Dear Dev,
I finished the game and ... I'd like to be honest and I meant no offense. I wrote this feedback that meant to be helpful.
Summary:
This game has superb visual effects, has a lot of potential, but currently leaves me with a lot of confusion.
Positive Feedback:
I love how much intricate work you put into world building (like the news, advanced technologies of which I won't mention to avoid spoilers), renders and character models, animations. It definitely felt immersive at first. Everything is visually clean and pleasant.
Constructive Criticism:
What confused me was the story and the background music choice.
The title of this game is called "Between Humanity", but the major plot is centered on the MC's spiritual experience so far (no spoilers for those who didn't play). My question is: how does that relate to the title/theme of this game? So far in the two chapters we have, the most stuff I observed was MC's ordinary daily life and ...... his lewd scenes. To put it it frankly, I didn't understand what the main plot was, nor I saw huge story progress was made at the end of Chapter 2. I guess I am on the spectrum of people thinking "the game is a bit low paced", but with a different reason.
Some may argue that, this is a AVN, the priority shouldn't be just stories, so it is perfectly fine to focus on the lewd scenes. But the popular AVNs like Eternum, MBML, etc..., present H-scenes as a natural outcome of the main story's progression, not based on...... random and less attractive "daily" events. But I also need to acknoledge that different people have different preferences. I'm just being honest about my subjective opinion.
In addition, the immersive choice of piano-based background music makes the game experience less enjoyable. I enjoy listening to piano, but the scenes at home where MC interacts with other girls have similar melodies, rhythms, and... emotional implications. Some stories just... don't feel right vibe when overflown with these piano instrumentals. For those who want to argue the toss, I am not saying I dislike pianos. Quite the opposite, I am suggesting diversify the music choice to make the story more immersive.
I hope this is helpful and I wish you all the best! But whether or not you take my suggestion is up to you. It is your baby game after all, and you should be the one making development decisions for this game. If I did offend you with my opinions, don't give a damn about the stranger me haha. I'm just probably blabbing and am too demanding :)
Yours sincerely,
Pigrider
Hey there, thanks for the detailed review!
Don't worry, I don't take constructive criticism as an offense. When the game grows bigger, I tend to overlook certain things, and it's nice when people point them out.
I'm having a really difficult time finding the right music tracks since, in general, I'm not a very musical person. The piano music is something I find mostly relaxing and not distracting, which is why I went with it. Maybe I can ask my beta-testers what they'd suggest for music, as it's difficult for me to handle alone.
About the title, don't get too attached to it for now. Like Caribdis wrote in OIAL: "You see this title only once and that's it." When the game is finished, you might see it as more fitting, but for now, it is what it is.
A slow pace is something I actually enjoy (if it's not filled with grind and useless scenes). I want to build relationships with the characters. I want some sex scenes to be rather quick or "random," while others will be more connected to the story and after certain events.
As you mentioned, it's currently the MC's daily life, so it's a mix of slice of life and story. I wanted to implement some H-scenes early on, so I went with the dream and random approach, also the girls should have different pacing, Amber is more like the experienced girl who wants to enjoy some quality time with MC while Lucy will be your little cute girlfriend at some point. Also speaking of MBML, there are also some quick and random sex scenes (e.g., Gwen).
I hope my rough explanations help bring some clarity to the situation and my overall thoughts :)!
Have a great day,
Panda