- Jun 30, 2018
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Jonas explicitly states in this episode that the gun has been hidden there after the attempted rape. Maybe the statement only comes on the Megan path.
- Thread starter N7
- Start date
- May 28, 2017
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The problem is not whether there were hints about Leah's instability or not. For all we know, Leah could've just been a psycho chick that MC banged. The problem is that there was no hint there was supposed to be a villain in the game. A simple consistent scene where MC felt like he was repeatedly being watched would've sufficed to give a hint that "hey, there's somebody watching us". But there was nothing like that to suggest the existence of a villain in the game.
I'm not saying that the plot was written on the fly. What I'm saying is that the game took a sudden turn at a certain point which seemed to be inconsistent with what it was before.
This so much. The twist didn't work at all because of how the game was being presented.
- Jul 10, 2018
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Absolutely agree that the pacing was wrong. Doesn't mean it couldn't have been released in 8 episodes, but it alters significantly what needed to be in those episodes, how big they were, and that we'd switched expectations before the end of episode 2 - however big that meant the first 2 episodes needed to be. That would have then left sufficient space to have put more effort and time into developing the darker storylines, the characters involved, etc. That was one of my earliest criticisms of this, way back. He left the switcheroo far, far too late. It meant he was already tired, too eager to finish it (rushing), when he made the absolutely central part of the entire plot.
Doc is a keen movie fan. You see him use all kinds of tricks and devices from movies, especially the meaningful cuts and transitions. I like that fact. But my liking it, and his wanting it, doesn't mean it was always well executed. There were quite a few movie devices he used that didn't work. To me, that's great, because hopefully he learned enough to make them work better next time and produce an even better game. Better than that, other developers too may learn from the examples, positive and negative both, and we get even more good games come along.
I checked his Patreon when I first downloaded the game, and about 6 times since the past couple of episodes. That said, I'm not 'normal', and am one of those rare people who actually read an instruction manual too.
As for the reaction on Patreon, well, I'm sure you
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Patreon members are not the best source of judgement - even if I have no cynicism at all and don't for a moment wonder if he might be deleting negative comments (a thing some other developers most definitely have done).
- Jun 30, 2018
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This! It's buried somewhere among 331 pages where I suspected that the silhouette looking through the window would be her. Somehow she struck me as weird from the beginning, and while the date with the bathroom scene could be written off as "being forward", for me it was a giant "Hell NO!" and the event was deleted from the main save.
Can't believe that I'm unique on the uptake, but I haven't read that a lot.
- May 10, 2018
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My "brilliant" claim was for this genre...lol...as it is rare in this bare titty form..
- Jul 10, 2018
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Okay, the medium thing has come up enough times over the past to be worth addressing properly (if a point keeps coming up, it's obviously not off-topic). Yes, it is a VN and like for like comparisons should be against other VNs. But when looking at specific elements, it's also great to compare those elements to matching things. In other words, if we are looking at render quality, it is just as fair to compare it to art renders not produced for a game as those that are. When looking at a plot or storytelling, it is fair to compare to any other plot or storytelling. I quote movies often because they too are visual storytelling, and they are one of Doc's own sources of inspiration.
However, just within the VN medium, this game has many comparisons, and several of them have been made more than once. Repeatedly people have mentioned
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which is another VN that covers dark plotlines and kills a significant love-interest character - only better. If you haven't played that one yet, do give it a go. If you want to compare good characterizations then I'd suggest taking a look at "Our Fate" (link in my sig), which also has it's share of dark elements, and even someone with cancer, but honestly, once again, better, though not as 'pretty'.
If you want to see what looks to be a truly massive and ambitious plot done with good pacing, give "Retrieving the Past" a look (again link in my sig) though that one is a long, long way from complete and doesn't have the great characterisation and dialogue, at least yet - though the render quality is 100 times better than Acting Lessons, and it has many of the same characters due to collaboration between the devs. It's worth it just for the satisfaction of getting to punch Dick in the face when he treats Rena badly.
There are many elements to a game. Great writing of dialogue and characters doesn't mean that the plot itself will be good, or the renders will be, etc. Some games are brilliantly written and just not actually fun to play.
You brought up Big Brother, mostly to mock it's 'plot' and writing I think, but actually, think about this. So long after the game was completely abandoned by the dev, it still has a thriving community of supporters and fans expanding it - because it did one thing absolutely brilliantly - it allowed people to mod and expand it. That's why Minecraft and similar games did so well even though, to be totally honest, the graphics were absolutely awful, and the game itself certainly wasn't plot-fuelled like other games it competed against from C&C to GTA.
- Jan 16, 2018
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I feel like this is too well written to be a porn game? Like, some of the choices are kind of problematic in a thing your supposed to jerk off to, but would be fine as a regular game. I feel like whoever made this should be writing games like Life is Strange and the like.
