I agree. If players have been waiting years, it's poor optics and frankly disrespectful to paywall versions and maintain the public download versions behind.
Sure, give your loyal Patreon backers early access by some days, maybe a week or two, but upload the latest version to the public as well after that long.
Interesting. I for sure felt there was at least one missed opportunity for a (longer) (emotional) scene at one point, plus Strea did take quite a backseat for who is meant to be the main girl. On the other hand, I think the amount of Nessie was just right for my taste, so... guess I'll have to wait and see how things turn out! Best of lucks with it!
TL;DR: Should you play this at some point? Yes! Should you play this now? Maybe wait until 0.5 drops, 0.4 ending right before the gala felt a bit like being blue-balled by the game haha
What can I saw about this game? It is clearly inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, so if you liked V's struggle there, you'll like what MC has to go through here. Very promising game with lots of potential for sure: cute girls/cast, interesting world and story. Good on naming the character that relies on miracles "David".
The first monologue MC has, of his father telling him he can run or fight, and that he should not hesitate if he chooses to fight, resonates masterfully with what MC soon does to those who cut any chances of him running off, very strong start for sure.
I did feel that, for the first girl, we got very little content of Strea, in my playthrough she almost felt like a background character once in Rome, almost every other girl overshadowed her in terms of presence - I did turn down hanging out with her though.
As for things I'm wanting to see, I hope at some point - it's fine if it's at the mid point or even at the game's climax! - we get a choice to remove/sacrifice one of the "guests" (or ask them to go dormant) while keeping the other (active), rather than having to choose what to do with them as a pair. Not having all content of the purple/green pair involve the two of them would be interesting too, dates/scene with just one would be cool, as would maybe a choice to "break them up" (again, it's fine even if it's an ending) or, once more, sacrifice one to keep the other. Finally, I like the corpo enforcer/hired-gun girl! Would love more content for her and for her ending(s) to get proper care.
Now, as for the concerns, my main concern (and the reason I dropped the game at first) is the use of AI images - they are AI images, right? Those black-and-white sketches used sparingly throughout? You should be open about this and disclose the use, both on your game page description, and as a disclaimer at the start of the game (just like other games have disclaimers like "this game features heavy violence/sensitive topics like bullying, suicide, depression", games should also have a disclaimer that goes "this game features the use of generative AI for X, Y, Z".) The morality of using AI aside, and if you are willing to experience something that includes it, is up to each person. But we players should be able to make an informed choice, on if to even download or not.
Personally, the first time I played I felt the opening - whose first version I loved, I'm less of a fan of the current one - was a well achieved use of AI images that I could give a pass, it was the subsequent uses I wish were not present. After playing up to update completion, you do get used to them at some point, and they do give the game a certain idiosyncrasy in your mind.
There is one unforgivable exception, though. There is no excuse for the grave of the brother MC takes down to not be a render. Piling a pile of rocks on a cliff is something easily achievable, and you should work to be able to render an image that carries the emotional weight you want it to have. Past that, you should reach a point where you can also render the "angels" in Rome, and such "custom-models", yourself too. AI is a handicap and you shouldn't rely on it for things that are easily achievable or complex or you will stunt your growth as a developer/artist.
Best of lucks with development, do keep growing both your game and your skills, what is there does have potential and is worthwhile, even if it still could use some polish here and there.
EDIT: Twice having very cute girls/groups of girls - the nun/nuns and the horse girls - but giving players an option to have a scene with the head mistress instead was diabolical.
Great game, surprised by the number of heroines! This is what AVNs are meant to be - the risk, the tension, the competition to be the better man, not winning the girls by default!
I ran into only one issue: on the podcast kitchen scene (between the actress and the assistant) all the animations were super laggy/non-smooth, they may need a bit of optimization!
Other than that, no notes - keep cooking!
That's alright, maybe we players could use some introspection, because we hype games with tons of variation and most AVNs get abandoned, while your game being linear may be a more responsible choice that allows you to finish it - I hope you do!
