Zack’s first big scene back in the game, the one that got me hooked, happens in a cramped trailer with a makeup artist named Chloe. She’s got glitter on her collarbone and this look like she’s been waiting five years to yell at him or fuck him. Maybe both. The dialogue is this perfect mess of old wounds and inside jokes, and then suddenly her hand is on his thigh and the choices pop up. Not some cheesy “flirt or leave” nonsense, but stuff like “Let her lead” or “Tell her she’s still got that stupid dolphin tattoo.” I picked the tattoo one, and the way it unraveled into this desperate, half-clothed fumble against a vanity mirror, smearing foundation everywhere, his thumb sliding inside her while she whispered something cruel about his last movie... that’s the good shit. The creampie finish felt less like a reward and more like a punctuation mark on a really bad idea. Love that.

The actor sim part is weirdly granular. You pick his acting style, which changes how people react to him, and there’s this whole reputation meter that I still don’t fully understand. Sometimes the game forgets it’s a dating sim and just lets you be a washed-up guy making coffee, which is a choice. The humor lands mostly, though some jokes feel like they were written by someone who’s never actually been to a small town, just watched a lot of movies about them. The 2D art is inconsistent, some CGs look like a million bucks and others like a rushed commission from a talented artist who ran out of steam. Chloe’s eyes are a little too far apart in one scene and it took me right out of the moment. Why is her nose like that?

Wish there was more oral stuff, honestly. There’s a hint of it with another character, a rival agent, but it fades to black before anything really happens. The choices do matter, though. I restarted twice just to see if I could ruin his career faster, and yep, you can crash and burn spectacularly. The relationship writing is sharp when it wants to be, but the game sometimes acts like you should already know these people, skipping the getting-to-know-you parts. Still, that trailer scene lives rent free in my head, foundation stains and all.