VN Ren'Py Abandoned Bitch Squad [v0.4.7] [IcarusLabs]

[drifter139]

I can't quite make up my mind on whether I like this game or not. I feel like the Bitch Squad are portrayed so far as if they have good/valid reason as to why they were being bitches. Sarah is portrayed as a good character and she vouched for her friends. Annie was good to MC back then and she vouched for them too. Kate repeatedly said that MC just didn't know anything, etc. The problem that I have with this is that it could've been so easily solved had the girls (or Annie back then) just explained to MC what really happened and why. What's the purpose of keeping things secret?

It isn't strong enough of a hook to just keep on going with "they're actually good people and you just didn't know it" angle. To make it worse, I feel like the game has shown more of Amber and Tommy being bitches too. So which one is the Bitch Squad? The five girls, or the MC and the gang? I'm really undecided on this.

it's more like they are narcissists who think they are good. like how Annie tells MC to get over what happened and it was a "prank" gone wrong. as such, they will always see themselves as the good person in any situation

 

[YepperCause]

Lol, childhood trauma, got it.

Don't expect a reenactment of the red wedding, but I've got somethings planned. Thanks for the support.

I'm telling you, man. Some people on this forum are looking for dismemberments.

 

[Skylaroo]

it's more like they are narcissists who think they are good. like how Annie tells MC to get over what happened and it was a "prank" gone wrong. as such, they will always see themselves as the good person in any situation

I don't mind if they're portrayed that way in the game, but I feel like the game keeps on throwing hints as if there's something more playing in the background that is purposely kept as mystery. A few examples: all the girls suddenly going to the same college despite the original plan of them going elsewhere, and the "hacker" who is not among the five girls.

It feels like they are much more straight forward bitches during the prologue of high school montage at the start of the game, while they haven't done bad things once the game actually started. As a player, I'm not too motivated to take revenge when they haven't openly done anything bad in college. I'd be much more motivated if the bitches blatantly fucked up the MC in college. But they just aren't shown as bitches. Instead, we're shown how broken Sarah is that her blowjob picture got released, how Kate made good speeches, how the squad stuck together when one of them failed the hell week, etc. It's really jarring that I kept on being told to hate them by Amber and Tommy, but I'm not being shown good enough reason to do so unless I obsess over what happened before the game started.

 

[Lunarmist]

This one has an error when opening preferences and the phone in game

I tried to avoid this error as much as I could,but unable to stop it from occuring.

 

[HentaiKami]

I don't mind if they're portrayed that way in the game, but I feel like the game keeps on throwing hints as if there's something more playing in the background that is purposely kept as mystery. A few examples: all the girls suddenly going to the same college despite the original plan of them going elsewhere, and the "hacker" who is not among the five girls.

It feels like they are much more straight forward bitches during the prologue of high school montage at the start of the game, while they haven't done bad things once the game actually started. As a player, I'm not too motivated to take revenge when they haven't openly done anything bad in college. I'd be much more motivated if the bitches blatantly fucked up the MC in college. But they just aren't shown as bitches. Instead, we're shown how broken Sarah is that her blowjob picture got released, how Kate made good speeches, how the squad stuck together when one of them failed the hell week, etc. It's really jarring that I kept on being told to hate them by Amber and Tommy, but I'm not being shown good enough reason to do so unless I obsess over what happened before the game started.

I mean, it's understandable why MC and Amber would hate them based on what was shown in the first episode and most likely Tommy also experienced something similar. Bullying like that can be traumatic and leave long lasting scars and hatred, even if they stopped behaving like bitches they were in highschool, they haven't done anything to make amends, even going so far as to belittling and being condescending toward those they hurt and completely disregarding their feelings as anything that concerns them. So it's not like MC, Amber and Tommy have any reason to not hate them with the same burning passion as they did in highschool, considering it hasn't even been a year since high school ended.

Only ones that have even made slight attemptions to have friendlier relationship with MC are Annie and Sarah, and even they are still being condescending about the pain MC had to go through because of the other members of bitch squad. And while neither of them were shown to be actively part of the bullying/harrasment other members of the bitch squad did, they did give it implicit acceptance by not speaking out against it. Sad fact about bullying is, that it's never just between the bully and victim, others around either fuel it on by encouraging the bullies, or just being silent and accept that victims are tormented.

 

[Skylaroo]

I mean, it's understandable why MC and Amber would hate them based on what was shown in the first episode and most likely Tommy also experienced something similar. Bullying like that can be traumatic and leave long lasting scars and hatred, even if they stopped behaving like bitches they were in highschool, they haven't done anything to make amends, even going so far as to belittling and being condescending toward those they hurt and completely disregarding their feelings as anything that concerns them. So it's not like MC, Amber and Tommy have any reason to not hate them with the same burning passion as they did in highschool, considering it hasn't even been a year since high school ended.