If I can suggest something, I think "two girls want to do an activity with MC, pick one" type choices may be a good fit for your game and prove popular! And at least I suspect I'm not the only one who likes favoritism and seeing the girl we neglect pouting and jealous haha
I found myself bemoaning the lack of choices. The two I came across before I stopped playing functionally asked me "do you want to see 3 renders, or continue the on-rails narrative?" I don't consider such linear "games" objectively bad things, they are just not what I personally want. EDIT: Best of lucks with the continued development of your game though, dev! No hate, just commenting for the sake of those who like the same elements in their games that I do ^^
Good game! I think you really nailed the revenge theme, and how powerful yet pathetic MC can be when defending his loved ones and confronting who he is.
When it comes to Sam's story, I found myself wishing for a black choice to end her path once she confesses she wanted a true romance but felt she could never get it, so she's willing to just be MC's lover... I really felt bad for her haha. I restarted the game and skipped all the way through again to avoid her, so it wasn't an unsolvable problem, but again, I think it would be a great quality of life improvement to give players a chance to reject her there (just like you have a second chance to reject the "married Karen" when she shows up in the changing stalls.)
On that same line, I stopped at the Madeleine Sauna scene because I wasn't in the mood for having a casual sex scene - I wanted to eat with the family! - when I'm invested in the more serious romances MC is having (Emma, Chloe). Yet I am forced to go through it because a thousand years ago I picked "she's cute" upon meeting her. Again, to restart and close her path upon first meeting her is an option, but when life is hectic and I'm short on time, it'd be nice to be able to reject her with a simple choice and continue, saving a lot of time. So again, I think a choice to reject Madeleine in the sauna would be a welcome quality of life addition for players!
Best of lucks with continued development, you are making a great game!
As someone who does hate having dumb terms rather than the real ones in, this is not a valid complaint. This game offers you the options to set whatever terms you prefer for the "forbidden" relationships: you get a slide that contains three points, "name", "she is my X", and "I am her Y" whenever such characters are introduced. By clicking on the shown defaults you can overwrite them to whatever you want. This is done in-game, there's no need to code-dive or anything.
So, not only do you not understand why devs are pressured to adopt such concealing measures, you are criticizing a dev who went about such restrictions in the most easily revertible, player friendly way.
I gave the game a try again after playing it for the first time two years ago, and got farther this time. First things first, props for still going at it! And congratulations on the characters, I feel a lot of them are really well done - not only the mains, but even background ones like Rina (?) who seems like just a dumb bimbo yet does seem to care for Mai. The choice/dilemma you make the player face when it comes to Haruka - sharing or not the photos after the fake scandal - is so well done, congrats on coming up with it! Props again!
Now, this is a very minor suggestion you can feel free to ignore. At points, I found some student had gained strikes but I just wanted to forgive them rather than trade them for corruption (Satsuki for example, when you are given the option to strike both her and Rina). Only very later on did I get a random event for someone to give them extra work, to remove the strike and improve their grades in exchange for student trust. Imo, it would be nice if "forgive strike" was an standard option you could select - gaining student trust in exchange - when you summon the students to the office, below punishment, so you don't have to rely on getting a random event to forgive it. Again, not anything major, but it may be a slight QoL improvement to have.
One last thing, which I'm not sure is a bug or not. When it came time for the first exam, I called out Rina, gave her a strike, and a 0. I allowed both Ayumi and the boy to retake their exams (and rejected her offer to flash me.) Now, when the weekly reports came in, Rina correctly showed as scoring a 0, and Ayumi a 100 while the boy got a 55. Yet the next time Ayumi talks to me, on the conversation that has the option on if to enable/disable NTR with her, she says he's asking for money since he couldn't retake the exam, and so didn't get paid - the bathroom conversation, where he gets money from her after rejecting the NTR path, acts as if that were the case too. Is that an instance where variables got mixed up behind the scenes, or is it simply that a scene where he is allowed to retake the exam doesn't exist, since it's necessary for her path (weird to give the player a choice on it if so)?
