It has a mature and frank attitude towards sex that is rare in any medium and downright miraculous in a videogame, paired with a set of thoughtful game mechanics that do a beautiful job expressing theme through play.

Unfortunately, it jams the brakes on all of that every hour or so to indulge in some of the most trite, YA-novel theatrics imaginable, throwing up contrived and sometimes tasteless stumbling blocks for its central couple that fail to add stakes or urgency to a game that only seems to want to be laid-back in the first place. It's juvenile in a way that almost undoes all of the delicate character work elsewhere in the game, and all the more frustrating for how easily it could have been snipped out entirely.

The game is never anything but gorgeous, though.