After trying Sicae and being so annoyed I could not finish the first episode, I didn't have high hopes for this one, but I was wrong.

The game still has the same style, with some slightly annoying elements, but this is a clear step-up from the first chapters of Sicae. The dialogs are shorter and a bit more interesting (though many could still be cut 2x in length, like those discussions in the hallway when MC is leaving the house), the text is now revealed in full each time rather than incrementally. I also wish there was 2x-3x more renders for dialogs, it gets a bit boring sometimes staring at the same one for prolonged periods of time. Random lewd pictures appearing out of nowhere still feel odd and out of place .

The story itself feels a bit basic, but it does get more interesting over time. The characters are diverse and have unique personalities, but ultimately closely intertwined.

I was not sure if I'll play through all chapters or abandon it too, somewhere in episodes 3/4 I was quite bored, but episode 5 was certainly worth it all. So emotional, I'm seriously impressed, very good! I can clearly see the developer(s) writing skills grow with every next chapter and now looking forward to the next one.

I was initially thinking the game is 3.5/5, but thanks to the 5th episode I'll round it up to 4/5.

Major UPD: Okay, I initially expected that version 0.4 only has 4 episodes, I was so wrong...

From 5th episode of the prologue things went much better. A lot better story, better renders, better soundtrack. The whole thing is 4.5/5 if not higher! I wish the first episodes were updated with shorter/more interesting text and better renders, I bet many would abandon it early because of how boring it was at the beginning. Now I'm starting to question whether I should try to continue Sicae through the first episode.

I anticipated Emy's solo arc to be something short, but it was a really large piece, very surprising! And then even more content is present in the other branch. Seriously impressive!

There are some technical issues. Sky's third and fourth scenes are almost identical, so I was confused why only one was unlocked initially. There are a few pictures that are impossible to unlock as well, not that I care about them, but still annoying. There are many superficial and unnecessary choices where the second option is "don't do it". And in the ch1ep4 there is a typo on line 1611, which prevents further progress, it should have been "jov" instead of "ov". Not everyone is technical enough to fix that on their own. Also official walkthrough for some reason has not just hints for choices, but a whole different naming mechanism with "landlady" and such, which is not as appropriate as the original version.

UPD: Chapter 2 Episode 1 is 5/5. The renders and models of characters are improved , the soundtrack and music in general is probably the best so far , the writing is good. Very enjoyable overall!

The only minor complaints for Ch2E1 I have are:
* for the phone to scroll down as new messages appear (it doesn't always do that) and close automatically after last message (doing multiple clicks to get rid of it as text it being rendered below it is annoying)
* Klara's scene had too flat colors, higher dynamic range would have been nicer

Thank you!