OK I'm gonna come down on this game like a ton of bricks. Specifically, the dialogue.
In terms of gameplay itself it's pretty great for what it is: A fetish game scene collector. If you like the fetishes, you'll like the game. I like the fetishes, so I like the game.
However, the dialogue is atrocious. The translation is atrocious. The pacing is atrocious. The signposting is atrocious. The QA is atrocious.
Names are inconsistent beyond belief. Characters are referred to by different spellings or even straight up translations of their names at different points by different characters. They're also inconsistent as to whether they're Chinese or Japanese names, and if they're Japanese names people get referred to by their full name rather than just their first or last.
Even the walkthrough is written like this, making it absurdly hard to find exactly what you're looking for. I can't find Luo Luo's quest information at all in the thread OR walkthrough!
And then there are the untranslated portions including signs, and the infamous errors in the text where someone just copied an email/message request as part of the dialogue. No QA at all, apparently. The entire Book mechanic is untranslated, and the game calls it "School Bag." Which is just...terrible translation work.
And sometimes it's obvious things are just directly translated and not localized. This game is a great example of why localization is important. For example, "Living Area" on the school campus would more accurately be called "Student Lounge" in English. A "Living Area" sounds more like a dorm, which is a separate location.
This is such a hugely pervasive problem it actually hurts the enjoyment of the game to a severe degree. This game would probably be a shining golden beacon of foot/stocking/lesdom if it was actually comprehensible.
But there's another problem that's a bit more glaring: A lack of signposting. To explain, I'm gonna need a bit of a rant.
Signposting can basically be described as "Indicating what the player can and should do in the game".
Super Mario Bros. has the simplest form of this in gaming: In the first screen of the game, there's a row of brown blocks. One of the blocks has a ? on it, drawing your eye to it. It's above the ground level, so you can tell you're expected to jump into it. There's more examples, because every good game has this (I could go on and on about how FromSoftware games are really good about this) .
This game lacks that. A lot. And it hurts the game's playability.
For example, when you start the game you can only go to the convenience store and home. There's a time passage mechanic so you get the jist that you're supposed to pass time...but what are you supposed to be DOING with your time? Work at the convenience store? Talk to your roommate? The roommate/caretaker is signposting by actually being present on screen, but that's it. Once her events are exhausted, you basically have nothing to do but replay the scenes from the convenience store until Day 8 when the school opens.
And then what? You can go to the school and...what? Talk to an NPC and learn about orientation. Go to the library and talk to an NPC and get scenes. But there's no indication of any of this. Moreover, with maybe two exceptions there's no proper follow-up with the NPC students you meet in the classroom. Only a couple of them appear elsewhere, and the conditions to make others appear are obtuse and have nothing to do with the original way you meet them. In fact the school's class attendance feature just kinda...stops.
And that's before getting into how it's easy as hell to softlock yourself: If you're at the university or Commercial District at night and you have no tickets or money, you can't leave. This actually happened to me in the sequel.
Now, I'm a constructive criticizer so I'm going to include in this review some ways to actually improve this game to be worthy of 5 stars:
1) Get an actual native speaker to review the script. There's a few million of them. Some work for money.
2) Translate the location text, and check it with existing locations. This was partially done in the sequel game but should really be done for both. As an example "Living Area" should really be "Student Lounge."
3) Add proper signposting. This ISN'T fixed in the sequel, as once you start it up you're given no indication on WTF you're actually supposed to be doing and even more limited money and opportunities to do it. As an example, the character has a computer and a calendar. The school in the first game opens on Day 8. A simple "It's Day X, school opens on Day 8!" on the calendar can help a ton. The character has a smartphone. Have them get text messages from friends and "friends" telling them when things are available. Have characters SAY where they'll be going.
4) Get rid of the bus ticket mechanic. It adds nothing, and even in the real world a lot of schools include public transportation passes as part of tuition so it isn't even "realistic". Even my school in America, land of the fee (as in charges), had public transport vouchers you could buy. Getting rid of the mechanic allows for players to avoid getting softlocked and saves development time by not requiring convoluted means to avoid getting softlocked.
5) Add consistency. Is it dollars of Yuan? Say what it is, and have the symbol on screen reflect that. I've seen the currency in this game called dollars, yuan, and GP at different points. This also applies to names: Mutsuki is referred to as "Pine" by the boss lady. I know why, because of what Mutsuki means, but it comes across as an error. This is why a native english speaker is important to have around.
So yeah there's lots of potential here, but to say it's rough around the edges would mean being too kind. This game is a gold nugget covered in feces that needs to be cleaned.
