So I played SoftWar demo. Honestly I am amazed that this was made in Ren'py. Here are some of my concerns while playing:
Story:
The characters are pretty nice. As a programmer myself, I can relate with the humor that was put into this game. The main character is also kind of funny. Though I haven't played much of the game, I can see myself playing this if certain issues are addressed. The introduction and setting is pretty good. The delivery is nice too, I found myself semi-cracking up with the punchlines and the added with the whip sound effect. ILY's character is pretty likeable as well.
Art:
Being a visual novel, the art is key. The artstyle is pretty consistent so far. The backgrounds are done pretty well. The characters have a unique artstyle, but I think it adds to the comical effect of the main character. Idk if it was intentionally made to be humorous but I find it to be. For the battle part, I love the sprites of the enemies. They're very cute and would love to see more of them in the game. Although I have to say this, I found ILY's mouth movement pretty weird. But lisa's A-ok!
Audio:
The audio seems to fit with the theme. It wasn't distracting and pleasant to the ears. I personally love ILY's theme very well. Though I kinda caught off guard hearing ILY's voice on some parts. Though I think she fits ILY's character well.
Gameplay:
The visual novel parts are your standard VN sequences. There are choices too early on, which is great. Although I find it questionable that you have to be on the computer to access the dialogue UI. I know that the dev probably meant it to be integrated, but I had an issue where I was skipping and it didn't stop until the battle started and there was still a skipping prompt visible but I couldn't access the dialogue UI. Of course this is still a demo, so there are bugs present. Another issue I had was with balancing. The Trojan Horse was the first enemy of the game and should serve as the tutorial for the Soft War Battle. Instead, what I played was pretty much unbeatable. Even after trying 6 times. I think most players would drop the game if they find the first enemy unbeatable. The battle needs more tutorial elements. I didn't know what the values of the cards meant and what the other parts of the UI meant.
Final thoughts:
I really want to play more but I got gatekeeped by the first enemy of the game. I think I have above average gaming skills yet I still kept losing, how much more for more casual players? Will take a look again if the issues are fixed or the first enemy to be more balanced. But yeah, I hope you take this with a grain of salt, these are just constructive criticisms that I noticed while playing the game.