"Hey, big guy. Sun's gettin' real low."
I don't bother commenting often, but I figure this is an adequate opportunity, entirely fueled by the author of the game; whose other two projects I enjoy, especially "Dreaming Of Dana". If there was one thing about it I would recommend it to people for, it'd be the surprisingly decent writing, heartwarming with a sporadic touch of what the fuck, and at times, acceptable narrative construction.
It further proves, especially in the tragically amusing context of barely comprehensible porn "games" that it's never crowded when you go the extra mile.
- I want to talk about one of the biggest problems this genre of games seems to constantly be plagued with: ludonarrative dissonance.
Not a fan of the stat system. I get progression, but the condescension doesn't really tickle my pickle at all. You can have a dangerous, neurotic Bruce Banner jr. drifting around doing odd jobs, trying to control his dark side, or you can have an autistic blank slate who gets treated like a newborn baby. He's a rookie, and he's gotta level up (eye roll); sure, that's fine. But at least try and come up with, if not good, at least decent story-gameplay integration, that respects its players.
I think there's something unwholesome about that. I'm all for trying new things, but it just seems like, to me, that you want to be a criminal more than you want to do the time, both story and gameplay wise, Mr. Ptolemy.
- Having gone through it a considerable amount of time ago, I remember, in "Dreaming Of Dana", a few opportunities, regarding the protagonist and the blonde, in which you had a choice between being forceful or empathetic; a mechanic, I think, that would perhaps thrive, if designed competently, in this new "Alexandra" project. Give it a thought and a rub, see if going the route of controlling the apparent, mysterious dark side, sans/including "The Beauty" or unleashing it, would be something with positive possibilities.
- I understand it's extremely early in the development of the game, and that's why I'm largely talking about the possible potential of it, and not actually it, since there ain't that much to tell about it, as it stands alone as an unfinished concept.
That's why I won't go terribly in depth about the shallow characters, stilted dialogue, irregular grammar, or characterisation, which seems, more often than not, to always be somewhere on the spectrum; a disappointment further accentuated in light of the sparks and bursts of competency of the things handled in "Dreaming Of Dana", in which there were only a handful of times when the plausibility of it all dropped below an acceptable threshold of ridiculousness.
I'm fairly certain most of that was accomplished through the characters, which, despite being colorful stereotypes and enjoyable charicatures (a feat most admirable in these pseudo porn games) they appeared to elicit, if not constant, then sporadic positive reactions: not unlike chuckles, noises of endearment, and of course, the ever necessary poignantly erotic sighs.
Whether this new project has multiple people working on it, or just one, I would advise that the vision of it be put under careful consideration. If congruency is achieved, I'm sure we'll be well on the way of playing another enjoyable Ptolemy novel.
As a closing statement, I'd like to clarify my intention, and to highlight that all I've said, was intented as nothing more than an attempt at a constructive...no, not criticism, but perspective, more like; a venture entirely and exclusively powered by the author's previous works. Because, if there is something I actively dislike, seemingly without exception, is wasted potential. However, if whatever I said proved pedantic, discourteous or more importantly, hurtful, I'd highly recommend a second reading.