Bacchus said it pretty well, it might well be too late for a good ending for anyone.. yup. Classic DPC. I called it a long time ago. Fanboys don't like it, but DPC has limited tricks in his quiver, and all of them serve to give us pain and heartbreak.
If there is a way, it is to pick one girl and stick with her all the way through and do not fuck up. That is the only way for a horrible but decent ending in AL, otherwise just horrible endings. I think the same will apply here.
AL didn't have any happy endings when you really think about it, because in all of them, someone died. So in every ending of this game, there's bound to be something sad and tragic before the end and it will be specific to that path or it will be universal, but one can only hold to the slightest sliver of hope that it won't be the death of a LI, even if you're not pursuing them anymore.
I have to say, as a Maya fan (see icon/sig) and a fan of the throuple of Josy/Maya/MC, if he pulls an "AL" level twist on those three, I think I'd be done with his products. There's no reason to go with a nuclear level twist in every drama game/story, specially one that's supposedly based on 80's/90's college comedies etc. There's nothing wrong with just having happy endings for all involved who chose the right options. But to take away player agency and just destroy relationship to be "edgy" will just end up tanking his following.
I like the writing in both his projects so far, the characters are all well rounded and spoken, but falling back on a previously used (and controversial) twist/mechanic would only hurt him in the long run from a business standpoint.
It's funny thinking about how they said that in a Q&A, yet this game couldn't be deviating further from that. If this truly was based on those kinds of movies, then the MC could be the campus man-whore with little consequence, the drama would be much, much milder, and there be more hope and optimism for good endings.
Right now, I'd say this is like Riverdale on streoids, and regular Riverdale is bad enough.
Acting Lessons kinda made sense with it but this is college for christ sake
Exactly, and he's only been at college for 3 weeks yet he's got at least 4 girls wanting to lock him down into a relationship. I didn't have my first college relationship until 5 months in and we actually started hanging out with a mutual group of people from about the 3rd or 4th day of starting. It took 3 months for me to realise I liked her that way and another 2 before we started going out. This game didn't have to take that long, but it's still happening way too fast.