TLDR: Needs a prologue or something to properly explain everything and the characters. Might be my sleep deprivation stopping me from understanding it, gonna try and get some actual sleep for once and play it from the beginning later and see if my opinion's changed. Everything else is pretty good tho (graphics, character designs, environment, etc)
I'm gonna be honest here, this game has everything it needs to be good but I just feel confused trying to understand the characters so far. Graphics are good, character designs are good, and the overall setup seems good too. But the characters are kinda just there and it feels like you're supposed to know them already.
I think it'd benefit greatly from a sort of prologue chapter that properly introduces the characters. Because currently it feels like grabbing a book to read, flipping to the first page, and it says chapter 4 despite being the very first book in the series, and it expects you to already know each character. Like the very first interaction you have with Emma is sex and the only explanation you get is "this isn't the first time we've done this" which is fairly self-explanatory but at the same time makes her feel like the "obligatory sex scene because otherwise it wouldn't be an adult vn" character. Then with Nikita she went to the same academy as the MC but she acts like she's been a vigilante for over 20 years or something while the MC is just a new recruit and the start of the game is his very first "real" mission. She was the MC's senior in the academy but... that isn't really explained much at all. Then they act like best friends and go out drinking (Which they've done multiple times apparently) but strangers at the same time. Same goes with Ling, like the MC went to the academy with her too or something but you know nothing about her and she's just there once or twice.
I know there's already a small exposition before the actual game begins, but that just tells you that MC's parents are dead, he lives with his friend's family (Emma and her mom), and went to a police academy. All in like 5 or 8 sentences. I feel like if it was it's own actual chapter and you got to see some of his experiences in the academy as well as interactions with Emma, Ling, and Nikita that'd make it more comprehensible and give them more of a reason to be there. An actual background that the player could use as a point of reference.
That mission at the start feels like the beginning of a spy movie where usually it goes "that's me and my team, I bet you're wondering how we got here" then the entire movie is the setup leading up to that point. But the game doesn't do that. There's no flashback where the MC interrupts and then goes "Oh yeah, I should probably explain what's going on and how I got into this situation so you aren't confused." Instead you get a bunch of bandits and guards talking about a bunch of things in the game's world, which leads to an overload of information and almost none of it is immediately relevant.
I don't know if it's just my sleep deprivation or what, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I'm gonna give it a few days to get some actual sleep, reinstall the game, replay it from the start, then come back and see if my opinion on it has changed at all. Graphics are great, character designs are great, environment looks pretty good too, animations were great, and the story seems like it has potential.