This game is an excellent "two obnoxious people on a date" simulator. I think you're meant to find Mel endearing for whatever reason but they just came off to me as an inappropriate wind-up merchant at best, actively antagonistic at worst. Completely unsympathetic in their first impression. The protagonist isn't any better. They come off as desperate, creepy, and somewhat selfish even within passages where you have no choice, which seems to be handwaved as simply "everyone is like this." You're given a lot of choices but none of them gelled with me. It was like picking between jumping into acid or jumping into lava every single time. I couldn't make it past dinner as result. I have to assume whatever arc these characters have aren't really arcs at all, but just commentary on how messed up this world is as a means to lazily absolve their garbage personalities, but I'll never know.

I liked the art and the setting. I was wholly accepting of this dystopian melonpeople storm world within the first few lines. It's simply the characterisation and choices that made it unplayable for me.