VN Ren'Py Abandoned Connected [v0.2.5] [ChainZero]

[EthanHunt95]

Sudden scenes lol, it's tricky
Yeah yeah good writing well done...
Keep it up

 

[Carpe Stultus]

Tried this for the first time now and i really enjoyed it. I think the only thing that i've noticed is that ChainZero needs to pay more attention to clipping.

Keep it up and improve your render skills and your game can go really up in the rankings.

 

[Deleted member 444674]

Tried this for the first time now and i really enjoyed it. I think the only thing that i've noticed is that ChainZero needs to pay more attention to clipping.

Keep it up and improve your render skills and your game can go really up in the rankings.

Believe me, I knew all about the clipping here. From the first shower room scene to the meditation to the ending scene, clipping is all over this update. It was bad in the first scene with the park, but I edited them in PS one by one so you don't see them. Dad's shirt had sooo much clipping, good God. I just sort of gave up as time went on cause I started rendering in batches. That meant out of 20 finished renders, there would be like 10 or more with constant clipping and I just got fed up so I said fuck it, lol. I could've smoothed the clipping in Daz itself but that would've required far more individual care for each render. More care than I was already putting in. And even then it wouldn't guarantee the result I was looking for.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

Ya know, I didn't put this in my review, but trying to get into the game, this is bugging me a lot, so I'm gonna put it here to get it off my chest.

I don't like the MC's relationship with his friend. At all.

I've been "friendzoned" in real life. Fuck, she bluntly told me so, when the friendship ended. She kept me around, knowing I was into her, as a friend, on the back burner, while actively sabotaging potential relationships I could have had. She did it because, as she eventually told me, if she fucked up too badly, she knew she would have the choice to fall back to me.
And then, after 12 years of "friendship," she finally got knocked up, decided he was the one, and called me to lunch (which she walked out on when she was done, for me to pay for), telling me all of this, and that yeah, we were real friends too, but I was mainly backup, and she felt it was fucked to have me around at all anymore, if she thought she found something permenant.

So, I'm not a fan of guys bitching about friendzoning, but I've heard it from the horses fucking mouth that, yes, it is real.

What does that have to do with this game?

The MC and his friend have, what seems to me, an even worse relationship.
The idea of being so close to someone, that they are your absolute best friend you are almost inseparable from, and you have a mutual attraction so you also fuck, but romance is out of the picture, is sort of hell.
Especially when the game seems to want to show the plot that they do have romantic feelings and are trying to... deny them or ignore them or something?
If you're that close anyways, and willing to fuck anyways, why deny a romantic interest?

As a guy, I can tell you that one of the more soul destroying things to feel, is being in love with someone who is willing to fuck you, but rebuffs you at every turn if you want anything more. Especially when she is willing to look for romance elsewhere. It isn't like she's written as a chick who isn't interested in a relationship and just wants casual fun. It establishes that she was willing to, short term at least, cut contact with you to appease a guy she was dating who was serious about her.
And after breaking up with him, she's back to you like nothing happened? Flashing her pussy on the couch and teasing you?

Something that is no man's fantasy ever?
To sit there and watch the girl he loves fuck guy after guy... to put him on the back burner, even cut contact, only to come back to you... until the next guy comes along, because she won't admit to herself she has feelings for you.... until the day she finally does.
That just doesn't do it for me. Not in fiction. And having experienced similar in real life, playing a game where that is treated as a slow-burn towards romance plotline actually puts a hard pit in my stomach that makes me feel nauseous, and just leaves me to absolutely despise her character.
I've spent more time laying back and "fantasizing" about how I would tell her I was sick of being teased, used as a cheap thrill but never respected, and abandoned for whatever guy she was dating, and that I wanted her out of my life.

I mean, her character model is gorgeous and she comes across, otherwise, as a decent person, but that aspect of her and the game put me off really fucking hard.

Well thought out, and well written games are few and far between. Games that try to incorporate some reality into the story telling are few and far between. Games that want to push what feels like a real, honest emotional connection between the characters, and build a believable romance that you can lose yourself in... they don't appeal to many people who just want a porn game, and are insanely hard to write, so they are insanely few and far between.
But that is this game's mission. And as I said in my review, on paper, this should be exactly what I want.

But the minute we got changed that the MC's dad's friend's place, and she comes in and shows off the swimsuit and then pulls down my trunks to blow me or whatever.... I just quit the game.

