I guess I just see it all differently. If in the game I’m choosing to go along with things then the character in the game would be in a mental space where those choices seem like the best option for her.
There seems to be a willingness to use information about the game and future plans for it, as well as goings on in other routes, to build up a sense of what makes sense for Sophia when confronted with a particular choice.
As an example, I don’t understand what has happened or been said in the game that would make Morello in any way indebted to Sophia or in any way willing to “take care of” someone on her behalf, nor do I get where in the game Sophia would have any reason to think Morello is even approachable. Nothing comes to mind, anyway. I guess I’ll reread the scenes and look for the clues.
Sabertooth__ also presents another example:
“There is no solution to Aiden as of now but he is also not so big a threat that Sophia is actually helpless.”
- how does Sophia know this? And if she does, then the entire Aiden route doesn’t make any sense whatsoever and would never be an option in the first place. So if it’s an option, it must be an option because none of the other options seem likely to resolve the problem at the time the option is presented.
“Accepting that she is helpless and has no way out against Aiden is similar to believing that she had no better way to teach the boys in the 2nd job other than allowing them to strip.”
- yes, but in the game those are options, and if a player takes those options then they are essentially saying, “Sophia thinks this is the best option”. So why would Sophia leave her friends and put on the leathers and get on the bike if she thought there were better options? A player can choose not to, but having chosen to get in the bike, the character I’m playing doesn’t think that turning Aiden down is the best choice.
At the end of all this, I’m just thinking that at some point the paths must have consequences that impact events that occur on multiple paths. Which is the general problem with all this branching - pretty soon we’re going to be in one of those logical fallacies we see so often in a sandbox game, where you’re banging the sister every night in the shower but at lunchtime you’re losing points for merely flirting.
The Sam event clashing with the Andy/Cathy event looks to be the start of these problems unless there really are meaningful options available.