An amazing hybrid VN with character skill / development with baked in replayability through the plot. Its vibes are an interesting mix of queer and upbeat with lovecraftian madness and oppression, and the cast of characters is eclectic and personable and allows the character to choose which of them they want to get close to and if they want to get close to them if that's in a romantic or non romantic way.

You'll spend most of your time deciding what you want to do to level your stats or running around small exploration maps and event nodes, which culminates in card encounters where you try to beat or exceed a target score with cards from your deck. The deck is expanded naturally through playing and has some pruning, this isn't so much a 'card game' as a minigame mechanic using cards. It can be turned off, but it was generally fun enough and quick enough that it didn't wear on me over 4 playthroughs.

It took about 4 run throughs for me to get what I considered to be the 'good' ending to the VN, but there's a lot of alternate content that could still be seen. This is enough for me, but if you're completionist about wanting to see everything or close to everything it could take easily double this playtime.

An amazing hybrid VN with character skill / development with baked in replayability through the plot. Its vibes are an interesting mix of queer and upbeat with lovecraftian madness and oppression, and the cast of characters is eclectic and personable and allows the character to choose which of them they want to get close to and if they want to get close to them if that's in a romantic or non romantic way. You'll spend most of your time deciding what you want to do to level your stats or running around small exploration maps and event nodes, which culminates in card encounters where you try to beat or exceed a target score with cards from your deck. The deck is expanded naturally through playing and has some pruning, this isn't so much a 'card game' as a minigame mechanic using cards. It can be turned off, but it was generally fun enough and quick enough that it didn't wear on me over 4 playthroughs. It took about 4 run throughs for me to get what I considered to be the 'good' ending to the VN, but there's a lot of alternate content that could still be seen. This is enough for me, but if you're completionist about wanting to see everything or close to everything it could take easily double this playtime.