Whatever the case, best of lucks with development!
Interesting concept, it can be fun despite the length!
I for sure would love to see a sequel, with a lesser number of stops, but with each having greater depth, more setup (a story) for each character set we get to decide on haha. I think it'd make the experience much more rewarding!
Once more, as a proof of concept, it shows good potential!
Took this for a spin, and honestly don't regret it. I've seen two other games built around this concept, and yours has nothing to envy, it is a welcome addition to an interesting concept with few entries to its name. I would specially praise the way you handle guest characters, they don't overstate their welcome and are clearly identifiable as such - if there's one thing you do so well others devs could/should learn from you, it's this.
While playing, I detected at least one clear bug, and a couple of others that I'm not certain are bugs, but did trigger a suspicion in me . The former is that, when you sent Esme to clear the toilets after the library rather than punishing her, you still get the punishment scene unlocked in the gallery. As for the latter, when it comes to the principal, if you punish her and bring her to the edge during her speech, without going all the way - I'm talking high 90s - that does not count as a punishment in your record or hers. Finally, I got the sense that the "history" the character pages track is somewhat inconsistent. Sadly I don't recall which ones they are, I believe it was Esme, but sometimes it doesn't track at all if you "turn her down", as opposed to how it does with, say, Nova.
I have a couple of concerns. One of them involves the girls MC lives with. Are both Sofia and Suzie's paths unavoidable? I tried to not gather points with them, yet things escalating (the kiss, the yoga grinding) happen regardless. I found myself wanting an off-ramp from them, and never got it. I personally would like for a chance to not get involved with either to exist.
For the second, it is a general "issue" that I will exemplify with a specific situation. When it comes to Morgana, I didn't fondle her on the swimming lesson, nor did I do anything on the infirmary. Going into the shower scene, I had no track record with her, so to speak. Yet things went from 0 to 100 with only one choice mediating the shift, in a way that wouldn't feel so sudden for players who had seized the previous moments, and who may have felt things were a long thing coming. When it comes to AVNs, I am firm believer that there's levels to the types of acts MC engages with when it comes to love interests; and despite how most developers tackle them, they are not just "indifferent/cold" and "sex". There's (flirtly behaviour, romantic behaviour) erotic behaviour, and sexual behaviour. Now, I can understand if devs don't give the whole range of escalation for each encounter, making players do the step by step checlist first and only then get a sexual reward. But at the very least, I don't like when a dialogue choice to flirt or a dialogue choice to do something only slightly erotic, leads to a full-on sexual scene. Sexual scenes must always be preceded by an unequivocal choice to do a sexual act, is something I firmly believe in. In the case of Morgana in the shower, the choice was to peek on her: something only very mildly erotic in nature. When MC wipes his thing out, that was a proper place to have a second choice (on if to actually do it or leave then), which would have escalated the situation into sexual territory with acceptable input from the player. Lacking that, or even better, alongside it, when she's on top of you, there could have been a second/third choice on if to stop there, or tell her what MC tells her (to grind on him as punishment, after all that nice speech about her that was actually nice to hear.) Now, I get this signifies extra work for you, as a developer. But the reason I think it's worthwhile to pursue tackling scenes in this way, is because it evens the playing field in a way, between players that have done a lot of stuff with the love interest before the scene, and players who have done nothing; no matter how many opportunities for scenes between MC and any particular love interest exist, if you always have 2 or 3 choices between a normal situation turning into a sexual act, it will never feel like things escalated too fast, even if the first time is happening on the 20th opportunity for a given player. Like I said, I had this happen with Morgana, but I can see how the same case can be made for Nova, Esme, and the class skipper girl you meet at the club/train. The option some devs take is to simply end/lock routes if not enough points are collected or if important scenes are not experienced, but since you don't seem to be taking that path, I offer an alternative. The TL;DR would be, if the choice (and/or its preceding dialogue) that leads into a sexual situation doesn't telegraph that you are getting into one such scene, you should always have a second choice - sometimes a third choice, if you want to let playes enjoy a little eroticism without going all the way, something I myself consider exquisite - that serves as an off ramp or that allows the player to confirm he'll get the sexual scene, so he feels it's the result of his agency. I think a big risk for AVNs is when players don't feel a sense of ownership for what's transpiring on-screen, and I did feel that a bit there.
