Very nice game. Just speedran two playthroughs.
Some thoughts:
- Humor is very well done. I chuckled at a lot of lines - Elsa's wit was amusing and then there were also funny non-dialogue moments (the bar fight scene, the meme credits playing on the TV after Edward shoos away the neighbor, Ed's -200IQ move to give himself a concussion so that he could have a reason to talk to Alice, etc.)
- I wasn't bothered by the lack of choices, however it was jarring when I explicitly tried to friend-zone the neighbor and yet in my next conversation on the couch with Elsa, Edward was boasting about how borrowing her car "almost got him laid". Well see the thing is I wasn't trying to get laid in the first place and deliberately chose every option to signal to the neighbor that I wasn't interested in a sexual relationship, but the game just railroads you into an attempted relationship regardless.
- Edward's "school shooter" moment where he physically drags Elsa into the file room seemed very incongruous with the rest of the game. I understand that this particular plot beat needed to happen in order for Elsa to subordinate him and set up their relations, but it just seemed very out of character, or maybe it's just the deranged facial expressions that make MC look like an alien.
- The flashback/roommates scene went on for so long and was so uniquely depressing that I have the sneaking suspicion that the dev actually experienced all of that IRL
- On my second playthrough I was reminded that the prologue scene is Ed explaining all of these events via a conversation with someone else in his home. This stranger is snarky and isn't aware of the circumstances of Alice's first encounter with Edward, so I think that implies Edward ends up with Elsa in the end? Which is a shame because I like Alice and would appreciate the ability to choose the LI
![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
- Also on my second playthrough, I realized that Elsa was actually the girl being preyed on by a bigshot that you briefly pass by, who is in competition with your superior for the promotion. So her goals actually align with Edward's temporarily and she's not just, as she claims, taking pity, since by sabotaging (Emma? forgot her name) to fulfill Ed's childish dream of revenge, she will also indirectly aid her boss. This also explains that odd scene where she was suddenly super eager for Edward to give the report when he was thinking of otherwise calling it a day, and manipulated him by bringing up Alice to try to incentive him to keep pushing. Edward telling her Alice's predictions of what will happen should her father get pissed is confirmation that she can destroy Emma, and her brushing it off with banter and the apple means she's trying to shift Edward's focus away so that when everything goes sideways he won't immediately think of blaming her. She could also be playing a triple game given how she has contacts reaching up to another competitor and how she was already snooping around the files archive during her first week after waiting for almost everyone else to leave, but I'm not sure if that's a red herring.