Only ones that have even made slight attemptions to have friendlier relationship with MC are Annie and Sarah, and even they are still being condescending about the pain MC had to go through because of the other members of bitch squad. And while neither of them were shown to be actively part of the bullying/harrasment other members of the bitch squad did, they did give it implicit acceptance by not speaking out against it. Sad fact about bullying is, that it's never just between the bully and victim, others around either fuel it on by encouraging the bullies, or just being silent and accept that victims are tormented.

I'm not disputing that MC has valid reason to hate the bitches. I'm merely making a comment on how the game hasn't displayed that well enough by not consistently portraying them as bad characters to hate on. Though I am meant to be playing as the MC, I haven't suffered the bullying throughout high school like MC did, so I need more reasons to hate on them. Like you said, Annie and Sarah made some attempt to have better relationship with MC. That's not what evil bitches are supposed to be doing. Why not just make the bitches antagonize MC instead? When the slides got changed into MC's naked picture, why make the bitches deny doing it rather than making them say "Yeah, we changed it because we're one step ahead of you. We know you changed it first and we have proof of it. You can't do anything because if you report us, we'd deny and anonymously release the proof that you fiddled around with the files instead."?

I just feel that they weren't portrayed as bad enough for me to feel victimized and therefore wanting to take revenge on them. Too many unnecessary grey mysteries that muddled the narrative IMO.

 

[drifter139]

I'm not disputing that MC has valid reason to hate the bitches. I'm merely making a comment on how the game hasn't displayed that well enough by not consistently portraying them as bad characters to hate on. Though I am meant to be playing as the MC, I haven't suffered the bullying throughout high school like MC did, so I need more reasons to hate on them. Like you said, Annie and Sarah made some attempt to have better relationship with MC. That's not what evil bitches are supposed to be doing. Why not just make the bitches antagonize MC instead? When the slides got changed into MC's naked picture, why make the bitches deny doing it rather than making them say "Yeah, we changed it because we're one step ahead of you. We know you changed it first and we have proof of it. You can't do anything because if you report us, we'd deny and anonymously release the proof that you fiddled around with the files instead."?

I just feel that they weren't portrayed as bad enough for me to feel victimized and therefore wanting to take revenge on them. Too many unnecessary grey mysteries that muddled the narrative IMO.

keep in mind that the wounds from high school are still fresh in their minds and seeing their bullies laughing and acting like nothing ever happened can bring pain to a surface level. my point is how despite Annie saying she feels bad they lost their friendship with MC, she still goes out of her way to basically tell MC she'll always choose her friends. there's also the time MC and Amber ran into Charlotte at the mall and she proved how toxic and evil she was and likely has been since she was a kid. and while Sarah seems to want to have changed, she doesn't tell the others that it's time to become better people and even leads MC on into finishing one of her tasks despite talking about how she had grown as a person when in reality, she still manipulated MC into a situation he wouldn't have agreed to otherwise. in short, fresh scars can still hurt just by seeing the torturers

 

[Skylaroo]

keep in mind that the wounds from high school are still fresh in their minds and seeing their bullies laughing and acting like nothing ever happened can bring pain to a surface level. my point is how despite Annie saying she feels bad they lost their friendship with MC, she still goes out of her way to basically tell MC she'll always choose her friends. there's also the time MC and Amber ran into Charlotte at the mall and she proved how toxic and evil she was and likely has been since she was a kid. and while Sarah seems to want to have changed, she doesn't tell the others that it's time to become better people and even leads MC on into finishing one of her tasks despite talking about how she had grown as a person when in reality, she still manipulated MC into a situation he wouldn't have agreed to otherwise. in short, fresh scars can still hurt just by seeing the torturers

I'll repeat this. I understand MC has valid reason to hate on the girls. I'm saying that the game isn't showing enough to make me (the player, not MC) hate on the girls as much as MC because the bad things mostly happened before the game (high school) rather than during the game (college).

Out of the things you mentioned above, only Charlotte is being bad. Annie and Sarah still choosing the girls over MC is not a good thing, but again, why would they even want to have better relationship with MC to begin with if they're such bad people? Why did Sarah openly tell Emma that she's only comfortable with one guy and that's MC if she's so bad? Why was Emma ok with it if she's such a bad person? If they're bad people, why would they all quit the sorority when only one of them failed? And so on. That's my whole point.

The game kept on telling me to hate on the girls, but the game kept on showing more and more things that showed they aren't as bad as the game told me. How am I supposed to hate them like the game wanted me to if it's inconsistent with the portrayal of the villains?

 

[Ragnar]

I'll repeat this. I understand MC has valid reason to hate on the girls. I'm saying that the game isn't showing enough to make me (the player, not MC) hate on the girls as much as MC because the bad things mostly happened before the game (high school) rather than during the game (college).

Out of the things you mentioned above, only Charlotte is being bad. Annie and Sarah still choosing the girls over MC is not a good thing, but again, why would they even want to have better relationship with MC to begin with if they're such bad people? Why did Sarah openly tell Emma that she's only comfortable with one guy and that's MC if she's so bad? Why was Emma ok with it if she's such a bad person? If they're bad people, why would they all quit the sorority when only one of them failed? And so on. That's my whole point.

