First of all, I would like to ask once more for special render locations. Specifically:
Maya 4th special render (story)
Lily 19th special render (free roam)
With that out the way, I'd like to share some my opinion on the episode. I personally liked the episode in general, despite it having its own bad moments. 1 thing I'dlike to point out is that the wait was NOT worth it. 15 months was way too long in my opinion. Ofc, I wouldn't know all the difficulties and challenges behind the scenes and how to work with Renpy, but even as a blind consumer, I feel like a lot of time has been wasted on useless stuff.
1) Puzzle. This damn puzzle. In ep10, when we started the puzzle game, I was thinking it would be something worthwhile, because if I'm not mistaken it was from Lynette's inheritancebox. Maybe not something plot-essential, but still a nice memento of Lynette, or something wholesome to show how MC can connect with his mom through her stuff. All we got in this is INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT PUZZLE THAT GOT US A FEW SPECIAL RENDERS. My genuine reaction to the prize was "That's it?" and as someone who enjoys minigames (yes even the mansion minigame on 69th run) this was very disappointing.
2) On the topic of minigames, why did the incredible and amazing DPC assume that increase in minigame difficulty is something that we need? The math and puzzle minigame didn't need to be THAT hard. The Christmas Party planner was even worse. Since I did a blind run, I'll replay season 3 from the beginning once the walkthrough is out, and I'll definitely pick some essential perks for party minigame. I feel like a lot of time was spent needlessly on minigames and free roams rather than story
3) Character design tweaks and changes. In general I love the improvement in character designs. With better graphics, better lighting and all that, girl definitely look better. Don't even get me started on "no make up" girls in this episode. These girls are beautiful.
However, there are 2 characters I'd like to point out whose designs I did not like. 1st one is Sage. Her new hairstyle feels "different" to me. I still enjoyed it and overall kinda liked it, but I have a strange feeling about it. Something's not right with it. Her usual hairstyle from the that we see the most fits her the best, I liked her hairstyle for the date in ep10, but her recent hairstyle is just not it. I guess DPC is experimenting with new hairstyles and tries to pick something new, but I gotta admit, that was not one of the best ones out there.
Now the 2nd one was a complete mistake and a disaster. Isabella's hairstyle on her route during the apron scene. THAT WAS HORRIBLE. DPC ruined her image in that single scene. The hair did not fit her face, her shape of the head and that made her head look rounder. Awful.
4) My favourite (not) girl - Madame. I had to buy her scene for scene to unlock, but please DPC, nothing more. It cant get more expensive and useless than that
That said, there are still big moments I still enjoyed in the episode
1) Introduction of the episode and connection to the past episodes. Lana's death, her and Jonathan being the one that bought coke from Rox and a different perspective from the scene we saw back in season 2 (episode 6 I think but I might be wrong). Quinn's connection to Jill that way. It was good, and as a Jill fan, I liked that we got huge context for Jill's story.
2) Physics and graphics. THEY DO JIGGLE, I REPEAT, THEY DO JIGGLE! God the physics in this episode were beautiful. The sweat animation and girls' glow during lewd scenes is something else. YES YES YES YES
3) A lot of revelations and arguments. We finally got to know who was behind Cathy cluck and although many of players had their suspicions, it was good to know who stood behind it and the photos. A tad anticlimatic, but I'm not complaining too much. DIKs' fallout was done good and it was enough for the episode in my opinion. If they resolved the argument in the same episode I would've complained more. Something as big as this cant be resolved in 1 episode.
To sum it up, I get why many are disappointed with the episode, and I agree that 15 months for this was not worth it, but I liked it nevertheless. A lot of useless and needless stuff was done, but I think it was a filler that is supposed to prepare us for something big in the next episode. Especially since the next episode is going to be the end of the season 3. And if I'm wrong about the next episode, I'm never sharing my opinion on BaDIK ever again lol