by ChadOchocinco » Sat, 13Oct26 16:46
So, after playing through enough to get most every scene:
The game is good. Not great, but good. The no undo/saving initially frustrated me. Once I got past that (particularly once I got the book), it was much more tolerable.
That said, the game lacks polish. It wasn't until I read through this thread that I was able to figure out how to get the book. In part, because "X BIN" or "Search BIN" didn't let me determine there was a book in there to pick up. Maybe I'm spoiled by other AIF games, but usually something close to that would allow me to know there's a book in there to grab rather than having to use "look in bin" explicitly. All of my other complaints follow that tract pretty much too. The lack of a "Help" functionality left me guessing initially on what to do or commands I could use (especially around the fences). The lack of conversations with NPCs frustrated me, expecting to talk to girls to help with flirting (even something like "*NPC* doesn't feel like talking about that, try flirting with her" would have been useful). Showing the time on VERBOSE would be nice, rather than having to check the phone.
All of my complains are pretty nit-picky though, and aren't meant to be discouraging (after all, the next game I put out will be my first :P). In the end, I did enjoy the game a lot more because of the no undo/save. Going through, finding where all the girls were at specific times, how to get with them and when was enjoyable. The small touches, like being unable to flirt with certain girls because I was still holding the book, was an "Ah ha" moment that left me happy to restart. While it lacks some descriptions I'd hope to see, the hyperlinked Accept/Decline options are a nice touch.
It's a solid game with a good core mechanic, the graphics are well done and an improvement over PiP, and it has good replayability. While it's not a long game, but it doesn't feel shallow either. Definitely look forward to your next game!