English:............7/10
User Interface:.....4/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........5/10
Story:..............7/10
Opinion:............7/10................
Avg:..............6.29/10 [3.15/5]
You know, I REALLY want to like this game. I love monster girls. And not in the "Girls with animal ears are monsters" type of way. Like actual part monster, half-woman half-spider(doesn't matter which half), way. Meaning, I'M the prime demographic for the idea of the visuals of this game. I'm sure DAZ has a limited library of monster girls, seeing as the ones in this game aren't the best. And the vampires have fangs on the wrong teeth. Which I'm willing to look past, but something about the composition of all the shots in this don't do it for me. A lot of empty negative space, never been a fan of extra soft lighting, and the angles are all strange. Which is odd, how can you animate a werewolf transformation but have shitty camera angles? It also opens to Anne giving off weird vibes, is she supposed to be sexy and alluring? Because she's not. And yet again, MC is a psychology student. I still do not understand why people write stories where MC is a psychologist, as if it's desirable or he'll manipulate people, but then he acts like an idiot the whole time. Honestly, I think it's just a way to justify having MC finish everyone's sentences. The dad speaks to MC like he's a child on top of it. "That's right son, here's a gold star." I also don't understand how a werewolf goes bald. Isn't hair part of the package? And this even has a section where a character says "Isn't psychology used to seduce women?" They try to say no, but at any and every opportunity, the writer tries to make it clear MC is using his psychology studies to "seduce" these women. But if you have more than two brain cells, you can see 90% of it is love at first sight. Anyway those are my initial gripes, lemme get through the story.
You play as MC, who I can only characterize as a sterotypical 80/90s jock, that has a girlfriend that's obsessed with him? I don't know, she seems like it. Either way, she wants him to move in with her but he's worried about his dad. He also does the totally not insecure thing of yelling "I'm not an insecure person!" So you're given a few choices about being in love with this girl that you, the player, have known for about 48 seconds. I guess it's more just "Future anne content" choices. They have sex, he transforms into a werewolf, he runs away, she gets sad. And outside a few sentences about leaving his old life, Anne is almost NEVER mentioned again(until suddenly she appears later). Then you get MC bumbling around meeting all the women and for no reason they all find him charming or his reputation precedes him. What reputation? Most of the characters actively say they don't like talking to all the other characters you meet. Who's already spread rumors about him? And you get no leading lines like "Alright I have to head to the library" or whatever, the scenes just end and MC's dopey ass face is staring at some new girl in a completely different location at a completely different time. So much of this is written like a jock that thinks emo/scene girls are sexy and different. Because they're all monsters, gotta be goth, right? But really, it all ends up being the same "MC goes to college to experience sex" story that is everywhere, except everyone put on halloween masks for the fetish of your choosing. And if anyone says differently, between every conversation MC rehashes every way he finds the girl he just talked to sexy. The most annoying part of most of these games is the horny brain bullshit. This one is constant. There's more dialogue from the MC's thoughts about how sexy or how much he wants to have sex with these women, than actual dialogue. The only decent male character is Lenny but it's so obviously a ripoff of Norm Macdonald's character in The Orville, so it's cheapened a little.
So MC does the typical jaunt from set piece to set piece learning about all the women "Ah, I'm a monster but I'm so different. But I'm so normal." You know the deal, learn their one personality trait and decide who is your favorite. And I hope you like barbie doll proportions(minus one scene where suzy suddenly had small tits in the art room), because outside of Rachel and Grace, all of them have the exact same body type. Yeah, it's appealing, I guess, but they're supposed to be monsters, diversity is part of the allure. The only ugly person in this is MC, and it's made worse with his wolf mutton chops. Add tot the fact that werewolves are just not appealing to me. That's closer to furry territory. I guess a main story point is the Menehune Stone being stolen. It just kinda crops up in random conversations after that. Like "Wow, you're fun to be around. You know about that stolen rock?" There's minor side stories that sort of go places. But the only noteable one is with Maxine, and not because the story is good. It's actually because MC is told "No." for the first (and only) time the entire story, and throws a giant hissy fit to Olga because he can't get a book. I thought he wasn't insecure? Where'd the big man go now that he's told no? And there's two entire sections where MC sneaks to Dragomira's house and says what he'd wanna do to her. He also comments about how sad she looks, but not only is he never looking at her face, he's also behind her. Only the camera can see her face so how would he know? The horny brain insert is already the MAJORITY of the writing in this, making me listen to two idiots drool during a fucking panty raid is almost torture. Not to mention the plethora of non-choices. There's so many times it gives you a bunch of choices, only for MC or someone else to just give the answer. So basically, "No, reader, you're wrong and stupid. Let me make the choice for you." What is the point of giving me a choice, if there is no choice? I wouldn't say that if it was there for emphasis or flavor text, but this is clearly just "Making that branch of story would be a pain in the ass."
