Again, thanks for the well thought out impressions and criticisms! I'll definitely get to the typos, and I'm really grateful that you pointed those out. I'm a bit lazy though, so I might be a little slow to getting around to it, but it's definitely on my to-do list.
As for everything else, you've given me lots of things to consider. And I appreciate all the time you took to explain your thoughts and observations so thoroughly
Another thing I didn’t mention in my last comment, but I kept expecting there to be a choice whether to give into the woman or not. I knew she was a siren or evil spirit or witch of sorts. Honestly, I think the story could have gone in the other direction, too, where the main character realizes the importance of life, that sex isn’t the end-all-be-all, that there is more to companionship than romantic and sexual fulfillment, and for him to ultimately overcome his fears of the outside world to find a deeper meaning and appreciation to life. I think that ending would have made more sense, considering those were his views deep down all along, not to mention the epiphanies he had, and it was seeming to go in that direction. Furthermore, although it makes sense for him to give into his desires during a dream, it was also a dream, even if it was a lucid dream where he had some level of awareness. That somehow made the bad ending worse, in my opinion, because how much was he in control of making that decision? He also could have woken up and fallen into depravity, thus reinforcing his descent into both a spiritual and physical death, or he could have woken up and changed direction in life, having found that giving into the flesh does not bring life or happiness. Also, succubi and incubuses exist, but that doesn’t mean that they can literally take away someone’s soul if they give into their temptations. Regardless of my thoughts, I can understand that may have not been the story you wanted to tell in the end. Hence, my lower score here compared to your other VN because the ending was a bit unsatisfying to me—not because it was a bad ending—but how it came about.
I don't think the reviews are unnecessary parts and mere filler. Much to the contrary, they're vital elements to telling this story because, like I wrote in my VNDB review, "when the protagonist reviews and discusses visual novels, he is actually saying much more about himself than about the works he is evaluating and describing". How the game manages to do this, to display the protagonist's personality by talking in detail about visual novels and otaku culture, is actually one of the most interesting and original aspects of this VN. I do think, though, that the ending is flawed and I would even add that the fact the protagonist is barely surprised when anime girls start talking to him IRL is quite odd.
I can see and understand that. Although his reviews are indicative of his personality and quirks and reflective of who he is as a person and what he values, that also doesn't take away from the fact that I was reading many long info dumps of multiple reviews rather than reading the highs and lows of a compelling story with various conflicts. That's why those segments felt slow and boring to me. If his reviews somehow weaved back into the plot or caused an unexpected struggle, then I would have been more understanding of those segments. Yet, other than that last one that actually correlated to the main character's struggles, which was one that I actually liked reading about because of that connection, most of what the protagonist went on about could be considered long-winded info dumps on niche subjects that weren't wholly relevant to the plot. If anything, reading those segments bogged down the plot and made me feel like I wasn't reading a story anymore. Although those essays may give the reader insight into who the protagonist is and a window into his day-to-day life, that also does not make for a compelling narrative. That is my issue there. At the very least, they could have been condensed, where a montage of his random writings could have been shown on screen to show how invested he is in writing for these niche blog posts without boring the reader or halting the progress of the core of the story. Thus, maybe it's not so much about the information being there at all in the first place as it is the presentation of such information and therefore the pacing of the story that is the issue. As the saying goes, "Less is more."
