That's exactly how I felt and still feel atm. And I think that's also the reason where a lot of those immensely negativ reviews and opinions stem from. The people that wanted only one girl to beginn with had the chance to get their happy ending on way or the other. Those who chose (and believed in) the wonderfully written Megan-Melissa-Mc-triangle, got their mostly coherent build up until ep6. After that...there is nothing left, all gone in flames. Literally. And that isn't life, just bad writing. It doesn't matter if you end up with one of the other girls, because one part, the other half (or third) is still missing/gone forever. The first people "just" lose a good friend, the latter losing a good friend and a love interest. Now tell me, how does this pain compare in real life? Imagined or not. Or is the gist of this whole story that threeway-relationships are just a fluffy fairytale, to good to be true...that only monogamous couples are the "real" deal and everything else needs to be burned down for the sake of it? I don't think it was intended but turned out this way nonetheless. And it was also one of the implicit points about this whole drama of "too unreal, too much fake drama, too sudden..." a.s.o.. It took me awhile to get this, because it's never easy to become analytical, when you love and hate something in the same rather extreme way, hehe. Regardless, ty Doc PC for this wonderfull ride, even so it didn't have the outcome I was looking forward to.
Cya
The game sticks with you. I might hate that it does, but no one can take that away. It's definitely an interesting early experience in the realm of western visual novels. I hope and also don't that other games are this memorable.
This. Very much this, but that doesn't cover everything. For those who pick one girl and always pick one girl (I see Melissa and Rena mentioned this way quite a bit) then I think the endings are going to work more. (Then those strange people who like that cunt Ana to be contrary.) It's called a waste by a lot of people here, and that's spot on. The times I can count where a menege-a-trios going long term in fiction was not only hinted at, but made to seem realistic is something I can count on one hand, and in this kind of fiction, one bloody finger. Throwing that away for shock and awe is just writing malpractice. No stories don't have to go the way one would expect. I didn't well expect Liam to touch me like he did. I didn't expect to see a cancer plot work. I didn't expect to have a game that is both touching and funny. I didn't expect any of it.
I won't have a go again at how the game shits all over that beginning. I said it before. I can't be the first. You agree with it or you don't and in a place like this it will descend into Pyrronism. I played it one more time to see if with hindsight the game worked better. The opposite, if you were wondering, but I did notice why the last two episodes in particular feel so hollow even when they should be happiness, or that's the intent. The game changes. After the fire the bulk of your interactions are with a character , Jesse, that means nothing to the player. If we were with her from the beginning. Maybe a hint that something bad would happen in say the second episode, where at the end you see that your cypher of a character is narrating to a Psychiatrist then it gives her meaning. It might make me care about rattling my bone-box at some bird I don't even know. For the last quarter of Acting Lessons we have no real choices all we can do is sit back and get told about the fall and recovery of the main character in shorthand.
But the worst sin is that the girls who are the center of the game are not a damn thing more than objects in the end. Rena is the one who suffers from this the least, but even she falls into the same ending structure. Megan and Melissa's endings are basic palate swaps, Rena's uses the same move set. Ana's is a clear attempt at self insert with a girl who broke his heart. Dr.PinkCake went dark. He opened a door, and then instantly slams it closed with characters we don't know or care about and scenes that tell us about the main character's recovery, but they don't show it. All that time wasted with Jesse should have at least been with the characters who matter. Maybe you could have brought me around. But there is a difference in listening to the MC saying he and Melissa worked through things and SEEING it, being a part of it.
It sounds daft to many. But AL went too dark in episode 7 and then went too light in episode 8. The only time this game finds dramatic balance is Liam's story. He is a hell of a mate.
And Leah is still bloody awful. Just a fucking cliché.
