- Oct 27, 2021
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Fully agreeing with this entire post 100% and the best way I've seen it worded so far during this conversation.
- Thread starter N7
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- Dec 28, 2017
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Philly is a guy. You can rest assured, as some know him in person and many of us have heard his voice.
Important fact: he also works alone.
I'm writing this in the vague hope that someday people will stop referring to him as "they." Let's see how it turns out.
As for the discussion about Gloria, I'm seeing her scenes because anything Philly makes is gorgeous and I'm a completionist too.
However, this is how I ranked all the girls in December, 2018 when Philly first presented the characters for his then upcoming new masterpiece:
https://f95zone.to/threads/city-of-broken-dreamers-philly-games-discussion-thread.21988/post-1375043
Victoria is the best character in any game, while Ellen is still my second favourite.
BTW still waiting for a beautiful mulata or black girl. Next game it will be then
Important fact: he also works alone.
I'm writing this in the vague hope that someday people will stop referring to him as "they." Let's see how it turns out.
As for the discussion about Gloria, I'm seeing her scenes because anything Philly makes is gorgeous and I'm a completionist too.
However, this is how I ranked all the girls in December, 2018 when Philly first presented the characters for his then upcoming new masterpiece:
https://f95zone.to/threads/city-of-broken-dreamers-philly-games-discussion-thread.21988/post-1375043
The most awesome thing about this is that my opinion HASN'T ALMOST CHANGED since then, and I we didn't even have a game at that time.
Victoria is the best character in any game, while Ellen is still my second favourite.
BTW still waiting for a beautiful mulata or black girl. Next game it will be then
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Great points!
I think the issue is that Gloria is supposed to fulfill the porn trope of the innocent virgin, which doesn't fit well with the cyberpunk setting, where nobody is innocent. Having a grown woman act like a child in a world, where exploitation is normalized, gets creepy very fast. If anything she should have grown up pretty fast, because she spend her formative years homeless on the streets and all.
In contrast Chandra and Abby are also very young, but fit the setting well, because they show off the club and drug scene. Having rich kids rebelling against their corpo parents by partying with the lower class is also an interesting plot device.
I've mentioned before in this thread that I think the sex scenes in this game are a little disappointing, because they don't have anything to do with the setting. This doesn't mean that the game is bad, because the romance arcs are written well either way. That's especially the case for Katie and Ellen, but Victoria also works, because her sex scenes have plot relevance. In Gloria's case it's just so on the nose that she only exists, because we like them young. Her character is tropy in a way that can detract from the quality of the rest of the game.
Gloria could have been a newborn AI hiding in the matrix from the grasp of the corpos, who want to exploit her genius hacking skills. Ellen organizes a heist to get the MC to a specific port he can jack into to find and save Gloria. The heist is a success and Gloria and the MC get to know each other. He jacks into the matrix to visit her and subsequently jacks into the private port between her virtual legs, because she's a conscious AI and wants to explore human feelings and emotion.
But then, oh no, the corpos found her again! At the final showdown Victoria has to step up. The MC has always been good to her and she doesn't want to be on the side of the exploiters anymore. Her augmentations allow her to download Gloria onto her brain to remove Gloria's trace from the matrix and save her once and for all, so that she doesn't have to hide anymore.
The climax is an epic threesome with three minds sharing two bodies. In the epilog Gloria gets her own body with extra functions (wink wink).
Like this we could have an innocent young virgin, but with a cyberpunk spin on it.
- Oct 27, 2021
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I personally enjoyed the Katie lewd scenes as I thought they were well done, just waiting for the MC to say the three words to her as she already did to him. The C10 lewd scene in her clinic was pretty damn good, as was the one, well, ones in C6 when they're in the room together. C8's short one was passion fueled for sure, but I enjoyed them all, but maybe that's also because I love how the relationship between Katie and MC builds over the game.
But I do agree on the Gloria virgin thing, as I do with the idea about Chandy and Abby. I'm still not fully personally trusting Victoria yet, but you can see how her view has changed from the beginning of the game to where we are now. I guess once I see Vic in the face of Meredith and actually helping out the MC's side, I'll change my tune, right now, I'm back and forth with her.
I'd love to see the MC bring Vic to meet the gang, you would think it would have to happen at some point right? Imagine the looks on the other people's faces. I mean her and Ellen "sort of" connected while Ellen was in the hospital. But what about Katie and Gloria? How would Ellen deal with Chandy? Just questions I would love to know the answers to.
- Apr 7, 2020
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Well, she, indeed, is the one of the most dream wife material of all VNs girls. Not only absolutely sweet and andorable, not to mention gorgeous in a very accessible way, but she is also smart, capable, with a strong personality, patient and alway up to any situation. Sure a remarkable woman under every aspect.
To answer one of the trans girl ingame quastions, Gloria is not the perfect waifu. Katie is.
- Oct 27, 2021
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And her growing mischievous side is certainly coming out. It started a little bit in chapter 6, but went through the roof in Chapter 10. At the beginning of the game you'd never think Katie would become what she has in Chapter 10; that shy, nervous, girl-next-door type has basically morphed into a calmer version of Carli, I ean she still has that girl-next-door vibe around her to a point, but she's certainly more adventurous and mischievous when it comes to the sex scenes with the MC.
