I think using the conversation with the dad as a means to drive the ending is dumb af. Like, there's been two decades of him being a tryhard hardass, around a month of him doddering around, pretending to be a nice guy while he sells the house with zero notice, he gives all the rent money the MC earned to his step-sister leaving him with zero savings, didn't even give him any notice or time to look for good housing (so he probably picked someplace shitty or expensive), etc. He's been an absent parent who just zips in to fuck shit up, either moving the MC around or forcing him to "man up" by arbitrarily increasing the difficulty. Especially when you learn that Even when you told him that his sister's house got broken into, his response is "interesting." He's been calling MC for a while and still acting like he's got his gun up his ass. The night he gets home, he still throws out an order ("Wake her and then get home."), so his buddy-buddy "lol, I was just pretending to be an asshole because I'm in the military but that's all over now" shit is retarded as fuck.
And then when he calls over the goddamn phone to realtalk.jpg, the MC actually answers him honestly? Bullshit. Those tears after the big fight were over the MC realizing that there never was a real father and there never will be. That never recovered. It's mentioned in the script. And a random phone call from some glowy-ass white place (is he calling from heaven? SRSLY? Why so much fucking bloom?) means the MC actually wants to talk to him and tell him things? You don't give people who fucked up relationships that badly real info, because at that point there's negative trust. And zero incentive to rebuild trust. His dad arbitrarily took all his money away "for rents" because he was being "lazy", knowing that he was gonna fucking move off, and then gave it all away to someone else. Great gesture to them, horrible move as a parent. Not to mention the military move around bullshit means the MC doesn't have a strong social support structure. Basically the dad fucked up the first two decades of his kid's life, and then the transition into adulthood. Fuck him sideways with a glass bottle.
The biggest wtf from all of this is the idea that people who are fucking dipshit assholes like this get better, and that others are better for including them in their lives, or that they want to. I've seen people talk about maintaining a relationship like this, but it's usually because they want that parental relationship at all costs, or feel like they're obligated to maintain it. Despite it being a net negative. Many more people just cut them the fuck out, and don't talk at all. Or, if they do, it's a civil exchange of pleasantries. Nobody goes from estranged hostile to "let me tell you about all my struggles and decisions" in five fucking minutes.
The pacing of this update is terrible. The transition from anxious about the future to flashback was beyond ridiculous, and leaving Hailey out after building her into the story this much is weird. I mean, it's possible that there's still lots of decisions in the endings, and maybe Hailey's an option in each ending, but most devs treat the endings as fixed "take it or leave it" stuff. So it's not surprising that people are miffed about a major character being left out. And is MC going to tell his dad he's been fucking his sister?
The MC and his fight with the dad isn't written too badly. But everything about the dad is stupid, selfish and arbitrary. Since that's the case, why throw him back in the story? Just let him go off and disappear. He's never been kind, he's not helping the MC, and he's not related to the story. Let him go play sergeant fuckface elsewhere.
