I still don't get how it all came to this. Up towards release I started thinking "Maybe there's actually something here, maybe the finished game will explain why the entire development period took this long". But that's been disproven heavily with this release.
We really need someone to make a goddamn timeline of the development period so that we can get some actual good theories.
So lets state some facts here.
-The game as of release is in the same state as four/five years ago. Just all the demos taped together.
-HW blew all the patreon money on, I don't even know. What was the count? 1 million or something that came from patreon? Apparently everybody on the project lived on that money. They also ass blasted 100k+ into Talia's voice acting, and that's ignoring all the money that was injected into the other voice actors. They were also, apparently in debt. They said the game had to be put out, but then got a sponsor, and they could continue "working".
-HW has spent an enourmous amount of time scowering every mention of FF on every single site. Spent a massive amount of time commenting on every single post mentioning the game, (Making up 1000 of the 4000 comments on this thread alone). Has spent massive amounts of time talking in his discord as well. All this while "Developing" future fragments. A project that he'd apparently put himself into debt for, was actively losing money on, and that was his only chance at making anything back.
-Proven chronic liar, horrible at interaction, narcissistic behavior.
Those are the things I can remember just straight off the bat. And those things are enough to at least start with some theories.
Theory 1: Milking
So, the most prominent theory is definetly that HW milked the game. Whether this is true or not, we literally won't know. I think it could be plausible that they were losing money. But the patterns that we've seen, as well as the fact that HW has supported other well known patreon milking devs, certainly points towards this being a plausible theory.
Theory 2: Pure Incompetency.
Pure incompetency could also be the case. Just judging by everything we've seen, from the development time, to the finished product, to the unawareness that trying to combine the genres and mechanics of the things he tried to mix was a recipe for disaster, that being trying to forcibly mix unskippable storytelling into whats supposed to be a fast-paced game genre into a crowd that doesn't care (Hentai game players).
Theory 3: Delusion.
This is my own theory, and its based on personal experience with writing and creation. My first attempt at writing was a fanfic for a fandom I liked. The fanfic was objectively shit, as it was my first attempt at writing. I'd imagined the story for months and finally started writing it. And it was positively recieved, and that was definetly the most major driving factor for me. I started imagining opening a patreon, doing requests, commissioning art, covers, and all that. But eventually, i started procrastinating. Because i noticed that my writing was shit, and then ended the fic as quickly as i could to just get it over with.
I'm honestly starting to believe this to be the most likely explanation. HW had a concept that he wanted to create, but where my own experience and HW's deviated was how we went about viewing our creations and the steps we took after. HW got high on the early success of the game, and started putting in time, I did as well. HW was successful, I was too. HW went all in on his project, I did not. And HW rode the high that his sheep fanbase gave him, the positive affirmations. Shit, I still get those affirmations in the reviews section on my fanfic. Telling me to go back and keep writing that shit story.
I think its just a clearcut case of someone getting high on their own delusions, going all in, growing egotistical and narcissitical on their success, and a dependance on the affirmations of their fanbase. Having this world built in their head that they love and are dependant on, that they so badly want to show others. This can be seen in the absolute mania of scowering the internet for any mention of the game, the amount of comments and posts, and the content in them. As well as HW's overall attitude that we've seen.
It's mental illness. The people not willing to accept any sort of negativity towards the game, or HW, and defends the game as stalwartly as we've seen, is just contributing to the mental illness. I don't think all the issues surrounding the game can be attributed to malice or milking. I think its a combination of incompetency, and illness, that lead to this.
Sorry for the wall of text, but this entire debacle is just too intruiging to not interact with. I must be manic myself lol.
But seriously, someone make a timeline of events.