VN Ren'Py Aperture [Ch.2] [Vonsatia]

[Neryxon]

Yea, I mean. Mostly agree with your thoughts here.
The interesting thing to highlight is that the separation is of course not all that clear.
Transitional Scenes are often simultaneously story beats or help to underline them.
So naturally we shouldn't assume that "transitional scene" means "less important", because its not.
Perfect example is the cafe break. It was so excellent in establishing Rin's more vulnerable side. Until that point we had seen her 99% stoic and poker-faced. She has been pretty "strong" and "serious". And now we suddenly see her relaxed, self-conscious, embarrassed. This single scene turned her from a "character" into a "human" within the narrative. Her facade was breaking here, she was self-conscious about her choice of drink cause it doesn't match her "tough" exterior image - or maybe even self-image. Embarrassed to be observed by a handsome and nice guy she vibes with doing something "uncool" or "unfitting for the person she is supposed to be".

So these scenes are anything but unimportant, even if they are "transitional scenes" and don't necessarily do anything to advance the main NTR-plotline. After all, they don't just build her character and make the locations feel more real, they also build the romance between the two.

I think one thing we can do to maybe look at why Ch. 2 worked so well is to take it apart and look how we can separate the different parts of it into sections depending on what they relate to (kind of how you did in your example, but for the whole chapter), and maybe also look at Ch. 1 - which was weaker than Ch. 2 but still great - because Ch. 1 relates a lot to the school context. And then maybe try and reverse engineer this for Ch. 4 and onwards to see how the structure can be improved for good world-/character-building and enjoyment. We could do it for Ch. 3 first to be fair, because we dont know how Ch. 4 will be if we do not know the content of Ch. 3, so Ch. 3 is the only thing we can really "predict" if you want. But I think for actual impact on Ch. 3 we are too late at this point. We'll have to see what Von cooked up and then go from there once Ch. 3 is out. But as a hypothetical, and maybe as a blueprint for subsequent chapters, this could be an interesting thought experiment.

I agree with your comment about important story beats in that transitional scene, and that's also something I thought of the second Chapter in general. It also looks like a sign of good storytelling when the writer can introduce captivating elements in relatively mundane scenarios, doesn't it?

All in all, Aperture became my favorite adult game so quickly for a reason.

And that's what also worries me about it. You mentioned possibilities in the future Chapters. Would it really work that well if the story got rushed in the third one so much? For example, not only Keita and Rin are supposed to progress in their relationship so quickly, but we should also see the beginning of the NTR content with Rin. Something may also happen with Noriko, even though we've known her for just 15 minutes in the game so far.

If that's the case, wouldn't we be reverting back to the common and very limiting tropes, which can be found in so many other projects, instead of doubling down on the very elements that made Aperture so special? To this day, I still don't fully understand why we're doing this when we have clear alternatives.

In fact, we might see another pitfall here: if the overall reaction is still positive (and I assume it will be), what will it tell us about the lost potential and missed opportunities? It's a lot easier for us to appreciate what we have than what might have been, right?