I said it a year ago on this thread I find this game utterly unplayable without a mod. For all the popularity BaDIK has and for all of the amazing renders and features the game posesses, the base DIK/CHICK system is the most egregiously awful i've ever seen. It limits your options to a degree where not only do you miss a ton of content but you also can't really make the MC express himself the way you want to because your score in whichever direction isn't high enough.
Exactly this. This game limits you if u play without a mod and it sucks. I get that DPC did so to get players to play the game multiple times and such which is cool if you're down for that but I'm not. Anyone who has a problem with me using mods needs to get a life honestly. I mean it's my game I can play it however I want.
Or limitations with the scenes that I find absurd. For example, I find stupid to be forced to choose between taking care of Sage when she's with flu and going to a picnic with Jill. IRL, MC would do both, for sure.
The Chik/Dik system is cool and I don't mind it but that's only because I'm playing with a mod. Without it the system would suck ass. Like in the beginning of episode 1 if you're more of a chik u can't push Chad, u can only call for security like a little bitch and If you're more on the dik side u can't hug Maya. simple shit like that is effected by this system so I'd rather not play this game again without a mod.
People are free to use mods if they want to, it's no skin of my nose. But I've got to stick up for the game mechanics a bit in the face of the above criticism. It seems to me the common thread in these complaints is that the unmodded game limits a player's choices. I can understand that if your goal is just to unlock all scenes as quickly as possible then those limits would be frustrating, but if you want to actually play the game in a way that makes the MC a reasonably consistent character whose choices have consequences for the world around him as well as himself, those limits are surely a necessary part of the process.
The DIK/CHICK system is meant to be an approximation of mood and personality. It is far from perfect, of course, and can't ever hope to convey the complexities of a real person's attitude. But there is a logic to the idea that a character who makes certain choices would lean in a certain direction, personality-wise, and respond to situations accordingly, that such a character would be more or less attractive to other characters as a result, and that the choices he makes would open some doors and close others.
If you're reading the situations and the dialogue and thinking about the choices, then some of the limits mentioned above shouldn't be coming as a surprise, in my view, because they mostly make sense within the framework of the game and the personality you've shaped for the MC with choices. A CHICK MC is less likely to want to respond to a situation aggressively, a DIK MC is less likely to want to hug a friend. Of course, we know real people are more complicated than that, but as a rough sketch it's not so unrealistic. I also don't think the choice about whether to go with Jill or take care of Sage is such a far-fetched dilemma the way it's presented, and the consequences of that choice seem about right to me, knowing what we know about Jill's personality in particular.
Each to their own, and mods can certainly have value sometimes, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing the game takes note of my choices and unfolds differently because of them.