Does this game have animation scenes?
“Does this game have animation scenes?”
The Simple Answer...
Yes, though they are, admittedly, few and far between. Even so, you shouldn't let this stop you from playing it. I really mean that! It's unbelievably good. I've never read a more excellent VN. This even tops every professional JP VN release I've ever read.
But... maybe you feel like reading a bit more than that..?
longer Better? RIGHT!
The BEST Answer
OK. Cool. So! I mean, sure, it doesn't have, like, a ton of animated sex scenes, especially later on in the story—more on that later—but it makes up for that with the ridiculous amount of depth that each and every character is given. Hell, labeling this game as a harem eroge is flat out wrong. This isn't a harem, it's a polycule. Which is to say, the truth of what's going on in this story is that the writer(s?) very clearly have a comprehensive understanding of how polyamarous relationships actually work in the real world, and they've done an absolutely amazing job of portraying that kind of dynamic accurately within this story, without sacrificing the eroticism of such a dynamic.
“I actually find the majority of the female characters downright unattractive; big titties and supermodel bodies just really ain't my jam.”
I genuinely can't even put into words just how difficult it truly is to portray such complex relationship structures within fictional worlds, and yet, the writer(s?) have done so seemingly effortlessly. It's truly exceptional in so many ways. I don't even find most of the characters all that attractive—if I'm being honest, I actually find the majority of the female characters downright unattractive; big titties and supermodel bodies just really ain't my jam—and yet… this is still my all-time favorite VN. I picked it up maybe five days ago now and I've literally not been able to put it down since then. Seriously: I started the app up and I've not even once had to visit the main menu after that, because it's practically the only thing I've been using my tablet for.
The amount of content and story—and the fucking depth of it—is truly unbelievable, too. I didn't actually realize this was such an old project—nor did I realize that it was still getting updates—but after reading for an ungodly number of hours and still not being at the end, it's clear that the writer(s?) have put an unquantifiable amount of love, care, time, effort, and energy into this story, and it shows.
“Nothing gets on my nerves more in a story than silly, repeated misspellings or grammatical errors.” “… ‘dumbie’ is not a word.”
I just… I really wish they'd pop open the story files, press CTRL+H, and replace ‘dumbie’ with ‘dummy’ already. If you didn't know… ‘dumbie’ is not a word. To be blunt, I've even debated doing this myself, because it's truly that maddening to me—yes, yes, yes, I know; I'm neurotic as hell. Nothing gets on my nerves more in a story than silly, repeated misspellings or grammatical errors. Technically, dumbie is an obsolete word meaning “a mute person” that hasn't been used since the mid-70's. It's also a known misspelling for dummy, meaning “like a wooden puppet or doll; brainless, stupid.”
Calling someone a ‘dummy‘ isn't a…articularly common thing for people to do these days—and, to be blunt, it hasn't been for at least a few decades now—but, when it is used, it's typically used in a joking, friendly way. You'd call someone a ‘dummy’ if you thought they'd done something silly or stupid, albeit inconsequential, and you wanted to poke fun at them in a way that they'd almost certainly know you're not being serious.
In any case, it's clear that the writer(s?) want to be using the word ‘dummy,’ given the way they always use (the non-word ) ‘dumbie,’ and it's absolutely maddening to read. Honestly, it's weird enough that a bunch of kids—okay, okay, they're technically not kids since they're like 16 to 19 years old, but still—in the 2050s (or later?) would be calling each other dummies (which is the correct spelling for the plural of 'dummy'), but I'd be able to accept that… if only it were spelled correctly.
A Brief Warning
on the
Weird Part of the Prologue
The only real complaint I have about this game is that before the story really fully kicks off—that is, before the reader is given the opportunity to even have a tiny inkling of an idea as to what the hell is even going on—there's a section which… well, very nearly debases the entire concept. I feel as if the writer(s?) maybe weren't really sure where they actually wanted to go with things at the time they write this part, and the result was an important aspect of the protagonist, CJ, was inextricably linked with an old, stale-as-fuck, unbelievably lame, and incredibly immature meme. To be honest, at that point in the story, I very nearly uninstalled the app—it was simply that stupid, that obnoxious, that idiotic, that I figured: if the writer(s?) were stupid enough to include something like that in their story, then the rest of it is undoubtedly going to be hot garbage. I'm very glad I didn't.
