Wow, that's the first time anyone's ever said that. Thanks. Lol.
Yea, that's kind of true. If you're not someone who cares about all the different variables you can get for some innocuous scene then there really isn't much else that's new to see. For me, it was a relatively new experience in terms of production level for VNs. That's why I initially enjoyed it so much.
Oh, wait. You don't like free roams? Ep 9 is basically one, giant free roam so...have fun with that. Still, I kind of like the mini-games. Just not the English tests (I swear, DPC got some inspiration from Bully. Even Tommy and Jamie remind me too much of whats-his-face and Petey from that old Rockstar game). Honestly, for BADIK it wouldn't be a big deal to just forget about it for a few years at this point. It's going to take a long ass time for it to complete anyway. And if you just never get back to it, there's nothing lost there either.
Ep 8 just felt kind of empty. Felt like a chore to play more than once. Don't want to spoil too much. Ep 9 was a slog because, again, it was basically a giant free roam separated by a few breaks to indicate different stages of time throughout the party.
I know what you mean about Acquainted and Yuno's writing not being up to par. I just feel like it was better to give Yuno the benefit of the doubt here. First-time dev and all that. DPC had Acting Lessons before BADIK as well so he's had experience (again, like not burning a character alive this time lol). BADIK is similar to Acquainted in that both really felt like "lightning in a bottle" moments. It's just that the former really seized the opportunity and the latter couldn't handle it.
Alright, alright. I feel like I wasn't being fair to Westview Academy. It's NOT incoherent and I really do like it. Rather than a fever dream, it feels like someone wrote ideas for each scene on the back of a napkin. It goes from point A to point B with no real details or elaboration. I like the dev's sense of humor which is why I still play it. It's just that if I were to compare it to a meal, it'd be like eating a bunch of candy and thinking, "Did I just eat? I don't know." Empty calories. However, Life in Santa County is truly some ass, bro.
No, yea. Completely agree. That sums it up pretty well. Ep 8 wouldn't have left a bad taste if we got a faster follow-up and Ep 9 wouldn't have felt like a waste if we didn't wait a year and some change for it. That's another reason why it feels like it's just soap opera stuff. The story isn't THAT deep and people continue watching just to see what happens the next week. It definitely has great, sentimental scenes and I appreciate those parts. It's just that endings are overly-dramatic cliffhangers and you don't really feel all that satisfied in terms of both character/story development you wanted to see or any resolutions to previous conflicts. Just like you said, it's all "stuff's happening, stuff's happening, Lily's tight ass
![Sneaky :sneaky: :sneaky:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
, stuff's happening, and here's the next cliffhanger". So great scene writing but not much overall substance. Nothing really happened. It's not taking any real steps to progress a story. It's a great
experience but that's the problem. It doesn't really last long if the next one's a year (or longer) away. Great while in the moment but only holds together as something because people are already expecting the next one sooner rather than later. It's like a fireworks show but between each bright and loud "BANG" there's a 10-minute interval of empty sky. It's a VN so I understand shit takes time but that's how big of a delay 1 year feels compared to 6 or 8 months.
Edit: Gotta be 100% transparent. I still think BADIK is the best overall VN but because of my points made above, I've gotten kind of whatever about it. Which is why I had high hopes for Acquainted and other VNs replacing it in my personal rankings.
I usually don't have problems with MCs, unless they have 2 brain cells and no spine. That makes it terrible to read. If I'm going to be completely honest, I don't really remember much of the dialogue for Acquainted. I was too distracted by the "WTFs", etc. All I remember was that there was at least some intrigue regarding the plot and the writing was apparently tolerable enough for me to not hate it. For me, it was kind of up in the air where it might go but as long as it didn't get any worse it was probably going to be a pretty popular game.
I don't really want to beat on Yuno too much. Kind of just seemed like a lot of people jumped the gun because of the attractive render models (myself included). But he had no prior dev experience, was doing this part-time, and this was only the first release. We had no idea how long he took for that one release and he didn't have a proven track record on anything. Basically, I think he just couldn't handle the commitment and floundered. Still, if he drops a completely different title out of nowhere that pretty much tells me everything I need to know.
Yea, I don't know. I try to see devs on a case-by-case basis. There are definitely milkers but I don't like to jump the gun until I can see the writing on the wall.
In DPC's case with BADIK, it's more of a problem with him not knowing when to stop his "artistic genius" or at this point it feels like he's just bored with the story and is adding in a bunch random stuff.
In Yuno's case, like I said above, I just think he was in way over his head. Seemed like he had a full-time career and not just some job to just live. So even less incentive for him to stick to it. Still pretty shitty of him to not pause Patreon payments while being radio silent for months and even to this day. In that case, he's a passive milker. Still shitty but why reject free money? Also, I really feel in my gut that he just treats this as a hobby and not something serious. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an update at some point and then another one a century later or something crazy. It's just that, what I've seen from other devs is basically actively scamming gullible people by dropping a "Hello, still alive" every once in a while and maybe a game update every other leap year.
Yo, nice taste in music btw. I think you're the first one I've seen on this site that isn't into some kind of euro-metal death rock or whatever the fuck it is. I don't judge, it's just nice to see someone who also likes Madvillain (Madlib and MFDoom)