Ren'Py A House in the Rift [v0.7.16r4] [Zanith]

[Dragon59]

So, now that you know you had a misinterpretation of what "servant" means, as well as what "route" means, perhaps you will understand why you expecting to see some S&M ("exacerbate her issues, breaking her pride and make her believe that she was good for nothing except a sex slave.") abuse on the "servant route" was incorrect.
Hence me advising, in my very first response, that: "the only thing that seems to be a misinterpretation is your expectation."

Even if one assumes a M/s dynamic (Master/slave), it still doesn't imply any of the pairs other than being a special form of D/s (Dominance and submission--the pair folded into the middle of BDSM). Bondage and Discipline, and Sado/masochisms cannot be assumed.

 

[Raven Tomoe]

Hope Ya'll like more FanArt will be post later on

 

[Moka]

Any save for the new update?

 

[Master of Puppets]

It might be, if it was born out of something that actually happened.
Instead of some fantasy about Lyriel being an S&M sex slave coming from your misinterpretation of the servant route to mean sadist/masochistic tendencies, which have never been introduced, or even hinted at.
If it's not substantiated by, or is contradictory to, the game's content, then it's just fantasy, or nonsense.

The reason why you mistakenly conflated "sex slave" and "servant" was because of your own incorrect expectation that they would be the same thing.
Seriously, did the 2 instances with the book about the master & the maid that she was getting turned on by, plus her coming to clean up your room, not give you a clue what type of sub "servant" the route was? She's already doing the dishes and the bathroom cleaning.
The reason you do not understand what's happening with her path, is for the same reason.
Your misinterpretation of what the servant route is, is what led you to incorrectly expect that abusive behaviour was coming, when it did not.
But you were not given any real reason to expect it to.
You also expected there to be an alternative route, which there currently is not.
Hence not a "non-sequitur". Your own expectations are what led you to each of these positions.

So, now that you know you had a misinterpretation of what "servant" means, as well as what "route" means, perhaps you will understand why you expecting to see some S&M ("exacerbate her issues, breaking her pride and make her believe that she was good for nothing except a sex slave.") abuse on the "servant route" was incorrect.
Hence me advising, in my very first response, that: "the only thing that seems to be a misinterpretation is your expectation."

It does seem like she might have a bit of a degradation fetish, but yeah no reason at all to expect anything like breaking her for real. The most I'd expect to see would be 'making her' (i.e. more roleplay, not for real) do lewd things in front of the other girls, but even that would be fairly extreme compared to what things have been like up to this point.

 

[Dragon59]

It does seem like she might have a bit of a degradation fetish, but yeah no reason at all to expect anything like breaking her for real. The most I'd expect to see would be 'making her' (i.e. more roleplay, not for real) do lewd things in front of the other girls, but even that would be fairly extreme compared to what things have been like up to this point.

Also, she has been told she's useless, a drain on resources so many times, she has a need to be useful, and yes, to also be "a good girl." She needs to serve, be submissive, more than needing to be disciplined or being a masochist.

 

[Cartageno]

I can also add that I am just enjoying once in a while where this evolves more real life like, even if set within a house with a magically restocking fridge floating in the void. Indeed it does not have to be the whole gamut, especially not of breaking real life. A - as Master of Puppets said - more roleplaying relationship of master and servant without going full dungeon and public blowjobs can be refreshing once in a while. As with spices in cooking, spicing up your relationship will depend on your taste and sometimes less can be more and tastes more refined because you will not drown out all the other stuff by garlic and jalapenos. Even though I like garlic and jalapenos.

 

[alpharenji2]

Where's the changelog for the update?

 

[3D Reaver]

It might be, if it was born out of something that actually happened.
Instead of some fantasy about Lyriel being an S&M sex slave coming from your misinterpretation of the servant route to mean sadist/masochistic tendencies, which have never been introduced, or even hinted at.
If it's not substantiated by, or is contradictory to, the game's content, then it's just fantasy, or nonsense.

She has 2 dreams that you visit where you rape and abuse her. In a all of the dreams with the elves Lyriel is watching. There is also that dream where she is a maid. No masochistic tendencies at all, no sir.

