Ehh, I have to put a disclaimer:
My thoughts are meant to be taken with a grain of salt and are very much personal. I do admit to being hard to please. If I care enough to complain, that means I see potential.
Well, here we go!
PROS:
Great art
Original characters/Different characters
Unique story
CONS:
Lack of appeal
Odd characterization/thinking
Awkward writing
Lack of impact
Story:
Unique, which is what I like. You have a very different character going to an academy that has wacky friends. Wait a second, does that sound cliche? Luckily, this visual novel avoids this trope by adding on science fiction emphasis rather than just "high school romance." By doing so, we have a different focus--dare I say going towards slice of life/comedy. Did that work for me? Actually...not really. I wasn't interested in the daily life of Faye or her friends. Again--this wasn't the genre that I often enjoy. I admit this over and over again, but at times I wondered if there were just missed opportunities. This visual novel went quickly over points like it had a checklist of unique characteristics to hit: Ooh, a xenobiologist? Strong part of Faye's personality/appeal? Not for me actually, I didn't really see much of that in her. Nor did I find myself actually liking her as a character.
Not to say she's a bad person or cliche, I found her to be weak/boring. I prefer the strong protagonists, thank you very much. Did it annoy me how she wilted under the angry prejudice of one character? Yes, yes it did. Did I wish there was an option for her to tell him to shove it? Heck yeah, but kinetic novels won't have that unfortunately.
Presentation/Gameplay:
Presentation-wise, I feel it is a bit mixed. The art is great, but at times, I felt like there were rather static moments that could have used effects/moments. Example being the test scene with Faye in the forest: definitely could have used some kind of effect (screen shake perhaps?) to show the frantic nature of that scene. Lack of choices again annoyed me, but for a very different reason beyond immersion/level of investment (which again, was a big issue). Personally, I feel like kinetic novels take a big risk by taking away choices because it puts a huge emphasis on the writing/characterization. Without choices, the reader's focus is solely on that.
Characterization/Writing:
Original characters, that was something I liked. But I couldn't help but feel like the rushed nature of this story/writing bugged me. There were a lot of missed opportunities in my eyes by not slowing down and describing the characters/thinking fully. One situation that stood out strongly to me was in Act 1 when lotor (why is that not capitalized when Faye's name is?) was:
described as a baby/child killer
and no one acted like that was a red flag/bad thing? Maybe there is a back story here that the characters in the visual novels know, but not the ordinary visual novel reader.
Actually, at times I wondered about the responses/actions of each characters. At times, I just wasn't sold that it was err...realistic. I know, realism in a sci-fi VN? I don't mean the sci-fi part, but there were times when it didn't feel like how someone would act (when considering their past actions). Not to mention: they are at an academy but don't actually seem to learn anything...err, useful. I wasn't really pulled into the academy life, nor did I feel touched by the romance. There seemed to be a lack of build up for me, the little things that really define a relationship. I dunno, I guess it felt immature or vague. Plus, there were times when I felt like the character's voices were the same (i.e, hints of the writer's own style of writing taking precedent over the character's voice). This was evident in Faye and lotor (during the use of "yaay") which reminded me of you, Komi. So, bit of immersion breaker there.
Overall
Highly ambitious and definitely an attempt to reach the stars. For me personally, I can't say I enjoyed it. I didn't like the characters, their interactions, or the story (beyond the original aspect/sci-fi bent). If this was a romance, I would say it had no real effect on me. As a comedy, I chuckled now and then (so, mild success?). Immersion was non-existent as I didn't enjoy the weak-willed/simple minded characters (Good heavens, Faye's thoughts about Lenna's gift annoyed me.) A flashy entry, but ones that reminds me of your re-made Dreams of Skies/Anton's Vacation. I wasn't sold on the story/romance, but I liked the new direction at times. More often than not, I was frustrated by the lack of slowing down/odd assumption of knowledge that the reader would have (not quite the info dump of Anton's Vacation, but definitely one that presumes a lot of the reader that doesn't exist).
Recommend or Not?
Ehh...this is an odd scenario. As a demo, I feel like this did its job. I can definitely picture the full VN and for some people, this style may fit their tastes. For me, I feel like it was more of a miss than hit. I wanted to care about the characters, but ended the visual novel with rather little concern/care. Recommended for fans of Anton's Vacation and Dreams of Skies. Or big fans of flashy CGs/sprites.
I'll start playing it later in the day and give feedback/proper fangirling then!
I normally don't work on it until I'm pretty close to the ending. However, since the next release will be on a tentative kickstarter attempt, I may need to step that up and get help sooner. Still really against the kickstarter and pessimistic about its success rate, but I'm under pressure to try it from other people... probably because I said 1 character route was only going to be available for collector editions, that will only be available in physical copies.