by TheBrain » Wed, 10Jul14 09:54
I just finished playing (/browsing the source to get to the endings). All endings are possible, but it's pretty hard to figure out by yourself (without looking at the source or at least tracking the variables).
I have to congratulate phreaky on actually testing the game rather well (while this seems to be expected and not really something to point out, we probably all got used to the bugs in chaotic's games that this is worth mentioning :P). I could only find two bugs:
- lingerieshort3.html refers to ciry6.html instead of city6.html
- lingerie10.html (a quick flash) is not reachable
Now to go in some further I'm probably gonna give some SPOILERS (although I'll try to keep it to a minimum), don't read on if you want to find out stuff by yourself...
I'm gonna have to agree with graen that the game is not really intuitive and this brings me back to a comment I also made about phreaky's first game: the design of the paths is backwards. In fact, the same design flaw happens again: a sex scene depends on having the dildo, if you don't have it you get the dreaded "let's go somewhere else". It's clear that the idea behind this is something like "I have a sex scene with a dildo, so I need to check somewhere for the dildo" (this is what I'd call backwards, going back from the goal to justify it). Of course you can't escape the fact that you have to check for the dildo, but where it happens now it is just totally unexpected: we go up to the room and instantly she says there's not much to do, without any sign that sex was even reasonable at that point (the opposite also goes, by having the dildo she is suddenly willing to get naked). So a second thought is needed in designing this and that would be "is this step/condition logical?" (judged from the current situation, rather than where it is leading).
The same issue is present in getting to the photo shoot: when choosing "let's play some games" in your apartment she will refuse if the model variable is not high enough (i.e. you have not met every requirement for the photo shoot). While in this case the model variable includes having had a drink and kissed her, having the lingerie (which she doesn't even know about) should not influence her decision.
In the end, conditions like these just end up being guesswork for the player, especially since her reaction when something fails gives not a single clue towards why it fails.
Another very minor piece of criticism is that this is yet another game where we visit a strip club (since when did this become acceptable with all but the most daring girls?). I get that in an erotic date game it's easy to grab this location ("oh look, it has naked girls!"), but personally I wouldn't mind a little fresh wind so to speak.
Other than that I can't think of much else, the graphics and the story (in principle) are decent, but the actual flow of events leaves a bit to desired.