Played the game to completion. Overall a good experience.
It felt leaps and bounds ahead of Intern Agent. The puzzles were fun to work out on my own and didn't feel obtuse but the guide pdf that comes with the game helped immensely for the moments where I misunderstood the solutions to 2.
I also enjoyed the enemy variety and that spankings could mostly be avoided. But the scenes you would get in addition to the game overs if your health hit zero were wonderful too. The only thing I wasn't fond of is how extreme the spankings can end up. Especially in a world where healing magic seems abundant.
That above in mind, I completely agree with johny741s opinion of the ending and final boss. It's awful, feels undeserved, has comeuppance directed at the wrong person, and drags on for faaaaar too long. I found myself just holding Z for the 5-10 minutes it took to get through the "bell tower punishment" only to get another 3 lines of dialogue on a black screen that amounted to Melody going "I kinda like it, lol".
While I can see myself playing the game again in the future I'll never play its ending again. It really felt like Melody maybe deserved a couple months of detention, but given Cherrys actions she really should have only been punished for a week tops. Especially given the dirt we find on the principal throughout the game. Building your magic school next to the forest you yourself escaped from, and then acting on a high horse about student not going in is completely silly and makes the ensuing penalty for doing so come off as Malkavian and unhinged.
TL;DR:
Good game for the most part
Struggle mechanics very fun
Enemies interesting and varied(Loved the punishment chair, more machines plese)
Principal is a terrible character
Final boss beating you in a cutscene isn't fun
Ending sucks, just an absolute sour note to go out on
Personally I'd give it a 6/10. Lot of stuff I enjoyed and I appreciate that you're trying new things. Look forward to your next game if you plan on doing another!
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