- Sep 12, 2016
- 236
- 366
This will vary quite a bit depending on personal preference, but if anything, I feel like Chapter 2 has my favorite prologue by far specifically because it felt confident enough to take its time and actually treat the characters normally without feeling like it was just some obligatory prelude to the corruption kicking in. It had so many innocent moments that added to the charm of the village before anything starts to go awry, building up that sense of dread and lulling you into a false sense of security, which helped pay off later on by destroying that nostalgia piece by piece in that same way that Noah experiences.HC2 has similar problems as between the childhood section, the opening leading up to the death of Noah's father, and then the build up to the corruption it does take a while to get anywhere.
[...]
HC3 has better pacing than the first two in large part because of the setting. Due to where HC3 is set the game is able to show sexual activity outside of the main quartet of women which softens the length of the build up somewhat.
Meanwhile, Chapter 3's prologue felt... a lot more efficient, which I mean as both a compliment and a soft criticism. It did exactly what it needed to do, but at the same time, didn't have nearly the same kind of memorable "flavor" moments because everything was skinned right down to the bone to keep things moving at a brisk pace. So much of the characterization that you get for each of the four main girls doesn't come from spending time with each of them, but from connecting dots based on how they interact with one another around Leto as a group. I think the only one who really gets that same amount of time is Rose, since she has the benefit of the entire castle sequence all to herself before the others show up to start competing for the spotlight.
The dialogue is well-written and does quite a bit of heavy lifting to make it all work, but even so, the pacing of Chapter 3's prologue still felt longer to me even though it is quite a bit shorter. I think because it feels like it is so narrowly focused on getting through all of the necessary steps that it never really lingers anywhere, so it's much harder to forget that the "real game" hasn't started yet. Compared to Chapter 2, where I was barely even thinking about NTR by the time I was nearing the end of its opening act and was caught a little off-guard (in a good way!) when it started creeping back in.