I think i have said this before but i will say it, again. The game is great, it really truly is.
With that said. I really don't understand the point of introducing death to games like this. And obviously i am not talking about irrelevant side characters or whatnot. I think a lot of people have this weird understanding that killing off characters makes for a better narrative, it really doesn't, not by itself. And it doesn't work equally with every medium. Having characters die off in movies or TV shows is not the same as having them die off in video games, WE control the narrative of video games. It's the reason why the ending of a game like Mass Effect 3 was universally hated because it broke that promise the developers gave us, which is that we control the narrative and instead gave us a forced ending that meant EVERYTHING we worked for until then was pointless. If that's a far away example, take Acting Lessons for instance a game like this one that got a lot of backlash from people because it out of nowhere with no build up, no indication and no tone, thrust you in a forced choice of picking which character lives and which dies, with no way of getting out of it.
To play Devils advocate, can a game like this kill off a girl and make it work? Sure, Depraved Awakening comes to mind, but the difference is that game did it half way through the game, the characters wasnt one we spent much time building a relationship with and was perfectly in line with the overall tone of the game. Harem Hotel is just a goofy, fun game to me. And that's not a slight against the game or the developer because that's perfectly fine and how i want the game to be. Even the elements of slavery which is an extremely serious topic, just comes off as silly to me in this game, we all know how much, MUCH darker this should be if it was treated more realistically. Which again i wouldn't want because these are porn games guys... this is not Game of Thrones, this is a Saturday night wank...
So to have a forced death of a character in a game that really doesn't have a tone for it, to tell us now that everything we will be working for through all these updates is meaningless in the end with that character and to tells us that there is no way to escape this ending is just a big turn off for me.
At the end of the day it's your game to make, none can force you to change your mind, but i still would suggest you consider other options of doing this at least. I pretty much guarantee you if you made a poll right now just for the patrons and asked if any one of them would be OK with one of the girls dying off, an overwhelming number of them wont be.
It's a shame really, this update was pretty nice, but reading all of this just killed my vibe entirely. Now i have to sit here think about which character i build up stats for in a porn game is gonna die at the end lol. I'm out.
Good luck man, your game is great, i wish you truly the best and i hope your future games are even more successful, peace out.
Thank you for that! You brought up some really good points. But like I said, I'm looking for feedback on this idea, it's not set in stone. I'm simply asking for feedback.
You mention all your work would be for nothing when a character has died. Much like the Mass Effect 3 ending. Does that mean you hated playing through Mass Effect 2, though? I thought it was an amazing game, even with the bad ending of 3, I didn't think Mass Effect 2 was a pointless game. My point is, as much as a good ending matters a lot, and can take away from the game as a whole, does the experience of the story go down knowing someone could die?
To me, when a character dies, it's huge. If it's done right.
Like I said, I'm simply looking for discussion. Not a debate on whether or not a character should die, I'm just looking for feedback on this idea.
And I've gotten really good feedback that shines light on subjects I haven't thought about, which is why feedback is so valuable.
You mention a game having no buildup to a death, no hint or tone to a character dying, just thrusting you into the death of a character, that wouldn't happen for this idea. There would be buildup, you would know it's happening near the end of her story, you would know why it would be happening, you would most likely understand that it's going to happen, and in a way, you might actually end up feeling conflicted. On one hand, you may think about the ways it shouldn't have happened, on the other hand, you may think about how it actually should have happened, and ended better because of it.
I'll say it again, because I know what I just said will scare people.
No, this IS NOT set in stone. I'm simply asking for feedback on this idea that came into my head.
I believe what I have in mind will be an amazing ending. Yet I know people would not want her to die. I don't either. Nobody wants people to die, and that's good. But there's a difference between not wanting something because it's bad, and not wanting something because it would be painful, but good. Which again, is why I'm looking for discussion on this topic.
In the end, through all the feedback I've gotten so far, I think having two endings would be best for her. Actually, I'm already getting an idea of what that split would be and what each option would lose/gain.
