I just had the weirdest experience playing this.
According to my saves I've last played this game about a year ago. I remember loving it, played it since like ~0.2 or 3, so I think to myself "awesome, a year's worth of charming, light-hearted, sexy content". Well, about that....
Nia's new scene: rescuing elves from an illegal strip/slaver joint. After seeing her half-baked plan end with her firing indiscriminately at anyone present and maiming the main badguy who had already surrendered, I didn't really feel like I'm fully onboard with her anymore, no matter how good her cause sounds on paper.
"But they were all criminals, so surely it's okay to main and kill them?" - Right, I'm sure every one of the bouncers and standers by was there because they hate goodness and freedom, not because they were threatened or in debt to, say, a local crimeboss. In whose presence she mentioned MC's real name. Now a bunch of criminals know his face and name, but surely they'll be way too busy with physical therapy to exact revenge for a while.
Remembering that the elf arc is all about slavery now, I knew Lin' events wouldn't do me any good right now either, so on to Kali.
Kali: Hey, I made an app to hack into and remotely control any android. Sounds bad you say? Nah, it's okay, because ours is the only sentient one. Ignore the obvious crime and terrorism potential. Did I mention I'm gonna sell it on the app store? Oh, and android could start sky-net with it, but she clearly wouldn't, so let's not worry about that.
I don't remember her being maliciously stupid, so this probably was meant to be silly. Since it mentioned Android, let's see what she's up to.
Android: asks at the start whether we want to skip girl on girl action. Nope, a nice sexy lesbian scene is just what I need right now. Huh, Maria puts on the dom roleplay pretty strong there. Well, as long as they're both having fun... After a few moments I remember this is referring to a scene where she molested ("dominated") Android, which DID NOT HAPPEN in my playthrough, because I wouldn't let her harass any of the girls.
That little continuity error probably colored my perception of how the scene further played out. Android was just done physically overpowering Maria and restraining her, elaborating how she'll make Maria her bitch and pleasure-torture her until she breaks. That scene probably would have been really hot as kinky power-reversal roleplay, but the non-consent killed it for me. End of day: she parades around a worn out and intimidated Maria - naked and blindfolded - in front of Maria's friends, casually mentioning how it took her an entire day of relentless sexual assault to break Maria's spirit. That... was a really fucked up scene. It's revenge for something I prevented from happening and Maria makes it repeatedly clear it's not consensual. The light-hearted tone of everyone's reactions only made it worse. (taken out of context / with implied consent, the scene would have been pretty hot)
Ashley, Emma, Felicity: cattiness, jealousy and being openly hurtful to each other. Not right now please. Next event.
Kali again: You know why androids are less satisfying to many customers than slaves? Because they don't bleed. It's so obvious when you consider the average slave- and droid owner's mental state, strange we didn't think of that earlier. Well, we remedied that oversight and present to you: Elven Blood Dolls(TM). Developed in close partnership with slavers and cultists. Even religious nutjobs can
abuse them guilt-free, because they look like
elves, not
people.
Rah Rah, bloodgood
for the good
god.
Remember how Kali said androids couldn't hurt people even if you remote control them for silly pranks and petty crime? Yeah, she was wrong. I'm shocked - and so is she, for a hot minute. Alright, that's enough of daddy "surrounded by reprehensible people I'll surely come off as a 'lawful neutral' businessman" and his little miss "mother-of-hiveminds".
What happened? Just an unfortunate/non-representable selection of events? I want to like it. And I did before. All my previous notes are positive. I'm not against serious content in my erotica either, the tone just felt off to me this time around. What am I doing wrong here?
Just not in the right frame of mind to enjoy it "the correct way"?
