Well, damn. I haven't checked in on this game for quite awhile, but I'm back and wow. Just wow. And no one seems to be lacing into these developers at all, so I'm going to inject a quick dose of reality back into this thread and just say it how I see it, as someone who has followed this game from the very first release. Granted, many of you have never paid for this game, so what do you care? It's free, right? But I actually was a patreon of these guys for over 6 months back in the day when the game first came out. So I'm in the tier of people who actually funded this game from the ground up, and actually wanted to see it get finished. But damn, we still aren't anywhere close to that, are we?
The development on this game is, to put it bluntly, ridiculous. I can't believe that they are still so far from finished after all of this time with the funding they've received. It's just mind boggling to me that so many crucial parts of the game still are "in development" or simply have script-less placeholders within the game, missing text dialogues, or just aren't there at all. And the newer content that actually has been released is riddled with spelling errors and broken english. Half the time I don't even know what is trying to be said. Just a sad state of affairs with this dev. The included save file that allows to you skip the first week has a bug that can totally wreck the entire Walter story line. And above all else, the super shady"maxi" version still exists, which is just an exploit for these "developers" to try to make more money by getting their patrons to buy the content that should be in the game by default.
Back when I last checked into this game's progress, they were getting over $16,000USD a month on patreon, and had just announced that they were going to be taking a month long "break". Must be nice, huh? If only we could all take a month off and still get paid, life would be pretty great! They now don't have their monthly donation amount public, so I can't tell if they are getting more or less, but from what I've seen with the new "content", I'm glad I stopped giving them my money. They keep adding these weird "morality" bits to the story line, but they are so disjointed that they make no sense. Even the "Mava" thing isn't really explained. You get a laptop from a cop, go to a dating site, and suddenly have an alter ego? Why isn't this explained more? Why does it make you feel like you're hacking into someone's personal info when it's really you, creating a dating profile?
The whole game is a fucking mess. It has such potential, but at this state, I doubt it will ever get finished and have fluidity to the gameplay. The lewdness meter is ridiculously slow to fill and is totally backwards in how it works. When Kate is most desperate at the beginning of the game, is when one would think that she should be most willing to do what she has to do to survive. Later in the game, when she has stacks of money, she doesn't need to be sucking dicks in the alley or taking it up the ass at a the gloryhole. she'll be chilling at home. Now, if you want to call it a "depravity" meter, and really show her starting to ENJOY these nasty sexual situations, then sure. It could make sense. But "lewdness" makes no sense at all, and restricting her from making money when she is desperate is stupid. There are no events that actually make her NEED money. she can fuck Nina for free rent, and everything else is easily within grasp of turning a few tricks at the massage parlor. There's really no desperation at all, which is what this game desperately needs to have some backbone.
And to top it all off, when you finally do get some sex scenes, half the times the animations (my favorite part of this game) don't even line up correctly!
The grindy nature of everything just feels tedious, like you're just guessing half the time to see if you get something different to happen. And when you finally do, you can end up choosing a path that you've already seen before without even knowing that that is what you're selecting. It's so annoying. It's like someone played the Chloe18 series, took the worst parts from it, and said "hell yeah, let's make that our game's main dynamic!"
The Eva story line is as disjointed as it can be. So what, she's a figment of Kate's imagination? Why are you so in love with her after she basically takes you by force in her living room one time? The fuck? And the homeless guy in the alley? Who the hell is that? The devs might have good ideas for these characters, but having them only partially fleshed out just makes this version of the game feel really pointless to play. Don't even add this shit until it's done, it's just making the entire experience feel like even more of a mess. Knowing this dev team though, you'll be able to buy the "Insexsity Plus+" version of the game that actually has the content to fill in these massive plot holes.
I'm all for giving a development team the benefit of the doubt. But how these guys continue to price gouge their supporters and deliver content that is a fucking joke just blows my mind. It really sucks that this game has been handled so poorly, because I love the art style and animations. I love Kate's innocent demeanor. I love a ton of things about this title. But it's just not going anywhere. Everything new that I've played just feels so uninspired and all over the place. What happened with these devs? Are they just bored? Moved on to something else? Out of ideas?
I can't be the only one who sees this, can I?