Lust Theory reminds me of the classic Bill Murray's Groundhog Day, with its endearing story about an arrogant, somewhat sad news reporter locked in a time loop and must again relive the same day. In this case, instead of being a reporter, a college student learns to prevent mishaps, woo the girl of his dreams, and simply let loose in the knowledge that tomorrow will bring another chance. The game contains explicit NSFW content and follows the narrative of a college student who becomes stuck in a time loop and must repeat the same day repeatedly until he figures out what's going on. While most of the material will be consent-friendly, some portions are overly intense.

Lust Theory is an interactive fiction visual novel in which the player reads and responds to text by clicking on objects, exploring environments, and conversing with other characters, mostly girls. You get to see the plot unfold while deciding how it will go. The fact that there is no single narrative with one decision to make every hour is a positive aspect of the game's progression, which occurs over days, with each day being divided into four phases.

In most cases, the plot cross paths involving the girls you're dealing with and don't unfold in a single direction while you must figure out what to do next for the plot to go forward. There will be a little introduction, and then it's up to you to find a way to go through the plot and reveal its secrets. However, the game includes a hint system that keeps track of our recent actions and suggests what to do next.

The protagonist's primary goal is to have intimate experiences with all the girls he meets until the player learns that he must instead establish rapport with other characters, probe for information, and attempt things that are impossible to do successfully on the first try or require extensive backtracking. The gameplay consists of you attempting to get down with your loved ones, just like most of the visual novels available on Steam these days. By reliving the same day repeatedly, you get access to new plot elements that give you an advantage in intimate interaction with other characters.

You are immediately thrust into a lengthy and entertaining scene right at the beginning of the game. While it's easy for the tale to grow tedious since it's about the same day, skipping time phases to reduce repetitive tasks and dialogue leads us straight to places where things may shift and new occurrences occur. Once you reach a particular stage of a relationship with a character, images and videos will be unlocked that can be viewed again in a gallery.

The game operates similarly to any free-roaming visual novel in terms of gameplay, and you'll be confronted with some difficult decisions. There are seven different quests that lead to 30 different events, including eight hidden events, and each requires you to perform multiple tasks to progress the story with each girl. Unlike most games, it's rather easy to go forward or back in time to any given day, visit any given place, or choose from a variety of available dialogue choices.

If you want to acquire the secret scenes, or more like secret chapters, simply follow the hints to complete each narrative and then utilize the guide function in your phone at the upper left corner of the screen. Since the tale takes different directions after half an hour or so, it's a good idea to utilize the save points unless you prefer to scroll back all the way toward the place or situation you want to start again.

Gameplay features of Lust Theory, especially the interactive elements on the screen, in particular the ones that move you around, are nearly always apparent, and the process of finding your way through the game is less frustrating than it is in some of the other games in this genre. The quick travel dropdown allows you to choose a destination from a list and go there directly. This way, you don't have to move through different locations to reach a particular place. Even though the map shows an extensive city area, most of the game takes place only in a few locations, and you too can only travel to a few locations such as the colleague, home, mall, etc. It would have been more engaging if a larger portion of the map could have been utilized.

Lust Theory emphasizes a lot on the animation since it's the major attraction of the game. Even though they are good, they are also somewhat constrained compared to the number of tasks you need to perform to trigger the animations. Since the game doesn't start with you having a fantastic connection with all the girls, you'll need to spend a lot of time finding out how to maximize the day's events to get the most out of it.

Though it's relatively easy to perform the tasks since they aren't filled with puzzles. And once you reach the animation phase, things seem as if they need to be more connected with all the tasks you've gone through, which makes things somewhat unrealistic. Sadly, however, the animations are less spontaneous than you'd hope. They are undoubtedly nicely designed, but the movements felt awkward at times.

All the characters in Lust Theory, especially the texture of the girls, seem very realistic despite being computer-generated imagery rather than actual actors. Their expressions are all pre-rendered and presented in a static manner that is edited to reflect the character's actions and facial expressions during dialogue. Few scenes have animations when conversating; however, they're only a few frames long.

Surprisingly, the dialogue seems realistic and even relatable most of the time. Everyone responds appropriately to your dialog choices; therefore, when faced with an alternative, you can rely on the proper option depending on how to continue through the plot. As far as interactivity goes, you have some say, and your dialogue choices have some effect, albeit not too much; this is still a visual novel, after all.

Even though it's rather simple to predict the conversation you want to get into, if you still didn't get the outcome you wanted on your first attempt, you can always go back and try again with a new set of choices. It seemed restrictive at times due to the game's nature, as you are forced to follow a predetermined plot throughout most of the story. You can't interact with the characters who have no role to play in the quests you're following, and later if you need to rewind to a particular conversation, you'll have to replay all the events till you've progressed the story. This gets grindy at times.

However, the game lives up to the promise of its Groundhog Day-Esque time loop. Some simulative gameplay or puzzles with the mix of what it currently has would make the game more enjoyable. Much of the gameplay relies on trial and error to identify the optimal strategy. A lot of grinding time can be saved by using the available hints. Even the short intensive scenes are enjoyable; hopefully, Lust Theory - Season 2 will have more polished animated moves. Lust Theory - Season 1 has enough content to keep you tagged for hours, including the Christmas events, even after you've finished all the quests. The female leads are eye-catching, and the plot is funny enough to elicit a few smiles.