- Thread starter HangoverCat
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there is a choice, i think to go eat with aya instead of going to Laura's office, so choose aya.
- May 29, 2017
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So, I started playing this game because it showed up on the list as having lezcest, which I'm a fan of. I came into this thread to try to figure out why the game has so many stars despite the MC being such an absurd wimp that it takes me out of the game-- who the fuck is _this_ stupid?! -- and saw that it's an NTR game, which is a genre I'm not familiar with.
I'm willing to give it a shot, but -- Is this kinda normal for NTR? Are the protagonists always just SUCH worms? It's actually painful to read this guy just continuously refusing to man the fuck up on any level. The art's good and I am not far enough in to comment on the plot, but holy shit this MC.....
I guess what I am trying to figure out is, is this a story with feels based on cheating? That might make for a great drama, and I'm willing to stick with it if it's also sexy. Or is this actually fetishizing being cucked, and is written for people who think being walked on by everyone is okay and normal?
I'm willing to give it a shot, but -- Is this kinda normal for NTR? Are the protagonists always just SUCH worms? It's actually painful to read this guy just continuously refusing to man the fuck up on any level. The art's good and I am not far enough in to comment on the plot, but holy shit this MC.....
I guess what I am trying to figure out is, is this a story with feels based on cheating? That might make for a great drama, and I'm willing to stick with it if it's also sexy. Or is this actually fetishizing being cucked, and is written for people who think being walked on by everyone is okay and normal?
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- Jul 20, 2018
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Woo boy, if you think Harry is bad as an MC, this is clearly the first time you've run into the netorare genre. Harry actually avoids most of the typical cliches of the genre and of those that apply to him, they're justified much better than they are in most other stories of this type.
The typical cliches of NTR have the cucked character have flaws like having a smaller than average dick, sometimes to a ridiculous degree, literally smaller than a pinky finger. Harry is over average in size, though inevitably still smaller than Luca. Premature ejaculation is also often common. Harry has normal stamina, even by hentai standards. Of course, Luca is a porn god and has limitless stamina. A complete inability to pleasure the partner is common. Harry's average in that regard and can get better at it. Luca is, of course, a master at sex, though unlike most NTR stories, his skill is actually justified, and also, it's not absolute. So on and so forth.
The typical route of old school NTR was that the girl is stollen from the guy via the power of dick, typically via rape or blackmail or some combination of the two. She gets fucked so much she loses a bunch of her sanity and becomes completely addicted to pleasure. Then at some point the guy she's cucked from finds out, usually via tape or DVD where she's fucked by the guy(s) that did the deed, ahegaoing and giving the guy double peace signs or something as she completely stops giving a shit about him. After that, the guy becomes completely worthless and often committed suicide. (There's a reason why Hagover, the cat-girl, references cuck genocide and stuff like that in the commentary, because a lot of the old school NTR genre followed this formula until it became an overused cliche.)
A lot of NTR has parts of this formula, with the key element being that the girl is taken away via the power of dick. APBLU actually does a much better job than most to justify the how and why. It also does a lot more to justify why Harry is as oblivious as he is, which most netorare stories don't bother with.
Compared to most NTR MCs, Harry actually has a fighting chance.
As for what this story is meant to achieve... that's complicated because netorare is a complex and contextual fetish. For some it's about emotional suffering and identifying with the MC and whatnot. For others it's all about sadism in seeing the MC's suffering from his perspective. For me it's primarily about the slutification and corruption of the one that's being stolen away. For me, whether the perspective is from the one being cucked (netorare) or the one doing the cuking (netori), there is no difference as long as I get a clear view of how the person that's being taken falls into pleasure and that addiction is then used to turn them into someone that their original self would probably try to kill out of principle or whatnot. Sometimes, things are at they're most beautiful when they're being destroyed and all that jazz.
I can't say exactly how APBLU delivers for others fans of the netorare genre, but for me, it was pretty amazing in the way it handled Laura's fall and how much of a monster she becomes. However, I can't weigh in on how other people see this VN or what they look for when it comes to netorare.
Scenes are pretty hot tho, so there's that too.
- Jul 20, 2018
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If you mean in the family ending, then the story never reveals who it was. I expect everyone has their theories... but my theory is that the one who wrote the code was actually Aya. Neither Laura nor Luca have the skills to completely baffle Harry in terms of coding... but at one point, Aya was shown to have extremely impressive skills in that area.
Furthermore, the impression I got from that chain of events was that neither Laura nor Luca were directly involved in what happened, just that Luca took full advantage of it to further his plans to make Harry's existence a living hell.
It was never revealed WHY Aya was there as a crazy yakuza princess, but clearly she was doing SOMETHING...
I personally think that this was her parting message to Harry for giving up on him and contributing to the Hell that his life became, instead of saving him from what she knew was going on behind his back.
- Mar 28, 2019
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Any "Bonus Scene 7" & "Bonus Scene 8" Santa's in the house? 
Hope everybody have had a nice Christmas and celebrated with friends and family.
Hope everybody have had a nice Christmas and celebrated with friends and family.
I only finish several ending, but Aya is the best girl of this series. her cheerful character is a bit dark, her father is yakuza and he is the one who rape her? or I get it wrong because I was too horny. and her father is a better alpha than Luca?
this is stupid good ending for ntr game. Laura dominating Luca to some degree and he's comfortable with Laura, Luca accept her as her new bitch. living together without clear relationship but doesnt cheat to each other either (tbh I dont feel sorry for Laura but I think they match for each other)
this is stupid good ending for ntr game. Laura dominating Luca to some degree and he's comfortable with Laura, Luca accept her as her new bitch. living together without clear relationship but doesnt cheat to each other either (tbh I dont feel sorry for Laura but I think they match for each other)
- May 29, 2017
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OK, thanks for the warning, and glad this sounds like it is a relatively mild dose.
