPHICS - 4.5/5
The first thing you'll notice about Wild Cats is that LopaPhi really loves what I'd describe as a sunset filter on most of his scenes.
More often than not everything is in warm yellows and oranges that make the game look cozy.
There's a graininess that overlays most of the renders, especially around the hair, as probably as a result of equipment that's not up to snuff, but I actually really enjoy it as part of the overall look of the game and I'll be sorry to see it go if LopaPhi gets a better GPU.
Our main girls are, on the whole, very well-designed and detailed (with the exception of Fiona, in my opinion. With no evidence, my assumption is she was added on as a sort of homage to Alex Bardot from Eternum and didn't get as much attention to character or design as the others).
I've seen a dozen AVNs using Honey Select suffer from same-face syndrome or worse, a dead-eyed doll look, but Wild Cats has very rarely followed suit on that front.
Eve's freckles and moles on her body are a favorite of mine, I always prefer something like that to flawless, perfect skin on every character.
The girls' expressions are obviously chosen with care at all times. You know exactly what they're thinking just by the looks on their faces and it can often be complex.
It genuinely really helps someone like Saki as a character that instead of her expressions being in turns happy, angry, sad, horny, she'll look sardonically amused or intensely frustrated, sarcastically beaming or warmly grateful.
If there's any AVN character I've ever seen who can pull of a masterclass ragebait with a head tilt and a blank look it's Saki.
That detail doesn't extend to the side characters, unfortunately.
Desiree's two friends Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dipshit (Rebecca and Anna) both look like they came fresh off the HS2 assembly line not much changed from the standard default Japanese girl you start character creation with, which is a shame because I kind of enjoy their comedy bits.
Same can be said for a lot of the one-off throwaway male characters, although the models for the protagonist and the SIT Alpha Wolves have some of the best models for men I've seen in HS2 games. It's not strictly necessary that they look unique, but it would definitely be a bonus if they did.
STORY - 3.5/5
So far the plot is simple and serviceable.
Johan is a former volleyball prodigy who had to quit due to a chronic injury, and gets recruited to be the coach of a failing girls' volleyball team in exchange for a scholarship.
The first three updates so far have centered around Johan recruiting the team and getting them to commit, and also not hate him.
He'll go out to hound one of the girls on the Gallery roster, and be rebuffed but get a little closer to getting through to them, usually takes three or four interactions before they actually join up.
Interspersed between these are actual practices, which I think are where Johan as a character actually shines the most, and his passion for the sport comes through really well in the writing.
I'm not sure if the game will actually end in three months when he has his deadline to meet, but I hope we follow the team all the way to the end of the season.
The worst I can say about the plot in general is that its themes can get very melodramatic without much there to justify the time it takes.
Johan's father is a one-dimensional asshole who's physically and emotionally abusive as part of a conga line of misfortunes he goes through, and to justify why his temper causes him to insult people and (potentially) strike a girl he's just met for back-sassing him.
There's an occasional rapist hiding around the corner for our hero to protect the girls from. Lexi is almost assaulted at a party while blind drunk and afterwards acts like it's happened to her before.
Fiona is the victim of social ostracization thanks to a rumor, Saki suffers from an inferiority complex and acts out thanks to absentee parents and an overachieving sister.
All of these are juggled simultaneously, none with any particular depth. Johan
CHARACTERS - 4.5/5
Johan gets laid by virtue of anime logic and a shared interest with the girls and very little else.
I've seen people on here complain that he scares the hoes too much, but they're coming at it from the position that the hoes are overly scared for no reason, which is hilarious.
He's severely socially stunted and can't pick up on basic romantic cues, gets aggressive at the drop of a hat, he's petty, stiff.
Once, while spanking a girl, he unironically verbalizes the thought that her ass reminds him of a volleyball.
If you ever went to high-school or college you knew a guy like this, and at the time you knew he was NGMI.
But this one does! Mostly because LopaPhi is aware that Johan is a weird sperg and his mannerisms start being more funny when you realize he knows how to write normal characters to react to him.
As for the girls, I won't go into them individually further than I did above because it really is best you get a read on their personalities yourself, but it is worth saying that LopaPhi is very confident at giving each of the characters a unique voice.
With the combination of their vocal habits and the stellar use of their expressions and poses it's so easy for me to imagine their voices.
I'll touch on this as well; this is not an anime game where girls go "Kyaaa!", trip over the weight of their H-cups and land mouth first on the protag's dick, then promptly fall in love with him.
About half the cast spends a lot of the game so far getting over their initial impression that Johan is a weird creep, but it's genuinely satisfying when they come around to see he doesn't have bad intentions.
I really like all of Saki's scenes in particular, she's easy one of my favorite characters in any AVN.
SMUT - 3.5/5
This is a pretty good harem sports VN first and a smut game second.
There are currently four sexy scenes each spaced about two hours of reading apart from each other, and a bunch of stills that girls can text over to the protagonist if they like him enough.
The models of course look very pretty, but the animations themselves are pretty standard for Honey Select.
You'll enjoy them as much as you enjoy the dynamic of the characters involved, so don't expect to skip through to the porn and expect to be satisfied.
