Ethereal Ties

I really enjoyed this game and would recommend it, but it might still be a bit early for some people to jump in. It clearly needs more development. The harem aspect may bother players who prefer more traditional romance. The MC sleeps with basically any girl, regardless of who he’s already involved with, and the girls mostly accept it in silence, even when it’s clear they’re not comfortable with it. The romance itself is decent in the sense that the girls genuinely care about the MC. The problem is that the MC doesn’t seem to care about them in the same way. He technically has girlfriends, but he doesn’t really treat them like girlfriends or even introduce them that way, which I found frustrating. My favorite character is Elsie. I really like her model, but also the dynamic she has with the MC. Unlike the other girls, she probably doesn’t actually love him yet. Their relationship feels more physical than romantic, which makes it stand out compared to the others. Most of the other girls, on the other hand, clearly love the MC and want to be with him, even though he’s not exactly a good boyfriend. By the end of it, I honestly felt a bit sorry for them. They all have their own problems and seem to be looking for someone to rely on, and the only person they end up leaning on is the MC. The MC himself is a strange mix of maturity and immaturity, which I think deserved more careful handling by the author. He’s also presented as both the strongest and the weakest character at the same time. His power is supposedly the main source of confidence for the resistance, yet so far he has mostly been dead weight and has already died several times. The pacing of the story also isn’t great. The MC is constantly talking about things he needs to do, but he rarely actually does them. These tasks get mentioned repeatedly without any real progress. What the story really needs is for the MC to grow, both as a person and as a character. That alone would improve things a lot. There’s also very little that feels original here. Most of the ideas, from the character designs to the plot, feel heavily inspired by things that have already been done many times in anime. Right now, I’d say the game deserves about 3.5 stars. I’m rounding it up to 4.

This game feels like it's being created by a committee. A committee with members who don't communicate with each other very well. When the story focuses and doesn't drift into plot non sequiturs, it's pretty good. It has features that are clear time wasters and drag down the main plot with diversions meant to "milk" a development cycle. The game will obviously take longer to complete because the developer (s)? are wasting time on drivel that doesn't move the plot forward. Stop wasting time with extras and dream sequences and mini games and plot points that are nonsensical, is my advice. Mechanics needs improvement. The way the game is designed, moving the "pages" of the story forward with mouse clicks is an adventure in frustration, since the pace is constantly being interrupted with self-propelled sequences. Put an spinning wheel icon or something up in a corner to let the player know you're playing a "self-propelled" sequence that will get interrupted if the player clicks a mouse or keyboard button. Focus on the main characters. Random new characters are dropped into the story for a short while then they drop out, so we don't care about them and it slows down the pace of the story and blurs the focus of the story.

Man choices are completely redundent and the protag isn't very bright is he. examples: 1. His ex-gf has a split personallity and she is aware and on good terms with her. Mc then says to her face he is going to rid her of the other half, as soon as he found out. emmm ok ? why would he say that before letting the doctor know of this and have her evaluate the power first? completely stupid and of course no consequence for his stupidity. This type of thing happens regularly. (also she is literally only there for sex with Mc. I don't think he even cares about her in the slightest. they haven't exchanged a word outside of sex or the leadup to it.) 2. He is so coordinated and fit, knocking out dudes twice his size and dodging a knife no problem. As soon as someone is following him he runs straight into a crate in the middle of the road and stumbles flat on the ground like an idiot... I could go on but you get it. Every time you would think "ok and now the game will give me a choice of how to handle this situation." nope, the very cool protag-kun is handling everything on his own and very poorly at that. The renders and character designs on the other hand are really really good, including the animations. (even though I could care less about the cinematic walking sequences) Clearly this is were the Devs forte really lies. I do like that the Dev is at least trying to wove in a story and not just sex. Sad that it's playing too much into your average power fantasie trope. Mc is pretty much a really fit combat expert but hasn't trained a single day in his life. All girls fall instantly for him because.... he is nice to them ? He has zero moral flaws, a goody two-shoes... aside from using girls for their bodys, but of course the game never adressed this. Hell his lesbian sister (miss me with that roommate shit) has sex dreams of him, despite not liking dick in the slightest. Btw the fact she likes pussy is never mentioned ever again and has literally no play in the story haha. In theory, the story has enough potential. it's not terrible, but the writing relies to much on stupid cliches and wish fullfillment to really do something interesting with itself.

