I enjoyed it but the reward was kinda pathetic
Okay, time to be brutally honest. This update wasn't it.
#1: Free Roam & Mini Games
First of all, DPC needs to give us the option to get rid of/scale down/skip the free roam and mini games because they are actually a chore at this point. Also give us a walkthrough when in free roam! Wasted way too much time trying to find people to progress the story.
#2: Characters
As someone whose on the "others" path because I didn't want to be locked into a path at the end of S2 (because S3 was coming out and DPC was still introducing new girls) I have to say the that the main LI's have no relevancy to the story. The side girls outshine them to the point that its not even funny (looking at Lily/Sally/Riona etc)
As for Quinn, I don't even know if she's a main or a side at this point (considering how interesting her story is right now I'd say she's a side) (Speak more on her in #3).
For the first time since playing this game in 2019, I started skipping dialogue. Maya's storyline was so pathetic and irrelevant that if it weren't for the free roam forcing me to pay attention, I wouldn't know what was going on. (Derek still the goat). Not even gonna mention Josy because her and Maya are so incompatible that watching them irritates me. And if you don't care about Jill (like me) the opening to this update was a real waste of time.
All I can say is that DPC really made a mistake forcing us to choose one girl at the end of S2. My favourites at the time Bella and Sage I had to abandon because I didn't want to cheat or miss content with the new girls. And Zoey, its a shame but she was introduced too late to have a real impact.
#3: Story/Update
I'm just going to go ahead and say it. This update was filler.
What should have focused on Quinn and Riona somehow turned into another Party focused update with little to no main story progress. Yeah we got some reveals and stuff, but most were either unsurprising or lacked impact. Also what was up with the whole diary scene? DPC really didn't need to waste time animating that sex scene. Could have focused his attention elsewhere. I'm just hoping this diary stuff has a point to it.
Also when did all the main Li's start becoming besties? The way they spent time together felt really off.
Didn't like the fact that DPC forced us to do another pick one girl with Nicole. Could have just kept it casual and asked us to pick later. Felt way to early and rushed.
Honestly I feel the story telling has gone down since ep 10. Hopefully by late 2026/early 2027 we'll be back on track.
#1 You can play without minigames or turn them off with enabled console/with mod. DPC could add this option nevertheless since a lot changed since episode 1 and a lot of crappy minigames were added. The problem is that he finds them great and you don't dare to say anything wrong about them (or anything) or you will be banned on his socials.
Walktrough is always available after few days/weeks and if you want game to play itself then just go and watch some movie instead... For fuck sake this is the game and you are mad because you need to play it?
#2 I can agree with (almost) everything said here, especially about this fucking moron Maya. I said it before and I will say it again, decision about establishing relation was good per se but it occurred way too early. It should be late game thing, not early/mid one. Now you are not only locked out from a lot of content (if you are not on specific path) but to actually make all the paths somehow unique it will take (it already takes) even more time to write and render, postponing each update for another couple months...
The only thing I don't agree here is intro. Even that I don't like Jill I thinks it is great to see how certain gaps in story are filled and to see how it is all somehow related. In this case we have already seen buying drugs scene but only from Quinn's perspective, it's interesting to see that it was the same moment Jill's sister got her drugs and that Quinn's father died for exactly the same reason Lena did.
#3 I agree with most stuff here too actually. As far as I really like parties and I enjoy the planning thing it felt kinda forced... The game's time frame is odd, we had like what, 8 episodes before even mentioning there is autumn coming? Then it finally came, there was a party and on episode 11 we already have winter? It feels rushed...
I mean there was so much stuff happening during summer right? Story-wise there are still a lot of things happening but somehow time flies a lot faster which does not align with story telling pace in my opinion.
They have a scene where they admit they're not doing great and it's pretty clear Josy is on a very different path to Maya. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a Season 4 thing.
That gave me a lot of fucking hope on my "MJ rejected/others/still feelings for Josy" path but they were all happy and cool after this drunk talk... They should broke up at this moment if certain decisions were made but at the end it was just a matter of additional one dialogue line which was pathetic.
