That I agree with all your points is an understatement. Thanks for giving order to my thoughts too!Ok, finished my playthrough and here are my thoughts.
- As expected, nothing could make the five month development worth it.
- Putting aside the long development cycle, this update is still very uneven.
- The update starts off strong, but it quickly feels sloppy and rushed
- Task 4- I mostly liked this, but it wasn't smooth. I liked that L&P has firmly established that this is blackmail, that Sophia can't stand Aiden, and that she isn't excited (yet) for the tasks.
- While I enjoyed the visual pleasure of task 4, the moment that Sophia exposed her underwear to the class felt very sophomoric by the standards of the game. Look, a skirt that tight doesn't easily ride up that high. It wouldn't be possible to play that off as an accident. I know Daz and skirt assets are a limiting factor here, but I would have structured the scene differently. As it stands, I felt like the image of Sophia standing before the class with her skirt up was a jumping the shark moment.
- I really liked the interaction with Zach.
- I really liked that Sophia slapped the shit out of Andre.
- Bonus Event Threesome- This really left a bad taste in my mouth
- I really don't like that the entire structure. It felt like L&P wanted a sex scene, and this was the best he could do.
- It's a shame that he couldn't even make it 100% consensual, and instead leaned into another coercion/blackmail story.
- He does do a good job of really hammering home that Aiden and Andre are terrible people.
- Some of the animations are really nice! Most are simply "fine". None of them were worth the wait.
- Hopefully the choice to intervene does something in the future.
- Ellie and Dylan scenes
- These were actually pretty nice, but it all felt very linear. I'm sure that will be fleshed out in the future, but there were too many "game over" options for my liking.
- The drift towards multiple MCs continues. Now you even get the option to make choices for Ellie.
- I like the Dylan/Christina dynamic.
- The Forgive/Don't Forgive option looms large. It's going to further complicate this story and development.
- Miscellaneous thoughts
- I felt like the connective tissue within scenes was weaker than normal. I suspect that the attention paid to the animations left little time for fleshing out some of the scenes with extra renders. IMO this is a net negative for the whole game.
- Don't get me wrong, L&P has historically gone TOO FAR in the other direction with too many superfluous renders. I don't mind him cutting the superfluous renders, but I do mind him cutting them and replacing them with superfluous animations.
- And speaking of superfluous animations, did we really need like 20 different camera angles?
- Instead, I would have spent more time and renders for the options that otherwise lead directly to game over.
- Lastly, why on Earth would Sophia go home and change into something so cute/flirtatious when she's going to meet Aiden. Look, I like eye candy too, but if I'm meeting a guy I hate you can bet I'm wearing some ratty hoodie.
- Concerning Aiden we were wondering if this update could bring a better insight on his backstory and his angle wrt the tasks.
Well, it has taken a dark turn IMO. In the bonus scene it was expected that something nasty was going on between them. Now it is clear that Jennifer his not his *girlfriend* and there is again extortion behind that relationship as well. And Aiden and André are given even more the "little gangster" type with the extortion, poker, the betting and so on. Not the common teenagers to say the least.
But I'm more surprised by the dialogue between Aiden and Sophia in the corridor when he explains the task
Python:ai "This should also be concurring for you from now on! Any student gets to see your tits whenever he wants!" ... ai "From now on, your students have the right to admire their teacher's outfit in all its glory." ai "This also applies to what she wears underneath!"
I don't know if anybody else got the same vibe.
- Contrary to the previous update, the writing was much more "consistent" with where we left the characters. The other time I felt like a "sudden step" in the interaction with Aiden (3rd task), Nathalie and Sam. Here it was much smoother.
I too noted the questions on the blackboard and I even took a pause to google them (yeah, I know, I'm that kind of guy...). That is the kind of details that he is very good at enriching the narrative with and make it more "believable".
Just a silly note, "(in)conspicuous"seem to keep popping up in the dialogues, he must really like the word
- This task went farther than expected (at least for me), especially for the flashing (panties, breasts) and how it played out (I agree with you again, sexy but silly). We predicted some "involuntary" touch, like a brush but certainly not what happened to Zach, which was quite hot IMO. In my first play through I missed the discussion with him at the end (I was on the yoga path), but it certainly introduces interesting developments with Zach in the future.
And I'm wondering if this is somehow the limit of the tasks in the classroom, because more explicit than that it becomes less and less realistic. Probably the 5th task that will be revealed in the meeting the next update (?) will be again out-of-school? On the next PD? Or just in the next class? it's hard now to think something more risqué than this happening in the classroom. Maybe the gym class (same day) will offer more alternatives.
- I'm worried about the increasing complexity of the game. Beside the Morello option, this update again introduce Jennifer and her extortion story which for sure will come back (e.g. if Sophia intervene she will ask protection for her too), an option to forgive Logan which we will discover, I guess, on Monday PD 16, Emma's studying option for the evening (alternative to the sleepover with Ellie and Christine), a meeting with Aiden that could be different whether she asked Morello for help or not (she might be there while his men pay Aiden the visit)...
Even looking at the code there so many nested conditions that will require a lot of effort to maintain. I know this is also a matter of personal taste, I'm more for linear (kinetic-like) and simpler stories, but at some point there should be some limit to the exponential branching. And in that regard the new way of delivering by event is probably backfiring as there are many people left without content even with 2 updates.
Finally, kudos to Bibifoc for developing the savegame export (and other "stuff" I guess) and thanks for patiently dealing with all the issues in the forum. For me it was flawless!
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