- Sep 20, 2018
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Don't get me wrong, I believe branching can go too far. But unless the ability to skip a scene is literally the game offering the player a "Skip [XYZ] scene" button, there's no way to offer variations on a story without some players not seeing some version of some scenes. (At least not in a single playthrough.) That's just the cost of offering a choice. As I said, it's a price I'm in favor of.Many players want even more branching story lines, but I'm on the other side. I would much rather have a game where every scene could be reached in a single play through without needing to save and go back or use a hack/cheat. Variations on the scenes and the ability to skip scenes still makes it more interactive to me than a conventional book or video. Much like the various sexual kinks it's just a matter of personal taste. I do the multiple plays of this game partially because I like it, but also because it isn't finished and we have a long wait between episodes.
Regardless of how we feel about various aspects we get what the developers put out and can choose to enjoy it or look for something else. Obviously most of us are happy enough with this that we're sticking around waiting for more.
Now how many choices we get, how well the results are foreshadowed, and long it takes from the choice to the payoff are all things we can debate. I've certainly offered more than my fair share of criticism about the way DPC has handled choices from time to time. But as you say, the fact that I'm still here reading through pages of comments every day means he must be doing more right than wrong.