Lockheart Myrabelle
No... NO! Goddammit!!
...maybe I shouldn't start with that XD.
(TL;DR at the bottom for any who don't want to suffer through my inability to summarize)
So this game was on my "Looks interesting, I'll give it a try sometime" list. For whatever reason, I decided to play a little of it yesterday, just to get an introduction to it and a first impression. Ended up playing it all the way through. Loved it (so far). Enough where I just have to sound off on a few personal opinions that may or may not be shared by others.
- So first up, and most importantly imo: The length, and build-up vs pay off.
Since I only played the game for the first time yesterday, and scrolled through a few posts about it, my understanding is that the story here is nearly over, but will potentially be a trilogy of sorts with the other two daughters. Since I'm not sure exactly how the story as a whole is going to play out, I can't say for sure how I'll ultimately feel about it, but at the moment my biggest "dislike" is that it feels too short and I want a lot more (which I guess could be taken as a compliment).
There are different lines of thought on this. Some people will bring up how some devs will drag their games/stories on and on for the purposes of milking. And how it's also best to not stay out on stage after the play/story is over. And I understand all that. But there are, at times, a flip side to that. The Lord of the Rings would in all likelihood never work as a single movie. It had to be three. Just like there are some other stories that just work way better as a TV series than they would as a few movies (I guess you could bring up the earlier Marvel movies, but I'm just speaking in general here). And while there may be a couple of more chapters planned focusing on the other daughters,
please don't just confine Petal to a back-burner during them. Speaking of Marvel though, I might actually love to see that initial format here. Let the daughters each have their own setup "movie". But then at the end us getting a long and satisfying one involving everyone.
Spoilers below, for those who care:
Trying to get to the point about the length, personally I'm
very attached to Petal now, but it just feels like there's way too much left that I want to see. I think it's a safe bet that the whole "just for this week" thing is not going to happen. How will their relationship evolve? What will it be like when there are no more barriers left? Who will accept it, and who won't? What will their lives be like once the dust settles? What will it be like when they start having sex on the regular? What living situation will they all end up in, and how will they all adjust to it? Will Petal decide that she wants to completely discard the idea of ever being with another man, even in the future, and want to be with her daddy for the rest of her life? Will Petal maybe even want to get pregnant eventually? And, to whomever it may concern, please don't bother bringing up "realism" about that. I mean, you can if you really want to, of course. But there are many 'cest games that have it with just a few wave-off lines about gene-splicing being a thing in the game's timeline, or how birth complications only become a big risk after a few generations of inbreeding, etc. And I think for most people that's fine, because at the end of the day, these are fantasy/porn games we're talking about. Even if some of them are more refined than others lol. Having pregnancy in the game wouldn't be advocating real life inbreeding any more than GTA advocates banging hookers and then just killing them to get your money back irl.
So in other words, unless Lockheart just can't come up with any continuation ideas, I personally feel like this story is in no danger of "dragging on", but the opposite. I worry that it may be something that has the potential of being a great TV series, that instead gets condensed down and limited to a 80-minute movie (not literally, of course).
- Regarding build-up vs pay off.
I understand that to some people the teasing and build-up is exactly, and sometimes even
all they want. That once the explosive conclusion happens they're ready to just move on to the next tease fest... I am not one of those people lol. I love the whole build-up thing. It does make the payoff
much sweeter imo. But I also really like to have some time to fully enjoy that pay off. Personally I find it frustrating and unfulfilling whenever a story/game's total content ends up being 95% tease and build-up, and then only 5% left for a single sex scene. This is all just a matter of personal preference of course, but ideally I think in general I'd like for the threshold to be passed at around the 40-50% mark. That way there's still plenty of time and room left to enjoy the fruits of our labor as it were. It's just so disappointing to me whenever I get to the end of a game, and then all I get is a 60-second epilogue montage of events that I wanted to actually play and experience.
Another thing that factors into me feeling this way about it is all of the
excellent dirty-talk with Petal. It feels like it holds an exciting promise of things to come, and what their lives and relationship might turn in to. I mean on both the romantic and the dirty fronts. I don't want to just see the wings get attached to their relationship. I want to see them fly for a while when they get there too. And then I want to be on the edge of my seat and see just how high they can soar together. Or rather, how high their romance can soar, but also how low and depraved their kinky fun-times can get as well lol.
If this game was always
meant to be a "The build-up is the whole point. There was never going to be more than a single sex scene at the end." then that's on me for not researching into the game more before playing it. I just didn't anticipate getting so hooked and invested in it as I did, and so fast!
- Minor content feedback.
(Warning: some pervy stuff inbound. Please don't kink-shame me if it isn't your thing) Maybe I'm just a perv, and would probably take things too far if I were in the driver seat lol, but I'd like to see more optional fetishes get involved and explored further with Petal (she's so adventurous!). And it's also another reason why I think the game/story ultimately needs a longer duration. Massaging Petal's feet and her giving footjobs was hot. But I also wouldn't mind the option of seeing her put her feet on her daddy's face, him getting off on breathing in his daughter's feet, sucking on her toes, etc. Other optional things like rimjobs (in either direction), anal sex, deepthroating, watersports, further adventures in role-playing, the pet-play, and dirty talk (which were things that the game especially excelled at imo), or whatever else Lockheart might feel inclined to add (or not, if they feel something would be too extreme or OOC).
Final TL;DR: I feel like there's so much more that could be done and taken further with Petal, and the overall story in general. "Dragging out a story for too long" is
not something I think this game is anywhere even close to being in danger of right now. If anything I feel like it's in "Just the tip of the iceberg" territory. That it's a potential goldmine. That it has the makings of a great TV series (or the porn game equivalent, rather), and cutting it and these characters short would just feel like a crime. Personally I'd love to at least see Bliss and Moon get their own games (but not with Petal being too confined to the background during them), and then at least a full-length, fully-realized, culmination game at the end. With this game/story/characters in particular, I think that "short and sweet" wouldn't be a matter of "just right". It would just feel like being in front of a big, delicious-looking banquet, taking a bite or two, and then just leaving the rest on the table and walking away lol.
P.S. I do apologize for the length of this rant. But this game just ended up being one of those rare gems that I come across every now and then that just generates enough thoughts and feelings in me about it that I feel compelled to reach out to the dev and give them my feedback and praise.