botc76

The Crawling Chaos, Bringer of Strange Joy
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Oct 23, 2016
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Okay, new update.
I liked it, I can't quite see why so many people get upset about it, but then again I find plain vanilla romances without some sort of conflict boring sometimes.
Something like the story around the teacher AND obviously how to handle the relationship with Sandra, add the necessary spice into the game.
I prefer it like this. I hope it won't dissolve into something that makes you depressed playing it (here's to you Acting Lessons!), but so far I don't think it will be like this.
My guess is that whatever happened either with Mr. Klaus (or the dad, I do admit that is also a possiblity) was discovered by the mother and that led to the way she treats Haley.

For me her behaviour was perfectly normal before, I actually know many mothers who treat their kids or at least one of them exactly like the twins' mother treats Haley, but it seems that's not the story viitgames is going for here.

Still, like I wrote I have no problem with that so far.
As for Sandra, it might not be her who has been sexually abused by someone elder, her ticks could have a lot of other explanations.
Could even be Victor himself, we just don't know at this point.
 

Deleted member 444674

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Feb 17, 2018
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makes the update seem shitty
It's not. The vanilla romance has become a bit tainted in drama, which isn't a bad thing. It's just that the addition of the drama was poorly handled. Most of the outrage is due to Haley fans having an existential crisis over what was revealed in 0.55. I would still recommend playing it. It's not a deal-breaker of an update. Not yet at least.
 

botc76

The Crawling Chaos, Bringer of Strange Joy
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Oct 23, 2016
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The age thing with the teacher is something special. The age of consent in Germany is actually 14, so even relationships between relatively young teenagers and adults do not necessarily break the law, though there are factors which change that, if there's some sort of authority or dependency involved fe.

So normally we don't quite have the same qualms most people in the US seem to have in regards to under age sex. At least no 19 year old gets thrown in jail because he has sex with a 17 year old.
OTOH, personally for me a teacher is always problematic, because there definitely is a position of authority, even a relatively strong dependence if the teacher is the one mainly responsible for the student's grade/class.

And 15 is rather young, if Haley had been 16 or 17, I would probably not have thought it's anything traumatic that she had sex with a teacher. Wouldn't think it's something that should happen in RL, but also not something that automatically means the younger partner was actually sexually abused.
I mean, let's be honest here, who of us didn't have a sexually attractive teacher when we were horny teenagers that we would have loved to bang? And I really don't think an experience like that would have traumatized me. :cool:


Yet, like I wrote in the previous post, this isn't the story that is being told here. There's definitely something fishy going on in regards to whom Haley had sex with when she was 15 and what actually happened to her.
 

Lorric17

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May 25, 2017
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is it me or was this update for (Haley) path really short it ended for with me MC drunk and passed out at the bar for a over 2GB update these updates are getting smaller and smaller
I sat there thinking that perhaps the devs wanted the update out so that people could move past the "welcome to rapeville" comments. Didn't seem to help, sadly. Did this update arrive early or on normal schedule?

To add, Haley just felt like a completely different character from the one that we were courting through the game, up til she decided to have sex and started going full kink and dismissive. Sandra at no point felt like she was hiding her abusive past, nor was there any hint of it.
I think you mean submissive, not dismissive :)
The comments about Sandra confused me, until I played the bit where MC goes drinking with Victor. That only happens if you didn't go with Adriana (and I did).

This problem is not just in Haleys story but is a consistent problem in all of Ptolemy's games, all his MCs have the exact same dour/humorless personalities. You get the constant feel they are brooding all the time.
I see what you mean, no worries. Doesn't bother me much, unlike in PhillyGames' games (Depraved Awakening and City of Broken Dreamers). Can't get into the MC at all in those games for some reason.
 

alpharenji

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Jul 5, 2018
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It's not. The vanilla romance has become a bit tainted in drama, which isn't a bad thing. It's just that the addition of the drama was poorly handled. Most of the outrage is due to Haley fans having an existential crisis over what was revealed in 0.55. I would still recommend playing it. It's not a deal-breaker of an update. Not yet at least.
Doesnt seem bad then...but i know so far i want to do something bad to the old fart teacher
 
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jamdan

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Sep 28, 2018
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This game has always had drama/conflict, it was with Haley and her feelings towards MC. Now that that was been resolved, the new conflict is Haleys potentially abusive past and how MC/Haley deal with it. To put it another way, the previous conflict was from Haleys POV mostly. This new conflict is now mostly from MC's POV, he wants to find Klaus and get to the bottom of whatever happened. Thats why the players feel different about it IMO, its perspective.

The game buildup before the last update was Haley/MC having sex and building their relationship up to that point. Now we are past that point and this new conflict is testing how strong their relationship is, how they will grow together etc.
 

xrayman2k4

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Jun 10, 2017
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I'm no snowflake, but while you all are arguing about the dev going to a dark place, can I point out that if you take a step back and look at the content from an outsider's eyes incest alone, consensual or not, is pretty fucking dark. And isn't the genre of this VN, an incestuous love story? We knew that from day one.
 
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Holy Bacchus

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Dec 13, 2018
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Looks like the new direction (that wasn't hinted at all for like a year into the game) does it for you. And that's fine, and good for you. Personally, i think there are better ways to add depth to a character, without adding cheap and out of nowhere drama. I never said i expected it to be simple, i don't even want it to be simple, but i am not the only one thinking it was added just for the sake of shaking things up, and it wasn't earned at all. Why haven't they started with this as the background of the story? Why wait for a year for it? Why make this the focus of the story after establishing a different set of expectations from it?

