Ashe also had her problem with Lucien. She posed once as a model for him when she was in college (he was using the alias Byron at the time), something which left her with self-esteem issues and did her damnedest to remove those photos from the internet. She's no idea that many years later the protagonist bought a set of them and is the sole owner. Makes me wonder how she'll react to this revelation.
As for Lucien, even when he changed after the accident as Risa mentioned, his actions are completely criminal since he's engaged in sex trafficking, blackmailing and drug dealing (and it was enough for Risa to become mentally desperate to commit suicide after she was forced to hear that girl being gangraped, not being taken serious by the cops and finding out that Lucien learned of her visit to the police station, only to fail and be saved by the quick intervention of Owen, the family's head of security). Some of the characters really are in a desperate situation, and if the player desires he can get them out of their troubles. Neon is really giving to his project much to explore.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. I think a number of things influence Ashe and how she reacts to harmful men. For one, her father is an actual positive male role model. Secondly, she's lived a sheltered life. And thirdly, she might have some self-doubt and guilt issues from that crash that she was responsible for (if I remember right). So, I think all of that gets projected onto the men she comes across; she assumes the best, and when she's given all the red flags that seem obvious to the rest of us, her instinct is to doubt it. Maybe on some level, she also feels like she deserves it even. I mean, maybe I'm over-complicating it? You don't have to be a victim of trauma or a coddled princess to get pushed or lured into a bad situation. But, it's too fun to armchair psychoanalyze.
And just to clarify, I wasn't encouraging sympathy for a character like Lucien. But, sometimes even the worst kinds of people have very sympathetic pasts that almost assuredly played a large part into developing the damaged abusers they are. It's sad and morbidly interesting, but obviously I want to see Lucien get his shit kicked in. Brent and even Jamie are much more sympathetic, and I think it'd be interesting to see them arc. Maybe the way your MC chooses to treat them will influence their change? I think that'd be very narratively satisfying.
What you say is all right and can explain many situations in the game. On the other hand, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Nicki and Brent relationship shows Nicki being naive to the point of acting like an idiot. It happens in real life all the time, the usual conclusion is that you were a fool.
I mean, you can be dismissive and unsympathetic. But, there's a reason nobody, including you and me, really change the personality we've developed from childhood, even the worst parts that might sabotage ourselves or irritate others. And it's not because we're stupid. It's because it's incredibly, unimaginably hard and requires a lot of help and a lot of time, neither of which our LIs have had.
That is a good point, but I think it only matters so far as you get to her return after disappearing. Because after that, she's homeless. She shows up at your door a friend in need and the choice to accept her back unconditionally or take advantage of her is realigned with the rest of the cast. And sure, the reader starts from the position that she loves you, but her selfishly ditching him after they (potentially) had a real moment of connection confounds that. And it's further muddied since it comes after you potentially set up relationships with Jun, Ashe, and Gabi.
Honestly, though. You're right about the pedestal thing. Sometimes it feels like the choice is "Nicki" or "be a nice/mean sex pest" (I'd exclude Ashe from this dichotomy, she's enough steps removed from Guy's philanthropy IMO), although I do think you can blend the two. That's one thing I love about this game, the granularity. My main PT has Guy and Nicki connecting in his old apartment, turning into an asshole post time skip, and fucking Nicki in the bathroom out of frustration when she comes back. From there, the game gives you enough room to slide into a weird romantic relationship with her with the middle ground "bluntly ask for sex" in the hot tub and fucking her sweetly. It's a small variation, but it gives you enough leeway to connect some dots in your head while still being plausibly entangled with other heroines. CYOA.
Neon juggles a lot variability, and some of it is roughly mismatched at times, but it's astounding things mesh as well as they do. I think this game is a stellar of example of letting a player carve out their own player character while also not having him be a blank slate.
Maybe Nicki just has a strong aversion to feeling guilt or shame? She might fear being confronted with blowing the 10k that Guy already kindly gave her and is afraid of his reaction? And maybe her running away can be seen as not fully trusting Guy's feelings towards her, if she's used to a toxic kind of 'love', or maybe feeling like she doesn't deserve it.
But, regarding the 'nice sex pest' thing... I don't know, I think people have over-complicated the whole power dynamic stuff. First off, in a porn game, you know the LI is into your character because that's the point. The only real question is how your MC treats your LI. Even in the real world, though, there's an uncountable number of relationships out there that have power dynamics. If you were to point that out to the women, that their husband or boyfriend was 'technically being problematic' when they made their move, or that their relationship isn't equal (if the guy makes more money, for example), they'd probably roll their eyes tbh. The power dynamics point is for vulnerable women up against toxic men, or unfortunately men who just don't know how to read cues. I think those are the groups that women are understandably sick of.
In this VN, if Guy is nice and you play him as someone with genuine intentions, having a way to majorly help the LIs only proves to them he's valuable, not that he's dangling something over them; that latter perspective is there for the corruption/dark routes, not the romance route.
