(warning: english is not my native language, I apologize for the mistakes to come, feel free to correct me)
tl;dr: I like this game.So, I downloaded the demo and I was like "another crappy fan game, just to date your favorites character and then get a kiss scene, meh, i'm bored, it's free, let's try". Yeah, I didn't read a lot of the "About The Game" part.
And at first, I had trouble with the designs, especially Professor Oak, and I found Red dumb and not very enjoyable. And first choices seemed meaningless, but I kept going. I completed the demo. And I really enjoyed it.
Many reasons, a lot of them tied to the writing, so here's a list:
-The characters. I played a bunch of Visual Novels, and a lot of them had this kind of forced friendship that feel wrong, unrealistic and too easy. But here, it's the Pokemon World, and it's well written, so it worked. I don't know how, but I believe than these guys become friends with Red, and I took Brandan as a roommate and he's cool, his relationship with May is cool, they remind me these couples I can meet and befriend with. And I like Leaf too. I don't know how, but it worked. It may be linked to the second point...
-This world, the Academy. It feels... Logic. It feels like the writers asked themselves how the Pokemon World work, how an academy like this would work, what would be the point of doing it, and... They answered everything in a good way, I think. And that's because there is a lot of content. Like, the "choose your class system". I thought they would just had a few words like "you went in Ice class today and met XXX, you chat with him after", but no. There is all the 18 types, a teacher (Surge I love you) and 2 students each, and all the buildings (even unfinished), the clubs... It's big, it's pleasant, it's the reason why I ended up investing myself in the game.
-The nostalgia and the good questions. I started to really get involved in the game when I had to chose my types. Because it remind me the good of times of Pokemon, when I wanted a team with my favorites Pokemon, and then had hesitations between keeping my favorites even if they are bad, or getting a little bit strategic to beat the Elite Four. So here, I asked myself, if I was in a Pokemon World, if it took really a lot of work to become a good trainer, what types would I choose? What Pokemons would I like to spend my life with, to really have as companions. Ultimately, I think this game do not try to do pure fanservice, but rather fit everything we liked in a world with the maximum of logic possible. And that's why I cared.
-Red. Ultimately, Red become... Interesting. He is not the absolute legend, the overpowered main character, but he is not the absolute dumb loser of classic romantic VN. He is at the beginning, but I eventually like him. He makes mistakes, like, very oftenly, but he try. He has something special, but it's not really overpowered and he has to keep it hidden, so the over characters don't treat him as someone "special", most time.
-And well, after praising so much the writers, I would like to thank the artists too: I had difficulties at the beginning, but it eventually faded away, and I enjoyed it.
So I enjoyed the demo. And I write all of this because I see so many projects left unfinished, and I don't want this game to be abandonned. I think you really have something cool here, something worth going on.
Thank you, writers and devs. And keep going. I never really bother to support this kind of project or giving a feedback, but go team, this is cool.
I would really love to play a full game that keep the promises of the demo. And I hope you'll succeed.
See ya!
(plz make Lugia appear in the game even just a little
)