- Jan 12, 2021
- 1,526
- 2,450
Much of the criticism this VN has received has been addressed factually.
The problem started with the Mafia update, which was made a side story because of the strong negative criticism.
What was the problem here?
No free decisions that had any kind of influence in any way. In the end, the whole update could have been made into a video clip and it would have effectively made no difference. For comparison, in the first update you had the option to flirt with your colleague in the teachers' lounge or not. In the update, he jumped every almost every female that was available - with the exception of his niece.
The slap the MC gave his niece, who was on a drug trip, for having too loose a mouth. The man is a teacher who in previous updates has said of himself "I have experience in there dealing with little monsters" - if that is his approach and unless I am greatly mistaken he works at a fairly elite school - he does that once to one of his students and the parents would sue his ass into the next century.
Then towards the end of the update he was shot and it's pretty obviously implied that it's a potentially fatal wound if the doctors don't get there fast enough. Not only was there again no option here to avoid this potential bad ending, effectively Betisis had written his own MC out of its own story with this decision. For even if MC survives the gunshot wound because the doctors should arrive in time, which is doubtful since the motel is relatively remote:
1. physical recovery from such a wound is several months to years, with rehabilitation until complete mobility is restored. And it is not guaranteed that no physical damage will remain.
2, The psychological consequences of such an injury can be even stable personalities unpleasant things like PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders.
3, The main character had started his job as a teacher 1-2 days before the gunshot injury and is directly out of work for at least several months. Not only does this have the likely consequence of the school looking for another teacher to fill the likely vacant position again, but we also have a discrepancy with a previously established side story, namely the one in which the MC rushes to the aid of the two twins and gives the girls' would-be fiancé or whatever he was going to be a good punch in the nose. We don't have any information when exactly this takes place, but: In later updates we learn that it must have happened sometime between 2 main updates and under no circumstances is someone with such a gunshot wound driving around in a car and giving someone a punch in the nose. He'll be lucky if he's not in an induced coma at the time and peeing in a bag.
Then we come to the update that followed the Mafia update and revealed it to be a nightmare:
Here we have a clearly noticeable drop in text quality, meaning punctuation, spelling and the like. Also, his wife is suddenly jealous about something and suspects MC of infidelity, even if he hasn't even flirted with a colleague due to our decisions. One can argue here that this was intentional in order to have a certain element of drama later on, but with regard to the drama around the VN, it would probably have been advisable to give an explanation for this somewhere earlier in the plot. Regarding the fact that the MC was suspected of having an affair with a student, it could have been established here in earlier updates that his wife has certain trust issues with her husband. One of several examples of how potential is wasted here.
From here on I can only refer to the comments of other users: In later updates, our Sir Hump-a-lot then suddenly had seemingly erectile problems with his wife, again completely without explanation and contrary to earlier updates where this was not a problem.
The problem that Betisis has is, among other things, that it tries to address too many people at once and to have too many ideas at once but no consistent thread for its own plot. If you have four people and everyone wants either a salad, a soup, a main course or a dessert you can't expect to do all that with one dish and satisfy everyone. You will have a disgusting mass that no one really likes.
Accordingly, I can't agree with your comment: If you go into an echo chamber and factual criticism is ignored, you end up with something like Ghostbusters 2016.
At the moment, Buried Desires has nothing that is really distinctive for me: Characters are relatively interchangeable apart from preferences that one or the other may have, the MC is at best boring and at worst absolutely unlikable and with the self-confidence of a mimosa, and some options that the backstory of the MC and the plot offer are ignored and instead topics are taken up that make you wonder: Ok, when are you all finally going to Oprah Winfrey?
