Hidden Badge

Don't feel like playing the demo all the way through. As is, it's more bad than good, though I suspect it'll improve. Judging by untranslated portions, I suspect none of these are going to be seen or necessarily addressed but whatever. Starting with the bugs. Bugs: (quality): changing audio output kills audio (quality): changing screen res and toggling windowed/fullscreen does nothing. (annoyance): loading from the main menu shouldn't prompt a pop up warning about losing progress. Game just launched. (quality/poor gameplay): you can hit space/enter to start a dialogue but must either use mouse (left click) or ctrl to progress or end the dialogue (potentially game breaking later): stairs just inside police station entrance transfer you to the infirmary room further down the hall (may be intentional for demo): every chest seems to contain a toy gun and nothing else. - (quality): alley you find the body in the beginning continues to have two officers just standing there guns drawn. (disappear at some point, but longer than necessary) (potentially game breaking?): can run off map in some spots (e.g. far West map, northwestern part going up the stairs into the black void) Good: needing to balance combat actions with keeping Rein's stress down (gamebreaking?): reloading to try a different outcome in combat has persistent states across saves. i.e. save 1, fight, save 2 after fight, load save 1, fight again. enemies you defeated no longer populate correctly. The health bar is there, but no CG. Rein also doesn't appear if she left. (Note: if you load far enough back this does reset) The bad: There's one convo with the bought out officers early on that uses Yoin and Rein's name interchangeably it seems. Given the size of the place and setting, a map in the menu would make sense. Better if it has current PoI marked (events, where you need to go, etc). No text log. Mission page doesn't seem to populate Rein just butting into the investigation unprompted feels forced. If the target vibe is "tsundere ex" then it'd make more sense for it to be an "open volunteer offer" for someone to join, but chief thinks no one will because it's practically a suicide mission. Instead we get "good luck, you're on your own kid" and then Rein barging in and seemingly ignoring the authority and just inserting herself. After repeatedly being described more as the "all business, cleans up after everyone's messes" cop/detective. It feels like it goes against her character to have no reason other than essentially "I'm going because I said so" without direction or at least making a more reasoned case for why she should join to the chief. Some combat Rein's "stress/horny" gauge rising makes sense. Others it's just like "why is this rising? does she get off from being involved in fights?" The chat room populates slowly and you can't speed it up. I don't care about reading the messages as they appear. Unless you're joining the chat as the messages are sent it's not even how your character would see the chat. Odd and needlessly time consuming. The combat - bad enough it deserves its own section. I like the idea, but it's poorly designed and executed. Of the two or three early combats I got to, it feels like this shouldn't exist and is just wasting the player's time. There's potential there, but only potential. Right now it's just pointless grind for a scripted end. The combat could be improved by the following: If there's a scripted end. Don't do combat. Just offer a choice if there's supposed to be different outcomes, and narrate the combat/skip over it. Make the resources matter. You've got shoot, reload, take care of Rein, and X actions per turn. Give reasons you need to decide between those. If caring for Rein is a free action, it is an irrelevant action, or the combat itself is irrelevant. Addition of a dodge/take cover and possibly heal/recuperate might make sense. related to 2: telegraphing bigger attacks/lewd strikes/harassment might make sense to create a more interesting combat system. Choose between dodging the attack/lowering Rein's stress/preventing the harassment etc. I suspect the game will get polished up decently. Their other office game was pretty solid. But as of now it's rough and needs a lot of work.

I like the character designs, especially the main girl. They look great and feel well done. The idea of infiltrating a criminal group is not new, but it’s a solid concept and works well for the kind of story the game is trying to tell. That said, the game has some clear issues. I’ve run into several bugs, like the menu staying open while moving, which forces a restart. Combat also feels too basic and repetitive, mostly just shooting, reloading, and protecting the girl. It could really use more variety to stay engaging. The pixel art looks good, and the demo scenes are promising. Overall, it has a strong foundation, but it needs polishing, especially bug fixes and better combat design. For the story, I think a slower progression would work better, especially with the main girl given her personality. I’d prefer that kind of buildup. That said, the other girl already has a scene that skips that pacing, which is fine for players who want something more immediate instead of waiting for the main route to develop.

Translation is awful; nonsensical statements, wrong pronouns, some words untranslated. Keyboard and mouse inputs stop working randomly so you have to keep switching from one to the other. "Combat" is just shoot any enemy until you run out of bullets, reload and repeat. Nothing good here as far as the demo is concerned.