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idol days sim date (F/M, free, /browser/)

• overall: D-. enjoyment: D-.
• the third game in the pacthesis sim date series, idol days is a simple game about a girl in a band training for her first performance. the game has a decent premise that could easily have been explored better, and certainly has been in other games. unfortunately, this one has pretty much no other positive traits. the art has visibly improved from the previous games, but it's still rather bad. the writing is a real low point for the series, with an inappropriately light tone for some of the subject material and characters who just come off as either boring or creepy. the gameplay is dumbed down from the usual format, many of its features being unnecessary, and despite being a game about music the sound design isn't anything to write home about either. this is rare from me, but honestly? just skip this one.
• plot: C. you play as a young guitarist (default name lexie) who's moved to a new city in hopes of finding a band to join. when you arrive you meet a boy who conveniently happens to be looking for a guitarist for his band, which it turns out is fairly popular in the area. as they have a performance coming up in a month, they pretty much hire you on the spot without hearing you play. unrealistic as the premise is, it does a decent job. its specific and to the point, providing you with a decent motivation and opportunity to get to know the characters.
• characters: F. this is one of the first pacthesis games where the protagonist is actually treated as a real character, which is a plus. unfortunately, she's pretty generic. i've always found pacthesis's girls more compelling than the guys, but lexie falls short of the mark. the boys' designs themselves are unusually samey, and none of the characters are particularly likable. they go from boring to intentionally obnoxious (without the improvement you'd expect) to pointlessly weird and extremely creepy. the only character who's remotely interesting is cody, but his situation is glossed over massively and the fact that he never intends to tell his "friends" the truth is majorly shitty.
• writing: F. the game and the dialogue are written very casually, which is good for some parts but very inappropriate for others. heavy topics are not handled particularly well. one character's route depicts him about to commit suicide, and your character talks him down. ...this is depicted not in a cut-scene, but in the same little dialogue chunks that make up the rest of your interactions. the event is not really taken very seriously, and both characters just kind of brush it off after. the oldest datable character, when asked his age, says "that's a secret" and then continues flirting. he's 22. you're 16. so, that's not ideal. the light-hearted tone makes everything seem low-stakes; is it a big deal that cody is living a lie? do these characters actually care about the big concert at the end of the month? genuinely cannot tell. some of the romances don't seem to have all that much chemistry; they tell you they love you, but it doesn't feel believable.
• routes: cody > zane > emerson >> devin >>>>>> ace
• gameplay: D. gameplay follows the typical pacthesis format. explore the town to find your boy, then talk/gift/date him until he's in love with you. unlike the other games, how many points you have with him doesn't actually matter. if you've seen all his dialogue, you're guaranteed the best ending. so there's no real reason to bother with the gifts or dates, unless you really want to. the stat raising element comes back and sort of matters in this game, but the requirements are so low that they may as well not exist, it's very easy to raise them. overall it's just every other pacthesis game, but dumbed down a bit. dialogue still doesn't advance until you pick the right reply, though it finally fixes an issue previous games had by actually having unique responses to your choices.
• art: F. while you can see a good degree of technical improvement from the previous game (wonderland), the art here still has a long way to go. she's branched out to include cel shading, but is still using flash gradients to color the hair and backgrounds. said hair tends to be comprised of random triangles pointing in vaguely the correct direction, and while her faces are moving in the right direction towards being properly proportioned they still have a lot of issues. bodies and clothing are getting somewhere, but it's clear that when it comes to clothing folds she's just kind of drawing random lines. UI design still needs work, and again uses the ugly default flash text fields.
• sound: D. as this is a game about a band, it's fitting that this category finally appear. there isn't any voice acting in the game itself, and the background music and sound effects are very basic. there's one actual song in the game, during the band's final performance, which has vocals that i am unsure the origin of. was this recorded specifically for the game? probably. unclear. either way, it isn't really very impressive. as soon as i was sure i'd heard everything the game had to offer i put it right back on mute.

http://pacthesisgames.com/games/sim-dates/idol-days-sim-date.html

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