I haven't dismissed it on grounds of 'beta cuck', i feel like you are conflating my comment with others. Although, i do feel like the MC is really passive to the whole thing, and the whole clenching thing has become frustrating.

My main issue with the whole thing is that it feels unearned and out of nowhere, and the execution is just piss poor. In principle, the reveal doesn't make the story less appealing, but the way it's handled and dragging it out for multiple updates, that's what makes it unappealing to me.

'Perhaps what happened back then explains why Haley is so attracted to her brother, why she wants to be with him, and that's what the dev is doing here' - If that turns out to be true, then i will nope the hell out of this story, I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of a MC who is loved by someone because they were raped as a kid by their teacher.

Again, it seems like a lot of people like the new direction, and i am glad for this game's sake, because i wouldn't want a game to fail just because i don't like its direction, and i am hopeful it will be finished. But that doesn't stop me from being to disappointed regarding how it has turned out.
Rape and traumatic experiences don't "do it for me", but knowing a character's history and life experiences in order to understand their motivations is what "does it for me" because I hate all these one-dimensional characters in adult games and VNs who just start fucking each other after years of knowing each other and we never find out what drives them other than lust brought about by simple flirting or BS manipulation. Knowing why a character is how they are, why they think the way they do, and why they feel they the way they feel is far more satisfying for me than some brainless, macho "alpha" that starts fucking every woman he meets with barely any effort.

I agree that the execution of the reveal comes out of nowhere and could have been handled better, but I don't agree that finding out Haley was (potentially) raped and/or groomed by her teacher makes her any less attractive. It's quite clear that the MC loves her for her, so if he were to find out that, say, Haley is so attached to him because her trauma from back then makes him the only man she can truly trust and this developed into feelings of love, that's not a problem because, as I said, he already loves her for who she is and I can't see how a reveal like this (which I am speculating about, remember) would change his feelings.

This new direction is interesting for me because up until now I've always felt like Haley was quite one-dimensional and I want to know more about her and why she became so attracted to her brother, so that's why I'm going to stick this out until the end and trust that Viitgames will give us a satisfying conclusion.
 

Holy Bacchus

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It is called Haley's story for a reason. Going all the way with her brother is an emotional upheaval that is opening up a lot of repressed memories. Her need to be honest with him is a sign of her sincerity. Her sexual wiring is crossed and shorting a bit. She trusts her brother. I really don't see what all the fuss is. This is a well written story and I am in it for the long haul. I am getting the feeling it is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride.
Louder for the haters in the back, please.
 

Deleted member 444674

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Rape and traumatic experiences don't "do it for me", but knowing a character's history and life experiences in order to understand their motivations is what "does it for me" because I hate all these one-dimensional characters in adult games and VNs who just start fucking each other after years of knowing each other and we never find out what drives them other than lust brought about by simple flirting or BS manipulation. Knowing why a character is how they are, why they think the way they do, and why they feel they the way they feel is far more satisfying for me than some brainless, macho "alpha" that starts fucking every woman he meets with barely any effort.

I agree that the execution of the reveal comes out of nowhere and could have been handled better, but I don't agree that finding out Haley was (potentially) raped and/or groomed by her teacher makes her any less attractive. It's quite clear that the MC loves her for her, so if he were to find out that, say, Haley is so attached to him because her trauma from back then makes him the only man she can truly trust and this developed into feelings of love, that's not a problem because, as I said, he already loves her for who she is and I can't see how a reveal like this (which I am speculating about, remember) would change his feelings.

This new direction is interesting for me because up until now I've always felt like Haley was quite one-dimensional and I want to know more about her and why she became so attracted to her brother, so that's why I'm going to stick this out until the end and trust that Viitgames will give us a satisfying conclusion.
I agree for the most part. For me, I just find it hard to care for drama or controversial development that doesn’t feel like it’s earned its place. So even though Haley is getting much needed development, I find it hard to care since it just feels like viitgames needed a way to stir the pot here. Hopefully it works out, but right now, I’m just not feeling the start to this new arc as much as I would had it felt more organic.
 

Holy Bacchus

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Exactly. The execution could've been better. I'd have no issues if bits and pieces of this story arc were carefully placed throughout the other updates, but I don't recall ever seeing anything that might have represented a darker past before V0.55. Had this been handled better, they'd get no complaints from me. Hopefully, this rough start can turn into a great character arc that treats this topic with care.
For a lot of people, I don't think it would matter how this was handled, they just don't want to know anything about Haley's past because they don't care about story at all. They just want vanilla games with hot women who have no personalities and are just down to fuck the MC for reasons unknown.

These are the same people who comment on version 0.00001 games and say, "no sex, rubbish game". For them, "adult games" mean "porn" and "porn" means there should be loads of sex every update and absolutely zero character development. They also get disgusted when it's revealed that any girl the MC fucks has had sex before, which is utterly ridiculous and highlights a deep insecurity they must have about themselves.
 

Holy Bacchus

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I agree for the most part. For me, I just find it hard to care for drama or controversial development that doesn’t feel like it’s earned its place. So even though Haley is getting much needed development, I find it hard to care since it just feels like viitgames needed a way to stir the pot here. Hopefully it works out, but right now, I’m just not feeling the start to this new arc as much as I would had it felt more organic.
I wholeheartedly agree that it could have been handled better, but it is what it is and I'm happy to see where it goes from here. Hopefully it will all end far better than it began and it will pay off.
 
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