Perhaps the developer simply didn't think that far ahead, underestimating the extent and, above all, the players' thirst for information, or perhaps he wants it to remain unclear so that players keep wondering – which, if that's the case, has worked. Haha.
I don't think there's any point in wondering about it anymore. Daphne found her, and more information about Lilly wouldn't help her anyway.
Personally, I think it's a bit of everything. Without judgment, I think Mango wasn't an experienced writer before starting this game. The rework removed several instances of porn logic and plot holes, which I can only applaud. He had a good concept, characters with depth, but likely didn't work out the MC's backstory in detail. He also seems to have the habit of forcing mysteries. Daphne being Val's friend, "Unknown Boy," who's Marcus and drove the MC to the university, and "Unknown Girl" who's just Stella on the phone... I'm sure some people like these kinds of mystery boxes, but to me they jump out as fake and unnecessary. Sometimes, what's not being said points to a fake mystery.
I do agree that it's good to keep the audience thirsting for information, but this can't come at the cost of credibility.
It remains to be seen if Daphne found a good lead or has actually found Lilly. From a narrative perspective, I think meeting Lilly will be the chapter 2 cliffhanger, or that she'll actually be found in chapter 3. Any later, and Lilly won't be able to catch up to the LIs we already know.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But as I understand it, Lilly moved away.
Then his mother fell ill.
He had to take on several jobs to pay for the hospital bills.
(I think that's when he moved away to be closer to the hospital and his workplace?)
Then his mother passed away.
After that came the phase where he drank and shut himself off from everything around him.
Until he was invited to live in the house where we are now.
How I understand the timeline is:
- He lived with his mother in Isabela City until a relatively young age. He knew Melinda and Val through his mother.
- They moved to ?????
- There, he got to know Lilly, who moved away a few years later.
- In his senior year of high school, his mother got sick, and he gave up on his studies and began drinking; that's when he ghosted Lilly.
- It's not clear if he finished high school. The game said he was studying for his entrance exams, but I assume this is something like the SAT exam in the US.
- He eventually started working full-time to pay for his mother's medical care. It's not clear how he switched from drinking to being motivated.
- Four years later, his mother dies.
- He accepts Melinda's invitation to move to Isabela City.
The part where he started drinking after his mother passed away is from the pre-rework version, if memory serves. One disconnect with my version of the timeline is how familiar and familial the MC treats Melinda and Val. They're not behaving toward each other as people who saw each other once in a while. The MC even remarks he hasn't seen them for two years. I suspect they were originally meant to be an aunt and niece.
I have no idea how you plan to get hold of students' data.
Is it that easy in America? I don't know... In Europe, I'm not aware of it being that easy to get hold of personal data, especially from schools.
Daphne knows plenty of people, remember? And a university would have way fewer people doing a doctorate than a bachelor's. These people tend to stand out a bit as well, and many people would know of them because they've been at the university for years.
If Lilly is doing a doctorate, that means she already has a degree and could be in things like yearbooks or alumni lists. These aren't a given, but potential avenues for the story to have taken or things Daphne could have considered (even as a red herring).
Did Lilly move away without him knowing which school she will be attending there, or did she mention where she is moving to and which school she will be attending there?
We don't know. They made a promise to meet up again at college/university, and the MC was preparing for his "entrance exams", but we don't even know if they had Isabela's university in mind and what this could mean for the credibility of the MC's reaction at the exhibition.
I think interweaving this information could elevate the narrative. For instance, the MC could consider he's dreaming of Lilly because he's in the city she was going to study in. That being there reminds him of the promise and that he's 4-5 years too late to keep it.
It would add a bit more depth.
Unfortunately, that's missing here. MC is written very passively and doesn't allow for any emotions.
Yeah, I more or less agree with that. But I don't know if he's not allowing himself to feel anything or if that's just how he is. At the end of the current content, he's been in Isabela City for two weeks, and his mother died 6 weeks ago.
I noticed while playing the game that I regularly had difficulty imagining his voice. Was he excited or stoic? Loud or quiet? Often I couldn't tell. He isn't posed emoting often either, though that could be said for most, if not all, characters.
For instance, after his date with Paris, he said he enjoyed it and he'd like to go out with her again. But nothing in the dialogue or render conveyed any actual enthusiasm to me. I thought that he was just happy to be distracted while appreciating her company. If this is by design, then a few more glimpses of how the MC is grieving could help frame his mental state.
.. and Lilly, plot device... hmm... I'm thinking of Cece from the game Leap of Faith. I don't think I need to mention how important such “plot devices,” as you call them, are to a story.
Who knows, maybe the story here is also linked to a sad real truth, just like in Leap of Faith. (no spoiler!)
Except Cece is very much a character, not a plot device. She's more than a
gimmick that drives the story forward.
Lilly might have succeeded where Cece didn't; that could explain why Lilly is still more of a concept, something that happened to the MC, rather than a person we get to know through the MC.
Practically speaking, I don't think this will be the case. I just can't see how this game could pull off that kind of emotional reveal and consequences for the MC... Unless it ends with the MC throwing himself off a bridge or something.
But let's just wait and see where the journey with the MC takes us.
I'm playing two save games, one where I take all the girls. With the other save, I'm giving up on all of them and waiting for Lilly to make me a man. lol
Let's see what happens, whether it's worth the wait.
Absolutely! I'm excited for future content.
I'm similar with my playstyle. One save is where I go against the grain and deal with LIs based on their first impression. A large theme of this game seems to be that first impressions aren't always right and that everyone has their own problems and baggage. I didn't get coffee with Daphne, walked out of Stella's, didn't admonish Erika but didn't make a move either, and walked away from Beth and later blocked her number. I walked out of Cassandra's as well. The only open paths I still have are with Val and Sayuri, I think (I'm not counting Melinda because I have no interest in mother/aunt-type LIs.)
Daphne is an interesting case for me. After chatting with her at night, I actually started to like her as something more than a potential source of lewd scenes.
The other save, like yours, is the Pokémon style of "gotta catch 'em all."
