- Sep 20, 2018
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I've heard that claim before, but I'm skeptical. The Interlude proves the import file format works, but that's the easiest thing to test in beta. What the Interlude can't do is verify all the picayune variables have been imported correctly because the Interlude barely uses a handful of those variables. Those are the ones that would be extremely difficult to beta test and thus the ones most likely to cause problems when Episode 9 calls on them. So I suspect we're still largely untested in a practical sense.
I don't know if Zoey is DPC's favorite, but I agree he was extremely eager to tell the story of the Interlude; supposedly he'd thought of the idea a while ago and decided to incorporate it into BaDIK when he started work on this game.
Sadly, I think the Interlude is a case of a writer being unwilling to kill his darlings. Zoey's story is a solid idea, but it's the wrong fit for where it was used. First, because it's just not relevant to the MC's story. All we really need to know is that Zoey has reconsidered dumping the MC; we could pick up additional details as the MC interacts with Zoey during Season 3.
Second, because DPC can't actually resolve Zoey's arc in the Interlude. He wants Zoey to do the same 'slowly falling for the MC routine' as the other LIs, so he deliberately kept her introspection to a minimum in the Interlude; hence her talk of 'home blindness' rather than the MC in particular. But as a result Zoey's side story ends more or less where it began. She wanders off to San Diego, hangs out with people for a while, then goes home when she can't afford to keep wandering. She doesn't seem to take the lesson of Bret and Emma's double-blind friendzoning to heart.
The only thing that actually changed about Zoey in the Interlude is whether she extended an industrial-strength olive branch to Emma, and that decision is entirely independent of everything else that happened to Zoey. We pick whatever we want at the prompt, regardless of how Zoey acted or what she experienced before then. It is less artificial than querying the player at the start of Episode 9 if the MC's ex should be forgiving, but only just. And it certainly took longer to implement.
That's why I think DPC should have been willing to kill his baby. Either hold off and make it a standalone story once BaDIK is done (where he'd have plenty of time do Zoey's arc justice), or strip it down to the crucial components and feed it to us in a flashback for Episode 9. Cramming the concept into the Interlude did neither story any favors.
I'm going to have to agree with shazba on this one, actually. I'll criticize the MC's willful blindness plenty, but in this case it makes sense. He's never met Sage in a formal setting, he shares no classes with her where he might see or hear her surname in passing, and we know Sage dislikes flaunting her family so it's logical she'd be reticent about mentioning her surname casually. I'll give the MC a pass on being surprised who her parents are (if not his reaction to the news).
Where I can't give a pass is on Sage's end. Being reluctant to discuss her family is logical in a casual setting. It's substantially less logical when she's all but begging the MC to help plead Maya's case. In that situation a little heads up is warranted. Especially if the MC is dating Sage and not Maya/Josy.
"Thanks so much for coming with us, Fuckface. Just, uh, one thing. Remember when you dragged me out of the preps mansion right before you guys turned on the sprinklers? Well, I'll make sure my brother won't be home during the meeting, but do *not* mention anything about that party to my dad!"
