I focus my reviews on accessibility: Diversity overview, Trigger warnings, Pros/cons, Accessibility features, Bugs, UI, suggestions, and conclusion. Please share corrections or additions regarding the above in the comments~
Diversity Overview: 8/8
This game passes the following accessibility targets:
*1) Bechdel Test, as there are 2+ women in the game.
*2) Tyrion Test (disabled diversity) as several mentally ill characters (social anxiety, bipolar, PTSD).
*3) Vito Russo Test (LGBT+ diversity), gay man & woman, bi man & woman, & non-gendered alien.
*4) Duverney Test (racial diversity).
*5) Fairly high sensitivity: although TWs aren't provided, sensitive subject matter is handled sparingly, with sensitivity and without excessive detail, romantic and fighting are not visually depicted.
*6) Price accessibility: free.
*7) Dev communication seems moderate on Itchio & Steam.
*8) Steamdeck accessibility is good, text size was suitable and controls worked fine and were intuitively mapped.
Trigger warnings:
*One side character death (off-screen)
*Disability (mental health), child abuse and unhealthy relationships (familial and romantic) are referenced non-graphically and influence relationships,
*One relationship seems unhealthy and dismissive, which is lightly acknowledged but not taken seriously.
Pros:
*Character design is cute, and the art is quite experimental and interesting in some CGs.
*Great diversity in the love interests aesthetics and pairings,
*10 possible platonic and romantic relationships.
*The writing is clear and obviously proofread well.
*Replay value is generally pretty good due to multiple routes which tie into the True Ending.
*The music is forgettable but inoffensive.
*Gallery for all (mission and romantic) images.
Cons:
*TWs should have been added to the storepage even if the subjects are handled fairly lightly.
*One character has some pretty unhealthy traits but sadly has the most romantic pairings out of all the characters. In one pairing she is extremely dismissive and uses her partner, which is vaguely acknowledged as unhealthy and treated as a joke by the character and doesn't impact the pairing.
*Minor inconsistency with story; one characters parental figure dies in game and they show no reaction to it!
*Art is inconsistent between general gameplay and the CGs.
Accessibility:
*Accessibility is minimal.
*Requires a lot of clicking to progress.
+Not Steamdeck verified, but the controls are intuitive and the text size is generally accessible.
+This game is epilepsy/migraine/motion sickness friendly as it has no flashing lights or shaking images, and uses a comic book style layout.
+Settings for independent music and SFX volume control and chat speed.
+Cursor icon is large.
+Has no time-sensitive tasks
+Text size and background contrast is good, (speech is black on white background, narration black on yellow backgrounds). The comic style speech boxes make it easy to determine who is speaking with minimal effort.
+Images are visible with a bright palette and clear art style.
-There is no zoom button and some CG images are large comic pages with around 6 panels; this can be a little small on the steamdeck, with some difficult to read text.
-No save button nor autosave icon to indicate if/when it's saving.
-Unclear buttons for returning to menu.
-No font or text colour accessibility options.
-No voice acting or screen reader options.
-There are no image descriptions.
Bugs:
1) Premature expiration [Itch.io bug]
The game starts right at a cutscene, which can be confusing. I wanted to check the accessibility settings first but with no 'back' button, I closed the game. However, there is a gamebreaking bug that occurs if you close the game before it fully starts. Once you do that the entire game will permanently only load as a white box playing the background music, even after fresh installations of the game.
2) Stage fright [Steam bug]
The game will just freeze randomly, usually right when you're about to get a mission grade. When this happens you can't do anything but force close the game, which is daunting after the aforementioned bug, especially when there's no save button or autosave icons!
3) Some steam achievements don't get activated when they should and one seems fully broken!
UI issues:
1) The button to return to the menu is not intuitive. You have a cog button, which only shows you the basic settings (sound, resolution/window & text speed). In the other corner is a small red X button, which, although would appear to be a force close button, is actually the 'back button' that should return you to the main menu.
2) Without manual saving, the 3 save files on the menu page are initially confusing.
When you finish one game you can wither make a fresh game, or continue over the initial save with the new game+. This maintains memory of which pairings you've successfully matched and allows you to progress with the main story. This also allows you to skip missions with the highest grade pass you've achieved prior.
The fresh game save file is useful for replaying specifically for achievements.
Suggestions:
*Manual saving, and specific mission replay options, and skip buttons for missions AND dates would give players more control, which is useful for required replayability without player fatigue.
*Read AbleGamers Includification for details on accessibility features to include in games, and the benefits of expanding accessibility for all gamers.
Conclusion:
For a free game this is well made and fairly engaging. The content and sensory content is non-offensive and the diversity is quite nice. Some may find certain subjects a little forced (like one character mentioning he's manic or depressed most days, or 'coming out' convos which read a little like an idealistic playbook on 'how to respond' which is honestly pretty common for comedy LGBT+ dating sims).
I honestly thought bipolar was mentioned a little too much and described in ways that seemed to trivialise bipolar I'm assuming this character was based on someones lived experience, but framing 'sad mania' (which presumably means life threatening 'mixed episodes') as potentially not as bad as regular 'sad' is just wrong and kinda insulting. Still, how he explored the feelings you might have with dating as a bipolar person was relatable.
I feel like the devs had a favourite character as she had the most romantic pairings and drawn-out conversations. Her negative behaviour was on display a lot but not really acknowledged properly or called out which was disappointed. She made replaying the game painful for me, although I suppose that speaks to the successful diversity of the characters. Just wish I could have skipped her dates!
The achievements aren't excessive and should be fairly easy to get. However, a few achievements were bugged and one of them refuses to activate. I don't like the characters enough to want to replay the entire game more than the 15+ times I have now. Balancing plenty of achievements with exhausting repetition that makes chars wear their welcome is something devs need to consider.
I would recommend this game to people who like visual novels, dating sims, superheroes, cheesy comedy. Despite the TWs I recommend this for folks seeking fluff and wholesome LGBT+ romance without shiny, perfect personalities. I believe this game is accessible for motion sensitive, and D/deaf individuals. This game does require a significant amount of clicking but should be accessible for those with dexterity issues due to the relaxed pacing and autosaving.