She's still Katie, but there is certainly some Carli inside her now.
- Nov 14, 2017
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I agree about Judy back in DA, but not about Gloria. IMHO the game does a good job setting up Gloria's scene in Chapter 10; she may be inexperienced compared to the MC, but she is an adult (both by age and more importantly by the hand life has dealt her). It's not unreasonable for her to take charge of her own sexuality and ask the MC to sleep with her. I think it's played with the right level of ambiguity, too. Whether this is the MC taking advantage of a young girl in a stressful situation or as he's trying to offer some human comfort in a cruel world mostly up to how we perceive the MC's mindset - which feels appropriate for a noir cyberpunk story.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think the big problem that hurts Gloria's path is the way those dreams in Chapter 9 were handled. Gloria is effectively an observer caught in the MC's sex fantasies, which is a sketchy concept at the best of times. Yes, Gloria implies she may have enjoyed the experience in the Ellen dream, but that only happens after the dream is over, which is too late for my comfort. And the Victoria dream is MUCH worse, since Gloria's response after waking up is bordering on revulsion - even if the MC stopped the dream ASAP. Blech!
It's the way those dreams were staged that causes most of the problems, IMHO. If they had done a better job establishing that the dream was a fusion of both the MC and Gloria's fantasies, it would have defanged a lot of the squick factor and allowed the two characters to begin dealing with their feelings in a measured and open way. That would have been a much smoother transition to Gloria making an overt move on the MC in Chapter 10.
Sadly, the opportunity was lost. But at least the material in Chapter 10 pulls off its half of the deal (again, IMHO).
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Couldn't agree more. The dreams in the earlier chapters were about as poorly handled narratively as they could have been. Had Philly played things from the angle of them having erotic dreams of each other where they gradually did more and more before realizing what was happening and waking up, and then eventually led to them realizing they both wanted this, it would have hit so much better than the ick factor of having her acting as a voyeur in his dreams.
- Sep 18, 2021
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I think this is the key for me. I don't think the issue with Gloria is how she looks, or even necessarily that she's presented as young, it's how she acts. She's kind of written as a child in a way that most games with young/loli/etc options aren't (which includes Philly's last game).
Essentially, pursuing her as a love interest feels kind of like victimizing her. At a time when she's already a victim and basically desperately looking for people to trust. It basically feels like she needs a protector more than a lover, and it's far more natural to fall into a bit of a paternalistic role with her. Which then ups the squick factor unless you're really, really into that sort of violation. And it kind of makes it feel like any MC that goes after her is a huge piece of shit.
I wouldn't hesitate to pursue Chandra sex options, but I avoid Gloria like the plague. It's a hard no in my eyes - both as a player, and from trying to see the world from the perspective of the version of the MC I'm creating.
- Sep 18, 2021
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The ingenue isn't an uncommon archetype in noir, especially when it's being contrasted against the nearly ubiquitous femme fatale. And against the very nature of the setting itself. How much more precious is innocence, when it's so much rarer?
- Apr 26, 2017
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That's true, but the "high tech, low life" theme of cyberpunk often modifies the ingenue a bit, because it's difficult to keep a white dress spotless, while living in filth. So the most innocent person can be a sex worker with body modifications.
There's a juxtaposition between what's on the surface and what's below it. Like a scary cyber limb, a drug addiction and prostitution are generally repulsive, but below the surface could be kindness and gentleness.
The most innocent you can be in this setting is, when you're the victim instead of the offender. The ingenue is also a victim, but in the spotless "virginal" sense. In cyberpunk nobody is spotless, because everybody has to do something more or less bad to survive. "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism", right?
Gloria is a little too sheltered for the setting, although she isn't even supposed to be. She killed a dude and grew up homeless without her father and her father figure.
It seems like Gloria is only innocent and childlike, because that's supposed to be hot, but not for any storytelling reasons, which can be a little grating.
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Grating for me because finding 'child-like' sexually attractive is what pedophiles do.
It's just a disturbing concept, though I am aware many games cater to that and incest, both of which are considired crimes in several western nations.
I wonder if developers cater to as wide a base as possible whether they agree with it personally or not (which is what pornstars do) for money, or if they actually do like that stuff?
I reckon some do, at least the ones where ALL the LI have child faces which makes me cringe.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Gloria is so innocent and childish: I reckon she seems very unaware of the world, but she is also a very young woman who first has accidentally killed her boyfriend during her first time and then she started to live the life of a runaway, to escape from the ones who wanted capture and study her.
In my humble opinion she is more a young woman scared by her powers and by the people who want capture her. In fact after the death of her bodyguard (I don't remember his name), she stated very clearly she is tired to be a prey and she want be the author of her destiny; like her most active role in the last update proved.
In my humble opinion she is more a young woman scared by her powers and by the people who want capture her. In fact after the death of her bodyguard (I don't remember his name), she stated very clearly she is tired to be a prey and she want be the author of her destiny; like her most active role in the last update proved.
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- Apr 26, 2020
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i wouldn't be surprised if he makes return.
- Apr 26, 2020
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- Oct 27, 2021
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That's what I figured after the battle. I still don't think he's dead. Just the way I feel about it.I hope so! No body, no permanent death
WooHoo! 5000 posts!!!