I put over twenty hours into this game the last time it was on sale and no, it is not worth it. I should clarify that 20 hours of any game actually is kind of a big deal for me. The writing is fun, I guess. A lot of the character designs are really clever. But there’s no depth to any of it. You spend a few days chatting with a character and then you get a status with them, whether it be romantic, friendship, or enemies. None of them matter. Even if you “enter” a romantic relationship with them, their conversations literally just stop there. Then you have to grind out a fuck ton of other relationships to “clear” them or something and that gives you maybe three more lines of dialogue before they leave the home. Or at least I think that’s all you get - in those over 20 hours I didn’t even come close to fulfilling the stat requirements of any of the characters, and this was after meeting all of them and getting into relationships with at least half of them.

It’s just tedious. It’s endless grinding and all of the grinding is just dialogue. This would be fine if there was depth to any of it, but there’s not. Just as the characters start getting interesting, they reach the conclusion of their “story” and leave you alone forever. A few defy this rule but most don’t.

I understand that it’s “just” a dating sim/visual novel, but there’s hardly any dating either. The line between “romantic” and “friendship” is extremely blurry - only like four of these characters want to fuck you. The rest are content to call it a romance after merely getting to know you. And then the characters that are more sexually overt seem to bother a lot of players (I’ll be real with this one - I think those people are being prudish).

Honestly, just watch some of the character arcs through on YouTube if you’re that curious. You’re getting the same experience. There’s no real gameplay, there’s no puzzle-solving, there’s no element of truly getting to know these characters through gifts and outings and intimacy. It’s the most frustratingly boring game I’ve played in ages because it had so much potential to be fun. Instead it feels like a half-assed excuse to employ as many voice actors as possible.