Hello my name is Siderophilia and I have played Uni v0.1462d by Hizorgames.
As this is far from a finished product there is a lot of art still missing and story routes still unfinished which I won't load the developers for in this report. Still if you're looking for a full game you should know that Uni is nowhere near that state yet. However if you are curious about a project in development it has come far enough to offer a good idea about what the final product is going to be like.
Uni is, in difference to what the name may imply, a dating sim style game about a cute redhead who goes to high school. Now, when I say "dating sim style" I mean it contains some basic tropes of the genre, but it doesn't go all out and instead opts for developing stories and relationships with series of scripted events more akin to a visual novel, which is a nice change of pace. Not only that, but the events in some series of events will often be referenced and can sometimes even trigger new scenes in other routes. This is one of Uni's main strengths and makes it feel organic in a way that is sorely lacking from many similar games. For instance if you want to see NTR the game isn't just going to serve you the option, but you yourself are responsible for setting up the necessary relationships.
However this also has some drawbacks, as it increases complexity and interesting exchanges may sometimes appear "hidden" behind combinations of choices you wouldn't think to try, and I think as more content is added this problem might worsen. As Uni also includes a wide set of different fetishes, you sometimes find yourself plunged into routes that don't really interest you, even if it is often clear how to avoid them. I think the developer could do a few things to increase clarity, such as highlighting important story decisions and H scenes when choices appear to distinguish them from more mundane dialogue options.
The characters at some points feel inconsistent, not least the MC. A lot of the time this happens following some story choice in a manner like:
> MC: The way he was acting was making me really uncomfortable.
> Player Choice
> MC: I mean I was getting really turned on.
I'm not entirely sure to what degree this is the result of actual sloppy writing and what is actually the consequence of most of the writing not being fully fleshed out yet, but I still feel like a lot of routes portray the characters with a very particular mindset until a player choice changes them completely, when what they should do is display some degree of curiosity/uncertainty about the options before the player decides. The sub Violet route is another example of this. While it's probably one of my favorite things in the game at the time even if you stood up to Violet at every opportunity before that it comes like an out of the blue change of character.
I'm also not too fond of how most of the male characters are written. They're pretty much all jerks with the exception of Damien, who is instead a huge nerd. (I suppose only having these options to choose from makes the game more realistic but I don't play games to relive the dreariness of real life.) The way the MC's motivation often is expressed as either being afraid or worn down rather than any real lust is a pretty big turn-off for me. It took me right up until the end to realise that the bakery route was the so-called "bimbofication" seen in the tags, for the longest time I thought the boss was just an abusive asshole. But I suppose there are people out there who might enjoy these kinds of interactions.
The single worst thing the devs managed to put in this game however is the "kitten route". While it starts good and offers some nice emotional characterization of the MC, the final choice is just so bad. You get the option of giving the kitten away to a nice woman or to "Change your mind". I thought the latter option would show that my character has grown attached to the cat and wants to keep it, but no, picking that alternative results in you putting the poor cat back on the streets where you first found it starving and abused! What the actual fuck!?
In all I enjoyed what I have seen of Uni so far and I hope to return to it sometime in the distant future to find that characters have become more fleshed out and the relationship developments over the course of the game have become more consistent and less rushed. As of now it's a 4/5
As this is far from a finished product there is a lot of art still missing and story routes still unfinished which I won't load the developers for in this report. Still if you're looking for a full game you should know that Uni is nowhere near that state yet. However if you are curious about a project in development it has come far enough to offer a good idea about what the final product is going to be like.
Uni is, in difference to what the name may imply, a dating sim style game about a cute redhead who goes to high school. Now, when I say "dating sim style" I mean it contains some basic tropes of the genre, but it doesn't go all out and instead opts for developing stories and relationships with series of scripted events more akin to a visual novel, which is a nice change of pace. Not only that, but the events in some series of events will often be referenced and can sometimes even trigger new scenes in other routes. This is one of Uni's main strengths and makes it feel organic in a way that is sorely lacking from many similar games. For instance if you want to see NTR the game isn't just going to serve you the option, but you yourself are responsible for setting up the necessary relationships.
However this also has some drawbacks, as it increases complexity and interesting exchanges may sometimes appear "hidden" behind combinations of choices you wouldn't think to try, and I think as more content is added this problem might worsen. As Uni also includes a wide set of different fetishes, you sometimes find yourself plunged into routes that don't really interest you, even if it is often clear how to avoid them. I think the developer could do a few things to increase clarity, such as highlighting important story decisions and H scenes when choices appear to distinguish them from more mundane dialogue options.
The characters at some points feel inconsistent, not least the MC. A lot of the time this happens following some story choice in a manner like:
> MC: The way he was acting was making me really uncomfortable.
> Player Choice
> MC: I mean I was getting really turned on.
I'm not entirely sure to what degree this is the result of actual sloppy writing and what is actually the consequence of most of the writing not being fully fleshed out yet, but I still feel like a lot of routes portray the characters with a very particular mindset until a player choice changes them completely, when what they should do is display some degree of curiosity/uncertainty about the options before the player decides. The sub Violet route is another example of this. While it's probably one of my favorite things in the game at the time even if you stood up to Violet at every opportunity before that it comes like an out of the blue change of character.
I'm also not too fond of how most of the male characters are written. They're pretty much all jerks with the exception of Damien, who is instead a huge nerd. (I suppose only having these options to choose from makes the game more realistic but I don't play games to relive the dreariness of real life.) The way the MC's motivation often is expressed as either being afraid or worn down rather than any real lust is a pretty big turn-off for me. It took me right up until the end to realise that the bakery route was the so-called "bimbofication" seen in the tags, for the longest time I thought the boss was just an abusive asshole. But I suppose there are people out there who might enjoy these kinds of interactions.
The single worst thing the devs managed to put in this game however is the "kitten route". While it starts good and offers some nice emotional characterization of the MC, the final choice is just so bad. You get the option of giving the kitten away to a nice woman or to "Change your mind". I thought the latter option would show that my character has grown attached to the cat and wants to keep it, but no, picking that alternative results in you putting the poor cat back on the streets where you first found it starving and abused! What the actual fuck!?
In all I enjoyed what I have seen of Uni so far and I hope to return to it sometime in the distant future to find that characters have become more fleshed out and the relationship developments over the course of the game have become more consistent and less rushed. As of now it's a 4/5
P), this is going to be one of my favorite games if it can get far enough!