What do I want in this game, to make the relationship between him and her more real, and the possibility of romance to feel more rewarding?
I'd like, right after the shower scene, when she is sitting on your couch and putting her cunt on full display for you, the MC to lose his cool a little and ask her "what are we? Because if we're friends and nothing more, you need to close your legs and cover up. I don't want to be your outlet until your next relationship. And if you want to be more than friends but you don't want any serious relationship with me, you need to get out, because I'm not sure I can stand being your friend, your fuck buddy, but not being good enough for you to really consider me. We're either friends, only... or willing to consider a real relationship like adults, or we're nothing to each other. I can't keep doing this."


ok, look. I don't expect my dream game to be made, or someone's existing game to be changed to suit what I crave. But normally, if a game strikes me the wrong way, I just close it and delete it. No "emotional investment," and no playing it longer to give it a better shot.
I restarted and played this through 2 or 3 times, up to the changing room scene, because I wanted to give this game a chance that I usually don't give games that hit me wrong, and because I did get mildly emotionally invested in the character...
but sometimes emotional investment in a story is a bad thing, because in trying to get into the story and the characters, I ended up getting worked up by the situation.
This just... fuck, I donno.
This quarantine shit is driving everyone nuts, I sleep like shit and I live alone and haven't gotten into any TV or shit to binge, so I really haven't had much of an outlet. So I've been trying more games and hoping for better stories to get lost in. Maybe in other situations, I'd have just written the game off and moved on, but right now I have nothing else to do... I get fixated, and when I get upset, I guess I just need to vent it out. Sure it's petty, and I'm babbling and typing way too much, but in my mindset right now, this game hit an almost FLAWLESS intersection of everything I wanted a game to be right now, and everything you could incorporate into a story to get an unpleasant, visceral reaction from me. And I didn't want to say this stuff in the review because I don't want to drive people away from the game, but at least in my frame of mind right now, and trying so hard to actually get emotionally invested in a story, the things that upset me hit like a slow-moving freight train.

I donno.

edit: fuck. I wrote a lot more than I thought I did.

Well, that was a long read, and after all that, I'd have to say that I think you've got the completely wrong end of the stick here.

I hear what you're saying about about not liking it when a girl teases a guy who has feelings for her and keeps putting him in the friendzone, but I don't get that at all from this story. To me, it seems pretty clear that Ayana is the one who has the feelings, not the MC. He's oblivious to how she really feels about him and sees her as just a really close friend that he has a casual sexual relationship with.

The reason why Ayana keeps dating other guys rather than just admit her feelings is because she's afraid of what will happen if she does. We know, from what the MC monologued, that people haven't often warmed up to Ayana and have taken her personality to be rather blunt and abrasive, leaving him as really the only friend she has left. So how then would she feel if she told him she loved him and he friendzoned her? This is what it feels like she's grappling with; the fear that she could lose both a friend and the man she loves all at once. She's not using the MC as a "backup", if anything she's using these other guys to try and forget about him, but her feelings for him hold her back from really committing to these other guys and they seem to be able to pick up on that which is what inevitably sabotages her relationships.

Right now, the situation you described is actually reversed, with Ayana being the one who has feelings and the MC doesn't. She does those things like flash her pussy and seduce him in the changing rooms as a matter of course, because that's how their relationship has always been. To her, it's the way to be close to him because of how she feels about him, and to him it's just who she is and he accepts that, seeing it as a completely casual thing.

So really, if you want to equate your situation and feelings to anyone's, it would be to Ayana, not the MC. Whether that helps you feel better about it or not, I don't know, but I feel like you might have looked at this from the wrong angle because of your own experiences.

 

[EZ8lt]

Believe me, I knew all about the clipping here.

You know, when a black man talks about clipping, that does have a different feel to it...

 

[Ayhsel]

About the Ayana and MC's situation.

I mentioned several times in this site that I dislike strongly "childhood friends that are clearly in love with the MC". The standard cliche about "I love him but I am afraid of losing what we have" drives me nuts, specially cause said character decides to actually do something once she sees MC has another potential lover. And MC is usually totally stupid about not realizing what is going on. If any of you read the Muv Luv Series, Sumika and Takeru relationship is the best example I can think of a relationship I would just kill on my own. Beyond the relationship, she is a great character.

