(Heads up, there is some spoilers in this review!)
A reminder that this whole review is just my opinion and how I see the game! My experience with it and all that.
For some background, I first found out about this game from a small meetup/convention. What caught my eye besides the space theme (love myself some space themes) and the protag being ace and enby (because hell yes, I am demi and enby myself) was the robots, actually! I had seen a robot here or there in dating sims before, but not a game where the majority seemed to be robots! Looking through the designs Fern caught my eye and I was like "yes, YOU! You are my favourite." and they were a big reason I played this game I am not even gonna lie. (Note: All it takes for me personally to get into a game is one, or sometimes two, characters I latch onto like a leech and never let go.)
I remember having a few questions going in; my own little curiosities. Will it touch on the topic of sex-positive asexuality verses sex-repulsed asexuality? The main character is enby, so will it mention gender dysphoria at all? Are all the other characters we meet/date ace as well?
So after playing the game, what did I think?
Firstly, as mentioned on the steam store page, it's definitely worth it to look through the trigger warnings on their website to see if there is anything that may rub you the wrong way. Just to be safe!
The protag having cancer wasn't mentioned anywhere (besides other reviews of course) and definitely came as a surprise! While not expected, Enby having this illness is certainly interesting. I find it very odd it wasn't a big part of this game's marketing. Or in the marketing at all, honestly. No need to hide that fact of the game, in fact it SHOULD have been mentioned because it is such a big part of the game. Most of the endings you get [spoiler]are Enby passing away from cancer, after all[/spoiler]!
The game did answer some of my questions I had about what they would include, which is great! (Besides the dysphoria, and a direct confirmation some of the characters being or not being ace too, which is fine of course!).
The game is VERY short, (like you can 100% it in a few hours short,) which isn't necessarily a bad thing! I just wish we got to see more of the characters and more scenes with them so I would feel a little more attached to them? If that makes sense? (I am totally not just saying this cause I wish Fern got more scenes/interactions.)
There is a LOT of attempts at world building but it feels like they put all their metaphorical apples in the world building basket instead of the character building basket. The information we DO get on the characters feels a little barebones at times, and I think this is because of the time-skips and the fact the game is kind of cut up into a few small chunks of time. We don't get to see what happened in those days between and that I think that brings things down a bit, makes it feel rushed. For a game that says it's a dating sim, there doesn't seem to be much... well... dating happening? An outing per route (sometimes two!) but that's about it. I feel like in this sorta game the characters should have had a bigger focus. Have more stuff to do with them, more things to figure out about them and to bond over with them. But we don't get that and it falls flat.
A big thing I saw other reviews mention, [spoiler]Sero's Sad Route[/spoiler]. While most of the other characters and what happens with them makes sense and stays in their ballpark of sorts, [spoiler]Sero's Sad Route ending[/spoiler] feels like it comes out of nowhere. I was somewhat startled at the artwork in that ending, suddenly getting something so... f*cked up out of nowhere compared to the rest of the game?
[spoiler](There is also the fact of her being a doctor of sorts and not knowing when someone is dead? How did she even sneak in there without being seen or told it wasn't okay? AND no one else told them, not even the other guardians, that Enby was dead and in fact not sleeping?[/spoiler] It seems like just a writing mistake but it's... fine.)
I will end this review on a good note however! While the art could be improved in some areas, it (for the most part) looks great! The character designs are very nice and are very good at pulling you into the game. I mean, it worked on me didn't it?
The music as well compliments the art very nicely. Some good bops in here!
I write this review out of love as a fellow creative and I look forward to what the creators make next! Hopefully this game can serve as a sort of learning experience that where it falls flat now, future works and projects can be even bigger and better! While I had some compliants, I am still rating this game positively because it was overall a good expereince. However, it may not be like that for everyone. Still, low price and short game; good.
