-CuckQueen Route (4/10)
Pretty much agree with all of this. Idk why people were freaking out over the Siren path so much and not the CuckQueen path, maybe because Ashe is forced to bottom? QuckQueen path is easily the weakest of the three to the point where I could rant about it with an entire wall of text same as you. Like people have said it has the shortest/fewest scenes with the worst angles of all the scenes. The whole "did they or didn't they" thing with Natasha and Rachel was hollow and pointless I agree. Since the game basically makes it clear at least some of what happened(Rachel was there way past 6, so more could have happened than what we saw), and Ashe clearly knows something is off... which begs the question why even bother with the "did they or didn't they" plot? I feel like this only works if neither the audience nor Ashe knows what happened, Also why would Rachel blow Natasha if she's so ashamed or embarrassed about it that she can't be honest about it to her sister afterwards, Did Natasha pull something similar to Rachel as she did with Ashe? Or did Rachel do it of her own accord, many questions but zero answers. Rachel joking about Natasha's cock seemed weird to me too... Like I get it's CuckQueen path, but that just seems like such an out of place thing to joke about given the situation, and especially considering all of Ashe's warnings and how worried she is about Rachel. I think some of the other Cuck scenes suffer from this too, Moments where the writing feels kinda... forced? for a lack of a better word. The CuckQueen paths writing just doesn't have the same feeling of build up the same way some scenes from the other 2 paths do(Ashe finding the fleshlight hits 10x harder than Rachel finding it imo). tldr CuckQueen paths writing felt very "tacked on" to me like it just didn't have the same thought and care as the other 2 paths almost like dev was just trying to get the Cuck stuff in for the sake of having it in rather than building up to it in a way that makes sense, Plus add in the bad angles on top of meh writing I think 4/10 is fair. I could say wayy more about this path in detail, but last thing I'll say about it is, I'm honestly not sure who will genuinely like the CuckQueen path as of right now... I like Cuck content if it's a character idc about losing to someone else,(Rachel Natasha content sucks a little for me bc of this, where as Zoe, and Lexi I feel I'm able to give a bit more unbiased opinion since no soft spot for them) or sometimes I let it slide even if I really care about the character because It's so well done except the CuckQueen content rn is kinda mid imo so who is this for??? lol -Which scene did you think carried the CuckQueen route?
-Kitten Route next(Hard to score)
This was the route I was excited for the most, And honestly it mostly delivered. Ashe isn't completely submissive, but is her more meek self in this route similar to the first 3 updates when she isn't domming. I'd agree it strikes a solid middle ground where you aren't a submissive cuck, But also aren't the more confident Siren Ashe either. This path's writing felt like it was the most thought out of the 3, honestly Kitten Route gives heavy "Canon" path vibes for me as the writing, and buildup just feels a lot better than the other 2 routes at least to me. I loved the Fiona and Ashe scene on this route, as it just feels so natural in the moment, like yes Morrigan takes complete control from you, but I think it's done so well that it honestly doesn't matter. I will say I like slight aspects of Kitten path and slight aspects of Siren path Fiona scene better, and they do feel distinct. Ashe totally loses her shit in the Kitten path(which is super hot and makes sense in the moment imo) where as in Siren she keeps her wits about her, and is more forward, and also gets on top. I'll keep this one and Siren brief if I wentt into too much detail I'd be typing all night.
-Siren Route(My favorite version of Ashe, Hard to score)
I went into the Siren route not knowing what to expect considering what people were saying about it at first. Except after playing this route, I'm now convinced this was because of the forced bottoming with Fiona. I think there are people(myself included) that want to see Ashe top Fiona... or to be able to say no and skip the interaction like with Kate, but in that moment it doesn't feel like either of them can say no. In that moment it feels right for both of them it's what they both honestly want, and it's not like the story hasn't been building up to this either. Anyways I think Morrigan nailed Ashe/Fiona, but lets move on before I spend too much time on Ashe/Fiona or we'll be here all day. This Route quickly became my favorite because you do actually see Ashe's growth into a more confident and dominant person. No she doesn't flip a switch and become a Natasha or Cleo type dom,(which wouldn't make sense for her anyway) But you do see her confidence start to grow slowly, It feels realistic to me. It wouldn't sit right if Ashe did a complete 180 over night and was suddenly the most confident of the cast. This Ashe is just my favorite version/best version of Ashe imo. Siren Ashe just feels like such a natural growth for the character to me I LOVE it.
-Overall Thoughts
The update if you look at each path in a vacuum is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Reason being maybe 70% to 80% of the content in each "Route" is the exact same scenes with the exact same dialogue... except for like 2 to 4 lines of added flavor text depending on which Route you're on to remind you that you're on that route lol, because otherwise the scene has basically no difference. Essentially all that "Routes" seemingly do so far is slightly change the events of the route(maybe like 20% to 30% of the route is changed and that's probably a bit high honestly) and Certain girls are locked behind certain paths, which to a degree makes sense based on their personality and what they're interested in, but it does feel like the dev is going down a route where you're all in on Dom Ashe, Sub Ashe, or Cuck Ashe and there isn't much cross over if any. I think this can definitely be jarring to some who want to experience different things from different paths, Ideally they would all mesh together in one big web of choices and outcomes, but I think that just isn't what Morrigan is shooting for based off this update. So essentially we pick paths that are very restrictive as far as the content locked behind each, yet the paths we pick kind of lack REAL agency. Imo REAL agency is being able to mix and match different things from different paths but thats wayyy harder to write for I get it. I did enjoy the update, but I don't think it quite lived up to what I was hoping for overall. With that being said though It's not because it was a bad update, It's because I LOVE Morrigan's writing from 0.1 to 0.4 so I went into this with VERY high expectations, and honestly hoping for less content locking/More Route mixing. I'm curious how the routes will evolve, and if they'll stay as strict as they are. With all that being said I'd say its a decent update some things weighing it down heavily while others help to counterbalance those negatives. I do hope Morrigan listens to feedback and opens the routes up a bit, even if that means taking more time on updates and not every new update having an update to all Routes. Still one of my favorite VN's ever if not my favorite, and Ashe being one of my favorite Protags I care about this game ALOT. At the end of the day I really just want to see it be the best it can be. If you made it this far thanks for reading, Take Care Much Love.
