yeah iam with you here... the episode is just one big free roam, and thats not what i expected... iam not that big of a fan of the free roams, so far they were ok and the scenes in them were fun. Not this time though... it felt like a chore. Well... on this note, DPC delivered perfectly, cause for the MC the party was more a chore than fun too right? Did he even had fun (besides the sex)?
Yeah the branching is kinda "huge" every path the whole party is different (not that much though like DPC stated) but still... its the same party all along. I have 16 savegames. But i think it will be the first time iam not playing evey single of them, cause there will nothing new to discover anyways. Will play each main girl, so 5 playthroughs. And the sixth will be my "others" path were i focus on riona and lily more... and thats it. I have tried so many different things in season 2, but with this episode all of it kinda felt wasted.
And iam a little bit concerned too where this game will be heading now.
First... DPC obviously loves the free roams, with each episode we got more and more of them, with way more time consuming stuff. I didnt mind it so far, cause the "normal" scenes were at least half of a episode too and the free roams and minigames makes the game more "alive". This time, 99% free roam. I really dont like that, thats way too much. Especially for the storytelling it sucks ass. I am afraid we will see more episodes where the free roams will a bigger part than the rest.
Second, the render numbers felt kinda "fake" over 5000 renders, yeah might be that way, but if every render is in the same 10 rooms just with slighty difference, it feels like a "cheap way out" to just increase the numbers without that much effort. Lets face it, a blink with an eye is already a new render image or a new placed bottle, and he did exactly that many times in this episode. The whole thing felt more like 1000 renders at top, episode 7 and 8 felt MUCH bigger, without the minigames and "free roam-chores" the whole episode 9 is one of the shortest i remember... for this timespan of a wait? REALLY not worth it. I paid for it, will not do so for the next update, at least not the full price.
For the plot, nothing got further... well at least the episode as kicked many things really off (but it felt like this after many peisodes, but DPC didnt dealt with it in the next), ep 10 has to deal with a lot of stuff, but i have a feeling... DPC will not do so. I mean, he had to deal with a lot stuff for this episode too after ep 7 and 8, didnt felt like he did, no scratch that, he didnt dealt with that much things, way to few. The whole party more or less postponed everything. And thats a huge problem like i see it... we all know from our schooldays and everyday live... postponing will lead to pile up...the pile will get bigger and bigger (regarding being a dik its a mount everest already) and at some point you have to deal with way to much in a very short time to get it at least somewhat done. Wich will lead to a sloppy work. (game of thrones season 7 and 8 anyone? exactly that was the big problem there, and DPC is heading that way too)
I played it from scratch to get better into the feeling after this wait, and can easily say, episode 9 is my least favorite so far. Especially for the plots i expected way more... AND for the fun times? In every single episode there were many things to laugh about and having a good time too... i didnt laugh this time. The humor was either dumb where only drunk people would laugh, or not worth a laugh anyways. DPC couldnt deliver there either. And thats a first. And as i said, the whole party was way more like a chore then everything else. At least it felt like this for me.
For episode 10, please less free roam, less "chores", more plot development, and a timejump would be a good thing too. Jump over christmas and all that, we already had enough christmans in this episode for my liking. and WAY WAY WAY more different locations with REALLY different scenes.
