I am not giving this game 2 stars to be mean, this is Ollane's first game. It's enjoyable, but... lets put it this way, Ollane is clearly working with what he's got on hand. In a way, that's kinda impressive, but that doesn't mean the end result is something worth giving a higher rating.
Concept: nothing new, but it's a reliable formula
Tomie Wants to Get Married is a game where bad things happen to Tomie as you help her navigate the world, and you deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. Most of them are "bad." There are a great deal of scenes and endings, which lends itself to replay value and exploring.
Gameplay: ugh... RNG...
Unfortunately, most of those scenes and endings are all locked behind RNG, aka, "artificial difficulty." There are a few tools to help you manipulate the RNG, but they're not reliable as even those tools are in some way reliant on RNG.
For example, if you want the Toru ending, you must meet him 10 times, and then it unlocks. You can only meet Toru as a random encounter. You can go for a stroll at the end of the day to get a choice of random encounters, but which of those encounters show up is also random.
At that point it's like, "why bother?"
Game Mechanics: over-engineered and a little unbalanced.
This game has at least TWELVE different resources you have to juggle:
- Time - You have only 100 in-game days to get Tomie married or rich.
- Money - Lots of items are overpriced btw, like $3000 for a maid costume which I'm should probably actually cost between $250 and $500.
- Willpower - Energy, basically.
- Attractiveness - Which you need to increase to acquire certain scenes.
- Pheromones - Makes Tomie more desirable, sorta? Every man in the game is a lecherous pervert trying to rape her, so it's really hard to tell if this stat actually does anything.
- Corruption - Lets Tomie do more lewd things.
- Submissiveness - Makes it harder for Tomie to resist demands.
- Pain - It's kinda like a reverse Willpower. They might as well be bundled into one stat, really.
- Reputation - Not sure what this does. Even if you have a good reputation, guys treat Tomie like a whore anyways.
- Elegance - Doesn't seem to do anything.
- Skill Points - used for buying very expensive perks, like exhibitionism, or reduced pain from certain sexual acts. You acquire them at a very slow rate, and the skills get ridiculously expensive.
- Jokers - These do one of two different things depending if you're playing Tomie either like a board game or action-count. In board game mode, they let you choose which space to land on. In action-count mode, they give you extra Action Points that day.
-- Action-Count Mode Only -- (the recommended way to play)
- Action Points - You receive a number of AP each day based on your willpower. You spend AP to do certain kinds of actions.
- Event Count - In the action-count mode, you can do only 4 things each day. This is a completely unnecessary mechanic, since you can accomplish the exact same results with AP exclusively. Basically, make everything cost AP, and you're done for the day when you run out.
Graphics: Tomie looks fine, but everything else is... ugh...
This game actually has a mixed bag of 3dcg and what look like stock photos ripped from somewhere on the internet.
Scenes: They look like they were recorded from another game.
UI & Gameplay: unfriendly and full of grind.
Unfortunately, this is the game's weakest point. It's not unplayable, but there is a lot of unnecessary clicking, and you will make mistakes and waste actions. You can only do one thing with any given action, and sometimes when you try new things, the result is a bust and your action is wasted, which makes you not want to explore and experiment.
Like, going to the shopping mall will eat your action whether you buy something or not. But you'll never know if there is something you want to buy unless you go there. Big no-no for game design.
The grind is real with this game. Most stats cap at around 100, and most of the time you'll be increasing them by 0.5 at a time.
Closing Comment: Go ahead and give this game a try, but keep your expectations low, and be very careful where you click your mouse. Ollane has good vision, but he is still learning a lot of the skills necessary for good game design.
Advice for Ollane:
- This game should have been made in Ren'Py.
- Ollane's admits English is not his first language, so credit where it's due. All of the in-game text comes through a translator. It's not as terrible as the machine translations you get in RPGM games, but I hope Ollane can find a native speaker to translate/edit.
- There are comparable games here on F95, like, The Headmaster, The Fixer, and Degrees of Lewdity. Please check some of these out, if you haven't done so already. I personally like The Fixer much better, even if it's 2dcg, and lacks both animation and sound.
Edit: I found this game was using my internet, or at least trying to. That's a HUGE "no-no," I don't care what the reasoning might be, even if done with the best intentions. Play with caution.