The interest could be before, during, or after you've been through a game.If you asking about the initial interest, that would be game tags and art.
When I actually start playing, the most important becomes creator's passion, which can be seen through their work.
I can overlook some of the shortcomings in story/art/coherency/etc. of passionate work that really connects me to their world.
But in the works that have been made to milk the money, it feels empty, meaningless, and disconnected, which as you can guess for me a huge turn off.
Random plots definitely make a game difficult to get through. I don't find myself returning to them either.I'll prioritize it.
1. Plot. The plot is the base, all other components are strung on it. Uninteresting or just silly plot (example - 23 Sisters) will force you to stop playing after 40-45 minutes and never come back to this game. And having choices that are important to the development of the story.
2. Characters. They should be well written, we should see them as living people, not two-dimensional abstractions. Relationships between them should be as close as possible to the relationships between real people, in all their complexity and contradictions.
3. Graphics. Bad graphics kills interest in the game. Because of this, I never download games with Japanese graphics (personal rejection) or Honey Select.
Some people manage to use HS or HS2 in games with European setting - cry or laugh. And of course, giant breasts - watermelons. That's just ridiculous.
4. Sexual content. Its abundance leads to the fact that quite quickly gets bored to look at the movements of bodies. Ideally - sex should not dominate the development of the plot, to complement it, to serve as a reference point in its development.
art (either GOOD 3D, preferably DAZ or HS2, but never koikatsu if I can help it, or WESTERN 2DCG, I cannot stand Japanese anime styled 2DCG), a premise that doesn't sound completely headache inducing, but really as long as it seems like there will be a decent amount of sex, depending on the tags I'm up for nearly any theming (space, western, school life, mafia, office job, whatever really), and tags that aren't completely heinous (I HATE scat, NTR, necrophilia, female protagonist etc... and have a preference for games with harem/incest), I also look for Ren'py exclusively if I can, can't stand RPGM at all, and I'm iffy about the save systems (and having enough slots) for anything else that isn't ren'py unless EVERY scene with nudity at all gets added to a gallery somehow, but even then, I like being able to keep saves at the start of basically whereverI find a good starting premise in a VN usually determines whether I'll want to continue with it or not.
I would argue that Daz3D and Honey Select are equally capable of producing visual abominations when used by inexperienced devs. Obviously, if the Japanese visual aesthetic is not your cup of tea, you're never going to like anything that was made using HS2, but I feel the need to defend it anyway, because in the hands of experts, it can produce some truly beautiful renders.3. Graphics. Bad graphics kills interest in the game. Because of this, I never download games with Japanese graphics (personal rejection) or Honey Select.
Some people manage to use HS or HS2 in games with European setting - cry or laugh.
A matter of aesthetic preference. I haven't come across any games on HS/HS2 with good graphics. Monotonous facial expressions, gestures. I couldn't play any game for more than an hour. These are Honey Select 2: Libido Deluxe, Headmaster, Dark Magic, Waifu Academy, Mythic Manor, Solvalley School. The games are completely different in terms of story, gameplay, but it was the graphics that made me delete them. Now I've stopped trying to download such games. I'd rather play 2d games in European style (High School Days).I would argue that Daz3D and Honey Select are equally capable of producing visual abominations when used by inexperienced devs. Obviously, if the Japanese visual aesthetic is not your cup of tea, you're never going to like anything that was made using HS2, but I feel the need to defend it anyway, because in the hands of experts, it can produce some truly beautiful renders.
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