- Jun 5, 2019
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Still no update shared or anyone asking for it, guess people don't care about Jacklyn... If it was Kate they would be begging for it within the first hour of release and it'll be shared within a day lmao
Ren'Py Another Chance [v1.42] [TimeWizardStudios]
- Thread starter Crazygamer43
- Start date
I mean... it's not her fault really... it's just if you put her against Flora, you can see why a lot of people didn't bother with her route.
- Oct 9, 2017
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One of my biggest problems with this game so far, outside of the gamebreaking "Mer" bug I'm hardlocked on. Pitting character routes against each other feels awful. And while Jacklyn is hilarious, you obviously just can't have her compete with any of the family characters. Complete mismatch.
In general, the game really does branching choices in the worst most unforeseeably punitive way possible. Thank god this is ren'py, otherwise I'd have ragequit when freeing the nurse from Kate randomly required letting Kate abuse you all game for lust. When logically, if anything the exact opposite should be required.
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Eh, I personally like the choices. Most dating sims lock you into a single girl per playthrough, and I find that more meaningful than the usual content collector, harem games most WEGs end up turning into.
There's also the narrative significance of the choices, such as Maxine and Lindsey being estranged best friends, Kate and Isabelle being
- Sep 30, 2020
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I'm fairly sure the next update will be kate (some WIP things of Kate were shared around by devs on reddit), so we'll see if thats true (probably will lmao)
- Aug 25, 2022
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You don't have to let Kate abuse you to free the nurse, I went for Elizabeth, Lyndsey, Flora. I was good to all of them but I treated the nurse badly and ended up getting Kate's evidence and now it's the MC who is harassing the nurse.
- Oct 9, 2017
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I love having choice too, but it's definitely way waaaaaay overdone here. To the point where I feel relieved when I get the rare quest that's somewhat linear simply so I know it won't lock me out of content down the line in some unpredictable way. It's one thing having love or lust approaches. Or even flavor choices like who poses nude for art class. It's another to just lose tons of quests and rudimentary sex scenes because you arbitrarily can't both check up on Lindsey and look into Maxine's theory at the same time. Or can't talk to an already upset Flora after wrapping up your date first.
Imo, the Kate and Isabelle one is the only one that actually works well, largely because it's more a choice of dom/sub. The other artificial character gates add nothing to the story and just plain punish.
How? Unless I'm missing something, you need 8 lust with Kate to get her to agree to a bet with you. Which is to my knowledge the only way to free the nurse from her. And most options that aren't degrading MC actually reduce lust if anything. So you really have to be her pet to be +8.
I had to cheat 10 lust at the beginning of that quest simply because even during it, I was hemorrhaging lust by merely acting normal.
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- Apr 22, 2024
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i think the nurse cum, so being abused is her kink. i keep the choices as perk of this game. mostly you can roll in avn, here you have more influence on charachters.
- Oct 9, 2017
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Oh I know, I mean just freeing her from Kate specifically cause you're trying to "dethrone" her. Not a problem with MC continuing it.
I also don't really feel like it's just to add a layer of influence to the characters. That would be more the love/lust or dom/sub approach. The issue is more arbitrary character gating. As in you're actually forced to lose influential choices with the character because you were made to prioritize another for arbitrary/superficial reasons.
E.g. I played through both Maxine and Lindsey's s1 quests, they legit have zero plot conflict other than the dev forcing the player to pick one barely related quest over the other.
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You keep using that word, but I don't think it applies here. Just because the reasoning behind a design choice isn't immediately clear, doesn't mean that there is none. From my point of view, all the supposed arbitrary content gates have to do with who you favor in a more emotional manner, those being, do you trust Maxine or Lindsey, do you treasure Jacklyn or Flora, do you side with Isabelle or Kate, and such. This intention was made abundantly clear with Flora since the first decision, her strife being you spending time with someone other than her, later being reinforced in season 2 when she finally confesses to the player she wants to make things more serious only after she realizes the player may go out with Jacklyn and lose him, a sentiment shared with the mc.
