Sphilia's Familiar

TLDR; I did not regret the purchase. The story was pretty enjoyable and it had interesting gameplay concepts. However, gameplay, in general, was pretty easy, tedious at points, and importantly, the events featuring the female casts were not appealing. The gallery can be unlocked by reaching one of two "true" endings.

At first, I was hesitant to purchase this game because even from the screenshots I felt like I was not all that interested in the art style. None of the characters were incredibly cute to me, and the absence of event arts made me unsure if I would enjoy those either. Point is, this game was a huge question mark for me. I ultimately bought it because of the absence of reviews, I decided to be the first. For those fearing this game being a bomb, I assure you it was pretty fun for the approximately 5 hours it took for me to beat the game, however, I doubt I will come back and play this game, or come back to it for any...other...reasons.

My favorite part of this game is that the main girl has three traits that are influenced based on player action. Most of the time in games it is between the various areas of interest on the girls, but this time it is about the types of entertainment the girl is subjected to, whether it is with the MC (you) or with anyone (or thing) else. It was interesting, but the only things it affected were options available at the very end of the game, and if the values get too high, game overs. Dialogue and events don't change as a result of these measurements, so it just felt irrelevant.

On the other hand, the thing I disliked the most was the art. The event scenes were meh compared to alternatives, nothing too bad. The dialogue was pretty decent, but nothing noteworthy. However, the nail in the coffin was the way that the spunk looked in the event scenes. It looked comical to me. Couldn't feel excited by it if I tried.

Otherwise, combat and gameplay were easy. Walk around and fight things. In the beginning, the MC is pretty strong and the main girl is comparatively weak, but as you level up the MC is just a meat shield and the main girl is doing all the work. The story was interesting in parts, nothing to write home about, but it was sufficient enough that I did not become bored to death playing to the end. There are parts of the story and RP elements that exist in the game but it is not clear how you can unlock or initiate the events, such as finding a new outfit for the main girl or finding her a job. Honestly, I was not engaged enough in the game to feel like opening it back up to try to figure out how I could do it.

All in all not a bad game, but not noteworthy either. I did not regret purchasing it, because the ideas, although shallow, were interesting. Besides, it's not like it cost me an arm and a leg to buy either.