(If you haven't read Muvluv, please go read it. There is a reason why there is such a huge hype around it, but you need to read the 3 parts, don't stop at the first one)

Back on topic. I usually would dislike Ayana and MC relationship. Not because of teasing, it is my impression (I can be wrong though) that Ayana is in love with MC. Just think about the scene where she is on bed thinking about the conversation with her mother about her relationship with MC and she saying "that is obvious", implying in my opinion she acknowledges she is love.
If anything, what I did like about this game is that Ayana is actually trying to either get out (dating other guys) or do something with MC (even if not the best, but that is fine for a starting point). I think she is an great character and while I still get that "i dont want to lose the relationship we have" kind of bullshit, the fact that she tried already to do something paints her way more positively and interesting as pretty much every other in love childhood friend.

It looked to me that it is MC the one that is not sure about his own feelings. Ayana is a friend that provides him with self control and mental peace. And while he acknowledges there may be something more, given the mental state that Dev is trying to picture about him I can relate he not being sure. He seems to be in a dispassionate state of business, if anything afraid of how simply he has fall to his own out of control behavior in the past. I WELCOME a more complex MC character that is neither a totally horny teenager, a super successful adult who everybody wants to fuck o a really stupidly dense MC that does not realize anything going around him just for the sake of keeping all love interest routes open. This latter one is usually found with in love childhood friends. So please do not go that route.

In other words, I would dislike the standard story between Ayana and MC. It is the depth that MC is trying to go forth in their mental analysis that for me is making it worthwhile.That is why I support the decision of the long text even in the introduction. Please paint me a picture of their minds, I want to know why they just don't get together or have a fallout. I want to see them as real people with complex emotions and I want them to make mistakes. Mistakes are totally fine and expected. What I don't want them is to exist in a constant state when nothing happens. Give me all the drama, all the comedy, all the emotion, positive and negative alike. Take me to heaven just to let me to hell. That is fine, as long as we just don't make characters absurdly static.

I will not pursue Ayana in my first playthrough. I prefer Charlotte. Not because of the sister taboo feeling. I am not in this game for something like that. She just have something I cannot tell yet.

Finally, best character is LOLA. Seriously, every interaction with her could be something that my dogs do. Love her! More Lola is always welcome. Please do not go to the point of hurting Lola just to make us feel bad and emotional. While I claim that I want despair and it should be as valid as a story driver as anything, I am totally biased when it is about dogs. Please don't use her that way.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

I will not pursue Ayana in my first playthrough. I prefer Charlotte. Not because of the sister taboo feeling. I am not in this game for something like that. She just have something I cannot tell yet.

Well, at the moment, the game isn't really giving much of a choice because even if you let her finish in the shower at the start and don't have sex, you still end up having sex after the meditation session. Maybe there will be choices between different characters later, but it feels like this game might have a lot of scripted moments like this that are integral to the plot, even if the player isn't interested in a particular character.

 

[Ayhsel]

Well, at the moment, the game isn't really giving much of a choice because even if you let her finish in the shower at the start and don't have sex, you still end up having sex after the meditation session. Maybe there will be choices between different characters later, but it feels like this game might have a lot of scripted moments like this that are integral to the plot, even if the player isn't interested in a particular character.

That is fine. I totally don't mind neither I am expecting otherwise. I welcome a love triangle too or pretty much anything that is not inaction.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

That is fine. I totally don't mind neither I am expecting otherwise. I welcome a love triangle too or pretty much anything that is not inaction.

I feel like we might have a few love triangles in this game. Ayana made a couple of dirty references to doing things with Charlotte and seemed to be up for doing things with Michelle too. She might just have been running her mouth, but in the context of an aduly VN you have to feel like it's not just going to be empty words. I've also got a feeling about Charlotte and Nikki too, given the way Charlotte was looking at her in their dorm room.

Perhaps, if there's no sharing/poly/harem route, if you reject Ayana when she eventually confesses or at least are able to limit your interactions with her, she might find happiness with Michelle therefore freeing up the MC to pursue Charlotte and making things relatively good in the end.

 

[Ayhsel]

I feel like we might have a few love triangles in this game. Ayana made a couple of dirty references to doing things with Charlotte and seemed to be up for doing things with Michelle too. She might just have been running her mouth, but in the context of an aduly VN you have to feel like it's not just going to be empty words. I've also got a feeling about Charlotte and Nikki too, given the way Charlotte was looking at her in their dorm room.

