There is a good story here, but it's buried under hours of inconsequential nonsense. The game has severe pacing issues caused by the inclusion of too many heroines. After chapter 4, the devs seemed to realize this and most of the side characters disappear while the story focuses on the main three, but after a few hours they all suddenly show up again. I guess they realized that the game was marketed as having 10 love interests or whatever, so they're all written back into the story and the second half of this game turns into a huge slog.
Viewed individually, all of the characters are fine, but they aren't viewed individually. They're tacked on to a story where the MC will ignore them in favor of the three girls who are actually relevant. This causes a conflict with the MC's characterization because he wouldn't be sleeping around with randos while he already has multiple intense long-term relationships that can develop romantically.
You might think, the more the merrier, but not in this story. Like the name implies, Shale Hill Secrets is all about secrets. All the characters have secrets, and they all play out the same way. 90% of the dialogue in this game is someone saying "i wish i could tell you, but I can't" which, again, is fine in small amounts, but when its every single one of these characters, it gets so repetitive.
I had pretty much checked out entirely around the time everyone started dressing up as superheroes for whatever reason, but I pushed through to the end because the core mystery was actually very intriguing. However, I regret doing so because the climax was a huge let-down. The tone is all over the place and some of my favorite characters were completely ruined.
I'm giving this three stars because it's a finished project, it looks good, and it had some good ideas, but I absolutely do not recommend it unless you want to waste your time for the narrative equivalent of a ruined orgasm.
Viewed individually, all of the characters are fine, but they aren't viewed individually. They're tacked on to a story where the MC will ignore them in favor of the three girls who are actually relevant. This causes a conflict with the MC's characterization because he wouldn't be sleeping around with randos while he already has multiple intense long-term relationships that can develop romantically.
You might think, the more the merrier, but not in this story. Like the name implies, Shale Hill Secrets is all about secrets. All the characters have secrets, and they all play out the same way. 90% of the dialogue in this game is someone saying "i wish i could tell you, but I can't" which, again, is fine in small amounts, but when its every single one of these characters, it gets so repetitive.
I had pretty much checked out entirely around the time everyone started dressing up as superheroes for whatever reason, but I pushed through to the end because the core mystery was actually very intriguing. However, I regret doing so because the climax was a huge let-down. The tone is all over the place and some of my favorite characters were completely ruined.
I'm giving this three stars because it's a finished project, it looks good, and it had some good ideas, but I absolutely do not recommend it unless you want to waste your time for the narrative equivalent of a ruined orgasm.