The game kept on telling me to hate on the girls, but the game kept on showing more and more things that showed they aren't as bad as the game told me. How am I supposed to hate them like the game wanted me to if it's inconsistent with the portrayal of the villains?

It's a matter of perspective because we aren't the MC. I mean we can see the story from different povs as players, including the Bitch Squad. Sometimes you can hold a grudge against someone due to some missunderstanding or because your ego is bigger than your head irl.
In the game the girls made a prank to the MC during high school. Not all of them were guilty and you can't blame them for all the shit the MC and co. went through during those years anyway. They were losers and everyone mess with the weak in high schools all over the world. But to them everybody involved deserves punishment because their perception of the events was limited and distorted due the pressure suffered under events that have messed their lives.

 

[The Pie Rat]

I don't know how I feel about this game, it's a good game.. but I just don't know.

I didn't like how you could choose not to leak Sarah's picture. But the next time you see the MC and his friends they're happy drinking like it doesn't matter that he just broke her.

 

[CoomerCarlos35xxxv]

Anyone have an error with android port? I can't open setting and message from phone

 

[fishbrain]

Man.. I'm enjoying this, but knowing it was ultimately helping them we should've been able to refuse Sarah's bj.. or better yet when Emma made her presence known.. "nope fuck this, you're doing it first or she's not doing it at all. Now why don't you get on your knees and show her how it's done."

 

[jenosmaverick]

Wished there was an option ro not leak Sarah's picture. Out of the 5 I only hate Kate and Charlotte. And who else are the Li's besides Ashley and Amber?

 

[Allan Trumbull]

I forgot. Femdom avoidable??

 

[fishbrain]

Wished there was an option ro not leak Sarah's picture. Out of the 5 I only hate Kate and Charlotte. And who else are the Li's besides Ashley and Amber?

Sarah, Annie, the dean, the rich woman for sure, the black chick can't recall her name, the librarian and her sister "unless I'm thinking of a different game" and Rachel the original sorority president. Those are all just guesses, I have no idea what the dev has planned.

 

[kantigura]

"The game is quite interesting, but the latest update left a bad impression" because "fake revenge".

There are at least two scenes with some pretty harsh revenge already. This is only EP2. There was no revenge in EP1. By definition, you got more revenge in this update. Kate, the top bitch, is crying her eyes out over it when it happens to her and continues later in her room sobbing to her friend. How much more revengy can you get?

I just don't understand comments like this.

I don't think there is ever going to be "too much" revenge for those self entitled twats

 

[kantigura]

People are inconsistent in this game. For example Ashley is shocked and mad when MC tells her what Kate had done to him. Further along the game she says she'll support him emotionally but won't take part in any revenge schemes. Finally at the end of this update we see her applauding after listening to Kate's speech.

Which means she'll easily fall under her spell and in order to keep any meaningful relationship with Ashley, MC will have to go down a forgiving path with the girls.

Sometimes the game tries to show them in a better light but when you consider what they've done so far, you can see that it's almost impossible for the MC to forgive and move on. He doesn't want other people to experience what he's gone through. At the very least he wants an apology but they act like his suffering was not their doing and therefore unimportant. Because in their eyes he is a nobody.

Sarah's description of her friends is very apt. They are entitled rich kids and they feel the world owes them success. If they don't get it, they immediately become victims and the entire world becomes their enemy. They destroy the sorority by leaking their pictures and therefore potentially ruin the reputation of all their previous members, including the Dean.

Unlike Kate, MC does not have the resources and he is not surrounded with capable people. His friends are as clueless and petty as him. So unless Miranda helps him out in such a way that a complete reversal of fortune happens for him I fail to see how he'll be able to get a satisfactory ending.

If Ashley does join the bitch squad, hopefully we can post the pics she sent and ruin her reputation at the school.

 

[HentaiKami]

If Ashley does join the bitch squad, hopefully we can post the pics she sent and ruin her reputation at the school.

Personally i would not like to see more of that posting pictures online tactic of revenge, it's one of the things i would irl draw the line since i've never been fan of revenge porn. Not to mention that would lead to trouble with law for MC and company.

 

[HentaiKami]

Also about relationships MC can have, there's button for stats where you can see sliders for how vengeful - merciful MC is and is he enemy or friend/lover with any of the female characters. If you don't want to follow how decisions affect those, it's easy to ignore since it's pretty well camouflaged among the other buttons like preferences etc... at the bottom of the screen.

 

[kantigura]

Also about relationships MC can have, there's button for stats where you can see sliders for how vengeful - merciful MC is and is he enemy or friend/lover with any of the female characters. If you don't want to follow how decisions affect those, it's easy to ignore since it's pretty well camouflaged among the other buttons like preferences etc... at the bottom of the screen.

Never noticed that, very cool!