Deer in the Meadow

Review as of the [V0.01 Demo] Let's be real. No I'm not one of those bots that just spams 5 stars for no reason. The game is currently barely 100+ renders. Minutes of play time. I mean objectively does the game in it's current state deserve a 5/5? That's up to you but I'm still giving it anyways simply due to the creativity and passion from the dev. And you should generally support new devs and not be an asshole anyways. This is also literally the first review. For a more accurate rating you'll have to wait for more reviews. Law of large numbers. Or just play the game and decide for yourself. Plot: Too early to say anything conclusive. What I can say is it's extremely unique. If you couldn't tell from the overview it's not following the same overused tropes/plotlines as 90% of other games. There's some worldbuilding going on here that you would probably more likely see in a novel than a porn game. Does that mean it will be good though? It's literally impossible to say at this point. I'm optimistic though. Graphics: HS2 you either love it or you don't. Everything from graphics, lighting, camera angles, camera movement is definitely on the upper end though, especially for a new dev. It has more of a stylistic feel to it especially with the character designs. More on that later. Nice use of the available tools in Renpy for transitioning the screen and such. Custom animations are nice. The intro cutscene and subsequent camera work make it feel like something out of a movie. Not many in the HS2 scene are doing it like this. Seriously just start the game and play for a minute and tell me it's not impressive. UI: It's a mixed bag. I've already shared my thoughts in the thread. In short the design could be better (my subjective opinion) and there's some accessibility issues and lack of certain features i.e text speed/textbox customization. But you can't argue the uniqueness of the designs and small attention to details with things like transitions and hover animations. While a bit garish some parts of the UI looks like it could come straight out of a professional game. Hopefully the dev works on this over time. Characters: First off the MC is a futa girl. Female MC + Futa? A large majority of players are probably gonna turn away right here. I would say still give it a chance though. Even though it doesn't fit my personal tastes as well I'm willing to be open minded especially with the quality of everything else. Besides from that the designs. It might be hit or miss for you. Me personally the MC looks pretty nice. The other two characters that have been introduced (one of them being a LI or "Beloved" as it's called in-game) look a little rough to me. This is all based on my personal taste so YMMV. No hate to the dev. Personality wise there's again not enough content to make a concrete take. And the majority of the cast/characters haven't even been introduced yet. Despite this there's still some voice and identity to each character, and you're already beginning to see little glimpses into their personality and potential character development Sound: Nice use of music. Can't say too much since the game is so short right now. SFX though is especially good. The sound design for scenes and certain moments adds to the immersion. It's clear there's some effort being put in to the execution. Play it and you'll know what I mean. Writing/Grammar: Some of it felt a bit off to me. The writing and dialogue itself is fine. It was more of a matter of grammar and sentence structure. This is just my personal opinion though. I can say objectively at least it's way better than the usual cliche bog standard porn level dialogue in other games. There's also a nice use of the Renpy text effects that add to the style of the game. A couple of typos, but such is the nature for new games/small devs without a dedicated community/playtesters. Nothing too egregious. TLDR; This game has potential, a real diamond in the rough. Will have to see once more content comes out. It's not perfect of course (and I wouldn't expect it to be from a new dev). The story and nature of the game is certainly very unique, perhaps it won't fit most peoples taste. However, there is a clear attention to detail and effort being put into multiple aspects of the game. The dev has a certain style/artistic vision they're going for and it shows with the way they're utilizing things. Above all you can feel the passion. Give it a try.