- Jan 16, 2018
- 13
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Like, it has compelling characters that act like real world people. That's hard to crank one out to.
- May 10, 2018
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DA is in my opinion the top of the heap..AL is top 5 in this genre to my feelings...to me it is brilliant maybe less so than DA but still..it is in the ballpark...it appeals greatly to my personal enjoyment..so if it is not brilliant to some..thats fine and dandy as we are all unique people and have our own groove...this is in my groove
Question for all those who dismiss the need of proper categorization/tagging or the authors disingenuity with plot summary...
Did any of you thought about how damaging for someones state of mind episode 6/7 plot twits (that pile up after some other already pretty dark themes like cancer, attempted rape, etc.) can be, especially if the person in question is to some degree distressed/depressed or suffering from things portrayed in the medium!?
Lets count some things here... violence, family abuse, cheating fiance, cancer, drug use, attempted rape, murder, destruction of property, stalking... hmm what are we missing... what could we add to the pile maybe remove some limbs from someone!?
And all that without a proper warning (don't give me that crap about hints, the game just keeps piling up shit)!
Here's my take...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The plot
The game centers around you, a heartbroken man with a background in cryptocurrency trading, telling the story of how much life abuse can a sane person take...
Will you enjoy the game?
I am sure you will enjoy this game if you are like me and enjoy high quality and creative adult VN's with a slower pace, engaging story telling, branching choices and 100% straight adult content. While this game includes sexual encounters it is not centered around hardcore sex. Story telling, violence, family abuse, cheating fiance, cancer, drug use, attempted rape, murder, destruction of property, stalking are key elements to this game.
Did any of you thought about how damaging for someones state of mind episode 6/7 plot twits (that pile up after some other already pretty dark themes like cancer, attempted rape, etc.) can be, especially if the person in question is to some degree distressed/depressed or suffering from things portrayed in the medium!?
Lets count some things here... violence, family abuse, cheating fiance, cancer, drug use, attempted rape, murder, destruction of property, stalking... hmm what are we missing... what could we add to the pile maybe remove some limbs from someone!?
And all that without a proper warning (don't give me that crap about hints, the game just keeps piling up shit)!
Here's my take...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The plot
The game centers around you, a heartbroken man with a background in cryptocurrency trading, telling the story of how much life abuse can a sane person take...
Will you enjoy the game?
I am sure you will enjoy this game if you are like me and enjoy high quality and creative adult VN's with a slower pace, engaging story telling, branching choices and 100% straight adult content. While this game includes sexual encounters it is not centered around hardcore sex. Story telling, violence, family abuse, cheating fiance, cancer, drug use, attempted rape, murder, destruction of property, stalking are key elements to this game.
- Mar 29, 2018
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Since many are saying the same things over and over, just thought I'd go ahead and quote it instead of spending the time typing it all out again...
- Jan 14, 2018
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Couldn't agree more.
Pink shies away from Fetishes. Felt like he was tapping into the teen/DMD fetishes when he started, and then he modified the characters to make them look slightly older.
Sex scenes were too Vanilla. I'm guessing his new game is going to be more of the same. He'd do well with games like Life is Strange. But let's be honest, he's in it for the money too. There's just no way he's getting much attention in the general steam market with a non porn game.
- Sep 28, 2017
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That game is crazy, i'm crying all my body water that's no longer fap material it's a real story ! How will I be able to wait for next update now ? I almost never fully read those games but i got hooked there!
- Sep 6, 2017
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I saw some poeple brought up Big Brother - Grind from that game still hunts me every time i hear about it. It was one of the first games i've played since i discovered this type of genre and forum 1 year ago.
Dramatic events that happened in Acting lessons arent even on par with Big brother grind, it was like 2-3 hours grind when i started to get a specific scene.
But going back from offtop - i just hope that Doc next game will have much more humor in it, because Doc is good at it and this was the first game that actually made me chuckle with some scene transitions and stuff, overall main characters dynamic.
It will be hard to top Liam bro in my opinion. It's like with Steve stifler from American Pie.
Dramatic events that happened in Acting lessons arent even on par with Big brother grind, it was like 2-3 hours grind when i started to get a specific scene.
But going back from offtop - i just hope that Doc next game will have much more humor in it, because Doc is good at it and this was the first game that actually made me chuckle with some scene transitions and stuff, overall main characters dynamic.
It will be hard to top Liam bro in my opinion. It's like with Steve stifler from American Pie.
- Jul 10, 2018
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I think a proper discussion of what makes for good comparison for the purpose of criticism is too big a topic of it's own to cover here, and too off-topic for anyone who only wants to post "Came to fap, left to cry" comments, but since I hate to ignore an honest question:
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- Mar 29, 2018
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Just a thought: I remember reading many messages (in earlier pages) about why this game was called 'Acting Lessons'. To this date, it still doesn't make sense to name the game after one small segment.
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