- Oct 4, 2023
- 320
- 1,740
After finishing 0.2, I have to echo a lot of the complaints so far. I mostly enjoyed 0.1 and was looking forward to see more of the story and get some information about the mysteries. While I enjoyed some small parts of 0.2, and while it had more content and more lewd content than 0.1, it was overwhelmingly unsatisfying as an update.
Several story beats were actively unpleasant, and it felt shallow, while it did its best to make almost every character actively unlikable. The lewd scenes mostly felt out of place rather than fitting smoothly into or complementing the story, and the story spent a LOT of time in the first half of 0.2 in relatively unbroken exposition.
First, I'm going to comment about a few annoying things that aren't directly about the girls and their pasts.
I saw you say this was adapting a completed story, but it's a good idea to understand that what makes for good story in novels and literature is absolutely NOT the same as what makes for good story in AVNs, harem or otherwise. Adapting a story not originally written for an AVN is going to, of necessity, involve more rewriting than it would to adapt a story to, say, a video series, or vice versa.
- The end of 0.2 was immensely unsatisfying, with the bad guys getting the upper hand in literally every instance.
- There's a running theme in the game so far of EVERYONE (including the MC) blaming the MC for shit other people do TO him, and the game's writing and the MC just go along with that as if it's somehow true, despite the evidence of the actual events.
- This makes the MC as written into a weak and unsympathetic character, and those are never fun to play. Since he is written as if he agrees that everything's his fault, other than the one time with Hannah and then with Dan, he just never stands up for himself. You say it will change early in Chapter 3, but that doesn't help the game as it currently stands, and the writing of the second half of 0.2 content doesn't give me much hope for it, either. It doesn't feel like you understand what is making him unfun to play. He even calls himself "the worst person in Sirione" for a ton of shit OTHER PEOPLE DID. He even takes responsibility for "hurting Nina", when other people did that to her AND him.
- If Dan isn't lying, even NINA blames the MC, which makes her way shittier as a character and as an LI.
- Beyond that, Dan's decision that Hannah starting shit with the MC is the MC's fault just makes HIM irredeemable, too, which makes Nina far worse as an LI because she idolizes him.
- I even predicted during the party that Dan would assume the worst: that the MC was 'cheating' on Nina with Mya when she led him off at knifepoint, and that he "abandoned" her. And sure enough, at the end of the update, that's EXACTLY what happened, and he just blames the MC anyway even when he finds out the truth (or he doesn't believe him) about how shitty the noble families are.
- It's just such a fucking tedious way to generate conflict between people who should be allies. Sure, there's the option to bitch Dan out, but none of it is for the right reasons, and from the variables, it enables Dan as an antagonist, which will just complicate everything unnecessarily. The end of the update turned Dan into a spineless hypocritical sycophant.
- Scarlet also placed all the blame for everything on the MC, which was incredibly shitty of her. The incident at the bar was literally started by Hannah and indirectly by Tommy, and everything the MC said was 100% deserved by Hannah. That even his allies blame him for it is bullshit. Scarlet even calls the Hannah event and the party events "[the MC] picking fights", when he literally NEVER started anything. It was others attacking him in every instance. This makes Scarlet way shittier as a character and as an LI.
- There is a lot of mystery that is intentionally remaining unrevealed. I understand some of the story reasons for this, but it results in an unsatisfying update (think of each update as a partial story; if an update is not satisfying, then that partial story is itself weak), and it means characters are placing themselves as antagonists by refusing to inform the MC of things he needs to know.
Now, for the LIs.
First, most harem games penalize not taking all LIs by not replacing their content, and many harem games that have multiple endings require all harem members for the "good" endings. So saying "if you don't like some of them, there are a lot of others" can be disingenuous if this is your plan, and it will result in some updates having almost no content for a person's preferred LIs since so many of them have problems. Also, as a caveat: While I am not personally opposed to former-prostitute LIs, it is a safe bet that there are statistically zero harem fans that like CURRENTLY-prostitute LIs - more on that below. It also wasn't fun having that sprung on me after having a lewd scene with her without having that information. I know you mentioned you already acknowledge that that was a mistake, but you haven't said anything about changing it.
Beyond that, you said that "most of [the LIs] are either virgins or their personal history is irrelevant", but as far as I can tell, this is just NOT true. Maybe one or two are virgins, and the others' sexual pasts absolutely inform (and for the most part cheapen) their lewd scenes with the MC and in several cases, the larger plot. Your story as written and presented so far does not support your statement, and that means you've ended up writing lewd scenes that just aren't very sexy, because there's no emotional connection with the girls, or that emotional connection gets ruined by their other interactions. For a bunch of them, the MC seems to be just another fuck.
Third, virginity inherently improves an LI in a harem game at least in part because it leads to the girl being more devoted to the MC, so if their pasts don't matter, why bother making them NOT be virgins? And if their pasts matter, then the statement above is false.
Now for some more specific comments about the girls and virginity to show my work.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.So grand total, of 18 LIs we have:You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
- 1 virgin (Nina)
- 2 maybe-virgins (Amy, Hannah)
- 2 probably-not-virgins (Skye, Chiara)
- 7 explicitly-not-virgins (Helga, Anna, Scarlet, Sadie, Lilah, Tracy, Elise), four of them with sexual pasts that directly impact the story and absolutely DO matter, and two of those with actively harem-hostile sexual pasts.
- 6 that don't count (2 of those explicitly non-virgin (Cora, Margot), 3 not seen yet (Sofie, Tamara, Hollie/Lila), and 1 probably-not-virgin (Alysa))
TL;DR: I'm not going to tell you how to tell your game's story. It's your game, and your story. But you should be more honest about its content.
If your intent is to have primarily harem fans following/supporting your game, you might want to consider a few changes. LIs who fuck or have fucked other people are drastically less appealing to harem fans than LIs who are narratively meant only for the MC. Harem games are power fantasies, after all, so there's no reason NOT to lean into the fantasy, since the writer decides on everyone's backstories and game plots.
Final note about tags: In your Genre section, you can highlight which tags are what you consider major themes. For the game tags themselves, anything that's present at all needs to be tagged. The prostitution tag absolutely does belong on the game, even though it's not a theme or focus, because there are two characters who are blatantly prostitutes, one of whom is optionally sexually involved with the MC.
wow good I read this..
holy shit you just saved me wasting my time.
yea I read the dev notes but this right here is crucial information for a said "harem" game.
and I will pass.