Hah, this game is frustrating in many ways,
1) Sophie is a cardboard cutout innocent goody-two-shoes character that kinda lacks depth to me, normally this wouldn't be an issue because innocent girls are cute in their own way but she is kinda forced on you in the start which makes every other encounter feel like either a betrayal or your character actively being a dick. Also, the rape trauma feels tacked on to actively make you feel like a dick for not choosing her which adds to the whole forced vibe.
2) Vanessa is a character that I could have liked if not for the fact that she as a rape victim was an accomplice to rape at the start of the story. Overall considering her situation she acts fairly realistically even though she also has the whole kind to a-fault thing going on, would have been my likely LI if not for the rape backstory making the thing at the start worse than it already was.
3) Roxie is needlessly difficult, I usually do the emotionally difficult Li's first because imo they tend to have the most interesting backstories and their character growth is usually the most pronounced and interesting to follow. Roxie on the other hand is just a pain to the point that it is suffocatingly toxic, even when you get her backstory her BS is still hard to justify, and it's extremely annoying how she is actively reckless and pisses everyone off just because she can, I don't expect her to be a good person but considering how much shit the world has given her you would think she would try to enjoy life without screwing over people for no reason.
4) So far so good the only character that I am not innately put off by is Dailani and we barely know shit about her modus operandi other than the fact that she is an innately "good" vamp.
Normally I'm all for vampire stories and honestly, this looks like there could be a solid plot but while playing it felt like the dev was intentionally tryna turn me off from all the LI's.
Ways this game could feel better:
1)The whole Sophie date thing should be a choice of whether you invite her as a friend or a date so you can reject her before engaging other characters because as it stands if you don't follow through with Sophie the MC comes out looking like a dick imo.
2) Scrap that rape scene at the start or at the very least remove Vanessa from that scene, hell it would be nice if you made Vanessa actively against it. It's probably the main issue that people have with the character.
3) Tone down Roxie's behavior, she can still be the outcast, crazy, moody, and reckless Li without actively fueling the hate boner every 5 seconds, she just seems like she is placed into the villain role in an over-the-top manner that makes it hard to view her as a possible Li. Unless a person is into toxic relationships I doubt that they can even consider her as a viable LI at this point.
4) For the love of all that is Holy why isn't there an option to give Roxie your blood without fucking her? It seems like an obvious compromise that would allow you to befriend her without screwing over your relationship with anyone else.
Why is the Dev tryna force this Roxie causing problems agenda? I honestly don't get it. Some of the choices have very obvious compromises that the Dev can place to satisfy everyone or at the very least not piss off any single party but nah instead he gives you a choice to either reject her the one time she isn't acting like a maniac or accept her while screwing over Sophie for no particular reason.
I want to like this VN, I really do but it's frustratingly hard, the idea seems solid but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully, some of this stuff will get redone in the next update or the Dev finds a way to not make stuff feel so forced going forward cause while I can enjoy the overall plot the execution of the LI's are lacking in comparison.
