Ashley is alright, but her getting a tattoo just because she lost a bet put me off her. Tattoos in general are a an off for me, but getting one for a bet is just plain dumb.
Tattoos are an off for me too, even in RL. I could even understand a small tattoo for a lost bet in a not visible place... but this one is half the arm! Yes, it´s plain dumb. That's something the dev should have thought twice.
Actually, that's something that happens with several characters. I think the developer thought, at first, to make the characters more "wild" and promiscuous. That´s why he gave some of the girls big tattoos, a lot of piercings, heavy make ups, hairstyles with half shaved head and revealing clothes. Then, for some reason, he decided to make them more shy (except Jade) and with traumas, and there is kind of a incongruity between the look of some characters and her personality.
For example, Jenny is not interested in boys because of her childhood trauma and the kind of boys she usually met in her social circle... but at the same time, she´s a tease that asks the MC to caress her nude breasts just after a couple of hours of knowing him... The guy that she chose because he reminds her a child that was like a brother for her when she was in the hospital with a brain tumor... I don't think it has any sense. The dev had to change his mind about Jenny's personality after the first update or something.
Valerie is another incongruous character: she looks like a sexy punk (almost like Jade) and she flirts freely with the MC when she meets him in the train and during the scene in the house of the girls... but actually she has a lot of traumas and fears from her terrible childhood and she´s shy and afraid of people... Again, it doesn´t make sense.
I think that the exaggerated drama that most of the girls have as background wasn´t either in the original plans of the dev. I think that at first he thought in creating a lighter story (and that would have be better, IMO. So much drama and traumas detract from the credibility and realism of the story) and then for some reason started to add drama over drama to the characters. I think that the inspiration of the dev are those dramatic animes (actually, Rebeca and Jenny could be characters of "Your lie in April") and that's not a good inspiration for an erotic game. Those animes tend to have an over the top sentimentality to artificially thrill the viewer, and a erotic game should be more light and funny, not try to make the player cry at all cost.
A background of the characters with a bit of drama is good, but all of them are orphans that lived in the streets, were sexually abused or prostituted when child, had cancer... even have a cartel of drugs behind to kill them!... the "cartel of New Hampshire"? That kind of stories would have made some sense (sadly) in Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, where there are really powerful drugs cartels that even control the police and politicians (or politicians control the cartels) and there are orphan children living in the streets without social services... But... "New Hampshire"? What has happened in that New Hampshire that there are so many orphans living in the streets, at the expense of scoundrels who want to abuse or prostitute them? A war maybe? Aren´t there social services for orphans children in New Hampshire? And what kind of drug is cultivated in New Hampshire? Are there opium poppy fields in New Hampshire? Coca or marijuana fields, to have such a powerful cartel of drugs that even controls the police?
I really like this game and the characters, but the drama is over the top and out of hand. With a story a bit more light and with a bit more of sense of humor this game would have been a masterwork, IMO. This way, I enjoy the game, but after some of the scenes I have to say "Come on, dev, this is way too much"
PD. I have read some old comments and apparently in the firs release of the Prologue, Jenny and her friends/protegees were a bunch of cunts that bullied the MC when he started working for them, and there were so much criticism that the dev changed that. It seems that the dev can't find a healthy middle ground with his characters and carries all to the extreme, and not only in regards to the drama. From being a bunch of cunts with the MC to be almost in love/lust for him literally minutes after knowing him at the girls' home... I prefer the girls being sweet with the MC better than cunts, but again is too much. The MC should have had to work a bit more to earn the confidence/love of the girls. Right now, it seems like:
MC: "Hello girl, nice to meet you"
Girl: "Ooooh... You are the man I was expecting all my life! Please, love me, love me..."