Review of Mother's Lessons ~Mitsuko~
| Subject | Mother's Lessons ~Mitsuko~ Mother's Lessons ~Mitsuko~ |
| By | Helpfulness: 4 Vote: 5.7beliar on 2020-12-18 |
| Review | (This review has been originally published in December 2020) "Mother's Lessons" is the second mother-centric netorare game I have played within the last few months, and it just might be the most wholesome NTR game in existence. Ironically, it's that very fact that makes it less interesting than it could have been. Just like the other NTRMAN's works, "Mother's Lessons" is a somewhat unfinished game, which ends at the moment when things really start heating up and leaves us somewhat unsatisfied by the experience. The game boasts a dual-protagonist experience, with us first taking the role of a shota Yuuto (whose age has strategically been left unmentioned), and later switching to his mother Mitsuko. I always prefer to view the action both from the hero's and the heroine's perspectives in the NTR games, as it allows us to really appreciate all the nuances of what is happening. And what is happening, is that Yuuto's friend Taiki, who is bad at studying, has been invited to be tutored by Yuuto's mother. However, the longer Mitsuko has been tutoring Taiki, the more strangely she has been acting in his presence. We are clueless about the real situation as Yuuto, and he is simply just jealous that his mother seemingly spends too much time with Taiki. Mitsuko's side reveals how Taiki seduced her. It's somewhat disappointing that the revelation is so vanilla and that Mitsuko has dropped her panties fro Taiki so easily. All the sex in the game is completely consensual, and Taiki himself is also a truly good friend to Yuuto, occasionally even helping him with his girl problems. There isn't even a shade of negativity usually associated with this genre. It's like the developer has forgotten that NTR is the fetishization of negative feelings, like jealousy and helplessness. Without that the game can barely be considered NTR, and only Yuuto's jealousy for Taiki's close relation with his mother, keeps the title somewhat within the genre. That said, both the story and the progression of the game make little sense. "Mother's Lessons" ends abruptly in an open ending and with no clear resolution. Moreover, lots of plot points seem to be unfinished and left hanging in the wild. For example, Yuuto initially follows a social media user who is posting sexy photos of a milf he is fucking on some app. We are lead to believe this user is Taiki, and the milf is Mitsuko, however that subplot is suddenly dropped without any explanation, nor does it ever resurfaces during Mitsuko's POV. Taiki never takes any photos of her to post on social media, and it's simply not in his nature to do that. Moreover, when Yuuto's crush Hikari entered the scene I said "Here we go, boys! She's gonna get stolen from him!"... Never happens... The girl appears in a few scenes, has a few innocuous conversations with Yuuto and then vanishes from the scenario without a trace. What was even her purpose? The game is completely linear, with the single disappointing ending, however it does have quite a few choices. It's just that all the choice's are meaningless. With the exception of a few that ended in an immediate game over, others offered only a mild variation to the scene and didn't impact the plot whatsoever. Hilariously, the game allows you to select choices that directly contradict the information we have received beforehand. We do know that Mitsuko has started tutoring Taiki, however on Mitsuko's side we can choose not to tutor him. Of course, this results in an immediate bad end, but it still left me scratching my head. Additionally, it would probably not be worth mentioning, but I want to bring the attention to a certain plot point that I have just experienced in "My Mother Kyoko", too. That would be the disappearing spouse. In "Mother's Lessons", we get a single line that Mitsuko's husband is overseas. He is never mentioned again, and we don't even find out his name. At least in "My Mother Kyoko", he got to have a few phone calls throughout the game, and was frequently mentioned in conversations. This has become somewhat a pet peeve of mine; if you want to get rid of a spouse, just make the woman a widow. It's not like the husband is playing any role in the game anyway.... If I have to discuss the positive aspects of the game, it would be the graphics. They are relatively simplistic, but really fitting the gentle atmosphere of the game. Moreover, such a short game (I have finished it in just under 2 hours) managed to squeeze a moderate amount of sex scenes into the runtime, and it is really lovely to see how a proper housewife Mitsuko embraced the pleasure as the game progressed and enjoyed herself more and more. To sum up, "Mother's Lessons" is definitely not a top tier game, but if you are seeking the most inoffensive NTR game in the existence, it might just fit the description. [Published simultaneously on Carnival of Sin] |
| 4 points |