First and foremost, the devs intended this game to be played by open-minded young people who may potentially share a common trait with the character they are playing or with the myriad of others throughout the story, be they a member of the LGTBQ community or whatever gender they identify as, or don't, and that's all fine.
IF you can find that attachment.
On my first playthrough I did try to play a straight male and chose one girl, sticking with her throughout all of my choices, rejecting potential attachments from others each time, and at one point I achieved what I had set out to do, only for the hope of a relationship with her to be completely ripped away because of another character. The events that unfold which lead to that conclusion are a bit heavy and the ending isn't what I wanted nor what I deserved.
The characters and situations are well-written but unfortunately the game has a tendency to push you towards one relationship or another (or multiple) even after making the same choice several times that you prefer one character as "just friends." It isn't until you make the same selection several times in one conversation that the game drops the choice from the selectable responses only to do it again in another chapter. It even offers up whoever is in the mascot costume because... I've got nothing for that one. Judgement-free zone, I guess.
You can steer the conversations and preferences towards one character or multiple, or none at all. It offers a fine degree of replayability and choices to make, but it takes so long to get to an end that you might be burnt out by just one playthrough.
The game isn't entirely bland despite the art style, it's easy on the eyes but the locations are recycled so often they become boring. There are no animations but facial expressions can be easily read. Music cues hit just right, family moments are touching, friendships are tested, broken, and made. It offers a "we hear you, we see you" connection to those that can find it, it even helped me in my own journey, but it's so repetitive that it makes me not want to play it ever again. If it's going to lead me along a line of people and keep asking "Do you like this person? Do you like this person? Do you like..." then I'm not going to bother doing it again. Once is enough.