While my review of FSoG 1 was harsh, though hopefully fair, I always wanted the studio to succeed. While not a furry myself, the community deserves erotic games that don't include Hitler, I believe that to be true of any group or lifestyle, and the good people at Furlough seem to deliver that.

But man, the improvement over the first game is immediately noticeable. From the art to the storytelling, I found myself far more engaged in this compared to its predecessor. While the ero scenes still did nothing for me, I actually found myself legitimately enjoying the relationships and buildup, especially in the first and second story. Where the first game was mostly eh with one or two good stories, here I'd say almost everything has something to it. Gameplay remains unchanged, but that's to be expected.

Overall, it's safe to say they went from a stumble to a jog here, and that is commendable.

I originally bought this game on Halloween after a 4Loko and four or five shots of Bacardi. Needless to say, my reasons weren't in my own best interest, and so I refunded it. But something kept calling me back, and I ended up rebuying it with the same Steam wallet credit I received from that initial refund. And brother and/or/nor sister, that was a mistake.

You see, I knew this would be bad. I figured, perhaps it will be Bad Rats bad, maybe Hunt Down the Freeman bad. There's no way it could be Garten of Banban bad, not for that price, not for that notoriety, there's just no way.

Imagine my despair, my sheer pain and hopelessness, upon realizing it was "Y'know, maybe Banban wasn't so bad after all" bad. Because I can honestly say, yes, I enjoyed every Garten of Banban game as of writing this more than Hello Neighbor. Wholeheartedly.

Surprisingly solid, like even without the porn aspect it's a solid Link's Awakening DX homage. If that wasn't enough, it actually uses the fact that it's an eroge to explore some unique gameplay mechanics.

The ero aspects are also very well made. Incredibly fluid pixel art animations integrated in a natural way, it's impressive. One odd downgrade compared to Tower of Succubus is that H scenes with enemies are no longer unique to each type, but otherwise it blows that game out of the water.

Neat game, glad I gave it a chance.

It's a bit of a slog gameplay wise, but an interesting enough concept. The biggest issue of it is the inclusion of an exp/leveling system while every other aspect of the design goes more for a classic 2D Zelda style of progression. And since H-scene kills don't grant experience, it almost feels like the game is pushing you away from that aspect, which is sorta poor design for an eroge.

Artistically, though? Absolutely stunning, blows most other pixel art and eroge art out of the water, it's legitimately incredible what they managed to pull off considering the limitations.

Overall, it's a good enough time-waster of a game, and considering it comes essentially as a pack-in title with Sword of Succubus on Steam, it's hard to be too harsh on it.

This game is basically a dead MMO nowadays. Makes sense, since Xenoverse 2 has been a thing for like 10 years now and is just mechanically this game but better, according to my friends who tried to talk me out of getting this.

But yeah, the only reason to get this nowadays is the singleplayer. That aspect is pretty fun, though. The ability to make your own Dragon Ball self-insert who gets to be best friends with Future Trunks and Goku is literally everyone's childhood dream, don't pretend it isn't. Honestly I think the way this extends the Dragon Ball mythos is better than Super. Rides the fine line between fanfiction and normal DB shenanigans.

Make sure you use third party tools to speed up the grind, though, it's a goddamn slog.

I'll be honest, I thought I'd like this game more than I did. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but it's definitely not what I thought going in.

I'm not the type who sees games like this as chill or relaxing. I'm the kind of psycho who stresses over every little thing in these sandboxy games. A buddy of mine once said I approach every task in Stardew Valley like someone is holding my entire family hostage, and honestly I can't argue. But that's a large part of the appeal of these kinda sims for me, refining and refining until I reach a state of equilibrium.

And that's the thing, I think they know about people like me. I think they had the kind of player I am in mind from the get-go. Because it feels like there are parts of this designed specifically to nudge people away from that style of play. And I don't even think that's necessarily a bad thing, I kinda respect it.

Normally, the way I approach these kinda games is to focus on one part of my sandbox until it's more-or-less hands off, then pivot to the next with the resources gained along the way. Obviously, gotta dip your toe in many areas on the side, but usually it's easy to do the bare minimum with side ventures until it's time to optimize. In Slime Rancher, that "hands off" point never comes, at least not until late-late game for even minor setups. Even a fully decked out corral with an autofeeder/autocollector needs pretty regular refilling/emptying, and because your ranch areas are pretty spread out, you have to do a lot of running back and forth to keep on top of everything and making sure the Quantum/Explosive slime crossbreeds you thought would be a good idea aren't quantum-tunneling out of their enclosure because the guy who thought he could play slime god forgot to get metaphysical lemons. Just as a hypothetical.

What I'm trying to get at is, no matter how much you try to hyperfocus on one thing, Slime Rancher says "Okay but what if everything lit on fire just sometimes. Bet you didn't think of that, Mr. Perfectionist." and as much as it drives me up the wall, I get it. No matter how much you upgrade your tech, and improve your technique, there's always this element of chaos. Many of this game's mechanics have something that makes them just slightly wonky, so you never quite lose that feeling of doing things a little messy. That it's okay to mess up sometimes, that you don't have to be flawless about everything. Anti-perfectionism.

Could I just be coping with the fact that I still suck ass and panic about everything after 30 hours of playing? Perhaps. But it's fun to analyze shit like this.

Anyway, game is solid, check it out if you don't mind getting a little messy.