Althos don't need someone to defend him, and he already did it for himself. But please allow me to add my own two cents.
For me this is the best adult game I have played so far and it's not even close.
First of all the world and its surroundings feel realistic. A lot of games of this kind describe fantasy worlds or young studs who make their first steps into sexual freeedom or things like that.
In this game I can value and apppreciate almost everything that happens:
- There are dumb reality TV shows (which are not dark at all)
- There are social media accounts and online roleplaying games (Rachel).
- There is a stage play about greek mythology, the rehearsal is very funny, by the way.
- There are movie nights or D&D meetings
- And there are these water pistol fights on two sundays. If this is not hilarious for you, nothing that happen in this game will ever be.
All these events fits very well together and you are able to learn more and more about the girls, their characters and their weaknesses, if you just try. I am almost shocked that you only concentrate on Debbie and than, with the end of chapter 1, you realize that you don't know the other girls at all. Well, no wonder.
Secondly this detailed spanking system that you described is maybe not for all, but it's unique and almost a game within a game. Every girl who is spanked needs a different approach, you can't always do the same.
You have to spy on them to learn their kinks (Debbie: Lesbian. Amy: Masochist, to describe just two of them) and than alter your strategy to be able to affect their behaviour. This is, after all, the ultimate goal of the game: Change the girls into some better versions of themself.
I don't want a game that is like all this other stuff out there. I want something which I can take seriously. And this game fulfilled my needs and wishes so perfectly that I am still amazed that something like this even exist.
A sideeffect of this is that I am always in constant fear that Althos and Herdone change their approach, that they feel the need to give in to the pressure of the majority. But after seeing the patreons constantly rising for the last two years I think we are a bit on the safe side in this case. And hopefully this game continues to florish in just the same satisfying style as it did in the past.
Honestly, same. I agree with everything on this post. I, too, am afraid of the creators changing their approach on this game, because it's just so head-on for me.
I would also like to mention that the majority of the stuff in this game is, honestly, not super ethical (unless the whole thing is a consensual roleplaying scenario). It comes off as dark at times because it is. Like Game of Thrones minus the whole "let's put in a random rape scene and pretend it's not a rape scene." Looking at something dark and having the ability to ignore the darkness is much worse than making something realistic and appreciating the darkness for what it is.