Let’s Misbehave: Demo

This demo has the misfortune of coming out at the same time as another otome set in the 1920’s, Speakeasy, and honestly it’s not as good. I love the premise; the MC, Gilda, is a recent divorcee on good terms with her ex, who likes to have a good time and has a large alimony. This makes her a very attractive partner to the many pretty men she encounters. My problem with the game is in the execution; there are just a bunch of details that don’t quite add up.

1. The text makes it sound like they’re near New York City (I think it’s set in New Jersey like the Great Gatsby is), but the background art and the accents of some of the voice actors scream that they’re in New Orleans. The showgirl, Elsie, especially has a sort of southern girl doing a Transatlantic accent, which is exactly what I’d expect a showgirl in New Orleans at the time to have, but it’s be pretty odd for someone in New York.
2. The character sprite for Gilda makes her look like she’s in her 40’s but apparently she’s 24? Someone else brought this up in the comments of the game’s page and the dev said that for the full game they’ll be changing all of the character sprites because the artist who did them for the jam isn’t available going forward. I think they should just run with it. Make Gilda be canonically 40 and her suitors be in their 30’s. It’s already implied that that the men pursuing may be gold diggers, this can just add to that. It’d be really nice to see an MC who’s not in her 20’s.
3. The murder at the end of the demo comes out of left field; there’s no build up that conflict in this game is going to be centered around murder. In contrast, given that Gilda spends most of her time either in “high society” or at the speakeasy, I’d expect the conflict in the game to focus around a scandal involving either one or something related to her divorce. Once again this demo has the misfortune of being compared to another period murder mystery, A Romantic Murder

As for things I like. I really like the UI design and the music slaps. I think this game has a lot of potential, but it’s currently a little bit disappointing.