The dictionary term of the word ROUTE has no importance. unless you find the specific definition of it when referring to a video game route. a game route DOES imply branching paths, i know this game has none.

 

[Eazeh2]

See, when I saw Lyriel's most recent events (especially the in-game title), I expected it to be about her accepting her submissiveness kink. I still expect that, after playing it and after reading the argument here.
The reasoning is simple; she looks like an abuse victim. All of her earlier content involved her fleeing and hiding, both from her past and from the concept of sex. Even starting to work like some kind of janitor looks like fleeing from sex to me; that conversation when they group realised the house needed cleaning (IIRC) had her take the role to avoid the implication that her "job" as such was sex. She flinches and runs away from the topic whenever it's raised. Later, she does get used to the MC and his desires, but it's always seemingly a conflict between her repressed desires and her fear of being seen as and treated as ... whatever her trauma was (I don't remember if that was ever explicitly stated, or if I'm just assuming things when I think her whole "family" of sorts were all sex slaves in a brothel that masqueraded as a normal bar?).

The point is, in order to work on someone's trauma, they have to be willing to work on it, they have to admit it exists. She might be getting over her issues re: dicks, but she's clearly not been to therapy, there's still a lot there. Changing the context is a classic way of exposing oneself to one's fears without being overwhelmed by them, so going from "sex in the context of a rapey brothel" to "sexual-acts-but-not-actual-sex with some charming dude who pushes at boundaries while still respecting them" is on the "good enough for porn" end of the realism in therapy scale.
Therefore, working on her body/self-esteem issues and recontextualising submissive sex (refer to the book(s) she was reading) seems like a pretty natural next step in dealing with those issues more in-depth, and thus resolving the conflict between her repressed desires and her trauma.

Or it's just a porn game and we're thinking way too much into it.

 

[YogSothoth1982]

She has 2 dreams that you visit where you rape and abuse her. In a all of the dreams with the elves Lyriel is watching. There is also that dream where she is a maid. No masochistic tendencies at all, no sir.

This doesn't sound very good to me, really.

Lyriel's "servant" route is the only one of her?

EDIT:
what are the Naomi's routes?

 

[whichone]

She has 2 dreams that you visit where you rape and abuse her. In a all of the dreams with the elves Lyriel is watching. There is also that dream where she is a maid. No masochistic tendencies at all, no sir.

If you choose to rape her.
I did not. I don't have the scene replay of her in the stocks. Annoying. lol
That's my point. Lyriel is a sub.
Submission is not the same as masochism.
Dominance is not the same as sadism.

Like I said:
"did the 2 instances with the book about the master & the maid that she was getting turned on by, plus her coming to clean up MC's room, not give a clue what type of sub "servant" the route was?
She's already doing the dishes and the bathroom cleaning."

What he described & expected, breaking her emotionally, etc. is sadism.
Personally, I would expect the MC to help her overcome her emotional issues, with her accepting and enjoying this new understanding of herself.

a game route DOES imply branching paths, i know this game has none.

No. IT does not imply anything. You may infer that, but it does not imply it. "branching" does.
The word means what it's defined as, a path from A to B.
It does not cease to be a "route" if there are no other routes.
The fact that there is no other route, means exactly that. Currently, it's the only route.
There might be others, there might not. So basing anything on "there is another", is obviously an unsubstantiated assumption.

 

[Cierne]

Can someone remind me, did we ever bring Lyriel to our world?
I know we've gone to her world, and we brought some other girls to ours, but I don't recall if we've taken her to ours.

This doesn't sound very good to me, really.

Lyriel's "servant" route is the only one of her?

Might not be (I hope it's not at least), in at least one of those dreams you can treat her very kindly and there's no raping her or anything like that.

 

[YogSothoth1982]

Might not be (I hope it's not at least), in at least one of those dreams you can treat her very kindly and there's no raping her or anything like that.

I'll wait to see if there is another Lyriel route that I might like.

