All in all, I enjoyed the game. Not 100% sure, but enough to not regret my purchase. I hope this game gets more love and more content added, because I've fallen for Rayna and her crew of misfits. But I can't recommend it outright, simply because if you're looking for a positive review to push you into buying the game, you're going to get this no matter what I say in this review. So pop of King/Queen, go gettem. BUT, if you're on the fence and want something that feels like a fully polished game with great writing, fun combat to keep you engaged. Many scene of lovey-dovey kisses, lewd hand holding, or down right NSFW scenes. Then you should look somewhere else, unfortunately for that. You're going to have to go to games like BG3 or Mass Effect. Let this gem cook just a bit longer.
However I should also explain what I dislike about the game and why it has led me to not recommend it, just in case you actually are curious. Now, the fighting really isn't the reason most people will play this game. I understand that, isn't why I played the game as well. But it's such a mainstay in the game that it can't be ignored and unfortunately, its the weakest system in the game, by a county mile. The structure of the game goes like this. Rest, combat, Rest, combat, Rest, combat, Rest, combat. So on and so forth. I get that it can't be complex or other games like it do something akin to how it plays, but I feel so let down that I can't explore this world and its weirdness, that I can only ever talk to these characters in brief railroaded scenes. On the topic of the actual gameplay, its.... fine. Its not great, its nothing to write home about and its not so poorly implemented that it kills the vibe. That being said however, and before we do continue. I'm not a game designer so take this with a healthy grain of salt. But it feels like it was reaching for something greater, but wasn't allowed to grab it. I can see where they were going, I can see how some fights were planned to be this exciting encounter... but it never actually plays out like that, some fights are needlessly hard. Others are oddly easy, some enemies are more annoying to deal with by degrees then others, well some bosses are so stupidly simple that I was left wondering if that was it? Very rarely did I use the swag that the game gave me, simple because most of it was so niche that it was basically useless, or in some fights I would soft lock myself out of three stars because the swag I choose to go into the fight with would hinder me in a way that I couldn't complete it. Stack on top of that, a oddly thought out time management system that penalizes you for dong ANYTHING! With a debuff system that makes failing anything so extremely painful that doing anything but mid-maxing fights in the harder difficulties. A must. Again, this pain and frustration can be easily skipped by playing on lower difficulties... but at that point. I have to ask why make them in the first place?
Moving on from that, there are little things as well. VC's messing up a line and starting over while the game/chat box doesn't acknowledge the mess up. Broken chat boxes, mix matched VC lines and what is written on the chat box. I am pretty sure also that some of the sprites eyes were broken as well, as in one of their eyes would go missing. Also, I do not know if this was just something that happened to me. But I am pretty sure that some scenes that happened on my playthrough happened out of order? I can't verify cause some of them are spoilers, so I'll just have to wait on that bit. But just enough little things that makes me wonder how bad the game was before their fix.
Now lastly, the Romance and characters. Honestly, I feel extremely torn about this. I love the characters. I love that they're not cookie cutter characters, they all have personalities. They all have reasons and they all stick to them. The game made it feel like I was allowed to like them or dislike them, purely based on who they were as a person. I wasn't snapped into loving them all, or hating one person over another. Sure I didn't have the freedom as in BG3 or Mass Effect, but this is a harem game for Rayan (who deserves it) so I get that in the end of the day. I can't stab one of them in their sleep. But it STILL didn't force me to love them, it allowed me to dislike a character. Which, up front. I did, there are characters in here that I just straight up don't like. BUT, and a big BUT. There are characters in here that I didn't like, but ended up loving at the end. Simple because the game let me, because they were characters. Who breathed, who felt alive, who would dislike an action or not break who they were to conform to a cookie cutter idea of what the "average" person wanted. The game, the writers and the producers. Let me dislike a character, then let me fall in love with them. I do not know if this will be a common sentiment, all I know is I was so tired of every character in fiction or shows or games. Being so perfect and sexual and blank and boring and forgettable. It is a breath of fresh air, when a dating sim lets you dislike a character you can romance. HOWEVER, with all that out of the way! I think the game would, even with the bad gameplay loop. Be a full on endorsement, if they let me have more time with the characters. I eluded to this before, but with how linear and "railroad" the game is, there isn't time or space to interact with characters outside the 1 - 2 beats of the game. You can't take these characters out on a date, you can't interact with them outside of very scripted events. You can't give them gifts or learn more about this through the map or through the world. Which was honestly a let down, especially for me. Who ended up falling in love with this weird, awkward, confusingly horny world. I had wished to learn more about it then through walls of text, with the people I was smooching. On top of that, there is only like two different variations of sprites for Rayna and any chosen character. A big let down with how horny this game is and how much of a build up there are to some of these scenes. But one of my bigger issues, was with the group itself. All but two characters are Poly, which means there really isn't a reason NOT to smooch them all. I get that this is Rayna's harem game (the nerd deserves it) but it would spice up the relationships and group dynamics (IMO) if they kept that feeling of everyone feeling like they lived in the world and not a harem game. They don't have to act negatively, but everyone being on board with being in a Poly doesn't feel right, especially for one character who was Poly when I really thought she wouldn't be. It just makes replaying the game feel redundant, since 50% of the game is meh and you're only ever seeing at most, two versions of every sprite.
If you've read this far, I hope that it came across that I loved this game. I loved the characters, I disliked some. I loved the world, and disliked the gameplay. But most importantly, I hope that I expressed why I cannot recommend this to someone who is on the fence. I do hope that this game and this world gets more love. I hope that this is not the end of Rayna's story and that I can interact with them in the future in different and fun ways. It was hard, thus. That I not give this a thumbs up, but if you truly love something. Its my belief that you can tell comment on its bad parts.
