Everythings so good about this game for the most part, the renders are really nice, it has good animations, nice characters, a lot of thought and detail into things.
But its been losing me because at the start of the game it starts off with a serious tone, then as you progress inward its like a hipster took over the writing and just went as annoyingly relevant to 2021-2023 as possible.
Dont get me wrong I wouldn't mind if characters talked in a goofy hip style that was natural to the world, but theres 3 big aspects that tell me it isn't a natural thing and its more just inserted.
A) it didnt start off that way, everyone talked normal at first and then it randomly changes to lingo. Barbara being a huge example of a ever-changing character. Gentle character at first, well spoken, to a pissed off sounding brit, to talking like a californian teenager. It's odd lol.
B) The adults spoke differently, THEY DO NOT lol. It's so ungodly cringe seeing a model that looks to be like representative of 40 being like "yeah gang on god, we gonna get in there for real, for real, scopin out, then we gonna bust in yeah, get the drop like on pow, skibidi vibes ya heard?"
C) Its just too "real world" to fit a "fantasy" setting, if they talked in a lingo that was believable to the game world, rather than our horrible messy slang in America/UK I could be with it. However it's identical to 'zoomer' talk. While I can appreciate a little of it, especially between friends of similar ages its just odd when its a constant stream.
It feels like I get brain rot the longer I read through it, honestly lol. It feels bad because theres a lot of good things but this is one of those examples where everythings great, but the writings just pretty bad. If the dev had toned it down to just teenagers/YA's talking this way it would be fine but Ms Harper? Yoko? Anne? Monica? Dean? etc It's goofy. Ms Amanda and Olivia MAYBE at best.
MC is also a massive push over and takes on way more than he can chew, not really sure why. Doesn't ever want to eat food, runs on fumes constantly, has to be everyones hero, no fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural themes so its questionable why he's such a pet for everyone. Couldn't really wrap my head around that one. Already spread so thin, dean tells him to go sign up for every single club in the school, and he just accepts it with zero pushback. Everyone that tells him to do anything he basically just takes on the chin, you get some minor choices to refuse some things but ofcourse it would probably lead to an outcome you wouldn't like so you're being lead by the nose constantly.
Also just play Visual Novel mode, lol Sandbox is a total joke to even touch. Idk why devs are so insistent on sandbox mode for slice of life style games, its needless but they really want to make it a thing. The monotony of walking around. clicking work, repeating scenes, going to school, clicking on your house, the park, the next person to talk to, so incredibly immersive!

Sorry thats mean of me, but seriously, I just cannot stand the sandbox obsession with AVN's. If your game isn't coming as a simulator of some kind, doesnt have a combat system, a leveling system, stats, etc. Theres NO REASON For sandbox. It's artificial time waste that people use the excuse to "break monotony" but you just replace monotonous clicking with
tedious clicking.
Maybe it just isn't for me and people love it. On the bright side, I dont really harshly review so I think a 3 star is fair, has almost all good qualities, but the main aspect of a "novel" is lacking for me, so a middle score seems fitting.