I'm going to be honest. I was one of those people that jumped ship when things got too dark for me. Not proud of it, but there it is.
Then I thought about the game and how it dealt with how people normally play these (in that often times you had the choice to be a good friend/person or you could go get laid) and played it again, sticking only to Megan and Melissa (Okay I'm not THAT 'good' that I passed on Melissa). No Hedwig & co, no Rena, no Ana, and definitely no Leah and you know what? The game was every bit as good as I hoped it could be. And that ending was about as satisfying as I could think (I played the 'sleeping around' ending when Megan, who I saved, was furious with you, and the one where you were relatively faithful, and it's night and day)
Plus by 100% rejecting Leah it changed the narrative completely, instead of feeling like you're leading her on and driving her to this, she's nuts from the start. and in a way that makes for a more interesting story.
Honestly the idea of a game deterring you from the 'harem route' is nothing new. But usually it's just a 'game over' or specific scenes you don't get to unlock unless you stick to one character. Acting Lessons doesn't do that. Instead it's a game that, through its storytelling brilliance, makes you want to be a good person in the game.
Now, I don't think this will stop me from going Harem Route on every other game I'll play going forward because not all devs are into the story like DPC is, but maybe, just maybe, it'll make me consider it.
And it's been said a million times but kudos to DPC and taking the clich'e of the large black man who's usually in these games for vouyeristic or NTR/cucking reasons, and making him one of the best characters ever. God Bless Liam
