I think most of you, probably due to the majority of the VN's here, look at this game from a wrong point of view, in my oppinion. You see each and every character introduced as a potential LI, a route or a branch. Now, the way I see it is that there are only 3 or 4 LI's, aside from Liam, namely Dylan, Ellie, Sam and potentially Patricia. All other encounters are there to enhance Sophia's sexual frustration and horniness and to lower her resistance and perhaps add to one or more of the LI's future relations.
For instance, I see the sleep over party as a potential Sophie, Dylan and Ellie relationship. The Vicky/DeShawn encounter as a potential swinger relationship with Liam on GW path. Even the Dylan/Amber thing could be there to lower Sophia's resistance against a relationship with Sam. After all, one of her arguments is that Amber is an old friend and Sams mother, what if she found out, etc. Now if Sophia were to find out about Dylan and Amber, then that argument is no longer vaild.
When I play, I try to put myself in Sophia's shoes. Obviously she's brought up with high morals that she tries to live up to. A little bit over the top in my oppinion since few would be so shy in front of her own sister and being naked in a public shower among other women, though it does seem that Gen Z suffers from that. Nevertheless her moral values is a part of who she is and they have seemingly not been a problem before. These are her guidelines as wife and mother. Now, after they've moved to the west coast, she finds herself overwashed by wave after wave of temptations that push against those values, and she fails constantly, depending on our choices.
Now the interesting part are those bashed upon inner monologues. To me, they are what makes this game realistic. To know what I mean by that we must establish the difference between Real life realistic and believable realistic. The latter being realistic in the setting or environment. Like somethings are realistic in a fantasy magic world but not in RL. But even if it's a fantasy magic world, not everything is realistic. For instance, how easy and fast Rey learned and mastered both the lightsaber and the force in episode 7-9 of Starwars, isn't realistic in a perspective of episode 1-6.
To return to Sophia and her monologues. She strive to live up to her moral values, fails and consequently feels misarable and remorseful. Despite what some might believe, this is not something that will go away just because you fail an X number of times and then you are"over it", you have crossed the line, no turning back. A lot of VN's do it just like that. Mother sees the son's mornig wood, three days later they have sex, day after she feels remorse and need to think about, a day later she's thought about and everything is ok. That's not a believable realistic story. What I find so interesting is that Sophia knows she's weak, she's adamant at keeping her morals as wife and mother, yet she makes excuses for her actions like: "It's to build his/her confidence" "It's only for education" "It's for his/her best". All to justify her own actions regarding her morals. Yet afterwards she still feels she's kind of tricked herself, hence the remorse.
Now to conclude with my early statement. I don't see a number of routes/paths/branches. I see a sexually frustrated woman that finds herself in a number of sexually tempting situation that she, if we chose so, miserably fails to not give in to. Who despite that still tries to be the wife and mother she wants to be with her moral values .
For instance, I see the sleep over party as a potential Sophie, Dylan and Ellie relationship. The Vicky/DeShawn encounter as a potential swinger relationship with Liam on GW path. Even the Dylan/Amber thing could be there to lower Sophia's resistance against a relationship with Sam. After all, one of her arguments is that Amber is an old friend and Sams mother, what if she found out, etc. Now if Sophia were to find out about Dylan and Amber, then that argument is no longer vaild.
When I play, I try to put myself in Sophia's shoes. Obviously she's brought up with high morals that she tries to live up to. A little bit over the top in my oppinion since few would be so shy in front of her own sister and being naked in a public shower among other women, though it does seem that Gen Z suffers from that. Nevertheless her moral values is a part of who she is and they have seemingly not been a problem before. These are her guidelines as wife and mother. Now, after they've moved to the west coast, she finds herself overwashed by wave after wave of temptations that push against those values, and she fails constantly, depending on our choices.
Now the interesting part are those bashed upon inner monologues. To me, they are what makes this game realistic. To know what I mean by that we must establish the difference between Real life realistic and believable realistic. The latter being realistic in the setting or environment. Like somethings are realistic in a fantasy magic world but not in RL. But even if it's a fantasy magic world, not everything is realistic. For instance, how easy and fast Rey learned and mastered both the lightsaber and the force in episode 7-9 of Starwars, isn't realistic in a perspective of episode 1-6.
To return to Sophia and her monologues. She strive to live up to her moral values, fails and consequently feels misarable and remorseful. Despite what some might believe, this is not something that will go away just because you fail an X number of times and then you are"over it", you have crossed the line, no turning back. A lot of VN's do it just like that. Mother sees the son's mornig wood, three days later they have sex, day after she feels remorse and need to think about, a day later she's thought about and everything is ok. That's not a believable realistic story. What I find so interesting is that Sophia knows she's weak, she's adamant at keeping her morals as wife and mother, yet she makes excuses for her actions like: "It's to build his/her confidence" "It's only for education" "It's for his/her best". All to justify her own actions regarding her morals. Yet afterwards she still feels she's kind of tricked herself, hence the remorse.
Now to conclude with my early statement. I don't see a number of routes/paths/branches. I see a sexually frustrated woman that finds herself in a number of sexually tempting situation that she, if we chose so, miserably fails to not give in to. Who despite that still tries to be the wife and mother she wants to be with her moral values .