Perhaps, if there's no sharing/poly/harem route, if you reject Ayana when she eventually confesses or at least are able to limit your interactions with her, she might find happiness with Michelle therefore freeing up the MC to pursue Charlotte and making things relatively good in the end.

Well as long as it does not become "MC can fuck everybody he wants and everybody is happy about it" it would be nice to see those routes. My only fear is that Dev might fall to the curse of dimensionality, trying to pursue too many possible routes making development of the game too slow, as the game tree becomes too wide. I prefer less, more polished alternatives. But hey, everything is welcome as long as Lola is safe and sound

 

[Alfius]

Love this game... Loved this update!!

Dad seems like a very cool dude!!

 

[Holy Bacchus]

Well as long as it does not become "MC can fuck everybody he wants and everybody is happy about it" it would be nice to see those routes. My only fear is that Dev might fall to the curse of dimentionality, trying to pursue too many possible routes making development of the game too slow, as the game tree becomes too wide. I prefer less, more polished alternatives. But hey, everything is welcome as long as Lola is safe and sound

At the moment, it certainly doesn't feel like a VN that's going to have a load of different branches. There are so many of those around and I would welcome a VN/game where any choices you make only slightly affect certain events but don't create dozens of separate and intersecting branches and make the game too big. I'm ready to see VNs/games where the story is more linear and there are only mild consequences, like letting Ayana finish means you don't get sex in the apartment but you get sex later on anyway.

A VN/game where the dev is telling a fixed story with only mild variations along the way would be a welcome change from all the choice-based ones out there right now.

 

[TiffanyMonroe]

About the Ayana and MC's situation.

I mentioned several times in this site that I dislike strongly "childhood friends that are clearly in love with the MC". The standard cliche about "I love him but I am afraid of losing what we have" drives me nuts, specially cause said character decides to actually do something once she sees MC has another potential lover. And MC is usually totally stupid about not realizing what is going on. If any of you read the Muv Luv Series, Sumika and Takeru relationship is the best example I can think of a relationship I would just kill on my own. Beyond the relationship, she is a great character.

(If you haven't read Muvluv, please go read it. There is a reason why there is such a huge hype around it, but you need to read the 3 parts, don't stop at the first one)

Back on topic. I usually would dislike Ayana and MC relationship. Not because of teasing, it is my impression (I can be wrong though) that Ayana is in love with MC. Just think about the scene where she is on bed thinking about the conversation with her mother about her relationship with MC and she saying "that is obvious", implying in my opinion she acknowledges she is love.
If anything, what I did like about this game is that Ayana is actually trying to either get out (dating other guys) or do something with MC (even if not the best, but that is fine for a starting point). I think she is an great character and while I still get that "i dont want to lose the relationship we have" kind of bullshit, the fact that she tried already to do something paints her way more positively and interesting as pretty much every other in love childhood friend.

It looked to me that it is MC the one that is not sure about his own feelings. Ayana is a friend that provides him with self control and mental peace. And while he acknowledges there may be something more, given the mental state that Dev is trying to picture about him I can relate he not being sure. He seems to be in a dispassionate state of business, if anything afraid of how simply he has fall to his own out of control behavior in the past. I WELCOME a more complex MC character that is neither a totally horny teenager, a super successful adult who everybody wants to fuck o a really stupidly dense MC that does not realize anything going around him just for the sake of keeping all love interest routes open. This latter one is usually found with in love childhood friends. So please do not go that route.

In other words, I would dislike the standard story between Ayana and MC. It is the depth that MC is trying to go forth in their mental analysis that for me is making it worthwhile.That is why I support the decision of the long text even in the introduction. Please paint me a picture of their minds, I want to know why they just don't get together or have a fallout. I want to see them as real people with complex emotions and I want them to make mistakes. Mistakes are totally fine and expected. What I don't want them is to exist in a constant state when nothing happens. Give me all the drama, all the comedy, all the emotion, positive and negative alike. Take me to heaven just to let me to hell. That is fine, as long as we just don't make characters absurdly static.

I will not pursue Ayana in my first playthrough. I prefer Charlotte. Not because of the sister taboo feeling. I am not in this game for something like that. She just have something I cannot tell yet.

Finally, best character is LOLA. Seriously, every interaction with her could be something that my dogs do. Love her! More Lola is always welcome. Please do not go to the point of hurting Lola just to make us feel bad and emotional. While I claim that I want despair and it should be as valid as a story driver as anything, I am totally biased when it is about dogs. Please don't use her that way.