The way I see things, these choices aren't useless, they're crucial to the plot and characters and enhance them. Kate and Isabelle's rivalry wouldn't be as strong if the player couldn't choose who to side with. Flora's forbidden love with her
Now, this is all speculation and I may just reading too much into things. Me giving supposed reasons for the gates has the same weight as you not seeing any reason, which is none as we are not the writer and can't know the intent or lack thereof. But I personally have a little more faith in this game's writing than I do most others in the site.
- Aug 12, 2023
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I don't think that you're reading too much. The devs are clearly trying to pull emotional strings of the players (cue to Lindsey jumping, some sex scenes having flowery instead of "just horny" narration, weird mysteries to instigate curiosity, so goes on). And one of the ways to do so is to force you to choose - because it makes the character that you chose feel more special, specially when all three pairs are composed of foils:
- Jacklyn is older and mature, showy, artistic and a newcomer, unknown to the MC. Flora is younger and childish, wants to be showy, has no art sensibility (she takes selfies with a statue!), and besides Jo she's the person that the MC knows the best.
- Maxine hypothesises, Lindsey dreams. Maxine is brains, Lindsey is brawl. Maxine is seen as crazy and probably creepy (I still love her though), Lindsey is down-to-earth and well-liked.
- Putting aside the fact that I see them as vultures from the same flock: Kate is pictured as evil, calculating and pragmatic; while Isabelle is pictured as good, spontaneous and idealistic.
Relevant detail: they used to be friends, but grew distant over time.
I think that Tehemai's "arbitrary" is a fair point though. In the current state of the game, the story doesn't justify those decisions well yet, regardless of the goal (to deliver bigger emotional impact).
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- Jul 7, 2021
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Use the search. The answers there heavily imply that the game is simply not compatible with JoiPlay.
The game likely uses some framework incompatible with it.
- Oct 9, 2017
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Even if we assume there is some plan that'll make some sense, I don't see why pursuing it could ever be wise. It's not only a nightmare to track and debug for the dev, it also cripples progress and severely restricts content the average non-completionist player gains access to every update. Choices are good, but there is a limit. And this game splinters off so aggravatingly often that even a walkthrough seems to be a herculean task to maintain. Or follow (see Twisted Fate).
And unless the goal is to force MC into monogamy, then why enforce Flora over specifically just Jacklyn? That can't really be anything but arbitrary, in so far as MC is screwing around with the rest anyway. So if it's just to setup the emotional scenes, it seems you may as well just allow the player access to her major scenes in some other way.
E.g. You cancel the Jacklyn date for a heartfelt moment with Flora. Sometime later when the moment has passed, you get a text message from Jacklyn where she requests help on an art project, inviting you to meet her by the bus at night. Alternatively, just save the bus scene for some other quest and have the player sacrifice a less crucial scene.
Even if we take for granted it'll be worth it, some of the current pretense being used is already non-existent. In a case like Maxine vs Lindsey, MC is not even given the thinnest veneer of why he needs to choose between fetching Lindsey a water bottle and looking into "ley lines". Those quests clearly don't conflict. And since neither resolves the issue, it would actually be expected for MC to follow both leads. So even if the plan was to eventually force a choice, doing it at that specific junction is already arbitrary.
I understand what the dev was going for replayability and consequences. But frankly in a game with this insanely long a build up, he's the one that ironically needs to choose his story branches more wisely because every additional playthrough is an extraordinary ask. It's one thing if it completely changes the nature of the character/relationship/story like Kate/Isabelle. That's worth it. But retreading the maze of ever-splintering choices for just some artificial scene gates is a horrifying prospect for all but the most masochistic fans. Imo, a bad design choice even with text skip and a full walkthrough.
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- Oct 9, 2017
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Not that it changes the nature of my criticism, this post is intriguing. In that it essentially reveals who "Mer" must be, as the obvious foil to Mrs L. Also explains why neither have gotten substantive content yet.