Version reviewed 0.2. (almost) Spoiler-free. Major elements 18/30: Spoiler: Major elements Story 2/5: The story of Ethereal Ties is one of its weakest points at the moment. The events that set it in motion are unconvincing, poorly executed, and result in emotionally inconsistent reactions from the protagonist, immediately creating a sense of disconnection between the player and the narrative. The subsequent development is also quite inconsistent, though not as jarring. The protagonist, a simple student, joins a small organization but is essentially left without any communication constraints and operates completely independently, with no clear idea of what to do other than a vague "make contact with two people." There are no on-screen interactions with the person who recruited him. This sense of looseness undermines the danger of the situation they are in and disrupts any tension the story should generate, leading to predictable consequences: the characters seem driven by incoherent and unconvincing motivations. The core idea could be interesting, and the fundamental source of tension that drives it is promising, but at the moment, it's poorly executed; it fails to give the necessary weight to any of the characters' actions. Fortunately, there has been an improvement in the later stages with the introduction of the antagonist. I hope it continues to build momentum and that, in later stages of developement, the developer will revisit some of the game's early sections. Characters 5/5: The characters are instead the game's strong point and are what kept me from dropping it after the poorly executed story introduction. I should note that this is one of those games where the only male presence is that of the protagonist, but in this case it didn't feel out of place and wasn't particularly noticeable. Aside from a few underdeveloped characters, I have to say I had a great impression of everyone I encountered. They feel alive, with their own ideas, motivations, lives, and problems—some more serious than others. They are young people, and the developer has portrayed this well in how they behave and form friendships. They bond with the protagonist rather quickly, but they do so in an organic and realistic way, requiring only occasional suspension of disbelief—none of which demands too much effort. They were a pleasure to read and get to know, and I am convinced that this game would have been much stronger as a slice-of-life rather than a thriller at this point, relying solely on the quality of the character writing. I am very curious to see how some of the personal storylines will develop, especially Aria's, which is the best written. The developer has managed to instill a subtle sense of dissonance and unease throughout the entire game, even though he made a misstep at the beginning of the game, which I will discuss later. As for the protagonist, while his background isn't particularly intriguing and we don’t know much about him—though there are some interesting points that I hope will be explored later, as they remain unanswered for now—I have to say that he is definitely above average. He is built on the altruistic archetype and lacks a bit of moral complexity to be truly compelling, but he is well-written. Aside from some inconsistencies at the beginning, he exudes enough indirect charisma to make the rapid bonds with the other characters believable. As I intend earlier, the only real disappointment regarding the protagonist is how his breakup with his girlfriend was handled—it was introduced and then never explored again. This leaves me perplexed because it feels unrealistic, especially given how much it initially troubled him. I assume the topic will be brought up again, considering the ending of the latest update, but I think it was poorly handled as a theme. World-building: 4/5 The game world is rather simple at the moment. The setting is contemporary with a touch of low fantasy, given that only a very few people possess special powers. The world feels realistic and believable, with no fundamental inconsistencies. The current status quo is well explained, and there are hints about why these powers are concentrated in the specific area where the adventure takes place. Some limitations of the powers, especially those of the antagonist, need to be clarified further, but I believe the developer is on the right track. I hope that the government and the antagonist’s organization will be better defined in the future and take on a more central role in the story. The origin of the diviners also needs to be explored more, as it is currently left completely unaddressed. Writing: 4/5 The writing is good—well-structured and quite natural—which helps draw the player into the story and bring its characters to life. I’m not sure if the developer is a native speaker, but the English used is excellent regardless. There are a few scattered mistakes, but they are minor. One issue I’ve noticed multiple times, however, is the lack of punctuation at the end of sentences. Combined with text boxes that reveal parts of the text progressively and sentences split across different text boxes, this sometimes creates uncertainty about whether a sentence is complete or not. It’s not a major problem, but it is a recurring and somewhat annoying one. Another issue—again, not major but frustrating—is the presence of auto-advancing text on a timer, which often doesn’t give the player enough time to read everything before moving on. Graphics: 3/5 I'm very torn on this point. On one hand, the models used in the game are the best I’ve ever seen in a Koikatsu game—they have great depth, are