Can confirm. Being "in love" makes you want to fuck other people.

 

[Ayhsel]

Can confirm. Being "in love" makes you want to fuck other people.

First: Wait what? Where did I say that? Please quote it specifically.
Second: It has happened to me of being in love with x and still want to fuck y. But there was not causality, just two events happening at the same time. Although I would not be surprise with causality either.

 

[Ayhsel]

At the moment, it certainly doesn't feel like a VN that's going to have a load of different branches. There are so many of those around and I would welcome a VN/game where any choices you make only slightly affect certain events but don't create dozens of separate and intersecting branches and make the game too big. I'm ready to see VNs/games where the story is more linear and there are only mild consequences, like letting Ayana finish means you don't get sex in the apartment but you get sex later on anyway.

A VN/game where the dev is telling a fixed story with only mild variations along the way would be a welcome change from all the choice-based ones out there right now.

I like having choices that matter but some of the best VN I read are linear plots. Or just what you say, a main plot with slight deviations with no true consequences. In the limit, a "book" novel is just a VN with not story choices.

I get the feeling that in this game having multiple paths that keep on crossing would be too hard. Cause characters reasons and development are the main focus. Going with x and fucking her cannot be irrelevant for y. At least, it would not feel natural after some point. So I am expecting a few simple choices that set you up on each path or main path with kind of like a linear plot and some fallout in the end.

But, for now, too soon to tell.

 

[Alfius]

Ya know, I didn't put this in my review, but trying to get into the game, this is bugging me a lot, so I'm gonna put it here to get it off my chest.

I don't like the MC's relationship with his friend. At all.

I've been "friendzoned" in real life. Fuck, she bluntly told me so, when the friendship ended. She kept me around, knowing I was into her, as a friend, on the back burner, while actively sabotaging potential relationships I could have had. She did it because, as she eventually told me, if she fucked up too badly, she knew she would have the choice to fall back to me.
And then, after 12 years of "friendship," she finally got knocked up, decided he was the one, and called me to lunch (which she walked out on when she was done, for me to pay for), telling me all of this, and that yeah, we were real friends too, but I was mainly backup, and she felt it was fucked to have me around at all anymore, if she thought she found something permenant.

So, I'm not a fan of guys bitching about friendzoning, but I've heard it from the horses fucking mouth that, yes, it is real.

What does that have to do with this game?

The MC and his friend have, what seems to me, an even worse relationship.
The idea of being so close to someone, that they are your absolute best friend you are almost inseparable from, and you have a mutual attraction so you also fuck, but romance is out of the picture, is sort of hell.
Especially when the game seems to want to show the plot that they do have romantic feelings and are trying to... deny them or ignore them or something?
If you're that close anyways, and willing to fuck anyways, why deny a romantic interest?

As a guy, I can tell you that one of the more soul destroying things to feel, is being in love with someone who is willing to fuck you, but rebuffs you at every turn if you want anything more. Especially when she is willing to look for romance elsewhere. It isn't like she's written as a chick who isn't interested in a relationship and just wants casual fun. It establishes that she was willing to, short term at least, cut contact with you to appease a guy she was dating who was serious about her.
And after breaking up with him, she's back to you like nothing happened? Flashing her pussy on the couch and teasing you?

Something that is no man's fantasy ever?
To sit there and watch the girl he loves fuck guy after guy... to put him on the back burner, even cut contact, only to come back to you... until the next guy comes along, because she won't admit to herself she has feelings for you.... until the day she finally does.
That just doesn't do it for me. Not in fiction. And having experienced similar in real life, playing a game where that is treated as a slow-burn towards romance plotline actually puts a hard pit in my stomach that makes me feel nauseous, and just leaves me to absolutely despise her character.
I've spent more time laying back and "fantasizing" about how I would tell her I was sick of being teased, used as a cheap thrill but never respected, and abandoned for whatever guy she was dating, and that I wanted her out of my life.

I mean, her character model is gorgeous and she comes across, otherwise, as a decent person, but that aspect of her and the game put me off really fucking hard.

Well thought out, and well written games are few and far between. Games that try to incorporate some reality into the story telling are few and far between. Games that want to push what feels like a real, honest emotional connection between the characters, and build a believable romance that you can lose yourself in... they don't appeal to many people who just want a porn game, and are insanely hard to write, so they are insanely few and far between.
But that is this game's mission. And as I said in my review, on paper, this should be exactly what I want.