MC meets: Rachel the rainbow colored vampire that, as soon as you get to know her, ditches the one thing she was trying to fight for. Her modern style. Dragomira the ancient femdom vampire. Olga, a ragdoll that pretty much tells you "We're going to have sex right here" when she says she doesn't want immoral acts in her library. She's also, arguably, the most fleshed out story in this. Lily, the jealous gorgon that just disappears. Her intro is one of the most drawn out segments in which MC uses his cringey psychotherapy to analyze her mannerisms. Dean Sharp is the one I am most interested in, at least visually, she's also the only one that doesn't fall for MC's shit. So, even though I like her, here's hoping she's not part of MC's escapades. Emily the friendly ghost. Literally just casper. Kyle the virgin vampire, he's included on this list solely because he's a joke. Sofia the teenage witch. Just a jab at Sabrina or Wednesday Addams, depending on who you wanna ask. She's the tsundere because her ex died. She's ALMOST a decent character, but ends up being one note and grating. And MC trying REALLY hard to tell you that she's likeable beyond "She's physically attractive" is a joke. Shosha, Grace and Suzy is one of the only times the game ever branches. And even then, it's 1 or 2 points for that character. Hippie, fast and loose, and nervous are their characters, respectively. Grace gets a tiny bit of exposition later, but really they feel like side characters. MC continues his "people reading" here as well. The last two big ones are Maxine and Nina. Max is a zombie that's losing her marbles. And Nina is being pushed REALLY hard to be the face of this VN. She's a weird combo of dom and sub and demands MC is the Alpha. And given the playerbase on this site, none of them will like her because she's been fucking the only other werewolf most of the game. I don't care either way, but a lot of weirdos get uppity about women in these games. So you're welcome for enlightening you. And they do this "There's something mystical about her that I like." That's called hormones and being horny. Look it up. She also says it was Alex's fault she almost died, but last time I checked, MC threw her off a cliff. But anyway, that dumb trope in writing where you, the reader, will never know, feel, or understand WHY they have feelings for each other? They do this here with balloon titties. And Maxine's first mistake makes no sense as Max and Nina went to the showers TOGETHER. How did she just decide to go to the mens shower?
With all the psychology stuff, nobody cares. Are there sad sacks that WANT to believe all of that and even try it? Sure. But it's universally known that guys that do it are jokes. All MC's internal monologues about how someone's sitting or acting just say to the player: "I DON'T THINK YOU KNOW WHY I POSED THE CHARACTER THIS WAY" or "LOOK SHE WANTS THE SEX" And it's completely undermined by MC constantly having to say how horny he is, or how sexy so and so is. He's not smart, he's not witty, he's not charming. The only time he's done anything in this story to fit those categories, is catching Lily, and helping Rachel. Every other time he's just been present for the event to happen. MC even gushes that he meets Prof. Wilson, like this stuff matters later on, at all. And you, the player, are given no agency on how to feel about any of the characters because MC tells you how he's going to feel. Your only input is "Sex? Yes or no?" He'll say fluffy romance speak, then say he's horny for her, then say how much dick she wants. Are we supposed to like this guy? He's pretty annoying. Did you know? It is, in fact, possible to get sex when your entire persona isn't about getting laid. Astonishing, I know. I get it, it's an AVN. But they can be about more than just having sex. Or at least lower the amount of commentary MC has. There's something offputting about someone telling you someone else is hot. Let me come to my own conclusions.
The English is almost good. There's a lot of phrasing and stuff that needs work, as well as sentences that don't make some sense. But It has 4 languages so I'm a little more lenient towards having many okay translations over just google translating one draft to the masses. The UI/UX is default minus two screens and a font. Customize it all. This ALSO has the window title "A Renpy Game" and I know full well it's because instead of changing "show_name" to false, they deleted the title variable. Simple fixes overlooked... Negligence or laziness. The Art is hit and miss. Like I said, I love monster women. But aside from a couple of them, I've seen all this before. On top of the animations being not that great. Nina's fight moves? Her arm is insider her breasts more than out. Rachel's walk cycle? Her feet, the FOCUS of that shot, were sinking into the floor. I don't know, like I said, hit or miss. Even the banner art has Sofia clipping into Grace. And most of the womens' nipples poke through their clothes. The dialogue, when MC isn't thinking about how hot someone is, or just isn't speaking, is fine. But he drags it way down. It's a shame, really. The story is... Minimal but not bad. I guess, to put it politely. Guy learns he's a werewolf and bad things start to happen at the school. I enjoy sparse story beats that are handled well, and this seems to do it. It's just a shame that the in-betweens of MC being an actual slobbering moron exist. I said it before, I really want to like this. There's, what? Two, maybe three, AVNs that have monster women. So I get what scraps I'm given. But the dialogue, ESPECIALLY from MC need to be improved. He's a dumb thumb head that tries to act sympathetic, but he's just staring under their skirt the whole time. Not a fan of that.
