This game is such a flawed mess as soon as you start looking under the hood and it devolves into scout rushing everything and then the game responds with gimmick missions that end up more aggravating than anything

None of which reduces my love for this deeply weird thing with all its incredibly genuine sincerity and surprising nuance masked by all its energetic anime cliche stuff and some often weirdly confused morality and aesthetics that end up just amplifying the feeling of wanting to put it up on the fridge and just be proud of it

It's fweakin beautiful still and everything its going for just was and still is so creative and unique that even when it's missing all I can do is appreciate that it took the shot anyway

Plus you know a game has to earn some points for having a full screen cut in of a character going I'M GAY and their stats increasing

Due to using this game as a substitute for hanging out on those weird limbo nights where you're desperate to go out with people but you can't I ended up drawing out playing this for so long that I went from having basically no experience of streamers the first time I met the streamer character to being a vtuber dipshit by the last time

There is a lot you can complain about in this and like, yeah, I get it but my specific relationship to it made it a really perfect experience for me despite all that

I found the protagonist honestly really touching and as much as you could say that mixing the drinks is really just an elaborate way of pressing next on the textbox I found it to be a pretty endearing ritual that did just enough to feel like I'm interacting and actually being at my job

Not perfect but so enjoyable for me anyway that I can't say I didn't love dropping back in every time and that I don't kind of miss having it around

So my first attempt at this game ended up in bouncing off it with a lot of frustration.

Having now gone through it in a more guided fashion I have to say that that exact frustrating obtuseness is its biggest strength. The idea of exploring the potential of a backdrop world by inhabiting it as a living place is sold so well by the knowledge that its not going to explain itself to you or really point you anywhere. If you want to understand this world and its people you do it in its schedule and by its rules, by happening upon things, by being patient and by listening to what it has to say to you.

Not a lot needs to be said about this that won't have already been said but I think that the path from frustration to wonder exemplified in the action limit system is such a good metaphor for what this game is and what it has to say. If you are willing to look past first impressions, accept and learn from frustrations then you gain the ability to see what's actually there beyond basic form and function.