Okay I was just humoring the AI art text adventure slop game at first but I just did Sunrise/Sunset and this is actually genuinely incredible?
I've played further to New Moon/Full Moon and I think I have enough thoughts for a proper review, but gimme a bit to get them all in order.
For now, I'll just say that the game nails some pretty good narrative setpieces, but after the setpiece is over everything goes right back to feeling like a static void of cardboard cutouts. This might be my biggest complaint.
This is followed up by my 2nd biggest complaint, the fact that some of the choices feel objectively worse than others?
Bibi is a good example for both of these, her arc climax is an interesting choice in theory, but the preg option is just vastly more narratively satisfying compared to the other two choices. But also, it falls flat when you never actually get to engage with Bibi as a *person*, with her own history and hopes and dreams and desires, rather than as a mana dispensing problem solving prop. You don't learn about her, her life as an angel, or get a glimpse into what she's giving up by deciding to become mortal.
You never sit down and have a chat with her that isn't just a means to solving some other thing.
This reflects across the entire cast. I'm not asking for dating mechanics, I just want to engage these characters as people with their own lives and inner worlds. I'd be just as glad to only be interacting with 12 maidens if they were appropriately developed.
That's all I got for now, I'll come back after I go through some more and probably finishing off the currently available content. For all my criticisms I DID have fun and I'm genuinely looking forward to where this is going.