I’ve purchased this and played through 2 of 10 routes thus far… I’ve enjoyed it, especially for $22, but there are obviously some issues with it.
For one, the game DOES have a learning curve…not that that’s a bad thing per-se, but when you screw-the-pooch in this, you get sent back to Day 1, and all your scholastic stats, contacts, and relationship progresses are reset…your hard value stats/quirks and exp acquired are retained however. Secondly, the common route of the game is the first 2 and a half years of your school life. (However, when you finally hit a character specific route, you’re treated to a nice little animation opening w/ voice explaining said heroine’s issues/deal) Now, there ARE separate events involving all the characters during those first 2 years, and the way you build your character influences who he comes into contact with, but you are going to see recycled material throughout each playthrough.(As mentioned previously I believe, Your MC has the gift of KNOWING what’s coming in certain situations, and these responses can usually net you more exp/events) And finally character creation, while fun and interesting, drastically, DRASTICALLY effects your game strategy. My initial character will never, ever, ever hit 100 in Literature. To be quite honest, I don’t think it’s possible for him to hit 60 in it for the initial 1 EXP point bonus until I stack my Intelligence stat up to 9 (which will be an amazingly long and involved process, even using bad ends and new game +'s to my advantage to farm exp.) Last point… the actual heroine routes I’ve played (2 of them thus far) are batshit insane scenarios for what was a slice of life sim. Undead Violinist terrorizing Shira Oka with zombies in one, and the other, hatching and keeping a dinosaur after you lure it’s parent out of an ever-smoking geyser with PET FOOD and getting it Area 51’d by the local giant corporation. They were just straight outta nowhere, but entertaining in their own way.
There are a lot of neat little asides and extras though. For every route cleared, your MC’s room gets an item decorating it relating to past heroines romanced, to name one that took me a while to notice.
