Max’s Big Bust – A Captain Nekorai Tale

This visual novel is great, and I'm recommending it because it is funny and well-written, with very memorable characters, and because ultimately I'm smiling for pretty much the entire time that I'm playing it. For the price, it's absolutely worth it for anyone looking for a fun, raunchy comedy visual novel, especially for those who like stories with gender-bending elements.

But I am writing this review not only to recommend the game, but also because aside from my recommendation, I have a specific complaint and I do want to share it, as it is basically the only thing bothering me as I play the game. And that complaint is the handling of Max's sexuality. To avoid spoilers I'll keep this vague, but the game gives you a choice of potential romantic partners, 2 male and 3 female, that Max can spend time with and eventually date. And yet despite this, the game consistently codes Max as straight and presents unavoidable romantic tension with both male options, even when you reach a point that Max is explicitly dating a woman as I did with my play-through, and despite occasional tacit acknowledgement of this in dialogue, the game continues to create strong sexual tension with the male characters no matter what choices you make.

It also rather egregiously has the female partner I picked cheat on Max with another of the female options, in a scene that was presumably written to create a lesbian couple under the assumption that Max would be dating one of the men. I'm not such a yuri fan that I'm going to shame a game for having a straight couple in the lead, but I will fault the game for presenting me with a choice to have Max date not one, but THREE women, and then consistently imply that I made the wrong choice because the story was clearly written for her to be dating a man. I'd rather not be given a choice and have a well-told straight romance story than to be told that I can have a gay romance when that seems to not really be the case. I hope this improves in the sequel.

Pros
Decent story.
Likable characters.
Nice background beats and intro.
Several funny moments.
Few detective scenarios. Not to many. Not to much. (Also after first playthrough you don't have to do them again skip option.)
Cons
Didn't care for the quizzes. Wish their was a skip option.

its weird as shit, but it was a pretty enjoyable time. ethan suxs tho

this is a great game

My barely disguised fetish.