“Then, out of fucking nowhere: crazy ass psychedelic trip plus the games first sex scene—fully animated, and highly relevant to the story. And the soundtrack… mmph, my god, baby, the soundtrack just fuckin' kicks.”
Without spoiling anything, the game starts with a very... I guess emotionally dark bit of plot, which has a distinctly psych-horror vibe to it. This is then followed up by CJ having an absurd, psychedelic, 80's synthwave, sort of acid trip adjacent "experience." Both of those sections are absolutely excellent and I love them both quite a bit—though the suddenness of the tonal shift between the dark psych-horror intro and the part that came next was… eh… unexpected, and maybe a bit unpleasant? In the beginning of the prologue, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd downloaded a depressing psychological horror VN. Then, out of nowhere: (stupid cloud scene, followed by) crazy ass psychedelic trip plus the games first sex scene—fully animated, and highly relevant to the story. And the soundtrack… mmph, my god, baby, the soundtrack just fuckin' kicks.
Now, what I didn't love is what was sandwiched between those two scenes. Again, without spoiling anything: I'm referring to the damned cloud. I suppose it's possible that this scene has elements of an unreliable narrator; or, in other words, it's possible that we've been shown what CJ experienced, but because it was impossible for him to comprehend, it was adjusted by his subconscious in order for him to understand it… and while there's certainly some evidence that points to this—hell, some of the characters even allude that they suspect something similar—that evidence is, unfortunately, relatively miniscule.
This singular event has a very lasting impact on CJ's character, and—at least up until the point I've read at the time of writing this, which is Chapter 35 or so—it at least appears to be canonically true. I can only hope that it later turns out to not be what it appeared to be, because, just… ugh, come on, seriously..? To be fair, it's quickly made up for by the rest of the story, but… I don't think I'd blame anyone for immediately uninstalling the game at that point in the plot, if they didn't already know that it would get so much better immediately after that. Of course, I believe they'd be making a huge mistake in uninstalling it. It'd be very easy to write the entire VN off as some kind of lame shit in the same vain as poorly written fanfics; as in, it's not difficult to think that this event exists purely as a ridiculously silly excuse for the protagonist to build out a harem. Which maybe would be fine, but that's very clearly not what's happening here. The writing is far too mature, far too god damned excellent for that to be the case.
Regardless, this is truly an unbelievably good visual novel that I highly suggest you read. Obviously, it's NOT quick fap material. If that's the only reason you're interested, I'd recommend you just go watch some hentai or whatever. Most VNs are more about the story than they are about the sex, especially early on in the plot. If you read through to about chapter 30, you'll be rewarded with numerous and frequent sex scenes. Most aren't animated, but it's about this point in the plot that the characters begin regularly fucking. It does take time to get there, but it's so worth it. By that point, you'll know so much about each of these characters that they may even feel somewhat real to you, which only makes the eroticism that much more appealing.
It's one of the hallmarks of an excellent author when many different characters in a work have been so thoroughly fleshed out to the point that they feel like real individuals rather than simply characters in a story. I think the only aspect that detracts from this is how absurdly horny the characters get in the later parts of the story. I mean, it's not really that bad, and it certainly doesn't bother me, for obvious reasons, but I do think the characters would feel a bit more real if they didn't constantly want to fuck.
IN ANY CASE!
JUST DOWNLOAD IT!
IT'S THAT GOOD,
FOR REAL.
Like, yeah, sure, the sex scenes are nice, and, certainly, more animated scenes would always be great, but the story is so fucking good that you won't care about any of that. Hell, you might even find yourself crying during a sex scene, something I've done multiple times in the time I've been reading this VN . You might make a savefile at the start of a sex scene and skip over the majority of it because you want to get back to the damn story, something I've also done multiple times—well, I don't exactly skip them, more like... I skim through 'em, just to make sure I don't miss any story stuff, because the majority of the sex scenes in this VN are actually used to build up the characters and their relationships, rather than simply existing for reader gratification—now, that's not to say the game doesn't also have many sex scenes that are only there because they're hot; there are, in fact, quite a few of those (especially in the later chapters) and although they're usually relatively short, albeit, they do occur frequently.