I can't completely disagree with you there, although, it's important to point out that most players will skip a lot of (if not entirely) the 'reading' going through the intro with Zoey's chapter (and there's a lot of context concerning Zoey's relationship with the MC and how her character evolves and grows from it). That's not to mention that having the option to entirely skip it with the only choice of having Zoey "calm her down", or "take her ex-friend's phone". Not playing that section will certainly cut down on the entire experience.
After running through it all again yesterday, I realized I had forgotten so much from that part which easily contains at least 30% of that episode. There's so much 'written' story in there that I think many just 'skim' through it, giving the impression of this update being shorter than the others. And after replaying that bit instead of what I usually do which was skip it.
Now, on that same token, I completely get it how this particular episode can leave some feeling that it's not delivering the same 'impact' as most of the previous ones. But I have a feeling that it will be an important one for the global context of the story. The party is the bonus part of this episode I think, whereas the intro to it with Zoey's backstory is actually the important part of it.
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