Hello! I played through the 0.14.4 release over the last couple of days. I wanted to share my comments and hopefully constructive feedback.
(Note to others: I'll try to avoid bigger spoilers, but there will be some in this comment)
First of all, there is an impressive amount of interactivity for a Ren'Py game, so props to you! I've played quite a few that have very few game play elements, whereas Another World is almost entirely game play.
For reference, in my first playthrough, I did manage to pay off the restaurant debt, buy my house, and acquire the Elf. I believe I was at level 24 when the game ended. (managed to buy 2 of the 10k exp potions by end of month 3)
1.) Restaurant Management
I liked the permanent upgrades to increase the percentage customers would pay, number of customers, extra dishes, etc. I thought they were affordable and I could see the immediate effect of them, which was fantastic.
The "Cooking" and "Working" menus were a bit cumbersome. It might be tricky, but it would be nice if those 2 menus could be combined in some way. You could add dishes to the menu, but then cook additional dishes right there if you needed to.
We also really need a +10 button for cooking dishes, instead of just a "cook 1" or "cook all".
When buying ingredients, the Market is a bit annoying to be honest. Early in the game, the raw ingredient prices seem absurdly high. Towards the end of the game I would out the entire market each Monday, then use up every ingredient the same day to make around 9k I think. It would be nice if the ingredients varied in price, so maybe 1 week the eggs are cheap, but raw meat is more expensive, just for some variety. Another suggestion would be to maybe have themed events, such as a festival that brings in lots of adventurers wanting Steak, or a fishing derby where everybody wants salmon or cod. On those days the costs of those dishes could be 2x or 3x the price to make tons of money, and if you had a stockpile of raw resources ahead of time, you could make bank.
More recipes would be nice, but could also overcomplicate things if ingredients overlap.
Also, I think it would be nice but not essential to see a breakdown of how my set prices ended up with the income I'd get at the end of a restaurant open shift.
2.) Adventuring / Combat
This is definitely the most painful part of the game, no pun intended. It seemed like I'd either obliterate the enemy, or they'd obliterate me. It never felt like there was any strategy besides hoping for a better random draw of what enemy you fought, or what stats I selected when leveling up. I'm not sure if others feel this way, but there are maybe 20 different skills/spells, but I never found a reason to use any of them besides the default 2 energy attack. I tried playing around with the fire attack, but fights never lasted long enough for the burn, bleed, or poison effects to matter, at least not over the added bonus damage of the first skill.
Shield, Heal, and Regenerate seem completely useless. If Heal fully healed my character, it would be great. But it typically healed less than the enemy would do in a single attack. Enemy hits me for 40 damage, I use all my energy to heal for 35 health, yay... Enemy attacks again for 40. At least make the energy cost of heal, shield, and regenerate 1 point, so you could maybe attack once or twice before activating one of them.
As a suggestion, it would be nice if combat would sometimes drop loot you could sell to the market for extra cash. Things like artifacts, gems, treasure. Maybe you could find artifacts that give bonuses to the restaurant, dating elements, or combat. (Example: Pendant of Charm, gives 3% bonus Heart Gain when talking with characters, or Sword Hilt, reduces physical damage by 5%, etc).
It would also be nice if enemies have particular weaknesses, such as the Boar being weak to fire, so there would be reasons to use the other skills.
Also, I think the overall difficulty of combat should be reduced considerably. At level 24, I would still get killed by level 12 Wolves every time.
I'm not sure if others encountered this bug, but when I first beat the boss of combat area 2 (the boar) in month 2, I got 2 stars, and the Strange Stone, but the stone never appeared in my inventory. I was able to fight the boss another several times, and it would say 2 stars each time, with a Strange Stone as the reward. I couldn't complete the quest to turn in the strange stone though. Eventually, not sure if it was when I got to month 3 or what, but I was able to finally see the Strange Stone in my inventory and complete the quest to get 10k money. I then was able to get the combat area 2 boss to give 3 stars and make that area Sweepable.
3.) Dating / Relationships
(More spoilers in this part, everybody)
The interactions between Hitomi and the main character are very awkward, for far too long. Then it jumps off the cliff from awkward side glances to sex with almost no development in between. I like that the main character is a nice guy, as that's my preferred personality type in these types of games, but he could at least have a bit more confidence.
The time it takes to build up the heart gauges is way too long. It makes it so you have to see the same scenes or dialog way too often. I chose the Speaker class, so I had free time to build up the heart gauges, and it was still painfully long to get anywhere.
(biggest spoilers) at the end of the game, the scenes with the sick characters are just awkward. I expected a pivotal decision point where I'd either have to give my life saving potion to a character, or take it myself. There was a scene with a decision point, but I guess it was for just giving a health potion, not a cure potion? I was confused because I then used a cure potion later?? Also, it would have been nice to have some kind of button or interaction point in the character's room so I could check on her. I kept going in and out of rooms to see if anything was different, and it never was.
On that note, I think the Signs icon to go into the different bedrooms should go away, in favor of just having sleep and shower icons. It was annoying to have to hit the Sign button, then Bathroom, then Shower, then yes, then Sign, Bedroom, Sleep. Addition icons could appear if there was some interaction that could happen with other characters in a bedroom.
4.) The House and the Elf
I honestly felt like the 10k house and the elf slave parts of the game could completely go away. They seemed really forced, with no perceived benefit. From what I could tell, you can't invite characters to your house, even though the dialog suggests you can. Nothing ever develops with the Elf, though I imagine that's just because of this being version 0.14 of the game.
Rather than buying a slave, which seems like the main character's personality would be totally against, why not have a way of recruiting adventurers to your party to assist you in gathering resources or combat? Hire somebody to go find Herbs or Mushrooms, Hire somebody to heal you in battle, etc. I would have gladly paid good money to have some help in battle.
The house also seems to have no benefit. You can even ignore it and keep sleeping at Hitomi's house, which just seems really weird. Wouldn't Hitomi and Haruka be weirded out by you moving out to your own house, only to stop by, use their shower, and sleep in the bed again?
If the bed you were sleeping on at Hitomi's was some attic crawlspace cot, and uncomfortable, it would be cool if you could gain some boost or benefit from having your own house, such as 30% boost to HP for the next day if you slept in your own place.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
All in all, the game has a lot of promise, and I obviously enjoyed it enough to make it through all 3 months. I realize the game is a work in progress, so the ending is not there to stay, but it would definitely be nice to have some kind of text or wrap up that said "Thanks for playing, in future builds you can find out what happens with X, Y, or Z".