Big text, but I hope the feedback is useful. Best of lucks with the continued development, keep doing great work!
Happy to hear you'll look into that choice!
If you want my suggestion, I think a simple "*Friendly headpat*", paired with the other flirty dialogue option (and the "important choice" red hue), is enough to convey you are choosing if you'll have your relationship with her be friendly or romantic.
Thanks for reading all my other feedback, and best of lucks with development, you've got this!
While playing, I did hit points where I felt "Oh, one of those scenes is starting again...", like when Luther talks with MC in the drive-back (you are given a choice on whether to hear this or not, mind you), when MC and Cymhen are talking about the philosophy behind his efforts at the table, and when MC and the girls' brother are having their heart to heart, and honestly... they are the idiosyncrasy of the game. I wouldn't change a thing - save except maybe adding a choice on whether to hear the story of the brother and just tell him to save it and get the convo done with early.
But if this is a point that sticks out from your game, you shouldn't file it down - it is one of the points that set it apart from the rest, and that is very good, not bad. Your game, as it is now, is not for everyone, and that is good, not bad. Some people will drop it due to that, but others will absolutely love it, finding in it something they can find in no other. I think that is much more valuable than an experience everyone can get through, but that is too vanilla and non-committal to really leave a lasting impression. The long talks help your game not be forgettable, keep them.
I do have some issues with the game, but they lie elsewhere: I feel the game telegraphs and holds you hand too much. For example, being told Bael and Fiadh are a package deal repeatedly since before meeting them, I get that's managing players expectations, but I feel this may have been better made clear for after the heart to heart with Bael, or even for way later - I think it's totally fine for games to lead players on and then disappoint them, and trying to avoid that may be doing you a disservice. That's for the telegraphing part, as for the holding your hand part, you are told "some don't get instant gratification doesn't mean good points for the long term relationship", or something along those lines, very early on, coupled with the fact the wards will try something on you. I got the message loud and clear: "have casual sex early with them at your own risk, or be the bigger man, reject them and build the foundation for the long-term relationship". Well, let me actually do that! Multiple times you are told Bael will try something on you, and then when it happens, MC automatically rejects her! No! Give the player a choice there, one that completely locks out her (and Fiadh) routes - worst case, make it lead to a bad end. On the upcoming ball, we are told MC will say some words so the giant cook stays - actually give players a choice to snub her and praise, say, Leana instead! There are amazing opportunities for players to mess up, and I feel the game makes use of none of them. Again, I get that you can't allow the narrative to branch too much too early on or everything becomes unwieldy, but you also have those lock route/bad end options I mentioned to implement them.
This is a minor point, but I thought it worth mentioning all the same: when the choice on whether to be romantic or not with the younger sister comes, both options are, for lack of a better term, "kind": kiss her, or hug her. Compare this with the options given for the elf girl, after what is a very tame ask for affection on her part: (direct flirtation/innuendo), or "shrug" - the second choice kinda makes you feel like a douche, totally different than picking the "hug her" choice, if you get what I'm saying? Both options should feel affectionate, or it may skewer what is picked.
Despite this, the game was very interesting and showed a lot of potential, these are all suggestions and the personal point of view of one player, please keep in mind that the soul of this game is and will always be what you, the developer/author, likes and would like to see. We don't play AVNs to play experiences made by committee, made by the general consensus of the entire player community, but to play experiences made by specific individuals, - the developers, of whom you are one. I download and play these games to see your opinions, your takes, your preferences, no one else's. It's great when they match with mine, but when they don't, that only means they will match with someone else's, and it'll be great for them. So keep developing, and keep having confidence in what you have to say/show.
