I'm glad he abandoned the game over system, pretty much. It's kind of lame. Lucas and his brother are examples of characters who were wastes of time because it never went anywhere that had a significant effect on the story. You can really see how Melody benefitted from lessons learned from this game: no useless characters and less reliance on repetitive scenes (playing part 1 again all the way through made me notice how many scenes kind of hit the same notes and don't advance the relationship at all.)
Some good points you've made and I agree that it's better without the game over ending in Chapter 2.
However, I wouldn't say that Lucas' character was an entire waste, as every great story usually has a villain and he was certainly it in Chapter 1 (most likely it's Rachel in Chapter 2).
His character had a major effect on the outcome on Day 13 actually.
The reason why I think it was important to have him in there is for you as F,
you need to make a common sense decision to get D to take up self-defense lessons,
especially after what happens at the club during Day 4.
One of the most frequently asked questions on this thread has been:
"How do I stop Lucas from attacking D on Day 13?"
That tells me that plenty of whom have played the game decided not to take her to that course,
or that they decided to not use or download the walkthrough.
That in itself gives the players another reason to replay the game, for those not using the walkthrough.
I've seen a few fans on here say that there's been no conflict in Melody (like there has been in DMD) and it's been pretty much all smooth sailing if you're the MC in that game.
But that game is still in it's early days of production, so to speak.
But like you said, the dev and his team have evidently learnt a lot from this first game,
and that can be seen already in Melody.
Just wanted to give my perspective on this.
