Ask the old Bioware writers, it's a darn'd if you do, darn'd if you don't. (well, ditching Kaiden Alenko was a no-brainer ofcourse)
Poor Kaiden, I actually had only one playthrough where I kept him around, not that Ashley and her xenophobia was great to have around but Kaiden was too cardboard...
Meaningful choices: people will ask for a "canon playthrough", and you risk writing yourself into a corner by focussing your story too much on only a few of many options. They keep wondering whether they made the right choice, even though they can pick the other choice in a new playthrough. It's easier for people to make a choice that only affects their own character (like tank build vs healer build vs sniper, etc.), than to make a choice that affects the characters they care about, because that may end all interaction with those characters they care about, the characters they've become invested with.
You could've decided for the player, with the Nikki accident, but I'm glad you didn't. It would've changed the tone of the entire game. What remains now, is finding a way within the story to give the player some positive closure about the decision made. And hopefully, you'll manage to include that within 2 updates, or the players (and possibly the MC) will only worry about further decisions that lay ahead, and will be less open to interact with new characters.
I agree, this is one of a handful of games that actually has meaningful choices and I love it. Even with all the drama I know is coming. I am glad that there is no "canon" or "right choice" because I don't want to feel like the choices people make are the "wrong" choices, though I guess some people can't even make one choice when presented with it. Having a lot of options/choices but disregarding them because there's a "canon" path would be very Bioware-esque and Nyx is smart to not implement that. The idea that this is a true branching narrative is exciting, though I think the binary choice of Cara or Nikki might be an illusion. Since that all took place in the past they don't have to show up in future installments, they can stay in the past and not cause a splitting of the story (at that point).
I am glad Nyx restrained themselves from forcing the situation or making a "correct" path by including the Nikki accident. Though I am expecting some type of emotional event to happen beyond the whole love interest drama. Maybe someone will die in a future installment?
It would be nice if the MC was in text communication with people - his dad or Haley checking in with him, Cara or Nikki doing the same, etc. The cut from past to current is too clean and thorough. I couldn't imagine drawing close to someone and then never contacting them again. Or never contacting my son/stepson after they move back to their mom's house.
Sure, some players may get jealous when the girl they didn't pick starts dating another guy. But, there's no need to show any sex scenes of such occurances. I could totally picture Sister 1 coming to visit, and telling that sister 2 couldn't come because she had a date. I could even imagine meeting Sister 2 later and her telling that it's not like her and MC, and that the new couple is taking things slow. Is that NTR? No, I don't think so. It's just Sister 2 saying that her and MC was something special, and to make the MC stop worrying for her. NTR is about conveying to the player what the MC feels, *not* about what the player feels. If you convey that the MC is happy for her, isn't jealous, and is no longer upset that they broke up, then that's case closed, and people whining about NTR can fuck off.
So it's all about closure: let the character and the player move on.
RGB choices: why bother even having the options, if the result is drab anyway? So yeah, I agree with that.
I agree about having the girls that aren't chosen moving on and being happy with someone else. Don't need to even show the guy, just mention it as you said. As I've said before I think having an in-game "this will lock you out of pursuing X person" warnings could be implemented and then the (now) non-love interest could go on her merry way. I don't know how well the audience will be able to handle that idea but I've seen it done in other games. I'm tired of the games where all women sit around waiting for the MC to come sweep them into bed even when the MC isn't pursuing them at all. Just as long as the MC is happy for them, there's no sex scenes, and the relationship the girls end up in isn't a negative/abusive one (see that a lot where not choosing someone results in the former love interest being abused by unattractive older men).
Right, this right here. I don't really like NTR - being on either side of it, really. But there's some around these parts who seem to have very, very strong feelings about NTR that seem to consider that anybody having feelings for anybody but the MC is "NTR". I get that we want to live out our fantasies of being the most desirable person in our game world, but the extremism can be a little... well, extreme.
Agreed. I would like to see a more "realistic" game where the MC can tell someone that they like them as a friend and the love interest moves on, they can stay friends so that they can still be part of the story. I find the whole idea of a large group of women all wanting the same guy and waiting for him to notice them absurd. Especially when that group includes a bunch of older women who should be experienced enough to know they should move on..
Another game I follow has people complaining about NTR when it's literally a character that the MC hasn't interacted with (at that point) having sex with her boyfriend before coming to fall for the MC. I think maybe some people have a very different, and much broader definition of what it entails, and I kinda wish there was a better flag for the kinds of scenarios these players are looking for.
As I've said before it is all about the intent of the interaction.
1) I don't like it when the developers include sex scenes for people other than the MC. I don't care if Jacob had a threesome with two women, he can tell the MC later I don't need to see it. Same goes for any potential or former love interests. (mainly because I would rather the developer not waste time and energy on scenes that don't include the MC).
2) People couldn't decide between two girls in this game and would rather quit it than make that decision. I think there are some overly sensitive individuals if making a choice in a game or seeing a former/potential love interest date someone else is too much for them to handle.
I look forward to the supposed revamp of the tags I keep reading rumors about...
Kinda like the "lesbian" flag - it's really hard to find full-on lesbian games. Incidentally, if you know of any good lesbian games, please let me know. Right now all I have are Bad Memories and Dog Days of Summer. I have to pretend to be a dude in all the others.
I think Ava had some more games listed in her signature that may be full-on lesbian games. Though you may have already tried them. I usually don't play female protagonist games unless full-on lesbian because inevitably the female protag is forced or groped (Dog Days had one scene like that), they never have as much agency as a male protag and it frustrates me.