visually appealing (even the male characters, which is a rarity), and have entirely believable proportions—another rarity. On the other hand, the rendering is rather disappointing. The poor shadow work flattens the scenes and strips them of depth. Often, the models lack clear definition, sometimes making it difficult to understand the exact positioning of bodies within a scene, and the environments are often visually sparse. I wasn’t sure where to place this point, but I decided to include it under graphics. The scene direction is also quite inconsistent. Sometimes, the camera focus in renders is too close or has odd angles. Other times, sequences focus on completely nonsensical elements, like a hand or an arm. This issue is mostly present at the beginning and seems to improve as the game progresses, so I assume it will be entirely absent in the next version—but at times, it does break immersion. Animations are present and often well done, though somewhat short and uninspired, and they don’t always loop perfectly. Once again, however, there are directional issues. The text is often completely disconnected from the animation, leading to black screens while reading or making it easy to accidentally skip scenes because there is no clear indication of which line of text precedes the next scene. All in all, I think graphics are one of the areas where the developer should focus the most—especially post-rendering and synchronization between text and animations. Minor elements 8/15: Spoiler: Minor elements Interface 2/5: The interface is basic. It does what it needs to do, but nothing more. The quick commands are hidden behind a somewhat inconvenient quick menu, and there’s no quick command for muting the sound. Achievements were included in the first update but not in the second. If the developer doesn’t intend to continue with this mechanic, I’d recommend removing it entirely. It would be nice to have a character summary screen displaying all discovered information so that players can review it when new updates are released. Selecting on-screen elements with a controller is impossible in some instances, as the controller gets stuck on a single option, forcing the use of a mouse. Lastly, I’ll mention a bug I encountered: after accepting the terms of use, I was sent back to the terms screen in an endless loop. Fortunately, this only happened the first time. Sounds 1/5 Unfortunately, sound is a weak point of the project, which is a real shame because it could greatly enhance the experience. Leaving aside the almost complete lack of immersive ambient sounds and sound effects in the sex scenes—the absence of which is understandable given that they require a significant investment of time and resources, even if they have a huge impact on immersion—the biggest issue I have is with the music. Often, scene transitions are not accompanied by a music change, while music shifts arbitrarily during dialogues, creating abrupt cuts that completely break immersion. I recommend that the developer pay more attention to this aspect, possibly introducing fade-ins and fade-outs to smooth out these transitions. The selection of music isn't particularly extensive, but it serves its purpose and is always pleasant to listen to. Once the aforementioned issue is addressed, it would do a more-than-average job. Volume of content and updates 5/5: There is a large volume of content in the new version of the game, and all of it was produced in 5 months. This is promising for the future of the project. The project has a lot of raw potential that still needs to be fully realized. There are two really important points to work on to help the game reach its potential: developing the story and increasing the tension it creates through more interactions between the various elements, particularly focusing on the character of Hann, and improving scene direction and post-rendering. The characters have captured my attention and entertained me, and I know that this game, with the right adjustments, could become one of the best in the genre. Since it’s a new project and I see great potential that can be easily tap in with fairly simple changes, I’ve decided to give it an extra star on trust, despite the real rating. I will follow the project with interest and recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy vibrant, breathing characters in the prime of their lives, facing paranormal situations and living their everyday life.

Really good first release, it has an interesting story and the scenes are well made, characters feel alive and not bland like others games of the genre were they just want to fuck you right away, solid first first impression, cute characters, good passing and very well made models, 5 stars for now!

So far it's pretty good. Story -it's okay, didn't see much, but it's enjoeable. Renders are good. Animations are present, so it's good. Spelling and writing itself... There are some moments, where my inner grammar nazi wants to make out some buns of the dev, but it's really a minor thing. But you need someone who shall checkin out your writing. There are some instant cuts halfway to the end of phr... , but at the same time not everyone can read fast enough to... I was forced to rollback a couple of times because of that. It's not convinient for some players, so maybe player need more time for these kinds of transitions. Achivements. I liked that idea, it gave the game some charm. Characters looks interesting. BOOBA is present. (Wanted more tho, but we shall see in the future). Overall, it's a good start. I would even give it a solid 5, but my inner grammar nazi won't allow it.