But the minute we got changed that the MC's dad's friend's place, and she comes in and shows off the swimsuit and then pulls down my trunks to blow me or whatever.... I just quit the game.

What do I want in this game, to make the relationship between him and her more real, and the possibility of romance to feel more rewarding?
I'd like, right after the shower scene, when she is sitting on your couch and putting her cunt on full display for you, the MC to lose his cool a little and ask her "what are we? Because if we're friends and nothing more, you need to close your legs and cover up. I don't want to be your outlet until your next relationship. And if you want to be more than friends but you don't want any serious relationship with me, you need to get out, because I'm not sure I can stand being your friend, your fuck buddy, but not being good enough for you to really consider me. We're either friends, only... or willing to consider a real relationship like adults, or we're nothing to each other. I can't keep doing this."


ok, look. I don't expect my dream game to be made, or someone's existing game to be changed to suit what I crave. But normally, if a game strikes me the wrong way, I just close it and delete it. No "emotional investment," and no playing it longer to give it a better shot.
I restarted and played this through 2 or 3 times, up to the changing room scene, because I wanted to give this game a chance that I usually don't give games that hit me wrong, and because I did get mildly emotionally invested in the character...
but sometimes emotional investment in a story is a bad thing, because in trying to get into the story and the characters, I ended up getting worked up by the situation.
This just... fuck, I donno.
This quarantine shit is driving everyone nuts, I sleep like shit and I live alone and haven't gotten into any TV or shit to binge, so I really haven't had much of an outlet. So I've been trying more games and hoping for better stories to get lost in. Maybe in other situations, I'd have just written the game off and moved on, but right now I have nothing else to do... I get fixated, and when I get upset, I guess I just need to vent it out. Sure it's petty, and I'm babbling and typing way too much, but in my mindset right now, this game hit an almost FLAWLESS intersection of everything I wanted a game to be right now, and everything you could incorporate into a story to get an unpleasant, visceral reaction from me. And I didn't want to say this stuff in the review because I don't want to drive people away from the game, but at least in my frame of mind right now, and trying so hard to actually get emotionally invested in a story, the things that upset me hit like a slow-moving freight train.

I donno.

edit: fuck. I wrote a lot more than I thought I did.

Dude, you don't like the game, because It hit close to home for you...

I also had a friendzone issue throughout my High School years...

I wish someone had told me, as I'm sure you learned by now, but being a "friend" is the worst way to win a girl over. It all comes from us males putting girls on a pedestal thinking friendship is the way to a girls heart. It's not. A girls wants to be swept of her feet (And then fucked properly in due time as determined by her) A good fuck always seals the deal, if she's into you.

There is a youtube video of what girls think about friendzone friends. Not one of them wanted to go into a relationship with the "friend". They would rather fuck a known asshole then fuck their "friend". They don't respect friendzoned friends as romantic partners.

Harsh but true. The whole friendzone thing is about the worst thing anyone can get himself into.

Back to the game. I don't see him as being friendzoned. I see them as having a very close relationship, but neither one wants to move it into the next level for fear of fucking it up.

 

[Ryder-Wilson]

About the Ayana and MC's situation.

I mentioned several times in this site that I dislike strongly "childhood friends that are clearly in love with the MC". The standard cliche about "I love him but I am afraid of losing what we have" drives me nuts, specially cause said character decides to actually do something once she sees MC has another potential lover. And MC is usually totally stupid about not realizing what is going on. If any of you read the Muv Luv Series, Sumika and Takeru relationship is the best example I can think of a relationship I would just kill on my own. Beyond the relationship, she is a great character.

(If you haven't read Muvluv, please go read it. There is a reason why there is such a huge hype around it, but you need to read the 3 parts, don't stop at the first one)

Back on topic. I usually would dislike Ayana and MC relationship. Not because of teasing, it is my impression (I can be wrong though) that Ayana is in love with MC. Just think about the scene where she is on bed thinking about the conversation with her mother about her relationship with MC and she saying "that is obvious", implying in my opinion she acknowledges she is love.
If anything, what I did like about this game is that Ayana is actually trying to either get out (dating other guys) or do something with MC (even if not the best, but that is fine for a starting point). I think she is an great character and while I still get that "i dont want to lose the relationship we have" kind of bullshit, the fact that she tried already to do something paints her way more positively and interesting as pretty much every other in love childhood friend.

