I just finished the Harem route. As promised, I'll give my full, complete review of this game, now that I've experienced the full, canon story.
My Bully is My Lover is one of the greatest experiences I've ever had with not just an AVN, but a game in general. It often gets compared to Eternum, probably because both games are absolutely amazing, and also Caribdis and NiiChan are friends. While My Bully is My Lover isn't as good as Eternum in terms of character writing, scene quality, pacing, and music choices, one of the major things that it does have over Eternum is that, it's significantly more creative in it's plot than Eternum is. As much as I love Eternum, and as much as I'll continue to label it as my favorite AVN until my keyboard breaks, one thing that I've always noticed about Eternum from the very beginning is that, it has a very predictable story. Until 0.8, which finally started to add some real twists to the story, Eternum's entire plot could be seen coming from a mile away, the moment Orion won the neural implant and entered Ion with Annie the next day.
My Bully is My Lover, in contrast, had creative plot twist after creative plot twist that I would have never been able to see coming, no matter how much time was given. Every moment of this game, from the start to the end, kept surprising me and impressing me, and it got bigger and better each time! To fully emphasize how creative the plot of this game is... During my first full playthrough of this game, I made the mistake of choosing a solo route where I would only pursue Sky. I don't remember why I did this, but that's what I chose to do. As it turned out, you could only unlock all of Sky's scenes by choosing the Harem route. This meant that, because I was on Sky's solo route, I would go through the entire game completely devoid of any lewd scenes from any of the other characters. And as for Sky, well... because I was on her solo route, she only had four scenes, two of which were the same scene with nothing but clothing differences, and all of them were short and had the animation quality of the early episodes from the Prologue, with subpar music as well. In other words, on my first playthrough of My Bully is My Lover, I went through 90% of the game with nothing but the plot. And yet, I stayed 100% invested in the story, and saw it through to the end. I had no boredom, no fatigue, no regrets, no thoughts about restarting for more lewd scenes, nothing. I completed that playthrough in around... I wanna say 3, maybe 4 days? I played the game every night, 4-6 hours at a time.
I had complete investment, even without the promise of lewd scenes. No other, and I mean no other AVN could keep me hooked for that long, without the A in "AVN" coming into play at SOME point. Not even Eternum. Not even Eternum, my favorite AVN, could do that. Only My Bully is My Lover. That is how amazing, memorable, and creative the plot is. And, you know... I'm not going to pretend that this game is perfect. There is a reason why, despite it's predictability, Eternum is still considered the best AVN by most people. My Bully is My Lover undoubtedly lacks in character writing, pacing, animation quality, and especially knowing what music is appropriate for what time. It's far from a flawless game. But the plot... the plot of My Bully is My Lover is unquestionably, undeniably, it's strongest, and most well handled attribute. The plot alone is why I gave this game 5 stars. Even with every other flaw this game has, the plot is good enough to really pull you in to the game's world, and send you on a real, memorable, heart-changing adventure. And, those other flaws I mentioned, also get better with time. I'll admit, it's rough getting past the Prologue. But NiiChan really improved, to a massive degree, by the time Chapter 1 came out. The later parts of the game are where most of the praise comes from. So, focus on that. Don't let the Prologue turn you away before experiencing everything. The flaws do get less flawed.
That's all from me. Sorry if I've left things out, or worded this review in a repetitive or confusing way. I wanted to write this without planning it, so that my praise was charged by true emotion, and word choices that I'd actually use if I were in a real, face-to-face conversation with someone about My Bully is My Lover. I wanted to avoid sounding static and emotionless. However, that also comes at the cost of potential repetition, as most unscripted human words do. So, if that happened, I am sorry for that. With that said, I hope you enjoyed my review! I hope it was helpful and informative, and I hope it influenced your decision to play or not play the game in a positive way, and towards the direction of giving it a try! And, if you've already played the game and you're reading this because you're bored, I hope it was a good read! Let me know if you agree with it or not! And finally, if you read this far down, thank you! Have an excellent day or night! Take care. ✌❤
Edit: Spelling.