Well, played it on day one, didnt had anything else to do, it was a good fit and short enough... my plans for this friday were other things, but turned out to not work out as i imagined it
so i played this interlude...
Despite the fact that i dont like Zoey (and this didnt changed much) i know what DPC is doing in his VNs so i was pretty sure that i would at least get entertained. And that was the case... some things to laugh about (especially in the goofy scenes with the MC of course) some things to be sad about... and yeah, well, some things which are concerning me pretty much for the future.
As i said many times before when we saw the comeback from Zoey... i was sure about it that she will be forcing drama on the relationship the MC is now in... (if you picked a girl or J&M that is of course) and this interlude pretty much confirmed this to me.
But lets start with my overall oppinion on this interlude...
It showed indeed some good background things about the MC and his relationship to Zoey, it was very important, but i question myself here... why not earlier in the game? These things would be important about 4 episodes ago, now... well... too late for that. An interlude episode in the halftime of the game makes sense, but this kind of content shoudl have been told earlier i think. To bring all the feelings up at the surface now, and make the comeback for Zoey... well as i said, its to late for that.
But overall, i enjoyed it.. nice dialogues,would like to see jonah again (best new character in this interlude, by far) the eomitons worked, everything was fine i think.
So now about the elephant in the room... Zoey and the MC... well this interlude makes it without any doubt very clear, both loved each other... dont think you can deny that after this interlude.. BUT they didnt realised that until it was too late (well the MC did realise that he has big feelings for her, but couldnt manage to tell her that in the right way, but it was obvious and Zoey should have seen this). The way how Zoey left, was really cold-hearted overall. Yeah i can relate to her motivation, but come on... what does she thinks would do it to the MC? Of course he is hurt... left behind like this and all so sudden. This sucks ass, and Zoey told him all the time "she wants to feel anything again" so this was a kick in the nuts too... the MC must have thought "well, than go, you obviously doesnt feel anything for me"
And we learned, Zoey was the one who decided to cut the ties towards the MC. And than the picture on rooster (the MC saw it, we know that, it was in the game) came up... well that seals the deal for the MC like "well she didnt care that much about me"
This is although one thing i dont like about Zoey... "rules? i dont care", "i want to do that and that, dont care what others think" and she didnt reaiised how much the Mc cared about her, even when he was able to say it out loud, it doesnt reached her ear. She even told him "nobody cares what i want and doesnt believe in me and my dreams" or something like that at the station. Well, Zoey, fuck off, your mother cared, the MC cared, and i bet my ass of that there were others too. To dont see the things, doesnt make them not existend. Open your eyes girl and listen too people more than just your own thoughts all the time. And all the time it was about her... didnt even bother to ask the MC "hey how youre doing?" for one single time... only if the player choose to ask about the "three dots" in the message. Well, yeah, the mc wasnt doing that well, but Zoey didnt care.
Now all went to shit for her in San Diego, and NOW she realize "oh fuck, i left behind the best thing in my life, i love him, and didnt cared enough, and loved my life back home too" yeah ok... well.. too late for that.
But ok, i want to be a little bit fair too. Being a Dik is a story about "growing" up too of course, college time and all that... so yeah, the characters are pretty much learning to be an adult, and of course... you have to make many faults in your life to learn out of them. So Zoey made a big fucking fault in leaving, especially so sudden. The next fault... to cut ties with the MC after a while because of "bad advice". And the overall biggest fault... to not see what the MC felt towards her, and what she felt for him, until it was too late for that.
Overall the interlude gave me "some" sympathy for Zoey, but not nearly enough to make me "like" her. But i dont hate her, never really did... i just hate the fact that she made this comeback to mess up the MC and his realtionship and forcing drama on the player. Its not necessary, the game has enough of that already. I sincerly hope DPC is able to make a good "friendship" route with her for the MC, that would be the best. But i have to say... this "friendship" route doesnt work with maya and josy for me, after what happened between them and the MC, well... yeah... never ever can this be a big friendship after this short time. So iam afraid, the same goes for Zoey... either you pick her, or you get a forced "friendship" that doesnt really work...
The whole Maya, Josy and MC friendship thing is one of the biggest flaws of being a dik in my book... i think, Zoey will be one too.
After all... i enjoyed the interlude, and i think it wasnt a waste of time, cause we learned very much about the feelings in the relationship between zoey and the mc, this was important. But should have been done earlier i think.
At last, some concern about the episode 9 development... i saw the animation and render count for this interlude, overall, not even a "quater" of episode 8... that was to be expteced, so no problem at all (in fact the interlude was even a bit longer than i expected)... but... it took about 4 months. Well, yeah... if i do the math... this is no good news for episode 9, but maybe DPC already did some good work on episode 9... he is kinda a closed book with information about development status, so lets hope for the best and maybe a release in september or october. And than these three girls at the end to announce "Vixens" iam afraid, there will be three new girls to the game, why iam afriad of that? come on, we already have way to many girls in this game, and none of them are getting enough attention and time in the game for my taste. And there is just no need for any "more" distractions (we didnt even talked about our feelings for maya and/or josy in a serious way)... for distraction we got the strip club and some other girls already. Hopefully they wont be to much of a distraction to the game... but iam afraid... they will be ^^ (my bet? They will be part of the halloween party and somewhat involved in the drug deals)
Well, ok... i enjoyed the interlude, could have done without it too (but the additional infos are crucial i think, but could have been told in a short way in an regular epsiode too, like the story MC told Bella once for example) and now the wait for episode 9 begins... again... sigh.