With Naomi I have a mission (or route) called Mistress Captain, from the name I suspect that I will not even begin it. ¿Is there any other or is the only one?

 

[Master of Puppets]

Can someone remind me, did we ever bring Lyriel to our world?
I know we've gone to her world, and we brought some other girls to ours, but I don't recall if we've taken her to ours.

No. She only arrived at the house after we took the girls on a trip to our world.

 

[Korr]

She has 2 dreams that you visit where you rape and abuse her. In a all of the dreams with the elves Lyriel is watching. There is also that dream where she is a maid. No masochistic tendencies at all, no sir.

Honestly, I interpreted those nightmares not as masochistic tendencies (a masochist likes pain), but as her subconscious mind trying to deal with her fears of being useless, unwanted, unloved. She is clearly unhappy and terrified if you treat her badly, but relieved if you show her kindness (even though she remains somewhat afraid).

The dictionary term of the word ROUTE has no importance. unless you find the specific definition of it when referring to a video game route. a game route DOES imply branching paths, i know this game has none.

No branching paths? Maybe not right now, as we just got the very first steps into the servant route for Lyriel.
But I think it is safe to assume that another route is, at the very least, intended.

 

[3D Reaver]

Honestly, I interpreted those nightmares not as masochistic tendencies (a masochist likes pain), but as her subconscious mind trying to deal with her fears of being useless, unwanted, unloved. She is clearly unhappy and terrified if you treat her badly, but relieved if you show her kindness (even though she remains somewhat afraid).




No branching paths? Maybe not right now, as we just got the very first steps into the servant route for Lyriel.
But I think it is safe to assume that another route is, at the very least, intended.

non of the dialogue choices so far have had any impact long term impact. Its not safe to assume that after more than 2 years of development we will suddenly get actual choices.

 

[Korr]

non of the dialogue choices so far have had any impact long term impact. Its not safe to assume that after more than 2 years of development we will suddenly get actual choices.

IF this game were the work of an actual team in a stabilished game studio, I would agree with you.

However, isn´t this game the work of a single person? One that has to, every now and then, aquiesce to the wishes of his Patreons? Given the circunstances, development taking a long time and eventually changing focus is not so much a danger, but an inevitability.

 

[Cartageno]

IF this game were the work of an actual team in a stabilished game studio, I would agree with you.

However, isn´t this game the work of a single person? One that has to, every now and then, aquiesce to the wishes of his Patreons? Given the circunstances, development taking a long time and eventually changing focus is not so much a danger, but an inevitability.

"Has to", all of a sudden? Probably not. And as for "inevitable": many games do not change such a major element at all. Which may also serve to not alienate Patreons who come with a certain expectation to a game which has done something for years or here not done so - to stay that way. If you have a well running Chinese restaurant you don't start serving pizza because it'd be popular with some.

Also the question will always be "can this guy even make a decent pizza" - it is something else than your old staple. Or here: will different paths even work for the dev. Doing something you're not that comfortable with for Patreons' sake can easily turn bad.

Generally, after this time, I'd say a game should stay on its tracks. The next one may always be entirely different.

 

[YogSothoth1982]

ZanithOne, is "mistress captain" one of naomi's routes?

 

[whichone]

Honestly, I interpreted those nightmares not as masochistic tendencies (a masochist likes pain), but as her subconscious mind trying to deal with her fears of being useless, unwanted, unloved. She is clearly unhappy and terrified if you treat her badly, but relieved if you show her kindness (even though she remains somewhat afraid).

Agreed. Her introduction told us that her species were used by humans, the others at the inn were basically whores.
She never sold herself/got sold, so had a superiority complex, but also felt unwanted, inferior & resentful.
I think that a lot of her early arrogance was possibly her over-compensating for that.
Now she's discovering that she has a particular kink for, not just feeling useful, submitting to the MC.
She gets gratification from it, because she's a sub.

But I think it is safe to assume that another route is, at the very least, intended.

If there was to be an alternative path, I would have expected an option to be available for us not to take up the servant path.
Not much point introducing an alternative, when she's already started down the road. She'd need to double back & undo the episode. lol