No tutorial? Wasn't Penelope doing extensive research about the game and its play before logging in for the first time? Of course, yeah, that isn't an "in-game", but, still...
Yeah, I meant in-game. IRL manuals are cool and all, but I argue that immersive sims/VRMMOs should teach players by letting them do shit in a closed environment while teaching them the ropes instead of making them read before playing. Gives them time to get used to the system and all, while keeping them from potentially getting killed on the first day.
Of course, this is a VN and this also adds fuel to the "
Eternum isn't actually a videogame" theory, but from a videogame design standpoint, the entire thing just feels archaic to me, NGL.
I just started playing this game yesterday and love most of the aspects of the game (the unique premise, renders, comedy etc.), but I am starting to hate the useless MC who is getting stupider as the game progresses. I feel like the the story is rushed without giving enough time for character building and progression! Who in their right mind goes to a pvp server without any weapons or armor at lvl 0 and expects to keep a legendary item that he stupidly carries.
If this is about him losing the Gem of Doom to Ol' Thanny, it was mentioned that they had no idea if it was a genuine Gem of Doom so they probably didn't think much about protecting it or keeping it safe. It was only after it was stolen did Orion (MC) realize that it was the real deal, so there's that.
Also it was explained that levels don't do squat in this game. They act more like the faction/PvP rep system in World of Warcraft where if you level it you gain access to certain items and spells...but stat-wise your IRL skills and physical attributes are the ones that will determine if you get an edge early on or not because your stats stay the same regardless of your level.
It would have been nice to unravel the world of Eternum slowly as the MC learns about it, but noooo! lets skip that and we'll go straight to collecting the stones with 0 lvl, 0 weapon, 0 armor and hope that the brainless excuse for an MC can protect the stones, his friends and family. I wouldn't have minded this if he atleast learnt from this and decided to do something about it, but ofc not our MC has to always go dick first into these situations and forget about them after getting royally fcked, so lets rinse and repeat them till all the tags are included in the game. At this point I am rooting more for Thanatos.
...But collecting the stones IS the plot (along with solving
Benjie's mysterious death). It's basically Eternum's MSQ (with a Ready Player One-esque reward attached to it). We get to learn about the world as time goes on, but at the moment the MC's main focus around 0.1-0.2 is...well, to play the game and hopefully that will let him gain access to more prestigious locales/events that will help him get to the bottom of
Benjie's mysterious death (the plan being provided to him by Nova in 0.2, where she mentioned about the prestigious party with the Ulysses top brass and the holders of the gems of doom...get a gem, get access to the party, start snooping).
the major plot points are ignored in favor of bs* comedy which feels cheap after the initial few times. What happened to the 1st phonebooth call? whats the point of the dreams if there are no followups? ofc who cares about them! lets forget that and instead see where the dick leads me.
Friendly reminder that MC's overall motivation is to basically date and get laid while he's in Kredon (or are we forgetting the train convo with Chang at the very start of the game?). Everything else beyond that is him willing to try out new experiences and sating his curiosity about shit.
Also, the dreams come back...eventually.
