So again this episode is a mixed bag. Some of the scenes are hot, the renders are pretty good, and the idea the game is going for isn't a bad one. So good stuff in many regards.
I think it is pretty clear now that the game is going down the route of the Bitch Squad are just misunderstood, and the MC is in the wrong for exacting revenge. Look at who the game has us sympathising with, the BS characters, every time, with the POSSIBLE exception of Kate. Problem is it doesn't quite nail it.
Annie's backstory doesn't make much sense, she says she met Kate AFTER the separation of the parents, but the intro doesn't mention this, so it feels like a retcon. She still doesn't mention leaving the MC high and dry for a full year where his life turned into hell, and it comes off as contradictory too. Why was she living at the house after the separation?
MC essentially rapes Emma in a possible route, and she doesn't not do the standard porn suddenly liking being submissive thing that could have turned that bit around. Charlotte breaks down in tears over her treatment, and it isn't framed as a getting well-deserved retribution moment, but more a broken girl clinging onto a dead parent moment.
And it makes the MC come off as rather psychotic, caring one moment, hating the girls the next, he seems to jump from one extreme to the next constantly, and he doesn't make a lot of sense.
And then we have Kate, who every update comes off more and more like a well meaning but absolutely insane cult leader. And currently the writing can't quite pull off her charisma without making every OTHER character seem like absolute morons for following her. She speaks in nothing but platitudes, and we are meant to think she cares, but her actions don't show that at all. And I find it hard to believe that Kate is willing to apparently try and win over anyone and everyone to her cause, but not even give a peep of what her goals are to the MC, or win over actual enemies. It feels like the player and the MC are missing information to draw out the mystery, but how that information is missing doesn't quite make sense.
And the devs seem to have zero idea what to do with Sarah at all. She still remains the girl on the outside, as the innocent face of the squad.
And Ashley is becoming rather pointless the more the game goes on. There is nice, and there is stupid, and she steps back and forth across that line very often. Her cabin scene was pointless, and her other scenes weren't much better.
So now we are down to two options, either Miranda is the big bad who we are working for this whole time or Galen is. There could be an option that they are both horrible people working against each other as well. But unless I am severely wrong, it seems like the high school bullies were all set on anyone who wasn't in the right family who got close to Kate and her friends, or went against them. It has holes in it if that is the case, such as why bother making the MCs life a living hell in High School when he posed zero threat, and why have him under surveillance at all?
The base characters are all good, as far as things go, and the overall set up of the game is good as well. But I think the issues t he game has end in its execution. Also the different routes are EXTREMELY important to understanding the game overall, and since you can only be on one of these routes without modding, most players won't see bits of the story that are needed to understand what is happening. Very important events in this update are mutually exclusive, Annie's talk with the MC being the primary of these as well as Charlotte's scene as well (I THINK that can be missed)
It's the reason that you have some posters here thinking the MC is a total wuss, and others not understanding how they could think that. Having choices is good, but the game might be better served in smaller choices that help define the MC and his reactions to the events in the game, and find a way to make his actions and internal thoughts consistent, as I said right now he comes off as a madman.
So can this be fixed? Maybe. First off, the introduction needs to be expanded. It just does. The information we get there is contradictory, and there is still not enough there to believe the relationship between the MC and Annie, or enough to go on for how the Bitch Squad worked in the school itself. Perhaps have Annie mention staying in the house because she got in a fight with her mom, (thus bringing in the separation), how she has her friends because of a bad breakup (mentioning her abusive BF without the MC knowing about the dude hitting her), bring up the friendship and sibling angle more, and how they have been cool with the BF/GF thing, add some sexual tension they don't want to discuss, etc. The events of the night aren't the issue, but the events before it, and after it ARE important.
And we need answers to questions, something I mentioned before. We got really nothing this episode in regards to that, and anything we DID get was missable (Annie in particular), we got clues... but those are just more questions without answering anything else. The game is already having problems juggling its mystery and keeping motivations and events in line, it doesn't need to answer everything, it shouldn't but we need one or two of the current threads answered so one can spin out into other questions. Right now that just is not happening.
And the multiple routes need to be consolidated at least somewhat. MC can have VASTLY different knowledge of events, relationships with characters, and the like, and it is going to be extremely difficult to have these events mean anything down the line as the butterfly effect takes hold. The fact that the game makes the MOST sense while modded is a problem. Character motivations and basic information should not be missable. Sex scenes and relationships can be optional, but it is a fine line to walk, and the game as it stands is walking that line like someone with a .2 blood alcohol level.
Edit: Sarcasm makes this a bit nastier when rereading than it sounded in my head. Intent was to be humourous, not attacking.
