I am not incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to this kind of RPGs, but hot dang. I played the demo which was promising enough and after about an hour the game had me hooked. Compared to other RPGSs I have played it cuts out all the fat. If you play well there is no low point, you don't wander around for hours on end there is always something that needs to be done and there is always something you can already do. And to not-so-sneakily let the player do some of the worldbuilding is just *chef's kiss*. The worst part of this game is that it ends and even then the ending(s) is/are very satisfying. After the first hour I was either engaged or entertained the whole way through and that's something that no game in the last ~7 years managed to do.
Wait a second These games are gay!
-- Preamble -- Every prn game requires some tolerance from the player, when it comes to the "questionable" content of the game. With 0 being morally acceptable and 10 being the most fcked up sht you'll ever see, this game scores a 1 and even borders on a 0. -- Review -- When it comes to content, this game sadly has less, than the previous game by the developer (this is reflected in the price), but still has a bunch. The core charme is still intact. Decent gameplay, fun characters, nice sprites, light unoffensive comedy and good game design. The gameplay is a mixture of point and click and time managment, which is a formula that works well. You will never need a guide to unlock anything in this game (except maybe the true ending, which is not a H scene, so you probably don't care). Speaking of the true ending, it's kind of disturbing, but not in the way of other prn games' disturbing content, which is usually just disturbing because it caters to some fcked up fetish, this games ending is just disturbing. I don't really care about story in these games (my focus is gameplay, followed by presentation and the "main" content being third), but due to the true ending it kind of stuck with me. I really hope this developer will put out anything in the future which sadly seems unlikely, since both available games from them are already 2 years old.
--Preamble-- As with almost every prn game there is some tolerance required of the player, to look past the "questionable" aspects of the game. If I had to grade the questionable content I would give it a 3/10, with 0 being morally acceptable and 10 being the most disturbing sht you'll ever see. --Review-- Originally I had little expectations of this game, mainly because the limitations of RPG Maker made me question how well the game could emulate Papers Please (which I am a huge fan of), but I was pursuaded by a multitude of positive reviews. The game starts of very easy, so easy in fact that I thought my previous assumptions to be correct. The difficulty increased slightly though and thus, the gameplay loop was enough to keep me happy. The story is suprisingly decent if you are into that sort of thing. The gameplay sadly never gets as deep as Papers Please, due to, I'm sure, the aforementioned limitations of RPG Maker, but the game substitues this by introducing a few mechanics, that make the experience pleasant enough. The character portraits are barely varied enough, but really just barely, to keep the visuals interesting. Over all I am most interested in the potential of this game, to take a formula like the arcady, but story driven Papers Please and turn it into a prn game, without sacrificing too much of the gameplay.
-----------------------------------------Preamble------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd like to prefix this review by saying that the character you play as, is unambiguosly a child. I think that'll be a big no-no for a lot of people. I somehow missed that fact when I bought it, but as soon as you boot this game up you'll see it. If this constitutes that this game is full of statutory rpe, this is your warning. Considering the content of anime prn games in general I guess this is just a role reversal. Most people probably dont give a sht (kinda like I ended up doing) since the victim is male, but that's a discussion that shouldn't take place in a review of a prn game. Also there is a female counterpart to the player-character, but I am not sure how graphic that gets (I assume like the rest, which is very graphic), because you at least have the option not to play that storyline. ------------------------------------------Main Review--------------------------------------------------------------- This game is pretty great, even without the patch. It pulls off something that is insanely hard for prn games and that is, being actually charming. You have 30 in-game days to fill and there actually is enough content to fill that time, which is unusual for this type of game. The minigames are varied and as soon as they get stale, you don't need to play them anymore to progress in the questline they are tied to. The characters are fun and likable which is supported by the great spritework. You won't fall out of your chair laughing at the humor, but it is serviceable. The map is really small, but packed with lttle things for you to do or look at, and small secrets to find. All this stuff is surprisingly well designed; the game directs you very well towards your current options. All in all it's a lot better than most prn games and if it were free of the questionable stuff I would wholeheartedly recommend it.
The game is full of bugs. No other way to say it. The gameplay is fun and I do not really know what people are talking about when they criticize the controls. I have had no issues with enemies spotting or shooting me through walls so far (about 15 hours in). The story is solid and I do not usually like story heavy games. The driving is not great on keyboard, but I have yet to see a game pull it off. The game runs at 50-70 frames for me ( 3700x + 1080ti) on high settings and 2k. No crashes yet. Update your gpu drivers. This is the first game in a long time that makes me loose the feeling of time passing, so thats a big plus. All in all I am very satisfied and hope that the bugs get some fixing so the experience is a little bit cleaner.
