Incest is one of my favorite tags when it comes to VN's, so the fact that I like this one doesn't come across as neutral, or any sort of indication that this is a good "read". It would be strange if I didn't like it, and gave it a poor score, so I don't wanna waste your time. I'm biased. The real kicker here however, is the hypnosis tag, and an evolution towards "degrees of evil", that's what kept me going.
Moving on to the things that might interest you:
- This is a long VN - When you think of "Nukige" you assume a lot of H-scenes, and not that much story, for me something under 10 hours would probably be ideal. This is a bit different, because it stills feels like a "regular" VN when it comes to characters, story, setting and tropes. They just add pretty much every possible "step-incest" scenario that you might have watched and placed it here. It's like an anthology of incest porn, hence it works for me, but I think that cutting the running time in half, would erase much of the boredom stemming from repetition.
- Continuing from the above - They ride the whole "what are you doing "stepbro" to oblivion here. It's the forbidden, and the hypnosis, and the perverted, and the "biological" resistance, and the rabbit hole of having too much power, and the eventual normalization of family sex. I have two opinions on this: The first is that stretching the taboo factor of incest is obviously a turn-on. The second is that the dialogue, visuals and sounds just keep repeating themselves "ad eternum", and whoever wrote this is portraying the same crap over and over again, especially the stepmother scenes (don't remember a character giving so many blowjobs before this one).
Long story short a bit of exposition is good or even mandatory when it comes to incest, but the focus of the narrative is the hypnosis and how screwed up the protagonist is, that part just works.
- The translation - The main problem is personal pronouns. My brain got tired of setting things right when reading this. You can understand what is going on, and truth be told you don't need to, cause this is full of common places and almost everything screams unoriginal (much like this sort of remark curiously), but if the original text wasn't revolutionary, then the translation just brings it further down.
This doesn't stop the adult purpose of the VN, and that is very important. It's annoying but not prohibitive. Another thing to consider is that the "common route" was the weakest part of the VN, and things get more creative when the routes begin, especially with the step aunt, she is the "win" here.
- The VN quality aspects in one paragraph - If you exclude the repetition factor as the weakest part of the title, then the rest is all on average or below level: Visuals, voice acting, characters and their interactions, innovation of the setting, the pacing and structure... I could go on. In short, the selling point is the H-scenes, and they will surprise you with just a hint of psychological issues to keep things interesting. Don't expect high quality on any of the usually mentioned parameters, you are reading this for the adult content.
- Should you read this? - Depends on where you stand, when it comes to the incest and hypnosis tags. They deliver exactly what you expect when it comes to the first, but the second one brings a somewhat unique protagonist into being. Someone who rapes is evil, no question, but what about someone who makes the object of their affection almost incapable of taking independent action and thinking on their own? Add to that the genuine belief that such affection is real and they know what's best for their family, and something worth reading emerges. Nothing too crazy, or groundbreaking but still surprising, given the sub-genre.
This is a 7/10, but remember the disclaimer at the start. Also don't get discouraged by the generic beginning, they "go to places" as the VN progresses. This is a title that serves it's purpose, and has its place as entertainment.
Moving on to the things that might interest you:
- This is a long VN - When you think of "Nukige" you assume a lot of H-scenes, and not that much story, for me something under 10 hours would probably be ideal. This is a bit different, because it stills feels like a "regular" VN when it comes to characters, story, setting and tropes. They just add pretty much every possible "step-incest" scenario that you might have watched and placed it here. It's like an anthology of incest porn, hence it works for me, but I think that cutting the running time in half, would erase much of the boredom stemming from repetition.
- Continuing from the above - They ride the whole "what are you doing "stepbro" to oblivion here. It's the forbidden, and the hypnosis, and the perverted, and the "biological" resistance, and the rabbit hole of having too much power, and the eventual normalization of family sex. I have two opinions on this: The first is that stretching the taboo factor of incest is obviously a turn-on. The second is that the dialogue, visuals and sounds just keep repeating themselves "ad eternum", and whoever wrote this is portraying the same crap over and over again, especially the stepmother scenes (don't remember a character giving so many blowjobs before this one).
Long story short a bit of exposition is good or even mandatory when it comes to incest, but the focus of the narrative is the hypnosis and how screwed up the protagonist is, that part just works.
- The translation - The main problem is personal pronouns. My brain got tired of setting things right when reading this. You can understand what is going on, and truth be told you don't need to, cause this is full of common places and almost everything screams unoriginal (much like this sort of remark curiously), but if the original text wasn't revolutionary, then the translation just brings it further down.
This doesn't stop the adult purpose of the VN, and that is very important. It's annoying but not prohibitive. Another thing to consider is that the "common route" was the weakest part of the VN, and things get more creative when the routes begin, especially with the step aunt, she is the "win" here.
- The VN quality aspects in one paragraph - If you exclude the repetition factor as the weakest part of the title, then the rest is all on average or below level: Visuals, voice acting, characters and their interactions, innovation of the setting, the pacing and structure... I could go on. In short, the selling point is the H-scenes, and they will surprise you with just a hint of psychological issues to keep things interesting. Don't expect high quality on any of the usually mentioned parameters, you are reading this for the adult content.
- Should you read this? - Depends on where you stand, when it comes to the incest and hypnosis tags. They deliver exactly what you expect when it comes to the first, but the second one brings a somewhat unique protagonist into being. Someone who rapes is evil, no question, but what about someone who makes the object of their affection almost incapable of taking independent action and thinking on their own? Add to that the genuine belief that such affection is real and they know what's best for their family, and something worth reading emerges. Nothing too crazy, or groundbreaking but still surprising, given the sub-genre.
This is a 7/10, but remember the disclaimer at the start. Also don't get discouraged by the generic beginning, they "go to places" as the VN progresses. This is a title that serves it's purpose, and has its place as entertainment.