In terms of gameplay itself it's pretty great for what it is: A fetish game scene collector. If you like the fetishes, you'll like the game. I like the fetishes, so I like the game.
However, the dialogue is atrocious. The translation is atrocious. The pacing is atrocious. The signposting is atrocious. The QA is atrocious.
Names are inconsistent beyond belief. Characters are referred to by different spellings or even straight up translations of their names at different points by different characters. They're also inconsistent as to whether they're Chinese or Japanese names, and if they're Japanese names people get referred to by their full name rather than just their first or last.
Even the walkthrough is written like this, making it absurdly hard to find exactly what you're looking for. I can't find Luo Luo's quest information at all in the thread OR walkthrough!
And then there are the untranslated portions including signs, and the infamous errors in the text where someone just copied an email/message request as part of the dialogue. No QA at all, apparently. The entire Book mechanic is untranslated, and the game calls it "School Bag." Which is just...terrible translation work.
And sometimes it's obvious things are just directly translated and not localized. This game is a great example of why localization is important. For example, "Living Area" on the school campus would more accurately be called "Student Lounge" in English. A "Living Area" sounds more like a dorm, which is a separate location.
This is such a hugely pervasive problem it actually hurts the enjoyment of the game to a severe degree. This game would probably be a shining golden beacon of foot/stocking/lesdom if it was actually comprehensible.
But there's another problem that's a bit more glaring: A lack of signposting. To explain, I'm gonna need a bit of a rant.
Signposting can basically be described as "Indicating what the player can and should do in the game".
Super Mario Bros. has the simplest form of this in gaming: In the first screen of the game, there's a row of brown blocks. One of the blocks has a ? on it, drawing your eye to it. It's above the ground level, so you can tell you're expected to jump into it. There's more examples, because every good game has this (I could go on and on about how FromSoftware games are really good about this) .
This game lacks that. A lot. And it hurts the game's playability.
For example, when you start the game you can only go to the convenience store and home. There's a time passage mechanic so you get the jist that you're supposed to pass time...but what are you supposed to be DOING with your time? Work at the convenience store? Talk to your roommate? The roommate/caretaker is signposting by actually being present on screen, but that's it. Once her events are exhausted, you basically have nothing to do but replay the scenes from the convenience store until Day 8 when the school opens.
And then what? You can go to the school and...what? Talk to an NPC and learn about orientation. Go to the library and talk to an NPC and get scenes. But there's no indication of any of this. Moreover, with maybe two exceptions there's no proper follow-up with the NPC students you meet in the classroom. Only a couple of them appear elsewhere, and the conditions to make others appear are obtuse and have nothing to do with the original way you meet them. In fact the school's class attendance feature just kinda...stops.
And that's before getting into how it's easy as hell to softlock yourself: If you're at the university or Commercial District at night and you have no tickets or money, you can't leave. This actually happened to me in the sequel.
Now, I'm a constructive criticizer so I'm going to include in this review some ways to actually improve this game to be worthy of 5 stars:
1) Get an actual native speaker to review the script. There's a few million of them. Some work for money.
2) Translate the location text, and check it with existing locations. This was partially done in the sequel game but should really be done for both. As an example "Living Area" should really be "Student Lounge."
3) Add proper signposting. This ISN'T fixed in the sequel, as once you start it up you're given no indication on WTF you're actually supposed to be doing and even more limited money and opportunities to do it. As an example, the character has a computer and a calendar. The school in the first game opens on Day 8. A simple "It's Day X, school opens on Day 8!" on the calendar can help a ton. The character has a smartphone. Have them get text messages from friends and "friends" telling them when things are available. Have characters SAY where they'll be going.
4) Get rid of the bus ticket mechanic. It adds nothing, and even in the real world a lot of schools include public transportation passes as part of tuition so it isn't even "realistic". Even my school in America, land of the fee (as in charges), had public transport vouchers you could buy. Getting rid of the mechanic allows for players to avoid getting softlocked and saves development time by not requiring convoluted means to avoid getting softlocked.
5) Add consistency. Is it dollars of Yuan? Say what it is, and have the symbol on screen reflect that. I've seen the currency in this game called dollars, yuan, and GP at different points. This also applies to names: Mutsuki is referred to as "Pine" by the boss lady. I know why, because of what Mutsuki means, but it comes across as an error. This is why a native english speaker is important to have around.
So yeah there's lots of potential here, but to say it's rough around the edges would mean being too kind. This game is a gold nugget covered in feces that needs to be cleaned.
