Only just started the game, I've seen the train ride, first night, and up to shopping the following day. Not far at all, but I do have an issue already I want to note. So, starting at 5 Stars and docking one for this.
All the dialogue is stilted and awkward. Think of strangers riding in an elevator together, and neither likes awkward silences. So they're talking about the weather, local sports teams - just stunted filler. Except in this game, the woman he's staying with he grew up with her daughter for YEARS. The first thing they did when seeing each other again, after 2 years of not seeing each other, was hug. And that first night, it was like he was a nerd trying to talk up a girl he finds attractive - just awful. If you play out these lines aloud like you're delivering the scene, it is painfully obvious how unnatural it is given the history of the characters.
Yes, the MC does appear to be an introvert, head down and let me work kind of guy. So he WOULD be reluctant to talk (with Daphne, appropriate), but we're talking like 10 years, if not more, with Valerie and Mel. Daily time spent at length, sleep-overs; he's practically siblings with Mel. Val was like a sister to the MC's mother. It should be emotional to talk about their feelings about the MC's mother's death and how it affected them. To not be able to be there for the MC or his mother for 2 years of a terminal illness. But the whole thing when he arrived of them wanting to "talk later" after his shower, but then didn't talk about the past 2 years, just vague apologies, minor regret, tea, and awkwardness. It plays out like they more acquaintances than near family. They even have them MC refer to them as "acquaintances" later, which given the history they (the writer/dev) gave them (Val, Mel) and the MC completely misses the definition of the word.
Anyhow, the last review said this was a "slow burn" in a good way, so I'll see. But I already see a massive amount of inner monologue from the MC used as completely useless narration as a "plucky sidekick" vehicle for forced humor - again, none of it plays out like people actually behave, speak, and interact. This is all forced - you're just being told everything and not experiencing it. With good writing, it's like you're a voyeur, simply witnessing real things transpire. You get pulled into it and that's what makes you keep reading/playing/just one more turn. It's compelling. None of that is what you get when it's like a baby bird's mama chewing the food and then ramming it down your gullet and spewing. See you later, maybe...
I completely swapped the girl's names. Above, Mel is the 39-year-old and Val is the 21-year-old. He called them acquaintances again... smh. Want an example of good writing? Play Origin Story. But even stuff like Being a DIK, Leap of Faith, Eterum, Pale Carnations - off the top of my head. I don't even like Being a DIK anymore, we have too, too different design disagreements, but it's well written.
**Update**
This may be the last one. I'm fast losing patience with this. Absolutely nothing flows naturally. I'm starting to think this was AI written, with how disjointed and chaotic this writing is. EVERYTHING is only ever "because I said so" as the basis for its existence, and they HAVE to tell you how the character's think and feel at the moment because you won't have a chance at understanding this on your own.
Sure, you're in the dark about the "why" reasons for the uniqueness or issues that drives each of these characters. And one could argue that is the basis of a progression arc for characters. But again, none of this was handled with anything except a sledgehammer in the hands of a mutated toddler. I'm not sitting here intrigued by what drives Val's roommate to greet people in her underwear when someone knocks on their door and then turns around and throws herself at her roommates best friend, whom she has spoken of in detail for some time. And manages to get said best friend to also pants himself and throw himself at her, with his best friend barely a room away in the shower. Then suddenly both of suddenly kind of panic and agree to stop, and the roommate runs away. Intrigued? No, it gives me a headache. Nothing organically flowing, it's like a strobe light endlessly flashing in your eyes.
Everything is like this. Meeting Daphne in the library. Meeting Stella in her Dad's boutique, then she IMMEDIATELY goes Bipolar and reverts her personality back to irrational, spoiled bitch as soon as the MC steps foot outside the Boutique. Meeting Sayuri and her brother (was he supposed to be funny? WTF even was this??). The girl who stole his phone, this is what triggered this update. HOW did she even get close enough to snatch it, with those open sight lines?? And she got HALFWAY down the alley before he even started to move or say something - is she Usain Bolt?? And what the hell is this entire meeting?? "I've got this new hot character model, but I need a scene to user her in...hmm, I'll just like my Magic 8 Ball decide how the scene goes." I'm guessing something random like that. She has no ties to anything or anyone in the story, but neither did Sayuri and Satoshi, or Daphne, or Stella - man, almost every is just randomly dropped in the game "just because". I'm losing the "slow burn" fight, quickly. This feels like a lost in translation thing, too, possibly. For one brief moment, they decided to suddenly have us know what Val was thinking while playing console games and then "POOF!" back to the MC. WHY? How was this necessary to the story and couldn't be communicated ANY other way?
Plus, they disabled rollback. What a joke. What is the rationale in disabling rollback? A feature staple in almost all of these games. Is it to add gravitas to the decisions player's have in the story? All it does is force them to make additional clicks to go to Autosaves and load the most recent one. It makes your game more annoying. Next you'll be adding phantom-clicks and click-delay to be even more "artistic" and as a result more annoying.
