God, it's a mess. And honestly? I don't care anymore. This game and our Sophia are lodged deeply in my limbic system. During game's development I had married, I changed jobs, I moved countries, I've seen glowing peaks of joy and crumbled under stress into darkest depths. Yet Sophia was there all this time: she changed multiple times, like we all do, following illogical and irrational whims. She wanted to appeal to everyone and in the end nobody liked her.
Sophia's character reveals a meta-tragedy of a developer who started with a vision and then lost it, painfully, excruciatingly slowly, over large swathes of time. Their life over the years probably changed dramatically too, yet this one BURDEN of a game still drags behind them like a bloated corpse. The writing doesn't make sense anymore, all routes are compressed and suddenly move at lightning speed (oh, the irony) using the silliest premises, using any premise, really. Game's in-story timeline is just maddening, if you didn't experience its development timeline of months and years of waiting, of living your complicated messy lives.
Sophia emotionally whores herself 300 times a day now, yet blushes at the sight of a cock. Time skips and flash-forwards don't exist anymore either, developer doesn't allow any moments for a breath, for reflection: there is just one singular goal of dragging the corpse further. And further. And then just a little bit more. Anyone unfamiliar with the game who would play it whole in one sitting, will just scratch their eyes out. And in their newly found darkness, they will see it for what it is: broken mess of unfulfilled promises and an ugly monument to sponsors-driven development economy. When you allow audiences to vote with their wallets, it siphons the creator dry, making them a desperate rat pushing levers with heroine water. Making the fucking content. For everyone to enjoy. For everyone to hate. This what happens when you just. don't. allow. things. to. end.
It's day 21 for Sophia. while I got gray hairs already. I will grow older than her soon. I was so happy to see her
. Maybe it means that the end will come soon. One day, she will be free of this game. Oh, Sophia, I hope you will.