FtL is well done and impresses above all with a creative story idea and with relationships that have enough emotional weight that you want to explore them.
What I like very much is that Follow the Leader is an “explained” harem game. By that I mean it is not taken for granted, nor is it an expression of any fantasies of grandeur, but there is lore that explains why it makes sense in this context.
On the technical level, this VN is upper average with good but not outstanding renders, so I give five stars mainly for the storytelling, surprising twists that are well staged and a coherent arc of tension.
All the ingredients for a good gaming experience are there. What is perhaps missing here and there are smaller conflicts beyond the main plot. Sometimes the interaction within the group of refugees is too smooth, considering the extreme emotional and physical strains everyone is exposed to. When the VN starts there is a certain level of tension, especially because of Eights attitude, but this is resolved rather quickly and from that point on the relationships are very secure and unthreatened, which is nice for everyone involved but makes for mediocre drama.
Still, the time I spent with FtL was entertaining and while I haven’t really found emotional access to this developer’s stories in the past (maybe it was because of their slice of life character, fantasy seems to suit him better) I find Follow the Leader to be the first VN that I enjoyed from start to finish. (v0.8)
hungneet ***This review will be replaced by an official Steam review once the game is published on there***
