I think too many characters causes the burn-out/abandonment issue for some games. I started thinking about it for one game of how many different outcomes there could be to a single scene if the dev had made everyone happy. It would probably have taken a month or two just to pose and render the single event due to so many combos if you liked this girl but rejected that one. If you've got 8 girls, and each is just a simple in or out, that is still over 200 combinations to account for in story telling and visuals. Way too complicated.
I've only played a few, but this one is so far past anything else, I started to feel lost. One of my thoughts is just how many girls he would need to bang in that next three day period at the rate the story was going. I'm not sure I can even count how many are teased as possible sex partners when play currently ends. the childhood best friend, 2 cheerleaders, the website/news team & social media girl, multiple girls from the swim team, the teacher, her sister, their cousin the nurse, the school administrator, the one cheerleader's roommate/girlfriend, the cheerleaders and girlfriend from the opposing school, technically he hasn't gone all the way with coach, the rest of muscle girl's crew, probably a big girl or two, the girls he gave tickets to in the RV, gotta be at least one from the hotel lobby boob-signing event, the cheerleader mom, the dog-walker girl (or is she in one of the other groups), the rainbow girls, some of the cult members, the locked away princess?
Still feels like that isn't all of them. That could be over 30 on top of the ones he's already done.