A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Keep into account my rating and thoughts may change upon full release; these are only my oppinions of the demo so far!
Well, I think I ought to start off with the positives first. The music fucking ROCKS, on god. Very atmospheric too. Speaking of atmosphere, it is extremely well set in the menu-like choice sequences, such as in the beggining or when choosing the gender of the love interest. Along with the dialogue, they give a very cool vibe that feels like it sets you up for this immensely cool grand experience and if that's not a KILLER way to start your game I don't know what is! Hypppeeee
The story/narrative so far isn't too much of note; I'd appreciate a bit of an explanation in-game on how LI leaves the game and forms into the real world, however I have the sneaking suspicion this might've been explained should we have gone to the AI transplant meeting thing. Speaking off. I think it's a very odd choice to have the refusal of that be the option that we're limited to. Infact, I am rather disgruntled with how many options are unavailable. I understand that this is a demo, however even as one, it feels unfinished in that regard. Imo, you should've developed all choices to a satisfying point before ending the demo, not just focusing on one.
Well, either way, what I do think is innovative and cool is the nice spin on VN choice mechanics. The duality system is really a cool idea however a little misused in practise. Oftentimes, the "evil" options are options that would've been reasonable in MC's position.
Voice acting wise, out of curiosity, I checked out both dubs. I have to say the female actor did a better job emotively. However, both actors to an extent sound a little, robotic?, in their delivery. I'm willing to believe this is a stylistic choice to an extent, them being game characters an all. However I would've liked to see a more obvious change in both sound and expressiveness when they're out of the game, but instead it appears more subtle and gradual, almost unrecognisable. Some lines were delivered with great emotion, but I do feel the performance overall could've used an improvement(should this not have been a stylistic choice). The glitchy sequence I feel overused the glitchy-ness of the voices just by a smidge, it made the situation a little funny which unfortunately diminishes it's creep factor.
My biggest qualm, though, is the lack of adequate content warnings for what happens ingame. As of writing this, and before I had played the game, both the in-game warning and game page warnings had been "suggestive situations". I don't think this fully emphasises how far the game goes. Instead, I believe the game should not only expressively warn that there will be nudity, but also add an SA warnings as well. Here is my reasoning as to why; not only does LI lay on top of MC NAKED, but this is also done without any consent from MC. Shortly afterwards, they comment on MC's possible lack of control, and then make/attempt to make yet another forceful advance, even if this just a kiss. Later on in the game, MC is essentially drugged and given the context of these prior occurences, I think drugging should also be a TW. I myself have been fortunate enough to not have experienced SA and it was enough to make me really uncomfortable, I can't imagine how an actual victim could be affected by this without proper warning.
That aside, I also think the intro sequence with the title screen ought to not happen everytime one goes to the title screen; it gets annoying after a couple times. I also found about 2 non-game -breaking bugs, but I will use the thread to comment on those.
Overall, 3/5