It looked to me that it is MC the one that is not sure about his own feelings. Ayana is a friend that provides him with self control and mental peace. And while he acknowledges there may be something more, given the mental state that Dev is trying to picture about him I can relate he not being sure. He seems to be in a dispassionate state of business, if anything afraid of how simply he has fall to his own out of control behavior in the past. I WELCOME a more complex MC character that is neither a totally horny teenager, a super successful adult who everybody wants to fuck o a really stupidly dense MC that does not realize anything going around him just for the sake of keeping all love interest routes open. This latter one is usually found with in love childhood friends. So please do not go that route.

In other words, I would dislike the standard story between Ayana and MC. It is the depth that MC is trying to go forth in their mental analysis that for me is making it worthwhile.That is why I support the decision of the long text even in the introduction. Please paint me a picture of their minds, I want to know why they just don't get together or have a fallout. I want to see them as real people with complex emotions and I want them to make mistakes. Mistakes are totally fine and expected. What I don't want them is to exist in a constant state when nothing happens. Give me all the drama, all the comedy, all the emotion, positive and negative alike. Take me to heaven just to let me to hell. That is fine, as long as we just don't make characters absurdly static.

I will not pursue Ayana in my first playthrough. I prefer Charlotte. Not because of the sister taboo feeling. I am not in this game for something like that. She just have something I cannot tell yet.

Finally, best character is LOLA. Seriously, every interaction with her could be something that my dogs do. Love her! More Lola is always welcome. Please do not go to the point of hurting Lola just to make us feel bad and emotional. While I claim that I want despair and it should be as valid as a story driver as anything, I am totally biased when it is about dogs. Please don't use her that way.

I don't see why Lola should get hurt, she is the real MC . With Ayana and Charlotte i think that there will be jealousy moments and conflicts, you can notice that with some dialogues when MC speak about Ayana with Charlotte or vice versa when he speak about Charlotte with Ayana. I guess that Charlotte's friend could flirt with Ayana but unless the MC choice to reject Ayana, i don't think that she will friendzone him with a "random" bartender(random because for Ayana's point of view, she don't know much about the bartender for the moment while with the MC there is a strong relationship). Obviously something happened in the past with MC and Ayana and we will find out in the future updates, will not be something fast for sure since the story will be slow but complex according to the description.

I agree about Charlotte's storyline, I hope that will be fantastic, complex and very different than most of the stories around here (and maybe even more interesting than the Ayana's storyline). I have a big hype for this, I don't deny it.

About what drama will happen it's not clear at this point of the game, my theory is that the main conflicts will be between Ayana-Charlotte and Charlotte-Nicolette.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

I agree about Charlotte's storyline, I hope that will be fantastic, complex and very different than most of the stories around here (and maybe even more interesting than the Ayana's storyline). I have a big hype for this, I don't deny it.

I like the idea of this game exploring GSA (Genetic Sexual Attraction) with Charlotte and the MC because it would be such a different take on the incest genre and something that's got a little more basis in the real world.

 

[Uriel ☁]

At the moment, it certainly doesn't feel like a VN that's going to have a load of different branches.

I get the feeling that in this game having multiple paths that keep on crossing would be too hard.

The dev already explained his plan for the game.
You can read the DEV Report and comments that followed it if you want to get the whole picture from the horse's mouth.

The short version is that the game will divided into arcs. Each arc will mainly be focused on a girl and a problem/situation she find herself into (like Charlotte and her sister for instance). Inside this arcs we'll make some choices that will lead to either a good or bad arc ending (dev said "not School days bad" that to me is reassurance enough) and that choice will carry on.
We're currently in the common route (aka the intro) but you'll still play all the arcs despite who you're pursuing.

 

[Ayhsel]

The dev already explained his plan for the game.
You can read the DEV Report and comments that followed it if you want to get the whole picture from the horse's mouth.

The short version is that the game will divided into arcs. Each arc will mainly be focused on a girl and a problem/situation she find herself into (like Charlotte and her sister for instance). Inside this arcs we'll make some choices that will lead to either a good or bad arc ending (dev said "not School days bad" that to me is reassurance enough).
We're currently in the common route (aka the intro) but you'll still play all the arcs despite who you're pursuing.

Ohh I like that! thank you! I have not read School Days, but I have seen that ending you are talking about. It would have been something to see haha. But again, thank you for pointing it out.