What a mess...
All the dialogue is stilted and awkward. Think of strangers riding in an elevator together, and neither likes awkward silences. So they're talking about the weather, local sports teams - just stunted filler. Except in this game, the woman he's staying with he grew up with her daughter for YEARS. The first thing they did when seeing each other again, after 2 years of not seeing each other, was hug. And that first night, it was like he was a nerd trying to talk up a girl he finds attractive - just awful. If you play out these lines aloud like you're delivering the scene, it is painfully obvious how unnatural it is given the history of the characters.
Yes, the MC does appear to be an introvert, head down and let me work kind of guy. So he WOULD be reluctant to talk (with Daphne, appropriate), but we're talking like 10 years, if not more, with Valerie and Mel. Daily time spent at length, sleep-overs; he's practically siblings with Mel. Val was like a sister to the MC's mother. It should be emotional to talk about their feelings about the MC's mother's death and how it affected them. To not be able to be there for the MC or his mother for 2 years of a terminal illness. But the whole thing when he arrived of them wanting to "talk later" after his shower, but then didn't talk about the past 2 years, just vague apologies, minor regret, tea, and awkwardness. It plays out like they more acquaintances than near family. They even have them MC refer to them as "acquaintances" later, which given the history they (the writer/dev) gave them (Val, Mel) and the MC completely misses the definition of the word.
Anyhow, the last review said this was a "slow burn" in a good way, so I'll see. But I already see a massive amount of inner monologue from the MC used as completely useless narration as a "plucky sidekick" vehicle for forced humor - again, none of it plays out like people actually behave, speak, and interact. This is all forced - you're just being told everything and not experiencing it. With good writing, it's like you're a voyeur, simply witnessing real things transpire. You get pulled into it and that's what makes you keep reading/playing/just one more turn. It's compelling. None of that is what you get when it's like a baby bird's mama chewing the food and then ramming it down your gullet and spewing. See you later, maybe...
I completely swapped the girl's names. Above, Mel is the 39-year-old and Val is the 21-year-old. He called them acquaintances again... smh. Want an example of good writing? Play Origin Story. But even stuff like Being a DIK, Leap of Faith, Eterum, Pale Carnations - off the top of my head. I don't even like Being a DIK anymore, we have too, too different design disagreements, but it's well written.
**Update**
This may be the last one. I'm fast losing patience with this. Absolutely nothing flows naturally. I'm starting to think this was AI written, with how disjointed and chaotic this writing is. EVERYTHING is only ever "because I said so" as the basis for its existence, and they HAVE to tell you how the character's think and feel at the moment because you won't have a chance at understanding this on your own.
Sure, you're in the dark about the "why" reasons for the uniqueness or issues that drives each of these characters. And one could argue that is the basis of a progression arc for characters. But again, none of this was handled with anything except a sledgehammer in the hands of a mutated toddler. I'm not sitting here intrigued by what drives Val's roommate to greet people in her underwear when someone knocks on their door and then turns around and throws herself at her roommates best friend, whom she has spoken of in detail for some time. And manages to get said best friend to also pants himself and throw himself at her, with his best friend barely a room away in the shower. Then suddenly both of suddenly kind of panic and agree to stop, and the roommate runs away. Intrigued? No, it gives me a headache. Nothing organically flowing, it's like a strobe light endlessly flashing in your eyes.
Everything is like this. Meeting Daphne in the library. Meeting Stella in her Dad's boutique, then she IMMEDIATELY goes Bipolar and reverts her personality back to irrational, spoiled bitch as soon as the MC steps foot outside the Boutique. Meeting Sayuri and her brother (was he supposed to be funny? WTF even was this??). The girl who stole his phone, this is what triggered this update. HOW did she even get close enough to snatch it, with those open sight lines?? And she got HALFWAY down the alley before he even started to move or say something - is she Usain Bolt?? And what the hell is this entire meeting?? "I've got this new hot character model, but I need a scene to user her in...hmm, I'll just like my Magic 8 Ball decide how the scene goes." I'm guessing something random like that. She has no ties to anything or anyone in the story, but neither did Sayuri and Satoshi, or Daphne, or Stella - man, almost every is just randomly dropped in the game "just because". I'm losing the "slow burn" fight, quickly. This feels like a lost in translation thing, too, possibly. For one brief moment, they decided to suddenly have us know what Val was thinking while playing console games and then "POOF!" back to the MC. WHY? How was this necessary to the story and couldn't be communicated ANY other way?
Plus, they disabled rollback. What a joke. What is the rationale in disabling rollback? A feature staple in almost all of these games. Is it to add gravitas to the decisions player's have in the story? All it does is force them to make additional clicks to go to Autosaves and load the most recent one. It makes your game more annoying. Next you'll be adding phantom-clicks and click-delay to be even more "artistic" and as a result more annoying.
What a mess...