My only real complaint is about Maxine or Lindsey choice (and honestly, it's not like Kate got completely locked out cause you chose Isabelle, but there's a completely new route for her (which I absolutely love, and I think it kinda plays very well on kinda switching the roles between Kate and Isabelle), so I would assume Maxine would eventually have something as well), other than that I love how emotionally invested the game makes you. If they can also make "the mystery" be satisfying in the end then it will be just perfect
It's really not that much harder than it'd be if all options were to be available. In fact, in game dev most bugs come from variable acting unexpectedly, thus, having variables turned off can help alleviate the amount of unexpected behavior. The real challenge comes from the writing point of view, as it can be difficult to keep track of different paths the story may take if one isn't diligent. Even if it did become an issue on the programming, which it may well be as neither you and I know nothing of the coding process, I find holding more ambition in contempt for the amount of work it will lead to be... an odd stance to take. This point would hold more weight if the devs didn't update the game frequently, as it stands, the multiple paths don't seem to detriment development.
Putting aside the fact that there is an option to play any one mission without having to do the entire route via chapter select, I fail to see how this is any different from any other game with multiple romance options. If there weren't any gated choices, you'd still need to do all the content beforehand, the only difference being whether it's gonna be in one playthrough or another. Every player that isn't a completionist wouldn't be able to experience all the content in an update if said content is in a route they didn't do, regardless of locked content or not.
I think you're severely overestimating the amount of variance there actually is in the game. Most games with choices have an option X or Y, that then splinter off into XX or XY; YX or YY; XXY or XXX, and so on. This one only has three sets of X or Y choices that are mostly independent from one another, plus some other variables here and there that the game notifies you about. Doing a walkthrough of this game wouldn't be anywhere near as difficult to making one of an average rpg, or hell, a classic dating sim. And even then, you have a built in hints system to guide you and chapter select that specifically tells you the requirements and variables for a mission.
Fair point my friend.
Here you're repeating your point where you stubbornly refuse to consider that there might be narrative and thematic reasons behind the Jacklyn, Flora mutually exclusive content without arguing against any of our points. You present subjective opinions as objective facts and that isn't a good way to debate.
I feel that would cheapen the moment and Flora's overarching plot of losing the ones you love. But, I can see something like that working for that particular scene. The next choice in Suitable Romance would be harder to find a way around, as there Flora's problem is with the MC even going on a date, and odds are all later choices may have higher stakes and feel less arbitrary. That's the reason why I argue to wait and see with Maxine/Lindsey, the devs already showed the choices having rising importance, even if the first options seem rather small.
I can see reasons. You can say that the MC doesn't trust Maxine unless he does her route, you can say that the MC finds helping Lindsey to be a matter requiring all his own efforts in saving her, a focal point in her story, you can just say that the MC plainly didn't have time to do both as he's working in bettering himself and dealing with Kate/Isabelle, the game says that the MC doesn't take Maxine's words seriously if you don't choose her and a million more. The same way you don't see a reason behind a design choice, I can see several. Besides, the MC later on does follow up on Maxine's lead if you go the Lindsey's route, so it's not like the devs didn't have this in mind.
Why? In that moment it didn't seem that serious. After it escalates, MC goes to Maxine like you say.
The game is like 2 to 3 hours long at max if you know what to do, and you do since the game comes with a hint system, and you only need to do two playthroughs to see every major thing. The time investment argument seems odd to me, as if you wanted to see all content, you'd spend the same amount of hours be they in one playthrough or two, minus like 30 minutes in scenes you'll always see regardless of choices that you can skip and go through them in less than a minute.
A lot of people in here really bash this game's every attempt at trying to be engaging. Minigames are useless, exploration and puzzles are dumb and impossible, multiple playthroughs are a waste of time. It's no wonder WEGs have a bad rep if its players seem to despise when they try to be more than just sex scenes collectathons.