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Okay so coming off from Chara CC, I have some thoughts about this game. That said, what I'm about to say will be related to that game as well for comparison's sake. Many people said that this game would be better than it, but I have to disagree, so without further ado, I'll tell you why I think so.

First the visuals, the scenes. Just like CC, this game has a lot of well made pictures in it, but I'm not sure if it's due to the quantity of them or something else, there's more issues with them overall. Especially with labia, which I know is extremely hard to figure out with AI, but since this is a game almost solely focusing on that subject, I would've like to have had more effort put into them. As because for the sake of those visuals, it stands out. Everything else though, is most commendable. CC got around this by covering up the genitalia using the labia majora when applicable. I'm not saying that's what should've been done here too, I'm just saying that it's something that should've been looked into more.

The plot this time around is realistic, to a degree, as well. As opposed to CC, the scenarios seemed believable, but due to the lack of coherent structure, there was no real start or end. To some players that's for the better, but for me it gave a lack of reason and accomplishment. After I'd maxed out all the characters I liked, what reason was for me there to keep going? None, really. Had there been some other reason other than unlocking the gallery items, then maybe and only then, would there be an incentive to go through the grind with them as well. Especially because I didn't recognise half the characters. But since that wasn't the case, I just ended up using the cheats to unlock the rest. Could be that that's why the cheats exists in the first place, but if that's the case, then it's something of a lazy move. That's why I want to think that the cheats existed for some other reason.

The existence of upgrades is interesting, and I commend it. It's a great incentive for gameplay and it functions as a tangible thing you purchase, and it prolongs as well as diversifies the gameplay. But, because it exists, and you are proud of the quantity of the scenes, it runs out of items to buy before even getting the eighth new room. A hard limit is great of course to prevent exponential gain and to tell the player they've "maxed out", but it's not great to keep the game interesting. I don't mean to lambast this decision too harshly of course, because the rest of the gameplay is after all, just clicking the right things on the screen. Anything in addition, is welcomed. I'm just saying that the current upgrade system is not handled to be useful throughout the entirety of the game. 

There's something else you could fix as well, and that's to do with the money counter. Because you only get to see how much money you have before picking a girl or in the shop, you don't know how much money you have when you actually can make the decision to go to the shop or not. I see this as extremely inconvenient. To fix this, show how much money the player has at either all times, or at the very least, in the mansion's area selection screen.

Now what I do like about this game in addition to the overall quality in the visuals, is the dialogue. Every character seems different, even if by slightly. Bocchi isn't the same brave girl like Nami is, rather she is very reserved both in actions you can perform with her, and with her dialogue. This is a great thing. That was one my main criticisms of CC, so I really like that something was done with it here. The changes aren't drastic mind you, there's still plenty of recycled dialogue, but the fact that even with smaller dialogue changes the entire character changes to what they are actually like, still stands.

Though the game also suffers from the same repetitive gameplay loops like CC did, the aforementioned upgrades help it seem more varied. And unlike CC, it's easy to "go to the next level" with the characters. All you need to do is frustrate them out into doing more things. This mechanic is very intuitive, and made easier with the upgrades. However, it seems rather odd and manipulative. Not that I'm complaining, but you're basically forcing the girls to do more things in order to get more money. CC had that one thing going for it; The girls were doing the things they did one out of personal interest, and secondly for "the greater good". Here they're doing it just for the money, which all of them are seemingly obsessed with. I realise that there's not many other ways of having the girls do more things other than by force or insatiable lust, but this insinuation that all of the girls absolutely need to get more followers no matter what seems farfetched, especially considering character traits like that of bocchi. 

One last minor thing I want to complain about is the aspect ratio. As I quickly found out, this game was made with mobile heavily in mind, PC being something of a side consideration, it seems. I say this, because there's no option to change the aspect ratio to the standard 16:9. In fact, there's only two toggleable options in the entire game; One to toggle the music on/off completely, and the other to make the text go by quicker. And yes, you get used to this resolution somewhat well, but to not have such a pivotal option in a game about enjoying pictures seems silly to me. It's probably too late to do anything about it now, but it's still possible. It would just require more work, as would improving the things I've already mentioned.