Thing is, the idea of torturing a sympathetic MC makes for great drama -- writers have been doing it since the ancient Greeks -- but you've got to kinda like the MC. I have trouble sympathizing with a guy who won't stand up for himself. Like, if he doesn't give a shit about his own life, why should I?
But I think you answered the question, the goal is to serve a particular fetish, not just to use the emotional blow of getting cucked as drama material. Very likely not for me then, but I'll try to keep an open mind and see how far I get.
- Jul 20, 2018
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Meek/Doormats MCs are pretty normal in Japanese media, it's a big thing there. I've never fully grasped the reasons why, since there's more nuance to it than self-inserting and otakus and stuff. Netorare as a genre takes that to extremes, and while HC is not Japanese, this IS a netorare VN and follows a number of the tropes.
As for liking the MC. That kind of varies, again. If the MC is not sympathetic, then it's easier to take pleasure in his suffering for some. Depends on the person.
At the end of the day though. I don't think Harry's that bad in terms of standing up for himself. Met plenty of guys like him IRL. This is especially true when he's been traumatized by Luca back in high-school and that stayed with him. His biggest problem is just how BLIND he is. There are reasons for his willful ignorance, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that it can and will get grating for some people.
Either way, it's up to you to decide if you enjoy it or not. I recommend playing in the 'All perspectives' mode tbh, since it doesn't seem like you're a netorare fetishist. As such, the story might work better for you if you see all the smut and Laura's parts and whatnot.
- May 29, 2017
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Ah, I'll give that a shot. The intro seemed to indicate there was a mystery, so I went with limited perspective so as not to spoil it. I'd imagine a 3PO perspective would make "liking Harry as a person" less critical.
- May 17, 2022
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Totally Agree. NTR for me is an extension of corruption genre. But most western VN's are too focused on cuckoldry which is sad for me.
I think some of Laura's Endings didn't make sense to me. Like in Abrupt Ending she is too far gone but in Good Ending she is not but the timeframe of the events are close I guess.
Hated Hero 1 Ending like what was she thinking
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Loved All Aya's ending though.
- Jul 20, 2018
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The contrast between the Abrupt and Good ending makes plenty of sense to me tbh. The big tipping point between them is that in one, Harry genuinely understands Laura, and in the other, he doesn't. More importantly, SHE becomes aware of these facts. This is why in the Good Ending, while she ends up addicted to pleasure... she's mostly addicted just to pleasure in general, so Harry being able to up his skill level in handling her is enough to win her back. After all, while she was afraid that he wouldn't accept her as a slut, a part of her still believed and hoped that he would.
In the Abrupt Ending however, Harry explicitly doesn't understand her and it's shown to her quite clearly. This causes her to doubt that Harry ever actually loved her, and causes her to not just be addicted to pleasure in the general sense, but Luca in particular for being able to not just make her feel good, but understand that imperfect, nymphomaniac part of hers that she'd suppressed for a very long time.
As for the Clumsy Hero ending... Laura started digging a hole, and by the time she realized just how thoroughly Luca had fucked her over with his game... she really didn't have any good options. With everything that happened, she and Harry would have never been free of him, and it was obvious that he'd never give up on tormenting Harry. Also, as the Aya version of the ending shows, Laura wasn't actually aware of all the shit Luca was doing to torment Harry, like the hole in the wall. Also, the plan was to ensure that the accusations against Harry were dropped and whatnot once she went through the whole thing of "he was abusing me all the time and that's why I said some shit I totally didn't mean". Though, she clearly didn't expect that she'd get back to Harry after all that... and it's debatable if she'd even survive that ending in the long run...
Aya's endings were hilarious. To date, I'm still surprised that I got to laugh so much out of a NTR VN out of all things...
- May 17, 2022
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Ha ha me too.
Thanks for clearing it up.
Also can you suggest any Corruption VN? No RPGM or Sandbox. I have played many corruption rpgm games, for some reason most corruption genre games are built with rpgm.
- Jul 20, 2018
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If you mean pure VNs without any gameplay, then I can't remember any off the top of my head. I'm sure I've seen some that feature it, but they probably didn't leave much of an impression and that's why I don't remember them.
In general, while various media is tagged with corruption, the fact of the matter is that it being a central theme and on top of that, it being actually done well... is a rarity. It's one of the reasons why I was so impressed with this particular VN. HC really did an amazing job with Laura's fall in the various routes.
There might be some threads that try to keep track of these sorts of things. Like this one for example. However I didn't look them up that much. I just drift around as the mood takes me when it comes to H-stuff.
- May 17, 2022
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Yeah, that's why I asked. The "Corruption" tag is overused here. Even some Romance/Vanilla games have corruption tag in them. Most real corruption games are in RPGM and made by Japanese Authors.
I have checked the link before but thanks.
Write through a translator. I heard the eighth bonus scene came out, whoever has already played and can at least briefly tell you what's there?
For those who are unaware, the aya route game thread is here:
https://f95zone.to/threads/a-promise-best-left-unkept-aya-edition-v0-1-5-hangover-cat.181005/
https://f95zone.to/threads/a-promise-best-left-unkept-aya-edition-v0-1-5-hangover-cat.181005/