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

• overall: B. enjoyment: C.
• released in 2017 after a 5 year unannounced hiatus, star days sim date is the final installation in the pacthesis sim date series and, to the best of my knowledge, the final game she ever made. starring a girl travelling to the stars in search of her dead friend, it's a simple and sweet game with a charming cast of 8 datable characters (6 male and 2 female). the writing is, unmistakably, good. the scope, however, is not quite what you'd expect from a game about death. the art and gameplay are not, as you might expect from the grand finale, the best in the series. there are some flaws bringing them down. but overall this game is worth playing, if nothing else just to see where it all came to an end.
• plot: A. tara's friend lee, who she's known since childhood, has just died of cancer. while she's still processing the loss, she stumbles upon a group of boys in a spaceship, claiming to be from separate universes. they're headed to the constellations, where the souls of those who've died supposedly wait. though she's unsure at first, tara hops on board to search for her friend. now, as a plot... this is an excellent story, and ripe for emotional potential, which it often delivers on. as a dating sim, though, you would expect it to come up more in the characters personal stories. a little bit of lost potential.
• characters: A. yeah, they're good. interactions between the four main boys are common, giving them each additional characterization outside of one-on-one contact, which helps as they're otherwise the least interesting half of the cast. the four characters on the planets you can visit are the real show-stealers, each having an interesting design and charming personality. all 8 datable characters are likable, to different degrees, and tara is an interesting protagonist with very clear motivations.
• writing: A. it's pretty good! the characters are consistently written, the romance is often sweet, and all of the main cast is fleshed out and explores their reasons for going to the stars in their personal endings. however, i do think it's a bit of a let-down in that there is nowhere near as much emotion in the story as it could have had given the plot. the romantic storylines are... pure romance, and only the endings bring up the death aspect at all. while it's still good, it's clear that it could have been great, and it isn't. also, every one of the love confessions quotes "jenny" by studio killers, and it's exactly as silly as you'd expect.
• routes: forah > erameni > quoto > vanni > pavervill > cil > magazine > ry > lee (cassiopeia)
• gameplay: D. the game has, for the most part, the same basic formula as all the others. you move to different locations to find the love interests, at which point you talk/gift/date them until they reach 5 hearts. (only 4 are required to beat the game.) the primary difference is that the locations are split up into different planets, each having their own shops, currency, characters, and even outfits for the main cast. this is a neat touch! however... the separate currencies, while the natural choice, is really annoying in practice. the dialogue no longer tells you if you made the "correct" choice, and i'm not sure if this is an oversight or simply because there no longer is one. dialogue advances at the same rate no matter your choices, and you can't see the character's hearts while talking to them so it's hard to gauge your progress mid-conversation. dates are the same format as always, nothing to write home about. another minor annoyance -- the bathroom, where you go to type in cheat codes, has a 50% chance of being occupied. funny, but a waste of time. unlike the other games, however, this one has no time limit. while after a certain amount of time you will reach the constellations, you still have to choose when you're ready to go. so, you could easily fuck around forever.
• art: D. despite being in the same art style as the previous game, and coming out after quite a large gap, the art is simply not as high quality. it was already a low bar to reach, and it backslid heavily. the heavily stylized walkaround sprites are still decently cute, but the environments and layout lack the design-work that made it work so well in number days. the character portraits are okay, but the few bits of polish on them only makes the anatomy and technical mistakes stand out more than usual. some more realistic and detailed pictures look better, but at the same time its easy to tell how heavily referenced they were, and they clash with the rest of the games style. the UI and menus are simple and cute, but not impressive. the title art is honestly bad. this game is the final installation in pacthesis's dating sim career, but the main thing it serves as is a clear cut signal that art itself has never been her "thing", really.

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