So summarise, from a gameplay standpoint this game has a little more thanks to the upgrade system, but it isn't enough to carry the entire game. Also some visuals while good, could've been done better when it comes to labia, since everything else is fine. Also there no reason to keep playing the game after you've unlocked the scenes you have with the characters you liked/knew. This was possible in CC because you could raise the awareness of many characters at once, but in this game there's just too much micromanagement to make such unnecessary options possible. What the game does great though, is the dialogue and character variety. if you truly like one of the characters available in this game, then this could be a very likeable experience even disregarding everything that I've said. But because I'm just a criticising, verbose bastard, I wanted to look at it more objectively.

That's about all I wanted to say.  I may have more but that just about covers it. And because no one sane is going to read all that, these words are for you, developer: You have some amazing games, and you keep showing that AI is an applicable source to produce character parodies. It's just that the games aren't often thought out from a gamer's perspective that much, that drags them down. But I do see your skills, and I acknowledge you as a developer. I wouldn't have written that massive essay if I didn't care about your work, because that I do. I have faith, that sometime you're able to produce something that even I won't be able to complain about. Because you, you are doing something that not many others have dared; Use effort in tangent with AI.

Now this is the end of the review. Thank you, and sorry for taking your time. 

Thanks for your review. It’s always good to have feedback. This game is older than CC, that’s why the pictures aren’t as good. Both me and the technology improved a lot since then.

You don’t frustrate the Charas. Their desire to become popular, that’s why they join the mansion in the first place. You take a few pictures of them and they gain new fans. Everybody is happy but then, they reach a plateau where their subscriber count stops growing despite continuing to take pictures. That’s what frustrates them. For Bocchi, I don’t think there is any link between being shy and having an urge to be popular. BTW, they are not real girls, they are Charas, and dreaming to become popular is part of their DNA.

An option to rotate all the pictures when in fullscreen would be weird, but I’ll add it since there are players who seem to prefer it that way. Some pictures can definitely be put in landscape mode without looking weird. I’ll try to do something about this for the next version for PC players.

I’m not sure any of my games will ever satisfy players like you as the gameplay will always be casual. But I’ll try various new things in my next game, I hope you’ll check it.

(+1)

Yeah no worries man. I'm just glad you could read all that. I hadn't realised that this game was made before CC, so some of those things didn't make a whole lot of sense, as like I said, CC was better when it came to some of the things I complained about here. There's still some things that link the two games in terms of my complaints though. Mind you, these are the only two games of yours that I've played, so I could be arrogant and you can disregard what I'm about to say:

The purpose is lacking, or often doesn't make sense. Sometimes something cheesy as "the girls being infected with a horny virus" or "you're the last man alive" is a whole lot better than trying to conjure up something that makes less sense. This is because something cliched is easier to overlook in a game where the plot only serves as an excuse to have sex with fictional characters. There's no need to figure out a grand plan, just a beginning and an end suffices. For my examples, the virus could end when all of the girls have been fucked senseless, and the gameplay serves as a way of convincing them, just like in CC. Just this time, there's a better reason for them to do it as it's believable. For the apocalypse scenario, the game would end when enough of the girls would be impregnated as to revive humanity. The point is, it's extremely easy to figure out a plot that makes sense, and the bare minimum is required for a game that doesn't need it.

As for gameplay, I'm all for casual, especially when there's visuals as good as these. I'm just not a big fan of repetitive grind that doesn't show much reward. In CC it was manageable thanks to the way some of the awareness stat was doled out to the Charas, but there doesn't seem to be any way to make it less grindy beyond that. I don't know what kind of engine you're using, as that poses its own restrictions as well, but something like minigames aren't a bad idea. Not that I need minigames for a game to be good, but it's something to consider when spicing up the gameplay.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read what I had to say, and thanks for clarifying some things in your reply as well. 

I’m not only looking for an excuse for the player to have sex with all the girls. I’m looking for something that justify the unnatural progression (underwear>topless>nude>lewd>outcourse>sex). It’s because I like my games to have a feeling of progression. There will be more gameplay in my next game, follow me to get notified when it’s released, you can check my previous games too 👀