I'm not as harsh as many of you, I think Mr. Palmer has overall done a good job and I try to appreciate how challenging the creative process is. But this update is hard to swallow. Like many of you have said, Anna's character development feels really uneven and nonsensical. It's one thing for a character to be confused or in denial, but Anna is frustrating because her justification doesn't feel natural. I can't tell if she's actually just oblivious, awful, dumb, or genuinely confused and mixed up. It also bothers me that the plot against David is getting so absurdly out of control, like it's breaking my suspension of disbelief.
But more immediately, I can't believe that we just got an update with virtually no lewd content. After 18+ months, we just got an update where the only scene that was remotely lewd included a butt grab and voyeurism via hidden cam. I actually can't believe that happened. I know it wasn't super long since 0.7.0a, but this update wasn't lacking in story content. And while we all know this game isn't strictly a porn game, I think this update still sorely under-delivered in sexual content. I've supported this game in the past, and I've considered supporting this game again in the future, but after an update like this I don't think I could justify it. This game isn't much fun right now, in fact it's kinda turning into a slog.
I think I feel the same as you do. I admit I'm not a hardcore supporter of Mr Palmer, but I do up my membership on Patreon whenever a release drops just for early access, because I really like the game so far and wanna support a genuinely plot driven cheating/ntr story.
That said I think this is the first time I've felt really disappointed by an APM update. Like you pointed out, the plot is starting to get a little silly. I have an ntr and a faithful playthrough, and the logic in both feels like its breaking down. Just some really glaring events off the top of my head:
1. the idea that Anna is still entertaining Chris and all his bs to keep tabs on David doesn't make sense, especially since David's back to staying in the same house, and it should be really obvious to her that Chris doesn't know shit either.
2. related to that, the reasons for Chris and the other guys not getting immediately exposed is starting to feel really contrived. Like David STILL hasn't just asked Anna who's the guy(s) (or Kendra) who's been reporting all his actions to her?
3. Kendra pulling a gun on Marcel? wtf?
4. Anna excusing all the bs being pulled by the guys is starting to get kinda unbelievable. I was honestly shocked at the lengths Anna was going to to convince herself that she needed to keep ALL of these creeps onside.
I also kinda get where the kinetic novel complaints are coming from. The David in my faithful playthrough did everything right and it didn't seem to make any difference at all in the confrontation with Anna. I thought that this would be one of the first big moments that David's actions would save or sink him, and Anna still shits on him in both routes.
Also about the point that a single rejection shouldn't lock you onto the faithful route - I'm not saying that a single rejection should end the Marvin route, but good grief I think I must've rejected that asshole 10 times already, how is his route still not closed? It's not that I don't want cheating in an ntr game (that'd be stupid) but I'm just not into old guys and their dicks, so how long until we can just shut that route off. Bring Jake back man lol.