I finished Lover Pretend today! Spent about 30+ hours on it, skipped the bad ends but played everything else. Since I'm not a huge fan of normal/modern settings or fake relationship tropes, I didn't go into this one expecting it to be a favorite or anything... but I still came out of it feeling a little more lukewarm about it than I expected? Like, I still enjoyed it—the art was really beautiful and vibrant, I
adored one of the love interests
(Yukito ) and enjoyed another's route
(would watch Atomic Saga with Harumi frfr), and I generally resonated well with the focus on storytelling and themes of pursuing one's dreams.
But the routes that missed for me missed
hard, and I felt like a number of plot points were handled clumsily or confusingly, and it seemed like some even got recycled between a couple of the routes? I was a little surprised since the reviews I saw were fairly glowing all-around, but it might just be one of those "your mileage may very" kinda deals.
Well, in the end I'm glad I played it, and I'd still buy a fandisc if it ever gets one.